Cedes Of Change

Toy Review: Woolie Dog Fleece Tugs

2012-02-22T14:14:00.003-08:00

Several weeks ago, Mara the K-9 Knitter from Woolie Dog approached me and asked if I'd be interested in trying out some of her products with my muttley crew and doing a review on my blog.

Uh, DUH, I said yes! In fact, I was flippin' stoked. The sad fact is that I'm kind of a toy whore... or at least a toy hoarder.

My dogs are pretty active, love to play, and are notoriously HARD on their toys, which is perfect for me because I like to buy them :P

But anyways, Mara sent me a couple of her all-natural sheep's wool tug toys, and I've taken the time to really test them out. She sent me a medium sized tug (perfect size for adult Border Collies) and a small sized one (or, as it *should* be called, Ember-sized, hehe). She also sent me a really nice handmade card!

First impressions: these toys are really sturdy, have a nice feel to them, and are sized perfectly for hands and doggie mouths. Plus, the colors are vibrant and cool, which my dogs could give a crap about, but I'm all about aesthetic appeal.

But, of course, the real test was to come. Historically, my dogs aren't terribly picky with toys, but they *can* tear up a grocery-store stuffed animal in under a minute.

I apologize for not having more pictures. I took a bunch, but my laptop is on the fritz and I was not able to access all of them. But I think there are enough here for you to see just how much my dogs loved these toys!

Cedes thought the medium-sized tug was perfect.

Ember attacked the small-sized tug with her characteristic fierce enthusiasm :P

And Moss about pulled my arm out of the socket with his joyful tugging on the medium-sized orange beast!

I give these toys my full endorsement! They have been hanging out around the house for two weeks now, and still look as good as the day I pulled them out of the package.

This is a great product that I would definitely recommend. If you're interested in trying out a Woolie Dog tug of your own, you can buy them from the Woolie Dog Etsy shop, which I'll link to again here. They are reasonably-priced and very high quality!

Thank you SO much, Mara, for the opportunity!

Lizard Butte Kennel Club Agility Trial-- 2/17-2/19/2012

2012-02-20T16:44:00.001-08:00

Joe and the gang got back last night from our first agility trial of the year, the Lizard Butte Kennel Club AKC trial in Caldwell, Idaho. This trial also marks our first anniversary competing in AKC agility.

This past weekend was one of my most favorite trials EVER, and I haven't stopped smiling today just thinking about it :)

Cedar was INCREDIBLE.

I almost don't have the words to describe just how good she was, how good we were together. It's like she's hit this whole 'nother gear, and matured 10000000x over the winter. She did her weave poles perfectly every time (well, she missed one entry, but no 10th pole pop-outs in TEN runs!!!!) and behaved like a dog with much more experience.

We earned five Q's this weekend, two in Open Jumpers, two in T2B, and one in Excellent Standard. These Jumpers Q's were the first we've earned in AKC Jumpers since March 2011.

Last year, Cedar's weave pole issues were the cause of endless frustration for me and a lack of progress for us as a team. I can't tell you how many perfect runs we had last year that weren't Q's because of a 10th-pole pop-out. This fall and winter, I spend a lot of time proofing the weaves, working difficult entries, pushing her towards independent weave performance regardless of my position. I guess all that work paid off :)

I also did my first-ever blind cross in competition :P

Here are a few videos of my favorite runs from the weekend:

Our first Open Jumpers Q:

Excellent Standard Q:

Open Jumpers Q #2:

Time 2 Beat Q (& Second place in a huge 20" class):

Ember got to come along and was a total rockstar puppy. She met a TON of people, was super friendly and happy, good in the car (no carsickness, yay!), good in her crate at night, and overall just a really good girl, especially for a 12 week old puppy on her first ever road trip!

I'm pretty sure that she is going to have prick ears when she grows up. I'm excited... never had a prick-eared BC before!

Here's a video of her meeting and playing with an Aussie puppy and a Pyr Shep puppy :)

The drive home was easy, with dry roads going over the mountain pass we have to cross to get back and forth between WA and ID. It's a good thing that we left yesterday instead of today, as it was a total blizzard in the mountains this morning!

Cedar was definitely ready to get home ;)

I can't wait for the next trial!

Stay tuned for a toy review of tug toys from Woolie Dog this week! I would have posted last week, but my laptop is on the fritz and I lost most of the photos that I took of the Collie Crew playing with their new favorite toys.

Ears To You

2012-02-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

These next few weeks (10-13 weeks) are probably my favorite period of early puppyhood. Ember is now almost 11 weeks old, and has grown and changed so much since I brought her home at 7.5 weeks. She is getting more leggy, a bit more independent, has figured out the household routine (including house and crate training) and... my FAVORITE part, is starting to get the wonky ears! People that tape or glue ears to get the shape they want (stupid, IMO) are totally missing out on this part of their puppy's development. I love not knowing how their ears will end up until they get through teething :P

Right now, Ember's ears are looking really cute. I hope they stay something like this in maturity.

They seem a bit more, er, symmetrical than Moss's did at 11 weeks, hehe:

Who knows what Ember's are going to do. Her father has prick ears, and her mother has big, heavy rose ears, so it's not clear genetically what will happen :P

I do know that she'll be damned cute, whatever her ears end up looking like.

Ember is continuing to do well with her training. Most recently, we have been working on back up (using the Susan Garrett method she talks about in Shaping Success), pivots on the plank, targeting with both front and rear feet, mat work, and going to a "mark" on the floor (a dog bowl right now, will transition to an "X" of tape soon and offering behaviors. She's a smart little cookie!

Right now, she and Moss (and Scully, kinda LOL) are outside running around like mad. Ember is getting a lot more confident and strong with the other dogs now that she's not so tiny. I can feel that her strength as increased when we play tug. She now pulls a lot stronger against my hand. I need to work on retrieving and getting a more consistent "out" command.

I should have a new video up tomorrow. I just realized I forgot to post her 10 week video on the blog. Here it is, for your viewing pleasure.... ;)

Cheers!

Pupdates

2012-02-08T08:32:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not writing more consistently... little Ember is sure taking up a lot of my time! :)

She is now 10 1/2 weeks old and is doing AMAZING. She is almost totally housebroken, still sleeps through the night, knows a billion tricks already, and is just a joy to have around.

During her first week or so with me, we worked on targeting things with her nose. Last week, I introduced her to paw targeting. This week, we are working on impulse control, going out to a target, mat work, and verbal commands for behaviors she knows hand signals for. So far, she can do the following on verbals alone: sit, down, spin (turn to the right), twirl (turn to the left), touch (hit my hand with her nose), smack (hit an object that isn't my hand with her nose), stand, and hit it (paw touch).

Behaviors she knows (verbal, hand signal, or both): sit, down, spin, twirl, touch, smack, hit it, wave, shake, bow, stand, go to your mat, push (bump a beach ball with her nose), beg, bow. She also goes to the door when she needs to go outside, will go in her crate on command (and be quiet in it), and walks on a leash. Not bad for a little pup! :)

I've been getting her out more, too. We've been on two major excursions this week, to the hardware store and to Petsmart. She was a total rockstar on both trips, and was very friendly towards new people, taking treats from everyone and being her normal waggy and cute self.

A few more pictures:

I love how sassy she is, too. Keeps life interesting!

Although she is fun to train, she also is down to chill out on the bed or couch with me at the end of the day. What a good girl. Did I mention I love this puppy?

Thoughts on Motivation and Commitment

2012-02-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier this evening, I wrote out a big long post in which I waxed on and on about my insecurities, commitment-phobia, blah blah blah.

Here's the deal: the time has come for me to make a decision about my future goals for herding. I need to either commit to wanting to trial, or commit to being content with just doing it for fun. Either way, I owe it to Moss, myself, and to my friends helping me out, to figure out exactly what my goals are.

I feel like Moss and I are on the edge of really starting to figure things out, at least in this stage of our herding journey. With more commitment on my part, and a little bit of bravery, we could potentially make some huge leaps this year. Or, we could keep doing what we're doing and progress at the same comfortable, slow, noncommittal pace.

As of right this moment, I am not 100% sure what I want to do. But in the spirit of progress, I will write down a goal for herding following the "SMARTER" guidelines. SMARTER is an acronym, meant to help with goal-setting, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluate, Revaluate. I learned about this method from the second part in the "Agility Mind Gym" series, which appeared in this month's issue of Clean Run. I am finding this series of articles very helpful and illuminating.

Anyways...

My goal is: To learn to blow a reliable "lie down" whistle (I have trouble getting the high tones consistently).

Specific: I will be able to blow a consistent, clear "lie down" whistle, under varying conditions and levels of stress, by March 1st.

Measurable: I will perform this skill accurately at least 80% of the time.

Attainable: I feel like this "mini goal" is attainable to me, both in level of difficulty and time-frame.

Relevant: This skill is important both for every-day stockwork and trialing.

Time-bound: I will accomplish this goal by March 1st.

Evaluate/Revaluate: I will report on my progress periodically.

Here is a video of Moss and I working sheep a month or so ago. For some reason, I never uploaded it at the time. I think we look pretty good!

Cheers!

A Week and a Half of First Impressions

2012-01-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

Ember is 9 weeks old today. I've had her since the 17th, and it's now the 28th. Can you believe I've had her 11 days? I sure can't! :)

I am very impressed with this puppy. She is smart, funny, cute, and a total workaholic already.

I'm totally smitten <3

So far, she's doing well with the other dogs. She and Moss are best buddies, and Scully and Cedar pretty much just ignore her.

Moss has really stepped it up and is being the best babysitter ever. He is probably just happy to have another dog around that wants to play constantly! He is so gentle with her... they roughhouse, but he's always careful not to hurt her. It's very cute.

Here's a video showing what Ember and I have been working on since she came home:

So far, these are the things she can do/stuff we're working on:

Sit
Down
Come
Nose touch to palm
Nose touch to target
Spin (turn to the right)
Twirl (turn to the left)
Paw touch to target
Tip the wobbly/teeter board
Follow my hand/finger when I walk in a figure 8, on both right and left
Front cross foundation
Rear cross foundation
Blind cross foundation
Mary Ellen Barry foundation work on eye contact
Restrained sit (impulse control)
Restrained down (impulse control)

I'm excited to see what her future holds :)

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

Meet Ember!

2012-01-20T05:32:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, I picked up our new puppy, third Border Collie, and fourth dog. I've decided to call her Ember. She's about as cute as a puppy could get, don't you think?

The trip to go get her was eventful, to say the least. Winter driving sure is fun... NOT. In the Pacific NW, this winter has been pretty uneventful, with warm(ish) temperatures and not much moisture. That is, until this week. Of COURSE there would be a huge winter storm system the week I actually had to do some serious driving! Murphy's Law, I guess.

So anyways, last week I was pretty stressed about it since I knew what was to come. I had planned on driving down on Wednesday, and coming back Friday, but that didn't look like it was going to happen. I watched the ODOT road condition cameras with an increasing sense of doom. It was already snowing in the mountains and showed no signs of stopping. Then, on Sunday, there was a five-hour window of sun and warm temperatures. After watching the cameras for a few hours, and encouraged by the amount of melting, I decided to make a break for Boise. I'm glad I did! The roads were, for the most part, not bad at all. Here's a pic of the worst part of the pass on Sunday:

The first night, I slept on my friend Mollie's couch. I had a great time visiting with her and her sister, Grace, drinking cake flavored vodka (yum!) and looking through photos of Miss America contestants from this year. The next day, we went out for sushi (oh Shige's, how I've missed you since I moved to Kennewick!) and then I drove to my friend (and agility instructor), Mary's house. She drove down to Utah with me the next day to pick up Ember.

Tuesday dawned bright, sunny and CLEAR. Mary and I got a pretty early start, wanting to get the 4 1/2 hour (one way) drive out of the way in order to be able to (ideally) get back before dark. The drive was easy, with bare pavement and sunny skies. It was nice. We made good time, and arrived in Plain City at the breeder's house around 1 PM. The breeder let the puppies outside to play and greet us in the front yard, and Ember was definitely the one most interested in people. She was also the cutest... but I'm probably a little biased ;)

She still had plenty of spirit, though... hehe

Bark!

She was a total star on the ride back to Boise, other that getting car sick once. She sat on my lap the whole time, either sleeping or chewing on a toy. What a good puppy. I was very impressed. Aside from being a little whiny, she was good once we got back to Mary's house, too. And she was very good at bedtime, sleeping quietly in her crate until 6 AM!

On Wednesday, when I woke up to take Ember out for the first time that day, the ground was bare and it was pretty warm out. By 10 AM, it looked like this:

Ember took the snow in stride, and pottied outside without much difficulty. Pretty good for a little puppy! The snow came up to her chin at times.

Unfortunately, as soon as it finished snowing (8" worth!!) it started to rain. By the next day, it looked like this:

I've never seen so much standing water in Boise before. It was pretty bad. But thankfully, all that rain meant that the roads were clear and nice. I decided to make a break for home yesterday. Even though it was nice visiting with Mary, I really just wanted to go home. New puppies are stressful! ;) The drive was really good until AFTER the mountains, surprisingly. Then it was terrifying. It was 42 degrees and cloudy over the pass, with wet but good roads. Off the mountains, it was 22 degrees with freezing rain and horrible slush and ice. What normally takes me about an hour (Pendleton - Kennewick) took almost 2 1/2 hours. Cars and semis were sliding around and chains or traction tires were required. Thankfully, my car handled it very well. And Ember was quiet! She's such a good little traveler.

We made it home around 4:30 PM and quickly got everything set up for her. She had some dinner (hand fed, of course) and played for a few hours. She also met the other dogs. Scully mostly ignored her, and Moss was very sweet and gentle. I think everything is going to be fine with all of them. Even Cedar isn't being as bitchy as expected. Good dogs all around.

Some stats:

Miles Traveled: 1182.1
Hours Driven: 18 hours 32 minutes
Hours of White-Knuckled Terror on the road: 3
Puppies who were quiet in their crates all the way home: 1
New mamas really, really ridiculously glad to be home: 1

Success!

Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T16:41:00.001-08:00

Awesomesauce

2012-01-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went out to Walla Walla to work dogs with my good friend Mary, who owns Toss. We did agility and herding. Mary and I are kind of trading agility lessons for herding lessons. I help her with agility, she helps me with herding. Quite a good arrangement, if I do say so myself! We started off at Mary's house doing agility. She just got some new (to her) equipment, including contacts and a teeter, so we worked on some sequences and contact performance. Both Mary's dog Kitty and Cedar did really well! When I wasn't helping Mary, I worked on discriminations and some distance stuff with Cedar, as well as tightening up her 2o2o on the A-frame. She was on her best behavior :)

After we were done practicing agility, I loaded Moss into Mary's truck and we headed out to work sheep. The day before, Mary had sorted off four ewes that needed to be hauled to another farm. In order to get them in the trailer, we had to make sure that they wouldn't be able to run off and join the rest of the flock. Mary had me take Moss and drive the flock down to the other end of the pasture and hold them while she loaded the sorted ewes in the trailer. Moss was a very good boy, and it was fun working that many sheep. He almost lost them a few times when they bolted for home, but he always got them back. I need to figure out how to not let that happen so much. I think that Moss appreciates the more practical aspects of the job just as much or more than working "formally" out in the field. I know I do.

After Mary got the sheep loaded, we trailered out further into the countryside and worked in a big hay field. My goal for that training session was to focus on learning how to help him when things start to go "wrong," and to practice recognizing when he needs help and when he needs a correction. It's an ongoing battle ;). When I told Mary my goal, she told me to never start out thinking something is going to go wrong. Always believe it will go right. Ah, the power of positive thinking ;). Good advice, though!

Moss started off with a really gorgeous come-bye outrun, at a distance of probably about 100 yards. Not *that* far, but still pretty good for us at this point. I should have helped him more at the lift... I didn't say anything and he let them drift off line a bit. But still, not a bad first effort ;) For the next outrun, I sent him on the away side and it was not good. He started tight and tried to cross over. I think it's because Mary was standing on that side holding the sheep for me. I know that picking sheep up off a setout person is something we really need to work on, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it went awry. To help him, I moved closer to the sheep and pushed him out. With me closer, he was more confident and the lift was really nice. After fetching them back to where we were originally standing, Mary had me drive the sheep in a straight line back to her, around her, and fetch them back. We did this exercise a few times and it was REALLY helpful, both in teaching Moss how to hold a line and helping me improve my timing. It reminded me just how important it is to watch my sheep, not my dog :-P. We did a few more outruns of varying distances, a bit more driving, then Moss and I loaded them back in the trailer and we went home.

A most excellent day of training!

Agility Pix

2012-01-09T05:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon I finally dragged out my weave poles and jumps and set everything up in the back yard so I could practice in earnest. Our back yard is pretty narrow and not very big, so space is of the essence. I worked both Cedar and Moss, and practiced some jump grids, weird angles, wraps/turns, and front and blind crosses. Oh, and weave poles with Cedar. Joe was nice enough to take some pictures for me.

Cedar did really well. This was her first time weaving 12 poles since the beginning/mid December, and she didn't pop out once! She missed her entries a few times, but that's to be expected. I think she's on her way to becoming an "experienced dog" and I'm excited for this upcoming trial season :) Speaking of which, the NADAC Championships are in Utah this year, so I think I'm going to try and get her qualified. She already has enough points in Jumpers. We are also going to try and qualify for the USDAA Nationals, which are in Colorado this year. In AKC, my goals for us this year are to earn our MX, MXJ and MXF titles. We're definitely going to have fun this year!

