Semi-Private and Carmie's Class

Monday Ike and I had another semi-private with Katrin. We worked on fronts and stays. Wow, all I can say is we have our work cut out for us.

Amazingly, Ike is not distressed about his terrible fronts or poor stay. Huh. And I know now just how much work we have to do! ;-) I say amazingly because in the past Ike would shut-down if he was "wrong" too often. Now he really doesn't worry about it much (although I still do!). This is huge progress.

It comes down to the fact that I really need to make time to practice both of these items. They will not get better alone (sniffle). Katrin had a good suggestion about Ike's stays. Currently the issue is that he is not comfortable with me walking around him while he is in a stay. Katrin recommended I start with a much wider diameter and slow work in over time. I think this will be successful and no one says I can not do that in the ring too! Sneaky handling, I know.

As to Fronts. Katrin recommended having a treat in both hands, with my hands hanging naturally. Treat out of whichever hand Ike is further from. This didn't work very well on Monday. I think because Ike is currently so food crazed. In the Pamela Dennison book she recommends a recall game where you toss a treat between your legs behind you to get your dog used to driving in a straight line to you. I think I will try this too.

Yesterday Carmen had class and she was full of beans! I guess she is enjoying the cold weather. It was a fast course and Carmen was really booking. She continues to nail weaves with two gates and actually allowed me to do a f/c while she was weaving without pulling out. yes! I need to work on fading the two cages at home, but due to the weather and scheduling I haven't really had time.

I wasn't quite as consistent about my speed last night and Carmie pulled off of jumps a couple of times. It is a reminder that I need to SLOW down and let her work away from me. The other thing I really need to practice are rear crosses. Now that Carmen is jumping 8" she is moving even faster - that means I need to get her comfortable with rear crosses. Otherwise we are going to end up with a collision due to a poor front cross! Or maybe I just need to take up running and get faster?

The teeter was in last night's course and Carmen has decided a sit is perfect for her - I am going to continue to reinforce this due to the benefit structurally. I am really pleased that she has chosen this position. All in all it was an excellent class. All the problems lie primarily with me!

Saturday Carmie, Bug, and I are headed down to Paws n Effect for the SCAT CPE trial. Carmie is entered in her first Level 3 class - Fullhouse. I am fairly certain I can avoid the weaves as this is a game class and I refuse to put Carmie in a situation where she is forced to flub the weaves.

I still need to post about the Debbie Gross Saunders seminar. It was super, but it is a lot of info to prcess!