Joy

Last Wednesday I was able to convince the boys to come to my agility practice night.  This is the highlight of Ryder's week.  He's learning how to do weave poles right now.  We use the 2x2 method.  

Right now, Ryder and Diva are in the same class.  It's hard for me.  Here's Ryder waiting with my sweetie for his turn.

Tomorrow we go to Ken's for an enjoyable day of dogs and horses.  I'll see if I can convince him to catch the dogs working on the phone.  Then you can see Diva in her element.  

Dog Fun

The dogs and I went to an agility trainer for a private lesson today.  It was lots and lots of fun!  We went to work with Justine who has an outstanding reputation as an agility trainer.  I decided to start with Diva, as she can be the most tricky to deal with.  I was impressed with the fact that we were able to engage Diva in play.  This is a milestone for us and so very exciting!  We worked on playing.  We worked on turning tight circles in both directions.  We worked on a sit/stay/release and sit/stay with distraction.  This is something Diva struggles with (and because she struggles - so do I.)  We worked on going around an obstacle (jump standard) with speed and enthusiasm.   What left me thrilled was how happy she was.  Her little tail flagged in the air, and her mouth seemed to smile.  She was relaxed, not stressed as we worked through the activities.  She even engaged in play with Justine.  (Diva's not one for strangers.)  

Putting her back in the truck I grabbed Ryder.  Justine broke into a smile when I grabbed the flying squirrel and Ryder enthusiastically went chasing after it.  We started out with some play.  Next we worked on big circles and tacked on a "here" command.  Ryder also worked on the jump standard exercise.  One that he found hard was to stand on a Rubbermaid tub.  We wanted to help him become more aware of his space and body.  Right now I'm using treats to lure him onto it, but that'll be extinguished as time goes on.  We also did an activity where only his hind feet stayed on tub and his front feet stayed on the ground.  We did ready set go with him which he was quite good at.  And the icing on the cake was he got to do the tunnel.  He cracked me up because once he figured out what to do  he'd retrieve his toy and come back through the tunnel.  Too funny!  The next step is to chain a circle onto the end of the tunnel.  

Overall I'm thrilled with how are day went.  I'm happy to have some exercises we can easily do at home to help keep them busy mentally.  I even play to teach this stuff to Tessa.  

Doesn't Ryder look happy with himself?

(Sorry his eyes look strange - I tried to remove the crazy glow look and this is what I ended up with...)

Dog Daze

Yesterday I pulled up my big girl panties and worked all 3 of my dogs on sheep.  And I surprised myself.  I discovered that Diva - who has been on sheep holiday - has improved.  Who knew not working her would make her better?  Calvin, that's who.  She'll go back on holiday and I'll pop her back on sheep in December to see where we're at.  Ryder was awesome.  He's starting to figure out his commands.  For the direction commands he's about 50%, walk up and lie down he's at 100%, and he's walking up further and further away from me in a drive situation.  Tessa got a tune up.  We worked on rounding out our flanks and being more crisp to take the commands.

Today, I picked up Lynne and Zoey and drove to Gibbons to walk with Stacy and Luke.  It was really cool to see the four pups together.  After our trek along the river valley, we played on the agility equipment.  Well, I didn't but Lynne and Stacy did.  Luke had to show off his skills.   Here's some video of him working.  It's not edited - just straight off the camera but you'll get the gist.

To help with winter boredom, I found and bought some weave poles that I'm going to set up in my basement.  I think it'll be good to play with when we can't do much outside due to arctic and snow conditions.  Next, I plan to find a couple jumps to add to the collection.  This will be something I can do with the three dogs when we're housebound.