Celeste Meade: Day 1

Oh, perhaps I should mention - for those of you who don't know - Celeste Meade is one of the top obedience competitors and trainers in the US. She believes in positive, hands-on training, and focuses on control and drive. Her training motto is "Attitude is Everything."

I've got to say - I really like what I've heard so far. As you know, I'm trying hard to find a way to have a relationship with Ziggy like the one I have with Maggie. I think that Celeste's training philosophies will help. I also believe that what I learn here will help further build my relationship with Maggie.

Today we worked on some things to keep our dogs "up" between exercises, with the focus on us and fun. To get the dog thinking "Why would I WANT to be anywhere but with my mom?"

Ziggy did pretty well. He was a bit overwhelmed when we did things with all the dogs playing/active at the same time. He did very nicely, though, on the exercises that he did alone, and the ones that weren't quite so "crazy" with all dogs doing stuff at the same time.

Maggie was a wonderful girl - she waited very patiently while her brother worked, and was an absolute star when I worked with her at lunch time. I love that girl.

As an aside - those of you who saw my brace performance in obedience will appreciate this - who did I sit next to at the seminar? One of the obedience trial judges from Topeka! She is a very nice woman, and a very accomplished trainer, who happens to belong to the club hosting the seminar. I mentioned to her that I showed under her at the Cardigan Nationals. Then I told her who I was by admitting to my brace run (she was the one who judged Ziggy & Denzil - gasp!). She laughed and mentioned how much she likes to judge Specialties and how few Cardigans she normally sees at Obedience trials.

Anyway - I'm looking forward to tomorrow and Monday. Time to take the dogs out one last time and go to bed!
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