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Jane, she is fierce, She worked the camera.
She knows how to work it I tell ya.
Jeff looks good in black and white;)
He looks good in "color" too;)
And together they can rule the world with their cuteness.
12 bars jumped this morning, 12 jumped with good form (not tucking). 100%
Nova, looking less than thrilled to be in the group shot. She fears the release, which dog is going to jump her out of excitement, poor Nova. I usually release her last so Freddie and Blaze don't chase her down. Who is that strange dog that snuck into our family shot?
So there was a small rise in improvement. Hard to believe Freddie has only been to 13 competitions. Such a green dog. I really thought he had been to more, but he was still too young to attend some of the USDAA trials I went to this year.
Total jumps jumped in Jumpers classes- 446 Lifetime Jumps
Total rails down in Jumpers classes- 46
Grand Total of jumps left up- 400
90% success rate
I have to say, every one of those 46 rails that came down was noticed and I barely noticed the 400 that stayed up. Time to redirect my awareness. Going through all of our video made me realize how hard he is really trying. I have to agree with both Mia and H, I do believe with time, more experience, and the continued training I am putting in, Freddie will continue to improve.
There is no simple answer that is going to make him a fabulous jumper, there is no magic training aid, no formula, no guru to give me all the secrets. Just time and experience. I am sure I will be doing some odd things in our jump training, but it will all help in the end, because none of it is going to hurt. I love Freddie and I enjoy working with him. Training him is one of my favorite past times, so if this becomes a life long quest, I am up for it, and I know Freddie is game.
100% certain that Freddie is the most awesome dog ever. Every rock star has to break a few instruments in the learning stage. Lots of small clubs are played before they can ever dream of playing the big arenas.
As for Freddie's bar hopping, here is what I have found so far. I wasn't able to go through all of our video yet, but from Jan 1, 2009 to May 25, 2009 we went to 6 competitions. In those six competitions he ran 17 jumpers courses. Of those 17 courses ran, three had all of the bars up. Three. He had knocked bars in 82% of his jumpers runs, or he kept up bars in about 17% of his jumpers runs in those six trials. (note, these all would have been qualifying runs)
Sounds bad, but when I took Nancy's method, he jumped 225 jumps at those 6 competitions. 26 rails came down. So in actuality, Freddie is keeping up close to 90% of his bars and knocking a little more than 10%. Way more than I would like to see come down, but when I look at the amount of bars that have stayed up, bars he easily could have taken down, he is a super boy.
The most interesting thing is that 4.4% of the little more than 10% were at one trial where he was jumping 20". 10 bars came down at 20". There were 60 jumps he jumped at 20" and 10 of those bars came down. I would say entering that trial at 20" was not in our best interest. It is difficult to say if the same bars would have come down at 26", but it is a higher percentage at 20" no matter.
Freddie is tall, he got his final measurements this weekend. Both measurements were at exactly 22" at the whithers. Of those 22" I would say 20" of it is all leg, or pretty close;) He is 22" tall and weighs 38#. I think it was pretty silly to try to jump him 2" lower than he is tall, but he measured into the class, I had to try it out.
After watching those 17 runs, I found a pretty clear pattern of when the bars come down. I have always known Freddie has a more difficult time with turning jumps, but I didn't realize that the majority of his bars dropped are in friggin pinwheels. Usually the first or second bar, sometimes both. The pinwheel doesn't have to be tight either, in fact I think he does better with tight pinwheels. The are open and uneven, The other place was on a three jump lead out, the third jump usually comes down. He is also VERY sensitive to my motion, if I decelerate, he tries to decelerate midair, which we know is not a good idea.
Now that I have all of this information, I'm not quite sure what to do with it. I suppose it will be good to compare it to his next 6 months of competitions. Weird to think that I haven't even been trialing Freddie for a year yet. Well, I think it will be interesting to keep records of his progress. I like the jumps jumped method vs. the number of NQ's. It puts things into perspective.
