The match

So yesterday we went to our vry first match. If we were at trialts we would have NQed, as not only I forgot to give Brandy a stand command I also stepped off with the left foot, really can't blame her for following me. Otherwise, except her lagging on the fast off leash heeling it wasn't too bad. IT was 96 degrees yesterday, so she probably decided that it was too much to ask of her by making her run after me. I guess we still have things to work on.
For some reason the video is not embedded correctly in the blog as part of it cut off, if you want to see it in proper format, please go directly to youtube, until I figureout how to fix it.

This morning we worked a little bit on the retrieve and then we did a run through. I figured that at 6:30 am I can let her off leash near the woods as I never ran into anyone there. I feel that I need to work as much as I can with her outside completely off leash. I do not dare to do it in public yet, but woods with all the sounds and smells provide some distraction, better that nothing I guess. I just wish I could get deer and foxes into my audience:-)

Tuesdays Anya has tutoring so I pick up Brandy on the way so we could work while we are waiting for Anya. There is small street mall near by , back facing to us, and one of the stores has a rooster. I am not really sure why they have a rooster, but I think they might have it as a pet as once I saw a girl sitting on the stump and petting the rooster. Anyway, I've been trying to catch a moment when the rooster is out so I can work with Brandy, but was unsuccessful so far. But today, as I've heard the rooster we stopped what we were working on and went to see it.

The rooster was sitting in the box with the head sticking out:-) For some reason it wasn't even trying to get out, which was very convenient for us as we didn't have to worry about running rooster.

First, we worked on the retrieve. I started with tossing the dumbbell to the side of the rooster, maybe 6 feet away from it. After that I tossed it directly to the rooster again, about 6 feet away. We were working on the leash as I didn't dare to use the longe line ( didn't want to have to pay for the new rooster). And that was a smart move, this time Brandy couldn't stand it, passed the dumbbell and headed for the bird, got snatched back and corrected.

On the next attempt she was so eager to get to the dumbbell that she threw a temper tantrum when I didn't let her to anticipate the command. On the next toss dumbbell landed may 3 feet away from the box and Brandy quickly delivered it to me.

Next we worked on the heeling. We started with heeling about 6 feet away from the bird, halting and doing slow pace as we were passing the bird. Then we did about turn and Brandy ended up on the side close to the box. We did the same pattern on the way back. Then we moved closer and did the same thing 3 feet away from the bird. Brandy did very good job with the heeling, but we didn't dare to do it off leash (ha-ha). All this was observed by the owners of the rooster and they were quite entertained.

Before we left, we did a sit/stay about 6 feet away, although it seems more on the picture. I didn't dare to come closer as I didn't want Brandy to eat it while I was trying to take the picture.

Brandy is doing sit/stay near the rooster.

After we were done with the rooster, we went back to the car and worked on jumping. After I increased the distance between me and the broad jump we had a bit of a set back. So I started by doing brake away with the motion cue, then we did it without the motion cue.
I didn't even try to stay and turn as I didn't think it would have gone well.

The high jump went pretty well.

Next we worked on heeling. For the off leash heeling I attached the string to her, but I really didn't like holding it. I feel that it's on the way, it's touching her legs no matter how I do it and it also stops me from moving my arms naturally, so I simply dropped it on the grass. I am sure that she can feel 10 ft cord dragging behind her, but I felt that it's still better then me holding it. I figured that id something I will have a chance to step on it. Am I wrong?

We also worked on the "come" and fronts. We really need more work on the finish as she constantly over spins when she is off leash.