Forgot to mention a couple of things

Video of Tara playing with dogs (the little one Freddy is a hairless crested) at Shirley's house.

First off I forgot to mention Tara and I's major stand-off we had on Thurs. Little brat. She's not perfect all the time anymore! We were training at a rest area in NH on our way back up to Maine and I was walking the dogs individually. So I asked Tara to down for me and she wouldn't. She wouldn't look at me, she kept turning her head not to make eye contact, and sniffing the breeze and completely ignoring me. I waited and waited and waited. I've been taught not to repeat commands, because there is no need. A dog can hear a bag crinkle clear across the house, they can hear you say a word directed at them. Especially when they were paying attention to when you asked! I also will not force a dog into position. No leash corrections. No yelling. Just patience, which let me tell you is really hard for a long period of time to maintain, especially when you know she knows what you asked, and you know you look like an idiot standing in the middle of the lawn staring at the ground, waiting for your dog to down. But I waited, I blocked her view with my body of the most interesting things, i.e. people and dogs walking by. She was not going to be allowed to move from the spot we were in until she complied. If she had done iteagerly, I was going to reward the behavior, but since she didn't her reward for compliance would be the ability to move freely again. Not that I was holding her leash tight, or she was trying to leave, or anything, but I stepped in front of any hint of movement away from "the spot". : ) So we waited. A few minutes passed and I asked her to down again. Still no down. I honestly think I asked her about 5 times for a down and I think it took about 10 mins of standing (her actually sitting most of the time) for her to down. As soon as she did, I released all "pressure" (again -- there was no physical pressure at all) on her, praised her and let her go explore again. Phew! 10 minutes for one lousy down! A down that she can do anywhere, pretty much anytime I ask, because we practice everywhere we go and we go lots of places because she is always, and I mean always, with me. Stubborn adolescent puppy! So I had already decided, while waiting that we were not leaving the rest area until we could have a few quick response, rewardly downs occur. So after a couple minutes of exploring again, and yes she had already done both, so it had nothing to do with that, I asked again. This time it took about half as long, maybe 5 minutes or so for a down to occur. The next couple took about 2 mins each, and by the end we had rapid, rewardly downs going. So we happily returned to the car doing fun heelwork, spins, practicing halts, etc, things that Tara likes alot, along the way. So it all ended on a fun positive note, and once in the car she got her breakfast in her kongs, so that was even more of a reward. (We have been driving up to Maine on Thurs, very early in the morning, leaving Gemini before 7am, so this was about 8am or a little before that all this occurred) So yeah 25-30 mins of serious work at a rest area. Crazy Tara, she knows how to down, but I needed to make sure that she understood that just because she pulled this stubborn crap that its not going to make her not have to comply. She always has to comply, especially if we are planning on doing this competitively. I want her to always think that she has a choice, but that it is much more rewarding to do what I ask for than anything else she might choose.

I also wanted to write about our afternoon that day at Petco. We don't go to Petco's that often, as I don't shop there, I only shop really at mom and pop pet stores, and usually only ones that don't sell any animals, cause I don't like to support pet store pets of any kind, so Tara has probably only been to Petco 3 or 4 times in her little life. But anyway, we trained some more there working on heeling and lots and lots of downs, seeing as how that is what she had trouble with in the morning, and we were quite successful. She was really, really good there. In fact she was pretty much back to perfect little Tara, after her morning "outburst", lol. She was very fun with the small animals, wagging her tail like she wanted to play with them, and I'm sure she did want to play with them, but her recall away from all the little critters was perfect. So she was a very good girl at Petco.

So tonight we have our last rally class (yikes!) before the trial, we've really crammed for this trial, we've only gone to 3 classes of rally! So we (read me!) are very nervous about this weekend. I go back and forth on whether I think we might get a leg or not. : O I have to remember I am doing all of this to have fun, and she's just a puppy, and having fun is the most important thing... so I'll try. I would never be mad if she didn't comply, mostly I'll just be mad at myself for a) entering her at such a young age and with little prep or b)not practicing with her enough, or something. So we'll see. You all will be the first to know how it goes... : ) C ya.