Thursday 31 October 2013

Watching the world go by, except tonight

Mum takes me for a walk everyday. I like my walks with mum, but every time she has to do her serious mum: "let's do some homework". I don't like homework... She always find some way of making me do either agility items or obedience and rally-O.
Her favorite is to get me to do 'tables' around the big stones in the park. But for that I need to get ready. First I make sure that I haven't missed any of my mates wee mail from the day before. I need to sniff all of the stones sometimes for a couple of minutes... Take that mum for obedience, gnahahah... And then I cave in and do her table... She can't make up her mind if she wants me to sit or down on there. All I know is that I just stay there for a bit and jump off when she tells me, and ca-tching, here comes the food! Who's the doggy, woohoo all the treatsies for me! 
However, I'm not completely happy with her latest find, a crappy metal narrow bench that makes a lot of noise, and she wants me to "walk on" on it. Somehow, she says it's going to help me with the dog walk and it will get me more confident... No mum, it will just make me think that the park didn't want to invest in an expensive well built bench.... seriously, the whole thing is going to crack under my weight (NO I'm not fat!!!), I'm just putting my front feet on it and that's it, no discussion. Now give me that treat...

mmm nothing on the right

Gah! she's still there that one...

What's happening back there?

Tonight's walk was a bit more scary because of Halloween. A lot of the houses are decorated with creepy spider webs and other items. Told mum to take a pic of my favourite houses, but she forgot her phone... typical, she always shove that in my face and clics away but when there is something useful to take a photo of.... Anyway, there was even creepier than the decorations tonight: large groups of kids walking the streets! Ahhhhhhhhhh so scary! And by the way, I'm not talking about their costumes!

Wednesday 30 October 2013

Tootsies tick check

With all those nasty ticks around and my mates getting in trouble, mum and dad keep checking me all over. I just think they can't get their hands off me, I'm so handsome, who can blame them really?
But sometimes I like to have a bit of fun and make their job a bit trickier. Mostly when they do my paws, they don't realise that I'm ticklish!
Last time daddy tried to check my paws, gosh I had fun... I wasn't going to lay there quietly, mwahaha.
I think I got him good, he'll think twice before doing that again, mwahaha.... I'm so evil!!

Uh oh! Mum's coming!! Fun's over :( ok here are my paws.... s'ppose it's better they check them grumph...





Tuesday 29 October 2013

Trick and treat tuesday: Let's start at the beginning

I've decided to start doing a themed tuesday post, and the upcoming Halloween inspired me! I've seen a few people around having them (love the ones from Bodhi!), that's a bit of fun and I'm hoping it could be useful for other people too, in case they stumble onto this. Mawson promised he would help me write those.

Trigonometry tuesday? What is mum talking about?? I don't need to know that! Or maybe that's to help me better my agility skills??? What was it again for those angles? Python gorgeous? Pitas gore? Pfff too hard, can't remember... Ohh food! Let's sit, she won't resist my cute puppy eyes and will give me the treats, mwhahaha.

First though, I thought it was crucial to set some good basis. For any training, either obedience, tricks etc. The most important thing is to be in a good mood. Believe me it can be pretty frustrating to teach new things, even more when you have a little pup thinking that the passing fly is much more interesting than that stupid sit you keep asking. Now if that frustration is exacerbated by you being in a dodgy mood or tired, that is a full recipe for disaster. Trust me I've done it, it doesn't end well... And that can have some pretty negative effects on any training and bond you have with your monster. So best to not go there.

Well if she was giving more treats, I wouldn't be looking at the flies, would I?

You need to use a happy voice and LOOK happy too. Dogs are very sensitive to your  body language. Keep smiling (not with the full teeth out though! Some dogs might mistake that for a threat!!) make the whole thing a positive experience, with plenty of praise. All dogs respond in different manners, but I know that harsh reprimand wouldn't work with Mawson. He would shut down and go in his shell, because he is a sensitive little soul. And actually, there are very few dogs who would answer well to reprimand. The best tip I got was from an instructor in my 1rst level obedience class. The first and only class at that level I did, as she passed us to the next level straight at the end... She started the class by asking us to space ourselves, get in front of our dog and just with our voice make our puppy wag his tail happily. For some dogs it's not too hard as they just don't stop wagging their tail, but to a scaredy puppy a bit lost in his obedience class it is a bit more work. However, if you can do that easily, then you are ready to start :)! 

