Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Flooring for dogs!

Mum and I wrote a big ole blog post about eco-friendly, green, healthy and safe flooring for dogs over at our blog, RaiseAGreenDog.

You've got to go and check it out! It's entitled, "Eco-friendly, healthy, dog-friendly flooring for your dog-loving home!"

Lots of good info about nasty chemicals in commercial synthetic floorings, and really good alternatives for a healthier, happier pup and environment!

Monday, September 28, 2009

Some weekend fun!

Mum surprised us yesterday, we got to go for a five mile walk. Don't think we've told ya, but we've been trying to get in 3-4 miles five days a week to keep me (oh yeah, and Mum and Gracie) in shape. Mum remembers after my muscle pulls when I could hardly walk two miles.

Times they have changed, I'm tellin' ya! Gracie, Mum and I have become walking machines!!

Every day we walk past the little pond (one of three in our neighborhood) that's closest to our house and check out the geese/ducks, and anything else that's hanging around. Oh, there's the blue heron we see a lot! I think we should name him/her, ideas?

Then we always make our way toward the big pond and see what's hanging out there. We like that they leave some cattails in the pond, more natural that way (even though the pond is chocked full of chemicals, sigh...).

Near the big pond is this old grain silo. Nice that they left it when they created this development. Some neighbors thinks it's an eye sore. But I like it, and there are lots of critters that like to hang out there. Good smellin'!

As we walk through the neighborhood, Gracie always has to check out the grasses that cover the utility boxes, just because she found something in there once, she thinks there's always gonna be something in there, silly girl :)

Sometimes at dusk in the summer we see all the hot air balloons out on their evening flights. They make me bark, a LOT!!! Occasionally they will take off right across the street from our house in the big field where I took off for a bird off leash that one day.

Well, yesterday since our walk was about two miles longer, we headed into other areas near were we live. The neighborhood across the street is a big one like ours, with just more expensive houses. We like to go there 'cause there are less kids, BOL!! And they have a lot more treed areas, also known as wildlife magnets :)

Interestingly, we went down a street we hadn't yet, and saw this...looks like some pup got caught when the cement was wet, how cool is that! Mum wishes she had my pawprints in our sidewalk now.

We kept walking and walking, and Gracie and I were pulling and pulling. Finally we got to our favorite place in this new neighborhood. It's a woodland area they preserved and put in a mulched walking path. It's not long, but it sure is fun and smelly. Oh and muddy. (Mum was kinda wishing we had ceramic tile all over the house when we got back, easier than carpet to clean, BOL!!)

Off we went, heading down the path, pulling Mum like she was a musher.

Found these neat woodland flowers, have no idea what their name is. But they are blooming at a very odd time of year here in Indiana. We liked their spunk.

We kept heading down the path, stopping at anything interesting of course!

The path ended and had a nice couple of benches to take a load off. So, of course, Mum had to try and get us to pose, we kind of obliged. :)

Have to say all three of us felt like we could have walked for ever. We were gone for almost two hours. Can we do it again today Mum? Palleeaasseee??????

Hope you had a great weekend too!

I've been tagged!!!

No, not that kinda tagged, it's a dog tag! I'm looking uber handsome in my cool new dog tag, don't ya think, BOL!!! (Click to bigify)

A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the nice folks at DogTagArt.com. They said they wanted me to try out one of their cool tags. So we went to their site and ordered one. I chose the Earth tag, since I'm a green dog, ya know :)

It was super easy to order, and they have so many cool designs, it was difficult to decide. The unique thing about this company is that Dog Tag Art provides really unique, indestructible pet tags printed with crowdsourced artwork. All the artwork on the tags are provided by talented artists who make a little money on the side if their tag sells. Pretty cool huh?

And they say the tags are made of indestructible aluminum, so they're guaranteed for life! We even had it personalized (on the back) with my name, contact phone, vet emergency number and my microchip number - just in case. And they have a contest a couple of times a year. Send in your photo with your tag and you could win some prizes.

Have to tell ya, I like 'em! And I could have one for every single one of my moods :)

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

When we were just babies!

Last night we were on Twitter, reading some of our friends tweets and saw little Kiyomi's Dads post about what it's like to have a little 20 week old sheltie in his life.

It got me remembering (Mum too :) about my sheltie puppyhood. The chewing, the neighbor kids ooooing and awwwing over me when Mum took me out and about, our first training class and how I wanted to play with everyone and every pup throughout the entire hour. Ohh, the memories!

So we thought it would be fun to post our baby pics (well at least the first formal pics of all of us).

Here's is Wolfie...he was the first to join the pack. He was about 6 months old in this pic, best guess. He was feral and had never been around a single person or in a home before, but took to Mum like glue. Here he is on the back balcony in the apartment Mum had before we got our big house. His favorite activity upon arrival was cuddling with Mum and batting a golf ball around the kitchen for hours and hours during the middle of the night. He was so much more energetic than any kittie Mum had ever had. Still is...

And here is Wiggy...the second edition. Mum got Wiggy mainly because Wolfie needed a playmate (I know, not the best reason). But in true fashion of our family, Wiggy quickly became a key member of the pack, and added a fun and loving dimension to the household. We don't know what we'd do without our 'stand up to any dog,' tough cookie, Wiggy.

You know how those big dogs go through those super ugly gangly stages? Wiggy went through one of those at about 6-8 months, then he kept growing and growing and growing, for about three years, Mum says. Now he is a big (nearly as big as me) Maine Coone mix with doggy savviness to spare.

Then of course came me. You may remember, I was adopted from a shelter here in Indy at 12 weeks. This was the first pic Mum took of me when she got me home. Many say I look wise way beyond my years in this pic. Oh, they have no idea!!!!

And then there's Gracie, our goofy girl, our hippie of the family, our luv bug. Gracie was about 6-8 months old when she came to join our family. She was a herder from day one. Here she is trying to herd me, no less, on her first day with us!

But wait...there's someone missing! Mum....where are you?

Here you are!!!! This is Mum's, first official photo after she could sit, BOL!!! Lots of people used to remark and ask what she had in her cheeks that made them so poofy. When she started talking she would to tell them it was cotton.

She had a good sense of humor from the get go. And you'll notice that unlike me, she wasn't very good at sitting and staying. And those little curls? They just got curlier and curlier much to her dismay during her teen years, but now she's right in style :) Gotta luv her!


You got baby pics? We'd luv to see 'em. Leave a comment with a link, we want to go take a look!

Helping pet pantries and food banks!

New friends of ours at IfPetsCouldType.com sent me a cool t-shirt the other day. I think it brings out the brown in my eyes, don't you? BOL!!!

They have a pretty cool little fund raising program going on right now to help pets with families that are struggling during this tough economy.

If you sign up at their sight and upload a pic, they will donate $1 to one of four pet food pantries across the US. I thought it was a super cool idea, so I headed right over and signed up.

It only took me 5 minutes and I had a page all put up about my favorite subject, of course, ME, BOL!!! And the cool thing is even though they have my email now, it's been a couple of months and no nasty communique, gotta love that!

Some super nice folks over there just working to help out some pups during these tough times. If you got five minutes, we recommend heading on over to their site and signing up. It's a super easy way to get a little kibble into the mouths of those in need. And those pet food banks and pantries always need food to feed all the hungry pets out there.

And who knows, you may even meet some other pawsome pets and made some new friends, we sure did! And we love making new friends.

Monday, September 21, 2009

We got to test out the Nina Ottosson Dog Tornado!!!

The other day the Fed Ex dude drove up, and I started my usual barking routine, that says, "that package better be fur me or you in big trouble dude!"

We'll, lucky for him it was for me!!

We were super excited when we opened the box and saw that it was a Nina Ottosson Dog Tornado from The Company of Animals!!!

The Company of Animals designs and manufacturers a wide range of acclaimed products, including the Halti and the Clix Car Safe Harness.

You all know how much we liked our other Nina Ottosson toy, the wooden Dog Turbo, and we were just as excited to receive this one. So we quickly got to work...Mum fed us our kibble dinner in it last night and DOG! did we have a blast.

