Tip Tail

Ugh. I’ve been sick for a while now… I only get sick a couple of times a year, really, but when I do I get really bad. And it takes me a couple of weeks to get back on my feet again. So I’ve actually been staying off my feet for a while. Mainly because I’m sick, but my ankles don’t really seem like they are heeling up at all either.

I took Levi on a really short 20 minute walk yesterday. I woke up this morning at 4am and both my ankles just hurt like crazy. Down the outside, below my ankle bones, and towards my toes. I wonder what is going on. Maybe I need to go to a sport doctor or a specialist or something. It’s like I have damaged a tendon or something on the same place on both of my ankles. Does that mean they are weak? Or what? I dunno.

I want to go swimming again. I haven’t been because even small activity has been hard on me. Guess I won’t need a Texas truck accident lawyer because I just want to stay home and not go out. Though I hope to do some agility with Jet and Tatum on Saturday. And I entered Chase in an AKC agility trial this weekend. Our first in months. I want to see if our Stacy workshops have paid off and see if my handling is any better. Maybe we can pull off an excellent Q, I really would love that.

Anyway, I hate being in pain. I want my ankles to heel up. The doc said to keep weight bearing on them, but not to twist them, and that’s exactly what I’ve done. But still they hurt. I think at about age 35 we just need to start replacing body parts, they just wear out so dang fast.

I was at an ASCA Obedience trial this morning… and yesterday morning. And I got to thinking. Everyone else in the world probably already knows this, but I’m a softy when it comes to giving my dogs treats, and I may just treat too much. I was thinking that the dogs really need to love the training. They need to love the exercises and have a good time doing them. And the treats are just there to reinforce what they do right… what we want them to do. If the dog doesn’t like the exercises… doesn’t like obedience, then they are not going to have fun in the ring, where there are no treats. So making the exercises themselves reinforcing is a huge key to obedience.

Agility comes more easily, the obstacles are a lot more self-reinforcing than in obedience. In obedience it’s all about the person and the dog. And although I will never believe that I can be more interesting than some things in the world (smells, other dogs, etc), I think I can work at it and come pretty close. Close enough for good work, anyway.

So anyway, about the title of this post, I think the treats should only be there to reinforce the training. The dog has got to love the training, and the exercises, and working with the handler, in order to do good happy exuberant work in obedience. Otherwise you’ll have a dog that’s a dud. He may even qualify as a dud, but I personally don’t want a dud dog. I want a happy enthusiastic dog!

With the treats there to reinforce the fun of the training… the treats being about the training, I think I’ll have more success in the obedience ring. I want Jet to have awesome heeling. I want him to love to heel. I want him to think it’s one of the coolest things ever. Haha, that’s funny, because I don’t think it’s really that cool. But I love to watch great heeling. Great heeling is so impressive, it’s a team of dog and person, it’s beautiful and it’s really exhilarating. And for me to get that with Jet, then it’s gotta be super fun. And the treats will merely be there to reinforce the heeling itself. And eventually, the treats will be there rarely.

So hopefully this idea of mine will stick, and it’ll work to get some great heeling. So far, so good. I should get more heeling video of him. I want him to love it! So we won’t need any best eye cream for wrinkles because we’ll have happy, smiling faces!

Oh… and no, Chase didn’t qualify today. He laid down on his sit 18 seconds before we were done. Bleh.  I guess it’s something I’ll have to work really hard to maintain. I’m even wondering if I should try to get his ASCA CDX. I only want it so that I can do ASCA Utility with him in the future. He’s got his AKC CDX now… I just really love the ASCA shows. They are so fun, well run, and the people are great.  We have maybe 6 a year so it’d be great to show Chase in ASCA Utility. But we have to get through the dumb sit stays again.  Chase didn’t qualify yesterday, either.  He did a drop on recall but… with the dumbbell in his mouth on the retrieve on the flat.   LOL dork.  He’s so creative.

It’s really not often I get a picture of all six of our dogs. While I was feeding Lucy this morning, most of the dogs were on the couch. So I put the rest up there and snapped a few pictures.

Lucy is in her chair about three times a day now. I really hate her megaesophagus.  I love her, and I want her happy and healthy.  And of course we do everything we can for her.  Our floors are kinda gross now, since she regurgitates still.  But we clean up after her and move on.  She’s a good girl and our special collie. 

The rest of the dogs are good.  Muffit goes hiking with my husband a lot. I don’t post about him much because I don’t do much with him.  Levi is retired, cranky, and jealous that he’s not my main companion anymore, but I train him some and go for walks and things and that makes him happy.  Tatum, Chase and Jet are my three main sport dogs now and they are fun to work with.

All in all, our happy house of six dogs is really peaceful. Everyone gets along and everything is going well. I miss Angel terribly, still.  The worst thing about coming back from trips is not having her here to welcome me home.

Everyone else is pretty happy and healthy though. But I don’t like it when the dogs get old.  I wish they were all young and healthy.

I am so proud of my smooth collie girl! Tatum got her very first title ever this weekend. I’ll upload the videos in a bit. Here is a picture of her with all her ribbons. She Qualified every day in Rally. On Friday she got a 91, on Saturday she got an 89, and today she got a 95! She even tied for second place with our friend Dare! Tatum was slower so she got third place, but the fact that she even placed thrilled me.

She’s come a long way my little girl, from being terrified of leaving the house, to having her first Rally title. She even loosened up and was more relaxed each day we were there. She is like that… she gets nervous at new places, but the more she goes to a place the more she relaxed.

I even watched one of the new AKC classes called Beginning Novice. It was really neat, and I think Tatum should enter that sometime too. It’s a titling class. I’ll have to read about it too. I am going to work Tatum’s heeling so she gets the idea to have a target and watch me more. I think she really will be able to heel.

I adore Tatum, and I’m so proud of her.

I’m so proud of my Tatum girl! She is doing so well. I’m not convinced she really knows we are doing a thing in the ring, but she sits when I tell her, she downs when I tell her, and she follows me around just fine! That is two Qs for her in a row, one yesterday and one today. If she Qualifies tomorrow, she’ll have her RN, her first title ever! I’m so proud of her!

We went for a walk along the river after the trial today. I didn’t run Chase… I saw no need to put him into the open ring again and push those stays when we don’t need to. I’d like to save them for an ASCA CDX if possible.  Once we get that, then he’ll be out of open entirely and I’ll just train him up for Utility. And that will be fun!

Jet is with too for the trip and I got some pictures of him that I’ll post when I get home. I’m tired now, so time for bed. 

Chase got his CDX!!!! I am thrilled!  I almost thought it would never happen. He started laying down on his sit stays back in March.  After the pigeon incidence and he got to do a 9.5 minute down stay in the ring. After that, I thought we were pretty much screwed.  But with lots of training and persistence, he held his sit stay today!  Wooo Hooo!

It’s my first CDX ever on a dog.  Levi had one leg toward a CDX before I retired him. He just wouldn’t hold the out of site stays.  So that’s okay.  But Chase always had the potential.  He has the potential for a UD, too, so now that his CDX is done we are going to work the UD exercises.  That’ll be fun. I do want to get his ASCA CDX too, though, but hopefully that sit stay will hold for those legs too.

Today was an adventerous day… last night driving up to Idaho Falls Chase pooped in his crate, which is really rare. He’s usually really good about letting me know when he has to go out. But he didn’t give me even a peep.  Then this morning his poop was solid again.  But last night Tatum didn’t settle at all and kept me awake most of the night.  She’s usually really good in the hotel rooms so I don’t know what was up with her. Hopefully tonight she’ll be good and tired so she’ll sleep.  She also Q’d in Rally Novice B, yay!  I’ll post more about that later. I was so nervous about Chase and that CDX leg that I didn’t spend as much mental energy on Tatum as I should have.  But she did good, she got a 91 out of 100 so I was very proud of her!

So after we were done at the trial we came back to the hotel room and I took a nap. It felt good, I was exhausted.  The stress of the CDX was such that I felt like I was going to throw up after it was over.  I was so relieved.  So I took a nap and when I woke up I couldn’t find my smart phone.  I looked in the hotel and the van  and couldn’t find it.  So then I remembered that I’d thrown some stuff away at the trial site and though oh no, maybe the phone was with all that stuff.

So we went back to the trial site and they garbage collectors had come only an hour before! I thought I was screwed! So we did some training with the puppies and some friends and that was fun. Jet did some go-outs and some heeling and some dumbbell and had a great time.

