Magica Goldens

Wednesday at the Barn - February 1st, 2012

2012-02-01T21:29:00.001-05:00

I had another private lesson tonight, the student requested emphasis on weave entries and a-frame contacts. This dog is solidly running at the AKC excellent level but with so many repetitions on the weave poles I broke the set into two sets of six, MUCH easier on the dog's body.

Tuesday at the Barn - January 31st, 2012

2012-01-31T20:30:00.000-05:00

Another "June-uary" day here in Vermont with temps in the mid-thirties today, rising overnight and super-awesome 45 degrees tomorrow. We had a great session at the barn for both Kipling and Teller. Here's what we worked on (light numbered circles for Teller, dark for Kipling):

Kipling working some rear-crosses on the green and blue numbered courses...

On a personal note: my 2012 goal was to get better about taking care of myself - to that end I've given up anything white - no rice, no pasta, no bread, no cereal, no sugar - nothing at all processed. Other than greek yogurt which has become a staple - if I can't cook it in my kitchen I'm not eating it - which makes dining out with me super fun :-) It's been easier than you might imagine - though there have been a couple of days where I've really craved a sandwich and a diet coke! Oh and the day the office had a going-away party for an employee with trays of lasagna and mac and cheese and a giant red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting (I ate my salad like a good girl). Frozen sauce-less veggies have been my salvation along with super lean proteins (in large part from my favorite butcher shop The Meat House) in handy dandy vacuum sealed packages.

I've also been walking or running at least two miles at a time, five or six nights a week. In the back of my mind I'm eyeing the Disney Half-Marathon next January (2013) - BUT thirteen point one is a whole lot more than two miles though! It's nice to finally use that super expensive treadmill I bought a few years ago!

And here's the point of this personal note. This morning knowing today had a high probability of being CRAZY, I got up extra early this morning to run 4 miles on the treadmill, went to work - put in a 7 hour day in the office before I left to drive home, pick up Teller and Kipling and head to the barn. I taught a 30 minute private lesson, worked my own dogs for an hour, drove home, put Teller and Kipling in the house, leashed up Murphy and out for a walk - I was planning to do a pretty relaxed 1.5 mile walk (two laps around the neighborhood) as I was about to start the second lap I was feeling pretty good and Murphy wasn't having any 'cold feet' issues with the salt on the road and sidewalk so I decided to take a detour around the village finishing with a 3.5 mile walk. My pedometer reports an impressive 19,258 steps (as of 8pm) which is a little over 9.5 miles for the day. Go me, go me, go, go go me!

Videos from the Barn - January 28th, 2012

2012-01-29T14:08:00.000-05:00

With the busy day yesterday it took me a bit to get videos processed and uploaded.
Here's Teller working on his obedience:

And Kipling working on Figure-8's and speed circles:

Busy Saturday...

2012-01-28T21:17:00.000-05:00

After my week oncall with the pager we needed a good sleep-in this morning - very pleased that my perfect dogs all slept until 9am this morning giving me approximately 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep - after 10 straight days of sleep in 2 hour increments, it was much needed!

1/28 - Family Portrait
Teller (5), Kipling (9 months), Murphy (7.5)

After all that sleep we hit the ground running! First to partially thaw, separate and re-package 60lbs of duck necks and 20lbs of chicken necks. Then I decided I'd had enough of furry ears and grinch feet so all three dogs got tossed up on the grooming table for brush-outs and trims. Off to the barn to work Teller and Kipling - great sessions with both - and some video to post tomorrow of their sessions.

Then we headed off to the school where the entire pack had a playdate with the absolutely adorable and totally handsome Gusto! Another rare (though certainly pretty common this winter) 40 degree January day, it's been so icy lately that the boys just haven't had the chance to really get out and run. With temperatures hanging above freezing for the last 72 hours there was some ice leftover from storms but mostly just MUD, MUD, MUD - so home we go where all three dogs got bathed (rinse, shampoo, rinse, shampoo, rinse, conditioner, rinse, towel dry, blow dry) to get all the sand and grit out of their coats and nether regions don't recall the last time I had to spend so much time rinsing just to get all the grit out from the undercoat!

Then it was my turn to hit the treadmill for two miles - done, done and done! I don't feel like I got to sit down at all today - until I sat down to edit and tweak photos of course.

Some pictures from today:

1/28 - I told the boys not to run on the ice..I left out the part
about doing so with grace.

1/28

1/28 - Murphy

1/28

1/28 - Teller staying off the ice

1/28 -

1/28 - Two CLEAN goldens eh?

1/28 -

1/28 - Yellow dog is now grey.

1/28 -

1/28 - "Alright white-boy, you're goin' DOWN"

1/28 -

Friday at the Barn...January 27th, 2012

2012-01-27T18:14:00.000-05:00

It was another obedience night for Teller at the barn this afternoon - Of course I left the camera at home tonight because both boys had sessions I would have liked to watched...Teller is so brilliant, he's heeling like I've actually worked obedience with him recently - just right there where I want him to be. Fronts are great, drops are fast and clean and his up attitude is just perfect!

Decided that Kipling should do some speed circles and variants of speed circles - something he hasn't done yet. I mention to folks that he's a pretty clean slate - he's got some fundamentals on-board, but he hasn't gotten a lot of formal agility training, my philosophy is that there is still so much time to do that when he's more physically and mentally mature.

Nevertheless, one of the next things I want to help him with is looking for the next obstacle. He's at the stage where he has his favorite things 'to do', the things he's gotten a lot of reinforcement for doing (the dogwalk, tunnels, etc) and he's at the stage in his understanding where he's offering equipment a lot. That's great Kippie, but I haven't introduced you to the whole a-frame, kindly get your furry bottom off it please :-) On the one hand you applaud the enthusiasm, but you need to interject a bit of control into the situation.

So when I setup said circle I delibrately put jumps near the dogwalk ramps, tunnels and a-frames. I broke down the initial speed circle into about four pieces, clicking and treating for working WITH me. Tough lesson Kippie! In typical Kippie fashion he figured out the new game pretty quickly and had some nice sequences - I'm particularly impressed with his ability to SEE the tire in a pinwheel. In the process I also introduced some baby-rear crosses (you want me to do what while you almost run me over?) and a few blind crosses as well. No biggie says Kippie.

Here's what we worked today:

Tuesday at the Barn - January 24th, 2012

2012-01-24T21:56:00.000-05:00

A light agility day for Teller at the barn today - it's been months since he's worked any formal heelwork (or any of the open/utility exercises for that matter). If my goal is to get that CDX this year I need to train a bit of obedience here and there. So here is a very rusty Teller-Woo pretending to be an obedience dog. He loves to play the game - any game...this dog is such a huge piece of my soul.

He did get to play a bit of agility after all that 'work':

Kipling got off easy tonight - no obedience for Kippie, but probably the hardest sequences he's seen to date. He was particularly amazing in the baby sends to the jump #1 while I moved away for crosses. Don't quite remember teaching him that trick :-)

And Kippie the video:

Winter Birding - January 22nd, 2012

2012-01-23T05:03:00.000-05:00

I love cardinals!
Canon T2i

This little fellow chatted with me a bit - totally unphased by my intrusion.
Canon T2i

Canon T2i

Artsy Crabapple
Canon T2i

Canon T2i

Obviously the squirrels are unphased by the cayenne pepper in the bird seed.
Canon T2i

Teller says: "Please stop messing with the birdies and let me inside"
Canon T2i

Sunday at the Barn - January 22nd, 2012

2012-01-22T17:13:00.000-05:00

Teller had the last week off after the SAAC trial, but today after a week of not so much exercise Teller (and Kippie too) needed to work. So, just a simple setup before launching into a busy week of working and teaching.

Book Review: A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

2012-01-21T19:24:00.000-05:00

A Lion Among Men is the third novel in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked Series". Reviews for the first two novels: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (the novel from which Broadway's Wicked is based) and Son of a Witch.

The Audible Publisher's Summary
In the much-anticipated third volume of the Wicked Years, we return to Oz, seen now through the eyes of the Cowardly Lion.

While civil war looms in Oz, a tetchy oracle named Yackle prepares for death. Before her final hour, a figure known as Brrr - the Cowardly Lion - arrives searching for information about Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Abandoned as a cub, his path from infancy is no Yellow Brick Road. In the wake of laws that oppress talking animals, he avoids a jail sentence by agreeing to serve as a lackey to the warmongering Emperor of Oz.

A Lion Among Men chronicles a battle of wits hastened by the Emerald City's approaching armies. Can those tarnished by infamy escape their sobriquets to claim their own histories, to live honorably within their own skins before they're skinned alive?

Gregory Maguire's new novel is written with the sympathy and power that have made his books contemporary classics.

It took me a bit of time to get back to Gregory Maguire's Wicked series - actually it took the release of book four "Out of Oz: The Wicked Years" and that novel's subsequent appearance on the New York Times Bestseller list for me to pick the series back up. As noted in the publisher's summary this novel is written from the perspective of the Cowardly Lion (Brrr) and Yackle (as interviewed by Brrrrr).

My complaint with A Lion Among Men is that there really wasn't a plot. The writing was OK, the narration was fine - I just kept waiting for something-anything to happen. There was background information on Glinda and Leer. Obviously we learn more about Yackle (the creator of the ruby slippers, the oracle at the montery, she who gave Elphaba her broom, etc) and Mr Maguire set up the war of Munchkinlanders and the residents of Oz in a post-wizard era. Just about the best part of the novel was that many of the characters made reference to "the great and wonderful WOO" (wizard of oz and of course Teller's nickname).

A lot of this would be forgivable if the fourth book (the recently released 'Out of Oz: The Wicked Years') didn't spend the first 45 minutes or so catching the reader up on everything we learned in A Lion Among Men. I'm partially through Out of Oz and finding the plot points MUCH more entertaining - there is hope for the series to end as strongly as it began.

A Lion Among Men was written by Gregory Maguire and produced byHarper Audio, copyright 10/14/2008. A Lion Among Men was narrated by John McDonough and has a runtime of 12 hours 1 minute.

Book Review: The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2012-01-18T21:18:00.000-05:00

I'm several books behind on my reviews here, so in the next couple of days I'm going to try to catch up with my December and early January reading. Shortly after finishing Stephen King's 11-22-63, I reached for another novel from Carlos Ruiz Zafon (The Shadow of the Wind and The Midnight Palace were previously reviewed here on Magica Goldens).

The Audible Publisher's Summary:
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld.

But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed, a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

Once again, Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in the Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzingly constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.

The Angel's Game has several striking parallels to Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind - namely the tortured existence of a writer trying to succeed in Barcelona's literary circles. The Cemetery of Forgotten books makes another appearance and a mentor who fosters the love of reading and writing. I suspect that Mr. Zafon must have such a guiding force in his real-life past.

The story of The Angel's Game is a bit darker than the other two Zafon novels I've reviewed here and there is a mythical element to a couple of the characters (that I can't delve into without a spoiler). I did find that the novel got to about 15 hours 10 minutes and then suddenly there was a bit of a "whoops! we've got to wrap this sucker up fast" vibe. To some extent this was a bit uncomfortable for the reader (or listener) - we're cruising along at 55mph when suddenly we accelerate to 90mph and then abruptly crash to a tangled mess. When we step out of the wrecked car completely unharmed the ride all makes sense and we're satisfied - but we're a little stunned trying to figure out exactly how it all happened! Vague? Yes - deliberately so. I needed a second listen through the last 30-40 minutes to bring it all together in my mind.

Now for a bit of criticism - minor though it may be. I was not as invested in this novel as I was with (in particular) The Shadow of the Wind. I liked the characters well enough, but I didn't get sucked into their stories as much as I would have liked to. There is a bit of a fable in the main character David Martin's life - be careful what you wish for, because if you get it you might find that you didn't really want it in the first place.

Worth repeating for The Angel's Game is my preference to skip translated novels - as a rule, I find translated novels to miss a connecting quality between runs of thought and dialogue. All three of the Zafon novels I've listened to were translated by Lucia Graves - who so expertly manipulates the language that it seems impossible that these novels were not read in the language that they were written. I liked Dan Stevens' narration of the novel, with the usual semi-complaint that for my liking I wish he'd read at a bit faster pace. Thanks to the audible app on my iPhone I can (and did) 'fix' that by listening at an accelerated rate of playback.

The net result was a satisfying novel that perhaps just didn't shine as brightly as The Shadow of the Wind. I'd recommend it to any fan of the genre - perhaps David (and Daniel) will be more compelling to you :-)

The Angel's Game was written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and produced by Random House Audio, copyright 6/16/2009. The Spanish language novel was published in April 2008. The Angel's Game was narrated by Dan Stevens and has a runtime of 15 hours 29 minutes.

How Kipling rolls....

2012-01-18T06:19:00.000-05:00

Or...how to make a 2.5 hour car ride FEEL LIKE a 10 hour car ride:

Thankfully we were able to divert his attention with a couple of baby carrots and the squeak-a, squeak-a stopped shortly there after. Gee, it's too bad that my puppy is so stressed on long car rides eh?

Feeding raw on a budget.

2012-01-17T21:59:00.001-05:00

Today I unloaded just over 2,800 pounds of dog food off the back of a commercial truck. All frozen, all in 30-40 pound boxes. After I unloaded the entire thing and sorted everyone's order into piles (thus moving most of those 2,800 pounds twice), I unboxed and stocked our freezer, then lugged 70 pounds of duck and chicken necks into the house to thaw in the bathtub so that I can break the cases down into smaller (more manageable) packages for feeding... Oh and while I spent these two hours outside it was about 30 degrees and raining - which STILL beats minus 5 and windy, so I won't complain too much!

Good thing the goldens didn't see this!

I had too much stock to fit in a summer/fall

freezer defrost. High on the priority list for spring

chores! Ahhhhhh, SPRING!!!!

All told about 375 pounds of this order was mine. That's enough to feed my three for about 12-15 weeks - perhaps a bit more, perhaps less. I usually have a few folks who call for semi-emergency rations and most of the time I have enough to help out. I keep very close tabs on my inventory knowing that my window for wholesale orders is every three weeks.

Tip: Use a magnetic whiteboard on the outside of your freezer to keep track of your inventory - you'll know at a glance what you have inside.

My freezer holds about 450lbs of raw food (I learned that one the hard way) and in a pinch my kitchen freezer can hold another 50lbs - but I do try not to order too much more than what I'll need until the next order - first so I can rotate stock, but also because it just doesn't make sense to carry much more stock than I need. My last order (6 weeks ago) was in the beginning of December and now in mid-January as Old Mother Hubbard would say - our pantry was bare!

