FAIR WARNING: I am horrible about grabbing my camera and getting any pictures....but when I do I just get a lot of pictures, and so everyone gets subjected to all our pictures.

Breeze is finally able to do more and more and seems to be holding up well with doing some agility.....although she seems to be slightly favoring her right front leg a bit....she is the most accident prone dog and a few weeks ago she was getting all excited watching her sister do agility and then was limping on that foot, but most of the time I dont see anything except she shifts her weight off it a little when she is just standing or sitting. ANYWAY, for the most part she is doing well, she is like lightening through the 12 weave poles, she is doing better with rear crosses and looking for her line of jumps, she loves her teeter, we havent done a lot with the collection work because I feel that should be added after she gets her muscles for jumping, she is doing pretty well with her contact on the dog walk, and she keeps trying to run across the dog walk. It is on low but she keeps scrambling on it, so she isnt really allowed to run across the dog walk but we are doing a lot of playing on the dog walk with sitting, down, jumping on, jumping off, turning circles, just trying to get her feet about her and get her to figure out how to handle herself on the obstacle. ANYWAY, origionally I just was posting the picture to say LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE LOOKS sitting on her teeter!!! I didnt mean to add all this other update, but..... I wish I got a better action shot but I am not fast or talented enough and my camera is not good enough and Breeze is too fast to direct Breeze and then get over and get a picture so we get a static shot of Breezes happy face to be out on a Sunday morning in the back yard and be large and in charge of the agility obstacles, LOL.

Cherrys eyes

Ok here is a close up of Cherry's eyes-someone had asked what color her eyes were because they had not heard of a red dog (Cherry is a red merle Border Collie) with blue eyes, but here she is! So while I grabbed the camera figured I would get get a picture of her eyes.

It is so cool to watch my dogs learn.....

So I just had to comment because I had the most interesting experience today. Guess I sometimes have too much time on my hands but.....
So I was working with Cherry doing some shaping yesterday and she is really finally getting that she controls the clicks by what she is doing, so she was getting the idea to nose touch a Staples easy button pretty quickly. In one session she was able to figure out to nose touch the button and then we had got it to where she was frequently hitting it enough to make it actually say "that was easy". So that is something I have played with with the other dogs in the past, and it is just a fun little trick. Not rocket science but just a fun trick.
Today Chloe was in hanging out with Cherry and I and I was trying to think of something I could do with her to make her feel like she is working today. I brought out the Easy button I had been using with Cherry because I am basically a lazy dog trainer and so I grab what ever is closest. I do think I have done this trick in the past with Chloe, so no big suprise when she got excited and was doing a nice paw touch with the button and we get it on cue very quickly. I know we worked on this before but I really dont remember how far we got or what the cue was (bad trainer), but anyway in my defense it was awhile ago and we were just playing, so of course Chloe figured it out very quickly, no big suprise because it isnt a new thing and she is pretty operant and there were treats involved, Chloe will do anything for a treat.
So Cherry was sitting with me while I was playing with Chloe, after Chloe finished her turn I thought hummm....Cherry has been sitting here watching Chloe working and Chloe gets REALLY EXCITED so I was experimenting to see how that would affect Cherry's level of interest in this task. Cherry was a little more excited in the treats and was wanting to play my little game, but not a huge difference. Then I deceided to give Chloe another turn - Chloe who had a very strong PAW touch was now trying to do a nose touch, which is what she had been sitting and watching Cherry do. She tried the nose touch a bunch getting very excited like she had figured something out and going between the nose touch and the paw touch and finally went back to her paw touch. I swear she was watching Cherry and figureing out what was getting Cherry clicks, namely the nose touch, and figured that must be the name of the game even though she had been highly rewarded for her paw touch. Dogs are just so cool to watch when they play and when they learn, I could just sit and watch all day!!!! Arent Cherry and Chloe cute together???

and it continues....

