December 2007
Monthly Archive
Photos27 Dec 2007 10:50 am
We were invited to a friends’ ranch to spend Christmas day. They’ve invited us out several times, but we’ve never been able to make it before.
This was the dogs’ first “long” car trip, about an hour and a half. They did good. Chester, however, has to be looking at me. We have leashes that snap into the seat belt latches, and I’d put his on my side. So he took himself over to the other side so that he could watch me.
Lola takes a long time to settle down. She wants to be up front with us, I think. But she did eventually enjoy a short snooze in the sun. We took a couple of their beds with us so that they’d have something familiar there.
Lola & her Westie friend
We often call Lola a pushy broad. Above you can see why. Unfortunately, she’d thrown up a bunch of times the night before (we almost didn’t go), so she wasn’t allowed to have any treats other than the freeze dried chicken I brought with me. And whatever that was in the grass she was finding to eat.
The dogs & a Westie bud
Here’s all the dogs except for Chester (no doubt off somewhere scrounging for food). They all managed to get along pretty well. No fights, anyway. Lola & Chester are already buds with the Westies; the other dogs were new dogs to them.
Sadie, the dog in this photo (I think) was just fascinated by & also a little scared of Lola.
Don’t these dogs know they’re too big to be lap dogs?
While I don’t really think Lola would run away — at least not too far — it’s not a theory I’m willing to test yet. So we kept her on a long line. We let Chester off leash, except when we took our walk up to the barn.
He made himself to home quickly, running off every time someone new arrived — and giving me a heart attack in the process because he was scared of the open metal stairs, and he leapt right off the top of them — almost 4 feet down! Twice! He had no problems going up them, but he just refused to go down them. Lola had no problems with them.
Both Chester & Lola are really good with kids. Lola, especially, having been raised with one briefly, seems really attracted to them.
Quiet! If you look quickly, you just might be able to score that rare sighting: a relaxed Lola. She almost never lets us hold her like this.
Note the Westie & Lola in the corner
I keep thinking that that steer must’ve been wondering just what that thing (Lola) was.
The kids pet the horses.
One of the big dogs got into the horses’ enclosure, and had a great time racing around. Luckily, the horses were really calm & no one was hurt.
The kids (and some adults) had fun playing in the hay. We had fun watching. And if you look real close, you might see that the Westies had fun playing in the cow poop (made me really glad that we kept Chester & Lola on their leashes).
Technorati Tags: Christmas
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Training22 Dec 2007 04:29 pm
People tell you that agility is addictive. I suppose they’re right. I started almost a year ago with Chester, because I’ve always been interested in it (taught my cats to jump through hoops and over hurdles long before we had dogs) and I thought he could use the exercise.
I wasn’t sure that Lola would ever be ready for it, but she’s completed her beginner course and we’re continuing on.
I take them to their classes back to back; it wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it just worked out that way. In some ways it’s good, we get it all done on one day. But it’s a long day. I have to get them up early so we can eat & take a short walk before class. Then it’s 2 hours of classes, which means 2 hours of standing, waiting, and running around.
I’ve also discovered that while agility is great mental exercise for your dog, it’s even more mental exercise for you, the handler, as you advance. You have to be very aware of your body position, what you’re doing with your hands, where your dog is (a challenge with the toy breeds), not to mention working out a strategy for the best way to get your dog around all the obstacles.
My backyard now includes weave poles, a couple of jumps, and a tire jump. I have a small, practice tunnel in my shed. And my husband plans to try to make me a mini-teeter over his holiday break. He’s even trying to figure out how to make it so that it could be used as part of a dogwalk, too.
I got into this thinking that I’d never compete. And as we advanced, I really thought that; it’s too much work! Yet I’ve already done a couple of fun matches with Chester. I’ve begun to think at some point maybe we’ll do a trial.
I think I’ve gone off the deep end.
Technorati Tags: agility, mental exercise, body position, obstacles, weave poles, jumps, tire jump, tunnel, teeter, dogwalk, compete, fun matches, trial
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Behavior07 Dec 2007 07:09 pm
I call the hour before the cats eat at night the witching hour. They know what time dinner is supposed to be, but they seem to like going in and out between the kennel and the kitchen in hopes of finding food earlier. Sometimes I swear that they sit out there talking, saying “no, you go, I went the last time”.
This would all be fine, except for some reason, it drives the dogs nuts. The dogs and cats generally tolerate each other, but during the witching hour all bets are off. Gizmo will poke his head thru the cat flap, and the dogs will take off growling.
Although we have worked hard on “leave it” and “stop”, they just seem to lose it when the cats are active. When the boys fight, or when they run up their cat tree to scratch, are other triggers. It’s very aggravating. It’s very hard to train “stop” with cat distractions, for instance, because it’s not like I can say to the cats “now, go and run out into the kennel” when I have a moment that I could restrain the dogs & treat them for acting calmly.
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Chester & I entered our first agility fun match. Because my husband was out of town, I decided to leave Lola at home and just take Chester. I had planned to do one tunnelers course and one touch & go course, but since he started wigging out on contacts around Thanksgiving, I just decided to do the one tunnelers course (nothing but tunnels).
It was a cool, drizzly morning and I almost decided not to go at all. But we went. And we did fine on the first four tunnels. The next large, curved tunnel was black inside. I didn’t think anything of it, but apparently Chester did because he popped out of it twice before completing it — and then running off the course all together.
By the time I got him, another dog was already on the field.
It is always assumed in agility that a dog making an error is the handler’s fault. I’m still not sure what I did wrong, other than I probably should have bypassed that tunnel altogether after he refused it twice. That’s what the one other team whose dog balked at it did.
On one of the forums I frequent, someone said I should have made him finish the course no matter what. I disagreed. I think agility is about two things, or ought to be:
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Fun
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Trust
Chester trusts me not to push him into something he’s not ready for yet. For whatever reason, he just wasn’t ready for that tunnel, and I pushed him too hard.
In an ideal world, I would have liked to collect him, bring him back to the course, and finish at least another obstacle. Although considering all the obstacles were tunnels, I’m not sure that would have worked here. But I don’t want him to think he can run out of the ring. Not because it’s “defiant” or a “refusal”, but because it would be too easy for such a small dog to run up to the wrong dog and really get hurt.
If your dog does run off the field, I found this page that describes various solutions (most do not include forcing your dog to finish the course).
I also got a real chuckle out of Things I learned at My First Agility Trial.
And just wanted to add this postscript: Lola has finished her beginner agility class and we’re continuing on. She loves it. And she’s really surprised me — she’s pretty good in class. Not necessarily at agility, that is, but she’s mostly calm. Once in a while she gets a little growly, but she’s easily controlable.
It has really seemed to help her calm down and mellow out a lot. She’s still my wild child, but a mostly controlable wild child these days.
Technorati Tags: agility fun match, tunnelers course, touch & go course, tunnels, running off the course, agility, handler’s
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