Recap of 2009
Since my blogging was non-existent for most of last year I thought I would catch everyone up on what I am up to with all the girls. Altogether the year ended pretty well and I was happy with how are training is coming along.
Chauncey-Finished her RAE title in September, so she is now "Curlytop's Wild Child CD RAE". We finished it in 10 out of 11 tries, not a bad record for her. Her retrieving is great, she loves it and we are now just working on a faster return before getting in the ring for our Open debut. She injured her neck the beginning of last year and has had a couple re-lapses throughout the year, with her last one being the beginning of December. This does make training difficult and slows us down as she is on bed rest for at least 4 weeks and then we have to slowly build her back up to regular training. I know out jumping has paid a price as I am leary to jump her much or very high. Starting next week we will re-introduce jumps, but very low and will be training using a new method for correct form and stronger muscles. Otherwise her Open work is going smoothly with just polishing the rough edges to get ready for the ring. Oh, we were also asked to compete with the Orlando Dog Training Club's team at the annual DOCOF (Dog Obedience Club's of Florida) competition. We had a lot of fun and the whole team was so supportive. Had some mess up's, but overall had a decent score. ODTC had 3 teams and our team (#3) was in 26th place out of almosy 40 teams.
Jasmine-Is getting so close to being ready for Novice that it is scary. She is holding her sits and downs very well. We are training for longer times now as I move around her and add distractions. She is doing a great stand for exam, not moving or trying to kiss people and all 4 feet stay planted as I move around her. For Jasmine this is a huge accomplishment because holding still is very hard for her to do. I have started her retrieve work and she got the idea in a couple sessions, so mush easier than teaching Chauncey. I have been teaching her a lot of new exercises we learned in the V1 class at ODTC. They really help to sharpen her heeling skills and focusing skills. They also helped me to polish up my work with the clicker.
Blueberry-Is still training, but I didn't give her as much attention as the others. So, at the end of the year there was a jumping skills class and I took her. So much fun, it is from the book by Linda Mecklenburg "Developing Jumping Skills for Awesome Agiltiy Dogs". It teaches them to jump with the correct form as well as took look for your hands as signals. Blueberry loved the jumping and floor work. It also gave her more work in a stressful environement. She did well, but when men came around would worry until I had them give her treats, then she relaxed.
That is basically what we did last year. We haven't tracked since May'09 and will be starting that back very soon. The last half of the year we have been training, but I took some much needed time to relax and just enjoy training with out added pressure of trialing and trying to meet goals. Those we are aiming for this year. One of my main ones will be to blog our training, the good and bad, more regularly.
Chauncey-Finished her RAE title in September, so she is now "Curlytop's Wild Child CD RAE". We finished it in 10 out of 11 tries, not a bad record for her. Her retrieving is great, she loves it and we are now just working on a faster return before getting in the ring for our Open debut. She injured her neck the beginning of last year and has had a couple re-lapses throughout the year, with her last one being the beginning of December. This does make training difficult and slows us down as she is on bed rest for at least 4 weeks and then we have to slowly build her back up to regular training. I know out jumping has paid a price as I am leary to jump her much or very high. Starting next week we will re-introduce jumps, but very low and will be training using a new method for correct form and stronger muscles. Otherwise her Open work is going smoothly with just polishing the rough edges to get ready for the ring. Oh, we were also asked to compete with the Orlando Dog Training Club's team at the annual DOCOF (Dog Obedience Club's of Florida) competition. We had a lot of fun and the whole team was so supportive. Had some mess up's, but overall had a decent score. ODTC had 3 teams and our team (#3) was in 26th place out of almosy 40 teams.
Jasmine-Is getting so close to being ready for Novice that it is scary. She is holding her sits and downs very well. We are training for longer times now as I move around her and add distractions. She is doing a great stand for exam, not moving or trying to kiss people and all 4 feet stay planted as I move around her. For Jasmine this is a huge accomplishment because holding still is very hard for her to do. I have started her retrieve work and she got the idea in a couple sessions, so mush easier than teaching Chauncey. I have been teaching her a lot of new exercises we learned in the V1 class at ODTC. They really help to sharpen her heeling skills and focusing skills. They also helped me to polish up my work with the clicker.
Blueberry-Is still training, but I didn't give her as much attention as the others. So, at the end of the year there was a jumping skills class and I took her. So much fun, it is from the book by Linda Mecklenburg "Developing Jumping Skills for Awesome Agiltiy Dogs". It teaches them to jump with the correct form as well as took look for your hands as signals. Blueberry loved the jumping and floor work. It also gave her more work in a stressful environement. She did well, but when men came around would worry until I had them give her treats, then she relaxed.
That is basically what we did last year. We haven't tracked since May'09 and will be starting that back very soon. The last half of the year we have been training, but I took some much needed time to relax and just enjoy training with out added pressure of trialing and trying to meet goals. Those we are aiming for this year. One of my main ones will be to blog our training, the good and bad, more regularly.
posted by Kim at 8:07 PM
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