Trail Run Fun - Part 2

Guess what?  My Mom and her running buddy both got 1st place in their age groups!! Yay!

My Mom was REALLY happy.

"Hey, there's a baby over there."

Back to the winners.  They're number one!

Checking the times.

Happy!

Tibby and me.  We were happy too!

Prey Drive?

Tibby caught a vole on our walk tonight.  She was grabbing it and throwing it up in the air.  Poor thing kept squeaking, even when it was in her mouth.  As soon as I could, I squashed it and kicked it off of the road.  I can't help myself!  If I see a vole or mouse I have to squash it - even if I have flip flops on.  Anyway, I didn't want Tibby to kill it or eat it!!, she might get sick.  I think that's the 5th vole/mouse I have squashed.  It's a quick death at least.

Now Tibby has to check every mail box planting for voles.  Ever the optimist. 

Oh, yeah -  YES Tibby has prey drive!!  And she is very quiet about it too.  Focused.  Hmmm,  anyone want to make us a vole tug?

Pensive Thoughts

I realized yesterday that Tibby doesn't remember how to cik/cap.  So I can re-train it.....except that Tibby hated learning cik/cap.  She hates multi-wraps.  She hates figure 8's.  It was boring and frustrating.  She wants to run!  Do I really care if she can cik/cap?  No.  Not really.  I know that we are not going to ever be agility superstars or probably ever even Q or possibly ever even enter a trial.  So do I really care if Tibby can cik/cap and cut a few seconds off of her time?  Nope.  I just want her to like doing agility with me.  So, I will not be re-training cik/cap.  If it comes, it comes. 

 Laissez-faire* agility!!

Now if only I could convice her that the tunnel is her friend.

"*pffftt who needs tunnels?"

"I would like you to go sit on the couch.  I want to snuggle in your lap.  Now."

Bossy.  Who holds the clicker in this house?  The four legged.  Yup.

*A policy of leaving things to take their own course, without interfering.

Dog Park Playdate

A friend from work and I met at the dog park for a play date with our pups.  It was really fun.  We had the park to ourselves for the first hour and 1/2.  Then the woman with 9+ dogs showed up.  The same woman from This Day.  Yes the same dog was there.  It didn't chase us again - by itself.  Seven of the dogs got together in a pack and chased Tibby.  It wasn't nice and so we left the dog park.  Cleo, my co-worker's dog is only 10 pounds and she would have been a little snack for the pack.  Tibby likes to be chased and chase, but when the pack chased her I could tell it was different (not play).  She had her tail down and the fur down her spine was straight up.  She was acting stressed and she wanted to be picked up.

I'm not exactly sure how many dogs she has, because she was at the far end of the park with a few (on leash) and then the rest were running in a pack, but I counted 9.  If you have 9 dogs - fine, that's great for you - but have some control over them or at least watch out that they aren't chasing/ growling/snapping/barking at other dogs and people.  The dog park is huge - 4 acres at least and she was at the far end of it, while her dogs were at the other end of the park.  When we left the park, her fox hound and jack russell were trying to get out of the gate with us.

Ok rant over - on to the pictures.

Cleo, Cesar and Tibby.

"Mmmm smells stinky!"

Cleo likes to have her back rubbed.  Cute!

Run Tibby!  Run!

Rest time.  It was warm out there.

Tibby and Cesar.  I discovered how difficult it is to take pictures of black dogs.

This was one of the woman's dogs.  This one didn't chase Tibby.  It was a nice dog.

Right after I took this picture the pack came running over a hill and chased Tibby.  It was scary, because they chased her around a corner.  Also, very frustrating, because there isn't a lot you can do against a fast pack of dogs. 

Tell Me Thursday

  Hey everyone's doing it!  Jen at Crooks and Crazies has started "Tell Me Thursdays"- she posts a few questions on her blog.  You answer them and then post a link on her blog.  I've had fun reading all the responses the last few weeks.  It looks like fun!   Here are the questions for this week:

1. What is the biggest thing that grossed you out over the past week?
Well, I've worked in a hospital for 12 years, so not much grosses me out now.  The ULTIMATE grossest thing that happened this week I can't really talk about here, but it had to do with a dead person.  The 2nd grossest, was when I tried to help a patient stand up and his NG tube (tube that goes through the nose into the stomach - like a stomach vacuum) hit my hand.  AND green 'juice' got on my fingers.  The sad thing is that an hour later almost the exact same thing happened with a different patient.     

2. What do you feed your dogs?
Nutrisource

3. If you could move anywhere where would you live?
New Zealand.  Didn't even have to think about it LOL!  My Mom's family is from there and I think it is the most beautiful country.  I like the weather and you can go from farmland to beach to forest to mountains in ONE DAY.  You don't have to drive a million miles to get everywhere. 

