There was screaming!

Not here. Here he was navigating the yard.
Not here. Here he was peaceful.
Not here. Here he was sleeping. Last night at agility class. There was SCREAMING! I hear Sharon say to here dog....."It's OK Sophie, he isn't dying"........to which I think Sophie wanted to reply......."Yeah, but I can help him do that if it will shut him up!". He was SO high!!! We tried to figure it out and it dawned on me "Rodent Syndrome". That's what Dodman says he has. Likes to be closed in like in a box, a tiny rodent box. He does like his crates, covered and cozy. Class is now in a very small room. It's tight. It's do-able, but tight. Roscoe LOVES it there!! He was CRAZY!!!! I forgot the hoop for his up a-frame and he SLAMMED into it the first time. Damn. He's TWELVE, he shouldn't be slamming a-frames. We put the hoop there, he crashed the hoop and dragged himself to the top. Brought out a bigger, easier to see hoop. OH MY!!!

He was happy, happy, happy and I loved it. I love it when he's happy and works like a champ. He does start forgetting about collection when he gets really high, though, and I had to alter my path some. Did that, he scooted between my legs as he tried to stay wide. Um.......dude.........no.......you have got to avoid ME and take the jump - nice and tight. Finally, we figured it out.

Crazy High Rodent!!! No, Crazy High Screaming Rodent!! That was Roscoe last night at agility class. Sophie didn't get her wish. He lived to see another day and next week, just to let you know Miss Sophie......he really doesn't have to die. He's just crazy!!

OMG, OMG, OMG! It's Wednesday and it is NOT stormy!!

This is SERIOUSLY great!!

First - it means we will have agility class today!!!! We were supposed to start, like.....um......a month ago??? We haven't had class since, hmmmmm, I can't even remember. Early November?

Second - NO lost income!!!! Phew!! Wednesdays are my busiest dog walk days and I make a nice chunk of cash. But, not if everyone is home because of a storm and therefore don't need me. Some folks still pay me, which is lovely and very kind and generous, but certainly not something I require or feel is necessary. It's just part of my business, some days get cancelled. I don't feel anyone needs to pay me when I can't be there because of a storm. Couldn't the storms arrive on Tuesdays? My least busiest day? Nope, Wednesdays. At least, that's how it has been nearly every week this year. :O

I can't say I am happy about the -15 wind chill, but at least the sun is out and the sky is blue!!! And I don't have to shovel, scrape my windshield, hoof it through mountains of snow piled up and dodge plows. Or stay home and do paperwork. Bleck!!! And did I really just stay home and do paperwork? Um, check last week's storm. Hah, nah....I taught the dogs silly tricks instead. :P WAY more fun!!! LOL!! But, that was dumb I should have done paperwork. It's piling up again and I need to do my February newsletter. February is a short month, so if I don't get that done soon it will be March!!!!

Oh well, today I am simply rejoicing in the no storm event going on at the moment. -15 wind chill, whatevahhhhhh..............

Running dog walk session yesterday.

Decided to raise it to full height. At the trial Saturday he refused it twice and I really think it was because it looked like a teeter. Since our work the last three weeks has been on a lowered dog walk? Although one refusal could have been simply a tunnel choice, always a given. Something we do work on, but in a trial he will almost always chose a tunnel if that is a descrimination. The other one I don't know, he just went all the way around it. It was strange. There wasn't an off course option. Anyway, I thought it would be good to put it back to full height and check it out. So, here he is from yesterday. I LOVE how he DRIVES forward on his very first run!!! And how we have lots of good ones before a jump. That's cool! And the jumps I think have a lot to do with ball toss. Although there was one lobbed toss and he still got it. He SHOULD still get it no matter how the ball is tossed, but really that's asking a LOT at this point. The last one is a jump, but we didn't try again because he had a major meltdown when the ball his the bulletin board and the erasor dropped in front of him. Oi! No use trying to go again, especially with so many good ones.

I LOVE his run at 45 seconds or there abouts. LOVE that one!!! He looks relaxed and fast. He is still adjusting his stride a fair amount, but what I see happening here in this session are more runs where his body is lower. That's the posture I want, not so much that I am watching stride, but a lowered head/posture means faster more consistent striding. When his body humps up a little on the down is when he is adjusting and having to add a stride to get the contact. That's GOOD (to get the contact), but ultimately I want a more relaxed run. He's a good little guy!!! I do think he enjoys it, although the first jump with a no reward (I didn't mark it at all verbally this time), produced a very down expression. Not sure why, but he was a bit bummed. Maybe because previously he had been SO rewarded? I don't know. He seemed to recover, but there is a run where you will see his ears go back and a tiny slow down. That was because the up ramp bounced. In the next run you will see I added a support there. (Kind of wish I had added boob support, as I got so hot I flung off my sweater and forgot that this would be on youtube = public. Whatevahhhhhh..........)

All Dog's Trial report

I have video, but not sure it's worth loading. We did well, really. Gamblers was first and had weaves 15 feet away. Not something Spur and I have practiced lately. In fact, our weaves are not independent much at all, I know. If I am throwing a frisbee, he nails them and I can do jumping jacks while his weaves to the end, but he doesn't generalize that to other settings and won't go after his frisbee in the presence of strange dogs, so it isn't helpful at class. I may start trying his ball for the weaves, but we never seem to have time after training his dog walk and doing some obedience. And since my yard is under two feet of snow, there is no weaving at home right now. :P

Roscoe, weaves are a given, so it was do-able, but coming out of a tunnel entry that was also 15 feet away. Should have been do-able if I had held back and driven to the weaves. Instead I kept going and my motion drew him to me no matter how much flapping and yelling "WEAVE, WEAVE, WEAVE" to him. He ended up coming to me, then flipping around and getting the weaves, good little tiny dog!!! But, he crossed the refusal line and spun around, so was called for a refusal......"TWEET", whistle blew, but he got a good cheer from the crowd for going back and being a good boy!!! Then he layered a jump, which many dogs took, so he essentially got the gamble, sort of, good man!

Standard was nice from both dogs. Spur beat Roscoe by several seconds, which he SHOULD and by more than several seconds, but I am always pleased when he does beat him. Roscoe is a good boy, but hardly athletic. His time wasn't that fast because of some miss-cues. We are still working it out at trials. Our start line was OK, but I need to clean that up. He is doing well with me holding him and focusing him and then release and go, but I think I can be a little more calm and focused myself. I get all frantic and wierd and hyped and that doesn't help him any. I also need to work every SINGLE obstacle completely. I wish we had more verbals. I am trying to learn Silvia's cik and cap and am a complete failure with those verbals. I can never get them right, so those are essentially failed verbals. I did teach him "wrap" last summer and I am not sure why I couldn't use that word for cik and cap, both directions, just using my body cues to cue direction?

I know he needs more information. He guesses a lot and when he starts to guess he starts taking obstacles and making his own decisions. That's cool, in a way! But, not if we want to Q. LOL!!! I must get better about giving him his information often, early and clearly. Yesterday, we were a little off. He got his standard, good man and won his class, but it wasn't a fast time. I always check the championship times and Tiki the pap was 6 seconds faster. Tiki is a world team contender, if they can get a decent measuring. He's pretty fast. Last weekend's difference in standard = Tiki was only 2 seconds faster.

We left early after pairs. Scratched Spur from snooker and jumpers and Roscoe from snooker, so we only missed three runs. Spur ran clean in pairs, Roscoe wasn't entered. The conditions outside the facility were HORRIBLE. They used safe salt at the door, but not the parking lot and there was NO place to walk/potty the dogs. My dogs ended up SCREAMING in pain from the salt burning their paws and at one point I had a dog under each arm, totally miserable. Not sure why that wasn't happening to the other dogs!!!??? Maybe I just didn't see it. It SUCKED!!! The weather was coming in and I didn't want to drive in nasty, freezing rain. SO glad we did, it looked, sounded aweful. We ended up having time to have a nice snow shoe and the Pin Heads managed the whole time!! That was WELL worth it. The weather started shortly after we got in. I lit a fire and snuggled down, thinking of my friends who stayed and if they made it home safe. Read on facebook later about their misery traveling. Yikes!!! But, everyone home safe.

Stand UP!!

I can hear my agility coaches yelling at me about that during our earlier training. I am better, I don't bend over as much. I still DO it, but not as much. In obedience........I FREAKIN' BEND OVER!!! It's hard with tiny dogs. They are SO far away. I mean, seriously, poor Roscoe has been stepped on too many times. OUCH! No wonder he hesitates to be REALLY close!! This is Roscoe's partial routine from last week. I am not sure I like my hand plastered to my thigh. I used to hold it in formal position on my stomach/waist, but my elbow was always in the way and he ended up forging SO much.

After getting Silvia's heeling video I decided I really want to try to get my dogs heeling with my arms swinging freely. Um.......OK........I have been doing obedience with my dogs for like.......oh geez.........10 years? More? The Pin Heads are twelve this year. Old habits are VERY hard to break. I am trying. You'll see I am a TINY bit better with Spur. But, my hand is more still than I would like. I am holding the clicker in that hand and treats in my right hand. Spur does not forge, but I would really like more eye contact focus and not as much dependence on my hand/arm. We are getting there, but not there, yet.



This is Spur from last night. I tried like HECK to stand up straighter. Sigh........work in progress, let's just say........I must tell Judy to yell at me........STAND UP!!!! He has a bobble on the slow pace. He wants to drop. I have been working on the moving drop, good little monkey pants. Obviously, I am slowing down when working on that because that was his cue to drop! OI!!! The great thing about video is I can pick up these things and remember them. So, this week I work on slow pace, no drop and moving drop from a normal pace. But, Spur's pivots and heeling position does look much better. Silvia's work on the pivoting was HUGELY helpful! He looks over all much more comfortable. This room has always been hard for him. It's so close, he and I have knocked into the signs before and......gasp.......that's enough to send him into a major junk. And the closeness of the other dogs is hard for him, so he is looking pretty good for how he has been in this room. :D LOVE his tiny white prancing paws!! They make me melt..........



We are off tomorrow to another USDAA trial. We may head home early if the weather starts coming in like they say it will. STOP IT WEATHER!!! Just heard about ANOTHER indoor arena collapse. That makes four. My poor friends. :(

Bored on a snow day!

I can't believe it, MORE SNOW! Just when the snow mobile trails were getting good for the wee dogs, more snow. UGH! Must get to the beach for some EXERCISE!!! It's just been too darn cold and at this point GETTING to the beach means trudging through the deep snow, unless we go to the popular beach and that just ain't happening with my wee dogs and Mighty Mad Spur.

So, we handle the boredom with silly tricks. I decided to just see if Spur would bring me a Kleenex when I sneezed. He retrieves well, so why not Kleenex? Yep, not an issue he got it! Roscoe? Hates to hold things in his mouth and the tissue grossed him out. Wierdo. Colby wanted to tear it up, but I think with some work she would have it pretty good. Spur, he got it. :D

I have been working on Spur with the suitcase trick. It's easy and fun and he was getting it. He is nervous about it, so we have worked a few sessions slowly. Roscoe? OMFG.....it's a trick made for him. The first session he had it down. Second session I had to hold him back!!! LOL!! He is a peice of work, that Roscoe!!!! And Shannan asked for video of his "Rev Yer Engines", so we stuck that in there. His signature move!!! :D

Spur's running session from Sunday

You might want to turn down the volume. Douce is barking in the background. We used that to help Spur. He had a bad meltdown coming into the building this time. Not sure what got him, but he was all down and wierd. I wasn't sure we were going to get anything out of him, so I am very pleased with this session. I see more success early on. Still too many jumps, but some fairly good speed for being in a bit of a funk. Apparently this work is rewarding enough that he snaps out of it. I really wanted to see more speed and confidence this time, but I am VERY happy he worked through his funk. :D

Last session was definitely improved speed with several 7 strided DW's. Ultimately, I know his comfort zone would be 6 strides, but 7 is pretty good. When he runs it with 8 strides I see him really work to adjust to hit the contact, 7 strides looks easier. 6 strides looks relaxed, fast and comfortable, so ultimately I think that may be our goal. However, I really don't care much about strides, so long as he is confident and happy. At the trial last weekend I think he had about 10 strides because his up and top part were slow, but he had good speed coming down and there was a 45 degree turn and he ran all the way through the contact even with me pulling off a little, so that's just FABU!!!

There is a yahoo group discussing running DW's and they got on to the difference between rotary gallop and transverse gallop. Um........WHAT??? OK, I DO know the difference, but guys, I study Spur's stride a LOT and I can tell you I have no idea when he runs his DW what form he takes. He definitely has his back feet closer together than is ultimate. A rotary gallop allows for the feet to hit the ground in more places with back feet seperated and therefore no jumping, but HELLOOOOOOOOOO Muffin Heads.............WTF???? I just can't see what's going on when I am running, when Spur is running, when I am tossing the ball, it's all just a bit of a blur. Thus the hit-it boards. I need that sound to tell me when he hits it. Plain and simple, I just can't see it. Some say they can hear their dogs in a rotary gallop vs a transverse gallope. OK, your dogs must have heavier foot falls than mine. ME, I have too heavy a foot fall, so I can't hear wee Spur's foot fall. OMFREAKINGOD!!!! The mind starts to spin.