Last tRicky T-Day of 2009!

I decided I wanted to have one last tRicky T-Day this year so mom and I made a quick video of one of my new tricks - hide! It is still a bit of a work in progress as I need to learn to wait in the bag a little longer or possibly lie down with my head in there. But still we thought it was worth sharing.

We are having a terrible time with editing video. We used to have a way to get the Flip video into Windows Movie Maker (we would just make a basic movie in the Flip software and then import that into WMM). BUT we downloaded an update for the Flip and those darn software updater people took away that option. Flip makes MP4 videos and microsoft doesn't seem to recognize that format. And the Flip comes with really crappy editing software. Stupid! So then we tried converting the Flip file (with something called RAD video tools) and that worked a couple times and now is not working. We wanted to avoid buying expensive video editing software. If anyone out there reading this has any ideas for us, please let us know!

Yesterday's practice at the club went really well! We set up a course with all the contact obstacles and the chute and some sort of difficult jumps. I ran faster than last week (of course because we didn't video it). It was a great warm up for this weekend. We looked at the numbers of dogs running in the trial and tried to guess-timate when we will run. Mom thinks it will be at least 2:00 before my STD run and maybe 4:30 for my JWW. It will probably be later than that. At least we don't have to get up early although since we are early birds, we'd rather go and get on with it! This is our only trial for awhile - we're not doing another one until March and then there are trials every weekend. We'll have to decide soon which ones we are doing. We have another class starting Jan.4 and a fun match and maybe some run-throughs coming up, so we won't be bored.

Tonight we are going to grandpa and grandma's and cousin Wilson and his family are coming too! We will all ring in the New Year together! 2010! How did that happen? We hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

A little agility practice

Last Wednesday we went to our dog training club for open practice - we hadn't been there in a long time and it was very fun! We set up a short course and ran it a few times. I wasn't super speedy but I was happy to be doing agility and did not even slow down for the chute!

We are going again this Wednesday and hope to practice another little course in preparation for my big New Year's trial this weekend! I am entered in both Saturday and Sunday (JWW and STD each day) because this trial is being held just 5 minutes from my house! How awesome is that? So we had to go each day, no question about it. The trial is completely full - trials usually don't fill in our area - so it will be interesting. From the running order, it looks like we will do both our runs (Exc JWW and Open STD) late in the day (hopefully without a conflict). Mom is already worrying about that part and she actually had a dream last night about waiting and waiting and then not being ready, etc. Poor mom!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Christmas 2009

We had an awesome Christmas this year! All of my family got together and had a great time. I got lots of stuff from Santa who found me even though I was not at my own house! Mom got a new camera (oh joy!) to replace her 5+ year old one. It's just a point and shoot (that's what she wanted) - Fuji Finepix J38. It takes way bigger pictures than our old camera and also takes sound movies. She is having fun playing with it - I, however, am not!

On Christmas Eve afternoon, mom and dad and I exchanged our gifts with each other. I got a new bully stick!

Dad was really happy with his printer/scanner/copier:

Christmas Eve evening we went out to grandpa and grandma's and had a really nice dinner and opened more presents. On Christmas morning we drove to my cousin Wilson's house and ate more food and opened more presents!

I got tired fast (I didn't sleep well the night before or in the car on the trip) so I spent most of the present-opening time here:

That darn Wilson wanted some attention from MY mom!

Here is Wilson opening my gift to him - it was one of those holee roller balls:

We stayed there quite late and I couldn't wait to get home! Today we got out my favorite gift - a new tunnel!
I also got two baskets for toy boxes - one upstairs and one downstairs - here's one of them with a couple more of my presents in front - some cool new squeaky and Ricky-sized tennis balls:

We haven't done all that much since we got back home. I've been sleeping a lot to try to recuperate from the big holiday. Mom says we have another big holiday coming up in a few days - whew - this time of year is exhausting!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Merry Christmas!

We are off to Grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas Eve and then to my cousin Wilson's for Christmas Day! Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and we'll see you when we get back!

Best wishes to all!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Happy Holidays 2009 edition!

