Lake of the Woods

Well, last week the doggies and I had a little road trip. We went to Lake of the Woods in Oregon. That's a 1400 mile drive. If you do solid, focused driving, you can make it in a day and a half. The dogs and I had a misunderstanding about available sleeping space. However, it's not like I sleep well in hotels, anyway. I have a few phobias and tend to sleep with the lights on.

There were the usual hangups. We left later than I wanted to. I washed the dogs and threw them in the car without brushing them because I was desperate to get on the road, and so Spoiled One molted in the first hotel room. I tried to fix it, as best I could. It always amazes me that I can go on these trips and find hotels to stay in with the two dogs without any problems. I kind of suspect it's because I come in late at night, and they have given up all hope of renting the room, so they are happy to accomodate me.

There were many visits to reststops along the way, but my dogs are good travelers. Spoiled One didn't start barking and carrying on until I turned off the main roads to the forest road that led to the resort and he saw the pine trees and knew we were there.

They love the lake. It's such a good place for this kind of thing. They have "pet friendly" cabins and there is gravel and pine needles, so the dogs' feet don't get muddy. You can get away from people and find your own section of lake shore to swim the dogs. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the dogs at the lake. My camera batteries had died by then.

They did lots of swimming, too. Z-dog would prefer to spend the entire time there spiky as a hedgehog and smelling of lake water. Every time we stepped out of the cabin, he lunged toward the lake and strangled himself pulling toward the water. He got close to getting his wish. When we threw sticks out in the lake, Weasel would bolt and leap like a dolphin to get there first, then Z-dog or Sugar would steal it from her as she swam back. One time I saw Z-dog slap a paw on top of Weasel's head and deliberately push her under to get the stick. The observation was made that Weasel is even more funny looking when she's soaking wet. Scarey, but true.

I would like to announce that I achieved my goal of not catching any fish. At one point, someone made me use abuse an earthworm, but most of the time I used this neon colored stuff called "power bait" because it looked so strange I assumed that the fish wouldn't go near it.

Alas, on the ride home, not ten miles out, my car pretended to die and flash idiot lights at me. There resulted some frantic phone calls and riding around in a Lexus with four dogs, three people and all of their stuff, and then camping out at the Honda dealer with the dogs in the waiting room. Eventually, all was resolved and we made it home.

Anyway, the car trip sort of precluded any flyball practice.

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Long, Boring Day

Between my websites, designing, and ickyrealjob, I often feel like I have two jobs. Unfortunately, ickyrealjob is the only one that pays. I try to fix that, but that means working even harder on websites and affiliating in my home time, and the poor dogs are getting so neglected.

Today, for example, flyball was cancelled because the person who's house we were going to hold it at was sick. So all day, since I got out of bed, I've been sitting at this computer figuring out code and html and how to make the affiliate banners work for this page on the Weasel Puppy website: http://www.weaselpuppy.com/TournamentPackingList.com I want DreamWeaver, or something, to make this easier! Whine, whine, whine.

The poor dogs were so bouncy this morning, thinking flyball thoughts. Now they just sleep. I think I'll breakout a tug toy and give them a little love.

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Holly - Aussie/bc mix Available Through Bro & Tracy

I was sent this information from someone in the rescue organization who wanted to get the information out on this bright-eyed girl.

The foster describes her as "Holly is a 3-4 yr old medium sized Aussie mix. She is a happy girl who will give you kisses & roll over for you. But when it's time to get serious, Holly is very bright and follows commands. She is capable of being a good working dog & could also be good at dog sports. Holly needs daily exercise and prefers to be interacting with her humans.
BTW, she gets along with other dogs. I hear she co exists with cats too (ignores them), from her last owner. She can also be found on the Bro & Tracy rescue website: http://www.broandtracy.org."

Imagine that face looking up at you and wiggling with pride over a Q agility run, or begging you to throw the frisbee, or staring down a flyball lane! She is a bit of a chunky monkey in her pictures, but that is nothing a little playtime and proper diet won't fix.

Got Space?

Alas, we are "cast out" from our practice space and looking for another. Anyone have a 100 foot long by at least 8 feet space with an even floor we could use for practice? Let us know.

Factors to consider:

Shouldn't be immediately adjacent to housing - flyball dogs bark.

Indoors, like a warehouse or large storage unit, would be really cool, but covered parking or something similar could also work.

We need to be able to fence or block it off so the dogs can't run out into traffic or something.

A lockable storage space where we could leave our stuff (jumps, flyball boxes, crates, mats, etc. would be really nifty.

We are a small club of people who do this as a hobby - $1000 - $1200/month is out of our price range.

Any ideas? Let us know!

Boxturn Progress - Slowly

Z-dog did better boxwork at practice. I don't know how his boxturns during runs were, though. There were issues, a collision, a spooked dog, someone sitting right beside the box with their dog on a loose leash. However, his boxwork seems to be getting better and better. Maybe I'll get a real turn on a run out of him eventually.

Or not.

We're working it, though.

We had the timer set up and Weasel ran a 4.1 something! Multiple times! I would like her to break 4.0, but I am very excited. The fastest she's been clocked in a tournament was 4.2 something. She's getting faster.

I don't know if I am becomming a prima dona type in practice. It just drives me buggy when people let their dogs interfere with other dogs while they are working, or don't keep track of their dogs, or park themselves in the way with their green dogs so that they can watch. I don't object to people watching - I watch all the time trying to learn stuff, but, for the love of God, crate your dog first! Especially if it's a green dog. You aren't teaching it a good thing by letting it zero in on dogs running past it over and over, and it's a bad distraction to the dogs hitting the box to have a strange dog a foot away zeroing in on them like a pirahna and lunging at them. Also, if the dog is green, all the handler is teaching the dog is to completely ignore them and go crazy trying to chase whenever a dog is running. I think people believe I make an issue of it because I'm afraid Z-dog will eat the other dog. He won't. He's never eaten anyone, even if they deserved it. But, he will come screeching to a stop to check it out, or he will veer off to avoid the dog, or just totally boff his box turn I am working so hard on.

Of course, I do all this rant, but my Z-dog loves to make mischief, and Weasel is a carpet bombing raid of affection who is always assaulting people with her devotion, well, one person especially. That person has been quite patient and forgiving of the various bruises and pee showers. Maybe I am being a bit of a (not nice word) but I would really like people to be more aware of these things.

Practice, Again, FINALLY

We've been rained out of practice for a while, and the dogs have been going stir crazy. I consoled myself by buying a 10 gallon aquarium. It takes for freakin' ever to get it cycled so I can add fishies. Enough bacteria have to grow to process the fish pee (don't get an aquarium if you like seafood). I tried a couple of things to jump start it, but, well, I just confused things. So, now, I wait. And wait. And wait. Stupid fishless aquarium.

Anyway, I have also been practicing boxwork with the dogs. I believe it's paid off some. At practice today Spoiled One turned backwards, the same way he does at home! It's been driving me nuts that at home, he does a four-footed turn over an obstical, but turns what I think of as counter-clockwise, and at practice he consistantly turned clockwise. I believe it's part of his conspiracy to drive me batty. What he doesn't factor into the equation is that I am already quite batty. . .

Anyway, as I said, at practice he turned counter-clockwise and all of his feet hit the box, over an obstical. I believe using the ball as a lure really motivates him to push off and book a bit more coming back, which is something a tug will never do, for him. Also, I believe it's less intimidating for people at flyball matches to see him running after tennis balls rather than growling at the end of tug. They know he's in the playful, not killer, mode. Now, if he would just do that consistantly without a prop. . .

Weasel also did well on her boxwork. I used the sticks laying on the ground and she took the appropriate number of strides to the box. It was nice. Also, I whined and so we used the props for full runs.

One of our teammates had a radar gun and a homemade timer and we timed the various dogs. Weasel went 33 miles an hour, according to the radar gun! Also, she was doing 4.1 runs pretty consistantly. Spoiled One was 4.9 ish and I forget how fast. It's geeky, but I like all the high-tech stuff. Spoiled One did have a little problem of fairly frequently launching so far ahead of the first jump that he overflew the beam and never triggered the timer. What can I say? He's my special boy.

I believe the best thing I can do for them over the week is to keep up with the boxwork at home, and maybe improvise a less substantial hurdle for in front of the box so I can begin to wean them off of the prop.

Blurry Photographs of Mythical Events

"Okay, now what's that supposed to be?" you are asking. It is PROOF, documented, incontrovertable, PROOF that Z-dog, my Spoiled one is perfectly capable of doing a box turn with all four feet on the box. He just chooses not to.

"Yeah, right," you say, "it's just some dude in a gorilla suit pretending to be sasquatch."

No, it's true, I tell you! Look closely, you can see his ear flying up and if you squint, you can kinda see. . .

"Somebody just stuck two pie plates together and tossed it up in the air and photographed it. It's probably grainy so that you can't see the tape and string."

NO! It's TRUE. It's REAL. He REALLY does it, at home.

"Yeah, right."

Well you try to aim a cell phone camera while juggling a dog, a tug, a very soggy tennis ball and besides, the light in the hallway has burned out and I haven't replaced the bulbs and cell phones take awful pictures and. . .

"Sure, whatever"

But, really. He really does it. at home, anyway. really.

Anyway, have a good Easter!