A-Frame Woes

Well serious problem- Yoshi is not doing the A-frame very well anymore. It takes him a total of 10 seconds to go from top to bottom and he slides and veers off to the very edge of the a-frame now. I think he does not like the 2o2o because it must hurt him.

On Thursday he went really fast down the a-frame and I think it might have hurt him a bit. The final time he went down it, he just sat there and wouldnt move..I thought he was just saying hey Im tired, time to go home. But he did it again today.... this is totally unlike him at all.

*sigh* I dont think this is going to be very fun. Im wondering if I need to retrain for a running contact and he is just uncomfortable with how it feels, or if he might need to be readjusted because he hurt himself. ugh..... this is NOT good as we are in the final months before the trials start.

Class on Thursday

We went to Pawsitive Impact on Thursday, where we worked on serpentines...BUT it was really to make my handling skills better! Linda really helped me with my faults as a handler and I was really impressed with the class..she even got on to me for ducking and by the end of the class I was doing a lot better! Tuesdays it will be a class to nitpick on Yoshi...Thursday will be for me! haha perfect!

Drumroll---- Yoshi did his first teeter at a new place..and he did it really well =) yay! By the time January rolls around..he will be slamming it down and it will be old hat for him! Now all we have left is the weaves =)

Tomorrow I am going to meet up with Debbie and Yoshis girlfriend Rainey and we are going to let them play at Melanies place thats close to home. I might brush up on some contacts (really reinforce them with treats) and work on the channel weaves there too.

Did I mention I REALLY want to go to the Iron-Dogs camp?!?!?!?! Maybe I did ;-) haha

I'm Dying To Go!!!!!!!

If only I can scrape together $400!!!!

http://iron-dogs.com/

The class tonight

Class went alright..nothing too spectacular..although he did a tunnel/tire discrimination VERY well! We mainly did jumping exercises.... and we were indoors as well. I brought the crate with me so he could chill out a little more..he wasnt as bad as he was last class with the spazzing out on the side lines.

I moved the teeter height to a few inches off from regulation height..so we are pretty much teeter trained, he only needs to learn how to slam it down now... so we will definitely be good to go in the next couple weeks with the teeter. We will even try it during games night next time probably.

He did well with his channel weaves too, they were about 3" apart probably and he didnt miss a pole and got his entrances great too! I had him enter the weaves from more of a distance and he nailed it everytime (him being on the right side)

My dog dryer came in today..tomorrow I am bathing them and making them all fluffy! I cant wait =)

Yoshi's First Fun Match

Well Yoshi did really good in his first small fun match. We ran two AKC FAST courses. One was an easier novice style course, while the other one was more Open. Yoshi did extremely well, except on the first gamble he had one refusal into the tunnel (mainly because I took a step back when he went forward!!! whoops!) The gamble was pretty hard because you almost had to go to a screeching halt so it was hard to keep the dogs going. it was jump into the area, go towards a tunnel then go laterally to a a-frame... it was pretty intense! Other than that he nailed everything perfect, and he hauled some butt too. Everyone was really impressed with how he ran at only 1 yr old. I didnt bring the camera because Dustin wasnt there to take any video and it was at night so I dont know how the digital camera would have done taking video at night.

Today, I went and watched an AKC trial and took Yoshi so he could learn to wait calmly (well he was calm after he tired himself out) Needless to say, both me and Yoshi are pooped after being in the heat all day..and we didnt even run..LOL

I might be going back tomorrow..Im contemplating on taking Hemi instead since the little guy no longer has the explosive runs! =)

Yoshi Howling...Haha

For some reason if you make barking noises to the tune of Jingle Bells...he howls...Dont ask me how I found that out..LOL

Jumping the gun a little....

I think we are ready for Halloween over here...

Yoshi having fun

So I did a little "barrel racing" like exercise with Yoshi so he could have some fun and to just get him to listen to where Im saying to go..he did ok! he seemed to like it!

Wild & Crazy

Well class last night was interesting...... to say the least.

We did some REALLY hard exercises and had a fairly hard course.

I am learning my #1 fault when I handle Yoshi. I duck too much and it pushes him out instead of in. I dont know why I do it and its so hard to break, I guess I feel like I need to be lower since hes so short than what I am used to.

Yoshi was crazy, he was faster than ever (maybe because we were outside in the big field instead of in the little indoor place) and I had a hard time keeping up with him. The last part of the course was very hard (for me at least) and I kept messing up until Rachel would tell me what to do...ahh it was so embarrassing lol.

Yoshi was a bit wound up at the first part of the course and he was trying to do his own thing (of course I was ducking) so I am hoping it was just a bad day. He got it down good the second time I tried it (after I made him lay down and told him to calm down, then restarted the course)

I picked up my a frame, and also moved my teeter and tire jump to my parents house. I am going to start working both dogs at my parents a couple times a week if I get the chance. I am definitely going to try to do something with Yoshi before Games night on Friday...I just hope he shows a bit more control...and I handle him better as well =) Im so excited though, I cant wait..just this much closer to being in shows!

New Videos For The Yosh-Man!

From tonight!









Monthly games night is starting on Sept 21 so me and Yoshi will be doing that on Fri nights once a month.. woohoo! Cant wait.. I need to learn all these games, and what better way to do it than at a fun match setting?

Stuff

Well Yoshi is now in Tuesday nights competition level class..and I am really excited. I really benefit by seeing other dogs and handlers accomplish the exercises with ease (for the most part..haha) and now Rachel can really nitpick on my handling and get us ready for Yoshi's start. We did a jumpathon for the first lesson. We did lots of different jump exercises..with the last one being excruiciatingly hard! Yoshi and a terrier named Bailey got it on their first try.. but both of our second tries...not so great! We are starting to jump Yoshi 14" now to get him ready to start jumping 16". I am a bit worried because he doesnt clear the bar with a lot of room and I hope he doesnt start getting too lax over jumps. He only knocked a couple down, but still..just hope it doesnt become a nasty habit. Of course, when we start out in Novice, the courses and turns wont be quite so tight so we should be ok. After the lesson, I did some weave and teeter work (the two things Yoshi is not doing 100% yet) I got to crank down the channel weaves more than ever and he got them every single time.. he was attacking them and really moving. We only did a small teeter once, I know he can get this obstacle down..I just havent started moving him up on it. I really need to concentrate on these two obstacles and get them down. Other than that, just working on a few discriminations (tunnel/a frame/dogwalk/etc)

Thats all for now!!