Hey, I hold on to wagging my tail a bit longer to see how far she would go in the crazy voice department.. I tell you pups, it's worth it, don't give in easy!

There are a few different manners to teach tricks. I'm adding link from one very good puppy course we took with Mawson with Get Smart Dogs, as they explain it a lot better than I would (I would ramble on again). Clicker training, and food luring. (I'm sure there are more but that's the main ones I know of). 
Particularly for tricks, you can also use what I call opportunity training, that is to say use a reward cue when your dog does something you would like to use in the future. In this case the clicker is great but a "yes" and a treat would work too, no words! Let your pup try and work out what he did to get the reward. That gets the dog thinking, and it is a great way to fix a training item firmly in the monster's brain. Then, when the behaviour is learnt, introduce cue words for the behaviour for future repeats. 

Food! Use the food one, come on! You know you want to. Mum, explain the food one better!!!

Concentrate on one thing by training session, not twenty, and get that thing repeated, for example 5-10 times. If the trick gets awry a couple of times, stop, sit back and think about the way you are training the task for a second. Maybe there is a way to break down the trick. Remember a trick will not be learnt in one session, little steps over a few days to a few weeks will do it. And I get such a kick when Mawson finally gets a trick we've been working on, that it's worth all the hair pulling (and I've still got fairly long hair!).

Mum, that kick you are talking about is my back leg....

For every training session irrespective of progress or success, it is very important to always finish on a good note. Even if the whole thing has been hard because you are just starting a new thing or because tonight mister pup is more interested by the colour of his nails. In this case end the session and pick something that pup can do well easily, for exemple a couple of sits, and praise and treat. Tadaaaa

Or just give the treats who care about the sits mum...

Mawson!... Ok, now that I went on and rambled about the basics, get ready and we'll get Mawson's tricks coming from next tuesday!

Oh my goodness, what has she invented now! I need my agent, quick...


yes mum?

pizza helps...

Monday 28 October 2013

Bleh!

...Too...much...breaky... 

I can't move anymore, I am too full, and it's hot. Just give me two seconds.... then I'll be ready for breaky number two....

blehhhh


Sunday 27 October 2013

Tiring saturday

There wasn't many from the agility crew at training yesterday, they were all busy earning stacks of qualis at the Castle Hill agility trial! Well done to all of the 4 pawed and 2 footed competitors!!
So we were only 6 and that meant that Mawson had a pretty full on morning of jumps and tunnels.
We even continued some training during the midday break while waiting for the obedience class.

I've entered us for an obedience trial soon so we are polishing up our moves. Don't know if we'll stick along for the obedience trials very far though, as the judging is quite strict (bit over the top on some instances I think but let's see...) and it's hard for me not to say anything to Mawson and not praise him when he does something well. That's not allowed in those trials as it is considered as double commands (!). He can do it, but I'm sure it's me who will muck up by telling him a big YES GOOD DOG... We will see, I have been practising, with gaffer tape...

Anyway, he has done very well in the obedience class too. He was on the collar only, as the harnesses are not allowed on trial (again!).
Then they wanted to do a mock trial/run through at the end of the class as well. It was hot and none of the selected dogs did anything. Mawson was so tired after the whole day of training that he didn't even want to sit!! And another lady whose dog is so well trained, didn't even want to move when she performed her recall, the first time in the life of the dog that she didn't run to her mum. They gave up on trying to do our run through then, took them a bit longer than I thought...

Still I'm proud of my little monster, we had a few grump moments throughout the day, none due to him I shall add, just other people's "interesting" view of the world, but he has been exemplary.

yeeeeeeee, I'm flying!

admire the lightness of the ears...


Saturday 26 October 2013

To dive or not to dive...

Mmmm, it's a bit hot and I wouldn't mind having a dip in the pool, but it's a bit high there.

Oh that's a bit deep
Maybe I'll just sun myself for a bit, but better be careful of the rays it's quite strong. A bit of shade might be better. Oh can't decide, life is so complex!


Friday 25 October 2013

Professor Mawson: will it float or will it sink?

First test, relatively easy... A large bouncy ball. So will it sink or will it float?


Test result: It floats! "Thank you professor Mawson". All right, let's not get bored with the theory, hey! I can't paw the equations in here :P

Next experiment, pwease...

