Wordless Wednesday

Lunch Time

If I can, I try to go home for lunch.  This is what Catty and Tibby do during my lunch break.

Sun bathe.

Tibby didn't even go potty today, even though I tried to get her to.  She was too busy.....

catching some rays.

Model Monday

Can you tell that we LOVE fall?

Yup!

Sunday Shots

Saturday Stroll

"Are you done taking pictures yet?"

Our walks take twice as long when I take the camera along.  It works out pretty well - Tibby stops to sniff and I get to take a few pictures.  However, if I stop to take a picture, Tibby gives me that 'are you done yet?' face.  Silly pup!

Tibby's On Facebook

Tibby has her own facebook page now!  All the posts from the blog plus extra photos and videos are on her new page.  Just click the Facebook icon to the right and be Tibby's friend! 

ST Foundations Class - Lesson 6

Lesson 6 - LAST LESSON :( 
So sad that this class is over.  Happily we signed up for another Foundations class, so yay!  there will be many more videos of us learning agility.  LOL!  I'm sure you are all super happy about that!! 

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Your last homework already! Two more weeks left to catch up and then with October 3rd, this class is finished. If you want to keep working on Foundation stuff in a class form, you can join October Foundation class (that is repeat of this class) for a reduced price. If you want to take things further, you’re welcome to continue in Handling class that will start 31st of October, I’ll open the registration soon. In Handling class, I’ll be posting two different exercises for two different levels: the whole course for more experienced teams and shorter sections that will still be focusing on training to some degree for beginners.

1. sequence


Let’s check your stays. I usually train them away from agility until they are 100% with toys flying, dogs running around, me moving etc. -- and then just use them here and there also in agility: probably only for about 10% of sequences we run, to make sure I’m not given too many opportunities to ruin them In this sequence, you need a stay. Position your dog at the good angle to be on a good line for 2nd jump, go to your position and start. Choose how you want to handle it.

2. front, rear and blind crosses: as there were some questions on the crosses, I included a video with different crosses on the same sequence. Normally, I first do front crosses only (as I only do collection sequences) + blind crosses on tunnels, then add rear crosses on flat and at tunnels, then blind crosses and then rear crosses on jumps. So try rear cross on a tunnel and on flat first and if that goes well, try it on a jump: see the video -- just ignore the double tunnel, use a single tunnel of course, I just used whatever I already had in a set up. If you want (I’m not forcing anybody, I’m just including those as some participants were asking about them), you can try it with blind crosses too. Normally, I will choose the cross based on a situation: for collection, I will use a front cross OR, if I can’t get there in time, rear cross at the jump. For extension, I will choose blind cross OR, if I can’t get there, rear cross on flat. At trials, I do the most front crosses, then blinds and maybe one rear cross every 5 runs… Yeah, not big fan. But of course, it’s important the dogs know rear cross too as sometimes it is the only option!





You could of course run those sequences with front crosses only, I showed it with rear and blind crosses only as by now, I think we mastered the front crosses already, so we can try some rears and blinds (if you want).

3. send in your contacts, see-saw, weaves and multi-wraps (on your current height) work again to check how it’s going and to give you some suggestions on how to proceed after the class is finished.
Hope to see you in Handling Class!



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Fall Walk Friday

Tell Me Thursday

And Bam!  It's another Thursday!  Where did the week go?  Crooks and Crazies ask this week.....


1. If you won the lottery (a big one... I'm talking stupid muchos cash) what would you do with the money?

Ok first thing- I buy a jet and hire a pilot.  Then I find a property in the Cambridge area.  Cambridge, New Zealand.  That's the reason for the plane.  I want to bring Tibby with me and I don't want to ship her.  Oh, yeah and we are going to travel the world.  First nice home in New Zealand with plenty of land.  I want my own avocado tree in the backyard.  And a big garden/forest/wild place.  With a team of gardeners to take care of it.
  I also would, of course, give money to my parents, so my Mom can stop working.  Then after my parents are taken care of and living with my Grandma in NZ.....Tibby and I would travel around in our plane visiting interesting places.  And everyone would let me bring Tibby where ever I wanted, because I would have tons of money to throw around.  We would go to like the Louvre or Iceland.  Or maybe meet the Queen's corgis.
Oh AND I would open a training school in the town I presently live in.  I would hire some amazing instructors.  The classes wouldn't be free (because people don't appreciate free), but they would be reasonably affordable.  It would be like a dog training Mecca, instead of the dog training desert it is right now.

2. After winning the lottery would you work a day job? If so, what would you do?
No.  Working is stupid.  Hobbies are fun.  I would have many hobbies. 

3. Do you have any auxiliary dogs? Auxiliary dogs are dogs that are not essential to your main purpose (usually tiny, but not always). If you don't have an auxiliary dog what might you choose?
I have auxiliary rabbits - Kiwi and Tansy  Catty is also kind of auxiliary.  Even though she tries to help with agility training.  Seriously.  Watch any video of Tibby doing agility and SOMEWHERE in the video (usually laying in the middle of the grass) Catty will be 'helping'.  Don't believe me?  Check out this newest video


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See Catty?  Yes that would be the brown fluffy rug Tibby keeps running over.

4. Do you have a favorite crock pot recipe (or other recipe) you can share?

I use to have some hobbies BT (before Tibby).  One of them was cooking and blogging about it here - Dust Bath Ladies  Check out this dinner party I had - Romancing the Potato Dinner Party.  Now After Tibby (AT) that would NEVER happen. 
My favorite super simple crock pot recipe is :  Thinly slice potatoes and onions.  Layer them in the crock pot.  Pour cream over potatoes until the potatoes are covered.  Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg over the top. Cover and cook until the potatoes are tender.  The best scalloped potatoes ever. 


Hummm, yes I like potatoes Okay?  :)

Funniest Search EVER!!!

Someone searched for......are your ready for it?  KITTY BUTT WARMER!
And the power of Google directed them to me LOL!!!
What post did they get?  Why This One of course.

Readers - I will be laughing over here if you need to search for more funny things.

Wordless Wednesday

Here Chick, Chick

Tibby - "I better be getting a treat for this."

Catty - "Ugh.  Which is worse?  This hat or sitting next to this dog?"

Well, I obviously can't write photo captions.   What do you think they are saying?

Another Great Lesson!

Anyone else see Tibby's mini Alfalfa mohawk?

We had a great lesson today at Loretta's.  We worked on the teeter, RC plank/tunnel, channel weaves and then a sequence.

It was so much fun!

Tibby is smart.  I'm trying. 

I was so surprised that she was able to generalize that Loretta's teeter was just like the teeter we have at home.  The differences between Loretta's teeter and mine:  Mine is 12 inches off the ground - Her's is 25 inches?.  Her teeter plank is twice as long as mine.  Her's is made of wood, mine is made of light weight plastic.  Her's is outside, mine is inside a garage.

Tibby has never been on any teeter other than mine.  She has never been on one outside.  But she happily offered her end teeter behavior and ran up the whole really tall teeter!  She is smart.

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I really liked to see that she remembered her RC plank work too.  We haven't done anything with that in a long time.  We were able to raise the plank 2" and have Tibby run through a tunnel.  She stayed on the plank every single time.  She is smart.

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Weaves are a work in progress.  I have some good ideas on how to progress with them.  I can bring them in a whole lot closer together.  That's good to know.

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The sequence was SO MUCH FUN.  I love running with Tibby.  Really addictive.

I can't believe how far we have come since our first lesson in May.  I think Tibby is doing great!

New Tuggies

Tibby got a new tug and leash on Friday.  It was a reward for getting groomed Friday morning.  This is the shop where I bought them.  Tillies Tuggies  The store owner let me pick the colors.  I got brown and aqua - matches Tibby's crate.  A portion of every tug purchased goes to the Glen Highland Farm BC rescue.

What makes these really special is the rabbit fur braided into the tug.

"Hmmm, what's this?"

"Mine!  All mine!"

This is the leash with the tug bar.

"Rawr!"

"Is this how you do it?"

"Let me get a better grip."

"What?"

"I'm just playing with my new toys...."

Raw Potato Poison?

I hope this post helps someone frantically searching google for 'dog ate raw potato'.  Monday afternoon I was digging some potatoes that volunteered in the garden.  Incidentally I got 20lbs from 2 volunteer plants.

Tibby was watching me and at some point she decided to get a snack for herself.  She ended up eating 3 small potatoes.  I thought it was cute, so I took some pictures.  Then I started to wonder......are raw potatoes safe for dogs to eat?

A quick search of google reveals that - no raw potatoes are not safe for dogs to eat.  So I called the vet - yes, raw potatoes are safe for dogs to eat.  If they don't chew them up properly it can cause problems, but otherwise it is fine.  Who was right?

The vet was correct.  Google was wrong.  That evening Tibby had some stinky gas and then rushed outside twice to poop.  After her 2 potato poops she was back to normal.  But of course my worrying was not over, because Google told me over and over that signs of raw potato poisoning take 4 days to appear.  So I waited.

Seven days later.  She is fine.

She won't be getting any more raw potatoes, because it did cause some GI upset with the smelly gas. 

But now I know raw potatoes are NOT poison.