Ok so we live in Iowa....

and I can't find a freaking field to run Falkor in??!!! I drove around for an hour last night trying to find a field/open space that would be good to let Falkor run around in. During the obedience seminar we attended Janice suggested that I find a huge, open place that Falkor can run in and burn off his zoomies. I had thought I had the perfect place scoped out, but when we drove out there last night there was a car blocking the road that lead into the field and since I was out in the boonies I didn't want to drive my car over to the other car to see if anyone was inside. Then we checked out a huge field that is actually a bunch of old soccer fields but we had a ton of rain yesterday and the field was a soggy, muddy mess.

West Des Moines actually has a very nice HUGE dog park, but a lot of really dumb dog owners go there and Falkor doesn't always get along well with large intact male dogs. It's not worth trying to go there and risking a possible dog fight.

I thought it would be really easy to find a big, open field since we live in Iowa for pete's sake!!! I am going to chat with some dog people from my obedience club and see if anyone has any recommendations of places we could try.

We had Rally class on Thursday and our instructor had a really great course for us to work on and Falkor did a nice job. He just LOVES Rally and gets so excited to perform each station. We starting working on the "Moving stand, walk around dog" and we've been practicing it alot since Thursday. We are also working hard on our left pivots which can be hard for a big dog. I need to help Falkor find a happy medium. He will either barely move his butt and scootch into place (usually if he's distracted) or he will do a ginormous leap with all four feet off the floor and usually land in place. LOL I think Falkor's mottos is "Go big, or go home". :)

Fantastic FUN Match!!!

Falkor and I went to a Rally fun match this morning and I am so very glad we went. It was a great experience for both of us. Falkor has only been to the building where they held the match a few times before today...we did agility classes when he was younger but they were held outside. So the building was a mostly unfamiliar place for him which is exactly what we need.

I am SOOO disappointed because when I pulled in the parking lot I remembered I forgot my darn Flip camera. :( I really wanted to video tape our runs!

The first course was very nice with a good flow and many challenging stations. Falkor was VERY up when we started our run and I was worried he might try to zoom but I was able to reign him in and our run went well. Even though Falkor can be a *little* more enthusiastic while working than maybe he should be, I MUCH prefer that instead of him being totally stressed and wigged out. The dog I had in the ring today is the happy, energetic worker that I had before the anxiety/freak out issues surfaced. I am just tickled pink about that!!

The second course was also very nice and Falkor was still very happy and energetic during the run. It was cracking me up because we had a few left pivot and left finish stations and Falkor would actually LEAP in the air to get back into heel position. We had a few people in the crowd cheering and clapping for us, which Falkor totally ate up! Such a show off. ;)

Now if we can have performances like we did today the next time we compete in Rally we will be set!! Hey it never hurts to hope right???? ;)

Blog Slacker Again!

Sheesh I have been majorly slacking on my blogging lately. I really need to get back to it because it helps me keep more organized with my training. Something I REALLY need to make an effort to do.

I haven't posted about the awesome seminar we went to during the July 10th weekend. Our local club hosted a competition obedience seminar with Janice Gunn, who is an amazing trainer out of Canada. I got a working spot with Falkor and it was a fantastic weekend! I would highly recommend her to anyone that gets a chance to go to one of her seminars. Janice is an awesome presenter and a very down to earth person. We had a lot of working time in the ring which was great and I feel like I learned a lot. We even got some one on one training time with her to focus on Falkor's zoomie issue. Of course he didn't zoom in the building so Janice could see exactly what he does, but she gave me some very helpful suggestions about things to try with him. She also suggested that I find a BIG open place where I can take Falkor to just run and run. I've scoped out a few places around here and as soon as this awful heatwave breaks we are going to give it a try.

Janice has a specific system that she uses to teach heeling and I am going to try it with Falkor. Heeling is my weakness and I think her system will help us get a good foundation started. I also hot a ton of ideas for teaching higher level exercises and we have started working on broad jump training and go out training.

Falkor was a very good boy at the seminar and wow was he tired by Sunday night. LOL I was interested to see how he was going to do because he is not comfortable being crated at the club. He has no problems with being crated at home or in the car but he doesn't always do well when we are away from home. So I took his giant soft crate and a HUGE rolled rawhide bone to hopefully keep him busy while he was crated. It worked like a charm and he had no problem being crated when we weren't working in the ring. It was a big relief for me. Although our problem isn't totally solved because I tried to crate him at the club on Monday while I had Famke in class and he was acting like a ding dong in the crate the entire time! We'll work on it!

We are currently in a an Advanced Obedience class and we just started a Rally class this past Thursday. He was VERY *up* during class on Thursday and it was great to see all that enthusiasm and excitement. I just need to be able to harness that energy a wee bit. :)

We have a Rally fun match tomorrow (WOO-HOO!!!) at a local training center and I am just thrilled. It's been really hard to find or get to fun matches around here and that is what we desperately need. I am going to try to bring my Flip camera and mini tripod and tape our runs tomorrow.

Ughh the heat is KILLING ME!! The way our house is set up makes it hard for me to train inside, with the exception of stays and stationary things, and its been too bloody hot to train outside. It's well into the 80's with 100% humidity at 7 in the morning!!