Heel!

Wicca is definately ready for Lethbridge. She is doing great and seems to be enjoying the work. I was a bit worried about the stand for exam with her- seeing as how she is so wiggly but she truly knows what stay is all about and doesn't budge an inch. I will be training even harder over the next few weeks to get her heeling even better and am excited about going into the ring with her...

Sam is doing awesome. He will heel for about ten paces or so head up watching me and is very enthusiastic. I thnk he will be great fun once I start working him more. I have been taking him to the girls training sessions and he has been great around the other dogs- no barking, no lunging.. I think with him it was the fact that he probably had never met any other dogs until they dropped him off at the shelter and then learned that other dogs are scary...Now he barely even looks there way before looking at me to make sure its okay...what a clever boy....

Unfortunately I haven't been working with Kate as much as I would have liked. I sent her and Wicca's entry though so I should really get on it. She seems to be in good spirits when I have trained a bit so that is a good sign. I am a little bummed out that I didn't enter the regionals this year. I just didn't have the money at the time and was a little worried I would have a replay of last years- where Kate was the worst I have ever seen her- spooking at judges, leaving the rings, knocking bars....So this year I decided not to bother. Maybe next year...

I am planning on doing some training this afternoon so I will probably have some things to say later...

Barking....

When I first got Wicca I knew that being a corgi barking would be something that I would really have to work on. Overall, she is not too bad -saving the majority of her barking to tell me off on course or when we are scent hurdle racing, she is pretty good at home and in her kennel. However, I have used a bark collar on her before and it worked very welll. I haven't used it in quite a while but am thinking of dusting it off for Sam. In the house and in life is actually a very quiet dog but when I am working them in the backyard they each have a turn and are expected to wait quietly in the dog run until their turn. Sam hasn't figured out the quietly part...He doesn't care too much about the dogs themselves, I think it is more the fact that they are having fun and he isn't. Today he went ballistic while I was working with Kate and the broad jump- throwing himself against the pen and barking histarically...I calmly put Kate in a downstay and asked him to be quite. No response- stopped heaving himself against the gate but the barking continued...I thought for a minute...what would be the best way to deal with this...In the end I decided that I would ask him once more and if he didn't respond follow it up with something negative- namely me marching over grabbing him out of the run and putting him in the house. He therefore had to forfeit his second turn...poor bugger....
His first "turn" went very well though- we worked on some attention work and some puppy calisthenics (fast sit, down, stand- in any order) so I was a little dissapointed not to work him again but thought that he needed to miss out to get the point....
So- instead of having to go through all that I think that the "collar" may have to come out of the closet..

Weekend Plans

This weekend I am going to start working with Sam a bit more- I have given him a few weeks to just be a dog and adjust to the household. I have started some clicker basics and have worked a bit on sit and down- but haven't done too much other than that. So my plans for sam this weekend is to start with stationary attention and some retrieving stuff....
Wicca has been doing great lately- what a different dog now that she is burning off some of that energy with Sam.