Love The Game

Dhali had some fun this last week - chewing up a hose!  That will teach me to put my things away.  Thank you for the lesson Dhali.

This post is all about Dhali, because tomorrow is all about Tibby.  It's her 6 month check up with the vet. behaviorist.  

Dhali has been doing great with his agility training.  He really loves playing with me.  He is just the dog I dreamed of.  Sure he has his own mind and does some silly things, but they are so cute!  

For example in this video he decides that he knows how to do the agility all by himself!  Very cute.  We are still working on the biting.  Right now my arms look like I get in regular fights with strangers.  When people ask about the cuts, scratches, bruises of all colors and teeth marks I just say it's from too much cage fighting.  LOL!  I'm like the last person in the world that would be cage fighting.  

The lesson with Loretta helped a lot - I have been trying to use the ideas she gave me.  Also adding a bed to our practice helps too.  Dhali LOVES driving and laying down on his bed.  The bed gives me a place to send him to and he always know what he's supposed to do there, so that eliminated a lot of his frustration.  One final thing:  working with food first and toys second.  Toys get him CrAzY and then he bites me.....so work for food and then as a reward we will play!  

So far this is working much better.  We are actually making some progress - Dhali isn't ignoring jumps and trying to mug me for the toy.  Also, I don't get injured as much.  It isn't diminishing his toy play - he still loves to play.  I'm still using toys in his agility training, but I'm also using food now too.  

Dhali is my little shadow outside.  He likes to make sure all the yard work is done with his helping paw.  He just has such an attitude about him!  Such a cute little guy :)

Dhali Is ONE!

Dhali was born today one year ago!  Where did the time go?!?!  That year went by WAY too fast.  

From this to....

This! 

Mr. Personality

I love this picture of Double D.  It's shows his personality.  What does Double D stands for?  Sometimes Darling Dhali, but MOST of the time it stands for Demon Dog!  LOL!  Or" he's so much dog - he's a double D".  *wink* 

I made a video of taking him shopping today (I'll post it later).  He got to pick out some new toys and then we played outside in the rain.  He's a happy boy!

Pre-Week of Foundations Class

I'm a week behind in posting this, but Silvia Trkman's AF class started last Monday.  We are in the class......again!  It's Dhali's first time in agility foundations, but this is like my 7th class with her or maybe more?  I've lost count LOL!

So this was our pre class video.  Silvia said not to worry, because the class hadn't even started yet.  LOL!  I'm not worried.  Dhali is awesome.  If he can't become some kind of agility dog then I have a problem.  He loves to play the game.  He's fast and he learns quickly.

Finally he is learning!  I took a break from clicker training him and let his brain catch up with his growing body.  Now I think his brain has matured enough that he can focus without getting frustrated.

Although he still gets frustrated and then he bites me!  Silvia said he needs more forward focus and obstacle focus.  Yes, but how do I train that when I've done such a good job training handler focus! :P

Dhali is also over 17 inches tall at this point.  Fingers crossed that he settles down a little bit and ends up shorter, but I'm not holding my breath.  Tibby is just under 16 inches and Dhali is about an inch and 1/2 taller than her.  I don't know if it is related to his neuter?  Or if he would have had this growth spurt anyway?  But he shot up right after he was neutered.  Boo.  Oh well, he's still perfect.

P.S.  Hello to all my AF stalkers!!  *waving*  I didn't even know you were out there LOL!

Oh Yes I Did

Now don't freak out, okay?

I remember what happened when Tibby got her hair cut for the first time - oh the hate mail!  Ouch strangers that I will hopefully never meet!

So yeah I cut Dhali's hair. 

At least Tibby got a professional groom and looked half way decent.  Dhali looks cRaZy.  I will not be taking up grooming dogs as a 2nd profession.  

I tried and tried to get him in to be groomed, but no luck.  They both have appts. for the very end of March and that was the earliest appt. they could get.  Hopefully it will have grown a little bit by then and the groomer can even it all out.

Ok and this is only 1/2 done, so yeah I will be getting it evened out some too and doing his feet.

I'm leaving the head and tail long.  Cause I like it that way!

I really like the dogs shaved down - ow! Stop throwing things at me!

Seriously, they are snuggly and soft and they like it when I can scratch their backs/bellies/chins without all the hair in the way.  

I kind of like the boots too, but they will be leaving soon.  He reminds me of a 60's dancer - dancing the boogaloo! 

He looks so skinny and tall now.

Still adorable!  Even with a horrible hair cut - now that's talent.

I Wanna Hold Your Paw

"Shhhh, gotta sneak up on the prey."

"Gotcha!"

"I wanna hold your paw!"    "Nooo ewwww cooties!"

"Gotcha!"

Tibetan Terrier Shirt

Look what I made!

It's a Tibetan Terrier sweatshirt!  

You can see it in my Etsy store - Khyi-Kiyi.

Snowshoeing With Dhali

Dhali went on his first snowshoe hike.  When I first put the snowshoes on he looked at me like, "What do you have on?!?  Well, just make sure people know you dressed yourself!"

I was a little rusty and I fell down once.  You can't walk backwards, oh yeah, now I remember!  It has been a long time since I snowshoe-ed (showshoed? snowshoeed? spellcheck doesn't like any of them).  We didn't have any snow last year, so the last time I went snowshoeing was the winter of 2010/2011 and Tibby was the same age as Dhali is now.  And she wore the same coat!  Here she is Winter Water.  You will notice that she has about 200% more (fur) coat than Dhali does.  She had/has the thickest coat ever.  Dhali is sparse by comparison. 

It was about 7 F degrees (according to my car), not too bad.  The breeze off of the lake was cool, but when we got away from there it was a lot warmer.

    

We went about 2 miles farther than I wanted to.  The map made it look like the trail was a 2.5 mile loop.  Oh, yeah it's a loop.  You walk out to the end of the trail and then turn around and walk back.  It was a very nice trail though.  No one yelled at us and it was nice to be on a trail where we were allowed. 

 Back story:  One time we were snowshoeing and some skiers yelled/swore at us, because we were on the wrong trail.  It scared me for life.  Now I hate skiers!   

We met some skiers today on OUR clearly marked snowshoe trail and I was very polite.  They were complaining that there weren't any groomed tracks for their skis.  Yes, that's because the 8 MILES of skiing trails are over there.  But I didn't say that!  I just said "Hello."

I have a bunch of cute pictures from today's hike.  Dhali is so cute!  He's a good hiker too.  He stays on the trail and pulls me along!  He sniffed off the trail about 10% of the time.  That means I have to either stop and wait for him or try to get him back on to the trail.  So when he was going full steam straight ahead it was nice!  Tibby is about 90% of the time off the trail.  I like Dhali's percentages better - easier on my shoulders.  

We met 2 other people snowshoeing and Dhali was a good boy.  He passed them very politely.  

He started chewing out ice balls out of his feet about 20 mins. from the car.  We were hiking for 1 1/2 hours, so that's not too bad.  At that point I was wishing someone would come and pick us up!  I think he could use some shoes on his front feet.  The back ones didn't seem to get any snow at all stuck in them.  Although it was pretty cold, so the snow wasn't sticking to anything.

Wordless Wednesday Kiss

Dhali Is 7 Months Old!

Dhali is 7 months old!  He's learned so much in the last month.  I didn't think it was possible, but we are having even more fun playing together :)

He is such a fun little guy!

The first 30 sec. of the video are messed up, so just skip them.

Dhali at 7 months - I LOVE this little puppy!!!!! 

He is so much fun to play with and he LOVES to play.  He makes everything easy.  I finally understand what people are talking about when they talk about playing with your dog.  I can't wait to see him at 17 months - agility is going to be so much fun with him.  Fingers crossed I don't screw it up :) 

He learns SO fast.  It's scary.  He is really easy - he has drive and wants SO BAD to do whatever he can to keep the game going.  I'm very lucky to have him - how did I get so lucky?

Dhali has learned to wait in his crate to be released.  He's getting really good at it.  He learned to wrap around a jump and we started doing figure 8's.  He's also started running through an open channel (beginning weave practice),but I didn't get that on this video. 

I added a 2nd jump, because I found at that puppy class we went to Dhali came in to me after every jump.  Now he's getting better at going through the 2nd jump.  It would help to have a bit more space to run in!  But we work with what we have.  

Tonight he taught himself to set up between my legs and it only took 5 treats.  He's smart.  Not patient, but definitely smart.

I love his little bark at the end when I ask him if he's read.  So cute!  He's done that since he was ity bity.

Snowballs

The pups day - in and out into the snow and then they took breaks to melt their snowballs onto the floor.  Thank goodness for heated floors - I'm sure that's what the dogs were thinking LOL!

My floors are now very clean!  And I have lots of wet towels to wash.

Dhali was really busy today.  Cabin fever?  He unrolled the toilet paper not once, but twice!  He's only done this once before when he was a little baby and my Mom was watching him.  I realized today that he doesn't really care if I get after him - uh oh!  He's like, "What?!?  Did you want to unroll it too?  Let's play!"  He also chewed up one of my shoes!  Sad, because I liked those shoes and they were only a couple months old.  Also sad because I didn't think he would chew up my shoes!

Good reminder that he is still a little baby puppy :)

Show Day

Our first real dog show!  What a day.  I'm tired!  It was fun and I met a lot of nice people.  I learned so much.  Dhali was a super good relaxed boy.  He put up with tons of fussing/grooming for hours and thought all the people and dogs were OK.  While we were waiting to go into our ring he laid out totally flat on the floor, put his head down and just chilled in the middle of people and dogs walking every where around him.

He is such a good even tempered little guy.  Later he decided to lay down on his side a take a little nap in the middle of every thing.  If he can relax at a dog show - he can relax anywhere!   It was crazy.  Very over whelming!  I'm glad there was a little Tibetan camp set up and I could meet some other TT people.  It would be very scary to be all on your own at your first show.

I know flooding isn't always a good training idea, but I don't think today hurt Dhali at all.  In fact it made me realize that all the work I have put in to taking him places has been worth it!  Really proud of my little man :)

I told him this morning - I don't care what happens.  I love you no matter what and you are perfect and the best puppy in the world.  Let's just have fun. (and I gave him a bunch of kisses on top of his little head)

And we did have fun.  Maybe not the most amazing showing in the ring LOL!  The judge said Dhail, "was really sweeping the floor."  Dhali was basically sniffing the floor the whole time and I was trying to get his head up and dragging him along in the process.  The judge also said,  "Practice a lot with her (him)."  Oh well!  We did it and it was a good experience.  The judge kept calling Dhali a girl- not sure why??

Now 15 or so pictures and then more writing at the bottom.

Little bit of snuggle time.

He stood and leaned into me for the longest time.  A little zen in the chaos.

Dhali's cousin Sweetcorn.

Dhali's brother Nickle.

Dhali is smiling!  

That's Dhali's daddy in the crate behind us.

Dhali was a little bit tired from the whole experience :)

Good job little Dollar-boy.

This is the dog of the woman who was really nice and helped me at the open show in Oct.  She was set up across the isle from TT camp.

 "What?!?"

Dhali Is 6 Months Old Today!!!

Look at this handsome little guy!  6 months ago today Dhali was born.  Happy 6 months to his 4 brothers and 1 sister!

Every day I feel lucky to have him.  Thank you Cyndi and Linda for letting me take this little guy home.

He is perfect!  Before I brought him home I worried about silly things - potty training, crate training, getting him to play with me.  I shouldn't have worried!  He hasn't had any trouble with anything!  Sure there were a few nights when I thought he would never be crate trained, but now it's not even an issue.  He stays in his crate for up to 8 hours and hasn't had an accident yet.  He is completely potty trained.  Except of course he thinks that he can only go potty in the back yard!  Which is silly, but works OK.  I never worry about him having an accident, because I know he will wait until we get home!  He even waits to potty after we come home from a walk. 

Dhali first 'do!  Now why aren't there any boy style hair ties????  :P

Every day he gets cuter and more handsome.  I'm not sure how he does it, but every day - CUTER!!

He likes to sleep!  He's slept loose in the bedroom for about 2 months now...maybe longer!  He doesn't get into mischief and doesn't wake me up (unlike another TT I could name Tibby).  He will sleep for 10 hours or until I decide to get up.  He likes to snuggle and cuddle.  He's a little sweetie.

He loves to look out the window and keep watch on the neighborhood.

He has a great attitude.  Even and balanced.

Did I mention that he likes to sleep?!?  Well, after a lot of exercise running around playing that's what a smart puppy should do!

He LOVES water!  He plays with water everyday.  

He loves bully sticks!  And he is strong enough to take them away from Tibby.  Although, he's not always brave enough to keep them.  Then he starts barking.  He's a barker!

Most of all he is a funny, happy boy.  I can't wait to spend the next 19.5 years with him!  

Yes, he is going to live to 20.  At least :)