Update

There really hasn't been much going on lately. My aunt has been sick for almost seven weeks. While she is doing much better she still isn't up to par yet so I have been busy lately.

I had to hold off on Vivre agility class when she went in to heat and I haven't gotten a reply from the people yet on new class dates. Actually I think they have forgotten me, but with Marti being so sick lately I couldn't have gone any way. I had to cancel on Brydon twice for bitework and it has been so hot I have worried about Vivre's total inability to pace herself on hikes.

We did go for a short hike to Dog Slaughter falls one day when it wasn't too hot. I have some short video, but I haven't gotten it posted yet and it isn't anything but Vivre fetching her toy in the creek and some shots of Vivre at the little beach there.

On the video I was throwing her toy in the shallow rocky area which usually isn't a problem, but she went over a rock, slipped and pulled a muscle. She was fine, but I didn't do too much with her there after that.

Here are a couple of the photos. They aren't great shots, but they are of Vivre so that is enough. Um... okay it won't let me post the shots so I will try again later.  Just had to restart firefox...

Show Visit

I need to stop writing this blog when I am tired or in a hurry. Every time I go back it seems choppy. Oh well.

I was only able to make it to the last day of the show over the weekend because of rain. Our road has started to flood when we get a hard rain, feel my annoyance. I never really paid that much attention to agility before Vivre. I thought it looked cool, but my dogs were all too old or had old injuries that kept it from being an option so I just never really got in to it. So my real introduction to agility was through Sprite pups. Mostly seeing videos of Thrill and Tilt and a few of Pico. I didn't truly get how impressive these dogs were on an agility course until this weekend.

It seemed to me to be a very small show. There were only two rings going one JWW and one Standard, and a lot of the people seemed to know each other. I went primarily because I wanted to get a feel for the environment. I have very high standards about how I expect people to behave around dogs and with groups of dogs and I was pleasantly surprised. I can only think of two instances that caused me to raise my eyebrows. Well one that caused eyebrow raising and one where I just thought WTF are you thinking!

Basically though I had a good time, I got to see responsible dog owners, which is a rarity in my life at times, and I decided that it really did look like a lot of fun and something that Vivre and I would love to do.

Oh I forgot I ordered Agility Right From The Start and while I just got it in yesterday it seems to be a well written and logical book. I'll review it when I get done, but so far I like it better than either of the other agility books I have.

Agility

I went to watch an agility lesson where I think I will be taking Vivre for training. My plan had been to start privates, but the private instructor was in tonight's class and suggested doing a class first so I don't waste private time with how-to's. There is a AKC agility show this weekend I might go to. I haven't been to see AKC agility. 

I think agility is something Vivre will enjoy and everybody in the class tonight kept talking about how much fun it is, so it will certainly be more fun than working on schutzhund obedience all the time. I found a neat Natural Pet Store (yes that is the name) that has high quality kibble and frozen pet food as well as toys and healthy training treats that is conveniently located next to a human health food store.

I think my old hound mix will be moving back in with us. This wouldn't be a problem except that the last two times she has been here Vivre has launched herself on her back and refused to let go. I don't get it as Aradia lived here up until four months ago. I did get her to lay next to Aradia the last time she was here, but it was an active "down," rather than a relaxed "Okay we have worked this all out." Luckily she doesn't hurt her and Aradia never even gets her teeth close to Vivre so it is something that hopefully can be fixed by simply getting their status worked out.

New Pictures.

I let Vivre's second birthday go by with out a post. At least without a post here any way. But on flickr I posted several new shots taken on her birthday as well as some I took when we went hiking earlier this week.

The last two nights I have let Vivre sleep with me. She is pretty good in the house, but I have been keeping her crated to provide some peace for the cats. The first night I forgot to take her Kong Wubba away. I lay in bed trying to sleep when I hear "Squeak, squeak, squeak." Great. I was too tired to put it up so I just took it and hid it from her under the blankets. That actually worked pretty well until I woke her up later trying to move my feet and she started digging for it again. Persistent little bugger. The crate is next to the bed so I could put her up with out getting out of bed. Last night she never moved until early this morning when she decided she had enough sleep and it was time to start herding the cats. She has always been an early riser. Hopefully she will stop that and start to sleep in.

When coming back to my car after we went hiking I found a puppy abandoned in the woods to starve to death. I am having a hard time dealing. I need to find him a home and badly. And soon very soon.

New Pics Up

The new shots are up on flickr. Unfortunately I underestimated how fast Vivre was moving so I had to toss a lot of them for Motion blur, so most of the ones I have are where I used Vivre for scale in the landscape shots. But they are up and I plan on hitting that beach again once I have better hiking boots.

P.S. Vivre is still sleeping. But she has perked up once or twice so I am not quite as concerned as I had been. Usually she is still aware and curious about whatever is going on around her, but tonight she has just slept through it all. I was relieved when she jumped up to do whatever it is she does when the cats so something strange.

I think I broke my dog.

We went hiking on a new trail today. I really need to get a pedometer, because I have no idea how far we went. Since it was Sunday and in January I let her off leash several times.

I let her off first to photograph a little waterfall. While I am composing the shot I hear a splash. Spinning away from the camera I look and Vivre has launched herself in to the creek. It is January. Granted it was a nice day, but still that water had to be frigid. I got more pictures of her today then of the scenery. Though there was motion blur in a lot of them.

Finally we found this great little beach. Just a strip of sand, but with calm water and full sun. Once again she dove straight in to the water. Since I had a little floating frisbee in my bag we played with the frisbee. When I tossed the frisbee in the shallow area near where I was sitting she hit the water so hard going for the frisbee that she got water up her nose. She got back to land, dropped the toy and snuffed the water out. She did finally start to get cold, so I just tossed the frisbee on the little beach until she dried off. However I think all that running combined with the hiking up and down has actually worn her out. I didn't think it could be done. But once we got home she curled up in the chair next to mine and fell asleep. I'm actually a little worried. I am not sure I have ever seen her this tired before. If I have it doesn't happen often. I will have the pictures up soon.

Another Agility Video

After a good night's sleep...

she has completely recovered. And is running around totally revved once again.

Mental Work

Winter is killing me. I don't remember Vivre having this much excess energy last winter. So I have started trying to find mental work to wear her down a little. One of the things I have been putting out her tricky treat ball and letting her knock it all over the house. Other times I hide her tug and then send her to find and retrieve it for a quick play session.

We have also been doing some shaping sessions. I have a much easier time shaping when I am not working on a behavior that is necessary for competition. I need to remember what Wayne would tell me about the horses. If I mess it up we can fix it. Oddly enough I have tried on several occasions to get started with sending Vivre out and around something it has never seemed like she really got it. At least until tonight. I started the session just clicking for a head movement with no idea of where I would go from there, but she made it very easy to click her for going behind the bookcase and by the end of the session she was going behind the bookcase and all the way around and back to the front.

I have been so freaked about retrieves because I really didn't want to mess it up so I haven't started for fear of that. (Same with tracking.) But I found a place in Knoxville that does both obedience and agility. I was looking for a place for private agility lessons, but may throw some obedience lessons in there as well. They are supposed to use positive methods, and I will go observe them first. Even with my primary sessions being agility I will try and observe the obedience classes since I think it is easier to see if they will resort to compulsion in that setting than in agility. Unfortunately I can't get down there to meet them or have any lessons until everything defrosts and I can get off this freaking mountain.

But for the first time in days I have finally gotten Vivre worn out and she is sleeping on the bed using a stuffed toy as a pillow. I had almost forgotten what peace was like around here.

More new Photos

I took Vivre out to play in the snow today. She of course had a blast. New photos on flickr. The snow was coming down pretty hard so it is kind of hard to see in some of them and it was difficult at times to get a good focus, but they show her running and jumping around so they accomplished my goals.

Outsmarted!

With the near constant rain and snow we haven't done much work of any kind lately. Even on the days that the sky doesn't leak something it is dark and cold and dreary. I'm from Florida. I am a sun worshiper. Winter always puts me in a bad mood.

I decided tonight that Vivre really needed to work on something. Between the weather and the holidays I wont' even tell you how long it has been since we have worked on anything new. Or really done much besides you "Down," or "Fuss," as anything other than an excuse to play.


I decided to get Vivre's mind working I would start shaping something. As a puppy we worked on her running out and going around something which we will need for a blind search, but we only did a few sessions. Well Vivre doesn't particularly like to leave me any way (she will work at a distance if she is already there, but asking her to turn her back on me and leave is just too much) and combined with the lack of training lately that just wasn't happening.

Okay, my bad. But she was practically in my lap and I wanted some distance. So we went to something familiar and I pulled out a piece of cardboard and had her run out and stand on it. She can do this because it is such a familiar exercise. Which I guess means I need to find something thinner for her to go around.

I started with her already out there and treating her from a distance. Then started making her come in and run back out. Every time she would hit the cardboard it would slide a little further away. Cool self-increasing criteria. But Vivre apparently didn't like that. After about five minutes she picked up the cardboard and carried it to me dropping it at my feet. Then stood on it waiting for her treat. I should mention (if I haven't already) Vivre likes noise. And laughter counts. So when I started cracking up she thought that was the greatest thing in the world and picked the cardboard up and just carried it all over the room. Tickled with herself. It is a good thing I don't have a fragile ego or being outsmarted by my dog would be really hard for me.