Happy New Year!!

Here are some photos from our walk this morning that I thought were interesting. I hope you enjoy them. If you click on them, they will get bigger and look cooler.

Practice

Miley has been having a lot of problems with weave entries. She had lots of problems yesterday. I talked with Meagan , and figured out she is probably not collecting to make the entries. Yesterday I ran Miley at a friends house to practice contacts. She was flying and lost control going over the dogwalk. I thought she was going to fly off head over heels. It was very scary because there was nothing I could do to stop it. Luckily she jumped off and saved herself. She also crashed two jumps. I wasn't pushing her for speed so I'm note sure what is going on. I think this is something she needs to figure out herself. So it makes sense that she is not collecting. Plan for today: I set up the weaves with two jumps in front that will force her to collect. The jump closest to the weaves is 6 feet from the weave entry. I was only able to move the jumps 19 inches off center and still get a successful entry. So lots of work to do there. I marked the lawn with spray paint so I know were I started and finished. ( you start with the jumps directly in front of the weave and move them around the clock to work entries) when working this Miley was pretty slow. Hopefully she was thinking.

I ran her twice on the dogwalk. The first time she ran down to the bottom and stopped right before she would go into a 2o/2o. I just waited and didn't say anything. It took her about 15 seconds and then she stepped into the 2o/2o. I then put her on the table with a release to the dogwalk. This time she did a perfect 2o/2o but after receiving the treat,she released herself into the tunnel. Smart dog, she know the routine. Guess I'm going to have to change that.

More pictures.

Just trying to edit some of the pictures to get more color in them. I notice when I posted some of the pictures yesterday that looked washed out. So Im trying again.

Here are my action shots

Thanks to Sara for helping me with my action shots. I thought I would post some of them. I also shot them in RAW so I could adjust some of the lighting and color.

Back to Agility

I made it to a class last night. I should have taken a private lesson but me and my infinite wisdom thought there wasn't anything to work on. ( Now that you have picked yourself up off the floor because you were laughing so hard you fell out of your chair) I know , what was I thinking. Anyway, in the class first we ran numbers 1-8. I didn't have any real problems. Except the fact that Meagan asked me how my contacts were going. I said, "there great, she has good speed and is stopping on all the contact even with me behind." LoL, she didn't stop on one contact in class. Miley made me a lier out of me again. Meagan said I just need to work on the contacts in as many different places as I can. Then we ran 9-18. Here is where the trouble began. Jumps 11-13 I just couldn't get. I tried a front cross at 11 and 12 but she went way wide coming over 12, like she was going to the weaves. My cross was late, I tried it again, same thing. Then we ran the whole course. This time I move laterally to soon and pulled her off the #2 tunnel. So I restarted. Success. Then doing jumps 11-13 I tried being in front of jump 11 and then post turn #12 but again Miley went way wide. So Meagan said that I either needed to said in the pocket ( where the red man is on the course map) and work it all from there to keep the dog tight. Or I need to front cross where the green man is on the course to bring the dog in tight and collected. I was front crossing to close to jump 12. Miley didn't get into any of the weaves until the third pole but weaved all the was down. I didn't fix any of that. It was dark on the field even with the lights on. Plus weave entries is something I need to work on at home and not waste class time on it. She did stop on the A-Frame. Most of the dogs struggled with 16-18. It was tight coming off the a-frame to jump 16. But the dogs were mostly big dog with long strides. Miley didn't have a problem with that. So it was a good class and I know what I need to work on at home. ( The course map above is just an estimate of the spacing. Meagan designed the course. It just an idea of how the obstacles were laid out. If you set the course up you will have to adjust it.)

Happiness is puppy pictures

Its still cloudy and raining here. So I thought I would post a happy picture. This is Miley when she was about 10 weeks old.

Just trying some pictures.

Hey look, all 4 dogs are lying down and staying still for the picture.

We are home!!

Yea, a bed that can hold two adults and 4 dogs. Its always nice to see family but oh so good to come home. It was very warm in Savannah, 75 degrees. I had to call my husband on the way down and tell him to throw some short sleeve t-shirts in the car. I should have also asked for shorts. My husband and son came down later that night after my son finished work. It was warm and then with the cooking on Christmas it was 80 degrees in the house. After eating Christmas dinner I saw a dog head pop up around the buffet table. I went over to see what was going on and my mom's dog had gotten a turkey leg off the turkey tray. At least it wasn't one of my dogs. But later that night Roxy was found standing on the table eating the butter was was left out. Which is why the Chihuahuas spend most of the time lock in our bedroom when we visit my mom.
This morning my mom and I were going through old photo books. Some of the pictures were dated 1886. My mom was trying to tell me who all the people were in the pictures. I really hope she doesn't think I can remember all these people. My mom is from Germany so there are lots of unusual names. My grandmother's name was Classuen and then she married a Hamdorff. That was my mom's dad. He died in WWII. My grandmother remarried a Roeschmann. So there are lots of extra people to know. So we got through that album. Then we opened one of my dad's albums. There are lots of pictures of him in the military. I don't know if you will think this is funny but it just struck me as hilarious. We were going through the book and she points to these two pictures and says, " That's when you dad was on that cruise ( she pauses) the Forrestal." Well when you think of a cruise, you think fun, sun and sitting by the pool drinking. The USS Forrestal was on commission for the Vietnam war. My dad was aboard that aircraft carrier along with the famous John McCain. During the tour a bomb misfired off one of the planes on deck. There was a huge fire and hole in the ship. Many men lost their lives. It changed the way the fire was fought on ships. All the firemen were lost in the first explosion and no one left on ship knew how to fight the fire. So after that, all shipmates had to be taught how to fight fires on ships in case that ever happens again. Not exactly a cruise. So every time I think about my mom saying that it just cracks me up.

Merry Christmas

Christmas in Savannah

Guiness is saying, "Please , no more pictures"

Miley's first USDAA trial

This was the BRAC trial that was in Fletcher , North Carolina. On Saturday we had to get there early so Miley could be measured. Measuring was suppose to start at 7am. I think it started about 7:15am. There was probably 100 dogs that needed to be measured. It lasted until 9am or maybe is was 9:30. So our ring started about 1 1/2 hours late. Our first run was Gamblers. She did the first a-frame contact and the first dogwalk contact but then didn't stop for the 2nd dogwalk contact. Otherwise it looked great and she did a great job. I always find it funny that when Im running the course I feel like I'm running. But when I watch the video , I don't look like I'm running at all. Hmmmm. We took first place. Luckily a couple of people ( "M" was one of them) were looking out for me because it wasn't posted in the book that goes to USDAA. But they got if fixed so I would get credit for the run.

Next was our standard run. She did a great job. Such an improvement over our last AKC standard run. Did the a-frame , great table, great teeter and fantastic weave poles. She didn't stop again for the dogwalk. Both times this happened I was behind her. So that is something I will have to work on. After the dogwalk was jump, chute to the tunnel. As soon as I saw her go into the tunnel I took off running because I wanted to get in front of the teeter( that where the teeter game comes in handy) But she must have saw me out of the corner of her eye and she pulled back out of the tunnel. I guess I could have put her back in but I really try not to correct my dogs on course. So I just kept going. Then I'm not sure what I did to cause this but she back jumped the last jump. I think I didn't keep up my momentum and it caused her to pull off the jump. We didn't qualify but it was still a great run.

On Sunday we did the jumper run. She did great. I think the course time was 39 seconds and she did it in 19 seconds. But once again when I look at the video it seems slow. She had a nice run and took 1st place. We didn't stay for the gamblers run at the end of the day. I wasn't feeling good and I really didn't want her practicing not stopping on the dogwalk. So we went home and we were happy.

Holly cow Batman, Its freezing cold outside!

I couldn't go Christmas shopping last week when it was 70 and 80 degrees outside. Oh no, I had to wait until it dropped into the 20's and 30's to get that real Christmas feeling. What was I thinking??? ( Still having Internet problems. Maybe when the weather gets warmer it will start working better. It took me several tries to post that little paragraph yesterday)

Problems with the internet

Sorry I haven't posted. The Internet has been having problems at my house. Not sure why. We aren't have a snow storm. Every time Ive tried to post about the trial, I get an error. Ugh!! We did go and had a good time. She took 2 first places. Yea! I will hopefully be able to post tomorrow.

