Wow, long time, no type!
I didn't have class the past two weeks, one I missed for graduation and one of my trainers was sick last week. Anyway, we finally had class last night, so it's time for the weekly report (I know, you've all been sitting at your computers twiddling your thumbs, unsure of what to do without an update :P)!
So, there was only one trainer, myself, and another member there last night. Not sure where the rest of the members were, though it was storming pretty hard yesterday, so maybe that kept them away. I drove right into the storm on the way in, now I may be weird, but I absolutely love thunderstorms! And the lightening gave me quite a show on the way, gorgeous!
Now, that being said, I do NOT like being outside in thunderstorms with Miss Izzy. She is a pain in the butt and refuses to go number 2. So we walked around the grass outside of the training center in the pouring rain staring each other down. Izzy convincing me she doesn't have to go and promising not to go in the training center, and me absolutely not falling for it.
I'm going to stop here and say that Izzy was already not on my list of favorite beings for the day. Earlier somebody in my family (though none will admit it) had left the gate into the back of the house down and Izzy ran back and helped herself to some litter box treats. Izzy, not sure if I've mentioned this before, has an extremely sensitive stomach and litter box snackies are just about as bad as it gets with her. I'm talking days of torture with her not feeling well and having bad diarrhea, which of course gets all over her fluffy pants, and thus we have to get in the bath and get washed off after every tip outside. Like I said, not on my list of favorite beings at the moment.
So we went inside when I was sure that she wasn't going to go to the bathroom outside. While we were setting up the equipment Izzy's ball work had come up and I ran something by the trainer that I had been thinking of for a bit now. Izzy has definitely been improving on her ball work, but she seems to have a problem being able to drop the ball into my hand. She knows that she needs to get the ball in my hand in order for me to click, but she has trouble judging the distance and space to actually accurately get the ball in my hand (if that makes any sense). She will proceed to pick it up, drop it, pick it up, drop it, etc. to try and get it in my hand, but it frustrates the snot out of her and eventually she will shut down. Not very progressive in training. Now, a similar topic came up on a flyball list I am on, and they mentioned using a bucket. So, the new plan is to teach Izzy that she needs to drop the ball into the bucket in order for me to click. I figure the larger opening and the clarity of the ball needs to be in the bucket will definitely help up and speed up our ball work.
Then the trainer decided to try something new to make Izzy even more interested in the ball, which of course I am all about! So she brings out her adorable sheltie and tells me to play fetch with her dog with Izzy right there and maybe she will get jealous when I am praising, paying attention to, and giving treats to the other dog. At first she is all about me having cheese (not something she gets a lot of) and trying to jump up on me to give her the cheese while I'm throwing balls for the other dog and giving that dog treats. In minimal time she gets tired of this crap and decides to go explore the building. So here I am, acting a fool whenever this other dog brings me a ball and Izzy is like "You are nuts lady, seriously off your rocker... and just for the record I hate you for giving that dog cheese, you will pay."
After roughly ten or so minutes of her ignoring me and this other dog, she wanders over and walks over to the ball and sniffs it. YAY! Kisses and cheese and pets and praises galore for teh Izzeh! (she of course only cared about the cheese). Then she decides that was nice but searching for discarded treats around the facility is much more rewarding and can be done without having to listen to me, so off she goes again, and I play ball with the other dog again. She eventually wondered back again and after eyeing the other dog up she runs for the ball when I throw it and picks it up. Massive CHEESEFEST! And we stopped on that good note.
The rest of the class was mostly spent working on passing. The plan was that I would set up Izzy in a sit stay behind the second or third jump and then stand behind the start line and call her, then the other lady who came would release her BC to go down the lane, grab the tennis ball off the chute (behind which the trainer was standing and loading), and come tearing back the lane. We ran into a problem. Izzy decided that stays were way overrated and she just really didn't need to listen to them. She's such an objectionable little brat. So instead I would put her in the stay, take a few steps back, then turn and hoof it in the other direction and she would run after me. Not only was I mad that she wouldn't listen to her stay command, but I also had not signed up for physical participation. After all, isn't Izzy supposed to be the one running around like a fiend? Apparently not. We are definitely working on stays before next class *grumbles*
Anywho, that was pretty much all we did last night.
On a good note, always end on a good note, while we were working the member came in with the dog that Izzy tried to attack last week. She did great, no teeth or snarling, they even sniffed hello before Izzy begged some treats from the owner (which of course she got *sigh*).
Now, I need to go give Izzy a bath, she looks bad. O.o
