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 :)

Whole Lotta Stuff

It rained for a long, long, long time....6 days.  I had to make Dhali put on the raincoat.  It actually fit him!  Which is crazy, because it doesn't fit Tibby anymore.  It just goes to show all his height is in his long legs.  Tibby has a longer back and is built differently.  Dhali's bone structure is more delicate.  I can tell this by feeling their heads - Tibby: square and heavy,  Dhali: thin and light (and tiny too).  He has a tiny head.

Anyway.....these pictures were taken on the day he turned ONE!  Then we went shopping.  I forgot to make him wear the raincoat into the store.

Dhali shopping!  Isn't he cute?!?  He loves to go shopping.  I didn't get a very good video of it, but he is rubbing himself on the racks of bones - just like a cat.  He LOVES to rub up on stinky stuff. 

 I took him to a race on Sat.  We watch (and cheered) for my Mom.  After the race we had to stand around FOREVER waiting for the awards.  Dhali did AMAZING.  He sat and stared at me or laid down on the ground and rested.  He was totally relaxed - even though we were surround by tons of people.  My biggest fear was the someone would step on him, because he was being so good and invisible.

Anyway....a man was squatting down in front of us and I wasn't paying attention.  Dhali apparently thought the guy smelled AMAZING and tried to rub the glorious stink on himself.  LOL!  That was his one silly moment.  I don't think the guy realized that he was basically sitting on a dog until Dhali stuck his cold nose into he man's leg LOL!!  I had to laugh at that :)

Oh and P.S.  I didn't have a treat on me and Dhali was still amazing.  

I'm working up to our SUPER AWESOME lesson with Loretta Mueller....so hang in there! 

On Thursday we had a lesson with Loretta at her place.  It was so long ago since our last time up there - 9 months!   A lot happens in 9 months    This was Dhali's First Lesson.

I had forgotten how looooong the trip is.  It takes forever.  The trip wasn't so bad until about 40 mins from Loretta's place I got behind 4 cars that were stuck behind a truck going (at the fastest) 40 mph!!!!  If you can't drive the speed limit - pull over!  I was trying to stay relaxed and calm, so I wouldn't arrive at the lesson all stressed out, but I think I failed :P  

Dhali really liked Loretta's sheep.  I was trying to get him to potty (ha,ha,ha) and Dhali was more interested in the sheep.  "They run away!  Yay!  Let's chase them!"  Um, no.

Dhali was a little nervous for the first 10 mins. inside the barn.  I think that was pretty normal - totally new place with a new person (Loretta) and he did a little sniffing around.  Once he figured out we were there to play - he was great :)  He likes to play!

My favorite parts were when Loretta was handling him - he did so good with her.  He gets it - I'm the one who needs the work!  It was really beautiful to see him running.  Wish I had a video!  

I got a lot of good information to work on and Loretta said I've done a good job with him (Yay!).  After his little nervous bit at the beginning he worked for the entire hour - really hard too.  We were both out of breath most of the time :P  

It was so worth the long drive!

P.S.  Dhali ate like a pound of meat treats at the lesson and then came home and ate his dinner - he also wasn't tired.  I was though!

Working on some of the sends Loretta taught us.  I need to look at the jump and not cute little Dhali!

And this is Dhali's channel work.  This is his 3rd time on the channel and his first time outside with it.  I think he is doing really well.  He's fast.

More Agility

This is a video for our foundation class with Silvia Trkman.  I think Dhali is doing pretty good - little steps and time.  He's fast that's for sure!

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!

Dhali Driving

LOL!  Dhali 'driving' - driving to and away  from the jumps :)



Silvia thought he was doing much better having better obstacle focus and sending away from me.

I think he has gotten even better this last week.  Tomorrow if it isn't raining again we will video .




Dhali running on the carpet.  He is very good at this, but not so great at running on a flat board.  I'm not sure (still) what I want to do with his contacts.  I want running, but it will take a lot of work, because he is fast and I am slow :)

We have been playing around with 2 jumps and tunnel in between them.  I think it made the lightbulb go on in Dhali's brain - he was sending beautifully to the jump the last time we played.

