February 2009Monthly Archives

I Love All My Six Dogs

Pack

I do, I love all my dogs. This pictures is not of my dogs, though! LOL mostly the dogs here are Marie’s dogs when we went to visit a couple of weeks ago and looked at property. Tatum is in this picture, she’s the big smooth collie. Oh yes, big compared to most of Marie’s dogs, LOL.

But I do love all my dogs and you know what? I am no longer embarrased by having six dogs. In fact, yes, I’d add number seven if the right puppy comes along, hopefully a Danish Swedish Farmdog!

All my dogs have great, unique personalities. We have a nice calm house even though we have six dogs and they are all herding dogs and they love to bark. Still, I absolutely love knowing each of them as individuals. And my life would be emptier and bleaker if I didn’t have each and every one of them in my life.

Our house may be small, but my dogs get to do a lot of things. Flyball, agility, obedience, and mybe more in the future. And my husband takes the older dogs to the park so they get exercise too, that they need.

So no, even though maybe heated mattress pads would benefit the older dogs, I love each and every one of them and am not worried that we have so many. I wouldn’t give any of them up for ten million dollars. They are my passion, my life, and I think they all have very good, full lives. I am glad we have all the dogs we have. Though much of the time I feel like I need more time to give them all, I just have to sit and relax and realize they all have good lives, and I am so lucky to have them all!

Cynthia

February 10, 2009

Daily Posts

10 comments

Chatter, Pack, Play

Chase and Dylan in Singles

Sometimes it takes me a while to get vidoes up! And I know why, each time I do them. My laptop isn’t the speediest when it comes to building videos. It takes me a while to import them and fiddle with them etc… but anyway, so I did only this one. I’ll copy the entire DVD for my teammates.

This is a video of Chase racing Dylan in singles. Yup, we are on the same team! Chase and Dylan actually have very similar times, which is fun. It was lots of fun to race Dylan and his Mom Christy. I don’t even remember which of us won! LOL

Dreaming of a Danish/Swedish Farmdog

Danish Swedish Farmdog

Yup, I am. Dreaming of a Danish/Swedish Farmdog. Also known as the Dansk-Svensk-Gardhund in German. And earlier this week it occurred to me that maybe I should buy one from Germany… since I have relatives there. Not only that, I have a cousin who is a vet! I sent my Dad an email to see if I can get in touch with her and ask her about Farmdogs in Germany, and maybe she can help me find a really good breeder.

I’ve been reading about the Farmdogs a bit. This picture is one I found on Flickr, and this dog’s name is Bastian. I do hope it’s okay I have posted a picture of him here. I commented on the Flickr account and asked. Bastian is such a handsome boy!

The Farmdogs are a little bit straight for my liking, though. But I love their size. They resemble the Jack Russel Terrier but I found this site (translated by Google) talking about how they are quite different than the JRT in personality:

First, we are not a terrier. If we have a group, then we are in the close Pinscher to compare. Just like the Jack Russell, have Svensk-Dansk-Gardhunde much Pep and are very intelligent. But there is something which distinguishes these two breeds, although the exterior cute little apart from each other. The occupation of the lap dog fills Russel not as passionate as the Danski, he is not so patiently with his owners and error is small in terms of dog attitude not as unforgivable as the Danski away.

Differences of Farmdogs and Jack Russel Terriers Link.

He is for each activity with enthusiasm, with every action keeps loose with. His temperament is very good but when times curb and a walk shorter or the movement needs to be saved, then he takes it out uncomplainingly.

So basically, these Farmdogs look like JRTs but are not as stubborn as terriers! Which is something that would be ideal for me! JRTs are kinda nice.. but I really would rather stay away from terriers.

So.. maybe I’ll get one, maybe not. I do want a little short haired dog that is not a terrier. Got any ideas of breeds like that? I also don’t want a long backed dog like a corgi or a dachshund. And I’d like a dog that has the stamina for flyball, agility, and the smarts for obedience too! And that loves positive reinforcement, of course!

Tatum and Muffit and Agility Practice

I am so thrilled! I took Tatum and Muffit out to the local agility barn today and Tatum did so great!

Tatum A-Frame

She is a maniac on the A-Frame! Well, no, not a maniac, LOL, but she’s fast and not afraid at all. I thought she might be afraid of the contacts and I’m so glad she isn’t! She doesn’t even need corsets to keep her together! LOL

This picture is from last summer, one of her first times on the A-Frame. She is going to basically have a Four on the Floor. Because she is so straight and square I don’t want her back to be hurt doing a 2 on 2 off. And I am scared of running contacts because I like being able to catch up with my dogs!

Tatum goes up fast, then down, and lays herself down on her mat and eats the treat that is in the clip at the bottom. She already does it all by herself! I’m so happy. She also has to give me a paw touch before she goes up, so she’ll stay connected.

Muffit did good too but mainly we did relaxation on his mat. I did get him on the dog walk with treats, he was okay with that. He was afraid of the bang of the teeter so we’ll have to work on that. Otherwise he had his gentle leader on as we walked around and stayed calm. If he’s off his gentle leader then he bounces all over the place and doesn’t know how to calm down. On the GL he is much better!

Anyway, it was fun… I really hope I’m not catching a cold… I feel a bit off now that I’m home. Ugh.

