Every few months us Boxer people get together for some training with my breeder and her husband. The first training of the year was held at our friends house in Clarksville, TN. We also had some party crashers from other great breeds like German Shepherds, Malinois, & Dobermans. All of who are great friends. We are a great group of people cheering each other on and working on the great sport of Schutzhund/ IPO/ IGP.
All week last week I’ve been nursing an injury to my left knee. The IT band is very much inflamed. It hurts like hell if I bend it a certain way. So I went into the weekend a little nervous about my knee.
Friday night, I got to my Airbnb, which was super nice and we all gathered for dinner and drinks. Lots of fun of course. I only see these people handful of times a year so we all try to catch up and enjoy ourselves before we work our booties off on training. I got called out by my trainer Diamond, he said my biggest problem is not doing the homework for the next week. I need to discipline myself to get it done or I’m not going to advance. But on the positive side he said at least I don’t lie about it, if asked I will tell them “nope, I didn’t work on that”. But, I will do better about doing my homework because I know its frustrating for the trainer to keep doing the same damn thing over and over and not going forward. As, a dog trainer myself I know I get frustrated when my clients don’t do their homework because it does set us back because we end up doing the stuff that was supposed to be done the previous week and we just don’t advance.
Saturday, We did obedience first and protection second. While doing obedience with Tia we were doing her recall from a down and she slammed right into both my knees. Hard. Yep I was done for the day. Spent most the day in Jill’s house icing and elevating it. I decided to not do obedience with Capone but asked Renee to hold Tia during protection for me. I was really happy that Diamond was there so him and Chris could talk about Tia’s biting issue. I think we may have a solution for it. Can’t wait to see what Diamond has planned next week for her. We got done around 6pm and had dinner at 7. Good times were had by all. Except I felt bad because I couldn’t hold my own dogs during protection but hey shit happens. And my “village” took over for me. I love these people that I train with.
Sunday the weather temperature was higher than Saturday but the wind was a little brutal. We toughed it out though. Both Tia and Capone got worked in obedience by me. I learned again that I need to be harder on Capone because he can take it and he needs to start respecting me. I also learned that I need to start doing warm ups before I go on the field to get the dogs in the right mindset. Christina held my dogs for protections which was super nice. Both dogs did good and I was proud of them. Capone did a bark and hold for the first time, being released and going to helper. One time he bit Chris’s knee but eventually he caught on to he needs to bark before the sleeve is presented to him. Tia was in full beast mode when she came out for protection. She was ready. So proud of both of them. The work they did was amazing.
It’s also nice to see everyone with their progress and “Aha” moments. We cheered each other on and was totally there for each other. That’s what a good training team does for one another. There are a lot of things that I need to work on in obedience with Tia and Capone, and I really need to start tracking again. But the weather has been so stupid and with this IT band its hard. But like Christina said some things can be done inside like working on articles, here position. She’s right. I’ve got to get harder on myself.
There are some pictures I think from Tia doing protection. I should get them soon and I will post.
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