Monthly Archives: May 2010

Sick of Being Sick

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I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything different, but I’m still not over this cold. I say that I shouldn’t have expected different because my husband is still coughing and not feeling 100% and he came down with this gunk well over a week ago. Too bad this cold isn’t on the list of the diet supplements that work . I’d be set!

On a good note, the weather was beautiful today. It was too pretty to resist getting out and buying vegetables for the garden and some flowers for my hanging baskets. After we got what we bought planted, I did a bit of weeding. No real fun training today. I’m just still not feeling up to much. I’m sure you can hear my dogs groaning in dismay.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore, Toto

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Well, I guess I haven’t been in Kansas for years really. Only drove through it once to get to Sheltie Nationals in St. Louis a few years back. But, I couldn’t resist the quote. The wind here yesterday was horrendous. I still have this cold/flu junk hanging on, but I decided I was going to get outside and get some weeding done anyway. I made it till noon before it just got ridiculous.

The town adjoining to ours made state news last night because our local McDonald’s sign blew over in the wind. We had gusts of 60 mph. Now for any of those of you that live in areas where you get tornadoes I know that may not be much, but for us…it is.

Today the weather was much better, but that may have been a bad thing in a way. I took Dare over to the Obedience class that lets us drop in and train off to the side. Then I went to the park with my friend that has the Malinois puppies. I set up the weave poles and jump for Layla to work on weaving in different places. She did ok, but I can see that I definitely need to set a goal of getting her out and working in busier environments. I think I avoid it because she starts blowing me off for every little thing that catches her eye, and I get annoyed. I need to just suck it up and do it more anyway, or else this is a training issue that is not going to get better. We had some really nice kids come up today and ask if they could watch us work with the dogs. They were great little helpers in standing (yes just standing quietly) off to the side of the weave poles while Layla went through.

Then I came home, cleaned up the branches and debris from the lawn, and mowed it. I love the way a lawn looks when it’s freshly mowed.

Then I talked my husband into walking the dogs with me. So, we went for our 4 mile walk. Which now brings me back to the point where I’m wondering if I would have been better off just spending a bit more time staring at the entertainment centers instead of being seduced by the nice weather outside today. LOL I’m coughing and nose is running like crazy now, and I’m beginning to think I may not be one of the brightest tools in the shed. Oh well, it was a great time while it lasted. Hopefully I’ll be feeling ok tomorrow after I get some sleep.

Wind, Colds and Various Other Excuses For Not Training

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I went to bed last night with just the hint of feeling sick. I didn’t sleep well all night, first chills, then I would wake up dying of heat. Bleh. This morning when I got up, I felt like I’d done some insane workout, and my whole body was aching and sore. Except the only thing I did yesterday was our 4 mile walk and that doesn’t make me sore. With the congestion and sore throat it was pretty clear that I’d caught the cold/flu thing that my husband has been battling for week. :-(

I was still hanging on to the idea of trying to go to puppy play day, but by this afternoon the wind had picked up. My friend that has the two puppies that we take to class called to tell me that she’d decided that she didn’t want to brave the wind gusts in her van today. It only took me another 20 minutes or so before I’d talked myself out of driving down by myself today.

I thought about trying to train a bit here today, but everything I thought of just involved too much motion and effort on my part. LOL Most of the dogs are pretty good about just letting you alone or even cuddling when you’re not feeling well. Dare is not one of those dogs. After lazing around for a good portion of the day, she said enough was enough. What a brat! I guess that’s a good thing though. If I didn’t have that kind of motivation to get out with the dogs I wouldn’t have anything to write about. I’d have to turn this into an insurance blog or something if the dogs didn’t push me to do something fun with them.

So, in the end, I compromised. I did work on Dare’s dumbell hold today. I didn’t have to do anything but sit in the chair, and she still got to use her brain a little. I think she would have liked a walk to accompany the training today, but it just didn’t happen. Hopefully with some rest, this gunk that I’ve got will be shortlived.

Glamour Shots

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I haven’t been posting as much about Dare on Resqtails since I started her a blog of her own, but I just couldn’t resist posting these photos. I wanted to get pictures of her at a year old, and so we went to a friend that does awesome photography. His name is Keith and you can see some of his other work by visiting Utah Dog Blog He shoots at a lot of the agility trials as well as doing studio sessions. Anyway, I thought they were so pretty, I just had to share them. These are just a few of the photos, I’m having some others printed and I’ll get them framed, but these give you an idea of what a great job Keith does and what a beautiful girl Dare has grown up to be. She doesn’t even need any natural acne treatment to make her look great in her close ups.

