Lance's Open Obedience Debut!

Saturday- Rally Excellent:

I entered Lance in rally today and was happy to find out that it would occur before we went into open. This meant Lance would have a positive experience in the ring and with getting super yummy treats before going into the formal obedience stuff. I was very very happy with Lance's performance in Rally Excellent. Lance qualified with a 99 and took 1st! He lost a point in the halt-call front-finish right exercise when Lance didn't come all the way to front on my first cue, but straightened his butt out when asked again.

Saturday- Open A Obedience:



Heel off leash/fig 8- 1.5pts for some wide turns and then a forge on the first turn of the fig 8
Drop on recall- 3pts for no front
Retrieve on flat- NQ for needing a double command
Retrieve over High- 1pt for nicking the jump and a crooked sit
Broad Jump- .5pt for ticking the jump
Sit stay- good
Down stay- NQ for standing up right as I went out of sight, he then layed back down after a bit.

I am estatic! Lance's heelwork was amazing. Super attentive corgi! I must say that I was glad that the slow time was done at the moment it occurred since Lance just took his eyes off of me when the judge said slow and my change of pace regathered the little corgi's attention. Lance really did great and except for the first turn in the figure 8 where Lance was totally not ready, he pulled himself back together and really had some nice heelwork.

The no front on the drop on recall is new. It happened for the first time in the ring time on Friday night and repeated itself today. Let's hope Lance doesn't start a trend. Really I'm shocked since I very rarely ask Lance to finish after a front and almost never have him do the around finish to do it.

I'll take some blame for the retrieve on the flat. Lance was looking at the judge when I sent him and clearly had no clue what I wanted without a second command. On the return he stopped several feet away from me and I gave a second command for him to come to front. I think he was very unsure of himself and didn't know if I actually wanted the dumbbell or not! Not too worried about this happening again.

Retrieve over the high was amazing. I threw the dumbbell pretty far and Lance ended up going around a pole on his way back. It's hard to tell from the angle of the video, but really it was shocking that Lance actually took the jump on the way back. The crowd gasped as Lance took the jump. The judge even commented that she wished she could give us bonus points for how Lance pulled through on this exercise! Way to save my butt Lance!!!

I was also really happy with Lance's broad jump. I haven't done a ton of practice with this exercise and I'm still at the point where I throw a treat for Lance to target 99% of the time in practice so he won't cut the corner. Lance wasn't exactly perfect with this, but he didn't walk over the boards like I was afraid might happen!

His sit stay was fabulous. The Down stay Lance stood up right as I went out of sight but then laid back down after a little bit. I couldn't even tell that he had gotten up when I came back in. I think this was my fault since I looked at Lance right before I went out of sight. I should have just kept going since my eye contact could have easily confused Lance into thinking I wanted him to come. Stupid handler!

So we didn't qualify but I am more than happy with how Lance did today. In make believe world, Lance would have gotten a 193 if he had done the down stay and didn't need a second cue on the retrieve. And if I really dream, this would have been a 196 if Lance had actually fronted on the drop on recall :P



Heel Free/ fig 8- 4pts off for forging
Drop on Recall- 2pts for standing as I left him and crooked front and finish
Retrieve on Flat- 1pt for crooked front and finish
Retrieve over High- .5pt for crooked front
Broad Jump- .5 for crooked front
Long Sit- NQ for downing at 2mn 45sec
Long Down- NQ for standing at 16sec and then went back into a down

I was very happy with Lance's performance again today. Actually I was kind've astounded that Lance lost 4pts in the heeling since I knew he was forging in the beginning but thought he did a really good job. Oh well! And actually I am much more happy that Lance was forging instead of lagging like he used to do. This means I have a happy, confident dog!

His drop on recall was pretty good too. I have no idea why he stood but at least he didn't skip the front this time! I was much happier about his retrieve over the flat although I gave quite the pause between throwing and actually sending him since I wasn't sure Lance was focused. He still came in a bit slow with the dumbbell but looked more confident then yesterday and came to front without stopping today.

For the Retrieve over the high jump I actually lowered his jump height to 8in today. He still qualifies to jump 8 and I thought he might be more confident than yesterday when Lance jumped 10. So his broad jump was also adjusted to 16in (instead of 20). The little stinker looked at the crowd right as I was setting up, but I thought his performance was nice.

