Lance in 2012

A look back at Lance's year in training.  (video from the last post is here, if you missed it!)

Obedience:

Lance had just earned his UD in December of last year.  Going into this year I wanted to get half our legs for our UDX, well that didn't happen!  We only did 9 days of AKC this past year and Lance only got one coveted double q that was sadly obtained the first time we tried.  Since then, Lance has NQed on 7 out of the 9 utility attempts, usually on one little thing.  Most of those little things have been on the signal exercise which oddly was his best exercise when we were still in the A class.  And of course in the open ring Lance went down on his long out of sight sit stay 4 out of the 9 attempts.

Despite those issues, I am feeling confident for the upcoming year.  Lance is still figuring out the B classes and he sure is trying hard!  I am always amazed with his happy attitude in the ring and cherish that above all else.  The stay issue we are having again is what worries me the most.  I do not know how help Lance through what I see as the only time in the ring he stresses.

Lance also did some CDSP this past year and earned his UD-C.  He also did one run of APDT rally level 3 to earn  a leg towards the 3X title.  

Training wise, I have finally gotten a sit box to help with finishes.  It blew Lance's mind in the beginning as he would come around to heel only to discover that his front feet were off the board;  Imagine that, forging corgi!!!  The other issue that we have only started tackling these last few weeks have been getting rid of all the cookies in the ring.  So far I have only done a few sessions at the club, but it has gone drastically better than I had imagined! 

Agility

I am happy to say that Lance has had only 1 change in his contact criteria this past year!  At the beginning of the year I had decided to do managed contacts with Lance since I felt so bad about messing up yet another attempt at running contacts in 2011.  Lance was happy with the decision :)  Then he got too happy with the decision ;)  I re-x50-trained his contacts to a 2o2o on the dogwalk and 4on for the aframe.  Stopping the corgi has been successful, although he is not always completely sure what type of option I would like, surprise!  Occasionally Lance slips back into the 4on the floor which is what started these last 2 years of re-training to begin with.

This year was also the first time I have seriously addressed Lance's jumping issues.  Previously I have done a few jump grids off and on but not long enough to know if they would help or not.  I was also reluctant because Lance wasn't having difficulty doing the bounce style of jump grids I was doing.  I started Lance in a test study this past July for a program called Hit the Ground Running.  It has been a tremendous help to Lance in gaining confidence.  We are still working through the program and I know that even when we finish the exercises it will still be a continued work in progress.  I had dropped Lance down to jumping 4 inches in practice and competitions right before starting the program and there is a good chance he will stay there forever.


Tricks
We have been working off and on for the following year:

1. Frog legs.  Sigh.  Surprisingly hard to put on cue for a dog who does this all the damn time.  I need to get better at capturing!  But I have managed to shape this decently well.  Lance doesn't have it on a verbal only cue, but if I very lightly touch his butt while he is in a down he will kick the back legs out now.
2. Limping in between my legs.    Lance can now limp and spin in a circle with me while in between my legs!  One direction/foot is way easier than the other though.
3. Scratch board.  I also taught Lance to scratch the board and grind down his own nails.  Unlike the toller, I'm also having good luck teaching him to do the back feet too.

Goals for 2013

1. Make Lance's obedience training in practice look closer to trials.  Meaning get rid of his dependance on food in order to perform.  I've talked a lot on this subject already in past posts, but I want to reiterate that I do not plan on using any type of physical punishment in our training.  Training will always be his choice. 
2. Continue to practice our finishes using the sit board.  I am hoping it will help him be straighter and less forged.
3. Continued work with the HGR jump program.  Also practicing and proofing Lance's stopped contacts to help him gain confidence and trust that it is what I really want.