One Year, What A Change

This day last year, I was meeting Dhali for the very first time at a puppy open house.  He was 4 weeks old and adorable :)

I can't believe he was that small!

Fast forward ONE year and Dhali attended his very first seminar.  It was at Loretta's and it was fun :)

We were auditors, so mostly Dhali just hung out in his crate.  But he did a really excellent job of just being.  That is a tough skill!

He didn't make a peep when I left him to walk a course.  He whined a little bit when there were other dogs barking.  He also whined a little bit and barked once (!) at the end of the day.  I know what his problem was though - he needed to go potty!  And he was refusing to go.  Still an issue with the strange location pottying.  

But other than the potty issues he was a rock star.  I don't think he could have handled working in that environment - YET, but I was really itching to try the exercises out :P  

He did a lot of this....

And some of this...

At the very end of the day I brought out his mat and let him play on that.  He did a good job, but his enormously full bladder was distracting him a little bit.  It's frustrating to know that if he just would pee he would feel so much better LOL!!

He was great at looking at and then ignoring the dogs working on course.  He was like "yeah, whatever I have mat, I have cheese and hot dogs - don't care about boring dogs."

I love this picture - wink?

My shoes drying off in front of the fan.  My feet were so wet the entire day.  It rained a lot last night, so we were in the barn for the seminar, but my feet got soaked hauling our stuff from the car to the barn.

I really liked having the seminar in the barn!  It was nice and cool - I was even cold!  The dogs didn't run off too much, because we were in the barn.  The sun didn't blind me and I didn't get a sunburn.  All around I enjoyed this year's seminar much better than last year.  It was so relaxing to have Dhali with me.  Last year was stressful with Tibby.

And I learned a lot too!  I took lots of notes.  I can't wait to play with one jump :)

P.S. I ate a hamburger for the first time in over 15 years.  AND it was grilled by a world agility champion :D LOL!!!!  It was a tasty hamburger.  I couldn't remember what they tasted like, but now I know!

Dhali's First Snow!

The summer baby's first snow fall!  He thought it was fun and Tibby was happy to show him how to play in snow.  Weeeee!

The next three pictures are what happens when you call Dhali's name:

You get a little fur ball looking for his treat!

He has an AMAZING recall.  I want to keep it forever and ever!  I reward it a lot.  

Dhali's First Dog Park

We went to the dog park today.  It was Dhali's first visit.  He liked it a lot.  We had the whole place to ourselves.  Tibby had a nice time too, but Dhali had more fun - racing around and jumping.

He LOVES to jump.  His favorite thing is to run up behind you and jump on your back.  He jumps as high as my shoulders and uses me as a springboard to do a turn and then run away again.  Or sometimes he just jumps, jumps, jumps as you are walking.  He likes to get as close as he possibly can - trying to trip me?!  I'm sure this isn't good for his growing body, but other than keeping him on a leash (and he still does it then) I don't know how to stop him.  And he's having so much fun.  Such a silly puppy.  I do wish he would watch where he is landing though!

He finally got to run full speed in a big area and wow! he is so fast!  Tibby couldn't keep up or catch him.  He's like a little race car!

Dhali's First Show - We Got Ribbons!

We went to a dog show yesterday!  It was fun and we learned a lot.  AKC has a new 4-6 month puppy class and Dhali is 4 months old now.  

It was an Open show, so there were people like me, who had never been to a show before, but there were also a lot of people who looked like they showed their dog all the time and maybe this was just a practice for them.

I'm pretty sure we were the least prepared of the entire show - I didn't even have a show lead for Dhali!  I just used a grooming loop attached to his regular leash.  Totally ugly, but it worked - sort of :P  Everyone else had pretty leads and I had leash envy.  

We met some very nice people.  Everyone was extremely friendly and tried to help each other out.  I'm not sure if this is what a 'normal' show is like or just because it was an open show, but I was surprised at how friendly everyone was.  After watching 'Best In Show' you would think they were all cutthroat and mean LOL!

The show ran very smoothly, even though they kept changing which breeds were going to show in which ring.  There were 3 rings.  Everyone was ready to go, except at the very beginning there was one girl showing 3 dobermans and she kept having to change her arm bands to show the next one.  Pretty much every class had just one dog in it.  Except there was a group of 4 Briards that were all from the same litter, so they were all in the same class.  It took the judge FOREVER to decided how to place them.  She kept sending them around and around the ring.  One was darker, but otherwise they all looked the same to me.

Anyway, I knew nothing about showing.  I thought that Dhali would be competing against other puppies, but nope.  Silly me!  

He got first place and best of breed, but he was the only Tibetan Terrier LOL!  And then for group (non-sporting) he got 2nd out of 3 dogs.  I wish I knew why the judge gave the poodle 3rd.  I should have asked when I was there, but I didn't think about it until I was home again.  

The judge seemed to like Dhali.  She said he was a good, good puppy.  :)

It was fun and I think we did better as we went along.  Dhali was adorable, of course.

I did it for the socialization and exposure to a trial environment.  And also, because I have always wanted to be in a dog show!  I mean I organized a neighborhood dog show when I was 10, so it's always been a dream of mine :P

It was very good for Dhali, because for about an hour he just laid in his crate and watched dogs walking back and forth in front of his crate.  There was one little shih tzu that its owners almost walked to death.  Back and forth and back and forth for an hour BEFORE the judging started.  

He got a little antsy at the 1 1/2 hour point when I had moved his crate 3 times - to get near the correct ring where we would be showing.  And after we had shown he didn't want to sit around any more.  He was pretty bored.  I should have brought something along for him to chew on, but I didn't want him to get bully stick breath or mess up his coat!

It was an interesting experience.  I wish we could find more open shows or b-matches or fun matches.  It's very good training for a puppy.  Easy, because you can have food and they just have to walk around.  Easy for me too!  I've always thought that conformation dogs were very laid back when it comes to hanging out in a crate or working around other dogs.  That's what I want for Dhali!  So he sees it's not a big deal.

Here is our video!  Feel free to laugh - I'm sure I made every mistake possible!

All handsome and brushed out.  He was VERY tired when we got home.  

He is super, super good on the grooming table.  I'm always prepared for him to freak out, like Tibby, but he just doesn't!  I'm always happy to be 'disappointed' by him LOL!

Chute!

 Dhali does the chute for the first time ever!! Yay! First Tibby shows him how it's done. What do you know, Loretta Mueller was right YET AGAIN. Jealousy is a powerful motivator.

 So funny that Tibby was totally into doing this to get her ball. Zero treats were involved in the making of this video. She's like, "Mouth off, little punk! That ball is MINE. No share."

 And Dhali coming out of the chute for the first time. Adorable. Like a little muskrat peeking out of is burrow.  Oh, what?  You guys didn't think muskrat?  LOL!

I think Tibby has made the ball a valuable reinforcer for Dhali.  It's so great when they train each other!  :)   I have been working with Dhali since he came home to fetch and play with a ball.  Seeing Tibby go crazy  (as crazy as Tibby gets - mild wild) over the ball made it SO much MORE EXCITING!!  After the chute playing we went downstairs and he 'fetched' the ball for a while.  Sometimes he even brought it back!  Actually he does pretty good at bringing it back.  I don't want to use treats (the way I taught Tibby to fetch), but rather I want the next throw to be the reward.

The reason we were playing inside?  Well, it was hot outside.  And my neighbor was out in his yard.  He's like that Wilson guy on Home Improvement, but without the talking.  Just the fence, big floppy hat and peeking over the fence.  Yeah......so not playing outside with peeking people.

First Grooming, Food and Photo Bomb!

I haven't been updating very much - bad me!  We are having fun, but there isn't enough time between playing with Dhali and trying to get something done while Dhali barks in his x-pen, because he wants to DO SOMETHING!!  He is very go, go, go.  For example, today I had him outside with me for 2+ hours while I washed the siding and deck.  He 'helped' by chasing the hose, biting the broom, digging holes in mud and running around like a crazy head.  It was HOT, but he just ran and ran.  I also worked on recalls - calling him away from all the fun he was having whereever he was.  A few times I lost him!  So it's good he recalls.  He was exploring underneath the deck, in the bushes, the far side of the house.  He's on leash, but I have my doubts that I could catch him if he didn't want to be caught!

Then I was done, it was still really hot and getting hotter and Dhali had been running and running, soooo time for a nap, right?  Ah, no.  Time for Dhali to scream in the x-pen.  For almost 30 mins.....now he has stopped and it chewing on a bully stick.  But if I move he will start screaming again.  This is why I don't get anything done around the house!   

It is now after 7pm and I started writing this at 1pm......yeah.

The only good photo of Tibby post grooming with a photo bombing Dhali.

