Contacts Day 3

Thank goodness I remembered my video camera. All the words get boring to look at without media to spice them up. Rumi is doing well. Teeter is about half height and he is having fun banging it. Dogwalk and A-Frame are coming along well. But I hate the stutter steps at the end. Am I going to regret not sticking with the running contact Lisa had me start training this summer? I'm beginning to think maybe...especially on the A-Frame. But it's only day 3 so hopefully once he KNOWS his job it will smooth out. Love his jumping and following my body language on the jumping. He's going to make me be a more honest handler. Where I tell him to go, he will go.

I also like his weave poles. They were slightly bent to help him with his off side weaves. But he looks the same with them bent or straight on the "obedience side".

All in all...a very good boy for such spotty training! I'll tell you my scent article story tomorrow :)

Contacts Day 2

Still no pictures and training room in my house is still a place to sort closet shit so Thai had one more day off. Tomorrow, I promise :) Rumi has trouble with his rear crosses when doing right hand turns (he's on my right), but left hand turns are great :) Hmm...I don't do obedience or anything do I? :) Weave-amatics were open and we practices left side entries several times. Much better. He also regained his confidence on that pesky moving teeter (loves the bang though). And much faster on the dog walk. His A-frame was also better, although not ready to take away the target yet. We sequenced a few jumps, a tunnel and the A-frame and dog walk and he did fine (but there were no big turns). However, he reminds me that his solid foundation was good. With all the jumping he only dropped one bar and second time through fixed his stride to keep it up (it was a bit of a slice and he was extended and just nicked it...he collected the next time). His stays are also nice...but I do insist that stay means don't move a foot. Need to remind myself...stay anal about this!! Or I will be sad :)

Contacts Day 1

With the help of my wonderful friend Annie we are now on day one of contact training. We are doing 2 on 2 off. Rumi has a nice strong target touch so did well the first day. I really like watching Rumi problem solve. If something isn't right the first time he will try other behaviors until he ends up with the one I want. I love that thinking dog. Of course sometimes it can drive me a little nuts when he out thinks me.

Maybe I can try to get some pictures tomorrow to liven things up. I also promise to start scent articles tomorrow.

On another note, I went back and looked at Rally scores from Saturday. Rumi was the only dog to get a perfect score in any of the classes. Pretty cool!