Oh *@#(%

We did not have a very good class tonight.  Dhali ran off twice in class.  Once he jumped the ring gate and the next time he jumped through the gate.  You know those white plastic folding ring gates?  Yeah, he can jump through one of the holes.  Skillz.

So he had a bad night for whatever reason.  Maybe I was acting weird, he didn't like the slip lead, he was thirsty, he's a 7 month old male with bity balls, he didn't feel like doing agility.  Whatever the reason, it should be fine, one bad night, but....that little voice in my head starts saying, "Oh, *%#@#.  Wow, now you've screwed up 2 dogs.  Great job with that."

He wasn't doing zoomies or acting stressed.  No yawning, panting, ect.  He would play with me - hand wrestling stuff.  But he REALLY wanted to go out of the ring and see the other dogs.  No he did not want to do the tunnel.  No he did not want to do the chute.  Yes, ok he would do the teeter a few times and then run off to do it again just for fun.  No he really did not want to run around and go through tunnels.  No thank you.  He ate treats and did tricks, but if we went close to the gate he was checked out.

I had a nice long drive home to think about it.  Stupid little voice - SHUT UP!  

So I was very sad, like why am I screwing this up yet again?  Am I just wasting my time?

Then we stopped at Runnings and Dhali was happy, confident, cocky little bad a**.  He rubbed himself, like a cat, over everything he thought was awesome.  Leather gloves and treats and a random toy on the ground. You know how cats rub up against stuff?  That's what Dhali does.  It's very cute.  We saw a guy on a motorized scooter and Dhali was like - "Wow!  Amazing!  I need to see that up close!"  

He's not scared of anything, so at least I got that right.

It was just one bad night.

Rainy Day

This is a picture of Dhali after he fell off the back of the couch and landed on the window sill.  He was comfy there and took a little rest (eyes open, of course).  

It is raining very hard,  so my plans of a nice long hike today have been canceled.  I like to hike in the rain, but it is cold and raining really hard.  I don't like getting soaked with TWO muddy dogs.  

I know we have been in a drought, but it was nice while it lasted - now there are muddy footprints and washing muddy feet all day long!  And Dhali's little holes, that he's dug all over the yard, are filling with mud which is even more fun to play in......oh, little puppy!

I actually think the 2 fluffy tails have been trying to either kill me or control me with sleep deprivation.  Monday night I got very little sleep - Dhali barking in his crate, Tibby standing by the bed gently woofing in my face or jumping on and off the bed.  I let them outside, thinking they might have an emergency - nope, they just wanted to play and sniff around.  Ok, back to bed.  I put them both out of the bed room.  Then I had Tibby barking AND Dhali barking.  Tibby barks REALLY, REALLY LOUD.  O-kay.....no sleep for me.

Tuesday night - same thing.  I tried to get them very, very tired, but after the lights went out they became little nocturnal yipping jumping beans again.  Ugh. 

 You know how you wake up in the night and see that you only have x amount of time left to sleep, before you have to get up?  So frustrating! 

Even more frustrating - the next morning when I'm soooo tired, after they kept me up all night, the two night owls are crabby and sleepy.  They don't want to get up - "We're sleeeeepyyy!"  Yeah, well so AM I!!  But I don't get to sleep all day like you two lazy bums.

So last night they got me up maybe twice.  I honestly don't remember.  This morning I let Dhali out at 5:30ish and he just wanted to sleep on the outside bed.  I left the door open a little bit, so I could hear him when he wanted back inside and I went to sleep on the couch.  And I really fell asleep!  Poor little guy was 'pounding' on the door to get back in.  He does look like he has little fists drumming on the door and he whines so pitifully.  He whines better than any dog I have ever met.  It's sounds so sad!  I don't think I've ever heard Tibby whine....hmm, interesting.  Another thing that is different about them.

So we slept in this morning and Dhali snuggled and cuddled with me.  Tibby left and went to sleep on the couch.  Now they are both asleep on the couch - all curled up and cute.