Here it is - my holiday video!! And it could also be considered my tRicky t-day post too! Hope each and everyone of you has the happiest of holidays!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Mom was scared to death!

I had the most excellent adventure today! And mom had one of the worst days of her life. Dad and mom wanted to go somewhere not too muddy for a walk, so they picked the roads through the campground where we camped the summer before last. Most of the campground is closed for the winter, so the area is basically deserted and there is very little chance of traffic (except for the park rangers). I have been such a good boy about following trails and dragging my leash that mom had confidence in me even at this new location. She now regrets that decision - guess my good off-leash skills are not so good. We took off on our walk and it soon lead to an overpass of a pretty busy road and then (this is the part that mom and dad didn't remember about this area) the road parallels the campground road for quite awhile - it's a steep and brushy bank up to the road which only has a guard rail - no fence. Well as we were approaching the road, I could hear the cars and I got excited and ran ahead a little but mom called me and I came back to her. Then we went under the overpass and on the other side I got a really good view of the cars up there whizzing by and instinct overrode any sense at all and I took off!!!! I ran up the campground road and whipped around and ran back and I was running 50 miles per hour because I was going as fast as the cars I saw going by! WooHoo - it was so much fun and so exhilarating! I thought I might have heard mom and dad both yelling, "RICKY!! COME!!!" but I just couldn't stop. Mom is so thankful that I didn't think to run up the steep bank and that the park ranger didn't pick that moment to drive down the campground road. For mom this went on for what seemed like an eternity. She ran to try to catch up with me. Finally I could hear her and I stopped and sheepishly went up to her. She knew she shouldn't get mad at me for finally coming to her, but her last nerve was completely shot and she was very stern with me and grabbed me by my ruff and looked me straight in the eyes and said "no". Mom rarely just says "no" to me. I knew I was in big trouble, but I was so far over my excitement threshold that even though we tried to continue our walk in a new direction, I couldn't stop whining and pulling on the leash and choking myself. Mom ended up carrying me most of the way back to the car.

Mom is so mad at herself for letting me drag the leash in a new location and mad that after nearly three years of so much training and playing and working together, I would still blow her off so completely and almost get killed in the process ( well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but she is prone to that sort of thing). And she is mad to have been so stupid (so please - nobody lecture her about how stupid she was). She so wants me to be the kind of dog that will follow their mom any where, any time. We have that at certain places (our favorite park, for instance) but we just don't have that ability every where yet. I have a feeling that I am in for a major recall boot camp! As a matter of fact, a much more reliable recall is mom's number one priority now. From reading on the internet, she has some training ideas, but if anyone has some suggestions, let us know. But from today mom also realizes that my herding instincts may always override any training we do. We all learned a huge lesson today (and fortunately no one got hurt - mom still gets shaky when she thinks about it) - mom learned I can't be trusted as much as she thought I could be, and I learned that I can run as fast as a car!!!!

Gotta zoom (50 mph, at least!),

Ricky

The Simple Things in Life

I'm just a simple dog who enjoys the simple things life has to offer me:

Happy Friday everyone! We're supposed to get our first snow of the season! I'll let you know.....

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

For Diana

I just found Gabrielle Blackburn's YouTube channel - ZingQ - this weekend! Zing is possibly the fastest agility dog I have ever seen! Gabrielle is an awesome handler! She has three dogs - two Border Collies, Zing and Quiz, and a Sheltie named Q. All three obviously love the game!

This video made me think of Diana and Miley and all the issues they have with the table and with Miley being fast and crazy and totally in love with agility, and I thought Diana might like to see that she is not alone! Sit back and enjoy this one:

If you didn't know about Zing, watch some of the other videos when you have a chance. They are amazing!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Obstinate

Yesterday mom and I went to visit grandma and grandpa! It was fun but I had to perform while I was there - you know, once people think you are smart and clever, they never stop demanding to see your new tricks and such. Well some times a dog has to put his paw down:

Today was sunny but still very cold. Mom took me outside after lunch and we did some dogwalks and went out around cones and did the weaves a few times for fun (the ground was rock hard so no jumping). While we were out there, we heard this noise and I barked and mom looked up and there was a flock of about 50 sandhill cranes flying over our house! Wow! Mom started jumping up and down and yelling and pointing at the sky! I thought she was having some sort of fit - I mean they're just some birds after all! But she was really excited because she had never seen a sandhill crane in her life and to have them fly right over our house - and they were calling and making such a racket. (Here's a link to what they sound like). Mom thought it was just so cool!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

The Proof!

Sorry, no tRicky T-Day video today! We are working hard on a few new tricks, but they are still not ready for primetime!

However, we went to our agility class last night and our instructor was nice enough to video us! Only two dogs showed up for the class - not sure where everyone was. It was ok with me though - we got to run the course twice and also practice hard parts of it. I'll let the video speak for itself:

This weekend is the AKC Invitationals out in Long Beach, CA. Once again this year my favorite trainer Deb and her Russell Terrier Bug are competing in agility and my grandma Catherine Zinsky and her Border Collie Kyle are competing in obedience (hoping to top their fourth place finish from last year). We wish them and all the other competitors the best!

I am busy working on my holiday video - it was going well until mom screwed up and deleted part of it! I am hoping to have it done in the next week so stay tuned!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day! and Last Night's Class Saga

Sara, Oreo and Misty are always so consistent with learning and videoing their tricks for Tricky T-Day - they inspire us to keep posting our trick attempts! Right now we have several tricks in the works but they just aren't ready for video yet! However we read Amanda's post from over at manymuddypaws the other day and she mentioned that her dogs know the "chin" trick - sounded cute so we learned that this week. Also in this month's Clean Run magazine, Sassie Joiris showed her method of training handstand. As you know, we have been working on this for a long, long time using the books up against the wall method. I can get my back feet up on a pretty tall stack of books now but one problem is the books are too deep (far from the wall) so I am not leaning against the wall. Also I get frustrated if the books are too high and I think I can't get my little legs up there. So Sassie graduates the dog to using a plank-like thingy against the wall that starts at an angle and then can basically be put flat against the wall and then removed and the dog can use the wall only. Brilliant! So as an added bonus to this week's tRicky T-Day chin trick, we added our very first attempts at using a plank-like thingy - in our case the lid to a storage container. Mom uses her leg and the couch to keep it from moving. It is a little too slippery and we need to use something else but I think my first tries went well and we can see some real potential. (We're still a LONG way off from being able to do a real handstand though)!

Ok, now for the saga from last night! It was pouring down rain when it was close to the time we leave for our Wednesday evening class - class starts at 6:30 but we leave around 5:30/5:40 because of rush hour traffic. Without traffic the trip would take 20 minutes. So because people in Central Ohio can't drive in rain (not even snow, just rain), we left earlier - 5:20 - and what a nightmare! We live right near a major highway - got on the road and it was bumper to bumper/stop and go from the minute we started out. Mom decided to abandon the highway when it took 15 minutes to go maybe 4 miles. We got off and took a parallel road to downtown and then tried to get on the highway again. After waiting 10 minutes at a stop light to turn left, we finally got on and we were immediately completely at a standstill. Once again we got off the highway and just headed in the general direction we needed to go. Mom doesn't know that area of town very well. So she called grandpa and he interrupted his dinner and got a map and talked mom through a very convoluted route that finally - 65 minutes later - got us to the class! You might be wondering why we didn't just turn around and go home - well the traffic was just as bad in the opposite direction. There was just no where to go! We feel very lucky that we got there safely and with a couple minutes to spare!

And mom is very happy we persevered because only two other people came to class and we got to run lots of sequences without feeling rushed and I did great! Maybe sitting in a car for an hour agrees with me? I did the chute fast (we got to practice it a little too) and mom put a piece of chicken as a target at the end of the dogwalk and I literally flew over it - proved that I can RUN the dogwalk with the right motivation (too bad we can't put food in strategic places all over an agility course at a trial!). I got some difficult weave entries and did some fancy jumping. All in all the torturous drive was worth it. Already they are predicting rain for next Wednesday - what time do you think we will need to leave the house?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Almost Wordless Wednesday

My first deer antler (awesome once I figured out what I was supposed to do with it)!

