6 words

Jenny girl, keeper of my heart.
Magic, always willing, by my side.
Grace, Lucille Ball with a tail.

Someday I will post a picture of Jenny. Someday when the thought of Jenny doesnt bring me to tears. Its been ten years and still i sob.

3 girls in season

All three of my girls are in season.  Peace is nearing the end, Siren is in the middle and Grace is just starting.  My 2 neutered boys are both becoming humping champions.  Its making me crazy. The funny thing is that my yard must positively reek of GIRL!  We had 2 loose male dogs appear just outside our yard yesterday alone. I know where the one lives- a very pretty Akita who walks by regularly.(A really nice dog)  He got away from his Dad during thier evening walk last night and hightailed it right to our house, dragging his leash.  His owner laughed when I told him why he was suddenly making 53 pee stops along our short little fence. The other male - not sure where he came from, or where he went.  He was hanging around when I went to bed, but gone this morning.  I tried to catch him, as I hate to see loose dogs in the city, but he wasnt having anything to do with me. 

Fortunately we never have our dogs outside unsupervised. Even in the cold, we are always right there, so I dont feel like I have to worry about any unplanned pregnacies-even though both the brindle girls are really being hussies these days.

Training update

Magic is such a food hound.  He heels wonderfully when I have treats.

Training Magic

Crystal at Reactive Champion came up with a really good training plan to work on her issues with Maisy. And she has inspired me to put together a similar plan for Magic. We have 2 weeks to get tuned up prior to the APDT trial. Magic earned the APDT award of excellence with his level 1 title, that means his first 3 runs were all qualifying with scores over 190.  (Grace did not manage this by the way)  I would really like Magic to earn this for his level 2 as well. So on that note there are several things I need to do. 

1-we are going to work on happy heeling. Leaving with me head up and happy. Rewards after 1 step, 2 steps etc. both food and the ball.  including keeping up on a fast station, me leaving running and reward for staying with me.  Working the driving forward aspect of turns too.

2- we are going to work on heel position. Closeness. Since agility, heel position has become rather sloppy.

3-we are going to work on pivots. I have never understood well enough to help Magic understand how to move his back end to get in close and straight.  I need to figure out a plan for this that I can work today.

4 fronts.  Our fronts are not bad, but Magic has started to sit (and down to really) sloppily. On a hip, legs tucked under.  I think we are going to try to really reward correct fronts.

5. Moving downs- Because Magic always wants to tuck that front paw under and slowly go down, I think we are going to work downs too.

All of these issues really are because I stopped working on the obedience skills when we started doing agility. I didnt ask for the correctness of heeling or fronts and they have sort of slipped away. When I think about it I understand that easily.  After all, I call all the dogs in, ask for a sit and reward a sit. Didnt really care if the sit wasnt correct, as long as we were sitting not jumping etc.  Same with position, Magic would try for a correct front, someone would jostle him out of the way and he still got the treat.  I wasnt thinking about how this would affect his overall performances when we again did obedience. (DUH, I just really noticed last night that he does try but with 4 corgis all trying, noone gets the "right" spot.)  Same thing with heeling. When I walk down the hallway, I have sometimes 3 dogs trying to fit at my left side. 2 of them, Magic and Siren try really hard to be in heel position. Is this possibly eroding the picture for both of them? Not sure, but I guess I can see where it might.

So its a lot to work on. But I am committed to a schedule where I take 5 minutes 3  times a day to work these issues. Hopefully I wont further muck anything up!

Agility Seminar with Magic

Todays seminar was distance work.  I get pretty good distance with Magic, but his criteria for contacts is gone.  He leaped off every a frame from about a foot above the yellow.   I don;t know what to do with him. We had a good running contact before- its gone completely. I dont want to do 2 on 2 off I think its too hard of an angle. Maybe I need to re-train a down on the ground, or a sit at the bottom.  Thoughts anyone?

On the positive side, I can work almost 20 feet away and we can layer obstacles fairly well.  The problem is that I didnt do enough foundation work. He was my first agility dog, and well, we did not get enough of the basics.  Our classes were pretty much obstacles from the beginning.  Which is probably OK for a dog that works beside you (like Grace) but not so good away. And I dont have enough understanding to be able to do it alone, so maybe if I can get Grace into the beginners class I can learn more and know what to teach better?  At least that is my goal.  So since I really wanted to earn Magics ARCH this year I think we will focus on that. (While I learn more hopefully)  So now I am planning on the APDT here in February and hopefully I can afford the one in Des Moines too.

I kind of feel like I am giving up, but I don't want to make our issues worse either.

350th post and todays UKC show

Holly (Visions Cardigans) will get her choice of either of these 2 quilted picture frames.  Holly requested green, so there is either the all green one, or the green and brown one.

The other one will be available as well.  We will have another random draw once I know which Holly prefers.

Today at the UKC show, Magic earned his first leg toward his URO2 rally title.  We also decided to go for broke and try open again as well.  Remember last time we ran open, Magic failed every exercise except the retrieve on the flat. Today, he only failed at the broad jump.  YEAH. His heeling was still not great, and it must get better, but his stays were perfect, his retreives were perfect. His DOR I had to second command the drop, but that was my fault as I only gave him the hand signal and I should have given both the verbal and the hand signal. So if we can just make heeling fun some day we might actualy earn that CDX.

UKC Rally tomorrow - Maybe

I like that UKC has day of show entries. It has been a horrible week workwise, and if I can manage to get up and out of the house tomorrow Magic and I might just head out to do some rally. We could alos try again for a leg towards his CDX, but after the last attempt, really why waste the money?  Then again, I might just veg in the house and bury my head in the blankets and pretend the world does not exist.  Sunday we have a mini agility distance seminar at Agile Canines. So if I do both Magic will get his weekend with mom.  And thank goodness, the agility seminar is over in time for the game.

Tomorrow I will be posting the 350th blog, so check in.