NADAC agility trial

NADAC trial with the boys today.  Fiona went along for the ride and was happy to be kidnapped by puppy lovers.  She certainly has more bounce than Chuck ever did!

I was happy with how Lance did on both of his runs today.  Hoopers was first and I planned a nice flowy course.  Unfortunately I didn't support one of them enough and we had to redo the first test and I ended up improvising the rest of our course.  I guess I pulled it off ok and Lance just barely came in under time to his Q and novice hoopers title.   Lance's 2nd run was Open Chances.  He did the first part of the distance challenge great but then I wasn't far enough ahead to support a layered jump coming out of a tunnel and Lance jumped towards me instead.  Oh well.

I guess Vito did ok on his 4 runs.  He wasn't all that into tugging with me although he did want treats.  His lack of energy showed as he bounced or jogged around the courses.  I thought we were getting over that phase with him but I guess not really trialing all summer has set us back.  Hopefully it's just a confidence issue and putting him in more trials will get him back running full speed.

Oh, and Vito also ran off in Regular 1!  I was actually able to get him revved up before starting and Vito did the first 4 obstacles great, until he took off to say hi to the judge for a second.  Came back and did 2 more obstacles until he sniffed the tunnel upon exiting.  He knocked a sandbag off on the exit so I'm not sure if that's what attracted him for the brief sniff or what.  While Vito HAS ran off to say hi to Daddy in the past, he has never gone over to a judge or worker and has never sniffed any equipment. 

On the positive side, all dogwalks and all aframes were gorgeous.  Luckily all the DW exits were mostly straight ahead except for one which had an off course attraction to pull Vito towards.  But I was able to turn hi gorgeously on the flat!  He also got all his weave poles on the first attempt!

Vito qualified in Novice Hoopers and Open Reg 1.  We knocked a bar in Open Regular 2, and by Open Chances he had zero obstacle focus so I just ran with him. 

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Fi and the "G" Litter

Work has been crazy this past week and will continue to be so for another very long week.  The "G" litter is at work.  9 puppies. 


I wasn't planning on introducing Fiona to the babies since she can be quite the trouble maker with other dogs.  She is extremely respectful if another dog tells her to knock it off, but since all the dogs at work are teenagers well...  she is quite the bitch.    But one frustrating day this week I decided the puppies needed sacrificing and let Fiona in. 

After being yelled at twice for going puppy bowling, she surprised me and settled in like an angel!  Fi has learned to play while lying down

And has the greatest expresssions!

I can't believe how big she looks compared to the little ones!  Fiona turned 18wks yesterday and is a tiny 23lbs.

Is it wrong that I want to trade her in for this cutey?

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The Weekend Events

Saturday- MN Disc Dog Star Jam
Vito's going to ruin me for any future disc dogs!  I am learning to throw low so Vito has no crazy thought of doing a spectacular somersault for the disc and still missing.  And it worked.  Only 1 spill and he caught most of the discs, although in a very boring but safe way.

Sunday- CPE Trial
Our first agility trial since April.  Lance was entered in 3 runs and Vito in 1.  I picked the games for Lance so he wouldn't have to do the dogwalk or aframe during our wreck of training running contacts.  Unfortunately in Colors I had the choice of doing the course with the dogwalk and then flip to a tunnel, or a straight exit off the dogwalk and then the aframe later.  I chose the flip and planned to turn him late.  I am happy to say that Lance hit the contact without any spectacular leap and even turned away from me... into a different tunnel.  And then besides our usual stuttering issues, jumpers and full house went well.

Vito was entered in jumpers.  I wasn't holding out much promise for our run since Vito was once again obsessed with the astro turf at the arena.  It took him a long time to focus on me and take his toy or treats during our warm up.  All Vito wanted to do was roll on that sweet grass.  It shocks me every time since Vito doesn't roll around on normal grass/dirt/smelly things ever!  I feel like the run started really well and Vito was actually running instead of jogging like he sometimes does at trials. But then I lost him for half a second to sniff the grass.  He connected with me right away again but lost his speed.

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Chuck Update

Chuck has officially passed his public access test with his new momma and has moved into her home. Their move in was delayed a bit as she was moving from the third floor to the first to better be able to take care of her new dog. She is completely in love with Chuckles and I think Chuck loves her too. They will continue their training in the home over the next few weeks and will hopefully become a certified team soon with graduation in November.

While they were still in the earlier parts of their training I snapped a few pics of him in the yard with Fi

And then one day I had all 4 dogs in my cubicle.  Vito was thrilled.

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Fiona- 15wks

The puppy turned 15wks old and is a tiny 18lbs.  She's growing on me though. I especially love her Up skills.  Meal times are becoming quite the specatcle.  While the toller is often sleeping in the bedroom, the corgi and lab both start spinning in circles when I walk out with their food bowls.  

Vito still isn't in love with her but they coexist nicely.  Mostly he's up on the furniture so Fi doesn't have an opportunity to bother him. She takes full advantage of the car rides to snuggle with him and he doesn't put up a fight.

Vito's in a tight tank in my attempt to imitate a thunder shirt.

 

All 3 in the truck.

The corgi loves her.  Except when she steals his kennel, which is practically every evening.

Training wise, we are starting to get our verbal positions of heel very well and side is almost there.  I am also setting out to actually teach her front as I completely failed in teaching Chuckles it.  In his confusion Chuck would just dance his body around back and forth from heel to side unless I cued wait in the right spot.  We are also working on getting a stand.  Fi can transition between sit, down, and stand with about 75% accuracy when her front feet are on a book, but is still clueless off the book.  And my biggest accomplishment has been getting Fi to switch from food to toys in the same session.  She still isn't always eager about the toy when it first comes out, but will play with me fairly quickly now and with less effort on my part.

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Happiness

Captured from videos taken this past week. 

Vito has now been left for a record breaking 2hrs 50min and did fabulous.  We may not be doing great in other areas, but he certainly is relaxing and SLEEPING when left at home.  At work his anxiety has increased the last 2 weeks and now he starts whining as soon as I walk out of sight.  If we can get up to 5hrs he won't have to come with me to work every day and can wait until Adam gets home.  In the car he's doing ok as long as he's given 2mg of Alprazolam at least 90min prior to going.

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