What we've been doing since Thursday!

Guess what? We built a dogwalk!!! On Thursday morning mom and I met grandpa at a building supply store and we went in and got materials to start building my new dogwalk! We decided to build it using sawhorses as the base and 8ft. x 12in. boards as the planks. Luckily for us grandpa had some old sawhorses he wasn't going to use any more and we cut those down to fit. We spent most of the day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday over at grandpa and grandma's building and then painting. It was exhausting but grandma gave me lots of treat (like fresh veggies from their garden) and she made lots of good meals to keep mom, grandpa, and herself going.

Here is the end of the first day:

On the second day we finished the building part and primed the boards for painting:
This is some time in the middle of Saturday (the third day):
Here we are at the end of the day on Saturday:
And finally - on Sunday - we were finished painting and we put on the hinges and set it up:
Mom made me pose - I couldn't actually try running the dogwalk yet because mom still needed to put the non-slip coat of paint with sand in it on:
Grandpa loaded everything in his truck and we all brought the dogwalk over to my house on Sunday afternoon. Mom finished the painting with the sand in our garage.

Today it took forever before I was allowed to try my new dogwalk. First of all mom made turkey meatballs using Sara, Oreo and Misty's recipe - they smelled so good I could hardly stand it! I thought, "What am I going to have to do to get one of those?" Then mom told me she wanted to mow the grass before setting up the DW. It was at least 2:00PM before mom was ready and I got to try it out!

First of all, let me say those meatballs are heavenly! I swear I would do anything for a bite of one! I think I ran pretty fast for my first tries at the DW. (At the beginning of the video, the first three runs are my very first three runs across that dogwalk ever!) But even though mom was happy and rewarding me, she did notice that I was totally jumping the yellow contact on the way down. So she tried putting up this hoopy thing we used with my little DW. This didn't work either because I am so small I could still jump. It's hard to see in the video if maybe occasionally I touched the yellow? After mom put away the camcorder, she remembered something Nat from DreamDogz was saying about using a pool noodle. Mom and I checked on Nat's YouTube channel and found some videos showing how to use the pool noodle as a stride regulator. We tried it (sorry no video of that right now) and it worked great! Thanks Nat for the idea! Hopefully I will develop the muscle memory to stride into the yellow if we use that noodle for awhile!

Any way, we are really excited to see if having our own version of a DW will help me when I get on the full-size DW in classes and at trials. It was worth it to give it a try. Mom and I couldn't have begun to do it without grandpa and grandma! We really appreciate all their hard work, support, and willingness to help, and we are so lucky to have parents/grandparents like them!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

PS. We sort of followed this plan when making the DW (in case any one is interested in making one too!).

A Package for me from Ludo!!

Mom and I just got home and look at what we found waiting on our doorstep! A package from Ludo!!! I was so excited and got mom to come right in and help me to open it!

Smells good!
Wow - look at the fun stuff inside - some yummy treats, a smiley face clicker (is mom going to introduce me to the clicker finally? I've heard a lot about click/treat!), and a puzzle toy called "Hide a Squirrel"! (I doubt if any squirrels can really hide from me!)
I told mom - it's all mine!
Taking a long whiff of good-smelling treats!
Finally I get to try one! Yum!
Checking for hiding squirrels!
Having to pose again (isn't that enough posing for one day?)!
Thank you so much Ludo!!! You really made my day! We are having a lot of fun playing tRicky T- Day! Thanks for having this contest and for picking me and for sending me such awesome gifts! I am very lucky to have you as a blogging buddy!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

I just found out that Ludo picked me to be this month's tRicky T-Day winner! Wow! We're so honored - thanks, Ludo!

We made a couple videos of tricks a little while ago and haven't posted them until today. One is of snake - which I have known how to do for a long time, but mom thinks it's very relevant now considering I didn't do the weaves in my trial on Sunday. She just won't let me forget about that! And the other video is of my new trick - pray. Grandma has been asking mom to teach me this one for months. So this video is just showing the early stages of me learning it.

As far as shaping goes, we were inspired by Sian's video of teaching Side Legs Up! Cool trick and a great tutorial! We have done one short session so far and hope to try again and get some video of it soon. It is a very difficult trick for me! We have been trying handstand off and on for months now (based on another of Sian's videos) and we're still not even close. Some of these tricks will probably kind of have to wait for the bad winter weather any way. These days it's just much more fun to be playing outside!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

COSSA AKC Trial Sunday

Well today we had another try at Open JWW on the sand! This morning they rolled the sand and wet it down so the footing was a little better. But by 11:00AM it had dried out enough that they stopped everything and wet the sand again. We ran right after that. I didn't have any trouble keeping the bars up, but for some reason, I didn't want to weave. The weaves were the second obstacle (that kind of surprised me) and mom told me to weave and gave me a little more room than yesterday, and I just walked out of them. She tried to get me to do them two more times and I refused. So she ran on to the next obstacle and after that, we did great! Sorry that most of the course is so far away in the video. I really ran my heart out! We even had to do a wrap at #11 (our first wrap in a trial!) and then mom did a rear cross at #13! So you can tell I was moving!

