The Franken Leg Day

The last few days have been busy.  We had a craft/bake sale at work on Friday.  I sold quite a lot of stuff, so yay!  I also bought quite a lot of stuff too.  :P

Here is my little spot in the craft sale.  I didn't have a great spot, but oh, well.  We each had 30 inches to display our things.  

Dhali thinks he is a cat now.  He's been able to do this for a few weeks now.  He just jumps.  Straight up and onto the top level.

I stuck him in the middle level, because it was funny and he doesn't care.

Today I took Dhali to an indoor agility trial for some socialization.  He did SO SO GOOD!  I was so happy with him.  It's very relaxing to take him places, because I don't have to be constantly managing the situation.  He sat and did tricks and watched me it the middle of everything going on around him.  He looked at dogs and people without lunging at them.  He saw dogs outside pottying and he didn't lunge at them.  He did not potty the entire time.  

Such a strange little guy.  I never had to worry about Tibby pottying.  She goes a lot and goes any where.  Any way, I'm tired after the 5 hour drive and I didn't actually DO anything.  Can's imagine how tired I would be if I actually ran a dog!

One funny thing he did, "There was a man standing next to us and he had a camera with the strap hanging down next to him.  Dhali tried to reach up and grab the strap!  But I caught him just in time.  He's pretty brave!

Now on to the franken leg.......Sooooo I wanted to pluck Dhali's ear hair last night and he didn't want me to.  He hasn't had a good ear plucking yet and he's getting bigger.  It won't get easier, so I drew a line last night - so ear fuzz was getting plucked.  Dhali ended up with one hair-less ear and I ended up with a little bit less skin.  He got my leg really good and little on my arm and one swipe on my face.  The leg is the worst.

Right after it happened.  Ow!  It hurts so much, but doesn't look too bad.

A couple hours later.  Ow!  Still hurts, looking worse.

Today.  Not looking so great and still hurts, but not too much.

Dog scratch fever?  I hope not.

It was a slightly traumatic experience, but apparently didn't do any lasting harm, because Dhali brought me his tug toy afterward and wanted to play for a long time.

Where's Dhali?

Can you see him?

This was pretty neat. Zoe climbed a tree and she also did a 'downward dog' (LOL!) in the tree, but my camera was too slow to capture it.

Agility Lesson April Spring

Tibby did very good at our lesson with Loretta today.  She was a really good girl.  I have a lot to work on though! 

I really like how Loretta can see what I'm doing and then explain it to me.  Now if I could just remember to do what she says!  I'm pretty sure she must get sick of telling me the same thing over and over again - and think that I don't get it!  I get it, but my body just doesn't want to connect with my brain! 

I really, really, really have to stop getting into Tibby's space.  It's so tempting though!  She hates it.  So I have to stop.  If I could stop doing that then maybe her speed would even out and that would help me quit decelerating and then Tibby wouldn't get de-motivated.

Tibby did a great job though!

 She likes extension and thinks collection is stupid.  I have to agree with her.  Less thinking with extension - which is good for me :)

"We go now?"

My right thumb is so beat up from Tibby biting it.  It hurt all afternoon, but it's fine now.  I give her tiny little bites and let her nibble on my thumb to get the pieces.  Good except I have 2 holes in my thumb now! 

At the end of our lesson Tibby played with a toy!  It was so much fun!  Back a couple months ago (maybe Dec. or Jan. ?)  I offered her the toy and she was not interested at all.  Today she was ALL OVER IT!!!  Running around chasing, tugging and then running off when she 'won' it.  She figured out really, really quickly - give toy back, get treat.  Although I still chased her a little when she had the toy, because that's her favorite part. 

I think she wasn't feeling well last week.  I don't like to make excuses for us, because there are always excuses for why something is wrong.  But last week, the day of our lesson, Tibby threw up twice in the early morning.  This is gross, but I think she ate a hair ball that Catty threw up outside.  There were pieces of grass and cat hair, ect.  Yuck.  She was also acting all scared of everything and now she is much, much better.  She has started sitting outside on the grass - by herself!  It's one of her favorite things to do, but she has been too scared for the last couple weeks to do it.  It's nice to see that she is feeling all relaxed again.

"I tired."

It really helped to tie Tibby to the door when we weren't running.  We would do an exercise, run back to her leash and then Loretta and I would talk about what we had done.  I think that made a big difference in her motivation.  At first she didn't get it, but by the end of the hour - when I let her off she was running with me.  It really helps to have Loretta talking me through everything.  It's hard to see, objectively, what is going on.  I like lessons!

I also liked running Tibby to her leash at the end, because I have been teaching Tibby to target her leash.  I figure there is a pretty good chance that, if we ever trial, and I don't teach her to target her leash, she will run out of the ring when we finish running.  So this will be a good training step.  I'm going to do it at home too, when we are training.  I just have to make sure that I remember to reward her when we get to the leash, so she doesn't think she is being punished or that she did something wrong.

She is such a good dog.

Green

And PINK!

Restrained Recalls With A Tree

I took Tibby to the dog park again today. We tried some restrained one person recalls using a tree. The first 2 sessions were OK. Then a train went by the park - like 10 feet from us and Tibby was a little scared. I think next time I will take Tibby's harness, so she has something to pull against.