Where have I been?

I have been a the USDAA judging clinic for the last few days. I am trying to renew my judging certification and I am totally burnt right now from course designing and rules review. I thought I would take a quick break. Miss training the puppies and can't wait to get back home. Utah is very cold in April!

I will post my courses if they are reviewed positively tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Monday Night Handling Class

Well, Gus was an over the top maniac tonight. I could not get him to relax to save my life. I tried treats, massage and begging - none of them worked. He did better as he got more tired so by the last set he was doing OK - even got a dog walk contact (miracle of miracles!). Other bright spots:

1. He made all of his weave entries.
2. On the independent work set, we practiced just the weaves and he did very well.
3. Had at least one teeter performance where he wasn't sailing through the air.

What we did tonight

Well, we did some basic training tonight for the guys dinner. Gus practiced his table performance and contact behavior on the mini board. Flexi did some work on going around me and then we worked on the leave it game (from Control Unleashed). He is a very smart little Aussie.

Building Toy Drive

I found these sites on building toy drive:

http://www.clickerdogs.com/createamotivatingtoy.htm
http://clickertraining.tv/product.html?item=FREE-28
http://www.beardieagilitydiehards.org/BADagility/foodsock.html


Check them out if your dog has problems with toy motivation.

Keeping Up with Blogging

So I haven't blogged for awhile, but not because the boyz haven't been busy doing agility. Maybe it's because they have been so busy it is hard to find the time to write. We are continuing to work on the Control Unleashed program and train at Good Dog Agility and Top Notch Canines. In addition I am scheduled to go to renew my USDAA Judging certification next weekend.

I have been working on Gus' focus and calm demeanor a lot over the last few weeks. He has been having good and bad days so I have put him back on the Valerian Root but at half the dose to try and level out his behavior. This week at class we worked on weaves a lot and his contacts. We have been practicing them at home on the mini board.

As for Flex, he and I continue to work on CU at class and trying to build our relationship. I think we are making progress. A few weeks ago I won a pause table in a raffle so it is now in the family room and we are feeding meals on it lately. At this very moment, Flex is sleeping on it so I think he has developed a level of "comfort" with that obstacle.

Since my last entry I have been dealing with my retired Agility Dog's (Heidi) health problems. After a pretty big scare on the diagnosis, it was determined that she has Valley Fever this week. Her symptoms have been pain in her right rear leg. She stopped bearing weight on it a few weeks ago. Xrays revealed that she has a large calcification where her hip joint should be, a bone chip in her knee join and her fibula seems to be being eaten away. We started her on fluconaziole this week and we are hoping to see an improvement within the next few weeks. She is also on pain medication and anti-inflammatories. She was my first agility dog and there will always have a special place in my heart! The picture above is of her.