It is officially 2010 and it is so hard to believe that this year is over. Some great things have happened this year, I finished my MBA at the University of Georgia, Penny arrived in my life, both of my parents turned 60 (hello senior citizen discount!) we had a wonderful family Christmas and I brought in the new year with 3 of the best friends a gal could ask for! Having Penny has been such a great way to spend time with my parents and I am so blessed to have them in my life. They are both a wealth of knowledge and teach me something new about dog handling every day.
Alot of things have happened since the last blog, sorry about that the holidays were a bit busy this year. She is shown above at Graduation in mid December - I won't be able to hold her much longer :( she is growing so fast! She has started teething and her big dog teeth are coming in - they can't come fast enough those puppy fangs of hers are brutal!
Penny LOVES to retrieve and goes nuts when she even sees a dummy. Dad and I have been working with her and she has made some great long retrieves. I wish I had a video for you to watch, she takes off with so much speed and force. It is impressive to watch. After she got comfortable with long retrieves I added doubles to the mix. Doubles are a great mini lesson for her and something I can do at my house without alot of space. You chunk one dummy while holding Penny back and then chunk another dummy the other way and send her after it. Once she brings the 1st dummy back you take it from her while she sprints to the 2nd one. She has such great eyesight and makes the drill look easy.
I made a great new contact and found out that several Speaker kids and grand kids live in the metro Atlanta area. Sandy lives near Athens and has been so wonderful to invite me to come and train with her and her dog Chili. I can't wait!!! She is training agility and also does field work. She introduced me to two trainers in the area, Terri Everline and Elizabeth Downey, both of which own the only two MACH Goldens in Georgia. Terri has been a wealth of knowledge and is going to work with me so I can learn a few things that Penny can do to get ready to train agility once she is fully grown. I also learned more about the Atlanta Golden Club from them and recently joined - hopefully it will be a great way to meet other people in the area.
Heel lessons have also officially begun full force! Thank Goodness!!!! Penny has gotten so strong and I don't know if my shoulder could have taken many more walks. She is doing great! Mom (who is awesome at handling puppies) decided it was time for puppy boot camp to commence while I was gone for New Years Eve. Two mini lessons later and I have a heeling machine. I am constantly amazed at how fast she learns and how eager she is to please. Today we took the basic heel up a notch and we worked on heeling at varied speeds and she caught on so quick. We are also working on sitting from heel, especially as we cross the road so she stops wanting to dash into the street on walks. Plus it will be a great thing for her to know when we are in city areas. It has made our walks much more pleasant for us both and I make sure to add in times for her to "be a dog".
I wish I had pictures of her working but we haven't had the opportunity to have a "photographer" yet since I am busy handling Penny. I will do my best to get a video of her on the retrieve - it is awesome to watch. Happy New Years Everyone - Hopefully this will be the best year yet!
Stay tuned for Christmas pictures......
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