Sunday, July 5, 2009

Prep-to-Show -- July 1, 2009

Well...well...well. Wednesday night was Prep-to-Show with Joyce as judge and Cheryl as steward. If you remember our last Prep class (last Wednesday, June 24), I was kind of embarrassed at our performance. Embarrassed at how I could not keep Jack's focus on me and embarrassed at Jack's, now imfamous, zoomies.

What a difference a week makes! This time we did a whole lot better! Jack performed his sits every time I stopped. His Stand-for-Exam was solid. Our Figure-8 was OK. Not very well executed because of my tendency to step into Jack's space as we halted, throwing Jack off to the left to avoid my feet. I don't blame him for that. If I were him, I would get out of the way too!

Continuing with the evaluation of the Prep class, our Heel-off-Leash was much better than last week. I still lost him on one of the straights. He was more interested in what cookies were still on the floor. I just kept on walking and I could hear him running to catch up with me. I had my dog with me again! He chose to heel and he did not run out of the ring!! Success!! Our Recall was OK too. I still need to work with his fronts. They are still crooked, not all of them though.

Overall, I was happy with this performance. Yet I know we need to practice more with sits close to heel position, with fronts more straight, with me stopping without stepping into Jack, and with increasing Jack's attention to me.

Our homework for the Prep-to-Show class this week is to concentrate on:

  • Look - Get and maintain Jack's attention to me
  • Close - Increase our lessons to get Jack to maintain heel position when heeling and when we halt
  • Come Front - Utilize his sit box, stand with my legs apart and slightly bent, tossing cookies through my legs and not requiring him to front -- make it FUN! He is already fast in his recall, I just have to work on his "front accuracy"
  • Halt - Halting straight. This is more important for me to stop with my right foot and then bring my left foot up to meet the right one -- I need to think and practice this method until it is in my memory. When I stop with my left foot first, I have that tendency to drift toward Jack

Walking in Obedience!

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