Wow sounds like you guys have had some interesting training days. I always enjoy the Michael Ellis videos.
Tonight the dogs and I did a little work.
Bindi- working on the front with the touch pad at eye level. She gets it quick and does well. Tonight she was out of position a couple of times, but since I have been sick haven't worked as much. So, we will do that. Bindi's worst trait is that she thinks she knows what I want before I ask for it. That creates problems because I always interchange what I ask of her. Working on that. We did distance work. WIthout the mark she still creeps. I am looking forward to getting into rally training and hopefully learn how to stop this. Tried tying her up and working her at end of her leash, of course she can't creep forward, but without the leash, she still creeps. We ran back and forth to our mat and mark, did distance sit, down, and stand, did a few tricks to mix it up, like wave, high five, spin, speak, crawl, and then at the end we used the box and she presented the push and scratch behaviors. She gets a real kick out of that.
Cody- the basics, heel, sit, down, wait. Touch, over, through, and then for the fun of it running between mat and mark. We then worked on the box, and tonight Cody offered me the look under the box behavior. Quite the character.
Terra- sit, down, mat, wait. she gets so excited and begins barking. Then we worked on the box. She has quite the different behaviors to offer. the reverse one leg step on the box, the sit with back legs on box, front legs off. the one front leg, the spin and put the two front legs on it. She goes on and on. She started barking too much so we stopped.
Going camping this friday to monday, hope to work on heeling, and use of the long line and recalls.
Keep up the good work! I love reading about your experiences.
Sharon

Worked on polishing the flip finish and quickening her down (which IS NOT working).
We've done the BH pattern at least 18 times in the last 21 days...if she doesn't need a break from it, I do. I'm counting steps in my sleep, and the down still sucks.
The rest of the pattern is pretty stellar. Of course, focus could be better in the "fuss", but we've eliminated the forging and pretty much polished up the changes-of-pace. She doesn't always come all the way to my leg on the flip finish, but it's pbly 95%. It wouldn't bother me in the least if she took the long way on trial day (as she's apt to do once in every twenty attempts, especially at the very beginning of a new session).

Been looking forward to this for six months; now I can't wait for it to be over. I just hope we pass so we can move on.

Well it was a no dog day, aka horse shopping. 3 more of these before I will make a second try. That was 6 hrs in my car and 4 horses, next week it will be 14 hrs and 6 horses. I may send Harley to the agility center but not sure yet. It will depend on who can come and let them out during the day. The who is pretty much just my mom and one boarder but Harley need to e in his crate for the boader to be able to come in.

Dexter is so happy, slept all day fetch the ball now back to sleep.

Harley is on leash as one of my boarder is riding her super spooky horse. We will do some agility ground work as soon as they are done in the arena. Most likely an intense fetch session will be called for before I try any thing with him. Now he is obedient but I can feel the energy in him.

Duane: One thing I did with my dogs to quicken their down was this: Either at the leg or in front of me. I ask for the down, and toss them a treat as soon as they are on the ground. then we run around really acting silly...have a big party! Do it again and again, like a fun game. They love this! Of course my dogs are crazy for anything that is fast and crazy. (they are terriers!)
If your dog is not food orientated maybe do the down, And I even say it fast-down! and as soon as they are down, a toy could come out or anything your dog loves and toss it. Have a party. after this seems fun for them, extend it maybe add more downs with the same intensity. Maybe down! then run and then call them to you. then down, and then run and call them to you. be unpredictable. just a thought. I am not a professional trainer. But I have noticed that the more fun we have the more my dogs love to train and learn so quickly.
That is how I started the basic bunny-heel-hop. To get bindi turned on to the heel. We hop and then have a party (when she sticks close to me) she gets the biggest kick out of this and really enjoys the fun of it.
Hope you achieve your goals in training. sharon

Pet food store outing so a fun ob work out in a high distraction place.

Harley loves going there because he can sample new treats

He did realy well, even a fast down in motion and nice recall, totally ignoring the treat display. Some one walk right over him while he was in a down, not smart to do as there was lots of room to go around but Harley did not budge.
The person got a few words about being stupid.

Did some ob polishing with Dexter. It is ok and reliable.

Harley work on his weaves and some position change at distance then a very nice heel with down in motion. I still have to pause a bit for the sit in motion.

We played fetch this evening, Dexter even once chased the ball and brought it back, so he earn a big reward!

I also try to trow the ball and make Harley wait long enough that he forget where it is. And it can really disapear in the arena footing. That way he has to search for some time and I am starting to think the he know where it is as he run by it look at it but keep going maybe just for fun.

Relaxing. Now that the trial is over, we are spending a few days just hanging out. No club this week as Halloween is on Wednesday.
We'll go back to tracking before work in the mornings after DST ends this weekend.

Congratulations on the BH, Duane! Are you going to post a video?

Thanks. I don't have a video, but it wasn't picture perfect, any way. We still have work to do on focus before we go further.

During the storm was tough so I took him to the covered thing in front of the school. There was a waterfall and I made him go through it like an obstacle for his ball. He hates water like that but he wanted the ball more.