Friday Fun in Fotos (Love Poetic License!)

Yeah, I was a little late to work today.

But it wasn't my fault! The dogs were playing. Together. 

On Purpose and with Intention.

I mean, The Pup had to put in a solid 30 minutes of effort (bonking The Dog in the face with the toy, barking, etc) before she got The Dog interested in playing Crack Puppy (Object of Game: chase and run and bark, very fast, while running into things and causing havoc). I couldn't let all that hard work go to waste. 

Today's passenger/accomplice on the Crack Puppy rampage was... BLUE BALL! 

Ear to head ratio... Magnificent! 

Crack Puppy. Just about ready to detonate. 

The subsequent zoomies that erupted after that pose where amazing. 

Like furry brown, black and white pyrotechnics. 

We had some excellent tongue footage as a result. 

The Pup wins the excessive tongue contest.

Major case of Staffy Face!! 

Then she pulled the guilt-inducing "aw, do we HAFTA stop playin?" face.

Not Fair. 

Sad fact of life though, Pup, you want more balls, we need more money, therefore to work I go.

Stupid fact of life...

Tired doggies are pose-able doggies. 

...For two seconds. Then you get ADD Puppy having an "OOO SHINY!!" moment. 

Or maybe it's a Ceiling Ghost sighting...

*Shudder*

Maybe I'm happy to be at work after all...

It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! No… Wait!

It’s just my dogs.  They’re as high as kites. Sorry about that.

But that’s what happens when you take a mini break from showing and hard core training; nutty animals start bouncing all over, screaming in the yard, running amuck, knocking things over and tearing things up.

R&R. Good for people, difficult for doggies, impossible for living spaces.

***

So in the interest of ear drums and peace worldwide, I finally took the dogs out for some fun yesterday.  We went early as I could see the impending line of DOOM on the weather map rolling its way over to the area.  Apparently the frequent rains this year have turned me into a weather vane or Farmer’s Almanac because while it did hit us, I had already packed up and gotten us settled back in the car singing Ke$ha songs before the first drop hit.   

But before I predicted the weather, we got some excellent training in. Very basic stuff for all last night. I started with The Dog on her plank work.   Set-up took some major trial and error- I couldn’t figure out why she kept blasting everywhere but the board- mega DUH- the plank was nestled in between weaves and teeter and I was telling her “GO” so off she went to go do something, not focusing at all on the board.  So I knocked the other stuff over and stuck a jump out as a target in front of Marvin. That worked pretty well; worked even better when I told her to ‘walk it’ and worked best when I rewarded after all was said and done with The Ball.   

Here’s a VIDEO! (I bought a cute little external hard drive so my laptop could barf up all my data onto THAT instead of the living room. Now I have space again and that means VIDEOS!!!) Thoughts and suggestions entirely welcome.

I love that you can see her picking up speed as this goes along; that’s recordable progress if you ask me.  I rewarded a LOT last night- still care far more about her running the board than much else- and I am glad I did. I rewarded a few that originally look bad to me, but on video looked pretty good.  And she obviously improved as we went on so something is getting through here.  Very happy. 

And it doesn’t seem to have killed her normal dogwalk- I took her over a few and they were ok. ButI can’t have expectation for this weekend. I think the key with her is to minimize the amount she does (repetition isn’t our friend without intense reward) and try to replicate what we do on the plank with how we do a dogwalk.  We are only super screwed if there is a dogwalk into nothingness. No clue about the Judge this weekend, but hopefully he is as scared of Black Holes off dogwalks as we are…

***

The Pup then showed off her exemplary board running skills; I decided since we were using Marvin now I’d better back it up to make sure she understood the game.  Yup.  We also worked a bit on weave channels and teeter.  Video!

I’m digging the ‘weave channels, no guides’ thing.   She has no issue staying in the channel, and I don’t have a chance to do anything dumb like get tangled in a guide and scar her for life. Win!  

Love Tangent alert- have I said how much I love working this little monster? She couldn’t be cleverer (and if she was we would all be in serious trouble- think ‘Planet of The Dogs’). Today’s Love Tangent Topic:  The way she figures out at the base level what to do with “things.”  I mean, she sees the Aframe and knows you go up and come down the other side- no jumping off! She sees the weave poles and just knows that you weave them! (Or in the case of the channel set, go through the middle.)  Seriously, I had a set of six in the yard for The Dog, and Smarty Pants Pup went over and wove through. How does that happen?  There is just something inherent there- something to do, I suspect, with her fascination with manipulating things and then from that understanding what to make of obstacles she is presented with. MAYBE it’s a good thing she gets into so much stuff??? Eh… nah, probably can’t justify that as much as I’d like too.  