Here is the course map (we checked already and are pretty sure you can bigify it):

And here is the video:

Mom really likes to get those Qs and we were a bit spoiled by our Q-rate in novice. But considering the new sandy surface this weekend, we're proud of how it all went! Yesterday was perfect (except for the footing making me drop that bar) and today was perfect (with the BIG exception of the weaves!). But I think we have made some progress as a team and we're looking forward to more classes, more training, and our next trial experience!

BTW, after we came home and had lunch, mom told me that I owe her some weaves - so we went out in the yard and I did them with no problem! I know, I'm silly!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Trying to get course map photo to bigify!

Yay, I think it worked! If you can't bigify it, you can't see the numbers!

Don't forget to read the first post from today to hear all about my trial!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

COSSA AKC Trial Saturday

We just got back from our Open JWW run at the Central Ohio Shetland Sheepdog Association Trial! This is the weekend that mom decided to enter us in the JWW only on both Saturday and Sunday and what a good decision that was! We left around noon and the temperature was in the upper 80s already! I was very happy to get out of that building!

So our run went well. However since we trialed there last (at the horse arena), they changed the dirt/mulch stuff and put in a sand mixture. Today was the first time we all got to try it. And it was so different! Very sandy and deep - it was just like trying to run in the sand at the beach (and not that nice hard wet sand at the water's edge either!). So it was very hard to get your footing as your foot/paw slid out from under you. Our run went very well (sorry about the little hiccup in the video when I went into the tunnel - videographer error!). Mom voted for "drop and run" at the start line and it seemed to work ok. She babysat me in the weaves - not sure why cause I'm a good weaver! - then shortly after the tunnel, I knocked my first bar ever! That darn sand felt weird and I pushed off to jump like usual and didn't quite make it. But I think mom and I did really well at navigating around that twisty course! It was a much harder course than our last open JWW course - our most difficult course at a trial yet! And we did it!!!

Here is the course map so you can see all the twists and turns!

And here is the video:

So now I am going to take a well-deserved rest and we'll see what happens tomorrow!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Kayaking!

Dad, mom and I went kayaking today!! It is the first time this summer - dad badly sprained his ankle back in June and he hasn't been able to take us out until now! It was really fun! I got so excited when I saw mom and dad getting all of out gear together and packing up the truck. It was a beautiful day for it too!

Here we are just starting out:

I'm looking out over the water:
We stopped for lunch and swimming on a little island:
Dad is out in the water trying to coax me in but I'm not too sure:
Oh no! He got me:
Guess I'll have to swim for it:
I am not a good swimmer (maybe Sizzle could teach me?):
I do lots and lots of splashing:
I'm coming mom:
Whew! Finally made it back to shore and we were ready to take off again! I sit on mom's lap and dad paddles us wherever we go!
Here's a view from our way back:
Pretty cool, huh? I sure hope we get to go again soon!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

My friends Johann and Gracie posted their "take off sock" trick last week and it looked like so much fun that I wanted to try it! Mom thought it would be another good lesson for us in shaping a trick. In our first session, mom said "yes" and treated me for touching the sock with my nose, then for touching it or almost biting it with my mouth. And then she tried to only say "yes" if I grabbed it (even ever so gently) with my mouth. During our second session, mom finally got smart and put the sock on VERY loosely (only really on her toes) and then upped the ante by only saying "yes" if I pulled on the sock and eventually only when I pulled it off! We edited a lot of video out - we didn't want you to sit through 8 minutes of me just touching the sock or digging or lying on the floor. It is exhausting to learn tricks this way - having to think on my own! I much prefer being told or shown what to do! In the next session mom is going to use an even smaller sock. BTW, my shaping treats are cheerios - they are good for me because I get the reward but it's not a treat that excites me so much that I can't think straight! The other interesting thing about this sock trick is that I love socks - I have one that I tug on all the time. But you'd never know it from how cautiously I approach this sock on mom's foot! You would think I never tugged on anything before in my life! I know, weird!!! What can I say?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

I worked hard this week

I worked really hard this week. We got our driveway redone and I had to supervise the workers for four days to make sure they did a good job! There was a lot of noise - lots of trucks and machines, etc. But I didn't let any of it bother me and I think it turned out nice! Here is a before picture:

And here is the finished product:

We can't actually drive on our new driveway for two weeks, but I walked on it today and it is awesome! Makes our house look much better too!

Other than that, mom and I went on a picnic to a part of a park that I had never been to before. We picnicked on a blanket and then we explored the big grassy area and then mom set up a jump for me and had me practice a little in a new environment. It went well and we had fun. The pet trail that I love so much is in this park so we also walked on part of it before we went home.

On Tuesday I had my handling class and there was nothing too remarkable to report - even though it was cool, I just didn't feel like running fast. The instructor did get out the chute for me and I did a better job of running through it than some days. Mom decided that this week she would work really hard to try to find some sort of a start line routine for us - she has tried to do this before but she never stuck with it - we thought we figured it out on Wednesday (I did my figure eight trick between her legs and she said, "1, 2, 3!" and then I took the jump) - and then on Thursday, I wouldn't do it. So now she is just trying to get me to focus on her and to do a trick that I know before she tells me to "go!"

We've had cool and cloudy weather for most of this week except for yesterday and most of today. This weekend we are supposed to return to August-like weather with temperatures in the upper 80s and even low 90s. I am not looking forward to that!

Hope you all have a great weekend and if you are going to a trial, good luck and have lots of fun!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky