Scoop is wild, maybe feral. He looks a lot like the photos at the top of this page, only bigger! I was only gone 5 days but he went south on me while I was in the east. I got home from teaching seminars at Clean Run yesterday afternoon and immediately took him to the field to play and train. Maybe I was too tired and he just thought he could take advantage of my obvious deficit in brain power. He barked his way through teeter, frame and weave training. He was still crazed today even though I got him and the rest of the dog family out for some vigorous exercise in the fields a few times.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that even with him acting like a feral beast, he still had a good sit stay. ha! I think taking him off the course 10 days ago at the show, as well as lots of really high value rewards last week in training made some lasting impression on him. ( i can dream can’t i?)

The weather is bad, every jump in the field was lying on its side when I went out to train this afternoon. Wind and light rain on and off then clearing for tonight’s classes which was nice. I have a show this weekend and want to train lots in the next two days. On the list: dog walk and teeter targeting and proofing; start line rewards, 20 A-frames and no more, lateral distance on weaves. Rain rain go away.

I wish I had time to do some of the fun drills I did at the seminar. Maybe next week. I put up five of the drills I did on the first morning. They are somewhat elementary as that is how I like to start a seminar, but there are a few threadles thrown in because it was a masters level group and I just couldn’t resist. They are at the end of this post, maybe you’ll have time to run them even if I can’t!

I put up a new page on the epilepsy study which can be accessed on the front page of the blog on the right side. The email of the researcher, Allison Ruhe is on the page, and the form you will need to send a bloodwork sample is there too. Just click and it will open up.

The ETS study is on track. The researchers are setting up a web page for information about how to participate, and there is more cool stuff to tell you about in the coming days. Thanks for reading, thanks for participating, thanks for your patience.

I hope you have a great week training your beast this week, even though mine is wild, he sure is fun and I sure do love him.

NJG

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