So what does this have to do with feeding raw food on a budget? A lot actually. I hear a lot of people say "I wish I could feed my dogs raw, but it's too expensive!" When I ask them what they're feeding for kibble and how much they're paying for that kibble more often than not they could feed raw for about the same price. Here are my eight tips for feeding a high-quality raw diet without breaking the bank:

1) Buy in bulk.
Wholesale orders are a lot of work to put together, but the cost savings over MSRP is huge - on almost every product. Find out who delivers raw to your local pet supply store, go directly to the source. Almost all manufacturers have a price-point at which they will sell wholesale. Factor in shipping costs to your door (Oma's gives me the option of having food delivered here at my home or pickup at a pre-arranged drop-point for a bit less). Remember that even when buying in bulk, buying in more bulk means more savings. Most places have a tiered wholesale pricesheet - the more you buy the more you save. For me, this means getting some friends to order with me as a co-op - for you it might mean placing one large order rather than a couple smaller orders (order every 12 weeks instead of every 6 weeks).

2) Feed a variety of pieces and parts.
The most expensive items are the mixes - whole meats, bone, organs and blanched veggies all ground up into a ready-to-use product. On the other end of the spectrum leftovers from the restaurant supply business can be pretty inexpensive - chicken necks can run around $.70/pound, chicken backs (with a lot of meat on them) at about $.50/pound. If you feed half of your dog's rations in necks, backs and frames (aka meaty bones) you lose nothing on nutrition and save a lot in price.

3) Grind your own
I understand some people aren't thrilled about handing their dog a whole chicken frame or chicken back. I totally understand. Some dogs don't chew their food well and sometimes those larger pieces do become portable (thus outdoor foods). Some manufacturers will sell ground frames or ground necks (for prices that are pretty close to the whole pricing and much less than the pre-made mixes). Or, you can always grind your own - commercial grinders (used) can be reasonably priced if you find the right situation - under $500 if you're very lucky and they (truly) last forever.

4) Shop the Specials
Oma's Pride offers specials every round of orders - some are ok deals, some are teaser pricing for new items and some are smokin' deals with the catch that pricing is only good for full case lots. When Oma's offers a special on mackerel (for instance) the pricing is usually around half of the initial wholesale price. I don't order mackerel every order, but I will order a case when they're on special. A case of mackerel will last me several months - usually until the next special on mackerel!

5) Hit the grocery store clearance rack.
Want to add veggies to your dog's chicken necks? Shop the produce clearance rack at the grocery store, blanch the veggies and add them to the bowl. I have a friend who spends one Saturday a month doing just that and freezing a month's worth of semi-cooked veggies. A local grocery store has a February meat sale - they buy in bulk to fill special orders (pre-order) and pass the savings onto the customers. Last year I was able to buy 40 pounds of chicken wings for $22 - lots of meat, nice amount of bone and a great size for a couple (then) of golden retrievers.

Our freezer stocked up for another 12 weeks.

6) Augment raw rations with one of the dehydrated 'raw' foods.
Sojo's, Addiction, The Honest Kitchen - all make really good products. Some are designed to be fed as complete diets, others like the Sojo's mixes and The Honest Kitchen's Preference are designed to be a meal base that you can add your own protein (raw or cooked). This gives you a lot of the ingredient control of raw with the flexibility of a kibble.

7) Feed a larger variety.
You might find that turkey is really expensive, but tripe is cheaper - tripe is a great protein (usually considered a complete food). Figure out the balance point and don't dismiss any one item type or protein altogether. I ordered tripe, turkey mix, chicken mix, chicken frames, chicken necks, chicken backs, duck necks, ground duck, sardines, tripe and tripe mixed with ground trachea.

8) Choose your brands carefully
If feeding a commercially prepared diet note that prices vary pretty significantly - especially on the raw mixes. Some brands of mixes come only in patty form - buying raw in patty form is always going to be more expensive than buying tubes or bricks, but even among the patties there's a huge variation in pricing without (in most cases) a huge difference in ingredients. You could go broke feeding a small dog on some of the more expensive patty options!

Southern Adirondack Agility Club - January 14-16th, 2012

2012-01-16T19:18:00.000-05:00

Kippie modeling his Baker Blanket

January in New England, January in upstate New York - you never know. Last weekend it was 55 degrees and we were playing outside (in NH) and this weekend it was...well....25 degrees and sleet and snow on the drive down (yuck), Saturday brought rapidly falling temperatures the official high was 23 degrees at 2am down to -1 at 8pm with 50mph winds with wind chill of -15. Ugg! Sunday's high was a whopping 10 degrees but the wind had moved out and we had brilliant sunny skies, today temps got into the mid-20's again again without the wind. In retrospect at home temps never got out of the single digits from Friday night through Monday afternoon - I missed the worst of it!

We had to hit WalMart for long underwear, a hat and some new mittens. The result was that Saturday was pretty miserable, but Sunday and Monday weren't so bad! I generally work out of the van whenever possible and with a couple of strategic starts (and leaving the car running for a while), coats on the dogs and the sunshine, my boys were comfortable all weekend - I think my van was warmer than the trial building. All three days the dogs got out for some really nice long walks - a half an hour at a time a couple times a day - everyone got to stretch their legs, keep their muscles warm under their coats and they all got some extra cookies and work the crowds.

It ended up being a fantastic weekend for Teller. In short Teller was 5 for 6 for the weekend - three standard legs plus two JWW legs = 2 QQ's and 72 MACH points!

In long we had a bobble in our Saturday JWW runs - I drove too deep to a tunnel and ended up too far behind him to get an 'out' jump down another line. I hadn't intended to go that deep to the tunnel and I hadn't intended to be on that 'off' side after it. Oh well!

In related news, while Kipling was in the building - between classes - I took the opportunity to work him a little over the practice jump. Wait, recall over jump, rear cross left, rear cross right - distractions all around focus on the task, get chicken and lots of squeaky 'yays'!!! You can do a lot with one jump!

In related news I got to watch Kipling's mother and grandmother run this weekend - both Chyna and Carlie had great runs and a couple of Q's: Carlie finishing her OA and picking up her first AXJ leg. YAY mommy!

Then and Now...

2012-01-12T19:48:00.000-05:00

Every so often I stumble upon a picture of Teller at exactly the same age Kipling is now, yesterday was one of those 'so oftens':

Murphy (3 years) and Teller (8.5 months)

Murphy (7.5 years), Kipling (8.5 months) and Teller (5 years)

Tuesday at the Barn - January 10th, 2012

2012-01-10T20:37:00.001-05:00

Not a lot for Teller (light colored circles) tonight, he had a great weekend last weekend so I just wanted to work some speed (modified speed circle in blue) and some contact/weave reps. Kipling's skill sessions in the dark colored circles:

A bit of Teller's session and most of Kippie's session:

Goals for 2012

2012-01-09T21:42:00.003-05:00

I did my year-end recap for 2011 - that's here:
http://blog.magicagoldens.com/2011/12/oh-what-year.html

Now it's time for the look ahead - goals and hopes for the next year.

For Murphy:

-- I'd love Murphy to not have to spend ANY time in a cone this year! I'd like to keep him happy, healthy and challenged all year. Here's to hoping that bumps (and resulting complications from bump removals), demodex, balancing and re-balancing thyroid level are all behind us for 2012. Murphy won't see any rings or entries, but I'd really like to keep him better stimulated this year - with the puppy arriving last year he got short-changed a bit on the training rotation. It doesn't have to be much, but Murphy needs to get his turn more often and more consistently. Murphy needs to learn some new tricks!

For Teller:
--Of course first and foremost - I wish and hope for a happy, healthy and sound Teller-Woo this year. I work very hard to train all of them correctly, to feed them the best and hopefully most biologically appropriate rations and I work very hard to keep all of them physically and mentally sound. Continuation of that is my first priority.

Competition-wise I think that the sky is really Teller's limit this year. He's running beautifully in agility - we're working so well as a team right now - I feel like we can do anything this year.
--In the short term, I want to get Teller qualified for the 2013 National Championships in Tulsa, OK at his regular (24") jump height.
--I want to finish Teller's GRCA ADHF (Agility Dog Hall of Fame) to do that he needs one more double-Q, double-placement.
--I haven't entirely decided if I want to drop him down to 20" preferred or keep him at 24" regular. We have until April 1st to decide (if we're aiming for 20" preferred in Tulsa we can't trial at 24" after April 1st). If we stay at 24" I'd like to get through MACH2 this year, if we drop to 20" preferred (we have to go back to open) I'd like to aim towards the PACH. I think we'll push through for the ADHF and see where we end up QQ and points-wise.
--I'd like to try some USDAA with Teller this year, there's one local trial - we should aim for it - if only to see what it's all about.
--Obedience. 2012 is the year that we've got to wrap up the CDX - he got his first two CDX legs two years ago and I just haven't made it a priority to go back, train and get that last one. I WILL make the commitment to do it in 2012. Teller is mostly ready for utility, would love to have the option of trying Utility A with my best boy this year.

For Kipling:

--The happy and healthy part covers Kipling too. This year will bring preliminary clearances, more training, more conditioning, more expectations - it's a very exciting prospect.
--Kipling will hit the breed ring in Canada in the spring - a few weekends here and there. Hopefully he'll be able to finish his Canadian Championship this summer.
--Agility/obedience/rally - I'm not sure yet. I might toss the baby dog in novice rally for some exposure - it will depend on a lot of variables, but in general no pressure to do anything this year. Train, build confidence, get some exposure - be a happy puppy!

For Me:

Photo by Karen Hocker

-- This is the year that I'm going to put as much thought into the care and feeding of myself as I do my dogs and I'm putting it out to the universe to hold myself accountable! I spend a lot of time making sure they're eating grain-free, gluten free, whole foods - nothing processed. I'm going to do the same for myself - nothing processed: no pasta, no bread, no more canned soup (which has been my go to dinner on busy nights), no cheese (sigh, no cheese). In general, no more shortcuts when cooking is inconvenient - though I DO fully intend to cook my chicken and I'm going to pass on the duck necks :-)

Yes, I know - It's about time eh? So, I'm going to cook more and I'm going to actually cross-train myself! Murphy is my new jogging partner - we ran a mile today after I got home from training Kipling and Teller - this was my first road run since I blew out my knee years ago - it felt pretty good actually! I'm going to do something about being the slow half of the team! Anyone locally want to join me?

Agility Club of New Hampshire - January 7-8, 2012

2012-01-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

We finished the weekend two for four - a very tempting wrong course on Saturday JWW and we fell victim to the new "chort chute" on Saturday standard - Teller came out of that chute like "holy cow, how did THAT happen?" and I couldn't push him back onto the line. Perhaps if I had run that line on the other side? The other side would have put me significantly further behind than I'd have liked for the next line. Oh well! If we're going to be 50% for the weekend, it's good to have the two Q's on the same day!

Happily we saw the shorter chute in JWW this morning and by the time we saw it again in standard we'd worked it out :-) We ended the weekend with a double Q and 36 points. Chip, chip chipping away at that MACH2 :-)

Happy Birthday Teller!

2012-01-07T19:26:00.000-05:00

His nobs at five years old.

My perfect Teller - my heart dog, my best boy turned five yesterday. Where does the time go? It seems like yesterday I was there as a newborn, trying to keep you from climbing out of an incubator while you screamed at me for my efforts :-)

Happy Birthday Teller-Woo - MACH, Canadian Champion, CD, RN, NAP NJP NF, CCA, CGC, CGN...In honor of your birthday Mother Nature gave us sunshine and 57 degrees - how thoughtful of you to share it with us :-)

Keeping dogs fit in the cold

2012-01-04T21:38:00.000-05:00

Probably the hardest thing about living in Vermont are the temperatures and snow-cover. OK, all of the things that tourists and 'true' Vermonters cherish, just make it tougher for me to get the dogs out and properly exercised. Agility in and of itself is not conditioning - it's training, it's an activity, it's fun for the dog and it is exercise - but agility requires fitness and you won't get and stay fit training agility alone. In the summer, 90% of conditioning around here is in the pool - without a local underwater treadmill or indoor doggie aquatic center we have to work a little harder to keep everyone in shape.

I've (we've) been super lucky this fall and winter - we've had a grand total of 8-10" of snow (in about three storms) here in the valley, followed by warm spells into the 40's and even 50's. The ground is not yet frozen and the snow has melted quickly. Oh, true winter will (and to some extent HAS) come soon enough with highs in the single digits and lows well below zero.

Air Kippie out for a run - Murphy grazing in the background.

Case in point: Monday morning before breakfast, the dogs went for a run in 40 degree temperatures. Monday afternoon when we trained and I was out teaching it was 36 degrees, bright sunshine, no wind - perfect winter weather as far as I'm concerned...By Tuesday morning it was 12 degrees, Tuesday at 5pm it was 2 degrees and this morning (Wednesday) it was zero. Too cold to take the dogs for a romp - they'd go, they'd probably still have a blast - but I don't want the dogs exerting themselves when temperatures are so cold. Cold air isn't great for our lungs, it 'ain't' great for dogs' lungs either.

So, what do I do to keep three very active golden retrievers fit and happy all winter? Well it's a lot of what I do to keep three very active golden retrievers fit and happy all spring, summer and fall.

Pretty typical 'free' gallop. Murphy in the lead.

First, when temperatures are above 20 degrees (and not raining, sleeting, dumping feet of snow on us), I aim to get the boys get out for a run every single day. That's my goal anyway, in practice with early darkness and busy mornings they end up getting 4-5 days a week for 45 minutes to an hour - on the field, on the turf, on the trail, etc.

As much as I can I want them to self-exercise, their own play. Gallop, bitey-face, gallop, wander, trot along after a good scent, gallop, chase, be chased, wander, etc. When time is of the essence to get dogs exercised, I do break out the bumpers and chuck-it for retrieve sessions which leads to sessions that are more gallop than anything else. Even my fittest dog (Teller) will be tired and panting after 20 minutes of long retrieves. I don't generally run them when there is deep snowcover on the ground, but snow settles and packs pretty quickly around here and I found a place to run them outdoors, on grass that is well-plowed down to the turf.

Kipling working out on the ball...

On the days that we can't get out for a run, the boys take their turns with ballwork - initially pioneered by Debbie Gross Saunders in her "Get on the Ball" series - there is an entire line of ball products by FitPaws. We have the pods and the peanut - we generally work on the peanut, but we travel with the much more portable pods.

If you're thinking about getting on the ball there are a few things to know - first you need to make ballwork safe. Nails should be trimmed (dremeled is preferable), the ball, peanut or egg needs to be stabilized when the dog is on it - so that the ball is stable and that the dog doesn't hurt himself getting on or off the ball.

You can start small with a fit-paws disc, or a donut. I find that the peanut is very easy to control with the aid of a coffee table or a sofa and my feet.

Good Job Kippie!!

Start with really short sessions - this is hard work! Initial sessions include just getting the dog's front end on the ball and then building confidence, stamina and skills from there.

Lastly, and I can't emphasize this enough - before you go out and get a peanut or a ball (etc) order the "get on the ball" DVD so that you can learn to use the tool correctly. If you order your product from fitpaws they do include an instructional DVD with the peanut and eggs - watch it.

Monday at the Barn - January 2nd, 2012

2012-01-02T20:40:00.000-05:00

A so-so session for Teller tonight - I think the incoming weather pattern had all the dogs off this afternoon. Anyhow, here's what we worked on:

And here's what the puppy worked tonight:

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T21:29:00.000-05:00

We celebrated the day with some friends - of the two and four-legged variety. A balmy 42 degree January day - rare, but appreciated! Kipling and his friend Gusto romped for about an hour and a half and then all three of my boys romped around the playground for another 40 minutes. They spent a good portion of the afternoon sleeping off all the fun!

Kipling free-stacks at 8.5 months.

Gusto teaches Kipling how to act like a border collie.

Kippie can passage!

Air-Kippie

Why Murphy needs another chiropractic adjustment....

The boys will have to get busy stomping all of their divots.

Oh what a year...

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000-05:00

Late December back in...oh wait! It's RIGHT NOW! I always take a look back at the past year before looking forward to the next, so in the class tradition:
My 2011 goals for Teller:

qualify for the 2012 AKC National Championships in Reno, NV.
I wanted so badly to qualify for the 2011 championships in Virginia, but things just didn't come together for us. To qualify for each year we needed 400 speed points and 6 double-Q's (QQs). This year Teller had all of his QQs by the end of March and we officially wrapped up those speed points in May.

I really wanted to button up his MX (Master Excellent Standard) title and finish the year with half of our QQ's towards MACH.
Teller finished his MX on May 8th and finished his MACH on November 19th. For the year he earned 22 QQ's and just over 900 MACH points

Photo Credit: Sharon Pica

That last CDX leg
Here's one we didn't accomplish. There were a couple of shows I was going to enter (Syracuse Cluster and Thanksgiving Cluster) but in both cases I didn't make the decision to enter in time for closing - in the case of the Thanksgiving cluster I had fully intended to enter and missed the closing by an hour. No worries - if I really wanted to make it happen I would have made it happen.

A puppy - specifically a Teller puppy.
I'd been approached to use Teller on a number of bitches - none of them were a good match. One had clearances and some nice starter titles but she didn't have a history of clearances in her pedigree - there were other reasons too, but that is a biggie for me. In general, people crawl out of the woodwork wanting to breed 'fluffy' to titled dogs. A lot of stud dog owners look the other way - have dozens of litters sired by their dogs that will never show up on www.k9data.com, some aren't even AKC registered. The check clears so they breed their studlies to BYB 'fluffy'. Anyhow, back to reflection :-)
I was absolutely thrilled when the possibility of what is now Kipling became a possibility. The pedigrees looked great on paper, the timing was right for all involved and we got four beautiful puppies. Beautiful, smart - so uniform in their temperament testing, personable, biddable, good looking dogs that will excel in whatever they're asked to do: agility, obedience, conformation, counter-surfing, playing ball in the backyard, climbing Mount Equinox....With any luck there will be some more Teller puppies in 2012, but - this is the looking back post not the looking forward post!

Starting and finishing the year with a happy, healthy golden retriever - fit in all senses of the word.
Mission accomplished there too.

Murphy's 2011 goals were a bit less tangible:

Certainly starting and finishing the year fit and happy.
Keeping Murphy fit has always been a challenge, perhaps the early neuter, perhaps just who he is - but he's never maintained the muscle tone that Teller seems to maintain so naturally. Murphy scared the heck out of me a couple of times this year healthwise.
The first was that damn tick-sized lump on his hock. We were really sure it was nothing - but if it got bigger, removing it was not going to be nothing. So surgery for Murphy to remove the lump on his hock, which turned out to be benign - but evolved into an infection, torn sutures, another infection, another suturing back together again, another infection and finally staples and glue. All told that round of 'life' cost Murphy 45 straight days in a cone....

Murphy - 10/12/2011

The second scare came in October with a spot on his muzzle. I thought he'd rubbed it - then he was scratching at it, I treated it like a hot spot, but it was clearly no hot spot. Diagnosis was Demodex - not a big deal, that's treatable - BUT what the heck is going on with his immune system to cause a mite issue. Cancer? Lymphoma? Cushings? Some kind of auto-immune issue? MMS? So many possibilities. Murphy has been hypothyroid since he was about 15 months old and medicated since he was 18 months old. We'd upped his dose back in May after his senior panel looked a little low. I pulled another senior panel in November to see what we were dealing with - bloodwork negative for cancer, negative for lymphoma, negative for addisons/cushings - thyroid low again. OK - THAT I can deal with. Now nearly 2 months later, the hair on his face is back, his thyroid is still a little below optimal, but we're going to watch him for another 30 days and pull another test before doing any more adjusting of medication.

Therapy dog work for Murphy
Technically whilst Murphy is eating raw he's unable to make therapy dog visits, reading with kids, etc - it's a silly rule (I mean really some dogs eat poop (of all models of origin), dogs eat dead things in the woods, dogs lick their butts, dogs lick patients in hospitals who have dirty hands - how is a piece of raw chicken, consumed hours before a visit really a threat to anyone? Anyhow - I follow rules (I'm a rule follower) - force of habit - and that means that Murphy didn't get to make any visits to the nursing homes this year. I'm bummed - but it is what it is.

Kipling's Goals:
Kipling got off easy, since he didn't exist in the beginning of 2011 - he didn't have any goals. BUT he accomplished a lot:

He got to be a puppy

Teller on his way to a best of breed puppy

The best thing I ever did for Teller - just be a puppy. Kipling got to be a puppy too. His training sessions were short - focusing on learning to learn, life skills, socialization and attention. If he has those things I can put anything else 'in' at any time in the future. Kippie traveled with us everywhere, he made his own roadtrips from time to time on local errands.

He got to go into the conformation ring
and have a good time, no pressure - no expectations. Trot around, have chicken, have fun and get some mileage. In the process he picked up a Best Puppy in Breed at just over 6 months! Well done.

He learned stuff
Plank work, walking on a leash, gaiting, stacking, stays, waits, tunnels, how to play with a cat without getting scratched, jumps, tables, how to wait patiently for dinner, dogwalks, teeters, retrieving, tricks, coming when called, how to chase squirrels, how to play bitey-face, that bitches are in fact, BITCHES :-) In the process he got his CGC (AKC Canine Good Citizen). All good stuff!

Our Year in Review:

NOMAD Run-Throughs - December 31st, 2011

2011-12-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

Here's the plan for run-throughs tomorrow morning....

Kipling's barn session

2011-12-30T20:45:00.000-05:00

Finally had another set of hands to tape Kippie's work tonight...People AND dog distractions in the arena tonight!

Weird iPhone resolution this afternoon (yes, it was light outside still), we really weren't training in the dark, but this video came out like we were training in a closet....note to self, don't use the iphone camera at the barn.

Friday at the Barn...December 30th, 2011

2011-12-30T17:28:00.000-05:00

Great group out at the barn tonight - some fun sequences for the big dogs :-)

Product Review: Dokken's Dead Fowl Trainers

2011-12-29T16:21:00.000-05:00

Kippie with the Bob-White
Quail...

Thanks to L.L. Bean we stumbled upon these fowl trainers during last Friday's 30% off (all dog products) sale. Teller had attempted to steal a similar model from a friend last summer - trotting around with it like he was SURE it was a gift for him. He was sad when he had to give that little quail back. I actually made a venture to Dick's Sporting Goods to see if they had them in stock, when I didn't find them I gave up...UNTIL:
http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/41028?feat=507026-GN2

So we've only had these for 24 hours or so but the boys - at least my two 'retrievers' (Murphy doesn't see the point) are just nuts for these fowl trainers - way more exciting than some silly bumper. I was impressed at how size and weight were similar to real birds - and they do seem to encourage proper pickup..

Teller with the Ruffed
Grouse....

I was hoping that these Dead Fowl Trainers would function as an every day retrieving toy that the dogs enjoyed retrieving (the kind that they steal out of the training bag to play with when they think I'm not paying attention) and also to encourage proper mid-body pickup of real birds - in the event that I magically get more time to do field training.

So far my initial impression is that I've got both. The dogs clearly prefer these retrievers over their plastic bumpers - even the fowl scented fabric bumpers. The Green wing and the bobwhite quail are small enough to tuck into my back pocket as we hike into our training space and with the attached rope I'm able to put the birds pretty close where I'm aiming them to land.

To be determined (obviously) how well these hold up to retrieving wear and tear, but they do seem to be pretty solid and sturdy and the price was certainly right. I ended up buying a full set - figuring that the smaller 'birds' were going to get the most use - I really don't see myself regularly flinging fake mallards around the playground at the school - but the quail and green-wing - are much lighter!!

Here comes winter!

2011-12-28T15:13:00.000-05:00

Last night we had nearly monsoon rains here with temperatures in the mid-40s all night. We awoke to 39 degrees with a promise of 5 degrees by nightfall, with winds increasing from the north - windchills in the negatives. Shucks! We've had blissfully warm fall and early winter temps so far, below zero was bound to happen wasn't it? So off we went for a good long romp (knowing we're probably not going to want to play outside tomorrow). When we left an hour and a half later temps were down to 27 degrees with a 'feels like' of 15 degrees - oh and that damn north wind! My shutter finger was FROZEN!! But, the boys got a great romp and should be chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.

12/28: OUCH!!
Canon EOS T2i

12/28:
Canon EOS T2i

12/28: Kippie keeps it clean.
Canon EOS T2i

12/28: Murphy
Canon EOS T2i

12/28:
Canon EOS T2i

And the rest of them here:

Tuesday at the Barn - December 27th, 2011

2011-12-27T17:59:00.000-05:00

Short session for Teller today - just some weave and contact reps...

Monday at the Barn - December 26th, 2011

2011-12-26T17:32:00.000-05:00

Ever have one of those sequences that you're SURE your dog will nail, you'd put money on it - setup one of those with Teller today, I was so sure he'd just get it - and instead we struggled with it. Here's ours - the killer was 1-2-3.

In related news, we clearly need to get some reinforcement in on the tunnel/dogwalk discrimination. As I flipped back and forth dogwalk/tunnel/ he clearly favors the dogwalk - even when he was correctly taking the tunnel he was looking really hard at that dogwalk before fully committing to the tunnel. Lots and lots of reinforcement on the dogwalk lately!! Now the tough part, I thought for sure he'd come out of the tunnel - read the 'out' cue and take that wing jump. It was like he didn't even see the jump. Then (in classing Woo form) when I tried to send him under the DW to just the jump he actually looking for the DW support and jumped THAT instead! Once we got it, it was a beautiful sequence to run!

Kipling's sessions are still really short and obstacle focused. Today he saw his very first tire - which was kind of a non-event - "oh, I go through the round part?" Got it! When I have a baby dog or a pre-novice dog there's a ton of reinforcement and sequences are super short. Sometimes one obstacle, sometimes three - but super short. I don't want to start a pattern when the dog has opportunity or desire to disconnect from his (or her job). I stress to my students to break things down, to make success, to reinforce while things are going well - even if it means they have to stop running a fun sequence to reward. It's hard to do, when they generally get to see the grown-up advanced dogs running at practice - or the older dogs who are products of a lot of very deliberate training over years - and try to run their dog like an excellent or masters dog.

Here's what Kipling worked on today - all of 10 minutes of work, super short sequences - lots of reinforcement. Party, party, party, play!

Your charitable dollars...

2011-12-26T08:36:00.000-05:00

We've reached the end of the year and many folks (like myself) are looking at year-end charitable contributions for tax purposes. We all see so many tug at heartstrings commercials on TV: starving children in Africa (for seventy cents a day...), the creepy Dixie Carter tilted head commercial and of course the 60-90 second spots for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

It sure looks like those HSUS folks are saving animals doesn't it? Why, look at all those scared animals in the videos - HSUS saved them from deplorable conditions right? If I sign up for a yearly membership (billed monthly at $19.99) they'll throw in a fleece jacket AND an all-purpose tote (reusable grocery bag) and I can feel good about all the animals that will be helped with my renewable donation right? See, there's the problem - and don't feel badly, I think their celebrity spokespeople have been duped as well.

HSUS is a legislative lobbying organization - it is not an organization designed to actually help animals. Surprised? Read on.

What if the American Cancer Society operated like the Humane Society of the United States?

less than 1% of your donations would go to cancer research, however ACS' mission statement would underscore the importance of cancer research and cancer prevention.

ACS would offer consulting services to non-profit research labs - how to run your cancer study - at a considerable fee to the non-profit lab.

The vast majority (99.99%) of cancer research programs and initiatives wouldn't receive even a penny of funding.

Death rates would be inflated and clinical data (other people data of course) would be manipulated in advertisements and donor sheets in order to procure more donations out of the well-meaning public.

ACS would spend two-thirds of it's operating budget sponsoring and driving legislation that banned everything that might even remotely contribute to cancer: do you like cheese? People who have cancer ate cheese - CHEESE CAUSES CANCER! BAN CHEESE!!!

ACS would 'pay' itself first, with 1/2 of total operating budget going to compensation packages.

Would you still write that check to The American Cancer Society every December?

So what does the HSUS want to accomplish with your hard earned money?
Mandatory Spay and Neuter:
If every dog and ever cat is spayed and neutered (HSUS advocates pediatric spay and neuter) where are you going to get your next puppy?
Kennel Fees and Kennel Licensing:
HSUS is working very hard in all fifty states to institute state-wide licensing for all breeders. National registration, subjection to unannounced home inspections, etc. At first blush this sounds like a great idea right? What if you're a responsible breeder of say...golden retrievers. You have waited three years to plan this perfect litter. Both the parents have health clearances, and a pedigree complete with such clearances. You've planned for healthy and happy puppies. A kennel license will cost you $500/year for that one litter and you will be inspected twice a year (a'la health inspectors). Listen, I take good care of my dogs - but having dogs and breeding them responsibly should not subject my premise to unlawful inspection. Oh and now that we're policing all these breeders, who is going to pay for the inspectors? Who is going to enforce compliance? If a backyard breeder wants to breed puppies without clearances in unsanitary conditions - what makes you think they'll step up and buy mandatory kennel licenses for all of their breeding stock? Or stick around to pay the non-compliance fines?
Elimination of domesticated animals:
“We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding ...One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.”
Wayne Pacelle Animal People News, May 1993

So what can you do to help actual animals?
Start small and start local - your local shelter might be called "something-something Humane Society", but it is not affiliated with the HSUS. Remember HSUS doesn't operate a single shelter. That local shelter of yours has needs that you can help them meet: they all need towels, blankets, paper towels, cleaning supplies, dog food, dog toys, cat food, cat toys, litterboxes and cat litter - the list goes on and is endless. Local shelters need volunteers too - go help out one Saturday a month, take some dogs for a walk, groom a cat, answer the phones. Want to be a real hero? Write them a check. You'll get the same feel-good tax-deductible experience and your dollars will make a difference to the animals and to your community too. Can't give cash? Be creative, those ugly purple towels you spot at a yard sale for $.25/each will be put to good use at your shelter. Walk in a fundraiser and gain sponsorship from your family and friends.

