Dog Torture then Dog Paradise

On our drive down we killed some time at a Petco while I got new tires put on my car. The best section for doggy torture was definitely the clothing aisle.

Xylo gets the tough black hat. Xylo has Addison's disease - that is why he looks so stiff and boney. He is 8 but he is stiff and arthritic like a much older dog. He still acts his age in every other way though, including having tons of fun running around with Abby and Ryan.

"Real men wear pink"
...suuuuure Ryan.

All three modeling. People must be used to seeing very badly behaved dogs - we got quite a few comments about how good our dogs were just by having them sit still for pictures in their shirts.And then, on to doggy paradise! This is a big dog park in San Francisco called Chrissy Fields. When we arrive the Golden Gate Bridge was invisible due to the fog. Eventually it started to clear but never lifted completely. What an amazing dog beach! Later in the trip we found a baby Great White shark washed up dead on the beach in Oregon. Abby better never swim out deep enough to be shark bait - she thrashes so much while swimming that she'd attract shark attention for sure! ;)
Three happy tired dogs at the end of a good run.

Abby says...

HI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wanna see some pictures of my trip to LA?

First....here is Ryan learning to weave with the 2x2 method. He almost has it! This is the beginning with 2 'gates' - the 2nd step or so. We are now on one of the last steps. Just have to add another 'gate' to make 6 poles and turn the first 'gate' slightly more to make a line of poles. I love this method of teaching weaves!

And now, onto the trip pictures.

Oh Abby, you look *beautiful*!

More pictures to follow...the internet has decided to be way too slow to upload pictures!

Vacation time!

We are leaving today on a road trip to LA for 2 weeks! I am so excited. This will be Ryan's first trip to LA. We're going to drive through Portland and stop at the Oregon Zoo, then on to San Francisco and finally LA. We did a trip along the Oregon coast back in March and the dogs had a great time on the beaches. They are the nicest beaches imaginable - sandy and wide open as far as you can see.

I never wrote that Ryan had his first agility trial! He's been in class for about 6 months now and he is doing very well. He nails his contacts every time and doesn't break until he's released. I have him jumping 26" for now but I will probably drop him to 22" regulars for his next trial. In his first trial he did Jumpers and Gamblers and Q'd in Gamblers with a beautiful opening (both minis twice) and a perfect gamble. I will have to put the video up soon. His jumpers run was very nice, no knocked bars, but I pulled him off a tunnel entrance too soon. It's hard to remember that he is a baby still in agility and doesn't read me like Abby yet!

In some ways he is easier to run than Abby. He barks less, for one thing - he only barks at the beginning of class when he is excited to be out and running. I did much more foundation work with him so it's nice to be able to trust that he will stop on his contacts. He also runs at a more manageable speed than Abby, even though I think he actually is faster. I don't know how that works. Maybe he commits to obstacles earlier so he is more predictable and feels more manageable? Abby can go over a jump with a bounce, sideways, while turning in midair, from a standstill. That is both a good thing (if I screw up handling) and a bad thing (if I think she is committed to a jump and I turn, and suddenly she pulls off the jump).

I really need to upload some recent videos of Abby too - I have become a much better handler and she has really improved recently!

I love my dogs. Ryan is the cuddliest, sweetest guy. He is always happy and he is so good in every situation. He recently met a sea lion at work at after 2 barks he was fine and was just interested in the herring that Hazy (the sea lion) was getting. Abby is so much better than she used to be that sometimes it's hard to remember just how 'bad' she once was. I don't feel like I'm restricted in what I can do with her anymore - maybe I've just realized that not every dog is right for every situation. I won't, for example, take her to a crowded beach full of screaming children and crazy dogs in the middle of a weekend. She is a very special dog - definitely my heart dog.

Just a few pictures

She did it again!

Well it's been almost a year since I last posted but since we just got back from Regionals I thought I'd post our results for comparison. This year the super mutt was even more awesome than last year! Regionals were held on the island - we had 4 runs Saturday afternoon and 2 runs Sunday morning. Out of all 6 runs we only had 1 that didn't go too well.

Saturday:
Std 1: 95/100 points because of a missed weave entry.
Jumpers 1: 70/75 because of a knocked bar
Gamblers 1: 71 points - a nice 36 point opening (did both minis once) and then Abby did the jump/out to a weird curved tunnel/weave perfectly
Jumpers 2: 85/75 - a clean run and 10 seconds under time.

By the end of Saturday Abby had 321 points or so and was in 8th place overall in 22" regulars! But then...I made the mistake of checking the results and seeing that she was in 8th place and stressing myself out so...
Sunday:
Gamblers 2: 24 measly points. I got stuck trying to send her to the mini gambles and it ate up all our time. She was distracted and I wasn't being clear and then she didn't see the out jump in the main gamble. We should have just run and racked up the points - stupid me!
Standard 2: 85/100 - missed a jump and by the time I got her back to the right place I wasn't in the right place so we had 2 more refusals - the end of the run was great though.

So in the end Abby finished with 430 points - quite a few more than last year. She came in 18th (not sure how many dogs in her class yet - will have to check later). Overall running with her felt great this year and much easier than it has in the past. Go Abby!