Another slow (for the dogs) week

Not much training, but then I was at work a good chunk of the weekend and Tuesday night only got 2 hours sleep staying up with a dog in ICU. Sooooooo, this morning Bethena was wound pretty tight and rarin' to go. Iggy is more adaptable and would have slept in with me. Bethena was pretty sure that 6:30 was an appropriate wake-up call. She didn't manage to go back to sleep until I was in the shower after having grudgingly got up -- then, I got out to find her sacked out on the floor next to the tub, sound asleep. Go figure.

I took them swimming this morning to try to get some of the ya-yas out. There were herds of deer flies, but the dogs had a good time (the deer flies probably did, too). I don't think, however, that the group of somewhat elderly looking birders who were at the pond had such a good time. They didn't seem to appreciate Bethena's splashing or the cowbell on Iggy's collar. One of them was quite put out; she asked me if dogs were allowed there. Another gentleman was very kind and wanted to see the dogs swim. Bethena (as always) put on quite a show, doing her best flying leap into the pond.

This afternoon is class, I'm not sure if I'll work with Bethena or Iggy; I'll probably try to alternate and have Iggy do the heeling and Bethena the other stuff. I still haven't managed to take Iggy down to Hanover to work on the green there. I should have done it this morning, but I didn't even think of it. The rest of this morning I'm going to mow the yard then set up my new practice jumps that I finally bought. I kept thinking I was going to go to Home Depot and buy the PVC pipe and vinyl siding and make them, but realistically, that was never going to happen. Instead, I bought them from J&J. I think the next purchase will be scent articles to start working with Bethena in a more controlled fashion than I've been able to do so far. What the hey, it's only money.

Little Victories

We haven't done much this week, easing up a bit after the shows last week. This afternoon, I worked with both Iggy and Bethena in the front yard, as there wasn't any class.

Bethena has the idea of the drop on recall down pretty well now, she is doing it better and better and more consistently each time we practice. As for the retrieve on flat (dumbbell retrieve), however, she still does little things every time that add up to not really getting the whole picture. She usually chomps on the dumbbell (they are supposed to hold it still in their mouth), sits crooked, doesn't sit close enough, doesn't sit still, and isn't clearly waiting for me to say "give it" -- tho sometimes she accidently starts to drop it at the same time I say "give it!!" She has lots of fun, tho.

Iggy does such a wonderful heel off-lead in the front yard, but he is easily distracted. Today, we were doing an "about turn" when Evinrude (aka Little Missy Bad Cat) came into the yard from the jungle/woods. He started to run to her, but when I called him back to heel he came running! Yeah!!!! That's a big improvement over last week at the show and JUST what we needed. If I had been thinking, taking him down to Hanover to practice on the green (where there are lots of distractions from the Dartmouth College activities and people) would have been a good idea. Oh well, it will have to wait until next week.

Big Days for Bethena; Iggy Wonders Why?

I'd cut to the chase, but what the "chase" is depends on your point of view. Iggy and Bethena both had fun at the 2 days of LRCGB obedience/rally-o. They love the added attention of having days devoted to THEM; they love seeing other dogs and people; and they loved spending time at their favorite swimming hole each morning before the long car ride. Perhaps having fun is the chase.



I learned a lot about what drives Iggy -- he (like many dogs) did great outside of the ring, heeling beautifully, looking at me with fearsome concentration, doing perfect recalls and finishes in warm-up. Inside the ring, Iggy seemed to be pondering a huge question: why were we inside all by ourselves when all the other dogs were outside where they could get treats and praise and attention? All the fun was on the outside. Of course, that meant that Iggy had to make his own fun. He found many things to sniff while on-lead "heeling" (and I use that term loosely); his off-lead work never really included "heeling" at all. He did beautiful recalls both days and the long sits and downs were no problem for him, even when a kid walked RIGHT behind him this afternoon carrying a hot dog. Iggy smelled the hot dog, looked the kid right in the eye, and watched him walk around the perimeter of the ring as long as he could but never even thought about getting up or changing position. He is truly awesome.

Perhaps learning something about what motivates us and what the difference is between "fun" heeling and NOT heeling is the chase.



Bethena did her (on-lead) rally novice b trial yesterday. She did well, tho it was a little bit of a slow start as she hadn't really gotten into the groove yet. Once she got by the first station, she did very well and got a fourth place with a 90. That was enough to qualify and get the third leg of her RN, so she is now Chablais Ragtime Waltz CD, RN. For some silly reason, I elected to do a "move-up" for today, putting her in the Rally Advanced class instead of having her do an extra Rally Novice leg. After I got home, Heide reminded me that part of Rally Advanced is the potential for the "off-set figure 8" -- in that exercise, the dog has to do a figure 8 around orange cones while IGNORING the treats placed in the food bowls adjacent to the figure 8 cones. The actual exercises included in any particular course are up to the judge's discretion.



