New Year's Eve

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful time tonight! And I hope your moms aren't making you work hard today like mine is. Here is our Up on Box Take Two!






Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Almost all of the tricks we are working on right now we are copying from Sara, Oreo and Chewy! They are taking Silvia Trkman's internet class and we are living vicariously through them. Here is a little video of me practicing jumping from the floor to the top of an object. I like this but don't know how I will feel about something less stable and smaller.




Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Almost Wordless Wednesday

While everyone was enjoying their Christmas Day, I was ready to go home!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Merry Christmas!!

We hope you all have a great holiday!





(Please double click on the video to make it full size. I don't understand the sizing for embedding on the blog because it cuts off part of the vid on the right side)


Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Last week mom had a really good time with her friend and abandoned me to drive all over OH to take her friend's daughter to play for some big name violin teachers. They had lots of fun! I, on the other hand, not so much.

This week mom is busy with shopping, etc. She is behind in Christmas preparations. Once again, I am the one suffering. But a little while ago we made this video of me trying to learn to lift up my front and rear legs on the same side. It is a silly video (and rather long) but we hope you are entertained because you won't be wowed by my ability! LOL!


 



Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Around Here

Boy, not much has been happening around here. The weather got cold this week after we had even more rain. Since Friday is has been sunny but cold. Mom and I went to the park yesterday and tried to stay out of the mud and still have fun.

I get to work on my tricks at least once a day. I am doing much better with "scoot" and "froggy" but the verdict is still out on whether or not I know how to put one bowl into the other bowl. I am also working on lifting two side legs up at once. I must be very cute trying it because mom is always laughing.

This week we had several strangers here at our house. Two men came and made lots and lots of noise and fixed some plumbing problems. Then some man came on Friday and put an electrical outlet next to the fish pond so we can keep the filter going all winter so the fish don't freeze solid. I was very busy barking all about it.

In a couple days mom's best friend from college and her daughter are coming here for a visit. Mom hasn't seen her friend in 10 years. She is pretty excited about it and is cleaning the house and doing laundry, etc. I just hope having company doesn't interfere with the important things in life - my dinner, my walks, my training sessions, and my treats!

Hope to have some pictures or video to go with my next post. I could barely get my lazy mom to help me write this little message. Hope you all had a nice weekend and have more Christmas shopping done than we do!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Mom wants to know if you guys think I actually know what I am doing when I stack bowls in this video or is it all merely luck? Rude question I think! Of course I know what I am doing. But I have to humor her by letting her pose the question.

I am now doing this trick with smaller bowls but we don't have it on video yet.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wordless Wednesday

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

It Can't Almost Be Winter

Today is November 26 in central Ohio and because we have had mild temperatures and lots of rain some flowers in our garden are still blooming!

This little blue flower thinks it is Spring:


So does the clematis:

Fall mums still going strong:

This little white flower just started blooming:

The blanket flower has been blooming since May:

As has the dianthus:

Out of focus but you can see the forsythia is confused:

As are the daffodils:

We went for a nice walk at the park today. The rain comes back tomorrow for at least 3 days in a row. That's ok because we sure enjoyed today!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

What I am Thankful for Today

And of course I am thankful for all of my family and friends here and all over the world! Happy Thanksgiving!

Gotta zoom over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house!

Ricky

No Walk

No walk for me today. It's raining hard and it's cold too. Mom says she doesn't want to get wet. Such a wimp!


All I can do is cross my paws that it doesn't rain tomorrow too!



Oh how I wish I could zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

I have been working on several new tricks and yesterday we videoed a couple of them. One is "scoot". Don't ask me why but it has taken a long time for me to figure this out. Finally I get what I am supposed to do. It's not perfect yet but here's what we have so far. Cute, huh?

Mom says she just doesn't know where the days are going. Time is flying by. Every time we get set to blog regularly, a week goes by and we haven't posted anything. Crazy. Do you realize that 2011 is almost over? Wow.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wordless Wednesday

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Some photos from our walk even though they are not too great

On Saturday we went to the park. It was a gorgeous sunny day and hardly anyone was there.


I posed perfectly by the pond and because mom doesn't take great photos my right eye is always in the dark.

Pretty oak leaves:

This is one of mom's favorite trees:

Here I am posing perfectly again and squinting into the sun but still patiently posing:

The reason no one was at the park? OSU game - the blimp was there too.

Now posing on a bench:

This fire bush was more striking in person:

Oops, right eye in the dark again:

We had a really nice time (except for having to stop for pictures too often)! We're trying to store up some sunshine for the gray Ohio winter that is coming.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Not a Good Time

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Weave Challenge Position 9 and the Month of October

Hi everyone! Remember me? Ricky? I just realized that I only posted 4 entries in the entire month of October! Where did the month go?

