Whats up with this

Here is a link to the photographer that was at the trial. Look at this picture. Very funny. She didn't drop the panel jump so maybe its just the timing of the shot.
http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=067V009L0D0012&po=12

Ok, I cant get it to link directly so you will have to scroll over to the third picture.

Miley's foot

Something may be wrong with Miley's foot. I notice last weekend at the trial that she held her foot up twice. I was walking her on the road area where you can park RV's and cars. It was a huge area down from the trial. She did it once Saturday and once Sunday. She just held it up when walking, like she has some thing stuck to her foot. I brushed her foot off and she was fine the rest of the day. She did it again on Sunday. But there was lots of little pebbles on the road area. This time I looked more carefully at her foot, brushed if off again and kept walking. I didn't see this again until Tuesday night when walking the street at home. Same foot, all three times. Ok, some thing may be wrong. I decided I wouldn't do any training with her for a week. I havent seen her do it again. But this morning, Mickey and Miley were wrestling. Miley on the ground and Mickey on top of her. It works better this way since Mickey is so much smaller then Miley. Every thing was fine until he bit her right foot ankle area. Then she got upset and went after Mickey ( not playfully ). It made me think he hit just the wrong spot. So I will keep resting her and see what happens. If I see something next week, Ill take her to the vet. I bet that is why she dropped so many bars this weekend. The one that surprised me was the Sunday run ( video below in another post) when she came out of the weaves and then there was a jump. I remember thinking that it was weird she dropped that bar.

My sister is coming this weekend for a visit. That will be fun.

I cant understand why

I cant understand why my dog cant read my cues.

Alison, this is for you. Look I'm doing the helicopter. Talk about flapping and flailing.

Ive been tagged

Ive been tagged by Dawn to come up with 5 things that Miley likes or dislikes with the letter "M". This is sad but this very hard for me to do.

1. Mickey. Miley loves to play with Mickey. And if he wont play, she slaps him on the head until he gets mad and chases her.

2. Mutts. She hates other dogs. If another dog comes up to her at class , she growls at them.

3. Mittens. She loves to grab my mittens off the table.

4. Morning. She likes to wake everyone up very early.

5. Mouth. She loves to bark, eat, tug and fetch balls with her mouth.


I'm tagging Julie , only if you want to play, with the letter "I".

( I know I didn't play last time when you tagged me but I just couldn't think of who my dogs reminded me of, it hurt my brain).

More thoughts on agility problems

Well , Ive been thinking a lot about why Miley is not stopping on her contacts. Yesterday I came home from work and Miley is always very excited then. So I decided to try running her. I didn't have any treats or toys. Well guess what happened. So blew the contact almost every time. About one hour later I tired again and she blew the contact again. Ugh!! Then I got her tug and treat toy that I now realize I always take with me when we practice or go to class. After that she hit contacts every time. Hmmmm. Today, I decided to try it just a little different. I got her tug and treat toy out but let her see that I left in on the deck on top of the grill. She hit all her contacts every time. I didn't reward until the end of the 3 min. session. Do you think that she didn't see the toy at the trial and she thought she wouldn't get rewarded so she acted crazy? She is a dog that likes everything to be exactly the same. I did give her treats from my pocket at the trial but I guess it wasn't good enough. We will see what happens at the next trial in a couple of weeks. Ill bring the tug and treat with me and see how she does.

Also what is up with all the waiting at the AKC trial. 7 hours is way to long to wait for a run. I don't remember is being that long when I ran Guiness. I may have to resort to only one run a day and go home. That just seem ridiculous.

The other thing I really need to improve on is my handling. My cues were late and Miley wasn't reading the rear crosses at all. So I'm looking through some DVD's I have on teaching crosses. I really what her to turn tight. When I watched our jumpers run in slow motion you see how bad things went. Hopefully I can pull it together.

