Getting ready to move

We finally have our orders and are preparing to move in less than a month! Needless to say, I've been a bit preoccupied.

This week we worked on open stuff. Monday we did a run through. I'm really pleased with the healing we've been working on. He still crabs, but I don't think we can fix that because it is natural for him in that position. I jumped him at 4 inches, and he looked at the broad jump funny but went over with no problem. I guess it wasn't much of a jump for him.

I've really limited our go-out practice. It has had the desired effect of getting rid of some of the sloppy behavior (running and spinning in particular).

We have been working on signals (sit and down) up close (about 10 feet) and in random orders and with variable schedules of reinforcement. For example, he is laying down and has to sit, down, sit then reward. Then down and reward. Etc. This is building his drive and response time for the behavior. I need to get down to business and work on the recall signal more. I've let that one go for a while. I've decided on the signal (open sweep with the left arm), so just need to pair it up with a recall behavior.

I have been holding off on articles. He's been really snotty (allergies), and I don't want him to pattern mouthing each one. He can do it by taste, but I'd rather not practice that. We've played a couple of find it fun games (hide 1 in a room and then have him search).

I need to touch base with our friend Samantha about gloves. She was looking at getting some more significant big gloves to work her Maltese with. I'd like the same for Soda. He's doing nicely with his gloves, but it just seems like he barely has a tiny bit of the glove to hold on to. I have big, thin gloves from our friend Leslie which are a little better, but way too thin.

On the agility front...not much! We've pretty much been rained out. Hopefully we'll make a class Sunday evening. We both need the outlet!

Oh, and I got some orange cones at Target in the dollar bins. Great for practice! We'll see what silly things we can teach Roo to do with them.

Back to moving prep!!!

A Couple of Videos

I had trouble uploading, so excuse the quality.

Soda's first P2 Snooker leg


Rally Advanced B AMA Nationals

We had a lovely week off from training. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will clear up for some agility double box work!

Hmmmm....

So today left me wondering a little...

First run was standard. Too slow.

Second run was snooker. I got a run for the 2nd half of the course and we got our first P2 Snooker Q! Soda did a really good job.

I had high hopes for jumpers...and wow did I have one slow dog. He was panting and had drunk a bunch of water. Silly me, he's been on a high dose of steroid all week for his neck.

So now I'm wondering how much was him feeling off, how much is all of the other issues I talked about yesterday. We'll have to talk it over with Audrey.

Hopefully I'll have a few videos to post (plus rally from nationals) this week.

Left wondering....

Sometimes Less is More, TAG day 1

Sometimes less preparation right before a trial is more.

This past week I took Soda out to the trainer's house to work him a little in her wooded area. I knew Soda had a bit of trouble with the ground before, but I didn't think much of it. Well, not only did he have trouble on the ground, but that meant we practiced being SLOW. I have previously been very persistent about not allowing Soda to run slow in training. We run fast or we he sits out. We have done so well recently. Last trial he had awesome speed. Soda's weaves at the show today were so slow. I caught myself cheer-leading in the course. Luckily I noticed and at the end of the day I ran him like I would anyways and got bursts of speed out of him. At the end of the day I also practiced some shadow handling with just a sit-stay and taking off running. I am going to start out with this tomorrow and stick to my handling (including no cheer-leading) tomorrow. I feel like practicing slow just shot us in the foot.

On the bright side, our very first time in P2 Relay we got a Q and 1st place!
Our P1 Gamblers run finally had everything come together. We made it around with  my planned course and Soda did the gamble! We were just over time because I made a little snafu right before we started the gamble which took up a bit too much time. My fault. I was very happy with our run.
P2 Standard was okay. I had 1 major handling error (I forgot a front cross and chucked a rear in at the last minute so he spun after the jump). Other than being SLOW it was okay. I'm gaining a bit of confidence with the amount of handling in P2. At first at our last show I was overwhelmed...but Soda has shown if I stick with my plan, he does his part.

More agility fun tomorrow!

Maltese Nationals

We finally made it home last night from AMA Nationals. It was a blast as always! This year was the first year we had rally at Nationals. Soda competed in advanced b (first time doing rally in 3 years!). He got a 97/100 and 4th place. I was very proud of him, especially considering he didn't go on until late afternoon and spent the whole day crated. He was a little sloppy but such a good boy. The obedience faction at Nationals seems to be getting bigger and bigger each year. It is wonderful to see. Video to come.

We played with our articles a couple of times at Nationals. Soda is doing well and progressing through the additional numbers of articles quickly each time. I'm still having to give the occasional reminder to "finish working the pile", but overall improvement. I haven't been working on a daily basis, so I can't expect too much.

We have a USDAA trial this weekend. I have to say I had just a little bit of nerves looking at the final confirmation e-mail...five of his six runs are P2! Eeeep! Hopefully we will make it out to Aunt Audrey's after work tomorrow for a quick teeter and weave practice. No flying off the teeter this weekend, please! I have to go out of town Thursday night, so this will be it for agility practice this week (other than some crate games). Luckily this trial is very close to home AND Soda has his "big boy" jump height card so no check-ins.

Crate Games and Its Yer Choice!
I think we showed off the benefits of these 2 training games this weekend at Nationals. Soda was able to pop right out of his crate and work obedience without a long warm up (other people were warming up for 5+ minutes). I did not have to worry much about timing taking him our to our run. We demonstrated the completed on-leash version of Its Yer Choice and "Food on the Soda". I explained the benefits of not needing to proof for every distraction because my dog "knows the game". Our friends were impressed at Soda ignoring a high value flossie chew and walking right over bags of treats even though he was not asked to heel. I think the value of these games to our performance in all venues has been priceless. I think each of these might be a good topic for a blog post.