Not great by any means, but a bit better. Well enough to shower and think about going to weight pull practice, but not well enough to actually leave the house. Oh well.
I am excited though, I just scheduled Graces first herding lessions! Woohoo, I cant wait. I just hope I can breathe again by then.
Peace has been my little shadow this last week. Laying on me almost 24 hours a day. Good thing she is warm and not too heavy.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Still Coughing
Oh well.
So do you think I learned my lesson about travel to IA in the winter? No of course not. Anyone interested in traveling down with me Friday night for the APDT trial? I am thinking about just going Friday night, staying the one night and coming back after the trial Saturday. Not a long trip.
So do you think I learned my lesson about travel to IA in the winter? No of course not. Anyone interested in traveling down with me Friday night for the APDT trial? I am thinking about just going Friday night, staying the one night and coming back after the trial Saturday. Not a long trip.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Home from Des Moines
Well I made it home from Des Moines, but it sure wasnt a fun drive. 6.5 hours for what is a 3.5-4 hour drive normally. But not the worst ever, that was a few years ago coming back from Des Moines. I like the Des Moines shows, but dang they almost always bring bad weather. Then again this year we are just having way too much bad weather.
In any event the weeknd was pretty good, despite my being sick. I was feeling a little better on Friday, but then by Saturday afternoon, I crashed again, this time with a fever-But a long borning afternoon and night in the hotel room, watching TV and napping and today I felt tolerable. I really hope no one I was with gets sick now. Sadly I didnt get to go to the Chili party at Mummes, but I figured they all did not need to be infected. I was hoping to squeeze puppies though.
As far as the show goes, that was very good. Lani from http://wagsnwoofs.blogspot.com/ came over to Des Moines to play with us on Saturday. She a a darling young pup that she will be showing soon, but had never done the conformation thing, so I offered to let her play with Grace. That way she could go and get a feel for the whole show thing without having to worry about the dog part of the team. Those of you that know Grace, you know how easily she can be bought, so a few peices of prime rib and they were a team. They did great-Grace and Lani got BOS! Graces first grand champion points.
Peace had an OK weekend too, taking select (they were the only girl specials) and today she was the only girl special, so today she took BOS to Sully. All in all a good weekend.
In any event the weeknd was pretty good, despite my being sick. I was feeling a little better on Friday, but then by Saturday afternoon, I crashed again, this time with a fever-But a long borning afternoon and night in the hotel room, watching TV and napping and today I felt tolerable. I really hope no one I was with gets sick now. Sadly I didnt get to go to the Chili party at Mummes, but I figured they all did not need to be infected. I was hoping to squeeze puppies though.
As far as the show goes, that was very good. Lani from http://wagsnwoofs.blogspot.com/ came over to Des Moines to play with us on Saturday. She a a darling young pup that she will be showing soon, but had never done the conformation thing, so I offered to let her play with Grace. That way she could go and get a feel for the whole show thing without having to worry about the dog part of the team. Those of you that know Grace, you know how easily she can be bought, so a few peices of prime rib and they were a team. They did great-Grace and Lani got BOS! Graces first grand champion points.
Peace had an OK weekend too, taking select (they were the only girl specials) and today she was the only girl special, so today she took BOS to Sully. All in all a good weekend.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
sick and sock(s)
Not much to post about, I have been horribly sick. I just can't breathe, so although I did take Magic to flyball on Tuesday, I am not taking Grace to agility tonight as I cannot run. Heck I can barely walk. But on the positive side, when I haven't been crashed sleeping, I have been knitting. I finished my second sock of the first pair, and my first sock of another pair. Both of these pairs are just shorty socks with a thicker worsted weight yarn, so there is not as much knitting to them, but, it is still an accomplishment as I finally got past my ignorance and worked out how to do it. Next up will be a pair of socks with a finer more sock like yarn. maybe this weekend. I bought some lovely sock yarn that is a natural creamy wool color. I was planning on dying it myself, but I just love the soft color, so maybe I will be brave and try to knit a patterned cuff.
Although all I want to do is sleep.
Although all I want to do is sleep.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Teacup
Since they were having a teacup run through at Agile Canines tonight, I thought why not try it? Grace was up first. I asked Annelise if it would be OK, I dont want to mess up any of her new found learning. She suggested that we not do the teeter, but everything else should be OK. So we tried it. I expected her to at least think about the difference in the tunnel and chute size but it didnt even cause her to blink. She did really well. I was very pleased. I did giggle when I saw the little equipment though, my gosh is that cute!
Then it was Magic's turn. Well lets just say there will be no teacup in Magic's letter soup. He is just way too fast and I do not have enough control for him on these close twisty courses. He did handle the smaller teeter fine though, then he leaped off the top of the frame. So this weekend we will relax and stay home.
Which is probably a good thing financially anyways. Darryls temp job ended today and who knows when another will appear.
Then it was Magic's turn. Well lets just say there will be no teacup in Magic's letter soup. He is just way too fast and I do not have enough control for him on these close twisty courses. He did handle the smaller teeter fine though, then he leaped off the top of the frame. So this weekend we will relax and stay home.