4. What is the funniest thought that occurred to you (or thing that happened to you) this week?
Ahh, huh?  I know funny things happen to me ALL THE TIME, but I can't really remember any of them.  Well, we have this patient mover thing the uses an air blower (like a very powerful air mattress blower) and I didn't attach it correctly.  It was pretty funny when it shot off and blew my hair everywhere.  At least my co-workers thought it was hilarious :P

5. If you couldn't have your breed of choice what would be next on your list?
Hmmm, I guess I don't know enough breeds of dog.  I really like Tibetan Terriers - even though Tibby is not easy to train or work with she is easy to live with.  I guess maybe a standard poodle.  I've always liked them. 

Wordless Wednesday

Last Day of Summer Canoe Trip - Part II

Lady of the Lake?

The 2nd half of our canoe float around a lake trip.

The lake is a hidden secret lake.  There is a public water access, but the road to the access isn't marked.  A friend of a friend told my Dad about it.  The first time he tried to get to the lake he couldn't find the water access.  He could see the lake, but couldn't get to it!  The lake is stocked with Bass and there were tons and tons of them.

"Clouds in my lake water?"

We could see the fish swimming in big schools underneath the canoe.  The water is very clear.  I could see all the way to the bottom and it was very deep. 

My Dad caught a bunch of fish, but he only kept 4 for our dinner.  They were delicious!

I was bored, so I paddled a little bit.

Tibby was doing really well, relaxing in the canoe.  The only people we saw were 2 kayakers.  She growled at them!  I don't think she knew they were people.

Just relaxing.  The weather was perfect.  Nice and cool with a little light breeze.

Just when Tibby was getting really comfortable and happy about being in the canoe, someone on shore started to set off fireworks.  In the middle of the day!  Tibby didn't like that.

She went underneath my seat.

At first she was panting and stressed about the fireworks.  After they kept going on and on, however she calmed down and fell asleep for a while.

She still wanted to stay underneath my seat.  Eventually the fireworks stopped and Tibby came out from underneath my seat.  Of course, they started up again and she went back underneath my seat.  I think she was OK though, because she fell asleep again.

Thanks for the fun day Dad!

Also, we saw this turtle.

What a nice lake!

Last Day of Summer Canoe Trip - Part I

What a nice way to spend the last day of summer.  I went on a canoe trip (more of a float around) with my Dad and Tibby.  It was Tibby's first time on the water.  Actually it was my first time on the water in 5years - the last time was kayaking in New Zealand.

Tibby with my Dad.

While we were waiting for my Dad to get all his fishing gear together, I tried to get Tibby used to the canoe.  She ate some treats and I explained that, "No you can't sit in my lap.  Really.  Yes, I'm 100% sure you have to sit on the bottom of the canoe.  Really!"  She had a nice soft rug to sit on, so she was fine.  Whenever she is nervous about something new or she needs a little comforting she crawls into my lap.  It's very cute, but not good for canoeing!

We got to sit in the front of the canoe.  My Dad said we were the ballast.  Nice Dad.  LOL!

"How long are we going to be out here?"

Tibby gave me the funniest faces!  I had plenty of time to snap pictures, because my Dad has an electric trolling motor on his canoe.  So no paddling necessary!  It was very relaxing. 

Silvia Trkman Agility Foundations Class Lesson 4

Lesson 4

1. straight line as a serpentine: now that you mastered straight lines too, it’s time to show the dog they can come in different forms Let’s try angling the jumps as you can see in a video, still working on extension vs. collection. Keep angling the jumps all the way to a serpentine. You should still throw in some wraps to keep them attentive to possible collection cues.
Showing the angling in 4 steps, but try to go even more gradually and make it a serpentine in 6 or 7 steps:



2 Sequencing



With long-strided dogs, 10 will be hard – so you can simply take the other entry instead.
3. let’s check how far you have got with weave entries: send in your “top 5″ – choose the 5 hardest entries your dog found, the 5 you are most proud of.

What I said, "I know you said to only send the best weaves, but we haven’t done them at all, so this is all the weaving we have done so far. I don’t really get what I’m supposed to be doing. I think I have to wait until she gets more commitment to doing them before I start with the distractions - right? The 2nd video is what we did today. Tibby was having so much fun! I’ve started doing a ‘dying rabbit’ sound that Tibby likes. Later in the day I tried to do the sequence, but Tibby was too tired. I think she likes the straight running parts the best. I left in a lot of the parts where we are playing.'

What Silvia said, "Yeap, for the weaves, you are trying too complicated stuff too early in the process. I would still work with something at the end for her to focus on and releasing her to it from very slight angles. With something at the end for her to focus on, you should be able to do some work for independence (doing different stuff when she is in), but you sure need something at the end for now to be able to do that. Rewarding from hand is not yet a good idea. And yes, she sure seemed to like that straight line! You can mostly work on that for now if that’s what she loves the most. Still, make sure to not do too much, I think two sessions per day, if they include more as for example one or two straight lines, are too much for her for now. Definitely don’t push her to do it if she doesn’t feel like it! "