1 Nightmare, 2 Good Days

Saturday night, I had "the nightmare" again. I wonder if other owners of DM dogs have this dream? See, when the disease first presented itself in Blitz it did so with a tiny bald spot, and each day it grew dramatically until he had no hair on his face, it fell out over all his knuckles on his feet and he was covered with blood blisters. It was horrifying. He fortunately recovered from the initial outbreak and while he grew lots of hair back, when he has another setback I discover it by chunks of hair falling out. So, I dream that he comes out of his crate each morning completely hairless. The sad part of this dream is if he lives long enough, eventually it will be true. But for now he has most of the hair on his back and sides and some on his face. Anyway had to write it down to see what brings on these dreams, if there is a pattern.
Now on to the fun part! We had a fun match on Sunday and I brought Moto and Blitz. Blitz was so happy to get out and do some work. With absolutely no training whatsoever he only missed the first halt (didn't stop, came to front) but heeled like the Tennessee Walker style he has which is so flashy and pretty. He never missed at all with his attention which was lovely. It was so much fun to have him out there and he was so happy to be working again.
I put Moto in the sit stays before taking him into the ring. He was perfect on his sit (on leash, me six feet away). But on the down he decided to challenge me by downing but rolling onto one hip. He struggled a bit but finally gave in to a nice straight down and we got in about 1.5 minutes of the long down.
When warming up Mr. Moto, for the ring he was his usual "ho-hum" self (ARGH) so I put on the micro prong collar. Fortunately that was all it took, he remembered the correction. So into the ring we went! We did some round ring heeling and he managed to keep his head up most of the time which I richly praised and rewarded with food. We didn't do a sit...one issue at a time please! Stand for exam was fine as was the recall. Moto gave a good effort so I was pleased with some progress.
Then this morning was the best in a long time! Moto was very up and we did pivot drills with good attitude AND accuracy. Heeling was good too! Again not many sits, just walking in circles, a change of pace (fast, his issue) and he did it and had great attitude and attention. I was absolutely thrilled. We did some nice recalls and I reinforced the down. The finishes are really coming along, especiall the "around" finish. All good!
Tomorrow is our lesson. I need to be careful and not push too hard, I don't want to undo the positive work I've done these past few days. I think (hope) he is getting it!