Evvverybody...Must...Get...Shamed

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

But I wUUUld not feel so all alOOOne...

[also posted facebook July 10]

>>  Visit the Wordless Wednesday site; lots of blogs. << 
I mean, technically, there are words here, but they're in the photos so they don't count.

Public Shaming

[Oooopsie: Forgot I had already posted this. Posted again here: Everybody Must Get Shamed. Leaving this here because: links.]

SUMMARY: One of those mornings.

Posted on FaceBook.

Barkage

SUMMARY: Who says what to whom and why?

From FB 4/2/21: A comment I left on a friend's post about how their dogs' barking patterns changed depending on who was home, dog or human.

4/11/21: Just added another paragraph (tagged inline). 

Dogs are insane. 

Chip barked enthusiastically at the dogs next door (next door on both sides of the yard) through a solid wood fence (he'd look through knotholes until he saw them). Not quite in a fence-fighting way so much as tail wagging and fur not raised, but still very barky and I hated it. I ended up putting up a lightweight solid fence about six inches from the fence on one side to chill him down a bit. Worked fairly well--although only on that side.

Chip, peering through a knothole at the neighbor's yard and wagging his tail.

I adopted Zorro after Chip had been here for over a year and while the don't-bark fence was still up, and Zorro never barked at the dogs next door, and Chip was more minimal. For months and months after Zorro arrived.

Dog window in fence! Awesome!

Then, because I eventually took down the fence on that side because it was a nuisance and Chip's barking had calmed, Chip started barking at that side again as well as the other side. But Zorro--still months of nonparticipation.

The antibark fence along the side. It's black(ish) and behind things, so you almost don't notice it.

This is what it is: Construction "chickenwire" with water-resistant paper.
Eventually, the paper does deteriorate and it starts looking crappy. 
But it worked for no-bark!
(Can't see it, can't smell it up close: can't bark at it.)

And then one day when Chip was barking, Zorro plowed through Chip and took up ferocious fence-fighting barking, and from that day forward, it was Zorro who barked like crazy at the neighbor dogs, even if Chip weren't the initiator. (Chip would still do it, but Zorro would often push him out of the way and take over.) 

Added April 11-- Just found this post from 3 years ago:

April 11, 2018: OK, for the nearly 3 years that Zorro has been here, he has not obsessively barked at the dogs next door. Chip has done that always given half a chance.  So--why this week has Zorro decided to take over that job?  🙁  (Chip the tattle-tale, was just in here letting me know that Zorro was misbehaving. Interesting dynamics around here.)

[I hope that I have photos of Zorro barking at the fence. Haven't found any yet, but I have *so many* dogs-in-yard albums without any tagging on the photos. But in the process I rediscovered an album with a ton of photos of Chip running through his tunnels. Which I then spent an hour editing and posted on Facebook. (No idea whether that link will work for anyone.) Not barking related, but such happiness!]

Since Chip died last June, Z has shown less and less interest in barking at the fence, and the few times when he does, it's for just a couple of seconds and then he's done. Was he taking care of Chip? Was he just trying to prove that he was tougher than Chip? Did he think that was a game for the two of them to play?

But he does bark to let me know if a dangerous entity is approaching my door, or parking in my driveway, or if a monstrous delivery vehicle (say, Amazon, UPS, ...) is threatening us anywhere on the street.

Dog minds are endlessly fascinating. 

Crates, Ex-Pens (X-Pens), and Harnesses

SUMMARY: The topic goes on and on

From comments on my posts from the previous 2 days--

RATZ -- I'm sure that I have some relevant photos, but they're old enough that they'd be on film, so I'll have to look thru albums and boxes and scan them in. Which I'm not going to do tonight, sooooo no photos mostly for now.

I responded to a comment on my post "About Crates vs X-Pens For Dogs, My History Thereof"  about a friend's dog and crates and all that, and that her Katie was annoyed that she didn't get to sit loose in the front seat--

Mean humans! 