We have just been doing the day to day training this week,nothing exciting happening except that Chloe is entered in a trial and we havent really run a full course all summer, so that will be interesting especially since Chloe is a very green trial dog, she has been doing agility for a long time but she hasnt trialed much. Add to that the handler trying to learn LM handling and how to handle the border collies who are very different, and it should be an interesting trial. Hopefully I will get some good video so we can all have a good laugh, LOL!!!
LIZZIES training:
WEAVES: So Lizzie is doing twelve weaves very fast and gorgeous, looking for and finding the entry, she loves them, she is looking ahead, I am very pleased with them. Our only problem with her weaves is that she is flinging the poles all over the place, I need to invest in some heavier, straight set. I currently have three lighter channel sets-two of them nice and one a piece of crap, a set of WAMS, but I think I will need a set that can be staked and I will have to bring stakes to class. She is a wild woman with the weaves.
CONTACTS: OK so this is sort of a sad thing for me, why, hey I dont know, but I guess I have just spent so long trying something else that it is a sad day to go to the trusted, and tried 2020 contacts.........The options I could have went back to the hoops and tried to fix my 4 on the floor, but I am getting everyone telling me it just wont be competative, but she likes it although I am seeing that in competition or with her excitement it is not holding up as well........I really do think I could do the rachel sanders box method but for reasons I am not going to go into here, guess that isnt going to be an option but I am dying to do it and Lizzie is learning it so well. So guess I am making the decision to be competative, and consistent we will try the DAMN 2020, although I really worry about my dog and her shoulders. So we started trying to train it and Liz has not had as much rear end awareness work as Breeze so she isnt as excited and she is confused thinking that of course we are by a board we get off and lie down. She really does know that part of the behavior for sure. So I am playing with some games and trying to give her the idea. I know I have to get my attitude on board or Liz is so sensitive I am sure she really isnt going to like the 2020 if I have the attitude I do. Anyway, we are finally heading somewhere I guess so we can move beyond all this contact hell.....
BREEZE
JUMING: We are doing some jumping with Breeze, trying to take it slow, and right now she is handling it well. She has totally forgotten all her collection work and is really not wanting to go by my side. She just gets very excited and wants to jump around in circles, so back to the recall to heel work. She is a LIGHTENING FAST dog though. She is going to be so exciting.
CONTACTS: I am seeing that I think she really is going to be jumping off her Aframe and I am determined to stop that before it starts so I think we are going to do some work with the hoops on the Aframe. I still would like to do a 4 on the floor on the AFrame with her because I do think she has the potentual for physical problems so I want to work with the AFrame but I am starting to change her to the 2020 on the dog walk. Several reasons for that, first I do think it is clearer and she is such an exciteable little girl, the clearer the better I think, I dont want to carry around hoops and mess with all that for the dog walk AND the Aframe, SHE LOVES the 2020, while Liz doesnt seem to like it, Breeze just always is trying to do that, so I think she will pick that up really fast, I dont think there will be the same pressure on her physically on the dog walk and then everyone will be doing the same contacts, except for Breeze on the Aframe.
WEAVES: WOW, what more can I say, she has the twelve down well, driving ahead, loves them, using a beautiful swimming motion, she can do what ever motion works for her but that is what she has chosen and it is pretty and fast. Anyway, will need to move onto the proofing, but she is looking for enteries well, very happy with this aspect of training.
Cherry, we have a really sweet bc staying here and doing Breezes rehab exercises. Really pretty cool the last few days it really seems that she is showing more range of motion. She is of course wanting to do some clicker training. She is doing 2X2 weaves and is just at the beginning of that and just starting to get it, she is playing on the rocker board, figure that will help her with balancing, core muscles and getting her used to moving surfaces, she was not wanting to go over the Aframe but loves it now, figure that will help with strengthening her back end since it is a very low aframe but it is like hill climbing. She has gotten all the house rules down and is just very easy and getting along with everyone.
So that is where we are at with EVERYTHING!