fire and control

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.