Showing posts with label cold weather. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold weather. Show all posts

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Where did the week go?

We made this ridiculous snowman on New Year's Eve day - mom says she hadn't made a snowman since she was a kid. I had a great time scratching at it and barking at it. The snow that morning was super wet and perfect for packing. But by the next morning, Mister Snowman had already fallen over and since then he's just been an ugly lump of snow in the yard!

Don't know where the whole week went. We try to get outside for walks and a little playtime in the frigid, snowy weather. We're working on my emergency whistle recall in the house. Mom tried to use food as a distraction and that didn't work too well - I couldn't react to the whistle - I could only think about the food on the floor. So it's obviously too early for distractions (mom's always in a hurry). We are still trying to figure out a way to put Flip videos into WMM software and /or looking for another solution. And we tried to make a tRicky T-day video of some new tricks we're working on but it didn't go very well. It would've been all bloopers and no tricks! So I guess it was a "trying" week! BOL!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Snow Day!

We're snowed in! Mom and Dad's work was cancelled this morning...and they never cancel! When we got up this morning, we found out that there had been freezing rain all night so there is about 1/2 inch of ice on everything. I went out to potty and kept circling around the yard trying to find a spot where I could assume the position! It was too slippery to squat! I finally found a place under the white pine - what a relief! Then around 7:30 it started to snow and it has been snowing heavily ever since. At least the snow makes the yard less slippery....
















Mom took me outside to play and even though her toes and fingers were frozen, I still didn't want to come in - but I did because I am a good boy!
Hope you all have a safe day out there!
Gotta zoom!
Ricky





Saturday, January 17, 2009

Cabin Fever (and agility and tricks too)!

Sorry it's been so long since I posted anything! The weather has been so COLD and mom and dad have been working a lot, so I've been doing almost nothing! Mom and I are real diehard walkers, but Thursday morning I cried "Uncle!" because the ground was all snowy and the temperature was 8. I'm tough but my paws just couldn't handle it. So yesterday morning and now today we haven't even tried to walk - yesterday was -12 and today is -5! The good news is that today's high should be 20+ and mom says we'll walk in the afternoon!

Enough about the weather! Thursday night was our second class in advanced agility. We missed practice on Wednesday morning since mom had to work, so I was raring to go on Thursday night! We did a lot of sequences again and worked a lot on rear crosses again. It was really good for mom - she learned more about how to keep her shoulders straight approaching the jump and to use her dog-side arm to push me over the jump while she then rotates her shoulder in the new direction and moves laterally in the new direction. Homework is to practice rear cross on the flat so we've been doing it several times a day.

We'd like you to know that we finally mailed in our entry for our first trial - we decided to run on just one day - February 14 - JWW in the morning and the Standard course in the afternoon. There is another trial two weeks later and we might run both days then. We'll see how it goes!

To keep busy in the house, we are still working on tricks - here is our latest:



Hope you all have a great weekend! I hear that I am off to visit grandpa and grandma! Yay - finally some action around here!

Gotta zoom!


Ricky

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Snow!




On Saturday we had our first measurable snow - a little over an inch, I would guess. I think it's awesome, but mom's not too thrilled.
Over the weekend we went to visit grandma and grandpa and then the next day we went to watch my favorite trainer Deb at an agility trial. She did great and I had a good time because lots of people know me now (although I have yet to step foot in the ring!) and I get lots of treats just for standing around and looking good!
Mom tries to keep me busy even though we can't play outside much. We are working on lots of new tricks and trying to get even better at the old tricks. We practice some agility nearly every day - either inside or out. Yesterday we did weaves and jumps in the snow!
This morning it is raining - the snow will soon be gone. And the sky is gray, the ground is gray....everything is gray. Oh, Ohio in the winter......
Gotta zoom!
Ricky


Friday, November 21, 2008

Class 4, more practice, and cold weather!

BRRR....it's COLD! We are having January weather in November! When mom and I walked this morning, the temperature was 24 but with the wind chill it was 9!! I love it! I say, "Bring it on!" But mom is freezing all the time. So we don't go outside very often. I don't get it - why is it that we are outside all day in the summer when it's 80-90 degrees and I am so hot I can't stand it, but now that the weather is so nice, we spend all our time inside?

Wednesday morning practice went well again this week. We set up the chute in the small ring like last time and practiced it starting with the material folded up a little and progressing to full-length in no time. Mom was happy to see that I was still willing to do the chute and last week wasn't a fluke! We also did well in the big ring on the course.

Last night was our agility class 4. The most exciting news to report is that I DID THE CHUTE in class too - different building, different chute, but I still did it! Hurray! As a matter of fact, mom had trouble keeping me out of it. We were supposed to do a sequence where mom blocks the path to the chute so that I would take a nearby jump and I went straight into the chute! Not what we ultimately want, of course, but mom was very happy to see my enthusiasm. We also worked on some difficult weave entries - a jump at an angle into the weaves, a lead-out push to the weaves, and a jump straight on into the weaves where I had to collect and mom had to make sure to stay out of my way. In the contact section, I did my fastest dogwalk yet - I was actually moving so fast that I had trouble stopping my momentum to do my 2o2o and ended up running right off the end of the walk! I was not used to moving so fast! Our instructor said that I look like a different dog!

This afternoon mom set up a little agility course in the house. We had a tunnel in the kitchen, 6 plungers we got at the Dollar store for weaves, a jump, and a short board for a mini dogwalk. It was really fun! Mom would have me walk-it and then send me into the tunnel while she stayed in the living room, then over the jump and through the weaves while she stayed on the other side of the couch. It ended up being a good distance challenge (I'll be ready for novice FAST in no time!!!). We wanted to take video but we couldn't get the tripod far enough away to get a good view. So we took photos instead to show you our set-up.







Hope you all have a great weekend! Mom says if the temperature is above freezing tomorrow she'll take me to the park! I'm keeping my paws crossed!
Gotta zoom!
Ricky