Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - July 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2012)
(reverse date order)
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Tue Jul 31
Trek agility class

in progress

Mon Jul 30
Trek noon walk. Mostly just let her sniff and relax.

Yoshi evening walk
I'm on a mission this time. I really want to know if click to calm will help him more
First I take a clicker and the squeeze peanut butter. In the driveway I click him a few times so he knows I have it and more along the way, in particular when doggy Pinto barks at us from behind a fence. But even with all that when we get to Central he finds a great smell and doesn't respond to the click. I click again and again. 5 times. Nothing. He prefers good smells to peanut butter. Clearly I need to compare this to cheese.

We finish the first part of the walk we did see two dogs but I was mostly focused on getting home to switch to cheese. We did have one golden cross the street right after we crossed the street to steer around them so I carried him across the street. He also saw a white Cairn Terrier and was able to eat some peanut butter for it.

Back at home we switch to string cheese and repeat the walk. After chatting with Ray a neighbor we get back to the great smells of the trees on Central. Now this isn't a perfect comparison as he has just smelled these smells, but still I wansted to see what would happen. He starts sniffing. I click once then twice and he turns back to me. We repeat this multiple times. Cool.

Now we need to find some dogs. We see the English Springer (I think) on Gibbons and he does great. But I want to find more so we head over to the school. I spot a white and black Shih Tzu with her family on the school ground inside the fence. We walk over and I click him as soon as he sees the dog (or even before). I kept clicking. Then I look up and the dog with a young boy is right beside us on the other side of the fence. Both dogs sniff through the fence and Yoshi is stiff but then he turns back to me for cheese(!) He spent a little more time with the dog as the boy wanted to know what I was feeding him. Then we left and Yoshi got the rest of the cheese on the way home. Good dog.

Sun Jul 29
I remembered to take the camera out when they went out and they did a nice brief play session with a perfect pause and shake that I was able to annotate.
http://youtu.be/assVsqtK6Cc

Walk both dogs. Less comedic as it has been in the past. Saw the two white dogs that live on Central we stopped and let them approach and they turned off on a side street. Since they were walking away from where they live I decided to just follow them since they would be running into us if we had continued on our usual walk.

Sat Jul 28
Happy 9th Birthday to Yoshi!

Yoshi walk
One dog sighting on Central. We were in the middle of crossing the street so I tightened the leash to get him across and then when we got to the corner (the dog was right across from us) I kept some tension on the leash and after a hard look he reconnected with me without incident. Good boy.

I do wish I could figure out a way to manage him that didn't involved a leash. Patricia McConnell talks about how signals work much better with most dogs than voice. So I should come up with a "Watch Me" signal to see how that works.

We watched the rest of Patricia McConnell's DVD Lost in Translation which is about how dogs communicate. It was excellent and I'm now inspired.

She says to send her videos and photos. Hee, no problem there.

Trek Walk
Went down Hight Street which wasn't that noisy and she did ok. Then I let her take me back down Court to home and she wanted to run home. I didn't have time to train this right now, but I tightened the leash so she didn't get too much ahead. She doesn't tend to do any death dragging on the leash (unless she's really frightened, so some tension helps. I'm learning over time that leash tension it not always a bad thing and can be a teaching (or at least coping) tool.

Fri Jul 27
Trek Open ob. class with Lori
Lori has her classes at ODTC and Trek does not like the building because of the metal roll up door that rattles and a whole bunch of other noises. I drag her inside and after she shakes some she actually is able to cope and do some work and over time (she has the class once a month) she has been getting better. In fact today was mostly ok until near the end of class when someone next door started drumming and I decided that it was time to bail because then I had a panting trembling dog who just wanted to run away.

