The Holidays makes us lazy - New Years Resolution - Train!

There have been so many things going on in our lives right now, that training has been put on the back burner. Losing my wonderful father-in-law, the Holidays (which were not as fun this year). Training has been the last thing any of us want to tackle. Hard on the dog I think, but it will be much harder on Mike and I when we have to deal with back-sliding behaviors.

Today we start the first of the three classes I have Lady enrolled in this session. Nothing says obsession like enrolling your dog in classes. And then there is the Indoor Facility that we joined, which for the record was wonderful, just kind of obsessive. I know, I have a problem.

I am excited for tonights class however, because we are going back to basics to work on directionals. Pretty much, directionals are the whole reason Mike and I will be at level 2 for awhile. I am trying to shoot for only repeating level 2, two more times. We'll see, Mike and I do not train very well!! In addition to us learning directionals, the dog learns as well, and she seems to pick up stuff faster than her human counterparts.

Of course Lady is taking her acting classes and Mike and I have "hope eternal" that we can desensitize her to just about everything so she can take her "screen test".

Rain busts training

Well our training has been spotty lately, we have been rained out. The powers that be promised a dry mild winter and we have been hit with rain and the higher elevations with snow, since before Halloween. Normally I rejoice whenever it rains, but i have shucked out a few shekels for Lady's classes and like to be able to attend them once in awhile. We have makeup classes on Saturday, but this Saturday the forecast is ... you guessed it, rain.

The last time we went to Agility we had a very advanced course and it was quite a challenge. Of course Mike didn't really appreciate the difficulty since he was the one who had to execute the run. My surgery is in a few weeks and then I am on the injured list until the first of March. I'll have a brief window of running until my next surgery in April. I miss running Lady in Agility and Mike gets to have all the fun. Mike does not see it quite the way I do, but he is a trooper filling in for me.

Happily, I can still work with Lady in Shaping behaviors. We are working on crawling, bowing and limping. I have worked up a plan to teach her dance moves using targets. I am also planning on teaching her to shake her head no. Just have to get the other behaviors down first. Also, huge socialization. Lots of work to do. It will be easier once we are through the Holidays!