We are home

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( This is Miley checking out the dogs that are on the other side of the fence)


We got back from Savannah yesterday. Its nice to visit family, but its so nice to come home. Two adults and 4 dogs in a double bed makes for a long and unhappy night. I realized last night that my dogs usually don't sleep in the bed except for Mickey. Miley sleeps on the ottoman next to me (its used for the dogs to jump on and off the bed). Roxy sleeps on a pillow that is on the hope chest at the end of the bed. And Guiness sleeps on a bed that's on the floor. But for some reason everyone has to sleep in the bed at my mom's house.

Last night both the ferrets looked really bad. The one with the insulin problem was laying there drooling. I don't think Ive ever seen the ferrets drool before. I couldn't get her mouth open to get the medication in her. I did the best I could. I checked her later and she was down by the food bowl but just laying there in her urine. I guess she couldn't make down to the litter pan. The other ferret looked bad too. She was lying there unresponsive. Her legs were curled under. I couldn't get her to move at all. I thought about video taping her but I wasn't sure why I was thinking that. Now I wish I had. My son was with me while the ferrets were acting this way and even he said it seemed mean to keep them alive and I should put them to sleep. So I made the decision to put them to sleep. I went up there this morning and both of them seemed perfectly normal. Bright eyed a bushy tailed. I took them to the vet anyway. The vet checked them and he felt they weren't sick enough to put to sleep. Hmmm, he should have seen them last night. They tested their blood sugars. The sick one had a blood sugar of 23. He told me to increase her dose twice a day. If in a month her sugar is still that low, he will put her to sleep. The other ferret's blood sugar was normal. He felt she was a healthy ferret. Healthy ferrets try to run around and play. These ferret just lay there all the time. Fine I took them home. I really feel that one ferret is having seizures. That's why I wish I had video taped them to show the vet. This evening the insulin ferret is so much better. She fought me a lot with the medication. The other ferret is about the same. I guess will just keep going along.

I took Miley to the field this afternoon. Its been almost a week since we have done any agility. Its been raining alot and then with Thanksgiving, no time. First we worked on the table. I started with the chuck-it and trying to get her on the table before throwing it. She did pretty good with a couple of failures.



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We then worked on the jumps to the table. She did ok but still didn't drive to the table if I'm standing still and we are out pass the second jump.

Then we worked on a jumpers run that I messed up a couple of trials ago. I would post the video but its been a pain to post tonight.

When I was out at the field the sheep got out to where I parked the car. So the owner came out with her dog and I figured she was going to practice herding. They moved the sheep into the field next to us. The sheep were driving toward us. I wasn't paying that much attention because I was setting a course up. Miley drove straight to the fence to get the sheep. She made the sheep move all the way across the field. Of course she couldn't get to them because a fence divides the fields. I felt terrible. The lady was trying to work her dog and Miley goes and messes it up. I told her I was really sorry. She was very nice and just laughed. She said it was ok, Miley just wants to be a sheep dog. I was so glad she wasn't mad. But then she went back inside with her dog. So maybe she wasn't going to work her dog and she just wanted to put the sheep back in the correct field. I hope thats what it was.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Just for fun

These pictures always crack me up. So Im posting them again. The chihuahua's look cute in the second picture.


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Lesson and more

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I drove up to Charlotte today for a private lesson and then a class about gamblers.
Meagan set up some small sequences with table in them. She used this page from the Clean Run Exercise source book.



I had the most trouble with the second one (E) set up. To keep Miley out of the tunnel I had to stand pass the tunnel, facing the dog and stand between 2 and 3 ( probably around the 45 foot mark) I hope that makes sense. Then I had to call her to front ( so she came straight to me) and then turn and send her to the tunnel. I would have never thought of doing that. Then to get her back on the #5 table I had to rear cross her on the flat coming out of the tunnel. I tried sending her into the tunnel with me staying at #4 end and then calling her out of the tunnel but she kept turning the wrong way. I think Meagan must have done some other set ups with this but I cant remember what they were.

Next we worked on table sends.



We did this set up with me standing next to the dog at #1, then send to the table. No problem. She went right to the table. Next, I put Miley at the #2 position and sent her. Guess what, she took the jump and turned back toward me. She never drove to the table at all. So this is my homework. To work this set up. I may need to move in to help her but the goal is to be able to send her to the table from the last jump (#4) with out me having to move. When ever the dog makes it to the table , of course reward , then send on to another obstacle like the a-frame or weaves.


After all that I stayed for a Gamblers class. It was lots of fun and Miley did really well. She did self release herself off the a-frame 3 times in a row. I had to finally put her back on in the 2o/2o postion to get it right. Then did the sequecne again. She was trying so hard to nail it, her whole back end came completely up in the air and back down onto the contact. Poor dog. But she got the idea.

Pictures

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"How many times do you think she is going to make us do this?"
I dont know but Im thinking of biting her."


After getting an email from a friend who gave me a few suggestions about the table trouble, I pulled some old Clean Run magazines to look for some articles. I pulled "Training Terrific Tables" from March 09 and "Confessions of a Mat Freak" from Oct 06. Both had some good ideas in them. So can my dog do a down on obstacles in other places. Like the park bench , the bridge,a tree log ect.. No she can not ( as I found out today). So we worked on that. Jump on the item and down. In the article the person talked about you being able to do a cartwheel. You would probably be ok doing it in the yard or at the gym. But what if someone asked you to do one at a restaurant. So I will now be practicing jumping on to items and getting into a down EVERYWHERE. I also took the table to the park and put it out in the middle of a field. We had never spent any time at this field. But I guess it wasn't exciting enough because she nailed it every time. Sending, recalling and me running by. The other thing I may try and reteaching the table using the info from the "Mat Freak" article. I was thinking of presenting the obstacle in a new way. Like using a PVC box and getting her to stop in it and they slowly make the transition to a table. ( you think I'm getting obsessed with this.LOL)

Not much

I haven't done much this week. Monday and Tuesday I just took a break with no training at all. Well, except I have been trying to teach Miley a moving down. Meagan thinks this will help when Miley gets into her running circles in the ring. Ive been teaching both Guiness and Miley. Guiness is getting it faster than Miley but I think that's because I'm using a lure to teach it. Guiness does better with luring and Miley does better with shaping. Anyway we have a long way to go on the moving down. Then Wednesday and Thursday I work on the table. Guiness can get very excited running thur the yard and then Miley gets excited chasing him. Wednesday she did really well with being able to pull off chasing Guiness and then getting on the table. Even when someones dogs were running loose and came up to the fence. All the dogs barking and excited. I was still able to get Miley to get on the table. Thursday she was pretty consistent so I decided to up the anty (sp?). I had my husband ride his bicycle pass the front of the house. This made Guiness very excited. Running thur the yard while spinning tight circles and running again. So of course Miley's excitement level went way up too. She was chasing him full speed and I couldn't pull her off no matter what. To much to soon. I'm not sure how to increase the excitement just a little because the bike seems to be an all or nothing type thing. I'm sure I'll figure something out.

At the trial last week the water bucket spilled in the crate so everything was wet. I brought it inside to dry out. I guess Roxy figured this was a good way to use the crate. She has been sleeping up there all week.

Happy Birthday Stephanie!

Stephanie is 17 years old today. I thought I would post some picture of her that I think are cute. In the top picture she is holding flip-flops made out of duct tape. Duct tape really is the all around product.