Keep'n · it · Fun · Agility

It looks like summer is finally here and just in time for our Regional. 85° and sunny on Friday/Saturday and 89° on Sunday.

Crap. I was hoping for weather in the 70's. But this is the NW and it could change....Hope Hope!!!

Guess I need to break out the sunscreen.

Nothing much happening with the dogs. Just hiking and biking and walking with a little agility stuff thrown in. I did run Keeper at the 8:00 class last Monday and I will again tonight. It's fun and I know my students enjoy seeing me crash and burn on the stuff that I setup for them. I set hard courses and I hope that they are extremely proud when they nail it. I know I am.

Still working on the shed/kennel. My husband and brother-in-law got it framed last weekend and Steve started on the siding. At the rate we're going it should be done by this fall. LOL!!! We could have gotten it done a lot sooner if we had paid someone to do it but this has been a fun project and I know that Steve and I will take great pride in it when it is done.

I got started on LJ after following brisbeethewhite's for quite a while. I finally took the plunge and created my own LJ. Although I haven't posted a lot the few times that I have posted the ideas and thoughts from everyone has been invaluable. I am basically a shy person so thru LJ I have gotten to know people that I normally wouldn't have ventured to befriend. I have tons of ideas on how and what I'm going to train my new puppy and for that I'm extremely grateful.

I have been feeding both of my dogs Timberwolf. Different brands than the ones listed below. Both were doing fine until I bought these last two bags of food. Nop was eating the Southwest Chicken and Herbs and Keeper was eating the Wild and Natural Grain free formula. Nop who has NEVER not eaten whatever was put down in front of him started becoming finicky. He'd always dive into his food with both front feet but instead he was dis-interested in the food. So, I switched him to Keepers and his appetite came back to normal. Needless to say his dog food ended up in the garbage. If I would have kept the bag it came in then I could have taken it back to Western Pet Supply and they would have refunded my money. They're good about that.

Below is what Timberwolf had to say about their recall. I have filled out a complaint form about the Southwest Chicken and Herbs food and sent them it.

Dakota Bison/Ocean Blue Reported Issues
June 3rd, 2008

Timberwolf Organics Customer,

Due to recent reports from some customers, we have ordered that two formulas from three specific dates be pulled from the shelves. These are:

Dakota Bison with 'best by date' of 12 Feb 2009
Ocean Blue with 'best by date' of 20 Feb 2009
Ocean Blue with best by date' of 8 March 2009

The reported symptoms include dogs refusing to eat, diarrhea or vomiting. While the problem is inconsistent (not every dog eating food from those dates/bag show the symptoms and not every bag), to err on the side of caution have decided to pull the formulas produced with the above dates. Initial testing has come back negative for problems and further testing is pending results.

As soon as the cause of this reported problem is determined procedures will be put into place to ensure that an event like this cannot happen again. Please be assured that no other formulas and Ocean Blue and Dakota Bison with dates other than ones listed above are not affected.

We apologize for any inconvenience or problems that this may have resulted in. If you do have a bag with those dates please contact the retailer you purchased it from for an exchange or credit. If you purchased it directly from us please give us a call or email us at customer.support@timberwolforganics.com, or you can download the Customer Complaint Form below and fax it to 866.796.8814.

Thank you for choosing Timberwolf Organics.

Sincerely,

Timberwolf Organics Team

Oh what a joy to be back at a trial and especially what a joy to be running my dog again. We have been working hard on deceleration and collection cues and it showed that our hard work has paid off. Keeper totally read my deceleration cues on all the runs. Some of them paid off and others he actually pulled off jumps or dropped a bar. So our timing issue is off but since we haven't ran any full courses in 6 months I think it is to be expected. His start line stay was good as compared to last weekend's JWW run.....he stayed.

Both of the Standards we had a problem or two. The 1st, he dropped the 2nd to the last jump because of my big mouth. I cued him verbally to turn right when he was over the 2nd to the last jump and he knocked it. He really didn't need the verbal cue as my motion was taking him that way. Over handling. The 2nd Standard, I had two refusals because I decelerated too much and he read it. The old Keeper would have probably ignored it but the new Keeper read it and turned back to me....Good boy!!! We also had an off course because I didn't drive in far enough to get the correct end of the tunnel. GP was a total screw-up on my part. The course was very technical and I just didn't like the course. You know, one of those courses that you just can't get your head wrapped around it. Two refusals, no Q. Steeplechase was good, got the needed Q for Regionals and he ran it in 29.42. We had a dropped bar on the double coming around to the weaves but the rest of it was stellar. Good contacts on the a-frame (I'm just letting him run thru them), I was a little late on one of my front crosses and I believe the dropped bar was again me decelerating for him to come around the corner to the weaves.

Hmmm....see the trend....bad handler.

After the trial on Saturday, C., Barjor, and myself took the dogs to the river and let them play a little. Keeper's idea of hanging out in the river is only going in as deep as he can without swimming. So, he was out up to his belly. Nop didn't get in at all...I think it was a little too cold for him.

Again it was so awesome to have him back. Awesome to watch all my friends run their dogs again. And awesome to have my little dog back.

And Julie.....all the scoring got done. Probably not as well as if you had been there but it got done. And we all read our "I'm a Julie sub" tags on Saturday.....too funny.

Lady luck was with us and Dave didn't cancel our lesson due to the heat. We got to work in the field today and when I sent Keeper out to the sheep (which I did incorrectly, hehe) he got about 2/3rds of the way there and his confidence ran out. He stopped, looked back and the look on his face was "Aren't you coming?".

I have to say that I'd heard from other people that Dave is hard to get things out of. That you have to ask a lot of questions. Well, either his brain was fried from the heat or he had the gift of gab because he didn't stop talking much. Or maybe I just needed lots and lots of instructions. I really enjoyed his way of instructing. He patiently and methodically explained what I should be seeing and doing, what the dog is seeing & what he should be doing, where my zone is, where Keeper's zone is, and on and on.

So, right now we're working on how I release him to the stock as I mentioned earlier I was doing it all wrong. A couple of times I, by not knowing what I'm suppose be doing, opened up Keeper's path and he went behind me to the sheep so we worked on that. And the next thing that we worked on was getting Keeper to stop herding with his body and more with his head and eye. Keeper's wanted his path behind the sheep to be from 9-3 where we really want his path to be from 11-1 or the worst 10-2.

Keeper had a blast but boy was he tired and hot. When we got back by the Yukon, he just plopped halfway under it totally wiped out. Poor guy. But by the time I got home he was all recovered and raring to go. Since coming off of his injury I'm always totally freaked that something will happen and he'll break again. It's been 6 months and I hope I've given him the time to heal. I've slowly brought his activity level back up and haven't seen any problems. Sometimes I think that my mind plays tricks with me and he'll take a misstep because of the uneven footing and I'll think, Crap he limped but then the next few strides are ok. I still ice him after a hard workout, stretch him, massage him, watch for even weight bearing, and pray for his health.

I have video because jorbar was kind enough to come back out and flim the whole lesson....THANKS JORBAR AGAIN!!!! I'll put it up as soon as I can find the damm cable for the camera.

3 weeks ago I joined weightwatchers. This isn't the 1st time I've joined but this time I tried the CORE plan. They have two plans...flex and core. Flex lets you eat whatever you want but you have to track points (which I suck at) while Core gives you specific foods to eat and all that you track are how hungry/full you get. You can eat as much as is needed to be full but not stuffed. And you do get 35 bonus points to use if you go off plan.

Today was weigh-in day and I've lost 13.4 lbs. This is amazing for me and I feel so good about it.

I've also started to follow cflyrun's Fitness program. I didn't get in on it in time to actually participate but I'm hoping to start to fit this sorta lifestyle into my life. It is awesome that cflyrun has started this. There was a lot of thought put into it and it is very easy to follow and very doable. I feel that if I take small steps that way then I'll be successful. Before it has always been either do it all or don't do it at all and then I usually ended up failing. I'm determined to make this work. I have a long long way to go before I get to my desired weight whatever the hell that is. It's so far out there that I don't even think about it. I'm just concentrating on getting to the 1st 10% and then to the second and so forth.

So, while this isn't actually agility/dog related directly, it is indirectly as I need to be the handler that my dog deserves.

I've been giving this a lot of thought lately as to how I want Keeper's bottom of the a-frame contact criteria to look. Since he's recovering from a shoulder injury I've decided that I don't want him stopping on the bottom anymore with a 2o2o. I'd like to teach him to run it. I don't think I'm going to get into too much trouble with a running a-frame while still maintaining a stop on the dogwalk and teeter. I had been, before he got hurt, working on a quick release which meant that he'd still go to the bottom and as soon as he touched I'd release. Well, if I'm late then he's going to get some front leg compression and I'm hoping to avoid that with a running a-frame.

So, here's the dilemma....

1. How should I go about this??? Put the a-frame back down low and start targeting out away from it and then slowly start raising it up seems like a logical solution. This would also ease him back onto it.

2. Or should I teach a rear toe touch where he's mostly off of it? This would still require some sorta stopping on the bottom.

Any of you have any ideas??? I'd really appreciate it.

Thx in advance!!!

Yesterday 4 of us (3 Livejournalist) made the trek up to take a 2 hour private with Daisy. I had set this up with her a few months back before Keeper was injured and even though I didn't have a dog to run I got tons out of it for stuff to work on with him even in the rehab state we're in now.

