as hard to believe as that seems
even harder to believe it's BRODY
yup the little rock star -my heart and soul
was AWFUL - truly awful at the vet's today
he could hardly be restrained for blood work
he screamed when vaccinated and the vet understood quite clearly why his nails get a little long sometimes - I don't have 4 arms and hands and he sure needs 4 to get done ... I held him very firmly and she trimmed nails and commented that perhaps next time I will hold him for blood too ...
BAD FUNNY DOG
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
my idea of a perfect day ...
*yup this is my playground on weekends - it's a rough life
up early (well maybe too early- thanks Brody!)
weed a little
play with dogs
weed some more
do a bounce grid with the dogs
prepare a new bed
work offside weaves with Thea and Sally
pick rocks
plant tomatos
entertain family for a bbq hot dog for lunch
do a tunnel 2 jump sequence that lets me practise front and rear crosses
have a little rest in the shade
then back to garden, back to dogs
maybe go to lake a little later ... maybe just rock pick, weed, plant and play agility for the rest of the day
a very very nice day so far - and probably improving!
with very very good dogs I must add - Sally was really cracking her back jumping round and thoughtfully and Thea was THRILLED to be blasting around - in fact it was good for us as she presumes hatever she can see is what she should do so some front crosses captured her attention nicely :)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
homework homework and more homework ...
and another Tuesday night too - so lots of time to practise on a variety of stuff at class
Thea - have done the teeter 2 x a day 3 reps every day - she is pretty ok about it all so far
also working on down for the next step
did a nice little swoop drag care piece - she liked it .. gave me a chance to show her some crosses too
Sally - touch touch touch; worked around the face clock with 2 x 2; did some nice jump box work too
Brody - nice contact work - such independent aframe - wow - nice weaves and a couple of zips through the jump box work too
did a few start line stays too - and he moved his butt to get going on them :)
all is good
Thea - have done the teeter 2 x a day 3 reps every day - she is pretty ok about it all so far
also working on down for the next step
did a nice little swoop drag care piece - she liked it .. gave me a chance to show her some crosses too
Sally - touch touch touch; worked around the face clock with 2 x 2; did some nice jump box work too
Brody - nice contact work - such independent aframe - wow - nice weaves and a couple of zips through the jump box work too
did a few start line stays too - and he moved his butt to get going on them :)
all is good
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Webb Anderson Clinic and Lessons ...
Interesting weekend for me - boring as could be for my ever suffering hubby I'm sure .. Webb Anderson came to town to run a clinic and lessons. For the clinic we reviewed his general principles of PATH (P- performance management, A- analysis, T - training and H - handling). We spent most of our time in the analysis/handling quadrants - walked courses in many many different ways and broke down little sections with lots of thinking. I thought a LOT; my brain still aches. I must tie back my hair when I run agility. I must stand up when I run Brody.
I ran Brody 4 times and Sally 2. Overall I was pleased with both - Sally was in a little deep but coped well. Brody was quite happy to be back at it.
Some of the things that resonated with me most strongly on Saturday were the concept of walking from the dog's perspective FIRST - reminded me of my early agility days in fact .. I began to be able to think through handling options again too - it's time to get focussed on the big picture stuff again if I want to get serious about this sport.
For me with Brody I need to get quiet, get focussed and get my brain back together.
I didn't get a ton of feedback for Sally honestly and that's ok. Not sure my brain could have absorbed too much specific information. It was informative to put things together for her.
Today was lesson day - I shared a lesson with Sophie (Sally's sister) then split one between Brody and Thea. the first lesson we ran dogwalks, aframes, teeters, wove a bit and jumped one jump a few times. Worked a LOT on foundation skills - need to drag a touch plate back out and sharpen up the contact work. Learned (maybe) how to teach the aframe properly - finally!
I like the game of having two touch plates down and rewarding her for pinging back and forth. Looking forward to trying it :)
Brody played next - Webb set up a very nice course and let me walk it til I was comfortable .. Brody ran it beautifully and then I ran it again as if Brody was Sally - adding some front courses - it was fun. We talked at length about Brody and keeping him in agility. Webb suggests keeping Brody in the game partly to give me the patience to go slowly with Sally and Thea. Thinking of him as a transition dog as it were; Webb further suggested running 2/3 of courses with Brody as if it were one of the speedy dogs. Every 3rd run for Brody and I but 2 of 3 with additional crosses to control the flow. Makes sense to me.
Thea ran last - and I warned Webb that she just needed to play - so he set up a little nascar challenge - 2 jumps at the end of a long straight tunnel - I warned him she would outrace me - he was FINE with that - and man did she ever - I am a slow old chick! We did some ping ponging aroudn the jump and just blasting - was a HOOT. I need to start working on my fitness some. We then worked on a teeter. Neat way to start - right up at the top .. 7 days+ of that then repeat in a down for 7 days+ then repeat with movement for 7 days+ then run up from bottom and start all over ... it makes a LOT of sense to me - expect further reports ;)
I had a really wonderful weekend ... very inspiring and very motivating ... wrapping my head around the idea of getting back to it ...
