It's the Claaaaahmb

Since all the grandkids have departed I've really come to miss them. I do enjoy having my house back but it sure was great when they were here. One of the songs they repeatedly asked me to play was the CD of Miley Cyrus and her new hit song "The Climb". I'd hear the tiny pre-teen voices raise when Miley sung the chorus "it's not the mountain, it's the climb" but of course the kids sang "it's the claaaaaahmb".
Never really paid much attention to the song while they were here - just enjoyed them enjoying the song. But when it came on the radio this morning I listened to the words, and they were very powerful. "there's always gonna be another mountain/I'm always gonna want to make it move/there will always be an uphill battle/something that I have to prove". And then of course, the chorus. It's a good song. I think this will be my theme song as I train Moto.
I've been suffering terrible pain in my legs. I cannot stand for long without paying for it. I do believe these are the last vestiges of my car accident. I was telling my chiropractor it seems I've been literally healing from head to toe. Began with my neck, worked down to my broken clavicle, them my cracked ribs, then my twisted sacrum, and now it's my legs. Unfortunately the legs have been the longest and for me the most frustrating part of the healing process. The pain is constant and I've been fighting a nasty case of depression this past week. I realize at this point in my life I will not be able to get up, run 2 miles on the treadmill, go out in the garden and work, train the dogs, and then go to work. If I want to survive the day I'm lucky to train the dogs and get ready for work. Perhaps this backsliding is because of all the family here for so many weeks. Whatever the reason, getting on with my life is a frustrating and disappointing process.
But! I did go back to group obedience class today. I was delighted that Moto did his pivot drills nicely. When group heeling came we did a bit inside the circle, then we did some work off by ourselves, learning for him to keep his head up when we came to a baby gate. I was surprised to see his fronts from a recall seem to be very straight. However he has butt-out finishes *sigh* it's always something. Dumbbell retrieves were great. So, after three months off it was a very nice re-start. Tomorrow Moto and Shiloh start their agility classes again. I hope this is something I can attend weekly but that's not a done deal at this point in the game.

A Training Pal

It was SO much fun training with Dee yesterday. I am so into the sport I can sit and watch others train their dogs for hours on end. I learn so much and watching the human/dog interaction is completely fascinating. One thing I witness that was very special is that Dee & hubby are extremely supportive of each other, their dogs, and their training methods. This is a very special couple indeed and I'm blessed they came into my life. We plan to train together once a week and I hope we are both able to adhere to this.
It's extremely hot now so if I don't get out there before the sun comes up, I can forget training outside. This morning I didn't make it and we may not train today at all - we did train for quite awhile yesterday so Moto could use the break I believe.
I also discovered I still can suffer setbacks from the car accident. I completely crashed and burned this weekend. The pain in my legs was excruciating and I was so tired I didn't want to move. Then some nasty depression set in and I was just overcome by it all and gave myself a good wallow in pity on Saturday. I dozed off & on most of the day Saturday and slept 11 hours into Sunday morning. The only thing I did was train with Dee and while I feel much better compared to the weekend I am still very tired. So lesson learned I STILL have to take it slow and it is very frustrating.
Moto training log: I am beginning to see the results of my stand/down/sit drills now. It's reflected in better jumping and those "pop" sits are happening more regularly now than the rocking sits. He still doesn't understand where a correct front is but he's getting better at it. Heeling still needs a lot of work. His attention is pretty good and his position is pretty good but his butt goes wide occasionally and his sits are slower than I would like. I introduced the broad jump and he is jumping nicely over it. Next week we'll begin work on the turn. He has nice speed on his go-backs but we are only about 10 feet away. No sit yet, just learning to grab his food quick and turn and run back to me. It's fun to see him coil up with excitement when I say "do you want to do go-go's? Ready.....ready...." he is turning into a moderate dog in obedience. A big improvement over the lethargic work he used to do!

Consistency

It's hard getting what you want in this venue without being anal and making it boring. I've got a few BIG problems to solve - one, the aforementioned sit, and I discovered another this morning, and that's a dropped head on right turn/about turn. As usual, this is completely my fault and I discovered it's because I am not consistent.
When I had group training classes before the accident, our trainer does pivot drills. While Moto does these just fine, I didn't insist that his head be up during these drills. Then, when teaching heads-up heeling duh! his head drops because he's learned he doesn't "have" to keep his head up all the time. ARGH.
This leaves me quite a conondrum, as my group training class is lots of drills which can be both good and bad, but it's the same thing all the time. I enjoy my trainer a great deal and he has great insight into lots of problems but I may no longer attend weekly. Not sure how to handle it yet. I don't want to go against his teachings but I cannot do a lot of the group exercises (group heeling) as they are too long and asking too much from a green dog if I want the attention heeling. I have to see how this all plays out.
Meantime, we're working on heads-up pivots and those fronts and the stand-down-sit stuff. Interspersing it with some go-outs, retrieves and jumps so far. Next week I'll re-introduce articles.
Lots to do, never enough time....