Sits and Downs - went very well
Lori had us also do a Stand and go over each other dogs - also went very well
Heeling Worked on fast heeling which was fun and useful
Figure 8: not as disastrous as it usually is but still iffy. She is working better about keeping up when she is heeling on the outside

Some basic dumbbell exercise
Then a recall exercise and also a retrieve exercise on the other side of the room.
Treks' recalls are looking good though she is still a little off to one side and I wind up taking a step backwards
Her retrieve went very well the first time, the second time she got distracted and I did have to remind her to "bring it."
The door was behind her in both cases and she was able to focus though I did move her start position a couple of steps further away.

Then there was a broad jump and a bar jump. We don't have a broad jump at home and haven't practiced it much so I revved her up and we charged over if a couple of times and then on the third one I stopped and asked for a front after she jumped it which she did very nicely. I tried just sending her over it and she started to comr right for me and swhen she does the jump she doesn't carry out enough to make the turn.

Then the drums started so we didn't do the bar jump.

Thu Jul 26
Short walk for Yoshi mostly to let him sniff everything and stop to talk to Dorothy a neighbor of mine. His foot seems pretty normal these days but I'm not pushing it.

Took Trek over to semi near Dog Bone Alley. I parked over on Regent and we walked over. The walk over was fine, but the purpose of going there was to pick up a 15 pound bag of dog food and Trek wasn't very happy about walking with me carrying something that she was sure I was going to drop on her. We got back to the car without any such incident so I put the bag in the car and we continued walking the length of Regent and back to give her more of a real walk.

Wed Jul 25
Trek noon walk
Went fine save for right at the end we walked right into some jackhammering which she did remarkably well at even if she didn't like it. If it had been a year or two ago she probably wouldn't have gotten within a block of it. It was across the street and she was able to go past it. She wanted to run but she kept glancing back to eat cheese.

Yoshi charged to the back fence and tried to dig through it to get at the "intruder" on the other side of the fence which was just a neighbor doing yard work. So I have a theory on how he hurt his foot.

He is walking nearly normally now thanks to the NSAID.

Yoshi evening stroll.
He's on the injured list so the vet has asked for short walks so we just went around the block which was fun because we never do that. No dogs and when we were almost home he really started bugging me more to work so we did some.

Tue Jul 24
Yoshi was limping this morning - wouldn't put weight on his right front foot. There is nothing in his pad but if I hold his leg above the wrist and press the bottom of his foot into my hand he does flinch. letting him rest for the morning.

Noon. He's still limping so he's going into the vet.

Vet later tells me he pulls off a miracle healing and walked just fine but she could see a small hint of it. She says it happens all the time there as doggy is full of adrenalin. he's back now with a Rimayl Rx (an NSAID).

Evening he seems a little better but some hobbling.

I'm thinking I should start feeding Trek lamb treats. If it makes Yoshi reactive it might give Trek some more energy.

Trek Agility Class

Upper Field Green Course
I ran with her at the beginning, then when she was on the DW I moved laterally and did a landing side Front Cross. Raced back and then when she was in tunnel 14 I had time to get into position for a FC in front of 15.

Upper Field Blue Course
What a blast this course was. 1-3 I ran with her then round to 4 and up the AF. "left tunnel" worked though I did have to repeat it a couple of times though she never really hesitated. The a charge up the DW and then around and made the FC after jump 12 was able to do a serp, but was wide after 13, across to tunnel 16. I was in time to hold out my right arm for the AF and made the turn. She was a bit close to the AF, but made it, and then out to jump 18.

Mon Jul 23
Yoshi morning walk. Did ok - he stated to offer some nice Rally work - always after the first block which is all about sniffing and catching up on local pee gossip.
Saw 2 dogs that he's always done well with - an Aussie and a larger nearly black dog We crossed the street and walked past them, and he was watchful but fine.

Trek walk. She got a little confused as she got dragged around by me while I showed my neighbor something in our backyard. (The source of a funny smell was another neighbor's manure fertilizer.), but then she got out and also offered some great heeling. I want to do more Rally work with her but her next show is Mensona and is only Novice Obedience and I want to focus on that meaning I was boring steady heeling and not fancy Rally stuff.