I ran Brody 4 times and Sally 2. Overall I was pleased with both - Sally was in a little deep but coped well. Brody was quite happy to be back at it.
Some of the things that resonated with me most strongly on Saturday were the concept of walking from the dog's perspective FIRST - reminded me of my early agility days in fact .. I began to be able to think through handling options again too - it's time to get focussed on the big picture stuff again if I want to get serious about this sport.
For me with Brody I need to get quiet, get focussed and get my brain back together.
I didn't get a ton of feedback for Sally honestly and that's ok. Not sure my brain could have absorbed too much specific information. It was informative to put things together for her.
Today was lesson day - I shared a lesson with Sophie (Sally's sister) then split one between Brody and Thea. the first lesson we ran dogwalks, aframes, teeters, wove a bit and jumped one jump a few times. Worked a LOT on foundation skills - need to drag a touch plate back out and sharpen up the contact work. Learned (maybe) how to teach the aframe properly - finally!
I like the game of having two touch plates down and rewarding her for pinging back and forth. Looking forward to trying it :)
Brody played next - Webb set up a very nice course and let me walk it til I was comfortable .. Brody ran it beautifully and then I ran it again as if Brody was Sally - adding some front courses - it was fun. We talked at length about Brody and keeping him in agility. Webb suggests keeping Brody in the game partly to give me the patience to go slowly with Sally and Thea. Thinking of him as a transition dog as it were; Webb further suggested running 2/3 of courses with Brody as if it were one of the speedy dogs. Every 3rd run for Brody and I but 2 of 3 with additional crosses to control the flow. Makes sense to me.
Thea ran last - and I warned Webb that she just needed to play - so he set up a little nascar challenge - 2 jumps at the end of a long straight tunnel - I warned him she would outrace me - he was FINE with that - and man did she ever - I am a slow old chick! We did some ping ponging aroudn the jump and just blasting - was a HOOT. I need to start working on my fitness some. We then worked on a teeter. Neat way to start - right up at the top .. 7 days+ of that then repeat in a down for 7 days+ then repeat with movement for 7 days+ then run up from bottom and start all over ... it makes a LOT of sense to me - expect further reports ;)
I had a really wonderful weekend ... very inspiring and very motivating ... wrapping my head around the idea of getting back to it ...
Thursday, May 13, 2010
and the beat goes on ...
*another gratuitous cute shot of TT pants ;)
another week - another Tuesday night
Thea ran in the first class; Sally in the second and Brody snoozed in the car - lucky brat!
Thea was cute- we didn't do much but we shaped the plank for the dog walk a little, weaved a little, jumped a bit and did a few tunnels and the aframe
she was darling ..
Sally was good - she really doesn't mind crashing off the dog walk - which worries me some and she crashed a jump or two - she was higher than a kite when we arrived ... once she settled she worked better ...12 weaves many times no problem at all
Thea ran in the first class; Sally in the second and Brody snoozed in the car - lucky brat!
Thea was cute- we didn't do much but we shaped the plank for the dog walk a little, weaved a little, jumped a bit and did a few tunnels and the aframe
she was darling ..
Sally was good - she really doesn't mind crashing off the dog walk - which worries me some and she crashed a jump or two - she was higher than a kite when we arrived ... once she settled she worked better ...12 weaves many times no problem at all
Saturday, May 08, 2010
OHHHHHHHH SALLY
Sally has a history of making poor choices ...
leaping off a deck, opening fridges, cutting her paw, being her wild self
I suppose it's good to know somethings don't change with age ( I really can't say maturity - she hasn't matured a whit) though the eating til she looks pregnant I could live without - she got into the laundry room last tuesday and ate POUNDS of kibble ... no agility for her that night - meant Thea got to run which made Thea very happy but Sally is just too much sometimes ...
Saturday, May 01, 2010
this week flew by ...
Tuesday night was positive ..Brody was a little slow and Sally did her leap off the dog walk again (yah - I wasn't impressed either) but both dogs tried hard and worked well. I can feel the rust coming off some of the handling moves too - thank heavens!
Today I pulled out a set of 2x2 and worked entries with Sally - in a class setting she wants a very specific location from me to hit the entry right - here she was nailing it as I worked around the clock - either 10 feet or more back or right in her face .. obviously a skill we need to transfer to new settings somehow.
Got Sampson a little interested in a tunnel too - walking through it quite easily (very short and totally straight). Should NOT get another dog started in this sport that's for sure ...
Today I pulled out a set of 2x2 and worked entries with Sally - in a class setting she wants a very specific location from me to hit the entry right - here she was nailing it as I worked around the clock - either 10 feet or more back or right in her face .. obviously a skill we need to transfer to new settings somehow.
Got Sampson a little interested in a tunnel too - walking through it quite easily (very short and totally straight). Should NOT get another dog started in this sport that's for sure ...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)