new header

I've had the same header for over a year. Mostly because it's always a big pain in the butt to change it. i can never get the size quite right, and it just annoys me when it's not centered. Like right now for example.

However, I wanted something Christmaslike. So this is just one of the photos that the very talented Lorelei Hoffarth did for me last year! She does fantastic work and I love all the photos she took of my crew!

One more, of just Wicca. <3

Jacket Rich

Last week I found out that Leo was the Alberta Stock Dog Associations Novice Champion for 2014.

We won a jacket and our name on this little trophy.

I'm very proud of him. He's sure come a long ways and I am excited for what the future will bring. I'm itching to get out of the lower level classes and Leo is just the dog for that. Jenny assures me he could be an Open dog one day.

He is hampered by being owned by a novice person, but despite me he does a pretty great job.

Jenny and I were just talking the other day- and She said that dogs like Leo are perfect for novice folk. Honest, Biddable, and smart enough to know when to listen and when to ignore us. Lol. Leo is a dog who will save me without getting into trouble.

I am lucky to have stumbled upon such a good boy.

Dog Show Weekend

Well another weekend of NQ's for Pixel. Brat. This time she didn't FETCH! Of course she did the drop that time. Corgis sure know how to keep you humble. What a brat. It's a good thing she is very cute. And mostly good.

Brit on the other hand was a total rockstar. She was confident and happy to be working in the ring, and did everything I asked. Had I taught her the Broad Jump she would have been perfect all weekend... It completely slipped my mind that there was a possibility of a broad jump in advanced. Oh Well. She didn't know she messed up, and I have since done a bit of training with it. lol. An NQ is very motivating apparently. ;)

 Jolene was nice enough to video all weekend for me. So here are Brit's Rally Advanced runs. If you are only going to watch one then I would watch Sunday. Because that's when she got a perfect score *her first!, and a High in Class. Which is amazing as she is in the B stream and it is very competitive. Lots of perfect scores all weekends, and fast times. So I was thrilled for her to do so well.

Friday- the broad jump was a bridge, but otherwise she was perfect.

 

Saturday- 99/100. A slow sit on the left pivot. Which was my fault as I have been working hard on getting her to actually pivot, and not scoot on her butt which is what we had before. I haven't added the sits back in yet.. .


Sunday- 100/100 and High in Class. Love that wagging tail. You will notice though that she was a little nervous- especially when there was screaming coming from the conformation end of the building. And one of her tell-tail signs of stress is sniffing my pant leg. Which she does once in this video. But huge progress from the summer for her so I am thrilled.


I am itching to get back into the Novice Obedience ring with her- the last time she was in she did great one day- earning a 190something, and then the next day she melted into a pile of melty border collie. I think she has improved mentally since then- all my confidence building stuff is really paying off. So I may do a few winter shows... As long as she stays sound that is... ;)

A training sort of weekend.

Saturday I participated in a clicker training workshop. This workshop was all about perfecting timing, mechanics and understanding. The species we worked with? Chickens!

This is the second time I've worked with chickens and this time I was a lot more successful. People have asked me what do chickens have to do with dog training, an why clicker train a chicken??!!!

Well it's not really about the chicken. The chicken is a tool. You see chickens wont try to make you happy, and they are clear proof of your ability, or lack of. Lol. If your timing is wrong with a chicken you won't get anywhere. It really is a great way to fine tune your dog training ability.

I'm lucky enough to have a friend who is very into clicker training and has taken more than six chicken camps with the master of clicker training- Bob Bailey. So while the information is not right from the source it is definitely from someone who knows their stuff.

Anyway it was a lot of fun and my partner and I worked with four different chickens. We taught them targeting, discrimination and he beginnings of cone work. It was super cool. And I can't wait for the next one.

Sunday morning I held a training fun match for my obedience students. Quite a few of them braved the blizzard and came out to work their dogs. My own dogs did great. Pixel did a full run through for the first time in ages and nailed it. Even the stays. I mean we even had ears! Amazing. Brit did great and was very enthusiast. She is such a happy working dog. Leo didn't get to play. He's not really at the point where that sort of thing is going to be beneficial. He did come and watch though- its good for him to just chill in the xpen. The best part of the day was when I let Wicca do the novice rally course. Omg. The cuteness. She had a blast. It was very cute. Vito too attempted the novice course however he was mostly doing his own thing. Lol

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and hibernating from the winter that's arrived.

manymuddypaws

Nothing makes then happier than a muddy walk. ;)

Years ago when I was trying to come up with a cool email address I came up with manymuddypaws. Little did I know then how appropriate that would be!

Friends

Friends are awesome. I'm very lucky to have a great bunch of them.

Boone has a friend too. His name is Frosty.