Star~70
General~65
Jewel~46
Roger~36
Star's WPR Heather has broken her wrist so we will have to see how that will effect her ability to handle her. I will eval her with Star next week~I do not want to risk injuring her if Star pulls or gets excited. With Mark this week Star looked good, better than last week when she had a rather bored additude. I asked MArk to drop between 10-15 commands from her normal training routine and mix it up a bit. He will add them back in next week and drop a different 15 commands. Star is now 13 months old.
General had a difficult time this week with food distraction. Mike continues to think that General won't/doesn't care to work with his cape on, but he is fine with WPR Lisa. Again I told Mike to make sure General is "dressed" every day all day. He did well in group class on Saturday but was distracted when the group went outdoors to work. General is 9 months old.
Jewel is losing her baby teeth, Paul reports that "tug" is difficult for her right now. Her "up" and jump commands is are crawls but I am not concerned for now, she's a giant breed dog and a touch of panosteitis wouldn't be a shock, her rate of growth is amazing. She continues to have excellent attention when working, loves the company of other dogs, and is starting to be outgoing with strangers. She is still reserved with children but Dawn is working hard on that with numerous field trips to places where children are~daycare, library, schools, etc.
Roger has a new handler! Rene has been "apprenticing" with AJ since Roger got here and he was ready to take over when AJ left us this week. Aside from some extremely minor suggestions that I had during class, he works Roger well, has a quiet confidence that Roger responds very well to, and is a welcome member of our team. WPR Michele brought Roger to both group class and puppy k this week. Roger played well with a mastiff pup and knew all of the commands in group. He had a difficult time at first with the distraction of all of the other dogs (8 in all) but settled in very nicely!
All but Star went to the Marathon this week, I am dying to get reports!
4/22~Reports are all in, thanks to Michele and Lisa for the pics!~they all did remarkably well, no problem with the runners, the crowds, the sirens, etc. Attention was a little lacking at times but there were many, many opportunities to train through difficult distractions and overcome obstacles. Hooray for you all!!!
I am concerned about the WPR greetings to the dogs when they pick up on Friday. PLEASE DO NOT allow the dog to jump on you in any way if you expect them not to do it with others!!
Next week, field trip on the T.
