Workin' On My "Open" Obedience Skills with Barbara!

Firstly, Mom thinks she's got the 'puter probs solved... at least for now. We are much speedier because we spent 12 hours backing up every single file on this thang, then went crazy last evening and this morning pressing the delete button again and again. Mom's index finger needs a massage heheh. We will be catching up, visiting our bloggie pals today and tomorrow. Thanks so much to all our sympathetic friends who also have or have had internet probs - may they be solved as easily as our problem was to fix. (Except Mom can't figure out how to restore the files from this little "Passport" external drive - uh oh...) And although thanks are on the sidebar, I want to acknowledge our immense gratitude to Ann at Zoolatry for creating the incredibly beautiful header up top. Ginormous thanks Ann - you are soooo talented! I am in the presence of greatness... my obedience instructor. Paws crossed that I do well. Sierra, Moritz and I have all commuted over here together this morning, so it will be a fun bunch of work for us all! (Thanks to Sierra's mom for snapping these photos!)
I have been practicing a bit of "open" on my own, after having had some instruction from Barbara occasionally. Since I have one leg left to go for my CD, I'm still mostly concentrating on Novice. But sometimes Mom and I get bored, so we do something else like figuring out how to learn the Broad jump first.

Here's a movie of me jumping over it, while chasing a piece of hot dog. Later, I'll learn to turn after jumping and come to Mom with a straight front. And I have to do a good "finish" too.
Even though I am truly excellent at retrieving my kong or bumper and returning it to Mom, I really dislike this weird little plastic thing. It's taken forever for me to actually go and pick it up. Mom finally took some of advice from you all out there and got a clicker! Voila! Now I'm just rewarded with treats instead of a click. I still won't go after it over a jump or anything, but my skills here are coming along!

"Okay," I'm thinking to myself, "I'll do it, but the treat better be hugely 'high value'." And hot dog "dimes" certainly are!
Next: if I'd only retrieve the thrown dumbell, we'd be working on that, but for now, Mom throws a bit of hot dog while I wait, then says "Over!" After I score the treat, she calls, "Sam, Come!" and I return over the jump!
I'm so fast, I'm a blur!
I don't think I needed crossed paws! I get the rest of Mom's "dawg" supply and take a well-deserved "down/stay" while Moritz and Sierra perform! Have a good weekend!