Last Day

Today is my last day at my job. Yea!!! I forgot to tell you that I did get the job at the middle school. So I start there on January 5th. I'm so excited. Since Wednesday Ive been waking up thinking, "crap, its not Friday". But today is!!!!!
Yesterday I took Miley to a baseball field near my house. I set up 7 jumps and a tunnel. She did great. Great speed and distance. Read most of my crosses correctly. The funny part was the daycare kids were sitting on the hill watching. At the end of a sequence the would start clapping. It was cute. Today I will probably just do a few weave poles and contacts. Then tomorrow we are off to our 1st USDAA trial. (Hers and mine). I'm hoping to have good speed and hit at least a few contacts. If she misses the weaves in the one standard run, Ill just keep running. She is just a great dog and loves agility. What fun!!!

Here is my 6th picture

This picture was from the beach this summer. It was taken a couple of days before I lost Guiness on the beach. We were lucky and found him 2 days later.


I'm feeling better. I think Amanda is right about the sunlight. So even though the temperature has been warm, we haven't seen the sun in 4 days. I really need some bright sunny days.

In a funk

Signed bad grades for the kids
dog peed and pooped on floor.
headache for 2 days.
lawn soaked with rain, kid parks car on lawn, car stuck in lawn, lawn a wreck
dog store doesnt have dog food I need
work---ugh
food fell out of pantry and onto floor, dogs eating as fast as they can
No snow, but it is 70 degrees and I dont feel like doing anything
I only have one Chirstmas present bought
everyone needs money from me ( not collectors, Ha)
House dirty
maybe I just need more sleep......

Contacts and weaves

Yesterday I set up some weaves. First I set up 3 stick in the ground poles and then a tunnel. With this set up she was 65% successful. Then I added 3 stationary poles on a metal base to make 6 poles. What happened? I had an 18% success rate . All correct entries but the failures were not completing the 6th pole. Not good, huh? Then I set the WAMs with the poles in a slight "V". She had a 70% success rate. This time all failures were missed entries. All missed entries were on the right side of the poles. So I read the special clean run issue on weaves and Susan Garretts book that at the end has the info about 2 X 2 weaves. What I decided I needed to do is back chain the weaves with her weaving away from me. I also decided to coat my metal base weave poles with a new coat of paint and put sand down on them. They have been slippery and I thing that is part of the problem.
What happened today? I back chained the weaves of 6 poles , starting with the 6th pole. That way she learns to do all the poles and I can see what the problem is. I used the new poles bases with the sand. Again I put a tunnel at the end. Well guess what? We had a 87% success rate after finishing the back chaining. The only failure was one missed entry. What made the difference? I don't know. I think back chaining helped. But I really think adding the sand to the poles helped her footing out. She never liked my poles and I knew that sometimes she did slip. Don't get to excited. We will have to see what happens the next time we weave.


Next was the contacts. What happened there? When I put a tunnel at the end of the dogwalk ,she ran right off without stopping. I think this was because of how I trained the running contacts. So yesterday and today I worked on back chaining that too. Its still iffy on when she stops. She either runs off or stops just before getting to the 2o/2o. But on the end that didnt have a tunnel and had a jump. Perfect 2o/2o. So more work there too.
I have been stressing about the trial this weekend. I kept thinking maybe I shouldn't go. It might be a disaster. Its causing me stress. Then it hit me. What am I doing. This is suppose to be fun. So what if she misses the weaves. So what if she screws up the contact. That's what I'm there to see and to have fun. I need to lighten up.
Last, I started a notebook on my training. I thought just doing this blog would help. But I need to be able to see what I worked on quickly. Plus at the end of my training I'm putting what I want to work on the next time I train. Its making me think more about what specific training I'm doing.

Ive had a break through!

So I finally got around to practicing with Miley this afternoon. My yard is still pretty wet but I thought we could do a little bit. I set up the weave poles to work on the entrance stuff that "m" told me about. The one with the two jumps then the weaves. Well she just kept skipping the last pole. I couldn't figure out what the problem was. And I finally saw it. I actually saw her looking ahead to the next obstacle which was a jump and pulling her out of the poles. I can never see anything I'm doing wrong. I can watch all my video and such but I cant really see what I'm doing or the dog is doing that is causing the problem. But this time I did see it. I'm so excited. I had a jump pretty close to the last pole that wasn't part of the exercise. It was probably 3 feet from the last pole. I was treating her , or trying to if she did it right, at the end of the poles. So I wasn't thinking about the jump. Then I saw her head come up and looking at the jump when in the 4-5th pole. And it hit me. She is already looking for the next obstacle. Once I move the jump just a little bit back, she stayed in the poles without a problem. My next problem is still the 2o/2o. I can back chain and back chain and she gets the 2o/2o. But once I have her run the whole dogwalk she goes to the end of the board and stops but doesn't touch the ground. The only thing I can think of it that I did so many running contacts that it is still somewhat in her head. So when she is running the whole board she is still not sure of what I want. So more reps of that to do. I didn't really work on anything else.

Lots of rain

We had a lot of rain for 2 days this week. There has been no rain since Thursday. So today I went to the park to walk the dogs and was surprised to see how high the water was. Remember the pictures I took with the dogs on the rocks? I was able to step on the rocks which were in the river.

Well here are to rocks today.

I havent practiced any agility with Miley for about 4 days now. Hopefully I will get to it today. Yea for sunshine!!!

New blog header

Ok, Ive been trying for quiet some time to get all the dogs together and take a picture. But the chihuahuas don't the the word "wait". Ive been working on it but they have a long way to go. (especially Roxy) Micky actually knows some things. Like, sit, paw, lie down, and crawl. Roxy knows "spin" . That's not helpful when trying to take a picture. You cant tell ,but in the blog picture Mickey was shivering the whole time. Its about 50 degrees so I'm not sure was all the shivering was about. Miley looks small, so I will keep working on a better picture. This one will have to do for now.

Six things I like by Miley

We were tagged by Bug and Ike. Thanks guys!

1. agility


2. chasing balls and toys down the hall

3. Playing with the ferrets.

4. going for walks

5. chasing the chuck-it at the park

6. Rolling on my mom's and dad's pillows

We tag Sara with Oreo and Misty , Nicki at Boarderblog , Dawn and Katie and Ricky at Its a dogs life

Private lesson and snooker class

On Saturday I drove up to North Carolina for a lesson and a snooker class. When I left Columbia is was blue sky and sunny. When I got to North Carolina is was overcast and cold. It looked like it was going to snow but the temp. was only 40 degrees. Poor "M" , she must have been freezing. I was running around so I wasn't cold but she wasn't running a dog. Luckily in the snooker class there were only 2 students. So our turn came around quickly and we didn't have to much time to be cold.





Private Lesson: First the weave poles. Miley had no problems. She did 12 poles several times without mistakes. Then we practiced entries with 6 poles. She didn't really have any problems and "M" showed me some drills to work on. Kinda like the round the clock stuff with and extra jump. So you have two jumps before the weaves with the second on about 4-5 feet in front of the poles. Then as you move around the clock , you move both poles. Next we worked on contacts. My problem is I didn't work her enough by being behind her and sending her to the contact. That is why she will stop right before doing a 2o/2o. I need to get the plank back out and work more on telling her "touch" while I work positions behind her. She is doing ok with it right now but she isn't driving as much as I want. So I think she is still trying to figure out what I want. And its sad to say I cant remember what else we worked on.


Snooker Class: First, I was terrible at this. I couldn't think fast on my feet. If Gamblers is anything like snookers , I'm not going to do well. In snooker your dog has to take a red jump and then an obstacle that you choose and then another red jump and another obstacle of your choosing. And finally the 3 rd red jump and another obstacle. Then you do the closing sequence. So I walked a course. I set Miley up and when she didn't take the free obstacle that I chose but took another obstacle , I couldn't think on my feet to keep going. Since she was allowed to take that obstacle ( even if I didn't want her to) she was still "in play" of the game. But this would throw me and I couldn't think fast enough to go on to the next red jump. Ugh. The other student who was there had a very nice boarder collie. She ran very well and her dog did what she told it to. ( Miley didn't do what I told her to because of my handling , not because she wasn't listening.)





All in all it was a learning experience and I'm glad I went. It makes me more upset that I didn't go to the gamblers class last week. Hmmmm. We will see what happens there. Next weekend we go to our first USDAA trial. I only entered standard and gamblers on Saturday and Jumpers and gamblers on Sunday. I'm nervous because Ive never done USDAA, so we will see. I also only put her in performance so she can jump a lower height. She not 2 yet, so I don't want her jumping 16 until she is older and has more experience.


Last , on my way home from North Carolina a bunch of lights came on my dashboard. The engine light, VSC, and the track off light all came on. I pulled over and looked up in the owners manual and it just said "take to Toyota dealer". That's not helpful. I called the dealer and the service department was still there. Luckily they said it was ok to drive the rest of the way home ( I still had over 2 hours to go) and to bring it in Monday. I took it in but they really couldn't find a reason for the lights coming on and reset them.



One thing I noticed from watching the video of Miley recently is she is circling me alot! If I hadn't watched the video I wouldn't of realized how much she was doing it. Especially since I watch some earlier video and she didn't circle much at all. Its enough to make you dizzy all the circling she is doing. I guess Ive been ignoring it. This weekend I tried very hard not to let her circle or chase cars. She didn't get to chase one car. With the circling, sometimes I had to walk over the the fence to get her to stop. Other times I was able to step out in front of her and lure her in with food. Why did I let this get so out of control. Now I have much work to do.

Miley practice

I thought I would post some better video of Miley. I don't want you to think its all bad. I added a song from the "Bolt" movie. When I saw Miley Cyrus and John Travolta sing this song, I thought how lucky Miley Cyrus was. When I was about 13 years old the movie "Grease" came out. My best friend and I went and saw it 5 times. We loved that movie. Ha!!

( The video is not perfect. Its a work in progress. The first little clip is not from Sundays practice. I had to add a little more video to end the music at the right time)

My dogs are trying to kill themselves

Last night Roxy fell off the back of the couch. She thinks she is a cat. So she climbs on everything just like a cat. On the counter tops, table tops, the edge of the bath tub and on top of the computer table. She also will climb inside the ferret cage to eat the ferret food. Crazy dog. She likes to sleep and stand on the back of the couch. Last night my husband called and said Roxy fell off the back of the couch and cried but she seems ok. She doesn't appear to be hurt. I guess she has nine lives like a cat too. ( just so you know, she weights about 3.5 lbs. and its at least a 3 foot fall to the floor). The couch cant go any where else and fit in the room. So most of the couch is again the wall except the end recliner. I now have memory foam on the floor in case it happens again. She was probably trying to jump to the counter.
This morning Miley found a small Christmas light when coming home on her morning walk. That's what I get for walking in 28 degree weather. I got it out of her mouth but she had already crunched it. I'm pretty sure I got most of it. I fed her hoping that if she did swallow some tiny piece it would be surrounded by food and not do any damage on its way through. And besides if I tried to make her vomit it, it might do more damage. Plus I wasn't even positive she swallowed the tiny piece. Maybe no Christmas tree for us this year since Miley is acting like a toddler. Ha!

Did you forget?

This is meant to be funny , so please take it in that matter. Diana

Miley's favorite toy

It starts like this.

And ends up like this.

I had a set back with Guiness. If you have been reading this blog for a while, then you know Guiness got lost at the beach for 2 days this summer. When we got back home, he wouldn't go for walks when it was dark. But after several months he has gotten much better. He has been walking every morning now. Well last night I was feeling bad about not exercising my dogs enough. It gets dark so early and its been unusually cold. So last night I decided to take the two shelties on a walk in the neighborhood. We were in a culd-de-sac and a dog came running out of the dark barking like mad. I didn't recognize the dog. He kept barking and barking. I was just trying to get back down the street hoping that if we could get off his street he would leave us alone. But then a boy came out of his house and the dog became more aggressive. Lunging and barking. It was all I could do to keep my dogs back and try to stand in front to block the other dog. But the dog was also circling. I couldn't get into my pocket to get the mace/pepper spray because I wanted to keep good hold of the leashes. It was horrible and I wanted to cry. Then boy finally dove for his dog and by some miracle got him. He did apologize. I had never seen this dog out before so it probably wasn't something that happens alot. We start to walk down the street and Guiness is freaked out. His tail is down, his ears are pinned down and he keeps looking behind him. He did that the whole way home. He was skittish a couple of times when peoples heat pumps kicked on. Great. So guess what? This morning , he refused to go for the morning walk. Six months down the tubes.

Our practice today

I know that practice didn't look that good but it didn't feel terrible. On the last part of the video you cant see the last pole pop out because of the tree. I think I'm going to lay off the weave poles for a few days and work on handle skills for the next several days. I took Miley to a friends house again yesterday and the weave pole thing started again. She has channel weaves. Maybe Miley just doesn't like them. I didn't use a toy today but yesterday I traded a toy and food a couple of times with out problems.