Some links:
HumaneWatch:
http://humanewatch.org
HSUS Donations to shelters: http://humanewatch.org/index.php/the_humane_society_of_the_united_states_and_pet_shelter_giving/
Fun Quotes from Waybe Pacelle:
http://activistcash.com/biography_quotes.cfm/b/3366-wayne-pacelle
ActivistCash:
http://activistcash.com/organization_overview.cfm/o/136-humane-society-of-the-united-states
Center for Consumer Freedom:
http://www.consumerfreedom.com/?s=HSUS&submit=Search

Extra Credit Reading - Here's PETA:
http://www.petakillsanimals.com/

Presents, presents, presents...

2011-12-25T21:08:00.000-05:00

I generally don't shop for Christmas, several folks got a few little things I knew they needed - but I don't 'do' Christmas shopping, malls, the tree, etc etc. I used to, but it just got to be too much work and too much stress.

The boys got a couple of things from L.L. Bean that I ordered on Friday (there was a one-day 30% off all dog products) - which they needed - the sale meant that they got them. So we have three new dog beds and some bird trainers coming in the next few weeks or so. We did have several packages arrive for the boys though which they got to play with today - the scene:

Patiently waiting?

The spread....

This dude scares me a little....glowing eyes and and a fiery mane.

Kippie dives onto the goodie pile like he dives onto his scent article pile.

Christmas shopping stresses Murphy out!

The bubblegum chewies were a hit.

Squeaker duck on steroids!

My squeaker duck! No MY squeaker duck!

Kippie ♥'s water buffalo.

Christmas coma.

A Christmas Addendum

2011-12-24T18:13:00.000-05:00

Or perhaps a new tradition around here. Many of you know that we (my dogs) celebrate things around here with cheeseburgers - for really no other reason than it's a rare treat. Like kids who eat very healthy all the time and LOVE chicken McNuggets - my gluten-free, grain-free raw fed dogs love a good (or even sub-average) cheeseburger every once in a while :-)

This year Teller received a gift card in the mail from his daughter Jordan (who saved up several weeks of her allowance) with instructions to take the entire family out for cheeseburgers - what better timing for a treat than Christmas Eve?

As a thank you to Jordan, the whole family poses with the gift card...oh the anticipation!!!

So Christmas Eve afternoon, after laundry, housekeeping, a photoshoot and some napping (naturally) - Teller and I made the trek to McDs:

With Ma in her kerchief (I mean fleece covered in dog hair) and with DOG as my co-pilot, off we go to the drive-thru. We also stopped at the convenience store around the corner for lotto tickets - so 'Ma' can dream of retirement and visions sugar plums dancing around a big beautiful agility facility in the heart of Chittenden County :-)

Teller delivering the 'goods' back to the homestead. Three cheeseburgers for the boys and one very delicious non-fat peppermint mocha treat for me (not pictured).

And tonight for supper the boys will be served a traditional Italian Christmas Eve dish - the feast of FIVE fishes! On the menu: ground lobster, ground salmon, whole capelin, whole mackerel and whole sardines (all from our friends at Oma's Pride). Lucky dawgs!

Merry Christmas from Magica Goldens

2011-12-24T13:23:00.000-05:00

With apologies to those who may have expected a card in the mail this year - it just didn't happen. Not enough time and Christmas spirit to go around this year I suppose. With a pretty hard and fast deadline approaching and a fresh dusting of snow on the ground it was now or never, out to brave the 9 (NINE) degree sunny day for a Christmas picture of the boys. Here's our 2011 offering - we wish all of our friends a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Merry Festivus and perhaps most of all - a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

Kipling's Dogwalk - December 23rd, 2011

2011-12-23T18:41:00.000-05:00

My dogwalk isn't adjustable - it's super-safe, it's very sturdy, there's no wiggle in the frame, ramps have a pretty innovative suspension system in lieu of separate ramp supports and the hinges are 2" thick pipe (similar to the traditional A-Frame joint). The down-side is that it's one height only - competition height or bust. This is fine for 99% of the training that I do - but it also means that I've had to considerably change the way that I teach the dog-walk to puppies and beginner dogs.

It's not better or worse - it's just different. We spent much more time than I typically would with planks on (or nearly on) the ground. I used some cinderblocks and I actually worked a couple of sessions where I wanted Kipling to come off the side of a slightly elevated plank. We all know that the great thing about a low dogwalk is that a dog can learn to fall off if necessary, control the fall, land and get up. It's a lot more stress falling from 4' feet. In between formal plank sessions (we 'planked' every 7-10 days or so) he would often get a quick 10 reps of getting on the side of the full-height plank and getting into his 2o2o. I will continue to do more contact reps than full dogwalks with him (Teller does the same contact rep exercise as warm-up).

This learning path put Kipling on the dogwalk for the first time last week and he did beautifully! Here he is on his second session of the full-height dogwalk. As you'll see he's very focused on his end behavior and he's very deliberate about where he puts his feet - he knows where the plank is under his feet and he's controlling his body as he goes up and over. That is a very hard skill for a puppy to master with a growing body!

Friday at the Barn...December 23rd, 2011

2011-12-23T16:31:00.000-05:00

Perhaps the best compliment we've ever had today, pardon a bit of setup as I get to the point...We're at the barn, I worked Kipling first - he was uncharacteristically unfocused - not sure where his head was, but I ended his session after about 8 minutes. One of his lessons right now is that if he doesn't want to play, that's fine, but he goes back in his box. Play the game, make mistakes, try stuff - all good. Put your head down and sniff and your turn is done - no emotion, no cajoling - it's not my job. (grin)

Teller is next up, and as I'm working Teller a mother and toddler (there for a sibling's riding lesson I presume) wander down to our arena to watch us work. Teller always appreciates an audience, doesn't miss a beat and continues to work beautifully. After a nice sequence (ending with nailing - and holding - a dogwalk), I break off training to toss an udder toy for Teller (he goes zipping off after it).The mom turns to me and says "That dog is the happiest worker! It looks like he just LOVES his job!" I grinned like a fool (I'm sure) as Teller comes bounding back to me with the udder inflation for either another throw or another sequence. Teller does love his job of course, but the secret is that he loves playing the game with me - any game would probably do...

Here's what we worked today - 15 minute session.

A matter of fairness...

2011-12-21T00:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes in the course of training dogs, or teaching humans we have to take a step back and evaluate what we've taught and what we need to teach with critical eyes. I think I've taught X, but the dog has interpreted that as Y, but I have expectations of X - didn't get X, generalized that dog should know X and perhaps become a little annoyed that dog didn't do X, when the dog clearly thought his response was correct. Clear as mud?

I had one of those mea culpa moments today with Kipling. Kippie had broken through the baby gate in the kitchen for about the tenth time this week - in less than 20 seconds actually - on a mousetrap I thought was pretty well put together. Kipling usually only challenges the baby gate when I'm on the other side, though on a couple of occasions it was the cat who enticed him to jailbreak. It doesn't appear to be anxiety, and when he moves the gate, he clearly thinks he's pretty clever. Hey! Look at me, I figured it out!

I'm in the kitchen, he's supposed to be not in the kitchen - and suddenly he's right there at my feet - or in the dining room harassing the cat under the dining room table. This morning the setup was similar, I left all three boys in the den while I went through the kitchen and into the living room to put outgoing mail in the mailbox. By the time I had closed the gate and turned towards the front of the house, there was Kippie right behind me.

His yellow-ness got marched back to the den and into his crate for a time-out. Yes, he did probably need some downtime (and he immediately settled down for a nap) - but it got me thinking about the fairness of my expectations. The same puppy not 24 hours earlier had maintained a 10 minute downstay in the den while I took a shower in another part of the house...certainly we've proofed those stays. What's the deal with busting down baby-gates?

I think the answer is pretty simple - I haven't put any value or reinforcement into staying behind the baby gate. Murphy and Teller respected the gate from day one around here - Kipling isn't identically programmed and indeed, Kipling has gotten a lot of reinforcement for problem solving - how to get cookies by cramming himself in a box, how to balance on an exercise ball for his core conditioning. Lots and lots of reinforcement for thinking outside the box and coming with me - no reinforcement whatsoever for hanging out with the other dogs without actual direction in the den while Erica takes a shower.

So the question of fairness - and the fairness of expectations - sometimes when our dogs 'fail' we really need to go back and look at what criteria we've taught and to make sure we've taught what we think we taught. This is true for dog sport as much as it is for every day life of dog. Is it fair of me to expect a 10 minute out of sight downstay for my 8 month old puppy? In my house, with normal distractions - you betcha. Is it fair for me to take him to PetSmart and proof a 10 minute downstay? Of course not. It's up to handlers and trainers to work very hard to make training and expectations fair - and to recognize when they're not fair.

As for Kipling, he's getting some remedial lessons on how to stay behind a babygate and some extra credit for novel application of escapism.

Teller's day out.

2011-12-20T18:33:00.000-05:00

I had a bunch of errands to run today: here there and everywhere. Teller wanted to come along, so off we went - Teller trying out an afternoon as "the only dog" and me trying to get every drop out of a vacation day before the world goes crazy for the Christmas Holiday.

After the post office, Kinney Drugs, Agway, Comcast, the bank and the grocery store I decided to stop at the school to let Teller run around for a bit (of course I had my Canon with me)...My pockets were empty of cookies, but of all my dogs - Teller is the one who cares least about food rewards for silly things like retrieving stuff.

12/20
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

12/20 - Retrieving and Romping complete...Woo heads
for the van. C'mon ma, we're leaving.
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

Farewell Pentax - Hello Canon EOS Rebel...

2011-12-19T19:52:00.001-05:00

Back in September I purchased the Pentax K-r - I liked that camera a lot, I liked the shots I was able to get with it and the price point was very appealing for the feature set. When that camera arrived I noticed that when I set the clock the time didn't stick - every time the camera was powered off it'd reset back to 01/01/2010 00:00 - unless I set the time, which wasn't terribly practical when you just want to turn the bugger on and take a picture. I should have called in the problem right away, but I didn't and found myself approaching the 90 day return policy from Costco and thus needed to find out if the unit could be fixed with a firmware update. Pentax support was very nice - except within 10 minutes of troubleshooting they were asking me to send the unit back to them, 4-6 weeks later they'd send it back to me. That's 4-6 weeks without a camera. That wasn't acceptable - no matter how 'industry standard" that interval is for camera repairs. OK, so I can return to costco and then just buy a new one online (from costco), I'll have the new one by Christmas! No dice folks, the Pentax K-r is no longer carried by costco.com. So what's a girl to do?

Shop the Costco coupon sale of course - where the Canon EOS Rebel T2i was significantly marked down - and carried at my local warehouse. Squeeeee! OK, not exactly the same price, but within striking distance for sure and the costco bundle came with the standard 18-50mm lens, but also a 55-255mm lense - which I will use probably 99.9% of the time anyhow.

12/16 - Murphy
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

So, off we went to NH with a brand new camera to play with...Of course by the time I had charged the battery it was dark outside and hotel lighting isn't usually the best....

12/16 - Kipling on a half-wall...
or "I think I've done too much 'plank' work with him".
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

12/16 - Teller, Murphy and Kipling

Patience was wearing pretty thin here. Murphy had fasted for bloodwork in the

morning and SOMEONE (me) had forgotten to feed him breakfast when we got

home from shopping and errands..By dinnertime he was pretty eager for supper!

Canon EOS Rebel T2i

Saturday was COLD, but nice sun. I watched the daylight and enlisted some help for some Kippie shots:

12/17 - Kippie says: Hey Jill, Can you throw the udder please?
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

12/17 -
Canon EOS Rebel T2i

12/17 - Recall games can be scary sometimes...Imagine this coming at you,

you're kneeling on the ground and puppy is aming for your head, because that's

where you have his cheese...

Canon EOS Rebel T2i

Agility Club of New Hampshire - December 17-18, 2011

2011-12-18T18:46:00.000-05:00

Our last trial of the year, so we'd better make it worth our while eh?

Saturday we started with JWW - a clean run, not great speed in the poles, but that's OK - clean is clean and plus 12 points for that run. Standard was another clean run with nice contacts and fast weaves (for another QQ) and 20 points there.

Sunday JWW we had the #2 bar - a double - so I went into experimentation mode - pushed and didn't support a jump on a partial pinwheel - Teller came with me, I haven't reinforced push and gos enough obviously, Teller clearly thought he was supposed to move with me. It's all good - we were 18 seconds under standard course time which would have translated to 18 MACH points if we'd been clean. Sunday standard we redeemed ourselves with fast weaves, a great dogwalk contact (an a-frame contact that I wasn't so thrilled with - but he was in) and another 22 points.

So Teller finished the weekend with three for four: plus one QQ and plus 54 MACH points. Not bad for a weekend's work eh?

So we finished the year 2011 with a grand total of 22 double Q's and 827 MACH points (1047 points for breed standings = 10*QQ + MACH points) . I won't know for sure until all the year-end results are in, but I believe we'll absolutely finish in the top 50 for the breed for the calendar year (we were #40 back at the beginning of November and we've added 4 QQs and 300 points since then). Not too shabby for a couple of New England Hillbillies eh?

CONTEST! CONTEST! CONTEST!

2011-12-16T18:57:00.000-05:00

A first for Magica Goldens - I've been approached by a sponsor offering some goodies (of the canine edible variety). Naturally, I'm going to share the love with my readers (OF COURSE) - I have a couple of details to work out in the process though - so folks, stand by for some more information (early next week) with all of the details on how to enter!

It's official!

2011-12-15T18:51:00.000-05:00

Finishing an AKC MACh is like running a race, crossing the finish line in first place, drinking the gatorade and then heading back home to wait a month while the race results are certified...You keep compulsively checking the race results and find out that the officials are still tabulating the metrics. This week I sent in my first MACh Teller dog show entries, that was cool - even cooler was the trial secretary who updated her records (without notification) to send out show confirmations already addressed to MACh Teller :-)

All great things, but I still had to wait for the American Kennel Club to catch up (there are a lot of events, a lot of entries, a lot of results - all these things take time). Well now - three and a half weeks later, the results are finally in - AKC has officially recorded Teller's MACh. We're official!

AKC has even started our countdown to MACH2 (I'm not so sure about that). When AKC catches up we're at 1 Double Q and nearly 200 points to the MACH2 - that's a long way to go! I do need to go back for that last CDX leg though!

It's a bird...it's a plane...

2011-12-13T05:17:00.001-05:00

From 12/3

It's a flying Kipling! I wanted to recreate the shot from last weekend with Kipling galloping at the camera - all four feet off the ground. It wasn't the tightest focus on him and Teller wasn't at a particularly flattering position in his gallop. Kipling is mostly in focus - the expression is perfect goofy puppy excitement.

So - here's the hard part, go out and create the same conditions and get the same shot AGAIN. You talk to 5 photographers and they all have one of 'those' shots that they wish they could get again - a little more light, a little sharper focus, a different background, better exposure - you name it. One of my good friends has such a shot (for her it was sharpness) and has been back to the same place six times to try to catch that shot again - without any luck. Could I get another 'airs above the ground' with Kipling?

