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.

When Jumps Attack and Other Scary Things

As promised (warned?) here are some of the gazillion pictures taken over the course of as many days spent at Cynosport. 

First, RV livin':

Sweet sleepy girl.

Can you believe it, no posing for this one:

Head tilt!

I think it was good enough for awkwardfamilyphotos.com 

***

White Dog the Pig reckons herself an awesome kitchen assistant.

Only one pepper was harmed in the making of this dinner:

Hungry piggy!

The Pup is still working on her Pig status. 

Pleez push nom closer, can't reeach!

***

And then of course there were all the BS Reunion/Smackdown pictures. 

I don't quite know what is wrong with my dog's face in all these pictures. But I can easily see how she came to sprain her jaw after sorting through...

Pirate impression? Argh matey? 

Sadly, there were about 20 shots of her doing this. Mean sister! 

Though she still looks pretty sweet with a hunk of Sister in her mouth...

Sister's fighting style is um, bodily. 

And then meeting Brother Crime for the first time as big kids. 

He liked them a lot. As in REALLY liked his sisters. 

So much love. 

A sweet Angel who would NEVER try to eat her siblings:

***

And as if that wasn't enough, we threw in all the OTHER sibs too! 

Handsome older brothers:

The Pup LOVES this particular brother. Until two days later when she tried to eat him. Oh wait, she would never do that?

A swarm! 

And of course, a requisite clone picture. 

***

So anyways, after a little hiatus we went to practice last night before the classes I teach. The Dog was back to her normal amazing self; even a bit improved since her Aframe was all kinds of awesome.

I couldn't resist setting up a small portion of one of the courses at the WC- the section on the Agility course where the A entry was hugged on both sides by the tunnel, with a wicked approach. She nailed it; in fact, was a veritable genius regarding all kinds of discrimination. Now, naturally, I want to punch myself for worrying so much about that Team Snooker course. Live and learn. 

***

The Pup was the one that REALLY blew me away. I told her to study a certain Border Staffy VERY carefully while we were in Kentucky and I guess she did! Or she just really missed her time to play. 

There was even a fun class happening next door and she stayed focus on me the whole time. 

Not too shabby for my little ADHD baby.  

***

She was very fast and into jumping more than before so I took advantage to start working offset lines with her and other interesting jump formations. She was great! I love to see her actively searching for jumps, since she prefers actively searching for me more. 

I ended up running her on the same sequences as The Dog. I learned that she largely prefers me to stay out of her path- front cross are ok as long as don't squash her speed or in the case of wraps. Wraps are allowed. Overall though, she seems to prefer a very subtle side change. 

I think it's a good thing? 

Because she wants to keep running and not slow down?

Good, right? 

So just a different form of path management. 

Whatever it is, its very cute. 

I do love my genius baby! 

And I love how baby dogs keep you so honest in your handling. 

No matter what The Dog feels about The Pup, she will thank her in the long run when I remember to run clearly and not stand there with my arms pointed all directions like a sign at a fork in the road...

***

Oh, and a jump kicked my butt yesterday. 

No, not when I was running. 

I was standing there, directing clean up.

I was holding a jump wing casually.

Then all of a sudden, down on to it I fall. 

Did it trip me? Decide to collapse? 

Use tae kwon do take down tactics? 

I don't know. All I know is that is smacked my face (bloody fat lip today!), bashed my knee (looks like I'm hiding ostrich eggs under my patella!) and the metal jumps cups left a bruisy, scratchy trail down my other leg.   

Today I feel like I was in a car accident!

It totally kicked my butt. 

So if you see me in the next few days... NO, it wasn't The Pup!! I SWEAR- THIS TIME SHE IS INNOCENT!!

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. 

Things. Just. Got. Real!

Guess what this is!

Go on, guess! (And don’t just guess “paper.” That’s lame.) 

Give up? Well- it’s a registration form for The Pup’s FIRST SEMINAR!!

I know, I can hardly believe it myself.  I wouldn’t have done it if the seminar weren’t months away. (November.)  I really wanted to attend a seminar by Tracy Sklenar, having heard that she is just wonderful- fun, informative and open-minded (my absolute seminarist ‘must-meet’ criteria!)- from everyone on the planet.  Unfortunately, the “Master Handling” portion was on a Friday and all my vacation is already allocated for the year. That meant that The Pup was going to have to step up and be the working girl, so I signed her up for the Novice Handling day. 

