Not Giving Up

I don't really want to talk about the trial this weekend.  We were out of sync and she didn't get any Qs in regular GAH.  The video on youtube explains more. 

I hate to keep driving 5 and a half hours to get to Davenport IA for trials, but if we continued with the planned trials Ce would have only 12 more chances to get 9 Qs in regular. SO, to Chrissy's delight (and somewhat mine I guess haha) I will be going to the Daveport trial July 2-3.

Since CeCe had difficulties with hitting the contact on the dog walk this weekend, I am officially training a contact for her!  I googled methods saturday night actually hoping I would find a quick fix for sunday and then go more into training after the trial but no such luck.  I then googled training methods because I still wasnt sure if I should stick to running or not (Chrissy, being biased, thought I should try 2o2o) :P  I dont have a full size dog walk so I thought Sylvia's method wouldn't be the answer.  I happily stumbled upon a sort of target training.  The ultimate goal is to keep the running contact while having her dip her head down in the contact zone.  Im excited to try this out since I have never trained a contact performance before (no Im not lazy I just never saw a need for one) and I don't know what the end result will look like especially since we only have a few months to train it with a few trials thrown in to probably set back the training. :/ 

I started the target training at the trial on sunday first with just the target and then with a square board propped up with the target on the end.  Today we started with just the target again and then with a longer more dog walk type board with the target at the end.  She's definitely catching on and Im begin to see what her dog walk could potentially look like in the end!

Im holding off moving to target to the dog walk this week because of a trial this weekend.  I dont want her to associate the target with the dog walk just yet so she doesn't learn to offer me the behavior only when we are at home.  Im having fun!  We're learning together!

Such is Life

This was my last weekend for hmm FOUR weeks that I was able to sleep in for.  I didn't quite accomplish that task though.  Firstly I have a 40 minute group presentation and also a five minute speech on my banned book due monday.  My group presentation is for the most part on track except for the fact that one group member this whole week has been a handful and an irritation.  When we would reach an official decision on the order of things, videos, or skits he would go off on his own thought and keep suggesting other ways to do things even though we nicely told him we were already set.  Then we assigned him two simple power points and a skit on slang of the 2000s which isnt too hard but somehow he managed to dump one powerpoint on other group members, fail at the skit, and totally trash the other powerpoint.  Now the rest of the group members have to in addition to their slides redo his as well -.- Except somehow I turned out to be the one who picks up the mojority of his slack. OF COURSE!  And now my speech is being neglected..yay can't wait to present it not having it semi-memorized.

Sorry to unload again but Im not one to verbalize drama because drama SUCKS so I just keep it to myself. 
Theres actually a funny story to this blog ready for it?

So I mentioned that this was my last weekend I could sleep in..well option was there and I wanted to but it didn't happen.  At 6 am my mom woke up, saw my light wasnt on (I wake up at 5:45 for school) and yelled "ROBYYYNNN" and still half sleeping I yell "WHAAATT"  "Its 6! You should be up by now!" "ITS SATURDAY" "oh..". When I woke up for the second time at 8:30 I thought I had a nightmare and I was worried I had shouted in my sleep but my mom came to me laughing and retold the story. Sigh isnt she amazing?

If youre still hanging in there...the reason I wont be able to sleep in for the next three weekends is because I have TRIALS! Normally I wouldnt do them back to back to back or even back to back but Im feeling pressured for champs since CeCers didnt make any regular Q's last trial. 
Im super excited for the Davenport trial memorial weekend trial because I get to see my friends and have an amazing time on astroturf with my girly <3

Thanks for reading :P Back to work for me!

Late Night Rambling

It's 1 am and Im blogging..I knew starting a blog would destroy my life.  No actually I celebrated mothers day today since I have a trial this weekend.  I took my mom to chanhassen dinner theatre and saw Jesus Christ Superstar.  Amazing!  Didn't get back until 11, CeCe needed exercise so I ran up and down the block twice and took a shower which made it about 12.  Then I started gathering my things for the trial this weekend since we are leaving right after school gets out and driving 4 hours to des moines!

I didn't start this post to tell you that but I did and it stays.

I did some agility this week to prep for the trial (of course!) and I am quite pleased.  Earlier in the week I gave Ce a lesson on sticking in the poles even if there is a tunnel FIVE FEET from the weave pole exit.  She popped a couple times as to be expected but by the time we finished she was weaving 6 poles consistently again despite the major tunnel temptation. 

The middle of the week I decided to get video.  I wanted to get her back on tweleve poles and tempt with the tunnel again but this time a little further than five feet :P  Also I played around with her distance weaving again which I started earlier this month ever since I saw champs maps just in case ;)

Im super excited for this trial.  I am ready to run my butt off instead of making CeCers do all the work haha.  Im also going to be testing out tunnel/ dog walk discrimination handling since that is something I've been avoiding but is crucial.  I am trying to avoid the over exaggerated "turn 180 and run backwards!" handling method because I dont want to desensitize CeCe to my shoulders, when I move my shoulders I want her to follow them not keep going straight...just my thought.  Rebecca looked like she had a pretty good method so Im going to play around with variations of that.

Side note: we need to get atleast 2/4 Q's in regular this weekend for me to feel like we are still on track for champs!