I felt like I was cheer leading her quite a bit, LOL. A lot more than I wanted to. But all in all that’s okay for now. She did all the obstacles in all four of her runs. She had two runs on Saturday and two runs on Monday. I left her home on Sunday so she could rest, she isn’t all that high stamina of a girl! Maybe a testosterone booster would help speed her up a little bit… LOL

ButI was thrilled with how she was. She’s my baby girl, that goofy smooth collie who has come such a long way from when she came to us from the hoarder in Houston, Texas. I’m proud of my girl.

Pretty Tatum

Tags: Tatum
]]> http://tiptail.com/2010/02/03/pretty-tatum/feed/ 0 http://tiptail.com/2010/02/01/tatum-in-docna/ http://tiptail.com/2010/02/01/tatum-in-docna/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:13:59 +0000 Cynthia http://tiptail.com/?p=1983 Well I sent in the entry for the DOCNA agility trial.. and I entered Tatum. She’ll be in ASCA this month, but only in pre-novice because I can’t chose to jump her at 16″ unless she’s in veterans. That bugs me. I won’t jump her 20″. So DOCNA will be our first real venue…

I don’t know if she’ll qualify, but I want her in the environment and to see how fun it is. I only entered her in Jumpers and Gamblers. She doesn’t weave yet, but it’ll come this summer. Maybe some ring terminals will help… hrm. Maybe not.

She is my baby girl and I’m excited to enter her in agility. I don’t think she’s really ready, and sometimes I’m nervous, sometimes I’m not. But it’ll be fun either way!

Big Play

So I did it, I entered Tatum in pre-novice agility in ASCA for February! I’m excited. I don’t think she’s really ready, she still goes around jumps once in a while. And she doesn’t know the weaves yet but there are no weaves in Pre-Novice. There is no teeter, either. I do want to get her on the Teeter but that’s okay, she can use some more work. After I trial her I might need some drug rehab for nerves… lol but hopefully I’ll be okay! I think she will have fun.

I didn’t want to really enter her in Pre-Novice. I wanted to enter her in Novice. However, ASCA doesn’t have a preferred class so she’d have to jump 20″. And I won’t jump her 20″ so we have to run in pre novice in ASCA. All the other venues will allow me to jump her at 16″! Oh well. DOCNA is in March and so we’ll be able to do that with her, hopefully, in March. If there is a trial. I haven’t seen a premium for one yet.

Whether Tatum has smooth hair or curly hair doesn’t matter because she’s going to be such a cutie doing agility! He he, I’m not really nervous about it even. I’m just excited!

Curious Jet

On New Years Day we went to a friend’s house for a party. It was fun and we love to visit and bring the dogs. Jet and Tatum got to come with and they loved it! They had a lot of fun. The first thing Jet did when he went inside was try to pee on the Christmas tree. Doh! The silly boy! Then he went and jumped on everyone’s laps and squiggled and snuggled and everyone falls in love with him instantly. How can they not?

He didn’t try to chew on the tv stand thank goodness, but he did try to jump… okay I take that back. He DID jump on the dinner table and had a bite of pumpkin pie!  We don’t sit down to dinner at our house… I wish we did, but we just don’t seem to have time and we don’t really eat the same food.  So he hasn’t learned table manners. But he was the life of the party and everyone seemed to laugh at him even after he ate a mouth full of pumpkin pie. 

I love bringing Jet and Tatum with wherever I go.  It’s fun and for me it’s a lot more relaxing to have a dog with. Dogs are much more easier than people!  I hope everyone is having a good January.

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!

Tatum in a crate

So Tatum is doing great in agility! She really is. She is learning to put obstacles together in sequence. I’m very proud of her. She’s not too sure yet about doing jumps at speed, but she is having fun, her tail is up, and she really loves it. She likes that I run beside her too. At flyball practice she tends to run off… but it’s not as structured as agility is and I don’t run beside her. So we will work at agility more to get her the idea of doing jumps, and other obstacles, in order.

