This article was just shared by a facebook friend of mine:
http://skeptivet.blogspot.com/2012/02/rabies-case-in-florida.html?m=1
A dog in florida contracted rabies because he wasn't given a rabies vaccine for SEVEN years. Two other dogs in the house had to be PTS because they had NEVER been vaccinated.
If you don't want to over vaccinate, then get the 3 year rabies and when your dog is an adult don't get Bord/DHLPP/etc unless it is required by your boarding facility or organizations you belong to (therapy orgs require vaccines). If your vet doesn't give the 3 year vaccine go to a vet that does, and get the vaccine ever 3 years as required by law. Can't afford vaccines? Go to a low cost clinic!
I only give Rabies and DHLPP to my dogs and both are 3 year vaccines, we get them done by a low cost vet an hour away because it's very cheap and worth the drive.
So sad that this was so easily prevented!!
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Flyball: Of Demo Drama and Lexi Meltdowns
I was lucky enough to have two flyball practices this weekend. First up was our normal team practice Saturday. I was not really looking forward to this practice as it felt like I was pulling teeth trying to get people there. We had 4 people there, and a boxloader, which was really nice. Got some good boxwork done with Trophy. But then Demo's turn was all double hits on the box. This is bad because it really slows him down. If I'm going to speed him up his turn MUST get better.
So I was really happy when I got invited to a practice with some people from a fast team from Michigan who would be able to help me out with this. It also helps to give me more stuff to work on in this upcoming class so I can help students if they stick through enough to actually run with us (and I'm pretty much like MUST.LEARN.ALL.THE.THINGS!).
But before we get there... Saturday night Demo slid after a tennis ball on the carpet in the living room and skinned both his back feet. I was like, you've just got to be kidding me. I have never wrapped his back feet at practice, and he didn't do this until HOURS after we got home.... and on CARPET?! I bandaged his feet with some antiseptic so they wouldn't get muddy outside, then I unwrapped them overnight, and rewrapped them Sunday morning so we could make it to the practice. Luckily his feet didn't bother him... although since I had to run to work right after I haven't unwrapped them yet, so who knows what they look like.
At practice we started with Demo and trying to find the right combination of props to help him. They tried several different things, but nothing really seemed to help. They said it was a striding issue, but also that he "is weird" and they hadn't quite nailed down the issue yet.
Fast forward to his second time in the ring, he was taking off too soon for the jumps and that was where the issue was coming from. We put a 3 inch wide slat from the jumps across the lane at the 4 foot mark (and they said you can even put one at 14 feet out) to essentially gear him up into a 10 foot stride before he even hits the jumps (6 feet from first jump to the start line, plus 4 feet to make another 10 feet).
Once we did that his box issues basically disappeared.
And then he pooped in the lane. >_<
Trophy was another story... We worked more on getting him to pop off the box faster (I need to start calling him WAAAAAAAAY earlier than I do - when he lands after the 4th jump before the box, not when he takes off for the box).
I also learned that while he has a pretty turn with no ball, he also takes off for the box from too far back, and while his two footed turn isn't perfect, he's pivoting enough that it shouldn't be dangerous.
So I'm really not doing much harm by continuing to run him... although I think I'm going to try to get him to turn nicely without props while still taking the ball with up close work and slowly moving him back to speed (versus their method of alwaysalwaysalwaysalways use props unless it's an official heat) and see what we get.
All in all it was an awesome weekend. I'm so thankful for all my dogs give me.
Now we just have to heal the Broken Collie before Agility on Thursday....
(BTW, despite all her issues in agility, Pan rocks at flyball, and I have nothing to report on her because she's practically perfect.)