I was pretty much vomiting after I decided to do this- I mean, I haven't worked her in agility more than one or two 10 minute sessions a day.  I have never worked her around other people.  The only thing that kept me from being absolutely sick was the fact that this is several months out- plenty of time to start increasing difficulty. 

But in fact, it turned out to be a REALLY good choice. I was struggling a bit for goals for her at this point. Now, having something to work for, I feel back on track.  So goal driven was I yesterday that I went out on the skimpiest new bud of a branch ever and brought her into a puppy agility class last night.  I continued on my scary limb and put her on the more advanced puppy side, figuring that if she went into total ADHD mode with wanting to chase the other dogs I could defect to the newbie side and work attention only.  

Amazingly, my branch didn’t snap! Project Pup Prep went really well. Like, REALLY well.  She didn’t forget her name, didn’t spaz over every dog/person, and had so much fun she forgot about chasing butterflies and eating clover (ah, mostly).   I had unprecedented attention for the first half, then it waned a bit on the second half (the clover side). But she still stuck with it; only running away to see Marvin once when she wasn’t supposed to. 

Things I learned:

Marvin is a godsend (ok I knew that already)

Clover is catnip for dogs

Long wet grass turns her into Ms. Dainty Paws. She also couldn’t put her butt in the grass and instead sort of crouched.

Watching other dogs run isn’t ALL about wanting to chase. There was definitely a jealousy element. The times I let her watch them run she would run full board on her turn. 

She likes to become one with the equipment. 

I sort of guessed that one before, but it’s pretty obvious what will hold her attention AND enthusiasm- if she can’t go on, over or through it she gets a bit ‘meh.’  She was very much into the contacts, weaves, tunnels and tables (and even the tire!) but when it came to running through jump standards she thought it was lame. Where’s the risk in THAT?? So we need to get more involved with flat work and make it crazy fun, not just a meal ticket.

Overall- really had a good time.  Both of us. And she was…different… after. Not so obnoxious at home- much sweeter and attentive to me.  So we will be going back!

 ***

After all, anything that keeps the Decepticon from surfacing is well worth it for that reason alone.  I’m thinking this is the outlet she needs- not enough stimulation and too much being left to her own naughty puppy devices has been…not so good for the house recently.

Exhibit A.

Um... I didn't do it?

Farewell expensive light-blocking blinds. We shall miss you!

***

Oh, and of COURSE I can’t post without mentioning a certain Dog.  I had a horrible practice with her on Wednesday- bigtime dogwalk struggle.  Really, I blame the heat for the bad practice AND The Pup’s mutilation of the blinds. Watch me reason the crap out of this-

Dis otta be good.

So, it’s HOT and humid and because it’s hot and humid the ground can’t absorb all the water, so it’s all muddy. The mud got all over The Dog and made her all slippery which made her dogwalk performance suck, which made me move the dogwalk out of the mud, which made it too close to the fence, which made her miss it worse.  So when she FINALLY got a rep I chucked the ball hard in joy, which increased her exuberance, which when combined with slick slobber from the heat made the ball SHOOM into the neighbor’s (locked) yard.  The Dog then refused to do any work, so I had to get the ball, which meant shoving the dogs in the house so I could go try to scale the fence without falling on them. This led The Pup, who had not yet been allowed to play because the dogwalk was too high, to throw a tantrum inside, which caused her to pull the blinds off the wall and murder them.

I told ya- I DIDN'T DO IT!!!

See!!?!? Stupid weather.  

Anyways, last night I began Project Make Contact With Contacts- an attempt to get  The Dog on as many different dogwalks as I could and try to get her to run each from the get-go (no encouragement period).  I am pleased to report that phase one was a complete success and she ran EACH dogwalk last night.  One leap and one sticky in there somewhere but ended with her best reps yet. The only downfall is that I cannot yet turn her tight AT ALL without sacrificing stride. All such experiments failed. Eh, homework. 