Moss is doing pretty well, too. He is not as serious as Cedar, which makes training him a different experience, LOL. He is doing short sequences now, and has a lot of enthusiasm for training ;). He seems to be more comfortable at 24" than 26" right now, so I might drop him back down for awhile. No matter what the height, he is a very powerful (but not very careful) jumper. The Linda Mecklenburg DJS still has been really helpful, though.

I pick up my new puppy on January 19th... I can't wait!

And the winner is....

2012-01-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

Smudge!

I guess it was destiny that the only tricolor in Tag's litter would be picked to come live here in the House of Tri ;) According to Kristin, Smudge is a really nice agility prospect, confident but not independent, well built, very into people, and already retrieves. I'm excited for our future together :)

Younger pictures of my new girl:

Now for a name... I have some ideas, but I'm taking suggestions!

Wordless... Thursday?

2012-01-05T12:20:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I was a day late and a dollar short on that one. Here's the picture I was going to post yesterday for WW:

First Post of 2012!

2012-01-01T13:08:00.001-08:00

We had a pretty uneventful New Years over here in Eastern Washington. Had some drinks with the hubby, cuddled with the dogs, watched some X-Files, and chatted with friends online.... just like most other nights in our house ;)

We did have a fun afternoon in Walla Walla before that, though, working sheep and hanging out with our good friend Mary, who owns Moss's brother, Toss.

Here is a photo of the "Ossome" brothers:

Moss was pretty good, considering the spotty training he's had for the past year or so. Mary helped me to be more authoritative in my commands ("lie down is a command, not a request!") and (nicely) helped me to clean up my handling. She has a way of explaining things that just make sense to me. There were definitely big improvements from our first work to our second, which is encouraging. Moss is getting more confident with his outrun (or maybe I'm getting more confident about it? LOL) and his driving and inside flanks were a LOT crisper after yesterday's training session. I worked on trusting him to do his job, and being as clear as possible in my commands and expectations. We had some lovely moments where it all came together and felt smooth and easy.

But still, I am plagued with self-doubt. Herding is not a great sport for the ego.

It's been a bit frustrating for me because I am still new to herding and am not the most confident person to begin with. I also have not been able to work him on a consistent basis for about a year. A lot of the time when he's being "bad," I don't know whether to correct him or help him, or even how. And yes, I know that the only thing that can fix that particular issue is more miles LOL. I guess I just need to learn to let go of the past, embrace the future, and plan better :-P

One think I really need to do is to sit down and think about what exactly I want to accomplish with Moss in herding. Then, I can figure out the best way to accomplish those goals. I feel sort of directionless right now, which is a bad mindset to be in when I'm trying to train myself and my young, talented and enthusiastic boy dog, hehe.

Above all, this year, I am going to try harder to just relax and enjoy the ride. A lot of the time, I take things way too seriously. In case you haven't noticed by now :)

Cheers

2011-12-31T18:47:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Cedes of Change!!!!

2011 was an amazing roller coaster ride....

Here's to an even MORE awesome 2012!!! I'm excited for next year, and I hope you are too. Embrace the change!

Agility Mind Gym, pt 1

2011-12-29T13:15:00.001-08:00

Anyone who has ever "seriously" competed in agility (or any sport, really... dog related or not) knows that being in good mental place has a lot to do with your success on the trial field.

This morning, I read an interesting article in the latest issue of Clean Run, titled "Agility Mind Gym: Passion, Excellence and Dreams," by Kathy Keats. This article is the first in a series that talks/will talk about ways in which visualization exercises can help to clarify goals, clear our minds of expectations and pressures, and be the best agility handlers we can be. As this year comes to a close, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish next year in agility. This past year, I've allowed pressures, nerves and other outside "stuff" to cause unneeded frustration for Cedar and I in agility. One of my main goals for next year is to work on my mental game.

The first exercise Keats' article talks about involves writing down five things that you enjoy about agility. Not five things you'd like to accomplish, but five things you enjoy about the sport. Here are mine:

1) The challenge. I love not knowing what challenges Cedar and I will face until the day of the trial.

2) The dogs. It still amazes me that we can train dogs to do something like agility. The complex skills we are able to teach them really do blow my mind. I am honored that my dogs feel I'm worthy of pointing the path.

3) The camaraderie. Having the opportunity to spend time with friends, working through challenges together, is half the fun.

4) The physicality of it. I love that agility pushes me, gives me a reason to be more fit without being judgmental.

5) The stuff. Let's face it... if you do agility, there is a lot of cool stuff out there to buy. Books, DVDs, equipment, lessons... there is always something cool or new out there to check out. I love shopping for new stuff and trying out new things. I'll blame my short attention span ;)

What are your five most favorite things about agility (or your dog sport of choice)?

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-28T18:17:00.001-08:00

New Puppy Pix :)

2011-12-28T10:50:00.001-08:00

Well, I still don't know who will be coming home with me, but here are a few pix of the puppies at 4 1/2 weeks old:

Scream

Splash

Spec

Split

Smudge

The breeder thinks that Spec and Splash are smooth coats, and the rest are roughs. Ahh... I'm so excited!

The Zen of Cedar

2011-12-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from Cedes of Change!!!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Back to School

2011-12-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

No, not me... Moss :-P

With Cedar in heat and Joe and I lazing around on winter break, Moss has gotten really bored and stir crazy over the last few days. The kind of bored where a simple game of fetch just won't do. Damn Border Collies ;). Unlike a lot of breeds, physical exercise alone does little to temper or relax a BC. They crave mental stimulation... a job to do. So... with that in mind, I've made an effort to train him more over the past couple of days. It's amazing how much that helps him.

Yesterday, I taught him how to roll over, a trick he's always struggled with. I think the coordination required is hard for a dog of his bulk and mentality, LOL. Luckily, what he lacks in coordination, he makes up for in "try." Moss is the most enthusiastic dog ever... everything is his favorite thing, every day is a good day for him. I really do need to get a video of that trick.... it's super cute. He flings himself down and over with way more drama than necessary. Leave it to Moss to give a run-of-the-mill stupid pet trick some extra flair!

Today, I continued refining his roll over trick, but also worked on some basic agility foundation stuff as well. I have done a lot of the Linda Mecklenburg DJS drills with him in the past, and have started to expand our repertoire of skills with some of AgilityNerd's One Jump Drills. These are really fun and productive drills that you can do without a whole lot of time or equipment. Since I plan to trial Moss at 26", we spent most of our training time today at that height. He did really well! He is really starting to jump nicely, with good form, coordination and confidence. Much better than the flailing/uncoordinated/knock-every-bar style we started with! ;)

In addition to the "around the clock" stuff, I also made sure to reinforce start lines and begin training rear crosses. Because this was the first time I asked him for a "turn" command over a jump, I moved the bar down to 20" to make it a little easier for his body (and brain). Within the next several sessions, I plan on gradually bringing the bar up to 26".

I was so impressed with his focus and athleticism today. He's really learning from the foundation training. My boy might make an agility dog yet! :)

Wordless Wednesday

2011-12-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

We Won an Award!

2011-12-20T19:46:00.000-08:00

Our friends over at My life with flyball dogs were nice enough to give us the "Liebster Award," which is a blogger award intended to bring attention to up-and-coming bloggers, or blogs that you think deserve more attention. Thank you SO much for this honor!

Here are the "rules" for this award:

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. As with any award, there is a bit of ceremony involved.

In order to accept the award, we must do the following:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

The blogs I am passing this award on to are:

Full Tilt Border Collies

The Suntrip Samoyeds and 2 Border Collies

The (mis)Adventures of Sage

Dauntless

Rocking Dog Ranch

Now that I'm done with school, I'm really looking forward to doing more with this blog. Look forward to some exciting changes (and fun contests!) soon :)

Hooray!

2011-12-16T12:58:00.000-08:00

I'm officially all graduated and stuff! :-P I walked at my school's winter commencement ceremony this morning, bringing this chapter of my life to a close at last.

Crappy iPhone photo showing off my front-row seat:

I'm still processing everything... too overwhelmed to really think much about the future yet. But definitely feeling optimistic.

So remember when I said I was getting a new puppy? :-P

2011-12-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

Well, I figure it's time to fill in some details :-P

My next puppy (Border Collie... obviously!) will be coming from a working breeder in Utah. I am on the list for a girl puppy.... which is a good thing, because the litter, which was born a little over two weeks ago (November 26th), is all girls!

The sire of the litter is Amanda Milliken's Monty:
Monty had a very successful USBCHA Nursery career and is now running in Open trials. He is currently ranked in the top 10 Open dogs according to USBCHA standings.

Here is his pedigree (his pedigree is identical to Clive's, they have the same sire and their dams are littermates):
http://www.canadianbordercollies.org/pedigrees/Clive4400.pdf

The dam of the litter is Kristin Sittner's Tag:

Tag is a very nice dog who has already begun to distinguish herself in herding and agility. She is currently competing in USBCHA Nursery trials and AKC and USDAA agility.

Pedigree Information:

Tag's dam, Keli's photo and pedigree:

Tag's sire, Tok's photo and pedigree:

If you notice, Keli is a Riggs daughter, which makes her a half sister to Moss. So these puppies will be somewhat related to him, which is cool. I already know I like the lines, and it will be interesting and exciting to see what Monty's genes bring to the mix. Keli is running in Open and has competed at all the big trials in the west as well as the USBCHA finals. These puppies come from really great herding and performance lines. I'm so excited!!!

So... in six weeks, one of these little ladies will be coming home with me:

Scream

Splash

Spec

Split

Smudge

Aren't they adorable? I can't wait to know which one will be mine...

Milestones

2011-12-09T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today, I finished the last paper I will ever have to write in graduate school.

Today, for all intents and purposes, I finished my Masters Degree in English Literature.

It's been a long journey... sometimes arduous, sometimes fun, but always a learning experience. I've grown and changed a lot since I first started in the fall of 2009. I am a different person now, but I think a better one.

And the best part?

I'll have more time to spend with these jokers!

Boy, do I have some exciting plans for the future...

Man, "future"... what an exciting and terrifying word :D

Pat Hastings: Structure In Action Seminar Review

2011-12-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend my second Pat Hastings seminar. About five or six years ago, I went to her Puppy Puzzle seminar at a dog show I attended in Utah. The one went to this past Saturday was her Structure in Action seminar and WOW, did I get a lot out of it. Although Pat is primarily a conformation person, much of what she said applies to performance dogs as well.

Pat is an AKC conformation judge and has been in dogs since 1959. She is mainly a conformation person (is a former professional handler), but understands and respects function and purpose as well. She believes that every judge should watch a breed do its original job before being certified to judge that breed. Additionally, she stated many times that breed standards are supposed to function as a blueprint for a dog that would be able to do its job (herding, hunting, coursing, etc). If it can't physically or mentally do the job it was designed for, it fatally lacks breed type (i.e. a Border Collie that can't or does not work is not a Border Collie).

Pat is famous for her "Puppy Puzzle" method of evaluating puppies. In a nutshell, she believes that evaluating puppies at 8 weeks of age provides breeders with the closest representation of what that dog will be like structurally at maturity. She has formally evaluated thousands of puppies, litters and adult dogs over a 22-year period to provide a pretty strong research base to back up this method.

The seminar was (surprise, LOL) about structure. In particular, it was about how certain faults impact the dog, health and performance-wise. Pat is a great teacher and has a lot of practical knowledge that helps her understand and explain this very technical subject. To make it even better, two vets were in attendance and provided some great insights on structure and health.

The first half of the seminar was a lecture about structure. Pat went through all different parts of the dog, showing skeletal examples of faults as well as photos of dogs of various breeds. After lunch, she examined two litters of puppies (Siberian Huskies and Parson Russell Terriers) and then went over adult dogs that people had brought with them to the seminar.

For me, the seminar was incredibly illuminating. Because I have been very involved in performance in the years since I went to my last seminar with her, I approached the information with a whole different perspective. Suddenly, it made sense why certain dogs I watch in agility are always knocking bars, jumping weird, or getting injured.

Pat stressed over and over that only well-built dogs should be doing sports such as agility. Because our dogs will do anything for us, they will run themselves into the ground trying to keep doing it. I know Cedar would do agility until she could no longer move... so this seminar made me much more concerned with watching her carefully for any problems. I have another post I'd like to write, going over Cedar's structure in detail, but I haven't thought it completely through, yet. But wait for it ;).

Below, I've written down some interesting things I learned at the seminar, taken from my notes.

Breeding and Evaluating Puppies:
- at 8 weeks, bone size, substance and tail carriage mean nothing. What you CAN evaluate are front and rear angles, topline, balance and temperament.
- Don't judge movement at 8 weeks, but do look at carriage and presence.
-Busy puppies (the ones that are always moving) are usually built less soundly than calm puppies, because it's harder to stand still. Oftentimes the soundest puppy in the litter is missed because it doesn't move a lot. It doesn't have to because it's comfortable in its own skin ;).
- A breeding program should be like a square: health, type, structure and temperament form the sides. If one thing is missing, the whole program will collapse.
- A dog should be able to be identified as one of his breed, at the very basic level, by its head and silhouette. She was careful to state that this is for physical characteristics only and stress that working ability is also a part of this picture for most breeds.
- It's important to look at littermates (maybe even more so than looking at dogs further back in the pedigree) when making breeding decisions about structure and health.

Balance:
- To judge balance, draw three lines on your dog. The first is a line from the middle of the front leg up past the top of your dog's head. The head and neck should be in front of the line. The second line is from the point of the buttock to the ground. For moderate rear angulation, the front of your dog's rear toe should hit the line. The third line follows the back line forward from the tail out past the dog's head (horizontally). Your dog's chin should be above that line. If your dog passes these three tests, he's generally pretty balanced and has decent angles.
- The ribcage should be long enough for the 9th rib to attach.
- The sternum should be parallel to the ground and should go as close to the belly button as possible. A short sternum creates what is called a herring-gut, which is a shorter ribcage that leaves more of the organs exposed than is probably good.
- Opposing force (in muscle, bone, gravity etc) creates stability. If one part is out of balance it effects the rest of the dog.
- Toplines are not heritable. The topline is a result of structure elsewhere on the dog.

Fronts:
- If the shoulder blades are the proper width apart, they will just touch when the dog puts his head down. Your dog can only lower his head until the shoulder blades touch, no further.
- the straighter the shoulder, the less muscle they have to support the front and neck.
- You know those show dogs with really long, pretty necks? That is BAD. dogs always have the same number of vertebrae. if they have a swan neck, that means that the vertebrae are longer or have more space between them, which creates weakness and increases the probability of neck injuries by a lot.
- The only thing holding the neck in place are ligaments. Improper ligaments cause a ewe neck, and the upright neck carriage you see is compensating for that weakness. Ewe necked dogs have trouble swimming (they fight the water) and carrying heavy objects in their mouths.
- If you can wrap your hand around the upper arm, it's set too far forward. The ribcage should stop you.
- Having a short upper arm lifts the front feet up too high, creating the illusion of more reach but in actuality wasting motion and putting more stress on the dog's joints at the trot.
- The prosternum is in a direct line w/ point of shoulder. Or, it should be. If it's in line, the dog does not have a short upper arm.
- Pat has also noticed a correlation between true short upper arms and elbow dysplasia... interesting.
- For a dog that toes in in front (pigeon-toed), the #1 cause is loose ligaments in the elbows.
- A dip in the topline or a sway back indicates there is a problem somewhere in the front assembly.

Rears:
- A dog's topline gets more extreme the longer an overangulated rear stands in a stacked position, which you see in ads and win photos. You can tell if an overangulated dog has been standing stacked for a long time on the podium if their topline looks really extreme.
- The problem is, it's the patellas that take a real beating from those rears, because they aren't meant to take that kind of stress. People rarely think about that.
- You can change the length of bones, but not the mechanics. If something is out of balance, it puts stress on a different part of the body than is meant to withstand that stress.
- Slipped hocks cause knocked bars in agility because the dog tucks the "slipped" leg differently than a non-slipped leg. They also cause turning problems, because the dog pushes off harder with the non-slipped leg which torques them to one side in the air. It is also hard for dogs with slipped hocks to do the weave poles. One sign of slipped hocks is a roached topline, because the dog builds muscle in the back to compensate for weight-bearing problems in the hind leg(s).
- You should never be able to see the outline/shadow of the stifle joint from the side or front. If you can, that means the dog has lost the weight-bearing ability of that joint. The knees should be tucked in so all you see is a smooth curve. If you see the outline of the patella/knee, the dog's hind feet probably toe out as well.
- A low tailset, bad croup, or roached topline indicates there is something wrong with the rear assembly.
- Problems with the rear can cause lower back problems in performance dogs because they are using their backs to compensate.

Movement:
- "there's no room for error in square" .... a square dog must be built almost perfectly to move well. body length adds forgiveness
- A dog can only reach as far with his front leg as the angle of his shoulder. Artificially extreme reach (common in show-bred dogs) is causes by an incorrectly-placed upper arm.
- When evaluating puppies, don't judge movement at 8 weeks, but do look for puppies that prefer to trot rather than gallop. This indicates more balanced structure, generally.

I have so many notes that it would be dumb to try and include everything in one post, but this is a general look at some of the stuff I learned at the seminar this weekend. I hope you can learn something, too! Even if you don't do conformation, good structure is still important to the well-being and longevity of our performance dogs. Pat does not necessarily believe that only perfectly built dogs should do agility, but she did have some good advice that I think we should all pay attention to:

Listen to your dog.

