Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope everyone had a nice day with family and friends - or a day of peace and quiet if that is what you opted for.

This year "The cluster" aka the Springfield dog show (obedience, conformation, rally and agility) took place the weekend before Thanksgiving. Usually this 4 day show takes place Thanksgiving weekend. I took Steeler up this year to see friends that were down competing in agility and the conformation ring. Steeler did great with all the commotion! He spent some time watching his spotty friends run in agility and a couple of classmates as well. Then we went out for dinner with the crew from Maine. It was a long day - but nice to see everyone.

Then on Sunday we went up to run thrus at the training center. I am trying to get food out of my hands as I think that I have been using it as a crutch (more for me than steeler) for too long. So we are working through some training issues, and I am trying to incorporate some toys into our training routine outside the house. Here at home Steeler will do almost anything for a chance to chase a toy.

Here is some video from our novice run thru. I actually taped the Stays as well - just because I am always curious about watching the dogs body language.




We also did two Rally run thru's since Steeler is officially entered in his first APDT Rally trial next month. Actually he is entered in THREE trials! All in one day! OH boy! So I thought we should work on some rally stuff on leash. One of his all time favorite persons was at run thrus that night - so we started out a little bit distracted. For some reason - every time he sees Linda he goes NUTS. And it's not like he sees her very often. We were in class together a couple of times, and she was nice enough to take a look at his skin one time after class. That's it! But that's ok - I would rather have to work through thinking people are great than the "there's a dog out there" anxiety. :-) So here is some Rally run thru's for your viewing pleasure. I do have to say that I did feel like we were a bit disconnected ... but the run got better as we went along.





So that is our training update for last weekend. Soon I have some video to post from our agility class on Wednesday night.