Wednesday class, cold weather, tRicky T-Day, and a Friday trial

What happened to October - blue skies, pretty leaves, indian summer, dry air? We have skipped October this year and gone straight to November - rainy, cold, windy, gray. I don't mind it that much although we don't go outside like we used to. But mom is whining about the bad weather all day long!

Last night we went to our Wednesday agility class (we missed last week because mom had to rehearse Beethoven #9 - whatever that means). We ran a full course last night - and it included the chute which is always very good practice for me. Since our last real post we have been practicing with the target and getting me to take off at the start. And we have been practicing short sequences (three or four obstacles). Mom is trying to keep practices short and fun and not daily and she tries not to let me know I did anything wrong (that's the hardest thing for her - she STILL catches herself making me redo something from time to time)! It seems to have paid off because I ran pretty fast and happy last night. I even did my fastest away- from- home chute! By the end of the course, mom forgot where she was supposed to go but we just kept running fast and she let me do whatever jumps I wanted. I was super excited when we finished and I got lots of chicken to prove how well I did!

After the run-thru we split up into two groups and did smaller portions of the course. I was still happy until my second-to- last go - I came out of a tunnel really fast and caught sight of another dog out of the corner of my eye. I took my mind off what I was doing for a second and flew at a jump and slipped and knocked the bar. It spooked me a little - mom checked to see that I was ok and then put me back in the tunnel and I finished the sequence. Then when we tried our last little exercise, I refused the aframe and mom stopped me and had me do it again (see, I told you she forgets and makes me redo stuff!!!) I did it the second time. But mom, always the worrier, is hoping that getting spooked won't have a lasting effect on me.

Today is tRicky T-Day so we put together a little video showing my new cane tricks! And there is bonus footage of my stand in the corner trick - mom stands farther away from me now and just says, "Corner" and off I go. We are trying to generalize the behavior to other corners but it's not working yet!

Tomorrow we are traveling a little more than an hour to a trial at a new location for us. It's another artificial turf surface place. Since the barn where we used to trial is still not usable, we are forced to seek out other opportunities. Well, an hour is not a very long drive. Grandma is going to go with us to keep mom company. She has never been to an agility trial but she loves dogs and we think she's going to have a great time! The schedule looks good for us too - I run my Open JWW at 10:00 and then just have to wait for Open STD but we think I may get to run that around noon. That would be great!! So our goal for tomorrow is to blast off from the start line and to run happy (with no sniffing before obstacles!!).

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

It's HOT, HOT, HOT!

Wow, we went from 40 degrees to 85 in a hurry here! What happened? I don't mind temperatures in the 60s but this is ridiculous! I am so HOT all the time - in the house too because mom believes that no air conditioning should be run in the month of April! It's against her principals! LOL! The only relief I get is playing in the hose.

Any way, enough complaining. Last Wednesday was our last novice competition class for this session. We ran a course of 21 obstacles. We got to run it twice all the way through and also worked on the middle section (the sequence that we tried to replicate in the video the next day). Mom and I did really well. We're very excited to take the class again - it starts over on May 6th.

Yesterday mom left me stranded at home while she went off to our club and volunteered for their spring obedience trial. She did this to me last year too. Then she has the nerve to come home and tell me all about it! She was a ring steward for Open again - her job was to set up the broad jump and also lead the people and dogs into the ring for the long sits and downs. The judge (Carol Ann Klein) was super nice - to the ring stewards and also to all of the competitors. There were lots of Goldens entered but also a Berner, a Russell Terrier, a couple Rotties, a Dobe, two Corgis, and a BC. It was interesting for mom to watch. She said she was smiling the whole time - either at how good a dog was doing or at how cute the dog was when they did something wrong (even though she knows how frustrating it was for the handler when the dog would go straight to a finish on a recall instead of coming front or would not sit at a halt in a heeling pattern or would roll over and scratch his back on the matting instead of just doing a simple down!). Some dogs really showed their personalities out there! Mom learned a lot and came home more excited about the prospect of showing me in the novice obedience class eventually.

We are starting to get a lot of birds migrating through our neighborhood. Swainson's thrush, hermit thrush, yellow warbler, nashville warbler....mom and dad know a lot of the birds' songs so they can hear them and identify them even if they can't always see them. It's a great time of year for birdwatchers!

Hope lots of you are having a beautiful weather weekend - but maybe not so HOT!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Beautiful weather!

We have been having absolutely beautiful weather here in Ohio the past few days - low humidity, highs around 80 degrees and lows around 60. Not usual for August but I am loving it! I have much more energy for walks and for agility practice - wish it would stay like this forever!

I had such a busy week last week that I never shared any photos from our kayaking trip last Monday. We went to another nearby reservoir (not the same one where we went camping) and kayaked.

Over the weekend mom found out that her mother-in-law (so my other grandma) and her Border Collie Kyle were invited to the National Obedience Invitationals for the second time. They went in 2006 and placed in the top 8 dogs in the country! Here is a video of Catherine and Kyle from the 2006 competition -

Catherine also has her own website - Canine Competitive Obedience Toolbox that has a ton of information and also great videos of her and Kyle! So now we know two people and their dogs that will be going to Nationals in December! Awesome! Kyle was mom's inspiration to get me! So thanks, Kyle!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky