I’ve got the old posts through August back on the blog now. That means I only have July, June and part of May to go! LOL It’s pretty time consuming, since I’m restoring each post from RSS, but it’s also kind of interesting to go back and see how much I’ve already forgotten from the last few months.. I don’t know if anybody else is like me or not, but I tend to have a very bad memory. Anyway, enough rambling for now.
Well, we’re back! The host crashed and so we’ve been gone for several days now. Sorry to anyone that tried to stop by and found us missing. The good news is that things are back up now and running. Now hopefully in the next little while we’ll be able to restore most of what we lost. :-)
I’m headed out now to work on some projects around the place that I’ve been procrastinating about for way too long. The weather is starting to cool down and I think that’s my cue to get in gear before it gets too cold to work outside.
I know it’s not winter yet, but this picture of Rogue has always been a favorite! I actually hate winter, but I do love taking pictures of the dogs playing in the snow.
Well, I couldn’t stand it. I had to go take some pictures of Zoe and her gorgeous new MACH chair! I just love the embroidery, it’s so pretty!
WOOHOO!!!! She did it! It was a nervewracking weekend, and we couldn’t have drug out the suspense any longer if we had tried, but on our very last run on the very last day we got our double Q for Zoe’s MACH! 
Cynthia was sweet enough to stay up last night and send me one of the pictures that she took. Thanks Cyn!
Check out the gorgeous new chair that our friends had made for us! What an awesome suprise! Zoe gives it a big paws up! Zoe didn’t like the MACH bar however. She couldn’t figure out why in the world we were running around the course with a big stick…was I going to whack her with it or something? LOL So her vote is leave the bar on the wall at home and bring the chair with us everywhere so people know how cool she is!
A huge thanks to all our friends that supported us all weekend!!! I don’t know how I ended up with such a fantastic dog as an agility partner and such an awesome circle of friends, but I am extremely grateful for both!
Here we go again! Seems like we’ve just unpacked from the last trip and we’re packing it all back up to head out again. This time we’re headed to Linleigh Farms in Sandy, UT. There is a three day agility trial and Zoe is entered. Rogue is going along for the ride and for a private lesson this afternoon. I hope that when we get back on Monday we’ll be posting about Zoe earning her last double Q for that MACH title! Off we go!
Seems like lately I’ve been getting a lot of tongues in my pictures of the dogs. They’re not exactly the shots that I was going for, but sometimes…they’re pretty funny! Enjoy!
Well, you might remember a few months back that Penny got the chance to go try out for the Mighty Dog commercial. Apparently they didn’t choose to use the footage of Penny. What were they thinking? LOL Oh well. On the bright side, they did use another friend of ours who is a rescue dog as well. Her name is Sadie. So yay for Sadie!
At any rate, even though they didn’t end up using Penny for this product, they still sent us a check for her talents and good looks, (hehehe), and for fuel and our time. We of course would have jumped at the chance to try this anyway, without being paid…but what a nice little bonus!
The funny thing is that Penny has always had these little quirky things that we tease her about. Like she won’t go out the door when all the other dogs go out, she waits for you to close it and then she asks to be let out on her own. For 10 1/2 years she has also claimed all the cool air coming from the swamp cooler as her own. We tease her that she thinks we’re her personal doormen and that she owns the cool air. Well…I guess that now in a way, she could argue that she is the only dog in the house that has actually earned all those things. LOL
Here is another belated update on our training challenge. I have one when I only had Rogue with me, and then another when I had Rogue, Twist and Raven along.
Last Thursday I got a call from the volunteer in charge of adoptions with our local all breed rescue. She needed someone to come to her house and meet a family that were finalizing an adoption of a Golden Retriever/Lab puppy. I figured that while I was there I would work with Rogue too. So, we loaded up a few practice jumps and the play tunnel and off we went.