That show is going to be a dilemma - possibly. If she qualifies on Saturday, should she show on Sunday? Common sense says yes, but it would be sweet for her to get a title at the nationals, but something always happens in Novice so i can't take anything for granted. I really need to work on sits and downs and stands in the park as that could sink the whole thing. Her stays used to be great but I neglected working on them since they were so good.

Sun jul 22
Went on a training hike and ignored the dogs which they were fine with.

Sat Jul 21
Yoshi bike run at Washington Park. I love Washington Park because it is easy to move laterally to get away from something like a dog. We steered around a couple of them without incident, then a couple of Collies walked by and I just reeled him him and held his harness while he barked at them. Some other dog sightings and we were able to go by the dog park a couple of times. We have a tired dog.

Tonight we're having a viewing party for the Patricia McConnell new DVD Lost in Translation.which is a recording of a seminar she gave in Orlando, Florida. Yoshi was on leash when people arrived and he did well. Trek was out and about. I was even able to have Diane hold him by the leash while I finished up doing things in the kitchen.

Later on however he would then bark at people moving around after I had taken the leash off. In particular he would obsess on Diane and Bill to some extent. Given that we have just seen McConnell talking about how dogs' make decisions based on scent we speculated that he was smelling their dog Spark. Can't be sure, but it's an interesting theory.

Fri Jul 20
Yoshi evening walk
4 dog sightings. One was a white Spitz dog on the other side of Santa Clara. Knowing I was likely to get a reaction I did let Yoshi see the dog and he immediately started barking and lunging and I got him into a sit and held him in place (not harshly but definitely had a hold of him) while barked and barked and then finally settled while I kneeled down with him and waited for him to calm down. What was really interesting is that for the next 2 sightings he was great. One a German Shorthair Pointer a house length away that he promptly sat for asking for cheese and a pair of dogs walking that we've seen before and he's done well glance at the dogs and then immediately ask for cheese. He did bark at Harvey across the street when we returned home, but then settled.

I'm trying to think what is different in each experience. One is that the first one is always the worse and then he gets better and better as he gets back into the game (which right now is sitting and watching the dog go by.) I do find it fascinating that on Jul 16 he had two dog right behind him and while he reacted some it was nothing like this. I think he really doesn't like Spitz dogs, but that's too easy to say. The Spitz dog was staring back, but not being antagonistic.

My hand on him does help, but not so much with the first dog. I'm thinking it's time to revisit Emma Parson's Click to Calm techniques. The second he sees the dog Click. I've had mixed results with it in the past when he's in a high emotional stress - he's a fabulous clicker dog when he's not stressed. I'm wondering if I could just try it in the living room window though that's his highest stress level, but at least I would be on a sofa instead of some random street corner.

Trek park training.
Her heeling is looking very nice and her fronts and finishes are good and enthusiastic Stand was a little iffy, Worst was the stay which she could do for a minute or two and then the ball bouncing started to bother her. We tried to move to the other side of the park, but there was some ball bouncing there to (argh). Tried it in the yard with Yoshi and that was better but she's still squirrely.

On the way home, she was really wanting to drag me home (her fear reaction to noise is to want to run home) so I changed our loose lead walking game to:
- if she hits the end of the lead I stop
- and wait and wait
- until she finally looks back
- I show her my hand and she comes back to touch it
- once she's done that we can move forward until ...

This took 1/2 a block. Twice.

Later went out into the back yard and worked on down first with both dogs then with just Trek. With Trek I just brought a book and read for 4 minutes and she relaxed and put her head down. Phew.

Thu Jul 19
Yoshi walk - saw a cat across the street right off and he was barking, barking, barking till I knelt down and put a hand on his side (didn't say much of anything). He immediately stopped and we just watched the cat for a bit. He was grumbling, but that was it.

Lots of passing humans but no dogs.