Miley's 2nd AKC trial

Well I brought the crazy dog. ( Sorry no video for Saturday, it was hard to find someone to do it) On Saturday we got there at 7am because Miley needed to be measured and we didn't have a height card. So at least now we have a temporary height card until she turns two. So we got there at 7am and waited 6 hours for our first run. She was crazy. It was novice standard and she jumped both the contacts very height and would not get on the table. She just kept circling it. I gave up and sent her to the teeter. So our 4 obstacles were great and our last 4 obstacle were great. No teeter problems and no weave pole problems.
Then at 4pm we ran jumper open. She was great. Very fast, ran the course well but she dropped a bar. I'm sure I did something on my rear cross that caused it. The course time was 46 seconds and she did it in 26.52. There was this tiny sheltie that ran after us that ran it in 25.86. But over all a very great run. I didn't stay to do Novice fast because it was just taking to long. At 4:30pm the were still running the excellent standard course and were still on the 20 inch dogs, they still had the 24 and then 26. So several more hours of waiting. I decided to go home. Someone told me that they finished about 7:45pm. I was glad I went home.

Now for Sunday. Again we got there at 7:15 and they were already walking the open jumpers course. It was a tough course. The judge was Scott Chamberlin. I didn't have high hopes but thought we could hold it together. We didn't. She broke her start line stay and threw me altogether. Then some bad handling by me didn't help. It think 57 dogs ran in open and only 11 Q'd.

So I don't know what happened. She looked like she read the rear cross and then changed her mind. Then my front cross was late so she took the extra jump.

Then we waited 7 hours for our next run. I took her outside at least 3 times for long play sessions with the ball. Worked on waiting till I said "ok" to go get the ball. We also practice our 2o/2o on a wheelchair ramp that was far away from the trial. I was very confident when I went in to the run. I planed a front cross in front of both the a-frame and the dogwalk. Well it wasnt a horrible run but there were problems. She didn't stop for either contact but she did get further into the yellow zone. Then she wouldn't down the the table. I don't know what that was about. So we "Q'd" and took 2nd place but it wasn't something to be proud of.

Two for the price of one

This is my 5th photo but as it turned out its also a sleeping photo. My daughter took the picture.

Wed. agility class

I went up to a class with Meagan on Wednesday. It was rough all the way around. Miley had been in her cage all day and then got 15 minutes out when I got home. Then back in the crate again for the 2 hour drive. So she was full of herself by the time we got there. The course above was set up by Meagan and I'm not sure the distances are right but you get the idea. Now that I look at the course again, Im not sure #1 is in the right place. But you still get the idea. It started out ok. We did a post turn from 1 to 2, then front crossed after two. If you went to far in (between 2 and 3) then your dog took the #3 jump straight and missed the # 4 jump and straight into the tunnel. You needed to stay near the #3 jump which forced your dog to slice the jump and then you pushed out to #4. That part was tough but we managed after a couple of tries. ( my bad handling). Then to the teeter and jump #7. It looks tight but all the dogs got this easily. Miley got the weave entrance without a problem. Then front cross after the weaves on to the a-frame. Then it was the tunnels. Miley just wouldn't get into the tunnels correctly. I'm not sure what the problem was. She knew where to go ( in her mind) and just ran right in front of me and cut me off to go into #11 tunnel. Tunnel problems went down hill from their. After that everything was ok until the second time to the table. She wouldn't get on. I don't know why but she just couldn't get herself together. I think she needed more time to burn off energy. So we didnt look to go out there. Plus it was freezing cold. It was 32 degrees and dark.

Well I had to take a break from blogging. My daughter called and the car wont start. So I had to go pick her and her friend up and bring them home. I don't know whats wrong with the car. Its making a weird clicking noise when you try to start it. My husband can deal with it tomorrow. He comes home tonight from Michigan.

So back to class. Miley was crazy and doing crazy things. To much time in the crate. I took a short lesson after class to work on rear crosses. Miley is jumping way long on rear crosses so she isn't reading the cue. Meagan showed me a different way than what I was doing to cue my dog for a rear cross. Its to hard to describe . So later next week if I get any good at doing them, Ill video tape them and show what we worked on.

Tomorrow is Miley's second AKC trial. I'm not sure which dog I will have. The well trained dog, or the crazy do what ever I want dog. Will see. Which ever dog shows up, I will try to have fun and run, run, run......

How not to train your dog in agility!

