Sloppy Sits!

Well, tonight was basic obedience class with the Tobsters. It seems that I have never tried to train Toby to sit straight. I guess I should have been working on this since he was a pup. You learn something new everyday. Tonight in class I began to work with Toby on his sits. They are very lazy looking! Slumped over with feet sticking out. I just thought that Toby was lazy and that was the way he is suppose to sit. I guess it was me being lazy. The instructor told me that it was just a bad habit and that I would have to work really hard with Toby to get him out of this bad habit. OOPS! But I guess that Toby and I are getting use to correcting things that we have been doing wrong. But that is OK! Toby and I are having fun doing it. Plus I know once we start trialing we are going to be a force to reckon with!

It's a Bird, It's a Plane! Oh No! It's Toby!

Toby and I had class tonight out at BF3. It was a great night for everyone. Boomer got to celebrate taking first place in one of his runs this weekend. Boomer I sure hope you get more first places. Those Cup cakes are out of this world! Dave says "thanks" even though he did not get his all in one piece. I tried! Anyway back to the Tobes. The first run of the night was Tunnel to dog walk. Toby shot out of that tunnel like he had been shot out of a cannon! Up over the dog walk and off up into the air. For a minute I thought he could fly! No, no wings for Toby. He crashed to the ground unhurt and happy to be running agility again. Once I managed to put my heart back in my chest everything was OK. From there we worked on running some small sequences with the jumps dog walk and tunnel. We worked a couple of 180's. We learned about where to pick our dogs up after an obstacle to make sure they are square for the next obstacle. I guess that is why Toby flew off the dog walk. Instead of waiting for him at the tunnel entrance and giving him space to square up to the dog walk I ran over to the dog walk causing Toby to turn towards me and hit the dog walk at a not so good angle. I will definitely watch that from now on! Half way thru the class we moved into the barn. There we worked on turns and changes of direction. The most important thing of the night was that Toby did not do one single zoom. He came to me when I called him. I don't think my big guy likes to sit and watch the other dogs have fun while he is in time out. I do need to work on his wait. He just does not want to wait for me to release before running the coarse. After a couple of times of not getting any treat he wised up a bit. I guess this is just going to take some time. Right now all I know is this dog is fast! Can handlers where roller skates in the agility ring?

Class again tonight!

Man! we got to go to class again tonight. I was so glad. It seems that every week we either have rain or snow. Anyway, the beginning of the class was a little rough. Right off the bat Toby broke his start line stay and then went straight into a zoom. I put Toby into a 10 minute down stay and he had to watch all of the other students have fun. He did not like that. He laid there and barked at me. He tried to get up a few times. But I was right there on him. I was boss and he was dog. No question about that! Once he was allowed to play again he settled right down. I think the problem was that tonight I had flying arms. And you know what that means. Toby has no patients for sloppiness in commands. The second half of the class we went out side and I got to work with Elizabeth. She is just so great! Don't get me wrong I love working with Windle also. Windle has patients of a saint. That is something I just don't have and I wish I could get there. Maybe someday I will. Tonight we worked on the weaves. The weaves are not closed just yet but Elizabeth said that Toby had great weaves so far yeah! I think we are starting to make head way.

Thursday night class

Thursday night class was kind of off. It was not Toby this time it was me. Sometimes after a long hard day I find myself struggling to let go of the day and just have fun with Toby. Concentration on Thursday night is extremely difficult. Toby is doing well with his down stay and getting better with the stand stay. The sit stay some how has fallen apart. Toby does not like to sit. I am not sure what it is. But the last couple of weeks Toby slides down during the sit stay. My lazy boy. We have a lot of things we need to work on. The come front has been left behind for some time now so I need to work on that. We still need lots of work on the back. As far as his heeling, I would like to start to getting Toby off of the food and leash. I think this is going to take a little more time before we get there. I think that I am just going to need a little more patients. I guess I want Toby to be very obedient right now. I need to remember that it is not the end result that is so great! It is the journey!

Back on Track!

Last night was our first night at BF3. It was an awesome night. Toby had a blast. And if I might say so did I. We worked on sends thru the tunnel, front crosses out of the tunnel, tunnel thru the weaves, sharp turn from a jump to the dog walk, and the chute. Toby stayed in tune with me the entire night. Toward the end he started to get a little testy. I recognized his look and bark just before he goes into a zoom and was able to head it off. Just marvelous! All I did was bring out his favorite toy and played tuggy with him while we were waiting for our turn. I guess my little guy gets bored easily and I need to change things up a bit to make it more fun. So we made it thru the session without one single zoom! AMEN! We still need to work on the start line stay. Towards the end of the night Toby started to break them. Windle had me test him. I placed in at the start line and I lead out and did a little dance and then return to him for a yummy treat. I did this several times before releasing him to the jump. My class mates got a little laugh out of it. But it works. Toby needs to know that I have to release him before he can have his fun. The contact on the dog walk was awesome! I have been working with Toby to not leave the 2 on 2 off until I use his release word "free" He has been doing very well with that.

It was great to be back with my old class mates. I sure did miss them. However, Pulling Toby out of agility when I did to retrain foundation was the best thing I could do for my big guy. It also helped me to mature into a much more confident handler. And for those who know my Tobsters, he has absolutely no patients for sloppy and late commands! What a CHAP!

Now all we have to do is work on our obedience skills. I have until Thurs to work on the stand stay and the sit stay. I think the problem is that I have had to retrain the stay and the wait. So I think once we get past the transition phase we will be on our way! I will let you all know after class on Thursday.

My skinny boy!

Well, tonight was going to be Toby's first class out at BF3. But because it is snowing! In Texas! In March! Class was called off. We were so looking forward to start training on agility equipment again. Oh well. So instead I loaded the Tobsters into the car and took him shopping. We went to Pet Smart to pick out something to chew on. While we were there I took Toby back to the scale. GREAT NEWS! Toby has lost more weight. He is now 44lbs. He is looking so good! We have been working really hard to get his weight down. At first I thought that 45 lbs would be a good weight. Now I am thinking more like 42 or 43 lbs. For those of you who don't know Toby, he had reached 48 lbs. So as you can see he is not chunky anymore. I am just going to have to wait and see how he looks and feels pound by pound. I think I will know when we reach our goal. My big guy is getting skinny.