Weasel Puppy and The Spoiled One

USDAA Trial

2011-11-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

We survived! Actually, it went quite well. I only entered her in four events all weekend, Starters Snooker, Starters Gamblers, Starters Standard and Starters Jumpers. I didn't enter the pairs relay because I assumed we would crash and burn and didn't want to inflict that on anyone else. I didn't enter the Grand Prix, or whatever it's called, because I wanted to be low pressure for her and I.

Saturday, the first event was Gamblers, which seems a lot like FAST.   I sent her over the first jump, through the weaves and through the tunnel under the dog walk. Coming out of the tunnel, Weasel zoomed off to check out the lady shouting numbers. I called her off and attempted to send her up the dog walk, but she had tunnel stuck on the brain and went into panic mode, doing the tunnel, zooming over to the judge, back to the tunnel, again and again. The buzzer must have sounded, but I didn't realize what it was, eventually I broke the tunnel-judge loop, got her over the dogwalk, then over the a-frame, realized why the judge wasn't doing the scary number shouting anymore, and did the gamble, but the final buzzer sounded before we completed the gamble.

As odd as it sounds, I was actually quite happy with her after this run. She did call off. She did try to keep doing obstacles. She did complete the gamble. She re-engaged with me, which was a milestone. That dog has been carried off the course for being a complete spazz more than once.

The second run Saturday was Standard. She qualified, with no faults, but was slow - 40 some seconds. I was thrilled with her. She placed first in her height division, but it's 26" There was one other dog.

Sunday, I consciously chose to let her rev a bit, rather than focusing on calm. T he first run was Snooker. I had no clue what it was, but somebody helped me figure it out.   Alas, it involved a judge shouting numbers. The judge was sort of hiding on the far side of the course, so Weasel checked out the leash runner for awhile. But, eventually, I got her back and we almost made it. Ran out of time, though.

Jumpers involved nobody shouting anything and Weasel did it just fine, with a few extra twirls. No faults. Qualified, @ 29 seconds. Not great, but not slug-bug, either.

I am very happy that I am beginning to be able to play with her and warm her up before runs. I am also happy to see that she had no knocked bars the entire weekend. It looks like I was just being over-protective about the jump heights. I missed having Demon Puppy there, but hopefully she will be there next time.

Good things to work on would be tighter turns, collection, and having somebody in the ring shouting things.

Agility Trial in a Week - Eeeek

2011-11-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

Weasel and I are going to try USDAA. I've been wanting to, but dithering because she is 21 *and a half* inches tall. That half inch bumps the jump bars up to several inches above her eye level. But, USDAA has fun stuff, more classes, pairs, team, all sorts of stuff. When Demon Puppy topped out at under 19" I realized that I really wanted to try the venue.

I have been asking if I should start inching the jumps up with Weasel to get her used to a half a foot higher, but people have told me she jumps so high it's not really an issue. Both her and Geezer dog jump high. Every flyball match, someone comes up to me and comments on Spoiled One's boinging antelope jump style. My bunny-bear Geezer Dog.

Alas, though Demon Puppy was trained the same way, she's a daisy cutter. While this is good for flyball (except I hate hearing her feet hit the jumps) it isn't so good for agility. She's a bar-knocker. I am working on it, with conditional rewards for when she actually clears the jump. She's making progress, but it's not something I have ever dealt with. I hope she gets over it. Someone I know has a really enthusiastic border collie. The dog is wicked fast and loves agility. But he wipes out the bars every time. I want Demon Puppy to do well. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to mention them. Right now, I am rewarding only cleared jumps, and doing ladder drills to make her learn to pick up her back feet, and some strengthening exercises. At the 20" I am getting about 70 -80% clear. She doesn't seem to have difficulty physically jumping that high, and much higher when she wants, she just doesn't respect the bars.

Weasel's doesn't even see the bar, it's so high over her head. However, once she saw it, she seemed to have no problem getting over it. Her biggest problem is, and probably always will be, that she checks out under stress. I think a lot of it is that I suck as an agility handler, (vague direction, wrong direction, poorly timed direction) but we try, she and I. Part of me wishes I could video my training sessions to see what I screw up. The other part is afraid to know.

They are both doing some nice weaves, finding the entry with only one oopsy with Demon Puppy. Well, two. One time, she was going through the weaves and nearly tipped the whole set over. That dog has no respect for equipment. No fear, but no respect, either.

Poor, neglected Geezer Dog. I did play tug with him.

Anyone looking for a BC Puppy?

2011-10-14T19:54:00.000-07:00


She is Animal ID : 14294214 at the Socorro Animal Shelter. Just 2 months old.

First Tournament

2011-07-09T19:10:00.000-07:00


Demon Puppy did this

and this

And this.

I think she had a lot of fun! Melissa Sheehan, of True Colors Photography, took the pictures.

Of course, my Goofy Spoiled one was exhibiting his version of a box turn:

And my beautiful, good little Weasel:

What good dogs I have.

Except for the fact that Demon Puppy ate every shoe I had. There are still bits of them all over the living room. I can't vacuum them, because it kills the vacuum. I have to pick each little bit up.

Demon Puppy Uprising

2011-05-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Demon Puppy is coming into her own. It's such a fun time. She has started her first real agility class. She and Nacho (one of her flyball teammates) rock that class. They joyfully run through and over whatever the designated obstacle is. At home, when I practice with her, she barks continually at me in frustration because I am never fast enough. Lord help me when we start sequencing. When I go out in the backyard without her, she leaps several feet in the air to rip down what's left of my blinds.   I'm putting off replacing them until I get a house crate I like to stuff her in during these times. She's a wire-biter, though, so that limits the range of crates I want to cram her in.

At flyball, she did her first complete run last week at practice, with a dog in the other lane, and I didn't even have a motivator. She hits the box awfully hard, and without respect for her own welfare, so I will have to work that. Hard to believe she's only been doing boxwork for a month.   At this rate, she'll be ready for singles at our next trial. I have to keep reminding myself that she has really just started and so many things need to be proofed.

Herding is the hardest to work on, because it requires sheep, and I don't have sheep. However, I have been able to go out occasionally to practice at someone's house who does have sheep. We have moved from the round pen to the big corral. which is so much easier. Everything isn't on top of you and you can move in a direction for a little while. Plus, there are corners to play with. I am hoping to do it more regularly. Someone who was there this last weekend was helping me, giving me some ideas of what to work on. That seems to be the sport that she uses her brain on the most. I love seeing her slink around and she is so responsive, I am enjoying letting her work and figure things out, like how to get them unstuck from the fence or out of the corner by the gate.   She's always checking in, paying attention to every gesture with the stick. I wish I knew more. She brings them to me and calls off when I tell her to, so I think next I will work on getting her to drop into a down instead of coming to me to down. That dog is going to have so much fun when we start push the sheep around into places they don't want to go and shedding. She loves bullying them.

Sekhmet Turns One Year Old

2011-04-02T17:09:00.000-07:00

April Fool's Day is my Demon Puppy's birthday. She turned one year old on Friday, and today we celebrated a bit at practice. Balls were tossed.

There were doggie cupcakes.

More balls were tossed.

And dogs ran around like crazy dogs.

Then they waited for us to toss the ball.

Pushy, demanding dogs.

My Demon Puppy did very well at practice. She got the ball out of the box on the first try! I am really looking forward to this year with her as her body catches up to her ambitions.

Posters, Luck and Jinxes

2011-02-27T11:11:00.000-08:00

Flyball dogs in the Sky!

This week, I worked on a poster for the team. It was fun. I drove myself crazy constantly rearranging the dogs, though. Hopefully, it will be eyecatching, silly, and fun enough to provoke some interest. We still need new people. Our teammates keep moving away, unfortunately.

Demon Puppy is at that stage where she wants to do so much more than she should. (Actually, she's always been at that stage, it's just more so now) It's very frustrating, for her and me. I think I lucked out, again, on my puppy. I have been consistently amazed at how wonderfully each of my dogs do. I honestly don't know why. Yes, I have some frustrations with Weasel in her agility, but, they are fine tuning, training type frustrations. She in sound, fast, and has a blast. Spoiled One, at nearly eleven years is also healthy and happy in mind and body. He is a rodeo to run at flyball, but he does sub 5 seconds at tournaments. For my starter dog, my geezer dog, that I completely screwed up teaching the boxturn to, he does pretty darn good.

Then there is Demon Puppy. Honestly, what do you know at 8 weeks? They're cute and fuzzy. But, I love how she is turning out, how she is built, her size, her temperament, everything. She seems to have gotten her angles and proportions from her mother, her heart and biddability from her father, and her size from I don't know where. To have an 18 - inch dog was an unexpected bonus. I was just hoping for under 21 inches.

The puppy is young, and things happen, sometimes. I really hope I don't break her, somehow. But, I wanted to take a moment and acknowledge the happy that is now. Hopefully, I don't jinx myself, or something.

2011-02-13T12:38:00.000-08:00

I just found my other dog walking shoe. It was in Demon Puppy's secret stash outside. This is the second time one of my shoes has wondered into the backyard without me, and many other things have trekked their way outside. I still love my doggie door.

I found it when I was outside doing every dogowner's duty. As I wondered about, looking for things to scoop, Weasel practiced weird angle weave pole entries and Demon Puppy raged in her kennel inside. At ten months, she is still quite the banshee. Oddly, I feed her in her crate with the door closed, and I don't hear a peep from her - even if I forget to let her back out for awhile. It's just the girl-dog jealously thing, I guess. Weasel is also quite vocal and has to be crated when I play with Demon Puppy. Spoiled One barks his objections when I play with either of the girls, but it's more just a "Hey, you're forgetting something." Besides, Spoiled One barks pretty much with every breath. It's his thing. I don't think he even has conscious control over it.

I was thinking about Spoiled One's eventual retirement from flyball. He still has a lot of fun and enthusiasm, but I notice a bit more stiffness and slowness getting up from his post-flyball nap. I know he has some arthritis in his spine and I worry about his his back legs. Ten years, nearly eleven, is getting up there for a German Shepherd Dog mix. He's finally beginning to gain weight. All the time I've owned him, I've been concerned by how skinny he is. You don't see it because of all the plush fur, but underneath, you could count every vertebra. Well, he's beginning, finally to put on a little layer of fat.

But, he is still so enthusiastic and playful. He suffers if I don't give him a lot of activity. He's eating well and had no trouble being start dog for an entire tournament. I don't know if my thoughts about retirement are mostly for my own convenience. He is such a rodeo to run, big and loud and full of himself. But, he has such fun.

Is it Really a Popularity Contest?

2011-01-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

I had another sucky agility class with Weasel. She was checking out and running off. I was so worried that she would run off and go play with other dogs doing other exercises that I was frozen and not giving her proper cue at the proper time or maintaining any connection with her. As I got more frustrated, she checked out more and well, yeah. One of those classes.

It is frustrating. When we get it together, she amazes me. She is fast, bright, responsive and makes it look so easy. It's like a dance. I can see such potential in her. But, instead, I am stuck in the position of competing for her attention with all the other dogs, and their squeaky toys, and their handlers. I have been sucked into the "just need a better toy" vortex. It doesn't work. A toy she can't resist in someone else's hands she won't even look at when I'm holding it. I've tried the switching toys, etc. I don't know how many times I've heard the "you just have to be the most interesting thing." I wave the toys and scamper and play growl and dance and all of that, and it just revs her up until she turns into the glassy-eyed dingbat that can't even see the tug toy bouncing off her nose.

I don't think it's a matter of being "the most interesting." I don't think agility is about a popularity contest where I spend the entire class competing to be the most interesting thing. I believe that it's not about "being the most interesting thing out there" but about being the safe, trusted, reliable and habitual thing out there; about having developed a relationship with her that causes her to habitually check in, trust, listen and respond. (Keep in mind, I currently suck at agility) Weasel finds agility fun, but stressful. Stress causes dogs to revert. I believe my frustration and the exposure to strange people stresses her and the best thing I can do is to give her a safe harbor and reassuring direction.

So, based on that theory, I am going to spend the next couple of weeks working on that relationship: walks, just her and me, massages, tricks for treats, and just try to build that communication and relationship.

Bad Puppy!

2010-12-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

Demon Puppy expressed an opinion about my playing with Spoiled One outside. I actually saw her take great bites out of the window covering, like a demented furry alligator. I had played with her just before and (I thought) worn her out. Apparently, I was wrong.

Oh well, the window coverings sucked anyway. Sigh.

Workin' Those Issues

2010-12-26T13:18:00.000-08:00

Rather frustrating agility drill in Los Lunas today. Good, but frustrating, both for Weasel and me. I accidentally picked the hardest course. Also, I am spoiled in that usually I camp out in a course by myself while the rest of the group does another course with the instructor. This time, soon after I hit the course, the rest of the group came over, so I was dealing with Weasel loosing her brain because there are other border collies. However, it is something we need to work on. I'm kinda of glad they did come over. It's just frustrating to actually work on this issue with Weasel. And Weasel, being the very sensitive and soft dog that she is, picks up on my frustration and shuts down (her version of shutting down is to tune me out completely and loop around the course or go sniff on the sidelines and steal things out of other people's bags.)

Sigh.

However, we persevered, and I got to see her have bits of success with the other dogs around.

Unfortunately, the course I picked to start on was the most difficult. As the instructor told me "this isn't even an AKC course" It was a real course, but USDAA masters level. The first part of the sequence was through the tire, straight over the A-Frame, over a jump, right and over a jump (not taking the jump in front of her or the dog walk that were soooo tempting) around and a bit of a run to the next jump, turn to the right again for another jump in a loose 270 degree turn (not taking the teeter, which was right there) then back through, by (but not over) the jump she just took to the teeter.

We were kinda doing tire, A-frame, jump, right dogwalk at first, then switched to tire, A-frame, jump, right, jump vrrroooooom past the next jump and me pointing at a jump, straight to the teeter. It was very, very frustrating, but it was good to work on my skills (or lack there of - I kept catching myself signaling the turn with the wrong hand, facing the wrong direction). And, we eventually succeeded in that bit of the course. Then I played frisbee and looked for something easier. It was somewhat consoling that everyone else had problems with it as well.

I think oodles of boxwork with jumps will help me, and remembering that Weasel needs a high level of reward and and patience. And so do I.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T09:54:00.000-08:00

So cute, except for the decapitation business

The Spoiled One says "PPPPPLLLLLLLBBBBBT!"

Yeah, right. Why don't you pose all cute with the stupid ribbon?

'Tis the season, after all. However, if they're gonna pull this kind of stuff, I think I need to find the dorkiest hats and antlers and dress them all up, next year.

Ordering Food for Raw Fed Dogs

2010-12-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

I just recently discovered that there is a a local group trying to start a raw feeding buyers group. It's very exciting to me because I spend more on dog food than people food. Spoiled One is the worst. Anyway, here is the link:

Local to Albuquerque Raw Feeding Coop

I placed an order through them for chicken quarters and it worked out well, and much cheaper than my other sources. Just thought I would share, as the more people in the group, the more buying power the group has. Plus, the more links to the site, the higher the Google rating, and the more people that see it who are looking for it, so, yeah, I put a gratuitous link in my blog. I'm evil. Deal with it. I like cheap(er) dog food. Plus, I'm sick of getting weird looks from the cashiers at Albertson's when I buy vegetarian this, that, and the other thing, Silk milk equivalent, and then heaps of family pack chicken quarters.

By the way, yes, it was a practice Saturday. Spoiled One and Demon Puppy did awesome, blah blah blah. Weasel's return to me is deteriorating. She seems out of shape, too - less endurance, fading fast. I definitely need to work that. ,

Demon Puppy is beginning to enter that "make me" stage - i. e., "You want me to come over there? Yeah, right. Make me."

Sigh.

Teenagers are such fun.

Oh well, she's ridiculously cute, very sweet, and faster than (there was a bad word here). We'll work on obedience.

Saturday Practice

2010-12-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

The 45 minute drive to Los Lunas is worth it just let the dogs play in that field. It was a beautiful day for practice. We all arrived at about the same time, and as soon as the dogs were let out of the car, they joyously raced around that half-acre field. I love seeing them stretch out and run. Demon Puppy kept trying to herd Spoiled One, and Weasel stalked Captain unmercifully. It seemed like every time I looked around, Weasel was so flat on the ground only her mohawk stuck up above the grass, with her eyes fixed on Captain.

Demon Puppy ran in great arcs out around the other dogs, or tried to cut off Spoiled One and Nacho as they ran about. That puppy wants sheep so bad. I love that beautiful outrun. So far, it doesn't seem to have caused her any tendency to break off and chase the dog in the other lane. (knock on wood) She is so easy I feel like I am cheating somehow. I'm just starting the over and back over a low hurdle (she got it immediately, of course). I am also trying to keep up with the fetch/switch, and restrained recalls, catching, and making certain other people call her and she responds.

Anyway, one of my teammates made a video of Spoiled One, Weasel, and a dog named Captain's boxturns (or lack there of) yesterday. I'm happy with Weasel, but Spoiled One is using the prop as a foot rest. PITA dog. I'm not really sure what to do with it at this point. He is ten years old, so I don't want to do a lot of bouncing off the wall kind of stuff. Maybe I can work on having him sit up and other things to emphasize those back feet.

A Good Agility Class

2010-11-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

I'm happy! I just had a nice agility class with Weasel. She has this distraction problem. Lots of triggers, like border collies, running dogs, strange men. She points at them and strains and barks all during class and I fight and struggle to compete for a scrap of her attention. I've been reading "Control Unleashed" and trying to apply some of it to pry her attention from all those other things so she can function in class. The sensation of trying to physically force the dog to turn her head toward me for an instant so that I can reward it (and failing) is very familiar to me.

Anyway, tonight, I stuffed her in the car and harnessed her in. She ran back and forth to the extent that she could in the harness and was over the top stimulation-wise by the time we got to class. However, class was apparently cancelled. Some of us didn't get the message. So we worked a bit and I tried an exercise from Control Unleashed called "Look at that Dog" It felt so weird. But it seems to be working! The other dogs running about were much less fascinating and she was soon much more focused on me than she ever had been with all the Look at Me and constant treating. In the space of a few minutes, she was staring at me, barely flicking her eyes at the other dog.

Since their were so few dogs there, she was off leash a lot, and no running off or checking out to sniff. She stuck with me. Her expression was happy and engaged, rather than frantic and obsessive. She actually was interested in her toy instead of magically loosing interest as soon as we got to agility class. I wasn't competing for her attention, and it was great! Hope I can carry it forward to the next class.

Indoor Games

2010-11-23T19:20:00.000-08:00

It happens a lot this time of year. The weather gets cold and dark. I get lazy. Spoiled One starts tugging on my pant legs and bringing me shoes while Weasel heaves theatrical, despairing, sighs from whatever dog bed she is curled up in.

They're bored.

Lately, Demon Puppy adds her contribution. She goes and sits by the back door. I offer to let her out. She declines. Over and over. Eventually, after a few minutes, the combined telepathic messages of three dogs asking "why do you have dogs if you aren't going to play with us?" wears me down and I start playing their indoor games.

Spoiled One's mostest favortest ever is "Get the puppy." He bounces around and I chase after him, trying to catch him or grabbing at this legs. He makes wonderful snarly faces and pretends to bite at me. Weasel is too soft and gentle to wrestle with people, but she likes a bit of ticklebug.

Another favorite is "Where is it?" The dogs have to wait, out of sight, in a sit-stay, while I hide a toy. Then, I release them and they race around to find whatever it is.

These games all started out as training games. Wrestling teaches the dog to have soft mouth around people and to exercise self-restraint, even when excited and involved in the game. Ticklebug shows the dog that being touched unexpectedly is fun. Where is It works on sit-stays, keeping the stay when I am out of sight, and competing without aggression.

I want to come up with some games to help teach Weasel to relax and connect with me better at trials, but that may be more of a massage type thing. I wonder if I can find a book on TTouch.

Sekhmet Does the Baby Jumps

2010-11-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Awwww, my puppy is awesome. Just have to say it. Every flyball practice, I am amazed by her. Today, she was driving over the baby jumps to a person holding a tug. (Since she is still a baby, I don't want to use real jumps, but these were close, real jumps but very low to protect the baby joints, and the surface was soft grass.) This was the first time she was introduced to baby jumps. I thought I would be tripping over her and falling over jumps. Nope. She just fixed her eyes on the prize and booked for the person at the end of the lane. All I had to do was let go of the leash. No gates or nuttin! Thank you, thank you, thank you for this awesome puppy. It's kind of bewildering how she just gets stuff. No training required, just get out of the way.

Nacho, another dog at practice did pretty well, also. He had his debut in singles at a tournament two weeks ago, but, alas, sort of went a bit ga ga and didn't complete a single run. Well, his owner was working with him and they made up a new game involving a collapsible bowl at the finish line, and Nacho seemed to "get it." He was doing full runs with another dog in the other lane and having fun. The young dog who was running in the other lane, who has a tendency toward blowing it off and shutting down, was doing recalls with enthusiasm and tugging.

All in all, a good practice for the youngsters. The oldsters had fun, too. Weasel is out of her cone and got to get out and play for the first time since the "incident." She had fun, was a bit ga ga, but showed no signs of being uncomfortable or affected by it. Spoiled one ran, foamed, chased tennis balls and had fun.

Post Injury Dithering and Rationalization

2010-10-31T12:54:00.000-07:00

Cone head entertainment

Weasel was hurt at a recent tournament, and whenever one of my dogs is hurt, I go through the dithering angst: Should I continue doing this?

The fact is, I know I am putting my dogs in danger when I do these things with them. Every road trip could be a crash. Every time they hit the box, something could go wrong. I am putting them at the mercy of a hundred dogs and people I don't know, many of them dogs who are new to this and confused. Yes, the judges are wonderful and care is taken to intervene when a dog appears to be aggressive or predatory. But, surprises happen. Then there is the fact that flyball is physically hard on them, with the repetitive jumping and collisions with the box, and sprinting from a dead stop to full speed, then screeching to a stop, over and over. They would be much safer if I kept them at home and took them on hikes, or played Frisbee in the back yard.
I know I am putting my dogs in danger, yet I continue to do it. Why? I love them and go to great lengths to protect them and give them a good and joyful life. I don't think flyball is the meaning to life. It doesn't cure cancer or feed starving babies. But, it gives my dogs joy. They love it. All the crazy frantic obsessive-compulsiveness that drives a person crazy is transformed into a wonderful thing. There are other sports, and my dogs dabble in those as well, but every dog sport has the potential for injury. Dogs fall off of the equipment in agility or run into aggressive dogs ringside. I have seen agility dogs with the broken down, over-extended front legs because of the stress of 2 on 2 off contacts. Herding dogs are in danger of being kicked, or ground into the ground, or getting out at stock unsupervised and getting shot. I have heard of disc dogs landing wrong and being paralyzed. I'm not sure what the hazards would be for Dock Diving, but Spoiled One believed that water was dangerous. Every dog sport is hazardous. Weasel has sliced up her feet just running back and forth in the back yard playing ball. (See metal lawn edging is evil)

Seelie at the Shelter

There is another reason I like to get my dogs out to sporting events. Two of them are pound puppy specials. Spoiled One had been returned to or abandoned at the pound by three different homes before I got him from Yamhill County Dog Control in Oregon. At four months old, Weasel found herself as an owner surrender at Albuquerque Eastside Animal Control. At that time, about half the dogs that came into the shelter didn't leave it alive. I really want people to see these vital, enthusiastic, amazing dogs competing on the same field as dogs bred for these sports, so they can realize that there are wonderful, astounding dogs available through rescue and shelters.

So, I will continue doing flyball and other dog sports with my dogs, and, unfortunately, at some point, there will probably be another injury or accident, and I will go through the same debate with myself. But, truth be told, they live a wonderful life, and I believe in my heart that, despite the risks, it is much better than being safely kept at home, sheltered from hazard.

It Was the Worst of Times, It Was the Best of Times

2010-10-29T21:45:00.000-07:00

I bought some pictures, but, alas, the cd is lost. Too bad. They were good pictures.

Anyway, the debut of Weasel and the Spoiled One was . . . interesting. The drive wasn't. Bits of it are pretty, and the scenery is kind of cool with the striped mesas and tortured geography. It's a looooooong drive to Utah. Fortunately the person I rode with was one of those nice, cheerful people. Not so cheerful you want to conk them over the head with something, just the right amount of cheerful. When I went to empty the water bowl out the window, and dropped it, and had us turn around and go cruising back down the road to find it where it had sailed off into the bushes, she didn't even swear at me.

Demon Puppy, who pees on command at home on promise of a game of tug or whatever, decided not to

Isn't she a good car puppy?

pee. At all. Twelve hour car trip, lots of stops. Nacho happily watered bushes and grass shoots. Weasel squatted and did her undignified duty. An archeologist (a really bored one who needs to get another hobby) could track the course of our trip from evidence of Spoiled One's pee from New Mexico to Utah. But, not a drop from Demon Puppy. After a day of this, I got rather obsessed about Demon Puppy juice. I mean, honestly, doesn't it seem like holding it that long would rupture something? Yes, puppies can be leery of spreading their scent, or whatever, but for more than a day? Usually my dogs are rather too leaky for my preference. Anyway, eventually, on the afternoon of the second day, I looked over at Demon Puppy in her crate, and she was standing on her tippy toes in one corner, looking rather sheepish. Finally. You wouldn't believe how much that puppy peed.

Weasel watching cars

We got to the tournament, late, (which I am sure had NOTHING to do with the adventure wandering around in the sagebrush looking for a cheap plastic water bowl that flew out of the truck. Or then, a half hour later, retracing our route due to some missing sunglasses. Nope. Nothing at all.) Anyway, we got to the tournament, at the last possible minute, ran in with Weasel and Spoiled One, lined up and ran the first race. Then we gibbered about trying to get ready for Nacho's race, and Gracie's. Then, I lined Weasel up for her singles race. The first two heats were fine, a close race with a dog we knew and loved. Then, the other dog got a little too excited, broke away from his handler and mistook Weasel for a tug toy.

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She got past him, went to the box, got her ball and came back. I didn't realize she was hurt until she got back and I brushed at some spit in her fur and saw the gaping hole bitten into her side. I think I was numb as I started leading her off the lanes and then fumbled around on our team table for the emergency vet number. People said things to me, but I had no idea what they said. The person whose dog bit her was immediately there, and drove us to the vet, paid for everything and was as shocked by it as I was. My team had to scramble around trying to scrape together a lineup for the real racing on Saturday and Sunday, as we had just lost our young, whipper-snapper start dog to injury. We hadn't even considered a back-up start dog. It was a shockingly horrible start to the tournament for everybody involved.


Spoiled One sleeping off his efforts

But, though Weasel's star was going behind a cloud, Spoiled One's star shone. We ended up using him as the start dog for the "real" team. For once, he got to run for real with people who know him and weren't scared of him. (Spoiled One is a 60 pound german shepherd mix who is so frenzied at the start line he foams at the mouth. Literally. Foams. As in rabid dog symptom.) He was absolutely consistent and ran perfectly, every heat, for the entire tournament. He was so consistent, I got a .000 start with him. My ten year old, geezer, butt of the joke flyball dog ran with the real dogs and shone. He didn't slow down at all the entire tournament. (He also didn't do a single box turn, but he wouldn't be my Spoiled One if he did) We took first in our division the first day, and second in the second day. The dogs that got to run on the pick-up team that Spoiled One vacated got a chance to shine. Little Red Dog got to show she was FAST, and Speckled Dog learned to not cross over. We didn't break into the newer, faster time range that I was hoping for this tournament, but we did okay, and Spoiled One had a blast. My dog having a blast is the whole reason I do this, so it was a glorious success and really was the best of times.

Here's hoping I recover from the flu quickly and that Weasel soon escapes the cone of shame and gets the nasty staples taken out, that I find the cd of pictures, that Demon Puppy leaks just the right amount, and that Spoiled One doesn't drive me too crazy.

Lord Help Us

2010-09-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Our team is planning on going to JnJ in Hurricane, UT. The singles and pairs are on Friday, with the regular racing on Saturday and Sunday. Usually I don't do singles or pairs with my two because they run on the other teams and it doesn't seem fair to wear them out for the team races. However, I have always wanted to do a pairs with Weasel and the Spoiled One, and it looks like I'll get to, this tournament.

I don't expect to win anything, I am just playing. Plus, it gives someone else a chance to handle and run Weasel, which she needs, and which we will need if we want to ever use Spoiled One as an alternate in the "real" team. Also, Demon Puppy seems to be catching on quite quickly and might be ready to run for next years' tournament (yes, I just jinxed myself) and if her and Weasel's flyball careers overlap, they often might end up on the same team. It just makes everything more flexible if dogs can be handled by others.

We had a nice practice this Saturday, though I showed up late. Weasel was a good dog. Spoiled One refused to do anything boxturn like and consistently turned the wrong way. People keep wanting to switch the ball to the other side when he does that, but I keep insisting it go in the one side, because I think the switching back and forth just aggravates the problem. His habit of switching and blowing off boxturns certainly aggravates me. The green dogs were doing nicely, except for distraction issues.

Demon Puppy ran her recalls with a distraction in the other lane and did just fine. She's entering a more destructive phase, so dog beds and wicker work boxes, shoes, socks and carpet are all not safe from her. When Spoiled One tries to nap, she also likes to wander around him in circles while he growls half-heartedly at her to stay away. I have caught them in several chase games, which are very cute. They take turns being "it."

I'm a Cute Puppy

2010-09-05T19:44:00.000-07:00


I'm a cute puppy.

Commiserating with my sister.

Because I REAAAAALLLLY want her chewie.

Shouldn't I get everything I want?

Puppy Physics

2010-07-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

Puppies poop. A LOT. More comes out the stinky end than goes in the sharp end. Conservation of matter would seem to prohibit this, but Demon Puppy rips the stuffing out of the Laws of Physics.

And they GROW. A LOT.

It's a good thing they are cute.

Anyway, Demon Puppy, in brief breaks from producing stinky conundrums, is attending classes. She goes to flyball practice and gets cuddled and goes to Puppy Fun and plays with flat, baby puppy versions of agility equipment. Being a baby, she shouldn't jump, or bend, or any joint damaging thing, but she's learning about recalls and fetch, surfaces and tunnels, and having a blast. Plus it involves hot dog bits.

It's on the same night as Weasel Puppy's agility class, so they both ride in the car there, then trade out waiting in the crate while the other does her thing. I need to work out the finer details. The first time, Weasel's agility class was cancelled, so I had time to dump her at home and grab the Demon. However, this week, both classes were on and I had a variety of "issues." There was the treat bag that I could NOT open. I spent most of Weasel's agility drill tearing bits off of it trying to get to the good stuff, crinkling in a distracting way during every one's runs. Finally, someone couldn't stand it and got their keys and stabbed the bag.

Then, there was the problem of the moving puppy class. Demon Puppy's class was partially indoors, partially outdoors, and so I was dragging Weasel, and her crate, and her water bowl, and her crate cover, and Demon Puppy back and forth.

Agility instructors, be glad I am not your student. Anyway, they were patient with my excessive neediness.

Tonight, I was working on flyball skills. Weasel and the Spoiled One got to bounce off the wall. I gave up on a touch stick and just lure them with the ball, then throw it, so they get the whole "launch" idea. I am afraid to do it too much, as it is a repetitive stress on their joints. Demon Puppy got to do fetch, but she was going through a "ball? yeah right - you go get it!" phase. So I made the ball zip around, gently attacking her nose and feet and tail and various spots and she decided it was fun again.

Now, everyone is happily panting and some toy is squeaking. Fortunately, it's not the cat. Demon Puppy has actually been rather good about that.

Little Demon Puppy Goes Visiting

2010-07-05T08:46:00.000-07:00

The little Demon Puppy is getting far enough in her sequence of shots that I am feeling more secure taking her out and about, and she needs to get socialization in. So she has been meeting other dogs,

and other people, including some young children and an infant, which I am thrilled she gets a chance to be around. (There are some VERY cute pictures of her with the baby, from flyball practice, but she's not my kid so I'm not going to post pictures on the web without asking her family. But they are VERY cute. I mean, seriously, a puppy, a baby, what more could you ask for in cuteness?)

Sekhmet and her Aunt Shock (in the picture above) went on a walkabout in a local pet store to see new things and new people, and lots of strangers skritched the puppy. I am amazed at how many people know exactly what she is:

"Oh, they are so cute! What color are their eyes?"
"The puppy has one blue eye and one brown eye"
"Akitas!"
"?"
"Akitas!"

That was a new one. I am used to people thinking she's an aussie. Maybe a cattledog. But an Akita?

I suspect it's karma coming to get me because I have a pound puppy border collie that I fake registered in AKC as a mixed breed so she can compete in events (I couldn't find the ILP link at the time), that people keep picking on me and telling me "that is a purebred border collie." Now I have an AKC registered purebred border collie that people are calling an Akita. Karma.

Practice, Practice, Practice

2010-07-03T17:15:00.001-07:00

It was hot today, and muggy. I don't think our hearts were in it.

The dogs did okay, but were not particularly focused. The Demon Puppy of Albuquerque did some nice restrained recalls over a short distance for hot dog bits. Spoiled One was spooked by his nemesis being too close to him in the line-up and ran around the jumps. Weasel was almost going for the tug, but she's been almost going for the tug at Saturday practices forever.

Just sort of an "eh" practice. .

Gizzy and Gracie continue to be more and more solid. Zoe is getting the basics of box work. Nacho was a little wonky, but he had been on a sleepover.

On the home front, Demon Puppy is getting more and more house privileges as she continues to learn her house-training. She and Weasel love to play:

and the ears do what the ears will do:

There Was a Little Girl

2010-06-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right at the tippy tip of her ear
She tried to be good
So very very good
But alas, her handler wasn't very clear.

Weasel and I had our first agility trial. We entered Nov A FAST, JWW and STD both days. The first day was a bewildering mass of confusion - getting there late, Spoiled One escaping, not knowing where to unload or sign in or be measured, or show up to volunteer, forgetting phone and dog brush and a zillion other things that it turned out I could survive without just fine. The second day was much more relaxed and fun.

Weasel did decently, considering. She ended up with two qualification ribbons and two 2nd place ribbons. Various people gave me grief over signing her up under the Canine Partners instead of ILP'ing (is it now PAL'ing) her as a border collie. Yes, I think she's a border collie. But, she is a pound puppy. She is spayed and her exact ancestry is unknown. Why make a fake purebred almost registration for her? Every title she earns (if she earns any) I want people to know that this dog is a rescue, a dog someone threw away.

Anyway, I now know I need to work on weaves, and directional cues with my little flying ferret, and start line stays.

During this adventure, the Demon Puppy of Albuquerque visited with some of my flyball friends who took wonderful care of her. They posted pictures of Demon Puppy stalking and chewing on their dogs and admired how smart and cute and ferocious she was. She grew, of course.

It's Like She Came Housebroken

2010-06-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

This is so weird. Not one accident in the house so far. She seems like the perfect puppy. Sekhmet bounces around the room at my feet playing with her toys. She follows me around, and objects when I leave her for an instant. When she starts wandering around, sniffing the floor, I go to the door, she rushes out and pees! I'm happy about it, but I was expecting a LOT more issues.

She had her first vet visit and was proclaimed in excellent condition.

Weasel is giving her the full dose of puppy license. She seems to enjoy having the little thing around. Zephram finds her annoying, but tolerates her violations of his personal space. I make sure and give him safe zones where he doesn't have to worry about little puppies cramming their noses in his ears and climbing all over him.

The shrieking has really toned down. She seems to understand that she is okay, and loved, and I will be back in a minute.

Ooopsie - first accident inside. Guess she's mortal after all.

(Brief pause while I take puppy outside and clean up)

I swear she is already learning to retrieve! Her favorite toys are rubbery Kong-like toys and I found one that was a squishy sort of lattice-work sphere with a fuzzy little ball inside it. She loves it. We were playing tug of war and fetch with it. Weasel and Spoiled One were very jealous. (I played with them, too)

She likes to sleep under foot, between my feet and the computer desk. When she sleeps. It isn't often. Such a good little girl.

In other news, after a three-week break, Weasel did well at agility drill. She listened to me when I told her the wrong course, but it's not her fault she has an idiot handler. She responded to my turn cues and was a good little girl.

Sekhmet's here!!!!

2010-05-31T17:48:00.000-07:00

We's got puppy, Lord help us! Me, Weasel, the Spoiled One and the little Bon Bon arrived about 3:30 am this morning. It was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooong drive.

I drove down to CA to get her from her breeder, Karen Moureaux of Contact Point Border Collies. I had spent years internet stalking her to make sure she was good. She knows where every puppy she's bred is. She keeps in contact with the owners with Yahoo Groups and Facebook. She has spay/neuter in the puppy contract. She takes back any dogs that don't work out. She does all the health screening. She doesn't price by color or sex. She is involved in herding, agility, and other activities and provides a venue for trials at her ranch.

So, after waiting for the female I wanted to be mated to the male I wanted, and the months of gestation and weaning, I brought home the little Bon Bon.

The car ride started out icky. The little thing screamed like a banshee and was carsick. I pulled over about three times before we got to the interstate to clean out her crate and her. Sick puppies are really pitiful. However, once she and her breakfast parted company, she was golden. She would sleep in her crate, and I would be terrified and check that she was still breathing. Then, at rest stops, she bounced around and wriggled and acted like a little puppy. If I left her for an instant, she screamed like a banshee.

Unfortunately, that trend has continued.

She screamed when I put her in her crate by the bed for the night (at 4:00 am). She screamed when I dashed to the bathroom a little before 8:00 am this morning. She screamed when I put her out in the x-pen. I've been trying to mitigate the screaming today by only approaching when she's quieted, a little, at least for an instant. It seems to have paid off, at least a little.

She seems content, at the moment. There are little needle-sharp teeth masticating my toe at I write. Today, she's practiced tugging and coming when called. She also met one of the neighbors when I apologized for the screaming. The neighbor just laughed and said it's a puppy thing. She hasnet yet had an accident in the house, although she's peed on me twice and the neighbor once.

She is a prescious little thing and I am so terrified that something will happen or she will get sick.

This, That and the Other Thing

2010-01-18T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well, there has been a lot of upsets and changes:

Fluffy White Thing, also known as Mini-Zee, or Ruffy, has found a home. He is living with an older couple as the only dog and seems to be thriving.

Weasel's stitches have healed, after some messing with them, ointments and an e-collar. Now, she just has the funny looking shaved patch. As she is rather funny looking, it seems to work for her.

Spoiled One had an unfortunate episode of colitis that just seemed to get worse and worse. I ended up taking him to the vet. He gave me drugs and suggested a bland diet. Spoiled One recovered, which was a relief, as the weather was way too cold to leave him outside when I was at work, and one of the symptoms was diarrhea. (Too much info, I know) In the course of diagnosis, x-rays were taken which showed he had developed some arthritis (spurs and a lesion) in his spine. I am not surprised, he is getting older, and he used to do complete back flips on concrete for the Frisbee when I first got him. However, it's very hard to think of my puppy getting old. They recommended I keep doing the flyball and activities with him, unless he shows pain, as that is what's keeping him in such good condition.

And, my thoughts have turned to puppies. Weasel will be four, Spoiled One ten this year. I need a new training challenge. I'm sure I could find the perfect dog in rescue, but there is a breeder who has a line of dogs I've been admiring and wanting one of. She's a good breeder, with a rigorous owner screening process and a friend of a friend. So, I will get a puppy from her. It looks like Summer before the female I want a puppy out of will be in season.

All of this means no foster dogs, for a while.

Practice Sucked

2009-12-13T17:46:00.000-08:00

Weasel says practice sucked this weekend. I was lining her up for boxwork when someone said "Wait! There's something on her side!" I looked. It was a great big hole! No one saw anything and we don't know for certain what happened, but the vet thought she got caught in a stray fence wire or something.

Anyway, it's all stitched up now. Hopefully, it will heal quickly.

Items I have Pried Out of Mini-Zee's Jaws

2009-12-06T17:34:00.000-08:00

Can of Raid
Scissors
Television Remote
AA Battery
Ball Point Pen
Broken Glass
Black Shoe Polish Applicator
Black Dress Shoe
Slipper
Tennis Shoe
Clog
Numerous Plastic Grocery Bags
Fish Food Canister
Tester Bottle for Aquarium Water
Watering Can
Vacuum Cleaner Parts

This list is, of course, incomplete and many items should be listed multiple times.

The Fluffy White Thing

2009-11-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

Uh Oh, it's another one.

"Ruffy" is a lethal white mini aussie, deaf as grandpa. ("Lethal White" is a term for a homozygous merle, the product of a merle to merle breeding. They can be okay, but sometimes you get the almost all white dogs that may be deaf or blind. He is deaf.) He is very cuddly, very bright, and very trainable. He also has the attention span of a gnat.

We're working on the last part. Mostly, it's the aussie attitude of "ho hum, got it already!" He has actually learned quite a bit since he came to stay with me. He'll down, sit, and roll over from hand signals. His "watch me" is getting better. He doesn't recall worth anything, yet. Ruffy grasped the basics of a flyball box turn in two lessons, and fetches nicely. He's learned to tug. Fortunately, he came housetrained. There is an unrequited fascination with the cat, but it's not unmanageable. I am working on using a laser light in place of a clicker, and he seems to be picking up on it.

This dog is athletic, loves to run, loves to learn, loves to play and is very food motivated. I think he would be a lot of fun to train for agility, flyball, or Frisbee. He is absolutely deaf. I come home from work or find him in the morning still curled up like a fluffy white donut, oblivious to the car noises, the dogs barking and bounding around next to him, or even the vibrations of footsteps and the garage door. He loves other dogs, although he does push the limits of their tolerance with his constant jumping on them and nipping at them. Warning growls go unnoticed. He was injured by another dog in his previous foster home, and bitten by one of the dogs on the flyball team, so he should always be supervised with other dogs.

He is intelligent enough to need a job. Frisbee, agility, something. If not sufficiently stimulated, he will run back and forth in a pattern, barking at the same imaginary spot over and over. Also, he will find every loose thing in your house and chew it to bits.

I believe his ideal home would be with an older child interested in getting into dog sports.

Momentous Weekend

2009-09-19T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a rather momentous weekend last weekend.

Flyball practice was cancelled (mud), so I took Benniedoodle to an adoption event in Rio Rancho. It was my first one, and I'm afraid I rather hate them. So many people, and I am not a people person, and so many dogs, huddled in a small tent. The dogs cower and shut down or their eyes get that glazed over look. So many people, as well, and they looked pretty glazed also.

It was hard for me to figure out the balance. I wanted to hover by Bennie's cage and pounce on any show of interest, but it seemed better to step back. People seemed more comfortable checking the dogs out if I gave them space, so I lurked in the corner and spied on them. There was a beautiful husky. Everyone's eyes would light up when they saw that dog. I saw so many children's eyes light up and they would zero in on that dog.

Bennie was a sweetie, and I saw several people, usually older people, stop, reach down and scratch his ears. Then, they moved on. Finally, a few hours into it, a couple stopped, and visited his cage. They started asking all sorts of questions and I told them they could take him out and walk around with him to get to know him. They did, and were gone a long time. I was a little concerned that they decided to just, well, leave. However, they came back and asked more questions. Then left on another walk about with him, then came back and asked about adoption forms.

They took him away for a two week trial, and last I heard, he was doing splendidly with him. My first foster doggie was adopted! It's was sort of a surprise.

That happened on Saturday, so Sunday I was a bit at loose ends - I had been spending so much time working with Bennie, that I wasn't sure what to do with myself. So I took Weasel dock diving. She did very well, considering she had never seen a swimming pool or dock before. Her main issue seemed to be that she couldn't figure out how to get back out and would swim little panicked circuits of the perimeter of the pool, while I crawled down the ramp and called her. After a couple of those episodes, she seemed reluctant to jump off the dock again, but I encouraged her and she did. It helped when I taught her where the ramp was by throwing the toy off of it and letting her run down it into the water. I think I'll try it again with Spoiled One, though I rather expect he'll refuse to jump.

Bad Puppy

2009-09-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Design from http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy, under "flyball designs"

Well, remember how I was posting about Bennie being such a good boy? Remember how I said he wasn't destructive? Ummm. . . I kind of lied.

I didn't mean too. It's just that I think Bennie's found his inner puppy. He isn't bad, mind you, he's just a typical puppy. But I had been suckered in by his earlier angelic behaviour. Today, every time I turn around, he's chewing on a shoe, counter surfing, or pulling yarn out of the carpet. I think it's just that he's beginning to settle in, and, also, I've been busy and distracted today. He got bored. Bored puppies are dangerous things.

He does it all with complete puppy innocence and greets you with a wagging tail. Such a good natured puppy.

He went to flyball practice with the other two yesterday. Of course, he is too young to do any intensive training. I just practiced recalls and let him play with different dogs and be petted by strange people. I've discovered he will howl in that circumstance. Ordinarily, he's so quiet. In his defense, everybody else was vocalizing to the best of their abilities at the time.

My two dogs, Weasel and Spoiled One, did well at practice. It looks like we are going to the Rio Rancho tournament, so Bennie won't get his out of state trip for a while. Weasel and Spoiled One did well on their box work. I seem to have broken my passing jinx. I didn't do well, but I was within a few feet and not running the other dog out of the lane. I did have to move Spoiled One back to 40 feet and wait until Molly had jumped the second jump, but I can deal with that.

I like long weekends. I finally got a new design up.

http://www.weaselpuppy.com

Biteyface

2009-09-04T19:21:00.001-07:00

Biteyface, biteyface, let's play biteyface!

What? You're bored? Let's play MORE biteyface!

Benniedoodle has been enjoying himself of late, sporting with his foster siblings. There have been a lot of play bows, wagging tails, posturing, bouncing around and scampering too and fro. The current favorite seems to be wrestling with Weasel. He has also enticed Spoiled One in a few games, but Spoiled One has apparently developed a fear of the paparazzi (actually, he thinks camera flashes are lightening bolts) and it makes him more difficult to catch in the act.

Bennie is also exhibiting periodic episodes of puppy zoomies. He is developing his fetch and tug skill repertoire, and practices sit, down, and wait (that's a hard one) on a daily basis.

If you are thinking a handsome, neutered, healthy, 10 month old smooth coat border collie mix who has medium to low drive, is playful with people and dogs, seems to be housebroken, doesn't irritate the cat unduly, loves everyone he meets and still has the puppy zoomies, Bennie might be exactly what you want.

More information can be obtained through Bro and Tracy:

http://www.broandtracy.org/broandtracy/index.shtml#ben

Adoption Application:

adopnquestionnare.doc

http://www.weaselpuppy.com

Bennie Update

2009-09-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the foster puppy is still ridiculously cute. He's a very mellow boy in the house, content to lay at your feet. He gets quite playful when invited, though. Right now, he is bouncing around the back yard with Spoiled One, like a pair of oversize kittens.

Bennie does not have the high drive that my other two have, which makes him much easier to live with. He would probably do better at agility than flyball. I don't mean that he isn't playful - he definitely is. He's certainly an agile puppy, bouncing over things. He likes toys and interactive play.

He appears to be housebroken, but I haven't given him much opportunity to disprove that. He's respectful of stuff in the house. Only one shoe has been victimized, which, for a ten month old puppy is pretty good. He does fine out in the backyard by himself with no sign of anxiety or repetitive behaviours. He doesn't bark, except on rare occasions.

He likes games, but has selective hearing if you don't keep him engaged.

Still no mouthing.

Bennie

2009-08-29T17:55:00.000-07:00

There is a cute puppy running around my house. His name is "Benny" and he is visiting until someone falls in love with him and whisks him off to an adoptive home.

I don't know much about Benny. I believe he came from a shelter West of here, an owner surrender. He appears to be at that gangly adolescent stage that Labradors tend to live their entire lives in. I don't know his parentage. The guess seems to be border collie/hound. Maybe he's border collie/Labrador. Anyway, he's a cute black and white medium size bundle of legs and tail and questing nose, probably seven to ten months old.

He's very gentle for a puppy that age. He doesn't mouth at all, so far. Benny is respectful of the cat and the other two dogs without being frightened or intimidated. He likes everyone he meets. When trying to get your attention, he is very tempted to jump up on you or at least paw at you, but he is working on that. He does well on a leash, for a puppy. Benny has little or no recall, but, again, he's working on it. He has mastered "sit" and "down" in a couple of very short lessons. He doesn't get fetch yet, but can see there are possibilities.

Inside, he hasn't had an accident or destroyed anything yet. He stayed in his crate nicely overnight. He doesn't understand that people food doesn't = puppy food, but he's working on it. When opening the car door or crate, Benny tends to rush off and so the concept of "wait" is being introduced. Benny has a wonderful "off switch." Each time I've come to my computer, he has curled up on his bed and dozed off. Puppies often are prone to car sickness, and Benny is no exception.

Anyway, that is my impression after 24 hours. If you are interested in Benny, check out http://www.broandtracy.org/broandtracy/index.shtml Benny is the smooth-coated dog at the bottom of the page.

Swimming!

2009-08-23T15:46:00.000-07:00

The dogs love chasing sticks and getting muddy.

Weasel bounds off the edge of the bank and quickly gets the stick, then Z-dog stalks her and steals it from her. There is lots of barking involved, and mud. Then they come up to me to deliver the stick and shake all the mud off onto me and bound off back into the river.

Sometimes Weasel goes far afield to avoid her stalker.

And, sometimes, she prevails.

Some Days You're Hot and Some Days You're Not

2009-08-22T14:55:00.000-07:00

Alas, I did not do well at flyball practice today. We were practicing a potential "B" team, with Dusty, Gizzy, Spoiled One and Spoiled One's Partner in Crime. Well, first we tried the line up with Dusty, Gizzy, Partner in Crime and Spoiled One. Gizzy is a cute little orange cattle dog sheltie mix. She probably runs about a 6 second run. Partner in Crime runs closer to 4 seconds. Partner's handler kept releasing too soon and having way early passes. So we switched Partner and Spoiled One.

I used to be good at passing with Spoiled One. Really. Not today. Spoiled One was passing Gizzy way early, when she was still on the jumps. Gizzy would end up veering completely out of the lane to avoid a potential collision, and it wasn't her fault - I kept passing way to early. And I knew it. And I tried to fix it, but I kept doing it, over and over. It was so frustrating, because Gizzy needs to keep her confidence up and being railroaded by the two biggest, most rambunctious dogs on the team isn't the way to do it.

I'm so frustrated with myself. I think I've gotten used to Spoiled One automatically slowing and adjusting for the oncoming dog. Gizzy is just so much smaller, he wasn't bothering to adjust for her. And, I just couldn't get out of the rut of making the same mistake, over and over. Hopefully, I can get back in the right zone again. Maybe, if I change my release point to the 3rd jump, instead of the first.

On the positive side, another dog, a little cattle dog/border collie (I think) was really showing some speed on recalls! She even beat Weasel a couple of times. Now, if we can get her to have the same drive to the box, she ought to be a little speed demon.

We may be going to Hurricane! I really hope so. At a U-FLI tournament, we can run the green dogs in singles and pairs and reduce the stress levels on their handlers. In a NAFA tournament, it's all or nothing, and we may not be able to field two solid teams with alternates, yet.

What Rescue is and What Rescue Isn't

2009-08-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

I had one of those annoying email conversations with someone. They want to find a good breeder to get a border collie puppy from. They're doing their research. They know what they want. Wonderful! I suggest to them that they go to a few herding trials and network with the people there to find out where their dogs came from and what they had to say about the breeders. I also said I couldn't recommend any local breeders because I didn't know much about them - both my dogs are rescues.

Then, I got the email back about how the person is sick of people looking down on them because they want to get a puppy, not a rescue. And then he gives me the big ole' rationalization speech. You've heard it: All the dogs in rescue are border/pit mutts, there aren't any puppies, they all kill cats, they won't be good pets because all rescued border collies are chicken-killing, kid biting, vicious cat eating monsters that would be absolutely unacceptable for a pet home. They need a puppy so that they can train it up right, blah blah blah.

It's so frustrating. If you want to buy a puppy, buy a puppy - but don't feel obligated to rationalize that choice by spreading lies, ignorance and misinformation about rescues!

a.) There are purebred, registered dogs in rescue. I know several people who have acquired them.
b.) There are puppies in rescue. That's where mine came from.
c.) Most rescues have a perfect temperament for a pet home. Both of mine came from the pound. They live with cats, compete in events, and are around children. You have to train them, of course, but you have TRAIN any dog.

I don't know why people want so hard to believe that any dog in rescue must be defective, or undesirable, or have something wrong with it. Most rescue organizations don't have time or funds to scrape up the unadoptables - they're skimming off the cream of the cream of the adoptable dogs. I'm not sure where people think the dogs in rescue came from, why they would be so profoundly different than the dogs that come directly from breeders. Do they think rescue dogs materialize with the morning dew? Rescue dogs come from breeders, just like all dogs do.

Rescuers aren't trying to scam or guilt you into taking an inferior dog. They have no monetary interest in unloading a dog on you. They can't afford the liability of adopting out an unstable dog. Most rescue organizations do charge a fee, but that money goes back into the fund for redeeming dogs from the pound, paying vet costs, and such. Foster homes don't get a penny. Any legitimate rescue organization insists that you return the dog to them if it doesn't work out, and offers support and counseling on adjusting to life with your new dog. In fact, it is more difficult to get a dog from rescue organizations as they will do a much more thorough screening process than most breeders.

The emailer expressed concern that they knew what they wanted, but you wouldn't know what you were getting with a rescue dog, like you would with a puppy. That is absolutely backwards. Look at the rescue sites, like Arizona Border Collie Rescue. There is a great deal of information about each specific dog, its energy level, sociability, personality, age, health, habits, training, etc. With a breeder, you will at best get speculation that since the parents didn't exhibit any health problems, it will probably be healthy and a nice dog. They can't give you much hard information about the specific puppy, they can only speculate and hypothesize.

Rescue isn't going to the pound, picking out a dog and hoping for the best. It is way beyond that.

Eagles SUCK!

2009-08-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Philadelphia Eagles have signed the criminally psychopathic animal abuser Michael Vick. Any money you spend on their merchandise, any tickets you buy, any time you tune your television to a game they are participating in, even if he isn't on the field, you are giving money to this sick, depraved individual.

Of all of the potential players they could have signed, they chose to rain money, power and privilege on the guy who electrocutes his pets for fun. Why? Because he runs a little bit faster?

Eagles suck. I have no respect for anyone who would sign him, anyone who would train him, anyone who would set foot on the same field with him, or anyone who would broadcast or watch a game he receives some of the revenue from.

If we want standards, we have to set them. If you can do what he did, and come back to be lauded and praised, what exactly would you have to do to cross the line?

Bad Doggie

2009-08-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

The Crime:
The perpetrator:

Practice, Practice

2009-08-08T12:43:00.001-07:00

Another day of flyball practice in the beautiful back yard of one of my teamates. The dogs did reasonably well, but there weren't many people there, it was hot, and, well, we kinda screwed around a lot.

The dog's didn't mind. There was a chuck-it involved.

What I like about that picture is that all of the other dogs are just blurry swirls, but Spoiled One is clearly riveted by the tennis ball with a demon glint in his eye. It kind of sums up my monster perfectly - well if you could add sound. Got to have the barking. Anyway, that is all for this post. I will try to take better pictures, but, like, my camera has been a doggie chew toy, been dropped on the tile floor several times, and other adventures, so no guarantees.

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Alas, Poor Bally (Ode to a Basketball)

2009-08-03T18:50:00.000-07:00

Oh, cruel and unkind fate that casts aside hours of joyous barking and pouncing with one small pop and hiss!

Bally came into our household from Walgreens several years ago. Initially, it appeared like any other basketball, except for it's glow in the dark quality. Many, many objects from Walgreens and Walmart and PetSmart have made a brief appearance in our lives. Fuzzy or squeaky, bouncy or tuggy, they are loved, not wisely but too well, and soon the bits and pieces scattered in the living room are a grisly testimony to their fate, seldom even lasting long enough to be completely unwrapped or earn a name.

I have tried things labeled "tuff" or "indestructible" The labels lied. I have frantically assembled the bits of many a "for powerful chewers" to make certain no big parts made it into the dog.

But, Bally was different. I don't know why. Despite it's seemingly venerable inflatableness, Bally persevered, nay, thrived. Joyously, Bally would bounce around the living room on rainy or too hot days, rappelling off walls and furniture with Spoiled One and Weasel in hot pursuit. I had seen Bally cornered so many times, but, always, somehow, it slipped past the teeth and claws and went once more into the breach.

Until today.

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Cutie Holly

2009-08-01T21:01:00.000-07:00

No, I didn't get a new dog. Miss Holly is a dog in rescue that I am fostering. Actually, I just have her on weekends, for now. She is a little chubby black tri aussie, incredibly cute little dog. Holly arrived at my house earlier today and within a few hours seems to have settled in as one of the pack. She has exhibited no tendency to eat the cat or assault her doggy siblings, and is very sweet. Both Spoiled One and Weasel have messed with her in the expected fashion, play solicitation and/or posturing. She hasn't accepted any play invites, yet.

She's a very quietly interactive dog. Holly hangs out in the same room, laying behind the chair or underfoot, occassionally checking in for an ear skritch. She's already responding and doing behaviours for treats, though she has that initial reserve some aussies have. Holly walks nicely on a leash, shows no cat aggression, and appears to be retaining her housebreaking. So far, she seems to have a good off-switch, settling nicely when I am on the computer or reading. She's also a bundle of fuzzy wuzzy cuteness.

My evil plan is to drag her out and about to meet more people and dog sports people so that someone will fall in love with her and give her a permanent home, but this weekend is just for getting to know her and chilling out.

I'll give another update on her when I get to know her a bit. If anyone is interested, the application for her can be made through Bro & Tracy. http://www.broandtracy.org/animalwelfare.shtml (Holly can be found a little ways down on the page.)

Puppy cams and the Phillipines

2009-07-26T14:00:00.001-07:00

So, I've been watching a puppy cam. Cute little puppies squiggling about. They are adorable.

Yes, it is a breeder. Yes, I am more a proponet of rescue. All of my pets have been rescues, except the fish. It is hard to see new puppies and not think of all the dogs being euthanized at the shelters. But, you see, I don't want to wipe out dogs from the face of the earth, I want them bred well, responsibly, and healthily, so that our pets and canine partners have well adjusted, happy, healthy, treasured lives - not misery. Every dog has to have come from someone breeding their dog, so I still want dog breeders out there - just good ones.

This breeder knows where every puppy she has ever bred is. She breeds thoughtfully and responsibly. She raises the puppies with love and compassion. She selects homes carefully. She rejects homes she believes unsuitable, and she takes back and rehomes dogs that don't work out. She's a good one. But, people who's only information is googling a puppycam on the web keep throwing puppymill innuendos and accusations.

Look before you leap! If you keep crying "puppymill" on the good breeders, whose going to listen to you when you trip over a really bad one? You just loose crediblity with all the dog lovers who are watching, and turn your cause into a fringe weirdo thing. Don't do it! Don't throw accusations out to see if anything will stick; look, inquire, investigate and then speak up. Those people oooing and awwing and i-want-one-ing about the puppies are the ones you need to win to our cause, but you won't do it with bad facts and obvious misinformation. The cause is much too important to derail with that kind of stupidity.

Then there are the ones who keep trying to slip in videos and whatnot of the horrible dog miseries in other countries - the more shocking the better.

Again, stupid, stupid, stupid!

As has been proven over and and over and as your own websites will mention, seeing the horror of these situations doesn't raise people's compassion to it - it just hardens them against it and makes it easier to accept. You are being backwards. Instead of lowering the compassion level of those who have compassion and concern for dogs by repeatedly shocking them until they become blase to the abuse, raise the compassion level of the people who are lacking it by showing the videos of dogs as treasured, beloved, wonderful creatures to those who lack empathy. You need to build compassion, not destroy it.

By trying to horrify the puppycam viewers, you are working the wrong crowd. Showing shocking videos to people isn't "raising awareness," it's a self-indulgent ego trip to gloat over how much you can shock them. Get over it. You aren't a little brother chasing your sister with a worm or a fresh buger, and you are contributing to the continuation of the misery of those animals by raising the level of disempathy and apathy every single time you show one of those videos. Find ways to spread the love and appreciation for dogs instead. If you are going to go to the dog markets in the Phillipines, get the dog vendors and consumers into watching puppycams and such and you will have a much more profound effect! We don't need to know how bad what they are doing is, THEY DO! We have our own faults to work on.

Just my opinion.

Practice, Toenails, and Cockroaches

2009-07-18T14:28:00.001-07:00

So, we had practice today. Many people weren't there, but some were. Enough to run a couple of teams, anyway. The dogs did reasonably well. Spoiled One was going for the tug, and tugging very enthusiastically. I used a tennis ball as a crutch, but he's definately improved on that. Also, he did not create any passing issues. In fact, the littlest dog on the team, who is still refining her passes, whipped right by him, even when I released him way too early and they passed on the jump. His box turn wasn't, but I hadn't been working that like I should. I may have to just keep working that in homework.

Weasel was running fast, because she was running first and right before her Idol Dog, so she was in flying ferret heaven. With her running first and the Idol dog running second, they timed at 8.1 seconds, which I thought was cool. Of course you have to factor in things like the timer starts when the first dog breaks the beam, while in tournaments it starts and you have to hit it right to minimize the delay between the timer start and the dog crossing the start line, but hopefully, I'll do okay with that. Other factors weigh in the other direction: we're practicing on grass and an uneven surface, the Idol Dog was 10 - 15 feet late on her pass (because Weasel is such a spaz, she's hard to judge where to pass). It might be kind of fun to run them in pairs at the next U-FLI tournament we go to. Of course, I would also love to run Spoiled One and Weasel in pairs. There are a number of obsticals to that goal. Weasel usually runs with the team, so it might be too many heats for her to run pairs as well. I can't run two different dogs in the same race. However, someone offered to work Weasel at practice a bit, and seemed to have fun, so maybe I could sucker someone into running her and I could run Spoiled One? Hmmmm. . . .

On the way home, they each got a plain Lottaburger. As they sprawled in the living room, sated and tired, I lopped the tippy tips off of their toenails. Because I keep them in when I am at work, now, they don't get the exercise of running the fence and discussing politics with the neighbor dogs. This is probably the first time Spoiled One's nails have been long enough to trim. FWIW, the drimmel sucks, use chopper type clippers. Just my opinion.

Weasel is always bringing me little gifts to play with. She finds rubber bands and sets them on my knee and gives me the pleading, hopeful look, trying to entice me into a game of tug o war. Or she drops the unopened mail at my feet, checking to see if it's permissible to chew it up. Bottle caps and bits of scraps of things are always appearing around my feet as potential items to be tossed and caught for doggie amusement. Lately, she's been finding the cat's toy mice and offering them up. It's so cute. Well, this morning, I let her in from her morning constitutional in the yard, and she presented me with a cockroach. A LIVE cockroach.

Flyball Practice and New Dog

2009-07-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we had practice this week. It seemed to go reasonably well. Some of the puppies and newer dogs made some progress. There is a little red and white aussie that is so desperate to please her owner she pretty much can't do anything but appeasement behaviours. I think her confidence will really improve once she understands what he wants of her, and learns the concept of learning. It would be fun to try shaping with her, just to help draw her out and have her offer behaviours. It's painful and frustrating to hear him call her and see her run back to her crate and hide. She's a rescue, and I would kind of like to do painful things to whoever had her before.

Never never never call a dog to you to scold it. I don't know for certain, of course, that is what the previous owner did, but I am really suspicious that it is. It sets up an unfortunate dynamic, because, of course, when the current owner calls her, and she hesitates or starts to slink, he can't help being frustrated and even if you try to hide that frustration, a lot of dogs will pick up on your frustration and become even more distressed. She's doing better, though. He was taking her over jumps on leash, and she went from being unable to take her eyes off him enough to make it over the jump and submissively flattening herself to the ground to looking forward and going over the jumps and then sitting in anticipation of praise.

There was another new dog, named "Nacho" that I think will have a lot of fun. He did very well playing with the other dogs. He's a cute little yellow mixed breed dog that seems like he has a terrier body and and a malanois head. I'm prejudiced towards him because Z-dog and he were playing together and it was cute. It's nice to have dogs that play something other than "chase me" games.

I was kind of bad though and didn't really work my dogs. Z-dog did run in a line up being passed both ways and was fine. He still is very leery of Captain, but, he ran after him in line up fine. I should have whined and insisted on using props when my dogs ran, but I didn't. So, even though their boxturns were good during boxwork with the props, they degenerated during actual runs. It's probably the worst thing I could do in their training at this point, and I am frustrated with myself about it.

Weasel consistently dunked her frisbee in the water bowl after every run. Z-dog still overleaps the timer beam so we can't get a time on him, the blasted boinging bunny rabbit. We still need a practice space and I still want an RV.

Life goes on.

http://www/weaselpuppy.com

Lake of the Woods

2009-06-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-31T10:01:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-05-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-10T18:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

"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!

Another Day, a Little More Hope

2009-03-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm less whiney today.

We are starting agility class today. It's beginning agility. The instructor couldn't talk the owner of the facility into advanced or intermediate. We're a little beyond beginning, but any chance to hit the equipment helps. Besides, I am a clutzy idiot, so any work with basic "don't trip over yourself while signalling the dog backwards with the wrong hand way to late for her to make the obstical" helps.

There was the standard problem of Weasel's obsession with the instructor's dog. The instructor's dog is also known as "the Idol dog" because of Weasel's obsession. The instructor leaves the dog running loose in the field we are working in, and Weasel spends the entire lesson staring at the dog and bouncing up and down, while the idol dog finds tennis balls and lures people into throwing them for her. It wasn't at all helped by the little girl who spent the entire class playing with the Idol dog, throwing balls, running around with her and making squealy noises. I kind of wanted to bite her myself. It wasn't the child's fault, though. I was at the point where I was trying to think of a way to quietly sneak out of class because it was such an impossible situation.

However, the instructor realized the problem and eventually caught the dog and kept her on leash, so I was able to get a little work out of Weasel. She did the teeter beautifully, kept missing somewhere in the middle of the weaves, did the tunnel fine, did the table fine, did the jumps fine (when I managed to give her a decipherable signal, that is.) Honestly, I was expecting a lot less after months and months of no agility work at all.

However, I was most happy with the way she was beginning to respond to my focus exercises when the other dog was out. I was doing "Look at me" and the standard doggie torture of putting them in a down, placing a treat on one of the feet, and making them wait before they take it.

So, it was good, after all. Hopefully, next week will be better.

Working Like a Dog

2009-03-28T21:44:00.000-07:00

Flyball practice wears me out. I'm sick of the stress - where will we practice? Where will we get the money? Will the new people hang in there, or bail?

And, then, physically, it's just tiring. I'm in wretched shape. It's difficult to run back and fourth for recalls. It's hard to manage my 60 lb, very drivey dog. I'm getting a fairly constant pain and pressure in my chest that I'm pretending is indigestion, but is probably anxiety.

And money is so tight. Everything takes money, and I don't have any.

And I spend so much time working on flyball designs and trying to figure out how to market them. I hate marketing. I Twitter, and Blog (3 different blogs) and post on forums, Facebook, and make lenses and websites and do all this social networking and, well, I'm not very social.

The life has gone out of me and I fantisize about just walking away. I just need a little time and sunshine for my leaves to unfurl. Please, let something good happen.

Practice was practice. Z-Dog got all of his lumbering tootsies over the prop at boxwork. Weasel did good turns with the prop and shash and grab without it. Sorry for the whine.

Spoiled One Offered a Box Turn!

2009-03-16T18:35:00.000-07:00

This picture shows Spoiled One's typical smash and grab. Horrible, isn't it? Tonight, I was dinging around with the practice box, a tug and a jump in the hallway and Spoiled One OFFERED a real box turn. I'm not talking lure him over and lure him back. No step in and back. I was standing halfway down the hall and made a vague gesture with the tug and he zipped down the hall, planted all of those tootsies on the box and zipped back.

WOW

I thought it was a fluke, and tried again. He did it again. And again. And again.

OoooOOOOooooo

I'm excited. Even though I doubt I will ever get a repitition of this momentus event, it shows he can, physically, do it. It also kinda shows that he knows what I've been asking for all along. But, the idea that he is a PITA, obedience is optional, make up his own rules type of dog shouldn't really surprise me.

Anyway, I just had to share this brief flash of joy. It's hard to resist making him do it over and over and over, just to relish the moment, but I know better than to drive him into the ground.

At least for this brief instant of time, he is a Good Dog.

Jinxed

2009-03-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

Poor little Weasel. I noticed something going on with her foot before the tournament, but I thought it was just a dirt clot in the hair between her toes that had irritated it. It turns out she had cracked a toenail, and every heat she ran made it worse, until I noticed the bleeding. We did the best we could with Quickstop, trimming, and nail glue, and I pulled her, but a lot of damage had been done. She was running at 4.9, nearly a second slow.

The vet saw her on Wednesday, trimmed things up as best as possible, and now Weasel's on Epsom salt soaks and antibiotics. I'm not happy about the antibiotics because I believe they are over perscribed. The reason we have all these antibiotic resistant supergerms is because of unnecessary antibiotics. The vet thinks I should wait several weeks before I let her hit the box again.

The most frustrating part is that I know it's my fault she was hurt. I didn't trim her nails enough. I didn't investigate more thoroughly why she kept messing with her foot.

Well, now I know, I guess. Poor puppy.

Last Practice Before the Texas Tournament

2009-02-28T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today was the last practice before the Texas Tournament. The dogs did well. Spoiled One and Weasel were consistant at the box with the prop. They both did well at the full runs. The new Jack is a little firecracker of enthusiasm. There were some handler issues, though. I forgot to insist on a prop for Spoiled One for his last full runs. I still need to refine the way I hold Weasel so that I can actually get my fat little tushy moving to run after her up to the line. The worst problem, though, was people weren't keeping track of their dogs.

We practice in a fenced, grassy field. It's so easy to get in the habit of letting the dog out of the crate, letting it zing all over the field and bounce around the flyball lanes and take a potty break while we decide the running order, set the camera, chatter, get a drink, then meander over and call them to us to line up. It's a bad habit, though. The dogs are obsessed with the flyball lanes and wander back and forth in the ten to twenty foot runback, or gallup up for a trial run over the jumps to see if there might be a tennis ball in the box. They also play games with each other, like keep away with the flyball lane. Today, when Weasel was released for a recall, one of the other dogs decided to meander across the lane and got clocked in the head by Weasel going full speed.

Weasel seems unfazed by the incident, but the other dog was visibly stunned, then erratic. I was concerned that she was concussed or maybe even going to have a seizure. She seemed fine after a few moments of panic, but what a horrible thing to potentially happen to one of our pets! A little while later, we were running the other team, and one of the owners was distracted and walked across the lane in front of Spoiled One in his recall. Spoiled One managed to miss him, but 60lbs of dog colliding with you at top speed could do a lot of damage.

Honestly, even without the potential for injury, it is simply frustrating to have someone's dog dancing around and deliberately getting in the way for recalls and warmups. The owner usually has no idea because they are distracted, and then, when they are ready to go, the dog zips right over to them.

Grumble, grumble, grumble.

I'm just as bad, though. I need to be more aware.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the tournament. I hope Weasel does well and earns a new best time in singles, and I hope Spoiled One does well on the pick-up and earns lots of points. I also really hope I don't screw up and make a complete idiot of myself.

New People at Flyball

2009-02-21T19:57:00.000-08:00

It's always difficult to organize practices efficiently when we have new people coming out for the first time. There is paperwork, and explanations, and we have to run the full team first thing so that they can see what it is that we're working at. But, still, I am glad whenever we have new people, because we need more live bodies and dogs. Plus, it's fun to see people stretching out of there comfort zone to explore something new. For example, you see middle-aged people with their chunky, untrained dogs and its fun to see their relationship with the dog and understanding of it blossom and grow as they work on training.

Today, there were deaf people who came out. None of the team knows sign language and only one of the deaf people lip read. It meant that conversations were mostly wave, smile, shrug. If they decide to continue coming to practice, I think we'll get more fluent in gesture and shrug, and email for the more detailed stuff. Some of the signing two of them were using looked like ASL, so maybe I will try to l google or look up some kind of chart for some of the words we might need to use that are hard to say or too abstract for point and nod.

There was a very enthusiastic little Jack Russell. We so need a height dog. He seemed very nice and tolerated well being held by a complete stranger for restrained recalls. There were two border collies that were terribly pretty and they were typical enthusiastic all over the place border collies. There was a chow cross whose owners indicated she may have some over-protective issues, but she seemed okay when we had them take her over the jumps on leash with the other dogs. The retriever is a nice, freindly dog who seemed to want to play with the other dogs, but she needs to loose weight.

Weasel was sloppy with her box turns, and the first set of runs, she didn't have the prop. I hope the bouncing off the wall is having a good effect, but I couldn't see. Z dog practiced a bit of passing, and he seemed to do okay, but the other dog was intimidated and slowed way down coming back when she was passing into him. For some reason, he was exploring crossing over when we were doing box work, but I believe that's because of the prop we use. It's the hinged jump we were arranging in a v in front of the box, and now I've moved to using just one side as a more standard jump, but I believe he feels he's supposed to jump over that second side and that aims him right at the other box.

One more practice until the tournament. Hope it goes well!

A Dangerous Lie

2009-02-16T18:43:00.000-08:00

Sigh.

There is more breed specific legislation wending its way through the New Mexico State Legislature. It defines Rotties and Pits as dangerous. Having been around rottie and pitt therapy dogs, that's balderdash.

Yes, I am frustrated that this bill will make pitts and rotties pariahs in the state and frustrated that the many, many owners of good dogs are being penalized because of the few irresponsible ones.

Yes, I am frustrated that this bill is a death sentence for the endless supply of pitts and, to a lesser extent, rotties that end up in our shelter system.

Yes, I am frustrated because this bill will be utterly and wretchedly ineffective in reducing dog attacks or making the public safer.

Mostly, though, I am frightened. This bill promotes a dangerous lie. The lie is that it's the breed of the dog that's the problem. It isn't. It's the owner. To ban all of this breed or that breed and define them as "dangerous" implies the other breeds of dogs are "safe." They aren't. I know of chihuahuas who have bitten young children in the face. Repeatedly. If you investigate or if you work around dogs, you come across horror stories with all different kinds of breeds. There was a Golden Retiever who was stalking and pinning other dogs in the park. Do you remember the story of the woman in France who had the first face transplant? Her face was ripped off of her by her own dog while she was napping. The dog was a laborador. All dogs require training and awareness to be "safe" All dogs need to be watched around children. All dogs will chase you down and eat you if neglected and left to roam in packs. ALL DOGS ARE DANGEROUS.

Are there aggressive pitts? Yep. There are aggressive dogs of all breeds. However, I have been around a lot of pitt-types and staffies when I do flyball. It is a chaotic, exciting environment. Dogs bark and howl and do the bark-scream thing really really excited dogs do. There are all sorts of little teensy dogs and big dogs, male dogs and female dogs, and human children all over - some of them handling the dogs. If there were a magic "switch" that would cause a dog to turn, it would find it there. But, you know what? Staffies are one of the most popular breeds. They race in the same lanes with the poodles and toys and little dogs and big dogs and kids and people in all that excitement, and they don't "turn." Because there is no magic "switch" No black mass is said when a pitt puppy is born. The moon doesn't fall from the sky. They are just dogs. Just like all the other dogs. There is this myth out there that there is something different about pitt bulls because they were originally bred to fight. So were many, many other breeds - including the boston terrier.

But this stupid, stupid House Bill 667 promotes the ignorant, magical thinking lie that it's just this breed or that breed that's dangerous. It isn't the breed, it's the individual dogs. Any BSL promotes a dangerous, dangerous lie.

Saturday Flyball Practice

2009-02-14T14:01:00.000-08:00

We had a good practice, I think. Not a lot of downtime. Weasel seems to be responding well to the flying squirrel frisbee/tug. Z-dog didn't inspire any swerving out of the lane or other reactions in dogs passing him. No injuries were reported, unlike last week, but, then, everyone was wearing gloves and there were no children around.

Weasel's box turn is still very iffy, though, and I was a bad dog handler and forgot to insist on the jump in front. I will do box work with her this week. Also, I was soliciting suggestions to speed her up and the suggestion was made that I bounce her off the wall, so I will do that a bit. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to chime in. I believe the weakness is her inconsistant boxturn. Also, I believe I need to be more consistent in my "rrrreaaaady, rrrreeeeaaady, RRREADY? GO!" cueing. She was jumping out of my hold and taking off early, rather than digging in and getting a good start.

This weekend I should work on the designs for the team shirts. I want to get them ready in time to order for the Texas tournament. Also, maybe I should have some unofficial flyball award keychains and car window decals made up to take down there.

Dropping like Flies

2009-02-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

This flyball stuff is hard on people. Everyone kept getting injured.

First, someone apparently wrenched something chasing after a puppy while they were getting ready to come out to practice. A big young smooth tri border collie missed the tug and got his owner. Then he and another dog with resource guarding issues had an "incident" with a young girl in the middle. The girl was nipped or clawed, though she handled it well. After that, someone got their fingers wrenched and a nail torn to the quick holding a dog for a recall.

They were all preventable things. Hindsight is cool that way. So, with this inspiration, some suggested safety rules for practice.

1. Keep your dog under control. Don't let it run around and possibly have an "incident" with another dog.

2. Resource guarding is bad. It isn't "protectiveness" Don't allow it, and if you know your dog has that issue, resource guard it to keep a zone of safety.

3. Watch out for children. Lots of dogs guard them. Other dogs are afraid of them. Still others with high prey/chase drive (like herding dogs and flyball dogs) think they make wonderful sheep substitutes.

4. Use flyball collars, harnesses, tabs or body holds when doing restrained recalls - especially with hyper or nervous dogs. They spin and get hands and fingers caught in flat collars, then panic and spin more.

5. Gloves.

Tugging techniques: Try to make the end of the tug away from you hand move more and draw the dog's attention away from the end in your hand. Hold the tug with both hands for large dogs. Encourage dogs to grab and hold on, rather than continually regripping on the tug. Wear gloves. Encourage an aversion to teeth on skin. Whenever doggie toofies make skin contact, draw back, make a sharp noise like "ow" and stop interacting with the dog for a few minutes - even if it was obviously accidental.

Over and Back - TUG!

2009-01-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

Yep, it's flyball homework time. I have an ongoing problem with Spoiled One. He's 60lbs of klutz regarding jumps. He's a GSD/Aussie mix, so he bounds over the flyball hurdles like a bunny rabbit, but when doing homework involving over and back over a hurdle, he wiped out all my jumps. "Over" crunch! Ooopsie. I've tried various things. Styrofoam gets destroyed pretty quickly. He wipes out wood. Slippery plastic wrapped toilet paper rolls go flying every which way. My latest attempt involves plastic roof gutters. I have figured out a hacksaw doesn't work well to cut gutter. Those little wire nipper things rather suck at it as well. Oh, well, eventually a section about a yard long was separated from the rest, the longer remainder was slipped behind the couch (causing a very fluffy cat to emerge from the other side) and we set to work.

First was Weasel, to bolster my faith in the potential of this to work. Besides, once I finished with Spoiled One, I would be too frustrated and discouraged to work with her. My little suck up Weasel performed as expected, happily bouncing over and back like a ping pong ball, over the gutter. I quickly moved to the practice box and she did that spiffily as well. My courage thus fortified, I put her up and brought out Spoiled One.

Sigh.

How can one dog be so klutzy? That gutter went flying every which way. It's like he's not even aware of his own feet! I tried showing it too him, and he would slap a paw on it, or try to pick it up. Anytime I tried the over and back though, he landed right on top of it, feet going everywhere, eyes fixed on the tug. I think most of it is handler issues, though. I need to be clearer in my communication, and more patient. It probably would be good to chop up the remainder of the gutter, lay them out in a random pattern, and make him walk back and forth over it, like is done with horses to teach them awareness of their feet. Or, I could do the agility ladder thing. I do own a ladder now. . .

OooooooOOOooooo The LADDER. That's an idea!

oowie oowie

2009-01-03T17:45:00.000-08:00

Weasel missed the tug and got my hand at practice today. Hurts. I enjoyed a few hypochondriac moments wondering if it were broken, but all the fingers still work. Stiff, swollen and changing colors, though. Kind of interesting to watch.

The good part about it was that she was going for the tug. I think I am making real progress with her. I'm working her going straight back from the box now, instead of over-rotating her, and it seems to be going well. Spoiled One was going all the way over the prop sometimes. He didn't pull the "miss the first jump" thing he was doing at previous practices, either. He is tending to jump over the jump to the box, then bound off the box wide, instead of heading back down the lane. I was starting to make some progress by screaming for him just before he hit the box, while standing on the opposite side of which he turns toward. He was tiring, though, by the time I discovered that.

On the whine and grumble list: We ran a line up first thing, and the dogs were bobbling because they weren't used to the prop, so they took it out :( How will they get used to the prop if it isn't there? How will the dogs progress if they aren't challenged? Frustrating. Alas, the world doesn't revolve around me and my opinions. However, I did get boxtraining sessions in with both of them with the prop on their own. And, I've bought some gutter which I am going to use during the week with the practice box.

I'd really like it if we could somehow do a skill training/boxwork session midweek. I'd be willing to plan it if I could be sure of at least one other person showing up and if I knew of an indoor place with lighting where we could work. There are no lights in the field, and by the time I get off of work, it's dark. I live in a residential area, so I can't just set something up in the garage and do it due to the barking. grumble.

Anyway, nothing earth shattering. Pretty typical practice.

How Could They?

2008-12-31T12:50:00.000-08:00

Just look at this poor dog's expression.

Poor baby. Usually, they look scared or confused, but this one looks like she knows exactly what happened.

A Small Saturday Practice

2008-12-31T12:32:00.000-08:00

Well, it snowed and nearly everyone bailed out of practice. It is the holidays, though, so it's only the truly sick who come out to shiver in the cold with their dogs. I was there, of course. I thought it would be a time to let the dogs romp in the fenced practice field all by their lonesomes (kinda hard to do boxwork without a boxloader) but, shockingly, someone else showed!

We did boxwork. Both Weasel and Spoiled One did well at going for the tug, and Spoiled One aka Smash and Grab was actually hitting the box with all his tootsies. Of course, he was only doing it when the prop was there, but instead of having to use the elaborate V in front, it was just a jump! However, he was going way to wide. In retrospect, I believe it's because we were using the V prop, but opened at a right angle, with one side parallel to the box in front of it, like a jump, and the other half folded back alongside the box. I believe he thought he still needed to jump both sides, which explains why he was hitting the box with his back feet and why he was going wide. I still think I can figure out a way to use this, though.

Weasel's box turn was beautiful, of course. We experimented with me boxloading and the other person running her and she did fine, no hesitation. The only problem was she occassionally spaced actually getting the ball. That was easy to remedy by having the handler remind her about it before releasing her. I was bad, however, and gave them the honking pheasent, rather than the tug, because I had no faith that she would continue to respond to the tug. The handler, though, was getting her to tug a bit on the honking pheasent. Again, possibilities are there.

Sky, the other dog has issues with not paying any attention whatsoever to the ball, and being highly distractable and inclined to play keepaway rather than flyball. He was, with a lot of encouragement, actually watching the ball and picking it up. Granted, it involved tapping on the box, chanting "ball ball ball ball ball" and such, but it was an improvement. The small practice with few distractions was very good for him. He also did some nice recalls, back and forth over the jumps, between me and his handler.

So, all in all, a good practice. I will be glad when it gets lighter sooner and we will be able to have more of these small, highly focused, practices.

New Training Webpages

2008-12-30T16:36:00.000-08:00

Aren't they cute? Look at those toothies! That's what raw meaty bones will do for you! Anyway, just wanted to let you know about some dog training web pages that might be useful to you.

If you have just adopted a new dog, How to Housetrain Your New Dog might be timely. This method avoids papers, wee wee pads, and the like.

If you're one of those people that are wanting to improve your training techniques or if you are attempting to teach your dog something new, here is some information on operant theory and how it is used in dog training.

Building Tug Drive

2008-12-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

It's down time, no tournaments for awhile. Time for bruises and oopsies to heal and work on stuff for next season.

One of my big frustrations with my two dogs is neither of them have really boffo tug drive. They're both ball crazy. While that means I don't deal with dropped balls, they loose speed on the run back because nothing really draws them.

Don't get me wrong, I run and scream and wave things. But, Spoiled One comes back and still has to be told "drop it" to drop the ball and then "get it" to get the tug. Once he grabs the tug, he enjoys it. The blasted dog wears me out. Flyball is a wonderful work out program. Crouch down. Hold quivering, bouncing dog, scream "go" and run from a crouch to the start line, scream the dog's name, run back like zombies are chasing you and then swing a 60lb weight around while play growling 20 or 30 times and, well, I get a smidgy winded.

But, I want him to drive back for the tug. I've experimented with a lot of things. Running, tugging, switching back and forth between tug and ball, treating for tugging, letting him win, giving up and using a ball. I still want him to want the tug more. So, each evening we're doing the tugging game. It makes me wish I had a Papillion, or at least a 30lb border collie instead of a 60lb shepherd mix.

Weasel is even more of a problem. The little muffin loves the tug at home. I swing her around, and she growls and snarls and has a ball. Last night, she was trying to switch. She started dropping the tug and looking up at the feathers on a stick cat toy on top of the tv stand. So, being the loving, patient owner I am, I put her out and played with Spoiled One. She stayed focused on the tug tonight, even did a little bit of picking it back up after I let her win and inviting more play. You could just see her carefully ignoring the cat toy.

So, that's this week's regimen. Tug, tug, tug. All games are tug. Tug is the source of all fun. We'll see.

CafePress Has Flip Minos!

2008-10-14T18:44:00.001-07:00

Cool! Cafepress has flip minos - those cool little digital cameras. So, I'm busy designing away to come up with some spiffy ones for recording passes at tournaments. Check them out!

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy.317856873

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy.317742503

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy.317741627

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy.317760953

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy.317762834

Flyball Calendar

2008-10-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

Yes! It's some shameless shop promotion!

WooHoo!!!!!!

It's been awhile, so I thought I would plug some thing from the 'ole flyball shop. So, here we go -

FLYBALL CALENDAR

That's right! Twelve whole months of flyball images and cartoons. Like it? Buy it here.

Recall Training Techniques

2008-10-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

One thing you find out is essential in flyball is a good, strong recall. Your dog needs to come running, sprinting, flying back to you as fast as he can, through a sea of other dogs, other handlers, flying tugs and rolling tennis balls. Most dogs that show up the first time at our team practice don't even come when called.

But, that kind of recall doesn't come drifting in on the summer breeze, it has to be taught. I'm certainly not an expert, but I have come across several different tips and techniques that I thought I would try to share. Take them for what they are worth.

Things most people do wrong:

Over and over, I see people standing there, calling "fluffy fluffy fluffy come here now bad dog come here bad dog fluffy fluffy BAD DOG fluffy." There are a couple of problems with this.

1. The dog's name isn't "fluffy fluffy fluffy come here now bad dog come here bad dog fluffy fluffy BAD DOG fluffy." However, if you call it like that, if it ever does learn to respond, it learns to respond to how you call it. If the dog's name is Fluffy, call "Fluffy" or "Fluffy, here!" Don't confuse the issue.

2. Don't practice failure. One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing, over and over and expecting different results. If Fluffy blew you off the first time, calling its name over and over and over just teaches it to dismiss that as irrelevant noise.

3. Don't call the dog to you to scold it. Think about it from the dog's perspective: She called, I came (eventually) she told me I was a Bad Dog. Next time I won't come. If you have to scold a dog or put it out when it doesn't want to or trim its claws or some other form of doggie torment, go GET the dog and bring it to you, do NOT call it to you.

Things to do:

1. Make sure your dog knows its name and respond positively to it. Say "fluffy," and toss a treat six thousand times. Fluffy will learn to perk up at his name. Do this in different environments to set the behaviour. I also unexpectedly pop around a corner say my dog's name and shake a tug toy or squeak a toy. Drop something while cooking? Say the dog's name. They'll get it.

2. Hide and seek. Once the dog perks up and looks at you consistantly when you say fluffy, hide, say fluffy and treat him when he finds you.

3. Play chase. Call your dog, show the toy and run away from him. Make the dog work to get to you. Make sure to play/treat when he finds you and keep it exciting.

4. Use your "happy voice" You know that annoying squeaky tone? Yeah, that one.

5. Always reward recall. Always. ALWAYS.

Issues that will come up:

1. You will be working with the dog. Fluffy will escape and start bounding around the field, bouncing like a kitten, circling around you and haveing a great time. Don't chase him. Don't watch him. Make everyone ignore him and if you can just go inside and abandon him safely, go for it.

2. Don't allow the dog the opportunity to blow you off until you are pretty absolutely sure of his recall. Yes, this means working with awkward long lines. Don't give him a chance to blow off the recall until he seems to have decided that playing with you is more fun than playing you.

3. At some point, doggie will escape and refuse to recall. You won't be able to just ignore him because you have to get him. DO NOT stand there calling his name over and over. It won't work. Find a toy and a treat. Call the dog's name and run away from the dog. Have everyone leave with you. He is about a zillion times more likely to come to you if he thinks you are leaving or if you are running away, triggering his chase drive.

THING TO ALWAYS REMEMBER:

The dog comes because he thinks it's in his interest. It doesn't have to do with love, or devotion, or loyalty. Ooodles of devoted dogs don't come when called. Give him a reason to recall to you, a toy, a treat, a "good dog." something. Never give him a reason not to come by calling him to a scolding or some form of doggie torture like a bath or being put outside when you go to work.

Rio Rancho Tournament

2008-09-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

Well, the dogs did well.

We were at a tournament in Rio Rancho, a town adjacent to Albuquerque. Spoiled One was running a vet's team the second day, and he did well. I don't think he broke any speed records, but he ran over the jumps, got the ball, and ran back. They were warned about the inflatodog trick, so they ran him in anchor. That dog wore me out. He's 60 lbs of very loud enthusiasm.

Weasel lived up to her sneaky little nickname. She was nearly a full second faster than we were anticipating from her performance in practice. She got to run on the team for one race on Saturday, and made us break out. Twice. So she was banned to her crate, until the second day when one of the dogs was pulled. It worked out with no more breakouts, though it was a close call.

Squeaky toys were awarded and will be disposed of with typical doggie enthusiasm.

Agility Class

2008-09-10T21:41:00.000-07:00

Weasel had her first agility class after a break. She's reverted to her obsession with her idol dog and was completely distracted. After most of the class, I was getting some few seconds of attention from her. I amy have to enroll her in a class where there is no idol dog, again.

Unfortunately, I also have reverted, and gotten sloppy in my handling. A lot of stuff to work on.

So, agility was frustrating. But, I was able to have some impact on her, eventually. She did the weaves fast and off leash. I was able to call her back from distraction several times. She did fine on the obsticals.

The new pheasant and duck haven't arrived yet.

I'm tired and frazzled by a lot of other things. Probably, that explains Weasel's distraction. Blasted border collies pick up too much from their handlers. She's a sweet dog, though.

Hope I can get the shirts for the team up by this weekend, so that people can order them in time for the tournament.

Tired.

New Dog Sports Group on Squidoo

2008-09-07T18:01:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know that there is a new group on Squidoo that features lenses on competitive dog sports. If you do sports with your dog, or are interested, check it out. If you feel like it, make a lens (webpage) for the group. Dog Sports Group It's easy and you don't need to know any programming, just point and click stuff.

Training Boxloaders, Pass Callers, and Ball Shaggers for Upcoming Tournaments

2008-09-07T09:29:00.001-07:00

Ideally, all of this should happen during the course of practices. As you practice, teammembers learn these roles by taking turns fulfilling them in practice. But there are the zillion things that don't come up:

If the box malfunctions during a tournament, stand in front of it with your arms crossed in an "x"

What's our jump height? Whose setting it? Can they set it while dragging their dog along with it?

Who's holding dogs for recalls?

What practice stuff are we going to do in our brief (often less than a minute) warm up time?

Can the box holder physically pick up and move the box quickly? Does she know where to put it, how to line it up, and that she needs to get it set up and balls in it as fast as possible?

Is someone going to manage the props - setting them up for the warm up and pulling them out after the whistle blows?

Does everyone know to get into position and stay in when the whistle blows?

Does the start dog know who to check in with before signaling that they are ready?

Do the other teammates who aren't actively participating in the heat know to not gesture or call the dogs' names?

Does the boxloader know what she can and can't do to encourage the dogs? That she should always have a ball in the box when the race is being run in case someone needs to rerun? To stay in position at the box until the judge signals the heat is over?

Do all the dog handlers know who is deciding if a dog reruns?

Is someone watching for faults?

So many things that you assume everyone knows, but they don't often.

Spreadshirt Market Place Product

Flyball Ball Shagger Tee

Maybe Running Veterans in Rio Rancho

2008-09-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

Spoiled One may be running veterans on Sunday in Rio Rancho, which is both cool and kind of sad. It's cool because he'll get to run both days, probably, with the regular team on Saturday and with the Veteran's team on Sunday. But, my puppy is EIGHT YEARS OLD. He's getting older. He doesn't seem it, really, maybe a little calmer and easier to manage. I don't want my dog to be old.

Well, at eight, he's more middle aged than old, I guess. Anyway, I will be sure to do stretchies and warm ups for him. The sad part is a lot of core dogs on our team are getting near the veterans mark. The start dog, Weasel's idol dog, our current height dog, have all been there the entire four years Zeph has been training. I believe the idol dog and the start dog will be qualifying for veteran's in a year or two. With the new dogs, we'll have to be careful to practice with several different dogs in the start dog position and I would love it if we got more than one height dog going strong, so we could switch them out.

Weasel will run with the regular team both days, probably. She's just starting her flyball career. I should be working on their endurance conditioning (and mine - Spoiled One is a workout to run). Also, as always, building tug drive. The current tugging game is making them wait in another room, grabbing the tug and calling them to race and come get it.

I also ordered them one of the much coveted pheasants and a mallard from the website. Weasel has joyfully snuck into my teammates cars and stolen their pheasant every practice. She's so cute and proud as she would prance about, chased by the pack of dogs, proudly squeaking her prize and then drowning it in the water bucket. I tried a petwhatever one, but it held no thrill for her. My theory is that it's because it's SOMEONE ELSE's pheasant that she loves it so, but I am trying to accomodate her. Maybe my teammate and I can switch pheasants every practice.

Such spoiled dogs. . .

WOW! The tournament seems to fired Weasel up!

2008-08-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! The tournament last weekend seems to have lit a fire under my Weasel. She did very well at practice. No screwing around. No lollygagging. She just wanted to line up and go, like a wind-up toy. It was cool! Hope it lasts. . .

Of course, the idol dog wasn't there. She's with her owner up in California playing with puppies. Things may change when she gets back.

I'm going to have to do more box turn work. Weasel's slipping a bit, but I think she's "got it," and now thinks of flyball as her job, which is great.

My Spoiled One was a good boy at practice. He jumped the jumps and did the deed. I doubt he'll every be 100% reliable, but he's loved.

I saw a little Jack Russel/Rat Terrier at Pet something (Animal Humane Society has a station there and they bring out a few cats and a dog every weekend to try to adopt them out. He was a nice little dog - responsive, friendly, non-viscious. It looked like he had good structure for jumping, nice angulation, leggy, athletic. I wanted to bring him home so we could have a height dog, but I am trying to convince myself that I have my hands full with Weasel and Spoiled One. Sigh. I never want to get a dog just for flyball. What if it poops out? What if it gets injured and can't run? What if it's scared of tennis balls? But, it was a cute little dog. And nice. And his excessive energy would be treasured, not a problem. It could be a very good match. A little height dog would make competing in NAFA much easier on the dogs. He's a year and a month, so he's the perfect age to start. . . (shut up evil tempting voices)

Anyway, the picture above is a design from my cafe press store. The design features my mother's little scottie dog, who she rescued from the SPCA in California. He went through such a dramatic change, going from a droopy, stinky ball of hair to a perky little general with a scottie skip to his step. It was neat.

We survived the Tournament!

2008-08-11T17:29:00.000-07:00

Actually, it was a lot of fun, after a rough start. I didn't leave home for the eight hour drive until long after I had planned, and didn't get to the hotel until 3:00 am. The it was walk dogs, feed dogs, water dogs, shower, and up at 6:00 to find the tournament site. I forgot a chair and stumbled around in a zombie daze the first day. I was too spaced to put on sunscreen, had the expressiveness of a corpse, and I think people were afraid to talk to me.

However, after I got a chance to get some sleep, I felt much perkier the second day. My Weasel did very well. She ran flawlessly, over and over. Even when I pulled an evil trick and passed her off to someone else to handle, she was briefly confused and then figured it out. She believed the boxloader was a boogyman, but they were patient.

Spoiled One was a BAD BOY. He was the one we were initially trying to have handled by someone else. The other person was a great handler, and very patient, but Spoiled One was being impossible. I'm surprised she got any runs out of him. She deserves a medal for putting up with him. Honestly, he was like a 60 lb Jack Russell with issues. (Sorry, jack lovers, I know there are some nice ones, but, well, you know. . .)

Weasel was chased back down the lane by a little terrier, but no damage was done. She handled it well, kept running back to me so I could intervene and save her. The little dog left off immediately when I pushed it away and told it no. Poor Weasel. She's getting to be everydog's chew toy. She still has an owie on her nose from the incident at the last practice. It always scares me when the little ones chase down the big ones, because they're really so vulnerable to a crunch or a pick up and shake if the bigger dog takes them up on it.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun for my first open team. The dogs won tennis balls in the raffle, which is all they want anyway.

Nervous About Tournament

2008-08-07T20:19:00.000-07:00

I'm nervous.

I hope Weasel and Spoiled One do well.

I hope I do okay.

I hope I find the venue.

I hope the new fabric crate works.

I hope no dogs or people get hurt.

I don't know why I am so freaked. I've done tournaments before. The dogs have run before. I have had dogs break out of crates at tournements, have caught other people's loose dogs. I have been through bad tournaments and good tournaments. This isn't biggie.

But it is.

I don't know why.

Maybe I just need sleep. Maybe I'm just wigging because of all of the last minute organizational things (meet someone to get the pass, driving up so late, finding the people I'm running with, not knowing if I'm starting, finding the hotel, finding the tournament, etc.) Maybe I just feel very alone. I'm the only one from my team going up there.

Anyway, just feeling scared and thought I would share.

'night.

Weasel Was Bitten

2008-08-03T19:13:00.000-07:00

Well, Weasel was bitten yesterday at flyball practice. I believe the other dog was just resource guarding the tennisball. He had an "incident" with another dog and made snarly faces at several others.

No real harm done, though I did some quick obedience with her afterward to get her out of the defensive zone. She passed near the other dog several times afterward with no signs of aggression on her part. My poor puppy.

Other than that, practice kind of sucked because it was hot. No one really wanted to be there, but it was my last chance for team practice before Weasel's first tournament. Ironically, Weasel did well, no jump skipping or ball dropping, came back nicely. I want more speed out of her. It was too hot, though and she was a black dog on a hot day. She gave what she could, which is all I can ask of her. I'll see how she does at the tournament.

Spoiled One pulled a little skip the jumps coming back kind of stuff, but got over it. He was a good boy. It's kind of hard to believe he'll be eight.

In shop news, I did a new design. It's all environmentalisty, not flyball, however.

Border Collie Exercise Ball

2008-07-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

Wow!

I've discovered a new border collie exercise device at flyball practice today!

We've been "cast out" from our practice area for a month, and so now practices are a bit nomadic. This weekend, it was at a local dog park. The park has a grassy, tree-y, heavily used main section and a smaller, fenced off area with wood chips that no one uses. So, we were practicing there.

My car was full of flyball stuff, and I couldn't really put the big ole' metal crates in there. I had these little cheapo fabric pop up ones that I thought I would use, or just tie the dogs to the fence. There was no shade, so I popped Weasel into one of the fabric crates while we were getting set up.

There was so much junk to haul. Water. Dog toys. Dogs. Flyball Boxes. Hurdles. Gates. Tape measurers. Lots and lots of junk. All down a hill from the parking lot to the park.

People and dogs arrived. Flyball lanes were set up. One of the handlers started doing box work.

"Rrrready - hit it - good dog"

And Weasel's crate tumbled over.

"Oh," I said, and started walking over to reassure her. But then it tumbled again, and again and again, end over end, in a very specific direction.

Now, Weasel is a border collie. Weasel is crazy. Weasel is exhuberant. Weasel is many things, but most importantly, Weasel is a flyball dog and Weasel isn't stupid. The first tumble may have been an accident, but that crate rapidly rolling toward the flyball lanes like an exercise ball for a hamster had a mission. Weasel had figured out how to get where she wanted to be.

I was laughing so hard I couldn't move, so someone else caught the crate and let the dog out, and I tied her to the fence.

Crazy dog.

Nail Trimming Woes

2008-07-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

My poor Weasel. I was trimming her talons with a real nail trimmer, instead of the drimmel tool, because I had let them go too long and I got the quick on one. I made my poor puppy bleed. Fortunately, I had quick stop, and she didn't seem to notice, but I still feel like a baaaaaad person. I guess watching Groomer Has It did teach me something.

On the plus side, she may get to run on an open team in Colorado! It will mean lots of driving, but I hope it works out. Of course, than I have to find a puppy sitter for the Spoiled One. Maybe I can talk one of my flyball teammates into it. I could take him with me, but it's a long drive, just to stuff him in a kennel. Besides, my Spoiled One is a high maintenance PITA, and I would kind of want to focus on Weasel and figuring out the details of running her with strange dogs, rather than worry about a neglected Spoiled One. And it would break his heart to go hear all the flyball noises and not get to run.

Weasel's Gotcha Day

2008-07-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

I'm a bad owner. I didn't do anything for Weasel's Gotcha Day. It actually happened about a weekago (and two years) on June 22 2006 I brought home this teensy, soggy little puppy that was all ears and mohawk. Actually, those are still pretty noticable features, but she's grown into a greyound like body and some elegant feathering. Anyway, I remembered on the day and told her I was glad I had her. I'm afraid that was about it. I am so anxious for her to go to a tournament and run as part of a team.

Alas, no flyball practice. To many team members vacationing and whatnot. Our team has been somewhat decimated of late. One team member moved to another state - she had our height dog and our up and comer. Another team member has been preoccupied with work stuff - he has our start dog and one of the team dogs. So that left, me, the team captain, and a whole bunch of green dogs and puppies. There is a lot of promise in the newer dogs, but I wanna tournament! Wah! Maybe I can talk one of the newbies whose coming along well into a pairs race in Texas.

And the agility drill card has run out, so no agility, either. They were doing pretty well, too. Weasel was doing the obsticals and weave poles and sequencing. Spoiled One was doing it with treats, except he has to be babysat through the weave poles. The dogs have practically lapsed into a coma. I'll have to scare up some entertainment for them. However, it's so hot, it's hard to work up the energy. Whine, whine whine. We are all going on a car trip to Lake of the Woods. Four dogs, three people, one car. Fun. I hope I can figure out a way to get the dogs to the beach when I'm there. Weasel needs to see the ocean, and it's been so long since spoiled one got to run on a beach.

So, that's it. We're boring right now.

New Designs - Flyball Showdown and Flyball Workout

2008-05-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Yep, new designs from Weasel Puppy Flyball Shop. Hope you enjoy them.

Flyball Workout shows a joyfully whirling around on a tug after a race.

Flyball Showdown depicts two very competitive dogs leaping off the flyball box, their eyes on the competition.

Update on Building Tug Drive

2008-05-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

Forgot to report on the success or failure of my tug drive building efforts.

Actually, at flyball practice this weekend, I was surprised in a good way. Spoiled One actually showed interest and could be lured into dropping the ball and grabbing the tug after practice. Weasel, unfortunately, wasn't as cooperative. Part of the problem was that we were running her on the same team as her idol dog, and so she was very distracted. However, Weasel will have to learn to run with that dog. My teammates suspect that Weasel is focusing on the frisbee the idol dog handler uses. I believe she is focusing on the frisbee the idol dog uses.

I think I need to run Weasel by herself, using the tug, next practice. Also, I will continue working on fetch and tug exercises this week, and I will try to not let her play ball before the practice when we are setting up. She needs to work on meeting people skills anyway.

All in all, good. I have hope. I feel like I am making progress with this tug thingy.

The Truth About Doggie Doolies

2008-05-18T19:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm trying to be environmentalist. I hate packaging up doggie doody in eternal plastic and lobbing it in the trash to go to the landfill, preserved forever as a testament to our civilization. Ick. So, I finally got one of those "digester" type dog waste disposal. Pop it in the yard, dump the doody in there and it magically goes away. Cool.

However, once I got it home, I discovered that you have to dig a well 4 feet deep and 8 inches in diameter. Okaaaaaaay. I bought a post hole digger and went to work.

I had some help, of course.

The help made certain I knew the exact location of a certain spherical object. This was accomplished by replacing the spherical object back in the hole whenever I was so negligent as to remove it. Due to the dilligence of my assistant, there is a good chance the spherical object is still in the hole.

Eventually, the hole was accomplished, the Doggie Dooly installed, the ummmmm items tossed in and water and digestive powder added. We'll see. . .

Trying To Build Tug Drive

2008-05-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm working on it. It's difficult, though, when you have a 60lb dog. But, tonight, Spoiled One and I did the fetch and tug, fetch and tug, fetch and tug. I made growly noises and swung that great goliath of a dog in circles with the tug. I let him win and play keep away with the tug. He seemed a little invested in it at the end, standind over the tug and wagging and looking at me. There is still the long pause while he decides to spit out the ball and take the tug. We'll try lots more of that.

Weasel was doing better. She spits out that ball and hits the tug on the fly. I hope it will carry over to team practice this weekend. There was a little bit of phoning it in - mouthing the tug then waiting for me to throw the ball again. Practice, practice, practice. At least she doesn't hurt my back when she tugs. I couldn't get her to do keep away or win when we played tug. The minute I let go, she dropped it, if not before.

They're both very intuitive dogs. I think if I stick with it, they'll get into it. If this doesn't work, maybe I'll get something washable and put Cheese Whiz on it and sew squeakers in it, until I get some enthusiasm from the dogs.

Yet Another Flyball Practice

2008-05-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, it was yet another flyball practice. There have been some practices inbetween entries.

Spoiled One is doing good - he is being passable and passing fine. I am trying to get him to come back for the wubba, but he wants a ball. However, he was tugging on it a bit and seeming to get into it. I am being terrible about warm up and cool down exercises. I guess it's more play time with the wubba and endurance work for this week. Next week, I may see if I can get someone else to try to run him.

Weasel thinks tugs are boring. I screech and squeal and spin it and let the puppies play with it and throw it and carry on. It bounces off her head as she runs by. There is just so much stimulation, at practice. She was sort of responding to it during box work, but not for recalls or runs. I suspect, though, that its a matter of screw my courage to the sticking place and keep at it. Maybe if I can squeeze in some dog park visits (without letting her run around and play, but working with her) it would help. She could get some more people exposure and new dog exposure and see if any of it looses the thrill.

She's actually doing extremely well. I just want her on the tug! She loves it at home.

Shedding Season and Weasel Ran Start in Practice

2008-04-19T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ahhhh, Spring!

That wonderful season where everything is budding and erupting, waking from winter doldrums. The tulips burst from the ground, the buds burst from the trees, the songs burst from the birds.

And the hair bursts from the dog. Great masses of hair. Everywhere.

Ordinarily, I love the Spoiled One's coat. It's that nice teflony, glossy, straight coat of a german shepherd dog. He can be coated with muck, but a shake or two and it's gone. Until the seasons change. Then, I pay my dues.

You see, he sheds. Molts. Sloughs undercoat in huge cloudlike masses. I strip great wads of dead hair from him on an hourly basis. He finds the process a bit annoying. Weasel is overwhelmed with jealousy at the attention Spoiled One receives, and her head keeps getting in the way, wind from her tail whipping back and forth sending the cloudy mounds of stripped undercoat flying. Of couse, when she's being brushed, Weasel's head gets horribly jealous of whatever other part of her is being brushed and tries to get in the way. Jealousy is sort of her thing. . .

Anyway, we did practice this weekend. It went well. The puppies and new dogs are coming along nicely. We need some little height dogs, but there is a promising cattle dog/sheltie cross. One of our main team members with three dogs is moving to Texas, so were having to refigure out team line-ups. Weasel did well passing and did not cause as much trouble as I was anticipating with her idol dog. She had a bit of a problem veering off the first jump when running second, but did fine running first. Spoiled One still intimidates the dog running after him, so that it veers off or slows down rather than meeting him nose to nose at the start line. At this point, though, it really isn't his fault. He isn't doing anything naughty, he just gives off an "air". What can I say, he's a redneck dog.

Now the dogs are resting peacefully. Spoiled One has one eye open, watching me in case I decide to pull more tufts of hair. Happy Shedding Season!

No Practice, Just Play Time

2008-04-13T13:52:00.000-07:00

Well, no practice this week. People were sick. People had to work (ick) etc. Three of us did haul our dogs over to the club for play time, though. They had a blast chasing tennis balls and frisbees and herding each other. Now the house is quiet. My dogs are just lumps on the carpet, sleeping away.

ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz. . . hmmmm. . . a nap sounds kind of nice, for a change.

Icky Flyball Practice

2008-03-22T14:45:00.001-07:00

Well. . . this week I hadn't done hardly anything with the dogs, and it showed.

My Spoiled One was skipping the jumps running back (he knows better) and Weasel was so obsessed with her idol dog that it was hard to get her to run at all. I guess neglect doesn't lead to good flyball dogs.

So, I guess my homework this week will be to do endurance training and strength training with Spoiled One, so that he doesn't blow off the jumps. Weasel needs concentration exercises. Maybe I'll use weave poles to help get her to listen. Oh, and lots of just fun stuff. They haven't had enough fun time this week. Poor neglected puppy dogs.

Lucky Flyball Shirt

2008-03-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a new design for my store

This one was inspired by the way our team uniform shirts seem to not last through a tournament - or even a single racing day. The early morning run though the McDonalds drive through, the lunch scarfed down between races, the trip over the jumps running back to call the dog for a recall, and the hyper little dogs themselves all leave a mark.

The answer key for the various stains and tears is on the reverse side of the shirt. If you notice, the morning's mocha vente from Starbucks turns into luke warm convenience store coffee over the course of the day.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the design, which is protected by copyright, and have fun at practice and tournaments.

Your dog wants a goodie. He also wants you to throw the ^&^?%^$$&**(( ball already. Ooops, you just spilled something on your shirt. . .

Saturday Flyball Practice

2008-03-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Weasel did it! She ran heats with the team as the third dog in flyball practice this week, and successfully passed both ways each time. She didn't run out to play with the puppies or go herd the soccer ball. She left the boxloader unlicked. She was a very good girl. There is a little distraction going on. I am having to physically push her head back because she keeps looking back over her shoulder at her idol dog when I am lining her up to run. Also, she is a little too interested in another dog's tug, so I need to get a hold of her quicker after she runs. I wouldn't know what to do with a perfect dog, though.

Spoiled one also did well running with his enemy dog. The enemy dog growled at my Spoiled One, and insulted his ancestry while they were lined up, waiting to run, and growled at him as my dog passed him. (The enemy dog runs last, my Spoiled One second to last, so they pass each other.) So far, I am able to keep Spoiled One's mischevious focus on the ball and not the enemy dog. The other dog definately focuses attention on my dog, though, and not in a good way, and my dog notices him. I would prefer they didn't run one right after the other. If my dog didn't bark and carry on so much as we are lining up to run, I suspect the issue would go away. All the noise he makes draws attention from the other dog.

Poor Weasel

2008-03-11T20:52:00.001-07:00

Starter Flyball Boxes - DON'T USE THEM

2008-03-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

A lot of times, when people start flyball, they are very excited to get their dog to take the ball out of the box. This causes them to start looking at things like this: Starter Flyball Box Just my opinion, of course, but I believe these are a complete waste of money - or worse, actually damaging to your training regimen.

The big bugaboo, the most important, firstest thing you want to teach your flyball dog is the swimmer's turn off the box. Little "starter" boxes like these teach the dog to slap the box with his front feet and the wonderfull tennis ball flies out. Now, if he is as ball crazy as 99% of flyball dogs, the blasted tennis ball is the one sole meaning to his life and obtaining it and getting it flying again is the be-all end-all of his existence. So, training effectively stops dead when that hypnotic sphere goes flying and you end up with a dog with a bad habit like my Spoiled One, of slamming the box with his front feet instead of doing a swimmers turn. He was the first dog I trained for flyball, and I am working and working with him, but I have not been able to train him out of this.

Especially if your dog is ball crazy, it's better to teach them the swimmer's turn off the box before you introduce any fuzzy green distractions. Trust me, they usually figure out what to do when the ball comes flying out at them as they bound off the box. But, if they don't have that swimmer's turn already set in their muscle memory, ingrained in their doggy soul, it probably isn't going to happen if there are tennis balls flying about. Here is more information on techniques for training a swimmer's turn.

http://www.cafepress.com/weaselpuppy

Metal Lawn Edging is Evil!

2008-03-01T19:16:00.000-08:00

Poor little Weasel Puppy. She's sliced her foot open on the metal lawn edging in my back yard. That stuff is evil - and expensive! The emergency vet said it was often the corners or cut edges that cause the problem.

So, if you have metal lawn edging - watch out!

How to Handle Fear Biting

2008-02-23T08:28:00.000-08:00

Someone I know recently had an incident with there dog. It is a little dog, and the person was holding it. A neighbor came up to speak with them, and the dog growled. They assured the neighbor the dog wouldn't bite, and continued talking with them. The dog bit the neighbor, badly.

People tend to have two different ways they handle this type of thing:

1.) The dog growls and they scold it.

2.) The dog growls or demonstrates discomfort with the situation and they pet it and reassure it.

Both of these ways of dealing with it just make the fear biting worse. In the first method, the dog is fearful and attempts to alleviate the threatening situation by growling to warn the person away. Then the dog is scolded by its owner, making the dog even more fearful and apprehensive of the situation. The next time the dog finds itself in a similar apprehensive state, that apprehension is maginified by anticipating getting chastised by the owner, so the dog is even in a more potentially cornered and aggressive state, and it may have been scolded out of the one non-biting method it had of trying to save itself. Scolding does not make the dog unafraid. It just makes it stop growling. It is better to have a growling dog than a biting dog. It is better to have a dog that growls a warning before it bites than a dog that immediately bites.

In the second situation, the problem is that you are rewarding and reinforcing the fear. If you are holding the dog, the dog growls, and you pet it and tell it it's a good dog and everything is okay, you are telling the dog that growling at people and being fearful of them is a behaviour that gets rewarded by all this attention. The next time the dog is in a similar situation, it will be even quicker to resort to that rewardable aggressive behaviour.

Another option people resort to is to force the dog to remain in the situation but restrain it just enough to prevent it from hurting someone. They believe that the dog will eventually give up and surrender to the situation. Again this DOES NOT WORK! It's actually a pretty standard technique to increase aggression in dogs that are being deliberately trained to attack.

So, what does work?

If your fear-aggressive dog is communicating to you by posture or growling that he is uncomfortable in a situation, REMOVE HIM FROM THAT SITUATION. Immediately. If you are holding him and a neighbor comes over to talk with you and he starts growling, set him down. No scolding. No petting. Continue speaking with the neighbor, but ignore him. If you don't feel that is safe, then take the dog over to your house or car, shut him in and leave him to continue your conversation with the neighbor. Don't make a big deal about it. Don't take a lot of time about it. Don't spend time with the dog or attempt to make the dog understand what he did wrong. He'll figure it out.

If you are in public, such as a PetSmart, and you realize from you dog's posture that he is becoming fearfully focused on something, step between the dog and the object of his attention. You want the dog to regard you as the protector, rather than him feeling he's going it alone and having to rely on his own teeth to protect himself.

Pay attention to your dog. Learn his signals that he is uncomfortable in a situation and respond to them. Give him ways to ask for more space or alone time other than biting. Respond to "tells" that he needs to be protected from the scary child or the strange dog or the scary plastic bag (whatever).

As the dog progresses and becomes more comfortable, gradually introduce him to new situations and people. When he meets new people, encourage them to play something sort of safe that doesn't involve physical contact, like fetch. It gives all that agitation an outlet and gives the dog happy feelings from interacting with the new person. No staring at the dog. No petting until the dog indicates by his demeaner that he would welcome it. You want him to think of new people as new potential playmates, but it takes time and patience.

Remember: Punishment won't fix fear. Rewarding it won't fix fear. The only thing that will help fear is giving the dog a way out of the fearful situation.

Weasel Puppy Flyball Shop

Thunderphobia

2008-02-21T17:51:00.000-08:00

I don't know why my Spoiled One has thunderphobia. Weasel usually has the market cornered on neurotic. Anyway, last night, Weasel, the cat, and I were all curled up on the bed peacefully sleeping. Suddenly, Spoiled One leaps up on the bed. He landed on Weasel, and dodged over to stomp on the cat, then slunk over to huddle against me, trembling in terror. I hadn't even heard the thunderclap, but that's about the only thing that sets him off like that.

I can remember playing with him in the midst of hailstorms when he was younger. I don't know what changed his opinion. I hear rumors that it can be a vaccine reaction. It seemed to develop when we moved to New Mexico, with the wonderful thunderstorms we have here - especially after he was left out in it once. I suspect he was tramatized and I must have unconsciously encouraged his fear after that.

Poor puppy. I didn't mean to give him a phobia.

Ball Shagger Design and Saturday Practice

2008-02-03T18:28:00.000-08:00

Yep, a new design for my shop. This one is in honor of all those brave ball shaggers. It gets scary in the run back area sometimes - all the flying dogs and screaming handlers and tennis balls everywhere!

Anyway, practice went well. The Spoiled One again successfully let another dog pass him. This time it was a border collie, the same one he had bullied into leaping a line judge at a recent tournament. (Yeah, it's funny. . .now. Pain in the neck dog.)

My Weasel did not do as well. I experimented with running her while using the team member she especially loves as boxloader. Alas, it was too much for her. Overcome with joy, she ran randomly about the field, so I caught her and stuffed the little ditz back in her crate. One of the newbie people had been playing with her dog when Weasel ran off in that direction, and felt bad that she had distracted her, but, honestly, Weasel needs those kinds of distractions. Besides, I suspect her beloved one boxloading for her was the more overwhelming factor. Silly dog.

Anyway, I'll give Weasel another chance shot next week.