Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Know Your Dog (Or Else the Internet Will Eat You).

A sad video was shared the other day which caused minor outrage and pitchfork wielding among many viewers. In said sad video a 12 week old BC was being lured around a course (yes…a course) by his new mom.   She took him over jumps (requiring actual jumping), on the teeter (a healthy drop of a foot or so) and over a dogwalk (full-sized, lowered but over half height).  She asked him to jump a mini grid requiring turning.  She failed to recognize the signs of his mental exhaustion.  He failed to recognize the point and dismissed himself. All in all, not a great exposure for him.  Not really sure if the saddest part is the bleak future for the cute little puppy, or the fact that mom is a vet tech and on her third or so agility dog- meaning, should totally know better by now.

And there is the problem. I’m sure the owner is educated only enough to be a danger.  There is probably a teacher not doing much better close by, leading by (poor) example.  Bottom line: Uneducated.  Ignorance is probably one of the most dangerous nouns in the English language. So many bad things happen under the power of Ignorance.   Knowledge could take her from someone who SHOULD know better to someone who actually DOES.   But where does the knowledge come from?
***
Naturally, a lot of strong feelings come up around a topic like this.  With strong feelings come strong opinions.   Everyone has an opinion of what the problem is here and what would be ‘best’ to solve it.  Complication: Given the vast flow of opinion, how does one define and determine the art that is raising an agility teammate? What steps to take? When to take them? You’d think ‘safety’ would be a clear qualifier to set a standard but it isn’t.   The question of ‘best’ remains.

It’s obvious to most that it’s wrong to jump a 12 week old dog.  But what to do?  Tricks? Flatwork? Waiting? (Hint: If you aren’t jumping a 12 week old, you’re probably on a good track.)  You can make an argument for most anything. How does one decide what to do when there are so many opinions? Though we can mostly agree 12 weeks is bad, you can bet your agility trial savings account that no two people can agree on the age marker that is BEST. And how do you capture the rest, like the woman in the example, who even feel that 12 weeks is acceptable?
It sounds like an impossible situation.  If no one can agree, you can’t please everyone.  You’re right as can be in the eyes of some, yet wronger than wrong in another view.  At some point, someone somewhere is going to give you that look or comment that makes you doubt what you did.  And you still don’t have the answer of what you should have done or do next time.

But don’t worry. It’s not impossible.  You don’t have to please everyone or know everything there is to know about agility, or even pay $5000 for someone like Susan G. to tell you very quickly. Here is the one thing you really need to know to decide what is ‘best:’

Know your dog. This means physically and mentally.  Be aware of their physical capabilities and stages of growth.  Then be aware of their mental constraints and maturity.  Know every inch of your dog.  Our problem with the woman in the video is that she so clearly doesn’t know her dog.  If she took the time to know her dog, we would have seen a very different video.  She might have been listening to a teacher, but she should have been listening to her dog. The fact that she wasn't was her only mistake, and the knowledge of her own dog is the one thing she MUST have now.

I can sleep at night because I know my dogs- meaning, I don’t really care what anyone’s opinion is on the logistics of my training when it comes to The Pup. I get that I did some things ‘early’ to some and I skipped things others would have done. Here’s the thing: After almost a year (but, GASP! Not a full year!) of bonding and training (and the vet’s ok) I knew she was physically and mentally fine to work up to full equipment and BECAUSE of all the bonding and training it went very quickly.  The Pup has shown me what to do every step of the way and I listened. On the flipside, four years with The Dog and I have only just begun to feel as though she is mentally ready to have her limits pushed. She needed time and she received it. Again, I listened.

So there you are. Know your dog.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s ok. But you have to know your dog. Your dog will lead the way.

This has been a public service announcement.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Pupdate! Finally!

I feel like I've woefully neglected The Pup lately. At least in writing.

Contrary to what it may appear recently, The Pup has not dropped off into training oblivion.


I will admit though, I stopped going to class with her. Yes, it was supposed to be a goal. But I think I can breach the written contract with myself on account of how annoyed I was getting. It turned out to be completely unproductive. For starters, she either screamed when it wasn't her turn (annnnooooooying!) or sat and resource-guarded the daylights out of her treats and Marvin. That's annoying AND a really bad behavior. Also there happened to be a dog the she Had It In For. He went for her the first night they were in class together and targeted her as a Dog Of Interest. She doesn't take kindly to that sort of stalking and turn southie on him really quickly, constantly on the offense surveying for him. Again, I really don't want to give her opportunities for bad behaviors- plus the last thing she needs is another reason to check out what's running in other rings.