Wed Jul 18
Yoshi dash down the street and back

Trek agility class
We usually go on Tues but once a month we go on Wed

	Lower Field 1-10 Working on lateral lead outs though I don't do too much lateral with Trek since I can keep up with her. Teeter to weavepoles without shaping was the goal (Sharon drew a line in the dirt from the end of the teeter to the 2nd weave pole.) Trek went to the second pole so I had to drive in a bit more to get the entrance but didn't have to shape it. After jump 6 the most effecient was a right turn to tunnel 7.
	Lower Field 11-20 weave 15 to jump 16 Front cross. Pulled around to the left after 16 and then RC at the poles (17) which worked fabulously.
	Upper Field Green course I started at the base of the DW then while Trek was on the DW I ran laterally to the landing side of jump3. The pull to tunnel 8 and the fade to the AF worked. the jump10 across to tunnel 11 was surprisingly easy and then back to jump 13 worked too.
	Upper Field Blue course Run run run - what fun. Pushed out at tunnel 2 send to tunnel 3 slipped and hit the dirt at 4 which actually got Trek excited. Sent her back to tunnel and made the FC at jump 4. Out to jump 5 with a 270 and we made the serpentine (I love serpentines). The tunnel-AF-tunnel combo was a total kick. I tried for two Blind Crosses out of the tunnel. I made the first one, but couldn't the second as I was out of breath by then. on a retry I just Front Crossed the second tunnel and then wrapped to 16.

Mon Jul 16
Trek noon walk fine.

Yoshi evening walk. We went to the park looking for dogs are really didn't find any until we'd walked all the way around it and were coming out and say some at the store across the street. As I was getting ready to cross he tensed and started barking. I bent down and put my hand on him saying Stop and it worked. Only then did I realize the dogs he was barking at were 10' behind us going into the park. If I had known that I would not have been able to calm him like I did and I think it was very cool that he could mellow out with a dog essentially right there.

We're experimenting with taking Yoshi off of GABA and just giving him the L-theonine.

Sun Jul 15
Trek NADAC at AARF
Today she had jumpers, chances and the two standard classes.

Jumpers went well in the cool of the morning, but right at the end she got ahead of me and dropped the last bar which was a bummer. But! I just found out they missed that dropped bar and gave her a Q. It was a lovely run so I don't feel remotely guilty about the gift. In Chances, I sent Trek out to a tunnel. She not only covered the distance, but she kept going to smell the manure that was past it. I call her back and then she went in the other end of the tunnel. My silly dog.

	Jumpers Novice Swung wide once at 7 and once at 10. Peeling off at corners is an old habit of hers that she goes back to in unfamiliar settings Did a landing side FC @4 and I had to do it fast but it worked (and was fun). I then wanted to do a serpentine but was concerned about the RC at 7 so I did a FC after 5. I can't remember what I did at 9. It would have made sense to do a FC but I'm not sure. Another LSFC at 12 would have made sense but I just kept her on my left which is why she got ahead of me. I have to remember she goes faster when headed out of the ring.
	Chances Novice We actually had a good shot at getting this one. 1-8 was fine, and she did the send out to tunnel 9. AND KEPT GOING to sniff something delicious at the side of the ring. "TREK, oh Trek, tunnel." She did come back and took the wrong side of the tunnel so I just crossed the line and helped her and the rest of the course was fine. Argh, will she ever get past this ring stress? I must be causing it to some extent.
	Standard Round 1
	Standard Round 2

Sat Jul 14
Trek NADAC at AARF, Santa Rosa
Doing this to see if she's happier at NADAC. She is but I can tell that she doesn't really trust that something scary isn't about to happen and as soon as it gets hot she tries to head for shade. She does better on tighter courses and there was one in Open (NADAC courses are often very open)

	Chances - which is like a Gambler's class but you don't get to make the course up. Elite line is the short dashes, Novice is the larger dashes. We didn't get the send to the A-Frame but otherwise it was fine in the nice cool morning. When she didn't take the AF I stepped in and had her do the tunnel again and the she did the AF when I asked her with a little hesitation.
	1-6 went fine with an AF run by (which is ok by generous NADAC standards), but once we got into the open are instead of doing 7 she peeled off looking for shade which is something she used to do a lot and not as much any more except when she's hot (I need to remember to wet her down during the day - it was around 75-80 which is hot by her standards unless it's jumpers.) and I had to call her a lot and when I got her back I slacked off and she took a jump backwards which is an NQ.
	This one went much better because I was more on top of things and the interesting part happened right at the beginning. We do well with twisty courses. I think this was the one where she took a sliding roll between 5 and 6, but it may have been the one before. It was amusing.

