Howloween Trial

Just a quick post on some weekend news. I will post more tomorrow.

Saturday
Mas. Gamblers
- Wicca was wild- a little out of control. Stuck contacts- except teeter! I forgot and didn't tell her to. Aaaah! Didn't get the gamble- it was super hard and only a few people got it
Adv Std 1
- Good run, awesome contacts. Wicca was responsive and listening well. We had a knocked bar and an off course
Adv Std 2
- Great run! It felt amazing. The course was very difficult and required quite a bit of handling. But we managed well and only had one knocked bar!!!
Adv Jumpers
- Awesome run. it felt smooth and not frantic at all. She handled well and didn't knock a single bar! Go Wiccie Go!


Sunday
Steeplechase
What can I say but amazing. We were clean and ran it in 32. seconds. No bars, no flubs. Woohoo!
Std 3
Fun! Wicca did great and nailed her weave pole entry, her contacts were great and I was super proud of her. What a good girl! One knocked bar
Team
- I got to run twice and it was very fun.
Run #1/Side 1/with Jaz - wicca handled well but didn't commit to a jump and we earned a refusal- Jaz was clean
Run #2/Side 2/with Gyp - wicca was awesome, but missed her weave entry- earning us again, a refusal. Gyppie was clean :o)

Snooker
and, as I mentioned in my previous post Wicca and I are taking a Snooker break. We will be working on this over the winter and hope to be back in the snooker ring in the spring!

Oh- and Sarah and I won the Team Costume contest- as Bugs (the dogs) and Bug Catchers! It was very fun and they were very cute!

UPDATED: OCT 22
I was very impressed with how well Wicca ran this weekend. We accomplished everything on my list of goals and I am very satisfied with our weekend. She had amazing weave poles- we only messed up one weave entry (on team of course) She had great contacts and I really pushed her limits on them. I did notice that when I take her leash off at the line she scoots forward a bit- hoping I don't notice I guess? Something that I will have to work on I suppose.

Breed Quirks

So I was thinking last night (while observing dogs in my classes) about all the different "quirks" or traits that we assign to a dog- based purely on breed or group. Now of course these are all generalized as there are always exceptions. But for the most part I think that my observations are fairly accurate

Retrievers- labs, goldens, flatcoats

They are ALL goofy- some more than others (particularily if you're a flatcoat) They generally are easy to train- but it is important that they learn to think even with an obvious reward...





Toy breeds- papillons, chi's, etc..
Can you say boing????? These dogs generally are either bouncing off the walls, or melted to the spot, terrified to move. Thankfully the ones that come to my classes tend to be the bouncers- which makes for great fun! They are little balls of energy and you can't help but go "Awwwww"
These dogs tend to be introverts in class and have lots of handler focus.

Herding breeds- corgis ;o), border collies, aussies, shelties etc...
Smart, but tend to overthink things. Generally these dogs have obsessive problems, tend to be a little over the top, and well....are very, very, very smart.

Working Breeds- Berners, Mastiffs, Rotti's etc.

Great work ethic but can have a slower learning rate. These dogs never forget stuff- but are generally considered harder to train than dogs from other group. These dogs also tend to be easily distracted and very...very food motivated.

and then there are the Non-Sporting dogs...We don't have many around here...well, except poodles. We have oodles of poodles (mostly standard)
These dogs are smart, beautiful, and well, smart. They tend to be either thinkers, or bouncers. And if you are lucky you have one in between!!!

Terriers- scotties, jacks, to name a few
Intense, driven and always looking for an opportunity to be bad! Generally they are little geniuses though- with tons of potential, if only they listened!






**Photo credit- JRT, Flatcoat, and BC - sarah novak Mastiff- me**

Weekend Goals

So we are off to Calgary this weekend for the Training Troop trial.

It should be lots of fun, and I have some specific goals for Wicca

that I thought I would share.
Goal #1- Teeter Contact. MUST stick it. No exceptions
Goal #2- No more than 2 bars per day. If there are more than that she is to be pulled off, no excuses.
Goal #3- Weave Entries.
and of course the normal Wicca trial "goals" of start lines, contacts, and control. Wicca and I are on a Snooker diet but I still have been practicing control around obstacles.

It's funny that I rarely get nervous with Wicca anymore. I remember when I first started trialing her- I actually got sick once. It's the weirdest thing as I am not even sure why I was so nervous- I think because I knew my handling wasn't as good as my dog- now that I am a better handler I think I stress less about it...weird.

I am however always excited to trial her. Running Wicca at an

agility trial is a rush like no other. It is amazing and when it

comes together it is the best feeling in the world. And when it smashes to a million pieces it feels horrible. But everytime I trial this dog we get better and better. She is amazing. I feel so lucky to have her.

Heeling, Broadjump, and Relax!

I haven't blogged in a while about the general training of the beasties so thought I'd update you all on the training aspect of things. We'll start with the youngest.

I am in the process of teaching Vito to heel. It is not as hard as one might think, but it sure takes a long time! When I say "heel" I mean that the dog is looking up at me while walking on my left side- shoulder to shoulder. So for Vito- who is still what I classify as a puppy- I am pretty much rewarding him for looking at me while moving. He can do about 10 or 15 steps. He's pretty good, and will offer the behaviour to me consistently. Vito is also learning how to find heel position- he is not great at this yet and doesn't ever sit straight so we are working on that.

As I posted the other day- Wicca and I have been working hard on teaching a solid contact performance on the teeter. I am happy to report that she has it 90% at training. We'll see how she does at the trial this weekend. I have also been working more on her Obedience skills. I am hoping to get a leg or two on her CDX in November. Her weakness has been the broad jump and out of sight stays (just stay in general is hard for Wicca :o) ) So we have been doing the broad jump every day, and I have been making an effort to use stay at least twice a day in normal situations. All of the other aspects of the open routine she is great at. She loves to fetch, and is a good heeling dog. She is also very reliable on her drop.

Sam and I have been working on little things as he is still not able to do a lot of strenuous things. I have been trying to clicker him to rest his head on the ground. This seems to be an impossible thing with him as he really is a VERY "up" dog and unless I lure his head down he doesn't even think about offering it. I am also teaching him back up, which has been fun- and it forces him to use that back leg...he is pretty good, but seems to always shift to the right. (probably mostly to do with his leg)

So that's that on the training front.

2 Centimeters!

I took Sam up to the Canine Fitness Center and he's gained 2 centimeters of muscle on his leg! That is a great sign as it means that he is using his leg more. We have been doing the prescribed exercises every day and he is doing great. He really seems to enjoy them at least! And, I can start letting him do more normal doggy things- he is allowed to do stairs whenever he wants (in moderation) and he can have normal to moderate walking exercises. Still no 100 mph running but Sam will be a very happy boy to get more exercise. We go back again in three weeks, so hopefully he will continue to improve! Yay for Sam!

Great Expectations.

This afternoon Sarah and I went out early to train our own dogs before class and I thought I'd report a few things.
First- Gyp, Sarah's little border collie- is Cute. And Sassy. But still Cute! And Wicked Fast.

Second- Wicca finally understands the newly added Teeter contact. You see, I never bothered to teach a 2on2off on the teeter. I liked her fast teeter- why would i need her to stop. Well, after a few well placed teeters at trials(picture teeter- tunnel) I discovered that yes, I did in fact need my dog to stop. So we have been working on this for a few months and she is getting it. Yay! What a good girl

