Morgan's Training

I'm trying to think if I missed reporting some training. I cannot believe that it has been so long since I last blogged. Yes,I did miss reporting my obedience training last Thursday but it was so minuscule that it really wasn't worth mentioning. I trained Morgan a little after my Novice class on Thursday. We did fronts, which she sometimes gets and sometimes doesn't. I really need to put a clicker on that. We also tried some fast moving downs which also should be put on a clicker. There seems to be a theme here. I did a no-no. I started training without a plan and without my equipment. Morgan had a blast but she really didn't learn much during that session. Of course, it was all my fault. The other thing that was all my fault is that I ordered a dumbbell that is too large for her. I ordered the standard size thinking that it would probably be okay. When I got it, the dowel was way too thick and the ends were bigger than I wanted. But we'll train with it and I'll buy another dumbbell that we can really work with. I was disappointed because I am really ready to teach retrieving. I'm tired of having only one retriever in the house :-)

Today we did agility after being rained out on Saturday. The first thing we tried were crosses---remember we didn't know how to train them last time. Well, we were a little smarter today but neither of us had done our homework on learning the proper way to teach it. Anyhow what we did today was to start out with a front cross. After all I said was expert at that. Sure enough, the first time I did it, she got it. Cool. We tried it again and had the same result. No doubt freestyle and rally training helped there. Now for the rear cross. Because she had made that turn with the front cross I thought we would get some speed up so she could get in front of me for the rear cross. Nope. She knew just where to go--that jump on the left but skipped the second jump straight ahead-three times. Okay re-group. We then changed it to a tandem turn with her on my right. She did it perfectly. Tried the rear cross. Nope. Then we put a cookie behind the second jump, she did the jump, got the cookie and then she did a spin to get to the jump on the left. She did that twice. Then we took the cookie away from the second jump and put it behind the third jump--the one on the left. Lo and Behold, she did it! Somehow the light bulb went on and she did it. I don't know what it was that did it but success is sweet. We tried it a second time just to make sure it wasn't a fluke. She nailed it. GREAT!

She also did great on the weave poles. Tom said she went further down the line than she has in the past. My grommet strip thingys came in the mail with the misfit dumbbell so we can set up our own weave poles in the back yard if it ever stops raining.

The last thing we did was the teeter and she is doing so well on the teeter. The problem is that we don't have the 2o2o we need to proceed to the next level. More motivation to get that stupid travel board built so we can practice 2o2o. I think I'm going to buy a couple of heaters for the garage and start working with her in there on these kinds of things.

Anyway, that's the report. We do agility again on Thursday and tomorrow we will do obedience and freestyle.