Smiles

His smile makes me smile...

 

 His ears make me smile...

Her smile makes me smile...

Her crazy eyes make me smile...

Stalker Brit make me smile...

 

It was a fun walk, thanks for the smiles and the photo's Amanda!

!!!!!!!!!

This past weekend was the much anticipated two-day Go! See Spot! Fly! Agility Camp…I was so excited to have working spot for Neena.  Each day consisted of 3 sessions with one of 4 instructors.  Here are the highlights from each session: 

Friday:

Session 1 – Terry challenged me to do more front crosses.  They are motivating for Neena because I am more in her face, and I usually can get where I need to be.  I also need to re-build value for them by rewarding at my hip every time until she starts to expects it, then I can wean it away (this reminded me of the toy/tug training I’m doing with her). 

Session 2 – Sarah always challenges me to play more with my dog…I love that.  I also need to think of Snooker as a regular course (e.g. standard/jumpers), instead of a game.  It’s all in my head! 

Session 3 – We practiced distance with Annelli…this was the afternoon session and it was HOT, I expected Neena to shut down on me…but she was still happy, and even tugged with me.  I was thrilled.  Anyways, Anneli pointed out how in training we often practise something until its ‘right’, and move on.  Repeating a sequence can signal our dog they have done something wrong, and they will offer something different.  So, if you are going to try a mini-gamble twice, try to put at least one other obstacle in between.   I thought that was really interesting.  I also really need to work ‘Go On’ and ‘Get Out’ with her.   

Evening Lecture – Dr. Devall talked to us about conditioning our dogs, we should all be doing the following training with our dogs:

1.       Strength  - waves/sit pretty/walk backwards/tugging/etc

2.       Endurance - 20 minutes trotting or 10 minutes swimming 3x/week

3.       Proprioception - body awareness (e.g. walk through ladder)…Scamp especially needs this lol

4.       Warm-Up - 5-10 minutes walking, smaller amounts of running/jumping, and active stretching

5.       Cool-down – decrease intensity of exercise over 10-15 minute (trot, fast walk, slow walk) and passive stretching

She also stressed the importance of appropriately trimming our dog’s nails.

Saturday:

Session 1 - Neena keeps surprising me with her distance work and I LOVE IT!  It is so cool to see how much she really knows…and that it’s not all a fluke lol.  Anyways, Anneli really pointed out how shoulders support distance and discrimination.  She/Jan also pointed out what a good girl Neena is; she checks in with me and then goes where I’m looking.   Finally…I need to be happier on the outsideJ.   

This morning I felt Neena was sniffy/distracted and was avoiding the frame.  I walked her and noticed she was off on her left rear; Sarah agreed and massaged her finding some additional tightness around her left shoulder.  We decided to jump her at 16” and do only every other activity. 

Session 2 – Amanda was at her finest playing mind games with usJ, I ran one of the sequences so Neena came out of a tunnel and had to run to me…depends on her mood I can use that to get some extra speed out of her. 

Session 3 – I ran one sequence with Neena for Terry and he looked at me and said…Jen…she’s tired.  And he was right.  I found it hard to find balance this weekend.  I know I didn’t reward Neena as often as I normally do, and I wouldn’t typically ask her to work that hard/long, especially if I thought she was sore.  That being said…she tried, I really believe that…and she worked longer for me than I should have asked her too.  She’s my bestest gal, and I feel like I let her down on that oneL.  We decided she deserved the afternoon off, and she literally passed out in her kennel.  Instead, Terry had me work Scamp for the rest of the session…which was pretty unexpected but fun!  In addition to reinforcing the foundation skills Sarah & Amanda have already been teaching, Scamp did his first pinwheels and tunnels…it’s some of his first agility baby steps…awww! 

Evening Lecture – Kyle talked to us about his Olympics luge experience, goal setting and visualization.  Funny…some of this I’ve always done.  And some of this was exactly what I needed to hear about my own personal goals.   

We finished off the weekend with a one-day Go! Dog! Go! Trial…I was extremely happy with Neena yesterday, given the heat and how hard she’d worked the two-previous days…she was happy and focused, with only some minor nerves & ring-crew visitingJ. 

I think I had heat stroke for our gamble, I should have planned our course MUCH better...I thought we got the closing gamble, but didn’t get enough points in the opening.  Umm…why wouldn’t you take the 4 point jump twice?  Silly girl!

