I call "Do Over"

Sigh ...

This blog is supposed to help me keep track of Larry's progress in training. So far it has shown me how lackadaisical I am in keeping to a training routine! I guess that's something, but it really wasn't what I was aiming for.

This is one of the motivational signs I have hanging on the frig. It's to remind me to work on the little details and be happy with small steps of progress. I've decided that daily notes on a blog aren't enough, since I've been getting to the end of the day with nothing concrete to note. So ...

No - not really my handwriting

Now I have something else to post on the frig. It will stare me in the face, breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snack. Hopefully next week, I will be able to post it again with marks, notes and progress. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

To translate: We will be working on heeling. Mom showed me an interesting behavior chain suggested by Susan Ailsbey that looks good, so we're going to try it for a couple weeks and see how it works. We're still working on the three finishes from Denise Fenzi's blog - I have a terrible time getting the cookie out of my hand. It's probably my worst transition point. Weavepoles are on-going entertainment and will be for a while, but we are going to start closing them down this week, but the tire looks to be trouble. "Someone" figured out that he can go under it, so back down to the floor it goes. Stays are actually up to an occasional 5 seconds (trust me, that's a lot! He's just so excited every time we're doing something structured I wasn't sure we'd ever get this far!). I'd like to get it to 10 so I can back down and add movement (mine) into the mix.

Week 2: Looking for a little more effort (from me!)

Saturday - Conformation show in Wauseon. Larry showed well, less bouncing than class, and took best of winners for the point he needed to finish his championship. Yay! Much driving and crate time, but no training - boo!

Sunday - Practice agility trial. Left dogs at home. Did work some random sits in the evening, but that was all I had the energy for.

Monday - read Denise Fenzi's blog post about finishes and decided to try her method. Only one short session, but I'm liking it already.

Tuesday -

Totally lost track this week. My efforts to turn it up could not stand against the craziness that real life threw at me this week. <sigh> On to week 3 ...

Week One (oh how generic!)

Saturday and Sunday - Larry and I spent our mornings at the Medina Swarm WCR Rally Trial. Larry played on three Puppy level courses - and I mean played! Much bouncing (almost shoulder high. Lots of people commented on his vertical leap) and tail wagging, but very little heeling or paying attention. Obviously we haven't been training consistently, and I'm thinking there may be some adolescent brain freeze going on, since there were more than a few looks of "What ever are you talking about? I've never heard the word sit before in my life!" When he did sit, he would come around in front of me, so we've been doing a few too many of those recently. Due to the trial and other RL commitments, we didn't do any training either day.

To work on: sit and down at my side (right and left), finding heel position :-)

Monday - worked sitting on my left and on my right sides. No acknowledgment for a sit in front. I turned after each sit about 90° so he was behind me and lured with food. Also worked on brushing. Got a little further back before he turned, managed 15 strokes.

Tuesday - Conformation class. Very excited, bouncy, couldn't hold still for the first 20 minutes. Once he settled down, free stacked nicely.

To work on: stacking on table, making sure rear left foot stays back

Wednesday - Bath-a-thon with Patricia took up most of the evening. Larry thought the water was acid ... added to the "things to work on" list.

Thursday - rough day at work, too sore to even throw a toy

Friday - worked stack on table. Improvement? I don't know, it's not any worse at least ;)