So I was really happy when I got invited to a practice with some people from a fast team from Michigan who would be able to help me out with this. It also helps to give me more stuff to work on in this upcoming class so I can help students if they stick through enough to actually run with us (and I'm pretty much like MUST.LEARN.ALL.THE.THINGS!).
 |
| Broken Collie. |
At practice we started with Demo and trying to find the right combination of props to help him. They tried several different things, but nothing really seemed to help. They said it was a striding issue, but also that he "is weird" and they hadn't quite nailed down the issue yet.
Fast forward to his second time in the ring, he was taking off too soon for the jumps and that was where the issue was coming from. We put a 3 inch wide slat from the jumps across the lane at the 4 foot mark (and they said you can even put one at 14 feet out) to essentially gear him up into a 10 foot stride before he even hits the jumps (6 feet from first jump to the start line, plus 4 feet to make another 10 feet).
Once we did that his box issues basically disappeared.
And then he pooped in the lane. >_<
Trophy was another story... We worked more on getting him to pop off the box faster (I need to start calling him WAAAAAAAAY earlier than I do - when he lands after the 4th jump before the box, not when he takes off for the box).
I also learned that while he has a pretty turn with no ball, he also takes off for the box from too far back, and while his two footed turn isn't perfect, he's pivoting enough that it shouldn't be dangerous.
So I'm really not doing much harm by continuing to run him... although I think I'm going to try to get him to turn nicely without props while still taking the ball with up close work and slowly moving him back to speed (versus their method of alwaysalwaysalwaysalways use props unless it's an official heat) and see what we get.
All in all it was an awesome weekend. I'm so thankful for all my dogs give me.
Now we just have to heal the Broken Collie before Agility on Thursday....
 |
| Woe is the Broken Collie. |
Agility: Of Demo Drama And Panda's Meltdown
I think it is an understatement to tell you that my last two weeks have been bad. With two of our owners on vacation at work, right after they hired 3 new people (who weren't anywhere near fully trained), not to mention firing someone right before they left, the schedule had us *barely* staffed correctly. Then add onto that a coworker with the flu, and another who is pregnant, and no one on call to help out if anything happened. Oh, and what felt like a billion dogs in the building two different days last week, and i worked 6 days in a row instead of 5.
To say that i was stressed was an understatement. Thursday was a culmination of all things bad. I was looking forward to agility and my weekend (I'm usually off Fridays and Saturdays).
My sister has been off on Thursdays for the past several months, so i take Trophy and Pan to work with me, and then she brings Demo up with her since he's not comfortable with strange dogs enough to go to work with me any more.
So we meet in the small lobby of the building about 10 minutes before the previous class gets out. Demo is always super excited to see me, and he lets out his high pitched excited yip. Next thing we know a black dog from the class before ours comes tearing out of the agility room, teeth bared, snarling, and makes a beeline right for Demo. Tasha still has Demo's leash, she's spinning trying to not get bit while trying to get Demo out of the way and somehow grab the other dog, I'm screaming and trying to keep Trophy and Pan out of it, so I literally can't do anything to help, then the dog's owner flies in and full body tackles his dog. Luckily Dem didn't have a scratch on him, just some slobber.
My sister said that this same dog lunged at Demo before in passing one day when I was running late. My instructor said the dog is in play groups all the time and has never shown any aggression before, there is just clearly something about Demo he/she/it doesn't like.
So after my horribly stressful week, I now have two hours of agility where I'm afraid my already not dog-friendly Demodog might go off the deep end if anything gets in his space. I kenneled him for the first hour to relax.
Then I had to suffer through the biggest Panda Meltdown to date. The first half of the course was deceptively easy*- all the obstacles around the outside of the room (1-9) with one front cross after the A-frame. Pan ran this part really well, except she blew off her 2o2o. I knew the first half was too good to be true and the second half was going to be torture - it was.