Yoshi afternoon walk. Saw 2 small dogs on our street that he wanted to charge and I grabbed him put my hand on him and told him to sit and he kinda sorta held it together.

Later one on the sofa we watched dogs walk by and he ate cheese. He was pretty stressed about it, but he would break off to eat cheese.

Thu Jul 12
Yoshi was - again 2 dog sightings. First one was a dog the size and color of a Shiba Innu (but it had shorter hair) on Central and the were approaching, so we went down a side street and waited for them to go by. I had Yoshi sitting and it took a minute for them to appear. Yoshi held it together for about the count of 3 and then lost it lunging and barking. I pulled him back and put him in a sit and put my hand on his side. He held the sit but kept barking which i don't mind so much if he can stay put. there was not a street between us but a less than house length distance (which i had deliberately chosen.)

Then we saw two medium size dogs moving slowish across the street approaching, but going perpendicular to us. I had Yoshi sit and this time I knelt down with him and put my hand on hid side again. This time he was golden just watched them go by. Now these dogs look like something you'd see at a herding trial which makes all the difference but still I was quite happy with him and told him so while bestowing lots of cheese to him.

Yoshi's feet appear to be fine now.

I scheduled Yoshi's cancer screening ultrasound

Wed Jul 11
Yoshi walk - two dogs. A Boston at the beginning that he started out ok for and then lost it and couldn't help barking at the dog. Then later I had him sit and watch a Pomeranian go by across the street and he was perfect. i think we'll go back to sitting and watching them go by.

Tue Jul 10
Trek morning walk. It's trash pickup day for our neighborhood, so it was a noisy walk 2 trash trucks, one picking up the clanging recycles. Then a mower got turned on it's side by a gardener and rattled around and she hates metallic clanging. then another trash truck. In between did some very nice heeling. I don't have to talk to her, but if I need her to move back to heel, I drop my left hand down for her to touch with her nose. I still lean too much to the left to do this, instead I should bend my knees more. Lori has said to me in the past.

Trek Agility class

	Lower Field No teeter issues A little slow but good weave entries and a good table. If you are standing still the dog shouldn't go far past you Does your dog understand RC cues? Went over various shoulder positional cues which can cue a right or a left turn after the dog has taken the jump. They're actually kind of subtle.
	Upper Field Orange We missed the dog walk, but Sharon said Trek was moving towards the DW, but ran back over to 12 and 13 and then the DW. Took the tire at the end but that was ok.
	Upper Field Green I loved this course maybe because I'm a sucker for serpentines as I love them, and I love how it made me move. First she tried to do the DW instead of tunnel 2. I picked her up and excitedly put her back on the start line. Then there was no problem going to the tunnel and i did a blind cross after the tunnel. Then to the AF and out around and did a serpentine and a front cross after 10. After 11 I did a pull instead of a FC. If I had done a FC, I would have gotten a tighter turn to the tunnel but it did work. Then a landing FC at 13 then a pull to tunnel 15 and a spin/FC to 16.

Mon Jul 9
Yoshi came back from Vacaville with 6 foxtails which fortunately I'm good at finding. To find things in their fur have them face you and you put your hands on their but and run your fingers through their fur backwards wiggling your fingers in a rolling style like your drumming your fingers on a desktop or just giving them a really good scritching. All he did was walk around but he rolled a lot.

His right front pad is a little abraded (has been for a few days) and it's bothering him.

