Getting Our Bruise On

The conformation bruises are healing, and Dreamer and I are busy getting our bruise on with agility and obedience. Time heals all wounds, but heeling takes many forms. Speaking of heeling, Dreamer is looking better and better in her heeling patterns. We are starting to wean off the food now, and it's really too early to say if our methods are working. Karen wants me to play this "now you see it, now you don't" game with Dreamer and the belt. The food starts out on the stick, and we complete the exercise. Dreamer gets her reward from the stick. Then I tell her to get her reward again. At first, she bought it and jumped up to find an empty stick. Then I'd put another treat on the stick and tell her to get it, and she'd get it.

Well, she's a little too smart for that game now. Or maybe I'm just doing it wrong. My training notes tend to suck, and I'll miss a step. So we've stopped the "now you see it" game until our lesson on Sunday, when I'll either get corrections to my notes or confirmation that we need to try something else because Dreamer is too smart. In any case, I've trained Dreamer every day (except Friday, when I had to get my happy hour on) since our last lesson, and she's so much fun!

We didn't have agility class this week because our teacher is out of town, but I've set up our new channel weaves. I weaved Dreamer at home for the first time tonight, and she was fast! She had slowed down in class the two previous weeks, and I had become concerned. When I talked to my friend Pat about it, she said that the dogs always slow down when you narrow the weaves, and had we just done that? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. We had just narrowed the channel. Tonight, the channel was a little wider than our latest setting at class, and sure enough, Dreamer's speed was back! I'll gradually close the channel, but I'm relieved that she's being a normal dog and isn't doing some weird slow dog thing. That would drive me nuts! I think we'll start to make a lot of progress on weaves now that I have my own set to use at home.

I have a Band-Aid on my thumb, as I got it caught in one of the pole stakes during assembly. But this is the type of bruise I can handle. Dreamer and I are having a great time -- a rewarding time -- and it's worth the wounds.