But anyways, I’m not just a doting Leader- she really is a genius. If you haven’t seen this- it’s too cute, but also evidence.  I was trying to work on core stuff with The Dog and since The Pup is a screamer I tried to practice her down stay at the same time instead of sticking her in a crate.  I gave her Marvin to keep her company and had the remote on the floor by me.  Apparently I waited too long to reward because she came over and stole the remote, pressing the dispenser and getting her treat.  The subsequent “light bulb” moment was adorable, she totally realized that the remote was key, so spent the next half hour joyously self-rewarding.

Probably not the ideal use of a MM, but who doesn’t love a dog clicker training herself to clicker train?

Insert Appropriate Title Here...

If you can spot Packing Tape...you're more on the ball than me!

Well, move over Marvin, the ever-fleeting Pup has a new love of her life:

         Used Packing Tape. 

Apparently, Packing Tape is somehow MORE magical and wonderful than even Marvin. 

Did you know that Packing Tape is both sticky AND smooth? 

Did you know that he makes crinkling noises when you chew on him? 

And best of all you can rip him into tiny pieces and maybe even eat some before The Leader catches you and takes him away. 

Sigh. Forbidden love- so bittersweet. Nothing better on earth up until the moment someone finds you out and then suddenly it all ends up in the garbage. 

At least she still has Marvin, though her burning obsession has cooled slightly. Not enough that she will stop yo-yo-ing at the counter to catch a glimpse of him, but enough that we can work with him.  It helps if she is not ravenous when I put him out too. Lesson learned. 

We did a bit of channel weave work using Marvin and back-chained through the channel easily by the end of it. After I get her solid with running though all the poles (though she’s pretty good at honoring the channel already), I will need to recruit Boyfriend to help with restrained recalls through and toy fun and all that to up the proverbial ante. 

Aside from that, she hasn't done TOO much (she got herself SO worked up over Marvin she actually got a bit sick... so had to take it easy most of last week. Love hurts.) but I brought her on a field trip to play at the CPE national in town over the weekend. Stunning before and after:

Naughty loose Pup, but no attempted vehicular manslaughter this time. 

Love the lovely snoozy Pup, finally being GOOD in the car!

And I experimented with some baby set point stuff and bendy grids. Meh.  I don't know if I really get this method. Not entirely sure what to look for- with The Pup it all looks great. But doesn't every dog without any height on the jumps? 

Oh, wait no, they don’t. The Dog is once again an exception to the rule. I really need to set up the lessons with my resident expert who agreed to help with understanding the whole jumping 'right' thing, but I'm feeling lazy.  And...it discourages me greatly to think about going through this retrain with The Dog so I'm being passive and avoiding it for now.  I know she needs some better understanding; I know enough to tell when she is failing at recognizing simple distances and can't adjust correctly to a jump chute. It's just all so depressing and not fun and she does struggle and that depresses me more and so we go inside and watch cooking shows instead and she gets the ball and happiness. Meh.

But anyways, back to the fun side: The Pup is learning a new trick for her last ST lesson: roll a ball while balancing on it! I will make her a Circus Pup yet!! She's very cute and seems to get it. I think she would greatly enjoy being a Circus Pup- lots of free popcorn we are sure.

And we DID make some interesting strides on The Dog’s DW retrain (or is it re-re-retrain?).  I took her out for a real shot at plank work- distance and speed on the load and all that.  Distance threw her off a little. She is SO my dog- she would run the plank then look at Marvin WAY over there (he was about 25 feet away) and go MEH, too far. YOU go get the treat and bring it over here.  But we managed to get her back chained over two planks placed end to end with good strides before she got really lazy.  At that point I realized that although I wish for her to have obstacle independence, I will probably NEVER stand there and try and send her for an entire dogwalk with me hanging out and the start, so I started moving some with her.  Bingo. Then I thought, hey, she loves the toy, why shouldn’t I use it wisely? And then, hey why not load with a tunnel?  So she did tunnel, planks, Marvin, TOY and it worked!!  She did what she has never done before on the boards- she ran. Happy. No sticky. No slow down. Consistent, fast, running.  Next step is to make this the norm, then raise it up a tad.

(Normally I would insert an awesome video here of the good stuff from a week of training, but I apparently filled my laptop to the brim and it refuses to have anymore videos or it will start barfing gigs up all over my living room. Time for a new laptop!)

Oh, and the dogwalk is nearly done! THAT’S actually the next step. Had fun adventures this weekend getting boards and painting. Just awaiting hinges now. Stupid slow standard mail. Stupid me for not realizing I should have just picked them up at the CPE Nationals. MEH.

Poor Dad, made him look through ALL the boards...

Rejects.

Aw, gee, well they ALMOST fit...

Yay for tie downs, but I'm NOT driving behind you...

Beautiful 'Dogwalk Blue'

Really makes The Dog POP, doesn't it??

Finished!! Euro-style color scheme. 

Darn straight The Pup didn't get to 'help' me with The Dog. Here's why: She escaped later that day and went into the garage...where she promptly placed her paws on the boards saying "can we play NOW??" 

Oh, and while the paint was drying (like we were going to sit there and WATCH it) we went to the zoo! Now in addition to a bear and a loris I also want a big kitty and a leafy sea dragon. 

Looks like she'd be great at agility...

Can't say the same for him, but he's pretty! 

Non-agility trial weekends are fun. 

Mind Your Manners

Go Dog Goes Techie!

That’s right, why be all old fashioned and pass out dog treats with your hand when you can have a treat gizmo do all the work for you!

Meet… The Manner’s Minder!!

Please, Manner's Minder is my father, call me Marvin!

Besides the convenience and laziness-enabling features, you also eliminate ‘Piranha Syndrome’ with chompy dogs, food crumbs in pockets which make dogs eat your pants later, and can avoid long-lasting unsavory treat smell on your hands.

Basically it is the coolest thing ever.

The Pup agrees. Five paws up (or four paws and one tail). 

Actually, she agrees a little too much.

It’s turning rather… ah… unhealthy at this point. 

Pup, do you have to make-out in front of everyone???

When we first borrowed Marvin the MM from our friend for a test run before buying our own (those of us what do things the old fashioned way yet are wary of all this new fangled technology and hesitate to buy into it until we can poke it with a stick a few times to prove it won’t explode in our face) The Pup was quite perplexed.  I guess her reaction was normal (“AUUGGGHHH NOISY!” followed by “MMMMM FOOD!” transitioning quickly back to “AUUUUGGGHHH NOISY!!”) but it took her several exposures to stop cowering in fear before the almighty Marvin.

Now she is living on the other side of the coin. Now, she won’t leave the dang guy alone. Stalker, much?

If I leave him on the floor, she lays in front of him trying to impress him (Down? Sit? Butt in the air? How do you like it, Marvin?) and barking at him when he doesn’t produced food (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE YOU HAPPY??). Then I put him on the counter and she starts boinging up and down and scratching stuff trying to reach him (THEY WILL NEVER KEEP US APART MARVIN!!) If I shut him or her away in another room, she chills out, but you just know she is thinking of ways to go all Fatal Attraction on me.  If I had a bunny, it would so be boiled. 

Enforced time out- spent contemplating boiling... something!

Seriously, last night I used him to try and reward her for not going in the dishwasher.  She didn’t go in the dishwasher, but she was so frantic by the end her eyes were bright red and she was out of breath.  I tried the ‘continuous stay’ dispenser mode, but every time he said BEEP she jumped about six inches in the air and whipped her head to look at the tray (MARVIN??? My Marvin, what do you NEED??? What do you WANT???). Unhealthy.

So I have my doubts that he will get me what I need for her running contact training.  I will do a test run with the weave poles, but if she can’t use her brain AND stay hopelessly devoted to Marvin its back to boring old target training for her.  (This is the part where she reads this over my shoulder and the next thing I know she’s packing her bags to run away with Marvin and there is a scuffle and I end up dead ‘accidently’ from knife wounds.)

***

However- in a rather pleasant surprise, Marvin has brought out the best in The Dog.  She and Marvin seem to be the perfect fit. She didn’t let him intimidate her and needed no real intro period like The Pup (HO HUM. So food goes in and comes out, big deal my dinner bowl does the same thing). I did spend some time value building the beep, and doing some send work, but that was about all she needed.  Surprisingly, the send work was nice. REALLY nice…

So, feeling a slight twinge of optimism, I crossed my fingers and tried beginning plank work with her again. I went to the very beginning with her where the goal is Find Board, Go Across Board. And… it actually worked.  With a toy, she never noticed the board much on the flat, and certainly never really made the effort to get on it and scurry across. If she did, for whatever reason she would leap more often than not (it’s a springboard, right? It must be a springboard…). But Marvin was the perfect reward. Exciting and novel, but not TOO exciting or novel.  She LOVES food, but understands that food equals brain time and you have to offer behaviors to get it. The beep brings her to the shaping mindset.  If you are wondering, gee, duh, why didn’t you try food before? The answer is of course I did- but since she had already been introduced to targeting alongside her 2o2o contact exposure the connection was there and trying it simply brought out that underlying behavior; no matter what I did she crept along with uncertainty, never truly believing I wasn’t trying to proof. So that’s where the novel comes in- Marvin looks and acts nothing like the target. He is super cool, but she’s not infatuated (not like someone we know…).

