Tip Tail

A while ago I posted about the International Kennel Clubs and Rare Breeds and I decided that I would register Jet with the Canófila Federation of Puerto Rico, to ensure that his FCI status would be solid, even here in the USA. The USA is not an FCI member country, so in order to keep him FCI registered I wanted to make sure he was in the stud book of an FCI club.

So now he is! I just got his registration back today, yay! He is official! So now any puppies that he has can also be registered with the Puerto Rico Club. And they can be transferred to any FCI member country too. I’m relieved. I’m glad it’s done and I got his pedigree back, you have to send in the original pedigree and that made me a bit nervous.

I wonder if they make ashton cigars down in Puerto Rico… I should go and find out someday. It’ll be cool to be able to go anywhere in the world and show him in an FCI dog show. Just like the World Dog Show in Denmark we are going to. Yay! I’m excited to be going!

So Chase and I went and did agility last weekend… DOCNA, and I’ll post more about that later. But we also did a UKC Obedience show Sunday evening. I have to admit, I enjoy obedience with Chase more than I enjoy agility… and so I’m proud that he got a Q in UKC novice obedience. Yay! That’s his second leg. I think so, anyway. I need to contact the UKC and make sure that is the case. I wish they had catalog printing so that I could see our show results, but oh well, I guess I just have to ask them.

He only got a 181, and that’s because his butt didn’t touch the ground on his sits. It was like he was perching and ready to jump an agility jump, or do his start line stay. And since he was fresh off a 2 day agility weekend I can’t blame him too much. I can get mad at him at agility, but I rarely get mad at him in obedience. Go figure. I’m a nut!

Well I am very happy with Jet’s Feetz box!  He’s doing so well. I’m teaching him this so that he’ll get a good ‘In’ for obedience. Where he swings his rear end into heel position on a verbal cue. And his body will stick to mine for a really nice heel while we are heeling.

I wonder how this would look on my big Samsung TV? I’ll have to hook it up and look because I want to see how great Jet is doing on a nice big screen!

I’m so excited for all the foundation training I’m doing with Jet! He’s going to be so great at competition… well, I think so anyway!

So Lucy has Megaesophagus… which basically means here esophagus doesn’t work anymore. She has to eat a liquid diet and sit in her Bailey’s Chair for 20 minutes after each meal, and she eats 4 times a day. Okay sometimes just 3 if we get lazy and tired. It’s a lot of work. We adore Lucy and do what it takes to keep her fed and happy and healthy.

But sometimes she whines in her chair and we have to sit by her and keep a hand on her for her to be quiet. Sometimes she won’t potty before going into her chair, because she’s a stubborn collie girl… and other times she’ll squiggle too much and get her tail in a bunch and that’s uncomfortable. Maybe we could put a heated blanket under her to keep her more comfortable… but then again, she actually likes the cool tile floor so that might not be a good thing for her.

So we try to keep her comfortable in her chair. It has a 4 inch foam pad on the bottom, and a towel over that so if she leaks (she’s incontinent too) the towel will catch it. But if she goes potty before she goes in the chair, that would be best! Dang she can be stubborn.

Otherwise she’s doing really well. I can’t believe she’s 11 years old already.  Wow.  Time just flies, it seems like yesterday when she came to me from Chicago and landed in the airport and walked out of her crate. I still remember that day vividly.  I love my Lucy Girl.

When training the dogs I use a heck of a lot of treats. I try to use toys too, and Chase is my only dog that really is good at loving the toys to the point that they are a good reward for him. And he can switch back and forth between treats and toys and loves them both. With Jet, he loves the toys and tug, but when the treats come out he’s not too excited about the toys anymore. So we have to work on making the toys more exciting.

Anyway, I like to think that even though the dogs love the treats, they love the training more. And when the treats fade, the work and the fun will still keep the dogs’ interesting and they will still want to work. Not all dogs are like this… Lucy’s interest is gone when the treats are gone. Tatum… the more she trains in agility the more she likes the actual agility and the treats can come less frequently. Levi always loved his treats, but also loved the doing of the things.

It’s hard to fade treats… the trick is to keep the dog being a believer. Believing that the treat will come eventually, while making them more and more infrequent. And hoping that the fun of the games and learning will keep their interest as well. I think both Jet and Chase love the learning and the fun. And though they wouldn’t perform without treats, I still think that they love to train and figure things out and learn and spend time with me.

So it’s a balance… treats, toys, and the stimulating activity of the training itself. The dog’s don’t need any insurance advertising in their training… which is a good thing! Because I would have no idea how to incorporate that. :p

I want to go work with Jet some today, but my neck is hurting me quite a bit, so I might rest for a while and see how I feel a little later. We did work the last two days in a row!

Chase is a very happy boy… for the first time in months he was playing with our other dogs. Unfortunately Chase does not like it when we have fosters. And so for his sake (and our own peace of mind really) we can’t foster anymore. Titus is gone, he went back to his breeder. No health insurance in NC for him, or for us either… but our house is a lot quieter with him gone.

He was a very sweet boy and we loved him a lot.  But he was a bit loud and he raised the energy in our house for some odd reason. He had a hard time settling down, more so than our regular dogs. And Chase did not like him at all. They would even fence fight through the baby gates… so we have to take care of Chase first and foremost. So please, remind me not to take any more fosters, even sweet smooth collies, if I think I might want to again. I have to focus on our regular pack. And myself too. And have a peaceful quiet house. And all our 7 dogs are, actually, very peaceful and quiet and they get along really super well.

This pictures is of Muffit, Chase, Tatum and Jet all playing in the back yard. It’s so good to see them all play and get along again!  Yay for a quiet peaceful house.

Well, Levi breaking into the entire bag of bully sticks is not a good way to learn how to lose weight… but he sure loves the darn big bag of bully sticks!

Levi is such a food hound. He gets into everything he can. The garbage, food on the counters, even dog food bins that he can open with his nose. Or camping coolers that he can open with his nose, too. I’m so glad he never has learned to open the darn refrigerator, or we would be in serious trouble.

We have to keep the garbage out of his reach all the time.  And food off the counter. I’m not sure how he got into this… I thought it was up way high on the china cabinet.  LOL but he’s very resourceful, my goofy Levi!

So, I’m thinking about calling a local Animal Communicator (aka Pet Physic) to come and see what our pack has to say. Mainly I want to know if Lucy is hurting or not. She regurgitates a lot, still, and I wonder if her throat is hurting her. It’s so hard to know. She eats just fine but her throat has got to be too raw.

And maybe if Patty the Pet Psychic comes, she can talk to our whole pack and see how they are. I emailed her, and she’s fine with having 7 dogs and 2 cats here to talk to her all at the same time! So I might give her a call… it’d be fun, I think!

Maybe she can tell me how to lose weight, LOL but if that was the case then she’d be super rich and wouldn’t live in Utah anymore!

I hate that Lucy has the megaesophagus, but she’s doing really well, I think.  I just don’t want her to be in any pain. Poor dear.  She’s still my baby girl even if she is 11 years old. Wow… I can’t believe it’s been 11 years since she came to live with us.

My sweet little boy on the bed. I thought this was such a cute picture. I really haven’t done much training with Jet lately, or the other dogs, since I was so icky sick. I am feeling better now but I still want to take it easy. I am pretty sure I have an ear infection. The doctor didn’t see one, but put me on antibiotics, and my ear is feeling better now. Maybe I could put some quick trim fast cleanse in my ear and fix it up… Hm… maybe not.

Jet is such a little boy in our house of big dogs. I think he seems so fragile sometimes so I am extra careful with him.  And he doesn’t usually lay on the floor, but when he does, he looks so vulnerable that I have to lift him up and put him on the couch or the bed, or at least a dog bed. I adore my baby boy. And I hope to get back to doing more training videos soon!

So Jet had some fun today! I took Chase, Jet and Tatum to flyball practice. Chase loves it, of course. Tatum and Jet got to run around afterward and play. Jet had his coat on, which he isn’t too crazy about, so he rolls around in the grass to get it off. But it won’t come off and he gets too cold without it so on it stays!

I needed some face moisturizers because it was too windy and cold and my face got dry and icky. But Jet had fun and he seemed to stay pretty warm.

After the flyball I took Jet over to my sister’s house to visit her and her cats.  Jet hasn’t been very nice to our cats lately, he wants to play with them, which means barking at them and chasing them around.  And I want him to learn to be nice to cats. He was very, very good! He wanted to chase and bark at them at first but with lots of treats he was learning that you don’t bark and yap at cats to get them to play.  Chloe, my sister’s black fuzzy cat, is very friendly and walked around a lot and Jet followed her. When he would yap at her I’d just put my hand on his back and told him to be quiet, then when he was he got lots more treats. So he was very good!  I have to work with our cats too so that he learns to behave nicely with our kitties!