Which is probably a good thing financially anyways. Darryls temp job ended today and who knows when another will appear.
Grace, an agility dog-who knew?
Grace was SO GOOD at agility last night. There was only one time she made a mistake and I am not sure my feet weren't directing her there. Every sequence we ran she did well. Yes we re-ran a couple so I could do a better job, but my girlie did SO GOOD. My naughty girlie.
I did finally figure some things out about her though. She does not want constant direction. She wants me to shut up and just show her what I want not to tell her. Last night when I didnt give her any commands beyond the GO to get started or a go on to keep going she didn't complain and bark at me. She ran the dogwalk, she did really fast weaves. She stayed with me and was such a good girl.
Or, is she is setting me up for a big Gracie joke?
Edit-I just read this and now all I can think of is the KFC commercials with the "so good" jingle. Gracie, she is s o g double o d good!
I did finally figure some things out about her though. She does not want constant direction. She wants me to shut up and just show her what I want not to tell her. Last night when I didnt give her any commands beyond the GO to get started or a go on to keep going she didn't complain and bark at me. She ran the dogwalk, she did really fast weaves. She stayed with me and was such a good girl.
Or, is she is setting me up for a big Gracie joke?
Edit-I just read this and now all I can think of is the KFC commercials with the "so good" jingle. Gracie, she is s o g double o d good!
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Ah I feel so much better
I had my puppy fix. I went to help George and Connie tape Rhys ears. What a doll puppy. It was all I could do not to steal him!
Blah!
Quiet weekend\for the most part. Took the car in for a brake job and got groceries on Saturday. Sunday was the MMBC banquet brunch which was quite fun, and then the rest of the day was home. Last night I didnt get home from work on time, so we missed our class. Then the rest of the night I was just too blah to do anything. Well except knit. I did work on sock 2.
Tonight though I am going to go see a darling cardi pup, Rhys. We are going to tape his ears, since they just dont want to come all the way up. No flyball tonight either, darn. But maybe that is good as we havent been doing our bounce turn homework. Shame on me!
This Friday night there is a run through on the teacup equipment. I have never tried teacup with Magic as I think is just to darn fast for me to handle him on hte shorter closer courses, but I think I am going to take both dogs and give it a try. There is a trial this weekend. Grace doesnt weave alone yet, but maybe, if Magic and I can handle the smaller stuff we will give it a try? Not sure?
Tonight though I am going to go see a darling cardi pup, Rhys. We are going to tape his ears, since they just dont want to come all the way up. No flyball tonight either, darn. But maybe that is good as we havent been doing our bounce turn homework. Shame on me!
This Friday night there is a run through on the teacup equipment. I have never tried teacup with Magic as I think is just to darn fast for me to handle him on hte shorter closer courses, but I think I am going to take both dogs and give it a try. There is a trial this weekend. Grace doesnt weave alone yet, but maybe, if Magic and I can handle the smaller stuff we will give it a try? Not sure?
Friday, February 4, 2011
Nosework and agility
Last night at nosework class Siren was fabulous. Her first find was about 1 second from release to find-she bulleted from the release to the box Her first unpaired find was also pretty darn quick. Its so much fun to see how much all the dogs in class love this game.
Agility with Grace was a little less wonderful though. First of all we started the class talking about the seminars that were at the club last weekend, and what Annelise wants to incorporate into our class of novice dogs. During this whole time Grace was grumbling her "lets get going" complaints. When we did start working on some one jump wrap cues, she was really happy, until we did several in a row. Then she left and went off to play and sniff without me. Then we ran a couple of short jump sequences. The first time through we were successful, but it wasnt as smooth as it should be. When I tried to do it again to fix my handling, she grumbled and complained. Do you see the pattern here? When it was time to do weaves and we were working a u turn into weaves from parallel jumps-again, successful, but not smooth. But fast, Grace gave me a really good fast set of weaves last night. Loved that. Of course our weaves still have guides, hopefully she is getting the muscle memory down. I do love that she is not worried about 12 poles though.
Tonight we have a class to work on obstacle discrimnation. Wonder if I will have sassy girl or distracted girl tonight?
Agility with Grace was a little less wonderful though. First of all we started the class talking about the seminars that were at the club last weekend, and what Annelise wants to incorporate into our class of novice dogs. During this whole time Grace was grumbling her "lets get going" complaints. When we did start working on some one jump wrap cues, she was really happy, until we did several in a row. Then she left and went off to play and sniff without me. Then we ran a couple of short jump sequences. The first time through we were successful, but it wasnt as smooth as it should be. When I tried to do it again to fix my handling, she grumbled and complained. Do you see the pattern here? When it was time to do weaves and we were working a u turn into weaves from parallel jumps-again, successful, but not smooth. But fast, Grace gave me a really good fast set of weaves last night. Loved that. Of course our weaves still have guides, hopefully she is getting the muscle memory down. I do love that she is not worried about 12 poles though.
Tonight we have a class to work on obstacle discrimnation. Wonder if I will have sassy girl or distracted girl tonight?
