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!

A video from the cabin..

From a couple months ago..

West's agility update

West's forever home sent this video a few months ago and I just never got it posted:




She just sent this one today.. Look how far he's come!

West says Happy Valentines Day

I love Pet Expertise. They have great products and fantastic service, plus they're holding a very cool Valentine's day facebook contest!

I entered a photo of West from last summer, thought some of you might like to go "like" his photo!

Click here to see it on Facebook

Reiker with a ball

Puppy plays with Reiker

I took this video from inside my livingroom through the glass on an iphone, so the quality is not good! But it's still very cute to see Reiker adapting his play style to a young pup!

Reiker learning Rally?

So I may or may not have promised a friend that if she entered her golden in the next rally trial, I'd enter Reiker.. heh.
Archie's in Excellent now, which I suspect is a long term plateau for us. So, Reiker's prepping for novice.
Mary invited us to her Rally intro class on Wed nights, so we went. He was doing fairly well, focused, then someone in the class squeaked a toy. 10 minutes later, I was able to mostly get his focus back, then Mary took out a ball.. sigh.
Aside from his toy obsession though, his focus is quite nice. PREMACK forever.
His heel is non existant, but his stay is good. I'm working Helix's backwards walking stuff, with hope it'll transition nicely into heel. Otherwise, the judge might get to watch us do the course in reverse! :)

Fancy Poster!

Share, print, etc!

Oh hi, camera!

Freedom?

d'awwwww

Baaaaaaaad puppy

A real puppy post..

I'm calling her Gentoo, for now. Her Petfinder link:


Her Facebook photo album:

Click Here

And the website for the Kamloops Humane Society, if you want to apply to adopt her!

Click Here

Snoop snoop..

This is my good side!

Aren't I CUUUUUUUUUUTE?

Another foster??

Oh hi there!


I never take on more than one foster at a time.. right? Sigh. I got sucked into this one. So, anyone want a 17 week old Shepherd mix? I'm hoping she'll be a good playmate for Reiker :)