Third- Vito is cute, and may be a half decent agility dog afterall! I am ashamed to admit that I really didn't think that Vito was cut out for an active lifestyle. Really, this dog loves to lounge around and is not easily motivated to do much. So I assumed that he wouldn't be super interested in agility. I have been doing some stuff with him- in small steps and only playing with him when he is interested and fast. I don't want him to think that Agility is boring and should be done slowly. So- I have done lots of backchaining on contacts, teeter games, and have introduced him to tunnels, chutes, the table (which he loves), and the tire. I have done minimal sequencing and have just begun teaching him jump patterns (serpentines, threadles, 270's, 180's etc) I am also ashamed to admit that I didn't expect much of him. This is where I screwed up with Sam too. I saw that Sam loved agility but didn't expect him to be as fast or as good as Wicca. I know, I know. Stupid. But that's what I thought. Sarah set me straight and I am trying hard not to fall into that mind set again. So by keeping my training short, and moving slowly I think that I have made what could be a pretty good little agility dog. He probably will make it out of starters snooker before Wicca.....

Cellphones

So, for those of you who know me well won't be surprised to hear that I lost my cell phone sometime today. Ugh. This is phone no. 3- and I really have no clue as to where it could be. My day was a busy one and the last time I used it was around 2:20 or so- I was in Natalie's truck on the way to the daycare after picking up all the pooches. And then the weirdest part is my phone called the daycare!!! (around 2:45) Super Weird- I actually thought it was Natalie calling me from my phone but when I picked up the phone was hung up. So I guess I am out a phone. Again. unless by some miracle it is returned to me. If I was more organised, and less frazzled all the time these things wouldn't happen to me, but for whatever reason I am always rushing around and it seems my brain can't keep up to me!!!

Stay tuned for the continuing saga of the lost phone. :-)

-Amanda

Her Majesty

As per comments on my previous post, here is JANE. Alone, the star, the center of the post.

Everyone meet Jane- the most spoiled dog in the universe. She is a princess and rules her kingdom with an iron fist....er, paw. Jane has many collars but picked these few out for a special occasion. She truly is a little princess. :o)

I hope this meets Jane's approval. ;o)

Friends Continued.

This is all Natalie's fault. Apparently all my other friends are offended that they weren't mentioned. So- to rectify the situation. Everyone meet my dog friends

Okay- nevermind. I started to make a list and come up with cute little sayings about everyone, but ya know...it was just too time consuming. I have a lot of Friends. Too many to list, and as Wendy pointed out what if I forgot someone! So, instead I made a collage.... ;o)

This is a compilation of some of my dog friends, or friends dogs. Enjoy!

oh- I didn't take any of the photos- all the credit goes to the owner of the dog. (In most cases)
oh, and one more note- all these pics are from my email, so if you're not on there- it's 'cause you haven't sent me any pics in a while!!!!

Friends

Last night a funny thing happened. My friend- who shall remain nameless- said to me "I read your blog and it's great but how come I'm not mentioned?" of course she was joking but really it did get me thinking about how trivial some of the things I post about are. I don't want anyone to think that I am someone who does nothing but dog stuff...oh wait, I am that someone! Really. I work at a dog daycare. I teach dog classes four days a week, and trial at least one weekend a month. I have four dogs and am a main player in a dog rescue group. All of my friends have dogs, love dogs and are generally interested in dogs. So I tend to talk pretty much about dogs.
Anyway, I started thinking last night about my friends, and I guess just friendships in general. I have a few close friends, lots of friends, and tons of aquaintances. I consider myself a pretty outgoing person. But lets face it. I can be a bitch. I am bossy and I like to be right. I am not sure I would be friends with myself some days. But I still manage to have friends. It's amazing really.

Friends are an important thing to have in life and I feel that I have really great friends. My friends have been here supporting me through Sam's issues, they were here when Wicca was so sick with Parvo, and they were here to tell me that I was indeed keeping Vito. :o) All in all I am pretty glad I have such a great group of friends.

This particular friend who started all this is someone who has dogs of her own (of course) She has a Golden Retriever named Chloe and a Standard Xolo.....named Cholti. She and I spend quite a bit of time together as we are the operators of Prairie Dog Canine Rescue. She is very passionate about dog rescue and is a fun person to be around. She is also the type of person who is always helpful and is someone you can depend on. I call her at least twice a day- sometimes, okay quite often, more than 5 times a day. She is one of those people who always has something to say- and is blunt and to the point. She is an animal lover, and treats all animals and most people with respect. She does lots for me, and I like to think that I return the favor. She recently went to new york and brought me back a great sweater- that if you can beleive it I haven't even wrecked yet!!! I consider her one of my closest friends and we know that we can count on each other. Right?

So Natalie- look, I mentioned you, I even complimented you, and if I had a
picture of you I'd post it just so I could say that I did. Hah. :o)

Moving on,
I don't want my other friends to think that I don't care about them so everyone else- Hi! You know who you are, and are probably thankful that I am not mentioning you specifically..hehe...

So I guess the whole point to this rambling- non dog post is to say "Thanks" to all my friends for just being my friend.
(and of course to mention Natalie so she doesn't feel left out...)

-Amanda

More pictures from the weekend

Here are two collages I made from the photos that Steve from DigiK9 took at this weekends past trial. He got some amazing pics of Wicca- I love the weave pole ones! There were over 40!!! The Weave collage is from one of the standard runs. It is a sequence- starting in the top left corner- you can see that she gets the wrong entry and is pretty

ticked when I pull her out to restart!!!

The collage below is some of the better pics of the whole trial in general.

You can really see how intense she is when she is playing agility.

You can view more pictures on the DigiK9 site- this was the Medicine Hat Flashing K9's Trial.

Agility Filled Weekend

We had yet another action packed weekend! Sarah and I travelled to Calgary early Friday morning for a seminar with Kathy Keats. It was a great day and I was very impressed by Kathy- she had lots of greats suggestions and tips and the exercises were very fun. Wicca had a great time! I also booked an Appointment with Susan Suttcliff- she is a Sports PhysioTherapist and did some really neat things to Wicca- this happened in the afternoon so I took it easy with her after that to let her recover. It did make a difference in her though over the agility weekend- she had no problems extending her back legs over a jump so there were less bars down!! Yay!!

We left Calgary and went directly to Medicine Hat that night for two days of Agility. I'd love to be able to say that the weather was perfect but unfortunately it pretty much sucked. It was wet, rainy, cold and miserable most of the day on Saturday- finally starting to clear up around 4pm. Bad weather or not I had a great day! Wicca was a good girl and we had some really good runs- the theme of the weekend seemed to be bad Weavepole entries. She missed every weave entry except one ALL weekend. Ugh.

Sunday was a better day weather wise- still cold but not rainy, and it actually warmed up in the afternoon. Wicca was more settled and actually seemed to be a bit stiff so I was sure to warm her up well, it was actually kind of weird- she would act uninterested and then as soon as she was on the line she was back to her intense little self. Very Strange.

The most exciting thing of the weekend was Steeplechase. I LOVE this game. Wicca ran the course in 35 seconds, knocked 2 bars, still qualified, AND placed THIRD overall! She was beat only by two VERY fast, experience dogs (Target and Zoom) I was thrilled. (Oh, and one bar was her fault, and the other was most definitely my fault)

NOTE: The pictures posted were taken by Steve from DigiK9- I bought the whole disc so I have a ton more that I will post on my website in the next few days...

Busy, Busy

This weekend was super busy, and seemed to fly by!

Saturday we had the Daycare Grand Opening which was lots of fun- GoDogGo did an agility demo and all the dogs did great- we don't do demos usually so it was a first for lots of people. There was lots of yummy food, and drinks...and the weather was perfect.

Saturday night I packed up the dogs and my stuff to head to Natalies for a week to dogsit while she's on Holidays- in NEW YORK. Lucky Girl!

Sunday was the Go Dog Go 2nd Anniversary. It is hard to beleive it has been two years already. I remember how uncertain we were at first- and now we are so busy we can't keep up!!

The party was lots of fun and everyone seemed to have a blast- we did a mini tunnelers course (Vito did it too and he rocked!!!) played Musical Mats, Weiner Dunking- where Jane, the reigning champion was beat out by first timer Sadie the fox terrier! And we also did some fun relays where the people had to weave and then we just hung around eating and visiting for the next hour, it was great to see all the dogs having a good time- even the new dogs who had never done any agility managed the tunnelers course just fine! The only downside was that it poured rain all day- so we were forced indoors but the daycare held us all just fine!

This week will be a busy one aswell but I will try and get some new pictures of all the beasties up- The ones in this post Wendy took last week at the daycare.

This week Sam and I are going to Calgary to see Margaret at the Canine Fitness Center- our appointment is on Wednesday. And then I have an agility filled weekend- Friday a seminar with Kathy Keats in Calgary, Saturday and Sunday an agility trial in Medicine Hat. It should be a fun weekend, hopefully the weather will be good!!!

Feeling Better

So I have had a few days to digest the recent change in Sam's diagnosis and I am feeling better about it.  I have talked at length with Margaret from the Canine Fitness Center and will be seeing her on Wednesday. I am going to exhaust all other options before surgery. I will keep you posted.

-Amanda

A reallly bad day

I think that today has been the worst day in the history of Sam- I have finally gathered my thoughts enough to put into words what I learned today and where we go from here.

I went to calgary today to the western specialist veterinary clinic where I saw Dr. Fowler. His initial exam made him doubt that it was a cruciate, and later after xrays he says that it is very unlikely that it indeed a cruciate. He asked his colleague- Dr. Romedious for her opinion and she agreed with him that it is not a cruciate problem. So I ask myself what would have happened had I gone ahead last thursday with the cruciate surgery the vet here wanted to do??? I am going to call him tomorrow and ask just that.
So now on to the bad news,
Instead of a cruciate he thinks that Sam has a herniated disc in his lower spine. When the disc is out of place it causes nerve damage which can show up in lameness. He has advised that I get a spinal CT done (for the fabulous cost of 3000) and if it is indeed a herniated disc there will be surgery to repair it. For the lovely cost of 2000. I was too stunned to ask many questions, but have a list a mile long now, so will be calling tomorrow. I have googled herniated discs in dogs and have found many, many sites to sift through. The ones that I browsed through quickly do not leave me feeling very well. Dr.Fowler said that the surgery is risky as the nerve damage could be permanent, and when they are removing the disc there is a risk of further damage to the nerve ending. And then there is the whole "how did it happen" Sam has been a hopper always- and has had a roached back- always. So it could very well be just him- a conformational defect. In which case this could recurr again and again and again. I am devastated. I can't even think straight and I really need to get this figured out. My poor boy is in rough shape tonite due to the anesthetic which makes me feel even worse for him. Why do I put myself through this. I really love him and just want him to be okay. But I fear that isn't going to be possible, or at least not for a long time. This is the saga that seems like it will never end. All because I saw past the funny looking white headed dog and saw only his spirit and smile- I couldn't say no.

I will post more as I find out. Hopefully it is not as bad as it sounds. Maybe I am over-reacting. I can hope can't I?


~Amanda Labadie
Kate (retired)
Wicca CD SADC SHD AgNJS
Sam CGN ADC and Baby Vito
http://www.geocities.com/manymuddypaws

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A relaxing weekend

The dogs and I had a great weekend. It was the most relaxing weekend I can remember in a long time. Saturday morning I did agility, finalised an adoption (yay!) and then headed to the Old Man River Provincial Campground to camp overnight with my parents. We had a blast. I had 6 dogs in the tent with me overnight!!!

We got there in the afternoon and the dogs spent the rest of the day swimming in the river. Well, except Sam. He got a yummy bone to chew on in his crate- he hates water anyway so in his mind he wasn't missing out on much!

Wicca and Kate are fetching fools and Vito did his regular bark and splash on the shore, and Drew found s good stick to chew on. It was very beautiful there and the weather was great. I had a grood visit with my grandparents, and really enjoyed myself overall.

This morning more swimming for the pooches, and a nice long walk.

What a great way to spend a weekend!!!

A Bad Day

I am trying hard not to be too stressed about Sam and things, but yesterday was a pretty bad day. I was supposed to take Sam on Thursday to have surgery, instead I cancelled the appointment, and am now trying to get a referral to a specialist in calgary. I am really hoping that I can get in soon and that it is not going to be more than two thousand dollars. I found myself pretty close to tears a few times today and I am not one to be emotional like that so I was annoyed, which just made it worse. Ugh.

I do think that I am now on the right track and I am not even sure why I am so uptight about getting it done NOW. What is a few more days in the whole scheme of things right? I have talked to a lot of people in the past day. I posted Sam's story to all of the email lists and forums I belong to, and have had a lot of feedback. From the agility group over and over again people told stories of how wonderful TPLO was. From the cardigan only goup I heard about how just crate rest, or even the trad surgery worked for them. And the Ortho group of course had mixed opinions, depending on who you talked to. It is nice to know however, that I am not alone and that many others have had to face this same thing.

Sam had a good day yesterday, I left him home in the morning and my dad picked him up and brought him to work around noon so April could do some TTouch on him. Vito played at the daycare all day- Molly Brown is there for three days this week and he and Vito LOVE each other, it is very cute. The daycare has been the best thing for Vito- he is far more friendly and receptive to dogs now, and has quite a bit more energy. Wicca came with Sam for half a day and I took her to class lastnight to work on a few things. She was pretty good- we worked on weave pole entries and contact to tunnel things.

Fall is coming up quick and I am slightly depressed that it is dark by 8:20......

Kimberly AAC Trial and the beach

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We had a great time this past weekend. Sarah and I travelled to Kimberly, BC to an Agility trial. The site is so beautiful! I LOVE the mountains and really enjoyed the whole weekend. We stayed at our friends who has a gorgeous little acreage.

Wicca was so good all weekend. She is really doing great. We Q'd in our first run of the day- Steeplechase and we only knocked TWO BARS the whole weekend!!! So out of 7 runs we only knocked two bars, which is pretty freakin' awesome for wicca! We had some really great runs and our jumpers run was amazing. It felt so perfect. We had one off course, but it was smooth and lightning fast. I am thrilled with how she is running lately. Vito was great and got to visit alot. Sam stayed at my parents house for the weekend (you can read about his weekend on his gimpy dog blog) Now I have two weekends where I am not doing much, Sam's surgery is scheduled for Thursday, and I'm getting pretty nervous about it...

On the way home we stopped to give the dogs a break and found a great river for them to swim in. They had a blast and Sarah got some great pictures! Vito mostly ran around on the beach part but Wicca was a fetching fool and had a great time!

All the pictures on here were taken by Sarah...as are all the great pictures of my dogs!!!

Happy Wicca

Here is a cute pic of Wicca- just saying Hi!!! I hope to have new pictures of the whole gang in the next few days so I can put them on the header....stay tuned :)

Sam the famous Gimpy Dog

Well, in my effort to make some extra money I set Sam up on Cafe Press- it's pretty cool!
Sarah made a really cool logo that I initially was just going to use as tags for the agility leads I am making, but it was too cute not to share with the world! So check out Sam's Cafepress page
http://www.cafepress.com/gimpydogsam
and, I (well, Sam) have started a new blog- all about Sam and his cruciate. I am planning on keeping a record of his surgery and recovery...I will post pics too, don't worry none to gross.
I thought it would be a good way for me to "get it all out" so to speak. Anyway, you can check out Sams' Gimpy Dog Blog here- http://gimpydog.blogspot.com
You can also see the items I have for sale on the blog too- not the cafepress stuff- but the agility leads, tugs and other fun things!

-Amanda