Ahaah! A pressed rawhide bone, mmmm interesting... Let's see, will it float or will it sink?


Ehhhehhh, mmmm, looks like it sinks, hey?


Yup, definitely sinks. Damn, how do I get it out now? Muuuuuum! What? Get it out yourself? Is that a way to serve me! I'll have to wet my nose now... I suppose it's worth it though cause it's my chewy bone....

Anyway, this was the first episode of "Professor Mawson: will it float or will it sink?" Stay tuned for future episodes... 

Thursday 24 October 2013

Mount Everest

I saw the minions watching a program on telly about the first two people (Mallory and Irvine) who possibly went to the top of Mount Everest. That was a long time ago, and they don't really have any proof, cause well, they didn't make it back down, if you see what I mean...
So, I thought I would do my own mountain climb but with a less dramatic ending (!) and documentation of my exploits. How wonderful is the world seen from such heights....

Tadaaaaa!

What yes, it was high, nearly got vertigo! And mum and dad need to work on that and continue the good job that granddad Frank did when he came here. Those two minions are so lazy.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

The lost water dragon

This poor "little" water dragon came out of a stream and onto the grassed area of one of the local park. He then stopped after a few metres, and realised he had made a fairly poor choice with the place he walked into... There was a fair few dogs around and a number of them were keenly looking at him. Mister dragon was doing his best tarzan impression of puffed up chest (without the noise though!). Mawson was very interested, but I didn't give him the chance to go too close, and anyway he was on the lead. I definitely don't think they would have been best buddies. 
One more thing to add to the list, along with the cats and rabbits... However, though the dragon had hung about bravely with the previous dogs, he took one look at Mawson and decided that that was it for all this craziness, before running back to the cover of bushes and the comfy stream, with his typical swagger. I love to see the way those dragon run, it's very cute! I bet he will think twice before coming out there for a picnic next time though!

And Mawson is sulking that mum was once again a kill joy and didn't let him play with the running toy!

I'm big and scary me, and I'm defo not scared of you!

Tuesday 22 October 2013

Omelette, gentille omelette...

Daddy was once against filling his guts with way too much food tonight. And what is that eating on the sofa in front of the telly?! Tut, tut, tut... That is no proper manners, I need to regulate all that.
I'm not a great fan of the tomato sauce (at least that's not his dodgy smelling "chilly" sauce, dunno why it's so cold!), but anyway, I will sacrifice myself for the sake of my daddy. I'm so good like that...

you shouldn't eat all that you know
By the way, my title is my interpretation of what mum keeps humming lately. She has read the blog of one of her friend (not native french) who was talking about an old french/canadian song. And now I think the tune is stuck in her head cause she goes on and on and on... And obviously, what happened? Well now it's stuck in MY head. Well played mum!!!

Monday 21 October 2013

Grump

One would have thought that, with the dramatic fire situation around the state and the total fire ban in place over nearly the whole of NSW, people would think a bit twice before doing something stupid, but apparently not...

We had the joy of being awaken in the early hours of the morning, i.e. I would say around 2am, with huge fireworks going off right above our house!!! Not the tiny crackers no, big crazy ones!!!! Obviously both Martin and I woken up with a start, but straight away also with a pup freaking out in his crate. It took me a good chunk of my precious night sleep to calm him down and settle him back to sleep, following a big bawling and emergency cuddles intervention... He was even still on edge this morning.

Martin saw the traces of the lit up fireworks out on the street a few metres away this morning. Now if I hadn't had to go and calm a puppy going mental, I might have gone to extract some limbs out of the idiots. Lucky them I was busy....

Isn't that way too much?

Kryptonite

I am a poor puppy. They attacked me with that weird object and stripped me of my energy and powers. They went straight for the toes... and snip snip snip...
They said it was for my own good and my claws were too long but I know that they just want to weaken my superpowers. I don't need my claws cut, I can just go for a run in the backyard and tadaa! Nails are not there anymore! No mum!! They're not hidden under the soil I dug out from the trenches in the garden. I don't know how those trenches got there, it's not me who dug them. When I started running out there, there was nothing. Somebody must have been following me or something... As I said I don't need my claws cut!!! But no, they had to use that object of torture *sigh*

Sulk!



Sunday 20 October 2013

Come on! It's hot!!

It's getting hot outside, and mum is soooo slow on walks. She is always telling me that I don't take the time to enjoy the view. But I can smell everything, and look at the view at the same time, while taking a nap, before she even makes it to the next metre... And with the heat, I need to get to the next drink station along the way, even if she takes some of that weird container that squirts water in my mouth. She calls that a "sport bottle". Yeah right, as if she was ever doing any sport...

What' you doing?
I think that if I don't take matters into my own paws we'll get burnt to a crisp, so I need to attempt to make her move her sizeable backside faster! It's such a hard work for a poor little puppy... She'd better give me one of those frozen shinbone when we get home...

Come oooooon!

Saturday 19 October 2013

S'cuse me?

My toy is there. Give me my toy. It's my toy. Mum, give me my toy. It's there. Can't you see it? My toy is there... MUMMMYYYYYYYY

Follow the nose

The minions these days are useless, already mummy did plenty of treats and didn't give me anything. She said that it was for the people at "work"!! What did they do to deserve the treats and not me?? Do they do better tricks than me?? I don't think so! Do they shake paws? I don't think so!
So GIVE ME THE TREATS!!!

Proof of the treat she meanly doesn't want to
give me, she says it's a rustic lemon tart
(she only says rustic because she turned
her back when it was done and over cooked it
for a few minutes...

By the way in case you forgot mum, my toy is up there, just so you know. I wouldn't mind my toy...

Friday 18 October 2013

:( smoky

I'm not happy! I woke up from my afternoon snooze, yesterday, to sniff a whole lot of smoke and burning smells. After checking it wasn't in the house, I saw it was all over outside in the sky! Then I snuck in on daddy's computer and pawed in a search for the NSW Rural Fire Service (don't tell the minions that I sneak in on the computer while they are away... I'll get in trouble....). Anyway, I saw a whoooole lot of fires everywhere. And worse they are all over places with names I know, because of obedience and agility trials! I am really not happy! I hope those fires are going to stop soon and that they won't destroy much more, I think they have done enough damage like that.

I also saw that there was a fire at Castlereagh, that's where some of my fellow GSPs live. I'm not sure were they are exactely, but I hope they are all safe and out of the fire way.

After mummy came back home, the smell was so strong when we went for a walk. She took some pics with her phone and it looks scary.

Hope all puppies around will stay safe, and keep your minions safe too. Cats don't need help, they always seem to sneak out of trouble, but hey I'll be grand and send my thoughts to them too, after all if they get into trouble who will I try and chase, hey??

Much too much for a little puppy GSP, let's go have a puppy meltdown with my blanky on my bed!

believe it or not that's the sun...


surreal colours, looked like neon lighting

on mummy's way back from work, not looking good at all

sky above the house

Thursday 17 October 2013

Bird!

As a GSP, Mawson is supposedly a bird hunting dog (small furries could count too I suppose, but mainly birds). However, he seems to have developed a pickiness about which birds he chooses to point at.
Magpies were once his favourites, but they have (nearly) completely gone out of favour. So much so that he sometimes doesn't even turn his head for them, even if they are at less than a metre away! Smaller birds like the mynahs are touch and go, depending on the mood and the noisiness of the little pests. That's on the big birds that he gets most of his kicks. The sulfur crested cockatoos are interesting but they can be in big bunches, so they are sometimes a bit freaky. His favourite of all times (for the moment!) are galahs, and they usually come in pairs. I know that if I see galahs on the way, we will be stuck there for a good few minutes. He is getting better mind you, I can now tell him when to turn it on and point or continue walking veeeery slowly. When he was younger, he was literally glued to the spot he saw them first. No moving the puppy, I once had to carry him away for a few metres...

the culprit Galah (not my pic though!)

It makes a lot of people stop to look at him and laugh, when I let him go on a bit of a point. I guess if there was enough time I could develop and train that trait better, but if there is anything furry that passes around, he gets real silly and becomes a real crap hunter.

What also makes me laugh is that, when we are at training, he is sometimes the only bird hunting dog there, and couldn't care less about the birds, whereas all of the other dogs go crazy about them and chase them at full speed... Go figure! Guess they are mainly ballsy magpies.

Galah... that way... (not the best point but hey...)


Wednesday 16 October 2013

Little lime tree will grow big... hopefully!