Now, we all know that there is no perfect dog out there. They all have their faults, physically and temperamentally. It is important to not only know what our dogs' faults are, but to know what the possible side effects of those faults could be. Certain faults, such as improper rear angulation, can increase a dog's susceptibility to things like cruciate ligament injuries and the like. But if we know this information, it's easier to manage and avoid injuries. Pay attention to your dog's behavior and motivation. If a normally gung-ho agility dog suddenly starts refusing jumps or contact obstacles, there's probably a reason. If your hunting dog suddenly stops wanting to retrieve, there's probably a reason for that as well. Our dogs tell us a lot every day... but as they can't tell us with words, it's our job to listen by paying attention to their body language.

I'll leave you with this adorable photo of baby Moss :)

Excited

2011-11-29T12:07:00.001-08:00

For the first time in a long while, life is pretty good for me. Today, I'm in a great mood :)

As my master's degree work comes to a close (I will be DONE in a week and a half--ahh!!), I feel like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders. In spite of what happened with my thesis, and the annoyance of having to come back for an extra semester, I am glad that I did so, and didn't just leave it unfinished. I am feeling really good right now about it all. I am glad that I will be able to leave the program with positivity instead of a chip on my shoulder.

Dog stuff is going amazingly well, too. Back in October, I applied to be a Canine Good Citizen (CGC) evaluator with the AKC, and just found out this morning that my application was accepted! I took the test earlier today and got 100% on it... so that means I am now totally approved as an Evaluator :D I am excited to see where this takes me.

Agility is going great. After our last trial, I feel really good about the progress Cedez and I have made this year. I think we are both a lot more confident in our skills, and I have been working really really hard on my attitude. I am excited to work hard over the winter so that Cedar and I can aggress the courses together with a vengeance next year!

After some not-so-good experiences with herding, I thought my love for it had died. It felt more like a job that I HAD to do out of obligation than something fun and interesting to do with my dog. Thankfully, as I've discovered over the past few months, I was wrong. I found a new group of people to work dogs with up in Eastern Washington, where I (technically) live and will be moving back to in just a few weeks. I had the opportunity to go out and work Moss several times over Thanksgiving break, in addition to the few times I worked him on my weekends back in town this fall. I am having an absolute blast. Moss and I are learning and progressing, and there is no pressure. I love it. I can't wait to do more once I am out of school and back up in WA full time. I would like to do a few herding trials (USBCHA and maybe ASCA or AKC) with Moss next year... but only if I feel we're ready. It feels great to take control over my own destiny.

I know it's early to be thinking about this stuff, but I already have my new year's resolution picked out. Next year, I resolve to stop being afraid... afraid of putting myself out there, taking chances, making waves. Stop being afraid of feeling good about myself or of being successful. Try not to stand in my own way. Bravery is good, right?

Oh, and also? I'm getting a puppy early next year. Details to come soon... ;)

I think 2012 is going to be a banner year for me. I can't wait.

Working Pictures

2011-11-27T06:15:00.000-08:00

I had the opportunity of going out three times over this past week to work Moss on sheep. The Walla Walla area is amazingly beautiful and there are lots of big fields to work in. Moss worked amazingly well for only having sporadic herding training since the spring. I am learning to trust him more and making an effort to give him the space to figure out how to be "right." I am so impressed by him :)

Here are some of my favorite photos that I took over the last few days:

(The first four are of Moss's brother, Toss)

Aaaannnnd the Moss Man :)

Today, Moss got the opportunity to herd cattle for the first time. What a kick! (no pun intended, haha). He wasn't sure what to think, and actually barked at them! I would like to try it again sometime with him, though :-P ...

Here is a video of my friend working Moss on sheep on Wednesday. This was his first time on sheep in almost three months, and I figured it would be a good idea for him to be worked by someone who knew what the heck they were doing the first time, LOL. Pretty good, eh? ;)

I have some video of me working him on Friday that I need to edit. Look for it to be posted soon!

Tomorrow, I am going back to the "real world" to finish up my last two weeks of school. If everything goes as planned, on December 9th I will, at long last, have my Master's degree! Wahoo!

Happy Thanksgiving from Cedes of Change!!!

2011-11-24T10:01:00.000-08:00

Cedar, Moss, Scully and I wish our American friends and their families (both furry and non) the happiest of happy Thanksgivings! Today, what are you thankful for?

Moss, I'm sure, is thankful that he got to work sheep yesterday after a long hiatus:

For feeling the wind whip through his hair, running through the alfalfa fields.....

And for a nice cold drink when it's all over ;)

I bet if Cedar could talk, she would be thankful for agility...

The thrill of stepping up to the start line, every muscle tense, the anticipation...

Running for the joy of it.

Scully would probably be thankful for food, her new dog bed, and her new sweater:

I'm thankful for all of them <3

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Review: Show Dog Sings The Blues by Devin O'Branagan

2011-11-19T14:19:00.000-08:00

Devin O'Branagan's new novella, Show Dog Sings The Blues is a story of mistaken identity, hope, and the power of persistence. On its most basic (and most important) level, however, it is a story about DOGS.

Writing from the perspective of an animal is a challenge not many writers are able to conquer effectively, but O'Branagan manages to create a strong, memorable character in Talisman, a pampered Australian Shepherd show dog who finds herself unexpectedly thrust into the role of ranch dog for a day. Tali tackles each test with candor and a healthy dose of attitude. She may be a "prissy" show dog on the surface (organic kibble, professional grooming, manicured nails and all), but when she is faced with real danger, she welcomes it head on and proves that she is more than just a pretty face.

Show Dog Sings The Blues surprised me in many ways. It was all at once humorous, sad, hopeful, and suspenseful. I found myself going back and reading parts of it over again just to relive certain moments in the story. Although the story is told from the perspective of a dog, the lessons she learns are applicable to and understandable for people, too.

Looking for that "just right" holiday gift for a dog (or Aussie)-loving friend, or for a fun, light read to take with you on vacation this winter? I would highly recommend Show Dog Sings The Blues. You can buy it on Amazon here, in either e-book or print formats. At only $1.99 for the e-book and $5.99 for the print version, you can't really go wrong!

Trial Videos!

2011-11-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Three Pines for these awesome videos, taken last weekend at the BARC NADAC trial:

Novice Chances:

Open Hoopers:

Elite Jumpers:

Open Regular:

Novice Tunnelers:

(I know this one wasn't a Q... but look at that distance! I decided to try for the bonus line, since we had already flunked, and she did it!)

I am pretty proud of how far we have come in a year. For reference, here's a "highlights" video from this trial last year, our first trial ever:

And here are the "greatest hits" from last weekend:

Enjoy!

My Favorite Agility Blogs

2011-11-15T08:21:00.001-08:00

I know I'm not the only person that can waste hours of their life reading random stuff on the internet. And because I'm crazy obsessive (human Border Collie, much?), I spend a lot of time browsing agility blogs.

Sometimes I'm looking for sympathy, other times inspiration, and sometimes I'm looking for specific information to address a question or training challenge. Here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order (this is a totally NON-comprehensive list and I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out, but these are the blogs that came to mind off the top of my head):

Agility Nerd
Full Tilt Border Collies
Dauntless
Johann The Dog
Exercise Finished
Say Yes! Dog Training (Susan Garrett)
BorderBlog
HippieDogs
Daisy Peel
Greg's Dog Blog With Skye and Rip

What agility blogs do you read? Are there any that aren't on this list that you think I should check out? Leave me a comment if you have a suggestion... I'm always interested in checking out new blogs!

Anniversary

2011-11-14T07:02:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was my local agility club's winter NADAC trial... which marked our one year anniversary of competing in agility!!!!

We have come so far this year. SO far. Last November, Cedar had one title (ASCA herding, STDs). We were solid on the basics of agility, but her weave pole performance (on 6 poles) was iffy, especially her entries. I still felt overwhelmed by her speed and drive on the course, and felt like I was handling a rocket... and by "handling," I mean barely controlling, LOL. We were starting to become a good team, but still had a looooong ways to go. In many ways, we still do. Now, we are a much stronger team, have earned ten agility titles (!!!) and our rally novice title, are on our way to more consistent weave poles, and I feel like we're starting to get into a really awesome groove. I can't wait to see what next year brings!

Last November we competed at this same trial, and walked away with nine Q's and two new agility titles. I was so proud of Cedar and felt overwhelmed by it all, sure, but I also felt my enthusiasm for agility grow and my sense of purpose solidify. Competing in agility just felt "right" in a way that most everything else hadn't. We were both totally hooked on agility after that trial.

Me and Cedezz with our ribbons from our first agility trial:

After our first trial, we had the months of December and January "off" from trialing, but we didn't exactly take it easy. We spent the winter training hard, learning new skills and working on our teamwork. In February, we competed in our first AKC trial, earning our first two legs in Novice Standard and FAST, and our first leg in Jumpers. We finished up those titles at our next trial in March.

Our "loot" from the March trial ;)

Now, because we had been practicing on International style and Excellent level AKC/USDAA courses in practice, the openness of Novice courses made it pretty easy for us to be successful.

We finished our Novice titles and "moved up" pretty quickly.... and just as quickly, hit a giant wall in Open. We could handle the courses, but Cedar just couldn't weave 12 poles in a trial. For almost six months, we didn't Q in a single Open or Excellent run that required weave poles. We did really well in FAST (because weave poles weren't required) and in NADAC classes without poles, but were very unsuccessful overall, over the summer and into the fall. I got very frustrated because we could run the courses fine; everything was within our skill level except for the weave poles. She would occasionally get them right, but it always felt like an accident. I got really, really, unflatteringly frustrated.

After a trial in September, I decided to take a step back and work on some obedience and freestyle. We took a few weeks off from agility and just did fun stuff to work on her obedience and impulse control. We competed in rally (and earned our RN), started to think seriously about canine freestyle, and are currently working up a routine to Liza Minelli's version of "All That Jazz" to submit to a video trialing event with the MDSA in December. It was great to not think about agility for awhile... and when I finally felt we were ready to come back, I had a whole new attitude.

Our trials in October (AKC) and November (NADAC) were, at least to me, the most fun. I feel like Cedar and I are starting to get into some kind of groove. Things are just "gelling" better. I think all of our "other" work in obedience and freestyle has helped with her weave poles too, indirectly. I feel like she is thinking more on the course, overall. She loves the game so much that sometimes it's hard for her to make me part of the equation ;) After all, she likes to go REALLY REALLY FAST, and I, well, am not LOL. I love her so much... she is such an incredible dog. Anyways, at the October trial, we finished up our Open Standard (OA) title and earned our first Q in the new Time 2 Beat class.

Which brings us to the trial this past weekend... the purpose for this post! Jeez, I sure am long winded ;). So anyways, this was a really fun trial! We ended up Q'ing in 7/17 runs, breaking our recent "tradition" of only earning 2 Q's per weekend ;) and had a lot of fun doing it. It was a three day trial, which is normally really exhausting for us, but I wasn't as tired on Sunday as I normally am. Friday's trial started off a bit slow, and I was a little bit discouraged that we couldn't seem to Q. But we did qualify with a first place on our last run, Open Hoopers. It was our first time running the new Numbered Hoopers style, and wow, what a blast! When I first looked at the course, I thought that there would be no way that I could keep up with Cedar, but when we were actually out there running, it was so smooth that it felt slow! That was sort of our "theme" for the weekend.

We really hit our groove on Saturday, earning three Q's in Elite Jumpers (first two legs) and Open Regular (first leg). Sunday we repeated with three more Q's, finishing up our Novice Chances title, earning our second leg in Open Regular, and our second leg in Novice Tunnelers. We had several other really, really nice runs that were "near misses"... one dropped bar in Elite Jumpers on Friday in an otherwise perfect run, several heartbreaking off courses (handler error, doh!) in Regular, Tunnelers and Touch N Go, and one run that was just a disconnected trainwreck ;). But I was SO pleased with her this weekend. She was awesome... a total partner and teammate. I felt really connected to her in most of our runs. We even got all but one or two discriminations! After flunking the first round of Tunnelers early on yesterday (handler error... ugh), I decided to play with some distance handling on the rest of the course. She was AWESOME. We would have made the 15 pt bonus line! We Q'd on the next tunnelers round to end the weekend with a little "tangible" success. I couldn't have asked for a better trial to end our first year of competing.

One of the best parts of this weekend? She didn't pop out on the tenth pole ONCE .. all our weave pole issues were due to the NADAC rule of not nailing down the poles. She hits them so hard that they rock, and switching from the first to the second set would sometimes knock her out... but she would ALWAYS do them right the second time! And most of the time she did them right on the first try :) And because there are no refusals in NADAC, we never NQ'd on the weave poles.

The very best part of the weekend for me, though, was spending it with Cedar doing what we both love to do. A few weeks ago, I took Cedar in for her OFA hip and elbow x-rays. I was considering breeding her this winter or next spring, so it was something that needed to be done. Well, unfortunately she came back mildly dysplastic in one hip. She had normal elbows, though ;). The vet who did the x-rays told me that she did have some "concerns" about that hip, so it wasn't a total surprise, but it was still really sad for me. Fortunately, the vet ALSO said (and this was also confirmed by the OFA report) that she had NO arthritis in her "bad" hip, just a shallow socket, and that if I keep her fit and in good weight (yeah, not hard for her! lol) she will most likely never be lame or have any problems from it. So that is good news.

Since then, I've just been really thankful for the opportunity to train, run, trial, and just be with her. Things could be so much worse... we could not be able to do agility, or I could not have her at all...so that makes all our little problems seem that much more insignificant. I am so grateful for my girl dog. She's funny, weird, beautiful, talented, smart, and perfect...for me. We're like peas and carrots, my Cedez and I.

I ordered some professional videos of our runs from Three Pines Productions. What fantastic people! I would highly recommend utilizing their services if you happen to attend a trial where they are videoing runs. Once I get the videos, I will edit a highlights video as well as a year in retrospect video, and post them here with some more commentary. But y'all are just gonna have to wait for that ;)

A Few Cedar Pix

2011-10-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots of Cedar, taken today. We're loving the crisp, sunny weather!

We <3 Fall :)

It's Been Awhile

2011-10-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry for being so lax with posting on the blog this year. School and life have really gotten in the way of blogging fun!

In school news, I only have seven more weeks left until I'm DONE. I really truly cannot wait. I'm definitely ready to move on to the next phase of my life! My classes are going well, and are both pretty interesting... but I am just ready to be done with school. I've been here long enough :)

In dog news, Cedes and I had a trial last weekend, our local AKC club's fall trial, which is held in conjunction with their fall dog shows/obedience and rally trials. I entered Cedar in both rally and agility. She finished her Rally Novice (RN) title on Thursday with a score of 95 and 2nd place :) So... Cedar earned her RN in three straight trials with scores of 92, 100 and 95. Not bad for her first experience with obedience!

The agility trial was a lot of fun. I tried really hard to keep a positive attitude and stay relaxed, and it worked. I was a lot less stressed this weekend, even though we maintained our tradition of only Q'ing twice a weekend in AKC ;).

But in good news, Cedar finished her OA title on Friday with a blazing fast run and a first place! We are now in Excellent in Standard and FAST. Still waiting on those Open Jumpers Q's, though... ugh. We had some great runs this weekend, even those that we didn't Q. She did her weave poles perfectly in all but one run, which I was very proud of!

Here is a video of one of my favorite runs of the weekend, even though it was an NQ:

I was really pleased with all the stuff we did well last weekend. Cedar and I were, for the most part, on the same page and didn't have any WTF moments, except for the one run where she messed up her weave poles. She just gets in that "omgomgimustgofast" mindset sometimes and can't weave; it's hard to get her out of it when she's like that. But she was a good girl overall this weekend. We ended up with Q's in standard and time 2 beat. We would have Q'd both runs on Sunday (Exc Std and Open Jumpers), but she dropped a bar in both. That was a bummer, but she ran really well in both runs and we finished the weekend with smiles on our faces.

This weekend I had my usual class on Saturday-practice on Sunday schedule. We ran a course from Cynosport this year, I believe. Cedar was fantastic. Today, my friend Jan brought her camera and snapped some pictures of us (and the other dogs, too LOL). Here are some of my favorites:

Enjoy!

Ketschker If You Can :-P

2011-10-09T14:45:00.000-07:00

Cedes and I returned to agility this weekend after a three week break, first for class on Saturday, and then for practice on Sunday. It feels good to be back!

(Since I don't have any new pictures of us in agility at the moment, here's a completely unrelated one of Cedar staring at a parrot at the Richland dog shows last weekend. LOL)

Anyways... agility class. We worked a jumpers course that Mary ran last weekend at the Pocatello, ID trials. It was designed by my good friend Jan Skurzynski, who was also the judge. It was a really fun course with some significant challenges and tricky spots for fast dogs. We ran this course on both Saturday and Sunday.

On Saturday, we were definitely rusty after taking so much time off. Plus, I'm still sick, and have no voice, and the grass was really wet and slick, so we were having some problems with timing and stuff. But all in all, it was a good class. We ran the whole course, then worked on pieces of it to focus on specific skills. My classmates helped with some weave pole proofing exercises too, which I really appreciated.

By Sunday (today I guess, LOL) we had our act together. I felt like our teamwork was really good and for the most part, her weaves were, too. We ran the course cleanly several times, then moved on to other stuff. I worked on her contacts for a bit in preparation for the trial this weekend, did some other little drills, worked some distance, and worked more on her weaves. I got the opportunity to run a friend's JRT, "Izzy" through the course as well, which was fun. It's definitely different running a small dog!

