Happy Halloween

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Teddy & JoJo and I on the front porch. Yes, it's a poodle on my shirt and the pumpkin!

Teddy with his skeleton costume. It's so hard to get a good picture of him, especially in a black outfit.

Below is JoJo in his panda suit. We thought he makes a pretty good panda. Although, I should have put his topknot in before dressing him.

WCFO International Conference

Teddy and I have been training hard all summer to prepare for the World Canine Freestyle Organization's International Conference that took place this year in Oklahoma City. We had a lot of fun and learned a lot. The hotel that hosted the conference was perfect for a dog show. It had a large grassy courtyard that was completely enclosed so that we could turn the dogs loose to play.

Me & JoJo & Teddy with Michele Pouliot and Yvonne Koehler & Aspen

On Wednesday, we attended a seminar all morning and watched the Pro Stars compete in the afternoon. On Thursday and Friday, it was Teddy and I's turn to compete. We performed routines in the Beginner's B Heelwork to Music and Intermediate Musical Freestyle categories. I was very proud of Teddy, he was up and did not seem stressed on the first day. He probably did just about the best he has ever done in competition. On Thursday, we placed first in Beginner's Heelwork, earned a leg, and won a trophy for high scoring beginner dog. In Intermediate Freestyle we placed second and earned a leg.

Me & Teddy (looking adoringly at) Diane Kowalski and Yvonne Koehler & Aspen

On Friday, Teddy was much more tired and therefore stressed. When Teddy is like this he is noticeably more distracted and disconnected. We did not do as well as the day before. We missed qualifying in Intermediate Freestyle by 1/10th of a point, but still placed first. However, in Beginner's Heelwork to Music, we placed second and earned a leg, finishing our title. We also won best best collar.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in workshops and learning about training techniques from some top trainers and freestylers. I learned a lot and can't wait to start implementing some ideas. I even got to work JoJo, my then 15 week old puppy, which was fun. This was JoJo's first roadtrip, and I'm so glad that he got to tag along. The experience was priceless for him to get to be around a lot of other people and dogs. He had a blast and was so good in the hotel and crating room.


Here is our Beginner's Heelwork to Music routine.


http://




And here is our Intermediate Musical Freestyle routine. I realized about 3 months ago that the original choreography that I had for this routine was just not working for us. I had an extra prop that was a hula hoop and moves that Teddy did not enjoy. So, I changed about 75% of the choreography. I realized that because of the camera angle, you can't really see my prop. It's a large clock face.

http://

Here is the Arkansas group that attended the conference with our dogs and the awards that we all won:

We had a great week. It was an honor to be there and a pleasure to see so many creative and impressive teams.

The Birthday Boy

Teddy is 6 today! Oh, I can't believe how fast the time goes. Is there any way to freeze him at this age? He wore his birthday scarf to work today, and I'll give him some extra time at lunch today playing with his squeaky ball. And I guess we'll have to celebrate with our freestyle class this weekend with some special treats. Here is a picture I took of him (wearing his birthday collar) 2 days ago as part of my homework for my photography class:

In case you are wondering how you send your dog and be behind the camera waiting to snap the picture all at the same time: I used a Manners' Minder machine on the other side of the tire, I set Teddy up on a wait in front of the tire, ran behind the camera on a tripod, told him to jump, took the picture, and hit the remote on the treat machine. Teddy was good to oblige me as I need several attempts to get a halfway decent shot.

So far, it's been a good year for Teddy. We have managed to finally finish our Rally Advanced Excellent title, our Graduate Novice title, and our Freestyle Dog Excellent title in musical freestyle. We are on track to finish 2 more titles before the end of the year, but we'll just keep our fingers crossed for those because anything can happen. I'm so proud of him because he is trying so hard. We are working together as a team better than ever. He even earned a pairs leg in USDAA agility a couple of weeks ago. Our gambler's runs were beautiful, but my bad timing cost us the Q's. We will continue to keep working and playing freestyle and see where the future takes us. I just hope that we have a lot of years left to keep playing together. Happy Birthday my sweet boy!

Announcing JoJo

Please welcome my new addition:

Casablanca's Get Back JoJo

Born: May 4, 2009

Arrived: June 29, 2009

Weight at Arrival: 3 lbs. 4 oz.

Breed: Coton de Tulear

JoJo is named after his parents, Jolie and Joey, as well as the Beatles' song, "Get Back". He is a fun, playful, and rambunctious little boy. He may only be a ball of white fluff, but there is a fireball underneath. We have had a ball playing with toys, and he loves to run in the yard and tug. He's a good tugger, with the cutest baby growl. Potty and crate training are coming along steadily, but it's hard not to get impatient when it comes to those issues. However, he can already sit, down, and nose touch on command.
Teddy is coping with his new little brother moving in. He is mainly just avoiding him in general. I think he'll start to come around as JoJo gets bigger. This picture will give you some idea of what's going on in my house:So for now, we will just play and have fun and wait for him to get his last round of shots so he can get out and socialize. Then comes puppy class...

Teddy Lure Courses

Teddy had a fun Saturday. We went out to our agility instructor's house and watched some flyball. Then the dogs got to try out her new lure course. After that, all the dogs were turned loose to play and explore together.

Teddy had a ball playing with all the other dogs. He got really hyped up watching the other dogs run on the lure course. He did great the first lap around. After that, I think he was looking for a short cut. Actually, I think if they had teased him just a little bit more and kept the bag closer to him, he would have completed the second lap. Still, he had a great time. Maybe we'll try it again sometime. What a great way to spend a Saturday!

Happy Easter!

Teddy and I hope that everyone enjoys a wonderful Easter holiday!

"He is not here, but He has risen... the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. " Luke 24

No More Haltis & Rally Obedience

I recently realized how long it has been since I have posted an update. I don’t like to post anything if I don’t have anything to say, but we have been busy, I guess too busy to write a post. This may seem a little disjointed, but here it is anyway.

While we are still following the Susan Garrett Ruff Love book (see posts below), we have turned in our head halti. It is a product that I have never liked, and I have always read bad things about. There have been many reports of injuries with dogs. However, I thought that since my dog was no longer a rambunctious puppy, and I did not jerk on the head halti, then he would be fine. That was not the case, though. One day, I got Teddy out of his crate and he cried. At first I couldn’t figure out what was hurting on him because he wasn’t limping. After a trip to the vet, Teddy was diagnosed with a bad neck strain. Luckily, it wasn’t anything worse than that. He was put on crate rest for a week or so until he was better. Lesson learned- no more head haltis! I’ve been careful with him since then, but he hasn’t shown any more distress.

Since January, we’ve made a lot of progress on our teamwork. Teddy’s attention has gotten better, and we are starting to play well together. We still lack some control, but I think that will come with time. I don’t worry about what will happen when the leash comes off like I used to, and we can have a lot more fun on the agility field now. We had a small set back this week in class because Teddy was very interested in the sheep poop, but that was mainly when class was over. It was baby sheep poop, too, which evidently tastes better than adult sheep poop. I learn something new all the time.

Recently, we also filmed our freestyle routine to mail in to be judged. I wish that we had another week or so to try to video one more time, but the due date always comes too quickly. Here is our entry in the singles novice musical freestyle category. I’m crossing my fingers because we just need the one leg to finish our novice title.

And if that is not enough, we had our training club’s obedience trial a couple of weeks ago. We entered rally advanced, rally excellent, and graduate novice on both days. On Saturday, we did the best heeling that we have ever done in a trial. I was so pleased with Teddy’s attention. We got RAE leg #8, but we did not qualify in graduate novice. Teddy decided not to down on the drop on recall, which was such a shame because he did everything else so nicely. On Sunday, there was a noticeable difference in our heeling and attention. That is something I need to continue to work on. However, we did manage to get RAE leg #9, and our first graduate novice leg. I learned a valuable lesson at the trial. You had better know the rules and the exercises in the classes you enter. When I went in the graduate novice ring on Sunday, the judge had never judged that class before because it is so new. I thought he was joking with me at first. He asked me the order of the exercises, how they were supposed to go, if we were supposed to have our leash on or not, and how long the down stay was for. He was really funny and nice about the whole thing, but it was good that I had read the rulebook before the trial. Here are some of the pictures from the weekend.

Graduate Novice on Saturday:

And here are some pictures from rally on Sunday (our worse heeling day):

I swear he's laughing at me here!