Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Agility practice and a big fall!

Last Friday, we headed south to a great place we like to visit to rent an agility ring and get in a little practice.

We met up with our pals Rocco and his Mum, as they wanted to get in a little practice in a new place; and it was great to have other dogs around to get us all excited to play our favorite game.

Mum ran Gracie a couple of times and she did very, very well! She didn't run off at all, was really focused on Mum, made all of her frame and dogwalk contacts, and even did the teeter twice in a row making all her attempts. We were very, very proud.

I got to run two runs too. We loved this little course they already had set up, so we stuck with it. It had some nice little challenges, some backside jumps, straight tunnel challenges and weaves after the chute which is always interesting.

Waiting our turn!
The first time Mum ran me, it was a disaster. I was super fast....Mum didn't get where she needed to be, I blasted out of the tunnel and we almost collided. But the cool thing was that the first three jumps to the dog walk, then a straight on backside jump, was a work of art on my first run.

My next run we got on video, and we are so glad we did! You can see that something happened on my approach up the dogwalk and when I reached the first apex, I was on my way to falling off. Take a look and let me know what you think happened?


Thank goodness, I was completely OK, Although you may, if you listen very carefully, hear Mum say a little bad word. But yep, she checked me out thoroughly and I was a-ok. She didn't want to end my day with that fall, so we started over and had a really nice little run. Not as fast as my very first one, but not too bad for a 10 year old!


After Gracie and I were done, it was Rach's turn. Rach has been doing ground jumps, tunnels, and working on a wobble board and contact board at home in your cabin yard. But he has never, ever seen the real contacts before. So Mum wanted him to experience them a little in a really safe way, feel the rubber under the paws...well you get the idea!

She first put him on the table and he did an immediate down. What a good boy! Mum worked a little on having him stay in the down and taking a few steps back. After the third try he got it.

Rach has so much fun, he bit Mum's finger! 
Then with Rocco's Mum on one side and Mum on the other, with Rach in his harness, the led him up the dogwalk. I think the Mum's where a bit overly cautious and made Rach a little nervous, but he finally enjoyed the second time over, and immediately when into his 2o2o. What a good boy!

Then they headed over to the teeter, and what do you know? Rach went right up to the end (with the Mum's holding it up, and got lots of treats there. Then he did it again, and got more treats, then the Mum's lowered it up and down a few inches so he could feel the movement and he was doing so well, that they slowly lowered it and again, he went right into his 2o2o. Another good boy!

They headed over to the aframe and the Mum's lowered it to about 2 feet off the ground at the apex. Rach couldn't wait to get his paws on the frame. Mum leashed him and led him over and he scrambled over and did his 2o2o again! He did it a few times and they finished on a super happy, accomplished note.

The weather was amazingly perfect, so we took a little hike after around the grounds, then the Mum's headed out to lunch while we were happy to take a little snooze. 

All in all it was a great training day and super fun with our pals!

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Week three with Rach!

We're getting way behind on keeping you up to date on Rach! But we're trying to catch up.

So, the third week with Rach, he got lots more freedom out of hi pen., as he's really learned our routine now and knows the down/work times for Mum, and when it's time to play and eat.

His stay is really strong now too, and Mum can feed Wiggy just a few feet away and Rach will stay and respect Wiggy's space.

Now that his stay is getting stronger, Mum is working with him and and his stay when she gets a little 'out of sight,' and with movement. He's doing really, really well. And now that that is accomplished they are working on comes without movement, which is going well.

Rach is also learning a lot about leave it, as that's so important here on our mountain with snakes and scorpions and toxic toads....well you get the idea. He's getting there, but has much more to learn. Mum wants him to come to her when she says leave it....that's the ultimate goal.

He is really loving the tunnel. The second time Mum took it out in the yard, he offered it up immediately; remembering it from a week before. So Mum decided to place some ground jumps before and after and before the 10 minutes of play was over, he was taking ground jumps and the tunnel from about three feet laterally. What a good boy!

Mum and Rach have started learning 2on2off. As Rach will be larger, Mum's goal is to teach him a solid 2on2off with a super quick release. He's just mastered keeping all his feet on the board and looking for the treat. So they have a good start on contact training.

As Rach's stay wasn't all that good, and now that it is, she tried getting a threesome photo of us. Here are the results. He still doesn't feel completely comfortable sitting super close, but he's getting there. Some folks say in the out take below, he is giving them the stink eye. But he's actually making sure they are OK with him sitting that close. how curtious!



Rach is running zoomies at least once a day, and sometimes twice a day, with YoYo around the cabin, keeping them both in great shape.

He's loving his raw chicken necks and parts of backs, but they are sliding down way too quickly. So Mum is getting some larger necks for him to enjoy. And his moose antlers have become the best chewing babysitter ever!

Rach ended up 15" and 14.5 lbs at the end of his third week with us.


Monday, September 15, 2014

Loosing puppy teeth!

Over the past month or so, we've seen Rach loose some teeth, mostly just the front little ones.

We saw that they were missing the day he had a checkup not too long ago, and two days later, BOOM. we saw the replacement teeth. Wow, that's fast!

Yesterday, Mum was outside with Rach playing tug and chase with an old fleece tug of mine. Rach didn't want to tug much. So they switched to playing fetch.

Mum threw out the toy, said, 'get it!,' then 'bring it!,' and Rach did all those things. Then he gets treats for releasing the toy, and what did Mum find when she got the toy back? Blood on the toy, oh wow....got to be a puppy tooth mishap.

Here's a shot of the tooth all whopperjawed. With things like this you need to let nature takes it's course. So Mum kept an eye on it, gave Rach a cold wet wash cloth to chew on, and secretly hoped that he wouldn't swallow it (she wanted his tooth for posterity). And what do you know?....



We found it this morning after giving Rach the wet, cool washcloth again.


We can already see the replacement tooth and it's coming in very nicely! And the best part is Rach feels better...and Mum got one of his toofers, yeah! She put it in a baggie and labeled it, adding it to Rach's memory box.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Friday, September 12, 2014

Best Bully Sticks' Moose Antlers Rock!

The nice folks at Best Bully Sticks heard about us adopting Rach, and being the super great friends they have been of ours over the years, they were eager to send us something for free for all of us to enjoy in celebration.

We asked for Moose Antlers. Why? Because Rach, being a puppy, has a chewing problem. Specifically chewing appropriate things, or should I say inappropriate things.

Mum knew that the Moose Antlers would be our savior, our puppy chew 'sitter,' our saving Gracie (not to be confused with my sis, Gracie, although she's saved us a few times!)

So we got them the other day and they asked us to blog about them and tell you all how we liked them.

Well, I think the first photo of me with the package says it all....'can you please hurry up with the photos and open the doggone package?'

Finally, Mum opened 'em and I got my toofers on those pawsome antlers. We like Moose Antlers (specifically the slices) because they have a more shallow outer coating and you can get to the good part - the marrow - much more quickly.

They are super great at cleaning that tarter off a 10-year-old's back toofers. They are naturally shed and gathered so no animal was harmed in the process of my enjoyment. They contain no preservatives, no chemicals and no artificial anything, They don't splinter at all, are very safe, and they have some great health benefits too, like calcium for Rach's growing bones, and my old ones. (Hey. who wrote that? I'm not old!).


Oh and yes, these are for helping Rach with his chewing 'problem.' Hey he didn't do too bad for his first product photo shoot! Look at him chew. He loves them instantly...


Chewing angles are so important when you are a serious chewer.


And making faces while you chew gets you extra points for technique and degree of difficulty.


We want to thank our friends at Best Bully Sticks for sending us these awesome Moose Antlers. The only downside is they never last long enough (even though they last for days and days, it's never long enough, is it?)

Visit Best Bully Sticks and pick up your next chew, or treat, or toy! They have lots of them in all shapes and sizes. And don't forget to find them on Facebook too....we've seen that they post discounts now and then.

Tuesday, September 09, 2014

Week two with Rach!

The second week we saw a big mental growth spurt with Rach. The second week he was 12 weeks old.

He learned a lot about taking cues from YoYo and Gracie, when to play and when not to play. When it was play time lots of zooming and wrestling was going on. Three was still a bit of a crowd, but he handled both of them very well.

One on one is a favorite zooming around the cabin. He can't keep up with me (YoYo) yet, and squeals and grunts when he can't catch me.

