October 23

Sorry, I lost this post and I just can't do it again. It takes too long with one hand to hunt and peck.

Octboer 22

I'm not even going to mention how slack I have been in keeping up with Morgan's blog. After she earned her UKC championship, we have been training pretty regularly but for VERY short periods of time. I have been training Merlin for the freestyle event next month and Morgan gets what's left of me. Merlin has been very frustrating to train because he is wild about the treats and he is totally undisciplined :)

I keep saying I'm going to do the Ruff love stuff but haven't taken the time to implement it. Well, it is T I M E. I've been doing my training the way I've been doing my diet, dabbling in it and I really need to get serious.

About 10 minutes ago, I went over my training plans for Morgan and I am SOOO far behind in agility but I am ALMOST on track for obedience. It is just so much easier to train obedience--almost no equipment needed.

Morgan's heeling is going fabulously. She is paying attention longer and she is taking my cues on LEFT turns now. Yay! She has always taken my cues on halts and right turns. I learned something when I went to train with Sharon and Tony last Friday and that is I'd lost my figure 8. I practiced it this past week and it came right back. She was lagging on the the outside. I've been practicing a quick about turn but I cannot seem to get the drive I want. I can't get the drive I want from he recall either. Last Tuesday, I tried to speed it up and ended up with a wrist sprain. Today it was just a trot into me. I'm not going to do any more formal recalls until I finish the recallers class from Sue Garret.

Gotta quit writing now, my wrist is aching. Hopefully, I'll write more tomorrow. We have agility with Tom and Jake at 9:00.

I forgot to add my new obedience plan.
October 23 – November 30

Control Unleashed behaviors
Perfect the hold needs lots of work
Introduce forced fetch
Teach right about turn and about U-turn. Working on
Teach change of pace
Perfect finishes
Work on attention building --done
Continue focus and attention exercises—Dog Games for attention

Here's the new Agility Plan:

October 23 – November 30
Reliable recall -- Recallers Game 31 days – start again Oct 23 and finish in 31 days
CU training working on -- Keep up distractions with Jake and Merlin
Weave poles – do 12 poles in 6 weeks - Oct 23 – take stick in WP’s
Jump Chutes – Start Oct 23 (24 inches)
Serpentines and threadles Nov. 2
Rear Cross -- November 2
2o2o Start - Oct. 23
A-frame progression - November 2
Teeter
Continue focus work

Ooops!

We had another good training session today. The plan was to do a little heeling, a few step offs, finding heel,and some finishes. Since her recalls were not up to my standards yesterday, I decided to practice some fast recalls.

The heeling was a thing of beauty. She looked right at her focal point and she sat quickly on every halt. The hop to step off was good, too. Her finishes were a little better but I still want to see more sparkle from them. I was re-thinking the idea about comparing her to Merlin. In actuality, I have seen her give me what I want. The trick is getting her to want to give it when I ask for it instead of when she feels like it. Morgan enjoyed the cheeseball find heel game and did a good job. She found heel better when I was standing still. I'll need to stay stationary for a couple of days and then move.

Okay so we get to the ooops of my training session. I had started to pack up and remembered that I didn't do the cheeseball game. So I grabbed some kix cereal and went back to the large ring. The game began. Morgan was so happy and excited to play, that she was coming at me so fast, I had to really hoof it to get somw distance from her. I ran and spun around so fast that i caught my foot on the mat and fell. I put my hand out to break my fall but still bumped my head slightly. The wrist was hurt pretty badly and I literally rolled over and over on the floor. I know, such a drama queen. I got up and played the game a couple of times to let Morgan know Mommy still likes her and the game.

Funny thing. Morgan never came to me when I was hurt. I'm not sure if I screamed but I know I moaned. She was just ff gallivanting around the room. Where did I go wrong with this one. Merlin would have been all over me. There I go comparing but Nimue also would have come to me. I just wonder what this says about our relationship.

New UKC Champion

It has been a while. I wish I were more consistent about my training and about my blogging.

What prompted this entry is that I took Morgan and Merlin to a UKC show this past weekend. I wanted to put a UKC championship on Morgan because I could do it myself. It was great fun. I love going into the ring and showing off my dog. Caroline made Morgan look absolutely stunning. She got a lot of attention at the show from spectators and exhibitors. We got the championship but not without the help of a fellow poodle Lister who put her teenaged bitch in the ring. Unfortunately she shuts down in the ring but that was good for me because Morgan won and was able to finish her championship. One person said that she was probably the most beautiful poodle she has ever seen. That makes me feel proud. Morgan already thinks that about herself :)

The more exciting news, for me is that Merlin earned his first High in Trial. We had the highest score in the Rally trial and it was a wonderful feeling for me. YAY Merlin. He did perform beautifully.

We got back home last night and today we went to train in the training building. Merlin, who has been over the top lately, behaved so well we were able to do our entire freestyle routine with only minor stops for silliness.

Morgan, too was very very good. We did a warm up and she was ready to heel. I only walked in a circle with her but she kept her attention on my fist the whole time and I was so proud of her. She did the little hop off to get started. I love it. She was also able to do a 360 degree left turn by moving her rear end AND she dig the finish right on verbal commands only. YAY! I was not as happy about her recall. It still is very slow. I tried throwing a toy between my legs but I only had one so couldn't work the cheese ball game. She did do PB&J very well so I think I'm just going to finish up the Sue Garret Course before I do more formal recalls with her. Merlin comes in like such a bat out of hell. I guess I'm just holding her to too high of a standard. However, I do think she can come in faster---hell when she runs around outside or on agility equipment, she's a blur.

That's all we did today but I think I am going to enter her in pre-novice at the poodle club specialty and see if she is any better this year :)

Fall

According to the calendar, it is fall. Since it has been over 90 degrees every day of fall until today, I'm having trouble believing it. Anyway, because fall has started, I figured I needed to start writing again about Ms. Morgan's training. WE have been very busy. Morgan has had two swimming lessons (one in a pool and one in a lake). She has had two obedience lessons with Suzanne. We have been diligently training albeit only a few minutes a day but we're getting better.

The biggest struggle I am having with Morgan is her screaming in her crate. On the first day of school, there was a major thunderstorm and Morgan completed destroying the door to the dog room. As a result, she was running around the house free as a bird when I got home from class. It was then, that she has been relegated to her crate because I just do not trust her to have run of the house. At first she screamed in her crate when I put her in there at night. She stopped doing that so much and now she is screaming at 5:00 in the morning. I don't know which is worse. They both disturb my sleep. Anyway, there were times when I literally wanted to kill her for all the noise she was making. My anger actually scared me if it didn't scare her. Sunday morning, I was so furious at her and nothing was working to shut her up that I rolled her and her crate out onto the porch and I went back to bed.

I always tell my students that if it doesn't work, do something else. So last night, I decided to put her crate in my room and start all over with crate training. She is quiet as a mouse in my room except that she did wake up and move around a lot at 5:00 but she did not whine. Yay! She will sleep in my room while we complete the crate games video. Once we are done with the crate games video and she is loving her crate, I will start to move her out of my room. I sure hope it works. I'm not supposed to have dogs in my room which means that I will probably have to bathe her every other week if she is sleeping in my room.

The other problem we are having is about toy motivation. However it is 11:30 and I'm pretty pooped so I will have to write about that tomorrow.

First private obedience lesson

Sometimes I feel like I'm all over the place with Morgan's training. It doesn't make sense to me so it couldn't make sense to her. We had our first obedience lesson today to try to organize it in my brain a little more. We rode up with a new friend who is new to this obedience stuff and loves what she saw at a dog show a year ago. She saw me show Merlin at the poodles specialty last year. She now has an 8 month old cream standard poodle who is a sweetheart. Unfortunately, like Morgan did at that age, he drooled during the whole ride poor baby.

Anyway, before I get to our lesson, I have to talk about another disappointing experience. I took Morgan to a pet store that focuses on gun dogs. I was excited to take her there because she is a fiendish retriever -- at home, in our own back yard. In the store she barely even chased the bumper and the only thing she was interested in was exploring the place and stealing the doggie treats. SO EMBARRASSING. I went to the lesson with a heavy heart already.

I rallied, however, as I got my stuff together for our lesson. Suzanne asked me to warm Morgan up and I did our usual routine of pushing on her sides and shoulders and having her chase me but her heart wasn't in the game much. She was still too interested in her surroundings to pay much attention to me. More disappointment! I was starting to think that this girl will never be a performance dog--to reactive.

