Vega in agility class

 

I don’t think I’ve written much since Vega started agility. She’s only been in class 3 weeks. She is doing awesome. She loves all of the obstacles. She’s already started to figure out how to go through the weaves straight and loves to run over the teeter. She knows Sit/Stay, Down/Stay, her circles, weave through my legs and all the other essentials. BUT… she pulls on the leash all the way through class and doesn’t walk with me so she’s not allowed to move to level 2. We are working hard on heel and side and walking with focus on me so we can move forward soon. She’s such a natural at it all that she’s going to be just fantastic when we get it all together.

 

We also had a Halloween costume contest in class this week and here is poor Vega. She didn’t like the hat being up but then the rest didn’t bother her at all.

 

 

 

 

OCD Vega

I’ll write later about her training but wanted to post this real quick. Vega has this “thing” about the dishwasher. She has to be the pre-rinse cycle. Often her mouth is full of tennis ball when it’s time to clean the dishes.. or maybe she just wants them washed!?!?!

Merlin hangs out in Brighton

I haven’t written in a while but mostly I was tired of posting without pictures. It’s boring. So… last weekend Merlin and Vega went to Brighton to hang out at a NADAC trial. They hadn’t been to one since the beginning of July so we needed to go.

I was really an awesome weekend for Merlin. He never lunged at a dog! Not one! I was so proud of him. He was relaxed and happy and even slept for a while. On Sunday, he got a massage from Lorrie and that seemed to calm him right down. I am going to order a TTouch video to see if I can help him.

Today he went to CSABR for his behavior training with Lauren. Again, I was really proud of him. We went into a big empty room and with massive echo. The wind was blowing and he was scared. He started out running from door to door trying to get out and then eventually calmed down. Within 7 minutes he was taking food and checking out (from a distance) the people sitting in the room. He’s (hopefully) learning a recovery system. What a good dog.

Poor freaky boy.

Poor Merlin. I totally messed him up last night and I think he’s still trying to recover. He’s been doing so well on Prozac that I brought him to level 2 last night just to see if he could just watch. It was horrible for him. He was terrified and I can’t remember the last time he shook that hard. I clearly made a mistake. I’m not going to bring him to FAAD classes anymore. He’s just not getting over it so I see no point in tramatizing him further. Maybe when Vega gets to level 2 then I can try taking him to the other building.

Today I took him to see Lauren Fox and we’re going to try working with her for a while. She sat in the van with him today and got him to eat from her hands so I guess that’s a good start.

Vega’s first agility class.

This was a large class for level I. It reminded me of when Merlin started over a year ago. Vega did extremely well I thought. She did Sit, Down, Sit Stays and Down Stays. Her stays are good as long as I stay in front of her but we need to keep working on stepping to the side. Vega went through the tunnel, over jumps, and ran across a teeter (she wasn’t supposed to do that)! She’s an amazing wiggle worm when it comes to weave poles and I think that’s what we need to work on most at home.

She got to be demonstrator a couple of times with Lorrie and boy she sure likes Lorrie a lot. She got so excited once she pee’d on her! I’m sure she meant it in the nicest possible way.

Another weigh in…

I had to take Max to the vet this morning so I brought the border collies for an official weigh in. Vega is up to 27.7 lbs.! Merlin, unfortunately, has lost some weight. He didn’t eat for 2 days over the weekend and that wasn’t good for him at all. He is down to 33.6. He seems to be very fond of liver cookies and ham so I guess I will have to give him lots more. Poor guy.