Tally ho!

I've been working with Tally on the skateboard and wobble board:

Training with Tally from bunchofpants on Vimeo.

I need to find a bigger paved surface to take her skateboarding, because the screen porch is a bit cramped. My driveway is gravel, so that's out. I'll be on the lookout for a seldom-used tennis court.

In Pinky news, moving her back down to "baby" classes, where the exercises are easy and short and the jumps are left low, turned out to be a great idea. She seemed to have a lot of fun in class last night, with only a few short incidents of stress sniffing. I think that while Tally will do well with an accelerated training schedule because she's always willing to try new things and overcomes her fears very quickly, Pinky will do best if I keep it slow and let her get really comfortable with things before I move on.

So many mini mutts, so little time ...

It seems I need to start every blog post with an apology for not being a very good blogger. That may be, but I'm spending the time trying to be a better dog trainer and handler, and with three dogs now I'm getting plenty of opportunities. Here's a bit of a recap of what we've all been up to:

Lucy: The old girl is definitely slowing down a little, which is not surprising considering she turned 11 in May. But when she's on, she's good. I'm taking another distance class with her; the one we took last summer helped her get her ADCH, but since we moved over to Performance III we've gotten no gamble Qs. She did make one gamble very nicely, but since I was out of position and far from the gamble line when the horn sounded, the buzzer went off as she was launching over the last jump. So no Q, but it still felt good. She's really rocking the exercises in distance class, which gives me hope that we still have a few good gambles ahead of us.

I've reduced the number of runs that I'll put her in over any weekend, though, because she tires easily. It makes me a little sad because we really hit our stride as an agility team over the last two years, but I want to keep her injury-free and with me as long as possible. She's happy as long as she's with me, regardless of whether she's doing agility or not, so there's no reason for me to push her.

Pinky: Her leg is healed, although she still has intermittent lameness, but I've been allowed to phase in all of her previous activities. The problem is, her confidence is worse than before she broke her leg (and it was never great to begin with). I started her back in a young dogs class, but it's clear she can't really handle even short sequences anymore, and all of the progress I'd made on the dog walk and the A-frame are gone. So we're going back to baby stuff. Part of the problem is that after so much forced inactivity, none of her muscles are as strong as before, so she may have lost confidence in her body. So while I'm building that back up I've moved her into a Beginner 2 class where we will do single obstacles, the contact trainer and sequences of, at most, three obstacles. Meanwhile I'm working her on channel weaves at home. I'm not even thinking about the teeter at this point ... no sense in freaking her out even more. In fact, I've resigned myself to the fact that Pinky may never be a competition agility dog, which is OK because she's just a complete sweetheart and I love having her around. Maybe she'll be the one who makes me expand my horizons with Rally-O or Canine Musical freestyle.

Talladega: What a jewel I stumbled onto! I guess credit should go to my friend Cindy, who first sent me the Petfinder link. The first thing that wowed me after I got her home was her incredible attentiveness. I hadn't even decided on a name yet, so I couldn't really teach attention-to-name, but if I just said "hey" she'd turn on a dime and come to me, as whatever I wanted were more important that whatever she was about to do.

But she came to me with absolutely no manners whatsoever and an almost manic fondness of jumping and biting hands, feet, noses, eyeglasses. She seemed very starved for attention, which isn't surprising because she was a homeless dog who lived in the foster home's yard (their existing dog hated her and wouldn't let her in the house) for weeks until I got her. So my first task was to teach her a few manners, which I did at mealtimes. Instead of getting her food in a bowl on the floor, it all came from my hand in exchange for small acts of politeness. At first, she got food simply for keeping all four paws on the ground and not biting my legs or the hand with the food. Then I started feeding her for sits, then downs. Nothing she got was free. She was vastly improved after just one day of that and like an old pro after a week.

Tally's got bravery and drive, and she seems to thrive on all of the things that turned Pinky into a shrinking violet (skateboard, wobble board, contact trainer). Her incredible attentiveness makes her very easy to teach. She loves every toy I've tried, and always wants food. I have no doubt she's going to accelerate past Pinky in her training. In fact, before she broke her leg I had signed Pinky up for a September Stuart Mah beginner dog seminar, but I'm going to attend with Tally instead.

I'll try to beg or borrow a tripod and get some video of her to post here.

The dog has a name!

I finally decided on a name for The Dog Formerly Known As Star: Talladega, or Tally for short. I just really like the word Talladega, and the fact that it brings to mind racing, as in the Talladega 500. Plus Tally is a great call name for a dog and it really seems to suit the little cutiepie.

Meanwhile, Pinky is still healing, and I can't wait until she's given the green light to properly play with other dogs. As it is, it's hard to have Pinky and Tally both out of their crates at the same time because all they want to do is rar-rar-rar and body-slam each other. In a good way ... they became instant friends. In fact, in the mornings and after work, I let Pinky out of her crate first, and after stretching the first thing she does is go to Tally's crate and wait for her to be let out.

Good times!

The pros and cons of looking for trouble ...

I was discussing little Miss Alabama She-Ra Caprica Demeanor with Val, my agility instructor, and she said that before I decide to keep her I need to get her hips, knees and elbows x-rayed to make sure they are sound. I think she's thinking this way because she had her young border jack checked a few months ago and discovered that he's dysplastic in one hip, which really upset her. Not that it will stop his career or anything--I know lots of dysplastic border collies who have enjoyed long careers in agility and/or flyball. If you keep them lean and well-muscled they can do quite well. But since little cutiepie is a small dog, I started wondering about her knees--small dogs very often have luxating patellas, which can cause a lot of problems in sports.

But then Julie asked: Why go looking for trouble? Would it mean I wouldn't keep her and do agility with her? Good point. I like this dog (dang, I need to decide on a name for her SOON!!) and I think she's very smart. She's got a lot of natural attentiveness and a big desire to do stuff with me--she's not so interested in going off and noodling around on her own (makes me think there's no terrier in there!) Would I want to give her back at this point (even though I know she could get a good pet home in a heartbeat)? I think maybe not. So would it make a difference if I knew she had weak knees or a bad hip? Maybe not. Then again, after absorbing the financial shock of Pinky's broken leg, I'm not sure if I want to set myself up for a future of knee or elbow surgeries and rehab, either ...

Of course, she could always check out beautifully on all her parts and then go and break her leg in my backyard ...

In other news, a co-worker suggested the name "Talladega," which is a hellaciously good name for an agility dog! Decisions, decisons.

Say hello to ...

... er, well, I don't have a name yet. So far she is "Star," but she doesn't actually know that name and since I know of several dogs named Star running agility, I'd like to name her something else. I've been referring to her as Cutiepie Whats-her-name. More on the name later ...

I brought "Star" home yesterday from a rescue group in Mt. Airy, NC. She had been listed on Petfinder as probably a border jack, but she looks nothing at all like any border jack I've ever seen. In my opinion she looks like a papillon/mini aussie mix. The important thing is that she's attentive, very playful and smart, and I think she will make a fun agility partner. She also has absolutely no manners at all, but I'm already working on that! She's estimated to be 7 months old, and she weighs about 12 lbs. I'm not sure how tall she is currently, but I think around 12-13." I may take her to PBH this evening and see if I can get her to stand under the wicket.

I've surprised even myself by getting another dog. I've had a couple of offers to adopt great dogs over the past few months, but I kept saying no because I really didn't think I wanted a third dog. But then Pinky broke her leg, putting her training on hold for a while. And then Lucy turned 11. She's still a fun agility dog, but she really can't do as much as she used to, particularly if it's hot. Another factor is that Pinky is likely to measure over 16", if only by a fraction, and I don't think I want to jump her at 22", so in USDAA I'll have to keep her in Performance. Nothing wrong with that, but I also want a Championship dog to run ... I'm not sure why that's important to me, but it is, and I don't want probably-too-tall-Pinky to have to work way too hard because of it.

