February 03, 2009

Conformation photos

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Today I recieved a few of the photos I ordered from the conformation show last weekend. These are just scans of the 4x6 photos I ordered, so the quality isn't as good as the originals. I'm still waiting on the larger, posed portrait with the judges and medals we took sunday after the show. I plan to mat and frame that photo and hang his medals on it since it's his very first awards :-)
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This one is pretty cool because all 4 of his feet are off the ground!
We were turning a corner, but this is a decent trot. Because he was turning, his shoulders look lower than his butt:
He crawled up in my lap to watch the dogs in the ring behind us. I think he learned a few things because he did a much better job in the ring after he watched the other dogs! He still thinks he's little, but he's quite a lap full now!
Other than the Freestyle seminar on Saturday, we have kind of been taking a break from daily training since about Tuesday because I have been trying to get caught up on so many other things. I did, however, order a really nice working harness for him which arrived the other day. It's sized for his future adult build, so right now, it's a bit too large for him to use. But I have done a few different sessions in which I reward him for putting his head into it and for wearing it loosely. We also have done a few sessions with the crate games. But that's about it.
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Tonight (well yesterday, since once again it's past midnight :-) we had an advanced class. We worked on reminding the dogs to ignore distractions on the floor (everything from food to toys set around the ring) and then went through a rally course I set up. Since rally is my main focus right now, I'm going to set up a course each week during this class to practice on (probably separate from the advanced class.) I should be able to get a key to the building at the end of the week (or early next week) and then I can work there on whatever I want when it's conveinient. I think that will really help his obedience, rally and freestyle training! I'll be able to use play as a reward without having to worry about how distracting it is for other dogs. We will still take classes to practice around other dogs, but the private sessions will be for polishing known behaviors and learning new things.
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Today we attended a 3 hour meeting for Dog Fest and he was content to quietly chew on a bully stick for most of that time till he took a nap. We did some grocery shopping on the way home too. It's nice not having to worry about getting back home (thanks to the above freezing temps and sun) I was able to clear two tire tracks up the hill on our driveway. The whole top part is still ice, but because it's pretty flat, I haven't had any problems after I get past the little hill. They FINALLY plowed the ice off the road last night after we had a day above freezing that helped melt it a bit. So now there is more road visible than ice, which is a good thing! Of course more snow is predicted for tomorrow and temps well below freezing - oh joy.
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