Saturday, December 21, 2013

And we're BACK!!!


Today I took the girls to agility run thurs and I seriously can not tell you how proud of them I am! Abby was AMAZING! She hasn't seen any equipment(other than jumps/weaves) in probably over 5 months now, but she rocked everything!

She was excited and ran her heart out! This is probably the first time I have ever seen her this happy to play agility. She wasn't stressed out in the least!

So her first run she did hesitate on the dog walk, but got lots of cookies for doing it, then she decided not to stop on the A-Frame so we redid that and she did her 2o2o and got lots of treats. She also ended up missing her weaves the first time, but second time she got it; and I think she forgot the teeter tips and did a fly off, but I got her right back on and she got lots of treats/praise for doing it the second time!

Now her last run was her best and she did everything perfectly. She hit all her contacts, got her weaves on the first try, and no teeter flyoff! The only thing was her last jump she decided to choke on a cookie she got back on the teeter and kinda ran past it then hacked up the treat re ate it then did the last jump. haha, but seriously can't tell you how pleased I was with her.

Really wish I'd gotten it on video, but alas that didn't happen... Our next trial is in Feb I think so I'll get vids from that!

And onto Karma. She didn't get to play agility, but we hung out in the parking lot and worked on obedience and did some LAT with the barking dogs/dogs in cars and she did awesome. She's come a long way and hopefully soon it'll be her turn to give agility a try! For now enjoy this pic of her in the parking lot(I completely forgot to get a pic of Abby...fail)

Friday, December 20, 2013

Agility Fun

Since the girls are going to run throughs this weekend I decided to break out the agility equipment and do a little refresher course with them since we haven't really focused on agility training all that much recently. And what can I say? As usual Abby rocked it! I think she does better with longer breaks and when she does get the chance to practice she's speedy and having a blast! So I'm really happy with how she's doing and I can not wait to see what she does this weekend!

Karma on the other hand has hit "that" stage. Her manners have completely flown out the window and she has decided my arms and hands are the BESTEST toy EVER! So now it's time for a refresher course *sigh* Anyway after I manged to get her to burn most of her energy she was able to focus better and we were finally able to do a little bit of work with the jumps and by her last run she nailed it! No knocked bars and she did the whole sequence flawelessly. Needless to say we ended it with that and she got lots of praise and got to play with her flirtpole! Now this weekend she's not going to be running agility. She still has a long way to go as far as her reactiveity. So I'm letting her tag along, but she'll be staying in the car and between runs I will be working on some LAT etc with her in the parking lot since there will be dogs in and out of the building etc and it will just be a good opportunity to work with her.

Anyway hopefully I will be getting my grandparents old treadmill and that will help me out a lot especially on days when I have to work. She'll be able to hop on in the AM for a bit and then later she'll get her usual walk. So hopefully that'll help a bit with her insane energy.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Meet the Bloggers

 So Hi everyone! Decided to jump on the bandwagon and do the meet the bloggers blog hop! So a couple quick fun facts about me. My name is Anna, I'm 19 and I currently living in GA. I own two dogs, but live with four and currently compete in agility. I've basically played soccer since I was 5 up until a few months ago and well soccer is my life. I've had two ACL reconstructive surgeries (exactly a year apart) one in each knee and well the recovery and PT afterwards absolutely sucked! Other than that I was homeschooled for two year and am currently taking a year off before heading to college next fall! Guess that's it haha any way below are the questions I decided to answer...

What's your favorite non-animal related movie?
Right now the hunger games catching fire! It was the last movie I saw in theaters and I absolutely LOVED it!

What's one thing you have to do every day? 
 Take Karma on a 5-6 mile walk

If your pets could talk, what one word would THEY use to describe you? 
Karma would probably say that I'm lazy because I refuse to toss the ball after my arms get tired and yeah...

How is your pet most like you? 
I'm I guess you could say "anti social" or more like I would rather hang out with the dogs/dog people then a bunch of random people at say a party(love hanging out with friends but don't really like social settings I guess) and Abby doesn't like to be bothered by other dogs. She'll tolerate them, but won't go out of her way to try and make friends/be friendly. And if they bug the crap outta her she'll let'em know.

Other than blogging, what are three things you do that bring you joy? 
Playing soccer, doing agility with my crew, and photography

If you didn't have your current pets, what pets would you choose to have? 
 I really can't imagine my life without Abby, but if I didn't have Karma or Twister I'd have my Australian shepherd. And if I couldn't have dogs/cats I would have rats! Love the ratties


Meet the Pet Bloggers Hop

Wordless Wednsday: New Gear (AKA Christmas came early)

Ruff Wear cool coat
Ruff wear Knot-a-Leash

Back on Track coat


Saturday, December 14, 2013

Christmas Shopping Woes

So I decided that I would try and get most of my Christmas shopping done this weekend, but truth be told I have no idea what to get anybody! Shopping for my little sisters used to be so easy, but now I don't really have a clue what they want or even like! My sister Rebecca told me what she wanted so I went to go get it this morning and I couldn't find the darn thing anywhere! ugh... So I looked around for something for my youngest sister and that's when I realized she's no longer 5 and a barbie doll just won't cut it anymore. So now I'm stuck figuring out what to get her not to mention what I'm getting my parents and the kids I babysit.

Fortunately unlike the people in my life I know exactly what I want to get the dogs! And for the most part I already have all their presents and what I don't have is on it's way... *sigh* Why are pets so much easier to shop for than people?

Friday, December 13, 2013

We got a Christmas Tree!

 So I forced all the dogs to pose in front of it and as usual Abby was a dream to work with and stayed still until I released her. The other three on the other hand were huge pains and these are pretty much the only shots I got of them that weren't blurry! 

And between the dogs and the kids I'm surprised the tree is still standing lol.





Thursday, December 12, 2013

Hermit Crabs

Sooo we might be getting a couple hermit crabs!!! Basically we've been watching one for a few days and I must admit I grew rather attached. The crab was very interesting to watch and interact with. Heck even the dogs seemed to like it. Bo was even a tad obsessed(he slept by the tank when it was on the ground) and while his obsession was rather adorable and intriguing well when Abby decided to investigate the crab he went after her. So he was definitely resource guarding the tank. He had to be separated from the others for a few hours. Then we only let him out after we removed the crab from the equation.

Anyway like I said mister crabs was very interesting and just all around awesome. They're also great little pets though a lot of work with the whole keeping the tank at the proper temp and humidity etc. At any rate my mom agrees that the hermit crab was pretty great and even claimed that she thought about getting one for us(of course it would end up likely being a pair or possibly more!). I figured I'd also throw in that it would be a great addition and the kids she watches would love getting to watch and interact with them(especially the little boy who's currently obsessed with crabs). 

So looks like sometime soon we may have a few more new additions. Super excited haha

Friday, December 6, 2013

Morning Hike


So this morning after I took Karma to the park I decided to take Abby on a short offleash hike. It's been a while since we hit the trails and I figured she'd enjoy it and well what can I say she LOVED IT! As soon as we hit the trails I let her off and she did amazing as usual. She's such a great hiking buddy. She checks in with me constantly and if she does get to far ahead she'll either turn around and come back or completely stop and wait for me to catch up then head off again.Abby is also normally a really big squirrel Chaser. I mean if she spots a squirrel she's off... But Twice today mister squirrel escaped with his life. I really have no idea how she didn't see/hear him. I mean the darn thing ran right in front of us, but of course both times she had her head down sniffing off to the side and did not see a thing! I just kind of shook my head and was like "really Abby?" but that's ok I guess she made up for it later with the duck(see below)

We ended up hiking up towards the "water fall" then turned around and planned to head back, but ran into some other trails we decided to check out. One of the trails took us to the opposite side of the lake from where we had started and we kinda played around there for a bit. Abby chased sticks and was having fun swimming when litterally out of nowhere she took off. I had no clue what she was chasing and then I hear quacking and here comes mister duck flying out of a bush where he was completely hidden. Mister duck took to the water, but clearly that wasn't going to stop Abby. She tried swimming after him ignoring my first few calls, but eventually she turned around and headed back, but after that she just kept staring (or maybe she was glaring?) at the duck that got away.

After the duck misadventure I finally decided to head back. And I figure it's because she knew we were headed back but the brat took off out of sight and for the life of her would not come back when I called her.So I just stopped and waited and waited and eventually she rounded the corner, but if I made a move in her direction she would skid to a halt spin around and head back down the trail the way we came. So I ended up having to wait again then when she came back to see what's up I turned around and pretended to head the other way and she came running to me and I clipped her leash on. Sorry Abs but if you aren't going to come when I call you it's leash time. So she was leashed until we got back to the otherside of the lake then I let her swim for a bit and we hit the road again...

So that was our adventure for the day oh and the best part was we had all the trails entirely to ourselves! No dogs or people in sight!

Oh and I actually met someone who can read! LMAO!I've had Abby's julius K9 since the beginning of the year and have had her DO NOT PET patches for a couple months now. Well people still of course either can't/don't read them or do and don't care and pet her. Well today a lady who was in the parking lot decided she wanted to say hi to my doggie, but I took her out of the car and she actually read her patches and then asked me about them! She asked if Abby was in training and I said no I just have them because I hate people walking up and petting her with out first asking me ;)



Irresponsible owners and athletic fields...

