Jet and the Aquabowls

So off I went to the internet to find out how to get a replacement. And I like the small size better than the big size. Well… I couldn’t find any, anywhere in the USA! How awful is that? The only ones I found were in England. And I thought oh no… shipping could be horrible from England. But I just needed to get a bowl back and so I placed the order.

Levi and the Aquabowls

I ended up ordering from Fur Feather and Fin, after a small email chat with the help department, to make sure they would ship to the USA. And they did, and they came, and it was fast!

The total cost, including shipping, for 2 aquabowls was $54.02. My credit union also charged a $0.54 foreign transaction fee. So really that’s only $27.28 each. Not too bad I think! Actually, I think I paid over $30 for the one I bought in the US at a dog show, so hey, I really can’t complain. And even though this won’t help my skin, or give me anti wrinkle creams, that’s okay, I can grow old happy!

So I am so very excited today! I’m working from home too, so I’m going to be on a high all day. I love these bowls! And yes I bought 2, in case anything happens to one. In fact, I may buy some more….

I went jogging at lunch yesterday with Chase and Levi, and the ankle did pretty well. I was careful not to twist it. And stay on cement and roads. That is good for Chase’s pads too, gotta toughen them up for flyball on matts.

And today, for some odd reason, the big toe on my right foot hurts. No idea how or why. I’m sure I twisted it, or something, while concentrating on my ankle.

The body just keeps falling apart. Ugh.

Someone said that Cesar is more a dog psychologist than a dog trainer. I have said, for as long as I have been around dogs… okay for as long as I’ve been around dogs as an adult.. since my early 20s, that whenever I am with a dog, I am training that dog. And from what I understood, it seems a number of people believe that dog training and dog psychology are mutually exclusive.

I beg to disagree. I think that they are intertwined. So much so that you cannot have one without the other when you are dealing with dogs.

Sure you can teach a dog to sit, down, stay, heel… you can teach a dog obedience, agility, flyball, herding, tracking… and any of the other dog sports out there. And this is all training. However, if you want to really have a good working relationship with your dog, and you want a dog that performs well and likes to work, you have to understand that dog’s behavior. The dog’s psychology.

On the other hand, you can understand a dog’s behavior up the wazoo, but in order to get a well mannered dog, either a house companion or a working dog, you have to incorporate training into the interaction you have with the dog.

I have done agility for over four years now. I am just barely starting to do serious obedience training. If you have followed my training with Chase, my border collie, you’ll know all about the trials and tribulations I’ve had with him. He knows all the agility contacts. He knows his job. He knows how to jump and how to weave and how to run through a tunnel (he especially knows how to ignore me completely and head for the tunnel all the way on the other end of the course). But a very huge piece of his ‘training’ was missing. And that was the behavioral part. Knowing why he does what he does… his drive, his motivation. Knowing that he lacked drive shaping and focus, and that he has a high sex drive, these things are critical when training him.

It seems to me that many, many people in competition events nowadays don’t understand the behavioral aspect of training. Understanding your dog, your individual companion and partner, is critical to the training experience. Having a dog that can think, and listen to you, and focus on his job.. these things are so important that I cannot express it in words. Without the behavior piece with Chase, without understanding his psychology, we never would have restarted our forward progress in dog training. Even in socialization, as he tends to not be good with some other dogs.

So really, to say that Cesar is a dog psychologist and not a dog trainer is something I disagree with. I believe he is both. I still don’t like his methods, though.

I look at dogs completely differently than I did only a year ago. Instead of just looking at their training I look at what their person has done, or hasn’t done, to shape their behavior, too. It’s fascinating. I love it. I want to spend more time doing it. Maybe after I retire I will be able to.

I want my dogs to have every opportunity to succeed. And, of course, I want to succeed, too. And now I have many more tools with which I can do this. And it’s fun!

So anyway there is a fun site called YawpBox. Not only is it a social networking site, it is also a national TV show, and a national Radio Show. The TV Show gets all their content from the social networking site. Videos, people, etc. So, after you make your video, you can uploaded it to YawpBox, and it just may end up in front of thousands, or more, of people on TV! Are you brave enough to be on TV? I’m not sure I am…

It is very entertaining to see regular every day people in their videos. Sometimes I get tired of all the perfect actresses on TV. And it’s nice to see regular people on TV instead.

I think to really understand YawpBox you have to visit their website. There are categories you can upload your video too. And you can vote for videos as well. Vote for the ones you like! And you can vote for the ones you don’t like, too.

It’s a fun site!

Tatum loves to play, but she is shy about playing with toys. She will kinda grab them for a minute but not for long. I need to get her used to the treat pouch tug that we have, and encourage her to tug more. I think for her it may be a dominance type thing where she is not so sure about tugging with me. She is starting to tug more with Angel and that is good, too. Gotta get her drive up and her playing up too.

Anyway I really love these round toys made of rubber called Hol-ee Rollers, but the dogs are not too crazy about them. So I really want to create this to be a favorite toy. I have two of them, they are great for tug, they are very tough, and if they get left outside in the snow and freezing rain they still survive an don’t even have to be put through the washing machine like tugs.

The smooth blue collies are not big toy dogs. Angel is the most, but she is just our companion dog, not a sports dog. So now I have to learn how to make a toy fun and exciting, and interactive with me. For Tatum.

What I really want, too, is an Alley Oop, made by Gary Wilkes. But apparently they have been discontinued. I sent them an email seeing if maybe they will make them again, or if they have any left. What a great targeting tool it would be! And it never falls over, it’s made to stand straight up. I wish they still made them.

And in example of the great things I tend to capture on the webcam, this is a shot of Tatum when the couch didn’t have any chews on it… the couch, pre-Tatum. Ah the joys of having a puppy. Bianca is also in this picture.

So check out the collie cam. It’s usually only open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays while I am at work. Hopefully you won’t catch any nude shots of my husband or I.. we try to be careful. LOL.

I like finding other fun dog sports sites and for some reason I seem to have much luck really finding them! So hopefully you’ll spread the word.

To join this Cliq, Click Here for the Dog Sports Cliq. ]]> http://tiptail.com/2007/11/24/got-a-cliq/feed/ 0 http://tiptail.com/2007/10/29/home-at-last/ http://tiptail.com/2007/10/29/home-at-last/#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:03:56 +0000 Cynthia http://66.212.24.93/tiptail/?p=552 Continue reading »]]> Me and the boys are home. My ankle hurts so bad I can’t walk on it. Or put any weight on it. I twisted it on Saturday. I remember going onto the course fine, coming off and it hurt. Sunday it really took it’s toll on our runs so no Q. I drove home yesterday all the way, woke up this morning and my ankle is just a big swollen bundle of pain.

We are all tired. Still want to go to Arizona in January, though. Maybe look at some Arizona real estate while we are down there doing dog sports. I am going to go watch some TV and veg today.