My parents (the french ones ;P) gave us a lovely tahitian lime tree at the beginning of the year. Following a bit of a scare and some yellowing of the leaves, Martin and I did some heavy tlc and the little tree seems to have picked up! It has a lot of fresh leaves and an insane amount of flowers. Let's hope that we'll have a couple of limes, and that the birds and insects won't play with the developing fruits!



Need to check the level in the bottle of rum. Better be safe than sorry!

What My Dad Does?

Firstly, I know he is my Dad because we look like twins, except that his ears are a bit smaller, and his nose is not very good, probably because he is getting old. That is probably why he has lost most of his fur and spots as well. Many of my pals at the park ask me about what he does during the day but it is difficult to answer clearly.

So, what does he do  when he leaves me to guard the house? Well he often goes away early in the morning, and sometimes for long periods to a place where there is a lot of vomitting? Even though my Dad doesn't vomit I know there is a lot of other people vomitting because I can smell it, and I can smell the sea as well, but mostly vomit. My mum explained that he gets in a boat and takes some samples of sea water. She also explained that he goes to places with exotic names, like Mauritius and South Africa. I know that there are lions, tigers, monkeys and elephants in South Africa. Although I don't know what they look like, I know what they smell like, and I could smell them on my Dad when he came back.

So, he goes to sea on a boat and apparently he is a molecular biologist as well. I heard him explain it to someone in the park so I will try to repeat it using an example for all of the young pups. Basically, if I was sitting next to a flask of bacteria in a really dark room, so dark that you couldn't see us, he would be able to tell the difference between me and the bacteria by taking a sample and sequencing our DNA. My Dad is really clever like that! Even though I could use my nose to tell the difference I wouldn't tell him that, because that might make him self conscious about losing his sense of smell.

I also heard that he trains young humans to do the same things that he does. What he does sounds quite complicated so I can imagine that there is a lot of clicker training and treats involved. Yesterday he brought me into his office and I met some of the young humans. And yes, sure enough, he was using the clicker to train them how to throw treats into my mouth!

So that is what my Dad does during the day. Mum explained that he does that so that he can buy my kibble and treats. He won't have to do that for much longer now that I am earning prize money on the Agility course. Then he can stay home with me to guard the house and I can help him to smell the things that he can't smell anymore.

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Tuesday 15 October 2013

And make it fast!

I've done the "walk on" as you wanted. Now give me that treat, or else...
And it'd better be a good juicy one!

Toughnessiness

Monday 14 October 2013

We will overcome that fear!

At the trial, we got some tips of what to train, to try and overcome that fear of the dog walk. Le, who co-owns an agility training school that we might attend soon (canine fun sports), told us to get him confident on the walk instead of him just trying to run through as fast as possible to get it over and done with. That entails getting the dog walk on a low setting and have him do a whole lot of things on the narrow plank, from stopping, sitting, laying, do a 180C, jump on and off. We might even attempt a bunny pose... But the first day of work went pretty good. After his usual rushing over the top at the start we succeeded to do a lot of stuff. And he even did a 180C turn for me!! gnehehe daddy didn't see it!!!!
We are now going to train all that over and over again and continue that on the sat training. The dog walk WILL BE Mawson's best friend!

Joking apart I am pretty happy that this issue got caught up now at a fairly early stage, when we can retrain relatively easily. Better that than having that fear growing into his little brain to gigantic proportions and him one day having a real big issue and possibly injuring himself.


ok ok, can I come down now?
Oh food! alright then I'll stay there.
To continue the craziness, we have just entered our second trial. That's going to be a biggy! That's over two days and the boys are entered in AD, JD, JDO and SD!!! Now back to that training....

Sunday 13 October 2013

My boys did good!

Well, well, what a day yesterday! Our first agility trial, actually our first anything trial. As crazy as ever we still went for the morning agility training at NSDTC, to try and brush up on some particular items, such as let's pick one: the DOG WALK. Mawson was very good, really switched on and after a few false starts we got him to pass on the fateful dog walk. I even ran Monty (the dog of our instructor Cyril) on part of the course and did great. It is funny how Monty listens to me now, after I played with him a few times.
We snuck out early with exceptional dispensation :) and headed back home for a little bit of a swim/cool down (for Mawson), then off to the our first agility trial!
Our main aim of the day was to keep Mawson cool, focussed and try for him not to run away and possibly finish the course, while having fun... And for me not to have a nervous breakdown...

