Katie and I went to another fun match last night. It was a spur of the moment decision and we hadn’t practiced at all since last weekend. She was pretty unfocused just walking around waiting for our turn, and she wasn’t much more focused in the ring. I couldn’t get her to heel near me, she got distracted by a mirror along the wall that we walked toward, and off leash she was mostly out of line. She DID hold her sit and down even without me talking to her, though I did have to point at her twice.
The judge said that Katie isn’t ready to be off leash and that I should use a shoelace to get her to heal where she’s supposed to. I agree she doesn’t seem to know where she’s supposed to be. I think I need to start again with the “watch me” healing to get her back in position. Plus Katie sat twice at each halt. This is coming from me correcting her when she doesn’t sit close enough when we stop. Now it appears if she doesn’t get a treat she thinks she’s wrong and she scoots over. SIGH. Wonder how to fix that??
After our run I was talking to another lady. She told me that when you do obedience the dog can’t have any tags on, so I need to get another collar to use for obedience showings. No one ever said that before. And then she poked her finger into Katie’s side and said “and she’s FAT too!” which actually is something I’m beginning to notice, that Katie may be getting overweight with all the treats of training.
So all in all, not that successful a run, though it only cost $5.00 and I learned quite a bit. We have so much work to do! Sometimes it seems overwhelming! But the park near us is open again, the one where we worked every day last summer. So back to work we go!
Change Is Hard 
March 20, 2009 at 5:15 am
I learned recently that some agility venues don’t allow collars in the ring either. So, some people practice without collars on, because the dogs get so used to their collars that when you take them off they refuse to do anything! LOL.
Dog are unpredictable.
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March 20, 2009 at 5:57 am
Every day is a different day – that’s for sure! I never know how I will act from one day to the next. Katie just didn’t feel like being a great obedience dog on that particular day.
I don’t wear a collar doing agility – mom uses a slip lead to get me to the ring and back. I did know that you can’t have tags on your collar. Too much jingling? (and in agility the tags might get caught on something)
I’ve been there with the whole “you look fat” thing! I have to admit I’ve done well with less food (more treats!) and I’ve lost some weight.
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March 20, 2009 at 11:18 am
For sure, each day brings it’s own challenges! Sounds like you learned alot though, even if some of the information sounds like it could’ve been delivered in a slightly more tactful manner! LOL
Our dogs have different collars for different things. We mainly run with no collars in agility even though you can have a plain buckle collar in most venues, just no tags. For obedience I have a rolled leather collar for the dogs, that we only use for obedience training and trialing. Then there’s the regular old collars with tags for the rest of the time. 🙂
As for the weight comment…I’ve found that for the most part, the shelties tend to be “easy keepers”, so especially when we’re doing alot of training, we keep really close watch on the amount of food they eat. Sometimes we use part of their regular kibble as training treats, so they don’t gain weight. Now if someone would just do the same for me maybe I’d lose the extra pounds I’ve gained!!!
I hope you don’t get too overwhelmed. Just take one thing at a time, and it’ll come together before you know it! 🙂
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March 20, 2009 at 11:29 am
Good advice Marie (and Ricky!). I’m going to go get a collar just for obedience. And measure out her food in the a.m. and use it as treats while we train at home. She likes her kibble, and I’ve often used it as treats while we train, so she won’t mind. My husband feeds her dinner to her and he wouldn’t now how much training we’ve done during the day, so If I measure it out first, then he’ll just feed her whatever’s left for her dinner.
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March 21, 2009 at 9:28 am
*sigh* I have all this to look forward to yet. lol.
How rude of that person! From day one with Ludo I measure out his daily allowance of food and then when he gets treats I take a bit out of the cup and he gets what’s left at the end of the night, sometimes they’ll only be a few bits of kibble left. He always gets the same breakfast though. 🙂
I’m not adjusting for agility though as I figure he’ll be working it off through exercise.
I’m hoping that’ll stop him getting too weighty.
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