Mozart working on his retrieve

Mozart is working on commitment to retrieve.

Brandy and I trying to hit as many fun matches as we can in attempt to fix that evil stays problem. In addition we are working on putting our utility performance together in hopes that we will get those two CDX legs soon. Here is our almost qualifying run from past sunday. As Brandy's understanding of the directed jumping exercise improving, I've decided that it's time to start teaching her to perform the exercise with signals, in hope to make her more focused while she is sitting at the "go out" spot and waiting for the command. I've started this morning practically from scratched and dropped the verbal command. Because all this time I had been using voice and signal, the signal should be familiar to her so I hope that we'll progress faster this time.

Dog Show

We went to a dog show today. Brandy and Belle got groomed. Belle and Bologna got their ears glued.
And I took some pictures. And I just realized that I was such an idiot, got so tired that I forgot to work on stays and signals with Brandy.:-(
Oh well.
Here are some pictures:
Belle

 Bologna

Some pictures of dogs from the show:

it's been a while

I am having really hard time keeping up with the blog with everything that is going on  in my life. I'll just keep on trying.
Brandy and I trying to make a comeback into obedience ring so last Sunday we went to the match and entered open and utility. Brandy did pretty well in both. The only big mistake she made in utility was her getting confused on the "come" signal and trying to get in heel position instead of the front. It's funny how she didn't make the same mistake in our practice sessions before the match, or after the match. Utility is a hard class and I can clearly see how all those distractions at the match break her concentration. hopefully weather will keep on getting nicer and we will have some opportunities to practice signals with a lot of distractions in some public places.
In open Brandy decided at one exercise to finish to the left, rather than to the right ( walking behind me into the heel position). I wouldn't really mind it if she made it nicely into the heel position, but of course she ended up horribly crooked. Which means we need to work on the left finishes a lot, in case she decides to do the same things at the trial in hopes that she will at least make it straight.
We had to give up on our Utility class for now because of time constraints, so we have to practice on our own. Luckily the weather was very nice to us and it allows me to work on the utility exercises during my lunch break.
We have so much work ahead of us that at times it's pretty overwhelming and we really need to finish our CDX, which means that we need to get two more legs. Sigh.. I kind of gave up on practicing open exercises for time being, at this point I will be happy to just qualify and we can work on improving our heeling later when the weather gets better, but  we still have to worry about those pesky stays. This weekend we are going to a local dog show and I hope that I will find an opportunity to practice stays and signals in the show environment.

Mozart on the other hand is getting bored. While I was out walking Brandy he decided to go shopping. He is going to get in trouble one day for sticking his head where it doesn't belong. Luckily for him we have started working on formal retrieve, so soon he will be carrying those bags for me in his mouth:-)

I ate your homework

Thanks to our friends Sam and Rugby, Belle got some clothes, that was too big for Rugby, to keep her warmer on the cold days. Yesterday I managed to find few min to take Belle to the school bus stop that picks up Charlotte for school. I thought this t-shirt was very appropriate for the occasion.

Utility

Today I took Brandy through the utility exercises. Boy, do we have a lot of work to do! I am hoping to put a foot into the utility ring before 2012 runs out, so hopefully it's doable.
Articles: I had to shorten the distance drastically. I think I might have to send her to articles without a turn for a while:-(
Directed Jumping: I was able to pick this up almost at the same place where we left, maybe it's because we really never had the finished product.:-)
Moving stand: will have to build up the distance, currently at the full distance she is coming to front rather than heel.
Signals: Down and Sit are not too bad, but we lost "come" and "finish"
Gloves: I didn't do the utility gloves exercise, instead we worked on the "clock". I think, and I am scared to say this, we are getting close to the "light bulb" turning on in Brandy's head.   Several times in last few times we worked on it, she went to where I was pointing although I knew that she couldn't see the glove I was sending her to and she could definitely see a glove next to it, so maybe there is a hope for us here after all.
Go Outs: we ran out of time to do go outs, but I am pretty sure that this one is in pretty bad shape also.

How do you longe line a dog that simply runs around you in circles? I've been wondering about it for a while now. I've started "formal" training with Mozart when he turned 4 months, started it very casually with longe line work for a few weeks, before I had even attempted anything else.
So far I think I absolutely failed to make a dent in the longe line training or heeling for that matter. Probably part of the problem is the time of the year. It's dark in the morning and dark at night and very hard to find any decent distractions. Another part of the picture is his age, probably. He is just not here at all,  you put him on the longe line and he starts galloping around you tossing sticks, leaves and whatever else he finds in the air. Clinical ADD case in my opinion:-)

Today I've decided to use Belle's assistance - tied her to the fence as I was doing longe line work. That worked much much better, so I think we made a tinny bit of progress in this department.