From the weaves we went into this extremely demotivating loop: (10-15) jump, tire, teeter - circle, back to the first jump and the tire again then straight to the next jump. After the teeter we had to send the dogs to that first jump again and cross to be on the outside of the tire. While trying to get my cross in the right place with help from my instructor (i always cross to close to the obstacle the dog is taking instead of giving myself room by making the cross closer to the next obstacle in the sequence) Pan's brain fell off the deep end. Something about that first jump (3/10/13) just melted her fragile mind. My instructor couldn't get her to run, Tasha couldn't get her to run, she just shut down and went into avoidance behavior overdrive.
Probably a lot of it was having to do it over and over so I could try to get my cross right, but even after we got her doing some jumps at the other side of the room if she went back down in that corner as soon as I cued that jump she wouldn't take it and she would go back into shut down mode. UGH! I was so discouraged by the end of it that we just stopped running her for the day as I wasn't able to give her the positive feedback she needed.
Next week is another day to try again, and that's all I can say at this point as I don't know what else to do... and work on my handling skills with Trophy while working on just Pan's skills with Pan.
I guess in that aspect I'm looking forward to my sister being off for a few months so I can work both dogs. I can get my handling down with Trophy and then help Pan's motivation separately. It's going to kick my ass, but if running 3 dogs in agility and 3 dogs in flyball doesn't help me get skinny by fall I don't know what will. ;)
Now, as for Demo, he actually did really well in class. I put a gate up between us and the dog next to us as she is very sweet but almost too friendly and she always wants to come see what everyone else is doing. Demo had no problems focusing on me. Thank goodness for THAT single trait in him, or whatever training I did to get him there!!
In class we worked a bit on weaves, and contacts on a low a-frame and low dog walk. Then the second half of class we worked some sequencing and crosses. Demo refused the tunnel at first, so I had to warm him up to that. And of course the little stinker is so darn FAST that it is very hard to get a front cross when I have to guide him into the tunnel and then try to beat him to the other side for the cross. Hopefully next week will be better as i did a few reps of sending to a tunnel at flyball practice. Even set a box up next to the tunnel for some discrimination and he got it. Went to the tunnel every time and I was able to send him from about 15 feet. WOO! Hope we do crosses with the tunnel again next week, I bet it will be a lot better!
To say that i was stressed was an understatement. Thursday was a culmination of all things bad. I was looking forward to agility and my weekend (I'm usually off Fridays and Saturdays).
My sister has been off on Thursdays for the past several months, so i take Trophy and Pan to work with me, and then she brings Demo up with her since he's not comfortable with strange dogs enough to go to work with me any more.
So we meet in the small lobby of the building about 10 minutes before the previous class gets out. Demo is always super excited to see me, and he lets out his high pitched excited yip. Next thing we know a black dog from the class before ours comes tearing out of the agility room, teeth bared, snarling, and makes a beeline right for Demo. Tasha still has Demo's leash, she's spinning trying to not get bit while trying to get Demo out of the way and somehow grab the other dog, I'm screaming and trying to keep Trophy and Pan out of it, so I literally can't do anything to help, then the dog's owner flies in and full body tackles his dog. Luckily Dem didn't have a scratch on him, just some slobber.
My sister said that this same dog lunged at Demo before in passing one day when I was running late. My instructor said the dog is in play groups all the time and has never shown any aggression before, there is just clearly something about Demo he/she/it doesn't like.
So after my horribly stressful week, I now have two hours of agility where I'm afraid my already not dog-friendly Demodog might go off the deep end if anything gets in his space. I kenneled him for the first hour to relax.
Then I had to suffer through the biggest Panda Meltdown to date. The first half of the course was deceptively easy*- all the obstacles around the outside of the room (1-9) with one front cross after the A-frame. Pan ran this part really well, except she blew off her 2o2o. I knew the first half was too good to be true and the second half was going to be torture - it was.
 |
| once again, NOT DRAWN TO ANY SCALE WHATSOEVER. :) |
Probably a lot of it was having to do it over and over so I could try to get my cross right, but even after we got her doing some jumps at the other side of the room if she went back down in that corner as soon as I cued that jump she wouldn't take it and she would go back into shut down mode. UGH! I was so discouraged by the end of it that we just stopped running her for the day as I wasn't able to give her the positive feedback she needed.
Next week is another day to try again, and that's all I can say at this point as I don't know what else to do... and work on my handling skills with Trophy while working on just Pan's skills with Pan.
I guess in that aspect I'm looking forward to my sister being off for a few months so I can work both dogs. I can get my handling down with Trophy and then help Pan's motivation separately. It's going to kick my ass, but if running 3 dogs in agility and 3 dogs in flyball doesn't help me get skinny by fall I don't know what will. ;)
Now, as for Demo, he actually did really well in class. I put a gate up between us and the dog next to us as she is very sweet but almost too friendly and she always wants to come see what everyone else is doing. Demo had no problems focusing on me. Thank goodness for THAT single trait in him, or whatever training I did to get him there!!
In class we worked a bit on weaves, and contacts on a low a-frame and low dog walk. Then the second half of class we worked some sequencing and crosses. Demo refused the tunnel at first, so I had to warm him up to that. And of course the little stinker is so darn FAST that it is very hard to get a front cross when I have to guide him into the tunnel and then try to beat him to the other side for the cross. Hopefully next week will be better as i did a few reps of sending to a tunnel at flyball practice. Even set a box up next to the tunnel for some discrimination and he got it. Went to the tunnel every time and I was able to send him from about 15 feet. WOO! Hope we do crosses with the tunnel again next week, I bet it will be a lot better!
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
The Dog Food Files Part 3: Feeding Instructions
Originally Posted 5/1/11. Edited.
How should I change my dog's food?
Some people will tell you to go ahead and switch cold turkey. However, an abrupt change in your dog's diet, especially from a low to a much higher quality food, can likely cause digestive upset and result in diarrhea.
A much better method is to feed 3/4 portion of your dog's old food and add 1/4 portion of the new for 2-3 days. Then feed half new food and half old food for 2-3 days. Last feed 3/4 new food with 1/4 old food for 2-3 days (or until you are out of old food if not wasting is important to you).
How much should I be feeding my dog?
The answer for this is going to be different for each and every dog out there. There are a few factors that you have to consider.
CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE
How should I change my dog's food?
Some people will tell you to go ahead and switch cold turkey. However, an abrupt change in your dog's diet, especially from a low to a much higher quality food, can likely cause digestive upset and result in diarrhea.
A much better method is to feed 3/4 portion of your dog's old food and add 1/4 portion of the new for 2-3 days. Then feed half new food and half old food for 2-3 days. Last feed 3/4 new food with 1/4 old food for 2-3 days (or until you are out of old food if not wasting is important to you).
How much should I be feeding my dog?
 |
| Trophy says food is serious business! |
The answer for this is going to be different for each and every dog out there. There are a few factors that you have to consider.
CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Weekend Update- All About Foot Work
Yesterday we worked on boxwork and getting snappier turns off the box.
I'm really, really happy with Demo's turn. It's coming together really nicely. He needs a faster box, but that's beyond my control at the moment.
Sunday after work I worked on hind end awareness skills with the Agility dogs. Trophy is working on advanced skills of trying to place each foot individually on a fitpaws paw pod, but I didn't take video or get photos.
Also, I have to apologize for the quality of these photos. I had to take cellphone photos as my short focal length lens is broken, and my zoom lens on my good camera has an extremely long focal length (the dogs have to be about 10 feet away to get them to focus).
Hind end awareness is beneficial in so many ways, especially for dog sports. Many dogs don't think about where they put their back feet. In flyball this can be the difference between a good push off the box and a dangerous turn. In agility it can help primarily with contacts, and footing on the dog-walk and teeter. Finally, it can turn into many funny tricks.
So how do I start? With Shaping. I want the dog to offer shifting weight back to one hind foot. I want to click for the same rear foot all the time at first. I have found that my dogs are very front foot oriented so they try to spin around and walk down whatever prop I'm using, so I rig up an xpen into a chute so the dog can't turn, and can only move forward and backup. I place a book on the floor at the back of the xpen and start upping my criteria to the dog placing the back foot on the book.
When the dog is offering that consistently I place a few more books or a shoe box to raise the height and wait for the dog to offer it again. If I wanted to teach an independent rear leg lift I would continue on in this fashion, continuing to raise and raise and raise the height of the props to get the proper height of the leg lift, and then slowly remove props while keeping my high leg lift criteria for the reward.
However, my goal for this training session is more about a contact behavior, so after Demo was very readily offering back feet on the boxes I switched out the boxes for my flyball jump board.
Then I continued rewarding for standing and backing up the board. I also slowly opened up xpen so he had more options of directions and I could proof the backing up.
We had to trouble shoot with Pan, who wanted to only offer laying down and crawling forward. Since I was using the xpen and my weave poles are sitting in the living room, I used them to block her from laying down. After she was reliably understanding that I wanted her to back up, not lay down, I set one pole on the ground under her. Next session I will try to remove that.
Pan also did this hilarious crazy foot dance when working on the board. I took a video (and you can see the new position of the "don't lay down" tube). It's crazy wobbly as I was trying to hold my phone steady and click and reward all at the same time. My criteria at this point is to wait for her to take another step backward on the board, but for the most part she's just picking up her feet and setting them back down in the same spot in this crazy-flaily dance. have I mentioned I love her?
Well, next time I work on this I hope to get a video of the whole progress... and one that's not so shaky...
I'm really, really happy with Demo's turn. It's coming together really nicely. He needs a faster box, but that's beyond my control at the moment.
Sunday after work I worked on hind end awareness skills with the Agility dogs. Trophy is working on advanced skills of trying to place each foot individually on a fitpaws paw pod, but I didn't take video or get photos.
Also, I have to apologize for the quality of these photos. I had to take cellphone photos as my short focal length lens is broken, and my zoom lens on my good camera has an extremely long focal length (the dogs have to be about 10 feet away to get them to focus).
Hind end awareness is beneficial in so many ways, especially for dog sports. Many dogs don't think about where they put their back feet. In flyball this can be the difference between a good push off the box and a dangerous turn. In agility it can help primarily with contacts, and footing on the dog-walk and teeter. Finally, it can turn into many funny tricks.
So how do I start? With Shaping. I want the dog to offer shifting weight back to one hind foot. I want to click for the same rear foot all the time at first. I have found that my dogs are very front foot oriented so they try to spin around and walk down whatever prop I'm using, so I rig up an xpen into a chute so the dog can't turn, and can only move forward and backup. I place a book on the floor at the back of the xpen and start upping my criteria to the dog placing the back foot on the book.
When the dog is offering that consistently I place a few more books or a shoe box to raise the height and wait for the dog to offer it again. If I wanted to teach an independent rear leg lift I would continue on in this fashion, continuing to raise and raise and raise the height of the props to get the proper height of the leg lift, and then slowly remove props while keeping my high leg lift criteria for the reward.
However, my goal for this training session is more about a contact behavior, so after Demo was very readily offering back feet on the boxes I switched out the boxes for my flyball jump board.
Then I continued rewarding for standing and backing up the board. I also slowly opened up xpen so he had more options of directions and I could proof the backing up.
We had to trouble shoot with Pan, who wanted to only offer laying down and crawling forward. Since I was using the xpen and my weave poles are sitting in the living room, I used them to block her from laying down. After she was reliably understanding that I wanted her to back up, not lay down, I set one pole on the ground under her. Next session I will try to remove that.
