The Rash

Some how Ive gotten into something that has caused a terrible rash on my body. I started itching Friday night but didn't think much about it. Saturday morning I woke up and my legs were itching. I finally looked at it. I had what looked like a bunch of bug bites all over my right thigh and a few on my left leg. It looked like I got bitten by fire ants. But I would have remembered that. Weird. It has spread and now on my ankles and both hips and a few on my stomach. Only one on one arm. I don't know where I got this from. Yesterday I wash my bed stuff, although my husband doesn't have a rash. Today I washed the dogs and some more blankets and towels. These are nasty red bumps that then become pustules and break open. The itching isn't crazy but slightly annoying. Today I went to the doctor to make sure it wasn't anything, which I didn't think it was. Of course I could have saved myself the trip because she thought it was just a contact rash. I just have to wait it out.

I did manage to work Miley a little tonight before the rain started. She did well on the weaves except twice she didn't get in. I do think if I'm behind her she gets in and if I'm ahead ( on certain types of sequences) she wont. When I watch the video from the other day , I noticed she is really looking at my feet or lower legs. I had the video camera down at the dogs height. It gave me a good view point. I always think she watching my upper body but I guess because she is little,its easier to see the legs and feet. I'm going to have to try and remember that when working her. Also when she is running fast, I have to make a more noticeable body movement if she has some distance from me , or she doesn't see what I'm doing. I wanted to go to the field today but I didn't make it. Hopefully I will get there this week.

I hit a button to fast and this got posted before I could check the spelling. I did get back in and fix it. I hope it didnt get to many people with all the spelling errors. Also, Guiness's foot is healed. At least it looks healed.

The walk

">

Yesterday and today I took the dogs to the park for a long walk. Trying to wear them out. I only succeed in wearing myself out. Its still really hot outside but getting better. I think this week we finally will get down into the 80's. It hasn't rained in a while so the water is down. I was able to walk out onto the big rocks that are in the water. Usually its surrounded by water and you cant walk out there.

">

">

This was Guiness after I soaked him down with water. Well he always has to roll when ever he is wet. This is the after picture.

">

The beaver must have given up on this tree. Either to hot or not enough water to want to damn it up. I just can't imagine doing that with just your teeth. A lot of times we cant even do it with an ax or chain saw.

The weave pole article that Kathy was referring to was in Sept. 09 of Clean Run. Its under Trainer's Forum page 19.

To College

Well this morning we leave to take my son to college. I hope he likes it. I'm trying not to worry but I'm not being very successful. I worry because he isn't the type of kid to tell you when things aren't going well. He never told me lots of stuff that happened at school and how mean some of the kids were to him. I was so worried about him for a time. That's why I became a school nurse. It allowed me to be home by the time he got home from school. I didn't want him to be home by himself. He just seemed so unhappy. That was several years ago and he seems much better now. But college can be rough. The good thing is, he can come home every weekend if he wants to and the college is small (only 2500 students).

Weave poles

We have been having weave pole problems. It only seems to be when the jump is at an angle to the side and in front of the poles. Yesterday she missed the entry repeatedly. I finally had to open the first two poles to get her to be successful. Today I started with the poles open and then closed them after two successful weaves.

I think I have a tendency to run the same way each time. I noticed from watching these videos that I need to vary what I'm doing more. She defiantly did much better today then yesterday. I set the video camera up because I thought maybe I was blocking her view of the weaves and that is why she couldn't get in, but not so.

Maybe she just needed that little chihuahua there to get her into the weaves right. Lol

More Practice

Sorry I haven't blogged much. Its been so flipping hot out. Every time I walk the dogs, I sweat through all my clothes. Its been miserable. But things are looking up. The last two mornings its felt cool. Its still hot in the afternoon and evening but the morning has been nice. Not much else going on. Guiness's foot is starting to look better and he isn't licking it anymore. The sore is still there but not as red. He has only had 5 days of his antibiotics so hopefully it will gone by day 10.

I set this course up the other day. The first run she went off course into the tunnel after the a-frame. I thought I could get a front cross in there after the tunnel but I cut her off. Its kinda scary with your dog running straight at you. It doesn't look as bad on the video as it did in real life. The second time I ran it, she didn't go off course ,so I rear crossed that same section and that worked better ( at least I think it did). Then we had weave problems. It was kinda weird. If I was ahead of her, she didn't get in at the first pole. If I stayed back and sent her, she got in. Have I been practicing this way? I didn't think so. I didn't put all the video on here but repeatedly, if I hung back she got in. I'm going to have to work on that. Weird. She did have very nice teeters!!!

Practice

I set this course up yesterday at the field. I hope this judge doesn't mind me posting her course map. She has a blog called "Dog training, Dogs & Life". http://premierk9club.blogspot.com/ She post her courses and will talk about where dogs had problems.


Anyway, the first time we ran it ,I stopped after the weaves because she got in and weaved all the way down. I really wanted to reward that. Then we finished the course. Here is where the problem began. She took jump 16 but then would go off course to jump 4. I had to repeat this area several times, adding pulling laterally ( a lot) , calling her and pulling my shoulder to get her to run the correct line. I couldn't figure out why it took so much to get her to do that.

Some other things that happen on the course when I ran the whole thing. I started with her on my right and she went into the correct tunnel entrance but when I was driving home I started thinking that maybe I should have had her on my left. That way she didn't have 2 tunnel opening sto chose from. It worked the way I did it but maybe I was just lucky. The other problem was the second tunnel. She didn't have a problem getting the correct tunnel entrance the first time but after that it was 50-50 chance. I was rear crossing after 6. I tried front crossing after 5 which made her get the correct tunnel entrance ,the problem was me getting there. I was always late and was in her space. You don't want to cut your dog off because then you dog will start to slow down anticipating you cutting them off. Anyone see a better option for me getting her in the correct tunnel entrance?

Long week

Thank god its Friday. WhooHoo!! This has been the longest week. I haven't felt to good the last couple of days. I didn't do anything after getting off work yesterday. I just laid on the couch. I do remember Miley barking in my face while I was sleeping there. When I woke up, there were all these toys by me. (Balls, tug bait bags, that moo cow toy and stuffed animals). Poor Miley. She was probably thinking, "Maybe this toy will get her up, I know she likes this one" Lol. But today I feel better. Work has been stressful. I cant go into why but hopefully things will get better.
Guiness's foot is still having problems. It seemed better but then I noticed the last few days he started licking it. I kept looking at it and couldn't find anything until last night. He has been licking the front foot, top inner toe. I found a sore on the back side above the pad. I'm not sure if they are related. So I made an appt. to take him back to the vet. The vet thought his toe joint had fluid in it. He wasn't sure if the sore was related to the joint but it could be. He decided to put him on 10 days of antibiotics and more pain medication. Poor Guinn, but he isn't limping. Hopefully it goes away.

Miley was so happy that she got to run some agility tonight. I need to get on the ball if I want to make my goals and do well at the trails that I have entered in September. My daughter wanted to take some pictures durning our practice.

Doesnt this look painful? Its 24 inch weave pole spacing.
">


Awww, thats better.

">

This one is just cute.
">

And this one is just funny.
">

Enthusiasm

When taking Miley into the back yard she always thinks we are going to do some agility. She is ready to go and usually jumps onto the dogwalk into the 2o/2o position waiting for me to send her somewhere. She will start to lower herself closer to the board , waiting of that one word, "OK". Lots of times we aren't playing agility and I feel bad for making her get off the equipment. ( I do have two big orange cones that block the ramp 1/2 way up so she cant run it herself) Yesterday was a lucky day for Miley because when we went to the backyard it was to work agility. She has such enthusiasm for the game. She puts her whole heart into it. I started thinking if I went to work with that type of attitude I would probably be a much better employee. I thought about that today when going to work. It didn't last long before my enthusiasm was lost. Maybe if I could just see the fun in work but .......

Anyway, back to yesterday. We worked on jump extension grids. She had run the grid 3 times successfully. I start to vary my position. I was standing at the second jump and released her. She dropped the first bar. No treat. All the other times she got a treat. I set her back up and when she took the first jump and kept the bar up, lots of treats. It was just a feeling but I thought she understood about dropping the bar. The next few grids she didn't drop any bars and it felt like she was really trying to keep the bars up. I guess will see in the future what happens. We also worked on weave poles. Not one missed entry or pop out. WhooHoo! To bad I forgot to turn the camera on.

">

">

Its just black and white

">

">

">

">

I thought these pictures were neat looking.

I took Miley to her eye and heart clinic. Everything was normal. I'm not sure I'm going to send in the results. She spayed so its not like she is going to pass anything down. I'm not sure if the breeder needs the information posted. I guess I'll have to ask her.

Hopefully the yard will dry up so we can do some weave poles.

The walk

This morning I wanted to get out early, by 7am , and walk the dogs. Stephanie wanted to go shopping this morning so I needed to be finished with dog stuff. I really wanted to go to the park that has lots of hills. Its better exercise for me and the dogs. Walking the front of the park is not possible because all the extreme bikers that are on the path. Even if the dogs didn't want to get them all, its dangerous because of how fast they ride. The back of the park doesn't open until 8:30 so I figured I would go to the other park. Its flat but it should be a nice quiet walk. ( famous last words). I get to the park and guess what? There are tons of people there getting ready to do a 5K run. Oh boy. Guiness doesn't care about runners but Miley loves to try and chase people. I decided I would walk anyway. The guy finishing the end line said that most of the run was off the main path. Ok. So we start our walk. First thing we encounter , yes a copperhead.
">

It was facing the sidewalk and Guiness had just stepped right over it. At least this time I didn't do my usual scream and stop. This behavior always makes the dog either stop or come back toward me. So Guiness was able to easily go over it and not get bitten. Then the rest of the walk I saw tons of root snakes. Needless to say I wasn't relaxed. Everything worked out ok until the end of the walk. The runners were coming out of the woods ( wonder how they avoid the snakes) and coming on to the path. So , change of plans, we walked the road back to the car. Miley was so excited, she thought she died and went to heaven. Lots of people and cars to try and chase. She actually did really well. With every car she sat and waited for it to pass.

Here are some more pictures from our walk.
">

">
">
">
">

We did manage to get in some agility today. Contacts were great. I tired some lateral sends which we still had trouble with. I tried making the jump angle easier but we still had only a 40% success rate. So the last time when she got it, I jack potted and stopped. She also ticked a lot of bars. We did a little more agility this evening and she did really well.

Ive started to sign up for my fall trials. I have 2 in September and I'm getting ready to sign up for 2 in October.

Its been a busy week

Did you know that harnesses cause paralysis in chihuahuas? Yep. I went to walk Mickey today and decided to use a harness because of his cough. ( His cough is much better) I didn't want his collar pulling on his neck. I put the harnesses on and he couldn't move. He wouldnt take one step. I had to switch back to his collar. See, harnesses cause paralysis. Lol!!! Silly chihuahua.

Guiness foot seems better too. I hope its not just the medication that is making it better.

I went back to work on Tuesday. I had to work 11am to 7pm. They were doing registration and wanted the parents to be able to talk to the nurse. Not to many people came to talk to me. It made for a long 2 days. On Tuesday, I was running around trying to get things done around the house before my family came for a visit and I had to be at work. So I walked Miley, was cleaning bathrooms and making lasagna. Do you know what Guiness did?? He peed on my bed. Shocking , I know. He has never peed in the house, that I can think of, since I got him at 1 1/2 years old. And then to do that. What was up with that. My husband thinks he was mad because he wasn't getting to go for walks. ( he wasn't going on walks because he was limping). At least I have a water proof pad on my bed.

Miley has felt neglected too. Between going back to work , my family coming and then it rained for 2 days, there hasn't been any Miley time. Poor Miley. It did finally stop raining this afternoon and I did get to walk her before going to our dog club meeting. So maybe things are looking up for her future. I hope to get back to training Friday or Saturday. On Sunday I have her signed up for a heart and eye clinic. I just thought I would get her checked.

Ive been really stressed out this week. I'm not sure why. I guess its just life. I'm worried about my son going to college. What if he cant do it? He is smart enough to do the work but what if he doesn't wake up to go to class? What if he doesn't talk to anyone? I know I cant control these things and he will either sink or swim. But its just such a worry. Kids weren't to nice to him in high school. They did lots of mean things to him and those are only the things I found out about, usually because a friend's kid told me about it. Or I just happened to ask the right question which made him talk about it. Lets face it , we just don't accept people that are different. Even us adults. I had a co-worker call my house once. My son answered the phone and then told me it was for me. When I said hello, the person said, "What's wrong with your son?" Who would say that? This is another adult with her own kids that are high school age.


Then I'm worried about not getting everything done at work in time for school to start. Plus Im the agility trail chair ( that means you coordinate the trial) for my club. What if I screw that up?? And most of all I want to do well in agility with Miley. And apparently I'm loosing it . Ive been to many seminars and have never had a problem. Well the last two, weird stuff happened to me. At the Elicia Calhoun seminar, the first time I stepped up to the line, all of a sudden my heart started beating really fast in my chest. I'm thinking, what the heck? I didn't think I was nervous. But why else would that happen. Then at the Karen Holik seminar, I noticed my hands where shaking when I was trying to get a treat out of the treat bag after a run. I could feel that was nerves. Weird huh? I told you I'm loosing it. Lol

Seminar

I left for the seminar on Saturday late afternoon. I got to town about 8pm. I booked a room at the hotel that was recommended by the seminar. I'm sorry, it was a dump. It was the worst hotel that I have ever been to. Maybe I'm a snob but I just couldn't stay there. I called my husband and told him. I just didn't feel safe there. If I couldn't find a hotel, then I would just drive 4 hours back home. I saw a Days Inn down the street, but they didn't accept pets. My husband called and said that the Hampton Inn accepted pets. I remembered passing the Hampton Inn. So I went there. I went from a no star hotel to a 5 star hotel ( In my opinion). Probably more than I wanted to spend on a room but I was tried and just wanted to get somewhere. I know why people have RV's. You probably get tired of crappy hotels and then you worry about your dog barking and getting kicked out of the hotel. So after all that I had a hard time falling asleep. The last time I saw the clock it was 2:30am. I finally took a benadryl.


The next morning we got loaded into the car and went for gas and breakfast. After getting gas the tire light came on. Great. If I have a flat, that's going to be a problem. And new tires too. The new Toyota vans have the fake little spare tires on them. My old van had a real spare tire. You got a flat, changed it and could go forever. These little fake spares you can only drive 50 mph and not very far. Ugh! I stopped and check all the tires. They were all low. Hmmm that's weird. So at lunch I went and filled them all. They have been fine since. So that's good. I was beginning to wonder if I was meant to go the this seminar.


The seminar was indoors in air conditioning but it was still warm. I bought a candy bar out of the machine and it was all melted and I had to throw it away. The building was nice and big. The only thing I didn't like was they made you crate your dog in the next building. I'm not sure why. Most of the time people just kept their dog next to their chair but I needed to put Miley up when walking the course. I think she thought that was punishment .


There were lots of different dogs and they were all really cool. There was a JRT that was a neat little dog and very cute. He didn't act like the usual terrier and ran the course great. There was a Staffy that was so happy. She had him do this trick that was so cute. She would sing the "old McDonald had a farm" song and on the farm they had a sheltie, and the dog would bark (because shelties like to bark). She would say they had a border collie, and the dog would lie down with his head down. Then she would say dalmation and he would stop, drop and roll. Then she said golden retriever and the dog did nothing. She said, "no , golden retrievers don't do nothing" and then he ran and got something off the ground and brought it back to her. So she said, "yes they retrieve". It was all very cute. The other dogs were a border collie, tiny poodle , standard poodle, lab, wire hair fox terrier , and another dog ( I don't know what it was) and a few shelties.



The first half of the day was obstacle discrimination.

