Our first outdoor class

Well, last night was our first class in the outdoor practice area. Shelby was really distracted at first, so I had to keep her on the leash during warm up. Once we got down to business we did fine. I was a little disappointed in myself because during the walk through, I thought I should handle a sequence on one side, but everyone else was doing it on the other side, so I changed my mind. Turns out, I was right, so I should have confidence in my judgement. Denielle said Shelby is definitely ready to start trialing and ecnouraged me to enter the CPE trial at Gemini in August. So some good news!

The first advanced class

Well, I am very excited to say that Shelby and I did very well in our first advanced handling class. Actually we were the best ones there!
Basically, you get 10 minutes or so at the beginning of class to practice whatever you want and then you run the course. You don't talk about the course first, you just walk it and do it, the way you would at a trial. Then you get to run it a second time after you talk about how it went the first time.
I'm excited that the class is usually outside. We haven't had much practice outside, and we'll need to get used to that if we want to compete outside.

OMG! Advanced Handling

This is it people-it's official. We are moving up to the advanced handling class on Fridays!!! I don't have to tell you, I'm sure, that this is huge-this is the big show. I've been in intermediate for like 6 months probably, so it was quite a nice surprise to be asked if I wanted to join the advanced class. I was a bit nervous, but then I remembered some of my former intermediate classmates who have moved up, and if they can do it, we'll have no problem. I'm excited because it will mean more course analysis and practicing of sequences.

Lure coursing with Irish Wolfhounds

Today Shelby and I went with Holly and Cara to the Irish Wolfhound Association of New England match. They had conformation, canine good citizen and lure coursing for fun. A few of the irish wolfhounds were good at the lure coursing, but not many. A lot of them would chase the lure for a few seconds, then lose interest. So I had Shelby show them how it's done. She took off like a rocket. She was so excited. Just hearing the noise of it got her revved up. So she ran once by herself, and then we tried her and Cara together to see if Cara would chase Shelby. She did chase her a little more, but still wasn't into it. Shelby was so focussed, she actually went around twice. I'll have to look into lure coursing more, since it seems to be her favorite thing in the world!

6 inline poles!

Woo hoo! Shelby did the standard set of 6 inline poles at class last night. It took her a few tries, but once I slowed it down for her a little, she was able to do it 2-3 times in a row. I'm really excited. I guess I have no excuse for not entering competitions now. ;-)

Nursing homes for Pets?

Interesting-but why can't the owners care for them?



Japan plans nursing home for dogs
June 13, 2007

TOKYO --Japan will get its first nursing home for dogs with round-the-clock monitoring by doctors and a team of puppies to help aging pooches feel younger, a pet products company said Wednesday.

Owners pay 98,000 yen ($800) a month to keep their dogs at the Soladi Care Home for pets, which opens Friday, according to a joint release by Soladi Co. and the Endo Veterinary clinic in Tochigi, eastern Japan.

Veterinarians at the home will offer round-the-clock monitoring and residents will be fed specially fortified food, the release said.

The home, which can accept 20 dogs at one time, will also employ puppies to play with the aging dogs to help them keep fit and feel younger, the release said.

Analysts say that a boom in pet ownership in Japan, coupled with better health care and a more balanced diet, has led to a surge in elderly pets in Japan.

That has spurred doting owners to turn to vitamins, aromatherapy and even acupuncture to help their companions through their old age.

4 inline poles!

So I missed class last week because I was away in Vancouver.
This week, I was in a bad mood, due to work issues, but I went to class anyway, hoping it would cheer me up. It did a little bit.
So this week, the weave pole station had 4 poles, all inline, the way they are in competition. We haven't tried poles inline yet, we've been doing offset poles, where the poles are opened up more to make it easier. I thought about opening the poles, but I figured we could give it a try. To my surprise, Shelby took the inline poles like she had been doing it all her life! She repeated it a few times, so I was pretty excited.
The course at the end of the class was challenging. The opening was a serpentine, so we did a lead out pivot. Then there was the tunnel, a jump and then the poles, set at a difficult angle. I was so focussed on the idea that the poles were a difficult approach, that it totally messed me up. Shelby did the poles correctly, but I didn't think she did, so I didn't reward her. So Denielle had me re-do that section and it was fine.
Then we had 4 jumps with a little bit of a weird angle. So we did it once, and then Denielle wanted me to do it again. While she was telling me how to make adjustments, Shelby decided to go visit Sadie the great dane. Well, they got into a little bit, so there was some drama. But everyone was fine and we finished.

Overall, not a bad class!