Bubba Wins

Well those who saw the Bubba that first weekend guessed it.  I fell for the trap and told our director of training that she would not be getting Bubba back last Monday.  We will be puppy raising the bear cub!  I didn't want to fall in love with the little guy!  I am so not a little dog person but I'm still finding myself liking the ability to easily scoop him up with one hand.  If he wasn't a service dog in training I fear I would create one of those little devil purse dogs people carry at all times!

Bubba is more of a Tasmanian Devil than a dog.  He is constantly zooming and self-entertains easily.  Our biggest challenge has been working on impulse control, surprise!  He is really fun to shape :)

Lance is done pouting and has remembered that he loves puppies, especially those smaller than him.  Vito is actually doing a really good job with him.  For the most part Vito is just completely ignoring him and even lets Bubba trample over him as he zooms around.  Way better than the pouting and constant evil faces he gave the labs!

To those wondering about what Bubba's service dog potential, he will likely be either a diabetic alert dog or hearing alert dog.  The alert jobs do not depend on a dog's size to do the job so any breed is a potential candidate.  Unless something else comes in the program that just grabs my attention(!), we will have Bubba at our house until he goes in for final training between 12-20 months of age.

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Lance obedience trial

Not our best day in the ring.  2 NQs and his attitude didn't seem to be fully there either. 

Utility- NQ

Gloves- (#3) Lance takes off for the glove as soon as my hand goes down and my mouth opens.  He drops it a few feet away from me but picks it up immediately to front with it.  I feel like this has happened quite a bit recently and I'm not sure what the problem is.

Article #1- Lance goes out wide to the spread out pile with mine in the center.  Lance always takes forever to find the center one and this time was no exception.  Except after finding it Lance picked it up and walked a few steps towards me before dropping it and staring at me.  I stare at the article and Lance goes back to work the pile except stresses and wanders over to the judge so I call him to me.

Article #2- Much better.  Finds quickly and doesn't hesitate on his return.  He does take a bonus jump on the way out to the pile.

Directed Jumping- 1st go out was crooked in the direction of the glove.  He did cross the ring nicely to take the farther job when asked though!  2nd go out was worse.  Lance started to stop between the jumps so I take a step towards him and resend him.  He goes out again but doesn't seem sure.  Ignores my first sit cue and touches the gate, ignores my 2nd sit cue and stares at me.

Signals- I thought Lance did a really nice job heeling, especially on that slow!  He immediately took 2 steps after I left on the stand.  He sits on the down signal so I give a verbal.

Moving Stand- not as bad as forging as usual.  He walks a few steps as I leave him but does a nice exam.

Open- NQ

 

 

Drop on Recall- Lance travels a bit further than I like.

Heeling- Lance looks away a few times so I'm not thrilled with his performance.  Because of that, I decided to start to the left on the figure 8 instead of going to the right like I usually do with Mr. Forger.  He again gets distracted and looks away on the outer posts.

Retrieve over High- Lance goes out slower than usual but comes back nicely with a pretty good front and finish.


Broad- good, need work on front and finish

Retrieve on flat- better enthusiasm on way out.  Was coming back crooked but fixed angle at last moment to be better.

Long Sit- Lance lies down as soon as the line of people have exited the ring.

Long Down- good.

I think I'll take him in to the chiropractor for another visit, it has been awhile since our last one and it always seems to help him.

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Zoe 3/1/07-4/24/12

Good bye Zoe.

Zoe was always my favorite ferret.  She was a tiny girl who loved giving out kisses to everyone she met.  Zoe loved the dogs, especially the labs who let her nibble on them and cuddle.  Remember this video, or the 2nd one?:

But she was also an extremely cunning ferret who was always finding creative ways to get into trouble.  She loved trying to jump over the baby gates if any object nearby was moved remotely closed to it.  Removing all the books on our bookshelves was another favorite hobby of hers.  Zoe was always our most active ferret.

A rare moment of the corgi letting her cuddle 5 years ago.

And an even rarer sight was captured last night

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NADAC Trial- start lines and contacts

I took Lance, Vito, and Bubba to a NADAC agility trial yesterday.  Bubba did awesome in his crate and loved to prance around when freed.  He will tug anywhere, as long as he doesn't think you have food on you.  Although he did get distracted often by the wonderful smell, and taste of dirt.  

Vito
The toller had a fantastic day!  We worked on (yet another) start line routine for him that I've been playing with for the last two weeks.  Vito is finally getting my bark cue and did it at the start line today!  I also had him do his reverse chest vault before going in the ring, and in the ring on the 3rd run when there was a delay.  During his 2nd run, chances, Vito looked like he was going to fixate on a bar setter but it was short lived as he quickly turned back to me.  And on the 3rd run we almost collided with the bar setter as she went to talk to the judge during the delay but Vito still didn't pay attention to her!

We qualified in touch no go where Vito had his fastest run of all time, 6.1yps with 2 beautiful aframes and 1 dogwalk.  Chances he shot off the startline and took an off course that I've never been happier about!  He missed the dogwalk/tunnel discrimination but I'm pretty sure I sent him out to the tunnel with my motion.  Jumpers was a sad NQ in novice for a knocked bar.  He started off great the first 3 obstacles but as soon as it turned he slowed down and didn't pick up speed until the closing run.  I also floundered a bit trying to get him to move and didn't handle as great as I should have.

Video of the 2 nice runs, unfortunately minus the start line routine that i didn't think to request:

Lance

Oh corgi.  Lance was also in 3 runs: regular, touch n go, and tunnelers.  He missed 4/5 contacts.  His first aframe in regular was a launch from a good foot and half above the yellow and he somersaulted off.  He learned a tiny bit from that and only missed by 6 inches on the other aframes and last dogwalk.  Clearly our managed contacts is not being managed.  I don't really care that he missed as that's my responsibility now and not his, but I need to keep him safe.  No idea what to do with his contacts.

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Bubba the bear cub

Surprise!  Less than 12hrs ago I was expecting to bring home this on Friday:

 This is Ivy, the only girl from the "I" litter at work.

But then plans had to be quickly changed; Ivy went home to a new puppy raiser and I somehow ended up with this thing:

This is Bubba.  I've dubbed him a bear cub because I didn't want to bring home a Schipperke.

But in a few hours he earned a thousand comparisons from Tasmanian Devil to a Velociraptor.

I'm only supposed to have him for a few days, but is it wrong that I'm falling in love with this continuously moving ball of fluff?!

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Fiona 11 month video!

Since I turned Fiona in before I was expecting to, I didn't get a chance to compile a new video of her before she went of to prison.  (It's reported that she is doing very well there.)  But here's a quick look at some of the things we were in the process of working on before she left us:

Limping is in the early stages, but we finally got more than one step! 
She was just starting to master nudging close very low drawers.
And we made cross paws on a signal only before she went!
Hind leg lifts are better with the right leg than the left, but we were starting to get some duration on both legs.
Tugging a heavy door was something she could do for awhile, but we were just starting to work on continuing to hold it open so someone could walk through.
And of course bucking bronco has always been her favorite trick of all time!

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Lance UD-C

Lance was also entered in the trial this Saturday.  He did one round of CDSP utility and another of APDT Rally level 3.  And then he scared the crap out of me.

Obedience
Due to his still healing hot spot I had him wear a harness in the obedience ring:

Signals- No moving after left on the stand!
Articles- Didn't seem to know what he was doign when sent, but then spotted the pile and quickly worked it.  Dropped it twice coming back to me, near my feet.
Directed Jumping- 1st go out he went to the tape mark and then didn't sit.  2nd one he again went to the tape but did sit.
Gloves- this judge liked the glove VERY close together (about 7ft!) but Lance did both sends without an issue.
Stand- no moving again!

And that was our 3rd leg to get our UD-C title!

Rally:
I thought Lance was moving weird in the harness so I put on a really thin and lightweight collar that hung low enough to not hit his hot spot when off leash.

I thought he did a nice job, especially after the first sign when I caught him off guard on the 270 left because he broke eye contact with me.  We had to redo the send to jump since Lance didn't go out to it the first time, and on the recall over jump he again needed a 2nd cue to come.  There were two backing up exercises in a row, first in heel, then in front; so Lance got to yell at me about that.

Scariness

When getting ready to leave the trial I suddenly noticed that I had a FAT corgi.  Lance's belly was extended big time.  I then remembered that before going into the rally ring Lance was really wanting water badly and was acting a bit weird, but I shook it off to not having enough time to do a warm up.  After we came out of the ring I offered him water and he wanted to drink a ton but I cut him off.  Then I must not have zipped up the crate far enough as a few minutes later I noticed Lance poking out and licking the now empty water dish.  So when I took Lance out 20min after the disappearing water trick he was a giant.  Luckily there were two nice vet techs there who examined Lance and didn't think it looked like bloat since his stomach was squishy and he didn't have any other signs.  A call to my vet also suggested waiting since corgis are not known for bloating and he wasn't showing the typical signs anyway.  I took Lance home and had to block off access to our water fountain as he was still wanting more water.  While his stomach remained huge all night, Lance didn't vomit, didn't have diarrhea, wasn't restless (other than wanting water), and had a soft belly.  In the morning he seemed much better but his belly was still slightly extended.

I have no idea what the corgi did.  It also makes me think that he might not have been feeling well during both of his runs.  He certainly was showing signs right before rally although I don't think he was bloated yet.

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Vito CDX-C!

Vito has his CDX-C!  But most importantly he was HAPPY!  Vito was entered in 2 runs at the CDSP trial today.

Open Run #1:

I am so proud of him!  He showed some stress as we walked into the ring and tried to get him set up, but as soon as I stepped off he forged!!!  We've been working hard on setting up and charging off so I'm very excited about his response.  I know I'll have to fix the charge later but that should be a much easier issue with him.  The rest of the set ups I had no problem with and he was an eager partner.  I loved that he had enthusiasm when he saw the judge had his dumbbell and had good speed on the retrieves.  The go out was ridiculous but cute :)  He was just certain that something was out there for him to retrieve!  I was shocked when we got called back in the ring as a qualifier, something about doing the principle part of the exercise...!

Open Run #2:

I still had some difficult getting Vito set up at the start, and this time he heeled with me instead of charging off.  Right at the halt he looked away (at the judge?) and then missed me stopping.  I gave him a cue to heel but he just stared at me.  In hind sight I should have given my left finish hand signal.  The heeling was nice but I felt like I was in the verge of him wanting to lag.  After the broad jump he didn't want to jump up on me like I asked, but did when I repeated the cue.  The rest of the exercises he performed nicely but without the attitude he seemed to have in the first run.  But the go out was much better :)

Today really gave me hope for future trialing.  I think that we will limit ourselves to only 1 run a day though, just to keep his enthusiasm as high as possible.

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