Neat blog.

If you go to "Jakes Progress" (a dog agility site) http://www.jakesprogress.info/index.html he has a guest book slide show going on right now. It shows what country you are from and a picture of your dogs. I haven't figured how he signed up for the slide show yet. I'm working on it.

What age to spay?

At what age do you think you should spay your dog? The vet says that he thinks Miley was full grown at 10 months. She had her first heat starting on March 21st. I was planning on getting her spayed on May 9th, which is 2 weeks before her first birthday. Recently I read that you should wait until they are 14 months to make sure their growth plates are closed. I don't think Miley has grown since 8 months. At least I cant detect it on my wicket that I made. So what do you all think?

Drop In Class

Miley and I went to a drop-in agility class on Saturday. It was a great class. To bad it is so far away. Its 150 miles one way. In the class there were only 3 people. So we received a lot of one on one attention. We practice our dog walks and a-frames. 2 of us were doing running contacts and one was doing a 2o2o. It was good to have someone else's eye to see where Miley was hitting the contact. She was in the yellow on the dog walk, but just barely. (it was a USDAA contact and I have AKC contacts) I'll have to keep that in mind. I told her I was using hoops and she told me to paint them green so they aren't as visible. She also told me to practice with a tunnel at each end so that I can send her back and forth. If she starts leaping the contact switch the tunnel to a jump or tire to slow her down a little and stop the leaping. She recommend having someone watch her contacts while holding a clicker. When she hits the contacts to click and then treat. It was good practice while I was there. You got multiple runs over the dog walk and a-frame. The only bad part was it was hot. All week it has been 85 degrees and the dogs were hot. I hose her down 3 times during the 1 1/2 hours which did help. But she hates that. O'well better than heat stroke.
We also did a handling session. She gave me some good tips and a couple of jumps sequences to practice. Today I set up an oval with a pinwheel at one end and on the other end 3 jumps that curve and are close together. It worked great. No wide turns. I'm trying to be more conscience of my body, that my shoulder or feet aren't pushing her out. I really liked the instructor. She tells you what was good and what you need to work on. She is interested in how things are progressing at home. She gives you homework and tells you some problems you may have. Then she tells you what to do to fix the problems. Its great.
I probably will go next weekend if I can. Then after that we will be taking a break. Miley gets spayed on May 9th.

More Pinwheels

I know , you are sick of this topic. But.... Today we did more pinwheels and other stuff too. I took this off Susan Salo's jumping exercises when she teaches turning and bending of the dogs body. It was in an issue of Clean Run magazine. It wasn't used with pinwheels but I decided to incorporate it for my work with Miley. By putting the jump down on one side that is suppose to draw the dogs eye to the lower part of the jump, which will help the dog bend. It worked great. I even got some distance from the jump, about 10 feet and could send her. But if I ran that was to much and she went wide. That only happened once. So this was very successful.

Whats up?

On Tuesday Miley had 2 loose stools before I went to work. Then at work I had to stay an hour later for a phone inservice. I was so mad. How hard is it to use a phone. How many times have you started a new job and no one taught you to use the phone. My husband said that most people haven't changed jobs as much as I have. Ha! By the time I got home , I open the door and the sweet smell of roses hits me. (not!!) Poor Miley had diarrhea in her crate. It was everywhere. I take her outside and she has more diarrhea. Then I decided to take the crate bedding outside to rinse off before putting them in the washer. I'm pulling the hose behind me because I want to rinse it in the back of the yard. (My husband used the hose this weekend) While pulling the hose the spray handle comes off in my hand and the hose some how hits my back. Full force water sprays down my back and going inside the back of my pants. Great! My poor husband got an ear full about that. So I finally get everything cleaned up including Miley. She continued to have diarrhea 6-8 more times that evening, but otherwise she was happy and playful. She wasnt happy that everytime she had a stool she had to get her bottom washed in the shower. I guess it turned out to be nothing because she slept all night and hasn't had a stool since. Probably nothing left inside her huh?
I worked Miley yesterday on just 3 jumps in collection. I put the jumps in different positions, straight lines, curves and pinwheels. She crashed the second jump the first time through and didn't want to do it again. Going the opposite direction wasn't an issue. So I move all the jumps to another place in the yard and then she seemed fine. She definitely doesn't like collection. She wants to run full out because that is fun , fun , fun. One thing I notice was that she could make the pinwheel going to the left, but when she went to the right she was wide. All this was done in collection with the jump post touching each other on the pinwheel. If I added any movement she went wide. At lease I know what to work on and what the problem is.

OK, What am I doing wrong?

It took 2 days to up load this.Miley is not getting the pinwheel. She keeps going wide, why? She doesn't understand her job, I giving the wrong signals, I'm to slow, I didn't teach it right? What do you think? All opinions accepted. She did finally get one and I stopped and jack potted that. But I still think I'm not doing something right.

Hair cuts

I gave the dogs hair cuts. Mostly their ears. I hope it looks ok. I try to follow the instructions in a book. I wish I had a video on how to cut your sheltie.

This is funny. Yesterday morning Guiness started licking my husband hand while we were still in bed. So my husband thought that Guiness needed to go out to go the bathroom. My husband got up and Guiness jumped into the bed and laid down in his spot.

Bells and Clicks

Guiness is still hitting alot of the bars when doing the cone cavaletti. I called the rehab place and they told me to put bells on his feet. I bought Velcro and bells from the craft store. I put them on, just above the hock. And it did help alot. He still hits sometimes but not as much. I have seen him limp a couple of time when outside on leash. But I'm not sure. When I'm watching him move at a nice trot, he looks better than he ever has. Places where I would usually see him limp, I have not. Any turning to the left would cause a limp, but I haven't seen that yet. So I still have my fingers crossed.

I'm still working with Miley on clicker training the leash trick. Yesterday she was c/t for pulling the leash off the post. I will probably work on that some more today to reinforce it a little better. We did a short training session on agility. Worked on "come to heel" over a jump. Which she kept wanting to go around. I had to set her pretty close to the jump or she went around. I will do a short session with this again today. We did a few rear crosses which she did well. She still likes to run wide open and go wide around the jumps. I want to encourage the speed but I need her to learn to collect to make the jumps. So I'm working on that too.

Miley still hates the car but its getting better. She is riding in the crate one way to a place and then I let her sit up front the other way. I know it is safer for her to be in a crate but I need to get her pass this hating the car attitude first.

clicking and treating

Guiness's first day home.

Today was a good day! I took Miley to the practice field and she ran well. No circling!!!!! It was the first time on the teeter out at the field. I have a teeter here but its pretty solid. The one out at the field isn't heavy and the board tips very easily. It scares a lot of dogs. But she did well. We practice motion cues. Staying behind the jump means collection and going beyond the jump mean extension. The picture was taken after practice.

I have been working on teaching Miley to get the leash. So after a run, she will go get her leash. I decided to shape it. She seems to learn better with shaping. Yesterday I click for a nose touch to the leash. She got that pretty quickly. Then today I first clicked for going under the leash. ( Its hanging on a post) Then one time she mouthed the leash, so I clicked for that. After that I only clicked for mouthing the leash. She did very well. I tried to shape with Guiness on getting the leash too. It didn't go very well. He would just either sit and stare at me or lie down and stare at me. He just wasn't getting it. He does better with luring. When I taught him to weave between my legs, I used a wiffle golf ball on a stick. I put peanut butter on it and lured him between my legs. He learned this in about 4-5 days. I tried it with Miley for 2 weeks. She just follows the lure but doesn't think.

The cone cavaletti with Guiness: He is still looking up at me and not looking at where he is going. So he keeps clicking the bars. Tonight I put treats on the floor at different places. That worked. He was no longer looking at me, only down.

Everything worked today. Tomorrow it will probably all fall apart. But so what. Today was good.

Cone cavaletti

Here is Guiness and the cone cavaletti. Today is the first day we did them because I needed my husbands help in drilling the holes in the cones.
I did hear his feet click the bar a few times. I think I might have been making him go to fast. I'm not sure. I saw him do this at the rehab center and he didn't click at all. But he seemed distracted when we were filming. I do like the way the cone cavaletti make him pick all his feet up individually.

Guiness

Guiness is home. Everything seems fine. He is allowed to be off leash in the house. So far I haven't seen any limping. He looked fat to me when I first saw him, but I think it was just his coat. They had just washed him so his coat was all puffed out and he has some under coat that needed to be removed. When I weighed him he was less than when I brought him there. He doesn't have to go back to rehab, I just have to call them at week 4 and let them know how he is doing. Here is he rehab work schedule for home:
Week #1 (2) 20 minutes trots going directly to 5 minutes of the cone cavalletti
Week #2 (2) 15 minutes Flexi lead at all three gaits, walk trot and canter. Increase time by 3 minutes every other day
Week #3 (6) 50 yard sprints and agility training at 1/3 intensity level ( only straight lines)
Week #4 Flexi lead hikes increase agility training intensity to 2/3
Week #5 full training intensity

For the next 7 days he is to take Previcox (NSAID) once a day because he will be doing more activity at home then he was doing there. This is just a precaution. After the 7 days I can use it as needed. Lets say that he got in the back yard and ran full out to chase a squirrel, then I should give him one pill that day. He is to take Trixsyn for another 1-2 months then I can stop. He is also to take SynoviG3 for the rest of his life.

I took him for his trot last night about 8pm. When I was walking back up the street my neighbor let his Lab/pit mix dog out without a leash. He is a mean dog. He comes tearing down the street barking a growling. ( great I just got my dog out of rehab and here we go) I turn around and yell "stop" and sprayed my mace. The dog did stop but the mace didn't work very well. It only went about 2 feet and then got on my hands. The neighbor called his dog and I went to the house. I washed my hands but they continued to burn until I went to sleep. They were fine this morning but after I took a shower it started all over again. I have had lots of problems with my neighbors dogs being off leash. I have called animal control multiple times. I even have the dogs on video tape running around the neighborhood in case some thing ever happens.

