Ooops!

So I think I might have mislead everyone with the relationship building that Ann Braue talked about.  Its not some magical thing that will fix all your problems.  So Im just going to talk about it. Also remember this is what I heard her say and I could have misunderstood what she said.  She talked about how we spend so much time building a relationship with our puppies but we tend to take the relationship for granted as they get older.  So she said every time you get your dog out of the crate, work tricks and give them a cookie.  Sit-cookie, nose touch-cookie, high five-cookie.  Those are all deposits into the relationship bank.  When on course and something goes amuck, that is a withdrawal from the relationship bank.  Right then- do a simple trick and give a cookie.  Make sure the trick really is easy so you can reward the dog.  If she has a young dog and he misses the weave pole entry. She does a quick trick -cookie, and then sends them back to do the weaves again.  Good trainers have way more deposits then withdrawals in the relationship bank.  She said  she has had good success with helping dogs that are visiting and doing things you dont want when on course.  Im sorry this probably wasnt what you were hoping for but there it is.
Someone asked me which of the three trainers  I liked the best.  I really couldnt tell you. They all taught different things and had tips to help different problems.  If I needed to work on speeding my dog up, I would probably go with Jenn Pinder.  If I wanted to work on  stress in the ring, I would probably go with Ann Braue.  If I wanted to work on just handling , I would go with Jennifer Crank.  But really all of them were awesome and very helpful.  They also worked your dog. Your problems may have been different then the dog that just ran. They didnt just work the sequence, they work your dogs problem. I really liked that. 

I posted this already on facebook , but I will put it here too.  On Sunday , someone showed me this product that I had never heard of. Im sure lots of show people know about it, but I didnt. Its called" Pro-line self rinsing shampoo".  You can order is on Amazon.  When you dog is dirty but you cant get to water to wash them , you use this product.  Just spray it on, rub their fur and then wipe the area with a towel. It was like magic. All the orange dirt that was on Miley was gone. Here is Miley before the Pro-line.

This picture was taken right after I sprayed her and wiped her down. Its great stuff, esp if you cant get your dog cleaned up before going to the hotel.  This picture I posted of her yesterday, saying it was my favorite. That was taken that evening after using the Proline. I wish I had known about it all weekend.

"See, now Im clean. And the best part is I didnt have to take a bath!"

Day #3

Well, its really pass day 3 but I was really tired last night, so I didnt feel like writing.  My back was much better Sunday.  I didnt use any heat on it Saturday night, only ice.  I also didnt sleep with my foot up on pillows.  It was 200% better Sunday.  I didnt sit down most of the day so my back wouldnt start hurting.  But Sunday night my foot was swollen so I slept with my foot up again. I woke up at 4am with my back hurting. Ugh!  I just got up and after feeding and talking Miley on a walk, I drove home.  It was a painful drive home. My back is just so irritated.  I got home by 12:30 in the afternoon. So that was nice.  Now hopefully my back can go back to normal or I will need to see the doctor.  Here I was worried about my foot making it throught the camp.  My foot was no problem at all. LOL
Sunday it was suppose to pour down rain starting at 12noon. But we were so lucky, it never happened. Our group worked with Jenn Pinder.  We work Lateral motion.  Funny, the easy exercises I had trouble with and the harder ones we got. Maybe I take things for granite when its seems easy to me. Ill have to keep that in mind when I walk and run courses. One of the things she pointed out was, I wasnt cuing jumps but miley was taking them and they were the right jumps.  So I still have work to do. We had lots of off courses in Jenns class.
Here are just somethings that were talked about. A dog that has problems leaving your side ( runs with you) she would never give treats from her side.  She would use a throw and treat bag and work from there.  Make sure when you throw the tug and treat to keep going with your motion.  There was a very slow sheltie in our group.  After Jenn worked with the sheltie, she was 2 -3 times faster  when running with Jenn.  It was amazing to watch. Next running with your arm out, slows your dog down.  Pump your arms, use your arms with sends and turns. It was amazing to watch how much faster dogs got when they followed this advice.  One lady,who had a great PWD, could not stop running with an arm out. So Jenn had her hold one water bottle in each hand. Just so that she would be aware of  what her arms are doing.  The lady couldnt do it. While running she would put both bottles in one hand so that she could use her arm to guide her dog.  It was so funny to watch.  We get into habits and its hard to change.  One of the things Jenn works on first with dogs is "sends", so your dog will learn to move and drive ahead.  In our group, 1/2 the dogs were slow.  So today was very hard for them. The handler is so use to being head of there dog that the dog was uncomfortable moving ahead of the handler. For this class, she made the dogs move ahead.  It was so interesting to watch.  One man had a slow border collie. I cant remember what he did but she said, "I think that is why you are getting refusals at trails".  He said, "We've never gotten a refusal at a trail". ( I thought uh oh, never say never). She said, "I saw you get three this weekend. Oops, never say never. LOL