As it turned out, there was no off-set figure 8 today. Bethena worked so well -- she truly shone. She was more excited (in a focused kind of way) than I've ever seen her before, even last July when she got the third leg of her CD -- her eyes were glittering she was having such a good time. I was a little nervous that she was going to go flying over the ring fence, because Advanced is all off-lead. Instead, she watched me the entire time, flew through the course, and her only "mistakes" (tho they were mistakes only when viewed through the rule-book, in my book she made no mistakes) were some crooked sits and moving her feet a bit on the stand. Because of the moving feet, we repeated the stand a couple of times, but she got it right the third time and ended up with an 88!!! If she hadn't moved on the stand (and if I hadn't forgotten to pause on the stand after all that work getting her to hold still), she would have had a 94 or 95. Truly impressive and she is such a good girl, she enjoyed herself so thoroughly. She ended up by qualifying for her first leg in Rally Advanced.

Is "the chase" synonymous with ribbons? I don't think so, but I know that Bethena had a good time.




As far as shows go, I think the future will hold rally advanced trials for Bethena in Hopkinton in July (Lakes Region Kennel Club) and novice obedience for Iggy in North Conway in September (Carroll County Kennel Club). At some point, we need to commit to doing open obedience work with Bethena, too, but that might not happen til next year.

In the meantime, I am just glad that they had a good time.




(Picture ids: first is Bethena in her pool in the backyard at home; second is Iggy at work with friend Mia in the background; third and fourth are Iggy on the left and Bethena on the right in the backyard; and the fifth is Bethena on the left and Iggy on the right in the backyard.)

Bad photo lab

Well, apparently the photos I hoped to get back yesterday didn't go out until yesterday, which the woman at the service desk explained is what happens when you drop the film off after 8:30 on Friday, which doesn't really make any sense because I dropped the film off on Thursday, but whatever.

Instead, I'll use a couple of photos that Scott, who works at RVVH, took. The first is Iggy (behind) and Bethena:

This one is Iggy:

and this is one that Bryan took of Bethena:

They look so innocent, don't they? They are awesome buddies and they have so much fun going to shows and seeing all the other dogs, even if they can't play with them (much). They know that dog show day is all about THEM and they love it.

Time now for a little frisbee (tho we are working with the second-rate frisbee, as I threw the best one up on the garage roof yesterday and can't get it down. Oops. My bad. I am definitely in the dog-house for that one, Bethena was QUITE put out and I suspect it's not coming down until we get a REALLY big windstorm or maybe the first inch of snow/slush will push it down when it melts and gets slippery.....) then a little practice heeling in the front yard and then a whole lot of cleaning in the house. Even though it's a beautiful day, I am so far behind on cleaning and inside-things from having spent so much time at work recently that it's not even funny...... Maybe the END of my vacation will be a time when I can get outside with the dogs and not worry about all the things that need to get done.

Big Week Ahead

hmmmmm, looks like I never quite got around to updating after class last time... or the time after that....

At the moment, we are working on two things: getting Iggy ready for his first Novice obedience trials Thursday and Friday at the Labrador Retriever Club of Greater Boston's specialty shows and Bethena ready for Novice B rally obedience at the same trials.

Iggy can be so on, it's crazy, but he's also a very distractable boy. If there's a butterfly or bird or stick or twig or spot where another dog urinated three weeks ago, it's pretty easy to lose his attention. If they allowed food in the ring and I could tape a piece of string cheese to my forehead (I am a cheesehead, remember?), we'd be all set. As it is, his attention is kinda hit-or-miss. There are a lot of things in this world that are more interesting than me.

The second issue we'll have at the trials will be the heat and humidity. Even though it's not supposed to be wicked hot, Iggy melts pretty easily and he gets very laggy and slow when it's hot. The trials are outside, tho last year the set-up had the obedience going on underneath a permanent shelter. That was the best of all possible worlds -- lots of breeze and shade (no sides to the shelter) but lots of room for everyone and not as noisy as the indoor shows. Still, 80 degrees is 80 degrees (I know, I know, in Joplin it'll probably be 100 and we're cry babies, but so be it).

For Bethena, she got the first two legs on her Rally Novice title as the Labrador Retriever Club of the Pioneer Valley specialty last month so if she qualifies on Thursday, she'll get her RN and we can do a "move-up" on Friday to try for her first leg on her Rally Advanced title. That's a lot of ifs. Still, if it works and she qualified, Friday should be pretty entertaining and RA work is all off-leash.

This morning we did a little practicing, but Iggy was hot (not a good sign, it was only about 75 degrees) and Bethena was jealous that Iggy got so much attention (actually, that probably IS a good sign for her). I'm on my way now to run some errands including getting string cheese for my forehead and picking up some film (so maybe I'll add photos as well as links to the shows to his post later on this evening or tomorrow). More later.....