Then, Jan (who had come to practice to work her awesome red BC girl, Blazer) mentioned the Ketschker turn, which she had seen done at a trial that past weekend. She set up a jump grid and taught us all how to do it. For those that don't know what a Ketschker is, AgilityNerd describes it as a "reverse front cross to blind cross." Here's a link to a video of someone demonstrating the move:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pPuL1agWz4

Basically, you turn into the dog as they commit to the jump, and pick them up with the same hand as the takeoff side. Sounds confusing, but in practice, it works great! I was amazed at some of the tight turns I was able to get out of Cedar. I think it works because your body language is so clear to the dog. With this move, your feet and shoulders are facing the direction you want to go as the dog is landing. Another good thing about the Ketschker has to do with the dog's path. With a front cross, if you are not spot on with your timing and body position, there is a big danger of back jumping. With the Ketschker, the line you draw for the dog's path is different (I think of it as a "U" instead of a "V") and should avoid a lot of back jumping. I know I was able to get some really tricky wraps and tight turns out of Cedar that would not have worked nearly as well with a front or other kind of cross.

So... I was glad to learn this move today. It's an interesting and useful skill to have in my agility toolbox! I'm excited to practice it more :)

We do have a trial next weekend, my local kennel club's fall trials. Three days of agility 20 minutes from my house :) I am going to try really hard to run with a different attitude and take things less seriously. It is a privilege to be able to run my Cedar girl. So many people I know have lost dogs or can no longer play the game with them due to death, illness, and injury. I need to think less about competition and more about how amazing and joyful it is to run with her. So what if we don't get the weave poles? They will come with time and practice.

I think this break did us good :)

Moss vs. the Flappy Floatie

2011-10-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

For my first toy review, I thought I'd take a look at Moss's latest victim, the Flappy Floatie, a toy that--in spite of being designated as "not for aggressive chewers--actually lasted quite a long time.

I bought this toy originally (the large size, I believe) at TJ Maxx because I was looking for a toy that Moss could use for dock diving. Our foray into that event was short, but the toy was a hit. We took it with us to the river for a good part of the summer, and into the fall. It floated well, was easily visible to both us and to the dogs, and was the perfect size.

Unfortunately, the Flappy Floatie met an unfortunate end a few weeks ago, sustaining a fatal ripping injury to the main part of the toy. But, I liked it so much that I went out and bought a new one, but in a bigger size this time. It was a good toy for occasional games of fetch, but I know it would not survive regular rotation as a "house toy." But... it worked very well for the purpose for which I bought it.

So, all in all, I give this toy a positive review. Here's my breakdown:

Durability -- 3
Interest -- 4
Visual Appeal --4
Fun --5
Value --5

In an ideal world, I would like a similarly designed toy but using tougher fabric. I am not sure whether this would compromise the "floatability" factor, though.

New Segment: Moss vs (Insert Toy Name Here)

2011-10-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Moss is, ahem, not a friend to toys. If it has something that can be chewed off, torn, ripped, or otherwise destroyed, he will find it.

Needless to say, we end up going through lots of toys because he destroys them so quickly.

So, this morning, when thinking of things to do with this blog, I had an idea. Moss can't be the only dog that's hard on toys. Each week, I am going to do a review of a dog toy. I will score the toy from 1 (poor) to 5 (awesome) in the following categories:

Durability
Interest
Visual Appeal
Fun
Value

I will post the first toy review tomorrow!

Rally Video

2011-10-05T18:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a video of our run on Sunday:

<3

A Rally-ing We Will Go :)

2011-10-02T13:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend is the Columbia Basin Dog Training Club & Richland Kennel Club dog shows. These are small-ish shows, outside in a really pretty park by the river. I thought it would be a great show for Cedar's debut in Rally, and I was right! Yesterday, she scored a 92, which was good enough for 3rd place in a big Novice B class. She was distracted for about the first half of our run, sniffing and staring at Joe and the judge, but once she settled in and focused, she was perfect. Here she is posing with her rosette:

Today, she was ON. She had great focus, and we had a snappy, clean, and pretty run. We were totally connected and she gave me her best. I love when she's like this... makes training fun :) To my surprise, we got a PERFECT SCORE of 100, which was good for FIRST place :D Apparently this was the first time the judge had ever given a 100. I was so proud of her. We're entered in another rally trial in a couple weeks, so hopefully we'll finish our title there :)

This weekend was a lot of fun, not very stressful, and good for confidence and team building, which is what I hoped for :) Rally really is a great program for that. Good girl, Cedes!

Frustration

2011-09-24T19:57:00.001-07:00

I've kind of been taking an unofficial "break" from agility for the past two weeks, since the Benton City trial. The first day was awesome, we Q'd 2 out of 3 runs (the NQ was totally my fault). We were on, working as a team, and running great. We ended up with a Q/1st in Open Standard with a perfect run, and a Q/2nd in Excellent FAST, with the fasted time, but the dog that beat us had more points. Cedar's weave poles were fantastic. We were flying and totally in sync.

The second day was a complete disaster. Cedar was terrible. She messed up her weaves (10th pole pop outs AGAIN!) and was just running amok with no brains. She even broke a start line I think. Just not thinking at all. I was not part of the team in any way. It was disheartening to say the least. We work so hard... and for what?

I was so disappointed in her. WAY too disappointed. I could barely look at her. I knew that I was in no position to be a good or effective trainer, so I just left her in her crate for awhile while I cooled off.

That's when I decided that I must be taking all of this too seriously. Hence, the break. It's been good to not think or stress out about agility too much for the past few weeks. I still don't know what to do to fix her weave poles. It's unbelievably frustrating to be spot on perfect in practice (any scenario I can throw at her) to have them fall apart in a trial.

So, I think after our next trial (which we've already entered), and maybe one more NADAC trial in November, we'll be done with agility for a little while. Take maybe a month off, and work on other things. We're definitely not giving up on agility, though. The two of us love it way too much :)

Here's my plan, since nothing/everything else hasn't worked:

I need to figure out a way to train Cedar to think better under stress. Maybe once she learns how to do that better away from agility, she'll be better able to cope with weaving. Maybe I'll train her up for her CD title.

Any thoughts about other things we could do to help her build this skill?

Thanks :)

Another Weekend, Another Trial

2011-09-09T09:32:00.001-07:00

Cedes and I have another trial this weekend, an AKC trial in Benton City, WA. We will be competing in Excellent FAST and Open Standard and JWW. We have been working really hard on weaves this summer, so hopefully our 10th pole pop-out problem is resolved. I have a really good feeling about this weekend. We have been running really well in practice.

Here's a video from the NADAC trial a few weeks ago, one of my favorite runs:

So... my goals for the weekend are:

1) Have a good time with my dog doing what we both love to do (most importantly!)
2) Handle smoothly and fairly, set Cedar up for success (fulfill my end of the bargain ;) )
3) GET THOSE WEAVE POLES!!!
4) Good start lines and solid contact performances (maintain my criteria)
5) Run fast, run clean :D

Tell Me Thursday (first one for me!)

2011-09-08T09:39:00.001-07:00

Well, I've finally remembered to do this on an actual Thursday.... so here we go! Laura over at Crooks and Crazies has started this fun weekly Q&A deal, and I'm excited to play!

1. What is the biggest thing that grossed you out over the past week?

Hmm... nothing too traumatic, at least not this week anyways. But it was pretty gross when Moss drooled on me (I was eating pizza or something). Yech.

2. What do you feed your dogs?

I feed Taste of the Wild (rotate between the fish [their favorite], bison, and lamb formulas). They also get fish oil pills and occasionally lard and/or Inflight Coat Formula, which is magic stuff.

3. If you could move anywhere where would you live?

Good question! Either the Oregon Coast, Maine, or England... depends on the day ;) Today? England. But that's probably because I've been planning my trip there next year with my mom (our second trip there together!) and watching nonstop episodes of Inspector Lewis for the past week.

4. What is the funniest thought that occurred to you (or thing that happened to you)?

This is a hard one, because there are so many options, lol. Off the top of my head, watching Moss in the river was pretty damned funny. He has learned to tread water (swim in place) and does it with the funniest look on his face. He absolutely LOVES the river. lol

5. If you couldn't have your breed of choice what would be next on your list?

Hmm... probably a Papillon or something little, smart and athletic. I really want a rescue Chihuahua, a smooth-coated black and white male :-P

Moss works sheep again.... VIDEO

2011-09-05T14:29:00.000-07:00

I am visiting Joe in Kennewick this weekend and had the opportunity to go out and work sheep with Mary (who owns Moss's brother Toss) again. I'm never one to turn down the opportunity to work my dog! So...yesterday Moss, Joe and I drove out to Walla Walla to work dogs and ended up staying and hanging out until after dark, drinking wine and chatting. It was a lot of fun! Productive, too.

The dogs (Moss and Toss) both worked great and I learned a lot. Mary and Toss looked awesome... they are SO ready for the finals! I just know they're going to kick some major ass... and look good doing it ;).

Anyways... working Moss was a mixed bag of good and bad. He was a little pushier than normal, and I was confusing him with my ditzy handling. As usual, his driving was great and his inside flanks were spot on. He did exactly what I told him to do.... good and bad. Haha! He's such a good dog, in spite of my rusty handling.

The one area we have been having the most trouble with is the lift and fetch. Maybe we've been driving too much or something, but sometimes he won't automatically bring the sheep back to me, instead wanting to stop short and drive them off somewhere else. So we worked on that some, and also worked on picking sheep up off of a person (Mary and Toss held them for us) as that has given us troubles in the past. Moss naturally has a really pretty outrun, nice feel for the sheep, and understands how to hold a line, but I mess him up with my micromanaging and conflicting commands. So basically.... I just need to shut up and clarify my communication. Help, not micromanage him. It was amazing how much better he was when I kept my head on straight and my mouth shut ;)

Anyways...he is a really good dog and I don't give him enough credit. I think with some consistent practice we could do some trialing this winter and next year and not feel totally out of our element.

My goals for the (somewhat) immediate future:

1) Practice my whistles away from my dog until they are 100% solid.
2) Go into every training session with a clear plan in mind of what we're going to do and what I'd like to accomplish.
3) Fix his O/L/F and get him outrunning from my feet.
4) Clean up my handling, insist on straight lines with a minimal amount of nagging. Insist on him being correct and be very clear of my expectations.

Some video:

I hope you all are having a great Labor Day weekend! Cheers!

Trials and Tribulations

2011-08-29T13:28:00.000-07:00

So, yeah. I'm back in Boise.

Not permanently, but til the beginning of December, when the semester ends.

I decided last minute that I really did care about getting my Masters degree, and came back to snag the last two classes I needed, which replaces the thesis that I ended up not being able to complete. Shitty, but whatever. I've moved on. It just seemed like a waste of all that effort and struggle to not get any validation for it. I mean, it's only 16 weeks (15 now)... it would be silly not to. Plus, not having to teach while I'm in school is fabulous. LOL. So far, I'm really enjoying my classes and I have high hopes that this will be an overall positive experience.

So.... I'm back in Boise, and living with my parents. I brought Cedar with me, and Joe is up in Richland in our house with the other two dogs.

One of the benefits of being back in Boise temporarily is that I get to hang out with my agility friends again and train on a consistent basis. I'm excited about that.

So here we are. Life and future in limbo yet again... but without that sinking feeling in my gut telling me that I'm on the wrong path. This feels right, and that is comforting.

Anyways, Cedar and I had an agility trial this past weekend, BARC's annual NADAC games-only trial. We competed in tunnelers, hoopers, and touch n go. It was interesting competing in a trial without any jumps (for everyone) or weaves (for us, we didn't enter weavers). Although Cedar had the opportunity to finish three titles, we ended up finishing just our Novice Hoopers (HP-N) title. We would have finished our Novice Touch N Go title, too if not for a bad call by the judge on her A-Frame contact, which to everyone watching (and verified by me on video later) was completely okay. So... that was a disappointment to say the least.

She really ran GREAT in Touch N Go this weekend.... just perfect in all three runs. We won the first round with the fastest time out of all the classes, NQ'd the second because of the judge, and NQ'd the third because of a stupid handler mistake on the last obstacle (ugh!). But I was really proud of a lot of the stuff she was doing in her Touch N Go runs. She is gaining a lot of confidence at a distance and for the most part I really felt like we were connected as a team in these runs.

Tunnelers was a bit of a disaster. She broke her startline TWICE this weekend, both on tunnelers runs. One on Saturday and one on Sunday. Both mistakes earned her a immediate halting of the run and a walk of shame back to her crate without the usual post-run treats and praise. I was extremely disappointed in her as her start lines are normally very solid. Not sure what was going on there... she just couldn't handle all those tunnels, I guess! But I definitely wasn't in the picture in her mind. It was frustrating to feel so disconnected from her as it's not normally like that when we run. Guess it's time for some more tunnel aversion therapy for her ;)

Hoopers was a success, but by the skin of our teeth, LOL. I always feel kind of hurried and confused with Hoopers. Everything happens so fast, and there's not anything to slow Cedar down to give me more time to think :-P. But we did manage to Q in both Hoopers runs this weekend for our HP-N title. Cedar was good and listened well for the most part. I was proud of her tight turns and obstacle commitment, as she has not practiced much on hoops.

All in all, we earned 3 (really 4, if you count the judge's mistake) Q's this weekend out of 8 runs, and earned a new title. Not a bad weekend! We will be working hard on start lines and reinforcing proper contacts before our next trial (AKC) in a few weeks.

And now... a photo of Cedar with her trial loot :)

Trial video to come, hopefully soon :)

Step By Step

2011-08-19T19:18:00.000-07:00

ooooh babyyy, gonna get to you weeeeeeeeeeeave poles....

*cough*

Okay, so maybe agility and NKOTB don't exactly go together. But I couldn't think of any other title for this post. LOL.

But anyways.... here's a short video of Cedar weaving tonight. I'm posting it, as short and otherwise unremarkable as it is, because it shows the kind of weaver she is turning into. In short, our hard work is really paying off. See the single stepping and the sustained (but not frantic) drive from the beginning to the end of the obstacle?

Here's the video:

Yeah, that's the money, baby. We're totally making the weave poles our bitch.

We've done a lot of work on weaving over the past month or so. A lot of proofing, training entries, etc. I expected that she would get better at weaving with distractions and at finding more difficult entries, but what I didn't expect was the change in her focus and footwork. She has always been a bit of a frantic, not-thinking weaver. The transition from running to weaving has always been difficult for her. But I think she's starting to see the weave poles as a separate and complete obstacle, something to be tackled in its entirety. She is growing up and learning to manage her excitement better. Good girl, Cedes :)

Riverdogs

2011-08-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Joe and I took the dogs to the river for the first time.

Moss really, really liked it :)

Cedar had fun, too.

And Scully was cold ;)

I'm so excited that I found a safe and clean place to swim the dogs. It's great exercise and especially good for building condition without a lot of stress on their bodies. This place was great because it it was in an area without much current and the dogs did not have to go out very far before they couldn't touch the bottom.

And it's pretty fun, too :). Moss especially loved retrieving his toy from the water.

The river:

And just 'cause you know you want to see them.... some more pictures :)

We can't wait to go back!

Dog IQ Test :-P

2011-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

So I did this test with all three of my dogs today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/pets/testyourpet/flat_alternative.shtml

Here's a breakdown of how they each did individually:

Cedar
Test One, Paw Preference:
It's likely that your dog is either right- or left-handed. In the wild it makes sense to have a paw preference, because in emergencies, one side of the body will take the lead. Why left or right are dominant is open to debate, but in some species it has some amazing consequences.

Cedar used her right paw to get the treat, which was option B. If option B - Your dog appears to be right-handed. Right-handedness in humans is often associated with language ability and a logical mind. There is some evidence that right-handed animals can be better at remembering and using words, so maybe your dog understands more of your conversation than you had thought!

Test Two, Flip The Tin:
This is a view-of-the-world test. Your dog must be able to understand that even though the object disappears from view, it still exists. If the treat has a strong smell, the test would not be conclusive, because scent would give its position away.

Cedar flipped over the cup immediately, which was option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three, Drop The Treat:
This is another view-of-the-world test. It looks at your dog's understanding of how objects, especially horizontal objects, relate to each other. Animals that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Cedar looked at the floor briefly, then back up at the treat, which was option B. If option B - Your dog was surprised that the treat didn't hit the floor, but quickly worked out where it was likely to be. Many animals have trouble with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four, Round The Bend:
This is both a problem-solving test and a detour test. First your dog has to work out a route to the reward, and then it has to walk away from the treat in order to get it.

Cedar walked immediately around the barrier to retrieve the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five, Command of Language:
This is both a learning test and a memory test. Your dog learns your words, phrases, body language and vocalisations so that it can understand us and can guess what we're going to do next. The number of commands that an animal can understand is to do with both its ability to learn and the size of its memory.

Cedar knows more than 25 commands (38, not including agility and herding) and performed them all on command, which is option A. She is the best trained of my three dogs, so she definitely won this category ;) If option A - Your dog is obviously skilled at learning and remembering commands. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body signals that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. It looks like you've given your dog plenty of opportunity to learn.

Test Six, Pull The String:
This is a speed-of-learning test. Your dog is presented with a task that it hasn't encountered before. It has to learn how to conquer it by trial and error, but can it learn in just three attempts?

Cedar pulled the shoelace with her paw almost immediately to get the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog has very quickly associated the action of pulling the string with the delivery of a reward. It could be that your dog has experience of performing this action already, and that it therefore took to this task quickly, or maybe your dog is simply very good at learning new physical tasks.

Test Seven, Hide and Seek:
This is a spatial memory test that tests two parts of your dog's memory. If your dog can find the treat, it has managed to remember both the layout of the room and the position of the treat in relation to all the other objects in the room.

Cedar went immediately to the hidden treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Moss
Test One: Moss first used his left paw, then switched exclusively and enthusiastically to the right. So I'm going to say it was option C, difficult to tell paw dominance. If option C - It could be that your dog has no preference; in other words, it could be ambidextrous. In some animals this has been shown to be unhelpful. It's often good to have a dominant hand to lead the way.

Test Two: Moss flipped the cup over almost immediately to get the treat, which was option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three: Moss looked at the floor, then back up at the treat, which is option B. If option B - Your dog was surprised that the treat didn't hit the floor, but quickly worked out where it was likely to be. Many animals have trouble with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four: Moss walked immediately around the barrier to get the treat, though he did get a little distracted walking around ;). His response was option A. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five:Moss knows between 11-25 commands, which was option B. If option B - Your dog has learnt and remembered a broad selection of the commands that it finds most useful to pay attention to. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body movement that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. They may be able to learn more commands with the right encouragement.

Test Six:Moss did the best out of all three dogs on this one! He almost immediately pulled the string with his mouth to get the treat. This is option A. If option A - Your dog has very quickly associated the action of pulling the string with the delivery of a reward. It could be that your dog has experience of performing this action already, and that it therefore took to this task quickly, or maybe your dog is simply very good at learning new physical tasks.

Test Seven: I used a toy with Moss, and he found it immediately, which is option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Scully
Test One: Scully used her right paw, which is option B. If option B - Your dog appears to be right-handed. Right-handedness in humans is often associated with language ability and a logical mind. There is some evidence that right-handed animals can be better at remembering and using words, so maybe your dog understands more of your conversation than you had thought!

Test Two: It took Scully a little bit of time to figure this one out, but she eventually used her face to move the cup, which is option A. If option A - Your dog understands what psychologists call "object permanence". It realises that objects continue to exist even after they have disappeared from view. This is cleverer than you may imagine. To understand this, it must believe in a world beyond its perception.

Test Three:Scully did the best of all three dogs on this one. She never looked to the ground, instead following the treat to where it landed on the pillow. Option A. If option A - Your dog understands the way that horizontal objects relate to each other. This may not seem like much, but many animals have difficulty with this test. Pets that move about more in 3 dimensions should do better at this than those that move only on the ground.

Test Four: Once she figured out that I wasn't testing her "stay" command, lol, Scully figured this one out right away. I'll give her option A on this test. If option A - Your dog cracked this puzzle remarkably quickly. This may be because it has come across a similar situation before, or it may be very good at looking at physical problems and coming up with solutions. This takes a fair deal of brain power.

Test Five:Scully knows between 11-25 commands, which is option B. If option B - Your dog has learnt and remembered a broad selection of the commands that it finds most useful to pay attention to. When it learns a new command, your dog is associating the sound or body movement that you create with one of its own actions. Your dog's learning and memory has probably got a lot to do with your own training habits as an owner. They may be able to learn more commands with the right encouragement.

Test Six:It took Scully awhile to figure this one out, but she eventually used her paw to pull the string to get the treat, which is option B. If option B - Your dog has worked out that if it carries out the physical action of pulling the string, it will be rewarded. This is pretty impressive because pulling a string may be an entirely novel thing for your dog to do.

Test Seven:Scully found the hidden treat immediately, which is option A. If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.

Overall, this was a really interesting test and I'm glad I got the chance to try it out on my three mongrels :)

"Oh yeah, we're smart."

Back to Work

2011-08-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

Moss and I FINALLY found a place to work sheep!!!! Hurrah!!!

Yesterday I drove out to Walla Walla to meet with Mary, who owns Moss's littermate brother Toss (no, I'm not kidding LOL). Toss is an amazing working dog and is qualified for the 2011 USBCHA Nursery finals. They are gearing up to attend this very prestigious sheepdog trial, which is held in September. This year, it's in Carbondale, CO. I'm very excited to see how they do! I'm sure they'll be amazing, they're a great pair.

Here is Toss. Isn't he gorgeous?

But anyways.... yesterday was a really fun day. We started off working some agility and freestyle in Mary's back yard. I used Cedar to help Mary and her awesome JRT, Kitty, get started with some cool freestyle moves, and then we did some agility jump drills.

After we finished with that, we drove over to Mary's friend Erica's house to vaccinate some sheep and do some chores. Toss is a very good chore dog and he was very helpful in getting the ewes loaded into the trailer. All except for one particularly nasty ewe with a lamb. She had no qualms about headbutting the dogs or chasing them across the field.

Toss tells the ewe to turn back...

She says "no way!"

But she turns.... for now.

Their troubles were just getting started...

Even Erica's dog, Tate couldn't get her into the trailer.

Toss tried his best, as did Tate, but eventually the three of us humans had to catch her and haul her bitch ass into the trailer. Sorry, no pictures of that ;)

A few hours and lots of running around later, we ended up back at Erica's house and worked our dogs on some fresh lambs that had never been worked by dogs before. Lambs like that tend to be really light and not flock together very well, which can be challenging. I was a little nervous because Moss hasn't worked sheep (and neither have I) in almost 5 months. I shouldn't have worried, tho. He was FABULOUS. He listened well, read his sheep intelligently, was a lot of fun, and didn't get us into any trouble... even if I wasn't totally on my A game all the time. I'd count that as a success! I just love working him.... he takes such good care of me, especially for a young dog.

My favorite moment was when two of the lambs split off from the group and tried to run for home. The draw was really strong on one end of the pasture. Moss calmly swept out and cut them off, holding them to the pressure. He just stood there, keeping them from breaking away and moving ever so slightly whenever they did. This dance kept going for about thirty seconds or so, until Moss finally took one tiny step forward and they ran back to the rest of the group we were working. What a good dog!

Erica snapped a few photos of him while we were working... thanks Erica!

Oh, and I actually remembered to do Saturday Blog Hop for once! :)

Once More, With Heeling

2011-08-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

Jeez, I've been pretty lax about posting regularly on the blog this summer! I've been surprisingly busy since returning to Kennewick from my two week trip home to Boise. But I've been sure to make time for dog training!

Since the Nancy Tanner seminar, I've been really jazzed about freestyle. I've been working with both Cedar and Moss on some of the things I learned, and both dogs are progressing well. Cedar LOVES her go-out training and is getting much better about backing up to a target as well. I need to start sidepass training with her, though... that's a trick I really want to have in our arsenal!

Oh, and Moss got to go dock diving on Monday... it went pretty well. As soon as he gets more confidence to jump, I know he'll be great.

Some Cedar video:

Some Moss video:

Nancy Tanner "Freestyle and Beyond" Seminar Wrap-Up

2011-08-03T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a seminar on canine freestyle with Nancy Tanner of Paws and People dog training in Bozeman, MT. Nancy is a judge for the Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA) and also trains and competes in agility. I've been wanting to learn more about freestyle for a long time, and it's safe to say that after last weekend, I'm hooked!

And so is Cedar :)

Since Cedez and I had a working spot, we were quite active during the two-day seminar. On Saturday, Nancy started out teaching the group the basics of freestyle and those of us with working spots got to try out some of the basic moves and foundation exercises. First, we worked on basic attention and hand targeting, which Cedar knows well. Then, we practiced delayed rewarding by having our dogs perform behaviors with a plate of treats on the floor next to them. Only when the dogs gave us calm, focused attention were they released to their reward. After we had mastered those skills, we worked on teaching "bow" (which Cedar has never figured out until this weekend!) and leg weaves. Cedar really digs all these tricks and it was fun getting to play with her. It was also very motivating to have a goal, or purpose for doing all this fun stuff.

On Sunday, Nancy moved into a discussion of more advanced freestyle moves, and also taught us the basics of how to put a routine together. I would have liked to spend more time on this stuff, since it was completely new information for me. We learned about how to train our dogs to go out to a target/mat, how to back to the same target (which Cedar really loved), how to train our dogs to sidepass, how to do fancy "switches" (or changes of direction), and a few other more dance-like moves. We learned how to figure out specific aspects of our dogs' personalities, and how to do the same for ourselves.

Finally, Nancy taught us about how to put routines together, from picking music to how to rehearse for competition. One thing I thought was interesting is that she recommends finding music that matches the natural beat of your dog's footfalls. To figure this out, video your dog heeling and then watch the video while playing a wide variety of music (like on YouTube). We practiced really feeling the music to train our brains to learn how to develop routines that move logically with the music in a flowing way.

At the end of the day, a few teams were "volunteered" to do short routines based on an exercise we'd done earlier (we wrote down routines in the shape of letters). Cedar and I were one of those teams ;). It was definitely an experience walking the course to music, seeing how my planned moves worked in a real setting. Once I walked it a few times without my dog, I got Cedar out and we tried to routine as a whole. It was fun! I definitely see the value of walking the routine without a dog first. But all in all, considering I only had about five minutes to come up with the routine, walk it, warm up my dog, and run through the routine with her, it went well. I can't wait to come up with a "real" routine for us :)

A few things that stuck with me:

1) Calm gets you everything, pushy gets you nothing. This was a good lesson for me to learn, because Cedar can tend towards "pushy" with me while we're training (bumping my hand, jumping into my space, etc). In the past, I thought it was cute (okay, I kind of still do, LOL) but I can see now how it affects our working relationship. By rewarding her for being calm and thoughtful, we were able to get a lot more done.

2) Train to compete, compete like you train. I am guilty of being a bit "permissive" as a trainer. I tend to think that if something's not perfect, I can go back and fix it later... but I think Nancy's approach is much more logical and leads to cleaner and less lazy/sloppy training. So, in the future I will go into each training session with my criteria and goals clearly defined.

3) Freestyle is really just "play with a purpose." The idea of "play with a purpose" was really interesting to me. I guess I always separated trick training from "real" training, but really, the two are very much entwined. So yes, freestyle/trick training is fun, but it still is important and should be treated as such. The most productive training sessions, regardless of sport, are those in which the trainer approaches the session with focus and a clear head.

4) The importance of knowing your dog's personality as well as your personality as a trainer... and using that information to your advantage. This is a biggie. I don't think many people really sit down and take the time to analyze the motivations and personality traits of their individual dogs. And I'd bet even fewer people have analyzed who they are as trainers. These exercises were interesting, eye-opening and informing for me, and helped me to approach training my dog in a different way. One interesting thing I learned was that "cheerleading" Cedar when she's not into being a participant is actually demotivating for her.

This was a fabulous seminar that left me excited, encouraged, and totally jazzed about canine freestyle. It seems like a logical activity to do alongside agility because its focus is on teamwork and building a stronger relationship with your dog.

And now.... a completely unrelated photo of Moss:

Jumpin' Jumpin'

2011-08-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend at the trial I finally picked up my new jumps! I bought two really nice jumps from a local friend that makes equipment for all the agility clubs in the Boise area. I got a purple one and a blue one :). Tonight, I finally had the chance to set them up and, well, since I never do anything noteworthy without my camera, it was a good time for a photo op.

I practiced with all three dogs, and they all did great! I jumped Moss at 26" for the first time tonight and was pleasantly surprised with how nicely he did. He had very nice form, was thoughtful, and listened very well.

Cedes also got her chance, and jumped 26" with ease. I most likely will never compete with her at that height, but it was nice to see how well she adjusted to jumping 6" higher than normal. She's such a good girl <3

And even Scully got a go!

The Definition of Awesome

2011-07-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Cedar at the trial last weekend, photo by Randy Gaines.

I love my dog <3

Trial Recap

2011-07-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

Why is this (admittedly poorly taken) iPhone photo one of the best things I've ever seen?

It's because it marks the occasion of our first (non-FAST) Open Q!!!!! And on a really tricky Standard course, no less! We have struggled mightily with the weave poles since moving up from Novice back in March (or April?). In trials, Cedar has been popping out pretty consistently at the 10th pole. And, being a Border Collie, she pattern trains very easily, which is a concern when it's a "bad" pattern :-P. After a few trials with weave troubles, I have decided to significantly step up my proofing efforts.

This weekend was the Idaho Capital City Kennel Club's summer AKC trial. I've always wanted to run at this trial because it's close to home (well, my old home) and I have watched agility trials at this venue for years. This year, we finally got a chance to compete. Being in July, it was freakin' HOT, and the metal roof did not make things better. But all in all I had a blast. We ended up with 2/6 Q's, one in FAST and one in *(yay!) Open Standard. We had a lot of really nice runs that weren't Q's, with just small mistakes. Saturday we NQ'd both Standard and JWW because of the weaves. Yesterday, after spending some time after the trial proofing, we managed to get the weaves (all 12 :D) and Q in Standard. We would have had a JWW Q as well, but for an uncharacteristic back jump during an awkward moment on course. Oh well.

Overall, I was super happy with how Cedar ran for me this weekend, as well as my handling. I just felt like we both pretty much had our sh*t together and were working well as a team. There was a lot of good to be found in our runs from this past weekend, that's for sure! I am confident that once our weave pole issue is fixed, we'll be unstoppable!

Here's a video of our Open Std Q from yesterday:

Onward and upward!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CEDES OF CHANGE!!!!

2011-07-13T12:39:00.001-07:00

It's a birthday double header this week.... first for Cedar, and now for the blog itself :-P Today marks our one year "bloggerversary"-- can you believe it?

A few stats:

Total number of views: 11,478
Total number of followers: 54
We have been visited by people from the following countries: USA, Canada, Russia, UK, Malaysia, Germany, New Zealand, Ukraine, Slovenia, Australia, Argentina

I also just discovered (this morning, actually!) that we were selected as one of the Top 5 Agility blogs by VetTechSchools.org!!! Wow!!! What an unexpected and amazing honor, especially considering how many awesome agility blogs are out there on the web.

VetTechSchools.org

This has been a really fun project, and I can't wait to see where it takes me in the coming year. It has been a very positive influence in my life and helped me deal with a lot of crap that has happened over the past year.

I already asked this on the Cedes of Change Facebook page, but...

What is something you've done in the past year to change your life in a positive way?

Wordless Wednesday: Goooo USA!!!!

2011-07-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday, Cedar!!!

2011-07-12T14:28:00.001-07:00

My Cedes is FOUR YEARS OLD today!!!!!! I can't believe it! I'm going to bake her a tuna cake this afternoon and have a little party with the other two dogs. Not that she doesn't already feel special enough :D

The day I brought her home at 8 wks:

Last weekend on the beach:

She is my best friend and the most beautiful dog in the world <3

Happy birthday, Cedar... may we have many more birthdays together.

I'm still working through editing all the beach photos... there are so many, I have to pace myself or I'd go insane :-P

Life's A Beach

2011-07-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

We're baaaaack.... refreshed from vacation and with a new look :D

I have 800-something photos to edit, and will post more about the trip later this week. But, in short, it was AWESOME.

Here's a taste of just how much fun we had this weekend:

More later...

Guess where we're headed?

2011-07-06T13:30:00.001-07:00

Here's a hint:

That's right, we're headed to the beach! The Oregon coast, to be exact. I am SUPER excited!!!

Check it Out....

2011-07-05T19:53:00.000-07:00

My good friend Aimee, who was one of the contest winners from my last giveaway, posted a review of the toy she received :) Check it out here!!!

If y'all can remember as far back as last September, I went out and took photos of Aimee and her gorgeous horse, Izzy. You can take a look at that post here. She's an awesome chick with some great dogs and a wonderful horse. Her blog is a great read, too... y'all should check it out :)

It's hilarious that my post about her and her post about me have basically the same title :D

We return... triumphant yet broken :-P

2011-07-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

Cedar and I returned from our first solo trial trip last night. We attended the Mt. Bachelor Kennel Club AKC agility trials in Redmond, Oregon. The trial site was beautiful, I got to hang out with some of my agility friends from Boise, and I finally am starting to feel more confident in my handling ability. Cedar ran great, with the exception of the weave poles. Overall, I loved this trial and would totally come back next year.

Oh, and Cedar finished her Open FAST title with two second places in a big 20" class :D

Unfortunately, THIS happened on Friday:

Yeah, that's right...I sprained the hell out of my ankle. On the first day of a three day trial. Awesome. The judge thought I had broken it, but it turns out it's just sprained really badly. I was able to run on it without too much pain with the help of an ace bandage and then an ankle brace.

It definitely impacted my ability to run and get to where I needed to be to handle Cedar properly. In spite of that handicap, we did pretty well. Cedar seemed to sense that I couldn't run very fast, and she adjusted her usual style to accommodate me. She ran with more distance than usual, while still listening to me really well.

Oh, but it gets better! Yesterday (Sunday) was our debut in Excellent FAST. We had a really great run going until the last jump of the send. Cedar lost momentum (because I couldn't run as fast as usual, sigh) and started to come into me, I slowed down to try and get a redirect in, slipped, and fell down straight on my back. Thankfully it didn't twist my ankle or anything, but now I have a sore back and tailbone to go along with my bum foot. Christ. Other than that, it was a great run. And even with the fall, after finishing the run we were still 3 seconds under SCT ;)

Definitely not my most graceful weekend.

Other than her weave pole issues, Cedar ran well. I felt like we had a good connection in all but one run. Her contacts were good, she listened well, we were able to tackle some really tough sequences, and, of course, we both had fun. She lives for agility.

By the end of the weekend, she was pretty worn out, though <3

Mt. Bachelor Kennel Club Agility Trial

2011-06-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Cedes and I are headed off today to Redmond, OR for the AKC agility trial there this weekend. We are entered in Open standard, JWW and FAST. No Time 2 Beat, as I feel like 3 classes for three days in a row is MORE than enough for us right now.

Wish us luck, and have a great 4th of July weekend!

The Exciting Adventures of Moss at the Vet

2011-06-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

The sneezing started Monday afternoon, progressing to wheezing and lethargy by Monday night, pawing at the face and general misery by Tuesday morning.

Clearly, whatever was in Moss's nose was not going to get better on its own. I feared foxtail; a quick post to my facebook friends (most of which are very knowledgeable dog people) confirmed that the best option was to take him to the vet.

After all, foxtails are freaking dangerous.

Crap.

The problem? I just moved to Kennewick, know like two people other than my husband, and don't know anything about the vets in my area. So, armed with Google, I picked the first vet that was somewhat close. Ironically, they have the same name as my vet in Boise: Vista Veterinary Hospital.

In an oddly fortuitous turn, they had an appointment at 10:30, ten minutes from the time of my call. I snapped it up, in spite of the receptionist's obvious sigh of disapproval when she asked if Moss was neutered and I said no. Anyways... I threw on some clothes (it can't be called an "outfit"), and dragged my husband and Mr. Wheezy McGee (aka Moss) into the car. By this time, Moss's eyes were all squinty and he looked really uncomfortable. He just wasn't acting like himself, and I was worried.

After filling out some "new patient" paperwork at the vet, we were ushered into an exam room to wait for the doctor. When he came in, I was struck by just how YOUNG he looked. A year or two older than me, tops. Luckily, he was fantastic. He checked Moss over, couldn't see much, and then laid out our options for Moss:

1) take him home and wait it out for a few days.
2) put him under anesthetic and look up his nose with a scope and try to get whatever is in there out.
3) bring out the big guns and take him to the vet hospital in Pullman.

Option one, while the cheapest, really did nothing to fix Moss's discomfort. Plus, we'd already spent 60 bucks for an exam. I wanted to get this whole thing figured out, and pronto. Option three seemed like a little, well, much. Moss wasn't sneezing blood or anything.

We decided to go with the second option, and left Moss at the vet for a few hours to get the procedure done. Leaving him was really hard for both Joe and I. We were both grim and nervous the whole afternoon.

3 PM couldn't come fast enough. After waiting around for awhile, we were shown to the office conference room, where the vet came and talked with us about the procedure and Moss's treatment. They did not end up finding anything in Moss's nose (ugh, of course, right?), but his nasal cavities and throat were extremely inflamed and they did find some pus. They flushed his nose out extensively and gave him a shot of a strong anti-inflammatory.

The showed us some pictures of Moss's throat, too, which were cool. Here's one for your viewing pleasure :-P

Moss was still pretty doped up when we were allowed to take him home... a bit unsteady on his feet, whimpering softly and with a far away look in his eyes like a druggie who woke up fifty miles away from where he fell asleep, wearing someone else's pants. It wasn't his best day :-P

This is your Moss on drugs:

After we got home, I spent a few hours hanging out with Moss on the couch, feeding him some ice cream, and making sure he was okay.

He hasn't sneezed since.

Cross your fingers that they got whatever was bugging him out of his system and that he doesn't have a foxtail migrating slowly towards his brain.

Oh, and if anyone in the Tri Cities is looking for a vet, Dr. Matt Stidham at Vista Vet is awesome! He gave me his cell number to call in case Moss wasn't doing any better, since he won't be in the office today. What a nice guy and a good vet, too.

Catching Up

2011-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been a ghost lately. But I've had a lot going on... with moving and all :)

I have had time, however, to bathe and groom all three of the dogs. Of the three, Cedar is the only one who enjoys the process. She loves the grooming table so much that sometimes I'll go outside and find her laying on it <3. She holds up each of her legs for brushing and has a really happy look on her face. I love her :)

She does, however, get a bit tired of getting her picture taken after awhile.

Moss, on the other hand, HATES grooming. He would much rather be out playing fetch, working sheep, or otherwise getting covered in dirt.

In other words, he'd rather be like this:

...than this:

Scully could care less about grooming either way. I think she enjoys being clean, but she also likes to roll around in the dirt.

All of us are starting to feel more settled into our new house and new town. I'm still awfully homesick, though.

CONTEST WINNERS LOOK HERE

2011-06-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Well... I've managed to not forget about the contest, and today Cedes and I picked out the winners via random draw.

*Drumroll*

1) Megan Donovan for her entry, "Discovery Channel" by the Bloodhound Gang
2) Aimee Towell for her rivoting choice, "You Shook Me All Night Long" by AC/DC

Great choices!

Megan and Aimee each get their choice of one of the following:

1) One Dog At A Time: Saving the Strays of Afghanistan, by Pen Farthing

Farthing, a British Royal Marine, describes his struggles to save stray dogs languishing and dying in the streets of wartorn Afghanistan. Already burdened with the responsibility of overseeing and protecting his 20-man crew of Marines, Farthing becomes consumed with the suffering of the strays and risks his own life to rescue them--he fights with police and risks walking into a Taliban trap to save a dog with a wire noose around its neck, knowing that without his intervention, the dog will starve to death or strangle itself. Soon he finds himself developing plans to save strays from dogfighting, a centuries-old local tradition that usually requires the removal of ears and tails without anesthetic, and adopts a former fighting dog he names Nowzad. Today, Nowzad happily resides in the Farthing household as his owners continue their quest to save thousands of suffering strays. Farthing's remarkable story will inspire, shock, and move readers, introducing them, perhaps for the first time, to war's most voiceless and unintentional victims.
or

2) A Kong Extreme dog toy (my dogs LOVED theirs... until I lost it in the move :(

Here are the other song choices entered in the contest:

--Buck Cherry, "Crazy Bitch"
--Snoop Dog, "Doggie style"

Not a big contest, but a fun one! Winners, please contact me via email to claim your prize :)

Wild Thing... I Think You Move Me

2011-06-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Wow... I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote a new post! I've been just a little bit busy with life over these past few weeks... an inter-state move tends to do that to a person!

I've been in Kennewick since Sunday afternoon, and still feel very disoriented and out of place. I am also still adjusting to the time change, so I'm tired a lot, too. All of our stuff was moved in on Monday, and I'm slowly getting things unpacked. The kitchen, office, and living room are mostly done...the bedroom and other living room still have a ways to go. I will get some pictures of the house to show y'all after everything gets unpacked. Right now I'm just trying to get everything sorted out with the house, try not to feel homesick for Boise, make sure the dogs get settled in, and adjust to living with another person again. No small feat for someone who doesn't like change. Hah! ;)

Last week was a week of goodbyes. I moved out of my house once the movers came and packed up everything, and stayed with my parents for a few days. It was good getting to see them a lot before I left.

I also said goodbye to my agility friends, which was really hard. I was able to get out and practice three times last week, in spite of all the craziness. On Saturday, we all went out to dinner. Everyone gave me cards, and I even got a few gifts. I was really touched. I will miss all my agility friends and hope to drive back to Boise often to visit and practice. And, of course, I'll still get to see them at trials so it's not like I'm leaving them forever (at least that's what I tell myself ;)

I've got a lot of really fun things coming up over the next month and a half or so... more about that later. I have to get back to unpacking!

A Few Things

2011-05-31T14:18:00.000-07:00

1. Yes, I know that I've been full of broken promises lately. Yeah, sorry. I've been busy! Between getting ready for a trans-state move and other stuff, I haven't had much time or energy for blogging.

I wish I had as much energy as Moss!

Oh, and I also went to California with my friend and agility instructor to pick up her new Belgian Sheepdog puppy! We drove 2000 miles over four days... half of which with an 8 week-old baby puppy.

This is the reason for our trip:

Isn't he cute???? <3

But anyways...a big part of the reason I haven't been here much lately has to do with...

2. Moving. Yes, it's finally come. In just a few weeks I will be making the move up to Washington to live with my hubby again. After a whole lot of stress and disappointment, we have a house, and I'm looking forward to getting settled up there and moving on with my life. I can't say that I'm that excited about leaving Boise, but I'm trying to be brave :). Cross your fingers that everything goes as smoothly as possible for us!

Our new house:

I'm so glad we were able to buy a house up there, as rental prices in the tri cities are INSANE... and most don't allow dogs. Plus, I'm sure that the collies will enjoy having their own yard... which brings us to...

3. Moss. I have been training Moss in obedience and basic agility stuff over the past month or so, and he's doing GREAT! He is happy to work and does pretty well with trying to figure out what I'm asking and offering behaviors... as long as there are no toys in sight ;).

My plan is to keep working with him with the short-term goal of entering him in Rally Novice at the BCSA nationals in September, and eventually competing in Agility, Rally (and maybe obedience), and, of course, herding... whenever we can get back into it.

While I'm on the subject of getting back in the game...

4. Cedar and I have another agility trial this weekend. We are entered in Open Standard, Jumpers and FAST at the Lizard Butte Kennel Club's summer AKC trial in Caldwell, Idaho.

Send good thoughts to Cedar and I... I am WILLING her to weave all twelve poles and we've been practicing hard. Let's see if it pays off.

Speaking of things that pay...

5. Awhile back I signed up for a working spot in a Nancy Tanner Canine Freestyle (dog dancing) seminar. I'm so excited about it that I have thought up another CONTEST, in which the top two winners will receive a book or dog toy (their choice).

To enter, all you need to do is ponder the following question:

What is the most inappropriate song you can think of to use in a Canine Freestyle (dog dancing) routine?

The definition of "inappropriate" is up to you... use your imagination!

Rules and Other Relevant Information:

Here's what you have to do to enter:

1) Think up an answer to the prompt question.
2) Post it either as a comment on the Cedes of Change Facebook Page OR in the "Comments" section of this blog post.
3) Contest ends June 14th, and winners will be announced shortly thereafter!

The top two entries will be chosen by Cedar and will receive their choice of a dog toy or book (TBD shortly). Top 10 entries will be featured in a future blog post along with acknowledgement and links to entrants' blogs/websites.

Good luck!

A Few Vids

2011-05-17T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple videos of my two favorite runs from the USDAA trial I went to last Sunday:

Starters Standard
Other than the dropped bar (which I think was from me calling her too early as she was jumping the jump before the tunnel), this was a great run. And yes, I did stop her before the weaves on purpose... I'm training her to collect and THINK about things before just blasting through her entries. It seems to be working so far :) I'm SO freakin' proud of her.

Starters Pairs
The most fun and my favorite run of the weekend. I was proud of Cedar's down stay when I ran off the pass the baton... watching Amanda and Trendi rocket off the start line for their part of the course must have been tough for my girl dog :) She sure is starting to figure out her job!

It wasn't our "best" or "most successful" trial by any means, but it was one of the most fun and relaxing. Just me and my girl dog, havin' fun doing what we love :)

I promise that a post about Moss will be coming up shortly... and with new photos, too :)

Pants On Fire

2011-05-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, I lied. I never posted about Moss. And I will-I swear! But not tonight, either. Sorry.

Yesterday, Cedar and I went to a local USDAA agility trial, put on by one of our local clubs, Boise Agility Runners and Climbers. I've never competed in, or even been to a USDAA trial before. It was a blast! I totally want to do more USDAA in the future, but probably not every weekend as I prefer jumping her at 20" rather than 22".

We competed in Standard, Pairs, Snooker and Jumpers. Although we only got one Q--in an AWESOME pairs run--we laid down some really great runs with only a few errors.

The highlight of the trial, for me, was the fact that Cedar got her weaves on the first try in Standard--ALL TWELVE POLES!!! WAHOO!!! The rest of that run was really great, but a knocked bar kept us from a Q. Throughout the trial, all her contacts were fabulous--fast and accurate with great 2o2o position. She listened well and we had a blast together.

Pairs was SO fun. We ran with a friend and her super fast Border Collie, Trendi. Both of us completed our portion of the course with no errors and in record time-- our run was only 32 seconds, including time for handing off the baton! We had the fastest pairs time out of anyone in all three levels on that day. How fun!

Snooker started off great, but a stupid handler error caused Cedar to back jump and we got the whistle. Ugh!

Jumpers.... well, there were some great parts. ;) We rocked a difficult opening sequence into a serpentine, but ran into trouble towards the end. Cedar was, I think, intimidated by the HUGE 22" triple jump, and decided to take an off-course tunnel instead--even if she literally had to go through my legs to get to it. She was quite determined! :-P But we had a great time finishing that course, and it was the first time that I've really ran for the "joy of it" in a trial. No stress, no expectations, just fun with my dog watching her fly.

This was the first trial I've done since being out of school, and I definitely felt a difference in my mental AND physical stamina. I was able to relax and enjoy the day much more than I have been able to at past trials. Neither Cedar or I were stressed out, and we were really just running for the fun of it. And it showed.

As much fun as I've had in trials so far, I think I had the most fun at this one :)

The Game... its every were.

2011-05-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

Or so says the title of one of my student essays I'm grading today (yes... that title is written verbatim). LOL.

Anyways... it's come to my attention that my last post was a bit of a downer. I didn't start out writing it with that spirit in mind, but it kind of ended up like that. You know how it goes. Yes, my self esteem has taken a huge hit from my experiences in grad school, but you may have guessed that my self esteem wasn't that good to begin with :). So, I apologize if that last post made y'all uncomfortable or made it seem like I don't appreciate what grad school has given me.

While, yes, it has shown me a lot of things about myself that are negative, it has also shown me that I am, in fact, capable of a lot of things that I would have never guessed. Like being able to stand up in front of an entire class of students and teach them how to write and think critically. And actually notice a positive difference in their work between the beginning of the semester and the end. That is an achievement I never thought I'd be able to pull off, and I'm proud of that.

Trying to think more positively about grad school (and watching WTT videos) got me thinking, well, about agility. Surprise! haha. Both school and agility have taught me that it's okay to feel like you've failed--as long as you can move on from that failure and use the information to approach similar situations differently in the future. That's a lot more productive than a bunch of self-absorbed whining.

This morning I read this post by one of my favorite agility handlers, Daisy Peel. Daisy, for those of you who don't follow agility, just made the US Agility World team for the second time with her amazing dog, Solar. Because she and I train with similar handling styles (Linda Mecklenburg/Awesome Paws) I watch her videos often to study how she runs her dogs. In this blog post, she talks about making the world team and the amount of physical and mental effort it took to get there. Reading this post made me think about how much I need to step up my game.

I haven't been trialing very long (we've done four trials so far), so I haven't put much thought into my mental and physical game, other than just surface/survival-type stuff. For example, I know that I need to stretch my hamstrings before running, stretch Cedar's back and hindquarters out, and make her look at me before taking her leash off at the start line. But really, I haven't gone much further than that. Now that we're out of Novice, I really need to step up my game :)...because once we get more reliable with weaves, I think we'll sail through Open and right into Excellent. I care enough about my dog, myself, and doing well in this sport to put the time into making sure Cedar and I are as prepped and ready as possible.

Starting with my mental game. I really need to put more thought in how I approach walking the course and prepping myself and my dog for a run. Now that I have a little bit of time to think about this kind of stuff (and read for fun--yay!), I am going to take another look at the Don Blazer book (if you haven't read it and you compete with animals, you should. It's about horses, but the lessons apply to dogs quite well). I also ordered the book Daisy Peel talks about in her post, With Winning In Mind. I'm hoping that that book will teach me even more about developing my mental game. I think that if I can get a handle on that, I will be a better handler and more in tune with my dog... which is what really matters, right? Learning to manage my nerves better will only be beneficial to Cedar and I in the long run.

The other part of the equation is my physical game. I am not in as good of shape as I would like... and would like to change that. I do a pretty good job of keeping up with Cedar on the course, but I feel that I could do even better... and would like to have more stamina on trial days. By the end of the day, I'm just so TIRED, emotionally and physically, that I know something needs to change. I'm having fun, of course, but it would be awesome to have more energy.

So, I'm going to use my love of agility to help motivate me to get my mind and body in better shape. I move to Washington in just a few weeks, and am hoping that this change in my normal "patterns" will shake things up enough for me to get a good start on changing some of the unhealthy patterns I've developed in grad school.

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Stay tuned for a new post tomorrow about Moss and what he's been up to lately :)

Failure

2011-05-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

We're all friends here, right? No judgments, etc?

Good. I have some things I need to get off my chest :)

But first, here's a pretty picture my friend Jan Skurzynski took of Cedar last weekend at the fun match:

Talk about a smoke screen.

Anyways...

For the past few days, as the semester has begun to noticeably wind down and I have had a chance to breathe a bit again, I've been reflecting a lot on my graduate school experience.

I have been saying since this time last year that "grad school has taught me a lot about myself--a lot that I don't like."

I've really had this lesson beaten over my head the past two semesters. The most important thing I learned is that I do not handle stress very well. I'm unable to separate my personal life from my academic/work life, and it's really been detrimental to both my mental (and physical) health as well as my work itself. It doesn't help, either, that I've been diagnosed with depression. Yay!...not. But that's a story for another day.

To be honest, most of the time I regret going to grad school at all, because it's turned me into someone I don't particularly like. I've been flaky, mean, emotionally distant, and messy... a bad wife, friend, daughter, dog owner... and all I can say is that I'm glad it's almost over. To those I have hurt, I'm sorry. This is what happens when I get completely overwhelmed and overextended: I fail at life! haha. But all kidding aside...

Grad school has, most profoundly, shown my my limitations. And they're a lot more limiting than I would have thought.

I've learned that just being "good at school" is not enough to be successful in an MA program.

I've learned that "wanting something really bad" is not enough to make it happen.

I've learned that successfully managing a long distance marriage, and all that entails, is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be.

I've learned to be more careful about judging others... because outward appearances often paint a much different picture of their life than is actually the case.

I've learned to not promise other people things that I can't realistically do right now, even if I REALLY want to. It just makes me look like an ass.

I've learned the importance of not overextending myself, even though I still am doing that to some degree. It's just added stress. I've had to let some things go temporarily (like herding) that I really love... just because I can't devote the time and mental space to them right now. I don't know what's worse... not doing something you love at all, or only doing it a little and feeling bad that your mind and heart can't be 100% in. I think it's the latter, because I've tried the other way, and it just doesn't work for me.

Most importantly, I've learned that I really need to start standing up for myself and my needs. My tendency is to avoid drama and confrontation at all costs. I will cave in to other peoples' demands that I don't agree with, take the blame for things I didn't do, and apologize when I haven't done anything wrong... just to avoid tackling the real issues. And it eats me up inside. This last lesson was not learned specifically in grad school itself, but the circumstances of my life IN grad school have forced this lesson upon me in a big way.

Throughout grad school, I've been disgusted by my weakness. My inability to separate my personal life from my work life really affected me to the point of not being able to write or focus at all. I was (and still am not) the student and teacher I know I am, or am capable of being. No, I'm not getting bad grades. Nothing truly "bad" has happened. I have a 3.9 GPA, thanks to one A- in a sea of As. My students are, generally, doing well. But I feel like I could have done better. I'm disappointed that I didn't show my colleagues and professors what I really could do.

My dad getting sick last fall/winter really brought everything crashing down. Realistically, though, it was probably just the straw that broke the camel's back. Between my dad, school, teaching full time, my relationship, and trying to actively train my dogs in two different, expensive, and time-consuming sports, I was completely overwhelmed. And I shut down. I couldn't write--like, at all. I couldn't keep my house clean. I could barely train my dogs. I just walked around like a zombie, going through the motions. And, however dramatic it sounds, I feel like I'm just finally waking up again.

This "awakening" is due, in a large part, to the fact that I have given up on my thesis. I'm just now being able to talk about it, and I haven't told my parents yet. I'm worried about what they'll think of me. So... consider yourselves privileged :) Anyways... after struggling for months with my thesis, which just felt... wrong and like something I didn't want to do, and after a particularly horrible meeting with my adviser, I decided to give it up. I have never felt so free, and immediately after letting my adviser know, I knew that I had made the right decision for myself, even if it was a "failure."

I'm not sure what I'll do about graduation... at this point I don't really care. I'm signed up for two summer classes, but not sure if I can afford them. I guess we'll see.

Before grad school, I'd never felt like I failed--really FAILED at something. Like, can't fix it, can't take it back something. And it's been a bit difficult to swallow. But I've been trying to take the Don Blazer approach... that "failures" are really just information that show you your limitations in a particular situation. They don't define you unless you let them. And I have, until today, let them do just that.

But not anymore.

Cedar and Moss, thank you. I would be an even bigger wreck without you two.

ICCKC Fun Match

2011-05-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

Today Cedar, Joe, Scully and I went to my local kennel club's spring fun match. It's always a great time, and today was no different! I entered Cedar in rally and agility, and Joe made his dog sports debut in Beginner Novice obedience with Scully :) All the dogs did great.

Here are some photos:

Recipe: "Stir Fry" with Bacon, Kale, and Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Garlic and Onions

2011-04-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

This is all I've been wanting to eat lately.

Seriously... I've made it twice in the past five days. It's that good. In my quest to eat more vegetables, I picked up a bag of "organic kale salad" from my local grocery store, not really knowing what to do with it. It sat in my fridge for a day or two, looking sad and alone in my vegetable drawer.

If you're afraid of kale, don't worry. I ate it without much enthusiasm as a kid. There was something about the soggy texture of boiled kale that really didn't do much for me. But this recipe, oh man... it's different. This time, the kale ia sauteed with caramelized roasted sweet potatoes and onions and, well, lots of bacon. It really surprised me how good this is. And it's not soggy in the slightest!

This recipe might take a bit of time, but the beauty of it is that you can roast the veggies beforehand, or go and do other things while they're in the oven. The actual stir-frying part doesn't take very long at all.

Here's what you need to make two (large) sides:

For the roasted vegetables:
1 sweet potato, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 a sweet onion, cut into strips
4 cloves garlic, still in the skin
Juice of 1/2 an orange, roughly (about 1-2 tablespoons, depending on taste)
1 tsp olive oil
pinch of salt
pepper, to taste

For the stir fry:
3 cups chopped kale (or pre-chopped kale salad, like I used. My mix also had bits of carrot and red cabbage, but just regular kale would work fine, too)
3-4 slices of bacon, 1 tablespoon of drippings reserved (in the same pan)
The rest of the juice from the same 1/2 of an orange you used earlier.

How To Make It:

1) Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2) While the oven is preheating, chop up your vegetables. Cut your sweet potatoes into 1-inch cubes, slice up your onion, and cut the tips off of your garlic cloves, which should stay in their skins through the roasting process. Cut your orange in half and put away the one you won't use--or eat it!

3) On a cookie sheet, lay out a biggish piece of tin foil. Pour some olive oil on the tin foil.

4) Place your veggies on the tin foil, toss with your fingers to coat with the oil. Sprinkle on your salt and pepper, and squeeze on the orange juice, careful to get as much as possible on the veggies themselves. Put the veggies in the oven, and leave them alone for about 15 minutes. Then, with tongs, or a fork, gently toss them to flip them over and put them back in the oven for about another 15 minutes. Make sure to keep an eye on them so they don't burn. The veggies are done when the sweet potatoes are fork-tender and starting to carmelize. Try not to eat all of them before you get to the next step.

5) While the veggies are roasting, get out your bacon. Cut in small pieces and fry in a skillet until crispy. Drain on a paper towel. Check and see how much grease is in the pan; there should be a little less than 1 tablespoon left. You can either drain this fat and use olive oil to fry your kale (why??), or fry it in the bacon fat. Or I guess you could do a combination of both. Whatever. I used the bacon fat and it worked just fine.

6) After the bacon is cooked and the veggies are out of the oven, take out your kale. De-stem and chop it if need be into 1-2 inch pieces. At this time, also remove the roasted garlic cloves from their skins and mince. Heat your skillet to medium (or medium-low, depending on how how your oven is). Add the kale and garlic to your oil of choice and cook in the fat until wilted, about 5-8 minutes or so. Make sure that it is more on the side of wilted than crunchy, or it takes on more of a sulphury (is that a word?) taste.

7) When the kale is almost done, add in your bacon pieces and roasted vegetables. Stir to combine, turning up the heat until the sizzling gets a little louder (but not angry). If it needs more liquid, squeeze in a bit more orange juice. Cook until everything is warmed through and the kale is done to your liking.

Enjoy!

Trial Videos

2011-04-24T16:45:00.000-07:00

Cedar and I had a NADAC agility trial this weekend, fairly local. I couldn't decide until the last minute whether I wanted to enter or not, because I'm so stressed and busy lately. I definitely felt the absence of brain power this weekend (hah), but overall I'm glad we entered. We did pretty well, earning five Q's and our OJC (Open Jumpers) title. We earned Q's in Jumpers, Chances, and Tunnelers, and put down some pretty smokin' runs :) All of our Q's also resulted in first places. Although we didn't get any Q's in Open Regular, I was very proud of the fact that Cedar was able to complete all 12 weave poles in most of her runs, as we've been having (and still are having) issues transitioning from 6 to 12 weaves in trials.

Cedar hanging out in my chair at the trial (crappy iPhone pic)

Anyways, here are a few videos:

Novice Tunnelers (we had the fastest time of anyone in this class from all levels!):

Open Jumpers (Legs 1, 2, and 3/New Title):

Enjoy!

Our Interview

2011-04-23T17:37:00.001-07:00

It's posted!

Here is the link to our interview on Coffee With A Canine. Check it out!

Moss also thinks you should check out our interview. Or throw the toy for him.

Wordless Wednesday: 'Nuff Said

2011-04-20T08:39:00.001-07:00

We're Gonna Be Famous!

2011-04-19T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hey, Moss!

Wut? Toy? Foodz?

Me, you, Cedar and Scully are going to be featured on Coffee With A Canine!

Huh? Toy? Foodz?

No, really. They interviewed me this week, and our post will be up in about a week or so!

...Toy?

Moss, forget about the toys and food for a minute. Do you know what this means? We're going to be famous! People everywhere will know about our blog and get to read about our adventures!

...Foodz?

Oh, nevermind.

Cedar, you're with me, right?

If I stare at her long enough, she'll throw the ball...

:)

Puparazzi

2011-04-17T18:04:00.000-07:00

I had agility practice this morning, and decided to dust off my camera and bring it with me. Practice was really fun, we ran the same course as yesterday, and then turned it around and ran it backwards for something different. Cedar did well, especially with the discriminations. She seems to really be starting to figure that out. One thing I realized that I really need to work on is her weave entries. She can pretty much only do them if I babysit the entry and make sure she has a straight approach. Obviously, this won't fly in trials for much longer! So I guess I need to get more committed to practicing at home if I want to keep improving our skills with the weaves.

Here are a couple pictures of Cedar, taken by a friend whom I basically threw my camera to right before my runs today :-P

And here are some of the shots I took today of friends' dogs at the practice:

Have a great Sunday!

Fun? What's That?

2011-04-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Between last night and this morning, I had the most fun I've had in a long while. Yesterday was the hubby's birthday, which I was pretty stressed about because I've been so busy I didn't have enough time to prepare for it as much as I'd wanted. Thankfully, everything turned out great. We went out to eat with some friends I haven't seen in ages, and it was just really nice to relax and not think about school for once.

For the last two years, most of the time I spend with my dogs at home looks a lot like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Thankfully, this will all be over soon and we can all get back to a more sane routine. I miss doing stuff with my dogs, I really do.

Speaking of "doing stuff with my dogs," this morning I had agility class with Cedar, after a two week break. In spite of the fact that it was predicted to rain, the weather was absolutely beautiful: sunny, warm, with no wind. Perfect agility weather! We ran a course with several distance challenges in preparation for the NADAC trial next weekend, which I still need to enter as I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it until recently. We'll be running in Open Regular and Jumpers, and Novice everything else. I'm really looking forward to it! Even though I've only done three trials total so far (2 AKC and 1 NADAC), I love it already. It's so much fun getting to hang out with friends, watch all the amazing dogs run, and of course, run some agility myself!

I can't wait for summer.

A Day Late and a Photo Short

2011-04-03T11:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I lied when I said I was going to take pictures on Saturday.

But have no fear... this exhausted blogger has come through for you all at last!

...with another set of frisbee pictures :-P

Real original, I know. But this is the best I could do this morning :-P

Moss and Cedar were, as always, happy to be my subjects:

And were happy (as am I) that the weather has been pretty nice lately, as opposed to like this:

They always enjoy a good game of frisbee :)

(Hehehe)

At least he's pretty sometimes :-P

Enjoy the day!

Fatigued Friday

2011-03-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

I'm really stressed right now.

That word isn't even in Moss's vocabulary.

He's such a happy dog with a palpable zest for life that brightens even the darkest of my days. I'm so thankful for him. :)

An old pic, but a good one:

Yeah, I know it's cheap to recycle photos on a blog. Unfortunately I don't have any new ones to post right now. But...I'm hoping to drag my camera out of its premature retirement and get some new photos tomorrow.

Aaaandddd... not to leave Cedar out, here's a photo of her at the trial a few weekends ago, taken by Randy Gaines:

Agility trial results!

2011-03-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

I think this picture says it all :D

This past weekend was my local kennel club's spring agility trial. I entered Cedar in all eight runs available, 3 Standard, 3 Jumpers, and 2 FAST classes, in Novice A, of course :)

Coming into the trial, Cedar needed one leg to finish her NA and NF titles, and two legs to finish her NAJ. On Friday, Cedar qualified in all three runs, finishing both her NA and NF titles with Q/1st places, and also got her second NAJ leg with a Q/1st place. I moved up to Open Standard and FAST for the rest of the weekend, and waited to see what would happen in jumpers. I had my fingers crossed that we could finish that title this weekend, too... but didn't know if we could do it.

On Saturday, jumpers was first. Cedar had two knocked bars, so we didn't get that last qualifying leg for our NAJ. I was pretty disappointed, but still had two runs to go. FAST was next, and it was our Open debut! Cedar rocked the send bonus (one that most teams had a really hard time with), and even though we were over time because I wasted a long time on the weaves, we still qualified, having almost 20 more points than the minimum needed. Open Standard was last. We NQ'd, but had some great moments.

Sunday was the last day of the trial. Standard was first. We NQ'd because she couldn't quite get the 12 weave poles, but everything else was damned near perfect. I was so proud of her. Jumpers, of course, was last! After Saturday's disappointment, the pressure was a little bit higher. I really wanted that Q to finish our Novice Jumpers title. I led out, and Cedar held her start line stay like a rock. On my release, she took off like a rocket, and we zoomed around the course. She listened so well it was like she was reading my mind, seriously. With the exception of one little bobble at the weaves, it was a perfect run. We qualified and got first place to finish our NAJ title!!!! What a great way to end an already fantastic weekend.

At this trial (our third trial ever, and only our second AKC trial), Cedar and I qualified in 5 out of 8 runs and finished three titles. Every Q we earned was also a clean run. She ran the best she ever has, and I am so proud of her.

Here are a few videos, I hope y'all can see them...

Our Novice Standard title run-- the best run we've had so far in competition:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=574263589524

Our Novice FAST title run:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=574276897854

Our Novice Jumpers title run:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=574271109454

Aaaannnd.... a "greatest hits" compilation of some of my favorite moments from the trial:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=574281822984

I <3 my girl dog :)

Mid-week Slump

2011-03-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm tired.

Like, literally almost unable to function. I've never felt so brain dead and profoundly exhausted in my entire life. This thesis thing is a lot tougher than I thought it would be! Unfortunately, it looks like I won't make the defense deadline for spring graduation. I've made peace with that fact... primarily because my defense date will only really be delayed a month. I'm aiming to defend in April sometime. So, even though my diploma will technically say "Summer 2011," I will still be done with my degree this spring. Not ideal, but it's the best option for me right now.

Did I mention that I also managed to mess my back up somehow? It's starting to feel better, but jeez. When it rains, it pours I guess.

Unfortunately, because of my busy writing schedule, the dogs have been a bit neglected lately. I don't have much time or energy for them right now. I do agility on the weekends, and take them for walks/to the park to play fetch. That's about it for now. It's been a real bummer, since I really enjoy being more active with them. I guess that'll have to wait until May.

This weekend, I have another agility trial with Cedar. It will be our second AKC trial, third trial ever. I am really excited; I think we're pretty prepared and I am crossing my fingers that we can finish at least one title this weekend. Right now, Cedar has 2/3 legs on her NA and NF, and 1/3 legs on her NAJ title. Exciting stuff! Cedar's such a blast to run, too... I can't wait to see what new "challenges" we encounter this weekend :-P

All I want to do lately, all I think and dream about, is getting out into nature. I need to clear my head. I want to do lots of hiking, camping, and gallivanting in the woods after I graduate. I want to sit and stare at the ocean for awhile. Find myself again from within the cluttered office that is my brainspace right now. Just pack up, grab the pups and get the hell outta dodge.

Yesterday, I took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. We ended up being out for over an hour, and walked a few miles. It was so fun and relaxing. The dogs and I both felt great afterwards.

Logger Creek, which winds through my neighborhood:

The three of us could have walked and explored all day.

I don't really have any great wisdom to impart (hahaha) to end this post, so... uhm... go hug your dogs. It's been proven that petting an animal releases endorphins and helps to relieve stress. Have a great day :)

Quote of the Day

2011-03-07T19:07:00.000-08:00

I ran across this quote on a random blog I was reading today. Definitely some food for thought:

“You might think, for instance, that the life you have is not at all the life you had in mind and so it doesn’t constitute your real life at all. Your real life is the life you pine for, the life you’re planning or the life you’ve already lost, the life fulfilled by the person, place, [etc], of your dreams. This is the life we are most devoted to: the life we don’t have.”

That's the cool thing about dogs. They're pretty good at living in the now.

Summer/graduation cannot come soon enough.

I'm so exhausted.

Updates and a little bit of Agility!

2011-02-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I took some time out of my extremely-packed schedule to run Cedar in the Lizard Butte Kennel Club's spring AKC agility trial. This was our first AKC trial, and second agility trial ever. We competed in Standard, Jumpers With Weaves, and FAST.

Overall, Cedar did GREAT. We earned legs towards all three Novice titles, with mostly first places and one second place. She is 2/3 of the way to her NA and NF titles, and 1/3 of the way to her NAJ title. We have another AKC trial next month, so hopefully we can pick up our last Novice legs there. That would be ideal, anyways :-P

Cedar with her weekend bounty of agility ribbons:

We definitely have some things to work on before our next trial. In particular, I need to work on start line stays, practicing contacts that look directly into tunnel entrances, and driving to the table. I'd also like to clean up her weave entrances and get her more confident with finding entries regardless of how fast she's going or how excited she is. Haha. Overall, she was a most excellent girly this weekend, and behaved herself very well in the amp'd up trial environment. She even did the teeter just fine! I was worried about that, but she sure showed me :-P We were much more "together" than we were at the November NADAC trial, that's for sure.

Our very first AKC "Q"... in Novice Standard :)

Here is a video of our trial highlights:

And a video of our best run of the weekend, Novice Jumpers. We completed this run with a clear round in 17.01 seconds!!! This is the most connected I've felt to her in competition so far.

I love my dog!

Checking In

2011-02-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

Nope, I'm not dead! After a few weeks of intense work and writing, I now have just a little bit of time to relax. I thought y'all might enjoy some pictures of the collies, so... here ya go!

Here are a few pix from a game of frisbee yesterday :)

Cedar and Moss LOVE frisbee. Like, a lot.

First, a pretty headshot of Cedar <3

And a...very manly head study of Moss

What Moss is really like ;)

The Grid

2011-01-23T17:52:00.000-08:00

So... I apologize for the extreme lack of posts lately. I've been really busy with school, dogs, and family stuff. The new (and hopefully my last, LOL) semester started with a bang last week. I really like my new batch of students, and the class I'm taking (18th Century Lit) promises to be a lot of fun.

I do, however, need to get serious about writing my thesis. Because of all the crap that happened last fall, I didn't get as much done then as I'd hoped. So, for the next month or so, I'm going to need to fall off the grid a bit and focus on completing that project as much as I can. I am not sure how much blogging I'll be able to do, but will try and check in periodically. I'm sorry that I haven't been keeping this up very much so far this year... I know y'all must be getting bored!

This past weekend, Moss and I competed in The Big Freeze sheepdog trial. It was a mixed bag of successes and failures and I'm not through processing the experience yet. We did pretty well in Novice, finishing the course and placing both days. Overall, I think my handling in Novice was good, in spite of my nerves. Nursery was a complete disaster. We didn't get past the outrun, either day. Oh well... guess I know what we need to work on for the next trial.

Here are a few pictures from yesterday's very foggy Novice run!

Time Keeps on Slippin'

2011-01-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

I just realized that I forgot to blog about agility last weekend. And now it's the next weekend...

Oops :)

Anyways, we did quite a bit of agility over the past two weekends, working through some really complicated courses from this year's AKC Invitational. Overall, Cedar and I did pretty well, even though a lot of the challenges are still over our heads.

However, we have made progress noticeable progress in several areas that is really encouraging. Most importantly, she is gaining speed and confidence in the weave poles. I am now able to send her from more complicated entries, and also move around more while she's in the poles without her popping out. Last weekend, I was even able to get in a front cross after the weaves without her leaving the poles too early. Yay!

Here are a few shots of her awesome new weaves:

We also have been working hard on "barrel racing"... which is modeled exactly like the rodeo event. Here's a video of Dani, our agility instructor's dog, running the barrel pattern:

And here are some pix of Cedar running the same thing. She LOVES it and has gotten very fast :)

Nightmares and Dreamscapes

2011-01-10T08:10:00.000-08:00

This past weekend--Saturday in particular--was a whirlwind of (mostly) dog activities. We did a LOT of both herding and agility... which is never a bad thing :) I've been so immersed in training, that it's begun to permeate my dreams.

Which is not always a good thing :-P

Last night, I had my first ever nightmare about herding. It was one of those dreams that is just vivid enough to leave you unsettled and disoriented when you wake up. In the dream, I was running Moss at a sheepdog trial (same place we'll be running in a few weeks). We were basically a big pile of fail... but in that exaggerated way only dreams can capture. Moss crossed over on his outrun, blasted into the sheep, and somehow tossed one about thirty feet into the air. It fell to the ground and I/everyone watching thought it was dead, but it wasn't. I decided to continue trying to complete the run. However, after completing the fetch (I don't think anything else happened there), I completely forgot to do the driving portion of the course, instead going straight to the pen. The pen was at the far end of a long chute, surrounded (conveniently) by really tall hay bales. Needless to say, we couldn't get the sheep penned. They kept jumping out of the chute and onto the hay bales. I was really upset and unnerved the entire dream because I didn't know how to "fix" things.

Ugh. Maybe this is my subconscious expressing my anxieties about our upcoming trial? Or maybe it means nothing. Who knows.

Either way, I am going to make a big effort to mentally prepare for the trial. For some reason, herding makes me nervous, and I'd like to be able to relax and enjoy it more. I think I get nervous because I really want to be good at this, and do my dog justice...but it's SO complex with so many different factors that can affect your success on a given day. Unlike obedience or agility, where it's just you and your dog, herding has a third factor: the sheep, which are notoriously unpredictable. And I'm not experienced enough to know how different types of sheep tend to react to things. I guess that will come with time.

I have some things to report about agility, but I'll save that for another post, maybe tomorrow. Plus, I need to upload pictures :) For now, here's a picture of my Moss as a baby puppy :)

And now, back to the studio

2011-01-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

My dad is feeling a bit better, so I didn't feel *too* guilty about going out to work Moss on sheep yesterday. He was pretty much awesome, as usual. :)

For our first work, we practiced driving. He listened well (mostly) and we drove the sheep all around Dianne's field, practicing straight lines, square flanks, pace, and (for me) whistles. I was having a hard time with my "lie down" whistle for some reason. I just couldn't get the really high tone I needed. Irritating. So, Moss was a bit confused at times, but that's okay. It's all part of the process of learning to work together.

After a break, Moss and I had the opportunity to practice again. This time, we "played catch" with my friend Jody and her boy, Reggie, who happens to be a full brother to Moss. You may remember him from a few months ago when I was working with him. Now Jody has him, and he's really blossomed with all that individual care and attention. He's almost like a new dog. I'm so happy for Reggie! Anyways.... "playing catch" is an exercise to help dogs (and handlers, haha) learn how to lift sheep off of a set-out person in preparation for trialing. In sheepdog trials, the set-out person and their dog "hold" the sheep for the dog and handler whose turn it is to run the course. This is so the sheep stay in the same place for the dog to execute their outrun to go get 'em. This is important, because most of the time, the sheep are set really far away!

Lifting sheep off the set-out person is often hard for young dogs as they're not sure if they are supposed to hold the sheep to that person, or bring them to their handler. Also, having a person and a strange dog up there puts a lot more pressure on the dog. So... it's a good thing to practice and get comfortable with before trialing :) Playing catch also has the double benefit of teaching dogs (and handlers) how to actually BE set-out people. All around, it's pretty dang fun.

It was really nice to do something different. Overall, Moss was really good. He was thinking, trying to figure out what I wanted, and learned from his mistakes and my corrections. At first, he wasn't sure how to deal with the pressure of another dog and handler being up with the sheep. So, I walked up closer to the sheep to help him. On subsequent outruns, I stayed closer to the sheep and corrected him for coming in too tight. Dianne had me watch him closely the whole way around, and correct for every time he looked in... because every time he'd look in, he'd drop his shoulder and mess up the top of his outrun, which would then mess up the lift and cause the sheep to go off line on the fetch. By the end, he was a lot looser and more comfortable with the pressures of lifting off the set-out crew.

Although we had some difficulty with the outrun part of the exercise, Moss was GREAT at being a set-out dog and holding the sheep for Reggie. He never misbehaved, got up, or tried to steal the sheep back from Reggie. He held his lie down with only a few "are you kidding me?" looks in my direction. He may not have understand what we were doing, but he was a good boy nonetheless. I'm so proud of my boy. I really feel like we're becoming a team, and that feels very good. :)

For those of y'all that don't do herding and are really confused about some of the terms I'm using, click HERE for a glossary.

Not a Dog Blog Post

2011-01-04T12:51:00.001-08:00

Sorry for not writing much over the past few days. I know it sounds lame, but I just haven't been in the writing mood.

For those who don't know, my dad has been in the hospital again, for the same thing that scared us all a few months ago: pancreatitis. And they still don't know what's causing it. I've always been a daddy's girl and this has--with the risk of sounding really self-absorbed--been really hard on me. This is a picture of me and my dad at my wedding a few years back:

My mom was able to take him home yesterday, but he's still not out of the woods, and is still feeling weak, tired, and generally lousy. To top off the pancreatitis, which is really painful, he also managed to pick up the stomach flu whilst in the hospital. :(

This whole experience has really rattled me. It's the first time, I guess, that I have been faced with the terrifying truth that my parents are mortal. That they won't always be around. I have been a wreck... crying at seemingly-random things and being generally unstably depressed since he went back in the hospital. At least things are looking up... his enzyme levels are almost back to normal. I guess I'm just worried, even though I know he'll be okay.

It's odd... I started off this post wanting to write a typical post about the training I did with Cedar and Moss on Sunday. Blogging is funny that way.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T08:38:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Things I have done so far in the half hour or so I've been awake in the year 2011:

1) Drank some water to offset feeling like I was lost in the desert over night.
2) Let the dogs out.
3) Let the dogs back in after they decided barking at nothing was a great thing to do on New Years morning ;)
4) Checked my facebook because I am too addicted to it.
5) Learned I am officially entered in The Big Freeze Stock Dog Trial, January 22-23.
6) Felt my heart clench when I realized that running Moss in Nursery is going to become a reality.
7) Wrote this blog post to distract myself.

Look! It's Pet Blogger Hop again... the first one of 2011! Wahoo!

Here are some photos of Cedar, so that this post isn't totally lame. Plus, I think she's beautiful :)

We've Got Goalz

2010-12-30T12:19:00.000-08:00

In a recent email, my agility instructor encouraged all of her students to start thinking about goals for the future for them and their dogs. As the New Year is rapidly approaching, this is pretty apropos :). So... without further ado, here are some of the things that I want to accomplish next year with Cedar and Moss.

I'll start with my Cedar girl. This past year has been a whirlwind of fun, learning, and lots of agility! I decided to take a break from stockwork with her this year and focus primarily on building our skills in agility, obedience, and freestyle. Cedar has excelled at all three, meeting and exceeding many of my previous goals. In 2011, I want to continue to build on what we have already learned and accomplish, while also pushing us as a team to conquer more advanced skills and challenges. Here are some specific goals:

1) Achieve more reliable, fast and confident weaves from a variety of entry positions. Be able to perform 12 poles regardless of handler position.
2) Get her more confident on the teeter in a wide range of situations. Continue to reinforce solid 2o/2o contact performance on A-Frame and Dog Walk.
3) Begin competing in AKC agility. Earn Novice, Open and Excellent titles in Standard, JWW, and FAST.
4) Continue competing in NADAC, and earn the rest of our Novice titles.
5) Build confidence on course (mainly for me!). Smooth out my handling with the goal of being able to clearly and cleanly guide my dog around the course with minimum extra motion and incorrect commands.
6) In obedience, earn her Rally Novice (RN) title, and maybe her Pre-Novice (PN) and Companion Dog (CD) obedience titles.
7) Get our competition/travel routine down.
8) Keep having fun, and avoid letting my ego take control of my thoughts and actions! Always remember to keep good sportsmanship and to make it fun for my dog :)

These are some of the things that I hope to accomplish with Cedar this year. I think we have some really exciting things ahead of us in 2011!

I have quite a few plans and hopes for Moss next year, too. This past year has mainly been spent focused on stockwork and letting him grow up. Now that he's two, and has a great training foundation, I look forward to doing some competing next year. Our first sheepdog trial of 2011 is in a little under a month. We will be running in Novice and Nursery. I'm pretty nervous about running Nursery because it will definitely stretch our abilities as a team, since neither of us have been doing this very long! I guess I need to dredge up some confidence :) In addition to herding, I also plan to do some agility with Moss next year. I think that he'll have a blast with it, and am really excited to see how he does :)

Anyways, here are some specific goals for he and I in 2011:

1) Qualify for the 2011 USBCHA Nursery Finals. They are in Carbondale, CO in 2011, and I really want to go!
2) Get used to competing in sheepdog trials in a variety of conditions and on different types of sheep. Gain more confidence as a handler and perfect whistles.
3) Work in different places, and (yes) on more different types of sheep.
4) Strengthen and maintain our trust in each other.
5) Learn more finesse with holding straight lines on the fetch and drive. Improve timing.
6) In agility, I'd like to begin building his foundation skills with the help of my instructor. Get him thinking about his body, increasing focus, teach 2o/2o contacts and get reliable weave pole performance. Channel his toy drive. Etc etc. :)
7) If he does well and progresses steadily, aim to compete at the summer or fall BARC NADAC trial in a few classes to expose him to the competitive environment.
8) Maintain a fun, upbeat attitude about training and competition. Get more comfortable with training two (very different) dogs at once.

All right... there ya go. This is some of the stuff I'm hoping to work on in the coming year with my dogs. I'm sure I will add to/adjust this list as the year goes on... as always.

What are your goals for 2011?

Updates (erm... Pupdates?)

2010-12-29T16:28:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/holiday this year. We certainly did... with the exception of Mr. Moss, who developed a mysterious case of Conjunctivitis. He was laid up for about four days with two very swollen, red and gunky eyes. Poor dude... he was sick for his birthday!

Yes, Moss turned TWO years old on December 26th, the day after Christmas. I can't believe it! So, since he didn't get to do anything on his birthday (and we need to practice for an upcoming sheepdog trial), I went out to Dianne's and worked him today. Thankfully, my friend Kelsey was willing to take pictures for me, so I got to see how my new lens performed at taking dog pictures :D

Conclusion: I'm in love with my new lens :D

Before I got to work my dog, Dianne worked Moss's half brother, Reef. Reef looks more like Riggs (their dad) than any other one of his offspring I've seen. He's certainly a character :) Here are a few photos of Reef:

Here's a photo of one of Dianne's Bostons, Lacy :)

Moss worked really well today. I had to get on his case a bit about pace and taking the correct flanking commands, but overall he was awesome. His outruns are shaping up very nicely, and his driving is good. And in these pictures, he looks SO freakin' grown up! What a beefcake <3

That'll do, Moss!

Yo Clicker Freaks!

2010-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

Just a reminder to enter our clicker contest.... I have a fabulous prize lined up, but no entries! Deadline has been extended to January 5th. Here is a quick reminder of the rules:

1)My plan is to present a specific clicker skills challenge on the blog once a month.
2) If you choose to accept, you'll have 2-3 weeks to teach your dog the challenge skill, video the finished trick, and post it (either through YouTube or some other video sharing site) to the Cedes of Change facebook page. If you're not on Facebook, email the link to the video to me (ElementBCs (at) gmail.com) and I will post it to the Facebook page.
3) After the entry time has passed, I will randomly choose a winner through a drawing. The winner will receive a secret fabulous prize...to be announced :D

As a reminder, this month's challenge is to teach your dog to blow bubbles under water. I really hope to get some entries!

Happy Holidays from Cedes of Change

2010-12-25T08:53:00.001-08:00

I'd like to take a moment to wish all my readers a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful day and get the chance to spend some time with your loved ones. Give your pets a hug for me :)

A Special Christmas Message from Moss

2010-12-21T13:53:00.000-08:00

Dear readers,

Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, right? Spending time with your humans, getting new toys and treats, lounging around. This is all stuff I like.

You know what I DON'T like?

Wearing hats.

I hate anything to do with them. And I resent this whole "Christmas photo" thing, too. I know that Cedar and Scully will back me up on this.

It's not funny, it's not cute, and it's certainly NOT in the Christmas spirit!

Torture does not = festive. I won't stand for it.

Wait... are there treats involved?

Maybe it's not so bad.

But then again...

:)

On Break... But Back to Work!

2010-12-15T17:42:00.000-08:00

Thankfully not school work :)

Today I was finally able to go to Dianne's again to work Moss. My plan is to work him on sheep at least twice a week over Christmas vacation, to get in some good training time and also in preparation for the Big Freeze Stock Dog Trial at the end of January. I am planning on running him in Novice and (*gulp*) Nursery.

Today, Moss really impressed me... especially considering we haven't worked in over a month. He was a little overeager; a bit tighter on his flanks and more amped up than usual. However, I was able to figure out what I needed to do to correct him and we figured things out. We're both a little rusty, but motivated :) I ran him twice. The first time, we worked mainly on outruns and I worked hard at getting him to kick out on the comebye side and calm down on the fetch. Young dog stuff. For the second work, Dianne had us work on driving; I had him driving a square around me, with me standing in the center. Because I had him switch directions several times, we got to work on inside flanks as well as holding straight lines at a variety of angles. It was good practice for me as well as him.

But he's such a good boy... very honest and trustworthy. I am excited to see what his future holds.

Recipe: Chicken Caesar Pasta with Mushrooms and Broccoli

2010-12-11T10:57:00.000-08:00

Again, I apologize for not posting much lately. I know I haven't been that interesting. Fortunately, finals are almost over and I'll have a month or so where I can breathe again.

While I haven't been doing much with the dogs lately, due to the snow, I have been doing a lot of cooking. I've had an idea bouncing around my head for a few weeks now for a dish that is kind of a deconstructed version of one of my favorite things: chicken caesar salad. I thought it would be delicious converted to a pasta dish with a warm, cheesy caesar cream sauce.

Last night, I decided to make it, and it was delicious! I would totally recommend it... with one warning. Make sure to use a very high quality caesar dressing, or make your own. This would not have been nearly as good, or complex in flavor, with a cheaper/lower quality dressing. I used Brianna's Homestyle Asiago Caeasar, which I bought at my local grocery store. The following recipe is good for two-three (generous) helpings.

What You'll Need:

7 oz (1/2 box) rotini pasta (or penne)
2 chicken breasts, sliced (or one large)
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon butter
1/3 cup good quality caesar dressing
1/4 cup cream
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1 dash thyme
Salt and pepper, to taste

How To Make It:

1) Slice the chicken, place in a large plastic bag with caesar dressing, garlic salt, and a bit of pepper. Set aside to marinate until other ingredients are ready.

2) Set some water on to boil for the pasta. Splash some olive oil in a separate pan and heat to medium. Add the garlic, and sautee until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.

3) Add the chicken, cooking until done, about 10 minutes or so, depending on thickness. Remove to a separate plate.

4) Add the broccoli and mushrooms to the pan, adding a little butter the olive oil and chicken juices, if needed. Season with a little salt and pepper, and sautee veggies until almost tender, about 5-8 minutes. Remove veggies to a separate plate (can go with chicken, if needed).

5) Reduce heat to medium-low. Add in cream and caesar dressing, stir to combine. Heat until just starting to simmer, then reduce heat and add parmesan and thyme. Stir until melted.

6) Add chicken and veggies back into sauce, stir to combine and heat. Serve over bed of rotini pasta with extra parmesan sprinkled over the top.

Enjoy! This would be great with asparagus or green beans, too. Some bread and a side salad would compliment this dish well.

Cedes Of Change

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And the winner is....

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First Post of 2012!

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