October 2007 - Posts

• New Toys and time to learn something new.

  OK, as you know I just started beginner classes for agility and it was evident to my instructor that I reminded of her when she started as I had the same drive and determination based on the results she saw in our second session. Molly's (2 yr Corgi) handler previously asked before class while we waited for Denise how I was doing with the 2o2o (2-on, 2-off) and I said just said, "OK." When Denise told us to keep working on our 2o2 she saw how well Chloe and I were doing and Molly's handler, Michelle boasted, "He said they were doing OK but after looking at them, they are far above OK. Geez!" Everyone chuckled. I guess you had to be there because I was laughing. Now that I bring this up, today Chloe had brain-fade in doing them because we were working on the teeter and she stopped short each time. Its OK she's only been only learned this for two weeks.  So I try to do 5-10 reps on each side to a break or heel and then 5-10 doing a front cross to a break or heel at least 5-6 times a week. Anyhow, toys! So we got the tunnels (28" X 12') for a good deal on the Net and it was free shipping. I am currently working with Ms. Chloe to get some speed with a straight tunnel and help her associate the word tunnel. As more and more obstacles start to show up in the backyard, she is going to start going to the wrong obstacle. She did that several times today, the teeter was before the tunnel and she went right for it. So I had to break her train of thought. Yesterday, it was the A-Frame. I guess I'll move the tunnel at the far regions of the yard until she understands what it is. I started training the pause table today too. She knows what the table is but previously before all this agility stuff, I was teaching her down on the whim; I hope to say in the future, "table-down" without her running to the table and then going to a down before reaching the table. This is going to take some time thats for sure. She is only being rewarded if she plants down fast. I know she can do it. She was doing it in the house. Right now its slow and a new texture for her belly to touch.   Oh yeah, my other 6 channel poles came in. I had originally thought to add two poles for each week but I got impatient and installed them all. I was really interested to see what Chloe would do. Of course, they are cracked open a bit (2") so I can get her speed up (If the speed slows, I open it back up) and for her to know how to move her body and for a little dog, you can see a very small "S" but it isn't as noticeable when looking at a big dog bulldozing the poles. She hasn't really needed the guide wires since the third week of September. I had her start out on a jump and then to the weaves and ending with a jump as her football is thrown at the second to the last pole. The first attempt, she popped out between 10 and 11 and the second attempt was the same. The next three attempts were perfect and I stopped it right there. Her speed didn't slow as I thought it would in fact, it was about the same with the 6 poles. I need to find a time through the poles for small dogs and compare this has been bugging me. I know without the weave poles, in the 40 yard dash she is in the 4.0-4.20s range. Its funny when I think about it, because our neighbor's dog (biggest lab i have ever seen!) likes to come over and force himself to be the center of attention, he'll try to catch Chloe and there's no way in hell he can because he is overweight and even if he lost the weight, I don't see it happening. The lab's owner was like, "That dog is freaking fast!" And when Chloe's partners in crime, Emma and Casey, come over, Chloe always wants to play with a.... you guessed it a run or call it a game of tag. And ever since she was a puppy she wanted everyone to catch her. Chloe will do a short pause for them to catch up and then she's off. And since I have been working on her reactionary muscles, this pause is getting longer as her first step is eye watering. Tugging. I am really trying to get her interested into tugging because in reality, I am tired of giving out treats and I don't want to rely on them. She has several toys that works well only in the house but outside the only thing I get her to tug on is her soft disc and her squeaker less football. Anytime during a tug session I throw a treat to reward her for tugging, say good bye to the tugging because now she wants the food. What to do? I think the chute and the barrel will be arriving this week. Great, now that I think about it, I need to get more gallon jugs to hold the tunnels in place. What really sucks is that i have to take down the tunnels and the chute - when it gets here - because of wildlife. Remember, I don't have a fenced yard! I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing since some agility trials don't have any barriers!   Posted Oct 31 2007, 12:21 AM by jdata with 3 comment(s)

• Painted Table

  2 coats of blue, 2 coats of yellow and as Swaag would say on the defunct Discovery's "Monster House" TV series would say...   "DONE!"         Posted Oct 30 2007, 04:07 PM by jdata with 4 comment(s)

• Table is built

  The Wx man said we're suppose to have good weather for most of this week so I decided to build the pause table with the remaining scraps. I chose to build a 12" table being that I would like to have Chloe compete in the 16" class. The whole process took about an hour and it wasn't pretty that's for sure. But the paint will cover up the hideous areas which I will do tomorrow. Here's a shot of it:   Posted Oct 29 2007, 07:14 PM by jdata with 2 comment(s)

• It's going to be an early Xmas - Brag!

  Well, we ordered two tunnels after this past agility class and they arrived today. Next week, the chute, barrel, and the 6 channel weave poles with guides will be here. Bypass another week, then Denise comes home and here comes the dog walk.   What's left? Tire, table (I'll be building that in the next couple of days), and the different jumps (3 of them).   Posted Oct 26 2007, 10:32 PM by jdata with 3 comment(s)

• Chloe is a star! She won!

  We entered a photo several months ago at contest being run by Affordable Agility and we won a $200 gift certificate. This should make Laurie happy because she took the picture! Not bad for an amateur fotog!   Here's the link where the posted Chloe's picture:   http://www.affordableagility.com/jump.htm     and here:   http://www.affordableagility.com/competitionjump.htm       Posted Oct 24 2007, 10:19 AM by jdata with no comments

• Chloe had Zoomies! in agility class!

  Yesterday, we had agility class and was introduced the tunnel. Everyone in class did very well with the exception of us. And to be honest, I didn't think the tunnel and last week's chute barrel would be that much of an issue with Chloe since she was a terrier! But since it was unfamiliar territory because of its shape and the abundance of different aromas in it, she was really worried and stressed out about it. So we wondered if it was the lead and lo and behold, Chloe was off into the wonderful world of "Zoomies!" I never thought I was the first in class to have it and yes, we did our 30-40 minute game of retrieving prior to class but she was so stressed it out that it did not matter. That tunnel spooked her. Denise explained what and why Chloe was doing it. The other dog owners did happen to notice how fast she was running her 2-3 laps on the mat. Denise told me to call her in and Chloe was running full speed and was about to run into a single jump. She must have sled about 6-7 feet before she stopped. Everyone was laughing. She was flat out hauling tail! She came right to me after her stopping episode. Denise pointed our her facial expression which was....   ... smiling and being happy! She really needed to blow off some steam on that one. The last time she had an episode like this was the first week of this month. Nevertheless, being that we won't have class for two weeks, we have a lot of homework - two pages - to do while Denise is showing in Phoenix. To get over those fears, we decided to find a tunnel or two and order it so she can love them! Oh yeah, the dog walk isn't going to be hard to do at all being that Denise is selling me her 12 footer.   Anyhow, back to homework.     Posted Oct 23 2007, 03:45 PM by jdata with 3 comment(s)

• First class for Agility was Awesome! With capital A!

  Alright, I'll admit I was getting butterflies yesterday constantly thinking about it hence my "Busy day with a JRT " blog entry because it has been so long since I have been in a class/learning environment. What's that? About 17 years since I was in college! Holy cow! I was worried about the other dogs being too forward in introducing themselves since Chloe does not like that one bit.   I couldn't sleep much because of anxiety and I think only got about 4-5 hours of sleep. I was thinking of a plan of attack to make sure I took the edge off of Chloe to be sure she didn't get the zoomies aka "Turbo mode". I don't want to be known as the disruptive student and disrespect the instructor. So we played fetch for about 30-40 minutes. And my plan was to arrive there early to get Chloe acclimated to the agility facility. I had asked Denise - our instructor - previously to do a sit-in several weeks ago but things came up and I could not do it. And when I had time to do it, they were closed. This class starts around 12:30pm and ends at 1:30PM. The students were mainly small dogs and puppies. The number of students was five and we had a Sheltie puppy, Brussels Griffon (I have always loved their face!), Papillion, red Pembroke Corgi, and Chloe. We won't have class for two weeks following next week's class since our instructor has to go the trials in Phoenix and she's driving not flying. Oh man, I feel for her. That's a long haul with her two dogs. The class went well and we started to learn about the ground work. The techniques used were positive and some were reminiscent of clicker trainer from reading Pat Miller's book. To fill you in, I learned to teach obedience with the use of slip collar back in the late 80s with my American eskie spitz. This time around I decided to go positive training with the clicker. I mainly use "Yes!" nowadays since I don't have a clicker handy all the time. Chloe met the Papillion and that was success. When she was met the Sheltie, she was cautious which I think was attributed because the dog was of equal or taller height. We did not meet the Griffon formally yet but for sure, the Corgi, Molly, is very friendly and she kept trying to come over to met Chloe and Chloe would do the same. We had to keep parting the seas to separate them. When were doing the chute, the Corgi couldn't stop being friendly. Which got me thinking, here's a dog that wants to meet Chloe and I and trust me, she was really trying by pulling her lead every chance she got. Chloe didn't feel threatened at all. Interesting to say at least. Had it been a dog that charged up in her face, the spike would've been up.But she was also curious with Molly. Chloe had anxiety, she was whimpering but got over it as the time passed on.  As Denise was explaining things during class, she used her BC, Zachery, as the demo dog and when Zach got on the teeter, the thumped really hard which scared the Sheltie. That teeter tot was loud! It was louder than ours and Denise explained why it was so loud because of its construction material - aluminum. I think it scared Chloe as well. Proper to going to the chute lesson, I decided to take a long route to walk her near the teeter and wouldn't you know it, her tail was down and sniffing the air. She was very cautious to say at least. As the chute line, it was our turn, Chloe didn't seem comfortable and Denise said she looked worried and after a couple of passes, she thinks it could be the lead. Because today I used a thin leather lead and she thinks could be too heavy. I think she maybe right and I should have used my slip lead from the very beginning. I had it in my backpack though. So of course like school, we got homework! It should not be that difficult, I'll just use our Tippy/buja board for the 2 on 2 behavior and work on the agility heel. I still need to work on tugging with her but the problem is, I don't know which toy to use. I have a long tug toy made of fleece so I don't have to bend over lot being that she is a small dog. I have the soft disc and Wubbas and I would tend to think that the squeakers would be disruptive in class. This is Denise's website where she teaches and sells agility equipment.  Countryside Agility  All in all, I am very pleased!  Posted Oct 15 2007, 03:45 PM by jdata with no comments

• A busy life with a JRT

  Chloe and I were busy most of the day. We started out around 11 in the morning with some fetch starting with her football, soft disc, and big squeaky ball which came to about 40 minutes or so. She had her backpack and her 30ft lead. Every time 10 minutes past, I remembered something like her backpack and then the next, her training lead. I learn my lesson when taking her out off lead when there are other animals around. I need to put her on a lead first so she can burn some energy/anxiety. When were done with fetch, we went back inside and I decided to work on her left and rights for about 10 minutes. We took a break so I can have some grub and catch something on the tube. Like, the dog competition on ESPN2. There was an agility trial being run this weekend and I was debating whether or not to go for the past several day but I ended up spending more time and working with Chloe. Funny how it ends up that way doesn't it? So I load her crate - I am still seeking a good car harness for these short trips help here! - in the FJ and we were off to Roche Park for a long walk and she can look at the cows. This is a great place to work on manners too as there lots of people and dogs. However, we saw two dogs enter the park but don't know where they went but there were some kids screaming at the playground so I wonder? She was awesome once her anxiety died after five minutes of getting out of the truck and taking in the environment. She walked wonderfully and was well behaved when strangers walked by. She also got gobs of chicken when she doing really good and after all the walking, I had no more chicken to give. We come home and I want to work on some agility so I decided to rearrange the obstacles for speed and use the teeter-tot as the obstacle to make me use a front cross and for her to pay attention to me. Here is a shot of the course now taken from the 2nd floor window: I set jumps back to 8" for speed and now you can clearly see why the teeter-tot is the focal point. I can either do big square or something like an figure-eight.         Posted Oct 14 2007, 05:28 PM by jdata with 2 comment(s)

• Hooray! Agility class starts Monday

  The class is a nooner and has a total of five pups/dogs in since it is beginner's class. We are so excited and we a bit nervous. I just have to remember to play fetch with Chloe for 20-30 minutes to get some of the excess energy out of her. But I don't think it is going to matter because the other day, we had two sessions of agility training and played fetch prior to that. When company came over and they wanted to see how she was doing, I let her out and...   Zoomies! She did three big circles and I called in her in front of the A-Frame and we started to show. They saw how fast a JRT can run when doing her zoomies and saw how fast she was at our backyard course. Posted Oct 13 2007, 10:44 AM by jdata with no comments

• Our addition to our family...

  Drum roll please...     The FJ will be used for agility trials thanks to more space, bad weather (PennDot is terrible up here for snow plowing duties) and lastly, recreation. After a bit of hard dealing with another dealership, we made out really well I must say! For the past several days, we've been using her crate to travel in the FJ and we need to find Chloe either a good and reputable car harness or we will have to buy another crate for traveling. Any recommendations out there? So far we have only put on 217 miles on it. The fuel economy is nearly half of our adorable Corolla but its a truck for god's sake so we weren't expecting it to match!     Posted Oct 08 2007, 05:10 PM by jdata with 1 comment(s)

• We have a new addition!

  It weighs 5500 LBS, its black, its wide and has no Corolla fuel economy. Can you guess what it is? We just back from taking it to Titusville and we're dead tired.    Chloe was with us too! She is beat after playing with the other dogs.   More on this later.   ~J   Posted Oct 07 2007, 12:15 AM by jdata with no comments

• Testdriving SUVs and Chloe and I strive to be as ONE

  OK, we started test driving vehicles this week and so far the Rav4 with the V6 and the FJ were first. We'll be doing more testing with other vehicles as the week goes on as we're trying to get settled before the end of the month.  I like the Rav4's performance but don't like the space as the width just feels smaller than a Camry and more on par with the Corolla since I was sitting in the back. In comparison, the FJ was just roomier. Which got me thinking about cargo space between the two: 73cuft for the Rav4 and 67cuft in the FJ. The majority of the cargo space being used in the Rav4 is all vertical that makes since this is a compact SUV. The Rav4 has a lot of standard amenities going for it which my other half loves. In fact, she was more comfortable driving it than she was with the FJ which is due to the height - Rav4 being lower - and the FJ's known blind spots - if you have driven Vans or big long trucks this isn't issue to you since you are accustomed in using the bigger side mirrors. The FJ's handling reminded me so much of the Four Runner that I one of my friends had. Its center of gravity seemed to be lower than it but I don't expect any of this vehicles to handle like a sports car. The Rav4 sits on a car chassis while the FJ sits on a truck chassis so the construction and weight will be different between the two. But for sure I was expect a loaf of bread on wheels or a 60-70s musclecar feel with the FJ as you sat higher but it didn't feel that way at all. She is sprung and dampered (shock absorber) stiffer than I expected. A downside of the FJ is that it requires however premium fuel however being an owner of some high performance vehicles that said the same thing in the gauge panel, that's only if you plan to play with it hard. However, if you do hear detonation, you better go up a grade of gas until it is gone.   And since the weather is has been great, Chloe and I have been learning and training together. When those from the agility sport says that dog reads the handler's body language, they aren't joking. I am starting to understand why she thinks or reacts the way she does. I changed the layout of the course and started to stay quiet - meaning no verbal commands - as we maneuver through it so I can work on my motion and body language and she can read and react accordingly. Oh yeah before I forget to tell you, remember that pit bull that is usually off lead  because of the doo-mass owner? Well from what another dog owner (She has an 8 month Sheltie, Bonnie, that I loaned her my Pat Miller positive training book) told me, some guy was taking two pit bulls and a Doberman or boxer - I don't remember which - for a walk and the dogs started to fight in which someone got bit because he tried breaking them up. And I have a grand that says he tried to break them apart by the collar and I have another grand that says that the dogs aren't obedient and exercised, any takers?  I believe this is guy's brother or friend which leaves a couple of streets down. Most of the time he dresses up in hip-hop garb so having a pit bull must be an image thing to make him look tough and thug-like.   Posted Oct 03 2007, 09:23 AM by jdata with no comments