Back home with our first Senior Ribbon

[Scoutpout]

congratulations! glad you weren't as nervous as you expected!
not in your sense, but in the sense that Scout is "ringwise", i have had to sacrifice a run or two just to get it thru his head that hey, maybe mom CAN do something about my lazy rear while we're in the ring. Its so hard to find "correction matches" for rally. We need more of them, he really is a difference dog in there.
Since you and RD have been working soooo hard on those concepts, I think she would "get it" if you corrected, and then took her off the line. hard pill to swallow for sure after the expense, time and distance, but may be worth it for the long run.

[Charlotte K.]

Congratulations to you and Rocket Dog!

[TuMicks]

Congratulations!!!! So when is the next test???

We will enter Sage Hen's (Suisun City, CA) in mid September. I expect we'll use that one for an object lesson. So... about 85$ to enter and 75$ worth of gasoline. I won't go the night before and stay in a hotel. May hit the road at about 3AM to get there in time.

I so wish we could just charge through 3 more Seniors and (if she didn't break) I know we'd smash them. She is such a spooky good marker and her handling is excellent... (She leaves the line at full-buggy-tilt even on a blind. Which is why I have to put the whistle on her as much as I do. It would only take her an instant to get in big trouble.)

But SH is not the end-goal. My goal is to make it to the Master National before either Rocket Dog or I die. I think we're both still young enough to make it if we do everything right.

[TuMicks]

congratulations! glad you weren't as nervous as you expected!
not in your sense, but in the sense that Scout is "ringwise", i have had to sacrifice a run or two just to get it thru his head that hey, maybe mom CAN do something about my lazy rear while we're in the ring. Its so hard to find "correction matches" for rally. We need more of them, he really is a difference dog in there.
Since you and RD have been working soooo hard on those concepts, I think she would "get it" if you corrected, and then took her off the line. hard pill to swallow for sure after the expense, time and distance, but may be worth it for the long run.

Wow... I think those of us in the field sport end of things have it easier than the Rally and Obedience types. A crazy-@ss field bred lab is pretty easy to understand. It's ducks. End. Of. Story. All we have to do is show the dog the parameters and circumstances under which the retrieve is going to be allowed. Meet these criteria and you can mainline that duck-joy, baby. But things are a little more tangential in these other venues. (Plus... there is so much discipline for the handler in Ob. You have to be somewhat physically coordinated. I tripped on a clod of dirt and and almost face-planted on our walk-up.)

[ZEKESMAN]

Way to go from jr. to sr. in one season! You may want to wait untill your local club has a picnic test. That way you can replicate the excitement of a test but have an e-collar on your dog. That way you can get in a correction. If you want I can p.m. you and tell you about another steadyness drill we do.

[Snowshoe]

Way to go. Meth/duck head, LOL, don't think I've seen that one before.

[Anna Scott]

I know that feeling. M is like a whirling Dervish most of the time and if I just twitch she is off. We have a qual coming up the middle of the month and that will be the last of the FT's. We will them spend two weeks on some real short breaking stuff to get ready for a WCI and X, then 3 senior hunt rest. I am kicking around the idea of entering her in an HRC finished test just to give my old club the entry. We will see how much time I have to work with the shot gun. She is beyond a started and I don't like her chances on the shot walk up in seasoned. So thinking she is running qual and am so she just might handle a finished test. The short birds give me palpitations. Lots of breaking set ups in her future.

[TuMicks]

OMG... there is this super-duper-out-of-this-galaxy high octane dog in our training group who is running Master (and may, indeed qualify for the MN next year.) He is a notorious creeper/dancer/happy-footed guy. He was at a HT where the line was on a dyke and the fliers were dropping at the bottom of the dyke just a matter of yards away. To add to that, the judges were blowing duck-calls behind the line. It just blew his mind. And he was not alone.

This Senior test I had to sit on a bucket. Uh, never done that before. It didn't help her line manners. She was like... "OK. You just sit there and take it easy. I got these."

[Rosy]

I'm so happy for you! Congrats.

[Rogue's_itchin_to_go]

Congrats one day I'll be there
my dog has the same problem with going nuts in the holding blind idk what Ima do in the seasoned test cause you can't have a collar on you dog
what can I do to calm him down
he's good at home but like you said in a hunt test situation dude can't keep it together