25 December Days of Games, and why not?

Some dog agility enthusiasts of mine are participating in this game which was thought of by SpiritDog Training.  I decided… Why not?  The days are short, and it’s cold outside.  Some evenings, it’s already -10 degrees Celsius without the wind chill by the time I get home, so ready-made ideas to keep the dogs busy are more than welcome.

As always, I’m behind.  I hope to post 2 videos a day to get to Chrismas at the same time as everyone else.  Still, I only began last week, so I know I’ll miss more than just a few days.

Each of my dogs will get her chance to shine.  Today, Fannie is the star.

Day #12

“Today is all about new toys!  Find/Invent a total novel toy that your dog likes – and use only things found around the house.

May a fluffy cloth wrapped around a tennis ball, a water bottle with some frozen peas in it, an empty yoghurt container on a string… be creative, and send us a picture of your ideas!”.

In my case, I decided to video Fannie, who is very curious about a Christmas ornament… a bell.  No, I didn’t let her play with it.  I simply loved to see her reaction to it.

Here is the video.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

No! I don’t want to!

Staycation is still on!  Yesterday, we participated in the CARO rally o trial in Kemptville.  It was a last minute decision, and we didn’t really practice.  Still, I was confident enough with Jasmine’s skills that I knew we could qualify; it would all depend on me.

Environment Canada called for a very hot day, and finally recorded 31.5 degrees Celsius, not counting the humidex.  Yuck!  Luckily, it was to be a very small trial, so I was hoping for an early finish.   Strangely, the only factor I was worried about was the morning dew.   I think I was denial about the heat!   Normally, Fannie and Jasmine won’t do a sit or a down on wet grass, and at this time of the year, the dew is strong.   We arrived on time (Ha!) set everything up, and walked around a bit.  Our feet (human and fluffy) were soaking wet in no time.  I was in sandals, thank goodness, and changed in dry socks and shoes before our courses.

Jasmine’s runs

The judge was actually Jasmine’s first rally o instructor, so I knew pretty much what to expect.  At first glance, I couldn’t see a station on the course that could be a problem.  We usually lose points for “lagging” or “out of positions”.  What I didn’t take into account, was going in my training mode at the 1,2,3 station.  I first put Jasmine in a sit, and automatically retrieved a reward from my pocket.  My brain goes: “What are you doing???  It’s too early to reward her”.  I put the reward back in my pocket, and repeated the station.  First, you’re not supposed to reward the dog before a station.  Second, my training came back to haunt me.  Her release word is “go”, but I told her to “heel”.  Normally, that would have been enough for Jasmine to get up and do what I asked her to do.  Unfortunately, our lack of practice made Jasmine not respond to it, and she stayed put.  Biiiig NQ.  I read the score sheet later, and we were going for a 199 points finish!!!!!  Sigh…  I must remember to be more consistent with my commands, but of course, that’s an ongoing problem with me.  The judge asked me why I repeated the station, and I told her why.  “Oh, I didn’t see that from my angle, but would have when you completed your station” was her answer.   My thought was “I would have known” which is why I repeated it.

Jasmine’s second run was short and sweet.  The morning dew and the shade had allowed her to stay fresh and cool.  Unfortunately, the sun was moving along its normal trajectory and we no longer had shade.  By the 6^th station, she was lagging so much behind me, that I knew that she’d had enough.  She went into a down, and refused to move.  She seemed to be saying “No I don’t want to!” I gently tugged her leash, and nope, it was a no-go.  That was the end of the trial for her.

Fannie’s runs

Fannie’s first run was ok, but I NQ on the “moving down” (still working on the station, so no surprise there) and “1,2,3 steps backwards” (I goofed at the beginning).  The funny part of the course was when Fannie went in a down at the “pivot left” station.  We’ve been practicing so much on the moving down, that I probably gave out the wrong vibes.

