Late beach pictures

These pictures are from when I went to the beach with Joey a few months ago.

Agility Class

Yesterday, we went to a new instructor and tried a new agility class. We participated in the beginning class, because I wasn't sure which class Joey was ready for. It turns out he was ready for the intermediate class but we still had lots of fun with the beginner class.  I was happy to see that Joey did all the contacts with out a problem. And he did twelve poles for the first time. I was surprised how well Joey did. He seemed to like the class and even ran when the ground was wet. (Usually Joey refuses to run when the ground is wet). We got a video of Joey doing weaves, a little course run, and his first time on an exercise ball.

Finally, a post

Well, I finally got around to writing a post. It hasn't been that I have not been training with Joey. I have been training alot. I just haven't had the time to blog about it. Now that I am settled into my school schedule I hope to post more regularly. I have entered Joey in  USDAA agility trial on the second weekend of February. I'm actually not sure our entry made it in time, (we sent it kind of late), but we are assuming we did make it in and practicing hard. USDAA is a little different than AKC. To start with their Novice class has twelve poles, so we are practicing that. I also entered Joey for a standard run but am kind of regretting that now. He is not afraid of the seesaw any more but we haven't done a dogwalk for some time. I want to head over to our training club and practice the dogwalk and the seesaw.

Obedience is doing pretty well. His stand in motion is coming along, and he is finally starting to stop right away. I'm also doing the go out regularly and he loves running out to the ring gate. His articles are finally starting to click and though we are still only doing three articles, I don't need to tie them down anymore. Finally, his broad jump and drop on recall are good now, so he is ready for the open class. I am entering him in a trial the beginning of March, where I will finish his novice title and get a Rally Excellent leg. And I hope to compete in the open class in April.

I haven't done a whole lot of tracking because the ground is still freezing cold, and it makes it hard to lay a track, pus it isn't to fair to make Joey down for an article.

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