Well of course not - the expression plus the pose plus the light - It's so hard to duplicate every variable - though I certainly think it's easier with landscapes than with living subjects...

Here's the best one:

12/12 - kind of a grown-up expression, but there is still glee!

And then some others - what I did learn is that I have a nice wait and a good recall. Only Teller was out with us today - but Kippie totally ignored the soccer playing school children on the enjoying recess on the adjoining field.

And some other shots:

Kipling Come! The Pre-launch.

Good wait.

Teller supervising from a sit-stay.

Puppy Playtime!

2011-12-12T10:17:00.000-05:00

We discovered a fenced in play area at the trial this weekend - Kipling took good advantage of a playgroup on a chilly Sunday morning:

12/11 - Tail caught mid-wag; nice striding though...

12/11 - Kipling with his friend Aero.

12/11 - I'll caption this one 'Young and Foolish'
Yes, in true Kippie form he has all four feet off the ground.

12/11 - I'm trying to get another shot with Kippie running right at me with all four
feet off the ground....pretty close!

12/11

Yankee Golden Retriever Club - December 10-11, 2011

2011-12-11T21:26:00.001-05:00

Teller finished his weekend one for four at the Yankee Golden Retriever Club trial - on paper maybe not so hot, but really four great runs.

Saturday we started with a bar down in JWW - From the video it looks like I put pressure on a rear-cross and down came the bar. Saturday standard I had walked the course with a layer between the chute. Teller hits the table so hard he actually got two table legs off the ground! Classic Teller - completely unphased - I'd imagine he's pretty used to tables moving under him. Coming off the table he didn't have the momentum to get the push out and he came off the #12 (also #1) jump to the chute. That put me completely out of postion when he barreled out of that chute. Once something like that happens, well runs can fall apart easily (and ours did). We got it back together, I got my rear-cross at the teeter (kinda) and we finished with a great set of weaves - going into training mode - how much can I push the weaves in trial? So I put him in the weaves and raced him down the line. He stuck with them and really did his job.

Sunday Teller had a great standard run, two 180 sequences and Teller nailed both of them - nice tight turns, no wasted time or space - just nice jump wraps. We get to the weaves, he seems to switch up his footwork, he's moving in the weaves with nice speed, but it's almost like he was trying to single-step through the poles - that's not his normal footwork. At pole 10 he pauses and looks at me and comes out of the poles. I don't think I did anything to pull him out though - clearly that's what he thinks he's supposed to do. It would have been a 24 point standard run for Teller - overall very pleased!

Sunday JWW was a tough course - lots of traps down that last line to the tunnel - four jumps, the 'wrong' end of the tunnel to a finish jump. Teller ran cleanly for a 10 point JWW run.

We'll 'get em' next time!

Birding...

2011-12-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

The birds have finally come back to the feeders -as have the squirrels....

This squirrel does not even have the decency to act afraid when I follow
him around with the camera.

As you can see he's pretty well kept. He'll even eat the birdseed laced with hot pepper.

One of six cardinals that came to visit this morning.

Another red-head in the fog of morning.

The birds bore Q - who would appreciated an uninterrupted nap.

And some more photos to share....

2011-12-06T06:05:00.000-05:00

Magica Reindeer Games...

2011-12-05T04:29:00.002-05:00

Some fun with photoshop:

Sunday at the Barn - December 4th, 2011

2011-12-04T16:28:00.002-05:00

Another lovely late fall aftenoon - windy as all get-out but it ended up being a nice day to get out and train. Here's what I setup for folks today:

AKC Equipment Changes effective 1/1/2012

2011-12-04T11:05:00.000-05:00

With the coming new year there are a slate of changes coming to AKC agility near you. For trials on or after January 1st, 2012 the following changes take effect (also note that any trial that begins on 12/31 this equipment is legal for that day as well - but exhibitors must be notified in the premium).

Weave Pole Spacing - its official. Weave pole spacing is now 24" on center. Fortunately for New England dogs, I don't think I've seen 20" or 22" poles at a trial since November of 2010, but nevertheless, it is a welcome change.

Tunnel changes: In the past tunnels with 'pitch' of 4" or 6" were permissible in AKC courses. Effective January 1st tunnels must have 4" pitch. Pitch refers to the distance between ribs (the metal reinforcements). I'm not sure I've noticed the difference (except in pricing). I DO know that I just purchased a nearly brand-new (used two days) 20' tunnel for 25% of the actual cost because it was mistakenly ordered with 6" pitch. YAY for me!!

There's also a brief mention of tunnel supports - specifically "Tunnel supports shall not have a rigid upright (i.e., steel/wood) that is capable of fitting between the ribs thus possibly projecting into the tunnel.".

A Chorter Chute. The total length of the fabric part chute (or closed tunnel) will now be between 6' and 6'6". I'll be curious to see how new course design accounts for this change, we certainly won't have the normal carry-out from a chute sequence. It will definitely be easier to get dogs turning after or in a chute which could go either way. I don't think Teller will see a shorter chute until his first trial in January though as I have not shortened my chute fabric.

KeepHer weaving at Westfield.

Design changes: Doubles and triples have to have open sides, bars have to be visible from the side. There are some more details on the width of wings - wings need to be standardized between 16" and 36" wide(24" wings recommended).

Labeling changes: AKC is recommending that height markings for the tire jump reference the jump height that they'll be set for, not the actual height. In other words a tire set at 20" off the ground would be labeled 24" - so as to not confuse the ring crew. I think this might end up being MORE confusing at least in the short-term - is this 20" actually 20" or is it 16"? The Max 200 tire jump has two labels on each jump height: 'true height' / 'AKC Height' - which still confuses people.

And at the end of the day hopefully we'll have a safer sport, happy running dogs and happy and enthusiastic exhibitors.

NOMAD Run-Throughs - December 3rd, 2011

2011-12-03T18:55:00.000-05:00

So off we went to run-throughs this morning, I'm still not feeling great and it shows in my handling today, really can't get the head clear and thrice daily doses of DayQuil isn't helping the cause..
Here's what we ran:

And here's the video - Teller running first at 24" and then at 20" (NOMAD is primarily a USDAA club so the triple was set to 22" for both runs) the runs were about 10 minutes apart.

Saturday in the Park...

2011-12-03T17:13:00.000-05:00

Certainly not the 4th of July....but nevertheless, still no snow here in Vermont and with temperatures in the upper 30's with brilliant sun we HAD to make good use of the day. So I packed up everyone headed to morning run-throughs with Teller and then stopped for a 'run' on the way home.

Three dogs are hard in the event that we run into kids, bikes, random unfriendly dogs, etc - especially if I also have a camera. So the boys played in groups of two - Kippie/Teller and Murphy/Teller - much easier for me to keep an eye on everyone. PLUS, it was really good for Kipling to have a good tantrum at being the one left-behind in the car for a little while (think toller-screams) - he will need to learn to be in a crate near an agility ring (and be quiet) while I run Teller - might as well work through this disappointment now. Advantage power doors, from 50' away I have the ability to open and close 'his' door. It's pretty simple when he screams the door closes...When he's quiet the door opens (and he can watch). I think he had three closures before he settled and watched quietly.

AND....They're OFF! Down the backstretch!

Pentax K-r

"Playful and Foolish"

Pentax K-r

Teller in full gallop.

Pentax K-r

And Kipling at full speed. He's looking like a 'yearling' now. A bit gawky.

Pentax K-r

Teller with the inflation

Pentax K-r

Portrait

Pentax K-r

Another Portrait

Pentax K-r

Levitating Puppy.

Pentax K-r

They have THREE acres to gallop on...and they choose to be 2" apart.

Pentax K-r

Somebody packed their 'crazy eyes'

Pentax K-r

And another portrait.

Pentax K-r

Murphy's turn!

Pentax K-r

Murphy practicing his hunter-pace trot on the forehand....

Pentax K-r

Look at this angle in this light you can't see the giant bald spot on his face!

Pentax K-r

Air Murphy

Pentax K-r

Murphy

Pentax K-r

Murphy

Pentax K-r

Murphy settles in to graze, all the udders have been retrieved. Must be time

to go home now....

Pentax K-r

Kipling's Training Journal: Part Nine

2011-12-02T20:17:00.000-05:00

Kipling is solidly into adolescence at this point - I figure based on typical golden time-line I'll be willing to sell him to the highest bidder in about three weeks :-) I've stepped up some rules with him and I've increased his level of exercise. This week he has decided that Murphy (poor Murphy still wearing a cone) is a good candidate for humping. Of course Murphy will never tell him to knock it off (which is all that it would take) and Kipling knows better than to try that macho stuff with Teller - and of course he doesn't try it when I'm there either, so at this point he doesn't get turned out with Murphy in the backyard unless I'm out there.

I've been sick since the cluster so formal sessions haven't happened this week - until yesterday when I hiked out to the barn to work the boys. Feeling like crud I set up jump grids for both boys.

This was Kipling's second ever jump session - as you can see he's clearly an advanced pupil :-) My goal for this session was to get him striding over the intervals, work some waits and lead-outs and finally break the line with turns! As you can see he's got a lot of handler focus at this point (he's looking at ME not at the jumps or to the jumps). This will change with experience as he figures out what his job is in this game.

Jump Grids for Teller

2011-12-01T20:19:00.000-05:00

Okapi, My Kapi
Get off my chest!

I'm still working my way through 'cluster flu' (being oncall and not getting a lot of sleep is certainly not helping my recovery), as a result my lung capacity is sitting somewhere between 10-15%. It's like running with an Okapi on my chest. Why an Okapi? Why the heck not? They're my favorite endangered species...

It's also been quite a while since Teller worked any jump grids (well over a year I'd imagine) and I'm still looking at 20" vs 24" for him, so I packed my video camera and set up some grids.

In the first series the jumps are set to 24" spaced for one-stride, bounce, one-stride. When the jumps come down to 20" however, the spacing becomes bounce, bounce, bounce as he can extend in the spacing. It takes a couple of reps for him to bounce the grid, but once he does - HOLY ATHLETE Batman! It's a thing of beauty. He's a nice jumper at 24", he certainly does not look like he's struggling at 24", but those 20" jumps look so effortless for him!

The 2011 Cluster - Part Two

2011-11-29T19:40:00.001-05:00

So here's the rest of the cluster report...

November in New England can mean any number of things: snow, sleet, sideways rain, constant drizzle, black ice, mittens, 40 mph winter winds, highs in the mid-30's....In fact on Wednesday (Thursday was my travel day) we had several inches of really heavy wet snow - it was a pretty drive through the mountains though!

But, for all four days of the agility portion of the cluster (Friday-Monday) the weather was absolutely perfect! Highs were in the mid to upper 50's, the sun was out, light breeze. Dogs were perfectly comfortable in the van with windows and doors open. Lows at night were in the mid to low 40's. The buildings stayed pretty cool during the entire weekend, most folks were comfortable in sweatshirts or polo shirts - perfect Woo agility temperatures! No one froze walking their dogs around grounds - it was a bit of a bummer arriving to the trial site in the dark and then leaving the trial site in the dark - but I couldn't have custom ordered better weather, even for an indoor trial. Imagine New England in November in a t-shirt!

And on Thanksgiving I give thanks for my dogs - who are

probably the kindest souls I have ever had a chance to

know. Above: Kipling and Murphy hunker down to enjoy

chewies together. Note the matching 'froggie' chewing style.

Secondly, let me just say how much I love my agility friends - truly awesome human-beings to whom I am so so so grateful to count among my friends. Just awesome people. When non-dog friends (I have a few) want to know why I spend so much time on the road, training my dogs, in various barns and backyards, spend so much money on 'dogs' - it's clear that they don't understand the community that exists in our sport. That most competitors root for everyone else, sure there are exceptions - but we're out there to have fun with our dogs and fun with our friends on the weekend. Some folks tackle mountains - we tackle courses and spend a lot of that time working as a team.

From Margaret and Debbie a MACH bracelet
to match my QQ bracelet!

We got to celebrate a lot of successes this year - the cluster is the cut-off to qualify for the 2012 AKC Agility Championships held every year in March - so many of our friends qualified to go to Reno, NV this year! Teller and I qualified for Reno back in March - we still have a bit of time to decide whether or not to go - it's hard to make a 5,000 mile round-trip happen from a logistical and financial standpoint - but it's awesome to have qualified this year.

A few other friends have finished PACHs, MACHs and PAXs in the last few weeks and we haven't seen them yet to sign their bars, give them hugs and congratulate them properly in person. At the same time with four rings going from 7:15am through 7pm in the evening there's this sense of 'everyone is here this weekend but I didn't get to see anyone run'!

One week post-MACH, we're still coming off our MACH high (and suffering from a little P.M.S - Post MACH Syndrome). This weekend I was truly blown away by the number of well-wishers, the hugs, the 'I knew you guys could do it', etc. My 'peeps', I was truly BLOWN AWAY! We received some lovely and thoughtful gifts this weekend and a MACH cake that - well, check out the pictures. It was a cake shaped like a QQ cheeseburger on top of another cake!

Ann and Sharon - I can't thank you enough for this cake - it was AMAZING,
a perfect gift - I am so so so grateful to both of you!

This cake creation by Mama Cakes in Westfield, MA
http://visitmamacakes.com/

Here's a close-up of the "Pièce de résistance" - ehe cheeseburger
was another (yellow) cake!
http://visitmamacakes.com/

Before the cake, we went out to take some pictures by the pond with Teller's ribbon. I was surprised the next day with an amazing plaque and framed photo from that afternoon's photo session. Both of these photos so captured who Teller is - Both were taken by Sharon Pica:

Photo Credit: Sharon Pica

Thirdly, We love running on dirt! But holy cow, with all of the dust in the air, despite the efforts to keep the dust down, I'm firmly in the midst of the "cluster cough". My lymph nodes are swollen, my ears plugged, swollen and achy, a sore throat and congestion that really wants to become a hacking cough. I'm hopped up on Airborne, DayQuil and menthol cough-drops and hoping for the best (I promise that's the end of my whining).

I love the cluster, I love the chaos, the awesome shopping - it's the greatest show on dirt!

The Thanksgiving Cluster - November 25-28th, 2011

2011-11-28T22:00:00.003-05:00

We're home from the cluster - this will be a two-part post, too much to cover in one post!

The runs - Teller was amp'ed. The boy loves his dirt and the only time we get to trial on dirt all year (sod doesn't count)! The weather was perfect - PERFECT! The boys were comfy in the car with windows and doors opened and the building (not insulated and largely unheated) was nice and cool all four days.

The cluster is HUGE! 1500 agility runs each day in four rings with six judges. ISC classes, FAST, T2B. The Excellent 20" class was nine pages of dogs (150 dogs) and ran nearly all day! Our 24" class was well over 85 dogs. BIG BIG classes!!! This is the largest agility trial in the country.

In the other two show buildings (something like six acres of indoor dog shows and vendors), they had 20 rings of conformation, four obedience rings and two (I think) rally rings. We did a little shopping (part of this will be in part TWO of the cluster recap) and had a few good runs.

The net result for Teller was about 60 points and one more QQ (we're calling that a 'bumper' leg) as we likely won't pursue a MACH2 {we'd need 19 more QQ's and 500 points}. We're definitely going to put some more time into contacts this week - particularly that DOGWALK contact! We did get some training in the ring - pushing a bit here and there to see what I had - net win all around.

Here are the runs - Part TWO tomorrow:

Run-Throughs at the barn - November 26th, 2011

2011-11-26T20:03:00.000-05:00

Obligations kept us elsewhere today, but I did design a couple of courses for the club run-throughs this morning at the barn. Here's what got setup, can't wait to hear how it went!

Book Review: 11-22-63 by Stephen King

2011-11-24T10:03:00.000-05:00

The Publisher's Summary

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away: a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life - like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963 - turning on a dime.

Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession - to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world - of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading, eventually of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful - and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

I'm not generally a fan of Stephen King. I appreciate his work, his talent for storytelling and his ability to remain a mainstream popular author who hasn't gone the way of mass-producing novels written by others and re-branded as his own work (James Patterson I'm looking at you). Stephen King seems to write all of his own novels and each one can stand on their own with any name on the cover. I am not, however, a fan of the horror genre - finding it way more enjoyable to read slightly lighter material than tomes about psychopaths trying to kill their children or the dead rising from graves with murderous intent. Nothing personal Mr. King, just not my scene.

Stephen King's new novel however is neither dark nor horrific. 11-22-63 is firmly in the science-fiction realm. A portal in the pantry of a run-down, soon to be demolished diner deposits the time traveler to September 1958, each return trip down the "rabbit hole" resets the timeline - back to that same autumn afternoon. Al has changed the past with observable impact on the future. What if we (or in this case Jake Epping) could change history and save the President on that November afternoon back in 1963? Could Oswald be stopped? To what end? Yes, the past can be changed, Jake is able to convince himself of that when he 'saves' the Dunning family - but the past is resistant to change and the universe will resist his efforts.

On skim through the publisher's summary and I had already spent the credit and cued up the four-part download of 11-22-63. Within the first 20 minutes of the audiobook I was hooked on the storyline. Willing suspension of disbelief and more - the plotline was enthralling and consuming. With each change to the past, in some cases the change was simply the addition of George Amberson (Jake Epping), one could feel the strings of the timeline change. Small changes, the butterfly effect - of a man who should not exist in that time period.

Al went down the rabbit hole hundreds, if not thousands of times each trip, no matter how long he remained in the past, a mere 2 minutes passed in the present. All the while we wonder, if Jake saves Kennedy in Dallas is there a future for him to go back to in Maine?

Possible vs plausible - this novel is neither, which was part of the draw for me. What if we could change the past? What if Kennedy lived? Would we have avoided Vietnam? Would the twin-towers still stand in lower Manhattan? The cold war of the 80's averted? How might history be interconnected?

My one complaint about this novel (audiobook) is the speed of the narration. Craig Wasson's cadence was off when played at 1x speed. There were pauses in the narration that while intended to be part of the dramatic affect seemed overly long - and distracting. There were several times I thought my playback had paused for an incoming call, only to have the narration pick up again. I was able to solve this by listening to the novel at a higher speed - but I don't think I would have enjoyed the novel as much if I had to listen at the 1x speed for all 31 hours of this novel. Secondly, Mr Wasson's Maine and Boston accents left quite a lot to be desired - both sounded somewhat forced and unconvincing. The remainder of the narration was well executed - even the female voices were feminine without sounding forced or mocking.

In all I'm giving 11-22-63 a strong 4.5 stars on a 5 point scale - even for folks like me who generally aren't naturally drawn to Stephen King novels.It was well worth the audible credit and the 20 or so (factoring in the 2x playback - which isn't really double-time) hour investment for the uniqueness and richness of the story. Ultimately I powered through the audiobook in about 5 days start to finish - with more than a couple sessions sitting in the car at my destination waiting for a suitable stopping point. It's been a while since I had one of 'those' novels on my mind. Kudos Mr. King (and thank you).

11-22-63 was written by Stephen King and produced by Simon & Schuster Audio, copyright 11/08/2011. 11-22-63 was narrated by Craig Wasson and has a runtime of 30 hours 44 minutes.

Fun in the snow!

2011-11-23T20:29:00.000-05:00

Not technically Kippie's first snow (the October snowstorm in CT was a real joy to be in), but it was our first snow for the season in Vermont - and thus Kippie's first chance to go outside and play (off-leash) in the white stuff.

POUNCE, POUNCE!

Are you guys done yet? Breakfast was late 45 minutes ago and I'd
really like my breakfast. Breakfast is late, it's getting later.......

Wheeeee!

No, not pooping!!! Not exactly sure what he's doing here
though - perhaps the front end is turning while the rear-end
is going straight? Puppy weirdo!

Truth be told this is pretty much what Teller and Kipling do EVERY morning.
It's just that most morning I don't drag the camera out to capture the action.

Love K's eyes on this one!

Ummmm.....still hungry!

FINALLY!

Woo always picks up his toys.

Kipling's Training Journal: Part Eight

2011-11-22T20:49:00.000-05:00

It's Kipling's turn for some stardom tonight! Kipling is now officially 7 months, 22" tall (thus no longer out of standard) and is developing a pretty decent work ethic. Kipling is a thinker - he is very deliberate in his learning, but picks up new things really quickly. Once he's generalized those things he speeds up and really digs into the work. He's just about as honest as his father - and is giving me moments when he gets the lesson before I have opportunity to teach it.

For the last couple of weeks (I generally only play puppy-agility with him on Tuesdays) I've had him working tunnels with various crosses and sends. It's about time to introduce him to a jump (or in this case...two jumps). I hadn't put him on jumps before because it just wasn't necessary - it still isn't necessary per se, but it's a starting point to learning some more big boy crosses and baby sequencing. The jumps won't go up until he's at least a year when we have some prelim x-rays done to look at hips and elbows. He really won't see a lot of jumps between now and then either, but he'll have it in his 'bag-o-tricks'.

Why eight inches you ask? What's the significance? When I start a large breed puppy I generally start with the bars at 8". I watch their natural stride to confirm my expectations, I want the bar to be a factor (a jump), but I want them to be able to stride over it pretty natrally. Lots of trainers start all puppies regardless of size on a 4" bar, but in my opinion a 4" bar isn't a factor for a puppy (or dog) Kipling's size. I want them to notice it - and I want them to knock that 8" bar - so I can fix bar dropping right from the beginning.

So tonight I introduced Kipling to his first jump. It went so well I decided to break out a video camera and film our session. What you see here is what I got from the session, I've edited out only short bits of play and super squeaky Erica voice - which might have been interesting if it didn't all happen off-camera. Also, it drove my dogs bonkers as I edited the video! I have some BIG fans of squeaky voice around here.

MACh Teller - At Middlesex County Kennel Club - November 19-20, 2011

2011-11-20T21:35:00.000-05:00

MACh Teller-Woo
Middlesex County Kennel Club
November 19th, 2011

A short post tonight with big news....Mostly that we didn't waste any time sitting on Double Q #19! I proudly announce MACh Teller! Actually that's:
MACh Can Ch Teller CD RN NAP NJP CGC CGN CCA!

There's a certain ring to that eh?

We finished our awesome weekend with two 4th place placements, about 45 MACh points and overall 3 for 4 for the weekend.

I also have to thank all of my truly awesome agility peeps who cheered me on not only yesterday and today - but every run we've ever had over the last year and a half on this journey from Novice, struggling through Open Standard with dogwalk and a-frame contacts. That teeter issue that cropped up last November, the run of one mistake standard runs in Excellent B, Mr. JWW consistently throwing down Excellent B JWW legs with a jumpers Q-rate approaching 90%. A full half of our (now) 950 points coming from JWW - points harder to come by for us in JWW. It takes a village and it's a journey to get there!

Our runs from the weekend:

Oh and those of you following this blog know that Teller gets a cheeseburger for every Double-Q. Here's MACh Teller the cheeseburger remix - all twenty cheeseburgers :-)

Book Review: The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

2011-11-17T19:56:00.000-05:00

The Publisher's Summary:
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.

Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is solidly a young adult offering: horses (including mythological fictional sea horses), a love interest, coming of age, orphans, danger and adventure. I can imagine my 11 year old self (The Scorpio Races is solidly PG rating - very family friendly) obsessing over every detail of this novel. Puck's island pony (horse) Dove is the pony (horse) I always wanted as a little girl (and pretty much the pony (horse) my fifteen year old self was gifted for Christmas one year). Sean is the dreamy but somewhat unattainable boy that is half as horse-crazy as I would have been in Puck's shoes. A sweet and charming novel with a National Velvet quality (though I preferred the much less popular International Velvet as there was jumping involved).

Here's my dilemma with reading young adult fiction as an adult - the story is smooth, sweet and entertaining. I did like the novel, I enjoyed the writing and I loved the narration of the audiobook. It's a solid offering, well deserving of all of the early accolades and adoration. But, there is a chunk of complexity that is missing from most young adult/teen fiction that I find hard to forgive, this is precisely why Maggie Stiefvater's Shiver series hasn't piqued my interest (Twilight falls into this category as well) before picking up the Scorpio Races.

However, The Scorpio Races came highly recommended by not one, but two of my GoodReads friends, the premise sounded entertaining enough and there I was with an audible credit to spend and a road trip to the Bullmastiff Trial coming up. So I downloaded The Scorpio Races. I knew at the onset that the novel could only finish with one possible ending - sure there were other variables - but as the story unfolds the question is how the characters get to the end, not what their end will be. Perhaps I am tainted - or perhaps that eleven year old Erica would have figured out the novel's conclusion the beginning of the novel too. Perhaps the real difference is that eleven year old Erica would have figured out the ending, but would have savored the ride to get there - even if the end was spinning down predictably. The thirty-five year old Erica isn't as patient - or forgiving.

That isn't to say that I didn't enjoy the novel (I very much did), but there is something - just something - about figuring out a novel's conclusion with the characters (or sometimes just after the characters) that is more satisfying in the adsorption of a novel.

The Scorpio Races was written by Maggie Stiefvater and published by Scholastic Audio. The Scorpio Races was narrated by Steve West and Fiona Hardingham. The Scorpio Races were published in audio and hardcover format on 10/18/2011 and has a runtime of 12 hours 6 minutes.

Tuesday at the Barn - November 15th, 2011

2011-11-15T18:50:00.001-05:00

Kippie's day at the dog show...

2011-11-14T05:52:00.001-05:00

In case anyone was wondering what Kipling does at a dog show...here's a peek at a day in the life.

First Kipling goes in and works on some tricks, watches some agility and bonds with some of his favorite people. Here he is with Auntie Ann:

Then Kippie and his puppy friends go play in the dog-park attached to the show-site:

Not a great pose - but a good 'before' shot.

Kipling, Gracie (yellow labrador) and Hi-Fi (BC)

AND they're off!!!

Kipling much prefers to be the chaser, rather than the chasee.

Gracie in the muck pond. From which Kippie pulled a dead frog...which
he (THANKFULLY) traded for a hunk of chicken. Will wonders never cease.

I'll get you Gracie!!!

Unfortunately the mud was the end of Kipling's social hour for the day - unless you count a date with a brush and some water-less shampoo a social event of record. In fairness 99.9% of the muck falls off when he dries off, which really just means that I'll be washing all his crate bedding this week.

The 'chaser' like the also-rans in horse racing is the one who ends up the dirtiest...

Oh but he had FUNSIES!

American Bullmastiff Association - November 12-13th, 2011

2011-11-13T21:37:00.000-05:00

Off to New Hampshire for a weekend of agility - This weekend was the American Bullmastiff Association's November trial with one of my all-time favorite judges Lavonda Herring (we always do well on Lavonda's courses - plus Lavonda is a funny lady with a great sense of humor).

Saturday we were 0 for 2. In standard we had a close tunnel call-off which put me out of where I had intended to be, then I mis-placed a front-crossed in front of the A-Frame - coming out of the rotation at the base of the a-frame pulling Teller off the a-frame entirely. Oh well!!! It's all good.

Saturday JWW I decided to try something I wouldn't have the guts to do if we were working on a double Q - the opening sequence is on the left (red handler path. A running start with a push out to the tunnel while I moved ahead for a front-cross after the triple. We ALMOST pulled it off - I should have pushed a bit harder at the tunnel as Teller went to the tunnel but pulled off the tunnel at the very last second. Definitely something I'll be setting up at the barn in the near-future. Fair-warning gang.

Sunday Standard and Sunday JWW we pulled it together for a nice QQ and about 30 more MACH points. Good boy Woo!

From the weekend:

Book Review: The Midnight Palace by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2011-11-12T21:26:00.000-05:00

The Publisher's Summary:
In the heart of Calcutta lurks a dark mystery....

Set in Calcutta in the 1930s, The Midnight Palace begins on a dark night when an English lieutenant fights to save newborn twins Ben and Sheere from an unthinkable threat. Despite monsoon-force rains and terrible danger lurking around every street corner, the young lieutenant manages to get them to safety, but not without losing his own life....

Years later, on the eve of Ben and Sheere's 16th birthday, the mysterious threat reenters their lives. This time, it may be impossible to escape. With the help of their brave friends, the twins will have to take a stand against the terror that watches them in the shadows of the night - and face the most frightening creature in the history of the City of Palaces.

The Midnight Palace is my second Carlos Ruiz Zafon novel, I finished The Shadow of the Wind last week and so enjoyed it that I HAD to go back to listen to another Zafon novel. I wasn't disappointed, The Midnight Palace is every bit as charming and intriguing as The Shadow of the Wind. A great deal of this credit must go to translator Lucia Graves, who surprised me again with rich language and a flawless translation.

The Midnight Palace and The Shadow of the Wind share a fire theme - fire running prominently through both novels. The Midnight Palace adds a hearty dose of supernatural influence, the theme of twins - separated soon after birth who find each other as they come of age and they are forced to confront their own demons and those of their mother and father.

The Midnight Palace (like The Shadow of the Wind) - starts strongly and continues on that pace throughout the entire novel, evenly paced and not a single wasted or superfluous word. Zafon's language is entrancing. If I have one complaint it's that the story (for me) was not as compelling as The Shadow of the Wind. Orphan twins, separated shortly after birth - you know they'll eventually find their way to each other and you hope that the evil forces responsible for their separation won't survive the sixteen years to their maturity. Somewhat predictably this isn't the case at all, the evil forces even more determined to hunt down the twins..

The Midnight Palace is labeled as Young Adult fiction, which I think is technically the teen 14-18 crowd. I'm not sure that a fourteen year old Erica would have appreciated the tapestry that Carlos Ruiz Zafon has woven here, though she probably could have better related to the coming of age struggles of our orphans Ben and Sheree.