This picture is of her in a dog crate we had set up in the front room. She loves the crates. It was for Jet… but we took it down already becuase Jet just doesn’t need crates.  It’s weird, having a puppy that doesn’t need to be in a crate. :p

Anyway back to Tatum. She’s starting to learn front crosses, too. I tried some rear crosses with her but she doesn’t have the commitment to the jumps yet that she needs to learn rear crosses. I need to break it down, too. I tried to do some rear cross training without jumps, but I actually think the jumps make it more clear to her.  And I keep the jump bars really low, like 8 inches, just so it gives us something to focus on.

Tatum is so much fun to do agility with. I need to get serious about her weaves. I really think she could be ready to compete by next spring.

Tatum and Chase

This is a picture of Chase and Tatum at flyball practice last summer. Ooo summer! I want warmth and sunshine!

Anyway… Tatum’s training is going really well. She’s starting to understand heel, I think. Though we only do it in very short bits. Four or five steps. But I also randomize how many steps we take so she won’t think it’s the same amount all the time. And I put the target stick right in front of her eyes. I still think she has problems with peripheral vision. But she can still read diet pill reviews for me if she wants to!

We are also working the stand for exam. She can stand okay, and when I walk away, I have to do it in a very matter-of-fact manner. No coddling her or asking her to please stay. I just put her in a stand, put my hand in front of her nose for a stay, then walk away.  And she seems to be getting it pretty good, actually. The stand stay is one of the hardest things for a green dog to learn!

Her recall is doing really well too.  I havem mostly been running from her to keep her speed and enthusiasm up.  We are also working fronts a little, and finishes a little. Though not at the same time.  Those are all the things for novice… we are still doing some dumbbell work for open. I hope she can get into open! I have faith in her.

She’s also doing really well in agility class. She loves the contacts. I want to start to get her out where she has more room to run so we can start to sequence obstacles. Her A-Frame four on the floor is gonna be nice!

Last Saturday she had the big job of going to a puppy class and being the big girl to teach puppies how to behave! There were 3 German Shepherds and one Portuguese Water Dog.  They were all bigger than her!  But she was very good with all of them. Then she crashed in her crate when I worked Chase in a private lesson.  Playing with puppies is super hard work!

All in all I’m very happy with how Tatum is progressing!

Tatum Dumbbell

I’ve been putting squeeze cheese on the dumbbell for her to lick, which she really likes. And no matter how many times I’ve read, in clicker training books, that a dog will naturally just open her mouth to take the thing after a while… I have never had a dog do that. Or else maybe I’m just not patient enough. LOL

So, with the help of my trainer, I rolled the bar of the dumbbell into her mouth when she was licking.  She wasn’t too crazy about that, but when the dumbbell was in, I would click, and you could tell she understood that.

It only took a couple of days for her to start opening her mouth and taking the dumbbell in on her own! I was thrilled! So I didn’t need to start a hair loss treatment as I wasn’t pulling my hair out for too long!

So now we work on duration.. how long the dumbbell stays in her mouth. It’ll come, for sure. And she has to take it when it’s on the ground. All doable. I did it all with Levi and Lucy and they love the dumbbell.

My smart smooth collie girl is gonna do obedience!

Tatum Sitting

Levi’s obedience is winding down, he’ll still do ASCA which will be fun.  And he can jump at 16″.  Tatum is just starting. And I love working with her. I’ve been working stands, stays, recalls and heeling in the front yard now that it’s warm. I love that it’s starting to warm up outside! I gotta pull down the Bamboo shades to keep the heat of the sun out, but I like it, so they stay up.

So Thursday nights is probably going to be Tatum’s obedience night, and Friday night will be agility night.  The downside is that I won’t really have a day off on the weekends. Bleh.  So I might have to bug out of classes once in a while, or flyball practice, just to keep my own sanity.  But that’s okay, I have to set boundaries and it’s always a learning process.

This picture is of Tatum when we were practicing stays at a trial a while ago. Isn’t she doing great! I am thrilled that she understands what stay means.  And her recalls are getting to be enthusiastic, and so is her heeling. There is so freakin’ much heeling in obedience, and I really want my dogs to have happy drivey heeling! Even the Tot, my shy little collie girl who just really isn’t shy anymore.