any day now.....

Supposedly AKC is voting on all those possible changes, A frame height for little dogs, positionless table among other things. We should know what's going on sometime in May. It's frustrating for me because if they do change the A frame height my dogs will never be able to practice on a 5' foot frame. Where we do 99% of our training the A frame can't be lowered. It may be just fine to "wing it" but I'm not a fan of surprising my dogs in competition.

I just wish there were some proposed changes for the teeter. Indy had another flying launch off the teeter on Monday night. she's not doing it because she doesn't care, she's doing it out of confusion. She was on 2 different teeters prior to this earlier in the week that tipped very differently and she really was confused and that hurts her confidence on the dog walk...."which kind of plank is this?? A teeter or walk, better slow down to be sure". Very frustrating for both Indy and I, it's not fair for her to surprised like that. when you're only 6 lbs some teeters are just starting to give a little as she approaches the end and others aren't moving at all and she has to wait a second, just for it to begin to tip if she's all the way at the end, the way she's been trained (she needs to go to the end, or many teeter won't tip at all). At least she landed on her feet this time.

weekend run thrus

Took the young ladies to run thrus at splash and dash on Sat. It was packed, I wasn't expecting that! Lots of familiar faces bringing out new, young dogs....with mixed results. Baby dogs, you just don't know what may happen!!

Kittie on the other hand, you know exactly what to expect......lots of barking and squeeling, some knocked bars, and a near fly off on the teeter, but lots of FUN!

Abby, nice speed through out, a nice fast down on the table, nice contacts, but lots of discussions over the weave poles. She can weave independently...in the back yard.

Indy really did well. I ran her at both 8" and 12" and she did just fine at both heights. I really tested her contacts and weaves and she did fantastic. A while back she was very hesitant on this teeter, it's heavy and loud, but no problems anymore. she ran 3 times and I think her speed got better in each run. Such a good girl!!

My depressed problem pug

I swear Abby's been in some sort of depression since the arrival (over a year ago) of Indy. She just looks sad and sort of hollow a lot of the time, and she's been really ramping up all her "I don't care if it is negative attention, pay attention to me, me, ME" bad behaviors....barking non-stop, frantically running the fence, attacking the television....even when it's turned off!



Is this the face of depression?

To be fair she's the one who actually plays with Indy the most, Indy has been totally in love with Abby from the start. Abby gets just as much attention as always, nothing changed when Indy arrived. Abby has always been tough for me to figure out. Very high drive, yet super sensitive. Tells off every dog who looks at her the wrong way (confidence issues, perhaps?!) yet has not ever corrected Indy for *anything, ever*.

Kittie went through a similar phase when Abby joined us, except she turned into a total super-agility-nerd and never looked back.

More on the trial this past weekend

All three of the "young ladies" ran. Kittie wants everyone to know, she may stink in practice, but that's just because she's saving it for the ring. She was amazing, ran her heart out in every run. 4" may be kind of silly, but she loves it! she was almost 30 seconds under time in standard. Go Kittie!!!

Abby, Abby, Abby not quite ready to grow up just yet. Since moving her to preferred she still hasn't moved up from open.....needs two legs in both. Her jumpers runs were quite nice, both had weave pole faults, sometimes skipping the last pole, other times missing the entry. Standard, what a mess! She hates the table, either runs over it or makes a u turn as soon as it's in her sight and it's presence in the ring causes a total melt down. She did complete the weaves in standard though....go figure.

At this point I'm considering running her in some other venues, like nadac that have no table or just skipping standard with her for a while.

Indy's debut

Little Indy made her big debut in agility this weekend. i entered her in just, the jumpers with weaves class for 2 days to see how she would do, and handle the trial environment. Over all I'm very pleased with her. She did great. Day two though, complete and utter silliness, initiated by my very own disastrous handling. Yes, there is video of that run too, it may surface one day as a blooper video.

vaccines and stuff

Okay, so due to my own fear a couple of the pups are now over due for their rabies vaccines. I do titers for distemper and parvo, but usually do rabies pretty much as required by the state. Indy was due back in Feb and Abby in March. I always worry, but after Indy's reaction as a 12 week old baby; puffed up like a balloon, acting skittish and strange for well over a week....I'm terrified.

Kittie badly needs a dental too, which is frustrating because, she just had a dental!!! I took her in, told them her teeth are bad, they peek in her mouth agree that a dental is in order. I pick her up later that day, they couldn't remove several bad teeth, that had broken off because she was only under light sedation, what?? did they not take a really good look at what was going on before deciding on the level of sedation?

I'll never understand my dog's teeth. Abby has the most gleaming, perfect teeth you've ever seen.....but she's had to have several removed because of slab fractures. Willy's teeth...nasty, nasty, nasty. He gets a dental and literally within 2 months they look just as bad as before. Rudy, the old lady of the family actually has pretty good teeth, from what anyone can actually see, she's not exactly cooperative. Kittie's teeth are a mess. a mixture of broken and just plain yuck. Indy's are looking the same as the day she came here, perfect! they all eat raw, spend a good deal of time chewing and get their teeth brushed.

Deer Lakes park

We went for a hike at Deer lakes park this weekend, (and yes, we did see deer!). the weather continues to be strangely perfect and spring/summer like. I've been to this park a few times and usually we wander around for hours searching for the good trails, only to find them after we're all about done for the day. Yesterday we actually found a nice 2.5 mile loop right away. It was perfect, some small streams, windy, hilly trails that opened up into big fields.

Tinkle induced melt-down

So, Indy's a freak. Aren't all dogs in some way?

Last year Indy went through a stage where she didn't want to go in the back yard. Grass in the park was fine, even soaking wet grass, but not the yard. she also didn't like going in the grass at agility trials, at least the grass closest to the buildings. I had my suspiscions, that this was related to other dogs pee being on the grass, but never was sure and it went away out of no where last Fall.

Until yesterday that is, I went to a friends to help her get started training her young dogs' running contacts. she has a teeter from mad agility, so I brought Indy along to let her play on the teeter, it's the same kind a lot of trials here use and no where we train has one. She was okay on the patio, but paniced the second she went on the grass. no interest in her favorite ball, wouldn't take food and within a few minutes started drooling like crazy, totally stressed! Put her in her crate for a while, she came out happy as can be, played on the patio area, chased her ball.....then I threw it on the grass, panic, drooling melt down. Yep, 5 dogs peeing in one yard is too much pee for Indy. She's so funny, I guess cleanliness isn't a horrible trait, and this shouldn't be an issue in the ring at a trial, other than the hike I have to go to get her to pee. Maybe she needs booties, so her delicate paws don't have to touch any tinkle......