Today I'm going to make the cone cavalettis. When I get them done I will video tape Guiness doing them. They are really cool. They work much better then ladder work.

Fear

So I'm off today to go get Guiness. I have to go to Raleigh , NC which is about 4 hours from here. My biggest fear is that he wont really be better. Last time I took him to rehab. they said he was better. I couldn't tell anything while I was there. But when I got home he was so much worse. I just hope that doesn't happen this time. The treatment course was different this time so hopefully everything will be ok.

Training Articles

O'Bay Shelties has some great agility training articles on her web site. Here is the link.
http://www.geocities.com/obayshelties/articles.htm Diana

Practice

This was posted on 04-07-08

These pictures were from the other day. I thought the first two were cute. Last one I kept in because she was driving out of the tunnel and was focused ahead and not at me. ( no I didn't step on the chihuahua).

Today's practice went well too. Much less circling too. She might have only done it twice. I was reading a Linda Mecklenburg article in Clean Run ( the Handling Issue). And she talks about not confusing a beginning dog by using turning cues with forward motion cues. I think I have been doing this. I was trying to run her like Guiness but forgot that she doesn't know what he knows. I think the last two times a have practiced with her Ive tried to be better about not integrating the two at the same time. She is getting better about start line stays, but broke once today.

The agility trial went well. The weather men were wrong all weekend. Saturday it stayed in the low 60's and poured down rain all day. The rings were under cover but any where else and you were soaked. Lots of mud too. Im glad I had my "bogs" on. They are great shoes. Sunday it didn't rain so that was a big plus. I took Miley on Sunday. She did very well. I played with her with the ball. She walked around without any issues. We did lots of nose touches. I had the back of the van parked next to the ring and she watched from her crate. She sat a watched and didn't bark once.

Im picking Guines up on Thursday if I can find someone to work for me.

Woo Whoo!!!!!!

picture by Diane Lewis

Guiness is coming home. I talked with Dr. Sherman today and Guiness can come home is 6 to 10 days. When ever I can get an appt. and get there. He is doing great. No tenderness or limping at all. Who would have thought after 11 months of limping that someone could figure out what was wrong and fix it. Dr. Sherman said Guiness is so full of energy that they cant give him enough work to wear him out. That is how he use to be. I would go to my friend's house and the dogs would chase each other for a while. Then we would run agility. Then the dog would play chase again. I would go home and he would bring me the ball to play again. He was never tired. But before going to rehab he wasn't like that anymore. He would run around, but then come inside and lie down. I thought he was just out of shape. But he is back!!!

The Weather and other things.

This weeks weather has been up and down. Monday is was 56 degrees, Tues and Wed. is was 80, Thursday it was 48 and raining. Today it suppose to be 80 again. The agility trail for the Greater Columbia Obedience Club starts today. I'm not working it today because of my job. I'm was just glad that yesterdays raining cold weather will not be with us for the trial. It would be miserable to sit through that. Saturday will be in the 70's but thunder storms are expected and Sunday will be partly sunny and low 70's. I was thinking of taking Miley on Saturday but now I'm not going to. I really don't want to be stuck out there with her if it thunder storms.
I haven't done much agility training this week. Ive been very tired and my legs have been hurting alot. Mostly I worked on coming to heel, nose touches and start line stays. Miley is very funny. When she is in the start line stay, sometimes she sits ( the volture sit) and some times she is in a down. Ive been trying to reward her for her start line stays. But when I go into reward she moves her mouth to the side, doesn't take the treat and then looks head again. I feel like she is saying, " quit that crap and lets get going".
Ive decided to go get Guiness next Saturday the 12th. They said he would be there 4 weeks , well this was week 5 . By the time I get him , it will be 6 weeks. Its costing a lot of money for him to be there and I feel the hole in my bank account. So its time to plug the hole. What ever rehab he as left will have to be done near home.

Guiness On Tap in Rehab

That's Guiness's AKC name. I didn't name him, he came with his AKC papers from rescue. My husband thinks it is hilarious that my dog is named after a beer and I don't drink. ( This is an old picture so he still had a hanging tag back then. )

I talked to the rehab place today and I'm very sad. Guiness will have to stay longer than I thought. He had his second shock wave treatment last Wednesday and he will be given a complete exam with palpation 10 days after the treatment to see if he will need a 3rd shock wave. But other than that he is doing great (so they tell me). He is out of the water therapy now. He is on the land treadmill and not having any problems. They sometimes put bells on his feet. The bells make him hear the rhythm of lifting his feet and also make him pick his feet up higher. He is doing turning motions and cones. In a few days they will add a weighted backpack while walking.

I really, really miss him and want him to come home. Hopefully I will know something Monday. The only good thing about him being gone is that Miley is in heat. Guiness and Mickey are fixed but they will still try. Im planning on getting Miley fixed but I wanted her growth plates closed first.