Red XIII

Red at the Renaissance Festival 2010

2010-09-26T21:31:00.002-04:00

Hi all, its been awhile since I've posted pics! Thought this would be a good time though... Redders accompanied us to the Michigan Renaissance Festival today :)

As usual, it was like walking with a movie star... every few feet we either got stopped for people to pet him, or you could hear someone make a comment about him. And he was really good, as usual - and as always, a good sport about wearing his dragon wings ;)

I took all the pics (and video) with my iPhone, so sorry if the quality isn't the best. Click thumbnails to enlarge.

Posing like a good boy

Me and Redders

After awhile, we stopped to hang out at a pub.

"This is boring, can we keep walking?"

"Wait a minute... do I smell what I think I smell?"

"It is! Turkey leg!!" *drools*

"But I wants it!" *pouts*

So dad offered him the rest of his Guinness instead lol

"aww thanks, dad!"

"ok I'm good now, let's go!"

Walking along, we came across a small paddock with some animals for a petting zoo...

"OH! What's this? Must get a better look!"

"Peep hole not big enough..."

"Why hello little fella"

After the goat wandered away, a llama (or alpaca?) spotted Red and came over to investigate.

"Hello weird animal! Come closer!"

Turns out the llama-thing loves dogs, LOL!

Even let Red give him kisses :)

And after that, we finished up with the grand finale... Red got to share a turkey leg with dad :)

"TURKEY" *eyes bulge out of head*

"I will sit very nice and straight for you, dad!"

*Drool*

"ok seriously, give it up!" (lol you can see the dog in the background doing the same thing for some turkey!)

"Finally!"

Facebook users click here for video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4l1UvAlo6k

And after all that... time to relax and people watch :)

WAE 2010

2010-08-09T18:16:00.003-04:00

The Working Aptitude Evaluation (for Dobermans only!) for Michigan was held yesterday at Island Lake Park in Brighton. It's only about a 45 minute drive for us, so not bad at all... however for some reason I took 2 wrong turns so it ended up taking us about an hour, lol...

Mom and Mike met us there - coming all the way from Grand Rapids - which was really cool. Mom came with me last year and made it a lot more enjoyable considering the weather was horrendous... But much nicer weather this year =) No rain, warm but not hot, slight breeze... very good day.

Got there and signed in, paid my money, and chatted with a few people, including Craig from the Doberman forum and got to meet his puppy, Sig - who is an extremely handsome 6 month old black/tan guy =)

We didn't have much time to relax since the judge was ready to go. He took us on a walkthrough of the course and answered any questions anyone had. After that, they got everyone in position, and did some practice shots with the cap gun for the gunshot portion of the test.

Red heard the first shot and immediately went into pitiful dog mode. Tucked his nub and tried to hide behind my lawn chair, but couldn't so tried to wedge in between James and I. They kept firing shots and he was clearly stressed. Red is not afraid of thunderstorms or far-off fireworks, or loud noises, but does get scared when they are close to him.

Then they called the first dog. Apparently they put us in order this time, whereas last year they just took volunteers however they wanted to go. But this year was different, and we were scheduled to go next. Meanwhile, my dog is standing with his ears down and nub tucked... great.

So we go out onto the course when we are called, and start the process. He still seemed somewhat stressed but was doing well. The neutral and friendly strangers went fine, the can rattling was great. After that was the gunshots, which I was really nervous for, but he seemed to tolerate it ok and recovered pretty quickly. The umbrella was great, and the uneven footing was surprisingly good - better than last year. Then the aggressive stranger...

We get up to the van and the guy started shuffling out from behind it. Red heard him, then turned around and sat at my right side with his back to the guy. But when the guy came at us, Red did go out in front between us.

At that moment, I honestly thought we had passed - or at least I was happy he didn't turn around and run like last year! But the judge made it clear right away that he didn't like Red's reaction. He explained that he was exhibiting avoidance behavior at first at the stranger's first appearance, which is essentially what failed him.

He kind of made me feel a little bad afterwards - said I need to work with him more, kinda implying he is under-socialized or something. Being an obedience and therapy dog, he is very socialized to a variety of situations - just not "dangerous" ones. I guess that sort of upset me more than actually failing the test... being told I haven't worked with my dog enough...

Anyway, there's always next year. To be honest, I think he would've done a lot better had we been further back in line, because after we were finished and were watching other dogs, he stopped caring about the cap gun altogether. I think he would've been less stressed had we been able to go nearer to last. oh well. Maybe it wouldn't have made any difference at all, but that was just my thoughts about it.

Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkF0SCCPSF0&feature=player_embedded

5 Things I Can Do on Vacation that I Can't Do at Home

2010-06-27T22:59:00.002-04:00

(Even though he is exhausted from his fun-filled weekend up north at the cabin, Red has compiled at list of things he can do on vacation that he can't do at home ;))

click thumbnails to enlarge images

Dear Followers,

Here are all the cool things I get to do at the cabin!

1. Beg at the table and eat people food.

"Just a little bite..?" *drools*

"om nom nom"

"ok... the alcohol is for mom, but it looks good, doesn't it?"

2. Play with another dog in the water.

An old chocolate lab wandered over from next door to get in on the fun of wave chasing and stick retrieving with me :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw6b5npXcX8

3. Wear my lifejacket, go on the boat, and swim in the lake!

I LOVE wearing my lifejacket... it means boat-time and swimming!

And I'm not shy about hopping into the boat...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giCyXhk1QxA

Time for a swim!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBOrAzqYvsQ

4. Being allowed on the furniture and bed.

"See? I'm a perfect lap dog"

5. Playing with the 4 wheeler (all new experience, lol)

"Grandpa, are you sure about this?"

"Being on it by myself is not much better..."

"I want down now!'

"Running beside it with mom is a lot more fun!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv9z38mQslQ

And when I'm not doing all these things, I'm hanging out...

...being a watchdog...

...and enjoying my vacation :)

The End.

Love, Redders

Random Redders Videos

2010-06-17T10:48:00.001-04:00

Since I've been slacking on my weekly random Redders videos, here are some to make up for the last month :biggrin55

When we go for walks on hot days, he speeds up in the sun and sloooows down in the shade lol

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffBtJdw9IPY]YouTube - Red likes the shade[/url]

Just random weirdness

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ1_p_O1oOc]YouTube - Silly Redders[/url]

Dobermans like cat toys too!

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVUahItrXmM]YouTube - Cat or Doberman?[/url]

Strange things happen to Red sometimes... not sure how he gets himself into these predicaments...

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eIT7DgG700]YouTube - Help there's something on my nose[/url]

Red the Babysitter

2010-06-15T10:45:00.001-04:00

Hubby, Red and I went to my mom's house for a night, and my sister, brother-in-law, and 18 month old nephew was there too. Red has always been a lot of dog for the baby - considering he doesn't seem to know his own strength and the amount of space he occupies lol... but this time, was different.

Red followed Bradley around, stood still while Bradley "petted" him, gave him constant kisses, and even stood at the top of the stairs and whined when the toddler was crying after waking up from his naps. The two were almost inseparable. It was a whole different side of Red I've never seen - it was really cool :)

click thumbnails to enlarge

Sure you can pet me... I'll hold extra still...

I'll clean your hands for you

Red stayed close to the high chair for obvious reasons, lol

]

Grandma spoiling him a bit...

]

Whatcha see down there?

Grandma and Bradley taking a walk, and Red staying close behind

Keeping a close eye on him by the fire pit (and that's me in the chair)

A very close eye

This babysitting business is hard work!

Obedience fun match, and therapy visit

2010-04-16T21:24:00.002-04:00

eek its been waaay too long since I posted in Red's blog! Gotta get better about this!

Anyway, Redders had a busy day today. First thing in the morning, we drove to Warren for an obedience fun match. We are working in Open now and slowly but steadily plugging along. Still a LONG way to go before being ready to trial. Our biggest hurdle (literally) is the retrieve over jump...

Heel off leash - was good... but a little bumping but he was pretty enthusiastic, so I was happy with that.

Off leash figure 8 - needed reminders to keep his head up so I didn't ram into him on the inside turns... not sure why this is such an issue!

Drop on recall - really good! We've been working on quick drops with just the hand signal and I think he's got it! At least that's one thing out of many... LOL

Retrieve on flat - had to back up a bit and cal him to front. Needs more work to come in straight. Also for some ungodly reason, he dropped it before I could take it, so I made him pick it back up. Not sure why he did that either...

Retrieve over jump - MUCH improved! Really happy with this. Up til now, he'll go over the jump to take the dumbbell, but he wanted to run around the jump on the way back. Even after lowing the jump and putting up barriers, I can tell he still doesn't really get it. But this time, he went over the jump, and I run up to it in preparation to block him from going around and direct him over, but he didn't even think about going around, and came straight back over! Jackpot!!

Broad jump - usually is good but up til now, I've been giving the command and hand signal, which I know you can't do - its either one or the other. So I decided to try just the command, and he tried going around it on the side I was on. Reset, did hand signal and command and he did it fine. So discovered something else to work on...

Homework:
1. Head up for figure 8 heeling
2. Straight fronts for retrieve on flat
3. Continue working on retrieve over jump
4. Eliminate either command or hand signal from broad jump

After the fun match, we came home and went for an off-leash walk/run, and then it was off for a therapy visit. I figured it would be a good day to go since he'd *hopefully* be tired from training and the walk earlier. But, alas, he was still raring to go when we got there. He's probably the most hyper/busy therapy dog they get in there. We didn't stay very long because he just wasn't into it today. But at least we went. I've been so busy lately, that its been awhile since we went last.

And then we both came home and took a nap, LOL!

Another Q in Novice

2010-02-28T11:33:00.002-05:00

Even though we already have our CD title for Novice Obedience, we are not ready to show in Open yet for CDX. But I want to keep Red in the ring and work on our showing skills, so I registered us for another Novice run this weekend. We are now in Novice B instead of A, so the competition is tighter but I don't really think about that anyway - I only compete against ourselves and aim to improve each time.

I saw a friend from DT (doberman forum) there so we hung out most of the time and she helped hold onto my treat pouch and Red's reward tug during our run, which was really nice =)

The on-leash heeling was ok, though he always spaces out on the first halt... sort of drifts out in front of me like he doesn't know what's gong on... ugh. But after that he was ok.

The Figure 8 was ok, though I thought he lagged a bit in spots.

The stand for exam was really nice.

Off leash was ok, maybe a little laggy, and then he decided on the last 2 halts that he wasn't going to sit. *eye roll*

The recall was actually really good, one of his bests. He came in nice and straight and had a nice finish.

Our score was 186.5 and had 6th place out of 23 people, which isn't bad considering we were in the "experienced" B class! It was a better score than I thought we had.

Since we didn't get our photo taken for our RE title last month (because the photographer at the show was INSANE with his prices), there was a photographer at this show, so we had our pic taken for the RE title. I can't wait to get i - I think it turned out really good. I like this photographer - she took our first Rally title photo and I love the lighting and her style. I will be posting it when I get it =)

Red's 3rd Birthday!!

2010-02-17T19:27:00.001-05:00

My Redders turns 3 years old today! :D :D

I can't believe its been 3 whole years already! He'll always be my puppers though :)

I had to work all day, but as soon as I got home, we went to the pet store to pick up some goodies! Lots of treats, and a birthday cookie :) Also, he finally got his eGGe (which he LOVES!!). And he's getting a new bed too, but that hasn't arrived yet. All in all, I'd say he made out pretty good this year!

click to enlarge

Silly puppers :p

And of course, no birthday of Red's would be complete without his annual birthday video!! :D :D
(For some reason, there's an ad that pops up at the beginning - I think because I used a copyrighted song, so just click the little X in the upper right corner of the ad banner to make it go away)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U75Akg4S7bE

Happy Birthday, Red! Thank you for always making me smile :)

RE Title!

2010-01-24T19:04:00.005-05:00

Well we did it - qualified for the last leg of our RE title today =) We didn't place this time... a score of 87. Would've had a 97 if we wouldn't have screwed up the Back Up 3 Steps station. For one, it was right after a jump, which is ridiculous in itself. We tried it the first time, and Red moved out of position. Turned around, tried it again, and he did the same thing. So I said "screw it" and just took the IP for 10 points. god I HATE that freaking station, lol... oh well, we still qualified so that's all I care!

I was saying in yesterday's post about how big the venue was - that it was like something you see on TV. I've never been to this large of a show before so it was really cool.

*Click thumbnails to enlarge photos*

Here's the crating area for the obedience/rally rings. You can see Red sitting in front of his crate.

Red in front of the obedience rings

Just one of the grooming areas for the conformation dogs

Some of the conformation rings

A weight pulling demonstration with Alaskan Malamutes

The duck herding ring

The crating area for the flyball teams

Flyball - this was really cool to watch, and so exciting!

I didn't get a professional photo for our RE title (the nutcase photographer wanted $50 to email me a digital file! what a ripoff!) so I had some random bystander take our photo instead :)

And no completion of a title would be complete without treating Redders to some McDonalds hamburgers! :D (I didn't realize you can see me in the video until I watched it back.. :/ )

(facebook users click here to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYhm5JbGNZ4

Red at home showing off all his regular placement and qualifying ribbons (not counting the rosettes) for Rally and Obedience :)

2 Down, 1 To Go

2010-01-23T15:29:00.002-05:00

Red and I had 2 Rally shows today (going for our Rally Excellent title), one in the morning and one in the afternoon. So it was a long day, but it was fun. It's held at the Rock Financial Showplace in Novi, MI (formerly known as the Novi Expo Center) - a huge building, though very nice inside. Even the bathrooms were really nice!

The shows started on Thursday and go through tomorrow (Sunday) - from everything from conformation, obedience, and Rally, to flyball, duck herding, and weight pulling! I was amazed - I never knew there was such a thing as duck herding, LOL!

We arrived at about 8:00am since the Excellent walkthrough was at 9:00am. I parked near where I thought was the door, but ended up being further away from the actual entrance we wer allowed to go in. I hauled in all our stuff first - crate, bags, etc - before bringing Red in, and realize I forgot my folding chair (dammit!!).

When I walked in the door, I was a little overwhelmed. The place is HUGE. And packed. Wall to wall with crates, grooming tables, and supplies. Evidently, this is where the conformation dogs were being kept and prepped for the breed ring. I've been to shows with conformation before, but never like this - it was like what you see on TV. People bustling around everywhere with perfect, beautiful dogs on tables and in tow. Really neat to see!

I find my way over to the obedience/rally area which consisted of 4 rings. One ring for each Novice, Open, and Utility Obedience, and the other ring for Rally. I spotted a friend of mine who I train with, John and his German Shepherd Jackson, so I set up camp next to him. He and Jackson had gotten there not too much before me and would be competing in the Utility ring in the morning and afternoon for their 2nd leg.

After I got everything set up, and stripped off my coat, scarf and gloves (because I was sweating by now), I went back out the car to get Red. He was super excited, as usual, to know we were going to be doing something fun today. But he was very well-behaved and seems to know the correct way to act when there are large crowds and other dogs around. We wound are way to our "camp", and he knows exactly which crate is his and goes straight into it to make sure its the same as always.

(click to enlarge)

We played for a little while and did a couple exercises, then took him for a quick walk around the building. I love looking at all the booths and vendors selling dog mechandise - everything from show collars and leads, to toys, jewelry, food, beds, and other neat keepsakes. Somethings you can get a good deal on, but for the most part, everything is a bit overpriced. Michelle, my mentor and who showed her Wheaten Terrier Maisy, in Open Obedience this weekend, said there was a booth with sparkly shirts in different breeds - so I found the booth and the guy also had really neat keychains. There was a model for each breed made out of leather, and there was a brown leather Doberman! I didn't have my cash on me at the moment, so I told the guy I'd be back later. Red and I made our way back to our crate and I put him in to chill for a bit so I could sign in and get the course map for our first run.

As some of you may remember, we have already trialed in Excellent and should've earned our title by now, but I had registered us for the A classes thinking since I had never titled a dog in Rally Excellent before, that that was the correct class. But once you get any Obedience title, you automatically have to move into the B classes for Rally and trial with the "big boys" so to speak - meaning the more experienced dogs and handlers. So since our 3 Excellent runs didn't count before, we are doing them all again this weekend: 2 today and 1 tomorrow.

The course map was decent - no funky stations (like the backup 3 steps or the offset figure 8) and pretty easy to navigate. I walked it probably at least 4 times during the walkthrough and was comfortable I wouldn't get lost. I liked the ring conditions - noisy and a lot of distractions - which sounds counter-intuitive but I really hate when its silent, everyone is watching you, and you can hear a pin drop. I love being able to talk at a normal volume, play obnoxiously with my dog, and not feel like all eyes are on me...

They started with the Excellent A class first, which only had like 3 dogs, then went to Excellent B, which had a few more but not many. Red and I were the last team to go. Also in our class was "Mr. Rally" (as we like to call him) - an older gentlemen who is a Rally judge himself (I showed under him once and he is TOUGH!) and trains Golden Retrievers in Rally and Obedience. He is at every show I've ever been to and always gets 1st place in his class with perfect scores.

I didn't have anyone to video our run, but it was just as well - I feel less nervous when I know I'm not being "watched". I fed Red the last few bits of hotdog as the team before us had a couple signs to go. I wanted to make sure he wasn't going to choke them up in the ring and NQ us again! Thankfully, he kept everything down and we set up in starting position and removed his leash.

He did fine - though is always much more subdued in the ring than he is under normal circumstances, has his ears down like he's afraid to dong something wrong while off-leash. But the good thing about Rally is you can talk to the dog as much as you want, so he kept up and did what he was told at each station. There was a little bumping through the cones exercises, but didnt knock me off my feet or anything, so that was fine with me. We finished and we hopped around a little to celebrate before heading to the Honor position while the next dog set up.

The Honor exercise is what made me nervous. For those that don't know, the dog who just trialed, has to hold either a sit/stay or down/stay (specified by th judge) in a corner of the ring while the next team runs the course. The dog is on a 6 foot leash and you have to stand at the end of the leash in front of the dog, facing it, until the team finishes their run. Red kept shifting around and was slightly panting (nervous, I'm guessing) and seemed really uncomfortable. Of course the team we were Honoring was slow as hell, but he held it. He got himself a jackpot and ran back to our crate and pulled his favorite tug out of the bag all by himself, LOL.

We made our way back to the ring so they could hand out ribbons. Our score was the only one not written on the board, so I had no idea how we did, though I figured we must've at least qualified. There were 4 of us that qualified. First place went to Mr. Rally and his Golden with a score of 99. Second place was announced with a score of 98 and it was me and Red! I was shocked! I can't believe we almost beat Mr. Perfect Rally and Perfect Golden, and held our own against them in the B class! After we accepted our ribbons, Red and I ran back to the crate to do some more celebrating and goofing off =) Unfortunately, John and Jackson didn't qualify in Utility, but they still had another show to go today. I took Red to the closest vendor and bought a deflated squirrel stuffy to shake and kill and meaty knuckle bone to chew in his crate. After that, Red went into his crate with his bone and I decided to tour the breed rings and vendors more closely.

After hitting the restroom, I heard and insane amount of barking coming from one end of the huge building. I made my way over there and saw that they were doing flyball. Flyball is an agility-type sport which requires the dogs to sprint over several jumps, hit a springboard with a tennis ball loaded in it, and bring the tennis ball back over the jumps. Only its EXTREMELY fast. Think of little Italian greyhounds and other small dogs appearing as blurs as they streak down the straightaway, over jumps, pounding the springboard, and tearing back off the way the came. It's amazing to watch - seeing it on TV just doesn't do it justice. All the barking and noise, it transpired, was issuing from the dogs in crates on the sidelines, going berserk at the sight of these dogs running a billion miles and hour back for forth in front of them.

Deciding to go see what other surprises this show held, I went back the way I came and passed an odd little paddock with different pens and even a childs slide ending in a blue kiddie pool. The sign said it was for the "duck herding" event. Something I've never even heard of. Unfortunately, it was empty at the moment so I didn't get to see what would've been a very amusing display. Next to this was the weight pulling ring, in which stood a large flatbed trailer-like thing piled high with 40 lb bags of dog food. Again, nothing was happening here so unfortunately, I didn't get to see how it works.

I went back and bought the leather Doberman keychain, and bought a soft pretzel, since I was starting to get hungry. The pretzel was not very good - tasted like it had been sitting there for awhile, but it was something in my belly. I made my way back to our crate and shared my pretzel with Jackson and Red. At least they thought it was worth eating =)

We sat around for a little while, and then Michelle and Maisy arrived. She already had her crate set up from the night before. She was really nervous since today was to be Maisy's last leg for her CDX title. They qualified for the 2nd leg just this past Thursday. Maisy was her normal happy Wheaten self, but Michelle was a nervous wreck! She chatted for a bit, then went to sit with Maisy by her crate. They were set to start the Open class at 12:30pm, and my next Rally run didn't start til 1pm, so I said I'd video their run. They did great and made it through - though you don't want to celebrate too early until sits/downs are over with... They started late so I was trying to watch Michelle and Maisy, yet make sure we didn't miss our run too. After videoing their run, I went and checked in to get my armband and the course map.

This course wasn't bad either - at least it didn't have the crappy stations that I hate - but it had a couple that I thought may be tougher since we haven't practiced them - the 180 Left Pivot and the Halt-Side Step Right-Halt. Everything else looked decent. I thought we could still pull off and qualifying score for our 2nd leg.

After running the walkthrough 3 or so times, I flitted over to try to catch Michelle and Maisy's sits/downs. I was just in time to see the 5 minute down start and Maisy was doing great so far. Meantime, they were starting Rally and there was only 1 dog in the A class, then started B and there were 8 dogs there, and we were last. But I didn't want to cut it too close. Pretty much only had time to quickly congratulate Michelle on getting their 3rd leg and CDX title, then had to run back and get Red out to get warmed up.

I wasn't sure how he was going to do the 2nd time around - we've never done 2 shows on 1 day before. But he was spunky just like he was earlier. Another friend, Jen, came without her dog Libby, to watch Michelle and Maisy and came over to the Rally ring to watch Red and I. She held onto the treat bag for me while we went.

Apparently the judge had been calling us to see if we could be the Honor dog for the first team, but I was over at the Open ring so I didn't realize. I was afraid she was going to be annoyed and count it against us, or at least judge us harder. So when I went into the ring, I apologized and told her I didn't realize she was calling me and I'm really sorry. But she was completely fine and said it worked out and not to worry.

So off we went. Again, a little bumping on the cones, but not too bad. The signs I was leery about didn't go half bad and he at least was mostly in position for both of them. We finished, had a little party, then went to do the Honor exercise. Again, we get the team who is slow and the dog wanders all over the place. I one point I thought he was going to approach us, but thankfully never did. We ended without incident and then sped off to get a quick jackpot and some toy flinging out of our system =)

We were called back into the ring - I think 7 teams qualified this time. Mr. Rally and Perfect Golden got 1st place with a perfect score of 100, of course. And 2nd place was a score of 98 and went too... me and Red - AGAIN! I was floored - I didn't think we had gotten that high of a score. What a surprise! I kinda wish I had videoed them now, but oh well. I'm just happy to have 2 of our 3 legs under our belt!

It had been a long day, so it was time to pack up and go. I wanted to congratulate Michelle again, but I didn't see her anywhere and I didn't want to have to pull Red through all the crowds again to try and find her. I felt bad for leaving without being able to see goodbye.

Red got another jackpot in the car, as he always does and then settled in for a quiet ride home =) My Redders - Super Dog and and Best Dog Ever!!

Wish us luck tomorrow!

rope.. coat.. what's the difference?

2009-12-30T16:58:00.001-05:00

Redders says he's confused - they sound the same!

Maybe we should work on word recognition, lol

(facebook people, view the video here: http://tablvt-redxiii.blogspot.com/2009/12/rope-coat-whats-difference.html

Training in the garage

2009-12-30T14:32:00.002-05:00

We haven't done much training in awhile, and I got the bug to get back to work and really practice the Open exercises.

Everything has been going pretty well except the retrieve over jump. He doesn't understand he's supposed to come back over the jump on the retrieve yet. I think once the light bulb goes on, it will be easier - its just getting to that point.

The problem is that I can't set up jumps in the yard because of the snow, and the driveway is completely iced over. So I figured we'd do it in the garage. James is at work so his truck is gone. I put the jump in between the work bench and the front of my car, so there was no way around the jump - he HAS to go over it.

Another thing I wanted to start working on was toy/tug rewards instead of food. So I bought a new tug to start using. From the videos I've seen, the handler always holds the tug - never letting go to let the dog have it. In the past, I'd give Red somethin to tug, then let go and let him play-shake it. But I think holding onto it is better so its MY toy and I'm only letting him tug on it - which builds drive to want it.

Anyway, we started out with some heeling. Then we did the flat retrieve. I've been throwing the dumbbell once and then going to get it, and then sending him on the second throw. Hopefully this will help stop is anticipation to get it on the first throw. I hate throwing the dumbbell on the cement garage floor though... it sounds like the dumbbell's going to snap in half. So I softly tossed/slid it instead. I should get some sort of mat to use or something. The retrieve was nice except his came in crooked to the front. Those damn crooked fronts!! It might've been because I had the tug/treats on the work bench behind me and he was trying to angle himself to see them. I'll have to move them next time. But he never dropped it and held it nicely.

Then we did the retrieve over jump. Again, I tried not to throw it too hard and break it on the cement floor. I sent him with the "over" command, he went over the jump, grabbed the db, and came right back over without the slightest hesitation. I didn't even wait for him to front before I released and threw a party for him. We only did it once, then did some high-drive heeling, then released to be done.

He LOVES that tug. Toward the end, I had a hard time getting him to "out". I think its going to be easy to transition him onto the tug instead of food. A very productive session today!

- Continue building drive with the tug
- Wean out food rewards
- Work on straight fronts on the flat retrieve
- Work toward getting a return jump on the retrieve over jump
- Get the broad jump out and work on the "over" command without hand cues
- See about putting down a runner or something in the garage to throw the dumbbell on

Helicopter vs. Doberman

2009-12-26T18:51:00.003-05:00

James got a little mini helicopter for Christmas... and of course I had the camera handy for its maiden voyage ;)

(for the people on facebook seeing this post who can't see the video - go to this link: http://tablvt-redxiii.blogspot.com/2009/12/helicopter-vs-doberman.html

Know what I wanna do?

2009-12-23T19:46:00.000-05:00

Red Meets Santa

2009-12-13T15:10:00.002-05:00

Red met Santa today. At first, all he wanted to do was root around in the candy cane bucket, then in Santa's crotch - at which point I had to drag him off poor violated Santa...

At least the pic came out ok, lol (click to enlarge)

This was at the place where we go for Saturday morning training. Marc has a new building now and had an open house today with Santa pics and contests and prizes. There was a lot of people and dogs! I used the opportunity for some distraction training.

Red ended up winning the "tricks" contest with his hilarious "play dead" routine. He didn't die right away and I had to shake the gun (my hand) at him a few times before he finally keeled completely over and the crowd cheered, LOL

It was fun and I think he enjoyed it too =)

Fun Match - Open Obedience

2009-12-11T13:51:00.002-05:00

Now that Red has his CD title in Novice Obedience, we've moved onto training for Open. It's so nice to train something different for a change! Novice Obedience is kinda boring imo, so its good to be able to work with jumps and the dumbbell now. Red loves learning new things and is doing pretty well in the short time we've been working on all the new stuff.

Our heel off leash and figure 8 are fine. The retrieve on flat is usually decent except for some unknown reason today he picked up the dumbbell wrong and then dropped it when he came back - which he hasn't done in a long time, so not sure what's up with that.

We've really been working on the drop on recall. I had to change from a verbal command to a hand signal, because for some reason he wouldn't drop fast enough with the command and wanted to get as close as possible to me before going down. The hand signal seems to be working better. We're still at a short distance and I'm working us up to longer.

The retrieve over jump is our hardest exercise. He'll go over the jump to get the dumbbell, but he wants to run around it on the way back. So I did it on-leash for this fun match and ran with him. When training this at home, I'm going to have to find some way to set up a jump with barrier on each side so he doesn't have a choice but to come back over. But I can only do it outside and there's snow on the ground now, so not sure how that's going to work...

The broad jump is the one thing we haven't practiced at all and he did it beautifully today. Go figure, lol

Anyway, here's the video:

The judge commented at the end... "Well he's certainly enthusiastic!" haha yep, no problems there...

Camera Hog

2009-12-08T19:00:00.001-05:00

Yesterday James wanted to take some pics of stuff to put on Craigslist but when I got the camera out, Red thought it was for him and kept trying to sit in front of where the camera was pointing. He's SUCH a ham!

"oh hai, wanna take my pic??"

"How bout I pose in front of the tree??" I totally didn't even put him here - he went in front of it, laid down carefully, and cocked his head in a posing way.

He was NOT happy when I pulled Titus into the photo. "Moooomm, he looks like roadkill... he's RUINING my picture!!" *whines*

"The other cat is still behind me, isn't he?" *scowls*

*smugness* "That's right, I'm the star" =)

Down on Recall

2009-12-06T19:41:00.002-05:00

Down on recall had been my focus for the last week or so.

Previous to this, I was just concentrating on getting a fast down in heel position or in front position by command. If I added distance, he would go down in position, but once I added in the motion of the recall, he wanted to get as close to me as possible before actually going down.

So I tried putting a treat down in the middle of the path in the hopes I could down him at the treat and reward, but that didn't work because he knew to avoid the treat since he wasn't given permission to eat it, so he'd step gingerly around it and by that time, had forgotten what exercise we were doing. Fail.

So I stopped doing the treat thing and started stepping into him and pointing down as I said the command, and that seemed to help somewhat, but he was still taking more than a few steps and trying to get close before actually going down. I was making no progress.

Then I decided to do something different - use a hand signal only instead of the verbal - so he'd stop associating the verbal down with being close to me. Change it up completely.

So I started in the living room with him across the room. Put my right arm up and gave the down command, and when he downed, released and reward. Repeat 2 more times. On next attempt, I did hand signal only and he went down - success! End session for now. I repeated this later in the day, but only giving the command with the signal the first time, and the second time just the signal only, and he downed both times - success again! End session. Next time, added in the recall and used the hand signal and command, and he went down! Practiced this a bit and I'm quite happy with the results so far. Living room training going well!

Went to training this past Saturday, and I went further away than we had been doing in the living room. Gave the command and signal, didn't stop so stepped toward him and gave the command again and he went down. Tried it a second time and it was better - though he took extra steps.

Tried it again tonigh with some yummy extra-crispy leftover bacon from dinner. Went across the room, gave the signal only and he went down - yay bacon! Set him back up, went across the room, called for recall, gave the command and he hit the floor immediately!! woo hoo bacon! Ended on a super happy note and played for a bit.

Hopefully I can continue working him this way and he'll have it down.

Next have to work on the retrieve over jump... he'll go over the jump on the way to the dumbbell but wants to run around it on the way back...

Red's Turkey Day

2009-11-27T20:55:00.002-05:00

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my mom's in Grand Rapids, Michigan (about 2 hours away) and spent the night. Of course, Redders came along :)

Two of my younger cousins were there (ages 9 and 5) and they tired Red out! Red was so good with them though - he's such a good dog :)

Some pics from Wednesday night (click to enlarge)

Red showing Katie how to shake

Dancing with my mom

And then Thanksgiving morning...

Watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade with Josh

"Do we HAVE to watch the Detroit Lions lose AGAIN??"

"Grandma, can I help you with the turkey...?"

My mom spoils him :)

Being a good boy while everyone ate

And of course, he got his own piece of turkey

"Can I have it now???"

Red's Day in Canada

2009-11-22T11:30:00.001-05:00

Red and I went to Canada for a few hours today to visit my sister and nephew =) You should have heard the border control officers both coming into Canada and going back to the US... "oh he's so handsome! What's his name? How old is he? I know someone who has a red doberman too!" He can sure win them over - they didn't even ask for his credentials! ;)

Anyway, it was a nice day so we went to the park, and goofed around a bit =)

Click thumbnails to enlarge

"please throw the frisbee for me"

"I'm waiting..."

Watching very carefully...

Finally got it

Red and Bradley hanging out on the slide

Red looks enormous in this pic!

Me and Red

Time for a break

Back home and time to play

Getting love from auntie =)

Walking with a celebrity

2009-11-13T15:00:00.002-05:00

Went for a walk down to James' work today (about 1.5 miles) away. To get there, it requires us to walk down the main road which has a lot of traffic - though we are on a sidewalk, don't worry!

It's so funny because Red gets so much attention in public! Everyone cranes their necks to get a look at him. And apparently people know us from seeing us out because people point, honk and wave.

Almost every time we walk down the main road like this, at least one car pulls over to talk to us. Last time it was an Oakland County Sherriff wanting to chit chat and see Red up close.

This time is was a guy in a pickup. As we were walking, I hear someone call behind me, "Excuse me!" and thinking there was someone on a bicycle wanting to get by, I moved to the side. Then the voice said again, "Excuse me!!". So I turned around and a guy in a pickup had pulled off the road and was trying to get my attention. I doubled back, thinking he needed directions or something (another thing a lot of people ask me when I'm walkin). But he said, "I see you have a Doberman Pinscher."

"Yes," I answered.

"Do you have any pups for sale? I've been looking for some in the area and your boy is perfect," he asked.

Shaking my head, "No, sorry - I'm not a breeder and my boy is neutered. He is not breeding quality."

The guy looks at me confused. So I continue quickly, "But if you go on the Doberman Pinscher Club of America website, they have a list of reputable breeders sorted by state. I think the website is www.DPCA.org." The guy writes this down.

He seemed interested and willing to take my advice so I continue, wanting to educate him as much as possible while I can, "Don't buy a puppy from someone in the newspaper. You want a pup from a reputable breeders who health tests their dogs, that's very important."

He thanked me for the information and went on his way. I felt so good that I was able to educate someone and hopefully prevent them from supporting a BYB (backyard breeder) and getting a poorly bred puppy.

Fall Photos

2009-11-10T11:12:00.002-05:00

I have some fall photos to share =) These were taken over the last the month or so. It seems like the leaves start turning and falling so fast, then its over =(

click thumbnails to enlarge

Starting to see some color in mid-October

End of October

Chasing squirrels..

Redders!

Taken today

Red and the neighbor dog (both waiting for treats ;))

"oh are you raking leaves?"

"I can help!"

"wow that's a lot of leaves..."

"On second thought, I will supervise" :)

Second Rally Excellent trial

2009-10-25T18:27:00.002-04:00

Since they were doing Obedience AND Rally on Saturday, we didn't have to get there til later in the afternoon since they always do Obedience first. The Rally Excellent walkthrough was set to start at 3:30pm, so we got there about 2:15pm or so.

It was packed - I spend a couple minutes wandering around aimlessly looking for a spot to set up the crate. Finally someone was nice enough to let me squeeze in next to them. There wasn't any room to set up a chair next to the crate, so I ended up just putting the chair in front of it.

They weren't checking in for Rally yet (or giving out course maps), so I went out and got Red out of the car once I had everything set up. There was pretty much no room to play or do any warming up, and it was raining outside, so it was difficult to manage...

Sam was there, though not with Mally - just to watch Jeff and his rott, Sam, for their Open run. And they Qualified! Very happy for them - especially since it was their first leg.

They didn't let anyone check in for Rally or get their maps until Open was finished. This was at about 3:15pm, so we only had 15 minutes to get about 30 people checked in and get familiarized with the course map before the walkthrough. It was really poorly organized. They weren't checking in people out of the line like they were supposed to - just taking random people crowded around them. Then they were checking in Excellent B first, which was not smart considering Excellent A was the first group to go! Everyone was getting really irritated and pissed off. I just stood there waiting until someone finally told the stewards that I had been waiting the longest and they finally checked me in and gave me the map.

It was the hardest course I'd ever seen! The judge had all the hardest Excellent signs - the back up 3 steps, moving stand/walk around, and moving down/walk around. Plus it was a very tight and confusing course. And a very challenging set up too - for example he had the back up 3 steps right after one of the jumps. I was not confident at all about doing well. I haven't been practicing the moving stands or downs at all, and the back up 3 steps was still iffy. And I was nervous about the honor now too since he blew it yesterday...

The judge called both Excellent classes into the ring and gave a very stern briefing. He was like a Nazi - saying the moving stand/down was the Utility exercise and he will IP anyone who hesitates even the slightest, and the 1 step to the right should be done this specific way, and on and on. We were all terrified by the end of it.

After the briefing, I got Red out of the crate. We were the 3rd or 4th team into the ring so we had some time to chill for a few - which I've found works better than getting him out when the team ahead of us is in the ring.

We entered the ring and the very first exercise was a jump, which Red LOVES, so he was all into it. He did really well! We redid the 3 steps backwards exercise (as did everyone else in our class) since it was right after the jump and the dog was charging forward by the time we got to the sign. The moving stand was good! The moving down was decent, and he held the Honor down/stay.

We ended up with a score of 86. We got 3 points off for redoing the 3 steps back, 1 point for a crooked front, and 10 points for the moving down (which apparently I hesitated on..). But we got 1st place!! I was utterly shocked. That tells you how hard of a course it was when the high score was an 86!

We got a 1st place and Qualifying ribbon, plus a coffee mug. Though I spoke with the trial secretary about how we were in the wrong class and they redistributed the ribbons, but I got to keep my mug and Qualifying ribbon =)

After the ribbon ceremony, I gave Red a special squirrel stuffy that I'd been saving for after his run, and we took it outside since it had a squeaker and I didn't want to disturb the other dogs who were trialing. Red was in stuffy heaven!

As we were outside, someone came out the door behind us and introduced herself as someone off DT! She had recognized us and came over to say hi =) It was so cool to meet someone off DT! She doesn't post much but lurks a lot and knew all about Red's photo scandel and everything! She was there for Rally Novice with her pit bull. I really wanted to stay and watch, but still I had't eaten lunch, and wasn't sure what James' dinner plans were, I couldn't stay. It was a good thing we didn't, eiher, because she said later that they didn't go into the ring til about 7pm! But they got 3rd place in their class and Qualified! I'm really glad I got to meet her. She lives in the Grand Rapids area and may come to othe shows in the area sometime.

I'm really bummed none of these shows are counting toward our title, but it's been a lot of fun, and the pressure as sort of been off knowing it won't count anyway. Red has been so awesome, and I'm very proud of my boy - whether it counts or not! =)

Rally Excellent trial

2009-10-23T15:01:00.001-04:00

We had our first Rally Excellent trial today. We have another one a little later on tomorrow afternoon.

But neither of them are going to count toward our title =( I accidentally registered for A instead of B, but now that we have our CD title, we have to be in the B classes. And you can't do a lateral move from A to B classes, only a move up from Novice to Advanced, or Advanced to Excellent. I guess they are changing the rules in January 2010 but that doesn't do me any good now.

I wasn't too upset though, because I haven't trained with Red in a long time, since I was sick and we've been working on the house. We haven't really done any Excellent Rally training at all, so I was a little nervous about it. But since it doesn't count, the pressure was off to Qualify, so I can just treat it like a fun match.

I forgot how much easier Rally is! You can talk to the dog, lure them into position, etc. A lot more fun that strict Obedience where you can't talk to the dog and have to hold your arms in a certain position, and only use certain commands/signals.

The other good thing about being in a high level of Rally, is you know what time they start in the morning (they start with high levels and down go to Novice). So we got there 1 hour before the walkthrough was set to start.

I did the walkthrough, which was a pretty straight forward pattern, not difficult to navigate. But the judge had the "3 steps back" exercise there, which we still aren't great on yet... I wasn't worried about anything else really.

After the walkthrough, I asked someone if they could video with my camera, and she said she wasn't good and volunteered someone else to do it. I recognized him as the judge of 2 of my past rally trials. Turns out he didn't know what he was doing either, even after I explained to him how simple it is, and he forgot to push the button to record...

Anyway, we were th 4th in the ring, and I got Red out of the crate right after the walkthrough. We played some tug, then I just fed treats for focus. We went into the ring and started.

His jumps were beautiful. It was nice I could talk to him so I could remind him to sit at the halts, which he has a hard time remembering to do when we're in the ring for some reason... We messed up one sign that called for a sit, stand, then down. But he sat before he went down which I knew to be an IP, but I didn't care and didn't feel like redoing the sign so we just went ahead. The 3 steps back was actually pretty good! I wasn't sure at the time if we took enough steps back but I think we did. After we finished, there is an honor exercise which means the dog is in a sit/stay in the corner of the ring while the next team is doing their run. I never worry about Red's sit/down/stays because he hasn't had any problems in a long time. But since this one is done on-leash instead of off-leash like he's used to, I'm not sure if that threw him off or not. Right at the very end, he went down on the sit!! WTF!!! Apparently its not an NQ though, its just 10 points off.

So figuring in the 20 points we lost for the IP sign and the down on the sit/stay, we ended up with a score of 78. We we lost only 2 points on th entire rest of the course, which is great. I was still happy with how he did, though I was really disappointed about the honor station. oh well... he still got hi usual jackpot and special prize afterwards =)

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Michigan Renaissance Festival 2009

2009-10-03T22:55:00.002-04:00

Just got home from a long day with Redders :) First, we went to training at 9am this morning where we started working on Open exercises for CDX, then for a nice walk in the damp woods, then onto our annual visit to the Michigan Renaissance Festival! We were there for about 4 hours, and Red and hubby are both passed out on the floor sleeping, lol

As usual, we couldn't make it 10 feet without someone either commenting on Red, stopping us to admire him, or asking if they can take a picture of him! He's my little celebrity :) All very nice comments from everyone, and Red was very well-behaved and accepted pets from adults and children, and even met a few other pups too. It was the perfect day for it - overcast, a little rainy, and about 60 degrees - sets the mood nicely and not super-packed with people.

Here are some pics (behold the watermarking debut... *sigh*)... click to enlarge

Me and Redders

We went to a show which featured birds of prey. Here you can see one of the falcons, and Red watched the one on the peak of the roof very closely...

Dad lets Redders finish the last drops of his Guinness beer..

Red with the living statue

The Guinness Pub is where all the serious Renaissance folk hang out - you get to see some of the most elaborate costumes and get-up here.

Very fun :) We look forward to this every year. Michigan has one of the best Renaissance Festivals in the country, rivaled only by Texas and Maryland. It's fun to go, have some drinks, browse the shops, and people watch. I always end up buying a trinket or two as well... This year I bought a delicate silver puzzle ring with Celtic knotwork :)

Red has been coming to the Ren Fest since he was 6 months old, so I think he finally knows what its all about now and enjoys himself :)

The Stolen Puppy

2009-10-02T22:28:00.000-04:00

The other night, just before bed, I received a PM from a member on the doberman forum. She said she was searching for red doberman photos online and came across some on a website called The Daily Puppy and there were some pics that looked a lot like Red.

I went to the link she provided, and such enough, there were about 10 photos of Red that I have taken over the last year or so, posted up under the name "Bueno the Doberman" - complete with made-up lifestory and everything! There were a ton of comments about what nice photos and a great dog Bueno is, all dating back from July of this year.

I stared at the photos that I took of MY dog, and my mouth fell open. My heart started pounding as if I had just sprinted a mile. The blood rushed to my face and I felt sick. My cherished photos of my Redders - stolen and posted by someone else with a made-up name and story. I couldn't believe it.

The first thing I did was create an account on The Daily Puppy, and commented on "Bueno's" page - how dare they use my pics, that is NOT their dog and are stolen photos and to remove them immediately. Then I reported the page to the site administrators.

The next thing I did was create a thread on DT (Dobermantalk.com - my doberman haven!) and announce that Red's photos have been stolen and posted the link. Within 5 minutes, many more people had created accounts on The Daily Puppy and comments on the page about how this person stole photos and they need to be removed. Within 10 minutes, people were posting contact information to the copyright department for me, had found 2 more pages that have been using stolen photos of Red (one as a water rescue dog who rescues people from the water! as he's pictured wearing his lifejacket on my dad's boat), and even more people had signed up to raise hell on The Daily Puppy.

By about 2am, my thread had swelled to 3 pages of 40 replies each, and I couldn't take looking at Red's pics on that site anymore and I went to bed. I had to work in the afternoon the next day, so my plan was to get up and call the copyright department first thing in the morning.

The next day, I tried calling - and of course, they are located in California on Pacific time so the offices weren't open yet. I tried calling the other offices, but the phone system would not route me to a person, and would not let me leave a message. Instead, I contented my self with re-reporting the offending pages, emailing the copyright division, and emailing The Daily Puppy a very colorful email. I also called my brother-in-law who is a lawyer about it and sent him the links. He said if the site didn't taken them down after a few days, he would send them a letter.

As hard as it was to handle knowing that someone had stolen all these pics from me, having all my DT friends stand behind me like that meant everything to me and made it so much easier to deal with. They had continued posting throughout the night on The Daily Puppy and were continuing to stand behind me in my thread on DT. As the day went on and more people saw what had been going on all night, more people registered on The Daily Puppy and commented and reported the stolen pics.

Due to the immense response and persistence of the DT crew, the photos were removed by about 3pm that day. I truly think the pics would not have been removed as quickly or no-questions-asked if the DT people hadn't been there the whole time, commenting and posting and raising the alarm.

Since then, I have deleted all my photos in my DT gallery and am in the process of watermarking all my photos and re-uploading them to photobucket, which is extremely daunting considering the sheer number of photos I have shared on that site, but I can't risk having my puppers' pics stolen again. It was such a slap in the face and a violation of my personal possessions, that I never want to relive it again.

Most importantly, I can't express how much what everyone on DT did meant to me - having all of them come together to support Red and I. We are a very tight-knit community and this proves that you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And Doberman owners are not people you really want to fuck with.

Obedience Novice A Trial - our 3rd leg and CD title!

2009-09-27T17:16:00.006-04:00

Everything started an hour earlier today, but I didn't want it to be as long of a day as yesterday, so we got there at 11:30am today. I had left our crate and chair overnight so it was waiting for us when we got there. There were considerably less people today than yesterday though.

They had just finished Utility in our ring, and were taking a lunch break before starting Open. So we had about 20 minutes before they started Open, then to wait for the 7 or so dogs to go. I kept Red out for awhile, playing and doing some exercises for treats, and took him out on the grounds to sniff around and play a little. After that, I put him in his crate and watched the Open dogs.

I figured I would try something a little different and get him out more in advance to hang out. Normally I get him out while the dog before us is going because that's what worked before, but since he's been tarting out on off-leash halt/sits (and I'm not sure if he's distracted or what) that I'd try something different. So I got him out while Open were doing their sits/downs. We played with the rope and practiced halt/sits.

I had a good feelig about today. I wasn't near as nervous as I was yesterday, which is strange because it all came down to today to get our title. But I wasn't cold, it was a nicer day, and I felt more comfortable and calm. I promised Red if he did good today, I would buy him TWO hamburgers from McDonald's instead of his usual one! =)

There were only 3 people registered for Novice A, but only 2 signed in including me. We were second in line to go. The team in front of us was a young girl and a large German Shepherd. After the judge's briefing/walkthrough, the first team went. I wasn't really watching because I was focusing on Red, but the part I did see was once the dog was off leash during the heel, he jumped the fence into the next ring! Thankfully no one was trialing in the next ring, but that is an automatic NQ and dismissal, so their run was cut short. Red and I were up!

The on leash heeling was great. He sat at all the halts and kept up with me. The figure 8 was good, and sat at all the halts. The stand for exam was great, no problems. The off leash heeling was sloppy. He lagged and went wide on one of the about turns, and didn't sit at the halts. What is up with that?? He came in crooked for the front on recall and didn't sit for the finish. But I didn't care because all that are just poin deductions.

Since we were the only qualifying team, the judge had us go right into sits/downs. Which was kind of a bummer because I usually jackpot him after his run. But we had to stay in the ring and do sits/downs alone... I was nervous about that because usually there is a line of dogs which is normal. It's harded for a dog when they are the only one.

The 1 minute sit/stay was fine. But the down/stay was the longest 3 minutes of my life! There were flies in the building and they kept landing on him and he kept snapping at them, sniffing around, and shooing them off him. But he STAYED! Even the judge said afterwards that she couldn't believe he made it through that with all the flies harassing him!

We Qualified for our 3rd leg, and got our CD title!!! w00t!!

Here's the video:

On the way home, I kept my promise and stopped at McDonald's to get Red his two hamburgers... (click to enlarge pics)

"omg is that for me??"

"I can haz cheezburger?"

"om nom nom"

And Redders showing off his gold and silver medallions and title ribbon! =)

I just received an email from the photographer with a sneak peek of our win photos. We did a couple different poses, but here is one of them.

Obedience Novice A Trial - for our 2nd leg

2009-09-26T16:36:00.004-04:00

I wasn't sure what time to go there today, since they were splitting everything up into 2 rings, and since I'd rather be early than late, I decided to play it safe and go early.

We got there at 11am and the place was a mad house. There was no where to put our crate and I circled around for awhile before I was told a spot to put it. Sam and Mally and Glee and Maximus were able to set up pretty close to us, so that was good. Michelle wasn't there yet because she decided not to show Maisy, but was still going to come to watch us.

They were still doing Utility in our ring when we got there, so we had a long time to wait. I couldn't even check in yet. After Utility, the judge took a 30 minute break, then went into Open, which was another hour as least. We didn't end up going into the ring til after 3pm. Waaay too long for Redders to be in his crate.

I was really nervous today because he did not do well at the fun match this week. I didn't make a blog post about it because I didn't want to relive it. Basically, I yelled at him for chewing up hs crate mat just before we went into the ring, and during heeling he was off in left field and didn't sit at any of the halts. So I was extra nervous today just hoping to god he wouldn't repeat the performance. Plus I was a little cold, so I was uncomfortable which didn't help.

Anyway, there were only 2 people in Novice A. The 3rd person who was supposed to be there didn't show up. So it was just me and my friend Glee and her Doberman, Maximus. It was pretty cool to see the 2 dobes together. The judge gave us our briefing and showed us the heeling pattern - really nice guy and just stressed to us to have fun and don't worry! He even let us take a 5 minute break after the walk through to prepare our dogs, and waited til the awards ceremony in the next ring was finished so we didn't have to try to run during all the clapping. I thought that was really cool of him.

Once Glee and Max went into the ring, I went and got Red out of the crate. I fed him treats and did some focusing. I really wanted to watch Glee and Max, but I had to concentrate on not freaking out and getting Red focused! I fed the last piece of hotdog well before we went into the ring and made sure he wasn't going to choke it back up!

We were called into the ring and started our heeling pattern. The sits were ok, though a little slow. During the figure 8, I messed up my footwork on the halt and after that, he wouldn't sit at the halts anymore! gah! Th stand for exam was good, but th off-leash heeling was frustrating due to his lack of sitting at the halts. The recall was a very crooked front and didn't sit on the finish! grrr... At least the sits/downs were ok, though I was starting to worry on the down because he was very restless and was fidgeting a lot. It seemed like A LOT longer than 3 minutes... I just kept praying the judge would tell us to go back so I could release before he did something stupid! But it was fine and we qualified for our 2nd leg!

Here's the video:

We got a really nice silver medallion plus the usual green qualifying ribbon and red second plac ribbon. Here's Redders modeling his medallion (click to enlarge):

The score was 186.5, and the judge told me it was because of all the sits - which I already knew. I'm just so confused on why he would stop sitting all of a sudden?? He does it great during practice, but the fun matches and trials... who knows... Definitely something I'm going to have to grill into him. But no time now because our last trial is tomorrow to (hopefully!) finish our CD title!

I am going to be a basket case tomorrow...

Fun Match

2009-09-19T17:05:00.002-04:00

Up and at 'em early for a fun match today! It's about 30 minutes away and we got there at 9am.

Did our usual, left Red in the car while I carried in and set up the crate and all our stuff, then got him out of the car, took him around to the potty area (he never goes though), then went inside. We did a few warm ups, played some tug, then put him in the crate so I could get a coffee =)

I signed us up for one Novice Obedience run and one Rally Excellent run, since we're going to be going for our RE next month and neither one of us has done Rally in a long time!

Novice Obedience:

On-leash heel: Started out normal pace, then went into a slow pace. He bumped me a few times and the "judge" had us stop and start again. The second time he was better and didn't bump, but I requested not stopping us in the middle of a heeling pattern again because it throws him off. We went through it and he was fine.

On-leash figure 8: Very good! He's getting much better at not bumping as we go around the posts. Very happy with this.

Stand for exam: Great, no problem.

Off-leash heel: No problem, the same as the on-leash. Stayed with me fine. I think I told him to sit once at a halt because he was not paying attention and was distracted by what was going on in the next ring. But he was fine.

Recall: Great! Came in nice and fast and had a nice front - still a little crooked, but it was better than what he's done in the past, so I'll take it!

It was a qualifying run if it were a real trial, so that's all the matters! I do think he is bored with the exercises though, which is why he can get distracted during the heeling. He's been through it a million times!

Rally Excellent: He did fine. It's been awhile since we've done Rally so I hadto walk through it to make sure I knew what all the signs were. It was a tight course, but it was better than they usually have which is why I chose to do it. I hate it when they cram 25 signs in a little tiny ring - its difficult to manuever and easy to get lost. But we did fine - I think we would've qualified for that too.

I've been teaching Red the backing up heeling and its going quite well! At first I started to see if he would do it in front of me, but he kept backing up and out of my way as I stepped toward him, so we did it in heel position. At first I started from a sit and went backwards, but he'd just scoot backwards on his butt. But then I started heeling forward, then going backwards and he got it! I can't believe how fast he learns - its really neat to watch. And he was so excited to be learning something new too =) It's been awhile since he learned anything new. It's like I'm afraid to teach him anything else because I'm afraid I'm going to teach it wrong and then be stuck. He's the type of dog that is hard to fix once you've already taught it incorrectly. I'm going to have to start training for Open, though so I'll definitely need some help!

Red's recheck echocardiogram

2009-09-15T20:47:00.000-04:00

Red had his echocardiogram rechecked today. It's a couple weeks shy of the 6 months, but I couldn't wait any longer... In case you missed the first echo post, here it is.

Results: everything is the same. The left ventricular dimension (which was a little too high last time), and the overall function (which was a little too low last time) - and both of these things may point to early DCM - were exactly the same. So a couple possibilities - this is just normal for him, or he has early cardio changes. Dr Brown is not worried right now and doesn't feel a need to put him on meds or anything, but would like to recheck the echo in another 9-12 months, and continue holter monitoring annually.

Redders was so good for it though! I think he thought we were going to training because he was excitedly whining the whole way there, lol... but little did he know! He looked so pitiful on the table as the techs were holding him (with an "I didn't agree to this!" look on his face), but he never struggled once and just laid there so still. It was hilarious when they put him back down on the floor he started doing the zoomies! Full out ZOOMIES in the treatment area (while I frantically tried to grab his collar saying "no zoomies! no zoomies!!", which of course made him go faster) - while a couple hospitalized dogs and a cat watched probably thinking what idiot dog would be this happy to be at the vet's. Dr Brown and the techs were pretty amused though, LOL

Here is good ol happy Redders back in the exam room after his echo (click to enlarge)

He is such a crack up! =D

Our Blog's New Look!

2009-09-11T20:01:00.006-04:00

Thanks to Lyn at GR8ILLUSTRATION.COM, Red has his own professional custom logo! =D She designed it from a photo of him, and I am in love with it!! She did such a great job and I am honored to have Red portrayed in her artwork =) Check out her site and portfolio for examples of other work she has done - she's a truly talented person!
Even though I liked the black background of our blog's old header banner, I wanted something that featured our new logo. I'm no great shakes at Photoshop, but I put a one new one together. I didn't have a lot room to play with the logo and wording because the words "Red XIII" and "Gorrmae's Fantasty Red XIII RA CGC TDI" are part of the blog itself and are not editable - either in color, text, or placement. So I did the best I could!

I'm going to look into having a patch for our training bag and a shirt (maybe polo-style) with this logo embroidered on it. If anyone knows of any place that does this, please let me know!

2nd Obedience Trial this Weekend - Novice A

2009-09-06T20:31:00.002-04:00

Another beautiful day! What a gorgeous Labor Day weekend!

Our second obedience trial of the weekend was today - same time, same place. I wasn't as nervous for today as I was yesterday. I mean, it can't be any worse, right??

Michelle called me before we left the house and told me that when she went into the ring with Delilah (she was showing for Dawn) for rally today, who the judge that NQ'd me from yesterday was judging, the judge told them to be really careful about giving your dog treats before coming into the ring because she had to NQ a girl yesterday for it and she felt really bad, but didn't have a choice.

Then when I got there today and walked into the building to set up my stuff, that judge walked straight up to me and asked very sympathetically asked how I was doing after yesterday. I said I was fine, and she was very sincere when she said that she was so sorry about yesterday and she was thinking about me last night and felt really terrible, but there are just some rules you can't get around. I told her I completely understood and it just wasn't meant to be - its not her fault - it was just one of those freak things. She said she's only had that happen twice (counting me and Red) in her whole judging career. (yay me, lol)! She was really nice and complimented me again on how great of a job we did and what a great dog Red is. Then we chatted about the weather a little - she flew in from Minnesota to judge this weekend - and that was that.

I'm really glad I got to talk to her - she is genuinely a nice lady and really didn't have a choice. I feel bad for feeling upset about the whole thing. And Michelle pointed out that at least it happened for our 1st leg rather than our 3rd! That would've REALLY sucked if I thought we were going to finish our title, then that happened. So if it had to happen, it happened at the right time, I guess.

After I got everything all set up, I had at least 3 other people approach me and commented about how it was so horrible yesterday and wished me luck today. Even one of the stewards came up to me and said the judge felt really bad about it, and even scored us and we got a 190. And she said she was afraid I would be so disheartened that I would give up and not come today. But of course that wouldn't happen! Anyway, it's nice to know the score after the fact, even though we NQ'd.

Anyway, it's over and done and now I know how it feels to NQ. Onward!

So I brought Red in and got him situated in the crate and watched them finish up the Open classes. All the same faces from yesterday. As I was sitting there chatting with Michelle and Dawn, I was thinking that it was really nice that so many people were rooting for Red and I, and I felt like we HAD to qualify this time or I wouldn't be the only disappointed one!

After Novice B, the judge brought the 3 Novice A people in for their "walkthrough" which is more of a briefly than an actual walkthrough. The heeling pattern was the same as yesterday - so that was good.

Red and I were the last team to go again, so when the team in front of us (Dawn and Atticus) started, I got Red out and started feeding hotdog bits for focus. As they were finishing their recall, I fed Red the last treat. Just to be sure he had swallowed it and wasn't going to cough it up again, I walked him in a couple circles and beat on his chest a little, LOL. Then I was satisfied. I had horrible deja vu as we walked to the starting point. "oh god PLEASE don't choke!!" But he didn't and he sat very nicely in heel position.

Off we went for the on-leash heel and wouldn't you know that he completely blew the first halt/sit. WTF??? Don't do this to me, dog! But he was fine after that. I didn't look at him at all during the heeling. I just kept my faith that he was with me - and apparently he was. He had a really slooow sit on the last halt but finally did do it before the jude ended the exercise.

I set ourselves up at the wrong set of marks on the floor for the figure 8, and didn't realize it til I looked up and the posts were off to my right. Whoops! The figure 8 was ok - a little more bumping than yesterday, but still acceptale, and his sits at the halts were nice.

The stand for exam was fine. I thought his left rear foot was out kinda far, and for a split second I thought about fixing it, but I know from experience that if I tried to move it manually, it would throw him off and he would be more likely to break the stay. So I left it alone and it proved to be the right decision because he was great.

The off-leash heeling was even better than the on-leash. I still didn't look at him at all and just trusted (and hoped!) that he was staying with me. Nice sits at the halts too.

Last but not least, the dreaded recall. Please just give me a halfway-decent front! And he did! It wasn't as straight as yesterday, but definitely better than he had been giving me in training. Since his right finish after the recall yesterday sucked (was crooked and behind me), I finished him left this time and it was very nice.

Yay! We did it! Off to give him his jackpot! Not much to time though, because they were setting up for sits/downs now. Since the Novice A & B classes were smaller, they combined them for sits/downs like yesterday. I normally cross my arms and slightly cross my ankles for the sits/downs as sort of a non-verbal cue that I will not be calling him out of stay, but I don't think I will be crossing my ankles anymore because I was so nervous that I almost fall over, LOL. Plus Michelle said to just stand normal with my arms crossed in case the judge gets funny about the way you stand. So anyway, he was great for both the sit and the down, and that was it!

We got a 192.5 total score out of 200, and got 1st place in our class - which, granted, only had 3 people in it, but we qualified and that's all that matters!! First leg down, and 2 more to go! =)

Here's the video, complete with abbreviated sits/downs and ribbons:

Our Obedience Novice A Debut

2009-09-05T18:35:00.004-04:00

What a beautiful, sunny day! About 80 degrees and sunny - a great day for a walk. However I don't walk Red on trial days - I need all the energy from him I can get!

In Rally and Obedience, the higher classes go first in the morning. So for Obedience, they do Utility B then Utility A, then Open B then Open A, then Novice B and Novice A. Since I have never titled a dog before, we are in Novice A - the greenest of the green! Which means we also are the last class to go.

Based on the entries, I estimated we wouldn't go into the ring til between 3:30pm-4pm, so I didn't want to get there too early. I've found that Red does better with very little down time. The best is if we get there, play some tug and do a couple exercises, put him in the crate for 10-15 minutes, then get him back out and do our run. The longer we wait, the flatter he is. So I waned to get there between 2pm-2:30pm, so I had enough time to get him in and crated, and catch the Novice A walkthrough.

We got there at about 2:10pm. I left Red in the car while I carried in my bag, my chair and the crate. I walked in and you could seriously hear a pin drop. I felt like I was even walking too loud. It was a little off-putting to have it so quiet... I'm used to training and working with a lot of distractions. I wondered if this would be a good or bad thing.

It was sits/downs for Open B, so they still had to do the ribbons and go through Open A, so we had some time to waste. I got Red out of the car and brought him in. His collar was jangling and I felt like we were the center of attention when we walked in. We got to the crate and he shook, which made his collar tags jangle even louder. I quickly took he collar off him. I felt like I couldn't even play tug or talk at a normal volume to give commands for warm up. I didn't like it at all. My friends who I train with were all there, so we all went in another room to chat.

I put Red away and just sat and watched. I had the heeling pattern memorized, so I hoped the judge would use the same one for Novice. After sits/downs and the ribbons for Open A, they went right into Novice B. Sam and Mally were the last in Novice B to go, and they were doin great until the off-leash heeling, then Mally stopped staying with her and they ended up NQ'ing. I felt so bad for Sam, but she kept it together and finished the run.

After Novice B, they do a walkthrough for Novice A as a courtesy to the newbs. I decided to leave Red in his crate while I did the walkthrough, and since there were only 4 people in my class and we were the last team to go, I would get him out as the dog ahead of us was going. The less time out, the better. I watched as Dawn and Atticus went, and they too were doing really well until they got to the off-leash heeling. And Atty did the same thing as Mally. Not sure what's up with the off-leash heeling today!

When the dog before us went into the ring, I took Red out and took him down to where everyone was standing near the entrance to the ring. His focus was great and I kept feeding him bits of hotdog, as people normally do to keep focus while you are on deck. The last treat should be fed just before you go into the ring.

I fed the last piece and the judge called us into the ring. On our way to the starting spot, Red coughed and up came a piece of hotdog onto the floor, which he quickly re-ate. The judge stopped us and said that she's sorry, but she's going to NQ us for food in the ring. She stood there and babbled about god knows what bullshit until finally said she would let us still run anyway even though it was an NQ. I was numb by this point, and extremely shaken and pissed off, but decided to take our run anyway. Red didn't know he had just cost us a Q, and we paid to take our run, so we were going to do it.

He was great. The heeling wasn't very attentive, but he stayed with me, and did really well. The figure 8 was good. Stand for exam, excellent. The off-leash recall was good, even though he didn't sit at the last halt - not that it mattered at that point anyway, so I told him to sit before I released. The recall was probably the best, straightest front on recall he's ever done. The finish wasn't great - a little behind me and crooked, but it didn't matter. We had, by far, the best run out of everyone and none of it mattered. Of course, I still praised like crazy - just like I normally would - in between exercises. Red did awesome. The judge told me I had a great working dog and I should be very proud of myself. I stiffly nodded without looking at her while mumbling a thanks and left the ring to give Red his jackpot.

We did sits and downs were were fine, except I had to yell at him a bit before we started because he kept straining on the leash to sniff the dog in front of us in line. At one point, the ring on the handle of my leather leash whacked him on the nose and he stopped acting like a tard. After the sit, he just about went into a down automatically, anticipating the next part, but I made him continue sitting until I told him to down. The down was fine. Lots of praise and he earned himself a new stuffy toy.

My shocked friends couldn't believe the judge would NQ a Novice A dog for that - give me a stern warning, or take 10 points off, but even other exhibitors were baffled. I'm really disappointed and I will definitely avoid showing under that judge again - sure, sure she did what she thought was right, but no one else seemed to agree that it was right, and I won't be supporting her with another entry again.

Oh well - nothing I could've done differently, except feed him his last treat with more time before going into the ring so he doesn't choke it up next time. We trial again tomorrow at the same place - different judge - so hopefully he'll do as well tomorrow as he did today! Minus the choking! It's almost worse NQ'ing this way than if we had thoroughly earned it.

Here's the video: It hurts just to watch it...

Good boy on our walk

2009-09-01T10:15:00.003-04:00

We were walking down the trail through the woods like normal and he ran out ahead of me like usual. Once we get close to the pond, he usually goes ahead and plunges himself in the pond and waits for me to catch up.

But this time he went out ahead, but I saw him come right back and stand in front of me. I kinda looked at him puzzled, then around the bend came an off leash yellow lab and his owner. Then I understood that Red had seem them, and turned around to defer back to me about the situation. I was so happy to see that Red came back to me instead of just staying and trying to play with the dog! It was like he was waiting for my reaction or permission that it was ok.

The owner and I chatted for a minute while both dogs sniffed each other - though each one was not real interested in the other - I think both of them wanted to get on with their walk!

Saturday Morning Training

2009-08-29T11:10:00.003-04:00

There were a lot of people there today! I like when everyone is there because it's great distraction for the dogs.

Heeling: So-so. Attention wasn't great, but he stayed with me. I think he knows the difference between this heeling and heeling a pattern for obedience. He is completely different when its just him and I heeling a pattern. So I guess thats ok as long as he performs when it really matters!

Figure 8: Lagged a little on the first turn, but was GREAT after that!! Totally not bumping me on the inside turns anymore! So happy =)

Stand For Exam: Perfect. We did it twice and the second time he sort of released himself a split second before Marc said "exercise finished", so he didn't get rewarded after that. But he never moved for the exam.

Recall: Not too bad. Was a bit crooked on the front but not absolutely horrible. I didn't finish him. The second time he was even more out of position so I lured him into a correct front then released, though no reward after that. He's not twitching anymore when the judge says "call your dog", and he runs at me completely straight, but he sort of goes crooked a the last minute. Not sure what's up with that. He does great fronts when we practice in short distances.

Sits/Downs: Excellent! We did it in another room to change it up this time, and he was great. I was worried because he went down on the sit last time, but he was fine this time. My only concern is when the sit was over, he automatically went into a down in anticipation for the next part. Not sure if that's a penalty or not if the dog goes into a down before the judge instructs us to down our dogs...

Dumbbell: The first time I threw it and released him, he was so excited and went and picked it up by one of the ends. He brought it back and I said, "What's that? That's not how you hold a dumbbell!" So he dropped it and picked it back up properly. After that, he always picked it up correctly. He is getting really good about coming right back and sitting, and holding it til I take it. Now I have to start working on getting him to sit and leave it while I throw it without actually TELLING him to wait or leave it...

All in all, a good class. It's our last one before our first CD trial, which is a week from today!! AHHHH!!! I'm nervous and excited. I just want to qualify - that's all I care about. I've decided I'm not going to get there super early this time. Red does better with only a little down time prior to going into the ring - even though I like to have A LOT of time to prepare myself! But I have to do what works best for him, not me. I would only like to get there an hour or so before we start. Michelle is going to help me figure out when to get there...

Weekend Up North

2009-08-24T22:00:00.004-04:00

Redders had another fun weekend up at the cabin! It was a pretty chilly weekend though... only got into the mid-60's and was overcast and off-and-on rainy the whole time. So we only took one cruise around the lake and no one tubed this time - even though the water was warmer than the air temp!

Red was super-excited to go - as soon as he saw his lifejacket, he knew where we were going and hopped up into the truck eagerly. But when it was time to go home, he WOULD NOT get into the truck! He laid down on the ground like a kid would do.. "But mooomm, I don't WANT to go home yet!!"

He did better on the boat this time - wasn't acting as psycho as last time. So that's good. Maybe because we were all just chillin and no one was jumping in or tubing or anything. He HATES anyone being in the water without him.

It was just me, James, Red, Dad, Deb and Bella this time. It was a nice, relaxing visit. Since it was cooler, we just hung out, watched TV and sat around the fire eating s'mores and BSing - my kind of vacation! =D

Anyway, here are some pics. (click thumbnails to enlarge)

In the morning... "Can I help make breakfast?"

Helping his grandpa make breakfast by doing what he does best... standing in the way.

Later in the day... "Mom, dad won't let me help with the grill" :(

"Can we go down to the water now, plz??"

Chasing waves

Here's a video of Red chasing waves. Halfway through, my dad comes down and I don't think the dogs recognized him at first, lol

"ok can we PLEASE go on the boat now??"

Hanging out

Checking things out with James

Red and Belle... "You have treats, yes?"

Before Belle fell in... which is why I make Red wear a lifejacket!

"How come you're not getting in the water, mom?"

"Can't this thing go any faster? Let me drive!"

"ok I'm tired, let's go back now"

"Turn the light out... I'm a tired puppers."

Saturday Morning Training

2009-08-15T10:43:00.002-04:00

Finally got to go to a Saturday morning class again! There were only 4 of us there this time though, and 2 of them got there late (ehem, Michelle and Bev!) so we started warm up heeling without them.

I wasn't initially planning on doing warm up heeling because we always go for too long and Red loses his focus, but Marc agreed we'd keep it short, so we went ahead and did it.

On-leash heeling: We did it on-leash since Red always heels better off-leash, so I figured he could use the practice. He did really well! Stayed with me, though a little forged, but had good focus. After the warm-up, Marc ran us through a heeling pattern, and he did really well for that too. I'm definitely more confident about Red's heeling now =)

Figure 8: Good! We had people as posts, which I wondered if that made a difference since he had cones at the fun match yesterday and did well, but he did good for this too. Much better, and only a small amount of bumping on the inside turns, but definitely not what they were before.

Stand for Exam: Tarted out for some reason and moved toward Marc when Marc approached for the exam. I clapped and "ah ah"'ed him, returned, repositioned and gave a more stern "stay" command, and then he was fine. Lots of treats to reward the good behavior. We did it again with John doing the exam and he was fine for it. I know he likes Marc, so maybe that's why he moved toward him (for petting?) initially.

Recall: Good!! Still a little crooked on the front from my view, but everyone else said it looked ok to them. I right finished him this time which was very good. Lots of treats! We usually do two recalls - down and back - but I didn't want to push my luck and only did the one ;)

Sits/Downs: Retard went down on the sit AS SOON AS I left!! WTF??!! I marched back to him, choked him up into a sit (and he cowered back into a down), so I repositioned him, and gave a very firm "stay", and he was fine after that - 2 minute sit. This is what I get for thinking his sits/downs were fine and skipped it at the fun match yesterday!! I didn't reward with treats when I returned, but did give good verbal praise and pets. The down was fine. I did tell him to "leave it" once for a little sniffing, but that was it. 5 minute down. I gave a jackpot after this.

Dumbbell: LOVES it, as usual. Is very exuberant with his retrieves and I keep reinforcing with jackpots, especially when he comes right to front, sits and holds it for me. Good boy =)

For our free time, I pulled out a tall jump and had him go over it a few times, which he did without a problem. Then I noticed a bite sleeve on the wall and pulled it down to play with. He immediately started biting on it and playing tug. I let him carry it around and chew on it a bit.

I talked to Michelle about the WAE and about how I think Red just didn't know what to do, so I figured I'd play with the bite sleeve a little. She didn't seem thrilled and thinks I shouldn't encourage that behavior since we are involved in therapy work. I agree to an extent, but dogs who pass a WAE aren't necessarily unable to do therapy work. A Doberman should be able to tell the difference between a threat and a non-threat. I do see her point though. I guess I'm just not used to failing anything with him and want to be able to pass next year! Don't get me wrong, I'm not all worried about passing it or anything, but I think it would be nice to have the certificate since he did so well on the other parts of the test. Lori, Red's breeder, thinks the WAE isn't a true temperament test anyway about how the dog will act in a real threatening situation, and some dogs can tell that the aggressive stranger is not a real threat. Anyway, no biggie... just thinking out loud. I do love the therapy work, but I think he is still capable of passing the WAE and doing both.

