Cricket's test!

Well, have to admit that I really am enjoying "homeschooling" Cricket. I really enjoy teaching obstacles and know how I want to teach things and I really like being able to go as slow or as quick as Cricket and I want to go and being able to concentrate on what we want to focus on.

The downside is that right now gosh it feels like a jambled mish mash of skills. It would be nice to have a class that would break things down into small bite sized pieces every week and not have to worry about having a plan, LOL, but right now it just seems every time I turn around I think of something else that I really feel we should work on.

We took some time out to work on some tricks, just some fun shaping and that really reminded me how Cricket likes to work. Cricket will keep working and working and be very happy, but shaping some tricks I really realized how much better Cricket does with short sessions with really high rate of reinforcements...she will work forever, but she really learns so much faster if I do not get greedy when we are training. So I am getting more strict with myself and taking my stop watch out to remind me to keep the sessions really short and sweet.

One of the things we are working on is the Running AFrame so this is some of our beginning box work, I am checking to see if I think Cricket really understands to look for the box and to pounce into it with all four feet.




Breeze was back at the vet last week. The vet is pretty sure her back is the cause of all the problems but it is at a place that is hard to strengthen with just exercise. She had thought the back issue would heal much more quickly then it has, so she is going to have us continue with weekly laser treatments and she says that for awhile we might only be able to do weaves once a week with Breeze....which is fine.

Luckily though she does feel Breeze will be able to over come this and do fine again...so I really liked hearing that. The vet does not think it feels like Breeze has disc disease although she did say that if this is not treated correctly this is this type of injury that could become chronic and lead to disc disease, so as far as I am concerned if we have to keep Breeze out from weaves and really tight turns until spring, that is fine by me.

For now it is weekly vets appointments, since it is the Christmas season with the busy schedules, crowds, and the bills Christmas brings, LOL, not exactly the best time of the year for that....but when is a good time?