Spry's running contacts

Got a chance to work Spry last night between the 3 lessons I was giving. It went really well! It was nice to have several short sessions. I moved her up to running a full length board from a 12" table. I can send her, be ahead of her, and be running. Almost 100% success. She did one goofy run where she bounced (think like tigger) down the board, I think always either having all 4 feet on the board or all 4 in the air, and she leapt over it. Other than that though, if she was on the board, she ran through the box beautifully. She did sometimes choose not to run the board but instead run fast on the ground next to it, which was not exactly what I wanted. But the instances of this happening are decreasing a lot! She is getting now to look for what I want her to do instead of just run haphazardly and seeminly thinking that she happens to be on the board cool, if not that's ok too. I think she is ready to move up to the 16" table!

how cute are they?

Why is there always a puppy on her head?

Drummer - 10 days

Piper - 10 days

Since it *is* the new year...

Reflection on what my goals were at the beginning of last year:

Ok... it's the New Year and all :) Here are my doggie goals for the year:
1 - Lose weight and get in shape! Panic is pretty fast and I need to be faster to really reach her potential.
2 - Be ready to enter Dexter in AKC trials when he turns 15 months old. That will be October 7th. From what I've seen so far, I think we'll definitely be ready.
3 - Teach both dogs more tricks, and I'd also like to work on some obedience.

My goals for Dexter competitively:
Compete in the USDAA 12" Nationals - and be competitive
Compete in AKC Nationals - maybe
Earn metallic ADCh and MACH
Complete UKC championship, and AKC championship if/when they are in Miscellaneous
Complete CD

And how did we do? Goal #1 - failed miserably :( Goal #2 - well was so so. Did enter him Oct 9-11 and he got his NAJ! But has had no successes since and stresses on contacts/weaves. Goal #3 - did both trick training and did train Dex for UKC novice obedience. Now, SHOWING in obedience was a total failure.

My Dexter competitive goals (and I realize now it wasn't clear, but I meant these to be lifelong goals!):
Compete in 12" USDAA Nationals competitively - I still think he has the speed potential. When he picks it up in a trial he looks fantastic. But we will have to work past our stress points.
Compete in AKC nationals - well we'll see if I really pursue that or not.
Earn metallic ADCh and MACH - all depends on getting past this tough spot we're in now, but I think we'll emerge a great team!
Complete UKC championship - DONE :) Will try for AKC once eligible.
Complete CD - HAH. Never going in that freakin' obedience ring again!

So here is my plan for now with Dexie-dog. He is entered this coming Saturday at SWARM's USDAA trial in Cinci (Gamblers, Standard, Snooker). Then the BRAG USDAA and a few weekends later the BRAG CPE. If after all those trials he is still having confidence issues around his trouble spots, I plan on taking a few months off of competition to just train and hopefully he'll forget to be afraid of those things at trials :) Question - Gamblers is first this weekend. Do I take the chance to ask him to do AF and teeter, which he's been not so great at doing at trials? The problem is once he gets on the teeter at a trial and hops off (in standard) we must go on. NO chance to re-do. At class/training if he does that at the beginning of the night and I put him back on, he usually does it fine and then doesn't have any more problems. Trying to decide if the same will happen at a trial, or if it'll just stress him. Because I *could* just create a gamblers course full of things he likes to do and make it totally stress free. Don't know what to do!!

So, Dexter's goals this year:
Be able to do weaves and all contacts in trial situations
Better FCs and overall smoother handling - right now he is just getting to the point where he can do sends and I can get some distance when we're running. So, the majority of our FCs I stil feel majorly in the way because I've had to babysit the jumps leading up to it.

That's pretty much it honestly. I don't care what or if any titles we get. I just want my little boy to have fun. That is the biggest difference I saw this weekend from our first weekend at North Olmsted. Even when he was not wanting to do obstacles, he wasn't shutting or slowing down for the rest of the course. If we happen to MAJORLY improve then maybe I'll Q him for/take him to USDAA Nationals but I wouldn't bet anything on that one.

Panic's goals:
I would love to finish our ADCh (only need one more gamble!)
Qualify for nationals in all tourney events
Go to nationals and perform to the best of our ability. What is that? Well I don't know. I need to be able to control my nerves and emotions at a big event, that will be very tough for me. I really don't think we could make it into Steeple or GP finals, but just running fast and clean, wherever that puts us, is my goal.
Improve Panic's confidence to take off a little bit earlier for jumps so she doesn't have to add that extra stride that costs us speed and time.
Improve our contact reliability.

Dexter trial wrap up - Wild Weavers Puli club 1/2-3/10

Well, I entered Dex in standard and JWW again at this trial. He's been doing so well on teeters and Weave Poles at practice! But, I never knew I should have been practicing with people bouncing basketballs around us :) Oh well! I was still very happy with him this weekend. No Qs, but he ran like a happy dog. He did get stressed out at several points by the basketball playing, but once we moved on would perk right back up and actually speed up quite a bit too! No shutting down here!

Unfortunately, he still feigned distraction right by the teeter and WPs at this trial. He can be running fine, then it's like 'oh my - but the basketballs! and ummm... this smells so good!'. Silly man. Also when the videographer (my dad) smells like your girlfriend (fada) who you haven't seen in like 3 months, it's pretty hard to resist running to him to sniff his pants incessantly, until the judge has to whistle you off course! I'm just glad he didn't pee on my dad or hump his leg. It looked like either was possible.

So he was happy to run this weekend, as long as it was not any of the obstacles he found to be stressful and worrisome. This weekend that was teeter, weaves, and A-Frame. Frame, who knows why, it *was* close to the side of the ring (basketballs) both runs so that is a probable cause.

Things to celebrate:
My happy bouncy dog
Good table performances
Never ran out of the ring (at this point I am willing to totally forget the fiasco that was the Dexter, MI trial and think this is NOT a typical problem for my little boy)
Did the chute on Sunday with no problem (something I was starting to worry might be a problem obstacle)
Had better WPs on Sunday than Saturday
Did the DW on Saturday, and did it FIRST ATTEMPT on Sunday! Woohoo!!

Will post vids later this week.

Puppy kisses!

Piper & Drummer w/Fada

Drummer

Piper

Piper & Drummer - 1 week

1 week

(More on picasa site)

1 week

Happy New Year!

What an exciting way to start 2010,with my very first litter of Portuguese Podengo Pequeno puppies! Piper and Drummer are week 1 week old today. They continue to be VERY good puppies (maybe TOO good) and Fada is an excellent mother (maybe TOO excellent).

Since there is just the two of them, and Fada is such a doting mother, they never fuss. I think a little "fussing" is good for a puppy. Seriously, I know that sounds strange, but I think putting a few obstacles in life is good for a growing, learning puppy. Like fighting for a teat, getting knocked off occasionally, having to crawl over and around other puppies, and generally learning to overcome life's little inconveniences. I would like to see them moving around more and not QUITE as "round" .

These two are more like singleton pups I've raised; spoiled and pampered. I think I am going to work on getting them together with some of the Border Collie puppies a bit more. THAT should knock them down a peg or two. : )

REALLY Have to work today, but will try to get some more pics up.

Hope everyone has a great day to start off the new year!

Play date

Play date!

Piper and Drummer are lonely. I've decided. The Border Collie babies have to fight for a teat, crawl over and under each other just to get around and generally have a LOT more tactile stimulation than the Podengos. Piper and Drummer eat and sleep. And gain weight! With only two, Fada can go to them when the cry to nurse, they don't have to work for anything.

Lianne dropped by after work to visit and we decided to put Fada outside and put two of the BC babies in her box with the baby Pods. Piper and Drummer seemed a bit startled at first. "Hey, who is knocking me around?" Then all four settled down into one mixed puppy pile for a nap.

I think I may start put them some of them together 2-3 times a day, to get the Podengos to be a little more active.

Then and Now... pod and faux-po edition :)

I was on my mom's Picasa site the other day looking at puppy pics and found a picture of Panic taken right after we got her. I thought it was pretty funny, and wanted to post a before/after comparison of her. I also have a picture of Dexter at a young age that Carol had emailed me... thought we could post up that one as well!

Here's Panic at about 9 mo (or at least that's what the shelter said), July '06:


Check out the no-chest wonder!

And here she is at the end of November '09 (I realize she's going to look like she has more chest bc she's sitting instead of standing - I think the biggest difference in appearance is honestly the shoulder muscles!):


And here's another fun pic:


And Dexter, as a baby... honestly glad I didn't see him that young, he looks ummm... kind of "interesting"!:


And Dexter all growed up:

First lines of 2009 - stolen from Daisy's blog!

The first line of each entry for each month - what I did was take the first line from *my* first entry each month because in at least one case my mom posted first. Lisa K - notice 7 out of 12 *are* about the dude, so at least from that, the majority *are* pod-related

1 Dexter stayed with our friend Mary Klein while we were in Hawaii from Dec 12-19th.
2 Got to practice w/Dex at the building again last night, for a few minutes both before and after class... his weave poles are speeding up, so it's funny to see him learn to adjust.
3 Dexter had his first group class last night.
4 Panic, Neat, and Fada competed at the Splash n Dash USDAA trial in Pittsburgh this past weekend.
5 How is Dexter coming along? Very well!!
6 This is Dexter at his second night of Mary Klein's class.
7 Panic, the faux-po, went to a USDAA trial this weekend, it went very well :)
8 Our club’s trial was this past weekend.
9 Last night was *not* Dexter's best... by any stretch of the imagination!
10 Dude had Mary's class last night.
11 I have been thinking lately about what sort of contact performance I want with Spry.
12 Non-podengo post here... so Miss Spry (now appx 9 months old, 19-19.25", which is 2+ inches taller than when we got her at the end of August!) is really becoming a lovely working dog.

Wed evening update

Piper and Drummer continue to put on approximately an ounce per day! And Piper has nearly caught Drummer. At six days old, they pretty much still spend their days doing nothing but eating and sleeping.

Since there are just the two of them, they don't have the jostling and fighting for position to nurse that their Border Collie roommates do. So I spend some time sitting next to the box bumping them around a little (gently, of course. ), pushing them aways from the teats, making them work a little to get there.

Fada is starting to ask to come out of the pen occasionally, even when she doesn't need out to potty. So while she is still really a great Momma, she's ready for a little time off, here and there.

Tomorrow will be a pretty traumatic day for baby PPods... I think I need to trim their nails. ALWAYS a chore on the little ones. Wish me luck!