Haven't blogged in a while, but things have been going pretty great. We've had two trials so far this year (one on February 2 and one on March 2), both at an awesome indoor venue that we'd never been to before. I was SO pleased with Mika and Wall-e's performances at both trials!
Mika was so relaxed at these trials (well, compared to her usual self); she didn't show any signs of reactivity except for a growl at the February trial. It was great to see. And in the ring she had a really nice balance of control and drive! And Wall-e amazed me with how he was running; he was running like a Masters dog, with tons of skills in his toolbox. It's definitely all coming together for him!
One thing I have to work on with Mika is start-line stays. She stays wonderfully, but it's beginning to stress her a bit. She used to stress at the start-line years ago, back in 2008, which is when I ceased to start-line stays and began starting with her; then I re-introduced start-line stays in 2009 when her speed increased and I needed that head start on some courses. She didn't have a problem with stress when I re-introduced the stays then. I still use a mixture of both stays and no-stays at the start now.
At our last trial, I led out two jumps in our first run (Steeplechase). In our second run (Masters Jumpers), she entered the ring a tad bit more stressed then her last run because she had to wait for a bit longer for her run, and there were other dogs milling around (including a lab, one of her greatest triggers). Anyway, at the beginning of our second run, I told her to sit, resting my hand gently on her back as she did so, to give her a bit of comfort (because she still had a bit of stress). But when I told her to "Wait" and I started to lead out, she got up and shook her entire body (a sign of stress, and one of her methods that she used to try to relax herself). I said, "You're okay! You don't want to stay? All right," and I started with her instead. The rest of our run went uneventfully (we Q'd), but it was a bit slower than her usual, which was likely because of our stressy start. So yeah, we're going to have to work on start-line stays, but I do need them on some of our runs. Just increasing the value of stays, and leading out, will do the trick, I think. We've been working on them at meals, which are high-value reinforcements for Mika (and Wall-e!). We'll also work on them whenever we rent the agility arena next (we've been renting places once a week for the past couple of months), and at future fun matches throughout the year.
Anyway, that's all for now! Hope everyone is doing well! :)
P.S. One more note...SPRING IS COMING!! It's starting to get warmer! :D
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Friday, January 4, 2013
"Oh the weather outside is frightful..."
Wall-e during the "2012 Apocalypse" on Dec. 21/12. We had some pretty crazy weather that day ;)
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Dehydrated sweet potato
Our first time using the old dehydrator we got a loongg time ago!
The dogs got a bag of dried sweet potato for Christmas, so a couple days ago we figured we'd just try making our own. We let the sweet potato slices dehydrate overnight (from 6pm on Thursday to about 9am yesterday, so about 15 hours), and in the morning they were like this. I admit, they looked a lot more appetizing before they were dehydrated, but at least they'll last a while!
Today I'll be dehydrating beef for them. (The beef we got was nice because it was pre-sliced for Chinese fondue, so it's already thin enough to be dehydrated.)
The dogs got a bag of dried sweet potato for Christmas, so a couple days ago we figured we'd just try making our own. We let the sweet potato slices dehydrate overnight (from 6pm on Thursday to about 9am yesterday, so about 15 hours), and in the morning they were like this. I admit, they looked a lot more appetizing before they were dehydrated, but at least they'll last a while!
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| Before |
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| After |
Today I'll be dehydrating beef for them. (The beef we got was nice because it was pre-sliced for Chinese fondue, so it's already thin enough to be dehydrated.)
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Summary of 2012, and planning for 2013
My last post was in September? Well then!
First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! :)
It's been quite a while...a LONG while! I've been incredibly busy because of school, so I've only just now found the time to blog.
Quite a few things have happened this year. I'll start off with the most major event.
On November 14, Mika underwent surgery to have a mast cell tumor removed from the back of her left hind leg. She also had a lymph node and a chunk of muscle removed from that leg in order to make sure that all the cancer cells were taken out. The tumor was biopsied and found to be a Grade II tumor (there are 3 grades). Our vet says Mika has a great diagnosis, though, because all of the cancerous tissue was removed, and there were no cancer cells found in either the lymph node or the muscle. Mika's doing great now, and only has a scar (and a bit of a different shape to the back of her leg, due to the removed muscle) to show for her surgery!
Our vet found cataracts on Wall-e's right eye on November 22. She's not 100% certain of the diagnosis, since she doesn't specialize in eyes, but she's almost certain. They're too small to be removed right now, and they aren't affecting his vision, so we're going to keep an eye on them (pun not intended, ahaha!), and in May we'll bring him in again to get his eyes re-examined.
On a non-health related note, Wall-e got his first three titles this year. In CKC, he got his Ag.N.J. (Agility Novice Jumper) on July 15, and both his ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) and SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) on July 28.
Mika didn't trial very much this year, but we had a great year together nonetheless in terms of running together as a team.
As for 2013, here are some things I have in mind:
- trying out a new indoor venue in February
- for Mika, focusing on Steeplechase and Masters Jumpers (her favourite classes) and Starters Snooker (we haven't Q'd in this yet, even though we've gotten really close!), with some Masters Gamblers mixed in (I find that running in Gamblers keeps me motivated to maintain my dogs' distance skills)
- focusing on Masters Jumpers for Wall-e (he hasn't tried it yet), but running in the rest of the classes as well
- most importantly, enjoying our time together! I've reached the point where honestly, if I stopped trialing, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Simply spending time with my dogs has become more precious because of two reasons: less time with them than I used to have, and the realization that neither of my dogs are young anymore. Trials are only a small part of making the most of my dogs' lives.
First of all, Merry Christmas everyone! :)
It's been quite a while...a LONG while! I've been incredibly busy because of school, so I've only just now found the time to blog.
Quite a few things have happened this year. I'll start off with the most major event.
On November 14, Mika underwent surgery to have a mast cell tumor removed from the back of her left hind leg. She also had a lymph node and a chunk of muscle removed from that leg in order to make sure that all the cancer cells were taken out. The tumor was biopsied and found to be a Grade II tumor (there are 3 grades). Our vet says Mika has a great diagnosis, though, because all of the cancerous tissue was removed, and there were no cancer cells found in either the lymph node or the muscle. Mika's doing great now, and only has a scar (and a bit of a different shape to the back of her leg, due to the removed muscle) to show for her surgery!
Our vet found cataracts on Wall-e's right eye on November 22. She's not 100% certain of the diagnosis, since she doesn't specialize in eyes, but she's almost certain. They're too small to be removed right now, and they aren't affecting his vision, so we're going to keep an eye on them (pun not intended, ahaha!), and in May we'll bring him in again to get his eyes re-examined.
On a non-health related note, Wall-e got his first three titles this year. In CKC, he got his Ag.N.J. (Agility Novice Jumper) on July 15, and both his ADC (Agility Dog of Canada) and SGDC (Starters Games Dog of Canada) on July 28.
Mika didn't trial very much this year, but we had a great year together nonetheless in terms of running together as a team.
As for 2013, here are some things I have in mind:
- trying out a new indoor venue in February
- for Mika, focusing on Steeplechase and Masters Jumpers (her favourite classes) and Starters Snooker (we haven't Q'd in this yet, even though we've gotten really close!), with some Masters Gamblers mixed in (I find that running in Gamblers keeps me motivated to maintain my dogs' distance skills)
- focusing on Masters Jumpers for Wall-e (he hasn't tried it yet), but running in the rest of the classes as well
- most importantly, enjoying our time together! I've reached the point where honestly, if I stopped trialing, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Simply spending time with my dogs has become more precious because of two reasons: less time with them than I used to have, and the realization that neither of my dogs are young anymore. Trials are only a small part of making the most of my dogs' lives.
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