Training moments that give you gray hairs! - Page 1

So I had the two dogs out working last night and I had my bitch in her crate while I introduced dumbells to my male. All was good male thought the dumbell was a fantastic device and I was pleased. I swap dogs to work my female with a SchH 2 dumbell and my husband wants to play with Erik and says he's got him. So my female and I do a few retrieves and I'm playing keep away and really gearing her up because she needs more drive for dumbells. I whip around and send the dumbell flying, I want and get good air and distance and as I watch it soar I hear a shout and catch a sable blur out of the corner of my eye. Erik busted his collar escaping from Hubby. The dumbell lands and bounces a good 2 feet up and the dog catches it, full grip on the fly, like a lab would a tennisball. As I watched it unfold I had visions of broken teeth or worse in my head!! But he lands, wheels around and does the fastest prettiest retrieve and is all proud of himself. Oh but to have had a video but there was No.Way.In.Hell I was doing a repeat performance of that heart stopper!!

wow....i hate those moments, it's all funny looking back....

I play ball all the time w/ dogs and some days i use baseball bat to hit balls...so this one day I hit it a bit too hard and ball landed outside of our electric fence line, and I usually take electric shockers off when i play ball, usually if and when dogs come up long enought for me to remove it...that day i didn't...plus...its was the "stubborn dog" collar with setting at highest level with brand new batteries...well as i watched the ball bounce and roll out of the yard i screamed "nooooooo...LEAVE IT"..."LEAVE IT DOZER"....and as I inhaled air back into my lungs in relief that he stopped and looked back, my heart sank and i got cold chill as I saw my girl going for it once she noticed that he hesitated and stopped...i almost felt nauseous and felt that chilling coldness inside my gut spread ......  when i realized she had no collar i was able to unclench and  my body turned burning hot ....it was the worse 3 seconds of my life...my body didn't know what to do with all this stop and go stop and go emotions..LOL... I came back inside and it felt like i was working out for hours, my whole body hurt from that moment of tightness and stress...i swear i felt few grey hairs pop up...

I can think of two off hand...

My friend and I often get together to do obedience.  One time I brought along a portable jump.  Her dog was just learning the jump so she was sending him over to fetch a ball.  My dog was on a down a short distance away.  Both our dogs are intact males, about the same age.  They know each other enough to tolerate each other (we can crate them in my van for carpooling and they don't sound off at each other).  She tossed the ball, then sent her dog.  All the sudden my dog broke his down and charged over.  We both froze and just watched in horror thinking my dog aimed to pick a fight.  My dog beat her dog to the ball, snatched it up, gave him a sideways glance, and trotted back to his down spot with the ball.  What a turd! 

In protection my dog is real high defense, not sleeve oriented, not one to "play tug" with a helper like slamming the sleeve into him.  Almost all of his work has been done on the same helper, so when that helper comes out to work him, my dog takes it personally.  The helper does not slip the sleeve unless I have the line (the dog will carry, I just move him away from the helper so he is in his own space and he's fine).  One time we had blinds set up and I sent my dog around like a SchH1.  He got in the hot blind, did the hold and bark, helper gave a bite.  The helper kind of carried him out of the blind a ways, let him fight a bit, then slipped the sleeve.  I was still standing in the middle of the field.  As soon as he slipped he realized I obviously didn't have the line.  I did not call the dog because then he'd see the helper trying to flee and take advantage of that.  The helper quick scooted around the blind and was kind of hiding on the other side, b/c my dog had the sleeve in his mouth and ended up standing almost in the blind.  I screamed for the dog to PLATZ which thank goodness he did and I ran over to grab his line.  It was a nice win for him!  Getting to platz over the sleeve while the helper is cowering on the other side of the blind, hehe.

I find myself getting a few gray hairs every time I do a recall with Axel these days.  He's pretty exhuberant and when I see something his size coming at me that fast, I can't help but wonder if he's going to be able to get stopped.  I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time until he can't and he takes me out...

LOL Keith, that is why I step to the side at the last second and in trial, hold my breath.

Does being an idiot count? It was cold out (-19C or -2F) in February so I didn't feel like walking to the school yard to train Senta in recalls- I used my driveway. Our house is at the top of a hill and the backyard is at the bottom of the hill (do you see where this is going?). I stood at the end of the driveway (top of the hill) and told Senta to come. All 55 lbs of her came at a dead run and slammed into me. I flew backwards down the hill and lay stunned at the bottom for quite awhile. :)

I had a similar thing with Loki.  I did a recall in the winter and he comes running full tilt, all 125lbs of solid muscle, he tries to stop at the last minute in front of me and slides....into me, I go flying and land face first in the snow, knocked the wind out of me.  Loki runs over to me and starts barking like he is laughing at me, darn dog.

Another time we were doing running take downs in buildings and he is on lead.  We go running after the decoy and just as I go to weight his leash to slow him down, I step in a patch of gravel with both feet.  Needless to say I go sliding and he picks up speed, thank goodness the decoy had enough experience to put the sleeve between his butt and Loki.  Loki slowed on his own and looked at both of us like "what, you think I was actually going to bite him?"

All of my grey hairs are coming from the dog I have in training right now!. 
So far she has jumped over the A frame and landed in a heap on the other side. ( i thought she was dead) She has rung my bell by coming up and hitting me with her muzzle under my nose.  She has gotten a stick jammed in her jaw crossways .  She grabbed the helpers leg and pulled him on top of her. (I thought she was dead) She has done a summersault when running full tilt into the lake (i thought she was dead). oh and she eats so fast i think she is going to choke. Damn good pup though LOL.. IF she survives to get her Sch 1 that is... i need a plastic bubble for this one.