2009-04-19

"go get him!"

Buzz being deaf cramped our style a little bit until I realized that I could have Bailey go get him for me. He was just becoming reliable off leash and was enjoying his new found freedom greatly, so I didn't want to take that away from him... but I couldn't just let him out because there was no way to get his attention if he was facing away from me!

That's when I discovered Bailey can run interference for me! We're still working on it but when I say "go get him!" she'll race out to him and get his attention somehow, then run back to me. This gets his attention and he's usually really good about following her back to me (for cheese, of course). On the odd occasion he doesn't follow her back, I send her out again. She understands this game and will pounce on him, run into him, or all of the above to get him to move.

What a valuable dog I have! :>) I'm nearly afraid she'll think it's acceptable to be the hallway monitor again, but hey... they both get to run and play now and I don't have to worry about losing a dog (or two)!

2009-04-18

Very Good Dogs!

Bailey's Novice Jumpers run


Buzz's Novice Jumpers run... for his S-NJC!


Very good dogs qualified in all respective runs today! Our judge was kind enough to give Bailey a re-run on Regular round 2 because a car alarm went off while she was on the a-frame and she was obviously shaken. We re-ran and it was very nice!

Check out Buzz's Results and Bailey's Results for complete details.

2009-04-17

Buzz Tracking



He does not have an article indication... and I'm sorry for the multiple shots of my butt. He was tracking! YAY!

2009-04-15

The AKC...

http://www.underdogged.net/?p=362

I'm a hypocrit too, but to a lesser degree I suppose. I train at a club that does NOT host AKC trials and I (now) belong to the MMBC, a mixed breed club that is inclusive of all breeds (and mixed breeds) and only hosts trials that allow any dog to compete. I would not "need" to do AKC to compete in everything I want, except for tracking. Our only other tracking option is ASCA and those trials are few and far inbetween.

We are active in NADAC, CPE, and USDAA agility-in addition to AKC; APDT (and soon UKC) rally-in addition to AKC; UKC obedience-in addition to AKC; but we will only be doing AKC tracking. UKC is thinking about introducing tracking, but it would be part of their sport dog program and thus modeled after Sch tracking which is not what we train for. I suppose I could though!

Anyway, Katie always writes so well.

2009-04-13

Trials

(I have the day off... can you tell?)

We trial on Saturday-NADAC agility-both dogs.

I sent in an entry for the TCVESSA specialty show on May 17-Bailey-Open A.

I've also got an entry for the MAC AKC trial at Soccerblast sitting on the table. I've got vouchers so Bailey's entered in Novice Preferred-STD, JWW, and FAST. Random draw, but I'm a "worker" and they've reserved 65 worker spots so I'm mailing it tomorrow because I don't know if they draw for that or if it's first come first serve.

There are more possibilities but I'm kinda waiting to see about this whole employment situation before I spend more money. Jobs schobs.

Oh, yeah, photos coming soon I hope. Working on editing them in between doing school stuff.

Keeping Count

After reading a couple of posts where people listed the number of titles their dog has... I decided I wanted to do that.

Buzz
  1. RL1
  2. RL2
  3. RN
  4. UCD
  5. NAC
  6. NCC
  7. NJC
  8. O-NJC
  9. TN-N
  10. O-TN-N
  11. TG-N
  12. WV-N
I guess Buzz has 12 titles! Go buddy go!

Bailey
  1. RN
  2. RA
  3. RE
  4. CD
  5. TN-N
Baby dog only has 5. But what a good baby dog she is (and she has quite a few Qs in venues we don't play in much-USDAA & CPE).

Pretty cool stuff.

More Tracking

Saturday was a good tracking day! Bailey ran a 257 yard track with 3 corners and 6 articles. Completely new location, dry conditions, she was a good girl! A few things to work through, but overall I was very pleased!

The new tracking group is so much fun. The people are nice and very easy to work with.

We also went tracking today. I laid two short straight tracks for Buzz and he remembers what to do, so that is very YAY! I laid one track for Bailey that I aged 25 minutes (longest yet) and put 4 articles on. Her article indications were good, but twice I had to re-cue track because she stopped to sniff something in the field. Then I lost an article on my way out of the field so she had to go back in and find it, which she did... good girl!

I'm so excited to be tracking again!

2009-04-09

Tracking!

I've been a good dog trainer and worked my dogs. Last night each dog ran a track and this morning each dog ran a track too.

Buzz ran both tracks WITHOUT the footsteps being baited by food! GOOD BOY! He's really starting to enjoy it, just when I was about to give up on him understanding what I wanted him to do! We're still working on a four foot leash and very short straight tracks, but I think we're getting it!

Bailey... shot off like a cannon on her aged (15 minutes) track this morning. Then she got tangled in her line somehow and stopped tracking. I recued "find your track" and she leapt out again, untangling herself and powering to the corner. I paused at the corner when I laid the track... she stopped to sniff that really hard, went the incorrect direction first, then double backed and headed off towards her last article. VERY nice article indication last night and this morning. We've got work to do still but we're having so much fun with this.

Bailey and I are going to group tracking on Saturday and I can't wait.

2009-04-02

Confessions of a Dog Food Snob

Hereby referred to by DFS from now on. I, Megan Nelson, am a dog food snob of a rare kind. I fed questionable quality food for years until Buzz's reddness was attributed to an allergy. Thus began the search for a food that would help him out. Drastic improvement with numerous foods but nothing "fixed" him completely. I fed prey model raw as their sole diet for close to a year but when I had to go back to school without the dogs, mom refused to feed that "icky raw stuff" (this coming from the woman who grew up on a dairy farm... hmmm?). So the dogs ate a quality samon based food that seemed to appease Buzz's system enough for him to be less itchy.

I am a convert. They still eat raw, and I will go back to full raw as soon as I can (aka, get a real job and support myself completely) but this Costco dog food people have been raving about is well... worth the rave. Premium Edge labeled as Kirkland Signature, lamb and rice, was either introduced at an incredibly convenient time, or it's keeping his allergies at the same level the Fromm Salmon did!

If I wasn't going to see my friend who buys in bulk from the distributor for a few months, I was paying about $50 for 30# that would last me a little over a month because I always add things, and feed raw meals when I can, etc. When I was able to get food from said friend it was $30 for 40#. This stuff is $25 for 40# *nods* uhhuh! That's right. The DFS has been feeding her dogs something very different. I'm not even shuddering when I say that I feed Kirkland.

Who knew?




Ok, so I'm still going back to all prey model raw as soon as possible and until then they get as much as I can give them!