Tuesday, October 25, 2005

She's Got It!

Well Wicca can finally weave- she is not 100% by any means- but she is reliably weaving! My backyard poles are straight up- no gaps. No Wires....Nothing....She is stronger on the left side- but that's my fault and I have been working to fix that. I am so excited.
Her weaving style is quite cute- she is a hopper. This morning I did jump, jump, weave, tunnel, come back and weave- and she nailed it. I am so excited!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

Dis-obedience

I have been working more and more with Wicca and obedience lately. I haven't done a lot since the lethbridge dogshow and when she was sick but have been puttering around the yard alot with her. She is doing awesome. Her heeling is improved quite a bit from the summer and she is able to work with harder distractions. She is still a bit "I'm a Princess, Make Me" but for the most part she is pretty good. I do have to work on her recall though- something I took for granted. We work on fronts- not alot but at least every few days...she is always really eager and is very reliable- I took her out to a different park this morning and she was a bit weird about the actual recall part though...not too sure what exactly she is thinking. I always leave her with a quiet- "wait" command. And call her "Wicca Front!" but today - every time I did it (about 4times) she kind of started coming and then would either stop or look away- very stressed about it....hmmm....I thought maybe my body language, maybe my tone of voice...so I tried it without making eye contact with her- with a toy, running as soon as she started towards me...as soon as the toy came out she forgot about her stress but it is something I will have to figure out and fix.......

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Hold

Wicca is holding her dummy! Yahoo! I was a bit worried about teaching a hold- I had such a hard time with Kate, even getting her to pick it up. But Wicca's got it! She has always loved the dumbbell- I made sure that as a puppy it was the most cherished, special toy. A few weeks ago (actually when she was recovering from Parvo and couldn't be too active) I worked with her for about 15 minutes or so trying to get the duration of the hold up- in scent she spits it at me and that's fine but in obedience she is going to have to hold it until I take it from her. This morning I worked again with her for a few minutes and wow- she is so clever. I started just giving it to her- Take It. Then I moved in front of her (in the "front" position) and asked her to take it again. I got her to hold it for about 4 seconds or so. Then I Stepped a little farther away and asked her to "front" - what a great little worker...She just amazes me!

I worked with Sam a bit this morning aswell- he has been really great with his attention and can almost do a full heeling pattern look at me- now that I have his attention I am going to start teachin him to heel. His natural position is not too bad- he just tends to swing his but out quite wide.

fun, fun...

-amanda

Saturday, October 08, 2005

Busy, Busy...

Well- the last week or so has been really...The dogs are doing great, but becuase life has been so busy I haven't had too much to report or write about. I am still working with Wicca on weaves- every day. She is doing really great- the poles are right close together now and she is about 75% accurate- she will still occasionally pop the last pole- so i have the wire back up on that pole. We went to the Kathy Keats seminar last week and it was awesome! Kathy is a great instructor- and worked really well with all types of dogs. We worked on a jumping exercise with a pinwheel on either end and a jump in the middle. We worked alot on front and rear crosses- timing- trusting your dog, obstacle commitment. Wicca did really well until we started added discrimnation with tunnels...oh my...she is a true tunnel suck...So Wicca is "grounded" from tunnels for a few weeks while we focus on jumping- making the jumps a reward themselves(like the tunnel) anyway it is working really well. Kathy is coming back in february and I am definitely interested in going again. Sam is doing awsome. His contacts are coming- he is just a bit slower on learning he can do it himself....I have barely done any weaving with him but am in no hurry- I will maybe focus more on that this winter. For now I am teaching him front/rear crosses on jumps and some simple discrimination. Kate is still enjoying her holiday- I haven't had her out to agility since the trial and have just been doing lots of regular dog stuff. - playing fetch, lots of walks and just letting her be...