I’ll just stop with two of the pictures. LOL I think you get the idea. The ones I ordered for framing are one of her in a headshot, one sitting and another laying down. The one laying down is my favorite. But I don’t have it yet, so I can’t share it with you. Maybe after I get them and get them on the wall, I’ll take a picture of the “gallery”.

A Day Off, or Just an Off Day?

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Well, no obedience or agility training to talk about today. I just felt tired, discombobulated and rushed. It’s one of those days that just seems like nothing was going smoothly. So, I just opted for walking the dogs instead of training them too. It was just an ok walk today. We only went a couple miles.

Honestly, the walk was ruined a bit by someone shooting something (how’s that for vague?). They were just far enough off the road that I couldn’t see them, or their vehicles, if they had any. I don’t know what they were hunting, maybe they were hunting for the best prenatal vitamins out there in the brush, but I kind of doubt it. LOL Anyway, anytime I can hear the gunshots actually whizzing in the air, it’s close enough to make me uncomfortable. Regardless, none of us got shot, so I guess it’s fine. Just a part of living in a rural area. Bleh.

I think I’ll spend the evening catching up on some reading and deciding what I want to work with the girls next. :-)

Distance Drills With Motion

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So, today’s drills proved to be quite a bit more difficult than the previous ones. Isn’t that always the way it works when you start adding motion and a little speed to things? What was once so clear and simple can turn into a real mess. :-) All in all though, the girls did really well.

On her first run through, Raven apparently thought that my hand signal for the “out jump” looked enough like the obedience hand signal to drop into a down, so instead of going “out”, she went “down”. I had a devil of a time convincing her that we weren’t doing obedience signals. LOL Once she figured out what I was asking for though, she did great.

Zoe on the other hand, is still convinced that she already knows everything. So, I got another earful of her opinionated banter in between each portion of the drill. Amazing to me how quiet my younger girls are when I work with them. Despite her sass though, Zoe is still my favorite dog to run.

Layla did good for such a youngster. I think as she matures more and we run together more she’s really going to be lots of fun! One thing that I do notice in watching Layla’s videos, (not just in this one), is how much I lose her in between training. :-( I could really do a better job of keeping her engaged with me in between going from the finish of one thing to the start of the next. It seems to me that the new book I got, Agility Right From the Start talks about that training issue. I haven’t had much time to read anything lately though. Guess I need to make some time. I’ll let you know if I find anything helpful. At any rate, here is Layla’s video.

With all these videos that I’ve been taking lately, I’ve been thinking that I need to sort through my pictures and videos. They are both really starting to get out of control. Maybe make up some slide show of the pictures, and just get the videos organized into a better filing system. It sure does turn into a daunting task in a short period of time. LOL

More Distance Drill Stuff

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Today I thought I’d set up a different obstacle to work on the second drill some more with the girls. I was lazy as usual, and I thought that I’d cheat a bit. Instead of hauling out two different obstacles, I thought I’d make use of one with two ends. LOL Actually, I thought it would be a good idea anyway, since a lot of times you have to discriminate between ends of a tunnel on course, even when it’s not a gamble. So, this is just basically the same drill as I posted last time with the jumps, using the tunnel entrances.

First, Layla…

Then Raven…

Then Zoe…

Sorry, if it’s so repetitive. Don’t feel like you have to watch the same drill over and over and over with each of the dogs. I just like being able to see the similarities and differences of each one doing the same drill. The next part of the drills start to incorporate motion on the handlers’ part. Should be fun! I really should spend some time inside cleaning house at some point too, rather than just out playing with the dogs. Next thing you know I’ll need some hospital disinfectant to get things clean around here.

Distance Drill 2

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The part of the distance drills that we worked on today is adding a second obstacle into the picture. You start out with a second obstacle, they don’t have to be identical, but that was easiest for me today because I had the pvc jumps out of the lawn already.

I didn’t do the greatest job of filming today but my options for setting up the tripod and not having it blow over in the aweful wind were a bit limited. Because of this, it may be a bit difficult to see, but the second obstacle is set up closer to you, but beyond the original obstacle. Like several feet out in front of the other obstacle to start with. If the dog is successful at still going “out” to the correct obstacle, you move the other jump closer. If you’re still successful, you can continue to move it until it is line with the original one. Once you can successfully send the dog to the further obstacle, it’s time to test whether they are just getting patterned to take the original obstacle or if they are really following your direction.