Note: naturally shed deer antler - no deer are harmed to obtain this product!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

The Last Days of November but Still Able to Practice in the Backyard

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and had a great Thanksgiving holiday! We had a wonderful time at grandpa and grandma's! Grandma made a delicious traditional Thanksgiving meal - melt-in-your-mouth turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, biscuits, cranberry, peas and corn frozen from their garden last summer, and pumpkin pie! I got to taste a little of the turkey and it was so good! Mom took me to run in the big backyard even though it was cold and windy, and we had our first real snow flurries! Then mom and dad and my grandparents played a card game called euchre for what seemed like hours and hours and I found it quite boring. We spent the night (I didn't sleep well and kept mom up most of the night) and came home after lunch on Friday. Even though I had fun, I was very happy to be home!

Today dad videoed a little of our agility practice in the backyard. Mom and I have been working on our speed and enthusiasm for the game. Nothing went completely right today but we're sharing the video with you any way!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today we will be heading over to grandpa and grandma's to celebrate the holiday. I am happy to report that I am feeling much better and I'm hoping that means I get to sample a little of the Thanksgiving meal!

Do you remember last year at this time I entered my friend Johann's Howliday Giveaway and won third prize? Well he's doing it again this year! You can just go to his blog and register to enter and upload a holiday-themed photo and get all your friends and family to vote for you! Johann has added something new this year - he is raising money for the shelter where his mum found him! So you can donate a little bit to help the shelter out when you enter the contest. Here is the link to Johann's post - Johann's Howling Howliday Giveaway - the sooner you enter, the more votes you can get! I really had fun being a participant last year and I got very cool presents when I won third place!

My class last night went well - this week I did my fastest-ever-regulation-size dogwalk! And I got all my contacts so maybe the backyard training with the hoop is starting to pay off. Now if mom would just trust me at a trial and not babysit my contacts so much! Guess it will take awhile for both of us to be able to run in a trial with the same freedom we do at class or at home!

Hope you all have a happy and safe holiday!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

My Puppyhood Tales!

It's been awhile since I posted anything so I thought it was time for another puppy video!



Cute, huh?

I had a flair up of my IBS (for lack of a better diagnosis) this weekend. I kept mom up all night on Saturday with diarrhea or the possibility of diarrhea. She gave me some immodium (at my vet's suggestion) which I tolerated well and which kept it from getting to be a super mess. Sunday I ate only bland food and yesterday I was able to eat regular food and I had no more diarrhea after Sunday AM. But yesterday before dinner, I threw up a blob of dark-green stuff (not grass but we don't know what it was - I had sneaked some bunny poop in the yard though). Mom was freaked out but I felt fine. I had dinner and didn't throw up again. Then at 5:15 this morning I woke mom with the sound of my retching - I did it twice and nothing came up. Then I had breakfast and so far so good. Mom wants to know what the heck is going on?

So we haven't done a lot of training in the past few days - a little agility in the backyard because our weather has still been mild enough to be out there. We're continuing to work on my speed and motivation. Tonight (as long as I feel well - I keep telling mom I feel fine!) we go to class.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Today we watched a video kikopup made about how to train your dog to get in a purse (bag). Mom smugly thought this would be something very easy for me to learn and ambitiously set up the video camera to record our first training session! Ha! Here is the video! We apologize for the length but the original video was 13 minutes long and we got tired of editing! So when you see that it is 4.25 minutes long, thank us for cutting a lot out! :) Also two notes: 1. When training a mostly black dog, do not use a black bag and 2. When training a Sheltie, ignore kikopup's advice about throwing a treat into the bag to entice the dog in because the Sheltie will then forever think there is another piece of food in the bag no matter how many times they are told there isn't any!

Now you know what I have to deal with on a daily basis!

In other news, I did my fastest-ever-away-from-home-regulation-equipment weave poles in class last night - I was actually hopping two-footed over the base of the weaves. Mom was shocked and thrilled with my performance!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

BCCA Trial

Mom, grandma and I went to a trial today! For the first time, I ran my standard run before my jumpers run. The course was not difficult and I handled it quite well until mom loomed over me and told me to down on the table and I wouldn't do it! We lost a lot of time there so we N.Q.ed! Score: 84, Time: 72.22 SCT: 64 (so I was 8 seconds over and lost 16 points that way - if I had only been 7 seconds over, I would have Q'ed) and YDS: 139. A lot of the run looked pretty good though. Here's the course map:


I waited around two hours for my second run - my first time in Exc. A JWW! Mom was totally stressing out about memorizing the course because it looked confusing to her. But she was able to watch lots of team run it (the trial ran big to little dogs) and then she walked it a few times more than she usually does. I thought it was a fun course - I will admit that I did stop to sniff once but it was far enough away from the jump to not get a refusal - and mom once again abandoned her plan and ran outside jumps and stuff to motivate me. It worked - we Q'ed and got 1st place! Score:100, Time: 46.62, SCT: 46 (good thing mom ran weird to speed me up and too bad I took the time to sniff - we barely made time - guess they round down because we were technically over), YDS: 149. Here is the course map:

And here is the video of both of our runs:

I would write more, but I am so tired! I may be a bit of a wimp, but I'm glad we are not signed up to run tomorrow too!

Gotta zoom,

Ricky

Have you seen this?

Have you all seen this? Ashley and Kaine are holding a freestyle contest - the details are in their video below. It looks like fun! Ever since Honey and Hsin-Yi posted a video about how to put together a freestyle routine, we've been thinking about it and trying to come up with some music. I know a lot of freestyle moves already, but we have to put them together creatively - that's the hard part, mom says! But we might try to enter the contest!

By the way, I am going to a trial tomorrow at a place we have never been to - a horse arena about 1 1/2 hours from here. I am running Open STD and Exc. A JWW. My grandma is going too! Wish us luck and hopefully we'll have video to share!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

My Puppyhood Tales!

Yes, it's time again for another puppy video! I got several really cute ideas for what to call this series from Sara, Lian, and Ludo - thanks! - and just decided to go with Sara's "puppyhood tales."

It's funny because when I thought about doing this, mom assured me that we had lots of video of me when I was growing up. But now that we started looking at it, it's true we have quite a bit of video but it is mostly bad! You know, poor lighting, boring activity, stupid commentary (mostly goofy stuff mom says in the background), etc. Where are the early videos of me learning tricks and obedience stuff and going to obedience classes? I think even though mom and dad bought a video camera specifically to document my puppy days, they didn't do a good job at all!!!!

Any way, today's video clip is of my first time walking on a leash! I was about 8 1/2 weeks old. You can see that mom's leash-holding technique left a lot to be desired, but I think I was doing pretty well! Listen for the bird singing in the neighborhood - it was a white-throated sparrow!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

It is still a t-day here in Ohio (just barely) and I wanted to post a video of some of my tricks just to show you that we are still working on some of them and learning some new ones and also getting better at some old ones! (run on sentence)

Oh and by the way, I was a good boy at class last night and didn't sniff once during the sequences we practiced! Mom was very happy with that!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Another Autumn Walk

Last Monday we went for a walk at another one of my favorite parks! There is a pet trail that goes through the woods and down to a creek. There was no one else there so we had the whole place to ourselves! We couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

When we set out I had to encourage mom and dad to get going - they are so slow sometimes! See the big sycamore tree leaves on the ground?

The sky was blue and the maple tree leaves were so yellow and pretty against the blue sky.

I jumped right up on this log and started walking it like a dogwalk.

Looking down the creek and then up:

Mom liked the tree roots:

Nearing the end of the trail:

Pondering the great outdoors:

Yesterday we went for a walk at the cemetery - we hadn't been there in a long time. I had fun but mom got annoyed with me because I kept running too far ahead and didn't come when she called me. So we didn't stay there long........

Today mom took me to the park really close to our house and I was much better and listened to her so we got to walk around for quite a long time! I know it pays to behave!

