Yoshi & Trek Training Diary

Yoshi and Trek Training Diary - Sept 2012

By Ellen Clary (Copyright 2004-2012)
(reverse date order)
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Sun Sep 30
Yoshi Prozac Day 21
Yoshi and Trek go herding at Michaelle's in Pescadero
We worked mostly on ducks. The dogs are both doing ok but neither is stopping well. In the past I've been more asking them to go slow but it's not that effective though it's better with Trek. So we worked on Stopping at right at the top of the outrun. Michaelle's point is that stopping or going slow gives the ducks a moment to think and not panick.

I noticed she had a couple of goats and she said they had been fired from herding and didn't move well for dogs. Hee, Oh really? I have the dog for you. Super Bark Yoshi had a grand time making them move. I kept the session short because the goats were getting that "score to settle" look.

I'm thinking maybe I should train him on cows, because that's his style and too close is the legacy of the Corgi. But I do worry about him being hurt or killed by a cow and cow training is two hours away and again trialing opportunities are few.

Sat Sep 29
Yoshi Prozac Day 20
Trek last Pred dose

Yoshi walk
I've started changing the walk pattern to be not in a rectangle of varying sizes but sometimes am looping back and going back via different streets.
Saw a Boston Terrier and Yoshi was perfect. Later saw a smallish to medium size white dog twice and he was fine on both occasions. Neither dog was confrontational or engaging which seemed to make the difference.

Trek walk
No much rally work this time. We saw two reactive small dogs that live on Central. I was glad that Yoshi wasn't with me or I would have had to do a fast turn around since they were just around the corner from us and we came upon them and they both started barking furiously. We just moved on without further incident.

Fri Sep 28
Yoshi Prozac Day 19
Trek no Pred

Yoshi evening walk
On Court Saw a slow moving Bulldog that we crossed the street for and then stopped to watch to see which way they were going to go. Then as we were stopped 2 small dog who live on Court appeared. They cut around the Bulldog and approached on the other side of the street. Yoshi was able to watch the small dogs ok without incident and asked to eat cheese. the Bulldog started moving up the street towards us and was staring back at us. Yoshi started out ok and was able to eat but it became too much for him and he started barking so we moved a little forward to partially pass the dog and he was able to refocus on me and his cheese. Later he saw two greyhounds or whippets walking and he was successful at watching them pass.

Trek walk. Did some nice rally work in the driveway which I should do more of since we have a long driveway. Her Stand both walking and stationary is looking good. Her recalls and fronts are terrific. Then we went on a simple walk which was fine.

Thu Sep 27
Yoshi Prozac Day 18
Trek Pred - this is her second to last dose and her nose is looking very good.
Trek morning walk. No issues.

Yoshi evening walk. Fine until he saw a white Spitz type dog with tail up while I was picking up poop and he tried to charge into the street. He didn't get far and I pulled him back saying "NO!" and then just kneeled down and held him by the collar with one hand on each side of his head and let him settle down. Once he had calmed down I fed him a bit of cheese. The rest of the walk was uneventful and on the way home he offered some really nice Rally work.

Wed Sept 26
Yoshi Prozac Day 17
Trek no Pred

My anniversary so dogs had the day off.

Trek's poop is already looking better. She's only on the Beef and Lamb and no Salmon yet.

Tue Sep 25
Yoshi Prozac Day 16
Tred Pred

Took both dogs to see Dr. Wydner.
She can't find anything wrong with Yoshi's mouth - on Sat he had been spitting hard treats out, but wasn't today. This is a relief after $1000 of dental work.

Trek's nose is improving. She didn't think the thing on her ear was a bug sting but more like a minor puncture wound. There was a little puss in it but we're going to wait a little before adding more antibiotics. The pred is a miracle with sting related swelling but it can slow down other healing like this. She's going to have two more doses of Prednisone and then see what happens.

Trek has also been having soft stools and Dr. Wydner said that antibiotics can cause that but no so much Pred.
I decided that it's probably from not having beef since the Prairie Beef is still not available, so I went out and got some Instinct beef and lamb. This does complicate things as Yoshi can't have lamb as it makes him more reactive.

Dog walks. They seemed happy to return to routine

Mon Sep 24
Yoshi Prozac Day 15
Trek no Pred

Travel day from Grant's Pass to home.

Sat-Sun Sep 22-23
Yoshi Prozac Days 13-14
Trek Pred Sun

Corgi Nationals Herding Trial
Held at Brigand's HideOut
9628 NE 156th St, Battle Ground, WA

Email to corgiherders (Left in preformat text as otherwise I lose all the formatting)

Everyone was busy playing at Agility today and is getting ready for 
Obedience/Rally tomorrow, but I wanted to say how happy I was with my 
Sable Pem Trek and her Sunday duck run at the herding trial.

Someone at the herding trial said to me that during a run you might be 
doing better than you think you are.  I had neglected to put eye drops 
in Trek's Dry Eye and she spend a lot of time throwing herself into the 
ground partially from her eye and partially just because clearly there 
must be some rule that 50% of the Pems must roll in poop during their 
run.  So that's what I was seeing, but both judge's commented on how 
well we worked together.

Saturday's run I spent a lot of time managing her closely because we 
were told to be careful of the ducks.  Later on the Sat. judge Carol 
gave me a pep talk where she encouraged me to let Trek work more 
unimpeded as she has great balance and she clearly wasn't going to hurt 
a duck.  And that combined with the boatload of wisdom that Cindy 
Traylor gave me made all the difference

This was our third time on these ducks.  The ducks live just behind the 
Z-chute and there was a draw there.  For the past couple of days we had 
been struggling with the ducks turning around back towards the Z-chute 
after the corner just before the Runway, so today's big goal was to get 
through the Runway, and we succeeded which I was thrilled about.

The big challenge of these ducks was that they do not "fetch" (come to) 
the handler, and the ones we train on do, so I had to do some 
relearning.  During this video you can see me stopping the duck 
inadvertently at 2:04 and 2:15 (and more).

Then after the Runway, Judge Dana kindly then let us flail around on the 
cross drive for over 2 minutes.  What I needed Trek to do was stay out 
lateral with me on the other side while we drove the ducks through the 
panels from 4 to 5, but we haven't practiced that kind of drive and it 
was clearly not going to work then, but it was fun trying anyway.

Besides not fetching, the ducks were pretty nice ducks.  Right at the 
beginning, we scattered them and while we were stopped with me trying to 
figure out what to do, they just regrouped themselves. Then right as we 
had set up for the Y-chute, Trek and I had a brief "don't pee on that" 
conversation and while we were talking, the ducks took themselves 
through the chute (because the draw was in front of them.)  They also 
weren't panicky.  They acted in a predictable manner.  If they were 
flapping their wings or running it was because the dog was too close.  
As soon as doggy backed off, they quieted.

Here is the video of the Sunday run: http://youtu.be/gN4UXzuLW0k

So Trek will be planning on going to Los Angeles next April to give the 
geese a try.

Yoshi's goals were more modest.  His job was to heel out off leash to 
the post, set up and do an outrun.  He managed to do this, but then lost 
interest and got stressed and stopped working possibly because he is 
unsure around ducks that he doesn't know (we train on smaller Call 
Ducks).  Or it could have been the trial environment, but he has 3 PT Qs 
on sheep , and he did ok on the Friday practice day so I'm not sure.

He is actually at his best with his familiar pygmy goats, but only AHBA 
seems to have trials on them.  So he is likely going to retire to just 
working on the duck and goat stock he knows and competing in the small 
AHBA trials that we have where we train.

I also asked this to Corgi herders:

Greetings,

I would love any thoughts on what's going on with Yoshi.
This is a dog that would race around at 110 mph on sheep. After his third PT leg it became clear that we weren't getting anywhere on sheep and switched him to goats and ducks. He's great on his goats as they don't react much to him being a control freak stress case which in turn calms him down. He is also pretty good with my trainer Linda's Call Ducks which are very small ducks.

I made a video of both days of his runs here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yf6s0qWVkQ&feature=youtu.be

He engages initially (esp on Sat.) then slowly his attention slides off and he starts sniffing.

While it looks like ring stress, in addition to his 3 PT Qs, he also has a JHD on sheep and a JHD on ducks (his ducks). He's been in the ring plenty with me yelling at him considerably louder than I am doing here and he's been able to focus.

Are the ducks boring? Maybe. Though he won't even look at the faster Runner Ducks. He pretends they are not there. He only engages with Geese after a very long time in the ring and we had to remove every distraction (dogs). He's happy with his own ducks and doesn't respond to them in this way. It could be a height thing. He is taller than the Calls, about the same height as the Buffs and shorter than the Runners or Geese.

In the meantime he's mostly going back to goats since he seems happy bossing them around, and maybe he'll learn some more skills though he won't learn any polite distance skills with them since to get them to move you have to be kinda close to them. I do get some distance if I send him around obstacles.

We had a really nice time and it was good to see familiar and new faces
I took some candids outside of the ring and you can see them here:
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4111905188628.2161608.1013097814&type=1&l=5f59a0da55

I met
Vicki Northway who is the trial chair and handling wizard - I should just let her handle Yoshi and see how far they get
Vicki Kirsher who is the performance chair and had bred one or two dogs running in the trial
Ivy who trains with Vicki K and is from Washington and is at her first trial
Susan and Corgi Caleb from LA were there
Duane and his wife Connie with Corgi Bandi drove up from Az
Carol and Corgi Belli flew out from Mass.
Jerry and Sharon and Corgi Mowry and Diva from LA
AJ and Biggs from LA
Tony and Janet from SF with Corgi's Oscar and Chance
We had dinner at Rocky's Pizza with both Vicki's, Pat (who owns JD and co-owns Speed), Katleen, and Sue
On Sunday I met Diane whose Corgi was in one of the test levels (she had two with her)
I spoke to Amy from S. Calif.
Spoke to Rose from Salem Or
and right at the end of the day. Gail and Arlene popped out of a car and completely surprised me (they are entered in agility and had come for the barbeque that was at the end of the day) Fortunately, I was able to show them part of the very last duck run that Judy was doing.

The Judges were Carol Ann Hartnagle (CO) and Dana MacKenzie (TX).
Both gave me very valuable feedback about Trek. Carol was the Sat judge and I was too carefully managing Trek and she told me to just let her work as Trek balances very nicely. I took that advice on Sunday and we nearly qualified and I got to see just how good Trek is at this even when she's throwing herself into the ground rolling. Dana said it was really nice watching a team working together like we did.

I'm quite proud that we figured out how to finally get the ducks through the Runway without them doing a U-turn. Trek and I stopped and let them drift a little away from the Z-chute fence and then I sent her in and she drove and I stayed lateral. Trying to drive the ducks through the center panel didn't work as Trek would keep cutting in. I was hoping that we could be on each side and walk them through but we haven't practice that. Ann and Jan took a look at the video and said if I'd just stopped Trek and walked her up a step at a time with me lateral they likely would have gone through since I had them positioned correctly. Ah well that would have been our first Q though I wasn't planning on that at all. 20x20 hindsight though I wish we had another shot at it.

This makes me realize that if you have a shot at practicing on stock before the trial, do so as it's the most valuable day.

Fri Sep 21
Yoshi Prozac Day 12
Trek pred today

We raced to Brigand's Hideout in Brush Prairie, WA from Redding. After sweating through Portland traffic we made it there around 3:20pm for a 3:45pm session. (I had two scheduled). Fortunately they weren't running strictly on time. Cindy T was there running the sessions. I did Trek first and it seemed to go ok though these ducks don't fetch and we spent a lot of time with them doing U-turns right after the Z-chute. Turns out their house is right on the other side and there is a draw there. Then Yoshi had a turn and Cindy said he could drag a leash. He actually seemed interested and engaged, but needed to be redirected at times with the leash.

Thu Sep 20
Yoshi Prozac Day 11
Trek no pred today

Yoshi walk. On our street he saw a husky. I had seen a dog approaching but they had crossed the street and I thought it was a neighbor dog going in their house so i wasn't ready for a dog sighting. He usually reacts to Spitz dogs and this one was looking back and moving excitedly. He was very much Get That Dog. so I put my hands on his neck and calmly told him as reassuringly as i could. "It's... o...k... You're all right" He did settle something but was still up and excited.
By the time we got to Central he was much more settled and we saw a Visla puppy across the street and it was no problem at all. "There's a dog, can I have some cheese?" Later we saw three small dogs across Gibbons. Bark bark. This time I pulled on the leash and he reconnected with me with some effort.

Wed Sep 19
Yoshi Prozac Day 10
Trek pred today

Yoshi evening walk. He didn't get walked yesterday so he was very up. If he had seen a dog then I could tell he would really be reacting. We didn't see a dog until Central and that was a Sheltie across the street so he did that encounter very successfully. Then the rest of the dog sightings were either far away or behind fences or inside houses so no problem there. We went around the school and didn't see any dogs (amazing) but nearly ran into a Lab at Gibbons who was crossing our path. We u-turned and retreated a house width or so and stopped and watched them cross the street. Yoshi looked at me and when I didn't immediately feed him he turned back and barked excitedly, but not pulling at the dog. Then he got his brain back and asked for a treat and I gave him one after a moment.

Packing for duck herding at the Corgi Nationals in Battle Ground Washington. We'll be leaving right after work tomorrow. It hasn't completely sunk in yet that it's actually happening.

Tue Sep 18
Yoshi Prozac Day 9
Trek no pred today

Dogs were charging around the yard today. Later in the evening Yoshi was very mellow. It should be too early for Prozac to have much influence but today he started a new Rx of it and the pills he was taking were very old though that should not have made much of a difference. He did not get a walk today.

Agility Class Trek and Ripley
Lower courses didn't go that well for either dog but they were pretty tight.
Upper courses were much more reasonable this time
With Ripley who did the Orange course I learned that if he's in the tunnel and needs to take the tire next it doesn't do any good to be saying tire when he's in the tunnel, but instead say his name and then the obstacle right as he comes out. Trek did blue charging down the field was fun and Sharon wanted me to do a cross behind at 9 instead of the landing side front cross that I first did. Both were awkward. We tried it with Ripley after class and it was a hard call off that only Lynne could do with him.

	Lower Field - pretty iffy
	Upper Field Orange Course - Ripley I had him stop on the A-Frame contact while I ran out to just before 8 and did a FC before 9. After 11 he wanted to go to the tire so I had to tell him right tunnel which kinda sorta worked.
	Upper Field Blue Course - Trek with Ripley doing sections after class. 9 - 10 without doing the triple was very hard for Ripley. Lynne could do it with him by saying his name sharply. With Trek I tried to do a landing side cross which was okish but Sharon wanted us to do a rear cross and that didn't go so well as I just got in her way and she stopped to look at me.

Mon Sep 17
Yoshi Prozac Day 8
Trek Prednisone Every other day - on today

Park Centre says they want to see Trek in a week so that will be Mon Sep 24 which is a travel day for us, but I can make it for later that week.

Yoshi morning walk
Saw two black labs walking happily down the other side of the street. Yoshi barked a couple of times, didn't pull, and then turned for a treat. He looked some more, barked once, and again turned for a treat.
Saw a smaller dog. Excited and staring, but turned back for food.

Trek evening walk
Did some nice Rally work. Moving stand is still working great. I can say Stop keep moving and down her and then recall her no problem. Went by a firetruck idling which was fine until someone closed a door (silly dog - big giant idling thing is ok, but just don't make any metal sounds)

Sun Sep 16
Yoshi Prozac Day 7
Yoshi walk
Saw a GSD near Santa Clara. We stopped 1 house width away and watched them pass. He did well. Then we got up to the corner and two fluffy smallings Lhasa type dogs appeared and crossed the street. The were near a car and stopped so we crossed Santa Clara and stopped and looked at them some an ate treats. He's getting this routine and he likes it when he can think. I'm hoping the medicine will help him to stay in thinking front brain mode.

I'm realizing that he is misinterpreting too much as a threat and responding with primal protect mode. Being bumped by Cooper he interpreted as a threat, dogs approaching dogs are a threat. He's starting to learn that the presence of dogs means goodies, and I'm hoping a boost of Seronine will help with that. He also might herd better and less like a bully. But we're going to have to wait 4-6 weeks before we know for sure.

A friend's dog had an adverse reaction to Prozac and his reactiveness got worse at 2 weeks and terrible at 6 weeks (he's now on a Tricyclic). I don't see that happening for Yoshi, so I'm choosing not to worry about it. Park Centre is going to call in his Prozac/Fluxetine Rx to Walgreens where Trek has her Doxycycline. Dr Wydner says to keep him on 5mg for the whole 6 weeks to see if the low dosage will work.

Fri Sep 14
Yoshi Prozac Day 6
Trek Prednisone Day 5 - last day now every other for another 5.

A post to coltsrunkids:

So I put Yoshi on Prozac 6 days ago and he is already SO much better.  
He's only on 5mg (I'll probably raise it to 10mg in a bit) and it's 
really too early, but he's much less stressed by life.

I had been leary of it for years because I thought an early side effect 
of it caused him to get into a fight with Cooper (they used to be best 
buddies), but we had them together again (with Yoshi muzzled) and things 
once more went sideways, so it wasn't the Prozac and I immediately 
started him back on the medicine.

There were no weird side effects at all.  He is happier and no longer 
stressing about every little sound.  It does wear off for the evening, 
so he will benefit from more (or an additional dose).

Eventually we might try Cooper and Yoshi together again but not for a 
while as Cooper rightly thinks of Yoshi as crazy and won't even look at him.

And he did fine at duck herding today even seemed to listen better.

Hoping for the future,

Herding. Both dogs did very well. They both were on a long line which helped when they got too revved. Both mostly stopped or slowed down when I asked, and they were following directionals well. I used the black wand instead of the taped up flag and it worked. I was concerned that Yoshi was going to be too mellow to be interested in herding but he did fine and listened better and wasn't stressing about the perimeter fence.

And I am relieved to learn that Olympic athletes can have Prozac. If it's ok for Olympians then it has to be ok with AKC.
http://www.wada-ama.org/en/world-anti-doping-program/sports-and-anti-doping-organizations/international-standards/prohibited-list/

Thu Sep 13
Yoshi Prozac Day 5
Trek Prednisone Day 4

Trek's nose is much better. Her drinking is making me take her out every 2-3 hours which is a pain.
Yoshi evening walk. I wanted to find dogs to see how he was doing and we found over 7!
We went towards the school and the time 5-6pm is definitely a dog walking time.
Though is is still too early really, the Prozac appears to be lowering his anxiety.

He would get excited when he saw a dog but was able to turn back to me for a reward. I managed the spacing carefully so he never got closer that a street width except for the occasional 1/2 a house width but even that I retreated further away to over a house width. he never lost his head he did bark back at a dog that barked at him (small dog) but then he came with me to increase the distance and eat. He was able to cope with both calm and excited dogs, though he always does better with calm dogs.

He's still only on 5mg so it wears off in the evening. We can bump him up later.

Wed Sep 12
Yoshi Prozac Day 4
Trek Prednisone Day 3
Drama and dog-free walk for Yoshi this morning.
He seemed relaxed all evening today.

Trek evening walk. We had a really nice time doing some Rally work. I've decided that Rally is way more fun than Obedience because we get to talk. I'm tired of being dinged for talking too much. I like talking to her and she seems to like it too. I don't know if I want to spend all the money and time for an RAE but we can spend a few shows doing both Excellent and Advanced classes. Eventually I'll reconsider going back to Beginner Novice and Novice, but what she really wants is Open and she doesn't yet heel well enough for that.

Prednisone is an incredible drug. After only 3 days there is no more swelling, and that is after almost a week on Benedryl that had little effect.
Terri found a scab right in front of her right ear which looks like it might be a bug bite or sting and a likely place for her to get stung with her penchant for throwing herself into the ground.

Tue Sep 11
Yoshi Prozac Day 3
Trek Prednisone Day 2
Saw Corgi Shelby and Mark this morning I had crossed the street. Both Shelby and Yoshi were interested in each other but Yoshi had an on-edge feel and he's only on Day 3 of Prozac and I had to get to work so we didn't let them interact.
Mark tells me that one of the Queen's Corgi's just died. I read later that it was 13 year old Monty.

Trek is still coming to work with me and her nose is looking much better with the Pred. I will take her to agility.

I'm not used to bringing her to work and I'm terrified of accidentally leaving her in the car, so when I put her in I put something I need like my purse right in front of the crate and attach the leash to the crate and wrap it around the purse.

Agility Class with Trek and Ripley

	Trek
	Ripley - this one actually went ok for once. I got my commands out in time. Weaving into nothing is a challenge for him. I pulled up too soon the first time. The second time he pulled up to soon. The third time I stayed with him clapping out each step and he got it.
	Trek Orange course Way complicated. this was a tough course even with Trek who I can usually stay ahead of. Had to do the 2-3 sequence twice.
	Ripley Green course I didn't support the 5-6-7 sequence enough because I pulled up too soon and he missed the tire. The second time through worked fine.

Poor Yoshi. We got our wires crossed and he didn't get fed dinner this evening, so was acting ill (I left for agility class from work this time). He was pacing around and ravenously eating grass. Thinking his tummy was upset. I gave him some bread and he settled, but late at night I heard his gut growling loudly. Concerned, I went over to him and it them occurred to me that it sounds like his gut is really empty. Ding. He must not have been fed because tonight was a different routine. So he got a very late, 3am dinner. And now I know how he acts when he's really hungry.

Mon Sep 10
Yoshi Prozac Day 2
Trek Prednisone Day 1
Went for a walk. Only saw one dog - though it was running at us. I had to decide whether to keep going forward hoping we'd get to the corner first and turn off. We did and there was no reaction from Yoshi though he certainly saw the dog.

Trek back to the vet.
Her nose really isn't improving, so she saw Dr. Grant this morning and she's now going to be on Prednisone.

1 1/2 tablets a day for 5 days, then same dosage, but every other day.(I forget for how long).
Expect her to be really thirsty and peeing a lot. She's probably going to have to continue to come to work with me. She's at my feet right now. I hope this works out before Nationals but she'll be ok to travel.

