Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Alien Animals

For some reason my animals always turn into aliens at work

Pocket


Abby


Temporary office cat


Super creepy, right???

Notice who is missing???
My perfect angel of an old man would never turn into an alien at work!

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Playing Catch-Up

It seems that this year has gone by faster then most of the others. It seems that this year has also been busier then most of the others too. And most of it has been "good busy" filled with things that I enjoy doing. By looking at this blog, one would think that the only thing I enjoy doing is playing with my dogs. It is true that's when I enjoy myself the most, but that isn't the only thing I have fun doing. One of my other passions is books. I love books of all kinds (save that ONE genre) and read at least one book in each genre each year - even if I don't really want to.

Even though my year has been busy, I still managed to find time for my beloved books. And this year has given me a few firsts in books 1) I joined a book club (with actual people) 2) I stopped reading books that I didn't enjoy 3) I paid for most of my books (and some were new) 4)I bought a few books at those giant impersonal stores. My goal was to read 50 books this year....did I make it? I think so, but I didn't keep track of all the books I read. I also cheated a little - there are a few books that I re-read every year, and I think that those should count to the total. Also, some of the books were short stories(blech!) but I read them so they definitely count!

Some of my favorites of the year:

Control Unleashed (Dog training book)

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Colors of the Mountain by Da Chen

My Life in France by Julia Child

These are all excellent yet easy reads. And when you have had a year like I've had, you need a few easy reads.

I'm hoping to keep my reading list up to date next year...but I'm not going to hold my breath...

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Confession

I vaccinated my dogs...


People and Veterinarians are all over the map in the how/when/why to vaccinate. Local veterinarians say one thing and the Vet schools say another. Holistic vets say something else entirely...One years...three years...only puppy series...titer,titer,titer...It's exhausting and confusing for the individual pet owner.

I haven't vaccinated pocket in 5 years, and mole in 6 years. After talking to my vet, we decided that due to my work and the age in which my dogs were vaccinated that they were probably safe and that they didn't need to be re-vaccinated. She recommended titering them every one to three years. We did one about 2 years ago...but haven't done one since. Why I didn't do it on this last round of blood panels is beyond me and I am still kicking myself for it.

Work has been hectic lately and things have been going from bad to worse...common in rescue work...Part of the worse is two parvo puppies that need a lot of care. And because we have a trained tech and a vet, we can do a lot of things ourselves and save the organization hundreds of dollars. But that means that the trained tech is spending most of her time surrounded by active parvo. And while we are taking every precaution necessary, there is still some *slight* risk of transmission. And parvo can be deadly...

I've been going back and forth for almost a week now - plenty of time for the virus to transfer...but yesterday I decided to go ahead and just do it. I would never forgive myself if one of my kids came down with parvo. And I have vaccinated them before and I know that neither had any obvious reaction to the vaccine. I would have rather titered them, but things are so hectic around the office that I new it would never get done. I vaccinated pocket and mole, but Abby was vaccinated a year and a half ago, so I didn't even consider her - plus she has seizures and that was the last thing that we needed right now...


This decision has been really hard for me. I am very much against over-vaccinating, but I am very much for my pet's health and safety. I know that I am not going to be completely ok with my decision until a month or so - after the vaccine has reached maximum efficacy and having seen no adverse reaction. My kids are tough...they are troopers...they will be just fine...it's me that you have to worry about...

Monday, December 21, 2009

I Broke My Dog

On my break from agility I am trying to teach my dog the command "left" While in some cases this is a simple spin trick, in the case of agility it is often a valuable tool to have under your belt. When running a course, your dog may need to take an obstacle that you cannot get to fast enough to usher in with signals. This is where having a dog under voice control using directions (left, right, go on) can help you finish with a "winning time"

Abby and I are not interested in winning anything...I am still just so happy that she actually finishes a course. She doesn't need to have directional commands because she doesn't run fast enough (yet). But training Abby is really about training me - and one day I may have a dog that is fast enough to use directional commands, and it makes sense to start using them now so I feel comfortable with them when I actually need them.

Unfortunately in teaching Abby "left" I somehow broke her obedience in the process. Abby really should do obedience - she is a fast learner and she has a great memory. She loves hearing that "click" and almost vibrates with anticipation of it. Even when I don't train obedience for a while, she can still do everything I ask without hesitation. . .until a few days ago, that is...

Now when I ask Abby to "finish" she walks half way around, does a left (full spin) turn before finally completing the behavior. GGGRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! What happened??? Was turning left so rewarding that she did it even when she wasn't asked???

I'm trying not to be too hard on myself because I know that this is easily fixable and it happens a lot when training a new behavior...I can only hope that when we actually use the left, that something else doesn't break, like running half way into a tunnel, turning a circle, then coming out... The last thing we need is more "abbyisms" taking up time in a trial...

Monday, December 14, 2009

Old Videos

So my internet is finally working a bit more regularly then it has been... and i was finally able to upload the old fun match videos of abby doing her standard run. Remember, this was a fun match in mid November, and I was allowed to treat and touch my dog.

This first run I spent most of my time running Abby over contacts. She really doesn't like "new" obstacles. I spent the first few seconds of my run trying to convince her to take the new dog walk. But once she see the A-frame, there was no discussing. . .she was happy to take it. I wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have a problem with another "new" a-frame, so we went over this one a few times.



The second run was a bit more fun. Once Abby knew what we were doing, she totally blew me off and took the a-frame all on her own...silly girl! But she got back on track and was doing well until she saw the teeter and mistook it for a dog walk. I think I scared her a bit with it, but that was probably a good thing. She can't do a baby teeter on a good day, and a standard teeter would have terrified her enough to put her off contact obstacles for a while.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Frustrations of a Multi-Dog Household




Sure they look innocent enough. . . but try to do something with one alone and they turn into screaming banshees!


Abby loves to train. Mole loves treats. Pocket actually doesn't care either way...


Agility is done for the year. Due to weather, holidays and trials, we have a 3 week hiatus from formal training. That doesn't mean that I can stop training, however. There are certain things that I am supposed to be working on with Abby... but I have almost no motivation to do it because it brings chaos into my otherwise calm household.

All of my dogs are clicker trained - even the ones that don't really like the click itself...Not that I am trying to be mean and use a scary clicker for a dog that doesn't like the sound, but in my trying to find a click that my dog's don't hate, they have learned that clicking means TREATS!!!!!! And while I have stopped using clickers with mole all together, he still thinks that he should get a treat when he hears the click for another dog. And when he doesn't get a treat, he screams his head off.

I am positive that I am not the only person in the world without a yard I can train in, and with multiple dogs who are clicker trained. But how do these people train one dog without the other dogs going to pieces??? Or maybe people live with the barking for 15 minutes at a time??? But considering the fact that I will probably always be a multi-dog household, and the fact that I will probably always be training at least one dog, I need to figure out a way to train in peace!

Maybe frozen kongs and knuckle bones. . .

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sunday NADAC event

This past sunday was our first actual agility trial. This means that I couldn't use any food in the ring, and I couldn't touch my dog. It also means that we were being timed. Abby did quite well for her first trial. She took all the obstacles without ever being treated and her tail was wagging non-stop - a few times she even did a mini-yahoo! My only *complaint* is that my dog us too social in the ring. She keeps trying to go over to people to say hi. She never goes up to anyone ever! Yet she all of a sudden wants to meet the pole setters and the judge!!! Who is this dog????

The video was expertly brought to you by 4 legged flix. They go to a lot of the shows and other dog events and take wonderful video. I totally <3 them.

This was the first run of the day: a jumpers course. Abby ran it in 59.41 sec (1.63 y/s - kinda slow). It felt like an eternity out there - especially when she visited the pole setter.



The second run was a standard course. She ran this one in 67.99 sec (2 y/s - faster!!!). This dog walk was was different then the last one that she ran on here, so it took her a few seconds before she decided if she wanted to take it or not.But once she got going, it was all fun and games - especially on that A-frame!



We did a third run, it was a tunnelers course. Abby did great at the beginning, but I think she got a little bored because she decided that she was done 3/4 of the way through...We didn't buy that video...

So Amazing

I saw this video on a training blog that I read regularly, and I thought that it would be good to share it.



What I find interesting is that this person had gotten this dog for a specific purpose, but the dog wasn't the right fit for the job she wanted him to do. But she still worked with the dog and found the perfect fit for him. I think that a lot of us with dogs can relate to this in one way or another. None of my dogs turned out like I had originally imagined - after allowing them to be who they really are, they turned out even better then I hoped/imagined/believed possible.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009