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.