Seminar and stuff

I didnt get to post everything I wanted on Tuesday because my laptop keyboard was broken for a few day. On Tuesday it was Java's birthday. We've been having lots of rain so we finally got out that evening and took a few pictures after walking at the river. I didnt get to load them because that's when the keyboard didnt work. So here are some of them.

Java at 1 years old.

I went to a semiar on Wednesday and Thursday. It was an Ann Braue seminar at a friend of mine's house. Its been pouring down rain  a lot and I was worried we would get rained out. I was actually ok.  Wednesday it was pretty hot but there was shade, water misters and baby pools set up. So not to bad. There was a garage with A/C to crate dogs, which was nice too.  

It was a  handling seminar but Miley was having startline problems so I told her I would rather take my turn working on that. And I was ok if it took my whole turn to work on it too. Ann was very accommodating, which was nice.  We worked a lot on startlines and me not being very clear to my dog what is allowed on the start line. So if she steps forward, from a sit, Im to go back and gently take her by the colar and take her off the start line. Then play some games with her.( Miley stresses so I need to build my relationship with her. We dont want her stressed that I took her off the start line)  Like sit-cookie, down-cookie etc... Then set her up at the startline and try again. If she starts to paddle her front feet, stop moving. Go back and reward frequently for sitting still.  It was awesome, I hope I can keep the criteria up. If she starts to seem stressed I may need to start over teaching it. Like only taking one step toward the jump and then going back to reward. We did manage to do some handling on course.  I did have a problem of miley swinging wide and missing jumps. I shouldnt have to use an off arm cue to bring her in, so thats a training issue I need to work on.

The peoples house I stayed out have this awesome creek that goes through their back yard.  I really wanted to spend a lot of time there taking pictures but I really only had my lunch time to do it. Its hard to get pictures when the sun comes in at some spots and not others.

Lots of rocks with waterfalls.  I couldnt get far enough away from my dogs to get any good shots. They just keep coming with me. LOL I tried throwing a ball but then Java dropped it and it rolled down the creek and we never got it back.

I wanted to get a picture of my dogs on the bridge with the rock water in the background but Java still wont stay. ( yea, Im still working on it).

I love this picture of Java!!

The next morning we woke up to Thunder storms and pouring down rain. So we spent the first hour in the garage talking about contacts and training them.  It had stopped raining but we were letting the field dry out.  Then we went out to the field. It was handling but with contacts.  It was really wet so I told Ann I wasnt doing any of the turning jumps because miley had that shoulder injury the first half of the year and I didnt want her slipping and getting hurt.. I just did the straight line stuff and the contacts. As soon as Miley got up speed, she would jump the contact or if I was ahead of her.  So we worked the contacts.  My next turn thats all we did. She gave me a training set up to work the a-frame contact at speed without having to run the whole a-frame.  She said every time I train, I need to be working contacts too. After lunch I did run the course because it was dry and mostly sunny. Miley did great.

I took Java with me too. I played with her in between Miley's turn. I got her playing and tugging near the field. I few times I had to pull her back some because she would start barking at the dog that was  running. I also got to work her contacts in a new place.