Funny things ( dogs and kids)

The other day I said to my husband, "Do you want to go out to eat?" As soon as I said "eat" all the dogs stopped what they were doing , stood like statues and stared at me. Like they understood what the word eat means. It was very funny.

A few days before that, the gate was open that blocks the dogs from going upstairs. So Miley starts to go thur the gate. I said, "Hey, if you have to go to the bathroom, you go outside not upstairs". She turned around and went out the dog door outside. It was like she knew what I said. Now maybe the dogs new what "eat " means but how could Miley know what I was saying. It just stuck me as funny.

When we first moved here we lived in an apartment while we looked for a house. My son, who was in the third grade then, wanted some cereal. He was looking in the refrigerator and asked where the milk was. I told him, its right there. He said he didn't see it. ( we call that " looking like a man." You might have to actually move something to find the item) So now him and are are getting frustrated. He finally says, "All I see is "PET" milk. And I'm not drinking milk that is for animals". It was very funny. He didn't understand that "PET" is the brand name and its wasn't for pets.

When Stephanie was maybe 3 years old she was walking past a picture of herself that was on the book shelf. The picture was taken when she was about 18 months old. She was a bald baby and it took a while for her hair to grow. So in the picture her hair is still pretty short. Well she walks pass the picture and says to me, " why would you cut my hair like that?" But the way she said it was like a teenager would say something. I told her I didn't cut your hair, that was all the hair you had. All she said was "oh" and kept walking. Its funny that a 3 year old would think about how her hair was cut.

Then there was the time I was trying to get them ready for a Christmas picture. Stephanie was 5 I think. I washed her hair and blew dried it. I went down stairs to get something. When I came back upstairs she had completely wet her hair back down. Now understand that we are on a a time schedule. You don't want to get ready to early, or they get messy. But then you start to worry you are going to be late for the appointment. So I get back upstairs to her standing there we her hair all wet. I said,"What did you do". She said, "You made me look like a boy. " OMG, I was so upset. How could she even think she looked like a boy. Now we had to start the hair thing all over again. She also told me, "Its my hair and I can do what I want with it." Ok, you would expect that from an older kid, not from you sweet 5 year old. I was mad by this point. I told her "its not your hair. You came out of me so its my hair until I say so". I know, dumb, but I was mad. So we finally get it together and we are getting ready to go and she says, " He not allow to touch me." She was referring to when the photographer set the kids up for the picture and has one kid put his hand on the other kids shoulder. I just said "fine, lets go". Its funny how the picture looks so sweet and no one knows what choas went on before hand.

Any suggestions??

Guiness always gets this tuff of hair that grows in front of his ear out to the side near the bottom. Its very bushy looking. Today I cut it but it just doesnt look right. Ive tried to follow a book but it just doesnt show me what I need. Any one know how to cut the hair that grows in front of the ear. These pictures are all done after I cut the hair. I dont think its right. Any suggestions? thanks

Its still raining!!!!!

Its raining

Well, I'm depressed. I came back from my mom's house on Friday just so I could go to a class up in North Carolina on Saturday afternoon. Its been raining since Friday. We drove up from Savannah in the rain last night and I woke up this morning to rain. I was for sure it was raining in North Carolina. When I emailed "m" to ask her she said she hadn't canceled the class but there was a 70 % chance of rain. So I didn't go. And they must not have gotten any rain because the class wasn't canceled. It was a 2 hour class on Gamblers. Shoot. I really want to go to that class. I signed up for my first ever USDAA trial at the end of December and I entered Gamblers. O'well Ill just do the best I can. And if I crash and burn, I'm sure I wont be the first person. HA!!

Ive posted a couple of pictures that I took over Thanksgiving in Savannah. Miley is actually tied to the tree in case she decided to case a car. But she didnt try to leave once during any of the picture taking. I took the dogs to this park that I always see going to my parents house. It looks so nice. A walking trial , some ponds, tennis courts and playground equipment. But guess what. We started walking the trial there are big signs posted. "No Pets". Wow, a public park and no pets. I don't think Ive ever seen that before. Maybe if the allowed pets they wouldn't have all those geese and pigeons pooping all over the place. My poor husband then had to listen to me rant for the next 20 minutes. ( He says it was longer). I ended up taking the dogs to these baseball park which we couldn't walk inside , but I got a few good pictures. ( The trees are still colorful there).

