Tip Tail

Jet and Tatum in the Snow

I have to admit… as much as I love the dog sports, it’s nice to have some snow outside on the ground… it’s a good excuse to stay home and not compete or train quite as much as I have been. Summer just gets too full of dog sports sometimes and I need a break.  Here’s a picture of Jet and Tatum playing in the snow we got over the weekend.  They sure have fun in the snow!

I have been training inside, though.  Jet is learning to roll over and shake. He is so smart, he is really picking up on them fast.  I’ve been teaching him on the bed in the bedroom where it’s comfy for him to roll over. So hopefully he won’t think he only rolls over in the bedroom.    We’ve also been doing crate games where if he stays in the crate he gets lots of treats. And when I release him to come out he gets treats and tugs.  He loves it!

I also did some jump work with Tatum and Chase in the basement. I want to make jumps more valuable for Tatum since she doesn’t seem to crazy about them.  So I think it’ll work for her so she’ll like the jumps better. And I’m following the Linda Mecklenburg book I got to help Chase to round over jumps more and have tighter turns.  Hopefully that’ll help too.

So having some nice lazy quiet weekends at home is wonderful, and I am enjoying myself!

Lucy and Levi

Of all our seven dogs, Lucy and Levi have been with us the longest. Lucy is the cornerstone of our pack… she’s both alpha and she’s been here the longest. Levi came just 9 short months after her. They were my only two dogs for a while and I am quite bonded to both of them.

When they were younger they would fight about bones.. but now they don’t much anymore. I love how they were both chewing bones on this dog bed.  They actually don’t do this very often, either.  But they are the first smooth blue collies I ever had.  Lucy will be 11 in February, and Levi just turned 10. Wow, how time flies. I remember when they were little puppies.

I’ve been blogging about them for a while now, putting their info into web directorys sometimes too.  Lucy has the Megaesophagus, and she’s doing really, really well. She still eats four times a day and spends 20 minutes after in her chair. She put weight back on and is healthy and happy.  Levi is retired from dog sports but loves to guard bones and go for walks.

They are my pack cornerstones and they better be around for a long time still.

That's a Kitty Bed

So now that Jet can scale the baby gates with no problem, he is getting into the computer/kitty safe room just fine all on his own. As I said, it’s not a big deal except for the kitties, and other things that may not be safe. And my husband asked how much cat food is okay for a puppy to eat…

So my husband snapped this picture of Jet as Jet was trying to look innocent in one of the kitty beds on a dresser in the computer/kitty room.  Yeah.. it’s a cat bed, not a dog bed, and so it’s a wee bit too small for our Jet boy.

He’s a goon, and a teenager for sure. Getting into shoes and everything he can wrap his mouth around. LOL. Maybe I’ll need an outer banks vacation rentals package before he’s all grown up! But he’s a cutie, and we don’t mind, we just give him things he can have. We are working on how to make the baby gate Jet-Proof, too. My husband has great ideas so I look forward to what he comes up with!

Sleepy Jet

Well, our house is no longer safe from the puppy monster. Jet is so smart, and so agile, that he can climb out baby gates. Or jump them, if he gets a good collection before hand.

Just a few minutes ago he was laying in front of the one here in the basement, and whining and looking at me. He knew I didn’t want him to go over and tease the cats. But he wanted to so badly! So I gave him a chew bone instead. It made him happy.

Maybe if we put up some exit signs then he’d know where not to go…. hehe. The only reason we really don’t want him in the cat room is, well, because it’s safe for the cats. And he gets too excited by the cats. He just wants to play but they really don’t want to play with him. And there are cords and other non-safe things for him in there. But he only does it when we are home, fortunately.

He is such a good boy.  Hopefully the bones will be more fun than the cats!

Sweet Chase

I just have to toot my husband’s and my horn just a little bit. Four of our dogs are rescues, and if I do say so myself, we are good at building their confidence. This picture is of Chase. And though he didn’t come with too many problems, he does have good confidence now and is much more self assured than he used to be. This shows in his ability to tell dogs to keep their distance in a respectful manner. Instead of attacking, like he used to do. He’s not aggressive, he just has space issues like many dogs do.

Tatum is also one of our dogs that has come a long way. She was so scared when we first got her. I’d take her out anywhere and she’d tuck her tail and skitter around afraid. Now.. she nips people to get them to play and interact. She’s got spunk and she wants things her way. She has a lot of attitude and confidence! She very rarely gets scared anymore. I’m very proud of her!

Angel also came to us afraid, and she’s so confident now that she’ll jump in our laps to steal our food. We just laugh at her. No punishment for Angel, EVER! She is still timid enough that any punishment would shut her down.

And Muffit is also more confident and doing well. Going to the park and on hikes with my husband, he’s getting used to being out and he’s getting along with people and dogs. Now i just have to get my husband to bring his cell phones with him when he goes out so I can get in touch with him!

I’m proud of our dogs, and of us, to give our rescues such a great chance and much needed confidence!

Levi and Jet

Ten years ago today my baby boy, Levi, was born. Pembroke Faded Glory at Pembroke kennels up in Idaho. I remember going to visit him when he was just tiny. My husband and I were not married yet, but we were getting closer. We had Lucy and Kip and we packed them up and stayed at Lava Hot Springs… it was my first ever trip with dogs in a hotel. And they did great.

Levi was the puppy that ran under the table to hide, but my heart just loved him from the beginning and I had to bring him home. We had to wait until he was 12 weeks old, but it was worth the wait.

Now when I get a puppy I use fun iphone accessories to document the trip, like I did with Jet! But back then I didn’t do the internet very much at all. And I don’t think there was even a Facebook.

In this picture Levi is grudgingly sharing the bed with Jet.  Levi is getting used to Jet, but Levi thinks all Mom’s attention should just be for Levi.   But Levi still gets a ton of attention!

Levi gets extra spoiled today with extra treats and hopefully a Birthday Pizza for dogs.    I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since my baby boy was born.  Time sure flies.  We have done a lot together, him and I, and I treasure every moment. And will treasurer all the time we still have together!

Angel March 2009

We are pretty worried about our sweet Angel… Angel Pumpkin Spice Girl. We got her in 2002 and in the last few months she has really, really slowed down.

She’s loosing her footing more often now, and having a hard time standing up. She moves really slow. She is eating well, though, and pooping well so that’s good. She eats more than the rest of our dogs and she’s not fat. We worry that she’ll end up being one of those old skinny dogs so we feed her a lot to keep weight on her. She’s not fat though. She is just fine now.

We are afraid she is not going to be with us much longer, though. We will not let her suffer. I’ve learned a lot since I had Kip and kept him alive a bit longer than I should have. She won’t be spending any time in metal buildings, she has her soft beds and comfy places to sleep. She likes to be in the basement in my husband’s computer room where it’s safe and cozy and dark.

I love my Pumpkin Girl… I don’t want her to go. I hope we’ve given her a good long life. We are assuming she is about 13, but we don’t really know how old she was when she came to live with us.

She likes the couch, too, as this picture shows.

I love you sweet Angel.

Tatum in Summer

I am, actually, really excited to just stay home! I don’t have any trips planned for the next three months. Yay! I have travel clear across the country twice this year, going back east first to pick up Jet in July, and again in October to take him to the dog show. They were both really fun trips and I am so glad I went!

Now it’s time to stay home, do some house cleaning and maybe painting, and take a well needed rest. I’m sick, too, going on a week now. And so I need some down time without stress. I will still train, of course. I want to get Tatum going on sequencing agility obstacles (this is such a cute picture of Tatum!) because I’m toying with the idea of entering her in ASCA agility, PreNovice, next February, if she’s ready. Would be so fun to see how she does!

I’ll still be posting about my dogs, training, and all the fun daily living. I’m also going to soak in some hot baths, get some good acne treatments, nice lotions and moisturizers, and take it easy. Yay!

Well this isn’t a picture of Chase, it’s a picture of super cute Jet… LOL but Jet makes me happy! Okay Chase makes me happy too but he’s not a wiggly cute puppy anymore.

Handsome Jet

Anyway so Chase got 2 Qs this weekend out of 12 runs. I’ve been told (since my math is horrible) that’s about 15%. For a fast, long strided dog, in ASCA, I think that’s too low. It’s too low for my tastes, anyway. We almost got a gamblers Q but he didn’t do what I wanted on the A-Frame so I left the course early. Ugh.

Chase is awesome, and I need to pick it up. It’s not him, it’s me. Well except the A-Frame. He usually has a stellar A-Frame contact and he was blowing it last weekend. Only going in one direction, though. I don’t know what it was about that direction. Bleh. Maybe it was because it was a slatless A-Frame but I don’t think so. He knows how to control himself on those too.

Anyway I’m working on my handling skills a lot and I am getting a lot better. Maybe I need to get away from the dog stuff for a bit, look for some term life insurance instead, and just relax!

Did ASCA agility today with Chase.  Dragged my body out of my sick bed. Ugh.  We had fun though. I still want a higher Q rate.  Out of six runs he only got one Q. Fortunately that was in Standard Novice and he needed that for his title. So I’m glad he got it.

Here’s one of his jumpers runs. Very pretty runs. He knocked a bar early on so I didn’t really work the end peice and he back jumped where he shouldn’t. That sequence confused me anyway since I knew I wouldn’t be up there between those jumps. Oh well, we did good anyway and I was happy with the runs.  We don’t do much ASCA that’s why he’s still in the lower levels. In AKC he’s in excellent A.

We go again tomorrow, maybe we’ll be better. I am still pretty sick though and I can’t hear out of my left ear. Everything is off and my head is stuffed. We’ll have fun though. I did a lot of sitting around today, even out in the van surfed the web a bit on my phone looking for home insurance to see if we can get a better rate. Tomorrow I’ll do the same. It’s hard for me to just sit at dog events. I get nervous and am always on my feet.

Oh and as for the title of this post… Chase loves agility, he doesn’t know when he does bad or when he knocks a bar. He’s just a nut and loves the rush. I think he likes the structure too, and the learning we do. But he doesn’t know if we Q or not. He’s just happy to do this weird thing that his human Mom likes.