Merry Christmas

Magic and I want to wish a Merry Christmas to all our readers. 

Carpal Tunnel from crocheting

I do it every time, I swear.  Remember the afghan I crocheted?  Well, that went really well and I loved making it. Loved it so much I decided to do another one for another christmas gift. But, this one I decided to make more like a typical granny afghan, with multiple colors per hexagon.  Now, the other one I did in a month.  A month!  I started this one the first of November, and its December 21st and it is still not done!!  Yes, I am on the homestretch, but dang, this one is taking forever.  Of course it doesn't help that I chose to do this one in black, and well, I can't see the yarn with my glasses on, but can't see the football game on TV without my glasses, so spent the whole game last night flipping glasses on and off. (And they lost, they really should not have lost, very dissappointing)  This morning my arm is just aching, and I have to go home tonight and finish this darn thig, and then spend a few hours picking all the dog hair off the darn thing.  Ah well, holiday stress...

Tricks

A quiet weekend just spent trying to get all the holiday stuff done.  Magic and I did start working on a new trick. I am asking him to push a box across the floor with his nose.  It only took 2 sessions for him to understand the concept, now we are working on distance. Next I am thinking about teaching him to put things into a box, but I am still thinking about that one. I have been working really hard trying to get him to hold and carry the dumbell, or a toy without dropping it and am not sure if teaching this right now is a good idea.

Otherwise, the dogs have enjoyed the relatively decent winter weather with lots of playtime outside.  Gotta love that. Except for when Grace went between Kazin and the fence and got peed on. Oh well.

Updated Reading List

You know, I used to read books.  Now I read blogs, while I listen to books. Best of both worlds!
I am in the process of updating the blog links.  The list is already huge and there are quite a few more that I religiously read that I will be adding.

Perfection, hah, I think NOT

Over on Susan Garrett's blog she has a thought provoking post on seeking perfection. I can honestly say, and you can easily tell when watching my dogs, perfection has not been our goal.  Versatility, cooperation, teamwork and fun have been my goals.  I do not fault those who have goals for those high level titles at all.  Someday I may have those goals. But early on I had several experiences that made me realize that, for me, its about me having fun AND my dog having fun.  Mostly its about my dog having fun.

Early on in my training with Magic I was at a class early so I was watching the prior class. There was a lady there with her dog doing some scentwork. She dropped the article in the pile, went back and sent her dog. The dog trotted out to the pile, picked the right article, and started back. On the way back, she dropped the article and sneezed several quick sneezes. (not sure whether her sneeze caused her to drop it, or she dropped it to sneeze) Before the poor little dog had stopped sneezing, the trainer was pinching that poor dogs ear and forcing her to pick up the dumbbell. The next send to the pile she went out picked the dumbell and slowly came back, but not straight, not perfect-she got another ear pinch.  The rest of the time she worked that cute little dog, her head and tail were down and she worked. She worked well, but she clearly was not enjoying herself.  This team often earns high in trial, but at what expense?

I want my dogs to enjoy the ride as much as I do.  I really don't want to force them to do the things they hate. Yes, originally I wanted to work toward Magic's CDX, but he hates heeling, and although I will work this year towards trying to help him enjoy it, I won't force the issue.  He seems to love the weight pulling.  He charges to the front of the cart to get hooked up.  I think if he could talk he would tell me that agility is great! I am pretty sure that if I could throw a toy for 6 hours a day he would race after it for 6 hours a day. Are we awesome in any of those, nope, but we are having fun. Even when we leave the agility course and I am calling him a goober and asking him to tell me when did "tunnel" start to mean take the frame, its being said in the a goofy loving voice and his tail is wagging and we are both happy.  I am not a great trainer,  I am not consistent enough, nor steady enough to be one, and I KNOW our mistakes are my fault. Yes I am proud of the titles we have earned, but I am also proud of my dog even when he does lay down during the heeling pattern and wait for me to get back.

Please if you ever see me lose it at a trial or in training where I take it out on the dog, STOP me, set me down and remind me, that is not the person I am nor the person I want to be.  Please.

Cardi Claus Visited today!

Thank yo so much to Kota, Sedona, Chance and Piper, and of course to Traci too.  Let me just tell you, the doggie cookies are a HUGE hit.  They all mobbed me while I was opening the package noses twitching all the while.  Thank you so much for the candy and the cactus ornament too.  It will go high on the tree to protect it from naughty dogs.
This has been fun and I hope we continue this in the years to come.

Training in Minneapolis

I have to admit, I am so very lucky to live in a city with so much dog opportunity.  We have many training facililities available, with 3 that are within a couple of miles from me, and several more within about a half hours travel. We also have waiting lists at many of these facilities.  I was on a wait list for agility at one place for over 2 years.  I finally got into another or may still be waiting.  A couple of the schools offer some tracking, or therapy dog training. Oh yes, we also have flyball at several. One had dockdiving, but Magic sinks, so I really haven't paid attention to that anywhere else so it may be available. But for most basic classes, you can get into them without too much delay. However, for some of the more limited classes, wait lists can be lengthy.

Its also nice that we have a variety of venues available, along with AKC.  We have UKC for conformation, obedience, rally and weight pulling.  We have NADAC, ASCA, USDAA, CPE, TDAA for agility. We have 2 trials per year of APDT rally and now also St Huberts Obedience.  I am sure there is more I don't know about. Quite a variety of options.

I was thinking about my goals for next year.  Being fairly new to dog training and competition, I really want to do it all.  Poor Magic, he is my gotta do it all guy. I really want to try teacup agility, but Grace may be more suited to that.  I am thinking though, as much as Magic loves balls, I think we need to try flyball.  I dont know if I can handle the barking, but it does look fun.   I guess the first step for next year is to sit down and figure out a training and trialling budget. Then I can decide priorities for each dog.  Meanwhile. I still need to train more basics to the girls who practically mobbed me last night thinking that maybe I have food I am not sharing!