What a good feeling...

Well, I took Wicca out to agility for the first time since before she was sick last night- and boy did that feel good! I have slowly been working her up in the back yard- and decided that she was ready to get back on some real equipment.

She was awesome! She was sooo excited to be out- she barked almost non-stop while we set up but once she was working she was very intent and did a great job. We worked on weave poles- which are coming along fantstically since setting up my backyard poles. We also did some refreshing on contacts- and played with tunnel entrance discriminations....It felt awesome! I only worked her for about 20 minutes or so broken up but it was really nice to see her out there again....

I have decided that she is well enough to race scenthurdle this weekend at the akc show in calgary...we are hopefully going to get a practice in tomorrow....

-amanda

Well I had good intentions for tonite- I was going to train a bit with all three of my dogs- work on moving attention with Sam- heeling with Wicca and Signals with Kate....but...
I am dogsitting- a little pom x that is driving me crazy! I am so frustrated. This dog just does not shut up. Ever. Even with a bark collar- it barks even more every time it's zapped. Grrr....It is dog aggressive- they assured me it got along fine with other dogs and it is very possesive...not too mention it's a little nuts...they owners show up to drop him off and tell me- oh by the way- he won't where a collar, and will snap at you if you give him trouble.....Grrrr....So yesterday I put a collar on the dog- let him throw himself against the wall- bark and scream...Then I attached a leash....he freaked right out and stood there panting for about 7 minutes before deciding that the cookie across the room was worth it....Today he has been pretty good- getting used to being a dog, and then the barking started......Grrrr...He's a nice dog and I feel badly for him but geesh!
So I am cranky and it's not fair to my dogs so- here I am.....angry....

-amanda

Those damn corgis'....

Well if it's not one thing it's another around here....Sam just about gave me a heart attack.
I was working on the computer- and the dogs were running around- in and out- playing loudly as normal....
And then they were quiet....
At first I didn't notice anything- went out, fed the cat, and started getting ready to go out- I called the dogs to kennel up and Sam looked like a BLIMP!
Right away I thought- oh god...he's bloating...but he didn't seem stressed or anxious and only slightly uncomfortable. Right away I phoned my clinic and as the phone is ringing I notice the food bin in the porch...over turned and empty...those damn corgis!
So instead of telling my vet I am on my way I ask them what I can do to make him throw up...
A teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide and up came about 7 or 8 cups of food. His stomach is still full but isn't quite as tight and with already he is feeling a bit better...What a dough head...
It's not the first time my dogs have gotten into stuff- when Wicca was a baby - about 6 months or so she ate a whole 6lb bag of kitten food. She didn't get sick at all- and except for her abnormally large tummy there were no ill effects...Stomachs of Steel!
Kate is not one to get into stuff per say- she doesn't have a large appetite but she did once have an incident with a can- my parents were dogsitting and she grabbed a half full opened can of dog food off the counter- the lid wasn't completely off and she soon had her tongue wrapped around the lid...I wasn't there to see It thank god- but my mom phoned the vet right away and after using butter and slowly unwrapping her tongue she was okay- her gums and tongue were pretty swollen for a couple days but it could have been much worse....

Right now everything is peacful- Sam is sprawled out like beached whale digesting his food- Wicca is having a snooze and Kate is killing a tennis ball....All is well....At the moment.
-amanda

Weaves

Well I set my poles up in the yard today- I should have had them up weeks ago!
I train using the chute method- where the dog runs down two lines of poles- and the two sets of poles get closer and closer until the dog is weaving. It does take a bit longer to teach- but the end results are awesome!
Wicca is almost weaving with them right together- just the entrance is open about 5 inches. I ran her through for the first time since before she was sick and she did great- she is so excited to work!
Sam is just learning- he is still running down the center- learning to find the entrance and to work away from me...
Kate is a pretty good weaver and she is the type of dog who works better without a lot of practice so when it is her turn to work with me- we jsut play with the frisbee....no home weaving for this girl...

I am hoping to get Wicca back to agility in the next few weeks....she is getting better every day- is back to normal food rations and is playing longer and longer every day. I hope to enter her in my friend Karin's trial in september and my goal is to have those weaves down-- she is almost there but even once they are closed there is still about four weeks of training to proof them and such....so even if she isn't weaving by then we can still do gamblers (my favorite) jumpers and snooker....just no standard runs...

more agility

I took Sam again to agility yesterday and he did really well- introduced the jump chute to him- in the hopes that we can prevent so much pole knocking....Also introduced him to the tire for the first time- he didn't believe us that it was a jump...it was pretty comical- he tried to walk over it rather than jump through it- and because it's a breakaway ti kept falling...He was finally starting to get the idea but what a goof...
I set my weaves up in my yard to get that going a bit faster- I have a feeling that Sam is going to catch up to Wicca pretty quick here.
My friend Sarah is a graphics designer person and she took some really great pics off Kate and then Sam for a new layout she is doing...Can't wait to see them...I will post them.

I am going to take Wicca to agility this week- let her play for just a few minutes and then put her away- she is getting better every day and is quite anxious to get back doing stuff....
-amanda

Agility, the Vet, and stuff....

I took Sam out to agility this morning and he did great! I have been working on contacts and targets in the back yard but haven't done a lot on real contact eguipment. We worked on the wall and the dogwalk- and he is starting to get the idea of bottoms. I am already finding that he doesn't test me as much as Wicca does- once or twice is all it takes...
I also started weaves today- I train the chute method and he seems to have no problem...I am going to dig my home set out and start training them at home to speed up the process a bit.
I took Kate aswell and she had fun- we worked on jumping sequences, front and rear crosses and weave pole entries...She worked pretty good and we had a good game with the "chuck it" after.

Wicca stayed home today- I don't feel that she is ready for that much excitement yet. I took her to the vet today for a check up and everything seems to be fine. The vet had said that it still feels like she has a lot of gas and fluids built up in her tummy but that should calm down soon. We also checked her heart- sometimes parvo will cause heart problems. It turns out that she does have a murmer- a mild one - less than a grade 1, and he thinks that she will outgrow it. In fact- he almost missed it- it is quite low on her heart- and very faint...a "whisper" he said....So yeah....things just keep getting better and better....but the vet said not to worry about it- treat her as normal and so on...I asked him about agility and stuff- let him know that it is pretty strenuous stuff and she has to work hard and he said that would be fine- he suspects that she had this murmer before- said that usually parvo related heart problems are much more severe....so....
I am feeling a little nervous about this...but I trust my vet- he has been really great through this whole thing...
we talked a bit about supplements today- he said to hold off for a bit yet- let her tummy and digestive tract get back to normal.

We also talked about her blood work- from the first appointment where the other vet misdiagnosed her with Pancreatitis- some of her levels were off a bit- and not related to parvo so next month I will take her in for another blood test to see if things are back to normal....
In among all of this I really need to get her spayed- before September.....forgot to talk to the vet about it though- will have to phone guess...
So that's my exciting new of the day....

Getting back to normal

Well after a very scary week I am working at getting my life back to normal. Wicca is doing awesome- It is almost like she wasn't ever sick. She is still not feeling 100% but way better than last week. While Wicca is recuperating I have been working with Sam much more seriously-. I have started some targeting work and also introduced the dumbbell and some scent work. He is such a happy worker! He has caught onto the touch stick very quickly and will follow it anywhere. I also just today started teaching him directionals- come by and away...in preperation for sheep this summer...
I played with Woo a bit today- fine tuning some tricks, working on directions, and a little bit of heeling. She really enjoyed it. I am never sure how much is too much but she usually lets me know when she is tired...She was still anxious to work when I put her away..
Kate and I just played frisbee. I usually take her to the park almost every day- just her and I- but all of the dogs are restricted to the house and yard for a the rest of the week so we had to settle for the back yard.
I am going to talk to the vet tomorrow and find out just how long Wicca is contagious for...and how long she and the others have to be housebound....
-amanda

The below picture was taken the week before the lethbridge dog show by my good friend Liz...It is my favorite picture of Wicca- I love the intensity and thought I should share...

Coming Home...

Wicca gets to come home today!

good news...wicca is doing better today- maybe she's over the hill....
-amanda

Wicca has parvo...It's like bombshell...My heart is breaking....I am so sad for my little girl.

It isn't fair...

-amanda

You win some, you lose some....

Well the Lethbridge show is over...what along weekend! I am exhausted...
Saturday I had Kate in Novice C as a refresher and wow was she nervous- her heeling was beautiful but she blew the recall...and held her stays....what a weirdo...
Wicca did really well on Saturday- her heeling was very good and she was very up in the ring- happy as usual...her recall was so so- had a bad finish....her long sit was perfect...and then he thought she would throw in a twist on the long down...we will call it the stretch 'n crawl.....Cute- but not quite we had intended...
Scent hurdle racing was awesome! She did very good and was super excited....She earned 15 points towards her Scent title...
Sunday I pulled Kate, and Wicca once again had a good start...but due to my bad handling - I told her to stay rahter than wait so she was pretty confused..she came when I called her but got stuck in the middle- undecided if she was right or wrong....
Oh well- I was overall pleased with her- she had tonds of fun and I got to see some very cute little corgi babies....
amanda

Practice, Practice....

Well a group of us got together today to run our dogs through- work out any kinks and just have a really good work out before the trial this weekend. Kate was not so good- she was happy but very goofy and by the time we got to the broad jump exercise she was very stressed...so, I am going to pull her this weekend rather than put her and me through the stress of the ring.
Wicca however was awesome. I am feeling really good about this weekend. She was very up on her heeling and her stand for exam was perfect. We also had a scent practice and she is amazing- it was the first time we had run altogether in a team in a long time and she was right on...Can't wait for the weekend!

Wow...

Well even though I had good intentions I sure haven't posted much. It seems I am much too busy to even log on to the computer these days....Not that I don't mind being busy but sometime I think that it would be nice to do nothing....
anyways,

I went to an "attention" seminar yesterday and it was alright. A good refresher I guess- a lot of what we talked about I do already but it was nice to hear it from someone else that what I am doing is right...It was mostly Chris Bach's theory about the attention game and it was kind of neat to see dogs who had no attention on their owners at the beginning at the end starting to really get it. Wicca of course was a little star (like I said we have been doing the attention game since she was a baby) Sam on the other hand was histarical. We had Maureen laughing so hard...When I got Sam the only thing he knew was to sit pretty- a cute trick but not something I encourage a lot from him- it is still his default behavior however so as he is sitting in front of me and I have the cookie he of course thinks ofay- so I am not getting the cookie this way she must want me to be cute- co up on his haunches he goes- Maureen says okay wait it out a bit and then break the exercise...So 30 seconds or so goes by and he is still a statue...you could just see his little corgi brain thinking...wow am I smart!
Kate got to stay home for some little R&R- she's not really into the whole group thing but the corgis sure had fun....

Well a week to go until lethbridge dog show and I am still feeling very doubtful about Kate....I am just not sure I want to ask her to go back into the ring again- she surely didn't enjoy it before but she has been training so well I want to try....We are going to practice for the next couple days and then give her wed-fri off...
Wicca however has been doing awesome- I am quite impressed with her and am hopeful about the weekend. I only have her entered in two trials- one sat, one sun....But depending on how Lethbridge goes I will send my entries away for AKC in calgary (august) there is a cardigan booster so it would be lots of fun.....

Heel!

Wicca is definately ready for Lethbridge. She is doing great and seems to be enjoying the work. I was a bit worried about the stand for exam with her- seeing as how she is so wiggly but she truly knows what stay is all about and doesn't budge an inch. I will be training even harder over the next few weeks to get her heeling even better and am excited about going into the ring with her...

Sam is doing awesome. He will heel for about ten paces or so head up watching me and is very enthusiastic. I thnk he will be great fun once I start working him more. I have been taking him to the girls training sessions and he has been great around the other dogs- no barking, no lunging.. I think with him it was the fact that he probably had never met any other dogs until they dropped him off at the shelter and then learned that other dogs are scary...Now he barely even looks there way before looking at me to make sure its okay...what a clever boy....

Unfortunately I haven't been working with Kate as much as I would have liked. I sent her and Wicca's entry though so I should really get on it. She seems to be in good spirits when I have trained a bit so that is a good sign. I am a little bummed out that I didn't enter the regionals this year. I just didn't have the money at the time and was a little worried I would have a replay of last years- where Kate was the worst I have ever seen her- spooking at judges, leaving the rings, knocking bars....So this year I decided not to bother. Maybe next year...

I am planning on doing some training this afternoon so I will probably have some things to say later...

Barking....

When I first got Wicca I knew that being a corgi barking would be something that I would really have to work on. Overall, she is not too bad -saving the majority of her barking to tell me off on course or when we are scent hurdle racing, she is pretty good at home and in her kennel. However, I have used a bark collar on her before and it worked very welll. I haven't used it in quite a while but am thinking of dusting it off for Sam. In the house and in life is actually a very quiet dog but when I am working them in the backyard they each have a turn and are expected to wait quietly in the dog run until their turn. Sam hasn't figured out the quietly part...He doesn't care too much about the dogs themselves, I think it is more the fact that they are having fun and he isn't. Today he went ballistic while I was working with Kate and the broad jump- throwing himself against the pen and barking histarically...I calmly put Kate in a downstay and asked him to be quite. No response- stopped heaving himself against the gate but the barking continued...I thought for a minute...what would be the best way to deal with this...In the end I decided that I would ask him once more and if he didn't respond follow it up with something negative- namely me marching over grabbing him out of the run and putting him in the house. He therefore had to forfeit his second turn...poor bugger....
His first "turn" went very well though- we worked on some attention work and some puppy calisthenics (fast sit, down, stand- in any order) so I was a little dissapointed not to work him again but thought that he needed to miss out to get the point....
So- instead of having to go through all that I think that the "collar" may have to come out of the closet..

Weekend Plans

This weekend I am going to start working with Sam a bit more- I have given him a few weeks to just be a dog and adjust to the household. I have started some clicker basics and have worked a bit on sit and down- but haven't done too much other than that. So my plans for sam this weekend is to start with stationary attention and some retrieving stuff....
Wicca has been doing great lately- what a different dog now that she is burning off some of that energy with Sam.