Pan also did this hilarious crazy foot dance when working on the board. I took a video (and you can see the new position of the "don't lay down" tube). It's crazy wobbly as I was trying to hold my phone steady and click and reward all at the same time. My criteria at this point is to wait for her to take another step backward on the board, but for the most part she's just picking up her feet and setting them back down in the same spot in this crazy-flaily dance. have I mentioned I love her?
Well, next time I work on this I hope to get a video of the whole progress... and one that's not so shaky...
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Pan's Agility Drama OR Silly Setter Syndrome
Tonight's agility class was much better.
My sister's medical problems aren't cleared up yet and she will be undergoing another surgery. Since Pan lost so much time and is having trouble picking up where she left off (and my sister gets super frustraited with her when things get hairy) we decided to keep her going while my sister recovers (which will take somewhere around 6 months...minimum). This means my Thursday nights are going to be EXHAUSTING as i run 3 dogs in 2 hours, but i'm oddly looking forward to it.
In prep for this, and because Pan's agility class was worse than Trophy's last week, my sister and I are trading dogs until she has to drop out.
If Pan thinks she has done something wrong she shuts down. Mainly she does this by no longer paying attenting and instead going off and sniffing the floor. So my plan for her is as follows:
1. Try to make sure that if I screw up a sequence or handling move i do not let Pan know (cheering off course jumps instead of stomping my foot because my position was the problem, for example).
2. If she sniffs, get her to sit and watch me to soothe and recollect her
3. If she continues to sniff around or if she shows more signs of shutting down, take her off course with lots of praise.
When her brain is screwed on right and she's connected she is so beautiful to watch and she is so fun to run. She works great from a distance especially over jump patterns, and her silly setter mannerisms just make me love her even more.
Tonight our course was a more novice course, so lots of space between some obstacles. I find this much more difficult than the higher level courses we usually work on in class. Anyway. My first run through with Pan on the first half of the course was brilliant, even her startline stay! Then each subsequent run got a little fuzzier. The second half of the course we needed to do a front cross after a jump with a long stretch into another jump that was perpendicular to the previous jump and then into a tunnel. The front cross was difficult as i really had to run to get into position and i am really bad at giving myself enough room to front cross (i want to be close to the landing of the jump when i need to angle myself out more and make the cross more evenly between the two jumps).
That cross and the jump were the first cause of Pan's stress tonight. I didnt like the position i was in, it felt messy. Even though she made the jump, because i verbalized my dislike of *my* performance and pulled up to retry it again, Pan felt she had done it wrong and started the sniffing. When i got her into the tunnel where we then did a post turn to dog walk, i got her eyes out of the tunnel and i took my eyes off her to turn to the dogwalk yet we lost connection and she jumped up behind me onto the middle of the dog walk ramp. Managed to finish the run, but when our "put it all together" run also wasnt pretty the whole thing nearly fell apart. I had her sit and i petted her and i gave her a cookie, and we continued on, we pulled it together, but there's a lot to work on still.
The good news is that I adore her quirks, and she doesn't frustraite me like she does Tasha. (Her abismal startline stays annoy me more than anything else).
The one truly bright light is that i actually saw improvement in Pan's weaves tonight! Up to this point we have had to lure her entirely though the weaves (treat in front of the nose all the time) today she was able to let me stay on one side of the weaves and point her through to lure her back. She didnt have to have the cookie the whole time, i didnt have to akwardly weave my armpit out of the weaves, it was awesome! Babysteps!
Since Demo has started agility training my instructor and i were talking breifly about the dogs switching from flyball (an *extremely* independent sport where the dog works at great distance from the handler over a course that changes minimally between runs) to agility (a sport baised in communication between handler and dog where the courses change drastically between runs). Even though Trophy also started in flyball, he and I have a great working relationship from so many tricks and random training with him that he looks to me anyway for direction despite flyball. Pan and Demo on the other hand haven't had as much work on handler focus at home, so they try to think independently on the agility course to undesireable results.
