We set up three rally courses today ranging from Novice to Excellent, and in between doing the actual courses, we shared training tips with each other, trying various ways to make an exercise easy for the dog to handle. I was especially happy with Swayze who has not seen the rally ring since his horrible accident in April. He wasn't as rusty as I thought he'd be. Drummer managed to hold things together in the Advanced ring with food up his nose most of the way, but what a nice performance. He knows how to back up!!! With some intense practice, he may just be up for his Advanced title competition soon. He has had no work since he developed a sudden onset of 'boy brain' in Osoyoos a couple of weeks ago.
Mojo did the course with loads of pep and was happy to try all the levels. Maggie was best worked on lead as she has been away all summer from practice.
In between rally courses being set up and changed, Liz and Deb visited with puppies. One of the flatcoat pups tore over to Drummer, the sheltie, and then, when Drummer turned to face it, it began to shriek as though it had been stepped on and it continued to do so until Liz distracted it with a cookie. What a little nut. Cava came out of her crate and immediately locked onto the shepherds. She knew Swayze from last winter when she stayed with us as a young puppy. She recognized him right away. Cava impressed everyone with her ability to sit for ages holding a dumbbell. She was so comfortable with it. Of course. Liz did remind us that she was a retriever and should be happy to hold a dumbbell.
We did restrained recalls with Drummer back and forth over the scent hurdle jumps and he ran clean and quickly. We added one dumbbell to the floor at the end of the jumps and he had no problem racing down the jumps and grabbing his bell and racing back. He sometimes dropped the bell when he came over the last jump so we worked at giving him more distance and things improved.
Mesa was good until we added another dog to run and then she got so worked up that she turned into Miss Snatchandgrabfromthebox. But she had a great time and since she is not going to do scent professionally, she can do pretty much as she pleases.
Lupine was much like Mesa; adding the jumps made her want to grab and run. We came up with a couple of strategies to help her find her own and we'll see how things go next Saturday.
We blew the whistle many times during the practice and Token, waiting on the sidelines, was much better about staying calm. When it was her turn, she zoomed down the jumps and was faster on the box today. We intend to practice our hearts out from now until January.
Came home to a message from a 'movie dog-wrangler' asking if she could put my dogs on her list in case they ever needed a German shepherd. I said, "Sure thing." I am sure Token could learn anything they needed her to do. She is pretty versatile.
Got news that Amanda's terrier, Boone, has gone missing. We are all hoping he comes home soon.
All in all, it was a good day for everyone. Nobody was rushed and we all got to play with puppies.
Hope to see everyone next Saturday around 10:00 a.m.