The Midnight Palace was written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (original Spanish copyright January 2003) and translated into English by Lucia Graves (copyright 2011) Penguin Books. Audio Release date 05/31/2011. The Midnight Palace was narrated by Jonathan Davis and has a runtime of 7 hours 9 minutes.

November Sun and Fun

2011-11-09T20:09:00.000-05:00

What are the odds that we'd see 68 degrees and sun the second week of November? We won't spend too much time calculating the details as it was much too nice not to get out and play. Murphy is back in a cone with a skin thing on his muzzle and chin. Definitely not a hot spot, but Murph is really determined to scratch the heck out of himself - he had already caused himself a bald spot on the side of his muzzle by the time I noticed he was messing with his face. So Murph had to stay home as there's just no sense bringing a dog for a run in a cone.

So Teller, Kipling and I headed out to the school - camera in tow, for some fresh-air and exercise. It was 4:30pm so the light wasn't great - obviously that didn't stop the fun.

If you can't beat them, bite their face.

Also not their finest moment. Can you find Kippie?

I want it!

Not a great shot - but look at all those FEET!

Kipling's Training Journal: Part Seven

2011-11-09T06:25:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've updated Kipling's training journal - mostly because we've been so busy 'doin' stuff'!

Kipling is now 6.5 months old - and is really evolving in his personality and work ethic. I haven't had enough daylight to get him out on the plank in the backyard, but now that we've moved into the barn for the fall/winter/spring I've got artificial daylight in which to work the dogs. I've started to expose Kippie to some real equipment - no jumps, no jumping and at this point no sequencing. What I am introducing now are crosses on the flat, crosses on tunnels and some transitioning of 2o2o behaviors to the bottom (and only the bottoms) of the full-height dogwalk and a-frame.

Tuesday's work for Kipling were tunnels, planks and teeter:
Tunnels: On a C shaped tunnel Kipling is working off both sides - including at this point (tunnel session #4) going into the tunnel away from me while I'm on the opposite side of the tunnel. In effect: go into the tunnel moving away from me (while I'm stationary). This looks a bit like this - the various lines correspond to dog paths of the same color.

Planks: I put Kippie on the full-height dogwalk and a-frame tonight....Not the whole obstacle, my method is to put the baby dog on the side just above the yellow (he jumps up, no lifting) and letting him move into his 2o2o behavior at the bottom of the contact - lots of cookies for sticking the 2o2o - adding in some duration and crosses before releasing him from the position.

BANG Game: Kippie hasn't worked the teeter in a few months - not since I initially exposed him to the bang game back in August. Kipling is a thinker - but once he has an idea of what I'm looking for he truly dives in with gusto. In this case I got one rep of BANG and then Kipling offered the entire plank (cookie for tip) and then cookie for the 2o2o. I did about four reps of this (super successful) and then we'll put the teeter away for another couple of months. He's still a baby and I really intend to keep his sessions super short, fun and really light on the physical work.

Other stuff...

After Kipling's Canadian debut last week, I haven't worked him on any conformation tricks. He's got it down, at this point my working him probably only breaks his existing skillset.

Tricks...Since our last journal I posted a video of "Around" - I do need to get back to the perch game and introduce the box game...Kipling's favorite new trick is 'bounce' (there's a bounce clip at the end of "around".

This week we're going to go back to some attention games and some formal obedience work. Stays, waits and recalls.

Tuesday at the Barn - November 8th, 2011

2011-11-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

Here's what we worked on at the barn today...

Book Review: Zero Day by David Baldacci

2011-11-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

The Publisher's Summary:
From David Baldacci - the modern master of the thriller and number-one worldwide best-selling novelist - comes a new hero: a lone Army Special Agent taking on the toughest crimes facing the nation. And Zero Day is where it all begins....

John Puller is a combat veteran and the best military investigator in the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigative Division. His father was an Army fighting legend, and his brother is serving a life sentence for treason in a federal military prison. Puller has an indomitable spirit and an unstoppable drive to find the truth.

Now, Puller is called out on a case in a remote, rural area in West Virginia coal country, far from any military outpost. Someone has stumbled onto a brutal crime scene, a family slaughtered. The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation. As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he's seen in this small town, and no one in it, are what they seem. Facing a potential conspiracy that reaches far beyond the hills of West Virginia, he is one man on the hunt for justice against an overwhelming force.

I've come to expect a certain kind of novel from David Baldacci: Government agencies, military-type hero, bad guys, good guys (and a pretty clear distinction between the two) and a conspiracy/cover-up/terrorist threat set in Washington DC and/or Virginia/West Virginia.

This plot of Zero day clearly follows this formula - in this case a new hero ex-Army now special agent John Puller (aka "Puller") plus local West Virginia police Sam (Samantha) Cole (daughter of a coal-man), The owner of the area's major employer the shady (and greedy) Roger Trent, a mysterious concrete bunker and an housing development abandoned by the feds in the late 60's and seven mysterious murders - the victims brutally tortured. Puller is the lone federal agent assigned to the case - augmenting Sam Coal's stretched police force.

The reason that Baldacci sells so many novels is that he plays off his strengths and doesn't often vary significantly from his formula. The result is an entertaining novel with somewhat predictable results. The reader feels OK about putting the novel down and as though they can pick the novel back up and start where they left off. A bit of drama, not so much on the edge of one's seat. Best characterised as honest entertainment - perfect for a drive to a dog show or a flight to Chicago. I hope that we'll see more from Agent Puller in the future - a new series perhaps? I think Puller has enough character to become as strong (and interesting) as Oliver Stone (Camel Club) - given some time and maturity.

Narration of Zero Day was by Baldacci regulars Ron McLarty and Orlagh Cassidy who seem to play off each other beautifully (even though it's highly probable that each record their studio pieces separately).

Zero Day was written by David Baldacci and published by Hachette Audio. Zero Day was released on 11/01/11 and has a runtime of 13 hours 11 minutes.

Pictures from the weekend

2011-11-07T06:18:00.000-05:00

What are the odds of 50 degree sunny skies in Upstate New York in November? Slim? None? After the freak October storm last weekend and 18 inches of snow on the ground, travel logistic nightmares (and friends in CT and MA who STILL don't have power) there were many of us very grateful for a bit of sun and mild temperatures. Of course a bit (or a lot) of sun and mild temperatures make for nearly perfect photography weather!

11/6 - Kippie watches a flock of Canada geese.

11/6 - Birdies are fascinating!

11/6 - Can we take a break from pictures? I'm kinda hungry.

11/6 - Kipling

11/6 - Teller's turn!

11/6 - Teller

Family portrait: Grammy Chyna, Momma Carlie, Kipling and Daddy Teller.
The three BIG dogs all ran at the AKC Excellent level this weekend.

Schenectady Dog Training Club - November 5-6, 2011

2011-11-06T21:18:00.000-05:00

What a week! Montreal on Friday and down to Greenwich, New York on Saturday! I felt like I spent all day Friday in the car. Kipling had an awesome day in Canada, but the weekend was Teller's turn.

Saturday Standard: Super fun course, Teller had some good speed, nice contacts. A call-off a wrong course before the weaves threw him off a little and he ended up coming out of the weaves at pole #10. That was his only fault and really it was a fun course to run even with that fault.

Short-sleeve weather in November?
Heck yeah! Perfect photography weather.

Saturday JWW: We've got all of our MACH points - single Q's really don't help us very much now, so it's really easy now to go out and really push on those courses. I pushed a bit on Saturday afternoon, layered a few jumps and ended up doing a funky rear-cross into a blind cross (which I'll be the first to call a Blind-Ass cross), it's not at all how I walked it, but it totally worked for us - watch it on the video - it cracks me up! We finished with a 2nd place (in a large 24" class) on a 9 point run.

Sunday JWW: A couple of long lines with lots of off-course options. I decided to layer one of the down and backs - hoping to be in a better position for a rear cross before the weaves. In pushing for the layer, Teller landed deeper than I expected and he came around the #15 jump. Just the one bobble, great weaves and a strong finish.

Sunday Standard: Another fun course and another great run by Teller - really pleased. He had super contacts, saved the run with his weave entry (he landed deep, I was moving in for a rear-cross behind the weaves and he had to work to find the entry). I was very pleased - just out of the ribbons on this one in large part due to me holding him on the dogwalk contact.

For the weekend we were 2 for 4 - one JWW leg and one Standard leg. Too bad we didn't pull it together for the same day! It's all good, love the way he's running - he feels good, he's looking great and that's the best part of this ride!

The video from the weekend:

Oh Canada....

2011-11-05T21:06:00.000-04:00

Olympic Stadium

Mr. Kipling (and Murphy, Teller) and I made a daytrip to Montreal for one day of the United Kennel Club's big fall show. This is not the American UKC club, this is an affiliate club of the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC). This is a HUGE show inside Olympic stadium (which is a HUGE awe-inspiring place actually). In addition to the dog show, there is obedience, agility (which wasn't offered on Friday or I might have entered Teller in ACC Novice for the heck of it) and rally there are also ummm lets see....bouncy castles, ponies (pony rides) and vendors with various wares including chickens, birds, rabbits, reptiles, amphibians and fish. Yes - BOUNCY castles! Essentially this club makes as much if not more on gate admission to the public. Many breeders have booths promoting their dogs and working breed education too...It's HUGE.

Kipling worked beautifully for Graeme and Emily Burdon and finished with a reserve winners and Best of Breed Puppy. He had another great ring experience and he's ready to go again when I find another show in which to enter him. In puppy sporting group I couldn't believe how LITTLE he looked next to the older "senior puppies". Some pictures from the day:

Bienvenue Au Montreal

Kipling poses in front of a dinosaur (or dragon) bouncy
castle/slide combo.

The BIG boys looking for something to pee on....Murphy waited
until we got home and onto green grass...

Teller says "I can't believe we came all this way and there's agility
stuff here and I have to hang out in the van!

There was a certain amount of desperation in my voice:
Kippie, Go pee! How about I offer 2o2o, is that worth a cookie?
Kipling too would not pee underground in a parking garage...nor
on the sidewalk when I hiked out of the garage. City-Dawg Fail.

And some action shots:

Book Review: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2011-11-03T06:18:00.001-04:00

The Publisher's Summary
Barcelona, 1945: Just after the war, a great world city lies in shadow, nursing its wounds, and a boy named Daniel awakes on his 11th birthday to find that he can no longer remember his mother's face. To console his only child, Daniel's widowed father, an antiquarian book dealer, initiates him into the secret of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a library tended by Barcelona's guild of rare-book dealers as a repository for books forgotten by the world, waiting for someone who will care about them again.

Daniel's father coaxes him to choose a volume from the spiraling labyrinth of shelves, one that, it is said, will have a special meaning for him. And Daniel so loves the novel he selects, The Shadow of the Wind by one Julian Carax, that he sets out to find the rest of Carax's work. To his shock, he discovers that someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book this author has written. In fact, he may have the last one in existence. Before Daniel knows it, his seemingly innocent quest has opened a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets, an epic story of murder, magic, madness, and doomed love.

An uncannily absorbing historical mystery, a heart-piercing romance, and a moving homage to the mystical power of books, The Shadow of the Wind is a triumph of the storyteller's art.

I wasn't sure the premise of Carlos Ruiz Zafon's novel "The Shadow of the Wind" would really hold my attention for 18+ hours - presuming that either the summary was overly simplistic or the novel incredibly long winded and drawn out. I was pleasantly surprised as I got deeper into The Shadow of the Wind that the novel was C: None of the above.

The Shadow of the Wind was an accidental find for me I picked it up thinking it was simply a historical novel - what I discovered however, was so much more. A coming of age novel, a novel of situational relationships, a love story (technically three separate love stories), a mystery and even to some extent an adventure novel. All of these themes are so richly woven together, with such beautiful language and presence that if I didn't know better I'd never guess that The Shadow of the Wind was written in Mr. Zafon's native language and translated by a third party into English. I found myself bookmarking (virtual bookmarks naturally) passages and going back to listen to them again, then returning to the novel again.

As the publisher's summary indicates, an 11 year old Daniel begins a journey that will engross the next nine years of his life. His school-boy crush on a much older woman, falling in love with a contemporary who he cannot have, all the while following the clues to the life and death of Julian Carax - the illegitimate son of a hatter, literary genius and incredibly disturbed individual. In the end Daniel's life unknowingly begins to draw parallels to the author's path, as a reader along for the ride we can only hope that perhaps Daniel can have the happy ending Julian could never have.

The Shadow of the Wind is now pretty high on my highly recommend reading (or listening) list - well worth a read or a listen.

The Shadow of the Wind was written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (copyright 2001) and translated into English by Lucia Graves (copyright 2004) Penguin Books. Audio Release date 05/06/2005. The Shadow of the Wind was narrated by Jonathan Davis and has a runtime of 18 hours 10 minutes.

Kipling Gets Around (A Shaping Game)

2011-11-02T06:14:00.000-04:00

Here's a trick I usually teach a bit earlier in a puppy's learning career, but with time constraints lately, preparing for the breed ring and lack of daylight hours after work I haven't spent as much time on tricks lately as I ought to. It doesn't help that Mr. Kipling has hit what I am calling his "honey badger" stage. We're back to working LOTS of basics: settle, enough, wait, stay, come, off, etc. Adolescence always seems to come the day AFTER you're absolutely SURE that your puppy is a biddible genius! BAM! Honey Badger!

On-call work last night kept me pretty busy (and awake all night), but also gave me some flexibility to work Teller and Kipling this morning at the barn and then to work Kipling this evening before dark. So high on the list tonight was was Kipling's 'get around' work. The object of the game is pretty simple - the dog should move away from the handler, towards and around the cone (paint can, etc). The first few steps involve paying any kind of attention to the cone, then only for feet moving towards the cone. Once the dog is consistently moving towards the cone, you can strategically place the reinforcement (throwing the treat past and to the side of the cone) to encourage the dog to come around the cone.

In the initial stages of this trick, I don't really care which way the dog is turning around the cone - I pay attention to which side they favor, but I reinforce whatever go around they offer me. Once the dog is consistently moving around the cone it's pretty important to quickly move to the next step, cueing off one side or another. With Kipling I managed this by standing close to the cone and restraining him slightly by the collar, when released he'd go immediately around the cone and I'd reward him from the opposite side hand. I quickly added distance from the cone.

The video below is Kipling's 3rd session of Get Around - as you can see I've quickly increased the distance, but I'm still making the left/right distinction pretty easy for him to keep his success rate pretty high.

Stay tuned after all that getting around, for Kipling's favorite new trick - B-O-U-N-C-E!