Stays sucked. I can't believe that Lance laid down on the sit stay. He has such awesome stays that I really wasn't worried at all about them. And then he goes and also pulls standing up as I leave him on the down again! I'm not entirely sure how I can work out this issue since he never gets up on stays in class. Even when we're working on distractions Lance still doesn't break. I think it's just the overall atmosphere of the show where his nerves are high that is causing Lance to fail the stay. Maybe if I can get some more run throughs in it'll help him out.

So our first weekend of Open Obedience was a failure on paper but I think it was a huge success! I met my goal of having an attentive dog in the ring. I know I need to work on some things even though it may be hard to get Lance to replicate his failures in class. I think I entered one day of a trial in a few weeks and then after that I will take a break and try to iron out some things.

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The 7 Groups

Image by Pete Markham

Image by Pete Markham

There's a little question going around some blogs I frequent and I thought I would play. The question is: "If you had to choose a dog from each AKC group, what would you choose and why? (excluding your own breeds).

Drumroll to my highly stereotyped breed list....

1. Sporting- Flat Coated Retriever. I really like the bounciness, overall engery, and happy attitude of the breed. I haven't met too many in real life but have heard that they have more of a quirky happy, silly attitude about everything- way more then a golden or lab.

A close second would be the French Brittany Spaniel, but they're a bit too small for my liking and technically not AKC registered to count for this poll :)


2. Hound- This is a tough one since I really am not a hound person. I can't stand the constant baying of the scent hounds! I think I would choose the whippet. I would feel like I'm going to break it, but they can be pretty playful and obviously are very athletic. Whippets seem to do wonderful in agility. I'm not a huge fan of their looks, but the black ones can be kind've cute :)

image byPleple2000

My second choice would be the Rhodesian Ridgeback since besides being gorgeous, I feel like they are the least hound-like of the hounds. But Ridgebacks are way too laid back and couch potatoish for my liking.



3. Working- Bernese Mountain Dog hands down! I LOVE these dogs. Such great cuddlers and yet so bouncy! Someoday I might own one, far far into the future. They just make such great foot warmers :)

Second place goes to the Siberian Husky. I love how they talk and of course they are absolutley gorgeous dogs!



4. Terriers- Another hard one, I have always said that I don't like terriers. Although recently I have started to reconsider my true feelings as I do like the high energy crazy dogs and terriers fit that bill to a T. Of course I also say that I like a strong working drive and terriers have strong drive but not really to work (unless it's ratting!) but maybe the working drive doesn't matter if you can harness that motivation. Anyway, the Jack Russell wins. Who knows, maybe I'll even have one some day.

Image by Christian Gildlof

Second place goes to the American Pit Bull Terrier.  I think they are great dogs and have decent drive, excellent family dogs, but still wouldn't want to own one. I just don't like their big heads :)

5. Toys- another group that I'm not really a fan of. I think it's more the people who own these type of dogs than the dogs themselves. A lot of people turn their little dogs into yappy, out of control, little monsters. Winner out of this group would be the Papillion. I think they are super cute, highly trainable, active, and super smart. If they came in a bigger size I would get one in a heartbeat!

Second place goes to the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I think these dogs are such sweethearts. Really they are the perfect family dog, not an aggressive bone in their body and are also really easy to train. Perfect therapy dogs!


6. Non Sporting- Hands down this goes to the American Eskimo Dog. Again these dogs are active, smart, and highly trainable. They make perfect circus dogs :) I really think I would have a blast doing agility and obedience with an eskie. Super cute. I can see myself owning an eskie in the far future.

Picture by SheltieBoy

Second place is a toughie. I wouldn't own any of the other dogs in this group, ever. If I wanted laughs I guess I might go with a frenchie, but realisticaly I guesss I would have to go with the dalmation. At least dals have athletic ability despite thier reputation for an iffy temperament.


7. Herding- Now here's a great group of dogs for me! The Border Collie is my obvious answer. Great athleticism, working drive, playfulness, really everything you want in a dog- if you have an outlet for it all. I would really like to own one someday but am scared about the lack of an "off switch" :)

Second place goes the Cardigan Corgi if that counts. Really it is very different from the pembroke in personality! If it doesn't count, I choose the sheltie but their barking would scare me from ever owning one :)


So there's my picks. What about yours?

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Agility contact overhaul

I know my last post has been awhile, but I've been busy :)

Since then Lance and Vito have gotten to do agility at two new places, one as a small demo during the U of MN open house. I've been very proud of my boys at how they reacted to running on dirt for the first time and just paying attention to me in the new places! I've also discovered that Vito HATES the taste of dirt. It is actually quite humorous as I was using his ball as a reward at the first place and Vito was really quite torn between the love of his ball and the taste of dirt in his mouth. His little toller brain would go "ooh ball, give me!" and "yuck, get it out!", repeated a thousand times. All treats that succumbed to the dirt floor were also repeatedly picked up and spit out.

Now that winter is basically here in Minnesota, I have had to do some serious thinking about the dog's contact criteria in agility. Now it's getting cold and with the weather either raining or snowing and the daylight getting shorter I have almost zero time to train contacts. I've been questioning whether or not I can bring the board into the house as it might just barely fit in the space between kitchen frame, living room, and bed room but obviously I would have no room for proofing anything.

Lance's training has been so full of ups and downs that I have no idea what to think. Recently it's been up, the board has been raised and Lance really seems to be getting that he must run all the way through without jumping. Unfortunately I don't think I have the time needed to devote to training running contacts.

In class tonight I exprimented with what method I might switch to. Lance is a very black and white type of dog and I have done some 2 on 2 off shaping with Lance on different objects in the house so he took very keenly to this training on the dog walk. Actually Lance loved it. Lots of corgi drool was seen as Lance clearly saw that all that was needed to produce treats was running to the end and putting his front feet on the ground. This love is really not a surpise to me. I know that there is a ton to proof and train with this method but it will be SO much easier for Lance then running.

The a-frame is where I am struggling to know what to do but I'm thinking of a down right after it. The first time I tried it Lance did the most perfect performance as he practically slid into a down right at the end. Of course I tried repeating it and Lance refused to lie down as he just knew I wanted a one rear toe method. Of course little corgis and that method don't exactly mesh, especially free shaped corgis who will repeatedly switch from a toe in the air to toe on the board. Really it took Lance several minutes and lures to finally give up the tripod act and simply lie down. Overall I am much more worried about the a-frame because of the pounding on his body doing a stopped contact can cause vs a running contact. I will have to consider very carefully what will be the best for Lance.

With Vito I think I'm still going to stick with running contacts. I was able to get his performance up to full height this summer so he doesn't need as much work this winter. There is a lot to proof with it still- speed, my position, and of course actually doing the full dog walk and not just starting at the top of the board, but he has the foundation training and his body is built to easier accomplish this. Plus I still have another summer of training before I'll even think about competing with the little guy!

Oh, and wish Lance I tons of luck this weekend! Lance will be debuting in Open obedience and I am extremely nervous.

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Contacts and Weaves

Lance is doing great as always in his agility class. I think I'm finally going to enter him in a trial! Since he doesn't have his contact behavior down yet and he can't yet weave (see rants below on both topics) I'm debating about registering him for CPE and doing jumpers. My instructors have said the CPE novice is very easy and Lance is more than ready. But he also has never done agility at a different facility besides the state fair which didn't go so well. I haven't been able to enter Lance into any fun matches besides a few that have been at my club. There's a CPE show coming up mid October so we will see...

Weave rant- Ok I know I don't have full right to rant on this subject since I really don't practice Lance's weaves much outside of class. He's been introduced to the channel method and the poles have been almost closed since forever, but I haven't touched them in ages. Mainly I've been doing 2x2's but only at class.

Well regardless of my right to rant, Lance has progressed extrmely fast with 2x2's and now do 3 sets that are completely closed from any angle around the clock with confidence and speed. I am aware that there is a ton of things to proof still but I figured that since the 3 sets of 2 are now closed and at proper spacing that his means Lance can weave, right? Wrong. Lance has ZERO clue of what to do on a reglation set (same spacing). It's not like he's even doing the entry and pulling out, Lance is completely clueless on anything to do with normal poles. I can take him to the 2x2 set at weird angle and Lance does it with speed and ease, but take him immediately to a real set and Lance is clueless. Idiot. My insturctors have no idea. The only suggestion is that maybe since the 2x2's don't have any stripes and are brown, Lance doesn't see the white and orange poles as being the same??? I'm not sure of what to do with this one. I mean besides practicing more, of course :)

