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

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

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

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

tRicky T-Day!

I have not been good at all about playing tRicky T-day this summer! I am learning new stuff all the time and polishing up old stuff but seem to never have anything ready to show. And today is no exception - LOL!!!

Through the magic of video editing, I will make you believe that I truly know the meaning of the words "over" and "under"! If we had made a blooper video, it would've been at least 4 times as long as this video! :)

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Grandma told me the other day that pictures of me on the blog are ok but she really prefers the tricks! So grandma, this one's for you!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Here's my latest trick! We saw another Sheltie do this on YouTube and stole their idea. The hardest part for me is getting myself lined up to back in.

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

tRicky T-Day!

It's been a long time since I posted a trick that was not about treibball or that dreaded dumbbell. This week I learned a new way to beg - "Please, mom?"

Thank you to Nana the Border Collie for the idea for this trick! If you have never seen videos of Nana, go watch some. She is amazing!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

I know I haven't posted a tricky t-day video in a few weeks. We have made some videos trying to get some tricks to show you and the videos have not turned out good enough. Today's is not fantastic but it will give you an idea of what I am doing.

Remember awhile ago I mentioned that I was going to learn treibball? Well I know the very beginnings of it. I read stuff on the internet and a friend gave us some information on it and mom and I have been learning. The first things you have to know are go around and go to mat and lie down. I already knew those. So we could then add the ball and I go around the ball and lie down. We have faded the use of a mat. The other main thing you have to do is to push the ball with your nose. You can use your shoulders but never your feet or your mouth. So I had to line up on the opposite side of the ball from mom and touch a small piece of tape low on the ball with my nose. (We practiced touching the tape on other objects first but I got that fast because I knew nose touch already too).

The video shows my progress so far. The hallway is helpful because it channels the movement of the ball a little bit. My favorite part is pushing the ball so I often want to skip the "down" part. So mom rewards me for the down too (I know how to work her for treats!). We are working on the herding cues of go bye and away for my movement to the right or the left side of the ball (although from agility if I am on mom's right, I will head for the right side of the ball, etc) and transferring what I know so far to out in our yard. Yesterday I did pretty well out there but I still prefer to treibball in the house - LOL!

The foundational moves are so important - just like in agility. Everything hinges on the foundation. Eventually I should be able to move the ball straight toward a goal (like a soccer goal net) and also be sent out to multiple balls, get one that mom designates and then herd it into the goal.

It's pretty fun and I highly recommend that you try this game with your own dogs! Here are a couple of links to helpful information:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/14_4/features/Treibball-Canine-Sport_20234-1.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/livingwithdogs?feature=chclk

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

PS. In yesterday's WW photo, I was on top of that little white aframe they had at the dog park. The photo was taken on the same day as the video of me doing agility there (and the video of crazy mom on the slide). We haven't been back there yet.

tRicky T-Day!

Our YouTube friends Pam and Bandit are the inspiration for this week's trick - learning wide circles for canine freestyle! Mom has wanted to try to teach me this for a long time and finally found out how to go about it from Pam's video. Pam used chairs to guide Bandit around but chairs didn't work well for me. I know a trick where I go under a chair so that's what I wanted to do with the chairs in this trick. So mom got out cones and buckets and that helped. You start out with the cones in a close circle around your mom and then make the circle wider as you figure it out. I started to go around a lot faster as the circle got wider. The next step will be fading the cones/buckets and adding a cue. Mom was saying a lot of "go" and pushing me out with her body. Ideally she should be able to stand in one spot and rotate around. I think my cue is going to be "orbit."

I have tons of fun with this trick and I hope you do too if you try it!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

Special Saturday edition of tRicky T-Day!

It's a stretch but can you kind of see how Saturday is a T day?

I am still learning how to hold an object ( a dumbbell ) and do various tricks while not dropping it. The blooper video that could've accompanied this trick video would've been the way longer movie! But for now here is my progress:

(I want you to know that I offered the BANG! all on my own!)

Am I getting closer to being able to hold the blanket and roll over with it? When mom gets brave enough to try again, we'll see! :)

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

The other day our YouTube friends Donna, Jessie, and Lucy at supernaturalbc2009 posted a video called Does Your Dog Really Understand a Verbal Cue? where Jesse is behind a closed door and Donna gives him commands to follow. It was really cool! Donna issued a training challenge for people to train at least three behaviors their dogs will do on a verbal command only and post it as a video response. So we decided to give it a quick try!

Mom left me in the bedroom and closed the door (except for a tiny crack that she could squint through but I couldn't see her) and she told me to "sit," "down," "sit," and "speak!" I did it!! But I have to say somehow I am better on verbal commands than signals. For instance we are working on the signals exercise for Open obedience and I am having trouble when mom gives the hand signal only.

Any way, here is the video:

We watch almost every video that Donna, Jessie and Lucy make and learn lots of cool stuff! Thanks to them for this fun challenge!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

We have a YouTube friend named Sian who is now a facebook friend of our's too and she has a dog training facebook page - the other day she posted that if anyone needs help with tricks they are working on, she would be happy to try to give some advice. So mom told her that we have been working on my rolling up in a blanket for a long time and that I can't get past "hold the blanket, drop it, and roll over." Here's her advice:

ZsianZ1 Animal Training "

Well have you tried training other tricks such as beg or spin while holding something? the problem with the roll over is that it means going upside down with it in their mouth so starting off with something easier first might be the way forward, also start with something smaller in the mouth such as a toy that is easy to hold and then get the roll over with that first. ohhh and another thing is to make sure there is plenty of slack with the blanket... if the blanket is going too tight it can put the dog off, so have him sit further in on the blanket and then hand him the corner. and one more idea is train him to lay on his side and back, that way you can ask for the roll in stages and this should help".

