A compliment!

Last night we had agility class, and things went pretty well. We got to work on the chute, which I was hoping to do since we hadn't used it in a while. Shelby was pretty attentive most of the night.


For our run through at the end of class, we had a 16 obstacle course, including stuff like the tunnel, A frame and pause table with a couple of rear crosses, which I love, but I think most people don't like so much. I was the first to run the course. We did pretty well, with a couple stumbles and some motivation issues at a few points, like the table, but we got through it pretty smoothly as far as my handling and cues go. I wasn't totally happy because of the motivation issues.
Some of the other advanced teams ran the course after I did, and experienced some handling problems at a couple areas, but nothing major.
When class was over, I was getting my stuff together, and some of the students were talking to the instructor, and I heard her say "I don't think Liz heard that." So she repeated that Patricia had said it was hard making mistakes when the person who goes first does the course perfectly, like Liz and Shelby. I was astonished, because to me, we had a few glaring problems and it wasn't perfect at all! It just reminded me that each dog and handler has their own things to work on and their own standards of success, so you shouldn't try to live up to someone else's performance.
Later, when we were getting in the car, the instructor told me that we're doing really well, and Shelby's distraction issues will get better with time and experience and that I'm doing a good job staying positive and trying to keep it fun for Shelby. So overall, a good night.

Agility is for all species!

This is too funny. It's not a dog doing agility-it's a lamb!

A breakthrough-I think

Well, for a long time, when I let Spot out, he will come to the door and bark once to let me know that he wants to come in.
Shelby started scratching at the door to be let in, but I realized that's probably bad because eventually the door will get all scratched up. So over the weekend I decided to stop responding to the scratching to see what would happen. Well, Shelby barked once! I was so excited. I praised the heck out of her. I hoped it wouldn't be a one-time thing. Over the weekend Shelby has pretty much stopped the scratching and started barking to come in the house. This morning she had to bark twice because I guess she thought I didn't hear her the first time!
So now Shelby rings the bell to go out and barks to come in. She really has me trained well!

Cute Photos

I realized there has been a lack of cute photos of Spot and Shelby on this site.
I therefore submit these for your consideration:



Not sure if you can tell, but the window screen has been torn asunder, probably trying to get at a cat in the yard or something-I'm not sure. Every day when I come home from work, I have to do a damage assessment...



Spot on the other hand, I know exactly what he does all day. Here is the evidence to prove it.

WooHoo-A 15 obstacle course

Last night's agility class was ca-razy! There are 9 dogs, so it is a little crowded. Shelby was in a mood, and at one point she grabbed another dog's toy and ran around getting everyone else revved up, including the great dane. Do you know how hard it is to separate a jack russel and a great dane? Especially when the great dane hip-checks you every time you try and grab your dog? Then the great dane went on a tear around again later. The instructor was hanging on by a thread-as were most of the students. It was not the most productive session. The class is supposed to be 60 minutes, but ended up being 90 minutes just because it was so crowded, and a lot of people needed help/corrections during their run.
But we did make some progress. Shelby was able to do the seesaw with a little bit of trepidation. We even were able to do the seesaw as part of the course at the end of the night. I had to help her out with some cheese for motivation. It was a good course, with the dog walk in a higher position than usual, plus it had a tunnel going underneath, which sometimes freaks the dogs out a bit. We also had a tricky transition from the A frame to a tunnel which we had a little trouble with, just because I wasn't sure of the cues, but everything else was good.

A Busy Doggie Weekend

On Saturday, we went for a quick walk at Willard's Woods with Holly and Cara. The wind chill was bad...but the dogs didn't seem to mind.
Later that afternoon, Spot and I had earthdog class, which went very well. We made the tunnels longer, with more turns, and he wasn't bothered at all. He just motored through to the rats and worked like a champ!
On Sunday, Shelby and I visited my brother Jim in Fall River. Shelby met Hugo, my brother's dog. It went ok, but Hugo is very big and excitable, and wasn't really paying attention to Shelby's signals that she wasn't interested in playing, so she actually growled and snapped at him a couple times, when he was head butting her to get her to play with him.
After that excitment, we were off to an agility seminar at Canine Mastery in Seekonk, MA. On the way there, I realized we were only a few miles away from Shelby's breeder. Too bad-I would have liked to take her back and see her reaction.
The agility seminar was good. It was mostly on handling and cueing for the owners, not really any obstacle techniques for the dogs. I did pretty well. I didn't really get too many corrections. Some people have a hard time giving the cues fast enough for the dog to be able to respond. I guess since Shelby is slower, I have plenty of time!
It was definitely a good experience to see if Shelby would perform in a new place and for me to experience some butterflies, so I can know how to handle it when I'm at a trial.

I'm a bad agility mom

Last night was the first class in a new session of intermediate agility, and it was a BIG class in a lot of ways. There were 9 dogs, I think, and the smallest one was a retriever. So Shelby was by far the smallest.

We were working on the teeter, and it was a little higher than last week. Shelby got on ok and rode it down to the floor, but then she didn't walk off the end quick enough, and it started to come back up. Of course, she decides the best thing to do is go back the way she came, only that side isn't on the floor anymore either, so she panics and jumps off. I didn't make a big deal, we just tried again. She was willing to get back on, but not so sure about making it move so much. But that's ok. We'll start out lower next week.

One thing that was bugging me the whole class was that Shelby wasn't paying attention to me very much. She would do a couple things, then be sniffing around like crazy. I just couldn't keep her with me. She didn't even want to look in my direction. I figured she wanted to check out all the other dogs. On the way home, I remembered that sniffing is a stress-relieving behavior. So she was trying to tell me she was stressed, and I kept trying to get her to work, which made her sniff more, etc. I felt so bad that I totally ignored her signals! Poor baby.

Earthdog class for Spot

This Saturday we started Earthdog class for Spot at Gemini Dog training. It's only a 4 week class, but it is good to get an opportunity to practice, since I'm too lazy to go to Home Depot and get some lumber to build my own tunnels.

Spot was the only dog there who had ever done any Earthdog before, so he was kind of the example of what people might expect.

Spot's problem that has held him back from getting his Junior Earthdog title is that he wastes too much time exploring above ground. They only have 30 seconds to get through the tunnel and start working the rats. In the non-title Intro class, they have 2 minutes. He's passed that test twice, but failed Junior twice. So we practiced rewarding him only when he entered the tunnel as soon as I released him. He was zooming into the tunnel after few minutes of that!

Then the dogs got to actually see the rats.
There are 2 rats in a small cage, and the dogs were allowed to sniff and were encouraged to bark as the instructor moved the cage around.

Since Spot already is well aware that rats are prey, he showed everyone how the dog actually works the rats inside the tunnel. I couldn't tell if people were excited or horrified! Spot gets really worked up. Not all dogs do, but I think some of the other people were wondering "What have I gotten myself into?"

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Day I hosted a brunch for some friends. I think about 10 people made it. It was really nice to see everyone. Holly brought Cara and Tanya brought Halle. The dogs love having company. After everyone went home, this is what Spot and Shelby did for the remainder of the day:

First real snow of the winter

Well, on Dec 29th, we got our first substantial snow of the winter.
December 2006 has been the warmest ever recorded in Boston history.

It was rough going to get down the street without wiping out, since the plows and sanders never made it by, but we were able to make it to Willards Woods without incident thanks to my finely-honed New England driving skills and the Passat's all wheel drive and anti-lock braking system.














Can you find Spot and Shelby in this picture?