Contacts rant- Ok this one I have been practicing. I admit I've gotten pretty lax the past two weeks when we were a hotel, but before that I was out there almost every day with my board. For those who need a review, Lance has been doing running contacts mainly Silvia Trkman style. Since he was jumping on a completely flat board, and I mean completley flying over the contacts even when flat!, I started teaching Lance to hit a small black mat with his feet while running. Overall Lance has progressed. Lance hasn't flew over the contacts in a long time, but this progress has been extremely slow. Right now the board isn't even knee high and Lance still has only a 80% success rate of hitting his mat and a lower success rate if my criteria were to simply not jump. This is huge progress from where we've started, but it's also been all summer of working on this, and almost 2 months since I got the mat. I really don't know what to do with Lance. I'm not oppossed to teaching him a 2o2o, but I am worried about Lance slamming into the ground to do it, especially on the aframe with his corgi body.


Vito of course is doing amazing in agility class too! He is having no problem with his early movement into the intermediate class (due to my schedule conflicts) and is actually right in the middle of the group. I have also started running with a tennis ball as a reward which has been getting Vito some more speed. Since I haven't been throwing the ball, just handing it to him, I've been able to obtain a nice balance between some speed and still have Vito actually listen to me :)

Last night Vito did the dog walk for the first time since I've really started working on his contacts and Vito did superb!!!! At home his board has been raised to about 6 inches lower than the full height dog walk and Vito is doing very well. He has about a 90% success rate on running over the board (no mat needed) and usually hits a paw in the last foot of the board even. Class was the first time Vito has actually ran across the dog walk to the decent as I place him at the top of the board at home. I did help him out by slowing my pace down as he performed the obstacle, but still I was quite pleased with his performance!

I am also not worried about Vito generalizing his weave poles. I haven't been doing a ton of work with Vito weaving as he isn't even 11 months yet, but in class Vito has been doing a bit of 2x2 work with the poles only slightly open. Well in class yesterday the real weave poles were set up right next to it for the dogs who were ready to weave (everyone else actually) and Vito tried very hard to do them instead! He failed of course, but actually he got the general idea down and did hit the entries right!

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Hotel Waudby

Our house has been fairly popular with the dogs recently as we dog sat my parent's dog for one week and then less than 24 hours after being back down to 2 dogs had another friend's dog for a week.

Meet Goose, a 14yr? old border collie mix.
I pleaded Goose off with my parents right before I went off to college as a rescue from the veterinarian office I was working at. I had only known her for a few short months but knew she was my heart dog. Or at least she would have been if I had met her at a different time in my life. So she became my parent's dog who I saw off and on throughout college.

This is Goose at 7yrs when I met her. I love this girl.

I debated about snatching her back after graduation but decided against it because of her age/possible health issues we wouldn't be able to pay for, wanting a dog my new husband and I would be able to bond with together, and wanting a dog to jumpstart my new career as dog trainer. So excuses aside, I got puppy Lance instead.

Anyways, we had Goose for a week recently but lets just say it did not go well. At her age Goose was more than a little anxious in the new environment. Lots of whining. Not loving the kitty. Remembering that ferrets were pretty cool one moment, and then very upset at their presence the next. It was stressful for both of us. I LOVE Goosey girl but was very relieved to see her go back home. Sorry hun.

Next up was Tucker, an (almost) 2yr old corgi.

This went a bit better. Until Tucker peed on Lance, well tried anyway! Seriously, I caught it on film!

Lance felt sad until he remembered a bone he had stashed in his secret spot.

Tucker followed.

Aw snap, Tucker claimed that too!

And now the little guy knows about the spot too?! What a day. (ok you can't really tell in the picture, but Vito shows up and Lance gives him evil eyes.)

Actually the week went ok. Tucker went to doggy daycare with us almost every day and got very very tired. The dogs pretty much just chilled at home. But Tucker is extreme cuddler. Like he would win an olympic medal for his cuddling skills. Rarely was Tucker not in a lap. We also found he is a pleasure to take naps with. Although I regretted my decision to allow him in the bed overnight when I was awakened by a a corgi trying to curl up ON my back, all four feet!

