Making Progress

We went to our obedience lesson last night and did pretty good. We are focusing on the Novice routine for Chauncey to get her ready for PCA. Maggie was out of town last week, so her husband, Darren, did a Novice pattern with me. Well, Chauncey was totally off her heeling when he worked with us, so this week Maggie had Darren come back out and be the judge. Chauncey tried to pull some of the same stuff, lagging, not wanting to heel through a corner, so she got corrected with the pinch collar 2 times. She behaved herself on the rest of the heeling pattern. Chauncey did her recalls well, but her finishes need some work. Maggie wants us to alternate the "swing" and the "around" finish to keep Chauncey from anticipating what I will tell her. Her "around" finish is also not at the level she needs to be, so some new homework to work on. We also did some "go outs" and high jump work. Chauncey did very well on her high jump, staying straight and coming back over the jump. The "go outs" were good, but about halfway through them, Maggie's cat appeared and sat down in a direct line with the plate, but about 30 yds past it. When I gave Chauncey the "look" command she lined up on the cat, co Maggie got in her line of view and I sent her to the plate. Chauncey did very well and did not chase the cat. at the end of our lesson we played our retrieve game and chauncey is now looking forward to this game and loves to play it. She is grabbing the toys and bringing them back to me. I am very happy with her retrieving work. We will be busy with our homework and polishing our heeling for PCA.

Jasmine came out of the truck wound up and ready to go. I did our heeling pattern very slowly and with extra left turns to get her focused. After a couple patterns she settled down and got to work. Jasmine is a very high drive dog and she is much more pushy in her heeling than Chauncey. I have never had to deal with lagging with Jasmine, just getting her under control. We worked on the high jump with her and she nailed it every time. Jasmine loves the jumps, especially the swish pole and broad jump. We also played the retrieve game with Jasmine. Jasmine plays, but not as enthusiastically as Chauncey does. Chauncey seems to have a higher retrieve drive than Jasmine right now. Jasmine has made a lot of progress in the last 16 weeks.

Blueberry had her first lesson last night. She has been going each week and Maggie holds her while I train Jasmine. Now, Blueberry is comfortable and Maggie said that she can start her training now. Blueberry has to follow Maggie around while she sets up jumps and the plate, so Blueberry gets treats when she sits and behaves for Maggie. Last night we started her on the plate. I had her sit beside me and Maggie put some cheese on the plate, then I tell her to "look' and the "Get it". I follow her and have a treat in my hand so when I give her the come she follows me back to where we started. She is such a cutie, but can have a mind of her own. Her training will be interesting and fun.