So anyway, about her name: I've got several in mind, but I'm having a hard time deciding. I like "Miss Demeanor" (Miss D? Meana?), "She-Ra, Princess of Power" (just She-Ra or Ra for short), "Caprica Six" (only Battlestar Galactica Fans will like this one; Cappi for short) and "Alabama" (Bama or Bam). I'm also open to other suggestions (a co-worker wants me to name her "Eileen" so I can say "Come on, Eileen"). So I was able to summon just enough geekiness to make an online survey. Please play along!
Click Here to take survey

Interesting tidbit ...

Yeah, I got a new dog, and I'll write more about that later. But right now I just wanted to share some info that may be interesting to dog owners in my area (Research Triangle, NC). The Department of Evolutionary Anthropology at Duke University is starting a Canine Cognition Center to study unique social cognitive abilities in dogs, (such as interpreting human gestures like pointing or eye gaze to find hidden food, a simple task that most other animals do not perform well in experiments.) The goal of the new lab is to run further experiments in the form of fun games on pet dogs to explore this unique ability.

The center will be starting its work next fall, but they are currently gathering information on potential participants. According to the information I received, the tests are expected to take 30 to 60 minutes and should not exceed two hours. Dog owners must be able to bring their dogs to the Center's lab on Duke's West Campus in Durham, where the dogs will participate in various problem solving games to win food rewards. Dogs of all breeds and ages are welcome and owners are welcome to sit in with their dogs while the testing is going on.

Although the studies will not start until Fall '09, dog owners who are interested in participating can fill out this questionnaire.

In the pink ... more or less

I took Pinky to see a rehab vet yesterday to get an assessment of how she's doing on her healing leg. He thinks she doing extremely well! She's using the leg and putting weight on it, has good range of motion and the muscling in that leg is only slightly less than in the other. He encouraged me to start incrementally increasing her walks, and gave me the OK to start swimming her. He sees no reason at this point why she shouldn't be able to eventually get back to doing agility. This makes me very happy! I really can't wait until she can run and play, but until then I'll be patient and try to do exactly what's recommended.

In other news, yesterday a friend sent me a link to a little border-jack-jack on Petfinder. In a fit of insanity I put in an application on the dog. what am I thinking? I have yet to meet the dog because she's about 2 hours away, so I have no idea if I'll click with her or not. All I know is she's small, cute and has a lot of energy, which is part of what I would want in a dog. But why am I thinking about adding another dog? I must be crazy ... but Lucy turned 11 years old last week, and I'm thinking she's not going to be able to do whole trials, even at 12", for very much longer. I've missed not being able to train with Pinky, and it made me start considering adding a dog, just to make darn sure I've got one to play with when Lucy retires. Is that terribly crazy?

Six weeks to go ...

So it's been two weeks since Pinky broke her leg, and I'm already starting to look forward to the end of crate/leash confinement. Must keep reminding myself not to rush anything. The photo above is Pinky doing one thing she's allowed: rolling in the grass (on leash, of course!)

She loves spending time outdoors, so I set up an X-pen in the yard where she can hang out while I'm doing yard work. I wish I had some sort of mobile pen, because my yard is very large and she gets upset when I'm all the way across the yard and she's stuck in the pen.

Yesterday I did a bit of shaping with her and made some progress towards "play dead." I figure that's a great thing to teach an injured dog! I'm also going to try Elayne's idea of teaching her the names of her toys, but first I have to come up with some names ... right now most of them are just called "toy!" She knows "ball" already, so I think I'll start by differentiating between "ball" and "tug." Then of course there's the problem of what to call the tug-ball, i.e. the ball-on-a-rope. Maybe I'll just name it "Bob" ...