Lots of visitors

Vega hiding from the other dogs!

We had a bunch of company last week and so I didn’t have much time to train. Katrina was on vacation so we didn’t have class and we got to babysit some of her furry kids while she was gone. There were 11 here total! It was fun. We played a lot. Fred especially had a great time with them all.

Guess what I'm holding?

Merlin, Vega, Ice, Rip, Rush

It’s amazing how empty and quiet the house is now that they’ve all gone home. I definitely have an appreciation for how much work it is to take care of that many dogs now too. Kudos to you, Katrina. Here’s just a few of the pictures I took.

Rip, Skye, Rush, Max(white pup), Growls(on couch), Ice

Keeping in practice...

Instructors

Dog agility is the only sport that I’ve participated in that I’ve ever had instruction in. I wonder how anyone can have any idea at all what they’re doing incorrectly if no one is watching and giving feedback. The instruction I get is just awesome and it’s evident that the whole goal is to help me and Vega be as successful as possible. It’s truly the reason I love training at FAAD.

I’ve thought a lot lately about how much joy it brings me to hear “good job!” from my instructor. It’s the highlight of my day to hear Vega and I have done something well in class. I really appreciate getting feedback in a way that doesn’t make me feel like I’m incompetent when I don’t do it right but I live for the “good jobs”. It must be the way Vega feels when I tell her “good girl”.

Last night I was trying to do a sequence with Vega and Katrina said, “you know she’s just running around trying to figure out what you want and how to make you happy”. Clearly I didn’t know what I was doing or Vega would have known what I wanted and it helped a lot to be reminded (very nicely) that’s it’s me and not my dog. (After Katrina did it with Vega I realized I should have been doing a front cross on the 270 and I was turning and causing Vega to swing wide).

The other thing I’ve discovered in the last couple of classes is that I’ve been practicing the wrong way at home and causing behaviors I don’t want. So what I heard was “show me what your doing with the dog walk”. (I love that cause it allows me to get the things I do at home corrected). Here was my thinking. Vega was doing a 2o/2o perfectly and then when I move she moves without waiting for her release word. So what I was doing at home was telling her to stay when she was in 2o/2o position and I was walking away, saying her release word and then rewarding her. What I caused was a dog that wasn’t doing 2o/2o anymore because I wasn’t rewarding her on the board. Now I will reward her on the board all the time and worry about her release after she’s been rewarded.

Let’s here it for really good instructors and really good feedback. Look what I’d do without you!

New toy

A while back Lana, one of the ladies I train with, asked me to try out one of the toys she’s started making and selling on her website. It’s a little frisbee with a food pouch on top for easy treating. Well we haven’t tried it with food in the pouch yet but the border collies LOVE this toy. They both chase after it and play tug with it all the way back to me. Vega actually snarked at one of the other dogs for getting too close to it and she doesn’t even do that with the beloved tennis ball! It’s definitely a huge hit in my house. If anyone is interested Lana’s website is www.LoveMyDogandPony.com and Merlin and Vega highly recommend the frisbee. Thanks for letting us try it, Lana. It’s awesome.

Foot issues

Apparently I have a polyp on the outside of my left heel. It’s not worth removing but is worth wrapping for 4 weeks to relieve pressure. Let’s hope it just goes away.

Boring couple of weeks

It’s been sort of a dull couple of weeks in our training.  First Vega went into heat so we’ve had to take 2 weeks off classes and then it snowed so we couldn’t go outside and play.  It’s still so muddy that we can’t really run in the yard but maybe by this weekend.

I’ve been sitting out of level 3 for two weeks and borrowing Flame for Young Guns for the last two weeks and it’s been fun and interesting and informative.  I love running with a dog and not being 6 feet behind him.  Last night we did front and blind crosses, teeter, dog walk, jump to the weaves.  It’s a lot easier for me to get the handling corrections when my whole focus isn’t just on racing Vega to where I need to be.  I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being able to slow down a little but I miss my girl and I’m ready to go back at it with her next Monday.  I think she’s missing it a lot too.

Blog has a new home

Welcome everyone that followed me to our new home.  Once I get done repointing all the pictures I’ll delete the blog on blogspot completely. 

Her is a picture of Alyssa playing with some of the dogs in the backyard before the snow.  The shepherd/greyhound mix is Abby.  She is a Hurricane Katrina rescue and very sweet.  She’s the original “bucket dog” that taught Merlin the value of a bucket.

Evil coyote!

I don’t put very much on this blog that isn’t dog related but I really like this…

I work at Progressive Insurance and a few months ago we got an email explaining that they were putting rubber coyotes all over the Cleveland Campus to keep the ducks and geese away as they were ruining the grass. This week we got an update on how that’s working out.

New dog mobile

Last year I bought a 98 Explorer because I couldn’t get all of the dogs in the car. I finally decided having two vehicles was silly. The Explorer doesn’t get great gas mileage and the Stratus needed some serious repairs so I traded in the Stratus on a new and improved dog mobile.

I can’t believe I’ve moved to the realm of mini-van ownership but we LOVE all the room and it rides SO nice. It’s an 06 Grand Caravan with 35,000 miles and in perfect condition. It sure holds a lot of dogs!