the sky is falling v.02

Last night we had training at the barn- it went really well and I was pretty happy with how Wicca did. I didn't do a lot with her- in preparation for the trial this weekend I worked on Startlines, weave poles, and jumping. She will still knock the first bar- and did so last night two times in a row. I was not happy and she knew it. Wicca is a funny dog in that she will not hesitate to make a mistake the first time, but will try extra hard the second time to do it right. It drives me wild- if she would try even a little bit the first time we wouldn't have the problem....

I took Boone last night, and gave Vito the night off. I worked on targeting with Boone as he likes to give half assed nose touches and will actually go half way and expect a cookie. I also worked on the contacts last night with him. I haven't done a lot of contact work as I wanted to be sure he understood what I wanted before I put him on. He did great on the dog walk and a-frame- I did some backchaining to begin with and I was overall pretty impressed with him...You can see that he still kind of guesses about what he should do at the end but he is learning that I want him to stay in that position....And then at the end we had a little melt down. I tried to send him to the tunnel under the wall and he took the wall, I withheld a reward and just said "Try Again" well, you would have thought I kicked him!!! He went completely loopy, and would not look at me, couldn't sit still, and just kind of stood and shook. It was very strange. We were all a little surprised at how he went from happy to scared in a matter of seconds. It took a bit of work and some nose touches to get him to focus back on me- we ended on a few jumps with a jackpot and he seemed fine. I was talking to Sarah about it later on the way home and she thinks that I need to make a point of actually teaching him how to be wrong, and that it is okay.

I have decided on a NRM of "Uh Oh" and will start with him this week. I also bought a Gentle Leader on the weekend (with a really cool design) to use for Boone. I am excited as he tends to be over stimulated in new situations and it will be good to have control of what he is looking at. We started last night and this morning getting him used to having it on. I am going to get one for Mr.Vito as well.