L. M. Seminar

I had a wonderful weekend at the Loretta Mueller seminar.  The weather was great, even though we were indoors. LOL  You know what is cool. That she could set once course all weekend and work on may different skills. We ran master and novice dogs on the same set up just running the sequence differntly.  Even for the  private lessons . It was the same set up.  Saves your body on dragging equipement around. 
I did the master seminar on Saturday with Miley. Miley was awesome. She didnt stress and run around the building once. We worked on using body motion to cue  where you are going but then also using verbal if your body motion doesnt support what you are doing. Like you send and go the opposite direction.  I need to learn to send and go. Trust my dog. Run it like I mean it. I tend not to do that. Miley needs me to act like I know what Im doing. Be sure of myself even when things start to fall apart.  And keep going.   It was a great day. I didnt stress that my dog was going to run around every time I made a mistake. ( I think Miley was just happy Java wasnt there taking "her" turns. LOL)

Sunday was Java's turn. We did the 'Drive and Motivation" seminar the first have of the day. Then the novice/open handling the 2nd half of the day.   Java did great. She kept her drive all day. Loretta helped me fix Java's start line. I really didnt know how to make Java stay.  I tried to go back and reward with treats but she would only tolerate that once and then say "screw it , Im going".  LOL  The treats were no incentive for her. I really didnt know what to do. Loretta told me if she breaks, just set her back up. Just keep setting her back up, until she stays. She wants to run. Well if she want to run, she will have to stay. And it worked. She broke three times in a row, and after that she stayed. LOL (I hope it was ok to post that)  There is some more to it that I will have to work on but  thats the beginning of  getting her to stay at the startline. 

Then Monday I had a private lesson. I wish I had done two private lessons. I really learned a lot.  I do think it helped that she had seen us run the last two days and could see all the problems.  So I think it is good to do both seminars and lessons.
The bad part was I woke up Monday morning at 2:30am in lots of pain. I really tried to stay on top of this because I know doing agility all day and driving will  usually cause me to have more pain. I was freaking miserable.  I really thought I was going to have to cancel my lesson.  But then around 5am, I was feeling better. And Im so glad I was able to go. I got such great insight on my problems and fixing them. I have a list of things to work on:
Lateral and forward sends
Tight turns out of a straight tunnel.
call to  heals
tight turns with speed
Start lines in front of a tunnel for Java
Keep working through the whole course and not stopping no matter what happens.
Trust Miley, send her and go.
Make Java take the jumps when she runs by. Java is responsible for taking the jumps. 
Dont say tunnel when dog is over the bar.

Man, to bad Loretta cant come here every month. If you have a chance to work with her I say, "just do it!"