Sunday, January 1, 2012

Java's running contact

I went to the field today to teach my last foundation class.  They were such a great class. They really wanted to learn and soak up all the information. I love that! It was beautiful out, 74 degrees!! 

I took Java with me. This is her first time running.  I just wanted to see what her rear legs looked like. I wanted to make sure they were separated. I have more ball work to do. You really want your dog driving to the ball. (its in slow motion and you have to wait a minute after she jumps in the air, I didnt want to cut that out. sorry, it was to cute)


She was even ok with that Yorkie there. LOL

The other awesome thing was lots of big dogs and no barking or growling from Java.  Whoohoo, Im so happy!!!  She was off leash and my friends two big dogs were off leash. Java went up to them, they ignored her. She followed them. It was fantastic.  It made my whole day!!!

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Limping again

Yes Miley was limping again this week. Im not sure what happened.  We had been hiking, no limping.  Went to my mom's house for Christmas and they have a good size backyard.  I let her and Java run but not to much, no limping.  I took her to the club to finish those last two jumps that needed the jump cup strips attached. I let her run some small sequences, no limping.



Then the next day she was out in the backyard. Its was around 6am. She wasnt limping when she got up but when she came in from being outside, she was really limping. Crap.  I dont know if she fell or what happened. Ugh!  She even went in my room and laid down. So unlike her. I gave her a Rimadyl. And hour later she was fine.  I havent given her any more Rimadyl but Ive restricted her again. No off leash running. The backyard is gated again, so she cant run free. She is confined to the den and kitchen. I still take her for walks except the day she was limping, I didnt let her do anything. And our walks arent that far and back to the flat surfaces.  I made an appt. with the Vet who does ultrasounds and is good at being about to see muscle tears or tendon tears. She couldnt do it this week so Miley goes Monday. Im assuming that maybe she has a tiny tear somewhere in her shoulder.  Although when I talked to the rehab vet about her possibly having a tear ( before she released her from rehab), she didnt think Miley would get better so quickly if she had a tear and as soon as I let her run, the  limp would show back up. Im not sure why it took a week , maybe I let her do to much to fast. Ugh.

Java is doing well. Still working on recalls.  Sometimes they are great and sometimes not.  One day we only took Java to the hiking park.  When we got to the back of the park, I let her off leash.  She did well for about an hour. Then I went to take a picture of something and my husband was watching her. He didnt see anything, but she took off running. Lucky we were in a valley and could see for a good distance.  I called her and she didnt come. Uh, scary. I had to use , "Pup, Pup, puppy" and then she came. Today I worked her again. She stopped to sniff an orange peel and wouldnt recall off of it. I had to go get her.  We worked more recalls. Then a dog barked, she took off running. I called her. She stopped on a dime and came running back. That made me feel a little better. 
She is having a hard not being reactive to other dogs.  Even at the class I teach where she really hasnt had a problem.  This week someone, who wasnt in class, was working their dog in the other room and had their other dog locked in a crate. It wouldnt stop barking.  And Java kept barking and growling. So everytime she did that, I put her in her crate. She stopped barking. The a lady in class came with a big border collie , Java went crazy.  I had to lock her up in her crate again. She finally got better.  It seems to be big dogs that she is having a problem with.  We walked at the park this morning. There were several people walking dogs.  I put her in a sit and clicked and treated every time looked at the dogs but didnt react.  She did much better by the end of the walk. So I guess thats what Im going to be working on. She had no problems at the agility field this week but no big dogs came to class.  One funny thing that happened . I was putting the chute away and its kinda hard to carry. While I was walking, Java jumped up and into the plastic barrel.  It was to funny.

I feel like this is a depressing post so on a good note........
For Christmas  my husband bought me an online class. Its the Silvia Trkman Running Contacts.  Im going to try and teach Java running contacts. I still need to paint my board.  You have to have a flat 12 foot board so the dog runs on it just like running on the ground. Will see how it goes. I can always change to a 2o/2o but keep the a-frame running.






(I know this one isnt in focus but its still cute to me)

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Monday, December 26, 2011

Life goes on.

Well Christmas is over.  Thank god.  I really dont like Christmas anymore. I dont really want to get into why, Im just glad its over.

I went to the club on Friday to work on some of the jumps we made.  The  jump bars needed to be cut down and they needed to be taped.  Some of the jumps needed to be glued.  So I took Java with us, my husband came with me, so we could work the chute a couple of times.



She looks  much happier huh?

Thursday I took Miley to her follow -up rehab appt.   She was good.  No signs of pain with any movement.  So I can start increasing her activity.   The day before taking her to the appt. I played ball with her in the house and the day of we hiked at the park.  I figured if that aggravated her  that she wasnt ready to be released.  But nope, all was good.

