Dog show babble.
Storm and I have a show on the second, and we just got the premium list (a pamphlet that details out who is showing at what time in which ring with how many other dogs) in the mail today.
Holy crap, we're up against a lot of dogs. We have 15 dogs in Open Obedience (starting at 8AM, and we're one of the first teams slated), 18 dogs in Advanced Rally, and 24 dogs in Excellent Rally (which also starts at 8AM, but it looks like we're one of the later teams to go. Besides, we can get bumped up if need be due to schedule conflict). This is a large number of dogs for all three rings, so it looks like Storm and I will have our hands full keeping ahead of everyone. Unless I screw him up royally, Storm will get his first leg towards his RAE title (Rally Advanced Excellent - the highest Rally title possible). I'd still like to place with him, though.
The Open Obedience ring, however, probably won't see too many qualifiers - it is much harder and far more formal than Rally. Storm is SO CLOSE to qualification - we've gotten the separation anxiety out of the way, and we've been working on the retrieval over jump. The problem with the latter is that I had taught him the behavior (jump and retrieve), but not the concept of jumping and retrieving over whatever I choose to send him over. We've been working on that and he did well the other day. He's also been dropping on his Long Sit, which is a new one for him. He's supposed to Sit for three minutes - well within his ability - but he's picked up the nasty habit of going into a Down while I am out of the ring. We'll drill that this week, too.
I think that we'll say that, in addition to staying in the ring for the Long Sit/Down, doing either one of the behaviors I've mentioned above will be a huge success. Qualifying would be amazing, and placing would be even better.
We'll see, though.
I've started on a new medication - Lamictal - which is replacing the Abilify. Both of these medications are mood stabalizers. The Lamictal is cheaper (woo!) and will hopefully work better than the Abilify, which sent me into a crushing depressed state the week before last. The only bummer is that it takes a while for this stuff to work, and I hope that I can keep up the small amount of work I've been able to do.
Storm got a full groom and bath today. He's been moody lately, and I'm hoping that this will help. He's taken to barking at other dogs while on lead, and I'm wondering whether he has become protective of me due to the service dog stint that he is doing for me OR because my mood has been off lately. He hasn't been on vest in about a week (this is OK; I haven't tried any new foods) and I've been trying to take him to pet stores to greet other dogs. He has quite a bark on him, though, so it's a little dramatic when he decides to speak up. I've been having bad dreams about his behavior, too, so that doesn't help me at all.
That is all I have to say right now.
Sarah
Also:
~
~
~
~
~
Holy crap, we're up against a lot of dogs. We have 15 dogs in Open Obedience (starting at 8AM, and we're one of the first teams slated), 18 dogs in Advanced Rally, and 24 dogs in Excellent Rally (which also starts at 8AM, but it looks like we're one of the later teams to go. Besides, we can get bumped up if need be due to schedule conflict). This is a large number of dogs for all three rings, so it looks like Storm and I will have our hands full keeping ahead of everyone. Unless I screw him up royally, Storm will get his first leg towards his RAE title (Rally Advanced Excellent - the highest Rally title possible). I'd still like to place with him, though.
The Open Obedience ring, however, probably won't see too many qualifiers - it is much harder and far more formal than Rally. Storm is SO CLOSE to qualification - we've gotten the separation anxiety out of the way, and we've been working on the retrieval over jump. The problem with the latter is that I had taught him the behavior (jump and retrieve), but not the concept of jumping and retrieving over whatever I choose to send him over. We've been working on that and he did well the other day. He's also been dropping on his Long Sit, which is a new one for him. He's supposed to Sit for three minutes - well within his ability - but he's picked up the nasty habit of going into a Down while I am out of the ring. We'll drill that this week, too.
I think that we'll say that, in addition to staying in the ring for the Long Sit/Down, doing either one of the behaviors I've mentioned above will be a huge success. Qualifying would be amazing, and placing would be even better.
We'll see, though.
I've started on a new medication - Lamictal - which is replacing the Abilify. Both of these medications are mood stabalizers. The Lamictal is cheaper (woo!) and will hopefully work better than the Abilify, which sent me into a crushing depressed state the week before last. The only bummer is that it takes a while for this stuff to work, and I hope that I can keep up the small amount of work I've been able to do.
Storm got a full groom and bath today. He's been moody lately, and I'm hoping that this will help. He's taken to barking at other dogs while on lead, and I'm wondering whether he has become protective of me due to the service dog stint that he is doing for me OR because my mood has been off lately. He hasn't been on vest in about a week (this is OK; I haven't tried any new foods) and I've been trying to take him to pet stores to greet other dogs. He has quite a bark on him, though, so it's a little dramatic when he decides to speak up. I've been having bad dreams about his behavior, too, so that doesn't help me at all.
That is all I have to say right now.
Sarah
Also:
~
~
~
~
~