To test it, you set the dog up the same as you did on the previous attempt, but instead of giving an “out” command, you
ask them to come in to you and take the closer obstacle. It’s amazing how the dogs get patterned to taking the other jump or obstacle so quickly. I remember Jim saying at the seminar that it was having to “break the spell”. Anyway, once you get the dog to come in to the closer obstacle then you try sending them out again.

I hope the video is helpful, I just gave a quick overview of the drill. Layla had done this before we got the camera out, and because of the wind I didn’t want to mess around much. Sorry. At the end of the video you’ll see the wind catch the jackpot bag when I toss it and throw it back to the take off side of the jump. I decided that was enough. LOL

I’m really pleased with how well Layla’s doing though. If she keeps this up, I might need to start looking for gifts for her. Just like with the first drill, I need to do this with other obstacles. I also need to start increasing the distance laterally away from the “out” for the dog and then for where I am. Anyway, here’s today’s video.

Too Many Options?

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So, there is discussion on one of the lists that I’m on about how entries/support in some of the various Obedience venues in Utah seems to be dwindling lately. Specifically in regards to ASCA and UKC obedience. The discussion seems to branching out into the other dog sports too though, including agility, and field trials.

When Zoe and I first got involved in Agility we competed in NADAC/ASCA. It was a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere and we had enough trials within driving distance to make it possible to title and progress. Then those two venues split. In Utah it seemed that most of the clubs decided to still offer ASCA, not NADAC. That was fine with me. However, by that time, I’d ILP’d Zoe and had started competing in AKC. Although AKC intimidated me initially, I found that it actually was a great fit for us. There is more of it offered in Utah than anything else, (in fact more than I can afford to do now). So we switched our focus to AKC, and it’s been a good decision for us. We’ve had a lot of fun and success in AKC.

When I got involved with Obedience, I stuck with AKC. I did try other venues, but I didn’t really pursue it. I’ve tried to figure out why, but I don’t really know. It’s certainly not that I don’t like them. I like the variety of exercises in UKC and I like the fact that in ASCA obedience the stays are first, rather than last. But in the end, I’ve stuck with AKC.

In agility, we have AKC, USDAA, ASCA, DOCNA, and now there is another new agility venue attempting to start up here, UKI. I am going to take Layla to their funmatch in June, but I honestly I’m doing it more for the experience of getting Layla to a funmatch than to really get involved in another venue. Maybe if I saved a ton of money on whole life insurance quotes I’d have enough money to branch out into more venues again. LOL

Sadly, though I don’t expect any miracles and I don’t think I’m alone in my lack of extra finances or time right now. I love the options of all the venues and I don’t want to see any of them disappear, but I don’t realistically think that I will be doing much to support them. This year I am doing all three of the local ASCA agility trials with Zoe, and I did the DOCNA agility trial to qualify for Championships, but that’s going to be the extent of my entries into other venues I’m afraid. Anyway, those are my rambling thoughts for this morning. Back to training this afternooon…

Carnivals, Parks, Puppy Play Day and Some Distance Training Too

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Talk about a grab bag of stuff today. LOL First, I got a call from a friend that is trying to get her puppies out and about to as many new places as she can. She heard there was a carnival in town and thought it would be a new experience for the puppies. So, I drove into town and met her there. Well, the problem was that even though they set up the carnival yesterday, they weren’t opening it till 4:00 pm today. Bleh. So, the carnival was somewhat of a bust, except that we got to walk around some really odd looking things in that park.

Then we went to another park to train for a while. All the dogs did well and we had a few distractions which is always nice.

Then back to the house for lunch and to take care of the boarders. I figured I better keep working on the Distance Drills, so I did take Layla out and did the same drill as yesterday, but with a different obstacle. The weave poles were already out in the yard, so I decided to try to accomplish two things at once. I’ve been working on Layla’s weaves, thankfully…she did great on both the distance and the weaving part. Woot! I didn’t have time to set up the camera though. Sorry. I think tomorrow I’ll try then next step of the distance drills and I’ll try to get video.

Later in the afternoon I went down and picked up my friend and her puppies and we went to Parowan for a puppy play day. It was fun. Nothing really formal about it, but it’s a nice opportunity to get together with other puppies and work on whatever everyone feels they need help with. I have to say, I enjoy the play days, but it sure does make for a long day by the time I get home. I feel like I’ve been running all day. No need for Lipofuze today.