The second run was a dud right from the beginning.  We had the “offset figure 8” with food distractions as a second station, as well as the infamous “halt-stand-leave-exam” station as the second last one.  Well, we still need to work on our “leave it” command, but she is improving on being examined.  She sniffed her little heart out at the food bowl, but the judge was able to walk around her during the “leave-exam” and she didn’t move.  She did wag her tail….  The judge was nice enough to try it a second time (yes, we were training at this point) and touch Fannie.  Ha!  Fannie looked at her adoringly and tried to charm her way to a Q.  (just kidding!)

Overall, she only left me once during the second run, but by this point, it was boiling HOT!

Improvements

Jasmine: I’ll start working seriously with her on the advanced exercises.  It’s just a question of time before we Q, and I would like her to be ready for that levelwhen the time comes.

Fannie: I only get her undivided attention by the 5^th or 6^th station.  I really, really have to work on our prep routine and our heeling.  Obviously, we also need to work on the advanced exercises.

Evil little Jasmine

This is what happens when you leave your clothes hang out to dry in a Jasmine accessible spot.  I only discovered this once I had arrived at the trial location, and couldn’t find anything in my car to sew/bind/staple with.     The trial secretary saved the day by providing a clip.  Yay!  My right reward pocket was sound again.

The reward pocket that ceased to be.  I should have suspected this early in the morning.  I put my car keys in this pocket, but they fell right through to the pavement.  I blame my lack of caffeine for this.

 

 

 

Funny little Fannie

I was very much surprised when we were awarded with the “show great relationship with dog” gift at the end of the advanced level.  Here is the little clown with her loot.

The treats will probably go to Fannie, and toys to Jasmine

May the staycation begin!

(Warning, this is a very long post with lots of pictures!)

I was honoured when I was asked to offer two mini-demos for two libraries in the region.  The sessions are very basic, where I include doggy etiquette,  rally o, therapy work, and agility.  I’m not an expert in dog sports, but I have fun practicing them, and a bonus….  my dogs love kids!

The first demo was at the Russell Township Public Library, the Embrun branch.  The public library offers services in partnership with local French Catholic school.  It’s actually my alma mater, but I was so disoriented!  A new intermediate school was built on what used to be our school yard!  Yes, it was that big!  We had huge fields beyond that, as well as small woods we would visit almost every fall.  Now, it’s all houses, houses, and houses it seems.  It’s the price to pay for being an Ottawa suburb.  *sad sigh*

I have no picture of the morning demo, but all I can say is that it was HOT!  The dogs stayed in the shade when not working, so all was well.  Some of the kids had attended last year, and remembered the dogs!  We ended with a meet and greet inside the library, where air conditioning made the whole session very comfortable!

The afternoon demo was in the neighouring village, Russell.  The location offered shade… Yippee!  I had time to spare, so took a picture of our “outside office” and the setup.

Outside office!  You can see the fenced-in library gardens behind the dogs.

As you can see, I even established a “line” with cones to make sure the kids wouldn’t be running in dogs.

The dogs were happy, and still willing to work.  We were joined by a husky buddy, Killarney!  Jasmine was so tired by the end of the day; she was nodding off when I was putting the equipment away.

The library has an outside garden adjacent to the children’s department.  I tried to take a good picture, but the light is too bright, and it was so hot…  This is the best I could do.

Hot Dogs!

Tucked away in the corner was a “Bug Motel”.  It was the result of a previous activity and kind of neat!  This would be interesting to do next year at work.

I stopped at my parents on my way back home.  The dogs said their hellos to everyone, but wasted no time in relaxing…

Tired Jasmine

Our next demo was two weeks later at the Champlain Public Library in Vankleek Hill.  The session was part of their end of Summer Reading Club party ….  no pressure!!!  Yikes!

Introducing the dogs in Vankleek Hill

It was a sticky, sticky day, but the sun made itself scarce, so that was a relief!  The rain also held off to everyone’s delight!  I didn’t bring my cheat sheet, and yes, I did the agility segment too early as I usually end with it.  Still, I think the kids liked it.

I love the smile of the little girl’s face!  We’re about to do figure eights around two kids.  Do you see Fannie’s focus on me?  Wow?  I must have food in my hand.

