Fronts and Finishes

I know it's been 25 years, but I don't remember fronts and finishes being so hard to perfect! I have really been concentrating on them and Remy finally seems to have the finish close to perfection, but the fronts still have a way to go. I am seeing progress, so I'm still dreaming of showing this spring.
Debbie and her 5 dogs were late, so Remy and I worked hard before she came and then he got a reward session with his frisbee. Once Debbie came, we worked a bit again, but mostly I helped Debbie with her dogs. Remy held his stand pretty well even when Debbie went over him as thoroughly as a conformation judge. Good progress since Remy LOVES Debbie.
I also have been working on out of sight sits and downs. Remy now holds for 10 seconds. I'm very pleased with that and will continue working up to longer times.
I forgot his dumbell at home, so I worked on it when we got home. Debbie and I talked about the fact that her Sheltie was very soft like Remy. Instead of an ear pinch, she used a twisted collar behind the ears. I might try that since I don't use a chain collar and most of the time I train on a buckle collar. If that doesn't work, I'm quite sure my fingernail will be plenty of correction for the Remster.
I do want to start more open work soon since Novice is getting quite boring. With the challenge of the open work, we can still work on fronts and finishes and heeling.
Tonight is my last class of Advanced, so Debbie, Barb and I will train before class begins. Remy will hardly believe that we are working 2 days in a row!

Time to Dream

It's good to have a Terv like Tacara's Denali Dream. Our dreams are big as a mountain, and we are going to keep climbing!

The Denali Dream and I are dreaming big for our upcoming shows. There are no other class bitches, and there are lots of class dogs. There are also two bitch specials. Our dream is to show our hearts out so that our judge will consider splitting the points -- or at least question why s/he wouldn't.

That dream is the synopsis of our lesson with Karen on Sunday, which focused on conformation instead of obedience. Karen hadn't worked with Dreamer and me on conformation since April, when I had decided to enter some May shows and exhibit my dog for the first time on my own. Karen gave me some great basic instruction back then and set the foundation for my conformation ring experience with Dreamer. It wasn't pretty in the beginning, but at least Karen made me feel like I knew what I was getting myself into!

On Sunday, when I told Karen I needed a trick to get Dreamer to straighten up her rear when being backed into a stack (she likes to turn it to my left when I'm facing her, which drives me insane!), Karen started at the very beginning. She wanted to see the full picture to determine how far we'd come and what we really needed to work on.

The bright side: We've come a long way! Karen could really see a difference in my handling of Dreamer, but even more of a maturity difference in Dreamer herself!

The dark side: Dreamer is the devil. I never know what I'm taking into the ring, and I think that freaks me out. I start to panic when my dog turns into a wild pony. There are times when you can't teach a wild pony new tricks.

Karen worked with us on a lot of things to see how we could really show Dreamer off when there are no other bitches in the ring. She said we have to do extra training tricks to show off the expression and personality to compete with professional handlers and more experienced/mature dogs. Karen really believes that you can compete against these challenges when you show the judge how well your dog is trained and how much drive it has. She reminds me often that there are a lot of dogs being dragged around the ring. They have no personality. Since Dreamer is so unTervlike, in a good way, we need to show that off. After all, what judge in their right mind wouldn't look more closely at a happy herding dog with drive vs. a flat, slow dog with no personality but tons of coat? A judge who picks coat over instinct and personality should be unable to sleep at night.

Here's a synopsis of our problem areas and how we worked on them:

• Entering the ring: I lose Dreamer pretty quickly when we go into the ring, though I didn't really think about that until Karen asked what it's like when we first go in. Karen suggested putting the bait right in front of Dreamer's nose with my left hand, holding the leash in my right hand, and just having Dreamer follow the bait while walking her into the ring. It worked like a charm! It also helped me keep Dreamer's rear straight because I walked her to the imaginary start place, with her following the bait, and I told her to wait. Then I stepped in front of her, held the bait with both hands near her nose, and backed her into her free stack. This also worked well at conformation drop-in class when we practiced it there last night.
• Down and back: Karen said I was moving Dreamer too fast. I need to take longer, slower strides than I do on the all-the-way-around. (I never knew that, so I'm glad she pointed it out.) When we are coming back and looking at the judge to see if s/he is going to bait, here are some tricks that Karen suggested, and that we worked on: (1) If the judge is baiting the dog, I need to use our obedience and just stop Dreamer facing the judge, let her free stack, and tell her to Wait. (It's like a stand-stay, basically.) Then she'll know to look at the judge instead of me. That worked well. (2) If the judge is not baiting the dog, what works really well with Dreamer is to put the bait right in front of her nose once we get to where we want to stop in front of the judge, say her name, and then lift the treat up and away while making a quarter turn to get Dreamer to face me and be at an angle (not parallel, but a slight angle) to the judge. What Dreamer does, in the meantime, is HOP like the most adorable Terv you've ever seen in your life and land in a pretty good free stack. (Our goal eventually will be for her to nail that stack every time.) Then, very quickly, I tell her to wait, I walk to the end of a loose leash, and I wave the treat low to arch her neck and really show off her expression and ears while completely taking myself out of the picture. It takes some fiddling around to see how to best show off your dog, but this is what works best with Dreamer because she's interested, focused on me, and excited about the constant motion/action.
• General handler movement/position: Karen told me that I wasn't watching the judge's whereabouts enough, which is true. I am way too worried about what the wild pony is doing, so I don't pay enough attention to the judge. She said I really need to make sure I'm out of Dreamer's way when the judge comes up behind us because I'm blocking her right now. When I move to her side, I need to do so immediately rather than stand in front. The judge needs to see her front immediately and be able to scope her out while approaching her. It's a little thing and is pretty obvious, but it's just something I don't think about. Karen also told me that I shouldn't "hang" Dreamer up with the leash. All she could see was the leash, and she said it was distracting. She handled Dreamer a little bit at our lesson so that I could see what I was doing vs. what she wanted me to do. Dreamer doesn't need to be hung up, so we concentrated on keeping the leash loose and low in my left hand. When we're moving, I likewise need to keep the leash loose. I think I used to keep Dreamer strung up because I couldn't keep her still or under control otherwise, but I think she's actually better now. I guess we'll find out this weekend!

At conformation drop-in class last night, some lady used a high-pitched silly voice to say, "Ears!" to her dog. She was trying to get her dog to put his ears up. She sounded like a cartoon character, and Dreamer was fascinated every time she said that! I think we'll try some new sounds in the ring (that's brave, huh?) and see what happens. I do try to say various words and phrases in exciting ways to keep Dreamer's attention, and that's a trick I've always liked. I'll ask, "Do you want to work?" Or "Do you want to eat?" (which is funny because she doesn't like to eat yet always cocks her head when I ask!). When we got our first point, I managed to get Dreamer the Wild Pony to cock her head the second the judge looked at her, and it was just way too cute. We must use these things to our advantage. After all, the one good thing about conformation is that we can talk to our dogs in the ring. Let's use what we've got!

Now if you'll excuse me, I must go focus on this mountain that Denali Dream and I will climb all weekend. Wish us luck and ALWAYS keep the Dream alive!