Playing catch-up

The departure of my grandkids & family was more emotional than I anticipated. Maybe it was the car accident and my new appreciation for my life handed back to me, but I felt the need to tell my daughter how beautiful she was and how much I loved her. This started up some water works on her end which of course sent me into a tail spin. Saying good-bye to my 2 month old grandson - who also had some serious health issues - was no easier. Most of Sunday I couldn't talk about the visit to anyone, and even had to ask Hubby to stay away from me for awhile as I dealt with the house being quiet once again. Rather than sit around and cry, I went into a hyper mode and trained dogs and did laundry and cleaned. This lasted until late into the night. Monday I got up at 5:00 a.m. and proclaimed myself completely healthy from the car accident and ran 2 miles on the treadmill, trained Moto, did more laundry before going to work. Came home still in hyper mode and cleaned some more and trained a little more.
Today....OW. Can't move. Need to walk before I can run again. Visited chiropractor who scolded me. Crap I HATE taking things slow!
Moto training log: we practiced just some basics. Since he's had such a long break I capitalized on starting over on sits. Used Laurie's method of stand....down...sit and made sure his front paws didn't move as I want him to pull his rear into a sit. This will help the "sheltie bonk" problem I had. We did a little attention heeling and he seems to understand remaining in position which thrilled me. I will need someone to train with (Diane if you're reading this call me!) as I'm not sure if he's crabbing. With Moto, I need to walk faster due to his size. He's beginning to lift his front feet up during heeling and it's looking nice. He still does not understand where front is. Used the Platt method of some front drills. I hope doing this daily he'll get it.
Today we'll incorporate a bit of agility with obedience. Shiloh will be thrilled to do the agility obstacles and jumps. Moto will need to remember his 2off/2on. We'll jump a bit and then throw the dumbbell retrieve into the mix. He has retrieved over a jump so depending on how the retrieve goes, we may throw that in. Also work on go-outs and continue the momentum of correct sits and work on fronts.
Then, a jacuzzi bath. I hurt so much I can feel my insides hurting.

Getting Hungry!

As the week is coming to a close, so is this wonderful week of visiting family in the home. Yes, it's completely turned our lives upside-down but I wouldn't trade it for a single moment.
I'll be re-claiming my home and schedule next week and am already beginning to form training thoughts. It will be interesting to see how Moto behaves as we return to a training schedule. I know that I am "starved" for competition and training and I'm feeling that fire in the belly to get going and get on with what I feel I was born to do, which is train and show dogs.
I will still train Blitz since he loves it so, and if his health is good the day before a show closes, I will enter him. But no more big dreams. If it happens, it happens. I cannot go through that emotional roller coaster again. I will focus on Moto.
Shiloh is clearly depressed with all this non-work. His deafness has prohibited his return to the obedience and herding arena. Honestly, he cannot compete in agility either but there may be enough hearing/body language reading that we can get away with it. But most importantly he wants to work and be with me so I've signed both he and Moto up for agility to begin July 1. Which brings up another hurdle: driving in the dark. I don't know if I'm brave enough to do it. I've conquered everything else - I've driven in storms, I've driven in rush hour traffic (which was terrifying but I did it) but the dark is something I still don't feel ready for.
So I'll give myself one more week "off" of slowly ramping back up - backyard training and catching up with work - and then the following week I plan to resume my workout schedule, dog training schedule and see how my body handles it.
I am so hungry I can taste it!

Thoughts on DM

We're still in a state of chaos with incoming and outgoing houseguests. There is absolutely no schedule as we go from event to event, lots of fun, and I'm sleeping reasonably well in spite of it all. The dogs are dealing with this situation with general aplomb so none of us are worse for the wear.
What is interesting to note that in this atmosphere Blitz appears to be getting better. In no way is he back to where he was before this big down turn, but the odd gait is diminishing and he appears to be eating at a faster pace. His fiery demeanor is returning and he is demanding to DO something again.
So I was wondering - WHY is he healing? Why does the return of training and showing seem to cause him to go downhill? He loves working. I'm wondering now if it has something to do with internal temperature. While there is no documentation of obedience training, there have been clinical studies that show that a dog's internal temperature rises while they are tracking, and it's a significant rise. I'm wondering if the same phenomena occurs during obedience training and performing as well as other competitive sports? I would believe so. So I'm wondering if this internal temperature rise somehow feeds the disease? Blitz is the only dog with such severe symptoms that has ever attempted to be shown, so this is new territory.
Just a thought that I'm documenting for future reference.