2011

Goals and Such for 2011.

Me:
Be nicer to people. I think this was a goal I had last year, and I do think that I was better. But I think I can improve on it. I need a better filter on my mouth. lol
Stop caring so much. It sounds bad doesn't it. But really it's true. I need to just chill out. Why should what someone else does bug me? Why should what someone else thinks of my matter so much? That's right. It shouldn't.
Be Selfish. Again, doesn't look so good in type. Lol. But true. I need to make sure that I am doing what is best for me and my dogs. Teaching four nights a week is not good for any of us. Not sure when I will be able to afford to NOT teach four nights a week. But I'll have to figure something out.
Stop Procrastinating. This is so hard. It must be a hereditary thing. I seriously am the worst in the world. When I think of something I just need to do it. Just do it.
Improve My Memory. I briefly tried vitamins, but didn't go buy more after the second bottle. (see above). I have been doing some reading about memory and am going to try some other naturopath things, aswell as start doing memory games. I seriously have the worst memory ever. And it's only getting worse.

Wicca
ATCH. This was our goal for last year. We only need one more jumpers Q. I can hardly believe that we've made it this far. I am so excited. I've never had an ATCH before and it seemed like such an impossible dream for us.
Retrain Stay. I've already started. (last week) I am going to blog about the process later this week. I am thinking this should work. Once we have a stay we will go back into the Open ring.
Qualify at Regionals. I assumed that this would not be a problem for us ever. Last year was a pretty humbling experience. This year we will be training harder, and be more focused.
Rally. Since we are taking a break from the Open ring until our stay is trained and solid I am going to take up Rally with her. We have a few RAE legs already. The ring experience is awesome, and will go a long way to keeping her fresh for Open when we get there. And the training is fun. And depending on the judge it is a great challenge.

Boone
Confidence. It's a pretty broad thing to work towards but it needs to be. Before he can succeed in any venue we need confidence. To get that I am going to take him to lots of new places, and spend more time making sure he is in the right frame of mind. We had confidence once, not sure what happened to it but we will need to work hard to bring it back.
Agility. We're bringing out the goodie container and building up our trialing from scratch. I have him entered in a January trial in Starters. :) Two runs at FEO of fast, straight lines. He will love it. I think that with him I need to be careful to find the balance between pushing too much, and too little. If I don't push enough he won't get better, and if I push too hard he can't cope. It will be a bit of trial and error at first. I am not sure what I was thinking when last year I wrote Regionals and Nationals as his goals. Talk about being unrealistic.
Rally. I had said that I wasn't going to do any more Rally or Obedience with him- but I think that if I get his confidence up he will rock. His heeling is getting better, and he always has lots of spunk training. We just need to take it places.

Vito
Oh Vito. It's hard to have goals when you are a house dog. :) But I do want to improve his
Social Skills. Simply put, he doesn't have them. He has never been an overly friendly dog, and doesn't like strangers petting him. Once he knows you he is awesome- the snuggliest dog around. But if you are a stranger, you must be bad. I do want to be realistic about this though- I know that I will not stick with meeting a new person every day. The sad fact is I just don't have time for that. But once a week I can do. We will go to a public place and meet people once a week.
Recalls. Vito has the worst recall of any of my dogs. Ever. He is a naughty, naughty dog who belongs to a person who is okay with a little naughty. It's a bad combo. So recalls. Must improve. I have a plan for this but I won't bore you all to tears with it...

Pixel
Sustained Attitude. How's that for fancy? Pixel is a great worker. She is up, she is focused, she is happy- when she is in the mood. If she is not in the mood I have no dog. Of course my job as a trainer is to ensure that she is in the mood but sometimes (at an obedience trial for example) there is not much I can do to help her. So. Train. Train. Train. That's the plan. In all sorts of new places. Lots of varying reward types, and placements. So that in a place (like an obedience trial) that she might be a little worried about she will have the tools to get herself through that. I've watch the Bridget Carlson DVD's twice now and have some good ideas about that.
Obedience. A CDX. We have the foundation for it. And so far I am doing great with the training plan I'd made up month or so ago. I am pretty confident about her abilities.
Regionals. I am going to enter her, and I think that she will do pretty well. We need to work on our gamble skills, and obstacle independence but overall I think that she has the skills needed for such an event. I am excited to even write that!

And that's it. Should keep me busy for the next 363 days.