Weasel Puppy Seems To Be Getting It!

Well, Weasel seems to be getting it! She's done really well (for her) in practice last weekend, Wednesday, and then this weekend. Weasel is running down the lane to the box, getting the ball with a swimmers turn, and running back to me. She's doing very well at staying in her lane. Only a couple episodes of wiggle and lick the boxloader.

What has me really excited, though, is she is starting to compete with the dog in the other lane. Granted, it's currently manifesting by her clinging to the box, waiting for the other dog to get it's ball, then racing it back, but still! I was worried that she wouldn't get the thrill of the game. I'm glad that she's developing her competitive spirit. Though, it probably will be real annoying when she is the third dog on our team hanging out at the box waiting for the fourth dog from the opposing team. . .

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

The Search for Shoes

There is a strange phenomena that occurs at my house. I can never find two matching shoes.

Several years ago, I taught The Spoiled One to bring me my shoes when he wanted to go for a walk. Unfortunately, he learned. I failed to take into account that he always wants to go for a walk. So, now, wherever I go, piles of shoes appear. I go in the bathroom, there's a pile waiting when I come out. I sit down a read a book, and a collection gathers. Shoes everywhere, and never where I last put them!

Of course, The Spoiled One can only carry one shoe at a time. When the first shoe offering doesn't receive recognition, he goes and gets another shoe. Each shoe selection has no relation to the prior shoe - he doesn't bring matched sets. So, one tennis shoe is in the living room, another in the kitchen, or stuffed under the desk, or in the garage, or buried in the clothes hamper. He is quite creative.

The photograph above shows the arrangement he created for me this morning, as I drank a cup of coffee. There are three white tennis shoes he has lined up in a row, and a random brown shoe he threw in for variety. None of those tennis shoes matches any of the others. I saw the other half of one pair earlier in the bathroom. Another is in the shoe storage unit where he found them all. I have no idea where the third match is. I haven't seen it for days. Which sort of explains why I have three pairs of white tennis shoes.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Santa is Dead

<--Official Crime Scene Photo

Sad news to report. Santa is dead. Weasel Puppy ate him.

In her defense, there were squeakies involved. The Spoiled One is listed as a co-defendent. A witness reported hearing ferocious growling noises and frantic squeaking. Upon investigating the disturbance, the witness discovered the grisely scene.

Wishing you what joy you can find in this holiday season, despite this unfortunate incident.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Animal Shelters Are Empty

There was an article in the Albuquerque Journal today "Animal Shelters Are Empty - 500 Dogs and Cats Have Found Homes" For background information, Albuquerque animal shelters have a high euthanasia rate. When they run the reports in the newspaper, "adopted" vs "euthanised" is way too close of a race.

Now, I know there are asterisks and qualifications on it, and some will bounce right back into the shelters, but when I look at my Spoiled One, who came from the Yamhill County Dog Control, or Weasel, who I found at Albuquerque Eastside, or my two cats, who came from Evergreen Doe Humane Society, or my brother's two ancient little dogs who came from rescue or were found wondering and never claimed, or my parents little Scottie and my sister's Aussie in California, that came from the SPCA, when I think of 500 unique, special animals just like them that weren't euthanised this weekend as they were likely to be, I cried. It was just a nice Christmas Eve warm fuzzy. I am happy to know that the "Home 4 the Holidays" event was so resoundingly successful.

Saturday Practice

So, we finally got in a team practice yesterday. The dogs did surprisingly well, considering. My Weasel still has a bad case of puppy lick the boxloaderitis, and general ditziness, but she was able to focus on what she was doing when there was a dog in the other lane, whether that dog was ahead of or behind her. I'm still quite nervous. The eight team practices I was counting on before the next tournament have been reduced to three, if we're lucky.

She doesn't latch onto the tug at practice, though. It's very frustrating, because at home she loves it and comes crashing into it full bore. At team practice, she's completely blind to it. I tried a little bit with her when she wasn't in the lane at practice, and got some interest, but it was too distracting to the dog we were actually working to continue. I think I am just going to have to keep sneaking that in where I can. She was very intrigued with another dog's tug toy, though. The secret might be in rotating the tug toys so she thinks she's getting something new and novel.

One of my teammates likes to practice recalls by having the handler send the dog up the lane to this person, and then this person sends the dog back down the lane to this person. I didn't want Weasel to associate the person at the boxloader end of the lane with attention and praise, though. She already has problems in that area and so I insisted on having the person at the box end of the lane release her to run to me, then walking Weasel back up and handing her off to them and running back to the other end for a recall.

Spoiled One was a good boy. I think he was just so glad to be doing flyball that he was on his best behaviour. Also, we ran him last in the line up, rather than as the start dog, so he couldn't pull the inflato dog trick. Hopefully, after Wags in Arizona, we can work more on him as a start dog. I would really like to push him in that role. I believe, once we get the monster past his little passing issue, he could be a real asset that way.

Anyway, the dogs were very happy to be having team practice. I didn't get any pictures this time. Sorry.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Random Store Plug

<---Looky Looky! It's one of the designs from my cafe press store. Click http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy to see more.





<--Gross dog spit spelling out the word "flyball" - what more could you ask for?

Boxloading

Boxloading - do you love it or hate it?

Some people think it's a boring, stupid job and they should just invent a self-loading box.

Some people find it very stressful. Everyone's always yelling at them and they can't seem to remember what hole or size of ball they should be loading.

Sometimes, if you're good at it or no one else is willing to step up, you spend your tournaments boxloading instead of running your dog (which sucks.)

Personally, I like boxloading. Maybe I'm easily entertained, but I like the challenge of getting the green dogs to pay attention to you rather than all the distracting things at a tournament. It's a good view to watch the match. It's fun to tease the dogs as they are getting ready to start - "rrrrrready? I have tennis balls - don't you want one? Are you going to come get it? Are you rrrrrrrrrreeady?" A lot of times I crack up the line judge. But it gets the dogs' attention.

Boxloading is an important part of the team. The dogs need to practice with the person who's going to be your team's boxloader. An unexpected stranger can spook many dogs. Also, if the dog is used to being teased when it's lined up at the start line, it may miss it's cue or respond differently when that routine changes. In the chaos of a tournament, a familiar voice draws the dog's attention and reminds it what it's there for. So, the person who box loads needs to practice the things they are going to do at the tournament. If they are going to encourage the dogs, do it in practice. If they are going to tease them at the start line, do it at practice. Don't consider boxloading a fill-in job.

And, if you are boxloading, don't stand there like a sack of potatoes. Tease the dogs. Try to get their attention. Call them down the lane. Cue them to hit the box. Remind them to jump on the return. Watch who faults and have the ball ready and be screaming the dog's name when it's time to rerun. It can avoid loosing several seconds while the handler tries to get a hold of the dog, pry a tug out of the dog's mouth, line it up, cue it up and release it, which can mean winning or loosing a heat. Also, you may be in the best position to see who it was who needed to rerun. If you have a voice left after the tournament, you're goldbricking.

Just my two cents' worth.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Carpet Fungus

Well, no practice this week. It gets dark before I get home from work. The poor dogs have given up on me doing anything interesting with them - they just torment the cat until I scold them, then go lay down. Doggie carpet fungus.

We have a tournament coming up in mid January, though, so I will try to keep a bit of conditioning with some box work off the practice box in the hallway. They've destroyed both my practice jumps, however, and people get alarmed when I start eyeing hand tools, so I am improvising a jump in front of the practice box by proping what's left of a jump up, then bracing the box with a bag of cement and a huge water bottle. It seems to be working.

Maybe I'll alternate it with roadwork every other night, and indoor frisbee.

Poor bored dogs.

Weasel Puppy

Weasel Puppy

Breed: Border Collie

DOB: March 2006

Most expensive thing she's destroyed: She ate a paycheck. Can't beat that.

So, why do I call this cute little border collie "weasel puppy"? Well, if you look at the picture, you'll notice her suspicious, wary expression. She tends to have that expression on most posed photographs. But that is not why she is Weasel Puppy.

Oddly, most people who see her in person do not question the little nickname. She is a conformation nightmare - roach backed, cow hocked, with a long, snarky muzzle. She is also blessed with a ridge of fur along her backbone that stands straight up - several inches high. We call it her backhawk. She has the border collie tendency to carry her head and tail low. All of which result in some pretty weird looking pictures. A pound-puppy special, she may or may not even be purebred border collie. Despite all of this, I think she's a rather pretty dog, and she's certainly very sweet and affectionate.

She is a little over a year and a half old and is in training for flyball. She's mastered the box turn but still has some puppy ditziness to work through. If we can get some team practices in, I plan for her try singles at a UFLI tournament in the early spring.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Magic Inflato Dog

The Spoiled One

Breed: "International Shepherd"

Birthdate: Possibly August of 2000

Most expensive item he's destroyed: Wooden French doors with inset glass - high side of $1000. He's also eaten car seat belts, gone through closed patio doors, and inflicted the standard amount of damage to house and home one would expect of a nearly 60lb active dog.

He's been in training for flyball for about 3 years. Three looooong years. This dog has earned three NAFA titles, all in one weekend, but he's more of an entertainer than a competitor. We often get laughed at or applauded when we run and, no, it isn't that "ooooooh that was a good run" kind of applause. We've attempted to run him in three NAFA tournaments. The first tournament he didn't have a clue so was pulled almost immediately. The second, two years later, was the one where he got the three titles. The third tournament, shortly after the second, was the tournament where he developed his "magic inflato dog" trick.

It goes like this: I line him up at the start. He barks and carries on and focuses like a lazer on that tennis ball. His claws dig into the matting, every muscle tenses and the start light goes off. He takes off like a bullet. Boing, boing, boing, boing over the jumps, hit the box, get the ball boing, boing, boing, boi - ooops, what's this? He slows. His eyes fix on the next dog ready to go. He slows to a stop right before crossing the start/finish line, staring the other dog down and magically swelling to three times his normal size.

Now, he doesn't want to fight or anything. He's just playing keep away. With the flyball lane. Not real conducive to fast passes. Even the judge laughed at that one.

So, I'm guessing we'll need to work that issue in practice.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy