Zombies

My dogs are drooling idiots. Have you ever tried training with canned food? Well for the next couple of days I'm supposed to feed my dogs a low residue food as both Lance and Vito have giardia. So I dish out some canned I/D and soon have slobering zombies. It's hard enough to train as I/D is extremely crumbly and doesn't exactly stick to the spoon, plus I have to dish a new little bit out each rep. But the dogs were just stupid! Lance spent more time staring at the spoon in my hand than he did offering behaviors. Even when Lance's turn was over and I was working with Vito, Lance sat as close as he could to me without me yelling. His eyes turned pitiful and he started grunting. At least when it was Vito's turn, Vito offered things like a mad man although he still wasn't thinking.

And this was with low residue food! It's supposed to be extremely bland! I can only imagine the blobs I would have on my hand if I used actual good canned food. It's amazing what your choice of reward can do for your training. Generally I just use their dog food as "treats" at home since they are willing to work for it without shutting down or getting distracted. At class I use a mixture of different soft treats and a few hot dog pieces, although I could probably still use kibble without a problem. I have also been trying to use toys and balls a reward for Vito when I'm outside playing with them. At those moments Vito is a lot more "stupid" with excitement and it's harder for him to focus when he just wants the ball thrown. But now I know how really excited a dog can get :)

At least before I got restricted to the I/D I had a session with both Lance and Vito on the balance ball I got in the mail. I'm hoping that it will help the dogs develop a strong core and work their muscles! Vito is already doing pretty good at sitting, standing, and doing a little "beg" on top of the ball. I've also worked on him backing up to put his hind legs on it. Lance is also doing pretty well, but it is definitely harder for him with his longer body. I would have thought Lance would have had an easier time with his short legs and lower center of gravity, but I guess not!

I also received a cheap 18ft tunnel in the mail that I can fold out and stake down in the yard. The dogs had fun doing their first sequence in the back yard- weave poles (well run through the center channel) to tunnel and then in reverse. At first Vito was apprehensive about going in the new tunnel, but within a short time he was being naughty and trying to go behind Lance at every turn.

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Vito the tripod

Vito is becoming a man! Well as much of a man as he can being a eunuch an all. He is starting to lift he leg when he pees! I know this may sound gross, but I wish I had a picture! You see, Vito is hiking his leg in the air so high it goes even higher than his head. He wobbles back and forth has he tries to balance on 3 leg and is truly a sight to see. Vito apparently thought that it is too wussy to lift his leg just a little and goes all out. I almost wonder if I created this by teaching Vito to lift one back leg on cue :)

At Petsmart today I did a demonstration that I have been wanting to do for a long time. I love Susan Garrett's video where she talks about creating a high energy dog (you should really watch it if you haven't seen it; if you really need to you can skip to 49 sec in )



But since Lance doesn't tug crazy enough yet, I have been waiting until Vito got a better "drop it" to try. Well today was the day! I modified Susan's demo to talk about the rules of tug and how not to do "drop it." It took Vito a little bit to really start tugging, but once he started Vito was crazy! I cursed "Bad dog" at him and Vito growled a ton! I'm so proud :)

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Flying Zoe

I am getting so pissed at Zoe right now. Right now she has spent less time out of her cage at this evening's playtime than in time out. I wrote awhile back how she has discovered her ability to jump the babygates that keep her confined to the living room. Apparently she wants freedom, freedom to run right under the bed, or behind the dresser, or under the fridge, where she hides, quivering in excitement, because we can't catch her. Little brat. She had stopped doing it for awhile, but today she has an obsession. As soon as we let her out from timeout she sprints over the nearest gate and tries to fly over. This little 2lb thing sails over 3ft. None of the other ferrets have even tried to do this, either they're too nice, too supid, or not atheltic enough, I don't know. We apparently have to think of something, and fast, to prevent her from getting into the rooms.

And yeah, I know I'm giving a time out to a ferret, but it at least makes me feel better.

And she is always the first one to escape into the bathroom when someone exits. All of them gather, and I swear they know the sound of the toilet flush predicts the door opening shortly.

And of course, once Zoe is in, it leaves room for the others to enter!

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Lance's Obedience Trial Day2

15 points. That's how many points off Lance got deducted in the ON-leash heeling. It was horrendous. I didn't even think it was possible to be that horrible. There were very few moments where Lance did anything resembling a heel. On the positive side, he only got 7 points off in the off-leash heeling. only 7. *sigh* At least his stand for exam was perfect and he didn't move in the group stays so didn't lose any more points. However, he looked like he was really thinking about getting up in both the sit and down stay, thankfully he stayed put and just settled for little fidgeting movements. His recall was decent, however on the finish Lance took quite a long time to get in position as he studied the crowd behind him on his way to heel, only 1 point off though for crooked sits. We somehow still managed to qualify with a 175/200. Ridiculous.

