Thanks Laurie!

We are moving into training high gear for 2009. After seeing my friend Laurie's video of her pup who is close to Moto in age I realized we have really been missing the mark. Then, at the sho n go a gal with her Golden puppy who is only 1 month older than Moto was showing him in Utility. Geez, and we still didn't even have a retrieve. I was pretty embarassed by my laziness.
But I'll back up a bit. We did start training again, and I was getting frustrated with the dumbbell....again. Everything else is coming along nicely. At the sho 'n' go Saturday, Shiloh really struggled and his rustiness showed. He missed the first article, went crooked on his go-outs. His attitude was good, but even with 2 years off he is not foaming at the mouth to return to the ring. I'll keep training him but I'm not so sure I want to show him..."for fun". Blitz did good, he too was a little rusty but he was so thrilled to be in the ring. Now, if only his health would hold, he'd be a GREAT dog to show "for fun".
The most exciting part was - Moto! His attention was absolutely fantastic. He really put a LOT of attitude and effort into his performance. Particularly thrilling for me was the figure 8, when he drove nicely on the outside and slowed a bit to remain in position on the inside turn. WOW. Front and finish were very nice too and need just a tiny bit more tweaking. Really, I think this boy may enjoy being in the ring - a huge bonus!
Now to thanking Laurie - we had a nice long obedience conversation and she reminded me Moto may need some compunction to do the dumbbell. Well sure 'nuff, on went the pinch collar and it worked! First I held the dumbbell above his head and said Take it, had to pop him (no pinch collar yet) and he'd leap to it and take it. Then I did the pinch collar - said Take It and then the pop up with the pinch. He gave a surprised yelp then jumped up and took it. Praise and lots of treats. Dumbbell over his head - Take It...nothing...another pop, a leap up and he took it. More praise and treats. Third time was the charm, no pop, he leapt up and took it! Now lots of praise, lots of treats, and lots of roughhousing with Mom. Just once more to make sure he understood what I wanted and yes, he can leap up now and take the dumbbell. Thanks Laurie!