I worked Miley inside the house today. I put the contact board on the steps and she got the 2o/2o every time. Then I brought the weaves in the house, just 3 poles. But Miley just couldn't get an entry and wasn't driving. She was probably wondering what these poles were doing in the house. So we did go outside in the rain and train the weave poles. I didn't want to have a bad session in her brain. It was much more successful outside.

Happy Birthday and Happy Thanksgiving

Today is my husband's 50th birthday. He was actually born on Thanksgiving too!! Happy Birthday Lou. And Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

By george I think she got it!

I took Miley to the practice field today. We had a great practice. She only chased car twice. Twice probably sounds bad to you, but there were lots of cars. So I felt good about it. I have to catch her early because once she off for the chase I cant call her off.

She ran a great practice. She even made this weave pole entrance. (picture above) She came out of the tunnel ( coming at you ) and had to get into the poles closest to you. she made it in both times I ran that sequence. And we did some contact training. She does well getting into the 2o/2o when not running the whole dogwalk. But when I would have her run the whole thing she would get to the bottom and stop just before doing a 2o/2o. Then I would say touch again and she would go into a 2o/2o. So I didn't reward that. Then after not rewarding that I ran her across the whole dogwalk. She ran full out and then went into a perfect 2o/2o. Yea, big party!!!! And I didn't do the dogwalk again. I also was able to reward with food and toys during practice. Yea, me!!

Freestyle class

Sunday night I went to the new freestyle class . This time there will only be 4 classes but they are 1 1/2 hours long. I did remember to bring the soft crate to put Guiness in. He was very excited to be there and kept barking when we were warming them up. But putting him in his crate when he wasn't working really helped to stop the barking. He barked maybe a couple of times when he was in there but that was it. There were two young girls from the last class and a couple of new people. We worked on teaching circles around cones and poles. We worked on nose touches to the hand and the target stick. Ive been trying to work on things since the last class just not those things. What I really, really need to teach Guiness is to heel on the right side. He just goes ahead of me then turns around and faces me. By then he is so out of place I cant get him to circle on my right side and then keep walking. So that is my goal for the next two weeks. Will see if I stick to it. Guiness was tried when we got home. ( see above picture)

Weave troubles

So Ive been having weave problems. Saturday and Sunday she just couldn't make the entry or was popping out. Sometimes she would jump in half way down the line. Sometimes I think she didn't get in because she wasn't collecting but other times I'm not sure what was going on. So on Sunday I put some of the poles slanted to see if that would help. Nope, same problems. The first video is of the 12 weave bad practice. The second video is of the 6 weave and 9 weave practice.
So today I took the weaves down to 6 poles straight up. No problems. Not once. I didn't put all of them on here. The last time she runs I added 3 more poles to make 9. Still no problem. So Ill stick with that for a while.
I used food with the weaves. I also did some 2o/2o training. Its going pretty well. I made the mistake of trying to get her running and then run her over the a-frame. She didn't stop. She will stop going all the way over except if she has a running start. Then we took a break. Next I got a toy out to play. We played and than ran some short courses. She did great and seemed happy. Then only problem is I couldn't get her to come into me to set up. But I just went with it. So over all we had a great practice. After the last two days, I needed a great practice.

Another walk.

I took the dogs to the forest again today. It was a slower paced walk than yesterday. None of the pictures turned out as good as I thought they would. Especially the ones on the rocks. It was hard to get out there. I had to climb down the embankment and then lift the dogs down. When I was taking the pictures it seemed really cool. But Miley is really washed out looking. O'well better luck next time. I also fell on my walk. There are lots of leaves and my foot got caught on a root. I couldn't stop my forward momentum and fell. Its funny that falling seemed to happen in slow motion. I had time to think, "hold on to the dogs leashes and protect the camera". The camera was around my neck but inside my jacket. So I hit on my knees and arms. The dogs came back to me with this look like , "now what are you doing". I was fine, but I ripped a hole in my pants at the shin. I'm hoping to go to the practice field with Miley today but will see if I have the energy. I also start the freestyle class with Guiness today. Yea!