Since the dumbbell is sort of the thing that I am most comfortable holding at the moment, mom is trying to get me to do something other than walk or sit with it in my mouth. The very first day we tried it, I did left and right. But after that, I wouldn't do it any more - I just kept dropping the dumbbell. The most progress we have made is I will lie down and not drop it. Goofy I know, but somehow this whole concept it tough for me! (What happened to the font and size I was using to write this - it changed when I put in the quote from Sian and now I can't get it back).

Some day I hope to have a really good trick to share on tRicky T-Day. We are trying every day, believe me.

It's a beautiful day outside right now - need to get back out there! :)

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Well, I have made a little progress with getting the tv remote for my sad, sit-around-on-her-butt-can't-get-her-own-remote mom! I can pick it up off of the floor now. I don't like the way the thing feels in my mouth though. So sometimes I just cannot wait for mom to say "Drop it!" But I am doing it, and I am very respectful of the remote - I don't get any slobber on it or teeth marks! :)

It has been cold but sunny the past three days! Sun three days in a row is unheard of here in the winter! I think that is what made the crocus bloom yesterday. One lone little purple crocus, blooming its heart out in our otherwise dead flower garden

Mom and dad took me on an awesome walk today! I will post pictures and a little video tomorrow or Saturday!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

You all know how obsessed mom is with the RETRIEVE - holy cow my life sure has changed since I learned how to retrieve that dumbbell. She just won't stop! I am learning two new tricks at the moment and even though neither one is ready, we decided to give you a sneak peek!

Mom is making me go and get her slippers for her! But her feet are so big that I have trouble carrying that huge slipper all the way back to her while she lounges on the couch!

And if that isn't bad enough, I am also learning how to bring her the tv remote! I am good at holding it and I can walk with it (LOL) but I am having a really tough time picking it up if it is laying on the ground.

What's next? Dinner and a glass of wine, mom?

Soon Oreo and I will be able to go out and get jobs helping lazy humans - we are already both highly skilled at alerting our moms and dads to danger (both real and imagined), and we can sort of open and close doors, Oreo turns off the lights and loads the dishwasher, and I bring slippers and remotes. If he and I put all of our skills together, I think we can make lots of money and buy all the Orbees and treats we want!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day! (agility-style)

Because the weather was so nice today (64 degrees!) and because my new tricks aren't ready for prime time yet, we decided to do an agility tricky t-day!

Tunnel vs table, the double jump, and me being responsive to my name! Since I love the tunnel so much (that's my 6 ft tunnel in the video even though it looks like 1 foot), mom concentrated more on the table. We edited the video to get rid of the in between parts to make the whole thing a little shorter but we didn't edit out mistakes - I didn't make any!

I am happy to report that the ice in my backyard is completely gone! We are loving this spring preview but aren't naive enough to think it will last!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Wow - we got lots of freezing rain yesterday and all last night. Tree branches were falling and making loud crashing noises all night long - I had to bark and let mom and dad know about every single one! And electric transformers were arcing and blowing out. Some how we were lucky and we still have power today. Boy when you realize your electricity may go out at any moment, you start being super grateful when it doesn't!

The ice on top of our left-over snow has made it nearly impossible for me to walk outside to potty. Mom tried to let me go out on my own yesterday but I was silly and tried to run on the slippery snow. (well, there was a car going by). I fell really hard on my side. And I didn't learn from that and fell again later. So mom has been taking me out on a leash to potty. I haven't been able to run (except for when I almost killed myself) since Monday. No walks around the neighborhood either. The temperatures are going to drop drastically tonight and the ice won't be melting for a long, long time. I don't know when my life is going to get back to normal!

Enough about that - on to tRicky T-Day! Now that I know how to retrieve my dumbbell, mom is making me learn how to retrieve other stuff (typical, why did I learn the dumbbell retrieve?). Remember when Oreo was learning to carry his trick or treat bucket? Mom stole that idea from Sara only I am getting ready for Easter!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

It's our tRicky T-Day and we just don't have anything exciting to share. You all know how my pick-up-toys trick is going and it hasn't gotten any better! We keep working on a few others too but some tricks just need time to sink in.

Any way, mom taught me this trick so that if I am ever in my life inclined to catch a frisbee, I will have some cool moves to go along with it!

Gotta zoom!

Ricky

tRicky T-Day!

Mom is feeling better today - not 100% but definitely better! Thanks to everyone for your concerned comments! I am feeling ok too - I actually had to get another round of antibiotics because I still have that bacteria in my system and have not gotten back to normal pooping. I SWEAR I have not been eating more bunny poop (well, maybe one tiny piece here and there - that's all I can sneak as mom has been watching me like a hawk even while being sick)!

I think my tricky t-day trick is a totally logical progression from my puppy in the bowl trick. My aim is not great yet though as you will see!

We are getting tons of snow again. Mom took yesterday off from work but is going today - snow or no snow (but it's for sure snow). She has two rehearsals and will come home in between for me to have dinner. I sure hope she makes it!

Winter is awful this year! Will it ever be Spring?

Gotta zoom!

Ricky