He went on a walk this morning and he's limping a little because it's tender.
It was unevetful until we were back at the driveway and a dog and his person ran by. Yoshi was growling so I put pressure on the leash saying "leave it" and kept walking up the driveway. I don't think he was convince that it was ok.

Trek noon walk - fine.
I'm still laughing about Trek running around to the back of the Runner Ducks and saying Boo (she didn't "say" anything but they certainly responded that way, even though she didn't chase after them at all.)

I was contemplating Yoshi's herding future, but didn't come to any conclusion.

Sun Jul 8
Vacaville ducks again. My plan mostly worked though these ducks didn't fetch to me but standing closer to the B cone worked nicely. I did get to Cone C which was today's goal. Now I should work on Cone C with my dog:

Facebook status
Trek and the Runner Ducks. Some fine poop to roll in. She had a nice outrun and things fell apart after that, but the best part is at 1:52 where I asked her to stop and stay in front of the approaching who really wanted to get past her and they turned around! Trek the brave doggy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1EfM-sllDo&feature=youtu.be

---

I was very proud of her for being willing to look back at the ducks and they deciding to turn around. I hope that helps her confidence.

I was talking on corgiherders:

I just wanted to see how she liked the Runners. She loves them and their poop, but they're just too much work esp since they won't be at the Nationals (which is the next time she'll be in an AKC ring).
She's now had 4 times on those ducks (2 practice and 2 trial.) What I found fascinating is that since she was close their eye level they moved much more readily for her than for some tall German Shepherds. (This is my theory.)
The ducks inclination is to turn around and go back to their pen unless a dog was right behind them and they moved along. All Trek did was go around to the back and say "Boo," and poof they were at Cone C and she's busy rolling and not paying attention to them for a bit.
i think we could have recovered when they were going backwards through the Z chute, but then at 0:50 she gave my an "I can't hear you" to my "Stop" and she sent then back through the Z and they scattered and we don't know how to gather up Runners..

Sat Jul 7
Trek herds the Vacaville Ducks.
Well she did the go out fine and then decided the duck poop in the duck lift cage was mightly fine and started rolling in it and the ducks scattered. I tried gathering them up and she went back to rolling. I was just about to have her go down the fence with them when the judge called it which totally seemed premature. I'm of the opinion I should get the whole 10 minutes but apparently that's not how it usually works. I don't "call" runs as I can get useful training time out of just about anything.

So it's my understanding that the ducks really will fetch so my plan is to stand in between the A and the B cone, send Trek out and take two steps over to be a target for the ducks. If Trek decides to roll for a few seconds that's ok.

Fri Jul 6
So since he's not going this weekend I took Yoshi herding. He did 2 sessions of goats and the goal was to have him be calm, I didn't argue with him much about distance, because when I pushed him out he would crank up. He really did well. If he got excited I would stop and let him calm down. It was really cool to see him doing so well. Linda described to me about sending him out around the dragon for distance work.

I have to decide how to handle this as training on two different livestock is expensive.

Worked with Trek on going out around a cone and doing a down. She did great. She's as ready as she's going to get.

Thu Jul 5
FB status update:

Well after today's practice on the Runner Ducks that will be at the trial this weekend. Yoshi responded exactly like he did with the Geese. Got that faraway look and found dogs to bark at (who were nowhere near the fence), and looked at everything else but the tall ducks. On the other hand Trek. Well. Her eye balls nearly fell out of her head: WOW! Cool! "Trek Stop" "Can't hear you - Wow" "Trek Stop" "Can't hear y--" "TREK!!" "Oh were you saying something? Wow look at ..." She finally did ok in that beginner sort of way so I'll give her a chance to entertain everyone (and worry the stock handlers) this weekend. Mr. Y. gets to spend it with Terri.

Quite honestly, I'm a little relieved to not be bringing Mr. High Maintenance along to this environment though he got his Herding Pre-Trial title there. This is my first time running this course and there were some important details I didn't know and got told about today. Like you do go in on leash and then take the leash off. The ducks are placed in a pen that lifts up, but only after you send the dog out on the outrun.

I have to decide how much more to do with the Call Ducks. I'm asking i there will be Call Ducks at the National (I think there will be.)

How to screw up herding ducks:

	This is AKC's course A. The idea is the dog starts at the "B" cone and handler (that funny looking shape by the A is a person with their right arm extended) is behind the A cone and doggy does an "outrun" behind the stock and "fetches them towards the handler who is now moving towards Cone C. Then the stock goes around the C Cone and to the Y chute and then clockwise to the Z chute and through the panel on and then takes a right and goes through the two panels in the middle and then on to the pen. And such is the theory. What often happens to me and others is that it starts out well enough. Trek went around to the back of the ducks very nicely.
	But then kept going. I should have said Stop well before this point (like where she was in the previous diagram). Doggy is now out of position and pushing the ducks to exactly to where they want to go which is the pen.
	And then I have scattered ducks all heading for the pen. We then spent some time going up the fence but Trek would get too close and they'd turn and run back. Spent a fair bit of time on Slow which was actually good training. We have no hope of qualifying Sat and Sun but it will be good practice. I think a good goal will be to get to cone C.

Wed Jul 4
I decided not to go to herding practice today but will do it tomorrow. I'm tired and it's very dangerous to drive on July 4th.
Walked each dog Yoshi and noon and Trek in the evening. I took Trek up to the edges of a couple of block parties but she said that was far enough. Though the celebrations made walking down Broadway really easy as in comparison it was quiet.

Yoshi was a stress case last year as there were a lot of fireworks, this year is more typical of past years. Yoshi is doing surprisingly well but I had to put my hands on him (steady pressure on his chest and side for a while which he loves and it helps him to relax.

Tue Jul 3
Yoshi noon walk. He was being strangly pissy about the mail carrier who was wearing a pith type hat today. He tried to charge barking after him up a neighbor's walkway. I debated whether to give him a leash pop correction but instead just pulled him back and put a steadying hand on his side and he immediately calmed down, but it was still odd. Such a hat fashionista. Other people with hats walk by and he doesn't look at them at all. It's probably because the mail carriers movements are unlike anyone else's.

Trek Agility Class.
Tonight she again was tentative and pokey. Sharon is emphasizing Happy Voice and I'm working on that Trek loves Sharon. I was suggesting she run her but she declined.

	Lower field. No real drive. She would skip the last pole on #4 as I turned in for 5. I first tried a FC and that made her stop so Sharon said to just drive to 5 and RC which kinda worked. No teeter issue. For the entry to #21 poles you need to stop at #20 to have the dog come more to you (and you stay wide), we did this well but biffed the end as I over shot and missed the tunnel entrance.,
	Upper Field Blue For 11 to 12 the exercise was to run to the other side of 11 and get a FC in. I was able to do this, but found myself too far past 12 and was on the wrong side so missed the beng around the station part. She also initially did not want to do the A-Frame, but then allowed herself to be cajoled into it.
	Upper Field Orange Big ginormous zig zags in this course that were actually kind of fun. Trek did well be needed encouragement. FC between 10 and 11 worked great. If you don't position yourself correctly you buy the DW. No AF issues this run which was nice.

Mon Jul 2
Uneventful walks for both dogs.

Sun Jul 1
Yoshi walk. A bit longer this time to tire him out. Went through the park and all the way to the water and then back the same way. Steered around a Beagle without incident by going about 30 feet off the path. Coming back I was distracted by watching a boy doing some alarming Razr acrobatics and the Beagle came back and got a little closer and Yoshi barked so I just picked him up since I was completely out of position.

I had asked Corgi Herders for advice on what I could do to help Trek and her discomfort about sheep. One response was that if she didn't like sheep to just let her be a duck dog (which is fine with me), another response was to try to use the same techniques I used with Yoshi with respect to marking and treating. This made me realize I could even do LAT on the sheep from a safe position to.