Roscoe's fancy tricks!

OK, so I was asked to video Roscoe doing some of his fun tricks. The first one is "Be a bat". I call it that because when he finishes the trick he kind of looks like a bat hanging on the wall. I did this video outside today since it is SO nice out! He'll do it against anything. Tree, couch, wall. Whatever. It's really cute! Love how he is reaching with his back feet! Cute little smaahtiepants!!!

This next one is his "Rev Yer ENGINES", where he kicks his back feet. He will do it for "rev yer engines" or "kick". Either cue works. Really cute and fun to do while warming up in the start line area at agility trials. Everyone thinks it's SO adorable!!!

This next one is just a combination of stuff......back up, roll over, kick! Silly little man!

Happy Valentine's Day from Miss Colby Carlson!!

Rich always give me the cutest valentine's gift........a pedicure......."one way to your heart is through your feet". YAY!

Trying something from my website

Are you sick of running contacts, yet? So sad, too bad.

I borrowed my friend's "hit-it" board. It is a 1x1 foot electronic pad that beeps an obnoxious peep when pressed. It's kind of cool because it is electronic, but no plug, no apparent place to replace batteries? But, it beeps when hit. Roscoe doesn't have enough weight to trigger it, which is OK because he HATES it because the beep sounds like our smoke detector reminding us it needs a new battery or when the power goes out telling us it is working. He HATES that sound and will shiver and shake when it goes off. I kind of thought I could train a pleasant (treat) association to the beep, but he kept avoiding it and since Roscoe's contacts are AWESOME and perfect, I don't need to do that work with him.

With Spur, it might be helpful. However, at the speed he goes sometimes I think a 1x1 spot might be hard to hit? I mean, really, in this shot his next step will be back feet hitting the top 1/3 of the contact. How the heck? Can I train him to adjust and hit another spot with his front feet? Maybe. I am going to play with it some and see what happens. I now have speed on the dog walk, but I need clear, uncloudy performance. I need him to KNOW that hitting the yellow zone is acceptable and any other option is OUT! That all without stressing him out or making him wring his little papillon paws in worry. Can I do that? I don't know.
Remember my home made hit-it board? It was simply too hard to deal with and I never did get it clear. Clear as mud, but not clear as clear. This electronic board can be used and trained anywhere.
One thing I know for sure.........this sort of training is going to take patience and TIME. Lots and lots of time.
Should I swap to a 2o2o performance? I am still not convinced. I personally do not like that performance. I see too many dogs going slower and slower and creeping and worrying about their 2o2o performance.
I don't think there is a good answer, yet. Someone may come up with one, but right now, nothing clear as clear. Every option I see trained is clear as mud, more often then not. World team members have fabulous runs and are called for awesome contacts. It happens. Percentage wise, I saw perhaps half of the Nationals runs called for contacts. Nothing else, just contacts. So, training a good contact is essential. Harder than training anything else, I think. At least for me.

Running contacts? Oi!

OK, so my struggles with Spur's running contacts continues...........it's like a saga........it never ends and starts to get a little boring. But, the weather was SO nice today we bored ourselves to TEARS working on them. Actually, Spur was remarkably happy trying new things. We were, after all, in the safety and comfort of our own yard, and there was cheese involved. I borrowed my friend's Hit-It board again and gave it a try with Spur. He gets it, but the thing is when he is full speed, or even half speed it is really too small a target. I just don't see getting enough rewards in when he is really running. It's only like 1x1 foot. Clear, yes, when he hits it the thing beeps, clearly. Clear as could be. But, I saw him slowing down to make sure he hits it and I sure don't want that. They do make them the length of the contact, but goodness I just don't know if it is worth it?

So, another plan, up in smoke..........poof.............back to simply running it and hoping for muscle memory. Hey, it works with the weaves, so why not the dog walk? I mean, really, I hardly have to ever correct my dogs for weaves, they just do them. It's that simple. No mistakes, they just do them, over and over. I don't know. I wish I could think WHY or HOW I got Roscoe to know so clearly his necessary behavior on the dog walk. He gets it. He just does! He knows when he launches that it isn't good, even though I can not say we clearly trained it? We did do some "hit it" work, like Amanda Shyne does with her dog, but really, I don't know why Roscoe gets it??????

OK, so after working through the fog of what to do with my contacts I decided to take some shots of my fully blooming forced paperwhites!! What a happy thing this time of year! I bought them before Christmas and they got lost in all my gift wrapping. Found them when I went to clean up after the New Year, LOL!! So, they got a late start and are blooming now and are awesome!!!!!

Then I finally got around to bringing my friend's "Water Horse" photograph to the framer's to be artiplaked. Is that a word? I think that's what it's called. Artiplak........they seal it on a particle board and coat it to UV protect it. Plain and simple and my favorite way to "frame" photographs. No matting, no hard frame, just the photo! Plain and simple.

Isn't it cool?????

Start line, smart line, what the hell happened?

I made my plan, I practiced it and I implemented it. Roscoe already knows the bouncy game. He loves it, it pumps him up and we use it as warm up already. BUT, I had not used it on start lines with my "plan". Which was to bounce two times, then GO!! Last weekend at the trial I tried it. OK, so it worked alright. Roscoe knows that game well. It's fluent and practiced. We used it a lot in obedience. It helps him focus, warm up, pump up, it's a great game.

So, I had this plan. Bouncy game, one-tw0-GO, would be our new start line performance. My plan. Love those plans. Like designing my website. Bwwaaaaaaaaaaaa...................like I design anything on the internet. Picture me rolling on the floor with dogs lapping my face as I giggle to oblivion! That's my plan, roll on the floor with the dogs jumping on me as I giggle to oblivion. THAT plan I can implement!!! Love THAT plan!



In agility.......at the smart line start line? Um.......it felt strange. For one, I STILL felt like all eyes were on me to "just START already!!!". For two, as I was doing his first bounce towards the first obstacle I thought........hmmm.......this could almost be called a refusal? But, with electronic timing set right AT the first obstacle, maybe not?

The strange thing is, I worry about starting and not wasting time and not having people thinking......."just START already!!"........but those with start line stays - they lead out, putting their dogs in a stay then everrrrrrrrrrr SOOOOOOOO slooooooooowly walking to their position, then telling their dog..."Gooooooooooooood dooooooooggggggggg" and FINALLY releasing and running, taking WAY more time than my silly, little bouncy game.



I tried working on the game with Spur. He's getting it, thinks it's fun, but at practice he didn't want to do it and wanted to just start instead. OK, so should I INSIST on the bouncy game? Um, maybe, but maybe not. I don't want to INSIST on too much with Spur because my experience shows me if I insist too much he shuts down and it isn't fun any more. Now, that said I don't want him doing whatever he friggin' wants to do when he gets stressed. I want him to be focused and attentive and enjoy doing that I ask him to do. It's a fine line.
With my yard free of snow and ice I can do some running contact work with Spur. I always say.......Ready? Ready? Ready? and GO for that work and he loves that. What was happening in practice, though, was saying "Ready?" was worrying him some. I guess I just need to keep at it. Keep trying new things. I know I need something CLEAR, but with Spur it never seems so clear. There is always that grey area. That issue of something working in one area and not generalizing to another area. I struggle with that and need to get that going a little better. I think eventually it will, if I can clear my OWN head and make things clear to him. Clear!! Websters says......"free from darkness, obscurity, or cloudiness". Trouble for me, that thing about being clear, is I am not free from cloudiness or obscurity or darkness myself. What makes me think I can be clear to my dog?????


My plan. In the dark, obscure clouds.

Off to the beach today!! Again!!

This is definitely the BEST part about winter. The fields may be brown, dead and blah looking, but the beach.........THE BEACH.......winter runs on the beach are absolutely fabulous! The dogs can run and run and eat crab legs and chase seagulls, it's awesome!

These shots were taken last Friday when I met with Mary to walk with her "new" dog, Skipper, who we thought we might need to help find a home for. Mary's aunt died and Skipper is now looking for a new home. She thinks now her other aunt may take Skipper, which would be really nice! He is a sweet, shy, nervous little poodle, but starting to come out of his shell and will make someone a nice companion. He's really cute!!It was cold that day, but the sun is so strong it warms things up nicely. Still, the tide left a big lump of frozen sea foam to navigate.

Spur just LOVES racing on the beach!This is such a common look for him when running. Ears flat for more aerodynamics, mouth slightly open, lower teeth showing!This shot was last Friday, Spur is 2 1/2...........
This shot was taken when he was 5 1/2 months...................