Perfect.......Habits

Chapter two instalment of "Chez Clinic Experience`"......Habits.

Nell is the first dog I have trained to open....Bella is the second....these are the two dogs I am running right now.  Go figure that habits I have developed in myself as I trained them up stuck while I run them on an open trial field.   Light Bulb, Ah ha Moment! I get the progression of training the dogs but things I did when I ran them as youngsters have not gone away now that they are big girls.  An example is: when my dogs are young I generally stop them before I ask them for some new directions; either forward out of a flank, or flanking out of forward.  It does indeed help create a nice flank or tidy there for walking on.  The idea of losing this habit with my more trained dogs: giving stops I don't really mean as they have become more markers that something new is coming....well it was a darn interesting theory for lots of fabulous over thinking and tons of discussion in my mind!  Back to the idea: can I run stop-less?

I've also caught a slight case of panel-itis again.  Darn it anyway, those drive panels are so freaking hard to see for these eyes.  And I don't often practice, as in never, panels.  Maybe I need to practice panels for me to see if I am hitting them....oh and I do have another eye appointment.  All this said, I'm going to follow the prescription for panel-itis because this disease is affecting all the dogs the worse I get. 

Habits.....I guess that is a really good reason to keep attending clinics.....sometimes the development of habits are not readily seen by the habitor/habitee.  Clinics.....and watching taped runs of myself.....with a dash of looking at pictures from LaCamas!  Habits.....it's time to kick a few.....

Seize the Day!