Adopt Me!

Opposite Day

Yesterday was cold, cloudy, windy and misty. I even started a fire to keep the house warm. Today is sunny, hot, and humid with little to no wind. If you have never been to Missouri-that's pretty normal.

It was too nasty to go out and train yesterday, we needed a day off anyway. So instead all four dogs and Icy got bathed and groomed. Which they were not impressed by.

I don't think they were impressed by going out on this muggy afternoon to work either but we did. Lyric is doing great-she's doing the chute by herself but I need to work her on different chutes with darker, heavier cloth to make sure she is really ok with it. She's gradually doing the weave poles with less and less help and the less help she needs the faster she is doing them. Sometimes she runs between the tire and the frame if it's not a straight shot so that is something we are working on. She also needs work on rear crosses and sending out to obstacles but that will come with time. And it's probably not a skill we need master right away since she's an 8 inch dog running a novice course and I'm pretty fast too!

I started working with Legend on the dogwalk today. I put a treat on a target at the end and then sent her over from the other end. Sure enough, just like the weave poles she didn't have the confidence/understanding to go all the way to the end without me, even though she knew there was a treat/target there. She slowly caught on to going to the end but did want to cut it a little short and and step off the side. I insisted she go all the way down and get the treat though. I also need to be standing on alternating sides as she finishes so she's not always looking one way for me to throw the ball or call her back to me. I did find that I can send her away from me to a single bar jump from about 30 feet out, so that was good. I also set up a straight line of jumps and ran her through while I was increasingly greater lateral distance. I plan to move each jump a little more laterally so she has to keep moving out away from me while I run a straight line-that seems to show up in Chances classes a lot.

I think I'm going to focus on Tracking with Zodiac for awhile. He seems kind of burnt out on the utility stuff. If he seems more interested after a break then we will work on it again, if not, we'll see.

NAKC

We competed this weekend at the first North Arkansas Kennel Club trial. It was so nice to have another trial close by. Got to sleep in my own bed and everything. Legend had a really good weekend, although not without some of her "issues."

Saturday she had a really nice standard run but stopped to sniff-for a really long time in the tunnel, and came out the wrong end. Several dogs stopped in that same place, so although I know it's not an excuse, I do think something was in the tunnel. It's just not like her to do that. She qualified in JWW but started out really slow and finished fast.

Today she got another double Q! Her standard run was as fast as she's ever been at at a trial and was really nice. Her JWW run was obviously also a Q but again was a slow start and fast finish.

All of her weave poles were great though! I think I am going to use the same concept-independent performance and working ahead of me on other obstacles. Her weaves are so much improved and faster too so I figure it can't hurt anything to try something new with her. Plus we need the distance work for NADAC anyway.

Oh, and Trip commanded A LOT of attention from trial attendees today. Hopefully word is spreading that the perfect agility puppy is available for adoption!

Busy

I've been running around all day and I still have stuff on my list that won't get done! It doesn't seem like I should possibly be this busy since I'm not working this week, but I am.

This morning I ran several errands-picked up raffle items, grocery shopping, pet grocery shopping, etc. When I got home I had some things to do online and then I gave Zodiac a bath for pet therapy tonight. Then I worked Legend before a friend came with her dog. I'm running that dog at the trial this weekend because her owner is injured. When they left I worked Lyric. Then I washed the truck and cleaned the inside. Then it was time to get myself cleaned up. Then I brushed out Zodiac and trimmed his nails, did all the evening feeding and now it's about time to leave for pet therapy. Then off to Jerry's softball game. I guess my tracking, gardening, horse brushing and riding will have to wait for another day!

Show-me canines trial

After unexpectedly working on Friday, Legend and I headed up to Columbia for an agility trial. We stayed with some old vet school friends and had a nice time catching up and visiting on Friday night.

We had a really nice jumpers run yesterday but with one bar down. That's really rare for her so I couldn't be too upset. I was really proud of her weave poles though. It was a pretty tough entrance and something I would have totally been baby-sitting in the past. But I just hung back and let her do it and she nailed them! All that work is paying off. In standard we fell victim to the off course traps.

But today... She got a double Q and finished her MXJ! A double bonus!

I really felt she was pretty relaxed this weekend. Her starts were faster and she had a solid pace through the whole course, instead of starting slow and finishing fast. Off to Arkansas next weekend!

Back on Track

I did some tracking with Zodiac today so yes, pun intended. I just laid a few short tracks in the yard to see how he did. I even put a turn in one, which probably wasn't needed on the first day back after months off, but I thought we'd give it a try. He did great. Hardly got off the track at all and handled the turn quite well.

Lyric did weave poles with almost no help today! I'm so excited to start running her at trials. For local people who want to spectate, our upcoming NADAC trial will be the Lake Country Soccer Arena on Pythian (off Chestnut) June 19-20. For non-locals who compete in NADAC this will be indoors on soccer turf and air-conditioned. I can get you a premium!

I caught Moses napping today and decided to try and get some pictures. He actually let me come all the way up to him without getting up or running off. Which is a little odd. He's usually all about eating the fresh grass when he's turned out. Hopefully he's feeling ok. He's been napping quite a bit today.

So sleepy!

And here is Lyric, just because she is cute.

Nothing much

Not much going on here. The day started out cool and rainy. It's still a hair cool, but it's sunny and not too breezy so I finally drug myself outside to set up the agility equipment. It was in a pile still from mowing the yard. I was glad I did, Lyric and Legend were both super today. Zodiac had an average obedience practice. Sometimes I think we should just focus on tracking, but we've already gotten this far...

I managed to take a few photos today too. I didn't do anything special to them. Too lazy.

Summer in 3D

Saw it. Loved it. Recommend it.

Lyric's new friend

Training Updates

Zodiac's utility has been up and down. The other day we had an absolutely disastrous article practice. I don't know what was wrong. Today we worked on signals and directed jumping outside. It was so-so. Then we did articles inside. Much better than the other day. It's been about 9 months since last summer when we did a "practice" trial. I wish I could say there has been a lot of improvement in consistency and understanding but I don't think it's as much as I'd hoped for. And we haven't done tracking since fall. I need to get on that again. So many dogs, so little time.

Legend is doing fine. She's back up to getting her weave poles most of the time. I forgot to mention she nailed all of them at the trial. She's also doing well with open obedience exercises. If she could get over all her trial stress everything would be great!

Lyric is doing different sequences-pinwheels, serpentines, 180s, etc. We are also working on rear crosses and sending to obstacles. She's a trooper!

Trip is doing soooo much better on house breaking. I can actually get away with not watching him like a hawk and taking him out every 15 minutes. Which is great because since he's out of his crate a lot, he is tired more! Just a little while ago, he laid down on the living room floor to take a nap! We are however having a problem with him in the morning. He wakes up and wants to potty around 5:30, which is fine, but he won't go back to sleep. He wants to bark for an hour and then he finally goes back to sleep until the rest of us are ready to get up. Some mornings I put him outside. He still barks some but we can't hear it as much and eventually he goes off to play or just hangs out on the deck. He likes to sit in the lawn chairs as you can see in the picture! Next week he gets neutered-all ready to adopt! Any takers? He's a great dog, but he needs his own home where someone has lots of time for him. All his cute puppy days are getting wasted on us!