Indeed, I do. Almost forgot about this spot for awhile... almost. Been catching up on blogs and such; this place had a mini-explosion-for-the-better in my absence. I'd like to start by thanking Bud for mentioning me in one of his blogs; it motivated me to come up with something worthwhile to post. ;D

 Tessie and I have just been keeping in shape and getting ready for our next trial, a USDAA event in just about two weeks from now. We haven't trialed since May due to lack of close USDAA events, so we are ITCHING to get out there. After having to miss a couple of practices due to instructor vacations and personal illnesses, I've realized Tessie runs with much greater enthusiasm when she's gone a little while without working -- I've narrowed this down to "five days off leads to more springing from the spaniel".

 We've got little stuff to work on... she's consistantly over-jumping anything under 22", making Junior Handlers... interesting, to say the least, when she clears a 16" bar with half a foot to spare. She also was completely mis-judging triples in practice on Friday, and my instructor advised me to sit her just in front of the jump and make her stay, then straddle the highest bar of the jump and tap it a bit, then call her over it. It's working very, very well; not just for the triples, but also for single-bar jumps.

She's also a bit goofy on the weaves --  she ran an entire set, doing every-other-pole as she went through, essentially skipping a pole, if that makes sense? She completely blew weaves at the last trial, popping out and skipping random poles, so I've been focusing on fixing that. I think I'll try to force the mother-creature into letting me rent out the ring at my training facility this weekend, just to make sure the weaves are better.

But my best efforts have been going into something a lot of people take for granted: loose leash walking. Tessie, to put it bluntly, is part draft horse -- you're just not looking at her hard enough. This dog can PULL. I'm sick of using a prong collar to create the illusion of a dog that walks politely, and I can't use it at trials anyway. I had to cave in and buy one of those nice, thick, fleece leashes because the nylon and leather leashes tore my hands apart after a weekend trial. It's her worst vice and is a constant reminder of how we didn't start obedience training soon enough(we waited 'til two years), and I've finally decided to DO something about it. Sure, I'd tried little things in the past, but after reading Gottfried Dildei's competitive schutzhund obedience book, I had a better picture and a better idea of how to get what I wanted. "For God's sakes," I remember saying to my boyfriend, "If you can train an eighty pound German Shepherd like that, why can't I train Tessie the same way?" So with an interesting blend of clicker training and competitive schutzhund concepts, I am actually making little teeny steps of progress towards not getting my left arm ripped off every weekend. If anyone's interested in precisely what I'm doing, do let me know and I'd be more than willing to go into it in-depth. I just don't want to bore anyone.

Part of my trainer's 'homework' for the week was to get a journal and to write little notes after each training session. I've yet to head out and pick out a nice little diary for Tessie, but in the meantime, here's what I've just whipped up: http://itsaspringthing.blogspot.com/