The Countdown has begun

One week and two days from today Gali will be in his first utility trial. I am really looking forward to it. I can't wait to see how he does!!! I just finished training him and I have a pretty good idea on what I will be working on this week. EVERYTHING!!! I started off my training session with some heeling and signals from a short distance, (which he didn't drop all the way to the ground). I also worked on some fronts and finishes. I took him into the "ring" on lead, no food on my body, but he knew where the food was (specifically meatballs, the new wonder drug for training) I worked formally through each of the exercises and didn't do anything that I wouldn't be comfortable doing at a trial.

He jumped on the way back from retrieving the glove, but tried pretty hard to correct his front. He did both articles very nicely. On signals he did a horrible about turn after the slow pace. It was as if he felt squished by the gate and sort of shot forward out of heel position and then waited for me to catch up. He did a LOVELY drop and then walked in on his sit signal (so no pass on this run through), I kept going with the routine. His moving stand was really nice and his directed jumping was fantastic!!! I trained for about 15 minutes more and did some heeling, more signals and some fun proofing drills such as verbal only directed jumping and rewarding touching on the go outs. We ended our session playing with the Frisbee. Gali seemed relaxed through most of the routine and training session except on the signal recall; his body language was telling me that he was pretty unsure.

Here is my list of things to work on:

1. Glove exercise coming through the jumps, reminding him to watch and/or maybe a chute on the ground.
   
2. Heeling
   
3. Fronts and Finishes
   
4. Fun article things to keep him up and relaxed
   
5. Working our signals from various distances, and rewarding different parts
   
6. One or two run throughs this week
   
7. Getting people to do moving stand with me this week, I am always practicing alone
   
8. Various distances for go-outs and distance between the jumps. Randomly rewarding go-outs and surprise endings after jumping.
   
9. I should also ask Susie if I can train in her hall this week to give him a change of environment.
   

It is going to be FUN!!!!