Saturday, November 28, 2009

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

23 comments:

NAK and The Residents of The Khottage Now With KhattleDog! said...

I hope woo enjoyed some of the flurries fur ME!

Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Tank woo fur sharing your video!

Morgan in Pittsburgh said...

Ricky! that was too funny. - mom was laughing out loud. That's our kind of agility too! You have to admit - it's fun doing it however you want. Glad you are feeling better. Today it's my day for the poopies. I am eating rice. I like rice though!
your pal, Morgan

Sara said...

You did great Ricky! Your weaves, jumps and dogwalk were all nice and fast! Who cares if you skipped a couple here and there? Sometimes it's hard to think straight when you're going that fast!

Diana said...

I think you guys looked great. I love how as he weaves he gets faster. WhooHoo! Im not sure if Ricky finds running agility rewarding or not but if you dont think he does that you may want to reward a lot more frequently when running. ( you may have just edited that out, so I hope your not offened). So run maybe three jumps and quick treat and keep going. How did you get him to weave like that? Its awesome. Diana

Chris and Ricky said...

Hi Diana - we're not offended at all. But mom doesn't stop to reward me because she hates to slow down the momentum if we are going fast. Maybe you're right though and she should give me more treats! I don't know how I am sometimes a really fast weaver - just my natural ability, I guess! :)So far though it never translates to real weave poles and places other than my yard.

Kathy Mocharnuk said...

Ricky, you are looking TERRIFIC! I love to see you running fast and happy

Cowspotdog said...

Sounds like you are having a wonderful thanksgiving weekend and did you ever think you would still be outside and playing at the end of November!!!! Practice doesn't has to be perfect...practice is just practice and its more about having fun while you do it too....I think you looked great.

Marie said...

You sure are a speedy weaver Ricky! What a fun video. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Diana said...

Im sure he will get faster at trials too. Ive been trying to do 2 trails a month with Miley because if there is to much time between trials I feel she has to learn to get comfortable all over again. ( Or maybe thats me, LOL ) Diana

Chris and Ricky said...

Diana - I think we are going to try to go to trials more often starting in January. Probably not two a month though. Mom was trying to get me to gain confidence in class, etc. before trialing a lot, but maybe it's actually trialing a lot that we need? Hard to tell.

Diana said...

I didnt mean to say you should trial alot. I was just saying it takes a while for the dogs to feel comfortable there. Once they start getting the idea of where they are and what is expected they usually start going faster . I think you are on the right path with him getting more confidence in class. And going on from there. You guys are looking great so you are obviously doing what is best for your dog. Diana

Sara said...

Ricky & Diana,
I'm enjoying listening to your conversation :)

I'm hoping the more exposure Oreo gets, the less stress he will feel. However, I don't want to overexpose him, and subject him to too much stress!

Oh the dilema!

Chris and Ricky said...

Diana and Sara - this is fun, isn't it? It IS a real dilemna about how much to trial, when to trial, etc. I think we have spent since Feb. trying to ease into the whole "trialing" thing and I was just thinking that in the next few months we would try going to trials a little more often or doing two days instead of just one and see how it goes. Diana, I know you didn't mean to say we should trial a lot but you have a really valid point about trialing more consistently so the dog and handler get comfortable and used to the whole process. One thing that definitely limits how much we trial is money - it's expensive! Being a complete newbie to agility and to dog training makes me feel like I never know what's right or wrong to do. It's a lot of trial and error (literally) but it's very fun and I am completely enjoying the experience!

Sara said...

I started out doing the opposite! I did two days, jam packed with runs and exhausted my dog. I quickly learned to cut back on runs. I'm hoping to get back to doing two days though by summer.

Diana said...

AKC is kinda expensive compaired to other venues. You get more runs for your money with USDAA. But also it depends on what is near your home. You wont save any money if you have to drive farther.
I know about delimas. Do I keep trialing my dog when she wont get on the table? But then how do I fix it. I dont want her to keep practicing the wrong thing at a trial. Ugh! Diana

Chris and Ricky said...

Well, lots of dogs can totally handle starting out like that so it's hard to figure out what to do. A friend of mine started her sheltie at a 3-day AKC trial (two runs per day) and the dog did great!

By the way, re: my previous comment - I really meant it was fun having this conversation with you guys - I hope you didn't think I was being sarcastic because I am sincere!

Sara said...

Ricky, I knew what you meant the first time :)

Chris and Ricky said...

There seem to be more AKC trials near here - the club that I train with puts on AKC trials. But I should look into other venues too!

Johann The Dog said...

Hey Ricky...glad you got some practice in!! We hear tomorrow is going to be nice again! Hope so...we may get in some practice.

My first trial ever was a USDAA trial, six months after I started training, and Mum entered me in every run...cause I was so wild, she thought maybe by the time we did the third run I'd be kind of controllable. BOL!!! But I ended up being pretty much controllable during the entire weekend. So much fun...I'll never forget it.

If we could trial every weekend, we would :)

Life With Dogs said...

Don't you love this warm autumn? You'll be training in the yard in December at this rate!

Diana said...

Dont worry, I knew you werent being sarcastic. :) Diana

Kapitein Haakje said...

whaaw great agility :D

Dawn said...

Wow, what a fun video! Two footed weave poles! You go Ricky!