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  1. #11
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Whoa. That sounds like a swell Spring you're having up there. It rained here yesterday... sort of spitting rain, but warm. The sun came out and it became sweltering. Then, today, it was cold again with a wind that was honestly blowing me backwards. I felt like such a dork trying to throw a bumper where it was supposed to go. If I tried throwing it gently, it got caught in the wind and ended up too short. If I tried harder, I lofted it and it fell behind me.

    The water temperatures, however are quite warm (felt sorta like a tepid bath when I reached down to pull a bumper out of some weeds) so they are swimming their dogs without a problem.

    I got some wonderful visual help on how to give angle backs and straight backs. It made such sense when I saw it demonstrated. So if you see you're going to need a straight up, you set your feet apart, then as you raise your hand up (yes... touching your ear) you bring your feet together so it looks like you're launching UP. Or if you're going to do an angle, you begin it with feet more together and move the appropriate foot to the side just a little. When it was shown to me, it gave me a great mental picture.

    She is a LOT better behaved on line now and moving with my leg (therefore, I really have to think about where the leg is, because now she's noticing it!) Her butt is staying within an inch or two of the ground. They don't care a fig about her little squeaks, so I'm more relaxed about it.

    Her whistle sit is loopy, and even though she is a fast, leggy dog, they think she ought to be more precise. So I think tomorrow they'll give me some drills to address it. Then I'll have another day of training with them on Monday and get on the road early Tuesday morning.

    The lady with whom I've been spending the most time has been working with Bill Hillmann for over 8 years. (Can you imagine!) She's terrific. Very, very, very patient. I'd love to come back down maybe the next winter or early spring.

    BTW: Rocket Dog is a one-sided dog. I've seen a lot of great applications where it would be great to have her be two-sided. But at the same time, I've noticed that their young high rollers seem to get nutted up because they want to pick which the side they want to run from. (Ends up being quite a dog-handler tango.) Not an issue for us now. It's been baked into this cake already. I'm not sure what I'd want to do with my next pup.

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to TuMicks For This Useful Post:

    barry581 (04-15-2018)

  3. #12
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    I am so happy to see how well things are going for you and RD!!! Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress!

  4. #13
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Mar 2015
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    Everyone down here is incredibly impressed by Branna and can't believe my beginner's luck in finding her. She has drive, will work for the joy of it, can mark (though I've sadly neglected giving her the instruction she's needed) and is smart. I've been told she is smarter, more intelligent than some of the FC's they've trained. And here is the kicker. They would like to wring my neck for having spayed her. If I could give her her ovaries back to her, they would want to see her bred in a New York minute to have one of her puppies.

    But things work out the way they are supposed to and we are where we are.

 



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