February 2008 - Posts

• Luke the social butterfly

  Luke was quite the popular fellow yesterday at the Family Fun Fest, held at the La Crosse Center!  Family Dog Center had a booth at the fest and we also participated in a couple of demonstrations. We got to the center a little after 10 a.m. and I have to say that there's something kind of fun about walking into a normally "no dogs allowed" place with your dog!  Luke attracted much attention as we made our way into the hall and many people wanted to stop and pet him. Our agility demonstration was at 11 a.m. and we just had to laugh at the antics of our dogs.  We were doing a relay race in teams of four, but our two "courses" were only about 10' apart due to space restraints on the stage.  All of the dogs were extremely distracted and had a hard time focusing on the obstacles in front of them.  We did three or four run-throughs and Luke only had one perfect run -- most of the time he wanted to blow past the weaves and go straight to the tunnel.  The first time, though, he was running against Belle and he just wanted to run and play with her!! After our demonstration, Laurie asked Kristi and I if we would mind sitting in our booth with the dogs.  Our previously empty booth was soon swarming with people!  Luke surprised me and was incredibly social yesterday (you never know with him).  He eagerly soaked up the petting and even offered many kisses.  All of the activity was draining and by 1:00 or so both Luke & Belle started to crash.  The dog center did an obedience demo (Luke was not in that!) around 2:00 and we left shortly thereafter. I did chores at the barn last night and brought Luke along, even though he should have stayed home and taken a nap after his full day.  I don't know where he finds the energy, but he went completely nuts the entire time we were there.  Even as we were leaving, he still had it in him to get a case of the zoomies (quite entertaining on the icy ground!). We were only home long enough for Luke to eat his dinner before leaving for the laundromat so that I could wash my comforter (that started smelling like a DOG now that Luke gets to sleep on the bed!).  The laundromat has this great dog wash attached to it, so I took advantage of that and took Luke in for a bath while the laundry was running.  I can't even remember the last time he got a bath, but it's been a long time!  I really need to try to get him in more often because he is SO beautiful and shiney today!  Everyone is remarking on how nice he looks and feels. Tomorrow we have an appointment with Dr. Schilling, as we have an agility trial in La Crosse this weekend.  I'm really crossing my fingers for a clean run in touch-n-go, jumpers & weavers so that we can move up to Elite for Crystal Lake! Posted Feb 25 2008, 08:11 AM by KarissaKS with no comments

• Contacts? What contacts?

  Gah!  Sometimes I just want to strangle my dog.    Well okay, not for real, but I came close this weekend! We had another trial at Family Dog Center this weekend, only two weeks after the last!  I figured, if anything, that Luke might do a little better since he hasn't had too much of a break.  I even worked on his contact performance a couple of times in the week prior and thought that I might be getting through to him. Luke's first run of the day was his first time ever going in elite regular.  It was absolutely wild and crazy.  My notes say, "Absolutely nuts.  Lots of barking, did not want to wait at the start line.  Jumped contacts and generally did his own thing."  And yes, that's it in a nut shell!  I'm used to be being awful for the first run of the day, but this was classic.  That run netted us 50 faults.  Wee! He was still sassy for the second run but behaved much better.  He just BARELY hit his contacts -- I wasn't sure if the judge was going to give us the dog walk or not until I got the results back.  Unfortunately he brought down a bar on a tight rear cross (my fault!), but since I'm still running him in skilled, he got a 5 point Q!  His first ever in elite! Touch-n-go was another nightmare run.  He took a tunnel out of turn and jumped both the dog walk and the a-frame for 30 faults.  It was getting less amusing as the day wore on! The chances class (which we have yet to Q in at the open level!) had a very difficult distance test, but it didn't really matter since Luke had already leapt off the dog walk and gotten disqualified. He redeamed himself with an absolutely beautiful jumper run, though!  It flowed so nicely and he actually did a start line stay for me.  He followed this up with a qualifying weavers run, but just barely!  He had an issue with the first set of six poles -- he wanted to just blast past them and I had a difficult time getting him in.  We did it, though, and he came in under time by only one second! We did a non-scored Hoopers run at the end of the day so that everyone could give it a go before we add it to the next trial.  Luke and I have done phase one hoopers that runs like a jumpers course, but have never seen phase three.  It was a lot of fun and Luke actually came in SECOND above dogs who've actually done it before!  It was great and I'm really looking forward to adding that class in March. Everyone went out to Carlos O'Kelly's after the trial and stayed there a bit too long.  Luke was fine in the car wearing his blanket, but I'm sure he was wondering what the heck was wrong with Mom when I got back in the car.  I was just a little giggle-y!  We switched things around and started with jumpers on Sunday.  I was a little worried since Luke is a maniac first thing in the morning, but he actually was superb.  I got really good distance work (since there was no way I could keep up with him first thing!), but he pulled down one jump.  Darn it, we only need one more jumper Q to move up to elite! Tunnelers was an absolutely picture perfect run in every way possible.  He didn't make even one bobble on course and he STAYED in front of the first tunnel until I released him!  His time was 19.62 and the elite Q time was 25.3!  I think we'll have our elite tunnelers title in no time at all! Luke decided that contacts were for sissies in touch-n-go.  He took a flying leap off the dog walk and then did the same when we came around to the a-frame.  I decided that was it and that it wasn't amusing anymore.  I stopped, thanked the judge and took him off the course.  He got zero treats and put back into his kennel without any fuss.  I know he was wondering what the heck that was all about! I made it distinctly clear that I wanted him to get his contact on the dog walk for chances and he managed, but we just couldn't get the distance!  I thought it was a sure thing since it was just sending out to a line of jumps about 20' away into a tunnel, but I pulled back too quickly and drew him away from the tunnel.  I had to cross the line to get him to go back, so yet again we can't get that elusive open chances Q! I pulled Luke out of the Regular 1 class because yet again he was not listening in the least on the dog walk.  I reschooled it, got eliminated and then just had him take the a-frame on the way out. It must have made somewhat of an impression on him.  Our regular 2 run was really, really nice and felt so good!  He got the dog walk, but I think we lost our connection when I did a rear cross at the a-frame -- he took a flying leap off it as I came up behind him and unfortunately it was right in front of the judge.  It was 11 seconds under the elite time, but with 10 penalties we missed a Q. The next trial is back at FDC March 1 & 2.  I sent in my entry yesterday for the Crystal Lake, IL trial over Easter weekend.  It's going to be a busy spring! Posted Feb 12 2008, 11:02 AM by KarissaKS with 1 comment(s)

• The Jealous Dog

  Nobody can tell me that dogs don't experience emotions such as jealousy.  Luke has been proving this for the last few days and voicing his opinion loud and clear. We lost Cody on Wednesday.  I spent the morning at the barn nursing Norman through gas colic and my mother called shortly after I got to my car.  She shared the news that we lost Cody that morning.  Apparently he wasn't doing well at all when they got up and my dad was planning on taking him to the vet later in the day (likely to say the final farewell).  Cody finally decided that his time here was done and passed on his own.  We all miss him.... Buddy was a bit freaked out by Cody's passing, so my dad brought him down to work with him Wednesday morning after tending to Cody.  Buddy has never had to be an "only dog" and isn't used to having to be alone, so we've decided it would be better for him to be around us.  He's taking quite fondly to his new position as assistant office mascott! Luke has something to say about that, though.  While he's being very polite to Buddy and sharing his things, Luke is definitely sulking around the office these days.  He's been acting very needy as well, asking for petting & attention when he normally wouldn't.  I think he'll get over it soon enough, though.  He's actually doing better than I would have expected.  Maybe he understands the circumstances. We have a trial this weekend and hopefully Luke will enjoy being the ONLY dog (with me) and decide to listen a bit better.  We are entering Elite for the first time in Regular & Tunnelers -- and will hopefully be able to do a move-up in Touch-n-Go on Sunday (crossing fingers!).  The motto of the weekend will have to be, "GET THOSE CONTACTS!" Posted Feb 08 2008, 11:55 AM by KarissaKS with 1 comment(s)

• He ATE it!

  Hmmm.  I didn't know that it could be done, but Luke did it. Right now, the big thing at work that everyone is buying is these raw bones from a local butcher.  They sell huge ham bones and what I call "soup" bones for next to nothing and now that the dog folks found out about them the butcher can't keep his "by-products" on the shelf! Someone at work gave one to Luke the other night, which he happily gnawed on in his crate while I helped out the beginner obedience class.  He continued to play with it afterwards and we took it home with us.  It's still sitting in the living room (in other words, intact!). This morning I brought a fresh one into the office to keep him occupied for what I assumed would be the entire day.  I was sitting at my computer when all of the sudden I heard a big, "crunch."  Hmm, that was odd.  Then a bit later another, "crunch."  I got up to go see what Luke was up to and OMG, nearly the entire bone was gone.  Eeek!  He's not supposed to EAT it, is he??  I didn't think that kind of bone came apart! I took the meger little leftover fragments away from Luke and he followed me all the way to the garbage can with a disdainful look in his eye.  He has continued to periodically come over and stand over my trash can sniffing longingly (come on, the piece is not that big!). I've been sitting here all day watching him, hoping that I will be able to "see" if something happens with him.  You hear all the time about dogs eating bones that end up getting stuck or rupturing their bowels.  *sigh*  I'm sure he'll be fine (fingers crossed) but I'm still kicking myself for not supervising him closer while he had the bone.  It was a good sized one, too -- I'm still shocked that he was able to chew it into pieces.  Now I'm concerned about the rest of them in the bag and may end up throwing it out. Here's to hoping that my strong-jawed pooch makes it through the weekend.  *wink*  In other news, I actually squeaked in some practice with Luke last night.  The competition agility class was held last night because their group was canceled Tuesday due to weather.  This meant that there was a nice course set up for me in the back when I went to lock up.  I put Luke on a down/stay outside the ring while I walked the course -- I figured this way he'd be more amped up about my return rather than just bored from walking around the ring with me.  It worked!  He was just as nutzo as he is at the trials. He flew over the dog walk and I yelled at him to WAIT.  He did -- he stopped right above the yellow, looked at me and LEPT off the plank.  I said nothing and just walked back to the other end and told him to walk it.  Then I was *very* firm about telling him to stop.  He actually laid down on the DW, which is fine by me!  It seemed to get the point through his head.  When we ran the course the second time it was just lovely.  I had no idea that my dog would have so much energy yet at 8:00 p.m.  I wish I could say the same for myself!  PS -- Chiropractor appointment on Tuesday and another trial coming up next weekend! Posted Feb 01 2008, 02:04 PM by KarissaKS with no comments