And so it begins

I have grand aspirations. And I'm hoping to hold on to those aspirations by keeping track of them in a blog. Clancy and I have recently started obedience training. He had his first lesson last Thursday. Oh he's a clever little git, but will he be able to survive my training and make a respectable showing when we enter our first obedience trial?

Years ago I trained and trialled with my collies. My first collie, Dreamer, was a laid back fellow - too laid back for trialling. He saw no reason to heel at my side when he knew I'd come back for him eventually. We did finally manage to get all three legs of his CD in one weekend (I refuse to say how many trials we had entered prior to that weekend...it's lost in the mists of time in any case). Dreamer was promptly retired from trialling (much to his relief) and my attentions turned to his daughter, Mikki.

Mikki was to be my obedience star - she had drive, she had enthusiasm, ...and she had neuroses. She was fantastic at the individual exercises. I still remember our first trial! She had focus, she had attention, she heeled like a champion and made every sit. Then came the group exercises. She held the long sit without breaking. Standing across the ring during the long down, I could already feel the ribbon in my hand! Wait, what's this...? Whose dog is that creeping across the floor? Ah crap, that's my dog!

And so it went...she never overcame her hatred of the group exercises. By my side, she was fine...side by side with other dogs and her nerves failed. We called it quits when she was eight but she is and will always be my star dog.

So now comes Clancy. Eighteen months old and a bundle of energy, personality and enthusiasm. What is it with these shelties? Will we be able to work together, what with my haphazard approach to clicker training and love of goofing off? I don't know but I'm excited and he's willing so we'll start our journey together and hopefully continue this blog to track our successes, bemoan our failures and generally have a tool for future improvement.

Wish us luck!