The plan then is to slowly restart from ground up. As I have her entered (really, not much though) and don’t intend to pull from competition, at this point she can do what she wants there.  We will work on the new behavior on the side. I’m trying to make it as different as possible- I am switching to “run up” for the command in hopes that will prevent reversion.  We are working on her driving her own contact and complete, obstacle-focused independence. We will use Marvin, possibly add toys in as super jackpots, but for now just Marvin.  I feel tentatively good about this plan. (Soon, the running dowgalks will all be mine!! Mwuahahaha! Really, it will! The hinges are ordered, the supports are done and I found the perfect planks for $30!!! And now we even have a hope of a training plan… SO CLOSE!!) 

Ta-daaa! Two supports! Just need planks!!

Here’s a video of the very first attempt (sorry, too lazy to edit out the time to reset her, but you’ll live):

Yes, I rewarded every attempt she made to get on the baby plank.  She went around once, but reset happily after noting the lack of treats and tried harder the next rep.  With toys, if the reward is withheld, it results in creepy carefulness the next time- not the case here.  There was one rep, not on video, where she tried to stop and stared at me expectantly. I held out and did nothing until she chose to move along the board on her own- then giant jackpot. That was the one and only time so far she made any attempt to offer the old stuff, and she seemed to get that it wasn’t what we were going for.  I like her pace better too, she has a nice trotty stride going on rather than the inconsistent leapiness that the toy got us. I can really see why some people more strongly advocate the food thing.

Anyways. Big difference. I’d put up a comparison video of her last summer trying this with a toy to prove it, but again, I am too lazy so you need to take my word for it.  (What??? So Marvin is turning me into a lazy blob? I don't see a problem!)

***

So even though Marvin is causing some cat (dog?) fights for the love he bestows (two dogs plus one treat gizmo...uh oh), he is a welcome addition to our home for the time being.  I wonder if the girls will notice if I replace him with a permanent version of our own? I may need to buy him off our friend- these attachments The Pup is making are looking more than plastic cover deep…

MAC Gets a 4 Star Updo: Highlights and Lowlights

So. Much. Agility.

I just counted, 20 runs scheduled, 19 actually ran.  No wonder The Dog and I are dead. Really dead. Certifiably dead. Like, the coroner is filling out the paperwork right now.

I’m really not sure what I was thinking when I filled out the entries (Probably something like “lalala, we are amazing and 20 runs is only like 10 minutes of work and we work for an hour sometimes! Lalala”)… but rest assured this was a onetime incident of psychosis.   I’ve found our limits of how much agility is TOO much  and I doubt I will be forgetting any time soon!  

In fact, there was SO MUCH agility it’s pretty much impossible to give any kind of play-by-play.  The internet would overflow and all the technology would spill out onto the streets and the world would drown under the deluge of words I’d need to use to give that much detail.  So instead a spiffy recap is in order à la those “Previously Seen On” segments they show for complicated Smart People TV shows.

First up, Lowlights. 

1) Hot.

Sweaty.

Ick.

2) Did I mention too many runs?

3) Sunday was basically our Worst Single Day Ever. See above for the reason. Many pretty parts, no individual Qs.   Oh well. At least I have the pretty parts. 

4) Sad/scary moment where The Dog zinged her wrist on the chute entry AGAIN and came out gimping up a storm AGAIN and had to be carried off early.  It was the CLONK heard round the world, but luckily was just a stinger.  I think she was more traumatized by the judge looking at her after it happened.  Rest of the weekend spent shoving her into the chute at perfectly straight angles only.

5) Two otherwise lovely runs lost to missed DWs.

6) Sun burn for all. Ouch.

Hehe, mega sunburned me, mega cute her. 

And now, the beautiful, shiny highlights!

1) At least there were no sirens or severe storms, which have ruined many a weekend around here recently.

