Not much to post this week because I just didn't get out. It rained most days and I had interviews today but it was cold and rainy today.   I have really good intentions to train but most days I am just so busy or so overwhelmed that I just don't get around to it. Morgan's attitude, of course, doesn't help much.  I'm sure if we get out to train tomorrow she will be great.

Oh yeah, I am so bummed that I either forgot to put a stamp on my entry for Charlotte or it came off but I got my entry back in the mail 2 hours after the closing. Boo Hiss. I guess that means our debut will be at GCOC. Great. I am going to try to do a whole course with Morgan but will only do part of the course with Pen.

Although I did not train Morgan much at all this week, we did do a little agiltiy training on Friday. Morgan amazed me. She did the weave poles and did the weave poles and did the weave poles. She acted like they were the best thing she ever learned.  She is beginning to single step the weave poles. I think what is next for her is to move her to the second set of six poles but we will see if we get that same enthusiasm as we had on Friday.

She also handled a very small sequence beautifully, although neither Morgan nor Pen took the front cross I tried.  It shows me that they need more experience with the front cross before I move on.  My thinking is that I need more work on rear crosses but Sue Garret says not to do it until we have a dog who will drive through a jump.  Before they will drive through the jump, they have to get the foundation stuff first.  I always want to skip kindergarten but I know that it will just kick me in the but later on, making it so much harder, if I do.

I am cautiously optimistic about the March trial.

Beginning Again in 2013

Well, it is 2013 and I am once again attempting to blog about my training. I am a little motivated becaues I showed Morgan in Freestyle (at least I tried to) and obedience two weekends ago with various levels of failure.  :(  In freestyle, Morgan KNEW her routine. She did it very well and seemed to be enjoying it half the time.  On the day of the show, she ran out of the ring twice and still did not perform the dance while on lead.  I was so mad at her but also a little apprehensive because I planned to show her off lead at the obedience trial the next day. It turned out that she did not leave the ring, nor did she dive for the toys or cookies in the Figure 8. However, she looked like I beat her every day and twice on Sunday.  She never looked at me and she wandered off so far on her off lead heel, I thought sure she was going to leave the ring. All this in spite of getting multiple commands and much praise.

Today I gave a workshop for fellow obedience instructors on attention.  We did a lot of proofing exercises and I think that the dogs learned a lot from it. I KNOW that Morgan learned a lot from it and she was very confident in what she had to do. I HAVE to do more of that with her. I'm still convinced that her lack of performance is a lack of confidence even though she does know th eexercises.

My goal for Morgan again this year is to work on our relationship.  I need to be more vigilent about not giving her opportunities to do wrong and I giving her more opportunities to do well. Just a few minutes ago, she came to me with a toy she wanted me to toss for her.  I took the toy stood up and asked her to heel.  I decided to toss the toy after she heeled in position for the length of the hallway and kitchen.  When she did, I tossed the toy and she didn't go for it. I realized that I did not say her release word when I tossed the toy.  I praised her madly for not gettint the toy and then I released her and tossed the toy again.  We worked on her not anticipating today and she was good and was waiting on her release word.

She often has moments of brilliance. I once though she was an every other day dog to train. I'm beginning to think she is an every 3 days dog to train. ;)  She did well today but that may also be in part because I left the boys at home.

More about Morgan's training. I think I'm going to try to post once a week since I obviously suck at posting every day.