Sun Sep 30
Trek's First Agility Fun Match I'm so
thrilled. Trek way exceeded my expectations today. I
expected her to be a little freaked out by the different location, and
equipment and all the dogs and people. She was certainly dazzled
by all the hubbub, but I had lots of people give her treats and she
thought that was exceedingly cool. To my surprise she didn't have
any issue at all with the new equipment at least any new issue.
She still popped poles every so often and tried to go inbetween the
tire and the stantion, and of course ran around the occasional
jump. All things I've seen before so that's what we focused on
plus a little work on the teeter.
This was at
Workin' Paws Ranch and put on by Anne Kajava of Jumpin' Java
Agility. I really like the format that they're using. Each
dog gets 90 seconds at a time in the ring at a time where you can work
on whatever you like (or you can follow a suggested course) then they
go on to the next dog in the jump height. When they finish
cycling through all the dogs then they start over again. The
jumpers ring went small to tall (8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 26) and the
standard ring went tall to small.
And she ran fast, outrunning me in places so she's really gained in
confidence. I still need to work on sending her over a jump and
crossing behind, but she'll get it. And what completely surprised
me was her bravery with a completely unknown full height teeter.
I guided her over it the first time and each time I controlled the
lowering of it, but later on she went and jumped on it herself and rode
it most of the way down until I got there to cushion the landing which
actually might have been superfluous, but I wasn't taking any chances.
Interestly enough she didn't have any issue with stopping in the
tunnels. I think that their are just really good smells in
Sharon's tunnels since the dirt of the field gets carried into
them. Unfortunately there was no chute on the course (probably
because someone needs to reset it each time and that's a hassle in a
low staffed fun match.
Probably the most fun surprise was that there was a sandwich snafu and
my veggie sandwich got picked up by someone else, so Craig made me a
special veggie sandwich which was quite stellar - all the while saying
he wasn't a vegetarian (well I'm not technically one, but I don't red
meat and that was the other sandwich choice) and wasn't sure of what he
was doing (liar). This was no basic cheese sandwich: cheese,
tomato, lettuce, mushroom, zuchini, carrot with mustard on whole wheat
bread and several pieces of fruit in addition. Yum.
I did have
someone take a very basic video of Trek here.
Her enthusiasm is plainly obvious and is in dramatic contrast to
Yoshi's demeanor in his video (see below). There are numerous
times where I stop to reward her and several restarts, but several
excellent moments as well.
Fri Sep 28 It's
agility class for Trek today. Hopefully I can get my act together
enough to bring both dogs so Yoshi can watch the next class.
One thing I'm hoping to do at lunch is put Quicktime on a work laptop
that I'm babysitting, and after Trek's class, show Yoshi's "World's
Shortest Agility Career" to Rachelle.. It will be interesting to
see it again since he has come relatively far in 11 months, though he
shouldn't be anywhere near the inside of an agility trial ring and this
is likely permanent which is a terrible shame given his talent.
He's the fastest, most physcially talented corgi I've ever seen
including Trek who will be a star, but doesn't have the excellent
form and collection and surefooted, deft, lightness on her feet that
Yoshi has. He's such an enigmatic puzzle. Fundamentally a
chicken, but will walk up on high narrow places without pause.
World's Shortest Agility Career is not on his web page, but his loyal
readers can see it here.
What's not on camera is his jumping through the baby gate fencing to
attack a corgi in a costume. Bloodless, but still essentially an
attack, even if it was displacement aggression. If I had just
caught him when he refused the tire the first time instead of asking
him to do it again, this wouldn't of happened, but then I might have
continued and not have done the very intensive behavioral training that
this year has been. What's amazing to me is that it's only been a
year and he's so much better, though not trustable off leash even in
obedience.
This morning, Terri was noticing his excellent conformation and that he
stands like a show dog even though he was too small to justify keeping
him intact. Yeah well... This behavor issue would have
gotten him removed from the gene pool anyway. Ironically any kids
of his would likely have been fine, however the grandkids may have had
issues (funny how things skip generations).
Back to Trek. She still needs work on a full sized teeter and
doing all 12 weave poles without creative additions or
subtractions. Sharon's chute is still AWOL and I'll need to email
Sharon to see if she has one (I can find the base but not the
fabric.) Also 2 jump lead outs and if we're running a straight
line of jumps that means jump all the jumps and not run around some of
them (talented beginner dogs can be such fun this way.)
Also the talent gap between her and her classmates is starting to
get glaring, and I'm wondering how long she should stay in that
class. I don't want her other students to get discouraged as it's
really not fair since Trek is my 3rd agility dog that I've trained, and
they are on their first. I'll have to ask Rachelle if we serve as
a good teaching example or just an unattainable appearing
standard. Though it does help (if you will) when Trek does
something really unexpected and creative. :)
[later]
I took both dogs this time.
Trek did well. Going over a 1/2 height teeter unassisted.
the chute is back but it was windy so not good weather for it though I
did bunch it way up and got her to go through it once.
Still sometimes goes in a tunnel and comes out the same way (this time
there was god in it.) Still has trouble taking a tire at speed
without running around it. Oddly her weaves on my right are fine
and on the left she tries to pop out at pole 10 and 11.
In general she's doing pretty well and once she's up to a full height
teeter, she can move up.
Then it was Yoshi's turn and he did fantastic and was way beyond my
expectations. This time we watched the lower level portion of the
course from behind a chain link fench I twas like doggie
TV. Yoshi would look at a dog then look at me for a reward. He is
able to do this consistenly and with a variety of dog breeds (GSD,
Beagle, Shid Tzu. Visla, Sheltie. Then they move to the
upper level and we watched a little and were near the debarked
Sheltie. He'd never heard a debarded dog before and even though
he thought t that was way weird, he was able to tolerate. I'm so
proud of him - I hope we've turned a corner.
Thu Sep 27 They were
in what seemed like non-stop play mode for quite a while this morning
and evening. No training today to speak of as I had to do a fair
bit of work today and a workout too. Though they did make me pay
for it by not letting me sleep well last night.
Wed Sep 26 Obedience
Class for Yoshi today. Maybe we'll go early and walk around Point
Isabel on leash. Though that may be his vision of a personal
hell. Dogs running around off leash that he can't chase. I
suppose I could have him on a long leash (maybe not just yet) or stick
to the outside bike path where there's a fence between us and the other
dogs. I should walk Trek at lunch.
I did walk Trek and she's improving on leash. It's not like she
was ever much of a problem but I was in danger of tripping over her and
that's much less so now. She now is more typical dog as she goes
gonzo if I go near the leashes. Though what's funny is leash
doesn't necessarily mean walk as much as car trip. Walk out the
door with her on leash and she's aiming straight for the truck.
Yoshi obedience class. Lori with Aussie Blue were subbing for
Hazel. This is his first obedience class after being taken off Prozac
and he did great. It really helped that their were only 6 other
dogs there and all of them he'd seen before. No outbursts, save
for one where one dog barked and he started barking too. Worked
on sits and downs, heeling, figure 8 heeling, dumbells, recalls, jumps,
stand for exam. His figure 8 heeling has gotten dramatically
better as he no longer lags on the turn when he's on the outside.
His dumbell is incrementally improving, though Sharma noted that he
spits it out to get a treat. She teaches the dog to hold it and
then asks the dog to give it and waits 2 seconds before treating.
His stand needs to be more solid as he does move some when the examiner
approaches. But I'm not going to get on his case about it as he's
trying to be friendly. His recall seems to be less worried
too. I keep him on a long line and the instructor holds it to
keep it out of the way. I had him stand near Blue and he didn't
seem nearly as stressed by him as he was the first time he saw him.
Tue Sep 25 This
morning, Trek is actually spliiting her time in the backyard barking at
squirrels and barking at Yoshi barking at squirrels. I think a
squirrel has to be really obvious like the one on Sunday for her to
notice or care. In the
eveing I took Yoshi on a walk. with his shirt on. It didn't make
any difference or it made him overconfident as he was still a dewb when
we saw a dog. Later on I took the shirt off and he was slightly
better but I think that was more that he was a little more tired.
Clearly he needs a daily walk as even though wrestling with Trek burns
off a lot of energy, it doesn't help him behaviorally.
Mon Sep 24 I had a
Dog Bone Alley $10 customer loyalty certificate that was expiring soon
so Trek got to go on her first Park Street adventure.. We
actually shopped for Yoshi, buying him more Wellness Lamb and another
one of his shirts, but we also got some EVO treats that they can both
have. The EVO treats are more of a pain than the Wellness Venison
or the chopped up Red Barn, as they're a bit crumbly, but she likes
them and they're not likely to upset her tummy and then I had something
to give her as we walked up and down Park St. (Alameda's
Downtown). While she found it stressful and overwhelming she
would say hello to the many people who stopped to say hello, after
hiding behind me initially, and was always willing to eat the treats
they offered, and she didn't foam at the mouth like she did at the dog
park. Something to be repeated on a regular basis.
Yoshi is doing pretty well off Prozac. He's better when he's
wearing his shirt, but I now have to start taking him out more often to
see how he's really doing. i probably should walk him with his
shirt on and just deal with the funny looks of a full coated corgi
wearing a shirt., though he might overheat walking with a shirt on.
Trek is now entered in her first agility fun match at Workin' Paws in
Hollister. Fortunately there are unlimited runs so my plan is to
take her over a few obstacles and take a break and then a few more. and
repeat as desired.
Sun Sep 23 Well life with
Trek as we know it has likely permanently changed. For the first
time, she actually barked directly at a squirrel rather than barking at
Yoshi barking at squirrels. Now granted, this was one seriously
loud squirrel, but I'm quite sure the game is on now. I took a
rather simplistic video with my digital camera. It can be seen here
if you listen closely you can hear the squirrel in the background.
Sat Sep 22
I took Trek to the dog park hoping that I could get her to play
fetch. The dog park still stresses her even though she was the
only dog on the small dog park side (it had just rained) There
were about 5 big dogs on the other side and none of them were paying
any attention to her, yet she was too distracted to do much fetching at
all.
After watching the big dogs it looked like I could safely bring her
into that park just to walk the perimeter, and we did so. She
only met one dog - a very friendly lab. We walked the perimeter 3
times and I noticed that she was foaming at the mouth and clearly
stressed, but still seemed to be having a nice time. I think I do
need to make a habit of taking her at least to the small dog park as
her early life was pretty sheltered. Trek gets intimidated easily
but once she's use to something shes fantastic.
Fri Sep 21 So I've
been observing Yoshi over the past few days. I was trying to
decide between Prozac every other day or every third and I've been
finding that the day he has it he's a bit of a pain, then the day after
he's fine, and then about another 1/2 day more and then he's back to
being fearful. After I realized that he was only really doing
well 1/2 of the time I decided that perhaps it's best to work on his
fear without Prozac. So this is day 4 or so post Prozac and even
though he's much more jumpy, he's quite tolerable (though he hasn't
been in a stressful situation.)
When Trek and I got back from class, Terri had put his shirt on him
though she said that he was being pretty mellow this evening (We had
talked about going back to the shirt instead of Prozac, since the
pressure of the shirt has a calming effect. He seems to be doing
quite well and he's terribly cute:
West Coast Chomper at
Rest
Trek
Agility Class
She did really well again though she's pretty loopy at the beginning of
class down in the small field. Lots of zooming and ducking behind
me, and she kept wanting to rush through weave poles skipping a few
here and there. It took quite a lengthy conversation and guiding
with a leash but she finally put it together. I don't think it's
anything serious, more that she's experimenting with what's ok to do
and what's not.
But when we moved up to the larger field she really shined. Raced
over the dog walk, dashed through tunnels, and charged over a lowered
teeter sticking the landings even when doing it at speed. With a
sting of jumps I have to make sure she takes them all but you can see
her start to figure it out that jumps in a row usually mean you take
them if I'm telling you to do so.
Much fun, though she needs to move to a harder class as I'm starting to
feel self conscious at how well she's doing vs everyone else.
Tue Sep 18 Somewhile
back I had written that the yummy looking chicken treats that I got
from Western Farm in Santa Rosa made sensitive gut Trek ill. I
was content as usually to just give them to iron gut Yoshi and didn't
think much about it (this is a normal occurence) and then I got Bayteam
email from Garill about a dog that was made very, very ill from a
different chicken treat. The thing in common? They both say
in really tiny print: Made in China. I then recycled the
treats. It's really annoying as the claim on the package is that
it's 100% chicken.
Well as you might guess, even though that ended the matter for us,
allegations and investigations are just getting started.
Mary Ann from the Bayteam just posted this link:
Stay tuned and toss out those chicken jerky treats. Mary Ann has
the right idea of just using a dehydrator to make your own. Given
that I routinely make hiking munchies from Tandoori chicken in my
dehydrator it's probably easy to just dehydrate ordinary cooked
chicken. Mon Sep 17 I'm still
trying to decide on it Yoshi should have meds every other day or every
3rd day. Today would be a med day if it was every other so I'm
watching him trying to decide. He seems more anxious and
stressed, but not terribly - perhaps he's right on the edge. I
notice that he's starting his OCD shadow chasing which implies that he
should have more today, but I'll keep watching him this evening.
I haven't placed him in any situation where he's around unknown dogs so
I don't yet know how he'll be with that.
For a while, he's had this really funny habit which is mostly harmless
and which makes for good pictures. He has what must be the drive
to take something in his possession and dig a hole for it in the
yard. Notice I didn't say bury it. He doesn't. He'll
carry out a toy or ball out of the house and dig a shallow 1/2 grave
for it, drop it in and that's it. If I didn't bring the toys into
the house then the entire household of toys would be out in the yard
resting in shallow graves. So I finally took pictures
today. While I didn't get a picture of it, he had a couple of
toys
side by side in the same hole a la mass grave. Such a strange,
funny dog. Terri, while she thinks it's terribly cute, also
thinks it's kinda creepy in that Pet Cemetery kind of way, and it is
sort of, but how is it any different than Cali who would take great
delight in systematically dismembering and eviscerating her toys?
Toy Graves
Sun Sep 16 Doing the
math, if 5 mg lasts him 2 1/2 days that means about 2 mg a day, but I
can't cut the pill that way. I think 2.5 every 3 days is proably
not enough, but every other day sounds like a good start. I
didn't give him any today and I've been watching him pretty carefully.
This afternoon I took him on a walk and it worked out perfectly.
I saw a dog approaching a block and a 1/2 away so we crossed the street
and I had him sit as the dog approached. I had my hand in his
collar and was kneeling down beside him. When he saw the dog him
immediately tried to leap up and bark, but he was caught by the collar
(he basically gave himself a correction - ok I helped some). Put
him back in a sit, he tried to leap up again with the same
effect. Put him back in the sit and HE STAYED! I shoveled
treats in his mouth while we watched the dog walk by. I notice
that he wasn't leaping up with the same intensity that he's done in the
past.
I'm so happy with his progress.
Trek and I played fetch in the backyard - a game that she now
loves. She even gets it back to my hand most of the time or
flings it on the ground at my feet. We then worked on weave pole
entrances with a set of 6 poles. She's doing the logical (though
incorrect) thing of taking the opening the closest to her so when she
gets it wrong I tell her "nope" and have her do it again
correctly. I can see her struggling a bit with trying to figure
out what makes the treat machine work reliably. She'll get
it. I think we'll do this for short bursts each day for a while
Sat Sep 15 In the
early afternon Yoshi started to act a bit more stressed (but was fine
in the morning) so I gave him 2.5 mg of Prozac and we'll see how he
does on that. So we're looking at 2.5 mg every other or every 3rd
day. I can live with that.
Fri Set 14 What a
glorious doggy day. Today was Yoshi's once a month class with
Lori Drouin, and then Trek had her weekly agility class (which we were
almost on time for!).
But first. I had the day off and took both dogs for a walk in the
morning. This is Yoshi's second day off prozac and I'm watching
him pretty carefully to see if his behavior changes. Nothing to
speak of so far.
Yoshi class. I'm taking him to the Utility class as Crystal the
noisy Basenji (who ironically was fine today according to others) isn't
in that class and the dogs are very stable. In general, he was
fine though he wasn't very happy about a Puli in the class. I
think it's the first time he's seen a Puli (has corded Rasta like fur)
so he was initially barky and growly, but settled fairly quickly.
During their initial heeling, I just sat with him in the center and he
just watched the other dogs. Then we started participating and he
did very well with the one exception of us taking a break near the door
and the Puli walked in from taking a break and he wanted to bark and
lunge. I wrestled him into a sit and convinced him to hold it
together which he did with effort.
Class topics were going out to a target, going out to a target with
other dogs around, stand for exam/moving stand, steps to metal articles
Target. I still have the target stick and stand that came with
the treat and train that Cooper has. The target stick is clearly
the best part about the thing (though I think Trek would disagree, but
that decision was made before her arrival.) I put the target
stick on the stand and had Yoshi on a long line, put him on a stay,
walked out and then told him to "go touch" which he did. This is
something he knows but not in this context so I was glad he could
concentrate enough to do the exercise. He was a little
intimidated when others dogs were working to but had no outbursts, not
much inclination to do so.
I need to get his novice stand for exam better dialed in, but he is
able to tolerate someone coming up to him and touching him. I
doesn't really get the moving stand unless I stop too but we've never
worked on that (doing so would help herding to though).
The metal articles involved him licking cheese wiz off a metal article
that I had touched. At home we can work on him having a metal
aritlcle with vet wrap on it and scented plus having other articles
around. She wants to see his Open level dumbell improve first
though. We talked that Hazel was wanting him to learn hold by
making him hold the dumbell rather than trick him into holding it
longer by delaying a reward for bringing it back. Lori said that
we could work on both at the same time. I was saying that though
I preferred the non-force method that Yoshi seems to do better when you
guide him some physically. Though I still prefer him figuring out
on his own that the idea is for him to hand on to it longer.
All in all a good class for him.
Trek's agility class
Wow! What a dog. She's loving agility and starting to get
the hand of course running. Like if I point her at a jump I
intend for her to take it. Though we tried a 2 jump lead out and
she ran around the second one.
She charges up the dogwalk and the A-Frame and does running
contacts. Rachelle had us work on a lowered teeter and she
charged over that and consistently stuck the contact when I asked her
to (very much to my surprise.) I had her do weave poles between
runs and while she likes them she still needs a lot of work in doing
them consistently correctly.
Tunnels are well on their way. She only came out of the entrance
once. I think she's very attunded to where my voice is so I
should resist saying anything once she's in until I get to the other
end of it. (like don't say "go" after she's in the tunnel as that just
calls her out.)
Haven't seen a chute appear at Sharon's in a while - I need to ask
about it.
Trek's going to start out running me soon so I'll have to work on the
lead out.
What a fun day.
Wed Sep 12 Obedience
class. Decided to take both dogs and switch off as Trek needs the
exposure anyway. Generally it was good but Yoshi did have a
strong reaction to Blue a very well trained Aussie. To
the point that he was actually struggling hard with me to get
away. I don't know if Trek was a factor or not. I'll try
not taking her next time to see if I notice any difference. I
think I'm going to wean him back off of Prozac to see if there's any
difference there. The potential problem with Prozac is that it
gives them more confidence. The hope is that they feel confident
enough to not react, but it can also increase reactions as they are
more confident. It's tricky as he's generally better when he's
more confident, but I notice that he's a bit easier to handle during
days when I decide not to give him the med.
Trek is, not surprisingly, way fun at class. I had her out doing
some heeling and recalls where she shines. Hazel asked me how her
recall was and I told her that her recall is excellent, her stay is
not. So Hazel held the leash and let go when I called her.
Trek rocketed toward me and I was worried that she was going to put a
hole through me.
Yoshi's figure 8s are doing very well. Some progress on dumbell
holding, but not much.
Mon Sep 10 BiFriendly
was tonight so no dog training, but one accidental, very silly
episode. I was sprinkling some grass seed on my yard and Trek was
manically chasing the seeds completely convinced that I was freely
tossing out food but all she kept finding was grass seed. Every
time I''d toss she'd race over to where it hit the ground and check
it. I'd toss it somewhere else and she'd charge over there.
This went on for the whole time I was seeding. I even tossed out
more than I needed to because she was so funny to watch.
Sun Sep 9 Yoshi
herding.. It was really busy today so I didn't get much time with
Joyce but we first spent some time in the round pen so I could work on
walking backwards while holding the wand in front of him (still on a
long line). He's slowly getting it but doesn't want to.
Then we switched to the PT pen and he did a very nice outrun, but
doesn't like to stop when he brings the sheep back. He'd rather
just flush them so he can run after them. I also get the effect
of sheep charging right at me with a possessed corgi right
behind. (Gee thanks Yoshi. You've got part of it down - now about
that stopping at the end...) Some times I was able to get him to
stop but it was tough to get him to walk along with me had to have me
holding the long line and the wand in front of him. The sheep
were also pretty flighty so we couldn't get too close to them,.
However we did make some progress.
Poor guy did
manage to rip a pad a little as he didn't have his booties on the whole
time. One time they just came off and the other I forgot.
However it does slow him down. Another handler recommends using
vetwrap to get the booties to stay on.
i think we're going to start going earlier (11am) as there are fewer
people then. Sat Sep 8 Uploaded
Trek's ocean video: http://frap.org/Images/Trek/Beach/trek-firsttime-ocean.AVI
Fri Sep 7 Trek finally has
agility class. Hooray! We've both been
losing out minds. Though I have discovered the ball fixation so I
can use that in training.
Today I found a
plastic foot off the black and decker work stand.
She's stolen this before and I get it back and keep it out of site for
a while and then sneak it back on the work table. Drat -
ever time she sees it she focuses on it. I'd glue it on but I
don't want her eating glue.
Class. She
did fantastic. It was clear she was just dying to do this
again. Worked on leadout pivots. She did a full size A
frame for the first time and faced over it and even hit the contact at
the end (running contacts). Separately did a few sets of 12 weave
poles. She's still needs help getting the start right but then
stays in except for one pop at the 10th pole. She's getting
it. Did the teeter (plank) a couple of times and did well though
the beginning is a little rusty. No longer a problem with
tunnels. I just need to stand up and not micromanage them.
I can't assume that she's going to take a jump that's in front of her
as she tends to come back to me unless told otherwise ("out" "over").
Since I can't
really get to the 6:15pm class on time, we will move to the next time
slot when a space opens up. In the meantime, we'll just keep
coming late.
Wed
Sep 5 Yoshi Obedience
Class. Like last week he did fantastic.
Unlike last week, he and I were over across the street on a neighbor's
porch and he became a complete basket case when a couple of unknown
dogs walked by. Funny how context is everything. The
obedience class was after the porch meltdowns so I wasn't sure what to
expect and was very pleased when he not only was able to concentrate,
but was able to interact with the other dogs like Oliver the CKCS, and
even Hank the Bulldog who is shaped a little like a dump truck and
Yoshi initially really didn't like him. (though I didn't have him meet
the Chessie or "Callie" the Mallenois.
Callie provided
some great training opportunities much to her owners
exasperation. She's a young dog and every so often she gets
the zoomies (yes even in obedience that can happen - esp with recalls),
and it happened once tonight and once last week and both times I had
Yoshi sitting beside me and I was able to start praising him for
staying, and shoveling treats at him, since out of control motion
towards him is a major trigger. He was more interested in the treats
than any zooming Mallenois, and I later jokingly thanked Callie's mom
for helping to train Yoshi, and she ruefully said "Happy to be of
service."
His heeling is
good, and figure 8's are ok but still lagging
some. Hazel had us switch to doing ovals around both dog and
handler "posts" and he improved. With the dumbbell we're
working on "hold"ing the dumbbell by manually putting it in his mouth
and hold his mouth (very gently) until he stops chewing it.
Normally I wouldn't do this but he always seems to prefer physical
guidance so I decided to try it. It's working but we only have
been working on it in class and if I were to work more on it out of
class he'd be a lot better.
Recalls and
broad jump. I have him on a long line and to get some
distance Hazel is very kindly following behind him holding the
line. I used to keep him away from the other dogs as waiting in a
line of dogs seemed to make him nervous but tonight we just stood in
the line and he did great through was nervous around the door thinking
that at anytime something might walk through it. (a valid
concern). For the broad jump we started with a standard call over
the jump and then progressed to him doing the jump and then me backing
up around a line of cones to lead him into proper position. He's
getting it, but he still [silently] worries about the other dogs.
His Stand for
Exam is doing quite well. Will stand while Hazel
walks up to him, though still moves a foot when I come back (or even
sits down)
I think he likes
the structure. The only time he seems
uncomfortable is when he's not being told what to do or if he's some
distance away from me and there is something that worries him (usually
a strange dog). In the past he would leave to go after a dog ("go
after" means various things - barking, pestering, and eventually
outright chomping - until 10 months ago where I stopped letting him
have any opportunity to do so and he basically went into serious
remedial training/therapy - it is a long road, but well worth it.)
I'm realizing
that he'll probably be in obedience training of some sort
for the rest of his life. Good thing I like the people.
When I first started taking him there I checked with Hazel to make sure
she was ok with having a somewhat reactive dog in class and she said
that it was fine. I said "Good thing as he'll be here for
months."
We may now be past months now. Good thing she likes him.
Mon Sep 3 In the
spirit of deciding to have fun when you've made a dumb
mistake, Trek and I went to Muir Beach when I stupidly went to
Petaluma instead of San Jose for the Bayteam Dog Agility
Super Regional. I was wondering how they were going to
squeeze all those rings, people, dogs, and vehicles into Petaluma and
surprise--they weren't. D'Oh! While I
contemplated driving 2+ hours south from there I realized that I'd been
neglecting to take Trek to see the ocean and that would be time very
well spent and most importantly I had a camera with me.
As you might
guess - it was a blast. Trek after getting over
being intimidated, had a really great time and enjoyed playing in the
water and rolling in dead seaweed in the sand. I did take some
good and some schitzo video of her that I will upload soon.
Sun
Sep 2 Found the famous
photo of Cali going through the cat door and I really
need to upload it. It's Cali sticking her head out of a cat door
that you'd swear was too narrow for her (cartilage head!) and you'd
swear she was stuck but she wasn't. Such a rat.
When I wasn't
looking Trek swiped a roll of toilet paper and had it
standing up totem style in the very center of her crate.. I
laughed at her creativity while I found a higher place for the toilet
paper rolls to live. Unlike Yoshi she often just collects things
that I don't want her to rip up. I've found socks, gloves,
underwear, slippers, sponges that fell on the floor, papers,
brushes. Mostly unharmed. Guess the plastic clips resemble
a chew toy too much. And the toilet paper makes sense since we
give then the rolls as chew toys. I think I need a dirty clothes
hamper and not a basket - or a higher location for the basket.
Such a creative dog.
Sat
Sep 1 I went on a long
hike (16 miles) which wiped me out for herding on
Sunday - maybe next week.
