2012 Reveiw and 2013 plans

2012 was a little slow for me and Joey's title progress. I did not make as much progress as I would have liked to with Joey, yet we almost completed all the goals I set at the beginning of the year. We earned our Rally Advanced title and our Beginner Novice title, started competing in obedience and earned two CD legs, and were able to compete in the NJOC. So I guess it is not that bad. However, I want to be more diligent training with Joey and start earning more titles with Joey next year. Our goals for next year include earning our:

1. CD
2. CDX
3. RE
4. TR1 (maybe in the spring if Joey gets better at tracking throughout the winter.)
5.  NA (Novice agility)
6. and maybe, just maybe out UD. If we can get all the utility exercises down

It seems like a rather long list but I guess it doesn't hurt to dream. 

Merry Christmas to All From the Maltese Gang

 Patiently watching me open my presents

Joey the Reindeer

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

 Today's countdown inspiration was Joey holding my stocking.

For some reason Joey didn't want to hang on to the stocking and it lead to pictures...

 ..like this.

Finally, I did get a picture, but Joey looks rather cross.

So much for Christmas cheer.

Tracking

Today I went tracking with Joey. I was curious to see how Joey would do since we haven't touched tracking for a few months. Joey actually did very well. He has forgotten about articles and was a little messy around the corners, but other than that I was pretty happy. He didn't give up when he got lost and he kept using his nose until he found the track again. I hope to start tracking more and try for that TR1 in the spring. Maybe it will elude us again, but it cannot hurt to practice tracking a little more.

I did take some pictures and between them all, I think I got a countdown picture.

 Tracking

Waiting for my Mom to finish tracking her GSD.

Playing with Reflections

Presenting Joey

Presenting Joey in our countdown picture of the day. 
The ribbon on Joey is pink for a number of reasons, the biggest reason being that my little brother gave me a pink one and I was too lazy to find a more boyish colored ribbon.

Sugar and Spice

Today's countdown picture was taken in "Gingerbread village". 

Joey was very good about not trying to taste anything, except for the one time he checked the candy tree out. 

Future pictures

Today's countdown picture is a picture of Joey in his green and red sweater retrieving a glove.

Our training is going well. Today we worked on the directed retrieve. Hence the retrieving glove picture. Right now I haven't bought the set of three white gloves. WE are just practicing with my black gloves and there is only two gloves. But I figure it's best to start small and once Joey gets the idea the color of the gloves will not matter much.

Twirly ribbons

I haven't been good about posting a picture everyday, but even some pictures are better than none at all. So here is our countdown picture and the story behind it. I was cleaning out my closet and found my old twirly ribbon, the kind people use in Rhythmic gymnastics. I was twirling it for fun when Joey went crazy trying to get it. Since I been trying to get Joey to be more toy motivated, I let him play with the ribbon. I tried to take it outside and let him play with it where the green grass and red ribbon would make a perfect countdown picture, but of course Joey didn't care as much when there was a camera. Oh well, we still got a few pictures.

Effectively ignoring the ribbon

Finally, an action photo

Finally home

Whew, we are finally home. I'm going to post all his photos and videos. And now that I'm home I'm going to write down a training schedule for teaching Joey his Open and Utility exercises, that way it will be harder for me to be lazy and skip his training. I'm also going to look at all the nearby show and try to plan next year's showing schedule. Now that I'm motivated, I hope to get a UD on Joey by this time next year. I think it is possible if I practice twenty minuets every day.

Here are the rest of the pictures from our trip.

Our countdown picture for the 16th. Joey holding his participation ribbon with the score book.

 Watching the National Obedience Invitationals

Joey on the pink Eukanuba picture rug

My lunch and Joey wanting it.

 Me and Joey at the Maltese "Meet the Breeds" Booth

 Me, Joey, and the Lady form the Maltese booth.

 

Fun with yogurt cups

 Driving Home
(Our countdown picture for the 17th)

Dissapointments and discoveries

Today was a little disappointing, Joey ruined an exercise and cost us a placement, but I made some discoveries and was so happy with the rest of his performance, that I'm not too disappointed. To start with we found out we were not in the BN intermediate group like we thought. They moved the age requirements meaning that the 15 year olds were now the youngest of the senior age group which goes up to 18 year olds. And instead of 4 other competitors there were 18 other competitors. 

We had to preform two BN runs. Our first run was under Judge Bobby Self. It was pretty early and I was combating National's nervousness so it was a little messy. We lost three points on the heeling because I forgot to wait to use my one praise at the about turn so Joey wouldn't lag, and because I took steps that were too long on the fast. We lost another point on the figure eight because somebody outside the ring dropped something and made Joey jump; I was happy with Joey though, even though he jumped at the bang, he came right back to heel with me and acted like nothinghad happened. Everything else went pretty good, I was especially proud of his recall. Total I lost 4.5 points. 

My next run was under Judge Loise Botko. I was a little worried about doing two run in one day; the last time I tried that with Joey his second run was extremely bad and laggy. Today however, Joey heeling was excellent. We went in a Joey did the best heeling I have ever seen him do on not just the heeling pattern, but the figure eight too. I was so excited I thought "I've got this made". I might have a chance to place after all. Then on the figure eight Joey did something I've never seen him do, he shook on the sit walk around and just stood there as I finished walking in horror around him. Darn, there went our perfect run. Then we finish with another perfect recall. Our total score was 41.5. Forty for the walk around and 1.5 for the figure eight. Except for the forty, I thought that was an extremely good score; Louise Botko is a really strict scoring judge and this is the first time we've gotten a perfect heeling score. 

Overall, I've discovered many things from the NJOC. 

 #1. Joey can do perfect heeling

 #2. Always make Joey do a little trick between exercises to keep him form getting nervous.

#3. When doing fast run with shorter strides.

#4. If doing more than one run in the  day feed Joey molasses, it seems to rev him up.

#5. Never, never think you have it made. Joey is extremly good at inventing new problems. And if he doesn't do something you will.

I'm happy I entered the NJOC even though I didn't place I've discovered somethings about me and Joey. I've met lots of new people and many of the obedience juniors. I feel like Joey's got the hang of competing, he no longer expects treats in the ring he just does it for me and the fun of it.  Plus, I'm motivated to train again. I'll try and get videos up as soon as I get a computer that functions.

Pictures

Here are all my pictures so far.

 Playing with mirrors in the car. 

(Also our countdown picture. There is a tiny bit of red)

 

We set up the crates today. The obedience area is so quiet compared to the agility area. Joey's theme color is light blue so I get everything light blue if I can. The crate is an ugly exception to our theme color but then I didn't pick it. I hate that crate it is so ugly. But at least I have a pretty crate cover for it.

 

 

 

 

 

Our hotel card was Eukanuba themed.

Ready to go

We leave for Florida in a few hours. Technically this post and picture was supposed to be for yesterday. But I wasn't able to post it until now (12:40) because I had to catch up with my school before I left. So this picture is for yesterday and today.

Packing.. No trouble at all when you have a helpful Maltese

Practice, Practice, Practice

 We are practicing hard for the NJOC or National Junior Obedience Competition. Joey is doing well but practice won't hurt. There is always something to work on, such as crooked sits and lagging. Today I thought we'd use our training as a countdown photo opportunity. 

Figure eight

In Sync

Orlando, here we come!

Better late than never

We going to start the Christmas countdown. We are nine days late but it is better late than never. We are following Rugby's tradition and will attempt to put up one picture that has something red and green in it, every day.

We are getting ready to go to Eukanuba. So today Joey had his bath.
Leading to the first picture of the countdown

 

Agility Practice

A video of an agility practice with Joey.

Agility Trial

We had an agility trial today.

The trial is three days but we only entered for Friday mostly  because I was not sure Joey had his weave poles and didn't want to spend 66 dollars and find out he did not have them.(I did that last year). For the last two weeks we practiced the weave poles every day and since last Monday Joey seemed to have them down pat. However, when we went though this morning, Joey decided to keep me worrying and skip a few poles. So I was pretty nervous all day. Once in the ring though Joey did very well. He was a little sticky and didn't want to go far from my side but his weave poles were excellent. We ran the last few obstacles and finished with about 31 seconds and I was thinking "Yes, our first Q!" But I quickly got the bad news. Handler error. I took a short cut and missed two jumps. Errrr, sometimes I want to shoot myself. But I'm happy with Joey today. He preformed very well. We didn't Q today but I plan to enter in the spring and maybe even try standards. Who know, we might even try some USDAA.

Jackson Show

Just came back from a show in Jackson.

We left Saturday to get the dogs used to the show site and to compete in the match. Here are the pictures from the match on Saturday.

 Moving Fast

 Figure eight

 More figure eight

Recall

 And he's coming

 Sit. Stay.

Joey, Beg.

We competed in Beginner Novice B on Sunday. There were a few reason why we went back to BN, but it was mainly because I felt that I rushed his obedience a bit and wanted to go back do the basics again and just have fun in the ring. We got catch unaware by our run. I knew it was coming but I didn't know it was coming so soon. I only realized it was our turn when someone called that the stewards were calling me. So I grabbed Joey and ran to the ring. However, just before I entered the ring, the judge asked me if I had a collar that didn't have a tag on it. I looked and lo and behold, I had forgotten to switch Joey's collar. So I ran back to my crates and swapped collars as fast as I could, zoomed back to the ring, took a deep breath, and started our run. Joey was not to thrilled with my before ring acrobatics and he let me know by not paying attention on the heeling and lagging on the figure eight. However, after the figure eight he decided to relax and the rest our our run went perfectly. We ended up getting third with a 195.5. The score wasn't that bad but if I had been prepared we would have scored much higher. Oh well, I've learned a lesson this weekend. I will not be unprepared again.

Agility Class Video

Finally got a video from agility class. 