Here is a little recap of things that happened in October. Mom and dad cleaned and stained their deck - big project because they had never stained anything before. It turned out great (but too orange). Mom developed tendonitis from all the physical therapy and practicing she was doing while trying to come back from her broken wrist. She ended up having to get a steroid shot and that saved the day. She was able to go back to work for the symphony. Speaking of the symphony, mom and dad played one of the hardest concerts of their lives (and had to do it three times in one weekend). I don't think I am telling any secrets when I say that lots of wine was consumed after each performance. :) We also celebrated dad's birthday - his big gift? - a Wii!! Seriously, men never grow up! (But mom admits to liking it too). My neighbor got a new foster dog and I am happy to report that he enjoys running the fence with me! But I must've gotten some tiny piece of leaf in my eye and rubbed that eye against the carpet so much it was all irritated. I had to go to the vet and then have drops put in it 3 times a day for a week. Not a fan of the drops. As far as training goes, we did a little backyard agility and worked on some tricks, but mostly we went to parks if we had the time and the weather was nice. Overall it was a good month.

I finally finished the weave challenge this week. Mom was worried about the last few positions but I showed her that I do know what I am doing. We didn't practice any of the positions before we taped them and we didn't edit out mistakes. In this lastest video, you will see that I am human after all (I am dog? after all) and I take a shortcut the first time we try the recall. But I fix it the second time! We loved doing the challenge - I improved my speed and desire a lot! Thank you Kathy for giving us the motivation to work on weaves!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Weave Challenge Position 8

We did the weave challenge yesterday - position 8 - and actually got video this time! I was so excited to play this game that I couldn't think straight. Well, you'll see:

For anyone new, the order of the moves is:

1. run past with dog on right and left

2. rear cross with dog on right and left

3. send to weaves

4. recall through weaves

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Sara, Oreo and Chewy inspired us to learn froggy legs. I am not one of nature's natural froggy leg dogs! But Sara gave us some advice - like starting with me on a cushion - that really helped me to figure out what my crazy mom wanted. I still need a lure - I am not so stupid as to do the trick without some tantalizing food in front of my nose. Frog legs = food!

Mom says I am the furriest frog ever. Is that a compliment? Does my fur make me look fat?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Weave Challenge Position 7 and the Park

Hey, we finally did our position 7 for the weave challenge (remember the weave challenge Kathy posted many many months ago)? We set up the weaves and dusted off the Flip camera. For the first time ever in my life, mom got out some canned food as my reward - it smelled so very exciting! You should've seen my warm-up heeling and attention. Well, I was AMAZING at the weaving. I couldn't get to that target plate any faster and didn't miss a single entry. You should've seen that too, but the darn Flip camera turned itself off after one second and we did not get any video at all. :(

Today we also went to the park. I just love it there and could go every day if mom would take me. The leaves are just starting to change here. It was a beautiful day and lots of people and dogs were out enjoying it.

In solidarity with some of my Sheltie friends (you know who you are), I was NOT going to look at my mom.

I'm not looking at her -
I will not look at her -

Still not looking -

Oops, caught me looking! How did that happen?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wordless Wednesday

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

DW and Pinwheel

We set up my dogwalk several weeks ago for the first time in months. I had a blast with it! We taped this a few weeks ago and just got around to editing out the boring parts. We later changed the pinwheel to a serpentine and that went well too. The first time through on the video is my fastest run. Mom thinks I am jumping faster than ever and have more enthusiasm for the game than before.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wordless Wednesday

I rescued my blog!

Finally I have my blog back! We have gotten into a routine lately of doing some fun agility after dinner. I really look forward to it and bug mom until she gets out there! We know that we should be finishing our weave challenge - we still have 3 positions to go - but we're just having too much fun fooling around!

I learned this game on the first try - fly down to the target and then fly back to mom! It's fly-food!!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Day 4 - The most insulting day of all!

I think I have been a good sport putting up with mom hijacking my blog to show her vacation photos. But now she has gone too far! Apparently she didn't miss me much because she had my 3 border collie cousins for company!

I have to put my paw down! This is the end of these stupid San Diego photos. The next blog entry will be about ME!!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Hijacking - Day 3

What has become of my blog? - sigh -

Mom and dad at Mt. Helix:

The view from Point Loma of the Coronado Islands:

Mom always wants to see the tide pools at Point Loma - finally they managed to get there at low tide:

We went to the park today - did anyone take pictures of me? NO!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky