Tuesday, June 5, 2012
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.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
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:
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
Some pictures of dogs from the show:
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
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:-)
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.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
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.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
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.
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.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
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.
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.
Back on Track
Puppies are gone and I figured it's time to get back on track with life in general as well as dog training. I've been doing some formal training with Mozart for a few weeks now, but I couldn't get to Brandy. I had a great hopes for the past weekend, but the weekend turned out to be another weekend from hell - nice but very very hectic, leaving me more tired by the end of Sunday than I was on Friday morning:-)
Charlotte was neglected because of the puppies and her birthday party was month and a half overdue. She wanted to have a sleepover with her friends so we scheduled it for last Friday night. Well, that was pretty stupid of me, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't even foreseen all the difficulties. The party was schedule on Friday night due to one girl not being able to make it on Saturday. It was nice of my boss to let me leave a bit early so I could get the house in to somewhat decent shape before people would arrive. So I rushed home, tried to finish my stupid self-eval that was due before the end of the day, pick up the stuff laying around, vacuum etc. Of course that meant that poor Mozart was locked up all day.I took him out briefly but it was not even close to being enough for him. By the time the girls came he was about to explode in his crate with excitement.
Because I Mozart's size and lack on any self control, at this point, he couldn't be allowed in the room with five 7 year old girls. So I ended up juggling between 5 girls and 4 dogs 3 of which were not house broken. I finally ended up telling girls to keep their shoes on in the kitchen as one managed to step into the puddle left by one of the puppies. Although by the midnight I was barely standing girls had a blast. The Saturday morning we spent decorating the gingerbread men, then I had to send the last puppy home, then we were invited to a party where Charlotte petted a hamster and she had a such a horrible allergic reaction to it that it took her 24 hours to recover completely, that included dose of claritin, and benadril on top of that for every 4 hours. I am thinking we should stay away from hamsters in the future:-)
SO FINALLY MONDAY I put my foot down and did some training we Brandy. We did articles in the house. I was debating whether I should start with a full set or small set. I've decided to do a full set and she did great! We also did some gloves in the dark outside.
yesterday I pull out the jumps and did almost complete open run, except the figure 8. She did really well, but we need to work on heeling again. It seems that we always have to work on heeling and it's hardly getting better:-( I am sure the figure 8 that I had forgotten about will look horrendous. Brandy was very proud of herself though! This morning I took articles outside as it was warm and I didn't have to worry about her tong sticking to the metal article:-) I started with the full set and full distance to see where we were. She wasn't even going to the pile but rather going in some bizarre direction, I suspect she was looking for number 1 glove, so I had to shorten the distance to 6 ft. I am sure we will build it back up fairly fast, but I am glad she still did the full set of articles. But reality is that I need to come up with a plan and the biggest part of the plan is to tackle those out of sight stays that gave us so much problem this year, because without the stays nothing else matters, so I'd better get to it fast if I want this CDX ever.
Charlotte was neglected because of the puppies and her birthday party was month and a half overdue. She wanted to have a sleepover with her friends so we scheduled it for last Friday night. Well, that was pretty stupid of me, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I didn't even foreseen all the difficulties. The party was schedule on Friday night due to one girl not being able to make it on Saturday. It was nice of my boss to let me leave a bit early so I could get the house in to somewhat decent shape before people would arrive. So I rushed home, tried to finish my stupid self-eval that was due before the end of the day, pick up the stuff laying around, vacuum etc. Of course that meant that poor Mozart was locked up all day.I took him out briefly but it was not even close to being enough for him. By the time the girls came he was about to explode in his crate with excitement.
Because I Mozart's size and lack on any self control, at this point, he couldn't be allowed in the room with five 7 year old girls. So I ended up juggling between 5 girls and 4 dogs 3 of which were not house broken. I finally ended up telling girls to keep their shoes on in the kitchen as one managed to step into the puddle left by one of the puppies. Although by the midnight I was barely standing girls had a blast. The Saturday morning we spent decorating the gingerbread men, then I had to send the last puppy home, then we were invited to a party where Charlotte petted a hamster and she had a such a horrible allergic reaction to it that it took her 24 hours to recover completely, that included dose of claritin, and benadril on top of that for every 4 hours. I am thinking we should stay away from hamsters in the future:-)
SO FINALLY MONDAY I put my foot down and did some training we Brandy. We did articles in the house. I was debating whether I should start with a full set or small set. I've decided to do a full set and she did great! We also did some gloves in the dark outside.
yesterday I pull out the jumps and did almost complete open run, except the figure 8. She did really well, but we need to work on heeling again. It seems that we always have to work on heeling and it's hardly getting better:-( I am sure the figure 8 that I had forgotten about will look horrendous. Brandy was very proud of herself though! This morning I took articles outside as it was warm and I didn't have to worry about her tong sticking to the metal article:-) I started with the full set and full distance to see where we were. She wasn't even going to the pile but rather going in some bizarre direction, I suspect she was looking for number 1 glove, so I had to shorten the distance to 6 ft. I am sure we will build it back up fairly fast, but I am glad she still did the full set of articles. But reality is that I need to come up with a plan and the biggest part of the plan is to tackle those out of sight stays that gave us so much problem this year, because without the stays nothing else matters, so I'd better get to it fast if I want this CDX ever.
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