 
After our first run, I had Dr. Devall give Neena a chiropractic treatment.  She adjusted her neck, shoulder and pelvis…but she didn’t find any soreness, or anything else especially alarming.  I’m not good at picking it out, but Sarah mentioned she’s seen a hitch in Neena’s left rear on and off, so it was peace of mind to have Dr. Devall check her over.   

Maybe it was the treatment…more than likely Neena and I finally got our sh*t together at the same time lol…and we Q’d our Snooker run.  That is the final run we needed to get our Starters Games Dog of Canada title.  Yee haw!!! 

In March 2011, I made a goal to get Neena's ADC title.  I had hoped to get it that year, but today we are still one starters standard away.  To be fair, we don't trial all that often, maybe every other month.  But its hard not to feel like this title is baby dog stuff, and maybe I shouldn't be quite so happy about it lol.  However, we've worked so hard!  And while I don't do this for the Q's, or the titles...they are benchmarks for me.  That I'm doing the right things for Neena, that we are improving and becoming a better team.  That we are having fun doing it.  That's what matters to me.  So again...Yay Team JNP!!! 

Our final run yesterday was an advanced jumpers course…I forgot a front cross which set us up badly for the next jump…but I still think it was Neena’s funnest run of the day.  She was the most focused and revved…I love runs like that.  Unfortunately we were 0.49seconds too slow…my fault lol!  We've spent a lot of time building fun & confidence with Neena, and learning to calm my emotions.  It’s hard to find balance, but it might be time to start thinking about shaving time off our runs too.

Finished up the weekend by meeting a friend in Calgary for a walk along the Bow River...the paths are so nice, and it's so pretty with the mountains in the background.  We were pretty tired, but it gave both Neena and me a much needed cool down lap...and Scamp was happy to blow off some steam too:).

Tracks

There are all kinds of loves in this world but never the same love twice.

~F. Scott Fitzgerald~

Been thinking about these photographs for a long time...today everything just clicked.

My penguins.

First Photo

An unscheduled thunderstorm left me with a little extra time tonight. Neena doesn't 'do' thunder:).

Anywho...Amanda took Scamp's first agility photograph last week...

Aww...

Side note...I heart this dog. I still have days where I shake myself...another dog was in the five year plan, although interestingly a second dog made a sneaky appearance on my vision board in December. Hmmm.

But I haven't had a single day where I thought...oh my gosh, what have I done. He's just so stinking happy, I love that about him. I needed that. Neena needed that. 

Back to agility. It's been fun, but I can't say it hasn't been without challenges. Mr. Scamp hasn't quite yet realized doing agility with me is more fun that watching the other dogs. It's coming. I can see it in his eyes. 

In the meantime, we've been busy learning foundation skills. It's been kind of fun for Neena too, she gets to play the baby dog games too...some of them we never did, some of them needed refreshing, but I can see it's going to be a huge benefit for her too. For future reference, here's a list of some of the skills we are working on:

1. Focus work - tricks, obedience
2. "Touch" a target
3. Planks - familiarizing, and getting faster/more confident
4. "Wrap" around a pole/jump standard/tree/etc
5. Jumps - with restraint, building drive, back chaining, working up to his full jump height (22")
6. Beginning contact work - "Happiest Place"
7. Drive - to a jump, to a food bowl, to something!
8. Tug - with a clicker

He's a fun boy, fun to teach him...but it'll also be fun when it all clicks:).

Red, White and Border Collie

Neena wants to wish everyone a Happy Canada Day!

Ok, that's kind of a lie. The Honeybadger don't give a sh*t...she's really thinking about chasing down & barking at the neighbor (which she did...about 3 seconds later...sigh).

When I applied for Neena's ACC number a few years ago, I scoured through the PDCR blog...picked a few brains, and realized Neena was probably born around now, and I've been unofficially counting Canada Day as her birthday ever since. She's five.

It's mind boggling really...how 5 years ago on some unknown southern Albertan farm, a border collie puppy was born...and how that one little puppy, who was unwanted and abandoned at an auction sale, could change a life.

Thank you for giving me a part of you, and bringing to life a part of me.
~Jodi Hills

<3 always my bestest girl...

Happy Birthday Little Man!