We are really savoring these nice weather days because we are afraid that there won't be many more of them until spring!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Last night's agility class

So after all our hard work at making agility fun and fast, I went to class last night and poked around and sniffed every darn leaf on the floor because I was SURE it was food. I kind of did the agility sequences but I was very distracted. Mom tried not to let me know, but I could tell she was frustrated and also disappointed in me. She wants to know how long it's going to take before I am consistently faster and happier and focused doing agility out in the world like I am in my own backyard!

Seriously though, in this re-creation of the floor from class, can you spot the food versus not food:

In my defense, it's not that easy to tell is it? You can see my dilemma then at class! And the leaves looked just like the one in the photo! So I ate the food to show you which was which:

Gotta zoom (mom says I should change this to "gotta sniff" but I think that just plain mean!)

Ricky

New series of old videos

Mom and I want to start something new - we have been going back and watching some of my puppy videos and editing them into smaller clips - and we want to share them with you from time to time when nothing else terribly exciting is going on. But we need a name for this - maybe Sara (she comes up with stuff all the time like "then and now" or "everyday life series") or Ludo (who of course came up with Tricky T-Day, etc.) can think of a name? Or can anyone else? And we'd like it if other's joined in the new series - we would love to see videos of puppies doing puppy stuff. This might help mom's puppy-itis or it might make it worse (hopefully not)!

So here is the first installment! I see a comb for the first time in my young life - I was only 8 1/2 weeks old and weighed around 4 lbs. I think I was very brave!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Agility for fun in the leaves!

Lately when we practice agility in the backyard it's for fun and speed! Mom puts out my food target for the first few jumps and then she takes it away. I know I still look slow in the video, but I swear I am running faster (if you were here, you would see it!).

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

My Neighborhood

The trees in our neighborhood are absolutely gorgeous this year! So mom brought her camera along when we went for our walk this morning - here are our attempts at trying to get photos of the beautiful fall colors right outside our door!















The photos just don't do it all justice - every where you look there is another spectacular display. Unfortunately it doesn't last long. Yesterday's wind brought a lot of leaves down and soon you won't be able to see the yards, sidewalks or streets because they'll be completely covered with fallen leaves. But for now it's like a fantasy land!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

My visit with Wilson

I had a good time visiting my cousin Wilson on Wednesday and Thursday of this week! Mom and I left early and drove two hours to Wilson's house. We wanted to get there early to make the most of the day - the weather was beautiful - sunny and 70. After all the cold and rain, we were all really happy to be outside!

First of all aunt Laura took us to a new park with some very good trails that go through the woods and around ponds. Silly mom forgot her camera! After that we went home and had lunch outside on the patio. Here I am pretending to chill on the patio:

Then we headed off to another park. This one I had been to several times but we always have fun there. The only problem is the trail around the lake starts off next to a busy road. Even though I saw that Wilson didn't care about the cars, I still had a hard time not barking at them and lunging at them. Mom doesn't have fun at this park until we get well away from the road.

Here are my aunt and Wilson getting ready to go:

Mom made me and Wilson pose (I think aunt Laura said something to us about treats and Wilson totally fell for it!):

Another forced pose:

Wilson has a big tongue:

The weather was so nice that Wilson got a bath (I would laugh but mom made me get a bath on Tuesday so I really knew how he felt):

My cousin Jeff turns 11 today and we celebrated with him on Wednesday. He had an all Wii birthday!

My cousin Meredith (she's 8) just got her braces off:

Wilson and I like each other but we're guys and don't want to show it:

We went for a walk at the park with the lake on Thursday morning too. Then after lunch mom and I drove back home. I was exhausted. I like to go there to visit but I never really relax when I am around Wilson. Oh, I almost forgot, - Wilson hurt his foot - he ripped his dew claw - and so he and I couldn't play our game of fetch where he runs to get the ball and I run after him and bark like a maniac. That's our favorite thing to do together. Maybe next time.

Thanks aunt Laura and Wilson for such a good visit!

Gotta zoom,

Ricky