Peed on!

Lance got peed on today, and by a girl too! Poor little Lance was minding his own business, just laying down in the playroom counting down till he would get to go home, when along came Lulu! I watch in horror and this little irish terrier strolls over, lifts a leg, and pees straight on Lancey puppy! Horrors!!!

Now I have another reason to hate that name! All of the Lulu's I know I am not the biggest fan of. One is a bulldog mix, hard headed and stupid (yes I know she is a bulldog), and makes my job a ton harder when she comes to daycare. Two is a westie, crazy and mean (ok I know she's a westie, but much worse than the other westies!) and also is pain in the butt and daycare. And now #3 peed on my dog!!! Curses to whoever names their dog Lulu!

As for an agility update, Lance likes to live on the edge. This time it was the teeter that Lance did not realize had to come down before he could jump off! Charging full speed to the end, Lance flies through the air- super corgi! Luckily the teeter wasn't at full height :) But of course, he's doing really well with everything else. The best part about tonight was Lance really reading my body language on how far out to go away from me and still being able to turn in really tight and close when I need him to.

I am seriously considering going somewhere else though for Lance's agility classes after this session is up (I think there's 3 more weeks left?). I love the instructors and the large space available, but his class is holding him back. 4 of the other 7 seven dogs in the class have control issues and run off SEVERAL times during each class. And while the other 3 dogs are doing ok, Lance is stuck with 3 of the 4 zoomie dogs for his group each week since we split it up by jump height. So it takes forever to do each sequence since Lance is the only one actually ready to do the sequence (this is our 4th 9wk class!). I'm not saying that Lance is perfect, but it's just really frustrating and I feel like his training is being held back in this class. Unfortunately, it will be hard to find a class to transfer to (either just a different class, or a comletely different school) since the only day I can do it is Thursdays.

But here is a really cute picture that one of my recent graduates took at class :)
and here Murphy is! Thanks for the cute pictures

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Happy Birthday Lance!

Lance is officially a big boy. Today he turned 2! But I still always call him "Lancey puppy" and think of him as this

and this

and he still looks like this all the time


He was always a mature puppy, so really not that much has changed. Even at 11wks Lance seemed to understand every word that was being said. He never chewed on anything he wasn't supposed to (ok he did love paper but that's it), had very few accidents, and never even nibbled on our hands. As a teenager the most "testing" Lance ever did was run behind the cash registers at Petsmart when he thought I wasn't looking (he knows the cashiers are suckers for giving out free treats)! And to be honest he still tries that every once in a while ;)

Tonight at Petsmart I'll give him some of the BK Whopper I used in my Intermediate Graduation (the dogs must not eat the burger on their way to mom and dad). YUM!!

Happy birthday Lancey Puppy!!!

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Be Careful What You Wish...

Today kitty got his wish. He always sits in the side entryway and stares out the door to the great outdoors. Well this afternoon it was such a gorgeous day that I decided to suit Luke up in his harness and take him out. We bought the harness when he was a kitten, but never actually got around to using it.

He was a little scared.

Vito and Lance were immediately excited and confused as to why their brother was outside!

Vito tried his best to reassure Luke.


But Lance was mainly upset that the kitty now had one more place to harass him. He thought about escaping.

Overall Luke decided he wasn't too sure of this.

He stopped crouching, but just sat on the steps looking out.
And then decided that the grass is greenier on the other side.

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The snow has melted and what should appear...

Yuck. I just got done picking up a ton of dog poo. 3 bags full to be exact. yay. But the dogs were happy to be outside in the sun with me.

Lance found a good smell.
Ate some twigs

Vito checked them out as well.

And then they got a little bored.

The three of us were very excited to go back in an hour later

Adam is going to visit his parents this weekend, so it is just me and the dogs. He will be looking at the boarding kennel and house for sale there and hopefully learning more about the financial side of it. I think the main thing that worries me about this little adventure is being able to make enough money to live and pay back the massive loans we will be needing. In the meantime, I get to spend the weekend with this

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Teeter Progress

Lance did great as usual in class tonight. He did several sequences and I loved how he drove ahead without having to look back at me or turn into me as I directed him. He still has the perfect balance between handler focus and obstacle focus!!! He is also doing better on the teeter this week. He was never really afraid of the teeter as he would happily offer running on it (even when I didn't ask him too), but Lance would slow down at the tip point instead of driving forward to the end. He was just a little too hesitant about how it worked. But today Lance was much more confident and we even did our first little sequence to it! And as bonus, there were no face plants on the a-frame :)

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Growing up

Vito is officially a "big boy." Not really in weight or height yet (although he is 21.5lbs now!), but today was his first real day with the big dogs in daycare. He was in area 1 which is the area in between the crazy/rowdy dogs and the calmer/older dogs. Vito absolutely loved it! There were a lot of other puppies in that playgroup today and he had fun wrestling with everyone. He was also especially excited to be reunited with his true love Harleigh. Harleigh is a couple of days older than Vito and is a rottie/lab mix. She graduated to the big dogs last week and Vito really misssed her. She was generally the main dog he playedwith in the small dog area.