Tomorrow phase two continues with a fun match!

…I love projects! 

Turning Tricks At Just 6 Months-Where Did The Time Go??

I just figured out the puppies are 6 months old now! 

In some ways I can hardly believe it, but yeah, I guess they ARE growing up. The Pup has ceased with destroying the bathroom every time I take a shower. 

She fights bravely for the toy in tug of war with The Dog now.

She is the loudest thing ever in her crate (she's figured out what she's missing out on when she's in there!).

Then of course there is the genius factor. 

Inside her sizable baseball head, there is a baseball brain too, filled with many tricks.

Yep, just 6 months old and already turning tricks. And letting people take pictures! Scandalous. I warned her that they'd probably end up on the internet...

***

Voila, the "Monster" series...

Original Monster

COOKIE Monster.

Zombie Monster wants more braaaiiinns

Godzilla Monster

And the "Where's Yer Butt Go" Series:

Does it go on a wall??

No? Hmm....

Does it go on the Leader??

No? Not there either?

Does it go on the truck???

No, definitely not on the truck. Maybe...

It goes in the air!! 

You got it! Genius, I tell ya!

***

Also, I've shameless stolen the following images without consent, because I have to show off The Pup's equally adorable siblings.  I'm so lucky to be in touch with their Leaders and to get so many updates. (Hearing that it's not just MY puppy that is naughty is so comforting!) I saw these fresh 6 month shots the other day and couldn't resist stealing...er, sharing-

Mr. Crime aka Beefcake

Ms. Triton, looking quite svelte after all the coffee and cigarettes!  

***

So I suppose I should update on The Pup's training status too, seems appropriate. 

Besides tricks, we're still making our way through agility basics.  She is being an ace at weave channels (moved 'em in ONE NOTCH! woo!) and I know she "gets" it because she's turned up MPH through them. Happy to report that the 'weave channels, no guides' approach still hasn't bit me on the butt. 

No changes or unexpected complications for the DW board work. She gets on, runs off straight every time. A bit boring really, heheh.This weekend I hope to get my DW assembled so I can start back chaining across the full but low obstacle. 

Tunnel is pretty fun now, she will send to it independently but still comes out as quick as she can to find me again. 

We introduced the tire, no problems there. It hasn't (yet) occurred to her to go anywhere but through the middle. Give it time...

Teeter is looking super- I'm extremely happy with her performance. We've made our way to a foot tall at the apex, she's running (FAST!) through the tip and applying breaks nicely to hold the four on end position. Probably will end up sliding based on how it's going now, she seems comfortable with that feeling. She loves the dang thing!

Table is lovely. I'm a terrible owner, we practice on the 16" table- 12" wasn't cutting it for getting her to jump up in a down position and was starting to go against what we'd worked on.  But she loves table. LOVES it. She has an adorable way of jumping on while at the same time turning in air to make sure she lands, in the down position, so she is facing me.  Good multitasking? We just started working on me walking away and no elbows popping up. One of the downsides of short-haired dogs! 

"Jumps" (don't worry, still essentially no height there!) are looking better every time. She was a bit Velcro-y (which I suppose is natural the way I teach them) but now is seeking them out. We can race a line without her running around- for the most part she does what is in the line I've set- which was totally the goal.  It's only been the last few sessions where she's seemed to think these exercises were really fun. I think before she was thinking about what she was doing and what I was doing.  Now she's got a handle on it though and is having a blast. I like that she is largely very respectful of my handling and has picked up on the various signals. Fronts, blinds and post turns are really nice. We just started rears which were harder due to Velcro-iness but she's catching on. 

And in my quest for being for amazing to her, I've started just doing super short sessions, alternating her with The Dog. And she always goes second. Rather than try 'leave 'em wanting more' I'm sort of trying to cut it off when attention wanes. No attention? You're done.  She REALLY wants to be the one 'out' so going away for not focusing should get through to her quickly.  She definitely came out stronger each time last night trying this tactic. 

And (proud Leader moment of boasting!!) she even managed to work in the same ring as another dog last night! Without chasing the other dog!! The other dog was a super exciting barking Sheltie too, her favorite kind of dog to chase. I was really happy with that- it's her absolute weakness- and the fact that she maintained attention and upheld excellent obstacle performance showed me that she knew it was 'her' time so she better not waste it!  

