Gentoo - now Sasha - update!

Sasha is having a great time in her new home!!

West Update.. Wow!!

An email from Valerie, West's new owner..


Hi Courtenay,
West went to his first "fun trial" this week end and did reaaaaaaaaaaaally well.
I entered him in a standard run and a jumpers.
I wasn't too sure how he was going to do on the course with the judge and all.
He never even noticed the judge, very focused on me and his job.
He is so fast.
I decided to enter him in a second jumper run.
He ran it in 33,83 secs (sct 40) and was clean !!!
He was very good with the people and dogs around, tryed to keep him safe and comfy.
I also had Nina with me.
I have attached a couple of pictures, he looks very muddy because we were just playing in a VERY muddy field (obviously)
It's way to early to enter him in a real trial but it was a great little exercise, i'm sure proud of him.




Of course we still have some issues, herding Nina, barking at some men but he is getting better all the time.
I will try to send you a video of West and his new friend, Cheyenne, the blind puppy that my friend Anne got through Shenna.
They are really good buddys and have great plays.

I hope all is well at your end,
cheers,
Valerie

Gentoo has a home!

The foster puppy was adopted! She went to her new home this week, and so far, I haven't heard that she's eaten their house! :)

Congrats on a great home, pup!

Goughnut Unboxing!

For Christmas, both the boys got a Goughnut toy. The shipping was significantly less to Portland, where I was going end of January, so the toys were shipped there. Once I finally got them, I discovered they'd sent the wrong toys!

I had suggested a red Ball for Archie, and a Black Goughnut for Reiker. The order was accidentally put in incorrectly, for a red Ball and a .75 (small) Black Goughnut. I received a Black Ball and a .75 Black Goughnut.

I emailed the company, and they strongly recommended returning the .75 for the full size version. I sent them the toy and ~$10 USD, and waited.

This week, the full size Goughnut arrived in the mail! I took the package outside and brought Reiker out to open it. I tied him up just so my hands were free for running the camera.

Oh, and Archie loves his Goughnut Ball!

Let the cramming begin..

So, I agreed to run Reiker in Novice Team at our upcoming CARO trial with a friend's belgian. We're NOT running for Q's (neither of our dogs is really Q-able yet), but just for ring experience and a good time. And a good time it should be!

Reiker's drop behaviour is strong enough that I can start using it for training occasionally. We did about 10 reps of Drop, line up in heel (using the wall), Yes, catch toy, tug x 5 sec, repeat. By the last couple, he was getting pretty aroused, so I left him (loose!) in the bedroom for a second while I went to get some treats.

A handful of cat kibble's worth of practicing modified Choose-to-heel, hand targets from heel position, Eye contact, regular hand targets, a few sits, and some lured left turns. I like the hand target left turn from him way better, but not sure I'll get it if he has any distraction on his mind at the trial.

I suspect we need to do some parallel walking and relax games with Fawkes, our partner dog, before the trial. Which is March 18th, by the way.

Hopefully I can find some more time this week to practice! We have an "official" practice tomorrow, not sure if I can bring both boys, but I'll try. If I can only bring one, do I bring my new-to-Excellent (no food, no toys!) dog, or my new-to-rally dog?? Neither is really running for Qs!

Wubba wubba wubba

Sure glad I just ordered a half dozen more of these...

Clean and pretty

After two blow-dry sessions with the forced air dryer, and a scrubby shampoo, he's finally fluffy and not shedding six cats worth of fur!