Training and the like

Here for the past week, Harper and I have been taking a break on training and excercising because 1) She hurt herself earlier this week and I wanted to put her on cage rest until the limping stopped 2) She hasn't wanted to work and her focus is crap and 3) I have not felt particularly well this week

I've been working with her pretty much every day. She doesn't want to listen or work and she has all of this crazy energy. I know that giving up isn't the right thing to do right now, so I've just changed my expectations and the length and difficulty of our training sessions. We're working on obedience and conformation, both of which are really important.

I'm also reading "Schutzhund Obedience" and it's helping me train her. Some what the book teaches is to avoid expecting too much too early. It just basically says first build the bond and work on making training fun, then work on the more difficult aspects of obedience, such as off lead healing and the like.

Harper and I were taking an obedience class with Nick Nichols at CATC. After three sessions, I realized that Mr. Nichols wasn't the kind of trainer who was going to get us to where I want to be with Harper. He did not believe in training with positive reinforcement, and Harper isn't mature enough to want to work for a pat on the back.  It ends up being a really negative experience for both me and the Corgi girl, and I don't want training to be a chore for either one of us.

The Schutzhund book focuses on making training fun, because the whole idea is to bring the dog out of its shell so that it WANTS to work. It's basically impossible to build drive if the dog doesn't enjoy its training. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if I wanted a mindlessly obedient dog, I would have gotten a golden retriever or a border collie. I like that Harper can think for herself. It makes being in our team of two a more enjoyable experience for me.

After having a brief waffling experience, I'm still looking forward to getting a puppy from Kathy Carlson. We've been waiting somewhat impatiently for Celeste to come into heat. I heard from a friend that  people everywhere planning an October 2010 litter are experiencing the same delay. Jared and I have picked out a name for her, but I haven 't told anyone yet about doing that. I don't want them to think that I'm too excited about it. But, we've decided on "Hedwig."

It's a good, celtic name. I just can't get on board with the Welsh names. Some other names I've thought about are, "Crowe," "Scottie," and one other name I can't think of right now.

Harper is going to be shown on a limited basis for the rest of 2010, and one of the shows is in Monroe, Michigan, and Nancy and I will be visiting Kathy Carlson.