It was mid morning and I was the only one there with Rogue at first. She was hesitant when we first arrived, but after having a chance to walk around a get her bearings she was better. We set up the jumps and tunnel on the side yard which is nice and grassy. She was able to do a few short sequences and since it was already getting hot, we went in the house to wait for the family to come pick up the puppy. After that was done we went back out for another short session and this time my friend’s step-daughter came out with us. Rogue was worried about her at first, but once she got going, she was able to work with Maddie sitting about 10 feet away. So, that’s good progress!
On Sunday we went down to Parowan to do some herding again. Unfortunately, it started to thunder, lightning and pour rain right as we got there. So…we waited for a half hour or so till the storm passed and then we got to work. I thought that this would be a good chance to work on Twist’s stays with distractions again, since one of his biggest triggers for breaking is moving dogs. I had him do sit stays while the dog ahead of us herded the sheep around the field. Twist did such a good job with such a tough distraction. I’m really proud of how well he’s doing lately. After that hard work, he got his turn at herding too!
Our friend had an agility course set up as well, so I got Raven out to work on that. There were about 7 people and at least 10 dogs there, but Raven didn’t even seem to notice them. She just got out there and ran like she does at home. Good job Raven! Gave me some hope that she’s getting more comfortable in outdoor settings with the agility.
Rogue came out and I was going to let her try the agility course, since herding in the pasture grass that touches her belly has just not been her to her liking. But, she was too stressed to try any agility either. We walked around the yard, but she never did get comfortable enough that I thought it would even be worth asking for anything more difficult than basic targeting to my hand and walking with me.
That’s all for now. I figure we’ll try to get in at least one more update before the month is over.
Well, we’re about 3/4 of the way through the month already. Time flies! Last week seemed short for training because I left on Thurs. to go to the Obedience trial in Idaho Falls and I wasn’t home till Mon. night. The good thing is that while we were up there I had a chance to work with both Twist and Rogue in new places.
While we were in Idaho Falls we walked the dogs in the evenings along this really nice pathway that ran beside the Snake River. At the end of the pathway was a dock and our friend’s dog Chase spotted this as a great place to swim. So, since Twist needed work on his stays with distractions, I put him in a “sit stay” while Chase played fetch in the water. It was a really tough distraction for Twist. He did break his stay once, but after that lapse of concentration…he did really well. He also did an awesome job of “leave it” by ignoring the ducks and geese in the water when I set he and Rogue up on the shore for pictures. Both of those things were pretty big challenges of his focus and I was really pleased with how he handled them.
I wanted to see how Rogue would be able to handle working near the ring at the Obedience trial, so on several occasions I walked her up close to the rings, (like 10-20 ft. away), and asked for some basic skills that she knows well. The bad news was that even at that distance she was so stressed that she was having difficulty targeting my hand, or sitting, or anything else. So, we increased the distance from the ring until she was comfortable enough to do a couple things and then we’d leave. I was so disappointed. I really didn’t expect her to be that stressed just by being in the vicinity of the rings.
When we came back to Utah we had a shared private lesson at a new location for both Rogue and Twist. It is a place that you can rent to work obedience or agility, so it seemed ideal. We went pretty early in the morning so it was nice and cool. There was Cynthia and Chase and our obedience instructor and Twist and Rogue and myself.
Rogue worked first. Or maybe I should rephrase that. Rogue was supposed to work first. She was so shutdown that she even refused to take a hunk of Bil Jac treat. This is the first time that she’s ever just walked away from me and not come back when I called her. She just looked over her shoulder and kept going. Right back to the crate. Honestly, I was in tears. It felt like everything that I seem to try to help her has backfired. Even our obedience trainer said that she didn’t know what to think. 
Twist on the other hand, was game to work as usual! We did a little bit of heeling, and then a little work on our stays. After that we tried his dumbell retrieve over a jump. He did so well. I have so much fun working with him. He’s really a lifesaver some days when I get down and start taking things too seriously. His enthusiasm for life is hard to resist!
Anyway, that’s our update for last week. Sorry it’s a week late.