Fun Match

2009-08-14T14:28:00.002-04:00

It was supposed to start at 9:30am, and I like get there about 30 minutes early so I got there at about 9:05am. Got his crate set up, signed in at the #2 spot and paid the $6, then brought him in. We did a few seconds of heeling then started playing tug with his frisbee. Then the lady came up to me and said they were ready for us! Okay... he hadn't even been in his crate yet. I had planned on having someone video me, but obviously going to happen today =(

I think I've discovered that Red is better with little or no down time before the run (complete opposite of me!!). The longer he sits around, the more energy saps out of him and the more lackluster his performance. But when he can have like 10-15 minutes in his crate after arriving, and then pull him back out - he's great! I don't know how I would work that for a show though... that's cutting it way too close for my comfort. Anyway, I didn't wear my treat pouch in this time. Instead, I packed hot dogs bits into my both sweatshirt pockets.

Heel On Leash: Good. Ok attention - he got a little distracted on an about turn near the gate separating the next ring and gave him a slight collar pop, but other than that, I thought he was decent. I tried to keep my head up and didn't talk. I think he pays better attention to me if I'm not looking at him. Our fast and slow paces were better this time and were noticeably faster/slower than normal pace. The judge said he bumped me a little a couple times, but nothing major.

Figure 8: Better! Not as much bumping as usual, though they used cones instead of people posts. Not sure if that makes a difference to him or not. He had better sits this time and paid better attention.

Stand for Exam: We did it twice. The first time, he stood sort of cock-eyed in front of me, which put him out of position, but he did great for the (very thoroughly touchy) exam and didn't move his feet when I returned. The second time, he stood straight, but moved his feet when I came back around him.

Heel Off Leash: Great! He always seems to do better off-leash than on. His attention was great, and he stayed with me and wasn't distracted at all. Even though I was trying to stay silent like we were in a real trial, I couldn't help letting quiet excited praise words slip out. LOTS of treats after that one!

Recall: Did this twice as well. He tarted out the first time, and sort of danced around in front of me before finally choosing a thoroughly crooked position far away from me. I guided him into a front, and didn't finish. The second time, I used my hands and said front as a reminder as he was coming in. It was better but still not very straight. Didn't finish that time either.

All in all, except the recall, I was happy with the run! The judge liked him and said he would definitely qualify. We didn't do sits/downs - I'm not worried about them and we will be in class tomorrow morning and he can do them there.

WAE - Working Aptitude Evaluation

2009-08-08T14:35:00.004-04:00

Red took the WAE today! For those that don't know what the WAE is, it's a temperament test given by the DPCA (Doberman Pinscher Club of America), for Dobermans only. The evaluation determines whether the dog has the temperament that Doberman's were meant to have - that of a loyal companion and resolute protector. It tests the dog on neutral, friendly, and aggressive strangers, as well as reactions to audible and visual stimuli (i.e. gunshots), willingness to inspect strange noises/objects, and willingness to cross unevening footing. You ar not supposed to train your dog for this test - you are supposed to just take your dog and see how he/she naturally reacts in these situations.

I have been sooo looking forward to today! I really wanted to see how Red reacted to everything. The only stations I was worried about were the gunshots (he has been shy of fireworks), and the aggressive stranger (which is the part that most dogs fail).

It was the shittiest day ever. We haven't had rain in over a month, and the day that I have something important gong on outdoors, it POURS rain ALL DAY LONG. I'm not even exaggerating when I say POURING rain - not a drizzle or light rain at all. It was cold and miserable. Sometimes I really hate this state...

Anyway, the walkthrough was supposed to start at 8:30am. My mom and I wanted to get there at 8:00am to give us enough time to settle in and then do the walkthrough. The evaluator/judge was flying in from North Carolina this morning to do this test - and he flight was delayed due to weather. He didn't get there until about 10:30am. And there's no postponing - its rain or shine since the judge comes from out of state.

My mom and I sat in the back of her Saturn Outlook with the hatch open, playing tic-tac-toe on my iPhone to kill time. Poor Red was in the back seat of my car the whole time. Everything was SOAKED. There was no where to set up a crate or anything. There was a pavillion, but that's where all the helpers, food, and raffle prizes where, so everyone kept their dogs in their cars.

I did get to meet someone from the Doberman forum, though, so that was cool. He lives about 20 minutes away from the park, so he comes every year to watch. He said in all the years he's been going, its NEVER rained like this. Figures...

We didn't do a real walkthrough. The evaluator talked through station-by-station with us under the pavillion and out of the torrential rain. Then it was time to start. I just wanted to get this over with so I could get the hell home and into some dry clothes, so we were 4th in line. I had my own flat leather collar and 6 ft leather leash, but they put a different leather collar on him anyway, since mine had tags. Not sure why it mattered, but no biggie. Thank god I wore jeans and brought a hooded sweatshirt with me. Though by this time I was already freezing. I didn't have a raincoat and all the slickers were taken by the poor helpers that had to stand out in the rain for the test.

The evaluator was a really nice guy and made sure I understood each station before we started. First was the neutral stranger - I walk up to the stranger and they ignore the dog and we talk without shaking hands. The dog must have all 6 feet of the leash. Red completely ignored this person.

Onto the friendly stranger. He pretty much ignored her too - obviously wondering what the hell we were doing on a casual stroll out in the rain...

Next was the audible stimuli - rattling can behind the van. As we walked along side the van, the can started to rattle and the dog was supposed to go around and investigate the noise and can within 12 inches. No problem - as soon as it started, I said, "What's that?" and Red went right up and around and touched the can.

Then along to the gunshots. We were to walk in front of the person with the starter pistol and once we were about 10 feet past, they fire 3 shots. The dog can react, but shouldn't show avoidance and needs to recover within 10 seconds. I was a bit worried about this station, but he was completely fine. He startled a bit, but recovered very quickly.

Next was the visual stimuli - someone opening an umbrella in the dog's face. We walked up to the umbrella, it popped open and he actually went around behind it to see the person sitting there. But once I encouraged him to investigate the middle of the umbrella like the exercise calls for, he did it and we moved on.

Uneven footing was next. You can bunch up the leash at first, but then have to give the dog slack in case they try to avoid walking on it. We had a slip and slide (great for rainy weather!!) and a folded down x-pen. At first he didn't walk over the slip and slide, but probably because I didn't approach it well. The judge had us do it again and he was fine. He didn't go completely the whole way over the x-pen, but did enough of it for a pass on that station.

Lastly... the part that most dogs fail... the aggressive stranger. There are 3 parts - first the guy shuffles out from behind the truck, then slowly approaches, then charges. At first Red wasn't sure about this dude, and I kept encouraging "Who's there? Watch 'em!" and then he stood out in front of me tall like he should, but once the stranger charged, Red's fight or flight kicked in and he was like HELL NO, and took off the other way, clotheslining himself when he reached the end of the leash. FAIL.

oh well... this was the part I was really curious about and wondered if he would pass. He's never been in this type of situation before and doesn't know how to act. The evaluator says that most dogs fail this because they are taught not to act defensively. Out of the 11 dogs tested, only 4 passed. I would like to try it again next year - hopefully we'll have better weather. It can't be any worse!!!

Anyway, here's the video:

Afterwards, I could swear he was sad or maybe just tired. He just sort of stood there, then finally laid down on the concrete under the pavillion. I don't think he was nervous after the aggressive stranger part, but maybe just still a bit stressed and tired from the crappy day. He's zonked out on the floor right now after chowing down a 12" bully stick...

Fun Match

2009-07-30T11:10:00.002-04:00

Our debut in Novice Obedience is looming ever closer (September), and I'm starting to get nervous...

Up til this point, I've still been talking in the ring (like "good heel", "good boy", etc), but this time I wanted to be completely silent except for the allowed verbal commands, and see how he did. And I think he actually did better than he does when I'm jabbering to him! I still used treats in between exercises though.

Also, I haven't done much with him for the past several weeks because we've been renovating the house and I just haven't had the time or energy. I was curious how he would do today because of the break, but I guess it was good for him too.

And before anyone reprimands me - I don't usually train in flip flops but I was in a hurry to leave the house and didn't think to put on tennis shoes. And at least they weren't mis-matched this time :P

Comments and critiques welcomed and appreciated.

There were a couple crooked sits on the on- and off-leash heeling, and there was one point during the figure 8 that he didn't sit when I halted - not sure why... maybe since we hadn't gone a complete figure 8 before the judge stopped us, he anticipated keeping going? Not sure. And I think he picked up a paw as I returned for the stand for exam - which I didn't see at the time, and apparently neither did the judge because she didn't say anything to me about it. His front on recall was slightly crooked but the finish was good. The sits/downs (not in the video) were good except he sniffed the ground a bit on the down and I have to tell him to leave it.

Other than that, I was really happy with how he did, especially since I didn't talk to him at all :)

One thing I need to work on is my footwork for the about turns. I need to make it more like a pivot with my feet together, instead of stepping forward and spinning on the spot. I just don't think about it at the time so I really need to remember.

Maybe we'll be ok after all! At least Qualify =)

Saturday Morning Training

2009-07-18T10:35:00.003-04:00

It's been forever (it seems like) since Red and I have been able to make it to class on Saturday morning. I haven't done ANY training with Red for a few weeks, so we were long overdue for some training. I was dead tired this morning but Red was raring to go. It was evident that I wasn't really with it this morning because it wasn't til I got there that I realized I had 2 different tennis shoes on...

There were only three of us there today - me and Red, Michelle and Maisy, and John and Jackson. So it wasn't as structured as usual and there was free time to work on our own things individually.

Heeling - getting better with more attention. Did it off-leash this time. We didn't heel as long today, which is good because sometimes I feel like we do it for too long and both of us get tired. Ended on a good note after a particularly good 360 right turn and great focus afterwards.

Figure 8 - also improving though still a little bumping on the inside. I have no idea why, but Red keeps his head down the entire time during the figure 8. I don't understand why this is any different from any other heeling we do? I get the feeling he doesn't like this exercise. Not sure what I should be doing about this.

Stand for exam - excellent, no problems here.

Recall - the shining moment of our morning. Red gave me a perfectly straight front on recall!!!!! I was floored - I can't remember him ever doing such a great front on recall. He earned himself a jackpot for that, and lots of exuberant praise and play. Hopefully he keeps it up!

Sit/Stay - did it on our own since the other two were working on different exercises. Which was good because it was a good distraction for Red. He did great, no problems.

Dumbell - still retrieving really well. He seems to want to let go too soon so I sort of teased him a couple times to proof his hold. He dropped it once, and I said "oh no! What happened?" and he promptly picked it back up and held it til I took it.

Jumps - starting to work on sending out to the jump instead of running by it with him. He seems to be picking it up. He definitely knows the word "over" and he loves to do the jumps, so that's good.

I had him off leash for everything today except the figure 8. He just followed me around and was a very good boy. There was an agility tunnel set up so I had him go through it a few times, which is good for him.

Weekend Up North

2009-07-14T22:45:00.001-04:00

James, Red and I are back from a long weekend up north (northern Michigan) at the cabin on the lake :) It was a nice weekend - a little on the chilly side for July, but at least it was mostly sunny and didn't rain!

Red had a blast on the boat and in the lake, as usual. Here are some pics from the weekend. click to enlarge thumbnails

Suited up and ready to go

"Can't you fuel this thing any faster?? Let's gooooo"

The Doberlean

"I want in too!"

I love the sky in this pic

Redders :)

Letting the wind blow through his hair.. er.. ears

Even though his eyes are shut, I love this pic

A vacation isn't complete without...

Lots of goodies

Massage

Hanging out with friends

And relaxing on the lake...

We were waiting for some people to meet us at the boat, but Red wanted to go on the tube NOW

Redders loves the tube :)

James and Red

Fun and relaxing weekend! Hope we can go back again soon :)

Big Red

2009-07-03T10:21:00.001-04:00

Red has been looking more "filled out" and solid to me lately, but I hadn't had him weighed in awhile. Last time he was weighed was maybe 3 months ago or so, and he was just a shade over 80 lbs.

Well, I took him to the local clinic for a weigh in today, and he is now 91 lbs!!! I knew he was bigger, but I had no idea he had gained 10 lbs! And not in fat either. He's just shy of 2 1/2 years old, so I'm not sure if he will gain anymore or not, but wow!

Here are some pics from today (click thumbnails to enlarge)

Red does "Safety Town"

2009-06-26T18:10:00.001-04:00

"Safety Town" is a program for young elementary school kids to learn about safety in various subjects (like crossing roads, talking to strangers, etc). There is also a portion on dog safety, and Red and I were invited to do a presentation for the kids =)

We did the 2 afternoon sessions - each consisting of 30-40 kids, of about 5 years old, plus some older kids helping with the program. There was also a morning session, and the dog that did those sessions was also a Doberman! An 8 year old male named Zeus. Great PR for the breed indeed!

I was really nervous about getting up and talking in front of a large group... even though most of them were only 5 years old, lol. The 1st group was ok, but I kept getting interrupted with questions, so it made keeping my train of thought a lot harder! But the 2nd group was better.

Someone was kind enough to video the 2nd session for me. She didn't video the whole thing all at once, so I sorta edited all the clips together. But since YouTube only supports 10 minute videos, I had to split it up into two parts. The 2nd part is kinda boring toward the end when all the kids are going up to him one by one... sorry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaoeOXPq7Lk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2lwThP-j0U

Red did so well! I was sooo proud of him!!

Therapy Visit

2009-06-24T18:03:00.002-04:00

Red and I went on a therapy visit today. It's been a long time since we last were on a visit, so I wondered how he was going to be, but he did well. At first he is always bouncy and excited and inevitably bonks the first person he sees (which is usually the receptionist who comes around the desk to greet him), but after awhile he calms down.

One of the places the staff always want me to go is into the dining area where the residents hang out, eat, and watch TV. Which seems like a good place to bring the dog to socialize, but Red knows there is food around and that the people are only too willing to feed it to him, so he constantly has his nose to the ground or is begging for food. So I don't spend very long in the dining room - I prefer taking him around to the individual rooms, where he behaves MUCH better.

Here are some photos of our day. I've never gotten any pics of Red at a therapy visit until now. Some are kinda dark and a little fuzzy.. it's hard to get good shots! And for those wondering, I did ask permission to take photos and the facility and all the residents these pics are of gave their permission =)

click to enlarge

How did I do, mom?

Everyone loved him, of course! I am really going to make an effort to do this on a more regular basis. At least monthly, hopefully.

Open House

2009-06-21T18:53:00.003-04:00

My brother's high school graduation open house was yesterday. My Dad and stepmom are really cool about us bringing Red over, so he got to come with us =)

When we first got there, we put him in the fenced front yard with their female standard poodle, Bella, so they stayed out of everyone's way. There were more people at this open house than I've ever seen! A few people had also brought their dogs, but only my sister's Chinese Crested (Roxie) didn't like Red.

After awhile, it started to rain so I took Red out on his leash so we could stand under some cover. By that time, he had calmed down a lot so I let him off leash. The kids that were there immediately stole him to play fetch. He happily played for awhile, then came back to follow me around. He was seeming a little tired so I tried putting him in the car for awhile because he has settled down and napped there in the past, but he didn't sleep this time. So I let him back out and he wandered around some more.

Everyone loved him and he got a ton of attention. Most people didn't know what breed he was, and I must've explained about the 4 different colors of Dobermans at least half a dozen times. But it was cool so people could see first hand that Dobes aren't as bad as people and media make them out to be. We bragged about our Rally titles and therapy work too =)

Here's a short video of Red successfully puncturing a basketball... (shh! don't tell! LOL)

A little later, another friend brought her Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix named Biscuit and Red, Bella, and Biscuit went tearing around a few laps, almost taking out the knees of several people. So the big dogs were banished back into the front yard after that.

He zonked out on the way home (1.5 hr drive), and once we were home, he went straight to his bed and sprawled out, dead asleep within a minute. He's still a little quiet today, even! A tired dog is a happy dog! =)

Fun Match

2009-06-19T19:16:00.001-04:00

Had another fun match today.

I've really been working on the treat spitting for more focused attention and I think the work is paying off. He did much better this time! I'm really happy with how everything is going. Now I just have to start not talking so much during the exercise and we should be in good shape!

Here's the video:
(Michelle wasn't there today so I had someone doing the videoing...)

Watch Dog

2009-06-17T10:29:00.005-04:00

It's 2:30am. The side window of the bedroom is half open to let in fresh air on the warm night, and we are dead asleep.

Suddenly, Red starts barking a deep bark and growling out the half open window. James and I jump up out of bed and he peers out the window. "Grab my flashlight, quick!" he hisses, "There's someone out there."

Still half asleep and disorientated, I fumble around in the dark to find his police flashlight. My hands finally find the heavy handle, and I seize it and quickly pass it over to him.

"Go see if the DTE truck is sitting out front," he whispers. I run quietly to the front room, tripping over Red who is still running around growling, and peer through the blinds to see the big power company truck sitting in the middle of the road in front of our house. I feel a little better knowing it's probably a worker in our yard instead of a bad guy. But weren't we JUST talking about break-ins in the neighborhood a few hours ago??

I quickly sneak back into the bedroom, my heart thudding loudly, just in time to see James flick on his huge maglight, pointing it out into the side yard, and say in his loud police voice, "How's it going?". I faintly hear someone quickly say, "Detroit Edison!", and James reply, "Just checking."

James and I look at Red and then start with the praise and pets. "Go get him a treat!" James says. What a good boy to wake out of a dead sleep and alert us to someone prowling around in our yard! That DTE guy was lucky there was a wall and window between him and Red!

Yay for recall!!!

2009-06-15T17:45:00.002-04:00

and I'm not talking about the formal obedience recall... I'm talking about calling Red off a DEER today!

We were walking down the trail as usual and suddenly to my left I see something brown and quite big jumping through the brush and trees. For one crazy moment, I thought it was a huge dog, but then I realized it was a large deer. It caught sight of us (or heard us, or both) and starting bounding out ahead and away from us. Red saw and heard it and took off down the trail after it to cut off its path.

He was wearing his e-collar (though I haven't had to stim him in months), and it was turned on and ready, but I sharply said his name once, and he put on the brakes and came right back! I was amazed! I've called him off of rabbits and squirrels before, but nothing like this. He was still all geared up when he came back, but at least he came! So happy with my puppers =)

Redders made a Min Pin friend

2009-06-14T10:30:00.001-04:00

One of James' friends came over yesterday and brought his female Min Pin, Lucy, with him. Red has never really got to play with a little dog before, so he was enthusiastic at first. But after awhile he pretty much ignored her in favor of a tennis ball, lol

Fun Match

2009-06-12T16:28:00.004-04:00

Went to another fun match today. I was kinda worried because I haven't been working with Red AT ALL - not even so much as going for walks - since we've been so busy working on the house. So he's been bouncing off the walls for the past few days... and I figured he'd be pretty psycho for the fun match.

He wasn't that bad actually. I signed up for 2 novice runs this time - but only decided on the second after we did the first one... I was not too pleased with the 1st run at all. Heeling was laggy and sloppy, and the sits at the halt were horrible. The stand for exam was the best thing, really. He fronted crooked on the recall again. I think the no attention during heeling thing is really an issue. I think the bumping and stuff would resolve if he would pay more attention to what we were doing.

EDITED TO ADD VIDEO
Here's the video:

The long sit/down was awesome - gave me eye contact the whole time, and didn't even think about going down on the sit like he sometimes does in practice.

The 2nd run was much better. The heeling was more focused and the sits at halts were MUCH better. The figure 8 was about the same as far as bumping goes. Still came in a bit crooked on the recall. Supposedly he sort of lifted a foot when I came back around for the stand for exam but I didn't see it. But I was happier with the heeling portion. I got some advice from one of the experienced handlers there about how to make the about turns faster and have him keep up with me better. My footwork needs A LOT of work.

Michelle really thinks I should start spitting treats for the heeling focus... I guess I'll break down and try it with cheese, but ugh... I don't want to! *whines*

Homework:
- Start spitting treats
- Practice footwork
- Practice fast non-laggy about turns

Slow blogging...

2009-06-12T16:26:00.000-04:00

I haven't been doing much with Red these past few weeks and therefore not blogging much. We have been remodeling half our house so I've been up past midnight most nights working and painting - after working a full day at work even.

I think we only went for 1 walk this past week, and he's been spending most of the day outside while the work is being done.

Hopefully I'll be posting more soon!

Training

2009-06-06T11:13:00.003-04:00

Red was ready to go this morning - I think he's figured out the days of the week and Saturday mornings meaning TRAINING!! yay!

Heeling. Wasn't too bad. He forges ahead a bit at first so I looped the leash around my back, and then after a minute or so he is better. The attention was nice, and I released a couple times in the middle of the heeling pattern before he started to get bored and put his head down.

Figure 8. Not as much bumping this time even though he still keeps his head down. Not sure why he thinks this isn't like normal heeling... But it was improved from last time in regards to the bumping anyway.

Stand for exam. No problem.

Recalls. Much improved! I returned to him twice after Michelle yelled "call your dog" - the first he didn't flinch at all and I returned and rewarded, the second she said it he flinched a tiny bit but didn't move his feet so I returned but didn't reward, and the third time he didn't flinch and I called him. I've been keeping my arms down to the side and not bringing them up to assist luring him into posiiton. The front wasn't perfect but it was pretty close, so I waited a second to make sure he was seated in position, then rewarded with a big handful of treats. I was pretty happy with it. At least we're making progress!

Sits/downs. The last two times we've been to training, he went down on the long sit. So this time I made sure he was in a nice, tall sit - said "stay" very firmly, and then returned and rewarded three times during it. The dogs on either side of him broke their sits and he continued to sit nicely while their owners returned to put them back into position. Upon returning, I gave him a big handful of treats and praised quietly as he stayed in position. The down was great, he popped onto a hip but didn't flop over onto his side. I didn't return to reward because he hasn't had a problem with the downs. After returning, he got a jackpot and was allowed to stick his nose in the treat bag.

Dumbbell. He stole another dog's db but didn't seem to like it because it was huge and didn't fit his mouth well so he dropped on his way to me. The handler didn't seem too happy that Red stole the db, but I'm not going to correct him for picking up ANY db at this point. So I got out Red's own db and the first time he brought it back, he acted like he was going to drop it but then held on so I could take it. Then I had him hold it while I walked around him. Then he got to retrieve it and came back into front and held it nicely. He earned a big handful of treats and the db got put away.

There is another OB fun match next Friday, so I am excited to run him again and see how he's doing when we put it all together.

Redders pics - We love spring! =)

2009-06-04T21:51:00.002-04:00

It's so nice now that everything is GREEN again! It's been a long time coming.

I was in the picture-takin' mood today and took some on our walk. Of course, Red was made to pose for some shots ;)

click thumbnails to enlarge

Oh! I see a birdie!

must...chase...birdie...

*chases birds*

I love running!

Did I get all the birdies?

Let me look around and see...

What do you think, mom?

I guess they're all gone...

ok enough with the pictures, woman!!

I know! Let's go to down the trail to the pond! You can take more pics there...

Me: ok then, let's go!

This is NOT what I had in mind...

geez... let's go!

This is more like it!

Swamp monster!

mmm pond scum...

ok I'm happy now

Now we go to the pet store plz??

Playground pics

2009-05-27T11:14:00.003-04:00

My sister, her baby boy, and my mom came over to visit today. We went out for a stroll to enjoy the warm day. It ended up being A LOT warmer than we thought and were sweating to death on our walk!

click thumbnails to enlarge pics

Here's my sister and I

We stopped at a playground and Red likes to climb up on the play equipment...

On the catwalk

King of the world

When we tried to leave, Red went back up on the equipment and didn't want to come down, crazy dog! =P

Fun Match this morning

2009-05-23T11:19:00.003-04:00

Michelle called me earlier in the week and said there was a fun match today - so we went to that instead of our regular Saturday morning training class. Most of the people we train with went too, so it was fun.

I didn't sign up for Rally this time since we're just concentrating on Novice OB now. We went first and Red did ok even though the ring was TINY.

The off-leash heeling was not so hot, and the figure 8 still had some bumping, but other than that, I thought he did decent. The on-leash heeling was ok. He was perfect for the stand for exam. But best of all, he did a STRAIGHT front on recall!! So happy!! But the bad thing about it was that he did that jumpy/anticipation thing again... grrrr. If its not one thing with the recall, its another! Sits and downs were perfect, he automatically rolls onto a hip now for the down, which makes me super happy.

Here is the video of our run:

RA win photo

2009-05-23T11:18:00.002-04:00

I received our win photo for our RA title today! The color seems a little off or something, but its not too bad.

click to enlarge

Blood screening, Thyroid and Vaccine Titer Results

2009-05-20T16:25:00.003-04:00

I took Red into my work for his annual physical and bloodwork a couple weeks ago. We stayed in the back though so we didn't freak the kitties out ;)

Dr. Callahan really liked him and said he was very handsome and a perfect weight (80 lbs). He sat so well for his blood draw - I held him while one of the other techs, Maria, drew from his front leg (cephalic vein). We had to get a lot of blood (15mL total) for all the testing I wanted to send out. I wanted full blood chemistries, CBC, heartworm, and also thyroid panel to MSU, as well as a vaccine antibody titer to MSU. He was such a good boy and stayed ever so still while he drew his blood =)

Got the results back:

Chemistries: AST (a liver enzyme) slightly high (77, ref 5-55), but it was high last year too. Since his other liver values are not elevated, the doctor is not too concerned. And maybe this is just normal for him? Everything else within normal limits.

Heartworm: Negative

MSU Thyroid: Low free T3 (2.8, ref 4.5-12.0), and everything else within normal limits. The endocrinologist interpretation states: "Circulating concentrations of thryoid hormones are generally normal and thyroid stimulating hormone is not elevated. The decrease of free T3 alone is unlikly to be of clinical significance. The negative autoantibody results further decrease the likelihood of lymphocytic thyroiditis in the thyroid glands of this dog. The results of this profile do not offer support for a differential diagnosis of hypothyroidism. Normal thyroid test results in a dog of this young age do not eliminate the possibility of hypothyroidism in the future."

Vaccine Antibody Titer:
Lepto (6 separate titers involved in lepto titering) = <50. Interpretation: "Leptospirosis titers are low and a booster vaccination should be considered if optimal disease protection is desired."
CPV (Parvo) = 160 (ref 80 or higher is protective)
CAV (Adenovirus) = 32 (ref 16 or higher is protective)
CDV (Distemper) = 32 (ref 32 or higher is protective)

So I will be boostering only the lepto and bordetella this year (there is no titer for bordetella). His rabies isn't due til 2011. I am happy I had all the blood testing done =) Now just waiting for September to roll around so I have have his echocardiogram rechecked...

RA title!!

2009-05-15T20:57:00.004-04:00

Red earned the last leg for his Rally Advanced title today =) Yay!!

The trial was set to start at 1:00pm so I wanted to get there about 11:30am to have adequate time to sit and chill (more for my sake than the dog's). Since I've never been to this venue before, I wasn't sure how long it was going to take to get there. Michelle, being the good friend she is, came with me for moral support even though Maisy wasn't entered in this trial. She met me at my house at 10:30am, and we left shortly thereafter.

Turns out, we made it in about 30 minutes (all the while Red stinking up the car making us roll down our windows to air it out), so we got there just as they were opening the building at 11:00am! The mats in the rings hadn't even been set up yet. We hauled in the crate and chairs and set everything up, then realizing it was freezing cold in the arena (an arena meant for ice hockey), we decided since we had extra time to kill that we'd go to the local Target and buy long-sleeved shirts to keep warm. It was supposed to be warmer sunny day today so we both were short-sleeves. So we drove a block over to Target, Red still in the backseat, and shopped around for a few minutes. I bought Red a small rope for a reward after his run, since it was the only thing they hadn't without a squeaker.

We went back to the arena, a little warmer now that we had some layers. They just finished laying down the mats and they were soaking wet. Literally puddles of water on the mats! Surely they would be drying them off before the trial began, because they weren't going to air dry on their own in this freezing building. But nope... they set up all the Rally signs in the ring to the right and just left all the water there! But they did mop and dry the ring to the left which was the Obedience ring...

Anyway, Red refused to go potty before I took him in the building, so after awhile I just gave up and brought him in. We did our normal routine of switching his collar and leash to his show stuff, and then doing some exercises and then playing with the frisbee, then I put him in his crate. He willing goes in there now, and just lays down like a good boy. Doesn't ever make a sound or stir around. I occasionally pop him treats through the door zipper to reward his good behavior.

Michelle brought us lunch (which was a good thing because I always forget to bring food for myself!) - turkey wraps, chips, and a humungous sugar cookie from the local bakery. We sat and watched the people drying off the Obedience ring mats while leaving the Rally mats a big mess. People were arriving, but it still seemed very empty to me. Conformation was taking place in the next room over, so people were walking back and forth between the two.

I went and got my course map so I could see what we'd have to do. It was short and very easy. And no cones to earn us deductions for bumping! yay! I was confident about the course, except that side step right thing. After looking it over, I got up to go find the bathroom. In the hallway, there was a stand set up selling silhouettes of dogs on various items - magnets, leash racks, flag poles, etc. I seriously contemplated buying a Doberman magnet, but I figured I'd wait til after the match to decide. I really wanted a flagpole, too, since I've been saying for awhile I want a flag in our yard.

Went back to the crate and smelled Red's awful fart stench again. I decided to take him out and try to find a spot where I could let him off-leash so hopefully he would go poop or something. We went around the arena and found some grass far enough away from the road that I was comfortable letting him off-leash. He stayed in the area around me like a good boy. He peed a couple times, but still no poop. After awhile, we went back into the building. As we walked in, a woman said, "Is that the beautiful Dobie I saw running around outside?" I said yes, and she said, "wow you are lucky!" She meant that I was lucky to have a dog that I could trust to be off-leash and not run away.

We went back in and did a few more exercises, played, and then went back into the crate. They were starting the Excellent walk-through now and people were lining up. The Excellent A & B classes went very quickly - partly due to the fast paced course, but also due to the very low number of entries in all the classes. The Rally dogs had their work cut out for them since they were doing Utility in the next ring and handlers were SHOUTING very loud commands. But all the dogs did very well.

Before I knew it, it was time for the Advanced walk through. I had it all planned out... I'd do the walk through a couple times quickly, then come back and get Red out and warmed up since we would be the second team to go into the ring and I needed adequate time to get Red focused. We went in for the judge's briefing at 1:50pm and the judge told us to do our walk through and he would start at 2pm. I quickly walked the course twice, checked my watch and it was 1:55pm. I suddenly had to use the bathroom and I figured I'd have plenty of time to nip in there and go really quick.

When I came out, I saw the team before us already half down with the course!!! I ran over to the crate, yanked Red out, grabbed a handful of hotdog bits while Michelle was fumbling with the camera bag and trying to get it out so she could video us. We ran over to the gate, and I didn't have time to even do any focus exercises with him before I was being called into the ring. How in the HELL do I arrive 3 hours before I go into the ring and STILL end up being rushed into the ring and frazzled??? GAHHH!

Red and I entered the ring on leash and I put him in a sit in heel position. But every time I bent over to remove his leash, he'd stand up and move out of position. I put him back into a sit, try to remove his leash, and he'd do it again. This is NOT GOOD. He did it one more time after that, but I was able to get him to stay in position and removed his leash. The judge asked, "Are you ready?" and I thought in my head, "NO!", but I smiled and said yes, and he gave the forward command.

1. Slow Pace - I tried to take longer slower steps rather than just slowing my pace because Red tends to think I am stopping and attempts to go into a sit, but he did well this time.

2. Normal Pace - ok.

3. Right Turn - ok.

4. 270° Left - I bumping him going left, then he made the turn, and then went out in front of me for some reason, and when I tried to signal him back to heel, he just sort of walked around in front of me. I didn't know what else to do to get him back into heel position without accidentally screwing something up, so I turned around and redid the 270° left station and then heeled to the next sign. He did it fine the second time. So 3 points off for that, at least.

5. Halt, Stand, Walk Around Dog - He wasn't paying attention when I gave the first stand command, but did it on the second one, thank god. He held the stay and was fine after that.

6. Left Turn - ok.

7. 270° Right - ok.

8. Halt, Side Step Right, Halt - This was the station I was worried about. We don't really practice this one, and when we did, he wouldn't step to the right and would just wander out in front out of position. But miraculously, he performed it well! So relieved!

9. Send Over Jump - I was worried he'd tick the jump like he sometimes does in practice, but nope, he did it great and came back to heel very well.

10. Right Turn - ok.

11. Halt, Pivot 90° Right, Halt - ok.

12. Fast Forward From Sit - He was not paying attention after he sat so when I gave the comannd "let's go!", he started out a little ways behind me. But once he realized we were running, he went past me through the Normal Pace (#13) sign, past the Finish sign and almost out of the ring! But I got him called back to release and reattach his leash.

I remembered to praise him after releasing him this time, since in past trials I can never remember if I did or not! Praised him all the way back to the crate and then jackpotted like usual (i.e. letting him stick his nose in the treat pouch and finish off whatever is in there). Then I got out his rope reward toy and he loved it.

Michelle thought was did well, except whatever brain fart he had on the first 270° turn sequence that we redid. I gave it another minute, and then went to check our score... 96! Woot! We qualified and got our title!! So we got the 3 points off for the station redo, and then another point off somewhere - not sure where. Maybe an out of position on the very last station when he ran ahead of me? I forgot to check the scorecard to check.

Michelle, Red and I walked over to the conformation area to check and see where the photographer was. I wanted to get our title photo taken since there was a photographer here. He was set up in a ring in the middle of the conformation rings. Michelle found him and asked if we can do a Rally photo and he said yes of course. But we needed to go back and go the ribbon ceremony before we could do it. So we went back to the obedience area and waited for Advanced B to finish.

There were only 3 teams in Advanced A, and Red and I ended up getting 2nd place - the 1st place team got 100. So even if I didn't redo that sign if I didn't need to, we still would've got 2nd since we had another point off somewhere. But I didn't mind, at least we qualified!! =)

Here's the video:

Then Michelle handed me a little box which contained an RA pin, RA patch, and some Wellness dog treats! AND she bought me the Doberman paw print magnet I'd been eyeing earlier in the day! I was so excited!! Michelle is such a sweetheart - I just love her! =)

After that, we went back over to the photographer to get the photo taken. Stupid me forgot the ribbons, and Michelle had to run all the way back to get them. The photog had me put Red up on this raised platform thing, which Red was NOT too cool with. But once I stepped up there myself, he came up and I finally got him to sit. I gave him a firm stay command, and then removed his leash and dropped it out of sight behind the platform. The photog had me turn him slightly and adjust his feet a little, and then quickly snapped the pics and we were done! He didn't take any of my info except my judging number and said the 8x10 print would arrive in about 2 weeks. I also want a digital image and he said I could order that later after I received my print. But Michelle had taken a quick photo of Red and I ringside so you can get an idea of what it will look like:

click to enlarge

On the way back through to the obedience area, I stopped and bought a flagpole with a Doberman silhouette on the top. I love it!! Then we packed everything up, and headed back home. Red slept all the way home, as usual.

He got a nice chew bone to enjoy in the backyard:

nom nom nom

In the meantime, I put our new Doberman flag pole out in a front flower bed:

It was a fun day (except for being rushed into the ring!!), and I'm so happy we finally have our RA title. This is the last Rally trial we will be doing for awhile now. We will be making our Obedience debut in September and hopefully earn our CD. Once we get the CD, I'll go back and do the Rally Excellent title, only then I'll be in the B class with the big dogs! =D

Saturday Morning Training

2009-05-09T13:52:00.005-04:00

I REALLY didn't want to get out of bed this morning. Oh how I would've loved to sleep in, but I can't pass up an opportunity to train...

No one showed up except me and Red, Michelle and Maisy, and a girl I've never met with a Papillion. It was kind of good, though because we worked on things we needed to work on instead of following the usual schedule of exercises. A few things here, a few things there.

Started off by talking about fronts on recalls. He is still swinging his butt out to the left (his right). We tried little short back-ups to try to line him up, and also placed boards down to make him sit in between the boards. It was better but still not as straight as it should be. At home, I can try lining up cones for this purpose. We thought if all else fails, we'd only lose a point or two for a slightly crooked front on recall... But in the meantime, NEVER give a food reward for anything less than perfect (use praise only).

Did some heeling. I put the leash around my back to help correct the forging and it seemed to help. I rewarded for good position and eye contact.

Since Red had trouble with the off-set figure 8 using stuffy toys yesterday at the match, Michelle brought out some bowls and cones, and we put toys in the bowls for the distraction. The first run-through was ok - still some bumping going on. But the second run through was perfect! No bumping and excellent attention! Very happy with that.

We did recalls next. I returned to him at once on every recall to solidify not doing the false start when he hears "call your dog". I've been having James practice with me at home saying this and he's been getting better. We set up for a short recall, and found myself move to him as he was coming in crooked - not good. Next one, still a short recall, he came in and I think I backed up a little but he was still not straight. Praise but no food reward. The third time, Michelle wanted me to go the whole distance to see what he would do. I returned to him twice because he kept flinching when she said "call your dog". On the third time back, I actually called him ("Red, front!"), and he came in perfectly straight and sat in a very straight front!!! Extra praise and food rewards for that! I was so happy - that was the best recall he's done in months and months - or maybe ever. I hope it wasn't a fluke!

Then onto the figure 8. Some bumping on the first try, but the second try was better. I sort of twisted my shoulders on the inside turns to help give him notice that I was turning, and it seemed to work. I know that is an extra signal to the dog, but maybe if I can get him to notice a very slight one, it will help.

We did sits/downs next. We only did the 1 minute sit and 3 minute down, because it was only Red and Coco the Papillion doing it, both Novice dogs. Left him in the sit, and he went down pretty much right away. WTF??? He hasn't done that in ages. Went back and corrected him and left him again. Michelle had us return and start over again. No food reward. The second time we left, the papillion went down pretty quickly and the girl returned to her and told her to SIT and at that command, Red started to go into a down. UGH!! He didn't go all the way down, but sort of halfway. He stayed that way til I returned. Again, no food reward. The long down was completely fine and uneventful.

I got out the dumbbell next. Red is at the point now that he is excited to see it because it means LOTS of treats and good things. I had him retrieve it a couple times on flat and then ran the other way so he came back to me, then turned and sort of inched in front of him telling him to sit, and he sloooowly sit while still holding the db. Then I'd take it from him and JACKPOT!! Did that again and he did great again. Another jackpot. Michelle got out Maisy's db and threw it, and Red proceeded to run over to it, take it, and then prance back to me and slowly sat for me to take it. Praised and rewarded. Michelle was so happy with this because it means he WANTS to retrieve it, and we don't want to ever correct him for taking the db (even if its Maisy's!). So I'd take it from him and give it back to Michelle, and she'd throw it again for Maisy and Red would go and take it again. He did this probably 3 or 4 times until I finally had to distract him with something else so Maisy could have a turn!

We got out the jump next, still practicing the 16" for rally. Red jumped it fine and we practiced him coming right back to heel instead of running past me. After a couple jumps, he started getting lazy and hitting it. No food reward for that, and he kept going, lined up and took the jump again until he cleared it without knicking it, then he got rewarded and released. Michelle had an extra PVC pipe jump there that she GAVE to me! Along with the bar that has paper on it to drape down to resemble the panel jump instead of the bar jump. I was so happy! Now we can practice at home without using buckets and a broom! She said she might have a broad jump for me to have, too. That would be awesome because I haven't practiced the broad jump hardly at all.

I told Michelle that it seems like all this was meant to be - me taking that one advanced obedience class that she happened to be instructing. Because if I would've never met her, I would never have done any competing at all or gotten this far. When people ask me who I train with, Michelle tells them I am self-taught, but I think Michelle should take some credit, because she has helped me sooo much she doesn't even realize! I'm so lucky to have found a friend like her! Thanks, Michelle - love ya girl! =)

Dandelions

2009-05-08T16:35:00.001-04:00

Everyone hates dandelions, but I LOVE them. I think they are so pretty!

We have lots of dandelions in our yard (much to James' dismay), and I couldn't help myself this afternoon...

click to enlarge

Fun Match today

2009-05-08T16:03:00.003-04:00

Red and I went to a different Fun Match than usual this time. This one not only does Obedience but Rally too. Plus it seemed more organized and went faster so that was good.

We did the Novice Obedience run first. Nothing too bad about any of it. Some bumping and forging on the heeling, and got some advice about my footwork on the about turns and slow pace. Less bumping on the figure 8 than we have had in the past, so that was good. Stand for exam was good. The recall... still a work in progress. I backed up and sort up lined myself up with him to get him to come in straight, but still didn't quite get it. I rewarded even though I shouldn't have on hindsight. I need to stop rewarding for crooked fronts... *sigh* Long sits/downs were rock solid and awesome though!!

The rally ring was TINY and cramped. They crammed like 30 stations in a miniscule ring so they were all right on top of the other. By the time I finished one sign, I was pretty much on top of the next one. I got lost once, and Red was not very focused because I didn't know what the hell I was doing. There were a couple signs in there that I hadn't practiced before - the offset figure 8 was one of them. Red did ok through it with the stuffy toys as distractions, but on the way back by for another sign, he plucked one out of the bowl. Correction for that... But we made it through. It was pretty ugly, LOL

Critiques: Notes to self:

Heeling:
1. Work on about turn footwork
2. Make slow pace steps bigger so he doesn't try to sit in between
3. Put leash behind my back to correct forging
4. Allow 2-3 steps after the judge says "halt" to actually stop, don't just do it abruptly.

Recall:
1. Don't follow the line of the mat or the judge can tell easier if the dog isn't straight.
2. Don't step to line yourself up with the dog, lure the dog to line up with you.

Peed on the floor? WTF??

2009-05-08T00:10:00.004-04:00

Today I took Red for an off-leash walk, and we got back home around 11:30am. He stayed outside for another 15 minutes or so, then I brought him in and took a shower and got ready for work. I left for work at 1pm. I didn't let him back out before I left, because I was in a hurry and preoccupied with getting Titus in the carrier to take him to work with me for blood and urine testing for him peeing outside the litterbox. I didn't think anything of leaving without letting Red out again because James out be home at 5pm, and he has held it for much longer than that before.

James called me at 5:30pm after he got home from work, and Red had peed in the living room. Big swirls of urine on the carpet and some on the kitchen linoleum. He has not peed in the house since he was like 12 weeks old. Oh great, now something is wrong with Red too, I'm thinking to myself. But James says he is acting normal and everything else is fine.

I tried to think back and figure out how this could have happened. I only thing I can come up with is that Red probably drank a lot of pond water on our walk, and I didn't see him pee on our walk at all, and my guess is that he probably didn't pee before I let him in the house. And all the pond water went through him and he couldn't hold it anymore. I'm sure it really pained him to pee in the house. When James came home and found the urine, he said Red looked really sad and guilty. He didn't punish him, but kept him outside til I got home at 10pm so I could clean the rest of the urine up out of the carpet. It wasn't as bad as he made it out to be though.

But the issue is that here I am bringing my piss-bag cat back home to a house that has been freshly peed in by the dog. Titus has been peeing on and in Red's crate, and I have caught him peeing on the dog's bed too. So the last thing I need is to have him smelling the dog's urine and then thinking he needs to urinate mark over it again. UGH! But the cat thing is a WHOLE nother story and I'm not going to go there.

I'm thinking if I can catch a urine sample from Red, that I will bring it in to check it out. Just in case. But I seriously think it was just because I was a dumbass and didn't let him out before I left. Just like I knew Titus' peeing issues weren't medical and they are behavioral - and all the testing I did today proves just that.

I think both of us need some Prozac...

Red's Weekend and the Tulip Festival

2009-05-04T18:46:00.002-04:00

We spent the weekend at my mom and stepdad's house across the state. We had beautiful weather and a great time. Red came with us, and had lots of fun as too!

On Friday night, my parents had a bunch of their friends over and Red was a hit! Before they arrived, my mom told me I should keep Red away from everyone in case they were afraid of him... I sort of ignored her, and this is what happened...

click to enlarge pics

Vicious, isn't he? It looks like everyone was really afraid... LOL

Anyway, on Saturday we went to the Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan. My parents only live about 30 minutes away from there, and it was a beautiful day so we decided to check it out again this year.

We went to Windmill Island Gardens which has the De Zwaan Windmill - the only authentic working Dutch windmill in the USA. It is about 240 years old and was shipped here from the Netherlands.

Me, James and Red

Red and the windmill

You can go on a tour of the windmill and see how they make flour inside it, since it is still a working mill. The line was very long, so we waited.

Once we got further up in line, one of the workers told us that dogs were only allowed inside the mill if they were carried. So James jokingly walked up to the door like this..

Since my mom and stepdad have already been inside the mill, they watched Red while James and I took the tour. Here's a zoomed in pic I took of them while up in the mill.

And a pic of James and I on the mill (you can see us there somewhere...)

After we finished with that, there were little tents set up with people selling handmade items, so we meandered through to check everything out. Red got SO much attention! There were constantly people commenting on him, wanting to pet him, and even take pictures of him!

And of course, some pics of Red and some tulips =)

Holter Results

2009-05-01T10:52:00.001-04:00

I received the first report via email last night. The portion with just the info and no interpretation. Then received the cardiologist's interpretation via email this morning.

RED was monitored for a total of 23:59 hours. The total time analyzed was 22:31 hours. Start time was 11:50AM1. There were a total of 94597 beats.

The Mean Heart Rate was 70.
The Maximum Heart Rate was 216 at 5:26:13PM1.
The Minimum Heart Rate was 32 at 8:42:36AM2.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Ventricular Ectopy
Total: 1
Single: 1
Pairs: 0
Total Runs: 0
(Ventricular escape beat: 1)

Supraventricular Ectopy
Total: 0
Single: 0
Pairs: 0
Total Runs: 0
--------------------------------------------------------------

Pauses: Total: 0 ( Greater than 5.0 sec.)
--------------------------------------------------------------

COMMENTS:
VPB SUMMARY: 1 single, 0 pairs, 0 runs.

And the interpretation by the cardiologist:

Interpretation: Normal Holter recording. The cut off for large breed dogs is 50 VPCs/24 hours. I would NOT consider this dog affected with cardiomyopathy at this time based on the Holter alone.

Conclusion: Normal Holter. Repeat Holter in one year if continued screening for cardiomyopathy desired.

So basically this means the results don't support DCM at this time, but as we all know with Holters, you can rule it in, but you can't rule it out. Red will have his echo repeated in September, 6 months since the first echo.

Special thanks again to Amanda for letting us borrow your equipment - I can't thank you enough!!!

Ghost

2009-04-30T23:49:00.000-04:00

Me and Redders goofing off when I'm supposed to be changing the sheets on the bed.

The Doberman

2009-04-28T21:11:00.003-04:00

I've been thinking about this for awhile now. Red is becoming a Doberman. Not that he wasn't before, but he's slowly but surely starting to actually ACT like one. Not in a bad way - not at all. A Doberman is sweet, obedient and loyal to his family and friends, yet watchful of his home and surroundings and is able to judge situations appropriately.

I have noticed him becoming more aware of noises around the house, and of cars pulling in the driveway. He will bark and or go on alert.

When he goes into the backyard, he does a quick perimeter check and then goes about his business as usual. When he is called into the house, he goes back out to the door of the deck, to give the yard one last inspection before coming into the house.

He completely ignores benign strangers, unless I specifically invite him to say hello. This is a change from the golden retriever-type greeting he used to give everyone he saw. Even for friendly and inviting strangers, he pokes them once in greeting but then has no use for them after that. He doesn't seem to want to stand for petting at all, sort of moving away to calmly wait for me to finish chatting, or continue to look around us. However, he is more tolerant for children to pet him, in which case he will stand there and receive pets and give the occasional lick up the side of the face.

While on walks, if he sees something he is unsure about, he automatically moves between me and whatever it is. He is confident and will approach whatever it is to check it out.

Of course, he is the same loveable and goofy Redders around family and friends, but its his attitude toward strangers that has changed. I've read that Dobermans should be aloof with strangers, but never thought of Red as acting that way until fairly recently. I guess he is losing that puppy-like trust of everyone and everything and is learning to watch strangers and surroundings more.

I am very much looking forward to putting him through the WAE in August this year. He was too young to take it last year, but I think that was a good thing because he has changed a lot in that amount of time. He is finally getting his brain, it seems!

Saturday Morning Training Class

2009-04-25T10:55:00.002-04:00

Now that I have more Saturdays off, we can attend class more often =)

Red was very excited to go, as usual. We warmed up and played a bit before class started. Red is always UP UP UP when we first get there - so quick to obey and almost rips my hand off for the treats.

We did things in a little different order today.

HEELING: Not too bad. There were some points when he wandered and wasn't paying attention, but not too bad for the most part. We did a few different things this time. Moving downs during fast pace, and then going to the opposite side of the room and giving a long-distance sit command. I didn't think Red would do it because its not something we practice, but he did!! It was perfect =) Very happy with that.

SITS/DOWNS: He went down on the 3 minute sit. Dammit. I'm not sure, but I suspect it was because I was chatting to the person next to me and not looking at him. No reward after the sit. He was fine for the 5 minute down - even flopped on his side at one point. Reward after the down.

RECALL: Not as good as last time. He wants to anticipate the recall when the judge says "call your dog". He tenses up and jumps when they say it. I had them say it several times before I actually called him. And when I did call him, his front was not the straightest and I had to lure him and take a couple steps back. Praise but no reward for that. Michelle's advice for the anticipation is to do through the motions of leaving him, and then return to him more than I call him. Currently I am calling him more than returning so each time we do it, he thinks he's going to get called which is why he's itching to go. Makes sense.

STAND FOR EXAM: Moved his head around a lot but didn't move his feet. It was Michelle that did the exam though, so maybe that's why he was moving. I did a few more practice ones with him, running circles around him and giving distractions, and he held it.

FIGURE 8: Better than last time. I went right to start instead of the usual left, and it was ok. A little bumping but much better than last time. I'm not happy with his focus during the figure 8 though. His head is down pretty much the whole time. grrr

DUMBBELL: He was EXCITED for his db today! I got it out several times during the course of class. I had him retrieve it and sit in front, and also just hold it. At one point, he went a retrieved Maisy's db that had just been thrown! I didn't say anything bad to him about it, but he did end up dropping it before I could take it out of his mouth. I'm really happy with how the db work is coming and how he is liking it more and more.

JUMP: Still working with the 16" jump height we have to do for rally. He clearly knows the "over" command now. He was a little lazy at first when he was goofing off and jumping it, tapping it with his back feet, but once we got down to business, he cleared it with no problem.

So not to bad today. Definitely going to work on that anticipation of recall. I can't have him doing that shit in the ring. And coming in straight...

The Holter

2009-04-23T12:27:00.004-04:00

I put the Holter monitor on Red yesterday. He just finished his 24 hour monitoring a half hour ago. Amanda (BackInBlack) was kind enough to let me borrow her Holter monitor and vest. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. It has saved me a lot of money and worry, considering if I would've rented one, I would've had to buy the vest outright since it didn't come with the rental. She shipped it to me with everything included, even the tape and elasticon wrap. So thoughtful!

I was a little nervous about putting it on and hooking it up. I was afraid I was going to do it wrong. Plus is didn't have anyone to help me since James was at work, and I only had a small window to do it, since I wanted to do this when I would be home with him the whole time. And I know its petty, but I hated to shave him for it. We are going to the Tulip Festival in 2 weeks and I want him to look pretty, lol.

Anyway, yesterday morning Red was outside and I got everything out and set up. Put the tape and battery in the monitor and get up all my supplies. I brought him in and explained everything to him. I told him that he is going to have to wear this vest and monitor for 24 hours, and he must be very careful with it while he's wearing it. He mustn't try and get the vest off, and he has to stand very still while I am shaving him and attaching everything. He stood there cocking his head side to side as I spoke.

Then I took him into the kitchen to get started. Using the guide of where to place the electrodes, I shaved a patch on his right side and left side - the left side larger since it had to accomodate 3 electrodes, and the right side only needed 2. He stood there shock still while I shaved him. Then I prepped the area with alcohol to clean away oil and debris. After that was dry, I placed the electrodes one by one in the proper spots. Still, Red just stood there unmoving while I worked. I taped over the endges of the electrodes with Zonas tape to secure them in place. Then I attached the lead wires as indicated by the color-coded instructions, then taped over the base of the wires to keep them seated. Then I wrapped Elasticon tape (stretchy fabric tape sticky on one side) over the eletrodes, over his back, along the electrodes on the other side, under his chest and back around. I didn't make it too tight, just enough to secure everything down. Then I put the vest on him - he stood there and let me put his feet through the leg holes and then bring the vest up and in place. I pulled the lead wires through the hold in the vest. I fitted the vest so it was snug but not restrictive. I plugged in end color-coded lead wire into the matching color on the monitor. I closed the lid on the monitor and made sure the tape was turning, which it didn't seem to be at first and I started panicking, but then I noticed it was turning, but super-slowly, which is probably what its supposed to do for this type of monitoring. I put the monitor in the pack, stuck it to the top of his back, tucked in the extra length of lead wires, then put the long velcro band around his chest to secure the monitor in place. Done!

I was worried that that Red was going to try to get the vest off because when no one is looking, he always manages to get his fleece coat off. At first he seemed a bit uncomfortable, but he never tried to to get it off. I still watched him like a hawk anyway.

I wanted to do a variety of different things with him while he was wearing the monitor, to get a well-rounded evaluation. We went out for an off-leash run, and I took a route that ensured he wouldn't be near the pond and tempted to take a plunge. He seemed to want to stick by me the whole time and not go off running like usual. I threw the frisbee to get him running.

Then we came back to the house and I decided to go to the pet store to train a little and buy some chewies to keep him occupied. He was well-behaved and see did some simple obedience exercises. I bought $50 worth of bones and chewies and then we left. I decided to stop in downtown and take him for an on-leash walk where we don't normally go. We walked through town and had a couple different people comment on what a nice dog he is. Then we walked back to the car and went back home.

I gave him a chew bone and he spent the next few hours inside. When I let him out to give him dinner, I let him spend some time out there by himself, though I watched him through the window. He still never tried to get the vest off, and didn't even pay it any attention at all. He came back in and spent the rest of the afternoon in the house since it started raining. Went out to potty once more before bed, and then slept well as usual.

Woke up this morning and took him out for another off-leash run. He seemed more comfortable and ran around more than yesterday. Came back home and he spent a little time outside running around, though I still watched him closely.

Then I brought him back in, and it was time to take everything off. The tape was really sticky and I could tell it hurt to pull it off, but he was excellent and just stood there very still again. He's got some sticky tape residue leftover on his fur, but I will take care of that later.

I filled out all the paperwork and will send the tape in today. Hopefully I'll get the results soon.

I just want to say that I'm soooo proud of him. It's like he understood me when I told him he had to wear this, be careful with it and not take it off, and to hold very still while I put it on and took it off. I love him so much! What a good boy!

Here are some pics: (click to enlarge)

And thanks again, Amanda, for letting us borrow your holter and vest! I can't tell you how much I appreciate it!!!

Trip to Ohio

2009-04-19T14:53:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, James's grandfather who he was very close with passed away last week. His grandparents live in Ohio just south of Dayton. There was a viewing in Ohio one day, and then another viewing and the actual funeral the next day in Kentucky (another 2.5 hrs south of where we were).

I boarded Cloud and Titus at my work, but thankfully we were able to bring Red with us. James's uncle who lives in the same area as his grandparents was kind enough to let us stay there and bring Red with us. I was most stressed about this - what was going to happen with Red while we were there and running around. But John and Jana were more than happy to accomodate and watch him for us. They have a 5 year old golden retriever named Sammy. She is very sweet and had no problem accepting Red into her home. They played very well together. Here's a video:

John set up an inflatable air mattress for us in one of the bedrooms, and Red was so happy because we allowed him to sleep on it with us. Here's a pic of him snuggling with me: (click to enlarge)

The next day, we hung outside for awhile since it was so nice and sunny. James and I got really sunburned, and now I have a retarded-looking tan line, lol. Here are some pics: (click to enlarge)

James making them sit and down for treats.

Later that day, we all had to go to the viewing for a few hours. We had to leave before John, but we were going to have him lock Red in the bedroom while everyone was gone, so him and Sammy didn't get into any mischief. But when John got to the viewing, he said that when he left, they were both laying at the top of the stairs napping, so he just left them there. We came home later after the viewing to find them in the same spot, so they must've slept the whole time we were gone. So proud that Red didn't get into any trouble =)

The dogs played some more that evening. Here's a video of Red and Sammy tugging on the frisbee:

Joe (James's brother) playing with the dogs

The next day, we all had to get up early to drive down to Kentucky for the other viewing and funeral. John and Jana weren't going to this one, so they stayed home with the dogs while we went. I gave them Red's dinner to feed him at the appropriate time since we wouldn't be home til late since it was a 2.5 hr drive down, the viewing, funeral, dinner, then driving all the way back. We got home around 7:30pm and they said Red was very good, and him and Sammy were alone for a little while that day too when they had to go to the store. Again, very happy with my boy!

That evening, we ate dinner then went outside to hang out, drink, and have a fire. Red and Jana hanging out by the fire:

The next morning,

Then it was time to say goodbye to John, Jana, and Sammy =( We went over to James's grandparents' house before we started our trip back to Michigan. Here are some more pics:

Red and James's dad

Getting pets from James's mom

Being a therapy dog to James's aunt, who was having a really hard time all week

And then it was time to go. Look at Red all pitiful in the backseat. "Are we there yet?"

On the way home, we picked up the cats from my work. Here's Cloud who HATES the carrier

And Red and Titus in the backseat

Red was a very tired puppers after his trip to Ohio. He can't wait to go back soon and see cousing Sammy again! =)

Red's Easter

2009-04-12T20:53:00.002-04:00

Redders had a good day today. First, he got up and spent some time out in the sunshine while I woke up and had my morning coffee. Beautiful sunny Easter today!

Then we went for an off-leash run at the high school. He was such a good boy - there was a couple walking 3 black labs around the same pond Red and I walk around. I didn't see them at first, but I heard them calling their dogs who were also off leash. As soon as Red heard and saw the people and other dogs, he turned around and came straight back to me. What a good boy! The people put their dogs back on leash, but Red and I just kept walking, and Red paid absolutely no attention to these people or their dogs, and just kept on walking. Not even attempting to approach them. I was really proud of him for this =)

After our off-leash run, we went back to the house so I could loose a layer (it was getting warm!), and then we went back out for an on-leash walk. We walked down the sidewalk and there were a lot of joggers and other dog walkers out since it was such a nice day. We walked to an elementary school about a mile away and once we were inside the fenced grounds, I let him off leash again. But he stuck pretty close because we've never been in this area before.

I walked over to the playground where they was a big play structure with stairs, slides and other things. I climbed the stairs on it and beckoned for Red to follow. At first he was hesitant, then he followed me up. The stairs and platforms were made of steel mesh, which he has never walked on before. He was walking very hesitantly on it, looking through the mesh as we were about 5 feet off the ground now, but I just kept going like it was no big deal. There was a suspended catwalk and he didn't want to cross it at first, so I went first and he followed. Then we went back down some stairs and back to ground. I wish I would've had my camera!

We walked around the baseball diamond and headed back toward the play equipment. Their was a big swingset, and I haven't been on a swing in who knows how long, so I sat down on one and started swinging. Red looked at me, more confused than ever, wondering what in the hell was going on! He was scared at first, and then came barrelling toward me and stood right in the place where the swing would hit when I swung back by. He ducked and barely made it out of the way, and then he did it again! After that, he stayed quite clear of me and the swung, but watched very intently, not taking his eyes off me. Then I jumped off mid-swing and he was normal again. I took him back on the metal play structure and he was less hesitant about the catwalk this time.

We walked back home and then Red got his Easter bath. We were planning on going to James' parents for dinner and bringing Red with us, so I had to get the rotten pond smell off him, plus he was just dirty. He loves his baths and did his normal bathtime zoomies afterwards. He was so nice and shiny clean after his bath =)

I think Red knew where we were going before we even told him. He LOVES going to "Grandma and Grandpa's" house. He was whining and pacing, which he usually doesn't do when we're getting ready to leave. I put him in the car and secured him in his harness as usual and we left. When we got there, as soon as I opened the back door, he jumped out and practically hung himself on the harness. This is unheard of because he ALWAYS waits until I undo him and give him the ok to jump out. I've always made him wait until I say its ok before jumping out. But apparently he was so excited to be there, he forgot all his previous manners. I made him get back in, undid the harness, then made him wait a few seconds before I gave him the ok to jump out. Crazy dog.

He ran into their house like a bull in a china shop, as usual. He has to make the rounds and see who all is there, then he calms down. But the initial arrival is always very chaotic. We arrived just as they were serving dinner, so I gave Red his Tug A Jug, which I had filled with his dinner, and he worked on that while we ate. After he finished his Tug A Jug, he took it upon himself to go find my purse and root around in it until he found the Easter chewy I had brought for him! Sneaky dog! I came prancing out with it like he had had it all along. It was a braided bully stick - something that is carpet-friendly and would keep him occupied. He chewed on that for a good long time while we all finished our meal and chatted.

Then we moved into the living room to relax and chat and watch golf (ugh) on TV. James's dad especially loves Red and always gets down on the floor with him to play. For some ungodly reason, I brought this over-sized squeaky, super-annoying tennis ball and let him play with it. Here's a video of James's dad and Red:

Shortly after this, I took the ball away because it was giving everyone a headache. And then Red and his Grandpa wrestled a bit. After that, Red started getting sleepy and I made him lay down. If I don't tell him to lay down, he will just wander around aimlessly because he's afraid to miss something. He wasn't getting into trouble or anything, but he'd just pace around and not settle anywhere. So I made him lay down and then he was out like a light. After awhile, James's mom commented that she forgot Red was even there.

Every time he goes over there, he is better and better. James's mom even loves him and comments on what a good, well-behaved boy he is. She said she'd like to have him with her if she was ever home alone =)

We left and Redders is now passed out in the living room. He had a good, tiring Easter. A tired dog is a good dog =)

Saturday Morning Training Class

2009-04-11T11:24:00.003-04:00

I finally have a Saturday off work so Red and I can attend the Saturday morning training group =)

I brought chopped up colby cheese cubes for treats, though it doesn't really matter what I have because Red will take my hand off for it.

Today was good. There were a lot of people there today, including Jen and Libby. It was there first time attending the group. Michelle was there with Maisy even though Michelle will be leaving for Vegas today for a week..*jealous*

HEELING: We started off with the heeling. I did it on-leash this time. Red's focus was good though he still tended to wander too far out ahead sometimes. Otherwise, I thought he did well.

FIGURE 8: We started and went to the left, like we usually do. We got around the 1st post, Red bumping me the whole way. Michelle stopped us, and we all brainstormed about what I could do to keep Red from bumping - since this is how we keep losing the majority of our points in Rally. We decided to try to have us go right initially, instead of left, and to slow down and say "easy". Red and I started again, I went to the right and it immediately seemed better since he started on the outside. Once we came around to go to the next post, I slowed down a bit and said "easy", and it worked! No bumping! I was also told to make my circle a bit wider and more of a circle rather than a U around the post, and this helped too. I was really happy with this improvement and will continue to work on it this way.

STAND FOR EXAM: Set him up, told him to stay, and he immediately moved his feet before I even left. "Nope", I said, and then set him up again. The second time he was fine the whole way through.

SITS/DOWNS: (3 minute/5 minute) Excellent! The sit was a little uncomfortable because I think he wasn't in a tall sit when I left him and his feet were out in front of him a little (my fault). So usually when I tell him to "stay", it means DON'T MOVE YOUR FEET. He held it, looking quite uncomfortable the whole time, and then about 3/4 of the way through, he looked at me guiltily and then ever..so..slowly.. picked up one of his paws and moved it closer to his body in a more comfortable position. All the while with this look on his face like a bolt of lightning was going to hit him for moving his feet. It was so cute, LOL. The down was perfect. Automatically rolled onto a hip and held the position like a champ. He even put his head down on his front paws at one point, completely comfortable. Jackpot after this!

RECALL: YAY! It was awesome! I set him up, went down the entire length of the mat, and called, "Red, FRONT!" and he came in fast and straight, and sat in PERFECT front position! Release and jumping around and rewarding for that! I think I took one step back and sort bent over to have my hands near my knees to lure him there, and once he was there, I straightened up and he was perfect! So happy! The second time was good too. A huge improvement from what it used to be. I've been really hammering that "front" position into his head when we work, so hopefully when I call "Red, front!" he comes into the correct position, and I think its working! The only issue I see with his recall is, when the judge says "Call your dog!" Red sort of jerks in place in anticipation of the recall. He doesn't move his feet or anything, just twitches his whole body like he's ready to spring forward. So have to try to work on this a bit.

DUMBBELL: After the recall, a couple people got their dumbbells out for retrieve on flat, so I got Red's out too. I haven't got it out in awhile... He was excited to see it. I put him in a sit (in no particular position), tossed the db out a couple feet, then released and he went straight and picked it up. I praised and then ran the other way for him to follow me, then turned around and stopped and he stopped in front position, and I quickly removed it from his mouth. Praise and reward!! Did this again and then put the db away. He seems to only tolerate a couple reps of db exercises before he refuses to do it anymore, so I always stop before this point. At the end of the class, I got the db back out again and just had him sit and hold it for a few seconds, then I removed it from his mouth, and jackpotted him.

JUMPING: Got out the 16" jump (his jump height for Rally) and took him over it a few times. One time I don't think I gave him the command soon enough because he was watching me and didn't jump and ran into it. So after that, I started into a jog well before it and gave the "over" command and he was fine. He was lazy a few times and nicked it with his back feet, in which case he wasn't rewarded and we did it again so he completely cleared it, THEN he was rewarded.

And that was it. I felt like we accomplished a lot today. With the bumping on turns, I know how to help correct that now. The sits and downs were great. And the recall was MUCH improved. I think I will continue using the "front" command for this rather than "come".

Heart testing update

2009-04-06T16:20:00.002-04:00

After the echo last Thursday, I was ok. I didn't want to worry about something that I couldn't control or help. I was doing fine. On Saturday, Cindy (owner/veterinarian) told me that Dr. Brown had told her about Red's echo when she saw him on Thursday. She was there when he was doing the cat echos and he talked to her about it. I was glad he did because I wanted to talk to Cindy about it anyway and get her opinion. She said that Dr. Brown could tell that I loved Red so much and would be upset by the results and he wanted Cindy to know about it. I just had the feeling that maybe he thought it was worse than what I originally believed. Cindy said that wasn't the case, but it still made me recognize the gravity of it all.

It was a rough day for me after that. I ended up getting teary at the end of the day, and couldn't wait to leave so I wouldn't burst out into tears in front of everyone. I cried a bit on the way home, and called my sister for support. I got off the phone and cried some more. I just felt so hopeless.

I got home and told James that I needed a hug, and explained why and his response was, "Well if you'd stop fucking poking and proding these animals, you'd stop finding things wrong with them. You were all flipped out about Titus before, and he turned out to be fine. Stop being a baby." Nice - real nice. That's a nice, sensitive thing to say. I flared up that I would rather KNOW something is wrong so I can treat it versus just wait til they drop dead out of the blue. I was so angry after that - all I wanted was for him to listen and comfort me, not call me a crazy person for health testing my pets and tell me to stop being a baby. Later that night, I made him read Dr. Brown's cardiology report about Red so maybe he would understand why I was upset. He didn't really listen to me when I first explained the findings last week. He read it and didn't say a word. I took that to mean either he didn't understand a word of it, or he understand now why I was so worried.

First thing after 8:00am this morning, I called Lab Corp to inquire about renting a Holter monitor. The lady I talked to said I have to sign and fax back a user agreement form, then they will send the monitor with instructions to me, and it needs to be returned within 7 days. They pull the data from the machine, review it and summarize it and give me a report. This all costs $145.50. I can have their cardiologist interpret the report for an additional fee, but I will have Dr. Brown look at it for me.

They do not supply a vest. She suggested taping it on. I am visualizing in my mind's eye, Red scratching at it or otherwise being uncomfortable and annoyed with it, and either not getting a good diagnostic reading, or him getting it off somehow. I called Dr. Brown's office to see if they had a holter vest I could borrow. They didn't. They recommended taping it on and affixing it to a regular harness. Still not sure how that would work... Finally, I remembered that a friend on DT may have a vest I can borrow. Being the saint that she is, she said she would not only let me borrow it, but she'd wash it and mail it out to me tomorrow! I am so happy and grateful for her generosity. I am so flipped out about all of this heart business to begin with and I just want the best possible readings I can get with this Holter, and having this vest will put my mind at ease and make it easier on me.

The Lab Corp lady said they will fax me the form tomorrow to sign and fax back, and then hopefully get the Holter to me by Friday 4/10/09. Which would be great so I could do it over the weekend, which I have off work so I could watch him with it on - and also do things like train, run, walk, and rest. Get every possible scenario for something to occur. I really hope they get it to me quickly.... I just want to KNOW. At least I feel like I'm doing something while waiting for the 6 months to past before I can have him echoed again...

Rally Advanced 2nd leg

2009-04-03T15:47:00.005-04:00

Today was our attempt for a 2nd leg for our Rally Advanced title. The trial was in Birch Run at the expo center - about a 45 minute drive. It's a nasty day - cold, rainy and windy.

The Excellent walkthrough was set to start at 11:00am, and that what time I wanted to get there, to allow myself time to relax and chill out. Red and I left the house at 10:10am, I stopped at Dunkin Donuts for some coffee ;), and then we were on the road. We got there a little before 11:00am. We didn't have to park too far away, and thankfully Michelle had already taken Red's crate and my chair and set it up last night, so I didn't have to haul it in. (Thanks soooo much, Michelle!!)

The Rally ring was upstairs, so climbed the stairs to the 2nd level. It didn't seem that crowded. The Excellent class was doing their walkthrough. I saw Dawn in one of the corners near our crates and went over to deposit my stuff. Another friend, Jennifer with her GSD named Libby, was there to compete in her very first Rally Novice A trial. So Michelle was there with Maisy competing for her RAE (not sure which leg), Dawn with Atticus and Delilah and Atty's 2nd RA leg and Delilah's 2nd RN leg, Jennifer with Libby for her 1st RN leg, and Red and I for our 2nd RA leg. We set up our crates in the same area, so that was nice.

Red was a ball of energy when we first arrived. I was trying to upload my stuff and finish erecting the crate and Red was all over the place. Dawn held onto him for me while I got things in order. He was jumping around acting like a retard so much, even after warning him, so he received a nice sharp collar pop/shake from me and he was MUCH better behaved after that.

When we first get there, I always walk him around so he can sniff the place, then start with a few exercises, then play tug to release some of that initial excited energy. We were exuberantly playing tug with the frisbee and Libby started getting really worked up, pacing, whining and barking. I was going to take Red somewhere else to play, but they ended up taking her out to the car for awhile. Red and I played for awhile longer, then he started calming down, and I put him in the crate.

I went and checked in and got my course map. As usual, I was scheduled 2nd in the ring and the person in front of me hadn't checked in yet. Gah! I HATE going first - I don't have any time to warm up Red after the walkthrough. Got the course map and looked it over. It's a small, tight course with 17 stations. No 180° left pivots so that's good because Red still isn't as proficient as I would like at them, but the dreaded "halt, side step right, halt" was there. Also a "halt, stand, walk around dog" which we haven't really practiced either. No biggie, we'll just do these exercises when I get him back out.

The judge was zooming right along. Before I knew it Excellent A was over, so I got Red back out to practice these iffy exercises. The stand walk around was fine, but the side step right one kept giving us issues. He wouldn't move with me, and then sat really crooked. I got a couple better ones out of him, so maybe we can salvage it after all...

Excellent B finished and the course was changed for Advanced. We did our walk through - I think I did it 3 or 4 times. It was a tight, somewhat confusing course so I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to miss any signs. I did ask the judge about the stand walk around because I wanted to make sure we are allowed to touch the dog - which we are, though Excellent level cannot. By the end of the walkthrough, I was confident with it. Mercifully, the team in front of me showed up so we would be going 2nd as originally planned.

Went back and got Red out of the crate, grabbed a handful of hotdog bits, and proceeded to the ring in our "on deck" position. Red was nice and focused - right on. I fed the last treat as the other team was exiting the ring.

We didn't quite heel into the ring, and Red started sniffing around a little, but I was able to get him into position with minimal effort, and then removed his leash and handed it to the steward.

The judge, who was a friendly fellow, wished us luck. After his forward command we were off...

1. Halt, Stand, Walk Around Dog: No problem.

2. Fast Pace: No problem.

3. Normal Pace: No problem.

4. Right Turn: No problem.

5. Halt, Right Side Step, Halt: This was the exercise I was most concerned about since we really haven't practiced it at home. He started to sit, then popped back up, and I told him to sit again. Fleetingly, I wondered if that would be counted against me and if I should retry. I decided to keep going. I got him to come to my right and sit relatively straight again. ah, crisis averted!

6. 270° Left Turn: No problem.

7. Send Over Jump: For a second there, I thought he was going to stop and go around the jump, but thankfully he made the jump. Came right back to heel well.

8. 360° Right Turn: No problem.

9. 180° Pivot Right: He didn't come the way around and was little behind me when he sat again. oh well, I just proceeded to the next sign. There was a long heel between this sign and the next one (which included going by the jump again) and he did great.

10. Halt, Walk Around Dog: Again, he sat somewhat behind me and crooked, but I walked around him anyway and kept going.

11. Right Turn: No problem.

12. 90° Pivot Right: No problem.

13. Serpentine Weave Once: These damn cones exercises are our downfall. He bumps me on every turn. I had a feeling we'd be getting deducted for this exercise...

14. 360° Left Turn: No problem.

15. About U Turn: No problem.

16. Left Turn: Bumped me a little, but otherwise ok.

17. Finish. I made sure to praise him well afterwards because I always seem to forget that part...

Michelle was videoing and thought the run looked good, but I thought we IPed #5 because of his double sit. I took him back to the crate and jackpotted him. I was praising and giving him treats and didn't realize Dawn and Atticus were the team after us. So I missed most of their run. After Dawn's run, Michelle checked the score and said we'd gotten a 94. She said she thought we had a 95. I didn't care as long as we qualified! And in the 90's too!

We waited for the rest of the Advanced A people to go because they did the ribbon ceremonies after each class. Went back into the ring when we were called and we ended up with 1st place! Very happy indeed! =) And Dawn and Atty got 2nd place!

After a little more playing, I put Red back in his crate so I could unwind a little. During the Novice walkthrough, I asked the judge about my scoresheet to see what I got marked off for. Turns out I got 1 point off for each cone bump (4 points totoal), and 2 points off for an out of position on #5 (the side step). We definitely deserved the points off on the cones, but watching the video back, I still can't see the out of position on the side step. oh well...

Dawn and Jennifer were competing in Novice A and I wanted to see and video their runs. Jen and Libby qualified, but Dawn and Delilah didn't after a questionable call on the moving right side step. Unfortunately for some reason, my camera wasn't recording their run so we couldn't even look back to see if it was legitimate or not. I was really upset about that. I've never screwed up on videoing before and I felt horrible.

We left after the ribbons were handed out. It was a lot harder to leave since I had to carry my 2 bags plus the chair and crate, not to mention the 80 lb Doberman at the end of the leash. But we made it out to the car and I allowed Red to eat the rest of the treats in the pouch as usual. After strapping him into his car harness, we were off back home.

I was really happy with our trial today. Definitely need to work on our cones. The cones have lost us major points in the last 2 legs due to bumping. Not cool. Other than that, I was really happy with how Red did. Such a good boy =)

Here is the video of our run:

And all of us together. From left to right: Me and Red, Michelle and Maisy, Dawn and Delilah, Jennifer and Libby

click to enlarge

One more leg to go for Advanced!! =D

Red's 1st Echocardiogram

2009-04-02T18:29:00.003-04:00

Took Red for his first screening echocardiogram today. Now that he is 2 years old, I want to screen him every year. I work with Dr. William Brown, a board certified cardiologist, every Thursday at my work, but I took him to his office today for the echo (too hard to do it at the cat clinic, lol).

In the waiting room. "oh what are we doing here?? This is fun!!"

10 minutes later... "I changed my mind. This is NOT fun."

Red did really well for his echo. Dr. Brown picked him up and put him on the table, and the techs held him. I reassured him, and he did try to get up once, but I reassured him again, then he was fine. The poor boy had the more terrified look on his face at first though, but he seemed to calm down after a couple minutes. Afterwards he was fine, and we did some obedience stuff for the techs who asked to see some tricks =)

RESULTS:

No VPCs or skipped beats on the ECG. Everything ok on the echo, EXCEPT his left ventricular diastolic dilation value... normal for dobes is anywhere between 4.3cm and 4.8cm. Red's was 5.0. The Dr did a few readings and still got this higher number. This increased value can be a sign of DCM. The number isn't horrible, but its still higher than he would like to see. Red's contractility was ok at 25%, though usually it's 30-40%. The Dr wasn't as concerned about this though because there can be normal variability as he was about the diastolic dilation. He said it could just be normal for Red, but he would like to check him in 6 months again, rather than a year. I'm also going to have him Holtered for sure.

I'm a little freaked out, but I'm not going to really stress until he have the next echo done in 6 months. Because I had Dr Brown echo my cat, Titus, who had a thickened ventricular septum which can be a sign of HCM, but we have re-echoed him several times, and it was determined that that is just normal for him. So maybe this is just normal for Red. I hope...

Afterwards, my sister met Red and I at an outdoor mall in the area. The was in the mid 60's today, so it was a beautiful day for walking. I bought Red a McDonald's cheeseburger for being a good boy at the vet.

"Can I haz cheezburger now?"

Later, I called Lori, Red's breeder, to let her know about his echo and to double check and see if any close relatives that she knew of had cardio. She said most of the problems on Trotyl's (Red's sire) side have been liver problems, and on Abby's (Red's dam) side, there hasn't been any cardio that she knows of, though there has been some cancer. Abby's dam died of pancreatic cancer, and her sire died of an intestinal obstruction. I've looked on dobequest to see what else the dogs in Red's pedigree have died from, but most of them don't have it listed. I wonder if there's any other way to look it up somewhere/somehow?

Anyway, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm going to think positive thoughts and not think anything negative. I'm a big believer in energy and self-fulfilling prophecy. We will recheck the echo in 6 months, and have the Holter done in the meantime. Red is going to live to a ripe old age =)

Red - Photoshopped

2009-04-02T10:16:00.002-04:00

I finally got my photoshop back after hubby built me a new computer. I swear, I am LOST without that program! I didn't realize how much I used it until I didn't have it anymore. I'm a very basic photoshopper, but I still like playing around with it.

Here are some pics I took yesterday that didn't quite turn out because of the sun's direct lighting, so I did some other things to create a lomo effect. And some others that were fine that I just messed around with for the fun of it ;)

click thumbnails to enlarge

(I even removed his ecollar in this one. Its my favorite, I'm using it as a desktop wallpaper)

The Wal-Mart Greeter, and stopped by the cops

2009-03-27T17:10:00.004-04:00

I decided to start jogging with Red now that its nicer outside and I have no more excuses left not to... James only works about 1.5 miles away, so I like to walk there with Red sometimes. Truth be known, I probably only jogged about 10% of the way (I thought I was going to die), but it was a good start...

We got there and I took Red's leash off and he just wandered around getting pets from everyone James works with. Then it started getting busier in the store and Red greeted every single customer that came in. He reminded me of a Wal-Mart greeter. The door would open, and he would prance over and greet the next person. He got a lot of compliments on what a friendly and nice-looking dog he is. Everyone loved him. We hung out for a bit while I prepared for the walk/jog back, then were on our way again.

On our way back home, an Oakland County sheriff car pulled onto the side of the road where we were on the sidewalk, and the officer asked, "Is that a Doberman??" I said yes, and he said, "Wow, I haven't seen a Doberman in years! They used to be really popular, but now everyone has Rottweilers..." I was too out of breath to really reply, but then the officer said to have a good day and enjoy our walk, then he pulled away again.

It's not the first time a police car has pulled over to see Red, nor the first time for random people to pull over to comment on him. It used to happen a lot more when he was an obvious puppy, but people still slow down and say "beautiful dog!" as they cruise by. I wonder if everyone else walking their dogs gets that much attention?

Red goes to the Mall

2009-03-25T16:29:00.002-04:00

Red and I went to Bass Pro again today, which is in the local mall. I wanted take a lap around the mall (which is about 8/10ths of a mile), and thought I'd try to bring Red with me. It was a good day to go - a Wednesday afternoon when it wasn't packed or crowded, but enough people to still offer distractions in a strange environment. I put his red bandana on to help disguise the fact that he was wearing a prong - the friendlier he looks, the better. For the record, I have no intention of trying to impersonate a service dog, and if anyone asked, I would tell them the truth and say he is a therapy dog, not a service dog. And if I was asked to leave or was told he wasn't allowed, I would leave.

After doing some obedience work in our usual corner of Bass Pro, we walked up to the front of the store and into the main mall. The employee standing guard at the entrance told us to have a good day. I kept Red tight at my left side - no walking out in front of me. I wanted him to appear completely under control with me. I fed him bits of string cheese and ham for good behavior as we walked - i.e. walking loosely at my left side and not pulling, and attention on me. Occasionally, I'd halt and he would sit, and we'd do downs and practice focus exercises - nothing exciting or exuberant - again, I wanted him to appear calm and under control and not give anyone a reason to ask us to leave.

We continued walking, and the longer we went, the more he just walked nicely at my left side with me, receiving rewards every so often for his good behavior, and completely oblivious to everything going on around us. We were approaching a mall security guard who was riding one of those wheelie things and wearing a helmet. I planned to smile and say hello as we passed, but as I got closer I realized I knew the guy! I used to work with him like 8 years ago! I stopped to chat for a few minutes and Red just stood there next to me, completely uninterested in anything that was going on. The guy commented on what a nice dog Red was and then had to get back to work. I was so happy - now we definitely wouldn't get kicked out! ;)

Red and I continued our walk, pausing here and there to sit and focus. I heard people saying things like, "oooh! Look at that dog!" or "wow, what a cool dog!". No one approached us, though, because it was clear that Red was working and not just out for a leisurely stroll.

We looped back around and entered Bass Pro again, walked through to the back of the store, and out into the parking lot to leave. Red got jackpoted the rest of the ham and cheese from the treat bag. I was so pleased with his behavior in the mall. Very proud of my Redders today =)

We match!

2009-03-21T19:15:00.001-04:00

Remember this post? Red won a gift certificate for the Paco Collars photo contest and they agreed to make me a bracelet that matched Red's collar.

Well I received my bracelet today, and I love it! Now Red and I match =)

click to enlarge

Rally Advanced A - 1st Leg

2009-03-20T20:28:00.003-04:00

Today was a good day =) Red earned his 1st leg toward his Rally Advanced title, with a score of 95, and 2nd place in our class.

Michelle, being the awesome friend she is, came with me for moral support even though she wasn't entered in today's trial. She met me at the house and we left around 10:30am. I takes about 25-30 minutes to get to the club and we arrived at about 11am. The trial was set to start at 11am, starting with Excellent B (18 entries) & A (4 entries), then Advanced B (24 entries) & A (9 entries), then Novice B (13 entries) & A (8 entries).

Red and I are in Advanced A, but I wanted to get there with plenty of time to get relaxed beforehand. They were just starting the Excellent walkthrough when we arrived. I was glad to be there early so I could relax and get myself calmed down before going into the ring. The last 2 trials were so rushed and I felt very frazzled - I hated it. I was happy to know I'd have a lot of down time.

We left Red in the car while we carried in our chairs, the crate, and my bags (my "bags" being my purse, my camera bag, and my dog stuff bag). We found a spot and set everything up. While I was setting up the crate, Michelle saw the course maps taped to a nearby table and went to see what I was up against. She read out the exercises, and I relaxed a bit - nothing too bad. I was hoping there wouldn't be the 180° left pivot or the halt, side step, halt - since both of these exercises were not polished at all. And thankfully, neither exercises was in the course. phew!

After everything was set up, I went outside to get Red, and took him directly to the potty area like I always do. He sniffed around for awhile before squeezing out a few drops to satisfy me. We went inside, and he was very excited as usual. I took off his flat collar, and attached our show leash to our show choke, and prepared my treat pouch. We warmed up with a few exercises, went into the practice ring and did some heeling and a few exercises. Then we went back to our chairs to play around with the frisbee and burn off some excited energy. After he started to calm down a bit, I put him in the crate, which he went into without a problem and accepted his treat.

Michelle and I sat and watched the Excellent B class do their runs. Unfortunately, I hadn't had any coffee yet this morning and forgot my cash that was laying on the dresser, so Michelle bought me a coffee and I happily sipped it as I relaxed and watched the other teams perform. Red being completely silent and still just laying in his crate watching the world go by. I was feeling much less nervous and anxious than I was this morning. I love watching the excellent teams trial, and I also played around on my new iPhone for a little while too ;)

Our friend, Dawn, who has the Mastiffs, Atticus and Delilah, arrived and set up her crate next to us. She was trialing Atticus in the same class as me, Advanced A, for his 1st Advanced leg, and Delilah was entered in Novice A for her 1st leg.

While we were waiting, we got a couple pics (click to enlarge):

Excellent A & B finished and received their rosettes and ribbons, and they started changing the course in preparation for Advanced around 1pm. I had planned to leave Red in the crate until after the walkthrough, then get him out again while Advanced A was running. The judge called everyone from Advanced into the ring and told us that we would be doing the walkthrough now, but she would be taking a 25 minute break afterwards, so the first Advanced B dog would be going into the ring at 1:25pm.

I walked the course 4 times this time. I have never done an Advanced course before and there are more signs than Novice, and the course seemed more complicated - easier to get lost. The ring size was 40' x 50' and the signs were as follows:

1. Halt, Sit
2. Straight Figure 8, Weave Twice
3. Left Turn
4. Halt, 90° Pivot Left, Halt
5. Moving Side Step
6. Call Dog Front, Finish Left, Forward
7. Halt, Walk Around Dog
8. 270° Right Turn
9. 360° Right Turn
10. Left Turn
11. Send Over Jump (16" height)
12. About Turn Right
13. Fast Pace
14. Normal Pace
15. Halt, Turn Right 1 Step, Call to Heel, Halt
16. Right Turn
17. Halt, Call Front, Finish Right, Halt

After the 4th walkthrough, I felt pretty confident that I wouldn't get lost, and confident that Red could do all the exercises well. I did want to work on #15 more when I got him out again because we hadn't trained that one in awhile. Everything else was ok.

Since the judge was taking her break, they announced there was lunch available for $5.00 per person. The stewards and people running the show brought a potluck from home, including shredded beef sandwiches, tuna salad croissants, salad, rolls, cookies, and pie. Michelle bought me lunch and we sat and ate in the eating area.

I finished my lunch and it was about 1:25pm. I wanted to get Red out and take him outside to a neighboring vacant field, and let him run a bit. I grabbed the frisbee, got him out of the crate, and went straight over to the field where I let him off-leash to run off some steam. It was a bit chilly, but sunny and not too windy, so it was a nice day. Red chased the frisbee happily for awhile, then we played some tug, and just generally hung out out there for about 15 minutes. Then I put the leash back on him and since he didn't potty out there, took him back to the potty area, where he refused to go. Normally I wait til he goes, but he just didn't seem interested at all so I figured he must be empty...

We went back inside, cue the usual bounciness of being back in the building. We played more tug. Once he seemed like he was tiring of tug, we went into the practice ring to practice the side step thing. After a couple minutes, we went back to the chairs and started doing some casual focus exercises for treats. Advanced B was still running and I planned to keep Red out this whole time, otherwise I'd have to re-prepare him all over again if I put him back in the crate. Preparing = get out of the crate, take outside, come inside, play and tug, then focus and work.

Advanced B finished and had their awards ceremony. Red and I would be the 2nd team to go in Advanced A. We were supposed to be 3rd but the first team was absent. So while the first team went, I removed my treat pouch, grabbed a handful of hotdog bits and stood in line at the gate in preparation to go. I did focus exercises and few other things with Red while feeding the hotdogs from my hand. I fed the last bits as the first team was finishing.

Michelle said to start being formal when we go into the ring, so he is in working-mode and ready to go. It worked great - I heeled him into the ring and halt/sat at the Start sign as if it were an exercise. I removed his leash, handed it to the steward, and we were off!

For the very first exercise, a simple Halt, Sit, I thought he was going to keep walking or throw a very crooked sit, but he pulled it off and was better after that. The cones were a little rough, he did bump me a few times and I vaguely wondered if that would count against us... The left pivot was really nice, just how we practiced. Everything else went smoothly. The jump was fine and he didn't tap it - thank god! and came right back to heel (though bumping me a little in the process). On the Halt, 1 step right, Halt, I thought for one horrid moment that he was going to move with me - even though we had JUST practiced this over and over in the past 30 minutes, but he didn't - came back to heel position, and sat. phew! The very last exercise was a call dog to front (without moving the feet). During training and even earlier today during warm-ups, he came to front beautifully. But during this exercise, he only came halfway and sat out of position at about a 90° angle. I contemplated for what seemed like a long time, but was only a fraction of a second if I should retry or not, and decided not to. Then I couldn't remember which way to finish him, so I had to glance at the sign to see it was supposed to be a right finish, halt. He finished fine and sat, and then we were off through the finish sign.

Once I got the leash back on Red and we left the ring, I lavishly praised him and took him back to the chairs where I let him dip his nose into the treat pouch. My initial reaction after the run was that I thought it was just ok. I knew we had lost points on at least one crooked sit, and he didn't completely front for sign #17 (the very last one!). His attention wasn't the best but he stayed with me. But other than that, I was happy with everything else, and especially the jump since he hasn't had too much exposure to jumps. Michelle said we looked really good, and all she saw wrong was the out of position front. I was glad she thought we looked good because I always think we do worse than we really do. She checked the scoreboard and reported that we got a 95. I was so relieved to hear that! Phew!! And we might even place too.

Dawn and Atticus did their run and did very well. I always really enjoy watching them trial. We got them on video, too, since I think seeing yourself and dog work is a very helpful learning tool. They did well, but we didn't know what their score was since they took the sheet down without posting it.

Our Advanced A class was not a good one. Out of the 8 people that trialed, only 4 qualified - including Red and I, and Dawn and Atticus. There were 2 dogs that went running around the ring during the middle of their trial, completely spazzing out. The one was dismissed before they could even finish since it was clear the dog was out of control. I had never seen a dog do that in the ring before.

Red and I earned a score of 95 out of 100, and 2nd place in our class. We lost 4 points for the bumping/handler interference during the cone exercise, and 1 point for the out of position front during the last exercise. Dawn and Atticus got a 94 and 3rd place. Atticus had a slight issue with one of the dogs during our ribbon ceremony - we think the clapping set him off. He went toward the springer spaniel, but didn't do anything. It was more startling than anything else. Dawn had him back under control again, and then he was completely fine again.

We received a lovely red rosette, green qualifying ribbon, and a small stuffie toy. After the awards ceremony, we went back to the chairs and Red started happily tearing apart the stuffie. I promptly took it away once he put a hole in it and started removing stuffing.

Michelle got a photo of Red and I with our ribbons (click to enlarge):

I put Red back in the crate and we sat back down to wait for Dawn and to trial Delilah in Novice A. They had a great run and ended up with a score of 100 and 1st place in the class! Very cool, and I got it on video.

After that, Michelle and I packed everything up and departed. It was about 5pm when we left. Red fell asleep on the way home since he didn't sleep at all in his crate all day. It was a good day =) And thanks again, Michelle, for coming with me and supporting us!! You are awesome!!! *hugs*

Without further ado, here is the video of our run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGZunIpGsgM

And here is Red posing with his rosette and ribbon after we got home (click to enlarge:

Redders is now passed out in front of the fireplace... one very tired puppy! =)

Obedience Fun Match

2009-03-18T22:00:00.003-04:00

The was an obedience fun match tonight at the same place where our rally trial on Friday will be.

My general feeling with the night is disappointment. I think it was because of the way the judge was critiquing. Now don't get me wrong - I am there to learn and soak up information, and I really truly appreciate those people and especially the judges who volunteer their time to run these fun matches. But I think her criticism could have been delivered a little more constructively at times - I mean, this is supposed to be helpful AND fun. She made me feel like I was training my dog all wrong.

Sits/downs - The judge went longer than the 1 minute/3 minute. She did 1.5 mins/3.5 mins. Red was competely fine, no problems. Except when I went back to him after the down and was going around him, the judge said he very slightly picked up his right elbow. I didn't see it, but I will be watching that from now on.

On-leash Heel - Just ok. Not horrible but not wonderful. His attention could have been a bit better. The judge said our slow was not slow enough. In an effort to walk in a straighter line, I tried to keep my head up as much as possible and aim for a spot to walk at, so I think I did better with that.

Figure 8 - Not bad. I thought we did ok, though he bumped into me a few times. For some reason during the middle of the exercise, the judge told me I could correct him during fun matches. I didn't respond considering I didn't know what she was referring to correcting.

Stand for Exam - I didn't notice this until the judge pointed it out, but I said "stay" as I was taking my hand off his shoulders to position him. I need to make sure my hands are completely off him before I give the command. Also (and I also didn't see this at the time), the judge said when I returned to him and walked around behind him, he lifted his right front paw slightly. I saw it in the video when I watched it back. Will have to keep an eye for this. Michelle also said afterwards that the SFE seemed rushed. She said don't be afraid to really take my time and position him before leaving, because he seemed like he was in an awkward position and that may have been why he shifted a paw.

Between the STE and and the heel off leash, Red completely tarted out and tried to leave the ring, and then wouldn't get re-focused. Gave him a very firm correction with the choke and he snapped back into reality at that point.

Heel on Leash - After his correction, he sat in heel position waiting to go forward. I waited, and the judge just stood there and looked at me. Then moved her mouth - it was noisy in there and not being able to hear real well, I thought she said forward. I started forward and she snapped "I didn't say forward." Jesus Christ, lady - get your shit together and lets GO. She said forward and this heeling wasn't too bad. He stayed with me in better heel position, but his focus was not there. There were a couple crooked sits at the halts as well.

Recall - Michelle told me that I could tell the judge that I'm not going all the way down since we have been working on straight fronts and Red has been doing better with shorter distances. I told the judge this and she proceeded in a dissertation about why I shouldn't do that, and I am training it all wrong. I am very annoyed with her at this point. I know she's trying to help, but please let me do this run that I paid for, in my own way, and you can critique it afterwards. In the end, I did it anyway. I went about halfway. I called, "Red, front!" and he came in pretty straight. Apparantly I thought it should be straighter so I backed up a step to lure him into it straighter, then he went around to finish himself for some reason. So that was my fault, I should've just taken the front he gave me. I have been saying "front" instead of come, because he seems to understand where front position is, and has been coming in straighter for me. The judge proceeded to tell me I shouldn't say front and I should use a different word.

I was very disappointed with the judge's behavior during my run. I wish she'd just let me run it how we trained for it, and then critiqued what we would have lost points on afterwards, and then give pointers on how to correct those areas. I don't need her to tell me I'm using the wrong words or training my dog wrong. By the end of our run, I thought we did horribly because of the judge's constant sniping - though Michelle said it wasn't as bad as I thought. I think it was because I was being beaten down by the judge the whole time which made it seem bad.

Anyway, that was that. I was thinking about running again, but it would've been too late and I didn't want to miss Michelle's run with Maisy because I wanted to video it for her.

So our next big day is Friday! Hopefully g et our first Advanced Rally leg! I hope Red doesn't tart out in the ring like he did during the fun match, but I think he should be ok.

My epiphany for the night: I have been MAJORLY slacking in Red's training and need to buckle down again. I lost a lot of working practice during the winter because our house is too small to really work or heel in, and it had been too cold to do anything outside. And I can only take him to stores or often to practice. Now that its warmer out, I will resume our more rigorous training on a daily basis.

GOALS:

1. Focused heeling. I need constant eye contact. Michelle suggested changing his training now so the word "heel" means in heel position WITH eye contact. Start fading out "watch" for this reason. I think the lack of eye contact is the root of most of our problems in the ring, and by fixing this, other things will work itself out.

2. Straight fronts for recall. This is a continued work in progress.

3. Enthusiam to WANT to work. I am hoping this will come along with getting into a more structured training schedule again.

4. Distraction training. Michelle thinks that even training at Bass Pro is not enough distraction for him. We need to go somewhere with a lot of noise and action. There are a couple outdoor malls in the area that allow dogs, so I am thinking of going somewhere like that to do some work.

My Protector

2009-03-16T17:04:00.005-04:00

A funny thing happened last night. James was laying on the couch, and I walked over to him and leaned over to give him a kiss, but instead (in a playful but rough way) he quickly grabbed my arm and said "what are you doing?" in a mock angry voice. I said "hey!" loudly and Red was there in a split second. He wedged his way in between James and I, and was pushing James' hand off my arm until he couldn't hold on anymore. Once James let go, Red just stood there and looked between us, watching.

Red sometimes gets jealous and wedges himself between James and I when we are hugging or snuggling or whatever, but this was different. I got the distinct feeling he was protecting me from what he thought was a threat. It happened so fast, but I could tell by his body language that's what he was doing.

I was really impressed with this reaction. Just when you think your dog's a big mushball and wouldn't protect you from anything, something like this changes how you view him. I thought it was really interesting.

Saturday morning training

2009-03-15T13:32:00.004-04:00

Our next rally trial is coming up in 5 days... so it was good I could finally have a Saturday off work to go to the training group on Saturday morning. This will be our first attempt at the Advanced course, so I am a bit more nervous...

Heeling - did it off-leash this time. He did very well at the beginning - very good focus. After awhile, though, he started drifting out in front of me too far, so I put the leash back on him, put it around my back and to rein him into the correct position. I think for short bursts of heeling, like during a rally course, he will be fine. But for the long amounts of heeling we do during training, he sort of got sloppy with it.

Figure 8 - was forging and bumping me a lot at first, then got a lot better. I was taking my inside post too tight, so I need to allow more room. Good quick sits at the halts, and good focus.

Recall - I didn't go too far away from his this time - maybe 15 feet or so - because he comes in straighter for the shorter distances. I want to shape and reward this, then slowly build up more distance. He came to me with more enthusiam this time and we pretty straight, though I still took a step or two back to help get him completely straight before rewarding. No finishes!

Long sit/down - We do the 3 minute sit and 5 minute down. First of all, I didn't set him up right for the sit - for some reason I changed my signal and put my hand out in front of his face when I said "stay" (like a lot of other people do), but this is his signal for stand, so when I did that, he went into a stand. And I never have him sit while in a stand, so I had to release him, then put him in a sit and did the normal stay command. So it was bit confusing to start. Then he broke the sit after not even 2 minutes. He went into a down - I said "ah ah" and started to walk back to him and he got up and started to come toward me. I corrected him with the choke when I reached him, and firmly put him back into position and gave the stay command a bit firmer. He was fine after that to finish out the remaining minute. No reward or praise after that though.
And for the long down, he was completely fine. No problem there whatsoever. Lots of praise and treats after that. I hope he realizes that not breaking the sit/down means lots of praise/treats, and breaking it means a correciton and no reward afterwards.

After we were finished with that exercise, its sort of "free time". So Michelle set up the broad jump for me so I could practice taking Red over it in case they used it instead of a regular jump for my Advanced trial. He'd jump it, but he'd sort of do it sideways in an attempt to get back to me, so he'd jump at an angle and run into my left side. After trying a few different things, we finally got him jumping in sort of straight and calling him back to heel in an effort to get him in the correct position so he doesn't plow into me. Then we set up the regular jump and he did that fine. He got lazy a couple times and kicked it - in which case I didn't reward him - so I'd take him over it again and when he cleared it fine, he received a reward. I hope he doesn't get lazy during the trial...

We finished up after that because I had to get home and get ready to go to Grand Rapids to visit my mom for the day.

We have an obedience fun match on Wednesday, 2 days before the trial and at the same venue as the trial, so we will be able to practice more jumps and everything.

New camera, New photos and video

2009-03-11T22:27:00.002-04:00

I got a new camera for my birthday :) It's still a point & shoot (not a DSLR), but its an upgraded version of the other one I had. It's a Sony Cybershot DSC-H50. I got an 8GB memory card, a mini tripod, and a nice case with it.

I could tell the photo quality on my old one was deteriorating - I always had to do some sort of photoshopping with the brightness/contrast on them to get them to look halfway decent. And most of the action photos were blurry - I'd get more blurry ones than crisp ones. I guess that's what happens after 10,000+ photos... But the photos with the new camera are perfect - almost no editing necessary except for cropping!

Also, I couldn't zoom in and out during video recording on my old one, and I can on my new one - which is a HUGE bonus. I use the video mode a lot.

Anyway, Red and I took a walk today and I got to try it out for the first time! I freaking LOVE this thing! All the action shots were crystal clear, and I adore the zoom on it - especially during video mode.

Here are the pics - click to enlarge

a couple non-action shots

and I really like this one... its Red's footprint and my footprint :)

And the video - behold the power of ZOOM while recording! And I thought it was funny... the pond is still half-frozen, but Red wastes no time in wading into it and laying down, LOL

Wall of Fame

2009-03-10T12:33:00.002-04:00

Here is an updated photo of our "Wall of Fame" =)

click to enlarge

Hoping to continue to add to it!

Wet Walk!

2009-03-08T21:41:00.004-04:00

It has rained steadily for the past 2 days non-stop. Red was an annoying ball of energy yesterday, and I couldn't imagine going one more day without letting him run a bit, so we went out for a walk today - in the rain.

I don't mind the rain. In fact, I love it. I'm a Pisces girl so water is my thing, and Red is an Aquarius, and he LOVES water too! =) We walked a couple blocks to our usual off-leash spot. From the moment the leash came off, Red ran the ENTIRE time. It seems like he tries to run between the rain drops, lol - and he likes to open his mouth wide and "bite" the rain. He was soaking wet, but having a ball. The edges of the pond were thawed, but the the majority of it was still frozen. Red proceeded to lay down in the half-frozen water! So much for thinking he was going to be cold in the rain!

We made our usual circuit around the pond and back up the trail, and then back home. I had to towel him off completely before letting him in the house, and now he smells like wet dog. But he really needed that run - he was driving me crazy!

Training Update
After we returned from the walk, we did a short training session in the living room. We are still working on the 180 left pivot for Advanced Rally. He's good with 90 degree, but doesn't swing completely around for the 180. And also still practicing nice, straight fronts. So did that and only treated for proper position.

Then I took out the dumbbell and had him hold it while I danced around in front of him - all the while he's watching me like I've lost my mind - but he didn't drop it, and only released it when I took it from his mouth. (Thanks Maylissa for the idea to do distractions while he holds it!!). And then I tossed the db, gave him the ok to get it, and he brought it right back and sat in front position, and held it until I took it!! YAYAYAY!! Jackpot for that and then we stopped training and had a fun play session. I was so happy! I guess there's hope after all! =)

Full res photo from the trial

2009-03-06T23:48:00.002-05:00

I received the full res trial photo via email, plus an 8x10 of the win photo with the judge in the mail today. I'm going to frame the win photo and put it on Red's "Wall of Fame" =)

Here's the "action" photo I ended up choosing. I like how we are looking at each other, and lined up perfectly with the sign =)

click to enlarge

Home Depot... not too friendly...

2009-03-04T14:38:00.010-05:00

I've heard a lot of people say that Home Depot allows dogs, and I wanted to try a different working environment today. I had the prong on him since he was excited and bouncy when we got out of the car. I walked confidently inside with him at my side. The first lady manning the door just smiled and said hello. Once we were inside, however, another lady stopped me and told me I couldn't have the dog in there.

"oh really?" I replied sweetly. "I've heard Home Depots allow dogs."

She eyed Red suspiciously. "Well, not BIG dogs like that."

I bristled. What was she implying? "He's a therapy dog. I have his identification if you'd like to see it."

A pause.

"Well, I suppose its ok. Just try to stay out of people's way," she snapped.

I smiled politely. "Thank you! I was planning on just going to a back corner to do some training."

"What do you mean "training"?" She said sharply.

What kind of training did she think I meant? Mauling children? "Oh, we do competitive obedience, and I like to work on heeling and different things," I explained, still smiling. Red just stood there politely, looking around.

"Oh I see!" Then she smiled. "If you head straight back and to the left, you can use that area."

"Thanks a lot!" And we scooted off quickly before she could change her mind.

I headed toward the back of the warehouse in the direction she had indicated. Then I started working with Red - doing fronts and heeling, turns, and pivots. Working on attention during heeling. I had originally wanted to work on short recalls and sit/down/stays, but I decided not to push my luck - I didn't want them to see him off-leash, even though he would be fine.

A few minutes into the training, the same lady came back in my direction... I'm sure it was to check on us and make sure Red hadn't killed any of her customers yet. I just continued to work him, and he performed well. She approached and wanted to chit chat and pet him. Red stood there while she talked, and another employee came up to pet him too. Red stood there uninterested in these people - either looking off in the other direction, or staring up at me. After they walked away, we continued to work for a few more minutes, then we quickly made our way back up to the front of the store and left. We weren't there very long. I didn't want to overstay our welcome...

dogbook

2009-03-03T16:20:00.003-05:00

Red has his own "dogbook" profile now! And Cloud and Titus each have "catbook" profiles too =)

If anyone wants to be friends with them, here are links to their profiles:

Red: http://apps.facebook.com/dogbook/profile/view/6091052

Cloud: http://apps.facebook.com/catbook/profile/view/6097372

Titus: http://apps.facebook.com/catbook/profile/view/6097474

Busy weekend / Dumbbell update

2009-03-01T22:19:00.004-05:00

Not much time to for walks or training this weekend. And Red has been couped up again due to frigid temperatures. God I can't wait til spring is here!!!

A little update on the dumbbell...

I'm turning it into a fun game. Whenever I say, "You want the dumbbell??" He gets all excited. Then I whip it out and he jumps around all happy. We play hide and seek with it - I hide it and he has to sniff it out - like I do with treats or his other toys.

I'll also have him hold it for a few seconds, until I take it out of his mouth. Then I'll have him go retrieve it and ask him excitedly to "bring it here" and then take it out of his mouth before he tries to drop it. One time, I actually got him to bring it to me and sit without dropping it and I quickly took it out of his mouth and gave a big jackpot for that!

One time, he was in the process of bringing it to me and he dropped it and then sat there expecting his treat. But I said, "oh what happened??" and he kinda looked confused, still waiting for his treat, and I repeated, "what happened to the dumbbell??", and he turned around, picked it up, brought it to me and I took it from his mouth - THEN he got a handful of treats! Now if he happens to drop it before I can take it out of his mouth, I look at it and say, "oh what happened??" and he immediately goes and picks it up again and brings it to me, so I take it from his mouth. I think he is starting to understand that he won't get rewarded if he drops it, but he will if I can take it from his mouth. At least I HOPE he's starting to catch on...

So I think the positive/fun training with it is inching along... =)

Obedience Fun Match

2009-02-25T22:14:00.004-05:00

Since there haven't been any other issues in regards to the stuffie-eating incident, I decided to go ahead and go to the obedience fun match tonight. Up til yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to do it if he was still unwell. But today was great - no vomiting, and normal bouncy Redders! It's amazing how good puking up a 10" long stuffie arm can be! *rolls eyes*

We went for a 3 mile on-leash walk into downtown today. I normally don't take Red out for a walk the day of a trial/match because I want him to have all his energy intact, but I figured since it was on-leash instead of our normal off-leash run, it would be okay. But even though it was on-leash, I think it tired us both out! LOL

Anyway, we got to the match pretty early because I wanted to simulate the longer wait before going into the ring in a real trial. The match started at 6pm, and we got there at 5pm, while most people arrive closer to 5:30pm for these matches. We were the second team in the building, and the first team hadn't even set up their crate yet! I left Red in the car while I carried in the crate, my chair, and my bag. I set everything up, paid my fee and signed up for 3rd team in line for Novice, then went back out and took Red out to the potty area. He quickly peed a few drops to satisfy me, then we went inside.

We played tug with the frisbee for a little bit, then did a few heeling exercises. After he started to calm down a tad, I put him in his crate and I sat down in the chair next to him and pulled out a magazine. People started to trickle with their dogs, and he was moving around and whining a little, but not loudly. I ignored him.

There were three rings set up - one for each Novice, Open, and Utility. You are allowed to practice in them before the match starts if you want. I thought this would be a good time to practice jumps for Advanced Rally, since I don't have a jump at home, and we will be trialing Advanced in less than a month! Red has not had much exposure to jumps AT ALL. We just started introducing him to them at the last Saturday training session we were at. But considering we can't go every Saturday, I thought this was a good opportunity.

We went into the Utility ring, took off his leash, and started with the 8" high board. At first when I would give the command for him to go "over" and I would run by, he would run around the jump, staying next to me in heel position. So I jumped over it with him a few times while giving the "over" command, and then he got it. We did a few run-bys with him just jumping over it and receiving rewards, then we stepped it up to do some Rally exercises and heeling leading up to the jump, and then making the jump, to received the reward. Then I added an 8" board for a total of a 16" high jump (the height he must jump for Advanced). He was fine - didn't hesitate at all. Then we put it all together and did exercises before the jump, sending him "over", then coming back to heel and going into another exercise. He did AWESOME always making the jump, then coming right back to heel and staying with me. He got jackpots for those (i.e. got to stick his face in the treat pouch!).

It was funny because after we were done, I went to take the 8" board that I added back off, and Red kept jumping the jump over and over to earn treats. I think he likes the jump =) I was really happy that I thought of doing this - I think that was a really productive training step and I feel MUCH more confident about the jump in Advanced Rally now.

I put his leash back on, and went back to our chair and crate. Up til now, he hasn't really liked being in his crates at trials. He hesitates going in there and is restless and somewhat whiney when he's inside it. So I decided to play a game with him - kinda like when I first crate trained him as a puppy. I sent him in, gave a treat, waited a few seconds with the door open, then let him back out. Then sent him in, gave a treat, waited, then let him out. Then I did it with the door closed, waited a few seconds, then let him back out. Then it was a fun game and he would go in there for the next treat. We played with the frisbee again for another minute or two, then I put him in his crate again. I sat down and picked up my magazine again. This time there was no fidgeting, and no whining at all.

We had a good 30 minutes til the match started, and I just sat reading my magazine and Red sat quietly in his crate while everyone arrived with their dogs, making the building noiser and noiser as time went on. After awhile, I put down my magazine and just watch people warming up their dogs. I learn a lot, just by watching more experienced handlers interact with their dogs. And that's why I'm there - to learn as much as I can to be a better handler and help my dog be the best he can.

Open did their sits/downs first, but Novice went right into it and would be doing sits/downs last. When the first Novice team went into the ring, I got Red out of the crate and played with him some more. When the second team was halfway done, we started doing some focus exercises and getting ready to go into the ring.

Then it was our turn:

On-leash heel: Horrendous. The judge said I looked like a "drunken sailor", LOL. I seriously was all over the place and didn't walk a straight line at all. Red's attention was off in la-la land and I was paying more attention to him then to where I was going. We kept bumping into each other. It wasn't pretty.

Figure 8: Better than the on-leash heel. He lagging a bit on the outside posts so I slowed down a little and urged him to keep up. I took the inside post too tightly and Red kept bumping me as we came around. The judge said to give him more room on that inside post, and bring my knee up to push him back out if necessary. I have an arm's length allowed between me and the post, and I have long arms, so I should use that room. Then sits at the halts were pretty nice and got better/quicker the longer we went.

Stand for exam: Excellent! This is the one exercise I don't worry about with him. He is spot-on every time. The judge said "nice" when he went into his straight stand, I moved out ahead, she did a pretty long and thorough exam on him - longer and more than a judge during a real trial would probably do - and he didn't budge. The only thing wrong on this exercise was that I went too far out away from him. The rules say 6 feet and I was more like 8 feet, so I'm going to have to practice how to gauge how far 6 feet is... count my steps or something. That would be a really stupid thing to lose points for!

Heel off-leash: MUCH better than the on-leash heel according to the judge, and damn near perfect. Red's attention was much better and I was able to look up ahead of me to watch that I was walking in a straight line. I feel much more comfortable for this, and so did Red, apparently, and it showed. Now I know what everyone says about the off-leash heel being better than the on-leash! You'd think it would be the other way around but its not! My only guess is that Red felt like he needed to stay with me more since he wasn't tethered to me. That's my only guess, but even his attention was better. I was very happy with this.

Recall: Red came in pretty straight. Straighter than he has done in the past, but still not the way I would like. He kind of archs around while he's running toward me - I'm not sure why he does that. I took a couple baby steps backward to line him up when I realized he wasn't going to sit straight. By then, there was only maybe a foot between my body and the fencing (though I didn't realize it until I had him finish right). He squeezed behind me into a perfect finish. The judge was impressed that he finished so nicely having no room behind me! So anyway - yeah, still gotta work on coming in straight...

Then we were done. I had my treat pouch on, but only gave treats inbetween exercises. I did talk to him somewhat during exercises, especially for the on-leash heeling when we were doing so poorly, just to get him to focus on me. I talked a little in the figure 8, to keep him from lagging and then praising when he was with me. I can't remember how much I talked during the off-leash heel, but I don't think it was much - maybe for the turns but that was it.

Since they were doing sits and downs last, we had to wait for everyone else to go. There were 11 dogs total doing Novice. I played with Red for a couple minutes, then put him back in his crate, where he spent the next hour, completely silent and only stirring when a little miniature Schnauzer came right up to his crate screen door to sniff. I still don't know how comfortable he is in there, he spent most of the time, half-sitting. But as long as he was quiet and not fidgeting too much, I was happy. I spent the time watching the other teams' runs and taking mental notes to myself about how people train their dogs and how I might incorporate some of the things into my own training. When the last team started their run, I got Red out and played with him for the remainder of that team's run. Then finally, it was time for sits/downs.

Long Sit: Ok. He didn't break position at all, but he sorta had me uneasy at the beginning. He had his ears down and was sitting like he was really thinking about going down, or picking his butt, one of the two... but he didn't. As the time went on, he looked more solid and I relaxed a little. After the judge gave the release, I quietly praised and rewarded while he stayed in position. Usually during class I really praise after that and he sorta jumps around - but that's because we do 3 minute sits in class and I'm more happy when he doesn't break position (considering we had a really hard time with this exercise at first), and this was only the 1 minute.

Long Down: Excellent! He rolled onto a hip and stayed rock solid the whole time. Kept his head up and looking forward, and ears erect. He did great! So proud of him - he got a BIG handful of treats after that one =)

Then we were done! Took him out to the car, and then went back in to pack up the crate and everything. I think that was a really productive match - not for the Novice run, but for the other stuff. The jump - we made HUGE steps on that, and the crating for long periods. That is the good thing about these matches - it simulates trial-like environments and he can get more used to being crated and everything. So all in all, a success! Now I have one tired puppy... =D

Got the stuffie arm!

2009-02-24T08:06:00.002-05:00

Red vomited up the entire leopard print stuffy arm this morning around 7am. I had locked him in the bedroom with me overnight so he couldn't sneak off to vomit and I would hear it.

I'm so relieved! The only thing I'm not sure about is that there were squeakers in each stuffie's paw and there wasn't one in the vomit. But I had removed one of the squeakers from the toy earlier that night, so I'm not sure if it was the same arm. I can't check, because I threw the stuffie away. I should have saved it.

Anyway, he has pooped two big piles this morning - normal and formed with nothing in them. I say big poops because I gave him about 3/4 can of sweet potato last night with his dinner. That fiber really does bulk up the stool! I gave him a 1/4 can pumpkin with his breakfast this morning to keep things moving on through.

But I think we are out of the woods now. I'm so glad I was around to see him vomit so he couldn't eat that damn thing again!!

RN win photo

2009-02-23T19:27:00.002-05:00

Taking a break from worrying about Red's stuffy-eating issues... I received our RN win photo today! I like it =)

click to enlarge

The photographer should be posting some shots of each team in the ring on her website, so I am looking forward to that!

Update

2009-02-23T15:53:00.002-05:00

I don't know for sure, but I am wondering if he is vomiting something up and eating it again. Because he vomited yesterday while hubby was home, but he didn't find it til afterwards - just yellow/orange bile, but Red was acting like he was in trouble for something. He vomited again sometime morning between the time I left for work and the time James got out of bed. It was lighter yellow liquid this time near the previous place he vomited. And again, he acted like he was going to be in trouble when I found the spot.

But he is running around, eating and acting ok.

I went poop hunting in the yard today when I got home from work. I found one frozen pile that I'm assuming was from this morning, and a half frozen pile probably from a little earlier this afternoon. Both normal consistency and normal amounts. We went for a walk and he pooped again, a good amount but it was soft at the end. Then he had diarrhea twice when we got home.

So things are moving through, but I'm not sure about the vomiting. Both of us work full time, so I'm not sure how I'm going to catch him doing it unless I'm home...

I'm thinking I will continue to watch him for the rest of today, and I don't have to leave for work tomorrow until 1:30pm, so chances are if he's going to puke something up again, he will have to do it at some point between now and then and I will around to see it. Hopefully he continues to eat, act ok, and pass stools.

Today's stuffy-eating update

2009-02-22T20:57:00.001-05:00

ok, so he got up with me at 6am, acting perky and normal. Ate his breakfast with the usual gusto. I'm not sure if he pooped or not - he usually runs around our 1.5 acre backyard and poops at the very back fenceline, and it was still dark. I planned on looking for the poop when I got home after work.

My mother-in-law came and checked on him from 10:30-11:00am. She called me at work to tell me he was completely normal, and there were no signs of vomiting or anything. He peed a couple times, but no stool.

James got home at 3pm. I called him from work to see how Red was, and he said he was acting completely normal. I called him back a little after 6pm and he said Red had vomited a large amount of yellow/orange bile liquid sometime between 4-5pm. But was still acting ok. He fed him dinner and he ate it normally. I got home about an hour ago, and Red was bouncy and acting fine. James left the bile spot for me to see, so I cleaned that up. There were no chunks of anything in it - no food, no stuffy or anything.

Then I bundled up to go poop-hunting outside with James' handy police spotlight. It snowed today so I wondered whether I would be able to find any poop from this morning, if there was any. Red came with me and was happily running laps around the yard like normal. After 2 circuits of the entire backyard, and not finding anything, I was getting more worried. Then I realized I didn't hear Red's jingling collar - he had stopped somewhere, which can only mean one thing. I walked over to where I saw him, and he had just laid a fresh steaming pile. Completely normal, formed stool, and a normal amount. I prodded it with a stick and found no evidence of stuffing. I came back in and fed him some more kibble mixed with sweet potato to add fiber and keep things moving along... He ate it with gusto and licked the bowl clean.

I feel a lot better now, seeing that he passed normal stool that was most likely from breakfast this morning. But I'm so confused that there wasn't any stuffing in it... What the hell happened to that arm?? I have seriously searched everything and its nowhere. And what about the bile vomit? I dunno... he's still acting normal and as long as he continues to pass stool, I guess he's fine. But I'm still very suspicious... I will feel so bad if I gave him all that peroxide for nothing!!

I work 7am-2pm tomorrow and James works 12pm-6pm, so there will only be 2 hrs of him being alone tomorrow, so we can watch him like a hawk. After tomorrow if everything is still going in and coming out ok, I will breathe again.

And thanks, to Kim for the info about shaking them up after giving the peroxide. I didn't know that and I just let him lay still. But if I ever have to do it again (and I pray to god I don't), I will remember that!

Induced vomiting

2009-02-21T23:55:00.000-05:00

I called the emergency vet and they recommended giving him a small meal, then induce vomiting with 5mL peroxide per 20 lbs (so 20mL peroxide for my 80 lb dog), and repeat every 10 mins for 3 times if needed.

I gave him the first 20mL and he almost vomited immediately but didn't. I waited 10 mins, then did another 20mL. Still nothing. I waited and waited and nothing, no retching or gagging or anything. But he was visibly feeling really sick to his stomach, just laying next to me all pitiful. By now I'm in tears having to do this to him for my stupidity. I couldn't bring myself to do it to him a 3rd time.

I called them back and told them he didn't vomit. They offered to see him tonight, but I opted to just watch him for now. I hope to god I'm making a bigger deal out of this than it is. I did give him 2mL famotidine (Pepcid) subcutaneously because he was feeling so nauseous from the peroxide. He went outside and peed, and came back in and is now he's laying down, chewing on a bone like nothing is wrong.

I can't call into work tomorrow because they already called me in early because someone else is sick and can't work tomorrow. And James is working with the police tomorrow morning and I'm not sure if he will be able to stop by the house on his shift or not.

I hope I am being melodramatic and there isn't a problem, but I just feel so bad!!!

So stupid!!

2009-02-21T23:15:00.002-05:00

I'm so mad at myself right now. Red appears to have eaten one of the arms off the stuffie I gave him after the rally trial (that leopard thing with the long arms). I usually don't leave him alone with stuffies since he just destroys them - but has never actually eaten them before. I took it away last night, but I got this one back out today and was playing with it with him, and forgot to take it back away when I went into the other room.

I was stitching in the other room and he walked carrying it in his mouth, but it only had 3 legs... I searched everywhere but can't find the other leg. The legs are at least 8 inches long and full of stuffing. I only found one piece of stuffing on the floor.

I am sick with worry. What if he obstructs? James and I will be at work tomorrow and no one will be home til after 3pm... and I won't be home til around 7pm. I can't believe I let this happen!!! *cries*