When we were done I figured I’d walk the path once again from the van to the tent set up to see if I could find my phone.. and as I got closer to the tent site I realized that I had never taken my chair down, and maybe it was in my drink holder.  And it was! I was so relieved!  I don’t want to buy a new phone, I can’t afford it! And I really like my smart phone.  :)

We then went to Cafe Rio for dinner, and then we went back to the hotel. Chase is again runny so I’m not sure what’s up with him.  It’s not affecting his performance, though. But since he now has his CDX I’m not going to put him back in the ring Saturday or Sunday.  There is no reason to waste energy on those stays when he doesn’t have to.  So now I get to concentrate on Tatum’s Rally for the next couple of days and I hope she will get her Rally Novice title!

It’s time for bed, good night!  ;)

Well, work is over and I’m heading up to Idaho Falls this weekend for AKC obedience. Hopefully Chase will get that CDX, but I’m worried about it. Bleh. I hate worrying about obedience. I also have to repost a couple of posts her on Tip Tail but that will happen probably tomorrow or the next day. I know, I’m slow, oh well. Sorry about that.

I won’t need any diamond engagement rings up in Idaho… but I do want some Q ribbons! Tatum is in Rally, too. She seems to have regressed a bit lately into some more shyness so I hope she does okay. My poor special needs rescue girl. I adore her, I do push her, but without a little push she’d be a bubble dog and would be too afraid to leave the house. So a little push is a good thing. As long as it involves lots of Tuna Brownies!

I hope to have internet there and be able to post about our Obedience.

Okay so I’m done with feet. Well I wish I had a choice, but, I don’t, because I’m human, and we haven’t developed prosthetic strong metal type ankles and feet yet.

Monday i went out jogging and was just fine and then came home, and walking from the street, on our front lawn grass, from the street to the house, I stepped in a hole and twisted my right ankle. I went down, swore, and heard a crack. UGH. Jet and Chase didn’t know what was up with me.

So now I have a sprained right ankle to match my sprained left ankle. I sprained my left back in October 2007 doing agility. For the last three or so months it’s been hurting again… the left one. So I’ve been wearing my brace and taking care of it. Well now the right one is out.

Maybe some dental discounts would help me, or some stupid joint discounts even. I went to the doc today and had both ankle’s x-rayed. He said they look okay, though I have some bone spurs and some arthritis. But they are minor. But he didn’t really address any soft-tissue things. Maybe I need to make the trek back out to the sports doctor and ask him. This doc, a family doc, said to keep weight bearing on it, so keep walking on it, but keep my activites lower. So probably no agility for a while. Agility has got to be the worst dog sport for human ankles.

So if I had hooves, maybe that’d be better. I could be a Satyr and not have to worry about feet. Though I know, I know, feet give us a lot of mobility that hooves don’t. But still, I hate how they can be so weak, and I hate pain!

Tatum did it! She qualified in ASCA Rally-O today! It’s her first Q ever! I’m so proud of her. And I do think she was a little bit more connected to me today than she was yesterday.

She held her sit stay too, the honor sit, even though I talked to her the whole time. She got a 181 out of 200 which isn’t too bad for my little girl. I am going to work on some more heeling with her, and walking with me, and I’m going to enter her in AKC Rally later this month, in Idaho Falls. It’s a 3 day and if Mom doesn’t mess up and miss any stations, she could potentially get her first title, an RN.

So I am pretty proud of my rescue collie girl. She had a rotten start in life, coming from a hoarder in Houston, Texas. And any people experience she had was bad. And she’ll always have issues, but she’s a trooper and she always comes back home to rule the house.

Well, I took Levi and Tatum to Utah’s first ASCA Rally trial today. We had a lot of fun! And I have to say I’m so very impressed with Tatum! She did such a good job! Here is the video of her:

My collie girl, coming from a hoarder’s back yard, horribly bred, very little people contact when she was young, and what she got was bad. So even though she’s not looking up at me the whole time, or completely on a close heel… she’s sticking with me, doing all her sits and downs and stands, and I’m so proud of her! She didn’t Q… she stood up on her honor down. But that’s okay, if she would have Q’d she would have gotten a 189, that’s a pretty good score!

And here is Levi, my old man. Levi used to be my main competition dog. But now he’s 10 and a half years old, his back end isn’t as strong as it used to be, and he’s mostly retired. But I thought I’d put him in the Novice ASCA Rally to see how he did. He did great!

He had a great time doing something with his Mom again. He got a 195, which is really good! Out of 200. He’s a good boy. I love working with him again. Breaks my heart that he is old now. Ugh.

I’ll take both Tatum and Levi back tomorrow. Hopefully Tatum will stay in the honor stay and get a Q. I’ll be proud of her either way! I have some sardine brownies for her too, and she loves those fishes!