2) I got my wish- super challenging courses- proud to say not one off course or similar naughty pants incident (I’m forgetting that Sunday Gamblers happened, it’s better this way). 

3) While a few DWs were missed, she had NO super sticky DWs like last weekend, gorgeous Aframes and even nice teeters.  Weird.

Sticky hot, but no sticky DWs (Thnx JLove for the pics!)

4) She actually was able to find difficult weave entries ON HER OWN! More than once! An OMG is in order.

5) Before the sun doldrums ate her, she was flying!  Excellent times for the first part of the weekend, then a noticeable dip, then good again for the last few runs. Don’t get that, except that maybe she felt more rested after I pulled her from one Snookers class.

6) Excellent results in the team competition- Third place overall for her team with Black Dog and BFAM, and she was ranked third for overall 22” dogs!  

7) We ran both IHC classes for fun and she stayed on course for both! WOW! AND she ended up 2^nd in Standard and 3^rd in Jumpers. In both classes I caused refusals at dumb places but she survived all the hard challenges. Pretty good and very fun to run plus I enjoyed getting the special ribbons that have the confusing European color (or should I say colour?) scheme. 

(Here are the maps- such bad quality I can't POSSIBLY get sued for unlawful reproduction, right?)

IHC Jumpers

IHC Standard

8) And the very best part? She got the last 8 qualifiers she needed for her Bronze Lifetime Achievement Award! Not too shabby for only being in Masters a little over a year. 

So yeah.  It was a 4 star weekend, and I’ve got a 5 star dog. She’s such a good little teammate.  She tried very hard all weekend (except the one Gamblers run that didn’t really happen) and I only wish the interwebs were big enough for me to detail ALL the awesome without running the risk of sending us all back to the Stone Age.   

TIRED. Running and running and running is hard work.

***

And, exciting, it’s about to get even awesomer (really, that's not a word??) around The Project.  Dogwalk supports have been built!! 

Ta-daa!! It's even adjustable! Thnx Boyfriend!

Next weekend’s project is procuring, painting and pining on planks!  So we will soon have the most amazing DWs on the planet.  Plus, we’ve got REAL weave poles so no doubt those will be the most amazing too.  (I’m excited to start on weaves with The Pup now too- my plan is channels without guides as a slight variation of what I’d normally do.  Since its channels and they will be VERY wide with no chance of actual weaving for a long time we don’t have to wait for silly old growth plates to close. Diabolical, no?)

REAL weaves! Adjustable! Oh, the awesome!

***
The Pup had her highs and lows this weekend too.  Lows included biting me in the face (hasn’t happened in a LONG time!), screaming awful bloody murder whenever I ran The Dog and running away. Highs include her coming back, letting me scale her teeth, popping out the last of her evil baby shark teeth and being a cute cuddle monster last night, sleeping on my lap for 2 whole hours.   We also got to meet another Clone sibling and her 'mother' which she LOVED, and attempted a cute but short lived photo shoot. Is there anything wigglier than a BS? Why yes, there is! TWO BSs!

TIRED. Screaming and running away are hard work.

***

On the docket now is one week of rest for The Dog and a trip to the chiropractor if I can swing it. No doubt she needs it after all the twisty turny courses.  Then a show in two weeks, and after that, very low key up to the Regional in August.  We have some training points to hit before then- I want to make sure we go into that competition with our best feet and paws forward.  

Besides, I am not going to be able to focus much on agility anyways going forward.

Harry Potter…so soon…

And the aftermath will probably be me in a HP coma of delight for another few weeks. 

I might not even remember agility at all. 

Follow Up: Bitten

OK, sorry for the dual post today.

After the bit on handling in the last post I started thinking about how everything is so complicated with The Dog. 

Really, really complicated.

Even one obstacle takes a nearly insurmountable amount of brain power.

Does anyone else feel this way???

Click Me to Embiggen. 

Bitten

I’ve got a totally well organized theme today, just you wait! (And even mostly regarding dogs!)

Big news first- The Pup is down to just one more Evil Tooth! Joy and rapture. Only one pointy little shark tooth left.   Don’t you worry though, she is still a Velociraptor. The lack of pointy shark teeth doesn’t seem to be cutting down on the amount of chomping and biting she accomplishes in a day (hidden message: that amount is still very large). 

It was quite bizarre though- most of her baby teeth politely excused themselves long before the appearance of her more distinguished grown up teeth.  But not those canines… they just clung on for dear life even though the grown-up teeth started coming in. So for awhile now she has had two rows of teeth…just like a REAL shark.  Very disconcerting to find “Jaws” being reenacted in my living room.    

At any rate, nearly done with the whole irritable, bloody mouth, floppy-tooth thing.  And for the record, I did keep one little tooth. Mostly for science. In case the future is devoid of Border/Staffies and they feel the need to reverse the extinction.  What?? It’s not creepy. Science.

***

In a bizarre twist, The Pup is for once the one that has been bitten.  By a bug. The agility bug!  You can tell when an agility newbie gets bitten (homemade agility equipment in their backyard and forsaking their children’s school events for an agility trial). Likewise, there are little ways to tell when your newbie puppy is bitten too.  For me, I look for pushy! The Pup is officially pushy.  Now instead of random screaming in her crate while The Dog has her turn, I get a mix of screaming and demanding bark.  When I go to get her out for her turn, she explodes out of the crate and runs to the gate to go in the ring.  If I’m too slow to get going on something, she decides to start tromping over, under and through things on her own.

Pushy.

Last night we had much pushiness and so a very fun practice.  As the Aframe was very low and she was running up and down it anyways I decided to introduce her to it properly.  I set the target out and kept her on leash.  (Not sure it was necessary, but better safe than sorry with a broken leg from catapulting off the top.)  She did very well! She is very good about looking for THINGS to do, so she very rarely curls into me inappropriately. Makes this sort of thing easy.   I don’t think we will see the Aframe again until after the DW is done, but it was fun to see how she would do.

Speaking of DW, I set up the plank contraption on the baby version. She doesn’t seem to alter her behavior at all if the boards change which is great. Go Go Gadget Generalization!   (Inspector Gadget anyone? No? Am I dating myself?)  It’s sort of hard to tell in the video where she is hitting with her front feet, but she was rolling through with all her feet most reps.  She was also doing this while the class was arriving so very distracting. I was proud of her for keeping as focused as she did and not flubbing from ADD.

The video below shows her cute Aframes and some DW reps.  Also some tunnel fun.  She really doesn’t love it (yet), but she is starting to actually send to it and head in pretty happily.  This was probably the first tunnel she has done that she couldn’t see the exit from the entry, so not too bad.    I do love how she bursts out and looks for me- she clearly assumes it is a wormhole and doesn’t believe that I will exist on the other end yet.

We also did some low teeter (not videoed) and that’s going well.  Great understanding of ‘four on.’ She will run through the tip point, but she hasn’t decided whether or not it is cool to slide.  I’m letting her figure out how to handle that, my only requirements are movement through the tip and four on. She only obsessively boinged on and off the ‘bang’ part two or three times so… progress on that OCD!

Also not on video, but the best part was the ‘jumping’ (4”, if that even counts as a jump)!  We’ve been working start lines (I probably will not use them, but need to be able to step away a least) and they are adorable! She sits very well and is VERY pushy. No scooching, but the whole leaning false start thing- ‘canwegocanwegocanwegoNOW???’ Good momentum off her start.  So we did some of those and also some walking around from jump to jump and seeing if she would seek the obstacle.  And she did!  Started out nice and slow very close to her, treating every jump and by the end of the night we were up to running between and her going to find the jumps independently. Ok, so the jump was only four feet away but still! Good stuff.

It’s exciting to get some flow going, but it does make me think about my handling for her and what our system will be.  It’s a bit daunting, especially since at this point I can’t boil down The Dog’s ‘system’ into an easy one or two key word description.   I don’t know… can anyone else do that? I’m curious.  At one time I had an easy end goal for how I would handle The Dog and it’s developed into something completely different now.  She has SO MANY RULES that it’s basically an awful, complicated ‘if this than that’ flow chart of possibilities for any scenario.  I think at this point with The Pup I can only do what I’m doing and hope I’m not creating another needy monster. (Too late on the monster part though… Oops!)  I am training her with just one goal in mind at this point- obstacle independence.  My hope is that her job is obstacles and mine will be lines.  It would be lovely if she would take what I put in front of her until I put something else in her line.  

Nice and simple.

It’s good to dream!

***

So we have our 4 star this weekend- The Dog was put through every manner of awful I could think of at practice last night and she was a gem about it.  Her DWs were nice again, after a few runs.  I’m determined not to stress about it.  And to take my mind off of it… True Blood marathon this weekend when we aren’t doing agility!! I don’t care if its vampire bite porn, it makes me happy.  Don’t judge me!

(Ok, so did you get the sense of the theme? Subtle, but cohesive! Yay me for good organization!)