I was up first of course :) I knew what to do with the Dog Tornado before Mum even put the treats in it, as you'll see in the video. Just whip off that motorcycle covers and I'm ready to rumble!!!

I used my paw, I used my snout and had a great time. It was pretty easy for me, so Mum decided to add in the little cups that come with it to see how I would do with those. The cups have little holes in them and since I have a small mouth, she decided to put some old shoe laces tied in the holes so I could get a better grip. Worked great.

Then it was Gracie's turn and she got into it really fast too! So Mum added the cups to her's right away. Gracie had a great time.

We know there are lots of ways to add the cups to the Tornado, so we'll be trying different configurations as we enjoy the new intelligent, interactive toy over time.

Thank you so much to the Company of Animals for sending us one of our favorite toys of all time!!! They carry the Dog Tornado, Dog Brick, Dog Spinny and Dog Magic games. Here's where you can get 'em :)

And here's a little video of us enjoying! You can see I was so excited!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Final Updates for Friday, Saturday & Sunday - FCI World Agility Championships 2009!

Some information gathered regarding the FCI Agility World Championships being held in Dornbirn, Austria, this weekend!

Links:
Friday-Ssunday Time Table
Running Orders
Coverage of event from AKC website.

Blogs we found providing updates:
AgilityVision live stream and VOD.

Enjoy and good luck to everyone!!!

Results to date:

Friday:

Team Jumping - Large Dog Course

Team Results - Large:
1 - GER
2 - RUS
3 - ESP
12 - USA

Individual Results from Team - Large:

1 - Topps/Juice - USA
2 - Trkman/Bu - SVN
3 - Jänesniemi/Omie - FIN

Team Jumping - Medium Dog Course

Team Results - Medium:

1 FRA
2 SUI
3 FIN

Individual Results from Team - Medium:

1 Trkman/La - SVN
2 Laitinen/Robi - FIN
3 Mast/Darkey - CHE
6 Deacon/Luka - USA

Team Jumping - Small Dog Course

Team Results - Small:

1 FRA
2 SUI
3 RUS
4 AUT
5 CAN
25 USA

Individual Results from Team - Small:

1 Adyns/U2 Gold - FRA
2 Schröder/Chip - DEU
3 Krenk/Lu - SVN
21 Del Villaggio/Kelsi - USA

Team Agility - Large Dog Course

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Large

1 RUS
2 ITA
3 GBR
17 USA

Individual Results Agility - Large

1 Lorentzen/Simic - DNK
2 Edrová/Djovi - CZE
3 Tumanova/Baksa - RUS
23 Thomas/Zippity - USA

Saturday:

Individual Jumping - Small Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Small

1 Girauda/Twister - CHE
2 Scholnik/Skipper - BRA
3 Garrett/Indiana - GRB
20 Conn/Twix - USA
28 Del Villaggio/Dara - USA

Individual Jumping - Medium Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Medium

1 Wise/Dizzy - GBR
2 Sajdokova/Safi - CZE
3 Pelligrini/Nomade - CHE
4 Deacon/Luka - USA
17 Holik/Sizzle - USA
50 Crank/Blaster - USA

Individual Jumping - Large Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Large

1 Santolaya/Spell Topaz - ESP
2 Garrett/Encore - CAN
3 Cavallo/Waya - CHE
9 Topps/Juice - USA

Team Agility - Medium Course Map

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Medium

1 FIN
2 USA
3 SLO

Individual Results Team Agility - Medium

1 Wise/Dizzy _ GBR
2 Dessureault/Nitro - CAN
3 Renders/Flurk - BEL
4 Niemi/Viima - FIN
5 Deacon/Luka - USA
6 Laitinen/Robi - FIN
9 Holik/Sizzle - USA
16 Crank/Blaster - USA

Team Agility - Small Course Map

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Small

1 RUS
2 SWE
3 ITA
15 USA

Individual Results Team Agility - Small

1 Postma-Elgersma/Willow - NLD
2 Martin/Dice - CAN
3 Schröder/Chip - DEU
6 Mantell/Wave - USA
8 Gamel/Kelsi - USA
14 Del Villaggio/Dara - USA

Sunday:

Individual Agility - Small Course Map

Individual Results Agility - Small

1 Söderman/Eric - SWE
2 Adyns/U2Gold - FRA
3 Prier Hansen/Unique - DNK
8 Gamel/Kelsi - USA
15 Conn/Twix - USA

Individual Results Agility+Jumping Combined - Small

1 Carolina Pellikka/Kerttu - END
2 Ursa Krenke/Lu - SVN
3 Ronald Vlemincx/Cali - BEL
4 Lilian Rose/Mille - DNK
5 Katie Conn/Twix - USA
37 Melanie Del Villaggio/Dara - USA
43 Dee Anna Gamel/Kelsi - USA
61 Marcy Mantell/Wave - USA

Individual Agility - Medium Course Map

Individual Results Agility - Medium

1 Wise/Dizzy - GBR
2 Dessureault/Nitro - CAN
3 Meyer/Amiga - AUT
12 Santos/Kissy - PRT
23 Deacon/Luka - USA

Individual Results Agility+Jumping Combined - Medium

1 Natasha Wise/Dizzy - GBR
2 Anton Zürcher/Witch - CHE
3 Johan Vos/Birko - BEL
14 Ashley Deacon/Luka - USA
25 Hugo Santos/Kissy - PRT
39 Karen Holik/Sizzle - USA
53 Sylvia Trkman/La - SVN
62 Jennifer Crank/Blaster - USA
67 Paulette Swartzendruber/Rush - USA

Individual Agility - Large Course Map!

Individual Results Agility - Large

1 Lisa Frick/Devil - AUT
2 Marcus Topps/Juice - USA
3 Bielle-Bidalot/Cayenne - FRA
7 Trkman/Bu - SVN (tied with Vaškebová/Cindy Ayky - CZE)
44 Fosty/Icon - USA
71 Thomas/Zippity - USA

Individual Results Agility+Jumping Combined - Large

1 Lisa Frick/Devil - AUT
2 Marcus Topps/Juice - USA
3 Susanne Novak/Minn. - AUT


Video Links:

Germany
Finland
Spain
Hungary

Help support all our efforts. Shop Clean Run for the best in agility gear for handlers and dogs!


(Results may be unofficial at this time)

Saturday, September 19, 2009

FCI World Agility Championships 2009 - updates and info for Saturday!

Some information gathered regarding the FCI Agility World Championships being held in Dornbirn, Austria, this Saturday! See Friday's info here and below.

Links:
Friday-Sunday Time Table
Running Orders
Coverage of event from AKC website.

Blogs we found providing updates:
AgilityVision live stream and VOD.

We'll be updating this blog post with whatever information we find throughout the day and provide another blog post for Sunday.

Enjoy and good luck to everyone!!!

Saturday:

Individual Jumping - Small Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Small

1 Girauda/Twister - CHE
2 Scholnik/Skipper - BRA
3 Garrett/Indiana - GRB
20 Conn/Twix - USA
28 Del Villaggio/Dara - USA

Individual Jumping - Medium Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Medium

1 Wise/Dizzy - GBR
2 Sajdokova/Safi - CZE
3 Pelligrini/Nomade - CHE
4 Deacon/Luka - USA
17 Holik/Sizzle - USA
50 Crank/Blaster - USA

Individual Jumping - Large Course Map

Individual Results Jumping - Large

1 Santolaya/Spell Topaz - ESP
2 Garrett/Encore - CAN
3 Cavallo/Waya - CHE
9 Topps/Juice - USA

Team Agility - Medium Course Map

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Medium

1 FIN
2 USA
3 SLO

Individual Results Team Agility - Medium

1 Wise/Dizzy _ GBR
2 Dessureault/Nitro - CAN
3 Renders/Flurk - BEL
4 Niemi/Viima - FIN
5 Deacon/Luka - USA
6 Laitinen/Robi - FIN
9 Holik/Sizzle - USA
16 Crank/Blaster - USA

Team Agility - Small Course Map

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Small

1 RUS
2 SWE
3 ITA
15 USA

Individual Results Team Agility - Small

1 Postma-Elgersma/Willow - NLD
2 Martin/Dice - CAN
3 Schröder/Chip - DEU
6 Mantell/Wave - USA
8 Gamel/Kelsi - USA
14 Del Villaggio/Dara - USA

Sunday's Events:

Individual Agility Small
Individual Agility Medium
Individual Agility Large

Help support all our efforts. Shop Clean Run for the best in agility gear for handlers and dogs!


(Results may be unofficial at this time)

Friday, September 18, 2009

Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Eastern Regionals on ESPN this weekend & FCI updates, results and maps!

The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge Eastern Regional that was held here in Indianapolis this past August will be broadcast (delayed) on ESPN and ESPN2 this Sunday. Guess we'll see if any of the competitors needed some cheap health insurance after the event, BOL!! Here's the schedule:

09/20/09 Sunday 12:00 - 1:00 PM ESPN2
09/20/09 Sunday 5:00 - 6:00 PM ESPN

Spoiler Alert: Here are results from the event last August.

----------------------

Don't miss some of the results & course maps we're posting with the FCI World Agility Championships being held in Austria this weekend. We've got one post going and will be updating that post throughout the weekend.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

FCI Agility World Championships - updates and info!

Some information gathered regarding the FCI Agility World Championships being held in Dornbirn, Austria, this Friday-Sunday.

There is an unofficial Twitter account- FCI Agility World Championships on Twitter! @awc09

The Twitter Hashtag: #awc09 and Twitterwall: http://twitterwallr.com/awc09 (will have combined info from Twitterers that utilize the hashtag)

Full schedule for Friday - Sunday.

Blogs we found providing updates:
Live free stream of team practice continuing today until about Noon EST. USA team practice is at 1o:35 AM EST best estimate.

Link to team practice schedule (LocalTime-Austria).

Coverage of event from AKC website.

AgilityVision with the help of Clean Run will be providing VOD and livestream of the entire event. The base product is live streaming plus Video on Demand streaming until September 30th, 2009 - cost $19, or 12 Pounds or 13 Euros. You can add on an additional 1 year of Video on Demand streaming (expires September 30th, 2010) for an extra $10, or 6.85 Euros or 6 Pounds. More info...

Also Eric (AgilityVision) may have some updates via Twitter this weekend @agilityvision.

We'll be updating this blog post with whatever information we find throughout the weekend.

Enjoy and good luck to everyone!!!

Update 9-17-2009 - Evening

Canada - Blogging from the event - Rio and Tiffany
Link to participants, running orders, courses and results.
There was a server overload on the free team practice live stream yesterday morning. If you missed Team SWE and USA practice near the end of the live stream, AgilityVision has free video on demand of the two teams during their practice.

Friday Results

Team Jumping - Large Dog Course

Team Results - Large:
1 - GER
2 - RUS
3 - ESP
12 - USA

Individual Results from Team - Large:

1 - Topps/Juice - US
2 - Trkman/Bu
3 - Jänesniemi/Omie

Team Jumping - Medium Dog Course

Team Results - Medium:

1 France
2 Switzerland
3 Finland

Individual Results from Team - Medium:

1 Trkman/La
2 Laitinen/Robi
3 Mast/Darkey
6 Deakon/Luka - US

Team Jumping - Small Dog Course

Team Results - Small:

1 France
2 Switzerland
3 Russia
4 Austria
5 Canada

Individual Results from Team - Small:

1 Adyns/U2 gold
2 Schröder/Chip
3 Krenk/Lu
21 Del Villaggio/Kelsi - US

Team Agility - Large Dog Course

Team Results Jumping & Agility - Large

1 RUS
2 ITA
3 GBR
17 USA

Individual Results Agility - Large

1 Lorentzen/Simic
2 Edrová/Djovi
3 Tumanova/Baksa
21 Thomas/Zippity

(Results may be unofficial at this time)

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Bugs, bugs and more bugs!

We are being overrun with bugs lately!!!

Here's one of those big Bumble Bees taking over Wiggy's Sage. He's kinda hard to see in the pic, but Wiggy sure can't go out there and roll around in his Sage now.

Mum planted some Sedum right near our patio entrance. She is so sorry she did that, since the Sedum is overrun by bees this time of year. She's gonna move it soon.

I remember when I was just a year old, I came in from outside one day and Mum noticed a little bump on my nose. She pushed on it and it didn't hurt, and I was breathing normally so she wasn't too worried.

She went upstairs to fold some laundry, came back down about 15 minutes later and my nose was the size of a golf ball. Boy did she panick!!! She pretty much instantly knew it was a bee sting, so she put a little Traumeel on the bump, then watched me closely all night to make sure I was breathing OK. By morning, I was just fine.

But she went out the next morning to the store for some of that capsule liquid Benedryl, just in case I got bit again. 'Cause if it woulda been on my tongue, I woulda been in big trouble!

And of course, Gracie loves to snap at 'em with her big chompers. Scares Mum to death! There are so many, we may have to check out one of those cross country moving companies and get the heck outta here. Yikes!

Then the other day we found this cute little baby Praying Mantis trying to get in our house. Love how those little bugs change colors depending upon what surface they are on at the time. Just a few hours later we found his Mama on our shurb enjoying a nice bee for lunch. Wonder if they taste good?

Then, we went out for our morning potty the other day and guess who's taken over our empty pool? Yep, a big ole spider!!! He stayed for three days, but he's off on other adventures now.

And one of those bees tried running my dogwalk. Guess his running contact took a lot out of him, because it doesn't look he lived through it, even though he hit the contact! Good Bee!

Remember, you can click on the images to bigify :)

The Amazing Treat Machine!

We shared this the other day on our Raise A Green Dog blog, but thought it was too cool not to share it here. I think I found something new to add to my Christmas list!!!

So what is it? It's the Amazing Treat Machine!
A little info from the website: The design is as simple as it is clever. Made of high quality kraft linerboard, the Amazing Treat Machine easily folds together without glue or tape. You supply a plastic water bottle for the treat dispenser, a tennis ball, and the treats.

Assembling the Amazing Treat Machine is also a great project for kids. It’s fun to put together and even more fun to draw on and decorate!

The Amazing Treat Machine is made in California and contains no toxic chemicals or inks. The linerboard consists of approximately 30% post-consumer recycled material.

With care your Amazing Treat Machine can last many months. Once worn, it is 100% recyclable.

The 'machine' is 12 inches high, 10" wide and 10" deep. And the best part is it's only $12.95 (when I added it to my Amazon cart the total with shipping came to $17.75). This thing could keep me so young, I'd never need any wrinkle cream, BOL!!!

The concept is so simple, we thought maybe we could make one of our own? Hmmm....

Hustler (from the site) is not only a huge fan of the Amazing Treat Machine, but also its inspiration. Hustler learned how to use his in two days and uses it every morning to eat his breakfast. Watch him in action!

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

100+ Squidoo lenses!

I haven't talked about my Squidoo lenses for a while, so I thought I'd bring 'em up 'cause there's some fun, interesting, educational, and entertaining stuff in these lenses.

If you don't know about Squidoo, it's a site created by one of my Mum's marketing idols, Seth Godin. She's always reading his stuff to keep up on marketing trends, ideas and tips for her clients at Pawsible Marketing.

We joined Squidoo back in I think early 2008, and have since been the only pup to achieve membership into the Giant Squidoo 100 club. Which is kinda cool considering I don't have any opposable thumbs, BOL!!

Anywho, there are lots of lenses you can see in my lensography to get a taste for what interests you. For over a year my most popular Squidoo lens was 'Canine CPR' which we wrote after we learned about our friend Tish and how she saved her pup Cruella from choking one day. Scary stuff, and good practices to know, 'cause you never know when an emergency may strike right?

Just this year that lens was overtaken in popularity by my Teach Your Dog to Walk on a Treadmill lens. You may remember that Mum bought me a treadmill after my iliopsoas pull in '08, so I could workout and get in better shape during the winter. Guess lots of folks have thought about teaching their pup to walk on a treadmill, since the humans don't ever use 'em, hey? BOL!!

Those are just two of the lenses - there are over 100 more including ones on dogs sports, keeping your canine athlete fit and happy, famous and heroic dogs, make at home recipes, how to's on throwing a pup Halloween party, and lots, lots more. And, of course, there is my absolute favorite lens - The Coolest Dog Toys on the Planet!

So if you've got some time, or are looking for some fun or information, stop over at my lensography to find out all what's available.

Woofs!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Big news! AgilityVision planning free live streaming video of practice day at FCI!!!

AgilityVision.com is planning free live video streaming of the Team Practice at FCI WC 2009, all day Thursday September 17, 2009.

This is the page to tune into. Check out the practice schedule to see when your country is scheduled to practice.

Woo, hoo!!! Thanks AgilityVision, Katie and Eric - guess where I'll be on Thursday :)

Some fun agility practice this weekend!

We got in some fun agility practice this weekend - on a full course! Can you say, 'saaawwweeettt'!

First we started on a little nasty jump grid to warm up a little. We never made it through the entire thing clean, so much twisting and turning, and I was hyped up and running wide, but it was a fun little challenge for warm up.

Then it was off to the full course, a nice flowing one at that, with just a tricky spot or two.

What we wanted to know most are the following:

1. Can we both run a full course after being off agility for quite a while?
2. How's my running dogwalk training and frame coming along and proofing on a full dogwalk?
3. Have I sped up my teeter, and how are my weaves now that I haven't done them in a couple of months?
4. Can Mum remember how to run a course still, BOL!!!

We found out a few things:

It's still true that my first few runs of the day are the speediest. It was a little hot on Saturday, not too bad - sunny in the low 80's. My first two runs were much speedier than my last one.

My running dog walk is pretty good on speed clocking in at 2.25 for the first one and 2.51 for the second. Not my fastest running dog walk, but not bad. And I was much more consistent than in the past. But I'm still not running deep enough into the yellow, not taking three strides on the down plank like I should be. I only bailed it once when Mum got 10 feet ahead of me at the end. I didn't bail at all when Mum was next to me or behind me.

My frame is still looking pretty good, clocking in at 1.56 for the first one and 2.01 for the second. Mum would like to see me run a little deeper in. Again not my speediest, but close.

Teeter? Well my first one was my best ever! Probably because I thought it was the dog walk since they were parallel, clocking in at 1.59. My second one was my usual speed, hesitating at the mid point at 2.48. Much more work needed there.

My weaves are just kind of slow. These were 20" on center poles which I always do more slowly. The first one was 3.56 and the second 3.96, ouch! Was it just because I haven't seen weaves in over three months? Guess we'll see.

Here are past times (from December 08) with new times from Saturday:

Johann:
DW avg. 2.567 (4) 2.33-2.94 New Time: 2.25-2.51
AF avg. 1.594 (5) 1.23-2 New Time: 1.56-2.01
TT avg. 2.326 (5) 2.13-2.67 New Time: 1.59-2.48
WP avg. 3.285 (4) 3.2-3.79. New Time: 3.50-3.96

Here are some comparative times from our friend Ellen in a post a while ago. She timed some of the top world class dogs from AgilityVision website, running in 2007. Always a good reference point:

Dogwalk 1.87/1.90
Aframe: 1.35/1.42
Teeter 1.01/0.99
Weaves 2.82/2.85

So did Mum remember the course? Yes, she did, very well as a matter of fact. But how did she run? She was breathless after each run. Of course we didn't have the adrenalin rush like we would at a trial. But she isn't very sore today as she was when we went to practice on a full course a month or so ago. So there's improvement. All those 3 & 4 mile hikes we've been doing at least four times per week are paying off for her, as well as keeping me and Gracie in shape.

We want to thank our friends at Anything's Pawsible for having a nice fun play day and inviting us to come run at their facility. Thank you!!! We had a blast. And super thanks to Angie for video taping us.

So here are snippets of the two runs and some of the nasty jumpers grid, enjoy!


Now for Gracie!

The biggest thing we wanted to work on with Gracie is focus. Or maybe we should say, will she stay focused for an entire course? Answer is no, still not yet. Gracie did two full courses, and midway she lost her focus on both.

But the nice thing is that Mum got her back every time. One time it took a while, the next time it didn't take but a few seconds. Still, we need more full course practice with Gracie so that she can work on staying into it the entire course. After Gracie ran a couple of courses, Mum worked with her on sequences and she did really well with those. Very focused, very speedy, very accurate.

Her weaves are looking pretty good, timed at 3.12-3.37, faster than mine! Her dog walk was timed at 2.42-2.5 and 2.7, not bad, but like me she can do better and she also needs to work on getting further into the yellow on the downside.

Like me she thought the first teeter was the dogwalk and it clocked at 1.59 (same as mine). The next one you can tell she was hesitant. Something else to work on. And her frame comtines to be pretty good, clocking at 1.67-1.87, but she is really close on the down contact. She's never completely bailed the contact, but she is so close sometimes. Something else to work on.

Gracie had a great time and when she worked on a modification of the jumpers grid as a warm up, Mum sent her to the tunnel from 20 feet away, and she was taking jumps ahead of Mum and at a lateral distance. So her distance work has been paying off. Nice job Gracie!

Here's Gracie runs, enjoy!

What's new for agility training, handlers and dogs!

We like to keep up on what's new for agility training, handlers and dogs! So here goes:

Clean Run Course Sourcebook Vol. 1

Clean Run Course Sourcebook Vol. 1

Inov-8 Womens Terroc 308

Steer Stick

Steer Stick

Susan Salo Advanced Jumping

Susan Salo Advanced Jumping
3-DVD Set

101 Things To Do with Contact Obstacles Training Cards

101 Things To Do with Contact Obstacles Training Cards

And the new VersaWeaves from AffordableAgility.com - you can use them as competition weaves, channel weaves or 2x2 weaves, at 21" on center. (Just click on the link and visit the 'What's new' section.

And here's what's coming soon!

One Jump Two Jump 4-DVD Set
Coming Mid-September!

Canine Massage in Plain English

Canine Massage in Plain English
Available Early October

Thursday, September 10, 2009

AgilityVision streaming video - FCI Agility World Championships 2009

Here's the info for AgilityVision's streaming video of the FCI Dog Agility World Championships coming up Septmber 18-20 in Austria.
Agility Vision, with the support of Clean Run, will be providing streaming video (live and video on demand) of the 2009 FCI Dog Agility World Championships on September 18-20, 2009 in Dornbirn, Austria.

The base product is live streaming plus 1 week (7 days) of Video on Demand streaming. It costs $19, which is 12 Pounds or 13 Euros.

You can add on an additional 1 year of Video on Demand streaming for an extra $10, which is 6.85 Euros or 6 Pounds.

If for some reason the internet connection that the organizers provide us is not fast enough or stable enough to support a live stream. Then there will be only Video on Demand streaming. I am very confident that there will be no issues. I will know for sure come Team Practice day on Thursday.
For more info on FCI visit these previous blog posts that contain info!

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Testing out the rubber Talk to Me Treat Ball!

The other day our good friends at SuppliesJust4Pets.com, one of the companies that provides some of the super cool Nina Ottosson Interactive and Intelligent Dog Toys on JohannTheDog.com, sent us another cool new toy, just out on the market - the new rubber version of the Talk to Me Treat Ball.

It's pretty cool! When we first got it, Mum opened it up and recorded a little message for each of us, since one of the neat things the toy does is talk to you when you hit or bump it. The toy has a rubber outer coating, not super soft rubber, but makes it a little softer than the previous hard plastic version. But we liked it most as a great treat dispensing toy.

We had a lot of fun with it. The other night Mum fed me my dinner in the toy. And I have to say there is no way I'm going to need austin weight loss if I eat my diner from this toy every night, BOL!!! I didn't hit it hard enough for the message to play, but Gracie did when she got active and playing with it.

One of the things we liked about it is that I learned to use my nose! With most toys, I like to paw 'em, and with this toy I used my snout more to move the ball. Mum loved that I finally figured out I have a snout that can be used for more than just smellin', BOL!!!

Enjoy!

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