It didn't help that Opie bit him in the first five minutes the ferrets were brought out. (Picture is of Zoe, not Opie, but this is the best shot we got.)

Tucker spent the rest of the week on the couch whenever the ferrets came out. Preferably velcroed to us whenever a ferret so much as looked in his direction.
Tucker is also apparently nervous of the vaccuum cleaner. I got some treats out to walk him through the process. At one point I found out that Tucker will commit what he feels must be suicide to go after a fallen treat in the vacuum's path. I've never seen a dog move so fast, but I guess when you are trying to dodge death... Food obsessive corgis!

Practice for having 3 dogs maybe? Nah, not yet anyways. Ask me in another 2yrs though....

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The ups and downs of training

Dogs are ridiculous.

Recently I thought I would start to teach Lance some jumping tricks, like jump through my arms, etc. (Ok, I know he's a corgi, but he can still do it if I bend really really low!) So I started with the very simple, jump/walk over my leg while I'm sitting on the ground. Should be a piece of cake right?

I tell Lance "over" his cue to jump, and he does the first 2 reps just fine and dandy. I praise and ooh over him for his wonderfulness when all of a sudden he shuts down and ran away. I think it's the presence of the cat (kitty harasses Lance) so I call him back out, Lance does one more and then runs away again. I can call him out, but he won't go anywhere near me if my leg is out. I have no idea why. Lance was acting in almost the exact same way he did when he went through some fear periods during his teenage stage and was scared of me grabbing for his collar (not afraid of anything else, just ME grabbing for his collar).

I, unfortunately, get a little pissed off by this since I did absolutely nothing to shut Lance down. I readily admit that sometimes I lose my patience a bit and do cause Lance to shut down, but this time it was not my fault! So I have Vito do the "trick" a few times, try Lance again and nada. He jumps up on the couch and tries to hide behind Adam. Clearly I am abusing my dog by asking him to try this death defying trick. I remain decently calm and bring out the clicker and decide to shape Lance to interact with my leg in any way he pleases. It take a couple clicks but Lance offers whacking my leg with his paw, which unfortunately for me modifies into scratching the hell out of my leg as he starts to offer his "dig it" trick ON my leg. I smile in my pain and get Lance to offer something else. Lance decides to do a perfect Right side leg lift (front and back leg at same time) using my leg to help, and then offers some backwards pivot over my leg! Since he's now going back and forth over my leg I end the session.

The next session I get back out the clicker and somewhat lure Lance over my leg and have Lance offering wonderful and simple overs. I have no idea what changed. The only thing different I can think of is that I didn't cue Lance this time with the word "over" but he knows and loves this word from agility.

I wasn't really planning on spending time with these tricks, he is a corgi after all, but I think I'm going to have to now to work through whatever issue Lance had. We will see how Lance does on his next session, whenever that may be.

Sometimes I just don't get it.

In Vito news, it seems like we have made a major breakthrough this week on his dumbbell hold. Previously Vito would levitate and then I thought that we had fixed his powers of levitation with super glue. And mostly we have stopped the levitation, only occasionally does Vito pop up into the beg position when I'm working on a hold. Bust still, we have struggled all summer to get Vito to hold the dumbbell in his mouth, without rolling it, for more than 1 sec. Granted we have worked our way from .25sec to 1 full second, but still progress has been slow. Besides the hold, Vito is getting a really great retrieve complete with an enthusiastic thrust into my target hand.

This week however, Vito has jumped from the hopefully 1 sec hold to a full 3 seconds!!! It may not seem like a lot, but the fact that I can now count aloud means that Vito is starting to understand the concept and I know I can quickly shape some time now (fingers crossed). The trick? Well after watching a video on youtube where a trainer proofed her young dog's hold by dropping food on the floor, it gave me an idea to do something similar with Vito. I have done a lot of work already with Vito learning that staring at food does not make it fly into your mouth, so I started to hold some treats in my hand and out to the side when I gave Vito the dumbbell. Vito stared at the treats and then quickly to my eyes as he has been taught and did not drop the dumbbell in that second!