If anyone know what I could have done with the camera so that Miley wasnt so washed out in the first 2 pictures. Please let me know. Thanks

Weird day

Today started off early. I woke up at 5am and I'm not sure why. Did the dogs wake me up? I don't know but probably. So when I woke up then the dogs wouldn't let me go back to sleep. So up I was. Usually I walk the dogs but since it was 24 degrees out, I don't think so. At 9am I took the dogs to the park for a walk, now it was 33 degrees. I got a few good pictures but I didn't have much time because I needed to be home by 10:30 to take my son to work. We are down one car because it is at the airport. My husband is in Costa Rica. So to get back home in time I had to start jogging. If you know me, I don't jog anywhere. But I found a few short cuts in the woods and made it home in time. Later that day I decided to go to the clubs practice agility field. On Saturday morning there are a group of girls that use the field. I decided to go around 2pm. That should be late enough and they should be done. When I got there, there were a bunch of cars ,people sitting around eating and some walking a course. So I asked if there was a seminar going on. They said no. I told them who I was and that I had come to use the practice field. I was wondering if they just started or what. No one could really tell me anything. Some of the people I know from the agility committee. One person when I asked them about what was going on ( was it a seminar or class) she told me it was a party and she didn't know anything but she was invited. So I took that as I wasn't invited and to go home. Now none of this is a big deal except that I drove 40 minutes to get there. You would think the club would post something so we know that we cant use the field. ( The field that I pay a yearly fee to use) So now I was really mad. I just wanted to work my dog. While I was driving home I called someone that I hadn't seen since March and asked if I could use her yard. She has a very big yard and teaches classes. She said I was more than welcome to come use the yard. So I did.

We were terrible. Miley couldn't do the weave poles if her life depended on it. I'm not sure what was wrong. I had 12 set up and she would get in half way down the poles. What????? Now this person's yard had a gentle slope. What that the problem. I don't know. I took the weaves down to 6. She still couldn't do it. They were in a little bit of a hole so I moved them over. That helped at first and then getting in farther down the line started again. Ugh!! We did have a couple of successful weaves at the end of practice so at least we ended on a positive note. We did some contacts. She was 90 % successful with the contacts. I don't know if I was slow or what. But I wasn't giving her the information she needed. She kept coming into me and not taking jumps right in front of her. I do think that trying to run up the gentle slope was giving us problems. I was hard to keep you same speed and I think that pulled Miley off of things. That may have been some of it not sure why else we were so off. I hope it gets better.

Last , Stephanie went into work today at 4pm and they said she wasn't working. No one called her. When she looked at the schedule, she has no hours for the next two weeks. She called the owner and he said he didn't know why. Last time she didn't have any hours they called her that week and told her she had to come to work right now or she was fired. I called and told them she was in the car right now going to get the battery replaced in the car. It had to be jump started 3 times that day. She said she didn't care, if Stephanie didn't come in she was fired. I was thinking, what kind of place is this. I called the owner who wouldn't take my call so I had to tell the person who answered the phone why I was calling. I told him what the problem was and they said he would call me. He didn't. But Stephanie did go to work that night after getting the car fixed. They apologized to her. So after what happened today , she gave her 2 week notice. Its there loss. She was a hard worker and always went in when the called and needed an extra person. So that is my weird day.

Waiting patiently for some

Here is Roxy waiting patiently while Guiness eats a treat. She never eats her own, she waits for Guiness to leave his. Doesnt always work.

Trying out new camera

Success

Tonight after I finished my parent duties I got home about 5pm. There was less than an hour of daylight left. I still needed to make dinner and I wanted to work Miley. So I put the chicken on the grill and the water on the stove and went in the back yard with Miley. I had a ball type of toy that is made of fleece. I really had her playing and we did some agility. She was flying. I cant say she was very accurate but I wasn't really following a planned course. She had so much more enthusiasm and speed. It was great. I'm really going to try and keep with doing more toy stuff with agility. I can only do it in short 2 minute sessions which worked great since I was grilling chicken at the same time. In the past if I worked a few minutes to long I got the feeling she thought something was wrong because she wasn't getting food as a reward. And as soon as I bring food out, she no longer wants to play with the toy. I also had her work the board later in the evening. I didn't use a target. I just waited to see what she would do. I'm not sure why but when I was on the right side of the board, no matter what my position, she go into the correct 2o/2o position at the end of the board. When I was on the left , she had problems coming off the side of the board. So I guess I must be working the right side more than the left. But hey, as least there is progress. So that made me happy. Yea!!

I took the picture above this weekend. It looks ok small. When I tried to make it bigger for my blog header, Miley was blurry. So it will have to be small. The leaves probably wont be as colorful next weekend so I wont be able to take the picture again.