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Flyball Update
Ok, so you were right, I am NOT going to get the barking whining, screaming and pulling out of Magic’s game. Last night he was so excited/nervous/worked up he was leaving wet doggie footprints from the sweat on his feet. Its only week 3 and although we have along way to go, he is sort of a natural for this game.
K-Koira asked how we are learning the turn. Last week we were asked to teach our dogs to go around the cone either left or right depending on the dogs natural turn form. Magic is a righty, always. The homework for the week was to get them to turn around the cones without luring, preferably with speed. This is the one thing so far he is doing without speed. I don’t think he sees the need to race around a cone so my work this week is to try to get speed to the cone as well as back. This next 2 weeks we have homework to work the turns with more distance and adding the cues.
Then this week we added bounce jump work which will also be homework. For this we are to lure the dog to jump/bounce over a small low jump and immediately bounce them back the other side I am thinking that this is to teach them to quickly change direction and to understand what the back end has to do, and how to curve the body into a position to quickly make the change. For Magic with his long body, I find he is a little slower on this than some of the more proportioned dogs. I am guessing that eventually there will be a board to bank off of on the bounce side of the little jump, but that is just a guess.
We also did some dead ball retrieves. Magic is good at this but doesn’t understand why I don’t just throw the one he brought why should he look down there for another one when I have the one he just brought. So the first one out there is retrieves at max speed, but after that he will turn back and look at me for the one he knows I have. I need to figure out how to get him to see the new one on the floor out there and not worry that I might throw the one I have. I am thinking for right now we will not be doing any moving ball retrieves at home. Frisbee or rope toy ok, but not ball. I don’t want him thinking I will throw, I want him focused ahead.
The last thing we did was to start working jump chutes with the narrow flyball jumps. Magic had no problem with this, but most of the other dogs did. So last night we only worked up to 2 jumps. This he does well, he barely skims the tops of the jumps at a dead run, no wasted time jumping big that is for sure.
No class next week. 2 weeks to practice.
EDIT: I ordered him a flyball harness. He is just way to intense to have a collar and leash. Also, Magic is the worst dog in class for the leaping, screaming and jealousy when others are working. Very intense and eager. Several times I took him behind a barrier to try to calm him down. Balls are just HIS FAVORITE!
K-Koira asked how we are learning the turn. Last week we were asked to teach our dogs to go around the cone either left or right depending on the dogs natural turn form. Magic is a righty, always. The homework for the week was to get them to turn around the cones without luring, preferably with speed. This is the one thing so far he is doing without speed. I don’t think he sees the need to race around a cone so my work this week is to try to get speed to the cone as well as back. This next 2 weeks we have homework to work the turns with more distance and adding the cues.
Then this week we added bounce jump work which will also be homework. For this we are to lure the dog to jump/bounce over a small low jump and immediately bounce them back the other side I am thinking that this is to teach them to quickly change direction and to understand what the back end has to do, and how to curve the body into a position to quickly make the change. For Magic with his long body, I find he is a little slower on this than some of the more proportioned dogs. I am guessing that eventually there will be a board to bank off of on the bounce side of the little jump, but that is just a guess.
We also did some dead ball retrieves. Magic is good at this but doesn’t understand why I don’t just throw the one he brought why should he look down there for another one when I have the one he just brought. So the first one out there is retrieves at max speed, but after that he will turn back and look at me for the one he knows I have. I need to figure out how to get him to see the new one on the floor out there and not worry that I might throw the one I have. I am thinking for right now we will not be doing any moving ball retrieves at home. Frisbee or rope toy ok, but not ball. I don’t want him thinking I will throw, I want him focused ahead.
The last thing we did was to start working jump chutes with the narrow flyball jumps. Magic had no problem with this, but most of the other dogs did. So last night we only worked up to 2 jumps. This he does well, he barely skims the tops of the jumps at a dead run, no wasted time jumping big that is for sure.
No class next week. 2 weeks to practice.
EDIT: I ordered him a flyball harness. He is just way to intense to have a collar and leash. Also, Magic is the worst dog in class for the leaping, screaming and jealousy when others are working. Very intense and eager. Several times I took him behind a barrier to try to calm him down. Balls are just HIS FAVORITE!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
training updates
Wow with so many different levels of training going on and 4 dogs, I think I need a schedule. Like a seriousl detailed schedule. Sadly I am not good at following schedules.
Last night we didnt have class but I did a short session with Magic on his flyball turn homework, a short recal session with Grace, and a short session of signals with Magic. Tonight we have flyball, so I will do another short recall session, and a little bit of stays with Grace, and a short nosework lesson with Siren. Peace just gets periodic rewards for sits and downs. Magic will get some heelwork while we wait for class.
Last night we didnt have class but I did a short session with Magic on his flyball turn homework, a short recal session with Grace, and a short session of signals with Magic. Tonight we have flyball, so I will do another short recall session, and a little bit of stays with Grace, and a short nosework lesson with Siren. Peace just gets periodic rewards for sits and downs. Magic will get some heelwork while we wait for class.
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