Ecko goes to the Coast

Jessie and I made a quick round-trip to the Gearhart/Astoria area today to check out a potential water trial venue. Cullaby Lake County Park is a beautiful park and, although not perfect, it looks like it could have potential to meet our needs. Ecko went along for the ride and went for a little swim to test the waters.

Before getting wet, she demonstrated why PWDs are such naturals at agility...

C'mon Jessie, throw it already!

Almost at swimming depth...

Splash down!

CPE Agility Weekend

Stoker and I and Rebel and Jessie were entered in a CPE agility trial this weekend. Pam and Val were there with Mira, Sydney (Chili's sister), JoJo (Stoker's sister) and Dudley, so that made the weekend even more fun.

Stoker had a great weekend, qualifying in 3 of the 4 Level 2 standard runs we did and earning two 3rd placements and a 2nd place. On her final run, we did not Q, but she had her fastest run of the weekend. Pretty cool that she ran the fastest at the end of the weekend in the heat. It tells me that she is really starting to enjoy herself. Her weaves were a little more solid this weekend then they have been, so we are making progress there too.

Jess and Rebel had a great weekend also, qualifying in 3 of their four Level 1 runs. I think Rebbie got 3rd, 2nd and 1st place wins for his three runs.


Thanks to Joe Camp for the photos.

A Matter of Feeling

Age is a matter of feeling, not of years.

~ George William Curtis ~

In the eyes of the AKC (American Kennel Club), Chili has officially been a veteran since her 7th birthday in November of last year. With maturity and spay surgery, Chili has become like her human owner in that her metabolism and eating habits are increasingly mutually exclusive of maintaining her girlish figure. She runs as hard as ever at the beach, on walks or playing with the other dogs, but is more likely to show signs that she is a bit stiff after this type of exercise. She also seems to me to be a bit more selective of what activities she thinks are fun. It might be just me, but it also seems like she is not quite as enthusiastic about obedience as she used be.... Noticing these minor chances, we've begun working on keeping Chili feeling as youthful as possible. That's "Granny" Chili retrieving a dummy last summer with grand-pups Ecko (left) and Cooper (right) on either side of her.

• Chili LOVES her outings on the bike. With the Springer attachment mounted on my bike, we can get a good brisk 10 minute jaunt around the neighborhood at least 3 or 4 times a week. This provides her with much more intensive exercise than I could give her on foot and is likely a better cardio workout and easier on muscles and tendons than tearing around the back yard (pictures lots of fast starts/stops and occasional body slams) with the rest of the "pack".
• Chili LOVES her food, but has been getting less of it later. I've taken to feeding chicken necks which are easy to dole out in small amounts, or to cutting chicken backs in half for her instead of giving her whole ones. Her meat/veggie meal has decreased from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup recently.
• Since I went back to work full time and don't have quite as much time (or maybe I'm just too lazy?) for doggy food preparation, I have been using a "complete" supplement with the dog's meat/veggie meal rather than adding some of the "extras" (like kelp, yogurt etc) that I used to use. The supplement I am using as added glucosamine/chondroitin. As the senior dog in the house, I feel like Chili deserves a little extra to help her maintain her youth, so this week I am starting her on her own personal regimen of "Young at Heart" and "Joint Strong".
  

I'm eager to see how Chili does on her newly intensified diet and exercise program. Who knows, maybe it will inspire me to start making some of the same changes in my lifestyle too!

Keeping the Dogs Busy

How to keep all the dogs entertained while working a full-time job.

I got home from work today and helped Jan throw together some cornbread and a pot of Chili to simmer on the stove. While Jan tended dinner, I set about entertaining the dogs.

Chili went first and I worked with her on weave poles. My goal is to have her doing a full set of 12, slightly offset, with nice speed and rhythm, before progressing. I set the jumps up so she would have an obstacle before and after the weaves and we could run a little circle of jumps with the weaves in the middle. The entrance from both ends was a bit difficult, but she handles weave entrances fairly well, its the rhythm part that is her real issue. She did a nice job and was really happy to be rewarded with a quick lap around the neighborhood on the bike when she was done.

Ecko went next and I kept the weaves sightly offset, working with a set of 6 poles with wires on them. She is starting to move through them pretty nicely and I added a jump before and after to keep her focusing ahead as she works. Her jumping style is just like Stoker's was as a pup, a straight in the air levitatation with just enough forward motion to get her past the jump. I'm glad she is so enthusiastic, but we will need to work on that. We worked on some stationary drills to teach her to turn away from me on both sides, then went for a quick exercise jaunt, returning to work with......

Decker. Rear crosses, rear crosses and more rear crosses. We will be practicing them A LOT until we get them right. Luckily, Decker is happy to work and work and work because it takes a wee bit longer for the light bulb to come on with him than it does with your average PWD. We did some groundwork stuff first, to warm up and remind Decker that he can bend (he is pretty thick and musclar and not terribly flexible) and then worked on the little drill to the right. You can find more like this on the agility nerd website. We just did the first four obstacles since I don't have a tunnel and broke it down even smaller by practicing just the rear cross between 1 & 2 a number of times, then the cross between 3 and 4. We had some success, but not lots and then headed off for a bike.

Took a quick break for dinner, then got Stoker out to work. She REALLY tries my patience some times and we worked hard to hold it together tonight. Even with a high rate of reinforcement she will stress out and head for the garage if she is "pushed" at all in her training. I did some of the same stuff I did with Decker, but also worked Stoker on weave poles since we have a trial this weekend and she needs more practice on those. She was not terribly thrilled when we went biking at the end of our practice session, but she needs the exercise so we did it anyway.

Time to hit the couch and put my feet up with a glass of wine! Whew!

Lawn Art and PWD statues

Yesterday was my day to run errands and one of the places I stopped was Home Depot to buy PVC to make some agility jumps. I purchased jump cups from Clean Run a while ago, but the kitchen remodel had taken over the entire garage so the jumps had not been built yet. Jan and Jessie pitched in to help and, with a nifty plan for building jumps and about 45 minutes time, we had four sturdy agility jumps. Jessie is working on Decker's rear crosses (not too successfully since Jess is going right and Decker is going left) in this photo while I am in the garage putting the last of the stripes on the jump bars.

I'm sure my neighbors are thrilled that the "lawn art" in my front yard now consists of four jumps in addition to 24 weave poles!

The photo below is Rebel and Jessie's "new champion" photo from last weekend.

Super Saturday

Jessie finished Rebel's championship on Saturday by taking Best of Breed! Rebel is now CH Astrud's Lookout Rebel Yell RN NA. Yippee!

While Jessie was headed north to Centralia for the AKC show, Julie, Ginny and I headed to St. Helens for a UKC show. These shows are always fun and have a relaxed and supportive atomosphere, providing a great opportunity to get Reef and Cooper back in the ring to increase their confidence showing in the conformation ring.

Both Cooper and Reef did well and are getting more relaxed in a show environment. Julie showed Cooper at both shows (there were two shows in one day) and took Winners Dog both times in. Cooper stood well for the judges exam and gaited with his tail up most of the time. Reef was a little less enthusiastic than his brother, but is learning that the show ring is not such a bad place and that judges are not all that bad even if they do get "up close and personal" awfully fast! Both judges were complimentary of the boys and encouraged Julie and Ginny to keep working with them to build their confidence and enthusiasm in the ring.

Ecko and I had a truly amazing day. She took Best of Breed and a Group 2 in the first show and Best of Breed, Group 1 and a Best in Show the second show! The judges were a husband and wife that had owned a PWD themselves at one point. Now granted this was a small show, but there is still something amazing and humbling about knowing that in an entire building with multiple breeds and numerous dogs, the judge thought your dog was the very best of all. The other exhibitors were very supportive and I got compliments from everyone on my pretty puppy and her beautiful movement.