Missed yesterday cause I was too sick. Still not great today but got one session in anyway. I put out a bowl of roast beef for a distraction to get her to concentrate more and it worked beautifully. I also got Don to jiggle that bowl in front of her as we did some heeling, for an "I can't believe you did that exercise". Her heeling is getting to be much better and she has much better attention now. Each time she went for the food I was able to give her a correction and then a click and treat and it worked very nicely. She was stuck to me after that. Her visiting the judge is a potential problem as she is way too friendly. We did several more stand for exams and Don noticed a big improvement in that.
The signals were excellent....she missed one sit signal but overall very nice.
Retrieve over the high jump was done very well even with the proofing exercises and on the flat is too easy for her. I am heeling off occasionally so she does not learn to anticipate the retrieve.
The greatest improvement for today is in the scent articles. I had tied 3 on long strings the last time and she does try and pick those up but she only did that once today....for the other 5 retrieves she used her nose so I think she is only a week or two from having them off of the board if I do the work with her.
Her fronts and finishes are always a work in progress but she does have better F & F than the boys and Addie did.
I am using a clothes peg on my Home Depot caddy bag so she gets a c/t for touching that so I keep her coming in close to me. My feet help to keep the straight going on.
Not working on the drop on recall right now....waiting till she finishes Novice first.

second session for today....throwing the toy over the broad jump is getting her to level out more and not walk through the boards. She tends to jump to high. And also one other thing about the broad jump....for the first time it is in a different place and different direction so that may have confused her.
This is her second session with three loosely tied scent articles amid the 4 securely tied. She is having a bit of a time figuring this out but will, I know.
Directed jumping is going awesome.....as long as I say over and not jump like it did with the other three. She has a better understanding of over from the time on the fetch table as a babe and also from the field work. She is doing them at about 12 feet apart....needs to get wider but that is as much as I can get in the shelter.
Retrieve over the high jump going very well....no matter where I throw it....and she is right sided so have to remember to do left side throws in the ring so she is approaching the jump in the center on the way back. The glove is good....I used a smaller one this time and she retrieved it fine amid all the toys and fluffs on the floor.
The signals is going moderately well and will be great eventually but right now working best from about 1 meter away.
I also did some close and scoot work tonight which I have not done a lot of for some time.

Dec 29th. A long time since I posted anything here...obviously I am very bad at this.
An update is therefore needed.
Glory now has her tracking dog title, her junior hunter and her working certificate. She has one leg on her CD that she got in Halifax at the specialty and she is at 8 points for her Championship. She got 4 points at the booster in Halifax.
So we are now concentrating for the winter on obedience and handling drills for senior hunter.
She is doing very well at obedience....
I started using a toy to toss over the broad jump so she will keep doing that well. She has never walked on it before but today after months of doing the broad jump...she tried walking through the boards. Everything else seems to be going much faster than with the other utility dogs that I have trained. She does lovely signals with the clicker and she is doing a great recall. She does a very nice Drop on recall but I am not doing that as much lately so we maintain the straight recall for Novice. I have registered her with both AKC and with NAMBR so that we can compete in those events in preparation for CKC. She has been doing the articles well on the board. Started today with some tied loosely to the board so she has to use her nose a bit more that before. Her stand is still not the greatest but with Don home for the holidays he has been helping me a bit more with that. She has a tendency to sit when I go back to her as well....so working on that as well.
Retrieve on the high jump is pretty much proofed and even with off hand throws to either direction she will still take the jump coming and going....so that is going really well. Still tightening up heeling as well and want to do some more of that with the "I can't believe you did that!" routine. That might help a bit.

BEST OF BREED

On Saturday July 9, Glory went Best of Breed in Oxford County Shows from the open bitch class defeating two male specials and one other open bitch. One of the specials was the #1 Flatcoat in Canada....a gorgeous dog himself....so we are pretty pleased with her performance. Even more than that she was a happy self confident girl and loved to show.
This weekend July 17 she is back to working as she is in a Hunt Test for her try at her second leg.

Too long

It has been a year and a busy one at that, since I wrote anything about this dear little girl. Over the last year Addie got one Utility leg, Robbie passed away (still hard to think about that one) and I had surgery for cancer.
But we now have a wonderful beautiful retrieving little darling that is finally starting to behave a bit.
She is going to handling classes and doing better with that.