Tuesday at the Barn - November 1st, 2011

2011-11-01T18:35:00.001-04:00

We moved into the barn last week, but today was the first day I've had time to go out and really work my dogs (just Kipling and Teller today). Here's what got setup and what I worked on. Teller continued his theme of being (as my friend Ann says)"Full of Beans". He was fast, he was accurate and he was hitting his contacts and weave entries beautifully. He got a little stuck on the a-frame/tunnel discrimination forcing me to go deeper into the tunnel to get the tunnel instead of the a-frame. I think next week when I work him I'll drop the a-frame and work verbal discriminations without physical cues. He's got a lot of reinforcement for contacts lately so obviously that's what he's favoring.

Kipling worked some sit and down stays with some good distractions (the goings-on at the barn are all new to him - Teller is all about work - Kipling is all about the entire world!). After he settled in a bit we worked some 'yellows'- just the bottom of the dogwalk ramps - up on the side above the yellow (3/4 up the ramp) and then move down into his 2o2o. He bounced through the contacts a couple of times - which is good (make mistakes, fix it and try not to make them again) and also good because he was starting to really move somewhat aggressively on the board. He's clearly willing to make mistakes and he's consistently willing to go back and try again. I only did about a dozen reps on each side, adding in some pressure on the leash to break (hold your position) and also adding in some front and blind crosses at the bottom.

A bit of carbs for Kipling

2011-10-31T20:50:00.000-04:00

Kipling has reached that point in his growth (approximately 21" at the withers as of this weekend) where keeping weight on him is difficult. Like most teenagers, he pretty much has the metabolism to eat whatever he has in front of him, then look for more food - and not gain an ounce on double rations.

He's still a baby and I do like the baby dogs to be on the lean and mean side of the spectrum, but I'd like him to gain a little so that he has some reserves for winter and since he's hitting the breed ring a few more times this fall I want him to get some more meat on his bones so he's not so ribby. Not tens of pounds mind you -but 2 pounds would fill him out just a bit around the ribcage.

This week Kipling is eating about 1.5 cups of Honest Kitchen Thrive, 2 duck necks and about 2# of raw mix a day. Then I replace one meal a week with either Tefco Green Tripe or Tefco Performance Dog, and typically one meal a week of a whole sardine or a whole mackerel. That's a lot of food. The big dogs are eating about the same - Teller a little less (4 necks for breakfast and about 1# of raw meat/veggie) and Murphy less than that (2 necks for breakfast and 1/2# to 3/4# raw mix for dinner) and their weekly tripe and fish meals. Is there really any wonder we have to order our food wholesale in 500# orders?

Annie's Mac and Cheese
Our go-to carb loader.

In the summer those numbers change pretty drastically (up) to keep weight on Teller who spends so much time in the pool he's usually up to 5# of food/day by the time August rolls around - in addition to all the training treats he gets when he's working a lot. Even then we'll get to a point when he (and now Kipling) needs some help to keep weight on. Unfortunately for me, when I tried to up Kipling's food a bit I discovered we'd reached the point where adding more food would have some pretty disastrous results (which took us several days to resolve via chicken and rice, then pumpkin, then pepto and finally some flagyl).

In other words, it's time to turn to Annie for some assistance. Annie you ask? But of course. My proven method for adding a bit or keeping weight on an active intact (or growing puppy). Mac and Cheese has helped me stabilize Teller's weight in the summer and it's my first thought now with Kipling too. I feel a bit better about Annie's Mac and Cheese over the other blue box brand - hey, at least these grains are organic!

I know that it seems somewhat counter-intuitive to feed macaroni and cheese to dogs on a grain-free, gluten free diet - but, since my dogs are grain and gluten limited by my choice, not by allergic restriction, I find that adding carbs in this situation is a great way to boost them up a little bit somewhat naturally. I also find that the cheese package contributes nicely to the caloric package (one cup adds approximately 280 calories) - I do not prepare the mac and cheese as directed - just the pasta, some water from the pasta pot and the orange packet of theoretical goodness.

Kipling's dinner: Mac and Cheese, Salmon oil and

Oma's Chicken Mix

I hear lots of weight gain success stories with Satin Balls (recipe here) or grocery store meatballs (we do buy and use Costco's Kirkland meatballs for training treats) but I find mac and cheese to be well tolerated by even sensitive tummies, seems to be very digestible and is so simple to have on demand when I need it. Ten minutes of preparation and I have mac and cheese in the fridge for three to four days - one batch of Satin balls (or 6lbs of costco meatballs) is a lot of commitment!

So for dinner tonight, Kipling had 1 cup of Annie's Mac and Cheese and a little over a pound of his Oma's Pride Chicken Mix (a bit less than normal) - he'll get another cup each meal for the next few meals and I'll evaluate progress on a daily basis. The goal is to add very slowly, keeping the digestive system happy and stable. We really don't want to overload the system again!

For conversion purposes - one pound of Oma's turkey mix is about 544 calories; two cups of Mac and Cheese is about 560 calories. Carb load in the raw mix is 1.65%; carb load in Mac and Cheese is 16%. Oh and yes, Murphy and Teller got a bit of mac and cheese as well. M&C is one of Murphy's very favorite treats.

Nutmeg Border Collie Club - October 28-30th, 2011

2011-10-30T21:00:00.000-04:00

Neither wind, nor rain nor dark of night shall keep an agility dog from his runs...well - maybe snow. But not for the die-hards. A late October Nor'Easter POUNDED southern New England this weekend - dumping 18" of heavy wet stuff at the hotel this morning. YUCK. Driving home from the hotel was pretty miserable yesterday afternoon too - made significantly better with a stop at Griff's Chicken Shack on the way back.

Friday Morning Kipling's door was frozen shut....so Kipling
had to ride down with Murphy. As you can see one of the
two was not impressed by this new travel arrangement.

Runs from the weekend - Teller ran beautifully all weekend - with one Q each day. An A-Frame contact on Friday (which put me out of position for the next sequence), an honest bar on Saturday's JWW run and a mis-communication on today's standard run on what should have been an easy part - Teller looking back for direction and coming around a jump.

Teller had some great attitude this weekend - I especially liked his GROWLING in the weaves yesterday, which escalated to growling and BARKING in the weaves today. LOVE to see him so into the game right now, especially since we've been out and on the road so much this fall...

Kipling's first snow!

On the good side, this weekend put us well over the required 750 points we need for our MACH - those are out of the way, we just need the last two QQ's, which will come when they come. I'm all for waiting and letting them come when they come. Zen is good!

Saturday afternoon....Clearly impressed.

Funny that this weekend was unexpectedly Kipling's first snow! His first reaction was to eat it - ALL OF IT. His second reaction was a priceless look of WOW, I can catch all of these white things (super fun while he's on leash with the two BIG dogs - all going in different directions. Once he settled down a little (between on-leash zoomies) it was all about not being able to figure out where to pee! By morning though he'd figured out the snow stuff, made his first snow angels and had expertly figured out how to make yellow snow.

We were very lucky not to lose power - so many people in the area did lose power - we were warm and dry at the hotel and we were warm and dry at the trial site. Sure, it sucked to slosh through the parking lot and snow in crocs (aka shoes with holes in them and COLD (nay, FROZEN) feeties. The emergency run to Ocean State Job Lots for a snow scraper (who packs a snow scraper in OCTOBER - Not Erica!). This morning I had to shovel my van out of it's parking space. No snow tires means no off-roading for princess VAN-essa this weekend..

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but this chair is SOOOO
delightful....Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.......

On the way home this afternoon, I nearly ran out of gas. Planning to stop in W. Springfield MA for a fill-up I found the area (and the two stations there) to be without power. No worries I think, I'll just go up to Deerfield (40 miles north) only to find that there's no power there. Gas light lit now, let's try Greenfield - strikes four, five, six - at the 7th - there's a HUGE line - BUT there's power! Yay. I wait my turn, dig out cash for the full-service fill-up (beggars cannot be choosers) and BANG! The power goes out. OK, let's try another one...8th one has just lost power too, but there's another station (I'm told) about 10 miles THAT WAY that has gas and power. So I go, hoping that we've got enough to get there. We do, and about 45 minutes later we get to the pump (cash sales only mind you) and finally have a full tank of gas and we're ready to get back on the road. Whew! I was very happy to get home to power and I hope that our friends in MA and CT get their power back soon. We hope you're warm and safe too!

Teller's runs this weekend:

Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

2011-10-24T20:27:00.000-04:00

The Publisher's Summary

The powerful, unsettling, and beautifully crafted new novel from one of England’s greatest contemporary writers.

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they would navigate the girl-less sixth form together, trading in affectations, in-jokes, rumour, and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends for life. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career and a single marriage, a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.

The Sense of an Ending is the story of one man coming to terms with the mutable past. Laced with trademark precision, dexterity, and insight, it is the work of one of the world’s most distinguished writers.

Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending was the 2011 winner of the Man Booker prize - an award for Irish authors. More about the award, other novels on the long and short lists and previous winners here:
http://www.themanbookerprize.com/prize/about

I started The Sense of an Ending fresh at 4am on my way to Springfield, by the time I had traveled about 100 miles I had bookmarked The Sense of an Ending and switched up to some Sirius radio (LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem to be very specific) because I needed something UP and engaging. As an aside, has everyone seen this marching bad do party rock?

The Sense of an Ending started strongly enough, but even in its brevity (a runtime of 4 hours 40 minutes) there were parts that were so...middle-aged (or old age) white guy ramblings - that of Tony Webster. I found myself sympathetic to Veronica and not at all sympathetic to the whiny old man, when the author clearly intended Tony to be the wronged party.

It honestly wasn't until the last 25-30 minutes of the audiobook that the plotline became interesting (to me) as Tony finally began to put the pieces together, attempt to reconcile his mistakes of the past and the mystery of Mary and Adrian. The ending however, improves my impression of The Sense of an Ending as a two-star marginal novel to a three-star middle of the road fictional offering.

The Sense of an Ending was written by Julian Barnes, narrated by Richard Morant and published by AudioGo Ltd. The Sense of an ending was released on 8/04/2011 and has a runtime of 4 hours 40 minutes.

Kipling's First Show - Albany and Troy Kennel Clubs - October 22-23, 2011

2011-10-23T20:53:00.002-04:00

At six months and six days Kipling is now eligible for the puppy classes at dog shows (technically according to the AKC rulebook he could participate in obedience and rally too - but that's crazy talk). My goals with him are in the companion event rings, but there is something about hitting the breed rings as a puppy that's just so good for the performance dog - the exposure to a stressful, high activity environment; going into a ring and having a judge touch you (while getting cookies), have people clap for you (while getting cookies), get groomed right smack in the middle of chaos, see every shape and breed of dog while learning to MYOB...the breed ring can be such an unbelievably positive experience - if handled properly with the dog's personality in mind. Kipling has been to agility trials most weekends of his young life so the environment didn't seem to phase him. He did a great job - for his first time out or his 100th time out. He stacked, he stood while he was examined, he let the judge examine his toothies, he didn't put a foot out of place in his gaiting, he went with the handler while I was standing ringside (watching and taking pictures) - as if he knew his job. Mission accomplished!

In return he got lots of positive attention and experience AND he got a lot of yummy chicken!

Kipling returns victorious from his day at the dog show - with his bag of chicken.

And some pictures from the weekend:

Suspension? Yeah, We've got that.

And Kippie how did you do on your first day of dog shows?

The boy can MOVE!

All smiles!

And for the second day:

Deanna asks Kipling to hold his ribbon.

And because it's too cute not to share, the boys patiently? waiting for their dinner to be ready Saturday night:

Suppers? Yeah, we's wants some....Peaz?

Oh and poor Teller just couldn't understand why we got up at the crack of dawn, drove a long way down and he didn't get to do anything. I thought for sure he'd be WILD Saturday night without getting to work at all, instead (and I do try not to anthropomorphise canine emotions) there was significant moping. Kipling crashed pretty hard after a couple of chewies and Teller - pouted.

Product Review: Biothane Martingale Slip Lead from Clean Run

2011-10-23T12:32:00.003-04:00

Every once in a while a new product catches my eye, when I get my hands on them though I often find that I'm often disappointed by either workmanship, quality or design flaws. Sometimes though I'm wowed. This is one of those times a new product exceeded my expectations and I have to share.

The product I'm talking about is the Biothane Slip-Lead from Clean Run (made exclusively for Clean Run - you won't find this product on the Biothane website). I purchased one this week for Teller (red of course). Hogan Leatherworks makes a similar looking martingale leash out of bridle leather, with a padded throat piece. Hogan's products are works of art - really lovely products with a super high level of craftmanship - my leashes spend way too much time outside on damp grass agility fields though. The martingale leash I'm referring to (they make a beautiful padded bridle leather collar too):
http://www.hoganleather.com/store/products/4______martingales/page/1/15_padded_french_martingale_leash/

Teller usually wears his comfort-flex harness for walks, potty runs and lounging around when we're at hotels, at a show or on the road. The comfortflex harness are perfect for these tasks, pretty comfortable (seemingly) for the boys to wear too - I don't feel bad leaving them on a good portion of the day. In agility, our pre-run routine is to take off the comfortflex and convert his Rocket Dog (of Vermont) leash into a slip lead - it seems to work well, it's a message to Teller that he needs to switch from crazy party-boy to working mode.

However, I anticipate a lot of training time in the barn this winter which will necessitate something that doesn't get so dirty (sandy) or caked with moisture and grit. Both the comfortflex harness and the poly leash get grimy in those conditions, the biothane leash was appealing to me because it's wipe-wash (I always have wipes in the van with me) appeared to have the look and feel of leather and also looked to be stink resistant (for field training) and durable. It helps that its pretty!

So lets's try one eh? My Biothane leash was delivered to me only this weekend (thanks Ann) and this is one of those products that I love already! It feels nice in my hands, it fits Teller beautifully - really the large could be a custom fit for him - the tightest setting is about 1/4" larger than the circumference of his neck - a perfect fit. When ordering these I'd imagine you want to air on the side of too small rather than too big. When I tried the lead on Kipling who has a much smaller neck than Teller, the same limited choke aspect that I loved for Teller meant that Kippie could easily slip out of the leash (or in his case get his mouth into the collar portion.

Teller models Biothane.
No pleathers were harmed in the production of this leash combo set.

I expect that the martingale is going to be a quicker leash-up at the end of a trial run (I seem to spend too much time looking for the loop on my kennel lead and as an added bonus I won't have to worry about him strangling himself as he makes his way back to his hot dogs (chicken, cheese, etc) after a successful run.

The Clean Run Biothane martingales come in red, lime green, rose and lilac. My only suggestion to Clean Run/All Things Biothane is to add some additional colors - pastels are pretty and all - but they aren't for everyone. I'd love to see a darker purple, a royal blue or go dressage queen style and go with a black and white combo that were all the rage back in my horse days (Mouse had a gorgeous black/white bridle)

Lastly a word on pricing - these leads start at $19.95 for a small 10-15" and go up to $21.95 for a large (20-29" - very attractive pricing if this lead holds up as well as I expect it to.

Links:
All Things Biothane:
http://allthingsbiothane.com

Clean Run product page:
http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2689&ParentCat=174