I continue to disappoint myself when it comes to Morgan. Invariably I end up irritated at her and then I yell and then I catch myself and quit. This is not how I start a new relationship with my dog.  How is she going to want to be with me or think all good things come from me if I get so mad I want to shake her.  I keep trying to tell myself that I need to treat her like Gally and Pen.  No expectations but dammit every time I start training her I can't help but think YOU KNOW THIS!!!! Obviously she doesn't because she isn't doing it. I really think she is confused about what she is supposed to do. We've been working on heel position, fronts and finishes.  She now realizes when she forges that she needs to be back in heel position -- that is a HUGE step. It used to be if she forged, she would just walk around me or sit in front of me.  However, she is still forging, forging, forging.  If I think back to basics, I need to reward her (maybe bring out the old clicker) for being in the right spot.  Something about Morgan is weird. She doesn't pay attention to words. No matter what word I use, she tries to offer me different behaviors. For example, I have been teaching her FRONT for years, yet sometimes she still wants to go to heel when I say FRONT.  It may be because I call the left finish FLIP.  I could call it something else. I'll think about it. Maybe heel!  I don't use HEEL.

On the weave poles, she is doing great with the 2x2s and I have shortened our practice so she is successful and I don't get mad. We had an EXCELLENT session on Tuesday.  I didn't get to the building today but we are going first thing in the morning.

Day 2 - Spring Training

Last night Morgan did quite well is her dinner bowl training. I'm getting really fast sits and she is looking up at me as well.  The minute she hesitated in looking up at me in heel position. The food went away. She looked up at me again and I gave her the food.  When she refused to look up at me just before entering her crate, the food went away again and she was so worried about having to go back into the crate that she didn't even notice that I put the food away.  Okay so I let her win that game. I put her in the crate and we didn't play any more. I wonder what she will choose tonight.

This afternoon, we did some weave pole training.  She has gotten very good around the arc with four poles. Sometimes, she is missing her entry and I am rewarding her after the first two poles. That seemed to work both on the on-side and off-sides of the poles.  Tomorrow. I will start by rewarding her after the first two poles, then do all four poles and then tighten up the angle.  We had gotten to the point where we were doing almost straight up and down poles and then I stopped training. How stupid!  Anyway, I'm hoping I can close the poles a little tomorrow. The biggest challenge with Morgan is keeping her enthusiasm.  I have about 4 repeats on each side and then I have to quit.  I'm hoping I can get 6-8 tomorrow.

It seems I'm always starting over with Miss Morgan. I've pulled her from all obedience and rally competition because she just was not getting any better. Nothing brought it home more clearly than showing to a judge I showed to a year ago and having her do the same thing she did a year ago with no obvious improvement.  I am retraining but am seriously thinking of retiring her from competition.  I would like for her to be a happy worker but if she maintains her cluelessness in the ring, then what is the use? 

Anyway, I got some good advice from a couple of different sources. The people I've trained with previously are now showing their dogs in Open and Utility.  Morgan hasn't gotten her first novice leg yet :(  Anyway, we did some training with about turns, left turns, etc. to put in whenever she gets out of position.  She forges everywhere except on the slow (where she is in heel position) and fast (where she lags--go figure).  That was working very well.  I took some things from Michael Ellison about getting the dog to back up and that has worked with her as well. I am also teaching heel position and flip finishes. She falls apart on the first halt.  I think it is because she isn't paying attention and that is part of it but the other part is that she hasn't learned that she is supposed to pay attention. I have a lot of proofing to do.  I learned something very disturbing a few weeks ago and that is that Morgan NEVER looks at me.  I want her to look at me in the obedience ring when she never does it anywhere else. So now I'm retraining watch me.  AT ALL TIMES.  It is a slow, slow process. 

I went to a seminar last weekend and learned how I can use food to get that attention in a rather unique way.  I am carrying the food bowl and letting her eat out of it when she looks at me, when she gets in heel position and when I ask her to do anything -- sit, down, front, whatever.  I think that is going to go a long way in solidifying to her what it is she is supposed to be doing.  I think one of my biggest mistakes with her is to think she knows something when she really doesn't.  It was all a lucky guess. Again, I need to make sure she knows stuff with more proofing. DUH!

I put together goals for the first part of summer for each dog yesterday. Morgan's goals are: attention training. Finish sequence that we learned in seminar, finish weave pole training, finish salo jump tape.  Before I do jumping, though, I am going to have the vet look at her back. I'm seeing tremors in her legs when she sits and I'm not liking that.

I would like to show Morgan at our agility trial in June but I'm not pressuring either of us for that.  If she is ready and we are having fun in training, we'll go for it.