Feel Good Time

I’m not a very huggy wuggy person, perhaps my parents over-instilled a fear of stranger danger or germs, but if I were the sort to dole out hugs I would be doing that now.  

I’m really not that sort though.  Let’s just have a nice, long distance, no-contact-necessary moment here where I say thanks instead. 

Thanks for being supportive. For offering commiseration. For being pushy.  For giving feedback. For having a laugh. 

I really needed that.

I was a bit shocked- though why should I be? Dog people are the best people- at the help I’ve gotten in one form or another since yesterday.  Because of people taking the time to give that help, I’ve got a better outlook, I’ve got ideas, I’ve got a better understanding.  I’ve got a great dog, and I’ve got hope again.

Phew!

***

So we can probably cancel the suicide watch at this point and get back to our regularly scheduled program which references Velociraptors and crack way too much.

Speaking of…

Crack Puppy!  And here is a shot of her with the seldom seen Crack Ducky (he’s been shrouded in mystery due to the fact that she engulfs him in her giant mouth).

He’s seen better days.

Lucky she has a short attention span (which you can clearly see waning above) or he wouldn’t have lasted this long. 

Case in point: Give it two minutes and...

Pup and Ball. Friends Forever. Who’s Crack Ducky??

 ***

 I was taking my monthly side-by-side to chronicle Pup Growth and became a bit alarmed. Um. Is she bigger than The Dog now??? I’m not sure I can blame this on tricky lighting… 

One thing is for sure though- I obviously need her to learn to stand like a slinky BC and not a proud terrier.  The Dog looks positively diminutive. 

***

The Pup has no time for silly things like crouchy stands though. She is all about agility now.

I’m sad to say her crate suffered some substantial wounds due to her…um…enthusiasm… while waiting to work though.  Oh well.  At least I know she wants to play?

We had a really good practice with her last night. I am pleased to report that the short turn alternating is working really well for BOTH girls.  It’s harder for me to bust up the party once it gets going, but I’m learning.   It’s helped me become more focused and plan better too so we are getting a lot more out of our hour.

Anyways, so The Pup worked some on the Aframe, I think it’s about 4 feet at this point?  She seems to adore flying the apex. Her stride is a natural one to put her into the yellow so I don’t think I will need to do much more than train her to go up and off straight.  Which is awesome since I am The Anti-apparatus.    We also started really working on the full dogwalk.  I wasn’t sure if it was too soon to go full height- if she was too young? But she seems sure footed and pretty sturdy.  Plus she has a Helmut Head.  For protection.   So we back chained up and over and everything held up just fine.  She’s already doing the adorable leap from the top board to the middle of the down plank (flying the ‘apex’ of the DW!) so I think that tells us her speed and confidence are good.

We also started on some more sequences.  I was too into it to stop and video, but here are some tiny maps to allow you to use your imagination: 

Tunnel, tunnel, jump, table, A! In case your imagination is broken.

Tunnel, jump, tire, jump, teeter! Because it's not really that obvious, huh.

She was all about working out and seeking obstacles last night so I took advantage to start working a bit on sending. We used a TOY for the first time really and she BROUGHT IT BACK! And TUGGED!!! This was pretty huge.  SO much easier to train with toys, I am glad she is starting to get that part and especially get that part about playing WITH me.   I’m seriously going to send presents to all the dogs that have been demonstrating good tugging skills for her.  I really think that helped far more than anything I’d been doing.

Just when I think she’s had her agility ‘lightbulb’ she keeps getting better and better.

Now if only I could get her to stop eating toilet paper.