Merry Malinois Madness and a Lu!

JR thinks he has Justice JR gets a mouthful from Justice

JR thinks he has Justice

Justice takes out JR

Lulu
LuluLovely Lulu
JR, PT and Justice - group hug?
JR, PT and Justice
PT gives JR a mouthful
JR and PT share some snow

PT gives himself a mouthful.....of snow

Hopefully she is not sore any more, but I am!

All this snow has made it hard to get these little dogs exercised. And too cold on the days we make it to the snow mobile trails. But, Spur has had a few times out snow shoeing. Roscoe, nada. Just way too cold for him. Both Pin Heads made it to the back pasture gate one last week, but that was IT! Not enough time after work to get to the beach or the tide was too high. But, Rich plowed a big path to our wood pile, since we need to restock the basement and it makes for a nice ball tossing/chasing spot. Not icy, soft snow, contained to that area. I bring out Spur's Chuck-it ball and Colby's special. Roscoe just goes after a few tossed treats, but at least it's something. I toss Spur's chuck-it then toss Colby her special. Somehow I got mixed up one time and BAM! - Poor Colby got NAILED in the head with the Chuck-it ball! OUCH!!

OH, I felt SO bad!!! She comes to me for attention, looks fine, I think I just beaned her on the head and she is wanting her ball again. I mean, her special, it is SOMETHING to her. The only ball that she will chase and she LOVES that thing. Off she goes, shaking off the head beaning. Or so I think.

I bring the Pin Heads in and take Spur for a 1/2 hour snow shoe. Come back and there she is shaking on the chair, eye swollen and half closed!!!! OH, NO, what have I done??? The poor thing!!! I call the vet who thank GOODNESS can see me right away on a Friday afternoon. Phew! She looks closely into her eye, stains it for scratches, nothing, says it looks like there isn't any concerning trauma, but to watch it carefully and we give her some Meticam for the pain. Poor little thing is not happy, it HURTS.

The next morning she looks TEN times better and off we go to the dog show. Immediately I notice she has diarrhea. I am thinking from the Meticam? Bummer dude! Nothing worse than being at a dog show with a dog with the runs. It soaks into the snow, so it's miserable to clean up with a baggie. It continues all day as I worry about her in her crate and take her out like FIVE HUNDRED times. ACK!! This morning? She seems fine. She is resilient, but goodness me that was a tough day yesterday.

Now - trial report!!! OMG, The Spur-minator was ON FIRE!!! He started off a little slow first class, gamblers, but O-MY-GOD he NAILED IT!!! He sped up soon after his slow start, did great and we managed to be in the right place as the buzzer went off and off he went like a champ doing the gamble with ease!! Which completed his P-MAD!! Wahooooooooo!!! I can't believe The Spur-minator is a P-MAD dog!!!! Unfortunately, the only run we got on tape was his standard, but that was a GOOD one! Perhaps his greatest start off the line, ever. I am trying our new start line of holding him and then a slight push back and GO!!! It's kind of hard to see in the video, but watch how fast we start. I had to run with everything I had!!!! :D Then, dumb ass I am gets in his way with my blind cross after the tunnel!! I really wish I had gotten more video. It is SO helpful. But, also watch his teeter. O-MY-FREAKIN'-GOD, he ROCKED IT!!! Zoomed to the end, let it drop and charged off!!! It's always nice to have a tunnel or chute after the teeter. It causes the recoil to be forgotten and probably not heard, so that is always nice. Also, what his dog walk?? Not the fastest, but he does accelerate on the down and runs BEAUTIFULLY through the contact as I peel off!! Nicely DONE Spur Man!!!


We got snookered in snooker, but then he got another Pairs leg and WON his jumpers!!! Spur! Yes, I just said Spur WON his jumpers! This is a dog who is a little bit afraid of jumps. And it was NOT a great course for him. Lots of front crosses had to be done and I am not great with those. I think I did OK, so maybe it wasn't that bad a course. He was PUMPED!!!! What a good little Monkey Pants!!!

Roscoe? What can I say, poor Roscoe was definitely "second fiddle". He ran second all day and that just stinks for him. Spur can handle that much better, in fact it may help him to come out and run "cold", but there isn't anything I can do about the running order. Roscoe suffered a little bit, but I tried like heck to tell him how important he is for being there and trying. And he did try. He had a couple moments where he looked really good! Of course, one was during pairs and it caused an off course for us. And he looked great in Jumpers, but damn IT I forgot the course. How the fuck does that happen, I JUST ran it with Spur????? I felt like an idiot/novice/loser.

It was a long day. I am very sore. 10 runs on rubber makes me sore and with Spur I had to RUN like the wind at times!!!! I am NOT complaining, it is a lovely problem to have!!! :D He was ROCKIN' it yesterday!!!!

Wow, he got metal!

I had to go look up what it means. It means he has 15 standard legs. Not sure what the letters would be to tag on behind his name. Sometimes I get emails from people who list their dog's titles. It goes on for like two paragraphs? They have titles in rally, obedience, agility, tracking, field trials, weight pull, dock diving, lure coursing and on and on.

Roscoe, I am not even sure how I would "letter" him.

P-ADCH Roscoe CD (amazing, he didn't bite the judge for stand-for-exam!!), MX MXJ, RX, FN, CGC (THAT'S funny!!), LAA - Bronze

I think that's it. ??? And I am not sure this "metal" would be listed as LAA - Bronze. Not sure how one would list a bronze performance dog?

I am pretty proud of him, regardless of how few letters follow his name. He is the most accomplished/titled MinPin in USDAA agility at the moment, I am pretty sure. There are a couple with some nice accomplishments, but as many as Roscoe. And he has been a top ten agility AKC MinPin for the past three years. That's pretty cool, too! For a dog who isn't exactly athletic!! LOL!! But, he has heart. He tries. He works for me.

What am I most proud of? That CD. That was SO hard for us. Competition obedience is HARD. Especially for a dog who bites. That he managed to deal with the stand-for-exam and the sits and downs with a group of strange dogs is pretty amazing.

I am pretty proud of this Bronze title, too. It was a surprise. I don't keep track of his Q's very well. Although, I did just check how many double Q's he has in AKC and he has 14, so we need 6 more for his MACH. We are behind on that because I jumped him at 8 inches in preferred for years trying to get him comfortable in the ring. Agility was a tough venue for him being dog-dog aggressive. But, it was also the best thing I ever did. He is now hardly a concern with other dogs. It's just awesome!! Of course, his happy pills have something to do with it, but not all!!!

Roscoe - good little Bronze dog! YAY for Roscoe!!!

It's just plain COLD!

Hee, hee, figured out capturing a still from video again. I am becoming SO savvy!!! Love these shots. He is driving ahead, not looking at me good, solid hits. I can use these as visualization exercises, right?

Damn, he has crazy hair! The dry, electric air has his fur doing crazy things. I love his crazy, tossled look!!
Not sure why I like this photo. The dried corn stalks act like a snow fence along our path. I hope it warms up enough for us to go visit them again soon.
Although, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be yesterday. I armed my mittens with warmer packets, put toe warmers in my boots, wore my heavier lined winter pants, 3/4 length down coat with faux fur hood, I was fine! I managed to pick up poop without taking off my mittens. Not an easy task, but I got er done!! How silly is that to be proud of my ability to pick up shit with mittens on. It's a skill few people have, so I SHOULD be proud! And I trained myself to do it, so I take full responsibility on my awesome skill!

While it is warmer this morning.........4 degrees instead of -11, it may feel colder. There is no sun right now. In fact, it is snowing. OI!!!!

I know I complain about the heat in the summer because there is really no getting away from it. In the winter, when it's brutally cold, I can still get warm. Which would I prefer? Um, not really sure. I can actually DO things when it's brutally cold. I can light the woodstove and train the dogs inside, I can paint my mom a painting I promised her for Christmas, I can DO things around my woodstove! In hot weather, I totally melt. I melt into a complaining, sweaty, complaining, irritated, complaining hot grumpy, complaining bitch. I can't function in the heat. So, really? What would I prefer. Um, maybe not THIS cold, and maybe not with THIS much snow, that all adds up to dogs who drive me nuts because they can't get out to exercise, but the heat is bad, too.

So, if we had lovely fall weather all the time, what would that be like? Bliss? Maybe!! But, then we would have nothing to complain about.

Spur's weekend running session

We can really only train on weekends now, with my dog walk buried deep in snow. Darn! Silvia wants me to try to get more speed from him and suggested lowering the dog walk so I can toss the ball as far in advance as possible. I was (before the snow) doing work on the flat and getting REALLY good speed in the yard, but on the full dog walk we have been working full height. And he has yet to be REALLY fast. Speed even at home on his home dog walk hasn't been what it can be and Silvia feels he will improve if he has more speed. It's a confidence thing, for sure and figuring out his strides. On his own, without props or help from me. It's an education.

OK, last weekend I lowered it to see what we have. We had about 50% jumps. YIKES! Strange, but whatever. It's a process, I know and I am committed. He improved as the session when on. He wasn't super fast, though. Really no faster? Maybe a wee bit.

Did another session on Wednesday, when class was cancelled we went over and trained, but my videographer was shaky and missed quite a bit. Faster, for sure, but still not super fast.

Yesterday! FAST! His fastest, yet, on a "strange" dog walk! We did have Douce tied up in the room making noises and I could tell that pumped him up. Social pressure? You betcha! Douce was complaining that he could do it faster! I bet he could!!! LOL!! Douce is a super fast shih tzu!

This video is last weekend's work. You can see as I remembered to really toss the ball very early he improved. Go figure? I have had lots of people gasping over such an early toss, hearing things like....."I would NEVER toss in advance!!"....or..."You will ruin your work tossing in advance!"......."How can you reward your dog if you toss in advance all the time?" and on and on. Gasping at the thought. Well, Silvia told me to!!! LOL!! She said with a dog like Spur to reward all efforts with the ball (thus the advanced toss), but jackpot the good hits and mark the jumps if possible. She wants me to be really careful marking him, though, because he could worry so I am not at all harsh. I might make a sound like "Ooooh" or "Wooooo" in a high voice and we start again. Good hits get a MAJOR party with chicken, chicken, chicken jackpot and telling him he is brilliant all the way back to the start!



Yesterday's work - MUCH faster!! 15 runs with three total leaps. A few hits really high, so those got some chicken, but the GOOD hits got a JACKPOT!!! Probably his fastest work, yet!! Good BOY!! You can see he is still working it out. He needs to figure out his striding and it is going to take some time since we have made a bit of a mess of it before, not knowing what we were doing. Silvia has offered to keep helping me, so we are going to get this right!!!!

He looks so Angelic!

When he's sleeping.

Yesterday was cold, but Colby, Spur and I managed to head out for a snow shoe. I put her booties on. She did great, she handles the booties really well and runs and manages dealing with them great!! Roscoe? He stayed home by the woodstove and snoozed in his sun spots. It's just not worth it. Autistic boy he is HATES his feet touched, so putting booties on him is just not worth it. He is going to be out of shape soon, sigh.......
Poor Colby. She refuses to stay on the snow mobile path, cuz.......well.......there are rodents under that snow and jobs to be done, ya know! I haven't figured out how to prevent snow from gathering at the top of the booties. It then melts from the warmth of her legs and forms little ice balls. Poor thing, they hurt!!! I scoop them out as best I can, but then she heads off into the deep snow again. Sigh...........

At least, she was able to get some good exercise and her feet didn't totally freeze up. Today? It may be too cold, period.

I do NOT want to go out in the snow!

Heehee -




Roscoe didn't have to say anything, his posture was perfectly clear -Spur, HE wants to go!! Ready, as always!!Tell me he isn't pap/aussie mix?