Shetland Sleepdogs and Rally-O

Our buddies, Josh and Jess, have sent out a challenge to post pictures of your fluff's odd sleeping styles. So here they are!

Romeo's breeder sent me this picture ...
Romeo's first "tunnel", he got pooped part way through.

For the most part, they fall asleep however they happen to land when they flop down ...

See a trend? That's right ... they show a strong preference for sleeping on the bed. Can't blame them, really. If I had a choice between floor and bed, I know what I would be picking!

As for today, it is "crazy dog Sunday". A couple hours of rally-o in the afternoon, and soon to be off to agility with Romeo this evening. Rally-o went really well this afternoon. I set up a CARO Advanced/Excellent course and ran the boys through it a couple of times. They did fantastically! Romeo's achievement of the day was making it through the "off set figure 8" without lagging, and Gio's achievement of the day was remembering his sits EVERY time! With Gio's gimpy leg, he is kind of picky about when he wants to sit. Today must be a good-leg-day as he didn't have problems at all. The "off set figure 8" is Romeo's big hold-up in CARO rally-o, but not for the reason you might be thinking. The exercise is made up of two pylons and two food bowls, with the idea of the exercise to weave in a figure 8 pattern around the pylons while keeping the dog from going after the food in the food bowls, as in the diagram below. You are allowed to say "leave it" to your dog each time you pass through the center of the 8, but it has to be "happy" and not scolding in tone.
Romeo's problem is that he has a "leave it" that is so completely solid that he will give whatever it is he is supposed to be leaving a 10 foot berth! So if I slip up and tell him to "leave it" as we are entering the figure 8, he has been known to stop moving and just stand back and watch me weave through the pylons so as not to get too close to the food bowls. I thought that just not using the command "leave it" and rather just having a nice attention heel would work instead, as it does with Gio, but Romeo has now generalized the exercise, so whenever he sees food bowls he automatically assumes he has to leave them alone without me telling him to. As a result, he is VERY laggy through the exercise and will often drop back to walk right behind me so that he doesn't have to be too close to the bowls. I've been practicing setting up food bowls and just having him "survive" in the middle of them, doing little heel patterns, tricks, sits/downs, playing tug and fetch where he has to run out of the circle of bowls and back in again. That seems to have helped a lot as today he didn't even flinch when we approached the bowls and kept a nice attention heel without dropping back into his usual lag position.

As a side note, I am officially living in a pig sty. I've started packing so now my room is littered with crates and boxes. Walls are bare and "stuff" is strewn everywhere.

Gio and the Blow Dryer

The boys each have a routine in the morning. I've already blogged about Romeo's Mr. Sock-Face Game that we play when I get dressed. Now it's time to show Gio's morning game ... Singing for the Blow Dryer.

The sound of the blow dryer starting up in the morning will pull him away from any distraction, even food. And for Gio, that is HUGE! His first love is divided equally between tennis balls and food, but the blow dryer will make him drop both of those and come running. He will stand patiently (ie. not freaking out) while I dry my hair. Waiting, and mentally willing the blow dryer down to his level. He loves being "shot" in the face and on the chest, full blast, hot air. Nothing else will do. And once the air hits him, he's singing like a bird! Well ... a bird with laryngitis and that's had too much to drink. I can even sort of control the waver and the pitch of the "singing" by moving the blow dryer back and forth and up or down his chest.

See for yourself ...



Thought I should also point out ... I blew a breaker trying to make this video. Apparently it isn't a good idea to have a TV, stereo, phone, computer, space heater, and blow dryer all on one breaker, eh? Oops.

Agility - Advanced Beginners II

I think that is what it is called, anyways. Who knows, whatever it is it is started up again. Agility classes were supposed to start last Sunday, but we were in the middle of a horrid storm and the roads were crazy so class was canceled. So yesterday was Romeo's first class back. Our class is much smaller this time, only Romeo and two Border Collies, so we got LOTS of running in. It was a great class! A real challenge, which I like. We were working on "out" for the most part. Romeo has a decent "out" from Rally-O, but the exercises we were doing last night still pushed him (and me) further than where he already was.

