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!

My Agility Paradox

As I've been writing about for the past month and a half, Teddy and I are working through the Ruff Love program. We are still in phase 1, and I expect to be until at least April. I'm in no hurry to rush him through the program and half do it like I did with our foundation training. I'm not going to make that mistake ever again. I learned my lesson the hard way.

Teddy and I have had a break from agility training for about the past month. This was due to bad weather and me being out of town, etc. So, when we pulled into the a parking spot for agility class last night, Teddy started excitedly barking when he realized where we were. I didn't know if this was a good or a bad sign. He was a bit over the top when he saw his old friends both human and canine. So, I warmed him up with some attention games to try to get some focus. We also tugged and I pulled out the "good treats". I bought a couple of those Skinneez toys that don't have any stuffing, which Teddy is crazy about. Here he's holding the mini raccoon. I didn't realize there were bigger ones until I went back to the store, and I bought a bigger leopard. They are great because you can wad them up and stick them in your pocket. Please don't look too closely at the unkempt poodle. He's overdue for a haircut. You can also see in the picture that we are continuing to wear the head halti. As his face grows out, he is developing a noticeable groove where the halti sits across his nose, poor boy. But I digress......

Much to my surprise, we had the best class that I can remember for a long time. We worked on threadles and various short sequences. It's not the exercises that we did that made it a great class and it's not that we did everything exactly as planned, but that we were really working together. Teddy was a happy, bouncy dog, not interested in zooming off, but really trying to play with me.

One of my biggest issues is my nerves. When the leash comes off, I worry that Teddy will start zooming. When I worry, Teddy picks up on this and thinks that something is wrong. When he senses something strange with me, he doesn't want to play agility (or anything else), which makes him zoom. Zooming is more fun than hanging out with mom who is acting weird. Thus, my agility paradox: the worrying about my dog zooming will only increase the probability of my dog zooming. I can only relax when I see my dog playing the game with me (ie not zooming), which will decrease the likelihood that he will zoom. It's a catch 22. Someday I want to make a video and edit together a bunch of his zooms. It's really funny when it's not you.

I was ecstatic that we had such a great night on the agility field. It feels so great when you and your dog are working together in sync. I don't know if it was because Teddy was glad to be back, the treats, or all of the Ruff Love work that we have been doing lately. I just hope that we can stay in this groove and make some progress.

Gigi Does New York

I was really thrilled this year to be able to go to New York to watch the Westminster Kennel Club dog show for the first time. I've grown up watching it on tv forever, and I've always wanted to go. So, my mom and I took a trip I'll never forget. On a mad dash out the door on the day we flew out, I saw Gigi, a small silver poodle that my mom brought me back from one of her trips, sitting by my phone. I grabbed her, thinking I could let her be a part of the fun. So, here is Gigi's perspective of our trip to New York. I had to take the pictures with my phone, so the quality is not great. Forgive me if this sounds a little like a children's book, I'll post my real pictures soon in a different blog entry.

Gigi helped get the car loaded so we could get the airport faster, we don't want to miss the plane.

Gigi waits anxiously to board the plane.

Gigi enjoys a cold beverage on the plane. Are we there yet?

We're finally in New York and checked into our hotel room. Gigi can't wait to jump on the bed and order room service.

On the first night, we went to see Wicked. Gigi gave it two paws up.

Here's the inside of the theatre.

The next day, we went to the top of the Empire State Building. That was one place that I had never been to, and because one of my favorite movies is "An Affair to Remember", it was a must see. We were lucky that it wasn't too cloudy that day. Gigi is right above Time Square here. We could still see the New Year's ball.

Next, we took a carriage ride through Central Park South. Gigi wanted to run through the snow and play with the dogs that she saw. I told her that the snow would just get stuck in her bracelets.

On Sunday, we went to the Yorkshire Terrier Club of America specialty show. There were so many beautifully groomed Yorkies all in one room. Gigi thought that since she is a poodle that it would be rude if she made an appearance.

After a fabulous day at Madison Square Garden and getting to watch the poodles being judged at ringside, we returned to watch the groups judged. The ring looks smaller than it does on tv.

Can't believe we are finally here.

Here's our group! We cheered loudly for the poodles.

We returned for Day 2 of the breed judging. Gigi felt like a real New Yorker when she started yelling at the people passing in front of us to keep moving along so everyone could see the rings.

Gigi can't wait for Best in Show to begin! We get to cheer for poodles some more.

After a wonderful week in New York, it was good to get home to my little show poodle (ha!). However, I don't think this is how Gigi wanted to be greeted.