1st thing I have to say is that the facility "It's a Dogs World" is awesome. The astroturf footing is unlike anything I've ever been on. Easy on the dogs joints and on the handlers' too. Beautiful beautiful facility. Hmmm....wonder if I could get my husband to relocate up there so I could train there permanently????

Back the the lesson.....the main things that the others worked on was acceleration and decleration cues and also using lateral motion to cue a turn. Daisy also gave us a couple of drills, working a serp figure 8 and doing a box drill...with you on the outside teaching the dogs to decelerate and compress to make it around the corners. The two hours went by way too fast. The more things that were brought up, the more questions came up and now that I'm back home I've got more questions. I can see us doing this again in a few months if Daisy is willing.

I haven't been involved in a class situation in quite a while and even when I was it just isn't the same as a private.
I'll be auditing one of Daisy's seminars next month and then rumor is that Linda Mecklenburg's coming in June sometime. That will be a definite go to!

Even though I'm tired....yesterday was a freaking awesome fun day!!!

I got my BOSU ball yesterday. I got the ball and 5 DVD's with it for the same price of the ball. The DVD's are "BOSU long and lean", "BOSU absolutely abs", "Bosu Reacitive Strength and Power", "Bosu Equilibrium", and "Bosu calorie conbustion". I haven't looked at any of the DVD's but have got both of the dogs on it with the curved side up.
Nop like usual is very apprehensive about it but tonight I got him to put both of his front feet on it while I jackpotted him.

Keeper is much more trusting and I got him up today on it sitting and standing.

We'll see how this progresses with all 3 of us.

Another weekend at home. Spent today, Sunday just doing stuff around the house. Finished laundry, cleaned house, went grocery shopping, made sclmarm's taco soup and made some brownies. This is way too domesticated for me!!! I even think my husband is wondering if some aliens have carted off the real me and transplanted this housewife type in my place. I even stripped the bed and washed the sheets.
I do confess that it has been kinda nice to have the time to just get stuff done around here. Usually I'm always a day behind on something. And never have time to plan a meal.

Well, it'll all change this next weekend because I actually have something dog related that will take me out of town if only for Saturday. I'm excited and am really looking forward to it. I do so miss my dog friends and thank goodness I get my little fix on Monday nights when I teach. I have the best students. Not only are they my students but I feel that they are all friends, too. And their dogs are awesome. I'd take each and every one of them in a heartbeat if there was an offer.

Things are still thumbs up for Keeper and his rehab program.

I tried trotting Nop with the bike yesterday but nothing puts him into the BC stalk like a bike does and while Keeper likes traveling to the side and slightly in front, Nop was behind and stalking. Too funny.

We started working on the area today where the new garden shed/kennel is going to go. I'm excited. It'll be nice to get the boys outside during the day in a nice secure safe area in our backyard. The first thing we have to do is remove the compost area which has gotten quite high over the years. Then we have to remove the existing metal shed and then level the area off for the new shed. We've been looking at the Tuff sheds but might decide to just to build our own. The plan is to then run the kennel off of the side along the back fence. I've been looking at these doghouse plans, www.doghouseplans.com/plans and while they are meant to be outside I'd like to put them inside the new garden shed and then they'd be more protected. We'll probably go with the two dog two door style so the boys will have there own space and so that Keeper can't guard the door and leave poor Nop out. YES, he'd do that!!!! We're going to use several layers of materials for the kennel floor, gravel, sandy mixture and then finally chips. The side of the building where the kennel is will have an extended overhang and will also be concrete. And around the outside of the kennel we're going to use landscaping bricks so that if they do decide to dig out they will run into the bricks. And also with the bricks, no dogs can dig in.

More posts on that as things materialize.

Just got back from Keeper's visit with Dr. H. and she says that everything looks great. No pain/reaction in his shoulder. Stride looks good, weight bearing looks good, a little tightness in the top of his leg/neck area but I'll massage that out. YEAH!!!

So, next she'll send me a schedule of adding things to his routine for the next month to see how he handles it and to continue with the trot work. We'll be adding retrieving from straight on, then from the side, and starting some jump chute work with the jumps at 12". Last thing to add will be weaves and a-frame.

We discussed that since he bounced back so quickly that he probably strained it and didn't tear it. This is good news as tears take forever to heal and sometimes require surgery. There was a series of events that led up to him having problems from slipping twice on a too wet barn surface to not getting a lot of exercise the last half of December to getting a lot in a 6 day period right after Christmas. Normally the amt of exercise he got during that 6 day period wouldn't have been a problem except for he was probably sore from falling and out of shape.

Live and learn....I won't let that scenario play itself out again.

Now I'm axiously awaiting Dr. H's next set of instructions and will continue on with the trot work.