We started with 4 jumps staggered side to side so that we had to push the dogs out and call them back in to us as we ran. Romeo caught on to that one really quickly, without issue. It was the next set of exercises that was the real challenge for us both! 7 jumps were set up in a horse-shoe shape with a straight tunnel running along the length of them in the middle of the horse-shoe. The idea was to run the dog up one side of the horse-shoe and sent them out past the tunnel to the other side of the jump sequence without crossing over the line of the tunnel. Took a while to get the idea over to Romeo (and the idea through my head on how I should be moving my body so as not to pull him off the far jumps when he finally does get out there!), but once he patterned to it it was great! Of course, then we had to switch it up so that they DON'T go out to the far jumps, but take the tunnel instead. I knew Romeo patterned quickly, but this was a little insane! No matter what sort of hub-bub I created, I couldn't get him to come back in off of the far jumps to take the tunnel! We got it all figured out in the end, though.

I really appreciate classes where we are pushed with a challenge. If everything is easy, then we aren't really learning anything. This class was great! We both ran a lot, Romeo collapsed when he got home, as did I. Today, Romeo is ready to go again, but I think I will need another day or two for the burning to go out of my legs!

Non-agility related: I got the lease issue finalized with regards to my new house. I had to apply to the trailer park for a lease for the lot that the trailer is on. The application was accepted today, so now it is all official! And the couple of little repair issues that the inspection revealed are being fixed by end of day tomorrow. I really have no clue what my next step is, I know I have to get insurance and sign the lease, fill out forms, start getting things in my name, etc. But what happens first, I have no clue! I'll make a couple of calls later this week, but in the mean time, I just need to sit back and enjoy the idea of moving. Maybe allow myself to start some packing up of things I won't need in the next month.

Home Sweet Home

Okay, here's the news. I've tried to be quiet about this so as not to get my hopes up too much. Even though it's sort of been in the process of happening for the past year or so, it wasn't until this past week that things actually started happening and falling into place.

But in one month's time, the boys and I are moving to our own house!

WOOT!

So excited! A place of my very own!

I've been beaten up by numerous banks and stabbed in the back by a mortgage broker, but the finances finally came together yesterday. Today was the home inspection, and all is well. Tomorrow I meet with the realtor to sign the papers, and then it is mine come February 15th.

Time to start packing!

I know entries have been a little photo-sparse lately ... and this post isn't even about the dogs so I can't really fill it up with pupper pics. So to tide you all over, here are a few shots of my new place.

Kitchen with brand new fridge and stove.

Cute little side area in the kitchen. Excuses the messes left by the renovators, that stuff is all gone now.
Living room.
Wee little back yard for the boys!

Thanks for the crossing!

Thanks to everyone that crossed their fingers (paws?), toes, and eyes, or maybe said a little chant to their deity of choice. It worked!

Yes, I am going to keep you in suspense for just a while longer. There is one more step to this process and that takes place tomorrow morning. At that point, I will know the outcome of this one way or another and THEN I will let you know what all the crossing was about! Today was the hard part, though, so uncross things and give yourselves a break.

Michael Castro

Jason Castros' lil bro - Michael Castro audition in Kansas City for American Idol 8. First thing you'll notice is his mohawk hairstyle. Some parts of his hair is colored pink and it really looks nice on him. And he also got that very cute smile. I would really like to see more of him in Hollywood.

Michael Castro

The Castro Brothers

Rally On Again

So I know I wrote a couple of days ago that things were starting again for the boys last Friday ... but life makes things difficult sometimes. I've got this nasty cold, so for the past while I haven't been able to see through the blurry eyes or tilt my head any lower then the horizon without dripping nose nasties. (Too much info? Sorry.) So Sunday was a bit of a gong show at Rally practice and I opted to skip agility Sunday night in favor of a hot toddy and a blanket with a box of Kleenex.

Tonight drop-in Rally sessions started again, so the boys finally got a real workout. We ran through a couple of Advanced and Excellent courses and they did wonderfully! After nearly a month of no "formal" Rally practicing, they remembered all the tricky stuff. Both boys nailed the jumps (high and broad), which were a bit of a touchy subject in the past, especially for Gio. Weaves, moving stands/downs, and back up 3 steps were beautiful! I couldn't have asked for more after having been away from it all for a month!

Just a side note ... if I could get everyone to cross your fingers and send good vibes my way tomorrow at about 2pm Central. That's Thursday, January 15, 2009 at 14:00 hours CST. Thanks!