 

Feeling Crazy

Yesterday we went tracking. Joey did pretty well, but what made yesterday special was that fact that I didn't have to go up to the article and make Joey down. I was able to stay about 10ft behind Joey and say down. It was not an immediate down but there is defiantly progress. After tracking we went to a grassy area and let the dogs run around. I guess Joey was feeling happy because he ran a lot more than he usually does. 

Here are some pictures of crazy Joey.

 

 

Aaaa, crazy dog!

Liebester Award

Joey and I were honored when Samantha and Rugby gave us the Liebster Blog award. So now We're passing it on.

The rules of this award are:
1. Thank the giver(s) and link back to the blogger who gave it to you. So thank you Samantha and Rugby.

2. Reveal your five picks (with less than 200 readers) and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog. In no particuar order:

Gingersnaps - My Sister and her German shepherd Ginger.

JaMi Performance Maltese, Home of Super Soda!- The blog of Soda and Roo. They also train in Obedience, Rally, and Agility.


Spaniel Training- Two Spaniels who train in Agility, and also some Obedience.


Improbable Dreams- The blog of three Pappillons and their handler.

History In The Making-The blog of Rucker the Dachshund, and his training.

Is okay when winners do not pass on to 5 blogs.  Maybe one or two.  Self, had many many blogs that loved, and some have nearly 200 readers and some only have a few.  And did not check if any had won Liebster before.  But is okay, because is not about the official or fanciness, but is about all the love!

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

Two Novice A Legs

Last weekend we had a trial in Southaven MS. We entered two runs in Novice A obedience. This trial was very big, we had all the obedience dogs, the rally dogs, and tons of conformation dogs everywhere. I had forgotten how noisy a show can become with conformation dogs. There was hairdryers blowing everywhere and the conformation dogs barked 24/7. We drove up Friday for a match, but by the time we got there the match was filled up, so I ended up just letting Joey walk around and get used to all the noise. We did our run Saturday morning and Joey was still a little nervous with all the noise so he lagged some, however I was very happy to see how solid his stand for exam was. After all that trouble he gave me the stand is now his steadiest exercise. Joey did his sit and down stays perfectly and we qualified and got third place with a score of 189.5. 

Joey was much more used to the crazy show environment on Sunday and he seemed much more relaxed. On Sunday we ran at the very end of the show, and everyone was packing up and leaving so it was very detracting. However, Joey did even better Sunday than he did on Saturday. He lagged much less and seemed more relaxed in the ring. The only thing that could have used some improving was the recall. Joey did a very good example of Newton's law of inertia. "An object in motion (Joey) tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by a force (my knees)." We have to work on his recall. Everyone who watches his recall says Joey is so cute the way he runs on the recall but his speed leads to problems such as bumping me or sitting crooked. Anyways, Joey did his stays perfectly again, and we qualified with a score of 189.5 (again). I kind of felt a deja vu there. Our Judge on Sunday, Howard Gladstein, was very nice, but he graded pretty strictly. However, out of the seven dogs also entered in Novice A, everyone but me and Joey got disqualified, so we managed to win first place.



Overall, I am very happy with Joey. There are still some little things I can work on but I feel that Joey learned how to work for me under stressful and distracting situations.

BN title!

Last weekend we had a show in Jackson MS.This trial had four shows in two days, and I entered Joey three times, two times on Saturday, and once on Sunday.

This was our first time competing in BN so I was pretty nervous.

We got there Friday evening and Saturday morning bright and early, I was outside the starting gate with Joey trying to calm my show jitters. I hate show jitters! Our first run was pretty embarrassing, I caught my self talking to Joey then got so nervous about over talking that I missed the slow sign in the heeling. After getting a RA title with Joey, I couldn't believe I messed up my first BN run by missing a sign! Anyway, We managed to Qualify with a second place and a score of 186. However, the person who won had a score of 187, so I felt a little better. 

Our second run was a little better, this time I was confident about the pattern, and did not over talk but Joey was tired of competing and he lagged in the heeling and the figure eight. We Qualified and won second place with a score of 193. My mom and her dog beat me by two points. 

The Third run was the best one. This time everything went smoothly and the only trouble we had was Joey lagging on the inside circles of the figure eight. Surprise! Joey had been lagging on the outside circle so we had worked on that like crazy, then we compete and he lags on the inside circle. But that was probably my fault. We finally won first place with a score of 198 and earn our BN title. The best thing was I did not get nervous on this run!

This weekend was I learned not to run Joey more than twice a day because he gets tired, I also learned to bring a camera battery charger. My dumb camera ran out of battery on the way up to Jackson. For my final lesson, I learned not to mess with deleting items on the video camera.(I accidentally deleted all the Saturday videos. My runs,  my sister's runs, and my mom's Saturday runs.) Oops, that's one way to get your family mad at you. Clearly not a great technological weekend for me. However, once back home I did get a picture of Joey and his ribbons.

A Maltese game

"Catch and bite the tail" is a game that Joey and Ian play at the park. This game is a lot like tag but the slower Maltese ends up getting his tail bitten. Once his tail is bitten, the losing Maltese will go and chase the other Maltese.

 Can you foresee a bath in the future?