This was part of the course she set up. When I ran it, Miley ran into the tunnel both times instead of taking the dogwalk the second time. I finally got her to take the dogwalk and she had an outstanding 2o/2o. WhooHoo. Karen was very impressed. She said, "no wonder you didn't come to the contacts class yesterday". Then she told everyone about the last time she saw Miley , she was jumping off the down ramp from about 5 feet up. WhooHoo Miley! Miley got the dogwak discrimination the next time. Don't wait for you dog, start running down the dogwalk and that will cue you dog to take the dogwalk and not the tunnel. If you wait then the dog has to make a decision, dogwalk or tunnel. Also pointing slows you down. You run much faster when you don't point.

The next course we didn't do to well. Miley isn't watching me at all and taking what ever she thinks she is suppose to take. She was so locked on the the weave poles, I couldn't get her to look at me at the start. She was suppose to go to the tunnel but just couldnt take her eye off the weave poles. Then she was so sure of the correct tunnel entrance , she ran into my leg and bounced off the end of the tunnel. Silly dog. ( she was ok). I need to work on Front crosses on the flat.

The next course was a-frame /tunnel discrimination. The tunnel was under the a-frame. Miley jumped the contact. Booo, Hissss!!You weren't allowed to block the obstacle to get your dog to go into or onto the right one. Using you shoulder turn and arm directed your dog into the tunnel or running straight brought your dog onto the a-frame. It worked great.

Miley was a little over the top the first half of the day. Not taking obstacles on her own but when she jumped the contact and I said "no". Then she started the circling behavior. Karen said that her circling had gotten much better. But it was kinda bad at the seminar. She was usually much better than that. I think she just hadn't had time to burn off all her energy. Everyone kept saying, "your dog is never tired". So at lunch I ran her around the course a lot. Just sending her way out to tunnels and low jumps trying to burn off energy. She did better in the afternoon and didn't jump anymore contacts.

The afternoon session was on handling.

Here again is part of the course she set up. I couldn't get the lateral send to jump #4. She just kept cutting that jump to take jump #5. I need to practice that. If I stayed by the dummy jump and then pushed into her as she took #3 then she got it. Something for me to practice ( lateral sends) . There was more to this course then I posted. There were two serpentines that were no problem for Miley.

The last course of the day I didn't put Miley over the a-frame anymore and I jumped her at 8 inches. She had lots of energy ( I didn't ,but she did) but I was worried about her leg. I didn't see anything but I didn't want to push it. The last course we did multiple front crosses. Miley did really well. Karen said, she thinks she can still beat me because her dog has running contacts. Lol She was just being nice. Miley and I have lots of things to work on.

The new carpet

The new carpet is in !!! It looks great. Now to put all the stuff back. My nice daughter emptied the china cabinet and curio cabinet, but put it all upstairs. So now we have to bring it all down. Hopefully we will get it done by tonight.

I got home from the seminar last night. I'm exhausted. It was a lot of running and I'm sure Miley had a hard work out. Lots of dogwalks, a-frames and weaves. At the end I didn't have her do the a-frame anymore and had her jump a lower jump height. I will blog more about the seminar later.

I got home last night and Guiness was still limping on his right front paw. It looked swollen to me. Also Mickey is coughing. He coughed so much last night we couldn't sleep. He ate this morning, no problem and doesn't appear sick. I took him and Guiness to the vet this morning. They thought Mickey just has some irritate to his throat and gave me some cough medication. So far it hasn't made a difference. Guiness they gave me an anti-inflammatory for his foot. If both dogs don't get better bring them back. Then they will get a chest x-ray on Mickey and a foot x-ray on Guiness. O,yea one of the ferrets has a spot on its chest. All the hair is gone. It looks like a mass cell tumor to me ( not that I'm a vet). So I have to find a vet that sees ferrets.

