How They Love The Plastic Bag

Went down to Aptos yesterday to do a little Lure coursing. Our new favorite thing. Well, maybe Bella’s new favorite thing. My good little brown one that does no wrong becomes a complete crack head when she hears the lure machine. She becomes Primitive Bella. Wild Beast. Huntress of the recycled grocery bag.

See, I don’t let me dogs chase stuff as a general rule. No crittering. No harassing wildlife. I think it’s dangerous to encourage a dog to, for example, chase squirrels. As most of you know, generally their ears stop working when they get that heavily into prey mode. Then you end up with dogs that get into trouble, say, with a moving vehicle, because they decide that going after a small fuzzy thing is way more important than listening to you bellow COME!

I think Bella’s years of “don’t even think about it” are catching up. She’s like the kid that was raised to be all responsible and a good citizen and for god’s sake eat your vegetables who goes all ape shit when they get to college and spends four year getting drunk and eating nothing but Snickers bars and pizza.

She really thinks this is the best thing evah!


She could seriously do this all day


Kate thinks it’s pretty much Da Bomb, too, but more in a chasing Bella kinda way. Kate is much faster than Belly. If Kate is behind, she’s on Bell, not the lure


It takes her a few go-arounds to figure out what they are doing. The first couple of runs are spent yelling in Bella’s ear.

What are we running for?!?!!!


Seriously, where are we going???!!!


She does eventually realize that there is a purpose


She at least shuts up then


She’s still giving Bella a break, though. Trying to not one-up her big sis. She could totally get around the track in half the time it takes Bella


Maybe Kate just sees it as more of a family activity than her self centered sis?

Dogs On Logs

Well, not logs, I guess. More like Dogs on Tree Stumps, but that doesn’t rhyme.

Work with me, here

In continuance of our agility hiatus, we did more regional park-ing today. This morning it was Pulgas Ridge.

There was much posing on stuff


They have taken down quite a few trees, so there are plenty of dog torture opportunities


Some nice lady stopped me to let me know a rattle snake had been spotted up the trail a bit. As I was thanking her for the info she commented on how well the girls posed.

“I can’t believe they just sit on a stump like that”

Yeah, well, they may have done this a time or two before. :-)

And they may stay there, doesn’t mean they are wholly participating in the experience.


Other things on their minds


Bored with my non-dog hobby


Perhaps checking out the scent of a previously irritated dog forced to sit on a stump for no good reason


Kate not usually this direct with her commentary


Bella sooooo did not want to pose on the fence. Did you know that dogs fake smile? The mouth says Happy, the eyes say I Hate You With Every Fiber Of My Being


She hated it until she found the bird poop

Apparently a little poop goes a long way with her

Goofy Tail, Goofy Dog

Truer words have never been spoken.

We played hookie from agility yesterday and decided to just go do stuff that doesn’t involve thinking. No being right or wrong, no yellow paint, no silly poles. Just going. We went up to Oyster Bay. Our favorite used-to-be dump-now-dog- playground.

The pics are so telling.

Can you tell who the thinker is?


Who considers their environment and who’s just moving around in it?


That tail is up always


Seriously, up there a lot


It’s actually quite a good flag. You can tell immediately when she’s listening.


Although, she may not be listening to you


Kate loves to hike. It’s her calling in life. She prefers to follow paths. No wondering around in the shrubs. It think it is related her not wanting to be wrong. Her needing to know her boundaries. When I first got her, if we were hiking and I had her on a long line, she would go to the end of the line and do dog stuff. Walk, sniff, pester Bella, etc. If I took her off her line she would be attached to my hip. Really. Just right there, no wondering off. Her boundaries were no longer defined and she didn’t know what to do with herself. I think she fines some sort of security in a path.

“We are going this way because that’s were the gravel goes!”

Bella, OTOH, not biggest fan of the hike. To her, it’s just like a walk in the neighborhood sans leash, so what’s the point? Once the novelty has worn off she begins to look like she’s on a chain gang.

Beginning: Happy to be here. What’s happening? What are we going to do? Where are we going to go?


About 45 minutes in starts the ‘meh’ body language


I’m kinda over this now. Can we go?


That’s where the secret weapon comes in. That would be the Wubba I stashed in my pocket.


Wubba squeekies also aid in family photos


I do get blown off fairly quickly, though, when they realize it’s not getting thrown.


Again, note the tails. Kate? Really?

*sigh*

When A Problem Is Suddenly Not A Problem It's Still A Problem

And I hate, Hate, HATE not understanding problems. I'm totally fine having them if I understand them. At least understanding enough to have some sort of plan to fix them. I don't even care how long it takes to fix (...I'm looking at you, Kate...) as long as I can feel like I'm on at least, sorta, kinda, maybe on the right road.

Enter Bella and her I-can't-do-weaves-at-trials crap. So, last time I brought this up I got some good advice on how to work on a problem at home that only occurs at trials. Put more pressure on her, weave into corners, weave into a bent tunnel, etc. This we did. This helped. Her weaves at trials have never gotten to the weaving like I'm not at a trial stage, but definitely improvement.

Two weekends ago, fell apart again. Just seriously like she does. not. want.

So last weekend we had 2 Standard runs each day. Was thinking would be crappy weekend with my non-weaving dog.

First, prior weekend = caca.

Second, weather unreal. Like “Auntie Em, Auntie Em, it’s twister-type!” weather.

If you are a spectacle wearer like myself, your weekend would have looked a lot like this:

Third, because of the weather I setup inside. I never setup inside. Too loud, too busy, and too much traffic directly in front of expens makes for cranky dogs (…Again, Kate, looking at you…)
So what happens? Great weekend! She frickin’ went and qualified in all 4 standards.

She was hella relaxed and having a ball!

Not too much Serious Face

Even in the poles
Damn her!

Now what do I do? Just hang out and wait for her to fall apart again? I don't know what her triggers are. It drives me nuts! One of my friends noticed that when I just say "weave," Bella turns and looks at me. ?? I have to pay attention to what I say outside of trials. It seems if I give her some other direction, she goes in, like go-weave or out-weave.

Or, even I just ask politely. Our last run of the weekend was Snooker. It was super late in the evening and I have a 2 hour drive home. The 7 was the weave poles. We had enough points to Q without doing the weaves so I decided to just ask her. If she didn't go in we'd just go to the table. So, out of a tunnel she comes, as I was front crossing I said, "you feel like doing the weaves?"

Bam, right in.

I do have to say I love that I can trust her on contact equipment. Now, I am not your hard-core agility person that wants a 1.5 second dogwalk or who expects her dogs to fly up to the down contact on the teeter and ride it down from there. I kind of just want them to do the equipment safely (not that speed is not safe...I'm not saying that so don't go there :-) )and how they are comfortable doing it. I am so not a shave seconds off anything person. I value more the fact that Bella thinks enough to not throw herself at the teeter when it's raining.

(Once again, Kate, your direction)

Must think on slickies

All trial photos by Dave Mills - http://www.pixf.com/

_____________

ETA:

This dog is currently listed on the Nor Cal BC Rescue site as a courtesy listing. Owner re-homing.

If I lived alone I would go get her.

Bella 2.0

Actually, I would probably call her Ditto.

:-)

Kate: Agility Dog

We have been trialing fools again. Will be out the door shortly for another this weekend.

Little Miss Kate has been doing great! Two weekends ago (has it been that long since I posted?!) I ran only her and did 5 runs per day. All Q’s, although not all pretty ones. Her first run of the day was Jacklers. I set her up at the line and lead out 20 feet or so. When I turned around to release her she wasn’t there! Of course my first thought was that she high-tailed it back to the ex-pen as we were setup pretty close to this ring. Nope! Not Scared Kate, Social Kate. She was in the corner of the ring visiting the pole setter! All up in her lap, little ass wagging, trying to get the pole setter to interact. This is so un-Kate like and so funny. I didn’t re-set her, just started running from there. I had planned, based on her first trial, to do 10 obstacles in our opening. She ended up with 15 and did the gamble like a pro.

Iz Miz Social now. Planning party for next weekendz!


Last weekend I only did 2 runs per day with her. Again all Q’s. Again, not all pretty ones. She was clearly a little stressed on Sat. Probably because this is not a trial site we are at often. Was much better on Sunday.
More running, less WTF.


Bella, however, is back to the I-don’t-want-to-do-weave poles thing again. All classed sans poles are great. We had a fantabulous 51 point Snooker run last weekend that was one of those runs that just feels perfect. All smooth, all fast, not even a hint of a bobble. My 86% Q rate dog is now down to a 40% Q rate in Standard because of our weave woes. Although, as before, great everywhere except trials. Booo.

When we get to the weave portion of the course I get this…


All the other portions, this…


Seriously Bella? I guess I’ll she how she does this weekend and try to assemble some sort of plan. We do have a UKI trial coming up pretty close to home. Maybe we’ll go run that Since you can run with a toy.

Frisbees make everything better


Also, the Department of Psychology at Columbia University is conducting a study about communication between humans and dogs. There is an in-person study if you are in the Westport, CT area.
There is also an online one that can be found here: http://www.columbia.edu/~msw2111/index.html
It says it takes about 30 minutes, but it didn’t take me nearly that long. They are looking for all people to participate, not just serious dog folk or trainers, etc.

You don’t even have to have a dog!

This >< Close To Plucking

Bella and her ever increasing crop of gray hairs.

I keep telling her to knock it off. She keeps blatantly disregarding my wishes. OK, I know no one is getting any younger. I know it’s not like she 15 or something. I’m just not ready for the visual reminder.

This is not her color. Not part of her ticking. She has old man tufts now! WTF?!

Plus, she has this one new one right on her eyelash line that’s driving me crazy.

Remember the Mole in Austin Powers?

“Mo-o-o-o-le”

“Nice to mole you--meet you! Nice to meet your mole! Don't say mole!... I said mole.”

That’s exactly how I am with this one damn hair. See it? Her little gray eyelash?


I totally would have plucked it by now if I had normal tweezers. I only have the super pointy actually used in electronics manufacturing (ahem) tweezers. One wrong move and I have to explain to my vet that Bella’s eye is deflated because I was bother by a hair. Maybe not.

Kate thinks Bella is going gray because I can’t just leave her the eff alone


She may have a point.

“Dear Lord, make the crazy lady put the camera down, stop taking about hair and go the hell to sleep”


“’Cause that’s what I’m doing”


“Here I go”


“And……night night”


Fine. Sleep then. Bitches.


^^^ You can tell “winter” is coming. The I’m Chilly Nose Tuck is back!