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.

Happy New Year!

I actually have plans tonight. Shocking. But I did get a new camera lens yesterday so expect new pics of Vivre as I play with it. I loaded one of the new ones up on flickr, but I haven't tweaked any of them yet so the others will have to wait.

We finally have had a break in the snow and cold weather so hopefully Vivre and I will get out and get some work done. Any way I just wanted to say...

Happy New Years!

Agility is Rocket Science!

These are hilarious!