The weekend

I'm leaving today to go to a Karen Holik seminar. Its just a one day seminar on Sunday. She will be covering handling and obstacale discrimaination. Should be fun.
I finally finished my dogwalk. Just in time for me to go back to work. I really wanted to rubberize the dogwalk, but I didn't. I wish that trials here had rubberized contacts. The last trial I was at, multiple dogs fell off the dogwalk. It was a wrap out of the tunnel on to the dogwalk. Most dogs fell off on the flat cross piece. So they fell off and hit the tunnel. It was scary and really worries me now that we are in open. They love that set up in the AKC. Also if you watched the EO in Holland this year, they had rubberized contacts. I'm sure that one dog would have fallen off the dogwalk in the finals it they weren't rubberized. Also alot of people wrapped a jump to the right and had a weird angle onto the a-frame. I was wondering how all those dogs were getting up and across the a-frame without much difficulty. If they wrapped the jump to the right they didn't have any momentum and the angle was horrible. But they all did it easily. I hope they make rubber contacts mandatory soon.

Miley is much better and Stephanie is improving. But now Guiness is limping on his front right paw. We started to go for a walk last night, and he was limping bad. I'm not sure what happened. So we didn't walk and got back in the car and drove home. He still has a slight limp this morning but much better than yesterday.

I also started a face book. Its a delemmia because I really just like posting on my blog. But it allows you to talk to some people that you normally wouldn't get in touch with. Plus facebook seems confusing to me. Most of the time I have to ask Stephanie to help me. What will I do when she goes to college in a couple of years.

The most exciting news is I'm finally getting new carpet in my living room/ dinning room area. When we moved into this house 8 years ago it came with white carpet. Not something a person likes when they have kids and pets. Needless to say it has lots of stains on it that I cant get up. I have cleaned it multiple times. Its been so embarrassing to have that yucky carpet in there. Its the first thing you see when you come to my house. I usually will walk around and come out the garage if someone rings the doorbell. That way they cant see the carpet. I was so embarrassed when my mom and dad came. Then my sister and then my husband's friend. SO now my sister -in-law is coming and I decided I couldn't stand it any longer. Monday the new carpet comes. And its not white. Its a dark color. Yea!!

Benadryl all around

Stephanie woke up yesterday with her face all swollen and red. She had started a new acne product, "Clean and Clear". So yesterday I gave her benadryl every 6 hours and she seemed better last night. But this morning she looked terrible, worse than yesterday. I took her to the doctor and they gave her some prednisone. Now Miley is having the same , sorta , problem. When I got back from the doctor, I sat on the couch and she kept trying to put her face in the blanket. Unusual for her. Then a little while later I notice her muzzle was bumpy , pink and hair sticking on end. So I gave her 1/2 a benadryl. She isn't happy yet. Pacing and keeps shaking her head. If the benadryl doesnt help by 3:30, I'm going to take her to the vet. So see, benadryl all around. Lol

The lake

">

">

">
Guiness dries off in the red clay. But not Miley. She's not getting dirty. Life is rough when you have to dry off on rocks.


">

">

">

">

">

The vet, the doctor and other stuff

Yesterday I took Miley to the rehab vet. I know she probably wasn't going to find anything. Ive haven't seen any limping since last week but I just wanted to get her checked. She didn't see or feel anything. I will work on walking up and down hills slowly and some more ball work. I'm also almost out of SynoviG and Ive seen it in their office which she shares with ortho vets. So I asked her if she thought that was the best glucosamine and chondroitin product to use. She said she uses Dasuquin. Someone who was getting their Phd did a study on glucosamine and chondroitin products. ( I don't know if she knew this person, but she made it sound like she did). In the study she went to the different plants that make the products and she also tested the different products. The only one she could recommend and actually had it what it said it did was Nutramax products. ( my vet doesn't sell this product). She also recommended I put Miley on Derm caps. Its for skin , omega 3 and omega 6, but they are finding out it helps ligaments heal and helps dogs with arthritis. ( Miley doesn't have arthritis but she felt this would be beneficial anyway). So I ordered both products off of 1-800Petmeds.com .


I haven't been working Miley much. I took her out just for about 2 minutes yesterday and today. I'm feeling lazy. I have no motivation. I'm not sure why. I guess I'm worried about Mileys leg/foot. So we are taking it easy. She did run to the table once so fast she slid off. So maybe its a good break.