Saturday we hiked 4 miles at the park.  Not anything to hilly but lots of roots so you have to pick your feet up more. While in the back of the park, about  a mile and a half  we run into a lady walking two dogs.  I was trying to work on Java not barking at people and dogs we pass at the park. So my husband was walking Miley and Guiness.  Java had done really well everyone we had passed so far.  I told the lady my dog may bark.  The lady got off the path, which should have clued me in.  She was walking both her dogs, a Great Pyrenees and a mixed dog( looked like lab-pit bull) on flexi-leads.   The mixed breed was a rescue.  All of a sudden all hell breaks looks. Her dogs start barking and  pull the leads out of her hands. The dogs go charging at Lou.  He trys to block, and successfully blocks the GP. But the mixed breed goes behind him. First jumps Miley, who doesnt really fight back and backs out under the dog.Then he goes after Guiness.  The lady just stands there. Didnt even leave her spot.   Lou kicks the dog in the head. The dog takes off to his owner. She grabs him. Lou has the GP by the leash.  Finally she responds and gets the GP.  I have Lou take Miley and Java away from the area. Guiness is bleeding from his face.  I did have my first aid kit with me and Im trying to clean Guiness's face and see how bad he is bitten.   The lady tells me that the mixed breed had bitten another dog at home twice this morning.  The said, "I guess this tells me what I need to know about this dog".  Ugh, to  bad my dog had to pay the price.  I was mad but I was more concerned about my dog.  The lady did apologize several times and felt really bad. I didnt need to make her feel worse.  And she  stayed there until I was the one who finally left. I think she was more traumatized  then me.  I was just glad things werent worse. Im glad Guiness didnt get bitten in the eye.  The vet was closed. But I had doxycline at home and started  him on that.  It looked swollen after about an hour or two at home but the next day was much better.

He had a small shallow puncture wound to the face. I guess because there isnt much tissue there and mostly bone, the dog didnt get a good grip. The worse part is my husband kicked the dog with his leg he had knee surgery on Nov 2.  Its now been hurting for the past 2 days. Ugh. I hope its not wrecked. Plus Java probably wont be calm passing other dogs for a while, that was a big set back. It probably just reinforced her thinking. I never asked the lady if her dog was ok.

I did manage a few pictures after that.

( here is Miley trying to figure out how to cross this little creek without getting wet. Java cant understand what the problem is. Just walk thur it.)

Miley finally just says "screw it, Im jumping".

Here was Guiness's face again a little later. I was concerned about the inner corner of the eye. But the next day it was back to normal.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Game!

Lian at Knight shelites http://theknightsmixedbunch.blogspot.com/, gave us this award. Its a fun little game to help bring blog readers to your blog.  Thanks Lian! Dont forget to go to Lians blog either. She runs some awesome shelties and made the WAO 2012 team for England. WhooHoo!!


Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. As with any award, there is a bit of ceremony involved. In order to accept the award, we must do the following:



1. Copy and paste the award on our blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

 Here are my 5 blogs Im picking to send the award to.

1. Bently and Lexi's blog.  She has two shelties her and her husband run in agility.

2.Thur Labs eyes.   Great blog about running agility with her lab.  She is  kinda just getting started in agility.  The blog also talk about her other dog and kids.  http://thrulabseyes.blogspot.com/

3.Kerales Kate.  Awesome blog!  She runs a border collie in agility and frisbee. Very talented, I love to watch her run agility.  http://keraleskate.blogspot.com/

4. Another Awesome agility person who I would love to be able to run my dog like her. The Adventures of two Urban Border Collies and a sheltie , http://urbanborders.blogspot.com/

5. http://daysofspeed.blogspot.com/   Another great blog.  Not only does she run agility but does triathlons.  I dont know how she has all that energy.  She also post beautiful pictures of the Colorado country side.

( anyone who I picked and you dont want to play , I wont be offended.  And some of the blogs I picked I couldnt find how many followers they had. )

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Drive update

We had our co-op class last night instead of tonight. It was suppose to rain today so I emailed everyone to see if they wanted change to Tuesday night.  Good decision because its rained  all day today.  So last night someone asked me if I was feeling ok. I said "yes , Why?".  She said because the course was to easy and usually I set up hard courses.  LOL, I told when I renumber it , it will be more challenging. It was a course that was already set up, so I didnt have to do much work.  The first course was a starters jumpers course that I added weave poles too. Then when I renumbered it, I added wrap and back sides of jumps.  I think everyone felt challenged.
But before everyone got their I worked Java.  I let the video speak for itself.(it was dark but lights on the field, so some of the video isnt good)

Wordless Wednesday