Tibby is doing very good.  She is very relaxed and loves the warmer weather, but not when it's too hot ;)  Sometimes after I have played with Dhali, I bring her out to see what she wants to do.  She likes heeling for hotdogs outside - which is a major improvement for her.  Before she was too afraid/distracted by everything to do anything and would just run back inside.  I have to be careful not to get too close to the agility equipment when we are heeling or she will offer going through the tunnel or wrapping the jumps - she has a strong foundation!  :)

Summer Is Here!

Who needs Spring?  We've got Summer!

The Last Snow Pictures!

I forgot I had these pictures from last week.

It was 70F today!  So no more snow - yay!

Look at Dhali's rabbit run LOL!!

I gave Dhali a bath tonight and now he is in his crate telling the world how unfair life is.  And I say.....someone needs to remember how to be quiet in his crate!

Tibby didn't get a bath, because she doesn't roll in the grass, dig holes, explore underneath the deck and crawl into every nook and dusty cranny! 

Tibby is laying in my lap, dead asleep and making my legs fall asleep.  She likes to have special snuggle time while Dhali is drying off.  

Here is some soap I made this week:

Just wanted to show it off!  I made it for my Dad.  It's the only soap he has ever requested me to make.  It has 20% pine tar in it.  It's supposed to be good for dry skin/psoriasis.  He tried a bar that his brother sent him and he thought it helped his psoriasis, so he asked me to make some for him.  I hope he likes it! 

Taller Every Day!

These are pictures from last week - now we have grass!  Yay!

Dhali is now over 18 inches tall at the withers.  Eh oh!  Hope he is ok jumping 22"....

Also, check out the muscles on that boy!  He is one giant muscle!  He is a strong little bouncing spring!

Baby Boy

So this is our 2nd or maybe 3rd week of Silvia's online foundation class.  This is the part that I love/hate (mostly hate) about these classes.  I think my boy is amazing and I hate to find out that he isn't perfect.  :(

Silvia says that he doesn't have any obstacle focus.  Sad, because it's true.  But I have been working on it and again that is what I hate about these classes.  Instead of us just having fun, it becomes work.

 


Silvia said he was just running as fast as my hand was going and wasn't seeking out the jumps himself. 



Cik/Cap or wrap




Just playing around with the tunnels.  We were sick of all the snow and bored.




"Weaving"  I don't know if he understands the weaves yet...

So Silvia said I should play the 2 ball game with Dhali.  Now I don't know what the 2 ball game exactly looks like, because I don't have her video (even though I have taken the foundation class 5 times...4 times $120 plus $220 for the first one...yeah I think I should get the video), but I watched a bunch of my classmates videos and I think I kind of figured it out.  2 balls and a tunnel and you get the dog to run chasing the ball and then recall through the tunnel to chase another ball.  This is supposed to teach obstacle focus.  Dhali thinks this game is ok, but "hey wouldn't it be more fun if you ran WITH me?!? Huh?  Wouldn't it?!?"

I'm not playing this game with him any more.  We both are not having any fun with it.  Dhali wants to tug and play with me and this game is just not for him.  I made a promise with Dhali that I wouldn't do things training-wise that I felt were 'wrong' for him.  I made that mistake with Tibby.  Someone can be an expert, but I know my own dog and I need to trust that.

I think time and experience and training and playing more agility.  PLAYING  more WITH me will give him obstacle focus.

He just needs experience.  I can see already this week that he is getting better about seeking out obstacles.  Even on that first video he was trying to find the jump to wrap - even if it was the far jump upright.  He doesn't know the rules! 

I've started him on the LM jump program thing too this week.  He will be a year old at the end of next month, so I think a little controlled jumping at a low height won't hurt him.

He is still a good, naughty boy.

Tibby Is 3!

Tibby turned 3 yesterday!  

She got uninterrupted time with the big chewy bone for 3 minutes.  Just kidding!  She chewed on it for as long as she wanted to and for as long as I could keep Dhali from bugging her.  

And it didn't snow on her big day!  

But it DID snow again today.  A lot.  

She is such a big girl now!  

More Snow?!?

This is getting ridiculous!  It's almost May! 

Really getting tired of snow around here.... 

My Soap Is (Semi) Famous

This has nothing to do with dogs or dog training, but it IS related to how I pay for their training LOL!

Check it out my soap is a finalist!

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!

So Cute It Might Kill You

Dhali and Catty are TOO CUTE!  They could do this all day long.....

Wordless Wednesday