I think that this idea has forced Vito to think about something else so he is not focusing on the object in his mouth. I've even been able to lower his food dish to the floor while he is sitting with the dumbbell in his mouth! Of course I release him as soon as the dish hits the floor. And as a bonus, I've been doing these exercises with Lance who already has a solid formal retrieve but could use the proofing. Lance was fooled at first, not with the food out but with the food dish, but quickly recovered and now has no problem but a dirty look on his face!

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The sheep can herd themselves

Every night as we are getting ready for bed we follow a certain routine. As soon as one person gets off of the couch at night, the dogs know what is to follow and start waiting patiently for their last outside trip. However, we recently started noticing that Lance has developed a new routine.

Whoever is first ready to finally hop into bed takes down the baby gate to the bedroom (to keep the ferrets out) and lets the dogs into the bedroom with them. The dogs have the choice of where to sleep but Lance always chooses his open kennel and Vito always chooses to start the night on our bed and sometime in the middle moves down to his kennel. As soon as the baby gate is removed, Vito darts in and claims, or rather tries to, his spot sprawled out in the middle of the bed. But Lance has been hanging back. He will not enter the bedroom until the last person is in. It doesn't matter if it is me or Adam, Lance waits patiently until the last person enters and then he quickly darts into his kennel. It doesn't matter if the 2nd person is only 2 minutes behind or 2 hours, Lance waits.
It's kind of like Lance is rounding up his sheep but is too lazy to actually go out and get them. He's basically saying, "nah, if I wait long enough the sheep will herd themselves." What a good little corgi.

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Back to the river we go!

Today was the first time going back to the dog park since I had written about Vito losing his mind. We aren't really ready to go back in terms of Vito's training, but summer is coming to a close. Plus I really wanted to show all of you the toller scream :P

Scroll to the end for the video!

Actually we almost didn't make it there. But our delay was thanks to Lance, we can't blame the toller on this one. I usually have the dogs potty before we go somewhere. I don't know why but I just like them being empty before going on a walk or to class, etc. It generally takes Lance a bit longer than Vito since he always knows when we're going somewhere exciting and just can't focus enough to pee. Lance will go off to the grass, sniff around, and then run back pretending he did something. But after being sent back again Lance gives in and then we head off to the car. At least that's the way it goes normally.

Today Lance was doing his little poop walk but absolutely refused to squat or even pee. I waited with him since I will not let him in the car until he makes somewhat of an effort. After a few minutes Lance suddenly takes off through the open gate in the back and sprints to the car (no real worries as the gate is to the back driveway so no traffic). Both of my dogs know the rule that they are NEVER to cross the gate, open or not, unless invited. Every single time we go to the car they must wait for however long it takes me to release them. So needless to say I was pissed! I grabbed Lance and threw him back in the house, waited a few minutes and then tried again. Lance came running out of the house and again sprinted to the gate. Adam thinks he wasn't going to cross the gate until I angrily ran after him but who knows as he definitely did then! Before trying is 3rd attempt I had Lance do some pushups for me, and wait several times while walking in the yard. Then Lance successfully pooped and off we went! I have no idea what the corgi was thinking. Naughty corgi!

Well once we make it the to the dog park I could tell I was going to be easily able to get footage of Vito's scream. There's a long trail heading to the river and we happened to pass a woman holding a chuck it in her hand. Oh the horrors! I was able to grab Vito as he danced around her but then he started some low screams as I dragged him in the opposite direction. Once to the river both dogs ran straight in!
Vito actually wasn't horrible today. He started out horrific, but quieted down somewhat quickly. Lance was pretty annoying today though. His bark is thankfully much deeper than Vito's squeal but he certainly let the world know he was there today!

Just throw the ball!
I am naughty corgi, I will push you down and steal the ball!
Of course, like always, Lance really didn't want the ball itself. He just wanted to bark and run after the toller running after the ball.
So what?

Vito was pretty polite when the ball was put away in that he switched to very quiet whining and focused more on a sad pleading face.

Please?
Are you really sure there's no ball?
What if I wait way out here for it?
Actually Vito continued to tremble a bit whenever we stood in one place. We didn't bring the ball back out but he certainly tried hard to make it so!

While the video might look a little crazy, I actually feel that this one of our better outings with the ball and water. Vito actually took some cheese from me today and only spit out about a third of them. He came to me pretty well too but I guess we ran away from any competitors we spied out there.

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