Taking a breather between shows

What we've been up to recently: in photos

A moment of crazed, filthy Aussie 

Spring is on its way, and with that, about 8 inches of mud over everything.

I'm starting to remember what it's like to see the sun. 

She misjudged this jump and crashed down on an unseen branch. We need to get back into agility.

A quiet moment at our recent flyball tournament. She's coming along well but is still having issues passing into other dogs. 

Cohen's new trick: hug.

For maximum adorability. The end goal is her walking around on two feet while cuddling the toy.

Use it or lose it

You know the phrase "use it or lose it"? I think I've lost it.

It's been over almost 10 months that I last took an agility class with Cohen. I stopped when my instructor took the summer off at my facility to focus on his own during its busiest months. Then, when he returned I was in pre-wedding countdown where I didn't feel like I had enough time to dedicate to a set schedule for classes. Then, after the wedding I returned for one class, felt like I was tripping over my feet, was disheartened by the feedback I was receiving from my instructor, got frustrated and haven't returned. I keep telling myself that the facility was too small (we only have enough room for a handful of obstacles out at a time), the flooring too slippery (dogs slip on it regularly, so building up speed is an issue), too smelly (it doubles as a daycare/doggy bathroom during the day) and too out of date (the equipment is old, and the training is of about the same era). Since stopping I've been to a handful of trials, but did not perform particularly well at any of them.

It's been several months since I last took an obedience class with Cohen. I had pegged this winter as time to polish up on Cohen's obedience and to prep both her and myself to begin competing in Open. I took 4 classes with a well respected trainer, took a break over Christmas, ran into her at a Rally trial I was attending where she said an offhandedly insulting remark to me about my performance with Cohen, and I haven't been back since. I was disheartened, but I do intend to go back... eventually. I'm having trouble motivating myself to re-attend.

I was supposed to go to flyball practice this weekend, but due to crappy weather, the 3 hour round trip involved and feeling obliged to spend time with my husband I didn't go. I spent the day feeling like I was crawling out of my skin. Walking the dog wasn't much of a reprieve, as the trails were icy and the dog was stir crazy.

Cohen is a good dog, but she's high energy and petulant, and when I get frustrated with her it only encourages her to blow me off more. I've seen a bit of a regression in her behaviour lately where she's diving for food on sidewalks, she's not calling away from other dogs, preferring instead to bark at them, and she's pulling like a freight train on walks. She's gotten lazy while performing tricks and I feel like I can see her merely going through the motions to earn a reward and getting frustrated and giving up when I attempt to hold off on reinforcement for mediocre performances. And I can see how this is entirely my fault.

I've taken her learned behaviours for granted and not maintained them. I've not had the motivation and structure classes would provide to continue to grow her skills (and mine!) and as a result we've both gotten lackadaisical and settled for "good enough". It's a slippery slope.

I feel like I'm losing so much of what Cohen and I worked so hard for. And I don't foresee it getting any easier any time soon.

Flyball again!

We did another day of flyball this weekend and I'm so pleased with her performance. She was running 4.37s in start, and her box turn is still a total mess and really wide. I think once we get her turning more tightly she can probably knock a .1-.2 of a second off her time. She just loves the game too. 

Her team went undefeated all weekend to boot! Not half bad!

Good dog 

\\photodump of dogs

I was playing around with my new digital SLR camera, and these photos are the result. Here's a photo dump!

Cohen FDCh

This weekend marked Cohen's first flyball tournament. It's relatively early on in our training, so I wasn't sure how we'd do. Cohen was absolutely fabulous and I couldn't have hoped for her to do any better.

We're an attractive pair.

Cohen had a full time position on a team, and she raced 4 times each day (each race was 3-5 heats). That's a lot for a completely green dog, but she had no trouble with it. My major concern was that Cohen would cross over into the other lane, chasing an opponent dog. She barely even glanced at the other team, and ran clean every - single - time. She was putting in decent speeds too: 4.4-4.5 seconds. She's out of shape right now, and still needs lots of work on her box turn, so it's possible we'll get her down to 4.0-4.2 seconds in the end.

Her only issue was flipping out when teammate dogs passed her onto the course (on Saturday she was running 4th). She really really wanted to chase them. So on Sunday we put her first, and she had zero issues passing a dog coming off the course. We'll have to work on her chasing and carrying on in practice.

She didn't drop any balls and the one time when she bobbled on the box and the ball went wonky she still grabbed and took the full line of 4 jumps back.

I couldn't be happier with her performance.

Her first race earned her her FD title (yay!) and she earned her FDX by the end of the day. By the end of the weekend she had her FDCh!

Good dog.

Rally trial weekend

Rally excellent level. B stream.

Judge Bonnie Christie. (Same judge as first RE leg)

First run: NQ. Cohen wasn't keyed into me when we started and I did not successfully cue her to take the jump as the first sign. She walked right past it with me. NQ on the first station.

