Sunday, June 24, 2012

Penny Peeper


 I can't believe how fast the time has flown. I've had Penny for just over 2 years now. She was so tiny when I brought her home, but very confident. Even the cat batting at her to try to figure out what that little white thing was didn't faze her!

Having a tiny puppy was a big adjustment. You don't realize how hard it is to supervise them until they vanish under a couch for the first time when you turned your head for 5 seconds. You also learn to shuffle when you walk so you don't step on your tiny puppy!


















She's still pretty tiny, and does still fit under the couch. 
But she's a big girl now =)
Happy Gotcha Day Peeps!



Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dog Sitting

Last weekend I was dog sitting for a co-worker. I had met her puppy once almost a year ago when he was about 4 months old, and he's never met my dogs before. So I wasn't too sure how easy the weekend would be.

Rev is an awesome little dog. He's about a year and a half old now (I think?) and a Yorkie. His parents were a little worried that he might be unhappy for the weekend since they said he isn't very social. The last time he was dog sat for a weekend he didn't like the resident dog (a young, large breed dog who wanted to play all the time) and he hid in his kennel for the weekend, poor puppy.



After racing home from Baxter's first outdoor distance skills class I got home just as they were pulling up to drop him off. Instead of just tossing everyone in the house together and hoping for the best, I took the boys for a walk together since Spencer and Baxter can have issues with strange dogs. This is one thing that I like from when I used to watch the Dog Whisperer (one of the few things actually.) It's neutral territory, the dogs are focusing on something other than new space and checking each other out. There shouldn't be issues with resource guarding, and they get to expend some energy before actually meeting the new dog off leash.

We met up with my sister and her dog while walking, so Rev got to meet all kinds of new dogs. Instead of coming right back to my house, we introduced the dogs in her back yard. Spencer is usually very snarky and defensive with new dogs and wants nothing to do with them. He was a little snarky with Rev but he was playing! Rev has excellent dog skills for a young guy. He would bounce and play bow at Spencer and if Spence snarked at him he'd give him a break for a minute but not snark back. He was really unruffled by Spencer and Spencer's behavior improved dramatically. It was nice to see that there is the possibility with Spencer and Baxter didn't actually care at all (he's mellowed out a lot and gotten much more social since we started agility.)

It was a good weekend, our first outdoor agility trial went well, but more on that later!


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Snip Snip

No no, the boys are both already neutered, I'm talking hair cuts here!

Baxter has been to a actual groomer only once in his life. That was back when he was the parents dog. Thank god he was a puppy then and all she did was bath him and tidy his feet. My Mom is in Bichon/Shih Tzu mode when it comes to getting a dog groomed, which means shave em. In her world 3/4" of hair is REALLY long.

Once upon a time when we went camping for the summer he was "shaved" so he wouldn't be so hot. Since he is double coated, this was a terrible plan. This picture doesn't do justice to how terrible he looked. No more brown fur with black tipping, he was just grey. And the coat was so rough you didn't want to pet him. Thankfully it was only hair, and it grows back. Never again will he be shaved!


With the "summer" (if it would stop raining ...) officially here, Baxter is getting a wee bit warm so it was time for a hair cut. I usually shave his tummy too since it's hidden, so he can cool down faster.  This will be our first time running in outdoor summer trials and I'm concerned how he'll handle the heat.

He looked a bit like a scraggle too, so now he's pretty and tidy. I try pretty hard to make him look good, like he was professionally done instead of like someone attacked him with a clipper or some scissors. What do you think?


Of course now he looks less like a Tibby (Tibetan Spaniel) than ever, so I'll probably wait for his coat to grow back out before I take the pictures for his PEN application. Still, they don't look too different, do they?



Monday, June 11, 2012

Worth 1000 Words: I




Sometimes it's a tough life layin in the sunshine. Especially when it keeps moving around the floor!

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Meanderings and Appreciation

Last weekend was AAC Regionals in Medicine Hat. We didn't go. On one hand with all the excitement about Regionals I feel kind of sad, since other people also new to the sport went, but on the other I felt that we just weren't ready yet.

We haven't even been trialing for a year yet, and this is my first dog to ever do any dog sport with. I'm still struggling with walking a masters course with the huge crowd of people and figuring out my handling. Baxter isn't a super fast, drivey dog and sometimes it's hard to remember that we "belong" out there on course too. So, next year hopefully if things work out. I'll plan for it anyway, barring any major catastrophes we'll be going and we'll be ready for it!


















Instead, I headed out to the Crows Nest Pass (Coleman) with family to spend the weekend camping before my new job switches my shift and I don't get Sat and Sun off anymore. Weather was interesting, but it was a good time and the dogs love it. I also gained a new appreciation for my naughty dogs.

1) Name recognition and value. You call their names and they look. They also come back. You do not spend 10 mins looking for your parents dog that wandered off (because they weren't watching her) and will not come back out from under the neighbors RV.

2) Door manners. Mine have none. They go bonkers saying hi when I walk in the door. BUT they do not bolt out the tiny little ray of freedom offered by the open door, unlike your parents dog. (However, by this time I had been working a little bit on value for the human saying her name, so she did come back once I caught up to her.)

3) Dogs that have value for their humans are fun to play with. The boys had a blast playing ball every time the sun came out. Even Penny joined in the fun playing chase the human (she doesn't do fetch so much.) Dad got in trouble for coming out to play fetch with us instead of attempting to play with their dog who does not play.

Action!
It's not that Sidney's behavior is her fault. It is what she has been taught by her humans. But there is only so much I can do to try to change it when her humans don't want to make time to change it.

Human behavior has a direct impact on dogs.  Your dogs and other people's dogs too.

Please don't complain that reactive Spencer with his issues with strangers loses his mind and is barking his head off when you have to bend over the ex-pen putting your face into biting range and making direct eye contact to "say hi" to dogs that don't know you.

Yes, he is barking. No, I'd rather he not bark either but hey, since you disregarded my "please just ignore them for a minute Uncle, he's not friendly" I don't think you have any right to complain. Especially when I then have to drop all the stuff I am unloading from the car to come rescue my puppy. He would not be so far over threshold that I cannot get his attention back if you had listened in the first place. It's not just his behavior that is an issue here ...

Now that that rant is over! I had planned on getting some really cute, good pictures of the dogs playing in the back yard. That didn't quite happen either. Penny lives to play keep away with Spencer. It's super cute as she whips around obstacles so he can't catch her like he can on straight aways. However, it seems that the video camera is a cue to not do this. Same thing with Baxter. He lays in the shade and rolls on his back to play with his ball, unless I have a camera in my hand, then nada. Alas, I'll have to be happy with these:


Neener
Hah, not fast enough
It's too hot out to be running