Two Of These Feet Are Not Like The Other

Who likes the grass?

The one with GREEN feet!!

And a Tibby tongue pictures, 'cause they are cute :) 

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!

Microchips! Register!

A little public service announcement:  If your pet has a micro chip remember to register it!  I just signed up Tibby and Dhali on the Microchip Registry - It's free and it's for all brands of micro chip.  It's just a non profit registry to help pets get home when they are lost.  

One of the things that I worry about with my pups microchip:  There are so many brands of micro chip.  Dhali and Tibby even have different brands, because Dhali was chipped before he came home with me - so how will a rescue/vet/ect. figure out which company to look at to find me?

I think this registry is a good idea.  Simplifies things!

Mr Chewy Orijen Treats Review

Mr. Chewy sent Dhali and Tibby a package of treats to review.  They sent them really, really fast!  They said they were sending them and the next day Fed Ex was dropping them off! I was very impressed with the quick delivery.

The treats were very fresh and as you can see Dhali thought they smelled AMAZING!  

"Open the bag!  Open the Bag!"

I like ordering from Mr. Chewy, because they send the treats quickly, the treats haven't been sitting on a shelf in a store for days and they haven't been handled by a bunch of customers in a store.  Plus, I don't have to drive 2 hours round trip to get them!

These Orijen treats are really nice.  I will probably get them again.  They are 100% freeze dried lamb. The treats are smooth and small enough for a big treat.  If they were for a training treat, I would want them to be 1/2 the size or a little bit easier to break in half.  They smell good - nice and fresh - I would put them in my pocket LOL!!

Dhai says, "More Orijen lamb treats please!"

Tibby's Recheck

As you can see - Tibby was AMAZING at her recheck!  She did really, really well.  I was so happy.  6 months ago she was hiding underneath my chair, shaking, refusing treats, panting, pacing and wanting to sit in my lap.  Now she is working her mat, taking treats from strangers, listening to 'invisible' dogs (outside the door) and invisible people, greeting new people that come into the room and generally acting like the dog she was always meant to be.  

It makes me cry a little, because I knew she was in there and, until I took her for help, I didn't know how to get her out.  I'm so happy to see Tibby being happy.  :)

She was really just perfect.  For the last 6 months I have rarely taken her out of the house, so I wasn't sure how our visit to the UofM vet clinic would go.  I took her for a walk before we went in for our visit.  There is a little quad/park area.  

Tibby: 25mg trazadone and thundershirt - ready for a walk.  The first thing we see is a big white and black spotted dog.  Oookay - her biggest trigger, another dog.  Tibby looks at the dog and keeps walking.  Strange men working on the road?  Doesn't care.  People walking around and sitting on benches?  Doesn't care.  The only thing that worried her a little bit was a woman jiggling a big bunch of keys.  Tibby was a little worried about that.  

Then I got Dhali from the car and took them for a walk together around the park.  My plan was to take them separately, but I ran out of time and Dhali didn't get to have a separate walk without Tibby.

We went inside and saw lots more people and dogs.  Tibby was a little overexcited, but so was Dhali.....  But she calmed right down and took treats nicely.  We went into the exam room and waited for a while.  Dhali threw up....

We practiced with the mat.

Then the Dr's assistant came in with 2 med students.  She went over some history and how things were going.  Dhali pooped on the floor..... 

Then we sat for a long time with the med students and waited for the Dr.  It probably wasn't that long, but I didn't know what to say to the students.  They couldn't believe that Tibby had been different before.  It is hard to imagine if you haven't seen it.  While we were waiting Dhali entertained us with his tugging and fetching skills.  He was not shy at all.  He kept trying to get a toy out of my bag, so I finally gave him one and he was so happy.  He ran around shaking it and laid down on the mat to play with it.  Then he wanted to play tug and fetch.  He was very cute.  Dhali is definitely a stress up kind of dog vs. Tibby's stress down.  

Then the Dr. came in and we went over some more things.  She said Tibby is doing so well that we can turn over care to our normal vet.  I'm not sure how that will work exactly, but I guess I will find that out.  

Then we tried to fit Tibby for a different muzzle, but she didn't really fit into any of them.  Tibby was such a good girl trying on all the muzzles.  She put her head right into each of them - she made me look like a good trainer!  LOL!  When I really haven't been doing that much work with her.  I have just been letting Tibby be Tibby.  She's pretty smart :)

She was even offering to do her sit up trick to Dr. Duxbury for treats!

Dhali thought Tibby was getting way too many treats and way too much attention :P 

It was a very long day and both dogs are very tired.  Both sleeping since we got home.

Except for Dhali pooping on the floor, it was a perfect day!

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 :)