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?

Starting with a new group in Intermediate Agility

Well, next week is the last class in the current cycle of Intermediate Agility. I think this is our 2nd or 3rd cycle. The Advanced Beginners are going to be moving up to Intermediate in the next cycle, which will be a huge change, since all the dogs in the class are really big. There are 4 Bernese Mountain Dogs and a Great Dane. They all seem pretty young and rambunctious too, so Shelby might need to be back on a leash during class, or else she'll be running all over trying to play with everyone. I think I will be the most advanced in the class, which will be weird, but I think it will be ok.

I hope I don't see this guy again...

A couple months ago I pulled into the driveway and there was this guy, just hangin' out, enjoying the sunny day... he was in no rush to go anywhere, so I had to wait to get the dogs out of the car, because I knew they would want to go after Mr. Gopher.
Then I saw this video on YouTube. I won't embed it here, since it is pretty graphic, but don't worry, no blood.
Click here to watch it.
This is why I can never have a cat, ferret, bunny, etc. The prey drive in Jack Russells is very strong. At least with Earthdog they never actually get the rat, but a couple people have suggested maybe buying a mouse from the pet store to get Shelby worked up and then let it loose to see if she will catch it. I don't think I could do that.

Upgrades at Willards Woods

Willards Woods is a 100-acre conservation area in Lexington widely known as a place to take your dog where they can be off leash. There were problems earlier in the year because some residents were complaining about the amount on traffic and cars parked on their street. Visitors really had no other choice because the parking lot was always closed. Well, the Conservation Commission decided to open up the parking lot to see if it helped the situation. It did, but the dirt parking area became a muddy mess almost always and had a few dangerous rocks that could damage the undercarriage of your car if you weren't careful.
Happily, I went to WW last week and the parking area had been upgraded! They filled in all the huge puddles and covered up the rocks. Much better!
Here are a before and after pic:
Before

After

Bay Colony Dog Show

This Saturday, Holly and I went to the Bay Colony Dog show held the the Bayside Expo Center in Boston. This was my first dog show and it was pretty low key. There were lots of dogs there and a lot going on, but everyone was pretty relaxed and things seemed to run well. We went to see the agility competition. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the novice standard class. They start that class at 6am (!) before the doors open to the public so that the dogs and handlers are less stressed. We got there around 8:30 and saw the 20 inch standard class. It was interesting. The course was pretty easy I thought, except for a tough discrimination between the tunnel and dog walk. A few people got caught by that. Then later we came back and watched the novice jumpers with weaves. It's similar to the standard class, but there are no contact obstacles. I took a few vidoes. One dog was so stressed that it peed in the ring. That's an automatic disqualification unfortunately.





I was hoping these videos would be clearer, since I used the high resolution setting. Oh well.

OMG!

If you are ever in need a slice of cutie pie visit www.dailypuppy.com.

It's out of control over there!

Regulation height teeter and serpentines

Last night at agility class, we put the see saw up to the correct height. Up until now, we've had it low so Shelby could get comfortable with the concept. To ease her into it, we put the table under one end, and held the see saw down for her to get on. Then she could walk across and make it move all the way down to the floor. At first she was like "what am I doing?" but then she caught on. At one point she didn't even wait for me, she just jumped on it.

We also worked on serpentine jumps. Basically, you have 2 or more jumps lined up in a straight line, and you have to send the dog away over one jump, then bring them back over another jump. If the dog is on your left, you use your left arm to send them over jump 1, then as you approach jump 2, you drop the left arm, and switch to the right arm to pull them back towards you and over the jump.
Here is a visual for you.



The last one shows how NOT to do it-if you keep your arm out there, the dog misses the jump. You want to try and make the dog's path as flat as possible, not really the big curves shown here. Keeping the path flatter saves time on course.