However Vito cheated on Miss Harleigh Loo today and as a parent I must say that I disapprove of his new fling- an big, older, golden retriever gentlemen named Brody. Vito was obsessed with trying to cuddle with Brody and humping him as well. Oh young love :) Unfortunately for Vito all the other young pups also wanted Brody and he denied them all.

As an update on his separation anxiety...there is none. He still freaks out when left alone. Right now he is in his kennel crying (luckily softly) and ignoring his yummy bone. He knows I am home, but just can't see me. Earlier this evening he cried the entire 100mn he was left in his crate while I was at Lance's agility practice. So zero progress.

But he is learning to clean up now :) I'm teaching him to put eggs in a basket for Easter!

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Good news, bad news, uncertain news

Bad news. My computer is dead. Yes the new laptop that I bought less than 2 months ago went on strike a couple days ago. At first it just wanted a few things, but pretty soon its demands grew and it refused to work. This means that I likely just lost everything! Well almost everything, I was luckily able to save most of my pictures to the external hard drive when we were still in the negotiations stage, but all the videos I made of the dogs and ferrets are gone. It's being shipped somewhere and will hopefully be back soon, but I have very little hope of there being any files left when I get it back. At least it's under the manufacturer warranty.

Good news. Vito is becoming ball/tug/any toy obsessed. For the average person this might be annoying, but I am LOVING it! If I'm able to use a toy as a reward it will enable me to get much more drive and excitement out of him for agility, obedience, flyball, whatever. It will also be a ton easier for reward placement in agility if I'm able to throw something in the correct line of travel after he does a sequence. With Lance I've been trying to throw a treat, but it's harder since he can't see it land as easily and it doesn't create the same adrenaline rush as playing with a toy. In Petsmart today Vito came with me as usual on Tuesdays and we played quite a bit of ball. It was fun watching him slide on the floor and run like crazy. Each time he delivered the ball perfectly to my hand and I was able to get him to do some tricks before throwing it again as his reward. However, I bounced a ball in class today as a distraction and Vito went crazy! We definetly have to work on that as he shrieked and whined in a very high pitched voice :P

In other news, we might be comletley upturning our lives in a couple months. Adam's parents called and there is a small boarding kennel for sale in Marshfield, WI where they live. The asking price also includes their 3 bedroom house and 10 acres of land! So we called the sellers to find out more and are intrigued. I have no clue if this is what we are meant to do or not, but is at least exciting for right now! If we were to do this I would also be able to start up my own dog training business! So I've been trying to list some pros and cons in my head, assuming that we would even be able to get a loan; having no income kind've puts a kink into getting a mortgage.

Pros:
- I can invison expanding this into more than just dog boarding, and having my own dog training classes.
- Own a house and a ton of land!
- Close to Adam's parents
- The setup would likely be a very easy job, not very time consuming.
- I can imagine the future and I like it.

Cons:
- Can't travel ever. Boarding is generally a weekend thing
- Far from everything. Even if we did get to go away, it would be far to go for the dog's agility and obedience shows. And far to travel to any big city.
- Risky. We'd be moving, buying a house and a business, for something that only generates 30-40k right now, and who knows in this economy. I feel like we would never be able to make enough to pay off our current loans and then the price of all this too.
- Owning a business with your spouse can lead to a lot of arguments.
- It might turn out to be something that we really don't want to do. Adam doesn't know what his calling is yet and this would be a big investment in something he's not sure of.
- I've been thinking about getting into service dog training instead of behavioral work as my career goal, and this would put an end to that.

So I really don't know. But Adam really really wants to do this. He's getting really stressed in school right now and is seizing upon this as the future. We will just have to wait and see!

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Vito's 5month video

I posted a video of Vito's 19th & 20th week today.


He is doing really well with the backward circles, but he definitely has one way he likes more than the other. I also did his first session of "cleaning up" this week. At first Vito was really confused as I used his big dish; all he wanted to do was try to stand in it. Vito just couldn't understand why I was in his way!

I think he is going to be a midget though. Vito is almost 21wks old and only weighs 19.4lbs. I've read that a puppy is 75% of their weight by 6months, so at this rate Vito is only going to be 30lbs!!! Ahh! I love BIG dogs, like Newfie and Berner size, they just don't have the drive I want. So even the average size toller is smaller than I really like! When we enter agility trials Vito is going to be in the tiny class. People will think I bred for a "mini toller" so I would be in an easier height class! Oh little Vito! I suppose I must say that I will love you anyway, but fingers crossed you are just a late bloomer :)

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