So yeah, that's where we are at. Sitting pretty good on my goals for her for the summer. Here's to another productive 6 months of fun! 

Bitten

I’ve got a totally well organized theme today, just you wait! (And even mostly regarding dogs!)

Big news first- The Pup is down to just one more Evil Tooth! Joy and rapture. Only one pointy little shark tooth left.   Don’t you worry though, she is still a Velociraptor. The lack of pointy shark teeth doesn’t seem to be cutting down on the amount of chomping and biting she accomplishes in a day (hidden message: that amount is still very large). 

It was quite bizarre though- most of her baby teeth politely excused themselves long before the appearance of her more distinguished grown up teeth.  But not those canines… they just clung on for dear life even though the grown-up teeth started coming in. So for awhile now she has had two rows of teeth…just like a REAL shark.  Very disconcerting to find “Jaws” being reenacted in my living room.    

At any rate, nearly done with the whole irritable, bloody mouth, floppy-tooth thing.  And for the record, I did keep one little tooth. Mostly for science. In case the future is devoid of Border/Staffies and they feel the need to reverse the extinction.  What?? It’s not creepy. Science.

***

In a bizarre twist, The Pup is for once the one that has been bitten.  By a bug. The agility bug!  You can tell when an agility newbie gets bitten (homemade agility equipment in their backyard and forsaking their children’s school events for an agility trial). Likewise, there are little ways to tell when your newbie puppy is bitten too.  For me, I look for pushy! The Pup is officially pushy.  Now instead of random screaming in her crate while The Dog has her turn, I get a mix of screaming and demanding bark.  When I go to get her out for her turn, she explodes out of the crate and runs to the gate to go in the ring.  If I’m too slow to get going on something, she decides to start tromping over, under and through things on her own.

Pushy.

Last night we had much pushiness and so a very fun practice.  As the Aframe was very low and she was running up and down it anyways I decided to introduce her to it properly.  I set the target out and kept her on leash.  (Not sure it was necessary, but better safe than sorry with a broken leg from catapulting off the top.)  She did very well! She is very good about looking for THINGS to do, so she very rarely curls into me inappropriately. Makes this sort of thing easy.   I don’t think we will see the Aframe again until after the DW is done, but it was fun to see how she would do.

Speaking of DW, I set up the plank contraption on the baby version. She doesn’t seem to alter her behavior at all if the boards change which is great. Go Go Gadget Generalization!   (Inspector Gadget anyone? No? Am I dating myself?)  It’s sort of hard to tell in the video where she is hitting with her front feet, but she was rolling through with all her feet most reps.  She was also doing this while the class was arriving so very distracting. I was proud of her for keeping as focused as she did and not flubbing from ADD.

The video below shows her cute Aframes and some DW reps.  Also some tunnel fun.  She really doesn’t love it (yet), but she is starting to actually send to it and head in pretty happily.  This was probably the first tunnel she has done that she couldn’t see the exit from the entry, so not too bad.    I do love how she bursts out and looks for me- she clearly assumes it is a wormhole and doesn’t believe that I will exist on the other end yet.

We also did some low teeter (not videoed) and that’s going well.  Great understanding of ‘four on.’ She will run through the tip point, but she hasn’t decided whether or not it is cool to slide.  I’m letting her figure out how to handle that, my only requirements are movement through the tip and four on. She only obsessively boinged on and off the ‘bang’ part two or three times so… progress on that OCD!

Also not on video, but the best part was the ‘jumping’ (4”, if that even counts as a jump)!  We’ve been working start lines (I probably will not use them, but need to be able to step away a least) and they are adorable! She sits very well and is VERY pushy. No scooching, but the whole leaning false start thing- ‘canwegocanwegocanwegoNOW???’ Good momentum off her start.  So we did some of those and also some walking around from jump to jump and seeing if she would seek the obstacle.  And she did!  Started out nice and slow very close to her, treating every jump and by the end of the night we were up to running between and her going to find the jumps independently. Ok, so the jump was only four feet away but still! Good stuff.