Yesterday I worked Freddie on the house jump and then we practiced some jump grids at the arena. When a bar came down I put him away and got Nova. I do think the most valuable thing to him is the jump itself. He always has a meltdown when I run the other dogs. There is nothing he would like more than to play with me and the equipment. I only had to do that once. I am not sure if the message transferred or not, but his jumping was much nicer after that.
Haku, looking so out of place in my post on jumping, just as his ears are out of place on his head;)
I took them all to practice yesterday morning before taking them swimming. I had a straight line jump grid up, jumps all varied in distance. Freddie likes to take the least amount of strides as possible, which is fantastic, what I really would like to see him do, but he needs to keep the bars up as well. He still hasn't figured out where to place his strides. In practice yesterday I was so frustrated when the same bar came down. I used Daisy's advice and made that jump a double, but there was no challenge for him at that point, it was very easy for him to keep it up once it was a double. So I changed it back to a single and he knocked it again.
This is where I put him away and brought Nova out to play. I am having a very hard time trying to figure out how to make the bars valuable. He is a smart dog, he is a good dog, he wants to do it right, I know he does. I just haven't figured out a way to help him understand. I do think that it does have a lot to do with him not being able to do it mentally and physically right now, that with time he will mature and it will be easier. But that does not make this moment any easier.
When searching for help with our issue I have come across numerous "tricks" or "ideas". First off there is the classic, get mad. Getting mad isn't really my style, nor do I think it would be productive for Freddie. I have seen trainers get mad at their dogs for knocking bars and it does a few things, a) the dog goes slower and b) the dog runs from it's handler. Freddie would do neither of those things if I got mad. He would give me his "look" and tell me to give him a call when I am done with my tantrum. Plus getting mad in dog training is so 1968.
There were other thoughts that have involved props, compulsion, slowing him down, taking him off course, and many others that just do not build value in keeping the bars up. I know we will work through this, just like we have everything else. This place is just a very difficult place to be.
So instead of being frustrated I really want to do SOMETHING. The house jump made an appearance in the living room last night, and it will stay there all week. I am going back to step one with him and we will work our way through all of the baby dogs steps again. This time I will really focus on lots of motion, really moving, and super high rates of reinforcements. He is fantastic at a standstill or when I am not really moving, motion is a different story. I am also going to do more circle grids with him, at least 4 times a week, which is hard time wise for me, but getting up at 5am will be okay, it will pay off.
I truly sympathize with those who have had bar knocking issues, just as H does with me, it is not an easy thing to work through. Contacts, weaves, start lines, all easy to define criteria, jumps, much more difficult, as H always says, no one jump is ever taken the same way.
I can leap over logs, and fences, and dive into pools. Jump bars are for babies.
London had a sleep over last night. London and Freddie tore the house apart, literally. Blankets, toys, pillows, toilet paper, my umbrella, it all was up for grabs. They mostly wrestled on the couch and then Freddie would have to do a lap around the house barking, dear lord, even my living room curtains were tore down this morning. It was all in fun and I really, sort of enjoyed every moment;) The girls on the other hand stuck to the bedroom. Speaking of bedroom, I had four dogs on my bed last night, four.
I am running London today. It will be interesting to see how I handle running three dogs, two in the small 26" class back to back. I will either have to move a dog, or have a dog wrangler. shall see what presents itself once we get there.
I am feeling more motivated today than I was yesterday thanks to all of the awesome agility I was able to watch last night. Although Nova double Q'd yesterday, they were some of our worst runs ever. I wasn't trying much with Freddie, so today will be a day of great improvements! Haa, well my mind set anyways;)
Awkward Family Photo
ISO is at 1600 and the aperture is f/3.5, I really want my new lens;)
I think I am feeling my motivation jump up like 10 notches;) And what about those junior handlers from Florida? They kicked some Steeplechase butt!
I have been keeping up on FB, LJ, and the USDAA site, wow to all of you who are having terrific weekends. Tori, you have found your inner zen and venue. Amazing runs, thanks for posting them on your site. You can see all of Tori's amazing runs here. Her and Rev are rocking the courses, making it look easy, and having a great time doing it, as it should be;) Plus, Tori has been great about keeping us updated, I love that.
I am certainly happy to be home and not in Arizona. I do not have a dog that is ready for that type of competition. Freddie is still too green, Nova is inconsistent, and I did not have the desire to go this year. If the competition is moved to Kentucky next year I will consider going, I have always wanted to see Kentucky;) It also depends on how much I get Freddie out, if his jumping continues to improve, and if I have the motivation to want to compete at a large event with him. I would like to go to try-outs in May as the demo dog, so I shall see how all of that plays out as well. I suppose I should have some goals to test our training and my motivation to improve.
We have a local trial today, I am running both Freddie and Nova. Nova has been a little frantic all week so we shall see what Nova I get on course today. At the seminar last week I was concentrating on my handling and not on Freddie's jumping, which was not ideal. But at a seminar like that I had to make the choice of what I was going to focus on. I think focusing on the handling in a situation like that was the wise thing to do, it wasn't a jumping seminar;) Hopefully I can remember to run with a cool head and Freddie can run while also remembering all of the jump training we have put in in the past. I haven't had a chance to work on jumps this past week, but he is a smart boy.
We have a lot of trials coming up this winter (a lot for us;), and I need to decide if I should enter Freddie only and enter more days, or if I should enter both Freddie and Nova and enter fewer days. I want to focus on Freddie, but Nova will never advance if I never run her. Too bad agility competitions are so expensive. Three days of Rose City is costing $176 for one dog, that is just for STD, JWW, and two ISC classes, we are not doing FAST. I am only running one dog there;) I am thinking that 2010 will be a Freddie year, and that I will enter Nova occasionally. But for today and tomorrow, she will run.
Less future competitions, but the same amount of biscuits? Oh yeah, bring it on!
I went to audit the 2nd day, but one of the participants was out sick. So I purchased her spot from her and was able to participate for the second day as well. This was Freddie's first seminar and he did very well. He was up to all of the tasks and held his own with the big dogs. I have to be honest here and say that this is the most fun I have had a seminar. I do believe it is because I am running a BC. He wanted to continue no matter what happened, he held Daisy's interest, I wasn't frustrated because he couldn't do something, he was capable of all she asked us to do. This is not equal to the experiences I have had with Nova, Blaze, or even my Flat-Coat Halo. His little pads even did very well with the mats.
I was going through my training notes and realized that the reason it was so easy for Freddie to pull across my body for a rear cross on the flat, is because I have worked on them before. One time, but he seemed to remember it. It was just too easy for him at the seminar, I mean I know my Freddie is a genius, but something like that has to be trained. I am still a bit awkward with it, but I am awkward with a lot of the handling. Like getting Freddie to turn into a tunnel, why do I loathe this? I freeze and have no idea what to do. I mean logically it is simple, it's a rear cross, BUT it is on the flat, and therefore awkward to me. I will need to practice this until it becomes comfortable to me. I think I will practice without Freddie at first, just getting the movements down. There are times when I am behind him at the dogwalk and I want him to turn into a tunnel. I suppose I can still give the cue from behind. More practice? But when I think about it, and reread my training notes, I have practiced it, and never went back to it. I didn't like the turn on the flat. It feels like I am executing a FC. Freddie seems to understand the difference, he is a smart guy, but I can't work it through in my head. More practice? I just can't stop wondering why I have trained it in the past and dropped it before. I'm doubtful I will ever really use it, except for at tunnels;)
Freddie's strengths are also his faults. He is worse at what he does best. His tight turns, his amazing abilities to read my motion, his literal mind. All great strengths, but huge weaknesses when you factor in me. I must become a better handler to be fair to him. Although he never seems to mind, he has a great time no matter if I pull him off a jump or send him off-course, he enjoys it all. i want to be better, will I be able to pull it off;)
His jumping was as I expected. When I was focused, non-rushed, he respected the bars. When I was frantic and unsure what I was doing, so was he. After many years of rushing around to make sure I am always in front of Nova to give her information, I now no longer need to handle like that. Freddie reads my motion. He will read it if it is frantic, calm, correct, or incorrect, how weird for me;) he is growing up and maturing a bit more each day.
Freddie did get tangled up in a bungee cord as he was exiting a tunnel. That was a very rattling and frightening moment. The tunnels were held in place by giant water containers connect by bungee cords. One of the cords slipped over the exit and as he exited, his head slipped through and he sort of hung himself. Luckily Barb was right there and was able to release him quickly. He was non-phased, but I was rattled to no end. I know Daisy wanted me to continue, to try to work through my mind melt, but it was impossible. All I could see in my minds eye was Freddie hung up in that cord. I just wanted to take a breather and walk him around outside. I eventually just could not get through the exercise and did go outside. The adrenaline caught up to me out there. I was able to leave it all behind and we were able to do the remaining sequences in infredible fashion.
I do wish we had more seminar opportunities around her. I am VERY grateful that I do have Heather as a friend and mentor. She is wonderful and Freddie and I would not be where we are right now without her, but we do many things in a similar style. It is always nice to have new feedback and a different way of seeing something. I enjoy seminars more than competitions, classes, or private lessons. We had a wonderful group of dogs and handlers. I just love watching the different breeds playing. I say bring more seminars to Oregon will ya!
Tammy please do not embarrass me with your frantic handling moves.
The original arena was rained out. It is an indoor arena, but it flooded due to the monsoon storm we had yesterday. This was some serious weather. I am still surprised by how much rain we got. Not just rain, but hail, and thunder and lightening too. I couldn't hear what Daisy was saying over the sound of the storm. Because of safety and cleanliness, the seminar was moved to another arena in town, this arena was clean, warm, and dry with mats. A nice change. Once the seminar moved to the new arena I really wanted to participate;) As luck would have it one of the participators did not come to the new arena, so I took her spot for the afternoon (bank account be damned;).
it was pretty interesting running Freddie on mats, he seemed to do well with them. The exercises were very close and tight so he was not able to move out like I would have liked to see him. We worked on using motion of course, but also on bringing the dog across our body to rearcross on the flat before they take the jump. I have never practiced this before, but it didn't matter much, Freddie did quite well with a brief lesson. It felt awkward, but I can see where it could prove being useful.
The other "big" thing Daisy was big on, was using the word "jump" or "over". If your motion is not supporting a jump, use a verbal, do not depend on your dog to figure it out. I can understand the theory behind this, but will I be able to do it? When sending a dog, use a verbal, this I usually already do. The problem arises when all the dog sees are multiple jumps, something besides a verbal is going to have to cue them. Finding the balance is the fun part.
Oh, Freddie also gave me a semi-black eye. It doesn't appear bruised today, but I tossed a ball to him, he hit with his mouth, bouncing it back at warp speed, and it hit me smack in the eye, I think heather has all of this on video. damn it hurt.
I stayed the night at Heather's because she lives very close to the new seminar location. I am going to go back and audit today. I did not want to drive home in the dark, on the country roads, with such horrible conditions. Besides the fact that Freddie was acting incredibly strange last night, things have gone well here. He is terrified of the cat, he alarm barks every time he sees it. He is going through a weird, fear thing right now. Not to say he is afraid of things, just standard poodles in show cuts with toys, and cats and kittens. I am hoping he out grows this.
There is always fun to be had in Forest Grove!
If I could give one thing to all of my students it would be the knowledge of play. It is not something that is easily taught. Either a person knows how to play with their dog or they don't, but that doesn't mean that they can't learn. True play, not forced. It is so easy to be mediocre, to create mediocre responses from our dogs. It is very easy to accept a behavior because it was offered. It is even easier to reinforce mediocrity. Mediocrity doesn't sit so well with me, I like things to be exciting, captivate me will ya!
Freddie Mercury once said "Boredom is the biggest disease in the world", the older I become the more I understand this. If there is no feeling of excitement involved, then it becomes boring. In training, a dog can go through the motions, but if he is not feeling the excitement of "doing" it, then he/she is just a factory worker collecting a paycheck. This is where the "science" of training is lacking. Yes, you can time your reinforcements, yes you can get your dog to speak Latin, but unless he/she has enthusiasm in his/her speech I do not fucking care. I do not care about the message, the handling choices, the clean runs, the wins, the motives, the behavior; give me a team that is loving every moment on course and I am a fan.
I wish I could give this self-abandonment to all of my students. I wish I could show them that there is no need feel ashamed of how they "should" interact with their dogs. There is no right or wrong way, just what works for them and to use it to its fullest extent. I wonder sometimes about dogs that are not having fun. What is the point of being an American dog if no fun is to be had?
I would like to think that we share our lives with our dogs *NOT* because they make us feel better about ourselves, or even because we learn from them. My utopian mind would like to think we have them because the boredom is less with them in our lives, we can share our excitement with them and they can share theirs with us.
Haku, he is not mediocre.
The best mannered and behaved dog in the household was uber naughty today. She broke every sacred and safety rule today. I am human, and sometimes lazy, so there are things I will let slip. Like leash walking, pulling doesn't bother me as it does some people. I am usually in a hurry so I do not work it as well as I should. Freddie pulls more than the others, eh, I have accepted this and cannot get too upset when it does bother me because I have not been consistent with it. I get it. But when it comes to safety matters, I am very consistent.
My dogs wait to be released from the car, the door, the arena, etc. They have strong recalls, they wait to be released. This is the way it is. I live in the city, there are no second chances if they were to get hit by a car or a bicycle. We cannot afford any mistakes, I cannot be lax or give any wiggle room. Today, Nova was the naughtiest she has ever been. First she bolts from the arena to go out to the field to join Heather. She ignored my come command, TWICE. I gave her the benefit of the doubt, that maybe she did not hear the first one, but she ignored it. She ran across the driveway to get to the field. cars were out there. MAD. I was MAD. I had to go get her.
We worked our way back outside where I put her in a sit stay while I played with the other dogs. She broke that stay, TWICE. No play for Nova. I was then walking her back into the arena and she ran off towards another dog, not coming when called. Into her pen she went, after I had to get her. MAD, I was steaming. No play for Nova.
Then when I got home I was leashing and releasing each dog from the car. I noticed Nova was not in the car. OMG, did I leave her at the arena? No. She slipped out of my door when I opened it and she was trotting down the street. The middle of the street. OMG, she would have preferred to be hit by a car at that point. BAD, BAD, BAD, dog.
One must know Nova to know that she hates to be in trouble with me, she hates to get it wrong, yet today she was throwing it all out there. Trotting down the middle of the street, when in her 7 years have I ever allowed that? I am going to ignore today, ignore her badness, and start over tomorrow. I will be much more on top of her and not expect her to be good like she always has been. It is like I am living with a puppy again. Freddie was the best behaved dog today.
Nova lives to see another day, but just barely.
Photo of a leaf on my doorstep, because the dogs were too naughty to get photos taken of them today.
(the above rules do not apply to Blaze, she is naturally good and keeps herself out of harms way;)
edit: Nova just ate my salmon dinner from the counter. WTF.
I am tired, three long days, running two dogs, early to get there, late to leave. It wasn't our worst competition ever, but certainly not our best either. The weather was fantastic, there was a lot of time to work classes without conflicts, hang out with friends, and play with the dogs, all in all a pretty good weekend really. Nova was wonderful all weekend, feeling good and rocking the house. Freddie had issues with the rubber pellet contacts the first two days, but by today he was doing well with it. We need a place to practice on it. It certainly changes the obstacle in his world. His striding is different and he had a hard time with his end behavior. All of the local clubs are using it now, so I need to seriously get out and find some rubber contacts to work him on.
Friday's Standard Run
I had a blast running Nova. She was happy, excited, without being anxious or frantic, and she had a great time playing. We started out with a fabulous standard run. She was with me, I was with her, all was great.. Two knocked bars, but she was flying. She did not knock any other bars all weekend so I am not worried about her. Her YPS was even fast for her, I swear she is getting faster as she reaches middle age.
Friday's Jumpers Run
Our jumpers run was funny. She read my deceleration and horrible motion as a rear cross. I was able to wrap her around the jump, avoiding two off-courses and a refusal. She still had a good enough time to place 2nd. Crazy dog.
