May 2007

(Backfilled in October 2009 due to impending closure of Geocities)

Sunday May 27th 2007 - Fun Match

For some inexplicable reason I tried leading out on his first run of the day. After I got that goofiness out of my system the rest of our runs started off the line together using "mark" and worked well though it was hard to run fast enough in my big clunky rainboots. He did fine with the table and the 6-weaves in the standard (didn't include the 12-weaves in the gambler's) and we bypassed the dogwalk since it was raining. He did very well with the mini-gamble and less well with the main gamble which I will blame on me not giving him a very good lead into it.



Friday May 11th 2007 - practice (KK9)

I've decided to take a different approach to practice time this year, which is to choose one or two specific skills or exercises to work on in a session and have a plan that targets them instead of goofing around more or less aimlessly, as much fun as that is. This will keep the practice sessions short and therefore hopefully prevent the doggy boredom factor from arising. Anyway, today was Walter's first time at a new practice field. Today's plan was to expose him to the equipment and do some of the exercises in Go the Distance week 2. His first time on the table he did the sniffy thing, so I silently took him by the collar and removed him, then sent him again and this time he downed promptly. No problem on the dogwalk, and he held the contacts well when I ran past him. Didn't try the teeter because the wind was tipping it up and down. Good job with the 6-weaves on all three attempts. For the distance work, I was too lazy to set up the tunnel or chute so we did a pinwheel as well as sending over jump to table. It's so fun working with Walter because he "gets" my cues... I know Lucy will get there too but she's got a ways yet. He did some excellent stays while I moved things around.