Demodex Demon

Poor Seeker has Demodex and she is quite uncomfortable. The vet told me to put an e-collar on her to avoid scratching, but I hate those damn things! Stress worsens the demodex, so I can only imagine what an e-collar would cause. But last night I awoke to hearing her scratch and she had opened the skin:(

My poor baby girl.

Today I ordered a soft e-collar. I will let you know how I like it in case you need one in the future for Dreamer. It's called the Comfy Cone and it got great reviews. I'll be using it at night and when she is in her crate while I am away.

Heal, baby girl so we can get back to heeling.

Demo Dog

I use Seeker as a demo dog for my beginning obedience classes. It really helps the students see how I coordinate the leash, my hands, the treats, etc.

Seeker is a willing, albeit show-off demo dog. She likes to add her own moves and energy to the mix. She can barely contain her delight.

At the end of the night when she had been in her crate for quite awhile, I asked for volunteers to demonstrate the quarter turns. No one offered, so I pulled Seeker out to show the new members of our advanced class how to teach their dogs quarter turns. I have been working with this a bit in our basement and she's been doing well, so I thought she might cooperate. Did she ever! This class is mostly full of members of the club who are getting ready to show. They gasped in appreciation as Seeker eagerly demonstrated. Seeker, of course, noticed the attention she got for this so she promptly goosed me before she demonstrated the about turn in place! My little show off:)

Seeker's First Obedience Class

I took Seeker to her first obedience class on Thursday night. First we worked conformation for 15 minutes on the other side of the building. The instructor really isn't any good, but I figured that it couldn't hurt Seeker to gait in the ring with another dog.

Then we moved across the building to do obedience. Since it was the first class for a lot of "public pet people", there was a lot of down time which I knew going in. But that's ok since I just used those times to play tug with Seeker or work on "watch me". What I found so cool is that she will watch me when I don't have the treat in my hands and she doesn't get confused with conformation where she watches the bait and arches her neck.

I was quite pleased with her work ethic. She did well for 30 minutes and then I started to lose her, so I sat down in the chairs outside the ring and had her watch the other dogs. That is my plan: work until I start to lose the little pea brain and then quit on a high note. No need to drill it in at such a young age.

Here are the plusses of the night:

• Seeker prances right along with her neck wrapped around my leg and her head held high.
• Her butt swings wide, but I remember Remy doing that as well in the early going and I can help her with hind end control later on. I also use the wall to keep her butt in as much as possible when the dogs are on the outside of the ring.
• Tucked sits are still in progress so I never let her sit without assistance. At this point, she just doesn't get it so I'm not in any hurry.
• At home, I've been able to get her to tuck up without placing her by using the bait to bring her forward and into the sit. I'll keep testing her like that at home and placing her some of the time until she gets it. I remember it took Remy a long while to learn and didn't Dreamer also have trouble with it in the beginning?
• She is doing great with the tucked sit on the recall in front because she doesn't mind at all that I take her by the collar on both sides and bring her head and body up toward me. She is learning to catch the cheese I drop from my mouth, but she sure isn't as good at catching as Remy was.
• She never disobeyed the down command from heel position and I don't even have to use a hand signal. She just drops down and naturally folds back and onto her hip.
• She was a bit distracted by the other dogs heeling around the ring, but was easily refocused with food.
• She found obedience to be exhausting! When we got home, she ate her dinner and promptly fell asleep for the rest of the night!

Gail's Barn

Gail, Linda Lemmer, and I met to train. Gail had Uie, I had Seeker, and Linda had 2 Tervs: Borg, a 10 year old male, and Gamer who is Dreamer's age. He is the brother of Sayer, the male who won the Am Bred class at the National.

The plan was to do some agility things and then move on to conformation with Gamer. I worked Seeker and Gamer in agility and Gail worked Borg and Uie. We had a lot of fun. I showed them all the agility groundwork I had learned from Debbie and then we did some short sequences. Gamer happily worked with me and I'm going to have a ball muddling my way through with him. It's the perfect opportunity to make all the mistakes with him before Seeker is ready to show:)

I was very proud of Seeker because she waited patiently in a crate while I worked with Gamer and did not bark or whine. She was always ready to go when I pulled her out. She did get in Uie's face once and I heard him go after her which surprised me. Later, I found that he removed a slash of hair above her lip on her left side. Damn dog! I will never trust him again near my baby girl. And Gail didn't even correct him! She might be getting a puppy soon and I think she is going to have her hands full....

After we did agility, I worked Gamer in conformation and was thrilled to see how well he worked for me! The plan is for me to show him this summer in outdoor shows because he has issues with noisy venues. Sound familiar?

The plan is also for me to do agility with him to build his confidence. It's a win-win for all involved. I love Gamer and it's fun for me to work with a big boy again.

Moving On

Now that little Seeker is a champion and knows the conformation drill inside and out, I decided that even though we are going to try for her Grand Championship, it is time to move on.

So yesterday Barb and I met at our club to train. Seeker was very enthusiastic as we did short heeling patterns, short fun recalls, sits and downs, and recalls on a flexi. She is so ready to learn new things and I am so ready to accommodate her! After we finished training, and just to be safe, I switched to her conformation collar and lead, and we had Barb run us through a pattern. She immediately switched to "conformation mode" with no problems. Barb commented that she seems to "float" around the ring. That is exactly the term Linda uses for Braego's movement.

Next training session: Gail's barn for basic agility on Friday. I'll work with Seeker over low obstacles and I am going to start working with a Terv named Gamer whose owner cannot move for agility and conformation. We are going to see if he will work for me. If he does, I'll show him in conformation for her (and maybe agility) in exchange for tracking lessons.

Jump!

Dreamer was a really good girl at her lesson this week. I finally found all the things I needed for us to move forward with a few little Open pieces, and I hauled them to class. Karen had asked me to find some extra-long, extra-wide rubber bands and some jumps. I had PractiJumps from the Legan days but really didn't know if they were still okay or if they had been warped in the heat. They had been in a storage shed in my back yard for years. I figured they had melted by now, but they were in excellent condition. They were in such excellent condition that Karen made fun of how "new" they looked. Yeah, I didn't make it very far in Open with Legan. She just wasn't fun to train, and I have to say I probably wouldn't have loved her as much if we had continued our training in obedience and agility!

But anyway, Karen used the rubber bands to attach the hula hoop to the high jump. You might remember that we've been using the hula hoop to teach Dreamer how to jump correctly. I was wary of the hula hoop on the jump at first, but teaching Dreamer to jump through it was pretty easy.

One of Karen's more advanced students was on the grounds training her dog during our lesson, and we got to watch her proofing the dog on the high jump. Karen said, "Notice she is at 9 steps out." The trainer had taken her dog to either side of the jump, 9 steps out, to send it over the jump. I guess it's supposed to help proof for a bad dumbbell throw, but 9 steps out is pretty far -- and a pretty bad throw!

I'm often skeptical of the many things we do with Karen, but they usually serve a really intelligent purpose. One thing's for sure: Dreamer loves all of the "motion" work, and it is a nice break from heeling and other boring Novice exercises. So when Karen tells me to jump, I will ask how high -- and then I will do it.

Baby Food to the Rescue!

Debbie offered to have me meet her at 5:00 yesterday and today to work with Seeker and then her dogs in agility. We worked Seeker on a very modified teeter using baby food and squeeze cheese to "up the ante". Lo and behold, it worked! Yesterday Seeker was panting and was quite tense. Today she was relaxed and ready for that baby food! Amazing: guess what? We used the same rewards for Remy for his teeter anxiety. So, if you ever do agility with Dreamer, turn to baby food for your baby girl.