I ran Miley yesterday morning because I had a feeling that the class would be canceled. Which is was. I just couldn't seem to get my act together. Miley ran well, but I had really bad handling. So this little video is an example of some things I did wrong. First I front crossed where I just couldn't and cut my dog off. In my brain I knew I couldn't make it but I did it anyway. I'm not sure what I was thinking. ( Do you think Miley understood when I said "Sorry,Mi"? Then Miley does the dog walk and when she gets into a 2o/2o all her weight is on her front end and her back end comes completely off the contact and then back down again. Is that a fault if it happens at a trial? Then here is really bad training. And I even think Meagan told me to always send the dog some where not just release her. But that's what I have been doing when practicing our 2o/2o. I just release her and then she would come into me for a treat. Soooooo look what happened after I release her off the dogwalk. ( she doesnt drive to the jump, she comes to me) Ugh! Now I have to fix that.

Today I ran her on the dogwalk and do you know what she is doing now? She is coming off the side of the dogwalk in the 2o/2o. Not just near the bottom of the dogwalk but higher up. What is that about. I know I didn't train that. But her brain is thinking , "Its faster if I'm already off the side because I know that is the direction the course is set up and she always releases me into that direction". LOL Something else for me to fix. O yea, an a trial this weekend. It should be fun!!

It did snow!

I think the real reason they canceled school was so everyone could watch the inauguration.

Snow day!!!

(I don't know why, but about a year ago Mickey started sticking his tongue out a lot when just sitting around. I thought he looked cute today)

I know all you people in the north are laughing but we have a snow day for tomorrow. We are expecting a dusting to 1 inch of snow. I still cant believe they closed schools. Now we wont get any snow because they are to prepared. O well, I'm not in charge so Ill just gladly accept the day . Also my class tonight was canceled because of the bad weather coming. Now in North Carolina they probably will get snow. My daughter came home tonight from Tenn. and it was snowing all the way through the mountains of Tenn and NC. It stopped when they got to South Carolina. At least they got home safe.

Right now my yard is just mud. Lots of mud. I'm probably going to have to put down sand and then fix it when the weather warms up.

Freestyle class and other stuff

First a side note. Thanks to , http://koovamyalovestory.blogspot.com/ ( I hope that is your link),"Painter Pack Mom" who sent me a note to my email about a sheltie in a Georgia animal shelter that was to be put to sleep on Jan. 20. He has now been pulled by Georgia Sheltie rescue. Yea!!

I tired to take Miley to the training field this morning but it just wasn't to be. I looked at the radar before I left and it didn't show any rain in the area yet. So I left my house around 8 am . Well I didn't get but half way there and it started pouring down rain. So much for that.

I did get to go to Guiness's freestyle class. A couple of new people showed up today. It's hard on the new people to come to class I think. Three of us have been going since the beginning, so the dogs know more than the people who joined the last class. It's not really that they know more, its just that they have the tricks down better. The dogs worked hard today. Some times she breaks the class up and a few people work at a time. But today everyone was working at the same time. When I finally looked at my watch it had already been 35 minutes. That's a long time for dogs to be doing tricks constantly. Usually I will take a break and take my dog outside but today it was pouring down rain at that time. So we kept working. One thing everyone needed to improve on was getting the treats out of our hands so the dog works without a lure or immediate reward. Some people could put their treats on a chair near where they work. But if you know Guiness, that's not going to work. He is food obsessed. So I had to go get my cooler and put that on the chair so he couldn't get the treats himself. We then worked on doing three and four tricks and then run to the treats. Its kinda like agility when you start sequencing and they get a treat at the end. With Miley I sometimes run several small courses and then we run in the house and gets some treats. That way its more like a trial, you don't get the treats right away. If you dont do that , the dog may thing they are doing something wrong because they arent getting a treat. Then they will stop working.
Guiness was defiantly over the whole thing by the time we finish. The last thing we did was make up a small routine to some music. Guiness wasn't to focused and I think it was just to much for him. I'm going to have to do a better job with giving him breaks. He came home and went to sleep.
It finally stopped raining around 4 pm so I was able to take the dogs to the park and walk them about 1 hour before it got dark. Yea!!

What to do?

Every school year I only have 7 days off . Which isn't much but I realize that I do have a lot of time off. The summer, Christmas, and spring break. To bad none of that coordinates with any agility stuff. Ive signed up for some trials but they are on the weekend and I didn't sign up for any Fridays.

Here is what I have scheduled so far:

Jan 24-25 BRAC trial
Feb 14-15 Savannah dog training club ( my parents live about 10min for the site)
Feb 23-26 Seminar in Vera Beach Fl.
March7-8 Charlotte trail ( I can drive back and forth)
April 4-5th GCOC trial ( here in Columbia)
April 19th ASSA trial Perry Ga.

The seminar is in Florida and I will have to take 4 days off from work. Its a 3 day seminar but I think I will need the 4th day to drive back home. The seminar is given by Ann Brue, Jen Pinder and Karen Holik ( not sure I spelled all their names right)
I sign up for the Sheltie nationals . Its a one day trial on Sunday. I'm going to watch a friend from college do herding with her sheltie on Saturday . We haven't seen each other in a long time. She was my college roommate. It should be lots of fun. But I'm going to take Monday off from work to drive back home. I don't have to do that. Its only 4 hours from home but I may be tired.
So that is 5 days. Ive already used one day for something earlier this year. That leaves me one day. Now the dilemma. Our club has brought Karen Holik here right before the trial. They are doing a mini seminar one day . Its three hours. I would have to take a whole day off from work. I'm just not sure its worth it. I really wanted a whole day seminar but I was voted down. I don't want them to think I don't appreciate their work in bring her here. Its just I'm not sure that 3 hours is worth taking my last day. I could come back from Sheltie nationals Sunday night and that would give me an extra day. I cant take the day off on Friday for our club trial ( April 3-5) because that is the day before spring break starts and you are not allowed to take the day before or the day after a holiday off. Which I feel bad about but there is nothing I can do about that.
What to do? And then what if something happens and I need to take a day off for non-dog stuff and I don't have any days left. That's the problem with working at schools. You cant just take an hour off to go to the doctor. You have to use your time in 1/2 days or whole days. And if your appointment is right at the 11am hour , your going to have to use a whole day. So I just don't know what to do.

Its cold!

( if you click on the picture, it gets bigger so you can see the ice)

I woke up this morning and felt sad today. I'm not really sure why and I couldn't shake it. It could be that my husband has been gone for a week in China. Then that plane crash in New York. They just keep talking about it. I already worry alot when my husband flies and that just adds to the worry. It could be that I didn't walk the dogs this morning. It was just to cold. I think it was 17 degrees out. Now I know that's not cold for most of you who are zero or below. But for us, that's cold. I truly don't know how you stand to live in temperatures that cold. Both my thumbs and one finger are cracked open. I'm hoping with a 3 day weekend they will heel. Then I took my daughter to the church where they are going on a retreat up to Gatlinburg, TN. Something else for me to worry about. Driving in a van 4 hours through the mountains of NC and TN. If you have ever driven route 40 through the mountains , its scary. The highway runs along the side of the mountain and if you go off the side, bye ,bye......... And people fly through there, like I said , scary! But I just talk to my daughter and they got there safely. So that is good. Then I had to make sure my son woke up for his employee meeting.

This afternoon I walked the dogs at the park. It finally got above freezing so I felt I could walk the dogs without my fingers hurting. I guess we walked about 3 miles and I think the dogs had fun. Some of the water areas had ice on them and Miley kept trying to get a piece of ice. I tried to get a picture because she blows bubbles in the water. Very cute.

O yea, I forgot to say, Im feeling much better now. Maybe I just needed a walk.

What a day.

Its been a crappy day. I wont go into why , Ill just leave it at that. Its always good to come home to dogs that are just so happy to see you. That always lifts the spirit.
Yesterday I took Miley to the park to work handling. We did front and rear crosses. She did really well in that she read everything right and I even got some distance in. The only thing was she was almost always in extension and jumping to long for the turn that was coming. I know that I must not be giving the cue soon enough but I couldn't seem to fix it. I'm going to take a lesson on Monday, so hopefully Meagan can see what I'm doing wrong.
Now today I did just did a few runs with the weaves. And I'm just amazed. I know I keep posting video but I just cant get over how things have changed. She just couldn't do this last week and now, WOW! I need to get video of her going in on the other side of the weaves.

Also if you get the J and J dog supply catalog, Mileys in there in the teeter section.

Guiness and I are still working on the freestyle stuff. The instructor has set up a show and go for freestyle and wants us to come up with a dance with our dog. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I'm no were near ready to start doing that. Hmmm

Freestyle video

Here is a video on the winner in the Scandinavia championship.The winner is Sini Ericsson from Finland with a sheltie named Sonic!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGg2KPESPc8

More weaves

So here is some more weave entries. First I practice just a few times with the two poles and then I add the rest. I think this method helps them learn to collect to get into the weaves. I'm not sure how but it does. I didn't get it on video but Miley hasn't been able to come off the dogwalk and into the weaves the way it set up right now, until now. I still need to get further distance from the poles but so far its looking good. I finished watching the DVD last night. I didn't hear in the video to let you dog repeatedly fail like everyone keeps talking about. In one part of the video, the dog she is training has a severe entry to get into and fails three times in a row. The dog comes back and starts sniffing. She doesn't comment on the sniffing but states that the dog is showing her that this is to hard and Susan opens the first two poles to make it easier. After the dog gets if a few times, she closes the poles and the dog gets it. So she did make it easier but not by moving closer.

I didn't follow the DVD all the way through because my dog knew how to weave. I wasn't unhappy with her speed or her footwork. But if I was this might be the method to try. I still really like the WAM method but the 2 x 2 weave entries was a big help. At least so far.

More action shots

Miley was in rare form today. My daughter wanted to take some action pictures. So I had Miley run some agility sequences. She was wild! Running like crazy. Didn't stop on the dog walk contact 3 times. I had to finally put a target down to get her to stop. Then just running any course she wanted and running behind me. Silly dog. I think it was just to much for her today being in the cage. She took full advantage of being out. I'm sure she was thinking "WooHoo I'm free."

ok, now look at this weave pole entry. No babysitting

( small delay. I had to unstop the sink that I clogged up with noodles. I new better then to put the noodles down the drain. I couldn't plunge it either. Luckily the sink was made for someone like me. The trap was all hand screw type stuff. I still made a mess, even with a pot to catch all the water. Yuk!! But all fixed now. Back to your regular programing. )

2x2 weaves to 4 poles

I start out with just 2 poles and then progress to 4 poles. When I try to leave all the poles on a rotation she gets confused and tries this weird type of weaving trying to get around the poles instead of going through the middle. I think if she didn't know how to weave, that wouldn't be an issue. So I still put the first set on an 2 and 8 o'clock angle but lined the next two poles up. The video is what I have right now. I need to work the arc more and go further down the line. I also have more success if I always start with 2 poles and reward a few times then add poles. It funny , you feel like you are throwing the toy well until you watch your video. Where was I trying to throw to? Ha!

Is my dog confused?

So does my dog think I'm saying bark and not back? Just kidding, she doing this because I practice "back" with Guiness and she is jealous and barks. So now this is what is happening when I say the word "back". I haven't been doing much training. My job now last 30 minutes longer and I just can seem to get my act together enough to work the dogs and go for walks before it gets dark. Hopefully Ill do better next week. I did start the 2 x2 training. I will go to 4 poles tomorrow and I will hopefully have some video to post.

I broke down and bought the DVD

So I decided to buy Susan Garretts new DVD on 2 x2 weaves. I just watched the first 4 chapters. It was very interesting. So far I havent seen anything about letting your dog fail and figure it out. She talks about what she feels your dog needs to know to make training faster and easier on your dog. She feels your dog should know how to shape, they should have self control under distractions and most of all the should have body awarness. She shows different things they should be able to do that shows they have body awarness. Like walking in ladders, balancing on disk , doing the elephant trick but most of all they should be able to walk backwards 15-20 feet with out you having to move into them.
After you have those things you start with 2 poles and build value for the poles. Which depending on your dog, maybe a day or two. ( that's my opinion). Then you start training entries with the first two poles. I really like what she showed and how she explains the reward line. I have been a little confused on that when watching other peoples videos. Each session you need to document: how many attempts made, how many times they failed and how many times you reinforced. Then you need to figure out you success percentage. You should have 80 % success rate before change one aspect of the training. If you move on before you have that, you will have to many failures and the dog will be demotivated. ( Interesting, she didn't say let you dog fail repeatedly which people keep talking about). In chapter 4 she takes her dog , she had been doing the training with someone elses dog, and sets him up. Now she did say with her own dog she would let him fail and try to figure it out because she feels he knows the training. But that is the only time Ive heard her say let the dog fail. And she was very specific to say , "with my dog" and why. She didn't she that is what you should do.

An apology

So my daughter said to me last night, after watching my video and then I showed her Sara's video, "Wasn't she mad that you copied her?" I kinda laughed and said, "Luckily we aren't in high school anymore." But it got me thinking. I hope I never post anything that offends anyone. If I ever do anything, like copying your blog stuff, I'm sorry. I tried to explain to Stephanie that copying is a form of flattery. It shows you like what they did. We copy dog trainers because we like the way they handle their dogs. We copy house designs and interior designs because we like it. It looks good. So this is my apology if I have ever, or if I ever do offend you by copying something you did. Thanks, Diana

Ok Sara, I accept the food challenge

Please ignore my messy house. I told my daughter to keep the camera low but sometimes it came up. Please all trainers that know me look away. ( sorry its so grainy, I couldn't load it any other way)

Freestyle class

Tonight I took Guiness to his freestyle class. I missed the last class because it was on the same day as the agility trial. Its always a fun class to go to. Stress free. Not that other dog classes are stressful but this just seems so relaxing. Basically you are just teaching your dog tricks. Guiness loves food alot , so he works very hard and learns quickly. Tonight we worked on getting the dog to follow behind you. You walk with your hands behind your back and the dog is suppose to walk with you but stay right behind you. Guiness had a hard time with this, so we will need to practice. We also worked on having the dog go through your legs to a chair that had a treat on it and then he has to back up between your legs again. The treat brings them through the first time and then you can squeeze your legs together and the dog will back out. Remember to add verbal cues to all tricks. Like "through" and "back". In freestyle you have to divide the ring into 4 quadrants and you must cover 75% of the ring. Its also a good idea to to label the corners of the ring, 1,2 ,3,4 and create in your mind your pattern. Like 2341. You will start in corner 2 and go to corner 3 , then 4 and then 1. This helps keep you oriented in case you get disoriented while doing your dance. Also you don't have to go all the way into the corner and your not to get to close to the fencing. You can get penalized for using the fencing to keep you dog going straight even if you didn't mean to. Also no part of the dog can go pass the fencing , so if they are to close and the tail hair goes through , your out. We also practice making our dog stay in place while we walk and skip around them and move your arms in all different ways. Its a fun, goofy class. Then we all had to make up a dance to the same music. It was fun. We are not great but its fun and if your dog or you mess up, you just add something else. Hey , kinda like gamblers. Ha!! Some people have taught their dogs some cool moves, I wish I had video so I could remember exactly what they did. I did remember to bring Guiness's crate. Now he doesn't bark when other dogs are taking their turn or the teacher is talking. Yea!

Miley is feeling better

This was how Miley was this morning. Shocking! She never sleeps with any of the dogs and never has slept on my lap. From the time she gets up, its go, go , go. Not this morning. Very scary.
This is her this afternoon. She played a little while. So that is a good sign. Yea!!

Miley is sick

Miley has been sick since last night. Really the last 3 evenings she hasn't seemed like herself. Usually she runs around and wants you to throw balls and toys. But lately she has laid down the the couch in the evening, she never does this. And she laid down next to me to pet her. She never ever does that. First I thought it was the treats I gave her. But the next night the same thing. So then I thought it was the other treats. Both of these were treats neighbors gave me. I wouldn't buy these myself because I usually buy higher quality treats. But the next night the same thing. I did change her dog food. I put her on a higher protein content dog food. Going from 24% protein to 27% protein. About 3 days ago was when I was no longer mixing the old dog food with the new dog food and she now gets 100 % new dog food. Maybe it the higher protein content that's bothering her. Last night she had 3 bouts of diarrhea. So I gave her an Imodium. About 30 minutes later she vomited a large amount of undigested dog food. I didn't see the imoduim capsule in the food. About 1 hour later she vomited another large amount of undigested dog food. That was about midnight and I put her in her kennel. She slept all night and didn't have any problems. But this morning she just isn't herself. She wont lay down. She stands there and her eyes start to close, then her back end starts to fall over which wakes her up again. She isn't playing. I did get her to urinate about 9:30am. I gave her some Reglan about 8am thinking she was nausea . She ate a tablespoon of old dog food with water. She has kept that down. She not drinking so I mixed some chicken broth with water and she did drink that. I thought she was feeling better but now she is looking sick again. Not wanting to lie down and looking sad. I'm debating on whether to take her to the emergency vet or not.

The weather man was wrong

Today I watched the news. The weather lady said it was going to be sunny and 60 degrees today. Tonight rain would start and it would rain all day tomorrow. We guess what? It was cloudy and rainy all day. I think it might have gotten to 50 degrees. It wouldn't have been so bad if you weren't expecting a sunny, nice day. Well we took the dogs to the park for a walk. It was more like misting at the time. You wouldn't believe how many cars were parked in the lot. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't a nice day at all and here are all these people. O'well what can you do. I wanted to go to the spider women trial through a short cut so that we could walk the inner loop that is marked "very difficult". It goes on about .75 of a mile. we did walk it. As we were walking I told my husband that is didn't seem that different from the rest of the path. But it was all up hill. It kept going and going. I was definitely feeling it by the time we reached the top. Then it flattened out and went down hill. After getting on the main part of the spider women trail again , a whole group of people are coming toward us with their dogs. Are their dogs on leashes like the park signs state? No of course not. That's for other people. I think there were 5 or 6 dogs. Two really big dogs and some smaller dogs. The dogs start running toward us. The women says, " They are friendly that's why they are off leash". I had picked Miley up and was holding her. I don't care if your dog is friendly or not. The rule says they are to be on leash. I'm sure they knew I wasn't happy. In my opinion any dog will bite in the right situation. I worked at a children's hospital. I took care of multiple kids that had to go to surgery after being bitten by a dog. All types of dogs. Poodles, beagles, boxers, boarder collies ect....... Like I said any dog will bite in the right situation. When I was at the trial, twice I saw dogs attack each other waiting for their turn to run. It scared the crap out of me. At least they were on leash and the owners could pull them apart. I made sure when I walked Miley that she was very close to me and didn't get near other dogs. Well , sorry about the rant. Back to the park, We got off the path and I tried to jump this little gully trying to get away from these people and their dogs. When I jumped, I didn't know one of the little dogs was coming with me. And I landed right on its leg when we both leaped the gully. I felt bad but I didn't say anything because I was mad. The poor dog. I cant believe I didn't break its leg. It seemed fine and finally went back to its owners after they repeatedly called it. Poor dog.
The picture above is from another day but I thought it was cute and wanted to post it.

Miley Practice

So Ive been trying to decided if I should jump Miley at 16 inches in USDAA. She measured 13 3/4 at the last trial which means she jumps 16 for Championship. I could just do performance and keep her at 12. In AKC she will be allowed to jump 12. I don't want to over stress her body by jumping 16 but after watching her today and looking over the tapes, she seemed ok. The bars were at 16 except maybe one. I have also been obsessing over her weave poles. Mostly entries. Ive been trying to work around the clock and its boring and she goes slow. She never goes slow. I went to bed last night and the last thing I remember thinking about were weave poles and it was the first thing I thought of this morning. Ugh!! I'm contemplating doing 2 x 2 weaves. But I don't want to confuse her. It looks like you can get great entries but maybe that's only if your a great trainer. I talked to Kathy at Agility Adventures( see her blog on my blog roll), and she said its a great way to teach weaves. She is going to go back to reteach her other dogs with this method. Any opinions? ( o'yea, Its raining again)

Hope this isnt how 2009 is going to be

Today we took the dogs for a 4 mile walk in the woods. Came home and my husband started to watch the football games. Put a pizza in the oven. Took the pizza out and placed it on top of the oven. We each had a couple of slices. Next thing we hear is a pan hitting the floor. I turn around and Guiness is running out through the doggie door with half a pizza in his mouth. I don't know how he got it through the doggie door in one piece. It looked huge compared to his head. Luckily it fell apart outside and my husband got half of it back (not to eat). Man, I hope is doesnt upset his stomach. My husband said , "If he can jump that high to get a pizza off the top of the stove, he can jump the poles outside." ( you know, run agility and burn off excess energy. ) My daughter said, " Did you see how happy Guiness was?". HA!!!

HAPPINESS IS 4 SLEEPING DOGS