Saturday's Standard
I really had a ton of fun running with Nova this weekend and this course was interesting. We had a run by at the teeter, but a pretty run none-the-less. I put her into a sit on the table, it was a down. I almost brought her off of the table and sent her back up to reposition her. I always have a hard time getting her to down from a sit, I should work on that;) It feels good to be back in the ring with her. She will be running at all trials now that Freddie is in Excellent. No more conflicts. I just need to keep perspective, but I really do not need to worry about that, just see the next link to our jumpers run.
Saturdays Jumpers
Have to laugh, Nova keeps life fun.
Sunday's Standard
I can tell I was tired, I did not work her contacts like I should have. I was all loosey goosey, so she was all loosey goosey. I need to monitor her every step. Freddie is capable of performing without my assistance, but Nova needs me to keep her on track. She messed her entry up, I paused, she pulled out. The only reason I even put her back in the poles is so we would have a clean line out. She really did well with her poles this weekend. This was the only run in which she missed the entry, and that is partly because I was not with her during this run. It was sloppy all around, but still fun.
Nova Sunday Jumpers
Missed jump, wrong side of the tunnel, I so did not put any thought into walking this course. It didn't help that I spent most of my time before my short walk through playing with adorable Border Terrier puppies, potatoes with legs. Too cute. Nova was a good girl though, she didn't miss a beat.
Freddie Friday Standard
It was an interesting weekend with Freddie. The rubber contacts gave me a false impression that we are not improving, but in fact after watching the videos I can see that we are. It was difficult to run him when he wasn't giving me the performances he usually does. He self released on every contact in our first run. You can see on the video that he really was unsure when he was on the dogwalk. IS it a teeter? A dogwalk? WTF? I think with experience and more practice he will be able to navigate it with no problem. The blind cross at the tunnel was late because for some reason I was afraid to leave him at the table;) He felt "on edge" to me. You will see on our Saturday run what I did to cure that;)
Freddie Friday Jumpers
Fred tried to bounce jump between the 2 and 3 jumps as I was just starting my deceleration to cue a turn. He read the deceleration like a good puppy, but he was mid-air. It was a bit shaky after that, he had a very flat approach the the next sequence due to being out of place, but we were able to regroup and we had a very lovely last half of the run.
Freddie Saturday Standard
This run gave me a taste of what it would be like to have running contacts on Freddie. You can't really tell from the video, but he fell off of the end. His striding was off so he bailed. Once again the rubber pellets strike. The rest of the run was okay. He had a baby dog moment in the weaves and he came off his table, little punk. I was sure to really work it after that. There was no reason to go out as far as I did, but I was bound and determined to work it until he stuck it;) He was edgier on the table this weekend and we are not going to get into that habit. He cracks me up.
Freddie Saturday Jumpers
We were the very last run of the day, crickets could be heard, just listen. It was almost 6pm, I had been up since 5am. Ugh, I was so not present for this run and it shows. At the end of the course I had no idea what I was doing or where I was. poor Freddie, he deserves so much better than that. I felt awful after this run.
Freddie Sunday Standard
Most ridiculous dogwalk approach ever. I am not joking. I have never trained the come to heel through a tire, I never thought I would have to use it for anything, not to this extreme anyways. I guess I have something to train this week. There was no way he was going to make that dogwalk without some serious interference on my part. It made me mad, even though I liked the judge on the whole. I can't believe it was approved. On the upside, I guess it gives me something to train. I think I will train it on a smaller diameter tire though, just in case. The dogwalk had me upset so the whole rest of the run was me just going through the motions. We did have our contacts back though, yay! I released him from every one of those babies, It was good to see that he still has criteria despite the rubber pellets.
Can you spot the extra obstacles? And maybe I should have cued the weaves? Jumpers was our last run of the weekend, he seemed to have figured it out. We need more miles under our belt. I am going to enter more trials, I know I always say this, but this time it is true. I will even travel and stay in hotels. He is too much fun to not get out.
More trials please!