Cynthia

February 6, 2009

Agility, Muffit, Tatum, Training

8 comments

Agility, Muffit, Tatum, Training

How Does Your Dog Sit?

Sitting

In Obedience, the dogs have to sit for one to three minutes, depending what level you are in. In Novice it’s a one minute sit stay with the handler in sight. In Open, it’s a three minute sit stay with the handler out of sight.

This is a picture of how Tatum sits comfortably. I hope to do obedience with her sometime. And when we do, I’ll have to find the position she can hold for up to three minutes.

Most dogs are supposed to sit upright on their haunches, square, as that is a solid position and the dog won’t tip over and go into a down. If they go into a down, they are NQ’d and don’t get a leg. However, it seems Tatum and Levi are both more comfortable when they have a bit of a swivel in their hips. Maybe I need some term life insurance on her in case she falls over!

Levi will be in Open A Obedience in March in AKC. Three days. Actually, this month on the 14th I entered him in one day of ASCA Open A obedience too. Hopefully he’ll hold his sit stay, and his down stay. The rest of his Open working is coming along nice. Actually, his stays are too.

Does this mean the dog has bad hips? I haven’t had either Tatum or Levi x-rayed, so I don’t know. I figure if I have them x-rayed and they do have bad hips, then what will I do… not compete or train with them anymore? Ugh. So far, the only sign they might have iffy hips is this sideways sit. Otherwise they seem fine and have not had any signs of bad hips or any problems. And, fortunately, collies are not prone to hip displasia!

Tracking Training

Do you track your training… or your competition? I don’t, really. I know I know, I should. But I don’t. I used to write down every run in competition, good or bad, Q or NQ. But I gave that up because it was one of those things I was obsessive about and then burned myself out on quick. Maybe I’m just not that… detailed.

Anyway, if you do track, how do you do it? I should track training because I do like to see how my dogs progress. I actually use this blog to do some tracking, but that’s about it. I wish I had a little electronic gismo I could easily carry around with me and record things on, either written or verbal. I used to have a PDA but I no longer do, my laptop pretty much replaced it.

I should look for a good sale, that would help. Though I’m kinda out of money now. But a PDA would be a nice thing to have again, or a little tiny personal computer. Dangit, I hate looking around for stuff like this, now I want one? Though Buy.com has some great deals right now. And every time I buy something, I figure hey, I’m paying sales tax and helping out the bad economy. The bad economy kinda scares me a bit, I just hope I can keep my job, that is the most important thing. And since I work for the government, taxes pay my salary! And buying something for Valentine’s Day is kinda fun…

Anyway.. back to the point, what tracking methods do you use, if any?

Teaching the Tug

Do you teach your dogs to tug? Or do you think that tugging can exacerbate aggressive behavior and dominance?

Personally, I don’t think tugging, with the right rules, makes a dog more aggressive or dominant. I want my dogs to tug because it’s a great fun game that gives the dogs an outlet for their predatory instincts. Of course tug should have rules… including a nice solid OUT for when you are done. Not that Chase has one of those. In fact, he has a rotten OUT and I have to often stick my fingers in his mouth to get him to drop the toy. Ah the fun of rescue dogs and their issues.

Tatum doesn’t really tug, so I got her a Tug-It from Clean Run. She is a goof because she will chomp on it with her rear teeth (it is mesh so the food leaks out) and then she’ll lick it with her tongue. But we are working on that tugging behavior.

I don’t know if she’ll ever really be a good tugger, or if I’ll be able to use tugging as a reinforcer in training. But that’s okay… food works for her in training too. But tugging would be fun, so we are working on that. Maybe I need to time our progress with some Suunto watches and see if I can see how long it takes her to get food out of the Tug It!

What do you think of tugging with your dog?

Flyball Is Too Much Work

GEEZ I’ll tell ya, flyball is way too much work. I’m home, finally, sitting on the couch and way too tired to go upstairs and get my camera to load any pictures.

Chase did great, his team took first place in division four on Sunday. Our junior handler got a .000 start with her Border Collie Oreo. Our fast team (not Chase’s team) got under 18 seconds in a heat… 17.8! That was fun, having a really fast team.

I love my team, the Thunder Paws, great people, fun times. Our next tournament is in April, NAFA, in Pahrump Nevada. That should be fun. I’m way behind in my blogging because the hotel didn’t have wireless. It’s a nice hotel though they have Discount Blinds and the dogs tend to bark, but not too much!

Oh, here is a picture… there was a Danish Swedish Farmdog on Touch n Go and he was an awesome dog! His name is Maverick and he’s fast, with a 4.3 average and fastest times in 4.1. I’m looking into seeing if I can maybe add one to my pack, in a year or so. They are a small dog that would be a great height dog, with a brain, a nice body, different from a terrier (not sure I really want a terror) and smart, good energy, and I hear they have an off switch. I would love to do agility and obedience with her, too. Maybe even some herding, and maybe go-to-ground, that’d be fun I’ve never done that. These dogs are also friendly and get along with people and dogs. I’m looking into possibly buying one. Though they are very rare, and expensive, so I’d have to save up my pennies and see when any litters are due.

I know I know, I usually rescue, but I’m tired of rescue dogs with all their issues. I’ve learned a lot from the for sure, and now I’m ready to apply that knowledge to a nice well bred puppy! I’ll let you know what I hear back from the breeders.

For now, good night!

Chase, Chatter, Farmdog, Flyball