Here is one of the lateral motion exercises, it was a lateral push.  And we were actually successful.  I really thought , one she wouldnt stay and two, I would push her off.  But as long as my shoulder were showing the right line of motion, it worked great.  ( Im not sure the distances are correct on my course map I made). In the video there is a chute to the left of her when I set her up and she keeps thinking she is going in there. Even when Ive lead out in front of her, you can still see her leaning toward the chute.



Everyone liked Miley.  Jenn Pinder told me several times how much she liked her.  Another lady in my group told me I needed to make up cards that I could just hand out because everyone kept asking me where I got her from.  People would try to guess what kennel she came from and then come up and ask me  which one of them was right.   Its funny because there are lots of cool dogs at camp.  Jenn Pinder's black and white sheltie was a spit fire.  I really liked her. She was lean, which I really like.  Sometimes shelties are kinda on the big bone side, if you know what I mean.
Miley did well with not getting to stressed. No huge circling but a couple of times would start but came when I called her.  Jenn told me not to let her do that. On the last sequence of the day, she dropped the first bar and then we had a refusal and she started to circle.  She told me to reward Miley right away. Dont let her think she was wrong. For one thing she wasnt wrong, she was following my motion. Just reward her and keep her with me, then figure out what I did wrong.  She also told me it would be very helpful for Miley to play with toys on course. That it would really help get rid of that adrenaline she has built up.  She also told me to use her name when getting to the correct tunnel entrance. Miley thinks she know where she is going, and thinks she's right too. I need to get her attention to get her in the right tunnel entrance.

Over all it was a great camp. My hotel was nice. It was on the Indian River. Which looks like its on the ocean but behind a barrier island.  It was very quiet. So Miley didnt bark at all, once we went to sleep.There was a park next to the hotel to walk the dog. It was a  really, really small park but better than nice.   They weather was warm but not  hot. It was very windy but I think thats why it didnt feel hot. Even Sunday when it was 80 degrees out.  But it was so windy it knocked my camera over. Ugh.

This is my favorite picture from the weekend.

 

Day #2

 I decided to try the last set up from yesterday, this morning before everything started. She nailed it. Well I guess we both did.



Today we woke up to a beautiful day

.

To bad my back didnt think so.   I know, I complain a lot. My back was hurting when I woke up and it was down hill from there. At the lunch break I had a chiropractic adjustment.  It didnt help. By 3 pm, I just wanted to go back to the motel and take some pain killers. I couldnt stand  or sit. Nothing I did helped. I couldnt concentrate on anything but being in pain. I passed the chiropractor and she asked me how I was doing and I told her I was miserable. She told me to try this magnetic pad. She let me borrow it because it cost 95.00.  At this point I would have sold my soul to the devil if it would help my back. LOL

Anyway , about 30 minutes or so later I was feeling better.  Now dont get me wrong, I was still having pain but I could stand without pain. And it was no longer consuming all my thoughts. Wow.  Sorry Lou, I might have to buy this thing.


Camp: Today my group was with Ann Braue.  Wow , is she knowledgeable.  She told us she trains four things.  1. Relationship     2. Skills,    3. handling   4. mental aspect.  One of the things she talked about is "relationship".  If your dog would rather sniff, go visiting,  steal treats out of someones bag ect... then you need to work on your relationship.  This doesnt make your dog bad or you a bad dog trainer.   Then she talked about what she does to work on the relationship.   This can also work on dogs stressing in the ring.  Im not going to talk about everything she said, sorry.  I dont want to get in trouble. If you want you can email me and Ill tell you what she said.   Yesterday we work on lateral motion. Today was "run where you want your dog to go", lol,   your line of motion.   Miley did excellent. Much better than yesterday.   We have some things to work on like rear crosses. And how to get a tighter trun or wider turn.  Miley had great weave poles today and a-frame contacts. WhooHoo!!

My ankle?  It doesnt hurt at all.  LOL because the back pain is taking priority.

Day #1

I forgot to tell you that my phone wasnt working yesterday morning when I got ready to leave. I got in the  car and  the bluetooth couldnt connect. I looked at the phone and it had all these weird numbers and letters on the screen. It wouldnt let me do anything. My only choice was to take the battery out.  Ugh,I did that and then had to reactivate my phone. Then set up all the google stuff again.  Somethings I lost were, all my pictures and videos on had on the phone. Not that big a deal except I had video taped the sports trainer who should me how to wrap my ankle, so I could remember how to do it. But I did remember today, good thing. One thing I guess I never saved to the SD card in the phone, was my notes. Ugh! So all that information was lost. Crap!  But at least I was able to get the phone working for the trip. It was making me nervous thinking about going without a phone. Funny, I use to travel all the time before phones and it wasnt a problem.  Its weird how we depend on things now.

I felt much better when I woke up this morning. I think I was just really tried yesterday. I woke up and it was pouring down rain. Sunny and beautiful when I left to go to the site. Cloudy and windy during the morning and I had to wear a sweatshirt. Partly sunny in the afternoon. And this evening, as soon as we finished the camp,  it pour down rain and was still pouring when I got to the hotel.  Weird weather.
My ankle hurts but never when Im running. Its seems to hurt when I stop. And then at the end of the day when I took that sports wrap off, holy moly  it was killing me. I think it is wrapped so tight that when I take the tape off all the blood starts flowing and it starts throbbing.  I hope it holds out for 2 more days.  My back isnt to happy either.  I guess Im going to have to get that rechecked when I get home. Every time I think about driving home, it makes me feel ill. LOL 
They had a contest on who came the furthest to get to camp.  There were a couple of people from Connecticut and someone who went from  Wisconsin to Arizona then to Florida.  Then another lady that came from Australia just for the camp.  24 hours is a plane, not fun.
The footing at the site is great. I was worried it would be to soft and I might turn my ankle but it seems just right. Soft but not to soft.  Today my group was with Jennifer Crank. I really liked working with her.We worked all day on lateral sends. Who know there was so much to know.   I would show  you some of my runs but I didnt run anything well. Miley was way wide or jumping in extension. I have lots of work to do.  Im late on my lateral sends, so she is jumping in extension , instead of hugging the side.

One nice thing is they give you course maps. I think I got 3-4. It helps so much, instead of me trying to figure out distances ect.  This was the last set up of the day. First we ran the circled numbers.  Im still stuck in my front cross but I knew that was a problem that I need to work on. Then next we ran the square numbers.  Ugh, did we struggle. We couldnt even get #1-#3 right. It took several trys with me treating to get her to listen and me to get my arms and shoulders right. It was a threadle that was handled on the inside bring her around the right side of jump three. You could have handled it by pulling them between jump #2 and #3 but I didnt run it that way.  Then #7-#9 was a serpentine which I handle that way but she cut behind me after number 8 so , she didnt take 9.  After I was done I remembered something.  This was the same course  set up that Miley cut behind me at Linda M. camp this summer. It looks like I never practiced that huh?  So I have in  big letters on my paper to practice the stuff on this page. ( just note that there were several ways to handle the sequences and she talked about all of them.)
Sorry , no pictures. I like to put pictures with my post but I never got around to taking any except with my phone and those I posted on facebook. They dont look good on blogger because they just aren't crisp enough. I'll do better tomorrow. 

500 Miles

Well, I made it to Florida.   My foot and ankle are really swollen  I guess from being down all day.  It was a long unpleasant drive.   When I finally go here, I kept trying to find a place to walk Miley.

Here is the beach.

But then there is this.

No dogs are allowed on the beach anywhere in this county.  Ugh!  So now I dont have anywhere to burn off her energy.  I tried just walking her but there are so many cars that she feels she needs to try to get.  And my ankle is not happy with walking.  Im not happy. In fact , right now, Im miserable.  My ankle hurts and Miley wont quit barking at me.  Ive tried playing ball with her, gave her bones,  fed her and walked her again.  I know tomorrow will be better but thats not helping me right now. I just wish I were home.  ( I know, do I want some cheese with my whine?)  Plus its really , really windy.  30 mph winds and its suppose to be that windy tomorrow too. And now maybe rain. When I looked at the weather yesterday , it only said rain on Sunday.  I hope tomorrow is a good camp day or I maybe going home early. LOL

The spell check wont work on blogger so sorry for the mispelled words.

The motel Im at sits on the water.  But not the ocean. There is a barrier island in front. Its looks like she is on the beach but its only about 10 feet wide.