Thank goodness for training buddies. Tracey called and encouraged me to practice with the kids early Saturday morning.
At Sharp's Rd park Grace did a 15 minute old track before we did obedience. Tracey thinks that Grace should learn a new game..find the glove tug toy in the field. Her tracking is good in that she found the glove with no external assistance today. She stayed on the track the entire way but her turns are awful and it is impossible to tell sometimes if she is working the scent cone or looking for the track itself. The glove tug toy will make more of a game of it and will give Grace the required article indication action.
Folks were on the far tennis court when we arrived so we put everyone on the outside of the chain link fence and worked one dog at a time on the near court. The tennis folks had to stop and stare on several occasions. If you are not used to seeing obedience dogs work a healing pattern it is an impressive sight to see. It didn't hurt any that we let Nikita, the senior obedience dog with the group today, go first. Her healing is extremely nice and very steady.
Bern went next... healing pattern looked fine. However no drop on the recall. And no retrieve on the dumbbell. Forgot to pack the broad jump so we didn't get to practice. I will work on these things next week.
Grace went after Sparkle. Grace did very nice on all her Rally Novice moves. Tracey keeps reminding me that it is Rally and I can talk to my dog. It is such a different mindset than working with Bern in the more formal obedience setting.
We finished up with some stays (sits and downs) mostly for the Novice dogs. If Sparkle and Kazee are in the same set of stays, I will need to be there to help Tracey with Kazee. Both those dogs love Aunt Cheryl but Kazee is much more happy go lucky than Sparkle. We practiced Kazee walking in with me and me giving her the commands. Kazee did quite nicely once we sat... she was trying to catch up with Tracey ahead of us on our way in. I will just need to talk calmly to her to help steady her until she is seated in the line of dogs. I'm feeling good about handling Kazee for the stays.
