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!).

Painting

For the past two days mom and I have been painting the boards for the new agility equipment she and grandpa are building for me. Yesterday we primed the boards and today we painted two coats of the blue paint (on one side of each board). It has been really cold in the garage - 30s and 40s - I haven't noticed the cold but mom sure has. Tomorrow we hope to paint the blue on the other side and maybe get started on the yellow for the contact zones. It supposed to rain though and that slows up the whole process. I am getting so excited to try out my new stuff! (Oh and mom says you should ignore the messy garage!)

Today is my mom and dad's fourth wedding anniversary! Congratulations to them! I can't imagine what their life must've been like for the first 3 years of their marriage without me - boring I would imagine! But I know their past year has been awesome! Tonight they are going out for a romantic dinner to a restaurant that doesn't allow pups. That's ok with me though. I know mom will feed me my dinner before they leave and also give me some good treats in my kongs when I go into my crate. They deserve a relaxing evening out, and I'll be waiting here for them when they get home!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Long Day

Early this morning mom and I left and met grandpa at Home Depot to buy more supplies to make our new agility equipment. I went in the store to help them find just the right lumber and PVC for our dog walk, teeter, and table. When we got what we needed, we headed over to grandpa and grandma's house! Hurray - my third time there this week! Mom and grandpa worked really hard sawing and cutting and building. I spent a lot of the time in the house with grandma. They finished all the lumber cuts and built the base for the dog walk and the table. Now mom and I have to paint all the boards with primer and then a couple coats of paint. There is a lot involved in building this agility stuff. I'm lucky to have mom but also my grandpa to build it for me! I promise to practice and practice when everything is finished and ready in my backyard!

After all the building, my cousins Wilson and Sandy showed up - now we were having a party! I followed Wilson around and ignored Sandy (she ignored me too). There were 3 pups and 10 people over for dinner! It was fun but when mom said it was time for us to go home, I headed straight for the car. What a long and exhausting day! As soon as I finish writing this, I will be taking a pre-bedtime nap on the couch!

Gotta zoom!


Ricky