After a few minutes though, she realized that I had food and that did change things. She was able to do a descent heeling circle but the take off was poor. So we worked on the first step. This was also a major disappointment to me be cause we had worked on the first step so hard. We practiced that first step and I have for homework to work on that. We definitely will.

Morgan does outstanding fronts but her finishes suck. We worked some right finishes and we were instructed to do 20 finishes 5 times each day. Whew! But I guess she'll get finishes after that :)

Heeling fronts and finishes those are the key skills that she will need for the rest of her obedience performance life so we may as well get them down as good as gold.

The other thing she asked me to do is to train her in an areas where there are distractions but not distractions that are too close. I know some perfect places to take her. We'll probably start in the backyard LOL :)

I wrote to obedience poodle list that I found out that I was too wishy washy and that is true. My instructions to her were not clear and I was accepting performances that I shouldn't accept. She has made me mindful of how lax I am getting. So I have to be more black and white and I have to correct her when she defies me and do it like I mean it. Morgan responds to this well. She knows exactly what she should be doing and she just pushes the envelope and that is exactly what I do not have the luxury of letting her do.

I keep thinking of Ruff Love. Well, yeah! I have been too lazy and unmotivated (a whole other story) to stick to my guns but play time is over. As I said in my post to poodle obedience, Morgan is in obedience/agility boot camp. I have many plans for us and even though I started out feeling really depressed about Morgan's performance today at Stan's and Suzanne's, as usual the reason she is the way she is is because of me, duh!!! I have GOT TO stop letting her get away with stuff. She has been doing that for almost six years so it will be a rude awakening for her--for both of us. Playtime is over

CU Training

I'm cutting and posting most of what I wrote on the poodle lists here. Just a little more detail.

Morgan and I spent the day at a Control Unleashed seminar. I learned a lot about myself and my dog. I am very glad I went but, in a way discouraged, because it pointed out the holes in my training that I have to conquer before I ever want to show this dog.

Our participation in the seminar started out great. Morgan was relaxed on her mat she was chillin' and looking very calm. She lay flat on her side and was acting so sweet. Only had eyes for me. The first couple of exercises were wonderful-- doggie zen, and jumping with the mat and one other dog in the ring. We have been working from the book pretty diligently for the past three or four weeks and that helped a lot. Morgan looked like the star. I kept telling people, just wait because they all wonder why my dog is in these classes when she seems to be so good.

Right after lunch, Meagan really upped the ante. They set up a little circular course sequence in the box --two jumps, tunnel, two jumps tunnel. Then we were asked to find a place around the box. We started out fine with each person finding a new spot for themselves and their dogs and we did it one by one but had to pass by other people's set-ups to get there. Morgan did great. Then, I sat on the floor with Morgan, got her all settled and laying on her side seeming very relaxed. I didn't know how unfortunate my choice of a spot was until dogs started running courses. We were away from other dogs but right behind the tunnel. Bad idea.

The first dog ran the sequence, not a problem. The second dog caused Morgan to look over at the course. Good, we played the look-at-that game and she did okay. The third dog was an exuberant border collie who whooshed through the tunnel with amazing thunder. Morgan was up and barking immediately. I was able to get her to focus on me and the cookies after a few seconds but now everyone was aware of our challenges. I stayed in the same position for the next dog and now that Morgan was alerted that dogs were actually doing agility in there, she perked up but stayed under control. However, when another fast and big dog went into the ring, Morgan was up and off, snatched the lead right out of my bad hand and when I went to grab her with my good hand I hit it against the dog walk and boy did that smart. To her credit when I gathered my wits enough to call her to me she came running back. YAY!
Needless to say we moved further from the tunnel after that and I was able to keep her focus a lot better. Talk about embarrassed! She was the only dog to have such a major reaction. Meagan didn't ask us to move but I figured I should because she was being so bad.

Morgan's ballistic reaction to dogs playing is why we are doing CU work.
After today's seminar, I'm encouraged that we have come as far as we have but discouraged that it seems that we have so much further to go. I need to add a few things to her training plan. If we have puppies in September, her training plan will need to be altered anyway. I think I will wait to change the training plan until we know for sure she is having puppies.