Tuesday, November 16, 2010

A game of catchup..

Wow, I fell behind. I'm sorry!
We had quite the week.
Thursday, I had a long day, and was exhausted after class. I had no energy for puppy exercising and Archie was tired from class, so I got out the MM and worked some targetting with West. And got some video! I also fell asleep during this training session. Bad trainer! He's doing great with this.




Friday, West met Lindsay. Instead of narrating the whole thing, I video'd it for you and have added some thoughts and comments in the video.




Then, West hurt his little carpus. Poor thing seemed to think it had been broken, but none of his actual symptoms suggested it, so Sheena and I went with the 'wait and see' approach. He's nearly 100% now, so I'm sure it was just a sprain.

Saturday, Archie and I spent the day at the local CARO Rally trial. He got his final leg in the first run of the day for his Rally Novice (RN) title! Anyone interested in those vids can find them at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/thegypper">Gypsy's youtube channel</a> under a bunch of agility videos from Sunday. West stayed home, which was good rest for his leg. He was happy to get a run Saturday night, and I was REALLY tired, so I did a bit more MM work. He was quite limpy on his little hurt leg, so I worked on moving the target closer to the manners minder. Brilliance! Then went to sleep.

Sunday, Archie and Sheela and basically the whole family drove out to Salmon Arm for a jumpers fun run. Archie lost his marbles, Sheela did well, and West stayed home again. By Sunday evening, he was about ready to burst. I was ready to collapse of exhaustion. A quick run and a food toy ended the evening.

Monday, up early to let the dogs have a few minutes of run time, then off to Value Village (found a cute play tunnel!) and to class. Again, West stayed home. Assisted my roommate in setting his dog free to the rainbow bridge (RIP Hemi) and ended up getting home 20 minutes before leaving for puppy class, so again, just a quick pee! You can see now why I have no time for blogging.
This morning, I had high hopes of sleeping till 10, but the dogs would have NONE of it. So, at 930, we were out playing Zisc. Crazy border collies. At least it was briefly sunny.
My neighbour was by today to check on some things, and west was crated and covered, but I'm sure it still stressed him out a bit. No reactions (growls or barks) but he wasn't here long. Still, a good sign I think.
I brought out some new toys for West from the house. A Pogo Plush which he adores, and a baseball stuffed tug toy thing, which he likes. He played for a bit and is now sound asleep lounging across my legs, with his little head dropped down off the edge. So cute, but no camera. Sigh.
His DAP collar expires this week. I may try putting the piece I saved on him to see if it helps. He's only wearing the thundershirt part time now, since he's able to settle pretty well without it if all is quiet. We're working on the calming cap and he doesn't hate it much at all. I need to get a different GL (remember he ate the first one?) and get back working on that too. And order him a nice comfy muzzle. But overall, he's a VERY good boy. He might meet Chris this week, if he can handle it, since I have to be away for a week at the end of the month, and it would be FAR more convenient if chris could take him out for pee breaks.

2 comments:

  1. Yay! Good for Archie. I'm glad he did so well.

    And I'm glad to hear West is settling a lot easier. Slowly but surely, he's learning. It's awesome to read.

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  2. I've been remiss in not checking up on you guys for a while but thrilled to read (and see) that both Archie and West are doing so well! Kudos to you for bringing him so far already -- how long has it been? He looks so happy in those videos with you and appears *so* keen to please. Hope you get a chance to have some down time and relax. Keep up the good work.

    Ailsa

    p.s. And thanks about the info re: Cesar Milan. He was in Ottawa to a sold-out crowd and although I applaud that he's brought training and rehabilitating dogs (and their owners' own responsibility) into alot of peoples' consciousness, your points about his using aversive techniques is well taken. But I wonder if its also a matter of degree: we all know border collies are such a sensitive breed (I just babysat a 7 mos old lab for three weeks, and the difference between her and my bc as a puppy was striking to me -- although I may have romanticized it over time)and Milan's techniques would be, at best, damaging, to them. But what about less sensitive dog breeds -- or is that perhaps a fallacy that I've fallen prey to? I would certainly rather employ a poke or a 'shtt' than a roll-over or, like some gsd trainers, a feet off the ground yank. What are your thoughts?

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