Obedience Match @ OTCGL

I took the dogs to an obedience match today, which is the first one away from home in ages. I did Utility with both Ty and Joker, and Open with Ty. I did use a fair # of treats with both dogs, so not exactly ring ready, but some nice success. I went all but the last 5 ft with both on Signals. Treated Ty after drop, then did all from stand. Joker did all with just a CR after the down. Both did articles right. Ty did glove 3 fine. Just had glove 3 out for J, but he did it very nicely. MS good with both. Had white target out for DJ. Ty looked out and leaned forward. BUT she found the judge being 3 feet to our left saying READY? very distracting - looked at her instead of staying locked on her go spot. After praising for her first go-out and saying sit, she got distracted and didn't - but it was quite loud at that point. Her sits were excellent after that. But she was staring at the judge instead of me after the 2nd go-out, so would have missed the bj (I walked it out and talked extra to her). It was weird. Joker left me on the go out with some veering toward glove 3, but then spotted the strategically placed target and got there fine. I have to say, I love love love his go-out sits. Zippy quick and right in place. He failed to go to the bar, too, but this didn't surprise me with him, as he's not been right yet this week. Ty did good Open stays, tho flipped hips. Her run through in Open was fine in the small ring. Glad I made the trip. It gives me some concrete objectives to be training on this week.

Some of my training friends and I have started checking in with each other regularly about what we are training. It is really helping to keep me motivated. I've also made a list of all of the exercises I want to train each week, plus how many times. When I train, I jot down the day of the week in the chart. I only missed on a couple of exercises last week (Fig 8 & BJ). Granted, it's only been 1 week of keeping track. For now, I'm motivated to do it. Check in with me in a couple of months. I wish I had time to learn how to write an app for either my iPod touch or my Palm Pre Plus that is more customized than the rather clumsy spreadsheet app I'm using.