I met H and Brucix at Unsinkable Dogs yesterday. Freddie and Nova swam, and Blaze took the morning off. Freddie swam for a longer period of time, he thought that ruled. We swam him in heavy jets, then lowered them, then raised the jets again, then lowered them etc. He is one powerful swimmer. He enjoys the pool so much, I am certainly going to continue weekly or bi-monthly through the winter.
Nova's swimming form has improved tremendously. She once would power through with her front end, but now uses her back and rear end. She is no longer a low-rider swimmer, but very level and balanced, it is almost as pretty to watch as her ground trot.
Here is Bruce showing his fine throwing form. (photo by H)
I snapped a photo of her out in front of the pool house. Joyce has a wonderful tree that makes the prettiest leaves in fall. I had to capture it.
There was a monsoon this morning, with heavy gusts of wind. I stayed in and cleaned. We all had cabin fever by 11am, so I loaded up the dogs and we headed to Brigand's for practice. I did not have any real training goals in mind (always a bad idea), so I printed out NG's Shorties from this months Clean Run. Tight Drills, blah. Not a lot of room to move around, I have never been one who likes box drills, but they are good for us. There were a few set-ups I enjoyed more than the others, so I focused on those. She suggests using a few FC's in some of the set-ups. I turned them into very shallow rear crosses to make them more challenging and also so I wouldn't give Freddie false information. Some of the FC's were driving too forward for my liking and he would not have had the information soon enough. I suppose if I were faster I may have been able to get them out early enough. Eh, it was great rear cross practice.
Ever since my time in the ring under Dan last spring, I have been obsessed with shallow rear crosses. He threw out some very tricky ones and we were not prepared for them at the time. Now we are (I think;). I highly suggest for those of you that plan on going to AKC nationals to train the hell out of crazy, shallow, freaky, rear crosses. They are fun and challenging to train, and well, Dan likes them and is great at presenting them;) AKC Nationals should be fun.
Rainy day games? Like Heads up 7 up? I'm already in position.
Boring, lets go play some agility.
Today was a fantastic day for puppy socialization. The weather was perfect and everyone was out and about. Haku was able to meet all sorts of oddities today.
We started our day at the train station, which is right next to the bus station. Perfect place to get a puppy warmed up for the rest of the day. Rolling luggage, crazy men in hats, walking canes, wild beards, you name it, Haku saw and heard it; he was a champ. We then walked up to the Saturday Market and had our fill of humanity. It was a beautiful fall day so everyone was out, including Mary Lynn, who we ran into. Such a small world. She had Roper with her so Haku and Roper braved the crowds together. There were so many cool hand-made items for sale, people in Portland are highly creative and artistic, I live in the most perfect city for me. It may help that I grew up here, but I truly do love this city.
For more Downtown Haku click here.....
This morning I realized that today was the 5th annual Portland Zombie walk. We were going to be downtown anyways for the Saturday Market, so we stayed a little while longer to mesh with the Zombies. There were 1000's of Zombies, and no, I am not exaggerating, 1000's of them all over the city.
here are a few photos of some of the zombies I was able to capture. they were all in true form, moaning, screaming for brains, leaving blood trails, it was really a show. I had a great time and was once again amazed at some people's creativity.
More Zombie pic's here...
This was sent to my e-mail box from Oregon Pet Supply
They'll be 36-40% off (depending on size, and limited to colors we
currently have in stock !!
Size 0 & 1 - normally $47.99, are $29.95
Size 2 - normally $51.99, are $32.95
Size 3 - normally $57.99, are $36.95
Size 4 - normally $59.99, are $36.95
Size 5 - normally $62.99, are $39.95
Size 6 - normally $70.99, are $41.95
Oh yeah, H and I are going to the Staurday Market with haku and well, might as well take the little fellow over to see some rotting human flesh;) Good socialization I say.
Well, that is what OFA says anyways. Ask anyone who knows him and they might tell you differently.
Photo by H.
Cinderella Pumpkins.
OMG, right?
I made them do it, but they were all game;)
Butt shot.
And Freddie, just because he was there too.
More Sauvie here........