During training sessions Rach started offering up lots of behaviors, Mum was able to capture a lot that first week, including wave.

He started really understanding what the clicker means and is learned to go bed, load up (in his crate) from a distance and even go mat at a distance. He offered up an immediate down, so Mum captured that, as it will be super great for the table when it's time to teach that for agility.

Potty training is very successful and he now makes sure to stop and pee and poo when Mum calls him in. He's great with the come when called, we're just going to continue to work on that with distractions, like deer, good smells and more.

Rach joined me and Gracie at agility practice on the Sunday of his second week and got to meet lots of other people and a few dogs. He seemed pretty overwhelmed at first, but once he hung out a bit, he became very comfortable. After YoYo and Gracie had their practice, we took a nice little mini hike.


This is the first time that Mum tried managing three on leashes during a hike and guess what?! She handled it like a pro.

The second week, Mum showed Rach the mini tunnel we have and he was a bit apprehensive at first, but Mum made it fun and before long he was offering up the tunnel.


At 12 weeks Rach was 14" and gained 1.5 lbs. Mum says he reminds her of me at that age. A complete sponge.  Hope she can keep up with him!


Sunday, September 07, 2014

Black and White Sunday: I'm an author!


This is a promotional photo for our new book, Raise A Green Dog! Mum thinks I look very distinguished, just like an author should, BOL!

Tuesday, September 02, 2014

Our first week with Rach!

As it always is when you bring a new puppy home, Mum didn't get a lot done that first week that Rach was with us.

The funnest thing that happened is that Mum found out that Rach tilts his head when she whistles, see the photo? Too cute for words!

I'm not the easiest pup to get along with (probably stems from two factors: the fact that I love Mum the best, and that I was attacked at the dog park when I was young). But Mum has worked with me a lot to help me understand being with other pups and with Rach here, being the 'never stop moving' pup that he is, she's helping me even more.

The first week, Rach was just learning how to be with us...our routine, how we play, how we eat, what's right and what's not so right. And it took a few days before he started to pay attention to Mum's cues, my cues and Gracie's cues about what was right and not right.

The first week, there was a lot of appropriate 'telling' going on, and it was just a few days that Rach caught on to what that 'telling' meant. Mum lets us all work it out and thankfully none of the 'telling' was aggressive, just appropriate re-direction going on.

Three playing at once sometimes became a crowd, so Mum directed us to play with Rach more one on one for a while, which helped a lot. I tend to be the sheltie police and she didn't want that policing to get weird.

The first week Mum just wanted Rach to understand that she is the most fun of anything in the world! They played, Mum let Rach chew on her, they rolled around on the floor and ran around the yard.

Also that first week Rach learned to sit, load up in his crate, how to walk on a leash and learned the potty spots and routine. All of this learning was with a clicker (which we love to help us learn). This is the second thing Mum wanted Rach to learn, that learn is super fun!

The main goal for the first week was just to learn how he best can learn. He caught onto the clicker very quickly, which was great. Mum realized during his learning that he really, really wanted to be right. So Mum encouraged and still encourages him to try new things and not get 'hung up' on being right all the time. She learned that from me and Gracie :).

Mum even gave Rach one of the super easy Nina Ottosson toys and it was an interesting thing to watch. When Rach didn't know what to do with it, he went into his crate and just looked at Mum. So Mum started using her 'cheerful interupter' ('You're doing great! Try again!) to help encourage him further. It worked just as well with Rach as it does with Gracie, and he tried again and again!

Rach was exposed the first week to the wobble board and had no fear, and he loves to tug. So Mum got out all the tug toys for him.

One thing that Rach came with that we are still working on is barking when he wants something, specifically his dinner, and sometimes when he wants to play. He'll bark, and bark, and bark, and sometimes right in my face when he wants to play. Mum is letting Gracie and I deal with the play. And she's working with him on the demand barking for food, which really only happens when he's in his play pen and she's getting dinner ready.

Mum had to give him a cold wash cloth a lot during the first week, as he was in a bad teething phase, but that's better now. Mum forgot just how sharp those puppy teeth can be!

And we learned that Rach loves Wiggy's toys! See it's Wiggy's Play Ball!


The first week Rach gained one lb and 1.5 inches, which makes him 13 lbs and 11" tall.
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