I had to go to that once a year dreaded appt. The gyn. doctor. It was a long wait so I had time to read some more of "That Winning Feeling" by Jane Savoie. In the book it talks about worry. That's me, I'm the queen of worry. It states, " Worry is a misuse of imagination. Worry is a nonproductive emotion. Worry would make sense if it were capable of changing the situation. All worry can do is depress you and clog your creativity. Worry creates failure". Insightful huh?

I got a call from my son who is 18.. He had taken the car to go to the bookstore. He was pulled over by a cop and couldn't get the glove compartment open to get out the insurance card and registration. Do you know why he was pulled over? He was doing 40 in a 45 and was in the left lane. The cop just gave him a warning. I was kinda happy. At least he wasn't speeding.

Seminar

I'm finally back in South Carolina. Driving the last two days was not fun. The ride down from Pa. to Va. was suppose to be 4 hours. Its took 6. Rain and 2 hours of Baltimore/Washington traffic is enough to make you crazy. Yesterday I left Northern Virginia and as soon as we got on the highway, traffic. It took 2 hours to go 20 miles. I guess everyone is going on vacation. So my 8 hour drive home took 10 hours. Ugh!! I logged over 1600 driving miles this past week.

The Elicia Calhoun Seminar was great! I really wish it was multiple days. I just got an email and Elicia is giving private lessons there. I wish I had know, I would have signed up. Shoot.

The group I was with was novice/open. My only complaint was that several of the dogs had focus issues. They would take a jump or two and they run away, then come back on course and run away again. I know that can happen to anyone but it kinda took time away from the seminar, which was about handling. So she worked with those people on getting their dogs to focus on them. I feel I'm in a in between spot right now. I'm not really a novice but I'm not masters either. They need an in between group for people at my level.

The seminar started off with us walking a short course and then she watched us run it. One little dog was really slow and seemed worried. After that dog ran she had the owner take the dog off to the side, far off. She was to click and treat every time the dog looked at the dog that was running the course. Then she moved her closer to the course. Again clicking and treating as the dog looked at the dog running the course. Moved closer one more time and repeat. Then she had her put the dog away. The next time the dog came out, she ran so much faster. I was amazed.

My turn with Miley was weird. We just didn't seem together. I sent her off course, twice, but we finished. Miley was speedy and didn't get the zoomies. She was so ready to run. Butt in the air at the start line. I know that's not good. It puts all their weight on their front but it got better the more we ran. She also kept creeping forward. Elicia really like Miley and asked where I got her from and about the kennel. So I guess that was a good sign.

After everyone ran the first time then we put the dogs away. She says you should walk the course 4 times. The first two times as the dog and the second two times for the handler. The second time you walk the dogs course, you should be looking at where the handler should be to help the dog. Like where turns are and mark in you mind where the best position the
handler should be to help the dog. She then put different people in the key spots ( see above). I was the dog and each person was to handle their area and then pass off the the next handler. Well that was an eye opener for me. No wonder my dog goes off course. Just the the placement of the shoulder or one step toward the dog and wham you dog is off course. I'm going to be a better handler for my dog. I wish she could run in slow motion so I had more time to get in the right place and practice. LoL. My shoulders are facing the wrong direction many times. Poor dog. I'm surprised she hasn't come around and bit me in the ass.

When I ran the course above I did a lead out come to heel. And that worked but she had me run it with a front cross in front of #2, her line was so much tighter. I need to work on getting my dogs eye. I see her but I'm not connecting with her and getting in her head. It really made a difference.

Here was the next course we ran. ( these courses are probably not exactly right distances and stuff) I had lots of trouble. She wanted me to front cross between #3 and #4. I was to go kinda backwards lateral and then cross. It was difficult. I kept crossing late and making Miley drop the bar. She said Miley was dropping bars because I'm turning when she is over the bar. I need to cross before she takes off. Then I was to slide laterally from #4 to #5 and front cross. I was late and she dropped the bar again. I did finally get it sorta right and Miley was awesome. Her lines were so much tigher when I ran her this way. I wish I could have practiced it more to really get the feel of it. I wanted to ask her if I could video tape her so I had a visual but I didn't.

We also worked on the 2 toy game and obstacle and handler focus. If you have a chance to work with her I really recommend it.