# Lily utility pictures



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

On December 6th I took Lily to a utility match at a club on Staten Island. Poodlerunner lives near there and she and Piper came to meet us and watch.

Poodlerunner took tons of fabulous pictures of Lily and sent them to me. She processed them to black and white since the lighting wasn't great, but I think doing that transformed them into the most amazing pictures. She is very talented.

Here is a small selection of the pictures she took and explanation of what was happening.

This is Lily taking the high jump in the directed jumping exercise. To set up for the jump you send the dog away from you and they sit facing you at the other end of the ring. There are two jumps and the dog has to go over the one you send it to.









Here we are setting up for an exercise. I've been working on keeping Lily focused and attentive. 









Here Lily is finishing to heel after the directed retrieve exercise. I would never see this myself. It is very cool to see her focus so intense.









This is part of the heeling and signals exercise. After a heeling pattern, you are ordered by the judge (the woman standing behind Lily) to stand your dog and leave your dog. You are to go across the ring and face the dog and signal a drop from the stand, sit from the drop, recall and finish to heel. All of the heeling and signals are ordered visually only, no talking allowed. This picture shows a really big deal for Lily. She has been struggling with this exercise and walking in on the drop signal (not allowed). Here she dropped in place!









This should be before the above picture it shows Lily on the stand, leave your dog part of the signals.









Lily is always happy to return to me. This is the recall part of the signal exercise.









This is part of the directed jumping exercise. Here Lily is headed towards the bar jump (the other jump along with the high jump shown in the first picture.









I have been making sure that Lily gets chances to de-stress during training sessions. Here I had thrown the glove and told her to go kill it after she finished the retrieve. Do you think this girl needs any more prey drive?


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

This is so fun to see! What wonderful photos--could be in a Poodle book. I love Lily's beautiful, wanting to please expression


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## MiniPoo (Mar 6, 2014)

These pictures are absolutely amazing. Lily looks like she is smiling in most of them. I hope you get some of these framed.

You have a great and talented dog, and Poodlerunner takes fabulous pictures. Thanks for sharing.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Those are wonderful photos of a beautiful, animated and engaged Lily taken by a fantastic photographer! Love the b/w.


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## Viking Queen (Nov 12, 2014)

Great pictures full of poodle joy. I am sure you will cherish those pictures for a long long time. Love her carefree, yet focused personality and the hair, Oh my goodness I love the hair!

Cathy


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## coffee&curls (Nov 18, 2015)

What wonderful pictures, poodlerunner did a fantastic job! Lily seems to be just beaming with excitement and happiness, you can really tell that she loves this. I adore her expressions.


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## Muggles (Mar 14, 2015)

What fabulous photos!! Lily looks just so gorgeous and her attention and focus on you is amazing.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Absolutely wonderful, beautiful, pictures! They show Lily's energy, drive, and her enjoyment! Her focus on you certainly tells a love story!
Poodlerunner is very talented indeed!!!!! Black & White pics always seem so much more dramatic to me!


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## Sanic (Oct 22, 2015)

Amazing pictures!! Thank you so much for sharing  You and Lily are an amazing team!


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## patk (Jun 13, 2013)

i have to compliment both lily and poodlerunner on ability to focus!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Here are a couple of little YouTube videos from the match. For those not familiar with what a match is you can either treat it like a trial and just move through the exercises or you can use it to help reinforce training that you do on your home turf. We are doing the latter these days. Therefore I don't always do all of the exercises and I am breaking each thing I do into parts to reinforce knowledge and build Lily's confidence in the performance of the activities required. She is very successful doing the exercises at my home club and with familiar people. Other places and new people test her readiness for trials.

This shows go outs and directed jumping work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGUP-Vs6Uoo

Here is some work on the directed retrieve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxQWOiV4kho

This is our hardest exercise, the dreaded signals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_w2pghY4OU


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## snmim (Sep 7, 2015)

Those shots are amazing! And I think Lily aced those signals. I love how focused she is on you.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

This is a work in progress. I have to be able to get her to take the orders for the signals all the way across the ring without having her step in towards me. We are stretching the distance out and getting the drop with a person she doesn't know standing right behind her has been a huge leap. You guys are an awesome Lily fan club!


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## Axeldog (Aug 29, 2014)

How great to have all of those photos captured of Lily working! PR did a fabulous job capturing the essence of Lily!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Axeldog said:


> How great to have all of those photos captured of Lily working! PR did a fabulous job capturing the essence of Lily!


I think the best thing about the pics (aside from their inherent aesthetic value as art) is that it lets me see things I never would otherwise see! This girl is more than I ever could have dreamed of in the long time I waited for the time to be right for her. And it was a really long time, over 25 years. When it is right it is so right!