Which has been our biggest issue to date. Hola, Senor Prey Drive. I don't think it's pure herding instinct. You can see her licking her chops and feel the urge to kill rising. Well...not really. She just goes to say hi...And maybe chest bump a little... And steal a toy if they have one. But that is it!

That's plenty to be a problem though. When we train alone, she is a magical swirl of lovely brainpower. The process of introducing other dogs has been a slow one. Issue one is that she is a determined little sucker. If she wants to get through a barrier, she will. Issue two is that she has super OOO SHINY right now. Channeling the magic swirls is much harder with distraction.

But coming full circle, we HAVE been working on it. It being Focus. FOCUS. She gets two training nights basically dedicated to her now. And in just four weeks she went from being able to do only attention work next to a class being run (ON LEASH!) to actually running at the same time!!! Off leash! Sequences! AND (I'm super proud of this) I can leave her in an off-leash down while I WALK A COURSE and SET BARS! As the other dogs RUN!! Hallelujah.

When we do get to run in these situations, it's a blast. Since we went to the Sklenar seminar, I've really put a lot into teaching her extension and not worrying over collection. She can collect on a dime. (Funny- while she almost never responds to her name in life, in agility she actually attends to me when I call her! Excellent power of call-off. Yet powerless to redirect her from eating my plants or raiding the socks.) The extension has required some coaxing though- but now she loves to RUN! She is even starting to get confidence to run ahead. I was so pleased when she went off course on a straight line for the first time.nWe have something to try and handle now! Woo!

Her obstacle work is pretty solid. We need more work on the dogwalk and getting more extension from her without Marvin. She still hasn't thought of leaping yet, but I know she can run it in five strides consistently. She wavers between five and six on a given day. Other than that, more confidence building on the weaves. They are 100% faster than a month ago, but she still has to think- not yet able to rely on muscle memory.

She loves tunnels now. Mission accomplished. And then some. Yay?
***
In life, she continues to mature.

I swear.

Just because spent last night playing Monster Under the Bed, batting at me and The Dog when we go by (yes, like a cat would play) doesn't mean she isn't maturing. She just has a lot of fun in her. I doubt that will ever go away. I sure would miss it if she grew out of inventing the cute little games she plays to pass the time.

Plus, she is pretty fun to mess with. She has this... Thing... For wind up toys. They make her insane. And I enjoy watching this for my own amusement. (Reason #1,637,737 I don't have kids- this would get reported to Social Services but dog people understand that BS offspring are already mentally unstable- not my fault!)



***
I do love the little weirdo. Can't imagine life without the tiny ball that somehow hogs the entire bed every night, and puts her feet gently on my face when she stretches in the morning. Just making sure I know she is there.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Private Eye


Sometimes when you don’t know what’s going on under the surface you have to hire a private eye to investigate and get to the bottom of things.

And sometimes, similarly, when you can’t see what’s happening in your training, it takes a private with somebody that has a great eye to point out what’s going on.

Yay wordplay!
***
I’ve been training mostly on my own for awhile now (as in, not seeking continuous, deliberate instruction from someone duly appointed to provide feedback- thanks for being a training buddy though mommy!) and I’ve felt that some of our lingering gaps are the result of this. I feel good about a lot of things, but uneasy about some things. And while I have REALLY enjoyed absorbing training thoughts and tips from those with different backgrounds this past year and have been able to incorporate a LOT, I needed help with my established ‘system’ from an expert coming from the same ‘system.’ So when the option came around to get a private eye from the exact person I would have picked if I could have picked anyone, I grabbed it (and wrestled it to the ground and refused to let go. Everyone was just very lucky that there was an opening…).
***
Going into it today, for my part, I was pretty open. I tried to come up with things to work on to maximize my time but all I really ended up asking for was thoughts. I might have squeaked out words like “dogwalk,” “ring stress” and “jumping” but who knows. The hour directed itself anyways and because of that I probably came away with much more.

The Dog, for her part, displayed her true self in full- complete with start line weirdness and show quality dogwalks (high and leapier than in normal practice). She was NOT Perfect Dog but this was the perfect time for her to be herself.

Results? I came away with some of the best observations and suggestions I have ever gotten. Let today go down as the day that Daisy Peel got the scoop on The Dog. If she was a REAL P.I., she would have showed me pictures of The Dog canoodling with a married politician in a seedy hotel. With blackmailing and extorting people. Maybe some drugs. Watergate of dog agility. Yep, she is that good of a P.I. Like a real P.I., she came in, threw the reality down and didn’t disappoint. No excuses, just the truth.
***
Seriously though, we have homework. The good news is that I am super familiar with a lot of what we need to do (enter the bonus of a similar foundation!) and now that it’s been pointed out I feel comfortable diving in on my own.

More good news: the scoop is, she doesn’t think The Dog necessarily has ring stress. Remember in the summer (ok, you can lie) when I said I thought maybe The Dog was fooling me to some extent and not as stressed as she appeared? Yep. Though not so much fooling me (she isn’t THAT evil) as playing with a different set of rules (which of course I’ve been unknowingly reinforcing).

I’ve thought that her ‘circling’ thing (where she takes off and circles the ring at certain times) was her burning off stress. It actually seems to be a little game she plays. Dog makes circle so Leader calls Dog back. What fun we have! I never thought that me calling her would be rewarding for her since she never used to enjoy coming in. Times have changed I guess. The REALLY interesting part is how that behavior fits into practices. When she makes a mistake, she will take off for a circle. I always thought she was feeling pressure from the error and marveled at how she would circle back to just before the section where we made the mistake to restart (“She is so clever, look at her self-correcting!”) and would make circles until I called her to reset. But it’s actually more like, “weee! I am right since I came back from my circle and now we go again, how fun are second turns?!?!” So in her fun world, she is always right.

Interesting!!!

We went to go work handling, but then the start line thing came up right away (Dog sits and stares at me when I lead out, maybe eventually trotting out around the jumps to say hi) so we did little exercises where she declared The Dog not quite ‘getting’ jumping an really isn't getting what I'm doing. Not stressed. Just not educated. This has been my recent fear and I was sure I’d need to somehow understand Salo to teach her to collect and extend and WHEN. But again, good news is that there are things we can revisit that I already understand from our foundation to show her this. There are some holes in her understanding of location which seem to be the cause (at last, a real cause!) to her China trips. Previously I filled the holes with verbals and arm waving but those are just bandaids and don’t solve the issue that she isn’t really watching my motion and I’m not making her. Now we need to clue her in to me again. Hola Dog! The best part is that I wanted to just be able to run and not rely on the other stuff and this will get us there. And her jumping form IS good so the bars won't be an issue once the rest is in place.

I don’t think it will be a long disgusting road to retrain all of her jumping/handling foundation; she started catching on and remembering after awhile. Likewise, she started catching on that circles don’t get anything now. No more circles!

As far as the dogwalk, apparently I haven’t been picky enough. It scares me to get picky (and risk losing the running that took so long to get if she shut down) but with the newfound thought that she probably isn’t a stress ball anymore I might venture into pickiness yet. She thought I could select for a lot more rear leg separation AND teach turns. She showed me an interesting way to shape turns that I think could work for The Dog.

There was a lot more too, but I seriously doubt I’m making much sense so I’ll keep it to myself. I’m totally thrilled that everything makes sense to me which is probably what matters. I suppose I could feel discouraged by all the things she found wrong or lacking, but really I feel better about where we are then I have in a long time. It's like I've been fumbling in the dark with a flashlight but finally someone switched on the floodlights.

Oh yes! There's the door. Lets go already!

Happy.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Blink

As my decision making skills are at an all-time low (which is saying something since I’ve always been a champion waffler), and no one appears to want to make any decisions FOR me (…wusses!) I started trying to figure through things a bit.

Then I started reading the book Blink. This is by the guy who wrote Outliers, which was depressingly interesting. So far Blink lacks the same depression factor but is similarly fascinating.  His topic this time is instinct and impressions. What I gather so far is that you need just 2 seconds to come to the same gut decision on something or someone that you might take weeks or months to arrive at by carefully thinking through.

What’s not to like about THAT?
***
My gut tells me lots of things.  Besides when to eat and when to find a restroom, that is. 

Your gut probably tells you lots too. Connected to our guts is this whole subconscious decision making process that knows each of us better than our stupid conscious minds that take forever to make themselves up.  Basically it’s in charge of how we stay alive each day but it could do so much more for us if we would only listen. Disclaimer: Sometimes it’s bad to listen to your gut, like when it tells you to spend gobs of money you don’t have on pointy shoes you will never wear. But that’s why we have a brain too. The gut though, can be verrrrrry helpful aside from these few and far between situations.

Like, for example, when you need to decide what you really should focus on with your doggie for the next year.
***
While I tried to weigh things and ask advice and actually think everything through, it just made the whole question of what to do murkier. After showing Saturday (and after weekends of showing without any clear focus or respite) I went home and sat on the couch, exhausted, and just felt. No more thinking. I ate pizza to feed my gut and then some Cinnamon Toast Crunch (shhh, it’s what my gut WANTED) and then I just knew I was going to focus on AKC this year.  And now of course it makes total sense.  Even if I really don’t get anywhere with it, I can see it’s a better path.

It will ensure that I work hard on The Dog’s conditioning.
I will need to finally put in the time to educate her on jumping.
I’ll definitely need to keep improving my handling.
The Pup will be happier because she will get to show.

I can just see this other side of complacent behaviors if I focused on USDAA where all I have to work towards is titles. I can see messy confused jumping and handling if I try to do both. I can also see losing a LOT of crate pads because of Angry Pup not getting to show.
So there. Ahhhh. Thank you, gut.
***
Oh. Yes, we still will show USDAA if it fits. The August/September months will be dedicated as I’m still going to the Regionals and Nationals. She will be jumping 22” for those events and our club’s giant spring trial.  If I enter Grand Prix at any time before Regionals, that will be 22” but otherwise I will run her 26”. 

And now we have a whole glorious month off. Yaaaay! And then if I am lucky (uh, smart?) we won’t have back to back shows again for a loooong time.
***
As for the last hurrah- She ran really, really well on Saturday. Not a super Q rate because of ME and my tired-unfocused-nonsupportiveness but she ran REALLY well. Very good dogwalks and Aframes and table.  (Side note: Saturday was TITLE DAY for everyone else at least! Congrats to the fresh ADCHs and a special smooshy kiss to Black Dog for her Gold ADCH!)

Sunday she ran less well (not as fast and sloppy contacts) which I managed better, sadly, so we had a nice Q rate.  I was surprised at the difference from one day to the next (granted the one dogwalk Sunday wasn’t an ideal set up but high leapy Aframes?) but tragically figured out that sad burned pads were the likely culprit. Sure wish she would limp or something…ever.

BUT she doesn’t care.  Not as much as me anyways. And she has a new Bat Cape so she will have extra enhanced R&R.  She really likes her Bat Cape.

I can haz hat too?


Monday, February 13, 2012

Tired.

A) Exhausted.
B) Worn out.
C) Sleepy.
D) All of the above.

The correct answer is “D.”  I am so very all of those things right now.  I’m hoping it doesn’t also mean that I am (secret hidden answer E) burned out.  I might be. Not really sure.   What I am sure of (in a not so sure, non committal way) is that I’ve probably really overextended myself recently which usually leads to me being burned out.

I’m a lazy person.

I don’t handle a full schedule very well.

Where is the time for watching sci-fi and napping?

Those things are important for mental health.

What’s funny (in a not so funny way), is that I usually only get burned out over work.  Never dog stuff.  My old job was so consuming- it was always bleeding over into my personal life and I let it. Now I’ve got a job with reasonable demands and lots of support and the ability to have a personal life and I’ve gone and gotten consumed on the other end of the scale. Now I think about what to do at class and appointments for the dogs and training drills at work. Because there aren’t enough hours in the day to think and do otherwise. Sigh. All things in moderation (apparently is something I never thought of).
***
I kind of have this complex. When I was little my dad would tell me my eyes were bigger than my stomach. I always want to try everything which sounds good but in reality it just leads to barfing.

I get that what I actually should do is, you know, say no once in awhile.

Everything looks so good though.

So then I fill my plate.

Oops.

Now I pay for it.

What’s the mental version of barfing?

Being sleepy-

I am spewing incoherence.
***
What this actually means (in my attempt at cohesive thoughts) is that I probably can’t continue to focus both on two completely separate agility organizations, with completely different and conflicting aims in each, AND teach classes AND train two dogs AND work AND sleep. Forget about watching sci-fi, it just isn’t going to happen.

I look at my list and obviously, at this point, I need to work. And sleep. I can’t show and not train. I could train and not show, but I love showing and that’s kind of the point of training. I could not teach, but I love teaching, plus the extra money lets me show two dogs. So it kind of seems like the thing to do would be to pick either AKC or USDAA as the focus.

Good lord. It’s Sophie’s Choice.
***
I’m here though, because I don’t think we can be good in both right now. I cannot show every weekend and The Dog certainly cannot show every weekend. 
The Dog cannot be expected to flip around from 20” to 22” to 26”. I don’t know if I am ok with her jumping 26” in every show, especially if our trial load will increase this year.  I don’t think I can adjust that rapidly and frequently to the timing differences either.
We need to train, but again, she is a little dog, not a robot. She can’t train every day.

I feel that without some focus here, we are just going to be mediocre in everything.

Ick.
***
If it isn’t obvious, we didn’t do so hot at the trial this weekend. Rather, I didn’t. The Dog was good. I was just so tired and…unfocused (see?!?!).  I honestly can’t remember much about our runs. That says something, usually I remember everything. But here I barely paid any attention to her.  No matter how hard I tried to turn my brain on and get engaged, I just couldn’t get it jump started. I did dumb things; completely horrid timing on her jumping, so she took one bar in 3 of 4 runs.  All. My. Fault.  I realized what I was doing (finally) in our last run. First, I told her to wait on the teeter and took off. I got to my position and expected her to be there for a front cross with me… but no Dog. No Dog in the chute? Where is The Dog? Awesomely waiting on her teeter. Which I’d forgotten I’d been drilling but she didn’t. Then, I cued her to collect. Over the double. Off the dogwalk. Why? Because I wasn’t thinking. Just spewing incoherence.

I also figured out that I hate Jumpers. That’s a whole new bag of…worms? Is it a bag of worms? Is that really the phrase? That doesn’t sound right. Can? I don’t know. I’m so sleepy.

Someone tell me what to do.

K thanks!

Monday, February 6, 2012

View from 26"!

Going to new heights- often a bit scary but quite exhilarating both in pursuit and actualization!
***
The start of the beta phase of our endeavor was largely positive. I'm glad... I suppose... To see that most of the bars were ME and not her lack of ability. Easier to work with I guess.

We had four runs, five bars. We've done worse at 22" in a single day, so I can't say it was some huge decline. Two of those were first bar down and I blame our frienemie the dogwalk. It was looking at her and she was looking at it. And in doing so looking through the jump. Homework!

The other three (and really, part of one of the start line bars) were me, me, Meee. Call your dog over a jump. Bad. Drop support while your dog is jumping. Bad. Give your dog a crap approach. Stupid and bad.

But I will learn to adjust, just like The Dog.

Part of MY issue is engaging myself more fully. While I can't be in her way, I can drive better and cue earlier. No lazy allowed. I was hoping these courses would be a bit more technically difficult ("international-y") to force my engagement but they were more speed kills and random spacing. But it's probably better this way, more telling!
***
We ran two rounds of standard type, one of Snakes and Ladders (where point robbing occurred and pipe tunnels blew her mind!) and one jumpers type. Strangely it was the jumpers course where she figured out the jumps the best (but I was smart to the engagement thing and providing much more information to her about collection by then) and didn't take any down. She was most off the pace there which isn't unusual in 22" either though she has been closing the gap there. I assume once she gets better at jumping at 26" there will be improvement in the new height too.

Her times were very good for the standard classes though, right in the mix (which uh, is saying something if you look at our 26" dogs around here). I think I was worried about an overall issue with being fast enough (since that's kind of required if we take this the long haul) but no need. If anything she was faster than at 22".
***
Observations for the record: I noticed that she puts in odd little collection strides here and there- not when called for. Probably in the name of being good and ensuring she keeps the bars up? But really need to find exercises to build her confidence to extend more and know what's appropriate for the situation. In slow motion it seems these are the times the jumping looks inverted.

A least things make sense. Nothing that makes me lose sleep asking WHYGODWHY??? (Not that I do that about agility. Well. Maybe the dogwalk. Once or twice.)

AS for her dogwalks. They were good! Her first (on her good side) was perfect. (Bad management after by me but no need to get into that.) Her other two were on the right, one was good though seemed slower to me and the other seemed off. "In" but strange, and in video it seems that she collected before getting on which makes no sense with the load (WHYGODWHY) and that threw her off enough to go to six strides instead of five. Odd. Something to ponder.
***
Overall, I'm happy and encouraged and all that. No one seemed aghast at my jumping her at 26" so it probably looked as ok as I think it did. AND. Her mood was excellent. She had fun; I think she likes jumping big. She had a naughty and ran around the ring while they were setting bars and she should have been setting up before our run in the last class- she only does that when she is high in practice. Good sign, bad timing. Nice judge, thanks for not E-ing us!
***
At this point, given all that, we will go ahead with The Plan. Some 26" from now until April, then 26" in AKC after that. FEO at WTTO if they will have us, and see where we are at around July. I DO want to go to Tulsa so if it isn't going well we may have to evaluate the long haul and resume 20". Likewise if she doesn't hold up physically we will abandon ship.

It's nice to have escape clause riders.
***
Video!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Commercial Break!

So, sometimes one can take a step away from goals and principals and stuff for a really good, deserving cause...

Free stuff.

We like free stuff. 
Mr. Chewy knows this. 
He offered us free stuff.

Yes, internet rules of safety say not to give your information out online and not to talk to strangers.

But... free stuff!

freeeeeeeeee.....
***
So THE Mr Chewy sent an email to The Project last week and said that, as we blog to their key audience, we could order from their site for free in exchange for an honest review.

He had me at free stuff, but kept me forever with the honest review part.

No need to worry about losing my integrity with my fans (all two of you!) like the kids on iCarly did when they were forced to endorsed an inferior product for money.

OK, I was worried about it, and also worried that Mr. Chewy was a super scary scam or smut site, so of course I Googled and PHEW it all seemed legit so we could get our free stuff. 

Mr. Chewy is an online pet store.  

Not smut store.

Not scam.

So far, so good!

And. Who doesn't love online shopping?

The Dog and Pup sure do.  And me because I can do it from my living room floor.

Clearly, Mr. Chewy selected us after finding us online by running search for 'lazy owners' plus 'dogs.' 

Because that's me and that's who this site is for.
***
Honest review time.

It's crazy easy to use.

They have everything you need to feed a dog. Or cat. And also some other stuff.

While they did NOT have my EXACT dog food, actually, they did have everything else that I could think to search for and then some.  And I'm sure they will get my food someday (it's a new type).

The Dog made her treat selections and The Pup picked out a bully stick (super good deal on the bully stick, normal pricing on the treats- food seemed a bit cheaper than the big brand stores). We had free shipping. WOO! Apparently we are not super cool, this just happens over $49.
Nom nom treats...

We ordered and The Pup was too excited and hit submit before we entered our special free code, so we had to contact customer service.  How embarrassing. BUT here is the best bit about Mr. Chewy.  He answers your sad Fail emails right away late on a Friday night and fixes your oops with a smiley face.

So began the race between Mr Chewy, Amazon Private Seller and Busted Tees to ship fun things to our home.

While Busted Tees won by a mile (I gloated mightily in my new funny t-shirt while the dogs looked on in hunger. I stopped when I realized The Pup would totally eat my shirt.), Mr. Chewy was right behind with a fast 4 day shipping.

Still waiting on Amazon...
***
Hm, did we not like anything? 

My only complaint would be the not so green packing.

Does a bully stick need its own box?

I guess!

Though, The Pup may have requested special packing. She does love her bully sticks...

***
 There is also a referral program which results in donations going to sad pets that need treats. 
If you go and buy things there because you are lazy and don't get your dogs food when you should because the store is far and the bag is heavy so your dogs eat leftovers like mine do sometimes...wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah! If you buy things there, enter this code:

 LEMC4624

Then you get 10% off and the sad pets get money through a charity.
We like that.

So, in sum: Mr. Chewy is a dog. 
With a website.
www.MrChewy.com
With 70+ brands of stuff.
Free shipping when you spend $49, which you will, since there are 70+ brands of stuff to pick from even when you are on your living room floor. 
Awesome customer service for quick-trigger orderers.
Priority packing for bully sticks.
Charity program so that you can feel good and cancel out feeling bad spending money online from your living room floor.