A few weeks ago during one of our nightly (well, maybe not exactly nightly but we do try to train nearly every night) I enlisted the help of both my Mom and my Dad. Dad was choosing and holding up the Rally signs for us to work on and Mom was holding the full length mirror (big girl + very small dog means I can’t really see where she is in relation to perfect heel position without getting myself completely out of position).
As we were working my Dad made a comment,
“You know, you’re really lucky that you’ve got a dog that absolutely LOVES all this stuff.”
And she does. She absolutely LOVES training. Whether we’re doing obedience or tricks, she just really enjoys working with me. And I am lucky. To have such a drive-y dog in such a small package. A dog who will respond above and beyond my expectations. People ask me all the time “Why does she just keep staring at you? How do you get her to do that? Did you train her to keep her eyes on you at all times?” We just work that well together. We are a team.
The only thing holding us back from dominating the dog sport world is our location. There is NOTHING down here. Our nearest obedience club is more than two hours away. No one has ever heard of earthdog or canine freestyle. Sure some people enjoy throwing a ball or frisbee for their dog or teaching them to down and stay but no one wants to pursue any of that as a sport and actually compete. But I love this stuff. Thankfully so does my dog.
So yes, I am lucky to have such a ready and willing dog. And I will take her as far as I possibly can even with our current limitations. She is everything you could ever want in a performance dog. And I am very very lucky that she loves this “stuff” so much, because so do I.
Maybe it was the Hurricane. Or the fact that she’s been a total DEVIL today (more on that later). But whatever it was, Mackenzie was more ON tonight in our training than she’s been in a long time.
Because of the Hurricane, I got the day off today. Throughout the day we’ve been to my Nan’s house (my Mom’s mom), my Grandma’s house (Dad’s mom), my Aunt’s house (Mom’s sister: who is in NYC for the summer with her daughters – my cousins – and my Uncle), and various other streets to assess the damage that Dolly did.
This morning when we went to my Grandma’s houses Dad had the brainy idea to take Mackenzie. I won’t go into all the details (imagine the worst YOUR dog has ever been and multiply that by at least 3x) but needless to say, Mackenzie was horrible. I imagine it was partly our fault because we were nervous about what we would find, and while we were driving there was a lot of “OMG look at that! Look over there! What happened at that house?” and so on (remember Mackenzie is a highly reactive hunting-type dog so any mention of “LOOK WHAT’S THAT OVER THERE” gets her going). So we probably added to her being nervous and excruciatingly whiny and trying to jump out windows (I would roll down the windows to take pictures which I may or may not post in this blog).
Once we got to Nan’s house it was evident that we really should not have brought her. There was broken glass on the driveway, a horrible Basset Hound chained up across the street who barked for the entire time we were there, and TONS of bugs and mosquitoes, not to mention a lot of work for us to do.
Anyway, we cleaned up and finally made it home after threatening to leave Mackenzie on the streets with a pair of mean stray dogs who chased our car on the way to my other Grandma’s house. The rest of the day was spent at my Aunt’s house (without the dog) trying to clean up their flooded living room where my brother slipped and fell on some wet tile. So all in all it’s been an awful day.
This evening after we got home from my Aunt’s house we were sitting in the living room and Mackenzie was on the sofa with my Mom on one side and my Dad on the other. Beethoven (her worst enemy) was laying under the coffee table near my Dad’s feet. My Mom got up to get my brother an ice pack for his back and Dad decided to get up at the same time. In what seemed like slow motion, Mackenzie took a flying leap off the sofa and onto Beethoven’s neck in a flurry of fur and teeth. I yelled at her to stop (believe me, this happens nearly once a week with those two so we’re used to it just being a lot of noise and white fur) but this time she was really into it and didn’t want to let go.
After a few moments she let him go and I grabbed her and escorted her to her crate for a cool down. Once I closed the door to the crate I told her she was a DIABLA (devil).
Fast forward a couple of hours (after all of that I really needed a nap) and we had our evening training session. A few sessions ago I was really starting to stress out about her crooked fronts and sloppy finishes but apparently she’s been studying because she was totally tight and clean tonight.
At our last training session we brought out the target stick (which I hold in my mouth so that I can keep my hands at my sides) and she was cleaning up her fronts and finishes, but even then I had no idea what to expect today (especially with the way she’s been acting today and the Hurricane yesterday). What I got was this incredible dog who was actually coming close enough to me in her fronts to actually bump my leg! In previous sessions we had been having a lot of trouble with her even coming close enough at all, now she was actually TOO CLOSE! Obviously we don’t want her front paws on my feet or her nose bumping my leg at a trial, but I would much rather work on that then have a dog who comes front and sits 3 feet away from me.
We worked all the Novice Rally signs and she was totally brilliant. The cones exercises are going to be a problem though. I get quite dizzy watching such a short dog while we’re heeling around those damn cones. After the Spiral-Dog Inside sign I need a few seconds to get my bearings back or else I would probably be on the floor with her. Other than my problems, Mackenzie was definitely clean on everything. Fast Forward from Sit might get her a little bit crazy because sometimes that’s how we end our sessions, but we’ll work on maintaining control after that sign. All in all, her fronts and finishes were absolutely brilliant. It was probably one of our best sessions (especially given the circumstances).
And in the best news of the night, she finally did what I would consider a solid flip finish. 
She got jackpotted and hopefully she’ll keep trying it.
I haven’t written in a while and while I have no obvious or substantial reason for this, I do have a reason. I’ve been very busy. Now busy in the world of Jen may not entirely be the busy many of you may think of when you choose the word busy to describe someone’s days. But nevertheless, I’ve been busy.
First and foremost in my busy days has been working with Mackenzie. We’re having a few issues with some (hopefully) easily fixable things, but they are becoming increasingly troubling because of how close our trial is and how many of them have come out of nowhere (or so it seems). We’ve also been busy with home repairs including painting the hallway (twice), choosing a new carpet (because Beethoven has ruined the old one), I got a new badass bookcase for all my dog training and behavior books, and Spencer has a bacterial skin infection (loosely called Ringworm).
I haven’t decided if I want to fully make this a training journal or not, but if I’ve got some time and energy (I think I’m coming down with something – Texas tomato salmonella maybe? I do love my SALSA!) I’ll write out the specific issues we’re having including but not limited to:
Recall/Finishing herself early (bypassing the Front)
Down-ing herself during long Sit/Stay
Croooooooked fronts
She is such a clever girl though. And her heeling is breathtaking these days. She’s made some good progress in her swing finish (it’s almost a FLIP …almost) and she’s looking really tight. So for now we’ll end on that note and maybe write more training details later.