Three today! How the time flies...I will never be able to explain how lucky I feel to be your Auntie and to have a place in your life.

So many moments, but three to remember from this year:

1.  How when someone tells you "I love you"...you reply with a "...too"

2.  You cruising around the prairie on your Strider bike, sippy cup in tow

3. Holding hands while watching "Polar Express"

<3

Training Log

So as I mentioned… adopting Scamp half way through a school semester wasn’t exactly ‘in the plan’. In my defense...we were able to take some time to build a relationship before adding training pressure. On the other hand, I was sloppy/lazy about a few things…I let him stalk the cat, I let him play more with Neena than with me, and I also gave him too much off leash freedom. Some of this is now biting me in the butt lol.

I’m feeling a bit like a first time dog owner again. It seems SO LONG ago since I adopted Neena; and I was in a different place back then too. While these two dogs are really great compliments to each other, they are very different lol. Training Neena has been focused on building confidence and teaching her how to recover from her fears. So far training Scamp is about redirecting his focus from something small and fuzzy to ME lol. Once we clear that hurdle I think it’s going to be about giving clear direction and maintaining my criteria. Scamp loves to run fast, and I think he has a strong work ethic; he just hasn’t learned how to direct it yet. I think he’s going to LOVE agility. I’m probably going to die trying to stay ahead of him lol. Or I might be totally wrong…we are still in the discovery stage:)…either way I am very excited to keep building a working relationship with him, he’s a really neat dog, and we are going to have a lot of fun together!  

Anyways, I wrote training plans for both Neena and Scamp at the beginning of May. Each morning we do a very short (think 10 cookies each) training session where we focus on different skills. Sometimes tricks, Neena’s learning to weave “through” my legs and to be “sad” longer, Scamp’s “Gophur” is pretty solid already, and last week we started “spin right”, “spin left” and “back”. Sometimes we work targeting, which I realize I did a horrible job with Neena on…she thinks “touch” means lick my hand lol. I really need to work on toy drive with both dogs; I’ve slacked off on this since neither of my dogs has a solid “stay” when I’m working the other dog. Another work in progress lol.

The evenings are pretty crazy, Tuesday’s Neena has class, Thursday’s are Scamp’s, and Wednesday’s all three of us go to the agility field and ‘make our own adventure’. I have to say, although it’s hard to leave one dog at home I really enjoy my one-on-one time with the other dog. Over the remainder of the week I try to squeeze in some circle work, do some “hand games”, work on recalls, etc. As I said, at this point high priority is building up food/toy value for Scamp, right now the most exciting thing in his world is watching small little furry things run fast…that needs to change in a hurry.  

This weekend Scamp and I focused on the tugging and circle work, and I was thrilled with what we accomplished. In a park (e.g. with a low level of distraction) I was able to get him to full on tug on two different toys with me. Sounds like a small victory I know, but it was actually pretty huge for usJ. He’s pretty freaking cute, and very playful in his own gangly way although unlike Miss Crazy Pants he’s a lot more hesitant to play rough with me. That’s also something that’s going to change;). Finally, we also had some successful circle work; he’s much faster than me and has a habit of spinning around in front of me instead of staying beside me.

I do have to say, Scamp does have some of his own little ‘quirks’...like Neena he is also not bomb proof, but his triggers are fewer, and he is much better at recovering. I was always a little worried that a dog with fears would feed Neena’s, but I haven’t seen that...and my hope is in time their bond will build their confidence.  Scamp also has some issues meeting new people especially if they really want to meet him:), however I think most of these things will also fade away as he becomes more comfortable/confident. Oh ya, and he’s shy about doing his ‘business’ on leash lol...

As for Miss Neena...well...she’s been on a bit of an agility roll so far this spring, I’m enjoying playing with her so much. Last week in class Sarah ran her in a gamble; it made me happy in my heart watching her/them have fun. She really is a happy girl, I don’t know how many times this weekend I caught her smiling at me...she’s always ready for a game and she really wants to play with ME. I love that. I’ve worked hard to build that with her, it’s something I don’t want to lose.

So for the most part a big Scampy post...but it was time for a record of where we are at. It’ll be fun to look back on this even the end of summer and see how far we’ve come.

Leave ya with a Scampers photo...we mighta hijacked this Harley lol...