So this morning I took Karma to the baseball field that's usually closed to the public, but since it's the schools off season they started opening up one of the fields for public use. Well I've been taking Karma a few days every week so she can burn off some extra energy playing Chuck it! Well Up to today we've been loving it! She has a blast plus we get to work on some of her LAT since there's a dog park next door and a lot of dogs and owners walk past the fields to get to the dog park. So it's really great! Anyway I'm always responsible in picking up my dogs crap. Especially on a the athletic fields. Really I just think about how I'd freaking hate it if someone let their dog crap on our soccer fields... So I do my civic duty and pick up after my crew. Well today I nearly stepped in crap not once, but twice!

I was so beyond peeved... It's irresponsible owners like that who get us responsible dog owners kicked off of athletic fields. I mean really? Little kids run around playing T-ball on that very field... ugh. Not to mention if they started disallowing dogs on the field even during the off season where are responsible owners with dogs who aren't "dog park material"(not that I'd ever take my dogs to a dog park) supposed to go to allow some safe offleash fun? I'm seriously just baffled and annoyed *sigh*...

-End Rant-

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Consultation plus a vet trip

So actually meant to post this a few weeks ago, but of course I failed to do that(So I'm posting from memory here :P). At any rate Karma had her Consult back on the 23rd I believe. Initially I left Karma in the car and went in to chat with the trainer. We had a pretty good discussion and discussed the issues I was having with beaners and goals for the future etc. Of course after all the boring stuff it was time to bring in the beast...

When we first walked in you could tell she was a bit worried about where she was, but recovered quickly once she realized there were awesome people there that would let her love on them. She did really well and from what I saw was able to contain her self more so than usual. After I brought her in we talked a bit more and then the trainer decided to dog test her to see her reaction. So they brought out life sized stuffed rottie and placed it on the opposite side of the room. At first I don't think Karma noticed, but once she did she completely froze and just stared. And she held that stare for a good while. After a bit she finally looked away and offered some calming signals(Sniffing, shaking off, turning away etc). At that point I moved closer and again she stared, but her stare did not last quite as long and eventually I was told to drop the leash and let her go.

She ended up giving the "dog" space and made a wide arc around and walked up and sniffed and eventually started trying to relax and try to play. Of course once the dog was being taken away(being carried off) she decided that it turned into a toy and tried nipping and trying to grab it out of the helpers hands. Even after mister stuffed dog was put up she was still focused on it and tried to find it...

After that an actual dog came into the facility and since the dog was a pretty good "tester" dog they used her and Karma got to work with an actual dog. Basically we were across the room from each other and did some LAT and reorienting type stuff. And she did pretty well she also worked awesomely for the trainer when she took the leash! She got plenty of breaks(taken to a corner where she couldn't see the dog) and I was also able to get her to some what "relax" and do some tricks etc. Eventually the trainer decided to see how she would react without me there so I walked out and of course she completely ignores the other dog/people in the room and is completely focused on the fact that I was not there and she needed to find me *sigh* So I came back in and she was all "OMGZ never leave me again"
 
After our little training experiences the trainer noticed is that she isn't necessarily reactive. It's more leash frustration coupled with a little bit of fear/anxiety/confusion and not to sure how to react to the other dog or how the other dog will react. Which makes sense as she's never really lounged at another dog when were out and about. She just freezes and stares and if the other dog reacts first then she will in turn react(growling, barking, lunging etc).

So now it's up to how I want to continue working with her. I've got a few options to choose from. Basically there's day training where I leave her for the day and they work with her etc. Now I think it'd be great for her to have somewhere to go during the day and be able to get some training in while I work, but I also don't like the idea of leaving her for training as I like to be a part of it and I've heard so many horror stories, but this lady is 100% +R and I actually have a friend who interns for her and would be there during the day as well so...

Other option is continuing with private 1 on 1 lessons. And thirdly a few more private lessons to prep her for a reactive dog class. So right now I'm still deciding on what to do. I think she would benefit from the reactive dog class so I think that's what we'll likely go with. She also said I can bring her out and just work with her there and even try some nose work or barn hunt! So that will probably also happen in the near future!
.................

And Abby also had yet another vet trip(third one in a month I believe), but this time we just went in to get her stitches taken out and now my baby girl is officially perfect! Baby dog will hopefully be back to agility soon and I'm super excited to start back up with her! We've got plans for a New Years trial so here's to hoping I can actually attend!

Wordless Wednsday: Poodle Brothers