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Lance's Obedience Trial- Day1

I decided to enter Lance in the AKC National Obedience Invitational Regional Competition Obedience Trials this weekend. Not to actually qualify and go to Nationals, but to give Lance some practice being in the ring. I entered him in Novice B since even though he already has the novice title he is not ready for open.

I felt he did amazing! Generally Lance is an angel in practice with perfect unwavering attention, but in a new ring he falls apart. Part of that is being distracted and part of it is my nervous body language making him stressed. But today Lance was the most focus he has ever been in an obedience show (rally-o and run-throughs excluded)! He wasn't perfect, but I didn't have to struggle to get eye contact, he caught up and sat for each halt, and was just a good boy!

I felt it was a really hard pattern as well. There were 3 about turns and that is where I typically lose Lance. Today wasn't an exception as he always lagged after the about turn, but at least he caught up with me today. On the figure 8's he was again lagging on the outside turn, but was able to catch up for the inside turn. His stand for exam was perfect! On the off leash heel I had to use an extra command right away as he looked away right as I started moving and didn't follow, but he did pretty well the rest of the pattern. Right before the last about turn he lagged and crossed sides, but at least when I turned without him it put him back on left side of me! I felt his recall was superb! The judge knocked a point of for crooked sits, but I thought it was the best Lance had ever done in terms of speed, straightness, and attention! When it came time for the group stays, Lance didn't even waver when the dog next to him sprinted towards his owner half way through the sit (a woman yelled, very loudly, Rover COME! in the next ring).

His total score was a 186, so it wasn't his best score (not his worst either), but I really don't feel the score reflected his performance today I am very proud of Wonder Boy!

I have to work tomorrow so we're not entered, but Sunday we'll be back!

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Fuzzy air time

The ferrets wanted to say hi.

Hi!
Here's Molly! (who looks really weird with a Bjorn behind her!)

Hey, we're playing here!

Troublemakers

Picking on Vito
Wrestlin' with the kitty
Opie's always stealing the show!

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Balls!

It was a really gorgeous day outside today. So after taking a little nap after daycare, I head outside with the dogs. Apparently, they were still sleepy.

Lance found his own special spot.

Vito didn't know what to do either

But Adam came out with a ball to liven things up a bit.

If you think it looks like Lance will get there first, you are wrong! Lance only thinks he wants the ball, but in reality he does not. The one time we held back Vito to give Lance a shot, he took the ball to his "special spot."
He does however, like to beat Vito back sometimes.
So excited!

But Vito got a little demanding
So Adam made them lie down.
What a good little retriever
Straight to hand!
I will leave you on this great picture of Lance. He always has the greatest pictures :)

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Another thursday agility class and AWESOME news!

Today was a great day! Lance had agility practice and only 3 other dogs showed up. This meant that when we divided up it was just Lance and one other dog, and his partner was from the "big" dog side of class (a little cockapoo) and was somewhat decent! Lance got a lot more practice time in today, and actually got to do activities that challenged him :)

Today was the first time that we worked on a serpentine. We started with the jumps not fully parallel so the dogs could easier see what they were supposed to do, but since Lance did so great we closed them! Unfortunately he did the first closed set great, but then got too excited and failed so we had to make it easier for him again. Next we did a rear cross sequence that Lance actually got PERFECT. Normally we have some problems when I have to cross behind him to change sides, but not today :) By the end of class though he was pretty tired, not used to actually having to work!, and wasn't thinking very much. He still had great drive, but his attention wasn't as solid so he failed to read some of my cues on the first attempts that he normally wouldn't have a problem with. But overall it was a really good class!

I've decided that I'm going to stick with this club for Lance's agility class, but I am going to talk to the instructors and insist that either they divide the class by skill and not height, make the groups random, or just put Lance in with the "big" dogs and lower the jumps for him.

And in really really great news, I decided to try Vito locked up in the kitchen while Lance was at class. I dragged a doggy bed in, set up the portable cloth crate with door open, and threw in a whole bunch of bones. When I came back nothing was destroyed and there were no accidents! But in even better news, while reviewing the videotape I noticed that Vito didn't cry once!!!!!!!! He paced a bit, did a bit of panting, but actually ate his bones while we were gone and didn't have a heart attack! I didn't have the greatest angle on the camera since I was worried about Vito going on a rampage and destroying stuff, so I couldn't really see what he was doing most of the time. But I can't get over the fact that he was a relatively calm puppy! I am so so happy :) I'm still going to work on Vito being in the kennel and locked up, but hopefully I'll be able to use the kitchen again when I have to leave him alone for real and not worry about any setbacks in our training. YAY!

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