Planning My Day

I am training three dogs simultaneously for competition next year. Two are being trained for Open, and One is being trained for Novice (but he is a Thai Ridgeback, so he's a bit difficult in the trust/stranger department). So it's a lot of time and energy right now.

The days tend to fly by with either only one dog being trained, or a crucial thing being forgotten (like Jack's last five fetch reps yesterday). I don't want to be scrambling in February to be ready, and as it is, it looks like it might be wise to delay it to March. However, if I press my nose to the grindstone right now, I may be able to pull it off. There is no room for delay. So to remind myself, what I actually need to do is have a timeline and daily plan not just for training but for my whole day.

So today is Friday, and that means no daycare, but I have two client's dogs to take care of around the 12-2 Pm area. I figure that I will require at least a half hour per dog of training time (followed by 20 minutes of quiet time with me. Additionally, I want to practice stays with all three of them today, and this should be, at least, an every other day kind of a thing. Both Jack and Bri need 10 reps (split into two sessions of 5) of fetch work. Bri is on week 1, and Jack is on week 3. Devon needs to be reminded of all the basics again, so I am basically going on the 8 week Koehler plan for this. Stand for EXAM will be the hardest thing to achieve with him. Next will be stays with possibly moving judges. So a lot of public work needs to be done with Devon, but not right away and only until he is performing the basics reliably in non-distracting less stranger filled environments.

This is why poor Bri always gets the short end of the training stick, as she is more reliable than either Jack or Devon in the personality and stable tempermented department!! The worst that she will do is lag during the heel or sink into a down from a sit or walk directly to me out of a stay. The more reason why would should do well as a team and score high though. So I am going to try and not short end Bri for this next Spring of 2009.

So it's about 12 PM now. That means I am leaving soon to walk my little charge, Manny. I can bring my dogs, Leon and Jack, with me so they get their exercise as well. If I really wanted to push it, I could walk all of them over to Roxy and Harley's house, and have them all out on the beach with me. It's pretty exhausting to have five off leash dogs at the beach with you. So if it's low tide, that's probably what I will do, and I will get my and my dog's exercise out of the way at the same time (I have been jogging sporadically on my walks while it's not icy). So that, and going to the post office will probably bring me to 2 pm.

I could put Jack up then for his two hour pre training nap. Bri and Devon are already situated as such in their house already. At 4 pm, I could start the training sessions. I could even take Bri and Devon out for their own play sessions, work Jack first, and by the time I went and got them, then their two hours would be up.

So Jack and Bri, I need two separate sessions for retrieves. It is also reliant upon getting a Novice heeling exercise going perfectly before I can start the retrieve work. That might mean Bri doesn't start her retrieve work today, but instead gets a little heeling 101 refresher. We will see how it goes. Jack for sure needs a 4 pm work up with retrieve first five following. The first session should end around five thirty or a little thereafter for all three dogs to be worked separately. Then later in the evening, like at around 7 pm, perhaps another retrieve refresher.

So Fridays should be somewhat easy, especially if I make it a point to get going earlier in the morning .

The tricky thing is going to be the other days, and picking my two indoor and four outdoor locations to do this, and then changing the locations for increasing the distractions. The better you can do this, the better trained your dog will be.