As it was a gun dog trial of all sorts, there was a limited amount of participants, compared to some of the larger open events. Though quite a healthy number, I thought. And it was definitely hot!!!!
First up was agility. It was so nice to see so many gun dogs having fun, but you could also see that the heat affected a bit the early courses, with dogs thinking more of a nice relaxing swim in the pool than jumping and running over stuffs. Then Mawson's turn came. Started fine until he saw the dog walk and stopped in his tracks, Martin tried a few times to get him on, nope! Ah well disqualification then :(. But Martin continued on the rest of the course just for experience, and he did everything so perfectly (Mawson did, though Martin wasn't so bad either!). No bars down, did all of the items beautifully and did his best weaves so far. Damn that dog walk!
Then following a bit of waiting about for the higher classes of jumping, and a bit of whining from Mawson, just for good measure... It was time again for the monster to do his novice jumping course. The monster was fast and furious, flying about but just clipped one of the corner bars down with the tip of his tootsies. Just one tiny little bar down, but such a beautiful run. I was very proud of my boys.
The best of it is that Mawson actually topped the novice jumping course and finished first! He earned his pocket money to go get his bones. Just didn't get a qualification for the title because of that tiny bar, ah well I'm sure that will come. And it was already amazing and far more than what we were expecting for our first trial.

The ceremony

Looking all proud, after I convinced him
that it was NOT a tug toy

Next time we will be better prepared and know that we can also enter open as well as novice courses. And then the sky is the limit! Methinks Mawson will try to get all sorts of letters after his name.


Posing for posterity
...sun...in...eyes...ouch

Saturday 12 October 2013

Ready...nearly

Eeeeek! First agility trial today!!! Mawson is entered in novice agility (AD) and novice jumping (JD) at the United Retriever trial. Martin is running him, we'll see how things go. We got arm bands for our entry tickets (we need to have our number on when we run). I'll be doing some other trials, so I also got my one :).
The main target today is to try and get him staying concentrated on Martin and not running away. For the actual course, well we'll see, we are defo not expecting a quali!! 
Just crossing my fingers that he will not run away, or go and eat a small child!

ready for the course

Friday 11 October 2013

Time for a cool down

Ah, all that running and walking they make me do in that crazy Sydney heat, I need a bit of a relax time. And also need to cool down my poor little paws. Yes going out for a wee was a lot of exercise!!!  Let's go for a swim. Poom poudoum poudoum. paddle paddle paddle....

swim this way

oh no let's go and check that way

mmm better look at that way

Ok, done my laps. It's getting a bit cold now. Let's get out and go for a snooze in the sun. Now, where is mummy and that camera? gnehehe, got an idea... Shaaaake, hahahaha, she's all wet, nanananana!

More efficient than the spin cycle
in the washing machine!

Thursday 10 October 2013

What do you mean?

What do you mean by "where is the bird"? What bird? Haven't seen a bird here, nope... Was just sleeping down there peacefully.

mphwhat mphbird?

nb: no bird were hurt in the making of this photo! ;P

Wednesday 9 October 2013

The gazebo

Well, I said that Martin went to get a gazebo. We put it up to see how it was. It is huge! We shall definitely have some shade. I am just worried that we won't have space to set it up on the grounds, maybe we'll need to share!
Anyway, Mawson seemed to approve, but he still preferred to chew his marrow bone in the sun.

All we need now is a trial day to test it, oh guess what! There's one coming next week end, how convenient!


Tuesday 8 October 2013

Rally-O training

As it was Bank holiday yesterday, there was not the usual club training for rally-O in the evening. So, I took my newly printed half signs and decided to do a bit of training on my own. Or rather at home and with Mawson. I made up a crazy course to set up in the backyard. As it was a bit windy outside, I decided to set it up inside before recreating in in the great outdoors, that would have been a bit tight on the carpet! It's already a bit crammed in the backyard so...
However, Mawson found it all too much for a non working day, and crashed out - sorry, oversaw - the development of the course. Tried to make a few changes for the stations he didn't like, but I stood firm.

I even incorporated some other station from advanced and excellent later on and did it all off lead!!
The meanest was to use his Hi-bounce balls for the weave posts, a few 'leave it' were in order and he regrettably let them go following me...

Now, all we need to do is actually perform the same on trial days, and he will be a Rally-O excellent dog in no time.... 

Any more stations?

I'm adding a halt and crash down here...