Videos and Time

I
I realized I hadn't posted these 2 videos from our last last class, which was over a week ago.  Life has been getting in the way.  The weather is amazing - Tibby and I are back to our multiple walks a day.  Morning, after work and evening - more on week-ends.  There is endless yard work and garden projects I should be working on.   Family stuff has also been taking a lot of time.  Plus I'm starting to work full time hours.  Hopefully that doesn't last too long - I like my days off!  So after a long day on my feet, when I get home and after our walk, a few tricks are about all the training I have energy for.  Sorry Tibby :(

Someday we might get to do agility again.  Hopefully soon.  And a break is good every once in a while.

Sends, Ahead and Fastest

I'm pretty sure this is the first time Tibby has ever run ahead of me on a course. Obviously I wasn't prepared for that! She also had a really nice lateral send on the last tunnel. I didn't have to run her right up to the tunnel. This was the first run of the night.



This was our fastest run of the night (maybe ever) and it was fun :) I started running the wrong direction at the beginning, so Tibby got to go through that first tunnel twice and it made her supafast!

She Tugged!

Tibby tugged at class tonight!!!  It was even near the end of class, when she was tired.  This is the first time ever that she has tugged around other dogs in a stressful environment. 
For most people her tugging wouldn't have even really counted as actual tugging, but I saw some excitement in her for grabbing the tug.  She pulled for like .5 seconds!!!  And she did it more than once!  I was just planning on pairing look at the toy with a treat, but when I brought the toy out she grabbed it! She even chased it a little when I pulled it around on the floor.

With all the worrying I have been doing lately about her being possibly 'scared', this made me VERY happy.

This is what I get all night long.

Staring.

Hey, I can't complain, I trained it.

Video will have to wait, because Mr. Flip decided that charging batteries is for losers.  And the big camera is complicated.  It took me almost 2 hours to figure out how to get the video off of the camera on to my computer.

And anyway the video isn't all that exciting - except for the tugging we had a pretty un-fun night.  What is with people and start line stays?

I finally said I was just going to run with her.  Yes, Tibby can do a start line stay, but it's boring and how am I supposed to get any exercise?!?

I tried to put Tibby into as many tunnels as possible, even when they weren't in the 'course'.  I don't want her to be afraid!  Only on time she went 1/2 way in and then came out.  I laughed at her and goosed her back into the tunnel.  Otherwise, she did fine with the tunnels. 

There were run offs, but she came back. 

She did the teeter twice and then I said we weren't doing it any more.  I think she did OK.  It's not the way I want her to do her teeter, so we are working on it.  I might lower my teeter all the way to the ground again and start over.  I just don't see Tibby ever doing a fast sliding teeter.  She's cautious.  Will she always be like that?  I don't know.  Should I train what I have or push for what I want? 

The tugging made me happy.

Some people are happy when they win Nationals - I'm happy with a 1/2 second tug  LOL!!  Funny isn't it :) 

Take a Trip

Another video from Tuesday's class.  I didn't know how to get Tibby to the dogwalk without running right up to it.  She tried to weave!  So cute!  She got the entrance and one weave, but it was good enough for me!   I was happy that I could get so much distance laterally for the tire and the tunnel.

Perfect Or Not So - Not So Please!

So here are 2 videos - The first one was the first run of the night.  Tibby was super flying high!  I was a bit lost.  But it was still really, really fun.  Even though there is a minor visiting episode.  I love how she is following my body language, even when it is all wrong and mixed up.  She is a very good little pup.   She's smarter than me!! 

I did a FC after the tunnel, because I thought it would be hard to pull Tibby into me.  It's usually easier to push her.  But being that it was opposite night she was very easy to pull!  At the end of the night we ran the course again.  Tibby was a little calmer, but I also started out slow and she stayed with me.

Which run do I like better?  Um, well the first one was more fun ;) 

P.S.  I have to say that I get a huge adrenaline rush from running Tibby.  In normal life I'm an extremely calm person (probably good for my work), so it takes a LOT for me to get an adrenaline rush.  It is really FUN and exciting to run with Tibby!!!