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

She is beautiful. I love these pictures.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I thank all of you for compliments on Lily's look. Since I hurt my hand several weeks ago I haven't been able to do much decent grooming. I am actually somewhat embarrassed. She is currently half way to nekkid to make up for my temporary lack of dexterity. It is hair and it will grow.


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## kayfabulous6 (Nov 19, 2013)

She is a star! Love the pics


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

Wow! The pictures are amazing and I loved the videos, too. She's such a great worker. I am so in awe of those signals at such a distance; that's a challenge for any dog. 

I like her look in these, too. Kind of "shaggy chic." 

Thanks for sharing!

--Q


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## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

Very nice,though I couldn't get the signals to play the 1st time! Lovely vest as well,Catherine. 

See you in a few weeks!

Martha et al


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## marialydia (Nov 23, 2013)

Congratulations to Lily, you and Poodlerunner! Fabulous photos!

What is really striking is the intent focus that Lily has on you and on the tasks at hand. Most impressive.


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## Khurst (Oct 31, 2014)

Wonderful to watch!


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## Beaches (Jan 25, 2014)

I can only agree with all
The other beautiful compliments to this amazing team. Catherine you both deserve gold medals and yes, Lily does have a huge fan club.


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## Jasper Rules (Jul 12, 2015)

I love her energy and how focused she is on you! I noticed at the end of your directed retrieve video she started wagging her tail at the end of her "finish", which I found to be very cute! Keep up the good work with your amazing Lily


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Martha I bought that vest last spring at the fairgrounds. Stacey bought one for Barb then too. I just got a couple more of them since the folks are retiring and they were still working on trying to sell the business when I saw them in Springfield. They are reversible and have pockets, just perfect for showing contrast between my arm and body for the signals.

The focus is still the main thing we are working on. The private trainer I am working with has helped me see how much higher a level of focus and ability to ignore distractions is really needed to succeed in utility. In 2014 I think there were just around 100 dogs that earned UD titles in AKC. This is a steep high mountain to climb. We've come a long way though.

Jasper Rules, you caught onto the other thing we are working on which is reminding Lily that this is all fun when she has confidence in herself. Wagging tails are great to see (and something I don't see myself too easily when we are in position). Another OTCh handler (multiple time) I am lucky to have access to since she comes to my Friday classes with her young dog has the view that training should be hard but fair and consistent. She thinks if the dog knows you always expect her to do her best then going into a trial will be easier than training for that moment.


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## BeckyM (Nov 22, 2013)

What wonderful pictures! I love her action shots!  You can tell her muscles are spring loaded!


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

Thank you for sharing your photos. It is a joy to see you so bonded and working together so well with Lily.


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## Jasper Rules (Jul 12, 2015)

lily cd re said:


> Jasper Rules, you caught onto the other thing we are working on which is reminding Lily that this is all fun when she has confidence in herself. Wagging tails are great to see (and something I don't see myself too easily when we are in position). Another OTCh handler (multiple time) I am lucky to have access to since she comes to my Friday classes with her young dog has the view that training should be hard but fair and consistent. She thinks if the dog knows you always expect her to do her best then going into a trial will be easier than training for that moment.


When I was at a trial (we weren't entered) a few months ago, I was watching the utility dogs. Very interesting to see! I noticed very quickly that the ones that scored well definitely had a self confidence and knew when they had done well. Jasper and I did the Fenzi Dog Academy engagement class (Denise Fenzi was the instructor) during the summer and it has definitely helped overall enjoyment and focus. It sounds like your trainer is working towards the same thing!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

CT Girl, it is very nice to hear from you here again. I've missed you. Lily has always been a nice working dog, but she has made leaps and bounds of progress since way back when we me at Quinnipiac Poodle Club. I hope we can cross paths again soon. Do you ever do agility in Tolland?

Jasper Rules you are lucky to have been able to train directly with Denise Fenzi. I know some people who have done online work with her who have loved it. I imagine that in person is even better.

Focus is the key. The trainer I am working with has emphasized that you have to have a confident and laser focused dog to do well in utility.


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## Jasper Rules (Jul 12, 2015)

It was an online course, but she posted videos which was super helpful!


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Finally got to watch the video's today. I really enjoyed Poodlerunner's pictures and your explanations earlier. Maybe when you've retired and Javelin and son of Peeves have all their titles you will consider a book. I was also struck by how confident and focused Lily is. So impressive.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Here are a few more of the pictures that poodlerunner took the day of the Staten Island match.

First are a couple related to the directed retrieve, the set up and the start of the pivot.

















Here are a couple of the stand stay for the signals. Her attention is great.

























Focus is wonderful here.


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