Retrieve Success!

Eden made huge strides between last night and tonight with her retrieve. Now she will go out and bring the dumbbell back. The last rep she actually brought it to my hand - and I had to ask for an out she was holding it so firm! What a smart girlie!!

Retrieve Training

Eden's retrieve has been put on the back burner as we worked on other, more fun and interesting (to her) things. But, now that she's becoming more and more demanding and willing in training, I thought it might be a good time to bring the dumbbell back out and give it a whirl. It was! She is doing so much better now :-) She is willing to try more and more with me and takes my negative marker in stride (where before it would shut her down no matter how lightly I gave it) and is utilizing it to her advantage (to learn!). Love it!

She despises the feel of the AKC dumbbell in her mouth so I built a little drive by teasing her with it and then setting her loose. She would rather grab the end of the dumbbell than the bar so we worked on that too. I am really pleased with how far she progressed in this one short lesson!

Trick Training

Eden is the ideal trick training dog for me. She offers hilarious and adorable behavior and is so dang cute when she does it - makes it fun and interesting to train her. An ever evolving situation! Tonight we worked on her ball-balancing skills, her flyball box turns, rear-end awareness with putting just her back feet on the perch and getting inside the perch.

Thanksgiving Gobble Wobble

Eden ran her very first race today around Reed's Lake. Accompanied by Ike, Jason and I. She did incredible! I don't know if I could be any more proud of her. There were several hundred people there, along with dogs, kids, strollers, bikes etc etc all moving together in one huge mass to the same place. I do not like atmospheres like that, I get people claustrophobic. I don't like being surrounded...and then trying to run. It is hard. For me. Eden took it like an old pro. She was wonderful. She ran out in front of me like I encourage her and she used her little herding instincts to divide and conquer :-) She would spot an opening and make for it, bringing me with her. Always plenty of space, never cutting anyone off. She ignored everyone too. Dogs lunging, people singing and bells jingling and bikes whizzing by. Eden was on a mission. Did I mention how proud I was? I am. Incredibly. The race was 4.0 miles and our average pace was 9:43min/mile. Not too bad considering all of the dodging around people we had to do! At the end, we took some pics and made to walk back to the car - and Eden had to poop. She ran the whole race having to potty! Love this little trooper!!!

Push Board!

Lies built us this amazingly awesome Push Board for really cheap ($31!).

The purpose is to have it at home to work on proper box turns, aka swimmer's turns. Eden has lost hers and struggles between Flyball practices to remember. My goal is to have it so ingrained in her muscle memory that she never forgets, doesn't even have to think about it. This is made exceedingly simple by putting this board in Eden's all-time favorite training place - the basement. She loves to go to the basement and train. She gets so, so excited and frequently I end up with her offering crazy new behaviors or catching onto something incredibly quickly that we were before struggling with. This is a perfect example, she is nailing her turns now! :-)

Eden Kicks a Soccer Ball

Eden is learning how to balance on a soft soccer ball. She gets frustrated and bites it occasionally - it's actually pretty funny! My favorite though, is when she is trying to find it with one leg while keeping eye contact with me. She does this awkward three-legged hop-hop with one leg extended and reaching out for the missing ball that should be "right there". LOL It's great.

Flyball Box Reminder

We tried running Eden properly a few times - those were utter fails. She is slamming into the box with her shoulders straight out - bad for the joints. At one point there was no ball loaded so she went and plucked one out of the box for herself LOL. We went back and practiced the swimmer's turn separately and she seems to be tying it together fairly well. Ideally I want to get a push board so we can work on this at home...

Rally Class

Eden had a weird few moments at Rally tonight - a light was glancing off one of the fans, into the mirror and into her eyes - she flinches a couple of times when we are going around the cones but recovers fine. It was strange. Otherwise we had a fantastic time and her left finish is getting quite good - I love her prance-y heel!! :-)

Remember Your Rear!

Need to remind Eden that she has a rear-end, where it is and how to use it. Back to perch training. Starting with front feet, then all four and then just the rear feet on there. Flipped it over and taught her how to get in it as well. Hoping this will all help in Flyball!

She offered a hop over the perch at one point and it was so adorable that I marked it and now that's a new trick in the making as well! She's become so athletic and demanding in the basement! haha

Flyball Practice

Eden is so funny, she throws behaviors out that I have never seen before and it just cracks me up. At the beginning of this video she does what we have deemed the "Corgi Twist". Essentially, she flings herself in a giant circle while being restrained until she is released to run to me. LOL It is funny.

Eden was paired with Dottie this week so that Dottie could get more used to another dog running in the lane next to her's without thinking she could attack them (which she has, unfortunately, done). She does come over into Eden's space but Eden blows past her like she can't see her.

We started doing full runs with Eden tonight too - from me over the jumps to the box, get the ball, down the jumps and back to me. We really need to figure something out to work on her box turn at home!! It's totally gone once we try to tie things together. Lies takes pity on Eden's inability to get the ball a couple of times (once it was stolen by the other dog in the neighboring lane!) and hands her the ball, Eden happily brings it back. She's a love.

UKC Registered

Took forever but Eden's paperwork is finally in! She is (with the UKC only) now known as Falon Gray's Sweet Eden-Pie :-)

Eden Forgets Flyball

Flyball training tonight was less than what I had hoped for from Eden. She seemingly forgot all of her boxwork practice, tripped and fell twice - once over the jumps, pretty bad (not that it phased or slowed her down) and once right into the box with her face. Her runbacks were excellent however.