Friday, February 24, 2012

Interesting comparison!

Mum's been noticing something very interesting lately.

Back a couple of years ago, when the pawsome Photo Book shots were taken that I posted about, I was in the midst of my iliopsoas troubles and at times I was super bunched up.

Here in this photo from the photo shoot, you can see that I have my back legs further forward under my body, and a hump on my back end. That's because I wasn't able to really stand comfortably and compensated for the tightness in my iliopsoas area by hunching my back and keeping my legs further forward when I would stand.


That was over two years ago, and since then Mum has noticed, especially recently after taking my new DogPawR supplement, that I stand much more correctly; with my legs out a little further from my body, which gets rid of that hump on the top of my back end. Here's a pretty good example and this is from a few months ago. I am standing even straighter than this photo now!


It's very interesting how all that hunching accumulated over time and wasn't noticeable. If you knew me, you'd probably not even notice that anything was wrong. But now, it's very noticeable after looking at some of my standing photos from a couple of years ago compared with photos today.


Something else that Mum has noticed that I've never done in my entire life: when I'm lying on the couch with her in the evening on my back, sometimes I will stretch my legs all the way out. That's something I have never done in my entire life! And looking at this photo with my back legs tucked under me from last week...


Mum has never seen me in this body position in my entire life! I probably just couldn't even get in that position comfortably.

The sad part is that it seems that almost my entire I didn't feel quite right which is why I was bunched, hunched and didn't want to stretch out my legs.

We are both loving me feeling good now, feels like I got a new leash on life!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Rescued in America Photo Book Project - outtakes!

You may remember that back in 2010, I was in a pawsome book - Rescued in America - Photo Book Project by Melissa McDaniel.

Well, super Melissa, sent us some of the outtakes of the photo shoot the other day and we wanted to share 'em!

I look into your eyes...I speak to your soul!

Is there a treat up there?

I WANT YOU! (looks a little like a recruitment poster, BOL!)

While we were at the photo shoot, Mum taught me to ride a skateboard. It was fun!

Oh yeah! I be happy (or the lights are getting a little warm :)

Dancing for treats!

In the midst of a rollover.

Melissa has been hard at work on several other books for Deaf Dogs and Pit Bulls. Her next book is focusing on Puppy Mill dogs. The best part is a portion of the purchase of these pawsome books goes to help dogs in need! Be sure and go check them out. They make the best gifts for guys, don't ya think? She's an amazing photographer.

Mum's pretty excited to have these pro shots of me, we're gonna treasure them furever! Melissa is an amazing photographer, and we thank her for including us in her pawsome book and for providing us with these great outtakes!

All images copyright by Melissa McDaniel!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Practice last weekend!

Oh yeah! There is nothing better than taking a day during the weekend for fun, friends and agility practice!

We got in a lot of that last Sunday. We met up with our bud Cosmo and his Mum at the practice building. I got in two runs, and Gracie got in three runs.

Mum was super proud of my run, really nice speed, good weaves (even with one of those kind with wide bases, which have been bothering me lately) and she did a little short distance gamble stuff with me too, which I did pretty well. Here's my first run of the day.

Gracie has more things going on. You may remember that the last time we practiced here she took on a huge teeter fear because of the loud bang and the echo throughout the building. Mum worked on her teeter with her at home, but wasn't going to let Gracie on the teeter yesterday.

We thought all was fine until Gracie saw the dogwalk and thought it was the teeter. So you can see in the vid that she got another fear, stressed out, and how Mum handled it.

After her first run (the first one in the vid) Mum worked with Gracie in the back room on a dogwalk board, and you can see the results of that little five minute session with the clicker in the second part of Gracie's vid. Gracie barreled through that fear like a pro!

In the first run, you can certainly tell that Gracie is stressed, but Mum knows her and how much she can handle. (Other dogs may not be able to handle as much as Gracie, you know your dog!) Mum had her try it three times, until Gracie finally put one paw on the board, and Mum rewarded her by sending her to the frame (one of her absolute fav obstacles). It worked great! So glad that didn't last long, whew!

So here's Gracie's vid, complete with subtitles, BOL!

We sure had a lot of fun and got to go out to lunch with Cosmo and his Mum after!

We have another run through scheduled for next Wednesday. And the best part is that it's at the same place where our next USDAA trial is, on dirt at a horse arena. So Mum's going to try Gracie on the teeter there. Can't wait to see if she does it.

Can you believe that Mum and Gracie have been training in agility now for over six years? Yep, that's right. Through HCG diet Austin and everything. Lots of ups, lots of downs, lots of highs and lots of lows those two have seen. Patience is a virtue, that's fur sure!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Helping Mum build a fire!

It's getting cold here on the mountain today and we got a little snow! After being in the 60's during the day for almost a month, it's kind of a nice little change!

So what do we do when it gets colder? Yep, we build a fire in our cabin wood stove.

To start a nice fire you need kindling. So Mum put me to work yesterday to make some for our fire. Here are some of my results:

After you make kindling, you know what you do next right? You gather it up! So Mum put me to work again to gather up all the kindling I made and put it in a box so she would have it ready to start our fire in this morning. I had fun!


I think making kindling may have become one of my favorite things to do. And Gracie has even gotten in on the act. I've been teaching her well, and she's getting better at it. Since she has bigger jaws she can even do bigger sticks than I. We may have to some up some audio conferencing services to make sure we get it all on tape, huh?

Wednesday, February 01, 2012

More fun agility practice!

Lucky us, we got to go to agility practice near Atlanta again last weekend!

I just love these little run through practice sessions. It's a great time for me and Mum to work on some gambles. It's also great for Gracie to work on focus with lots of distractions. And the best part is we get to see good friends and go out to lunch after!

See that's our bud Cosmo, who was there with us. You can see Cossie's runs on his blog!

I ran my first run, pretty speedy (you can see it in the vid). Mum was happy with it! My second run, there's just part of it (mechanical error), but you can see I'm on the table. Mum sent me from way back behind the tunnel entrance, sending me gamble style to the table with a down and then a jump. We also worked on a little gamble with the teeter. Not too bad, although Mum would have like me to go all the way through the teeter.

Gracie ran her first run and did well until she got to the teeter. The teeter at this place is aluminum and makes a super big bang that echos throughout the building. Got her really spooked. So Mum didn't make her do the teeter on her next run. But she took her into the practice room and worked with her on that teeter, but it was still freaking her out. So they let it go for now.

Her runs were pretty good! She can get more speed we know, just needs to build up that confidence, fur sure.

When we got home, Mum worked with Gracie on our teeter, then over the next couple of days and she's back doing the teeter again very confidently. Luckily we don't experience those loud aluminum teeter bangs at competition in the horse arenas.

Here are parts of our runs!

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