Second run. Q. Cohen still was a bit distracted, but we got our Q. And a HIC. With a score of 100. Not bad.

I wanted to get 2 Qs today, but it wasn't meant to be. And even if we had QQd, the title would not be proper as all 3 legs would have been under the same judge. This entry is to mark the name of the judge so I can endeavor to use someone else for our last RE leg.

Wordless Wednesday: morning walk

Don we now our gay apparel!

My friend Jen made Cohen and Megatron awesome Christmas scarves. Her only modest request was a couple of photos of the dogs "enjoying" their gifts.  Pfft! Easy!

I'll have to try and get more when we actually get some snow.  I feel like we're the only place in the world which has had next to zero snow.

Post secondary education at work

I went to university for graphic design. By day I'm a legal assistant. By night, I'm a dog trainer. Sometimes I like to pretend that all that money I spent on my Bachelor of Graphic Design actually means something, so I like to design logos for my friend's dog things. 

Dogs Dogs Dogs: Ontario's Favourite Newspaper for Dog Lovers

I know the logo reads "Toronto" but since then the publication has gone province-wide. 

All Canadian Disc Dog:

The website is still under construction, but I like this image enough to share it. 

More agility action shots

Go dog go!

Not even sure what's going on with her face here. Wind resistance? Demons? 

I think this was after Cohen completely forgot what a table was, and had to be reminded... repeatedly.

Here you can get a good view of her noise hole. 

Agility weekend(s) recap

So I've gotten a bit lax about updating this blog. I really should, not just for those who read it, but for myself. I rely on it to keep track of Cohen's agility progress. There are way too many games, runs, and weekends for me to keep track of otherwise. And Cohen's AAC page doesn't get updated often enough for it to be terribly helpful.

Since I don't have any photos of videos of agility stuff, here, have a high jump photo.

Woofjocks at the Pawsway over the September long weekend. 

Anyways, agility. We're steadfastly maintaining our 1 in 4 success rate! 

Starters:

• Standard: (3/3) Complete. Moved up June 16, 2012.
• Jumpers: (3/2) Complete. Moved up May 5, 2012.
• Gamblers: (2/2) Complete: Moved up Sep 9, 2012.
• Snooker: (1/2) 1 Q earned to date: July 14, 2012

Advanced:

• Standard: (1/3) 1 Q earned August 25, 2012.
• Jumpers: (2/3) 2 Qs earned to date: May 12, 2012, August 26, 2012.
• Gamblers: (0/3)
• Snooker: (0/3)

Masters:

• Hah. Yeah right. 

Other:

• Steeplechase: (0/10)
• Team Relay: (0/4)

Man, when you lay it all out like that it barely feels like anything at all, despite the time, effort and cash investment. Ah well! We have another trial next weekend!

Megagility

Megatron the Chihuahua shows off some of her new moves at a recent Woofjocks performance at the Pawsway. She seems to be enjoying herself. It helps that she gets a fist full of tripe at the end of the course.

Now you are three!

Cohen's third birthday is coming up in a few weeks, so I decided to take a few stacked photos of her. Unfortunately, I have a history of taking very poor stacked photos. However, you get the point.

I think she's done filling out. If anyone knows much about canine structure I'd love to hear your thoughts.

3 years

3 years... again. 

2 years

1 year old, and not so much stacked as horribly posed. 

Not so Mega

Megatron has always been big, for a Chihuahua. She was oversized as a puppy, and always had rolls of excess skin that she never seemed to ever grow in to. And she just kept growing.

1-2 years ago. She's propped herself up on her own rolls of fat.

At her largest she had a double (or triple?) chin and a delightful roll of fat at the base of her spine/root of her tail. I called her fat. Others said she was just "a big Chihuahua". 

Then she came to live with me, and I vowed to whip her into shape. 

4-5 months ago. A visible improvement.

The above photo is from about 4-5 months ago. We'd been taking her out for regular walks and reduced her food intake. We would run her across the field at the park, and man, that dog can run when there's food involved. She seemed happier and more relaxed as well now that she didn't have two other Chihuahuas with which to compete for attention and sleeping spots. 

I've started taking her out to trials and Woofjocks shows, and she's like a completely different dog. She no longer barks at strange people and dogs, and she'll happily hop up on a stranger's lap for the possibility of food. She's even started running a couple Woofjocks events. 

Yesterday. Fit dawg.

This is her now. I hadn't realized how much she'd slimmed down yet again until I was browsing through those 4-5 month old photos a few days ago. For a 7 year old lazy tinydog, she looks pretty good. 

No double chins or fatty tail rolls here. 

I'm a stickler for dogs' body conditions, so I'm very pleased to see that you can trim down an unhealthily obese animal without much work - just a little more activity, and a little more attention to how much goes into her food bowl each day.