It’s exciting to get some flow going, but it does make me think about my handling for her and what our system will be.  It’s a bit daunting, especially since at this point I can’t boil down The Dog’s ‘system’ into an easy one or two key word description.   I don’t know… can anyone else do that? I’m curious.  At one time I had an easy end goal for how I would handle The Dog and it’s developed into something completely different now.  She has SO MANY RULES that it’s basically an awful, complicated ‘if this than that’ flow chart of possibilities for any scenario.  I think at this point with The Pup I can only do what I’m doing and hope I’m not creating another needy monster. (Too late on the monster part though… Oops!)  I am training her with just one goal in mind at this point- obstacle independence.  My hope is that her job is obstacles and mine will be lines.  It would be lovely if she would take what I put in front of her until I put something else in her line.  

Nice and simple.

It’s good to dream!

***

So we have our 4 star this weekend- The Dog was put through every manner of awful I could think of at practice last night and she was a gem about it.  Her DWs were nice again, after a few runs.  I’m determined not to stress about it.  And to take my mind off of it… True Blood marathon this weekend when we aren’t doing agility!! I don’t care if its vampire bite porn, it makes me happy.  Don’t judge me!

(Ok, so did you get the sense of the theme? Subtle, but cohesive! Yay me for good organization!) 

Training Rapture: Probably the Only Kind of Rapture Happening this Weekend.

Of course, it WOULD take the impending end of the world for The Pup to finally start to grasp the concept of dropping an object in another object.

If you've been here recently, you may know I've been tearing my hair out trying to figure out how to shape the "put it in" trick.  (Though seriously, WHY would I want TWO dogs that try to drop toys in the toilet??? I must learn to think these things through). It was in our homework for the ST course and we were failing MISERABLY. Seriously.  I whined and whined on the class forum about my failures. I whined and whined on a previous post.  I stupidly reinforced this trick further with The Dog in order to feel like I wasn't less of a trainer/human being. 

I tried about 50 different approaches. But still The Pup just looked at me. Or did 'monster.' Or took the object and chewed on it. Or ran away with it. She certainly didn't bring it back or try to drop it by the bowl.  We couldn't even shape the most basic part- taking it and holding it. Every time I clicked, she let go for the treat. Clicking without treats (playing with a toy) meant not a lot to her.

But Duh.

Wrong approach.

ST told me it wasn't actually about the hold, but the drop.  I should let her take it, and click for dropping it, as she was going to do anyways, near the bowl (which would be conveniently close). Then in the bowl.

Big. Fat. DUH.

10 minutes later- she has it. 

OK, so I still don't feel like much of a trainer for not thinking of that myself, but whatever.  I don't need all the answers. I have to learn too. Click/Treat me!

So, if the world ends, at least we got #4 on the homework.

They said that about skydiving too...

At only ONE agility event am I semi-ok with being a spectator- the AKC World Team tryouts.

We are quite spoiled in MN- we get to host this event; no VOD for us! No, we get to watch, front and center, live while teams duke it out on the field to win the coveted two spots.  This is the most intense, exciting trial I am able to witness.

This year- no exception to that. The courses were INSANE. But in the same way that skydiving is insane- people are still doing it voluntarily, just for the rush. The FUN kind of insanity, from which dangerous, addictive habits are formed.  As an agility junkie, I have to admit I felt positively ITCHY to try them out.

But first I had to watch.

Sooooo...cooooool…  SOOOO HAAAARRRDDD!

Of course, some teams made them look easy.

Not many though. Very few clean runs each round. Lots of brilliant moments though. I sincerely hope everyone went home happy. (Seriously, even YOU, Exasperated Sigh Lady.) All the dogs did something well; they each survived some disgusting trap, or nailed a ridiculous weave entry or managed to not bite their handler- big accomplishments! This was not a regular agility show! Everyone should be proud just for running at all after walking that first course. Ouch! It takes a brave, confident person to attempt that beast. And if it didn’t go exactly right, remember the brilliant moments and that you tried. Plus, there is always next year, right?

THE Beast- no clue why it's sideways. Oops.

So congrats to all, and thanks for the viewing pleasure.  Super congrats to the MN reps and to those who won their spots (some crossover there!).  The Dog sends Super Squishy Prideful Sister Congrats to her Brother Dog. (I’m not sure why they are squishy, must be a Sister Dog Thing.) 

***

In our humble little portion of the dog-o-sphere, we did set up a lot of the elements from the courses (like I said, agility junkie!). I was really pleased with how The Dog handled them.  I can see running these types of courses how much better she has gotten on jumping into me and just plain following my lines. A year ago, I would never have gotten her through the sequence of Aframe-backside jump-post turn and now she can do it easily. Cool.

***

As for The Pup (like I could skip a pupdate?!?!?) she was the lucky dog who got to come with me to watch the tryouts. I am amazed at how well she does, no matter where she goes. She was just fine with hanging out there in that high charged environment- she fell asleep in my purse!  And I think that was the record for the longest she has gone without being naughty- the full 9 hour day and she was a model citizen every minute. (OK, except when she decided to steal the treats from my bag. And drag the water dish around. And eat floor fuzzies. But other than that.) 

Sadly (???) I think this means she is growing up. I noticed yesterday how very much like a DOG she looks now- if she doesn’t wriggle you wouldn’t even guess she was a puppy still.  In general, she is starting to chill a LOT and now she will come lay down in my lap in the evenings instead of finding trouble.  She’s making better decisions and is getting less destructive. The biting especially is starting to ebb. Sniff…sniff… soon she might not even want to steal my socks and hide them from me!

Probably won’t happen THAT soon though. 

Oh, and her ears are definitely going up. Unless they decide to go back down.  While on Saturday they were a bit warped, they spent most of Sunday up. They were still up this morning; we’ll see what happened during the day later when I get home.  Hilarious- the sleepier she is, the droopier they get. After the WTTs, they flopped like a retriever's!! 

***

I’ll get some video up this week- have to share her awesome progress on pivots (got some advice from ST and now she is following my leg like it was made of socks or something) and on her tricks. Handstand is nearly there, as is the monster trick.  (Her ‘sit up-‘ Seriously the cutest thing ever.) I hope I can teach her to speak so she can do ‘monster’ and go “RAARRR!”   The Dog is learning to ‘drum’ which is amusing.  Anyone know where I can buy a dog sized drum she can’t destroy? Fisher Price obviously didn’t have Border Collies in mind when designing play sets. 

***

Time with puppy toys and NO puppy equals fuzzy warm magic happy time...

Dis what life COULD be without Da Pup!

...Snap out of it! 

Wha? Huh? Aw nuts, it was just a dream...

The Pup Loves Everyone...Except CYBORGS.

OK, so until now The Pup loved everyone she has ever met. Ev.er.y.one. Even the vet. Who took her temperature. (And it wasn't the kind that goes in their ear!) Yeah, she is strange like that.

Today's walk in the park (ha! Not!) revealed something she completely and utterly does NOT like:

Cyborgs.

Well, at least that is what she thinks they are.  In reality, it's just babies in strollers, dudes on skateboards and kids on bikes.  But the whole 'people on wheels' thing was apparently foreign to her and QUITE the cause for alarm.  To her, it was an all out invasion, Battlestar Galactica-style.  The Dog rolled her eyes and kept walking as The Pup waged war back against them.

"No cause for alarm. Unless you don't throw the ball."

Giving "SHIFTY EYES" to that baby in the stroller...

What could I do? I didn't want to stop her...on the off chance that they were those freaky Battlestar Galactica cyborgs.

You never know!

Cyborgs...balls... they've each got their OCD 'thing.'

Anyways, aside from our Vigilante Patrol for Cyborgs (a.k.a our walk) we also did a hefty amount of training. Very structured. And wouldn't you know- progress was made!

I even remembered to get proof (for once)!

First, some video of The Dog working on all manner of jumping. Mostly her cik/cap style turns, but we also practiced backside jumping, pull-throughs, serps, threadles, 270s, 180s and blind crosses too! (Just running 16" for now to keep the turns tight. And because that grass is dang dry. Ick.)  Don't worry, for all that, it's a short video.

Next up, The Pup working on her e-course homework (her back-up is so cute! IMO... which is law, since it's my post! ha!) and showing off her ability to wait in her crate. Not exactly reliably or patiently, but getting there.

Finally, a video of The Pup working on her agility equipment foundation. Kind of had a breakthrough with her running the plank for her toy today. She was quite into the toy all of a sudden. I was even exchanging the toy for food and she kept up her interest in the tug. Also showing her table status and the jump work.

Like I said- productive couple of days here!  I've totally got Spring Agility Fever.

Have to enjoy it while I can because soon I will have Hay Fever. Blech.

"Look ma! No choking! Thanks, Harness!"

K, Bye! Gotta go now! 

Weekend Off or Off Weekend?

It was a little disconcerting to have a whole weekend free. Nothing planned, no shows, not even a fun match.  I figured it was for the best all around to take a breather, though it didn’t come easy. I had to force myself to not go audit the seminar in town.  While it was great to get out with normal humans (I’d almost forgotten what The Boyfriend looked like!) in “real” life… I had a hard time just sitting at home relaxing. I’m not sure what that means! But as a result my weekend off felt a bit…off. Not very restful. Maybe I will do better next weekend. Or I will go crazy from a lack of structure and planned events.

You’d think that all this time off meant I would accomplish something amazing. Nope. Not really. Unless you count the feat of emptying my bank account on clothes as amazing.

But I did get to take the dogs for their first big walk of the year. I learned why everyone told me I was going to need a harness for The Pup. Turns out the BSs can’t seem to avoid choking themselves.  I can’t imagine how her larynx survived but I wasn’t going to take that chance twice.  Harness it is!

Dog saying "na na na! Can't catch me!"

We also accomplished an all-around training meltdown yesterday- both dogs, so it was probably entirely my mood. Guess I shouldn’t try and train when I feel off- way to go, Me!  First The Dog forgot the difference between a swing finish and going ‘behind’ (around me left to right). I could not get her to stop doing the swing finish.  We both melted into the carpet from frustration.  Then, I went to move The Pup into a smaller box for ‘4 feet in a Box’ and she too forgot what on earth I possibly wanted.  This happened even after 1) starting with the bigger box to refresh and 2) actually performing in the smaller box perfectly several times. I went to get some video for my online puppy class and all I got was five minutes of her rolling around on the ground and putting every body part possible into the box except her back feet.  We decided to stop training (since all we were learning was frustration) and watch Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets instead.

Somehow despite the extremely unfocused training over the weekend, we’ve made substantial progress with The Pup’s manners.  Meaning, they officially exist in real-life situations! "Stay" is developing rapidly. She actually will sit as long as it takes now for a release for her dinner, AND will sit and wait while I load the dishwasher! (She has crawled into it…a few times…to help perform the ‘pre-rinse cycle.’ Wouldn’t be so bad except for all the knives…) Plus, miracle of miracles, I can eat dinner without her jumping into my lap and knocking my food onto the floor. (Yup, that’s right, who needs tables? We eat like the true progeny of the sitcom generation…in front of the TV, laughing and spilling our food since we are too cool for TV trays.)  She will sit and beg from the floor like a good girl now.

This week since the weather is, I think, officially ‘nice’ (or as good as it will get for awhile) and we are getting into the busy show season I’m going to start organizing training time a bit more and step up conditioning. This weekend showed me that I apparently need a plan. No more dithering about haphazardly. The dogs both have things to focus on and it’s time to put some more thought into what I am doing with The Pup, especially. (Though I have to remember to work The Dog as much too...) The online class will help with this some (we have a LOT of homework for the next two weeks!) but it’s time to buckle down I think. So for today a PLAN: The Dog gets to work on threading through jump traps and some recall starts past jumps (for Snookers!), and The Pup can do some one jump clicks, learning a paw touch to a target and begin ‘sit-up’ and ‘back up.’  Probably some toy reinforcement too. Then we can all go for a long walk and test out that harness.

"The Dog's tail is MINE on the next walk..."

AND with the start of this week it means we are officially on the FINAL WEEK of THE REGIME! Woo hoo! You would not believe how badly I want a pizza. So badly that I almost snatched some kid’s slice right off his plate at the mall.  After this week the maintenance plan is to return to the gym for group fitness classes, hike with the doggies, and continue with the healthy meals from THE REGIME- except for one day a week. That magical day will be the day we turn a blind eye to nutrition and eat WHATEVER WE WANT. I think that most weeks, that will include pizza.  

Lastly- BEHOLD! The Dog and The Pup... in a picture together... actually sitting on purpose NEXT to each other!! And neither is blurry from moving at ALL! Come to think of it, maybe we DID accomplish something amazing. 

"WE WANT PIZZA TOO!!!"

Sometimes You Just Gotta Hit That…

If you don’t have a bloggy, or have one but don’t really explore the features very much, you might not know that there are all sorts of statistics that Blogger, at least, puts together for you.  It has the obvious statistic on how many hits you get, but also some verrrrrry entertaining statistics regarding the traffic sources.  I love this because I’ve been able to find some new blogs to read and ‘meet’ some new people this way. But I REALLY love it because of the ‘Search Keywords’ section.  This generates what searches are giving your site the most hits.

While most of the ones listed are ‘normal’ and make sense (i.e. “Go Dog,” Project” or my name, etc) there are some that are really out there and hilarious. First, what prompts these Googlers to even string some of these words together in the same search box? Some favorites…

“Naaaaa nananana 2011” (What could that possibly be for??? No wonder the internet gave them me. It had no other option.)

“Cocaine Puppy” (Do they want it for their puppy? Did their puppy already have some? Is it a puppy made entirely of cocaine?)

“Cleaninig a Curse” (OK. I get this one- I dedicated a whole post to bona fide research on this point, but spelling errors make me say ‘tee-hee!’ Also most people wouldn’t search curse cleaning. That would be a removal, folks.)

“Pork Come Tree” (Again…what? Three most random words ever. Possibly entirely too kinky for my taste.) 

“RVs a Rockin’” (Also kinky. Yes, I had a post entitled this sort of. But unless the person was trying to find me again, they were in for a huge letdown. It wasn’t what you’d think!)

“Susan Garrett Cult Dog” (The funny thing is I get a LOT of variations of this. Why? I had never even mentioned SG until recently, but have had this particular search lead people to me forever.)

And then, for whatever reason, they apparently click on the little Go Dog link and are sorely disappointed.   Maybe they don’t bother reading the description that goes along with the generated post and are just impatient, but maybe sometimes you just gotta hit that link.

***

In other, relevant, news: Dog, Pup, Leader and Boyfriend are all still alive. Maybe the Curse of Threes won’t strike after all. The Dog ran very well at practice last night and showed zero signs of bother during, after or this morning. Wise mother says she thinks the scary bump IS a coffee table ding and not anything out of place. I have my doubts, but I supposed one way or another we will find out soon enough.

I tentatively believe we have something that is working on her DW. It seems she doesn’t get running and not leaping and she doesn’t get 2o2o either.  The only thing she seems comfortable with is checking in with me and pacing me off the board. I fought her doing this for a long time (for reasons agonized over in a previous post) but like the start line it seems to no longer be worth fighting over. It makes her happy and I think we can make up the time elsewhere on course (it raises the obstacle time to 2 to 2.5 seconds, depending on my timing) with better turns, tables, teeters (darn T obstacles!) and more consistent weaving. So we’ll see if we can get another show with actual consistent contacts.  If a pattern is established, then maybe we DO have something!

See what you think- 

And happily, The Pup is back to better health. She made it through the Scary Zone (Um, STUFF is moving through again so she obviously is not obstructed) and is clearly feeling herself again.  She ate like she’d gone 24 years instead of only 24 hours without any food yesterday and this morning was running her heart out from corner to corner of the house. 

Her new favorite activity (possibly tied to the starvation issue) is trying to find a way to bust into Mr. Garbage Can.  She has been ‘casing the joint’ for awhile now for signs of weakness. I feel her studying me every time I step on the peddle to raise the top. Could she really be figuring it out? I get the feeling that she is going to be in a kennel when we aren’t there for a loooooooooong time.

Evil Genius (on FB already but if you missed it!)- though you wouldn’t guess it from some of these clips… (ahem, Fun with Wind Up Toy…)