While I was gone

Jerry took these pics while Legend and I were gone this weekend. Looks like an ambitious bunch huh?

And this is Zodiac squished into Lyric's bed. Sad.

Some new pictures

I took all of these today after our training sessions. Zodiac did pretty good at directed jumps today and did some great gloves. His signals were ok except he was wanting to creep forward instead of sit, but eventually got it right. I only worked metal articles today since he seems to be struggling with them. We did it several times until I know he was purposefully working the pile and selecting the right one.

Legend worked in agility but it was more of a CU training session. We are trying the "Give me a Break" game. The principle behind this is you do a short high reward training session and then release them to go take a break, play, do whatever they want. You sit and wait for them to return, reward the return and then have another short highly rewarding training session. You just keep repeating this and eventually they learn that whatever they wanted to do in their free time is not as interesting as working for all those treats. Supposedly they dogs turn into freaks for training/working. Then we did the teeter several times with jackpots for doing it each time. She never hesitated on it, which is typical for at home but I figured doing it for big time treats may stick in her mind for the next trial.

Lyric is learning sit, down, and stay. She is VERY food motivated.

GSLAC Day 2

The standard course today was a tough one and I'm really proud that we did all the obstacles in the correct order and got a good time. She did however bail off the teeter again (ugh) and missed the weave entrance. This was one of the rare times I made her go back and correct it as her attitude seemed really up. She nailed it the second time and then missed the down dogwalk contact. Overall I'm not unhappy with her run but concerned about this teeter thing. On to jumpers-she started slow, despite the first obstacle being the tunnel and gradually (I mean very gradually) picked up speed. But she was clean, picked up MXJ leg #4 and a few points. Hopefully we are making progress.

GSLAC Day 1

So first of all I got there way too early. The trial was running slow, there were a zillion walk throughs and big dogs were running last. So after waiting all morning I finally got to my runs in the afternoon. Both courses I thought were fun and doable. In standard we had a nice run except...there was a jump right in the dog's line of vision as they came out of the chute, but this was an off course, they were supposed to curl to the left and take the tire. Legend took the off course (which I suspected may be an issue), then another jump (which stopped the timer) and then put 2 feet on the teeter (which was correct) and changed her mind and jumped off. The rest was great. I was bummed that we didn't get a time because I wanted to know how fast she was running. I'm also wondering what's up with the teeter. She intermittently decides to not do or bail off teeters in trials. She's never had any fear of the teeter or a bad experience, maybe she just doesn't like that they are all a little different. We will have to work the teeter more at home, maybe I can adjust the tension so it falls at different speeds.



Jumpers started out slow for the first few obstacles-which is pretty much her M.O. on any course (still trying to figure out how to fix that or why she does it to make fixing it easier). Thus she didn't have much momemtum going into the weaves (obstacle 4 in a twisty opening) and petered out towards the end and didn't do them all correctly. The rest was nice-clean, turns were a little wide and parts could have been faster, but overall a nice run. Maybe tomorrow we can pull it all together!



No off course tunnels today though!

No good deed

Since Moses has been lame he's been in the dry lot-dieting and resting. Squirt has been in there with him most of the time as he could lose some weight too but doesn't so much need the rest. So I decided to let him out tonight for a bit since I'm going out of town for the weekend and won't be able to turn him out until I get back.

So I opened the gate and he ran out followed by Moses who mustered up enough stubbornness to run through his pain before I shut the gate. I decided to let him be for an hour and just give him less hay for dinner.

Of course they refused to come in when I went to get them. I went out with a lead rope and just looped it over Squirt's neck-he's easy and I figured Moses would follow him in. He didn't. So I locked Squirt up and went back out for Moses. He refused to be caught. So I decided to open the gate and try and herd/chase him in-this usually works pretty good. Tonight, it did not. Squirt got bored and ran back out into the pasture and neither one could be run in. It's a cool night here but by then we were are all sweating and it's getting dark. I went back to the barn to get a halter, caught Squirt again led him in and tied him up. Went back out after Moses-he must have been sore and tired because he let me walk up to him and lead him slowly to the barn. Now why couldn't he have done that the first time. Dumb horse.

Now known as...

"Lyric"

I finally decided on Lyric, which was something I thought of weeks ago when we wanted to change her name to start with. But I never committed to it. However, after lots of suggestions (thanks everyone) and hours of thinking on my own, Lyric just seemed to fit her. Plus it met all my criteria of being unusual (hopefully!), cute, and a little girlie.

Lyric brought some toys with her when she came to stay with us. Today Zodiac and Legend destroyed one of them. Prior to this they had been pretty good about leaving them alone. I guess they figured if she was staying they could tear up her stuff.

Foster Failure Number 2

We tried not to keep her. We told everyone we weren't. I told myself we weren't. We had a lot of reasons not to. It was too soon, I don't have time, I should wait until Zodiac retires, it's so nice to just have two trained, healthy, dogs to take care of, etc., etc. Well, it didn't work. She was too cute and blended into our house too well, plus she makes me smile a lot. Eventually I wanted to have a Pom anyway and it seemed silly to rehome this one that I like so well and fits into our family just to go looking for another one a few years down the road. I'm sure we'll make it work out for the best and now I get to try my hand at small dog agility handling! A name change for her will be coming soon. We have not made our final choice yet.

And for anyone who doesn't know-here is foster failure number one. Six years, multiple titles, dozens of therapy visits, and lots of snuggles later I don't have any regrets.

Training

OK, so I did get up and work the dogs yesterday. First I worked Legend in Obedience-we will be trying for that last CD leg here in about a month. I did make her do longer stays than usual since my intention is to work on Open when we finish with our CD. I forgot how boring practicing a 5 minute down stay really is. Anyway, she did pretty good. She had a decent agility practice as well but was starting to get hot-it was really humid yesterday.

Zodiac worked on signals-good and directed jumping. His go-outs were nice and straight-no target needed and his jumping was much improved. Not totally normal but acceptable. I think the Rimadyl must be helping. He was even doing some pretty hard tugging with Legend the other day. Then we cooled off for a bit and did a couple pretty long tracks. Overall it turned into a pretty productive day.

I also took the new header picture yesterday. I like it, but it doesn't seem as crisp as when I was looking at it in the photo editing program. Maybe it's my imagination but either way I'm just not totally pleased with it. I like the way the dogs look, just not the quality of the photo. Maybe it's the lighting. I'll leave it until I get a better one I guess. It's more reflective of the time of year anyway.

One of my Clematis is blooming. The other one died. Guess I will have to get another one next year. Why is it so hard to grow plants?

My week

I guess many of you might be wondering about Moses-he's doing better, still pretty lame but at least willing to wander around the corral some and always comes up to eat. I turned Squirt out today to run and stretch his legs. He's been cooped up with Moses all week-he needs to diet too.

Wednesday we went to agility class and Thursday got in some much needed grocery shopping. Friday my sister arrived with 4 small cousins in tow for a weekend at Branson. We had dinner with them at Lambert's-home of the throwed roll. It seemed to be a big hit and not that many rolls hit the floor. Yesterday I worked in the morning but then we joined them at Silver Dollar City for the rest of the afternoon. Naturally it rained but overall it seemed to go pretty well. Then we all ordered Pizza at their hotel. Today after they did some more stuff in Branson they came out to the house and saw all the animals and they each took turns riding Squirt.

It's kind of wet and cloudy here, and really humid so I'm trying to decide if I want to risk getting out and working the dogs (I mean, it might rain on us) or just bum around the house. I guess we could do some stuff in the house...or just veg....

I forgot

I keep getting reminded that when I posted "The Name Game" I didn't mention one of Legend's nicknames. I forgot about Snaky! She gets this nickname because of her remarkable ability to worm and wiggle her way onto our lap, the couch, chair, or wherever we are sitting or in between us in the bed. And she is amazingly strong when in snaky mode-she cannot be stopped!

I've been remarkably busy this week and the dogs are feeling neglected. Plus the only work they have done is when Legend went to class on Wednesday. Time to get back on track but first it's off to Silver Dollar City with family this afternoon after work!