So anyway.....Tibby and Dhali went for a grooming on Monday.  It was Dhali's first ever time at the groomer's!  I'm not sure how she did it, but he was groomed.  Magic skills apparently.  Nothing was snipped off that shouldn't have been.  I was a little worried about that when I saw that she had trimmed his wizzel fuzz.  All wizzel was still intact though - whew! 

Rockin' the 'puppy' cut, 'cause he's a puppy!!

5 seconds after this photo he was dirty and full of weed stickers again.  Had to rub off that stinky 'pretty boy' smell.

So it took the pups over 4 hours at the groomer's.  I didn't think it would take that long and I had an appt. out of town, so my Mom picked the pups up for me.  Earlier in the day I had brought home a bag of large breed puppy food and set it in the kitchen.  My Mom didn't know about that and Dhali helped himself.  Hmm, he must be a real dog or something.  Tibby would never, ever have done something like that.  Not lady-like ya know.

Nutrisource Food

The reason I bought the large breed puppy food.  Dhali's food is SO tiny!  I end up dropping more than I put in his mouth.  The lg. breed doesn't look that much bigger, but it isn't flat like the sm/med breed food.  I'm just using the bigger food for recalls.  It's also cut down on the amount of finger biting which is nice.  The only difference between the 2 puppy foods is the amount of protein.  The sm/med has a higher protein % per serving.

Dhali's First Lesson, Hiking! and First Agility Trial!

Wow we  have done so much in a short amount of time!  And I don't have pictures of ANY of it :(  Oh, well. 

Yesterday we went to Loretta's and Dhali had his first lesson!  He did a really, really good job.  He had a few moments when he wanted to do his own thing, but those moments were very few.  I think he thought it was too hot, because when we went in the shade he did better at staying by me, but considering how many new things he was introduced to - I think he did GREAT! :)
This is the list of things Loretta gave us to work on.  It's a lot, but I think Dhali will be able to do it. 
And me.  I'm the one that has trouble!

Minimum 80 recalls---no dining and dashing.

Playing----no playing and dashing. When doing recalls with toys, stop and play for 30 seconds.

Sits, downs and waits on a mat.

Agility trials---MAIN FOCUS IN SOCIALIZATION, get to as many as u can.

Kibble for treats.

Teach a jump on the ground, work up to a pinwheel. Start FC, RC.

Tunnels, chute (end opened) and start get on board, and reward on board.

RUN AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. Work food to toy to food transitions. Of having issues give breaks between transitions.

Playing with dogs 1 to 5 ratio. For every 1 min with dogs, 5 mins with you. INVOLVE IN THE PLAY! Recall out of play on leash. Reward heavily.

If you cannot MAKE HIM come to you, don't call him.

Reward and name potty times. On leash.

Once jump trained, start lateral and forward sends.

PLAY PLAY PLAY ALL THE TIME.

Jealousy is a good thing :-)

Loretta

I can see that I'm going to have a hard time with the 80 recalls a day.  That's a LOT!!  But I will try my best to get close to that number.  I'm also going to have a hard time with the 1 min. play time with Tibby for 5 mins. play time with me.  It makes Tibby happy to play with Dhali, but I know that the results in the future will be worth a little work now.
During Dhali's lesson Tibby waited and barked a lot.  I wanted to do something fun for Tibby, so on the way home we stopped at a state park and went hiking.  Tibby was very happy!  It was a nice hilly hike and we only saw 4 people and 2 of them were (female) park rangers.  So very nice hike for Tibby - no scary things or people.  It really shouldn't be a surprise to me that Tibby is happiest hiking, after all that's what we did every day for the first 3 months she was with me.  It was the only way I could keep her from keeping me up all night long - very long off leash hikes.  She would run and run and come home tired, but still happy to keep me up at night.  Yeah.....I was pretty sleep deprived for a long time.  Crate training, people....do it!

The last 2 nights Dhali has been so tired that he doesn't make a peep in his crate for 8 solid hours of sleep.  sweet, sweet sleep - ahhhh I love it.  Before that I had my construction ear muffs.  Pop those on and I can't hear anything.  Yes weird, but it works.  I tried those orange ear plugs, but they weren't strong enough.  Dhali's voice can pierce through brick walls.  I even tried ear plugs + ear muffs.  Well, any way he's doing better and it's so much easier having a puppy in a crate at night.

So we had fun hiking, then we came home and I gave both pups a bath and then they had after bath zoomies, I played tug with Dhali and then I was tired!  Dhali was still ready to go, go, go.  Lesson, hike, bath, play - more!  He doesn't sleep in the car very much either.  I don't remember if it took Tibby a long time to start relaxing in the car?  He watches me, chews his bully stick and barks.  Today he slept, but he was very tired.

So today!  We went to an agility trial in St. Cloud.  Just Dhali and me.  It was fun.  Dhali was awesome again.  My only complaint is the benches were super uncomfortable.  I need a chair with a back!  Otherwise it was great.  Fun to watch everyone and see some great dogs and handlers.  Dhali tugged on his toys, chilled and watched everything and watched me to get treats.  Mostly he just relaxed and watched everyone.  I DID notice where his comfort level for tugging was.  He was a crazy fiend in the parking lot - jumping and tugging really hard in the parking lot and on the walk to the trial site.  When we went around the side of the building and he could see people/dogs his tugging went down a lot.  He would still play, but he wasn't jumping as much. 

Although at the end of the day he did really fierce tugging right by the ring with dogs all around and people sitting around next to us.  People even stepped over him and he was still tugging and playing.  I think he did great.  We were there for a long time - almost 4 hours?  I think.  And he was focused on me really, really well.

So different from the first trial I took Tibby to.  She barked the ENTIRE time and she lunged at anyone/dog that came within her vision line.  We didn't stay very long, because she was acting so crazy and BARKING like a crazy.

Thank you Loretta for kicking me in the rear and getting me to take Dhali to agility trials.  I will try!!!

One thing that we need to work on - Dhali wouldn't pee!  He held it the entire time we were away from home!  He pooped, but NO PEE.  Silly pup.  So that was what?  We left at 12pm and got home at 7:30pm.  That was a long time to hold it!  Poor little tiny bladder.  He also wants to go really, really far away to poop.  Which is nice, but also a pain.  Gotta work on the potty on leash!

So after the trial we stopped at Petsmart and the best happy making me thing happened.  When we were checking out the Petsmart employee said, "I was watching you while you were picking out a collar and he just sat there and watched you the whole time!  It was so cute!"  Yes, he was a good boy!  We were working on focus and Dhali was a very good boy.  He doesn't try to jump on everyone he sees, but rather sticks with me and walks along or sits and watches me.  It looks like I actually train him or something LOL!!

Whew, so we made it home and Tibby missed me SO much.  She had to sit in my lap for a while until she calmed down and she followed me around to make sure I didn't try to escape again.

Very tired now.

When we got home Dhali was like, "Let's do something!  Play with me!  Toys!  Run around! Fun!"  and I was like no you are tired.  I know you are tired.  Dhali was like, "Put me in coach!  I'm ready!"  But yeah, 5 mins. in the x-pen he was sleeping.  He WAS tired!      

First Foster

So I found something to keep us busy! 

We're getting a foster puppy tomorrow!

Tibby doesn't know what's happening tomorrow, but I'm super excited!

I made this vest for the puppy, Ellie, to wear when we are out and about. 

It was really easy.  I can't sew anything, so I bought a hi-visibility vest (they're on clearance at this time of year) and ironed on some iron-on letters.  I tried to make the iron-on letters more difficult then they had to be, but eventually I figured out how to get the white paper backing off. :P

I also made up these info sheets to give to anyone that is interested in Ellie.  It has her picture and information about the rescue and details about Ellie.  It actually took me longer to figure out iron-on letters than it did to make these info sheets!  Sad.  I am not crafty!

She sounds and looks like a really sweet puppy!  So excited to play with her!

I'm trying to get everything ready before she comes, because I'm sure I will be busy playing with her when she gets here.

Fun!

I'm going to try to have fun with her, take her to new places and find her a new family :)

I'm also looking forward to Tibby having fun playing with someone (about) her size and (about) her play level.  As in play all the time, any time, any where.

Fingers crossed that everything goes well!

First Dog

I was visiting my parent's and I started looking through their albums for a picture of a dog show I had with my friends when I was 9 or 10.  I didn't find those pictures, but I did find a picture of my very first dog.

It's hard to take a picture of a picture (especially of an old picture!), but that is me being knocked over by Zipper and my Dad sweeping the snow.  I guess he didn't think there wasn't enough snow to need the shovel!

This picture pretty much sums up my relationship with Zipper.  The first day I met her - she knocked me over and I cut my hand open.  But I loved dogs and even though she bit me, knocked me over, jumped on me, wrestled me to the ground and bruised me with her tail - I wasn't going to complain!  I finally had a dog!

  I was 5 and she was 50 lbs of muscle. 

The day we brought her home, I proudly walked up and down our street for an hour hoping that someone would ask me about my new puppy.   No one did, but I was sure they were all impressed that I finally had a dog. 

Unfortunately, she ran away....a lot.  My parent's told me that she ran away one day and they couldn't find her.  Maybe that's true, but they also told me that my pet chickens ran away when we were on vacation.  Years later my Mom accidentally told me that they had arranged for someone to come and "process" the chickens while we were away from home.  "But we didn't eat them!, she said.  Oh, that makes it so much better Mom!  LOL!!

First Hotel Stay!

Tibby was very, very nervous when we first got to the hotel.  It lasted for about an hour.  Pacing and panting.

We are on the 8th floor and I think seeing the cars and people out of the patio door started it.

Or maybe hearing doors opening and stuff in the hallway.

Overall it's an extremely quiet hotel.  Which is nice!

I just let her relax.  Or decide when she wanted to relax.

She doesn't look too stressed now LOL!!

They have all the dogs on the same floor.  I saw a grey mini poodle across the hall and there was also a big yellow dog when we were getting off the elevator.  Tibby is still not too sure about the elevator.  It's a very fast elevator and made me dizzy the first time too.

  I started carrying her into and out of the elevator - which helped - now she can go into it and be calm.  We just came in from a potty break and she went into the elevator and sat down in the corner.  Even dogs face the door in an elevator!   

One more thing she had to get used to - wheel suitcases!  Why didn't I think of practicing that!  Everyone has one and Tibby was not too sure of them at first.  Now she's fine.  She just can't understand why there are SO many people every where.  And why they all want to say hi to her - "Oooo, look a cute puppy!"

We're ignoring them until Tibby feels confident enough to say hi back.

Look At Us, Growing Up

We had agility class again tonight.  Tibby rode in her crate all the way there and all the way home again.  First time ever!  She was such a good girl.  Any one know how to make a crate stop rattling?  After 2 1/2 hours of driving over bumpy roads, Tibby and I are both very over the whole rattling crate thing.  In desperation I stuffed poop bags (new & not used) into all the places I thought were shaking.  It helped, but when the roads are rough like a plowed field, you need more than poop bag insulation.  There are 2 doors, so lots of rattling. 

Well, I had a lot planned to say, but now I'm really tired.  Driving, class, driving.  Make me tired. 

Tibby was great, as usual!  The video is of our "worst" run.  I messed up at the tunnel and didn't connect with Tibby when she was coming out of the tunnel.  I was also too far forward, past the plane of the jump.  This is why it is important to video tape.  But we did a rear cross!!!  Did you see it???  Right before the tunnel.  Our FIRST successful rear cross!!!  I have been doing some foundation games for rear crosses with Tibby, so maybe that helped?  It felt really good.  I like rear crossed too.  I threw in a front cross on one of our other runs,  it was nice too.  I really like front crosses. 

The instructor is having everyone run with their dog on the left side, because they have all done a lot of obedience (with her).  I think the crosses I added made the sequences a lot easier to run.  We had a good time!  The instructor says some funny things to her students, but she lets me do what I want and as long as she doesn't try to tell me what to do.....we'll get along fine :)

One thing is super sad.  There is a dog in the class that has something wrong with its legs.  It hobbles around and looks like it is in a LOT of pain.  I'm not sure what's wrong with it.  Maybe hip dysplasia?  Every time its' owner makes it jump, it knocks the bar, because it can't lift its' legs and then the owner makes it try again.  She also gets upset when it won't heel or sit straight.  Seriously this dog can barely walk.  It's mean.  Oh yeah....it also wears a prong collar.  TO DO AGILITY?!?!

One more thing.  In our first class no one brought treats.  This time a couple people did, but they didn't give their dogs very many.  Me?  I'm like Tibby's personal one armed bandit - she tries lots of things and gets a W-I-D-E variety of different treats.  She never knows what she is going to get or how much.  Except of course when she finishes a course - jackpot!  I also stop when we are running a give her treats after a difficult move or if she stays with me and there is a dog in her face.

  Yes, there are dogs that will do what you say just because you say so, but I don't have one and I haven't met one yet.

And some of the other dogs got into my bag and ate Tibby's treats, when we were running!!!  Oh yeah, they don't need treats at all.

This is Tibby riding in her crate to agility class.  Doesn't it look like she is chewing on the bars?  LOL!  She's just chewing a bully stick!

On the way home.  Someone was tired.

"Mom, I'm trying to sleep here.  Why do you keep waking me up with the flashy box?"