Gave her the medication and she's here back at work resting and doesn't yet seem to be overly thirsty.

Yoshi seems in good spirits but it's still too early to make any guesses about the Prozac effectiveness. I just like that he wasn't at all weird at the door when Trek came in - though I was being ultracareful when she walked in, but it seemed completely unnecessary.

Trek had a nice evening walk down Lincoln and then back on Thompson where we met Lid'di and her kids who foster for the ASPCA.

Sun Sep 9
Yoshi Prozac Day 1
This is the time period that we have to watch out for side effects (Clomicalm had the most dramatic ones where he pinned Trek down and would just scream without biting her). Tight spaces and excitement are big causes of problems.
It's been half the day and he's been fine.
It's now been the whole day and ok so far.

Took him for a walk in the later afternoon and he was essentially the same (Prozac probably had worn off by now anyway since it's just the first day.)
Saw a Boston Terrier on Court which he was growling about. I stopped and put my hand on him and he settled and I fed him some cheese which he liked.
The rest of the walk was straightforward as was Trek's.

So I've been thinking more about Yoshi's reactivity.
He went from being bumped against Cooper to a fighting for his life reaction. that means that he has poor impulse control. He doesn't know how to handle adrenal surges. This is clearly a brain chemical imbalance so I'm hoping the Prozac and the additional Serotonine will help with that. the reason he is better behaved when on a leash is that I remind him to stay in his forebrain. I am his conscious if you will, when he has locked onto something and I pull on the leash he reconnects with me. You can see the mental shift.

Sat Sep 8
So today we took Cooper and Yoshi on a short walk and then had them spend time in the yard with Yoshi muzzled.

Things went a little sideways right off as Cameo was along and having girls around completely messes up the boys relationship. At first things were fine and them sweet Cameo somehow set Yoshi off so I separated them but he was in this strange "get that dog" mode so I said that I wanted to go back and get his muzzle. Mark put Cameo in the car and then the boys walked nicely together.

Back in the yard, which is a hot button place for Yoshi they seemed fine until I was saying hi to Cooper and Yoshi came up, they bumped bodies and Yoshi attacked Cooper. Now he was muzzled, but the intensity was pretty daunting. Cooper seemed to fight back but afterwards there was no mark on Yoshi at all. We weren't sure if it was shared fault - wish i had a video, but now I think it was entirely Yoshi's fault. We let them spent more time together. but Cooper was staring at the gate going "this guy is crazy touchy," so i put Yoshi away and got Trek out and they spent a little time together before Mark had to leave.

We were hoping that Yoshi and Cooper would learn to be buddies again but I'm not sure that will ever happen. Cooper is quite justifiably afraid of Yoshi. I think for this to go further it can't be in Yoshi's yard and he would also have to be on a leash or long line to go along with the muzzle.

Cameo pissing him off is a concern also. He's never met Cameo and has no reason to be weird around her. He had no issue with Jet, so why Cameo?

[later]
After thinking about I'm realizing that Prozac did not make Yoshi start a fight with Cooper all those years ago. Given that his behavior is way over sensitive, I think I'm going to put him back on it. I have 11 1/2 tablets left so if I keep it to 5 mg that's 23 days which is enough to start to see some differences (it's not the full six weeks but you usually can see something within a few days.)

I'll need to tell the vet that I'm putting him back on it, but I'm going to give it a few days first. I was thinking that I should wait till after Nationals but I have enough time to see if this will help and if it doesn't since Prozac has a long half life it's easy enough to just stop it a couple of days before and it will just naturally work its way out.

Fri Sep 7
This morning Yoshi was standing halfway in Trek's crate which he never does. He was licking Trek's nose. Argh. Her nose is looking a little better but the swelling is still there.

Herding both dogs. I am concerned about Trek's nose in this environment but time is getting short and she needs the work. The ducks are old enough now, but i don't know how they'll be. I think they'll be ok as long as I can get the dogs to Stop.

I need to bring Yoshi's muzzle, so I can offer to let Yoshi and Jet play.

--
So the ducks are still pretty new and Linda is wanting to be very careful with them as they are very nice ducks. After some discussion we had both Yoshi and Trek on a long line.
Linda put a carabiner on the collar and then used to wrap the line around their chest so it would tighten around their chest if you pull on it. It worked like a chock chain but around the chest.

I then held the line and a wand in the other and if a dog got too excited I would tell them to Stop and pulled on the line. For the most part they both worked calmly though once in a while they would touch a duck which they're not supposed to do.

Also did some non-stock ground work with Yoshi. He almost works better without a wand though with the ducks around you pretty much needed a wand.

--
We did let Jet and Yoshi play and they had a grand time with Yoshi pawing at his nose for a bit. He charged at the fence once but saw it was Bodie the Sammy and turned back to Jet.

Thu Sep 6
Yoshi evening walk
Did some good Rally work even though we haven't been doing much of it.
I'm realizing for him if I hold my bent arm parallel to the ground with my hand over his head it gives him something to look at when backing up and he doesn't go off diagonally like Trek does. I should do some more of this with Trek though it has yet to work well with her.
Saw one dog in the distance, but what was cool today was that he got to met Mary Ellen's 1 year old Corgi Max. We let them greet carefully and Yoshi was completely stiff and has his head way in the air. I separated them a couple of times to cool him off a little, but they really wanted to play. We let them go ahead with Yoshi dragging me along until they turned off.

Mary Ellen was asking me if they recognize. I replied they know what they can see at eye level. Yoshi in particular was raised in a pack of Corgis and has a definite idea that's how dogs should look.

I later offered to let them play with Yoshi wearing a muzzle. I'm going to also offer this to Linda with Sheltie Jet and Mark with Corgi-buddy Cooper

Wed Sep 5
Yoshi morning walk
Saw a small white dog down the street so we lat them walk ahead down Court but sure enough we caught up to them. They were across the street and we hid behind a car eating treats until I was pretty sure he would cope ok and then we moved on without issue. Then he saw a dog running down the street with his person and that was harder but he would still quietly eat instead of bark. Rest of the walk was fine.

Trek's results are in and she did Q in Open Standard which makes this her first Open Std Q.

Course yardage was 148 and Std course time was 71. A time of 53.27 means she was going a leisurely 2.78 yards/second but it was 90 degrees and we had to retry the teeter and I'm still just amazed that she would take the contacts at all.

A Welsh Corgi named Rosie also ran (came in 2nd) and I was so focused on Trek I don't remember anything about her. Her mom's name is Juanita.

Trek's nose is improving. She is soliciting Yoshi to lick it so I took her into work.

I don't bring her to work that often so when I get to work I am not in the habit of checking to see if I have a dog with me so I'm completely paranoid I'm going to leave a dog in the car. This time I put the leash in the passenger seat to remind me. Maybe I should always put my purse in the back so I'm forced to look there.

Tue Sep 4

Well we thought the bump on Trek's nose was getting better, but she then rubbed her nose in the ground and opened it up and it was looking much worse so we took her to the vet. Good thing we did. Dr Wydner tells me that it's not a scrap, but a reaction to a venomous bug bite/sting and it's called Canine Esinophilic Furunculosis. Google it if you want to see much more appalling photos.

Treatment is with antibiotics (Simplicef) and Benedryl. If it's not better in a week then she gets put on Prednasone.

She went to work with me for the rest of the afternoon. I had given her a Benedryl so she just snoozed.

Fortunately, prognonsis is very good. Good thing as the Corgi Nationals are 2 1/2 weeks away.

Agility class
So it was just Ripley and I this time.
Running a dog that is much faster than you're used to is an often humbling experience that is a heck of a lot of fun. Though the "Wow, I created this train wreck" is a common feeling.

Sometimes I'd get the timing right, but most of the time I was late or out of position. I need to get to position and then just send him.

	Nearly clean, except for my not driving with him all the way down the poles and he exited early.
	Difficult weave entry after the 270. "Drive to position and send him through. Position is much earlier than I think it is.

	This was a tough one, I was constantly late with my commands and often out of position.

Mon Sep 3

Yoshi bike run
So we went over to Bay Farm for a bike-run. We did one length of the waterfront from the restroom down to the hotel and I was intending for us to do another, but he wanted to go the other way past the car so we did that instead. Bit less grass to run on on that side, but enough. Doggie dummy snarked at a Pit Bull that was well under control fortunately and right after this photo I did have to escape a Beagle on a flexi who thought it would be fun to charge right up. Fortunately the combination of a yelling dog and "He's not friendly" got his people to find the brake on the flexi.

I've noticed that if I hold him in my arms and squeeze him pretty tight he settles down faster. Don't know if lack of air has anything to do with that.

Trek walk
We went over to a mailbox on Santa Clara and High so I could mail a bill so we crossed over into Lincoln Park and did some Rally work. I'm talking to her again and she likes that.Everything looked good until I did a stand walk out and a sit which she laid down for as that's what we've been doing, but there is a Rally sign that uses sit. Working on that then broke her moving stand which turned into a sit. Argh. Got the moving stand back but I'm not sure how to work on the sit. Probably completely separate from the moving stand until she absolutely knows what a sit signal looks like and I have to go over in my mind what the sit signal should look like. My wrist needs to be bent back so she can see the signal better.

She has a ouch on her nose where the skin is broken and there is some swelling. We think it was self inflicted from bouncing up to the underside of Terri's chair. We're keeping neosporin on it and measuring it. It's about 3/4" of swelling. The broken skin was already looking better after a few hours.

Sun Sep 2
Trek AKC Agility Oakland DTC, Dixon, CA
No Jumpers Q today because I took a risk and handled a sepentine on the other side and I didn't turn my shoulders enough to make a turn so we didn't take a jump, but glazed by the front. BUT in 90 degree heat in the afternoon she Q'ed in Open Standard! I had put my hand on the contacts and they were warm so I was pretty certain she wasn't going to do it. But Debbie had brought a wee tub to soak Porsche in and she let me dunk Trek in it (I did it twice). Plus I also gave her some of that GoDog sample that we got yesterday. Another factor was that the teeter was rubberized and was much quieter. It's funny some teeters are still noisy after being rubberized because they are heavier, but these were relatively quiet. She even did one in FAST in the cool morning.

I think I'm still going to mostly retire her from agility, but this is very interesting. It's tempting to do a little more before the rains start.
I am debating whether to buy the video for one or two of these runs. It's funny, it would be fun to see the successful run, but more useful to see what happened on the JWW one.

	Open FAST (Click for a larger version) She also spun out right before the finish jump. I'd have to look at video to see what happened.
	Excellent Jumpers with Weaves I neglected to mention in my notes that after she glided off of jump 5 she sailed over to the exit and a ring steward and I had to get her back from that which put us over time.
	Open Standard

I also saw former obedience judge Rosalie Alvarez there. Her daughter is competing in agility. We had a lovely conversation that Trek started and I continued. She's amazing, she's had two successful brain surgeries, one using a "Cyberknife" at Stanford.

Yoshi evening walk
He has been cooped up all weekend so he mostly wanted to just walk but I asked him to work some and he would though his attention would drift. A very mild leash pop got him fully back. We saw one dog on Santa Clara which we waited for and he happily ate treats while that dog walked by.

Mark was nice enough to let Yoshi out today. He said he enjoyed the time and wishes the boys could spend time together again (But his dog Cooper is afraid of Yoshi because they got into a couple of fights years ago when i was trying to put Yoshi on Prozac). So we made plans for next Sat afternoon to walk them together and I offered to muzzle Yoshi so they could spend time together off leash in the yard.

Sat Sep 1
I spent the day working at the Bay Team Super Regional. Trek likely would have hated it so I spared her and I was without a dog.
Tomorrow however she is going to ODTCs agility trial in Dixon.

Just double checked on her title progress. She could conceivably get her AXJ title tomorrow if we Q in jumpers. Unfortunately it's going to get hot tomorrow but I'm hoping that her jumpers and fast class will be when it's cool. Her standard class is during the heat of the day so there's no hope for that so we're not even going to try as it's just too pathetic to watch.

Trek:

Agility - Awards Processed Through 11-AUG-2012

Number Qualifying Scores	3
Number Different Judges	3

NAJ

Number Qualifying Scores	3
Number Different Judges	3

Number Qualifying Scores	3
Number Different Judges	2

OAJ

Number Qualifying Scores	3
Number Different Judges	3

AXJ

Number Qualifying Scores	2
Number Different Judges	2

Obedience - Awards Processed Through 16-AUG-2012

Number of Points	0
Number Different Judges	1
Number Qualifying Scores	1
Wins in Open	0
Number Wins Utility	0
Additional Specialty Wins Open	0
Additional Specialty Wins Utility	0
Number of Master Points Open	0
Number of Master Points Utility	0

Number of Points	0
Number Different Judges	1
Number Qualifying Scores	1
Wins in Open	0
Number Wins Utility	0
Additional Specialty Wins Open	0
Additional Specialty Wins Utility	0
Number of Master Points Open	0
Number of Master Points Utility	0

Rally - Awards Processed Through 16-AUG-2012

Number Different Judges	3
Number Qualifying Scores	3

Number Different Judges	3
Number Qualifying Scores	3

Number Different Judges	3
Number Qualifying Scores	3