Demo's class is going well, he's calming down around the other dogs. We were learning front crosses and post turns today. He is living up to expectations and wants to be way out in front of me over jumps, he is trying to stay with me, but he understands jumping ahead of me, not next to me.
All in all a really good two hours of class. I quite enjoyed it. :)
My sister's medical problems aren't cleared up yet and she will be undergoing another surgery. Since Pan lost so much time and is having trouble picking up where she left off (and my sister gets super frustraited with her when things get hairy) we decided to keep her going while my sister recovers (which will take somewhere around 6 months...minimum). This means my Thursday nights are going to be EXHAUSTING as i run 3 dogs in 2 hours, but i'm oddly looking forward to it.
In prep for this, and because Pan's agility class was worse than Trophy's last week, my sister and I are trading dogs until she has to drop out.
If Pan thinks she has done something wrong she shuts down. Mainly she does this by no longer paying attenting and instead going off and sniffing the floor. So my plan for her is as follows:
1. Try to make sure that if I screw up a sequence or handling move i do not let Pan know (cheering off course jumps instead of stomping my foot because my position was the problem, for example).
2. If she sniffs, get her to sit and watch me to soothe and recollect her
3. If she continues to sniff around or if she shows more signs of shutting down, take her off course with lots of praise.
When her brain is screwed on right and she's connected she is so beautiful to watch and she is so fun to run. She works great from a distance especially over jump patterns, and her silly setter mannerisms just make me love her even more.
Tonight our course was a more novice course, so lots of space between some obstacles. I find this much more difficult than the higher level courses we usually work on in class. Anyway. My first run through with Pan on the first half of the course was brilliant, even her startline stay! Then each subsequent run got a little fuzzier. The second half of the course we needed to do a front cross after a jump with a long stretch into another jump that was perpendicular to the previous jump and then into a tunnel. The front cross was difficult as i really had to run to get into position and i am really bad at giving myself enough room to front cross (i want to be close to the landing of the jump when i need to angle myself out more and make the cross more evenly between the two jumps).
That cross and the jump were the first cause of Pan's stress tonight. I didnt like the position i was in, it felt messy. Even though she made the jump, because i verbalized my dislike of *my* performance and pulled up to retry it again, Pan felt she had done it wrong and started the sniffing. When i got her into the tunnel where we then did a post turn to dog walk, i got her eyes out of the tunnel and i took my eyes off her to turn to the dogwalk yet we lost connection and she jumped up behind me onto the middle of the dog walk ramp. Managed to finish the run, but when our "put it all together" run also wasnt pretty the whole thing nearly fell apart. I had her sit and i petted her and i gave her a cookie, and we continued on, we pulled it together, but there's a lot to work on still.
The good news is that I adore her quirks, and she doesn't frustraite me like she does Tasha. (Her abismal startline stays annoy me more than anything else).
The one truly bright light is that i actually saw improvement in Pan's weaves tonight! Up to this point we have had to lure her entirely though the weaves (treat in front of the nose all the time) today she was able to let me stay on one side of the weaves and point her through to lure her back. She didnt have to have the cookie the whole time, i didnt have to akwardly weave my armpit out of the weaves, it was awesome! Babysteps!
Since Demo has started agility training my instructor and i were talking breifly about the dogs switching from flyball (an *extremely* independent sport where the dog works at great distance from the handler over a course that changes minimally between runs) to agility (a sport baised in communication between handler and dog where the courses change drastically between runs). Even though Trophy also started in flyball, he and I have a great working relationship from so many tricks and random training with him that he looks to me anyway for direction despite flyball. Pan and Demo on the other hand haven't had as much work on handler focus at home, so they try to think independently on the agility course to undesireable results.
Demo's class is going well, he's calming down around the other dogs. We were learning front crosses and post turns today. He is living up to expectations and wants to be way out in front of me over jumps, he is trying to stay with me, but he understands jumping ahead of me, not next to me.
All in all a really good two hours of class. I quite enjoyed it. :)
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