Random post

Nope, still haven't gotten my act together to post about the many things running through my mind.  So I'll settle for just a few random thoughts.

1.  Jonathan and I decided to try to concentrate more on one dog each.  We think that will be particularly beneficial to me and Lexi since the hardest part is working on timing.  I will still run Bentley at times, and he will still run Lexi.  But we're going to try to do more 75/25 rather than 50/50.

2.  Tuesday night in class was a great night.  This class has had some pretty challenging sequences which can leave me feeling just a tiny bit defeated.  Despite all that, I have learned a lot and I know that the dogs have too!  We wouldn't grow as a team if we never worked on things that were hard for us.

That being said, I love those classes where the progress that has been made is almost tangible.  I remember when we first were introduced to the recall to heel positions how Lexi had absolutely no desire to come in on the serpentine recall to heel position.  It required collection and convergence--two things that Lexi knew (or cared) little about.  The class focused on this skill, and Lexi was stellar!  Of course there were mistakes made, but when I did things right on my end, Lexi responded accordingly.  I just remember thinking that these RTH positions were too hard...and now look at us!

3.  I am trying to teach Lexi to do a handstand against the wall.  She's at the point where we have a couch cushion almost parallel against the wall, but not yet.  As soon as I make it parallel, it's like she doesn't trust her feet to be able to grip and back up.  Not sure how to fix it.  Maybe try a more "sticky" material to help her grip?

I also wanted to try to teach her to lift her back leg (one at a time), and Lian kindly suggested that I touch her leg to get her to lift it up, and then click.  Good idea in theory...but Lexi is too busy throwing herself around trying things for me to capture a mere leg lift!  I will try to get a video to show what I mean.  I even tried to get my husband to sort of hold her still (she is shifting, backing up, moving sideways, barking all at once!) but she just seemed confused!

Serpentines

So we've hit a bit of a hot spell again, and it's been in the 80s during the day.

We went out and practiced a short skill set, serpentines (and threadles).  I was really pleased with the serpentines.  The threadles were fine, but just need a little fine tuning to make them more fluid.

Bentley serpentine:

Lexi serpentine and threadle:

Catching up

I only have a few short videos today.  The heat has kept us from doing much outside of a few short sessions a week.  We go to class, but handling two dogs is already too much to handle, so the camera doesn't quite make the cut.

The first is some work that we've been doing with Lexi on handling.  I really don't want to make the same mistake we made with Bentley.  Bentley was never taught to learn patterns since we babysat him through all (rounds, outs, pinwheels, serpentines).  It has taken us some time to go back and teach it and it has made our lives a lot easier.  We are now working these things with Lexi.  Here's a short video of Lexi's second attempt at a serpentine (we've been doing rounds with her previously).



I have a video that I wanted to post, but my computer's being difficult.  He hits about 50% of his dogwalk contacts--an example of the regression we've seen.  I'm sure it's because we just haven't been able to put the time in at the field.  We get up there twice a week, but sometimes after class it's just too hot, and he's too tired to focus.  I don't want to set him up to do poorly, but now we have a dog who has "forgotten" the stride.  We may need to go back and lower it to start again.

And here's a video of his A-frame.  I've actually been really pleased with his A-frame, but in this video he misses the second contact.  It's the ONLY time I've seen him miss his contact on this obstacle...ever!  I hope it was just a fluke, as he was very tired (we had class, then worked dogwalk, then a-frames).