Jasmine was the humour relief of the event, as she decided to go off exploring…. during an agility sequence!!!  She ended up in someone’s backyard, but luckily, a library staff snatched her.  It seems that Jasmine was actually on the house’s back porch, looking for a way inside.  I was keeping an eye out on the street, but could hear the kids laughing and screaming in the park.  It seems that everyone thought it was hilarious that the dog was found, but not the human!  Jasmine looked all innocent and cuddly in the library staff’s arms, so I gave her a break until we did the crate games.

Jasmine playing crate games with a little girl.  I have a look of “Don’t you dare wander away Jazzy!”

Fannie did awesome when we did the therapy testing segment.  Yes, I’m very honest about some so-called “therapy dogs”, but parents have been lied to by unethical breeders.  They can’t be too informed I say!  Here is the video…

Jasmine showed what she can do on the weaves.  Yes, I’m sloppy during demos, and it’s for the fun of it, but if you ignore the technical side of things too often, it can come back and haunt you in the future.  What wasn’t “planned” was Jasmine’s jump at the end.  You may be able to see it from the video, but things could have been ugly.  Good thing she’s an excellent jumper!  Here is the video.

The librarian invited me for a lunch at her house after, where Jasmine explored to her little heart’s delight, and Fannie met Tigger.  Fannie was a lady, and simply sniffed him and walked on.  Jasmine found a tennis ball close to the piano, and started to play with it.  You can’t say that my dogs aren’t comfy in someone else’s home!

We haven’t been competing at all, so these little no fuss demos are fun to do!

Williamstown Fair Demo 2016

Well, the Hilltop Agility Club annual demo at the Williamstown Fair is done! Many thanks to Joanne who accepted to run both dogs for me today. To make sure that they would follow her, I had cut up some chicken for both dogs as well as buy some timbits at Tim Horton’s. It worked!

Why didn’t I run my dogs?  A tendon injury has “grounded” me so to speak.  I’m not allowed to run, so I volunteered to narrate the whole event instead.  We had one demo in the morning at 11, and the second at 2.  The dogs were not allowed on the fairgrounds this year, as an incident occurred last year (not our dogs).  Instead, we were limited to the agility field.  To be quite honest, I’m a bit relieved with this new rule.

Jasmine’s Run

Jasmine looked for me at the very beginning of the run, and once she found me, seemed to think it was ok to continue. She did one of her super high jumps, and I “think” I may have heard the crowd laughing.

Fannie’s Run

Fannie? Siiiiiigh. Don’t you hate it when your dogs run better with someone else? I “think” she may have tried to kiss some little kids, and may have run beside a jump? I’m not sure. I do know that she aced her weave entry, and completed them. She also sat obediently at the very beginning of the run.  Joanne actually told me that Fannie is fun to run, as she requires almost no instructions…  That’s good..  Right?

To be quite honest, I’m not sure how it really went.  I hid away behind some spectators, who were very willing to accommodate,  and make sure the dogs wouldn’t find me.

Joanne, you are a wonder! Running three dogs with your Happy Feet, all with very different personalities.   Wow!

Waiting to begin

I took both of them out of their crates before the beginning in order to give them a “crate break”.

You see the yellow cable surrounding the agility field?  That’s how close the trucks, trailers, and most importantly, the horses were to the dogs.  Fortunately, none of the them broke away to visit or even noticed them, except for a puppy.  😉

The club members are setting up the equipment.  They had removed the dogwalk at this point, but it originally was parallel to the club trailer.  Interesting tidbit, there was a horse chilling behind our trailer during a run, and when a dog suddenly appeared on the dogwalk, it raised its head in surprise!  You could actually hear his thoughts “Hey!  How did that piece of fluff get up there!?!”

“Wave to the photographer!”.  Dan and Penni are setting up the jump heights. We were our own ring crew, and I called them the “agility elves” every time they rushed out in the fields to make changes.

We’re about 30 minutes away from the 2 pm session, and Joanne takes time for a meet and greet with Happy.  Needless to say, Happy is very popular everywhere she goes.

Still 25 minutes to go, but people have begun trickling in.  You can see Jane resting, probably having lunch.  Saturday, she helped man her workplace’s booth, as well as participate in the demo.  Busy lady!

Demo is done, and we’re on our way back home.  Williamstown is a very old Loyalist community established in the 1780s on the Raisin River.  You find very interesting architecture, beautiful houses, and fortunately in many cases, the owners take care of them.  I’ve moved in the area five years ago, and keep telling myself to stop and take pictures of this covered bridge.  Fair day is the day!

I have a feeling that this bridge is privately owned, and not even used to access the property.  Still, it’s beautiful.   Eastern Ontario has been suffering (yes suffering) an awful heat wave and drought for the whole month of July, but luckily, the themometre only went up to 30 degrees celsius today.  We had a wonderful breeze, but it was still hot in the Sun.

Now, the dogs are both napping.  They earned they supper today!

Rally O – A “bracing” adventure…. ;-)

I finally got around taking a video of the fluffies doing “brace” in rally-o.  Basically, the dogs have to do the same stations, but they’re leashed together by a coupler…  We’ve worked on heeling before, but only upstairs in the living room.  This is the first time I’ve tried walking with them in the basement.  So far, so good.  Jasmine is a good heeler, but not the kind to be stuck to my side.  Fannie gets a bit closer, so I’ve decided to position her on the inside.

In the video, you’ll see that Fannie lags a bit in one of our turns, but this is the first time I’ve noticed it.  I’ll keep a close eye, and if this doesn’t happen all the time, she’ll keep her spot.

I’m not training for a specific trial in mind, but hoping to get a better focus from Fannie in agility.  Last year, her performance visibly improved when we worked at rally-o at the same time.  Of course, this could be  because I’m simply working more with her.  (Ahem) She completed her novice title, but still needs to work on the stations in that level before I can ever contemplate competing seriously in advance, which is why we’re working on the brace category.

Here’s the video.  I like where this is heading.  😀

Back to work & Therapy brags!

Back to work

After the October trial, I decided not to enter Fannie in any agility competition for the time being, or at least until January or February.  I’m not “that strong”.  Our performances were far from stellar, mostly because of distractions and my nervousness.  Our first day wasn’t that bad, and I even squeezed in a threadle in one of the courses with her!  (Fannie gets threadles) Unfortunately, I’d rather forget about the second day.  😦  Again, I ignored Fannie’s preferences of one day trials, and paid for it greatly.

A fellow agility club member asked me if I wanted to be her team partner for “Teams”.  I accepted, warning her that my dogs and I are certainly not ready for a Masters level event.  She insisted she didn’t mind.  Well, Jasmine wasn’t a happy camper, since I was stressed, but Fannie wasn’t that bad… considering…

Finally, this convinced me to seek professional help, and I asked a friend if she wanted to give us private agility lessons.  So far, we have only met three times, but I feel as if I’m back in agility mode, and more aware of what’s going on in the sport.  Yes, I admit it doesn’t take much to boost my confidence.  A good teacher who holds my hand is sometimes all I need.

Therapy work

Jasmine and I are back in the “therapy groove”, if only on a part-time basis.  We have no planned weekly visits.  We mostly replace other teams who can’t make it for my workplace’s program “Paws’n Books” and/or we participate in one-time special events.

A few weeks ago, the team who is responsible for the baby storytime at work asked me to share my knowledge of babies and dogs.  I’ll amend that to “limited knowledge”.  😉  The group meets on a weekly basis, and along with stories, songs, lap dances, we have guest speakers.  So far, we’ve had someone talking about breast cancer, essential oils, literacy, car seat safety, and.. well… dogs…  I mainly talked about how to make sure your baby doesn’t look threatening to your dog.   I also explained what to look for to determine if a dog is calm, stressed, or scared.  Yes, I did talk about those horrible pictures on social media where we see babies being allowed to be pushywith dogs or doing things that can only lead to dangerous results.

All, in all, I’m very, very proud of Jasmine’s work.  She stayed calm and collected the whole time we were there.  She was crowded by the 3-5 group who came to say “hi!”.  She was pat-patted by the babies.  Squeezed Hugged by a four year old.  Needless to say, Jasmine was a superstar!  YES!  I SAID IT!!  A SUPERSTAR!!!!  Let it be known that she is not a superstah.  No, a superSTAR!  (English may be my second language, but I hate it when adults “baby talk” words.  I hated it when I was a child.  I hate it as an adult.

I can already hear the comments…  I critisize others letting their dogs being pushed to the point of losing their cool, while I let the same thing happen to Jasmine.  First, Jasmine is a therapy dog.  She’s tested, and doesn’t show signs of stress or reactiveness with babies.  Second, if I see a baby, toddler, or a child doing something that might stress her, I control the situation.  Third, for every hug, pat, grab, tail pull (there were none), Jasmine was rewarded with food treats.  Therefore, she associates children with good things happening.  As you can see from the pictures, she looks far from stressed.  Alrighty, I step down from my soapbox now.

As an FYI, here is a link to one of the handouts if you’re interested.  The artist is Lili Chin, and her work is excellent and most importantly… cute!

Finally, here is the picture of the superSTAR!

Today, the beautiful gentle husky who should have done the Paws’n Books couldn’t make it, so it was Jasmine to the rescue!  😀  We had about 7 visits, and one of them was a fluffy tail obsessed baby.  No fluffy tails were pulled, let me reassure you.

No child came to read to Jasmine.  Instead, a mother asked me questions about how to train her dog the basic skills, such as sit, down, and heel.  Basically, she wanted her dog to have manners.  Her daughter kept Jasmine in a state of constant bliss by petting her while we chatted.  I was happy to learn that she and her dog were already entered in a beginner’s obedience class in town for January 2016, and simply wanted to learn more about it.  I hope I helped.

Jasmine being kept in a state of constant bliss.

 

3H Days (Hot, Hazy, and Humid)

One of the risks of running a dog in agility is Mother Nature’s wraths. She may decide to throw those hot, hazy, and humid days at important events .  I personally call them “The 3H Days”.  Despite our cold and freezing Winters, and depending on where you live yes, Canada does have them.   If you live in the Ottawa Valley, you know that you’ll have to survive through at least 2 weeks of them every Summer.  Not pretty, I know.  This year was no different, and the thermometer spiked up to 32 on the Saturday, which with the humidex felt something like 37.  On Sunday, it was 34, with a humidex of 42.  All I can say is the earlier your runs are scheduled, the better it is for your dogs…

August 14-15, 2015….

Fannie

This weekend was planned in order to allow both dogs to play agility. Saturday was reserved for Fannie, and we attended the CKC trial offered jointly by the Ottawa Valley Golden Retriever Club and the Ottawa Valley Poodle Club AKA Goldenpoo Trial. 😉  Her first run was novice standard, and here is the video.  To my great surprise, she hopped off the table (GASP!) but successfully completed the weaves in her first try!  Good Fannie!  I also experimented and tried a rear cross at the very end, which wasn’t a good idea. Still, my little Fannie dog qualified and obtained her Novice Title. Fannie also succeeded in running a qualifying PAD course, so heeeeeere come another title!  She is now an AGNS and an NPS dog! AGNS (Agility Novice Selected) and NPS (Novice Points and Distance Selected).   Ooooooh.   I’m getting goosebumps simply by writing this.  😉

Because of the 3H days factor, I scratched Fannie out of the other Novice event she was scheduled to do.  On a nice day, it would have been fun, but on a day like this, it’s not worth it.  Mesdemoiselles Fannie and Jasmine were bundled away in the air conditioned car and we put-putted away. May I add that I’ve never scratched a dog out of an event before.  Yes, it was *that* hot.

Oh, a stop at DQ was required to celebrate the titles. Mmmm, those chocolate milkshakes are delicious on 3H Days….

By the way, I have no idea how those ribbons got in Jasmine’s face.  😉

Must be Fannie’s doing.

Jasmine

Friends sometimes say that I’m too hard on myself. Well, I finally prove them right. I’m on vacation this week, and working on updating Jasmine’s agility spreadsheet (yes, I keep a spreadsheet, so sue me) and I’ve been noticing several things. First, when Jasmine is “in the zone”, she’s “in the zone”.   Here is a example: October 2014 Masters Jumpers: she’s one of four dogs who only have a 5 point fault. Two dogs qualified, eight dogs were eliminated, yadayadayada out of 20 dogs. That’s good! Right? Lesson number 1, don’t be so hard on yourself and your dog. Agility life will be much simpler if your dog feels your confidence in him/her.

Jasmine was certainly in the zone last weekend. Yet again, we tried to get a qualifying run in starters snooker. We were at the Hilltop trial in beautiful Williamstown Ontario, which is technically, our home turf. I’m a member of the hosting club. Well, first of all, I arrived at the last minute…. again… I was lucky enough to have enough time to walk the course…. again…. My first thought was : “Good, no contact equipment except for the teeter. Jasmine tends to linger in the contact zones in competition, but she adores the teeter”. My second thought was…. “Wow! We can do this!”. I ran back to the car, got the white fluffy dog, and…. only used tug toys to get her “reved up”.  We ran, but I forgot that 7 is a 3 obstacle thingnig.  Of course I completed it in the opening, but I completely forgot it in the closing. Even so, we finished with a 51 point snooker…. 51 POINTS!!!!! That’s a record for us. YES!! I was jumping up in down in circles when I saw the Q on the score sheets. “Q”!!!!!! This was our Starters Games Title!!!!   I’ve been waiting for years!!! Here is the picture of my noble little dog! Please note that this beautiful girl is 10 years old…

Since this was Jasmine’s day, I had also entered her in Masters jumpers. Poor little tyke…. She was probably feeling the heat by this time, or she was probably hurting somewhere,  or both, and she simply refused to run. She hopped over the first jump, and simply stopped at the second one. Ok Jasmine… I get the message…. One run on hot, hot days for you now.  At the end of the trial, I stayed a bit to help out with the loading. It would have been a good idea if I had remembered to take my meds that morning. Something must have wacked out in my system, because I suddenly saw the horizon tip on its side while I was resting. That’s it. The hot day and my blood pressure must have been fighting each other, and I simply packed up and left.

An the fun continues…

I’m just beginning my vacation, so we have another trial scheduled for Fannie next Saturday. This is getting fun!

Training

I won’t make any comments like “I’m back to blogging” or “Long time no blog”.  I’ll jinx myself if I do, and won’t be back for another year.  No, I’ll go directly to what I want to talk about.  How about that?

Last week, I took a first private lesson (poor instructor…  no one warned her about my chatting) and came back home with homework!  Yes, homework!  Training that I have to do,  which I’m didn’t have to come up on my own.  YES!

Basically, she and I discussed what I wanted to do or work on, and we agreed to concentrate on a few things.  Yes, Fannie and I did a short demo, but we had to stop because of the rain, thunder, etc. etc.  Imagine… Both of us sitting under a canopy with Jasmine and Fannie discussing agility.  At least we were out of the rain.

First, rear crosses: they are like a foreign language to me.  I’ve never really had a reason to learn them properly before, because Jasmine isn’t fast enough OR doesn’t really run ahead of me.  Fannie, on the other hand, has the potential to tolerate them.

Second, tight turns:  It’s not something I really worked on with Fannie.

Third, weaves:  Doggone it, I can’t seem to get Fannie as excited about them as Jasmine is.

Finally, send to tunnel: I tend to babysit Fannie to tunnels most of the time, not really trusting her to complete them…

Now that we have a plan, we just have to “execute” it…. Right?  Not that easy when the region is going through its first real heat wave of the Summer.   We patiently waited one whole week before doing our homework.  Good thing our instructor is very patient.

What you’ll see in this video is Fannie’s homework.  I did all the same exercices with Jasmine, except for the weaves and the tunnels.  I’ll post the video later on.

Rear crosses: Fannie certainly doesn’t get a rear cross to the right, but does well with the left.  Yup, a sure sign that she totally doesn’t understand the command.  I began with a good 3-4 metres away from the jump.  Not sure what to do with my arm yet….

Weaves: I opened the weaves at about 5 cm, and did a straight entry, both sides, as well at a 45 degrees angle.  Fannie understands that I’ll put the reward at the end, and it’s waiting for her.  She’s happy!  We were around 2 metres away.

Tight turns:  I can’t believe I did that!!!  I was silent!!!  The reason we’re working on the turns is to give them a command!  Argh.  Other than that, she did well I think.

Send Tunnel: She did well, but on the left entry, I raised the level of difficulty.  I stopped at about 1.5 metres away, and she started to do a U-turn inside the tunnel.  I gave her the command to continue, which she followed.  Note: I’m standing at about 2 metres away of the tunnel most of the time.

Next session

• Remember to warm up and engage with Fannie.  I automatically do it with Jasmine, sooooo, what am I waiting for to do what’s right with Fannie?  Hmpf!
• Keep the same distance in RC with Fannie.  She still doesn’t get it.
• Remember to put a jump after the weaves to avoid the hops getting higher and higher at the last 2 poles.
• Keep that arm up to support her, which I tend to forget.
• Remember to give the “tourne” command to Fannie (I still can’t believe I didn’t do it!)
• Remember to practice both sides with tight turns.  *sigh*
• Keep increasing the distance that I stop away from the tunnels, which will reduce the “babysitting” at the tunnel.

General comment: The advantage of training both dogs one after the other is that I can compare performances.  Although Jasmine shows more speed, what truly surprised me was the focus she gave me this evening.  She usually ends up doing her own thing in a normal practice.  This may mean that I’m keeping each dog’s session the right length of time.

Fannie is totally focused on me, which I explain by the food.  Next time, I’ll leave some toys on the ground where we train.  We’ll see what happens then!  Yes, I’m an evil human.

Here is our practice video.  It’s a bit boring, and you’ll quickly get tired of me saying : “Bravo”.

Back to blogging AKA Dog training

Hello everyone!

Yes, I haven’t been very disciplined about posting in my blog, but sometimes, life happens…  Family obligations, work, and personal challenges were obstacles.  However, this isn’t in my plans for this Winter.

I’ve decided to start modestly, and go back to training basic tricks to my old and young dogs.   Fear not my friends, I’m not quitting agility.  No, I’m simply taking my time.  You see, Fannie loves ring crews too much, and continuing triailing would simply be a waste of money, and frustrating for both human and dog.

Here goes….

Trick number 1 – Play dead

Here’s Jasmine version of it.  She mastered this trick eons ago.  Sometimes, an extra “bang” is required for her to understand what I want….  😉

Pow – Jasmine style

…aaaand, here is Fannie’s first steps in conquering “Bang”

Pow – Fannie’s beginning

Next goal: to update this blog in less than three days…  See you then.

Williamstown Fair 2014

Yes, I’m back. I have a lot to say, but one post would simply be not enough. Instead, let’s begin this return to blogging by describing our day at “Canada’s Oldest Annual Fair”,  the Williamstown Fair. We’ll leave agility training discussion for another day. 

Our agility club hosts a demo at the Williamstown Fair for a few years now. It’s a first for us, but we’re really not strangers of this sort of thing. We have done similar activities for the libraries where I’ve worked, but this event has, by far, the biggest audience.  Interested about the fair?  Here is their website.

Two demos were done, and this video is the one at 10 am. Fannie visits the spectators, but let’s be honest, that’s what people like: dogs making mistakes. They think it’s the cutest thing. My mistake was not rewarding both dogs more often.

What I liked the most? Jasmine’s little tail, showing me she was happy doing agility.

What I liked the least? I didn’t call Fannie in the tunnel, so off she went to visit.

Here is the video.….

In between demos, I strolled around, taking pictures.  Enjoy…

Jasmine giving you a good look at a Ford tractor.  1957 I think.  My father’s first tractor was this model.  He told me he loved it because it was so easy to do repairs….

Jasmine stiking a pose at the Beyond 21 booth.

This is probably the closest my dogs will ever get to cows.  These are Ayreshire cows, and ours were Holstein.  Still, they both produce milk, so it’s the thought that counts.

Last but not least, Fannie getting to know a staff from our neighbouring library, SD&G County Library.