I didn't start using crates in the car until I adopted Tika. 

Four or five years previously I had finally become smart about restraining dogs in the car, given how many miles I traveled with them and at odd hours and in all weather and a long way from home. Remington and Jake started riding in very sturdy, well-tested seatbelt harnesses and by the time Tika came home, they had become used to that restraint. They were getting up in age and so I didn't want to start trying to get them used to traveling in crates, although by then they were plenty accustomed to staying in crates at trials. (And Remington loved standing up the entire time we were driving, particularly looking for cows-- couldn't take him away from that.) 

In fact, getting Tika and deciding that all future dogs would travel in crates was the impetus to get a minivan instead of a fun-to-drive car like my prior ones. Sigh. Soooo practical--because a crate wouldn't fit into my four-door sedan along with 2 other dogs on seatbelts and all that agility gear. 

About whether to leave a dog in the car while, say, walking courses, or working in a different ring or whatnot: Getting a dog accustomed to being crated for longer times I think requires that the dog receive plenty of practice while they are aware of where you are and then gradually increasing times when they can't see you. At least, that's how it has worked for my previous dogs. Zorro and my late Chip haven't had nearly enough of that kind of practice. They'll sleep in crates in my bedroom at night, but if I get up and go downstairs, say in the middle of the night, without them, I don't trust them to not claw holes in the mesh of the soft crates. 

Which Remington did the first time I left him alone (with Jake) in my tent to walk to the nearest water faucet in the campground. 

Dogs.

But, yep, like Katie, they'd all rather be in the seats, preferably the front, if they had a choice.

Still, for a long time, if I were simply tooling around the area on errands, the  dogs could usually be trusted to be loose in the car so they could look out the windows. Although--lesson learned--one errand I thought would take me 15 minutes and instead became more like 3 hours, and Tika, alone in the car, explained that she didn't care for that so much.

I lived with this reminder for the next 11 years.

Then I noted:  Hmmm, this feels like I just wrote another related blog post right here! ... and so here it is--rewritten and expanded a bit! 

When Chip First Came Home--

SUMMARY: Remembering Chip. Rejects the World Sleeping Order.

Backfill: From Facebook June 23; posted here July 2

When Chip first came home, age 3, Tika and Boost were already sleeping on my bed. I wanted to (a) let the dogs become accustomed to each other's presence, (b) let Chip know that he didn't always get to sleep on the bed, and (c) confine him at night until I knew how well house-trained he was.
He scratched and bit at the softcrate, so I set up the x-pen next to my bed.

He'd have none of it. Repeatedly levitated from there onto my bed (no running needed, no floor required in between). I decided that (1) he definitely had the chops for agility and (2) I give up, he wins, I just wanted to sleep.

(Also mentioned March 31, 2014.)

Tika the Very Naughty Nose Wizard

SUMMARY: She loved food. Even on the agility course.

This is expanded version of a Facebook post Mar 2, 2020.

P.S. Food is not allowed on the agility course in most cases!

Tika was an absolute food hog. We were competing at the Masters level in USDAA--already had Silver Championship and Platinum Tournament Master--and one day, we were flying around a course with her way ahead of me as usual, when she suddenly skidded to a halt, veered off in an entirely different direction, completely ignored my attempts to get her attention, trotted about 40 feet away from where we had been to the edge of the ring, and nosed a tiny piece of some kind of food out of the grass! Then turned, blasted back to me, and continued full speed with what we had been doing. Seriously, how can a dog detect that tiny a piece of food, at that distance, at that speed, doing something that you'd think requires a lot of attention to avoid killing yourself??

But she wouldn’t eat bananas.**

(BTW: It was Steeplechase. Qualified and came in 2nd. Crazy dog; how she managed with all that wasted time, who knows!)

-----

** By contrast, Jake would tear things apart and escape from his crate to get a banana.

Terminology for non-agilityers--

• Qualifying (Q): Meeting the requirements for the class/run (time and faults or points) to earn a "leg" towards eventual titles.
• Silver Championship: Earning enough Qs to achieve multiple championships.
• Tournament Platinum:  Means she was really good at qualifying (had earned many Qs) for the often-challenging three classes that are eventually featured at the national championships. At the time, that was the highest title you could earn for collecting Tournament Qs.
• Steeplechase: Designed to be very fast. It's often the hardest of the Tournament classes to earn Qs in, because so many dogs are so very fast and, to Q,  you must be in the top 15% of the dogs running that course. (This is a simplification, but close enough.)

Photo by Sarah Hitzeman

Taking Tika From a Wild Young Thing to A Champion

SUMMARY: A bright memory, updated.

Posted on Facebook August 10, 2019.

As a younger dog, Tika was, at times, frustrating beyond belief. Independent and too dang smart, knowing what she could get away with when I didn't know how to fix it. For those who might be tempted to give up hope with their own crazy, challenging, overwhelming dog:

7 years after Tika retired from agility, in the 22" Performance category, she's still #13 over all in Gamblers, #11 in Jumpers, #11 in Snooker, and #13 in Standard. For "all-breed" (mixed breed), she's still #2 in Standard, #1 in Snooker, #1 in Jumpers, and #1 in Gamblers.

And I was able to hike off- and on-leash with her in so many places (well--not always perfect--but mostly).  (And so many other things, too: Tricks, visiting, being around any other dogs at any time...)

I'm proud of what we accomplished, and it paid off in spades in the immense joy I earned on and off the agility field with her.

Sunday, Thunder, No Agility

SUMMARY: Missing Bay Team trial, plus scaredy dogs

Partially from Facebook: May 19, 2019 (expanded here)

All dressed up and ready for another visit to The Bay Team USDAA trial, but Chip is terrified by the thunder today (and Zorro is not too happy either), so I’m not going to take him outside, and I’m not going to leave him alone in the house. Sad face.

Thunder shirt has not helped. On the upside, Chip pointed out that when the dryer is running it muffles the sound nicely. So I can leave it running on air dry for up to 90 minutes while he huddles next to it. I moved a bed in there. Happy face.

Didn't seem like that's the way the day was going to go originally. Woke up early because the sun was shining (6:30 in the morning!? so wrong!) and I hadn't closed my drapes. Lounged in bed for more than an hour, mostly doing nothing. An hour after my wakey-uppy-- Somehow the wild beasts’ instincts kicked in and they had intuited that dark rain clouds would be rolling in?! Because no signs of life still— unusual around here by this time.

But when they do get moving: I start playing footsie with Zorro, who of course wags his tail during. Chip whines, groans, moans… “His tail is touching me when it wags, mommm make him stoooop.“ Such a grump, but such entertaining noises.

Spent midmorning to midafternoon dealing with Chip's issues:

• Moving beds into laundry room for Chip and Zorro,
• Chip not wanting to go outside so I drag him outside (literally the first time) to try to get him to pee and he's terrified of the sound of jets going by in the distance... which they do about every 3 minutes every day, all day, just now he's all sensitive, so he won't pee and just cowers and tries to go back into the house.
• Then he pees on the carpet inside instead.
• And of course when I yell No No No! And jump up from my lunch and try racing down to where he is to grab him and take him outside, Zorro starts to move into Boss Dog mode and so I have to tell them they're both really good dogs and everything is OK so he doesn't attack Chip.
• So I take Chip out again and now it's pouring and he hunches off and hides under a shrub, so I have to get him out from there to take him inside again and I'm soaked through my fleece and shirt and dogs are sopping wet and muddy so I have to wipe them down while Chip trying to get away to go hide somewhere. 
• Then while I'm trying to clean up the carpet pee (meanwhile my lunch is getting cold)... 
• Chip starts ripping apart the doorframe to the garage again. 
• So I get a leash this time and take him out through the garage into the side yard, into bright sunlight, where he does a very wee wee. 
• Walk him up the side of the house and he suddenly realizes that he is actually in the same back yard as always and now he won't do anything but hunker and look scared. 
• I walk  (so to speak) him around for several minutes and he does nothing, so back inside. 

Like that.

Good thing they're cute.

There's been no thunder for a while, and things are at the moment peaceful, and I'm exhausted (such a wimp these days), so I think a late afternoon nap is more in order than household projects and going to a movie as originally expected.

Very Cute But Naughty Dogs

SUMMARY: Secret lives.

Does this look like a dog who would stand out in the yard and bark all day like he's bored?

Turns out, he so totally is!  I've been spending a lot of time at home, and guess what: He's outside doing the bored-dog bark all. the. time!

Does this look like a dog who would stand on you in the morning when you're trying to sleep in?

He does! And it's not so nice when the part he stands on is your sore hip.

Just, good thing they're amazingly cute beasts.

Circus Dog Class!

SUMMARY: Tricks, week 1

Fetch Sam is a dog-training indoor facility near downtown San Jose. Main focus is dog agility, but that means that it's plenty big enough for a group of dogs to work on tricks, too.

Mackenzie and her Human Mom, Zorro in his crate. Mackenzie is a tres wee dog.

Saturday was our first class out of 5 spread over a month and a half. I had asked whether I could do both dogs at once (paying for both of course), but the instructor suggested that I could maybe alternate weeks, but not both at once. When class got going, I could see what that wouldn't have worked with 2 dogs, one handler.

Had to decide whom to take to week 1 and opted for Zorro.

He did very well even with other dogs around; only one brief HEY STOP LOOKING AT ME barking session, but mostly seemed comfortable to be there, not too overly stimulated, and briefly met a 6-month-old lab nose to nose. Mostly we were all maybe 20-30 feet apart from each other, working on the assigned tricks.

First week we did an intro to clicker training (which I've been using for ages) and the following:

• Target training: (which this week was really "go to your mat" for which she supplied towels) I've been doing "go to your bed" with the dogs with a bit more than casual intent for a while, so they have the basic idea and Zorro had little problem with this from up to a few feet away.
• Shake: Both dogs already do "shake" (with right paw) and "shake left" (with left) very well.  So in class I worked on getting him to give me both paws first with shake, then with shake left; he was reluctant to get both paws off the floor at the same time although lordy knows he does that often enough at hom.
• Spin: Both dogs do "left" and "right" spins already; zorro has "right" on voice command almost all the time and "left" almost on voice command; Chip isn't there yet with just voice command, but the finger reminder is almost faded away. During class, I worked on having Zorro do 2 or 3 in a row before getting a treat (so, like 2/treat, 1/treat, 2/treat, 1/treat, 3/treat, 2/treat, 1/treat...)
• Take it: Haven't worked on this with these dogs ever. Zorro of course will grab a toy in my hands when I tell him to Get It at home, but he has no interest in toys at all away from house/yard, so this will take some work; in class, he was starting to open his mouth instead of just butting it with his nose, yay.
• Roll over: I think I worked with them a bit on this when Zorro first arrived, but not much and not since then, so we're really at square One, or maybe one and a half. But much more willing to go over than, say, Remington, with whom I had to start by first lifting one foot slightly and rewarding, and going very very very piecemeal.
• Sit pretty: Definitely worked with them a few times, again, back when Zorro was new here, but not really since. He was getting it in class after initially wanting to stand up on his hind legs, not sit up.

Mackenzie and her Human Mom (friend Arlene) also already knew some of the tricks but were just learning others.  I think that some of our other classmates also knew one or two of some of these ahead of time, but we all have things to work on.

Like, for example, THIS vast display of naughtiness, Mr. Zee!!!, which I found this evening on my effing kitchen table, my beautiful all-white CLEAN kitchen table, after being gone all day:

So SOME of us have a few more things to work on outside of class than others.


Ya think we're dog people? With mostly nonpurebred dogs, both?

Happy 6th, Chip! Here's a bed just for you!

SUMMARY: How can he possibly be 6 already?!

Zorro always takes possession of All The Things that are fluffy and large. I treated Chip cruelly a couple of months back by replacing my huge recliner with two smaller upholstered chairs that he finds uncomfortable.  As an alternative, I got him a big comfy bed for the living room.

Note to other supposedly experienced photographers: Always remember to remove the *$%#@ sun shade from the lens when using the *#%@^* built-in flash to avoid casting huge #(@$% shadows on your photos.

Note to other supposedly experienced photographers: Have the camera ready when you first give the dog the new bed so you can capture him rolling around in it and chatting happily while trying it out, not after he's done all of that bit.

Is reeely mines! Wooo!

Hmmm, what is me do with large and fluffy?

Me is bite, prove is mines!

Is bitey bitey bitey!

Come on, Chip, it's a bed, not a toy, no bitey please.

Me is gots big toy, maybe is pulls out the stuffingses!

Leave the stuffingses in there, please, Chip, really, it's a bed!

Is the hard workses, me is lye downs and chewy chewy the toy.

Ooooooh, Chipster Dudes! Is gots new toy is fluffy and large which is Alls My Things?!

Backs away, naughty Z, is Human Mom sayses is toy of Chip!

Fine. Me is chew on better fluffy and large All My Things.

Is chewy the hole in mine bigs toy for gettings the evil stuffingses.

Srsly, Chip, please do not destroy your new and pricey bed.

Srsly, Human Mom, is not tell ME no bitey bitey pulls out stuffingses!

No no Human Mom iz Chipses toy for bitey bitey no tell me no!

ME SAYSES NOS!

Oooh, me is sorry, Human Mom, is pleez don't take away the toy bed thing.

the end

Don't Stop Believing...

SUMMARY: ...Dogs can make a mess of things...

For some inexplicable reason known only to strange quarks, Human Mom has of late been immersing herself in Journey's Don't Stop Believin' ** over and over. At least a couple of times a day. Have rediscovered it after all these years. Man, Steve Perry has a Voice!  Listen to it again; wow! (Plus what lovely music.)

Plus: Vacuuming every. Single. Day.  Sometimes twice!  Jeez!  Add them together--

Just a small town dog Diggin' up a funky log He took that thing inside to chew anywhere
Just a Zorro boy He can't find a normal toy He took that thing inside to chew anywhere
A dead plant from a plastic pot Such a lovely thing they've got Dig it up and spread the soil It goes on and on, and on, and on
[Chorus] Strange dog chew toys Up and down the living room Their remnants lying everywhere
Vacuum, pointless Next it's plum stains on the carpet Makin' me tear out my hair
Working hard to clean the shower None-the-less within the hour The dog is walkin' through the door
Dusty feet and moistened floor Adding up to one big chore Oh, the footprints never end They go on and on, and on, and on
Strange dog chew toys Bringing clods of dirt inside Their teeth leave long lines in the clay
Paper on the ground Envelopes are often found It's some new chew toy every day
Don't stop believin' Dogs can make a mess of things Dog toy stuffing... Oh-oh-ohhhhhhhhh! Don't stop believin'!

** For original lyrics, go here.

Mind Your Pees. And Pee Cues.

SUMMARY: Pee wars.

Oooooohhhhhh noooooo there seem to be Pee Wars going on in my house.

All of a sudden every time I turn around in the house someone is raising his leg or someone's leg is already down and there's a puddle/spray or I'm finding a place where someone's leg has been raised. I mean, almost literally.  Five times in the previous 2 days!  And several times in the last week or so.

Which means time with rags and/or paper towels, my small carpet cleaner, and Nature's Miracle--over and over and over and over. Really?

What's with this?!?!?! Guess I'm going to have to go back to puppy handling with BOTH supposedly adult supposedly house trained dogs: Take them outside when they wake up. After they've been playing. After they've eaten. And so on. What a pain in the butt. I don't remember this ever happening with Jake and Remington!

This morning I made an effort to go outside with the dogs right after any of those occasions. Luke peed exactly once that I could see, first thing in the morning after he'd been outside for about 5 minutes.

I walked him around the yard about 3 other times for 10 minutes at a time, and nuthin'. Even with Chip wandering around cooperatively peeing on things in front of us to give Luke a hint.  Since they do have free access to the yard, and he has been out on his own, I'm hoping that this means this isn't going to happen inside today.

Several friends suggested belly bands.  Like these: Male Wrap/Dog Belly Band. Will have to give them a try.

OK, Puppy, When Did THIS Happen?

SUMMARY: I really have no idea.

But I'm glad that he appears to still be alive and unburnt.

And the lightbulb still worked. Until I squeezed it too hard trying to put it back together. THAT was another disaster but fortunately it was in the front hallway where cleaning up broken glass was easy. Ish.

Do you have any idea how long it took me to find that kind of lampshade the last time I needed to replace it?

Dog notes of shame?

SUMMARY: Or not. Chip. Really.

"I ripped a hole in the door and tore the zipper of the brand new softcrate that mom put me in this weekend [ELF notes: see background] and then ripped holes in her ground mat [lower right] after she locked me up in a borrowed wire crate. And I'd do it again, dammit!"

Counter Surfer

SUMMARY: Beach Boys song: Surfer dog, surfer dog, my little surfer dog...

Little surfer, little one,
Made my heart come all undone
Do you love me, do you surfer dog,
Surfer dog, my little surfer dog?

I posted today to a dog behavior group:

OK, since [the list organizer] posted this matrix, which includes "counter surfing"--

(Graphic by Lupe Matt, used with permission.)

I'd like some suggestions on breaking that. He was three when I got him, have now had him for 9 months. I haven't had to worry about dogs taking things from counters or tabletops for many many years, and I must say that I enjoy being able to leave things out that are convenient for me--my pillbox on the table, the banana bread on the counter for easy slicing, like that. (He hasn't actually eaten any meds or shown an interest in them, but since he started taking stuff off tables/counters, I can't in good conscience leave them out any more. )

He never puts his paws up when I'm home. (Well--once, when he first got here, and I most likely did something like, "Hey! Get your feet off there!" and clapped or similar action. Don't remember.) Anyway, I thought he got the message because nothing happened for about 3 months. Then he started pulling things off the counter or table. Bag of treats that I left on the counter. Dirty napkin. Frozen-food dish that I'd left on the table when finished. Like that.

Here's one thing that I know about operant conditioning: Random reinforcers are stronger than constant reinforcers. So he occasionally finds something, thereby randomly rewarding himself, mostly likely making the counter surfing into a stronger behavior. I've been trying very hard to never leave anything with any scent or hint of food on the table (like going to Yosemite and not leaving anything that smells like food in your tent or car, so I'm used to this concept), but I still come home to muddy toeprints on the edge of the counter or table, or some papers that I left on the table that are now on the floor.

So, when I see him glancing at the counter (he never stares at it that I have seen), I might say his name and ask him for some other behavior, like Sit or Down, and reward.

But it's not stopping. And I'm not perfect and never will be (yesterday it was a used napkin on the table). And I miss being able to leave stuff out.

I had this fantasy about removing the randomness--leaving exactly the same thing out on the counter in exactly the same place day after day after day, and then one day stopping it, thinking that that would extinguish the behavior faster. But, actually, I'm not going to try that experiment. :-)

Funnyish story--over Xmas, he spent the weekend with his previous owners--man and 10-yr-old boy. I commented that Chip had started counter surfing, and the boy asked, "what's that?" and the man answered, "Remember that morning when we came downstairs and discovered Chip standing on the kitchen counter?"

So it's apparently not an entirely new behavior.

Suggestions?

---

If you want a quick explanation of why random reinforcers are stronger than constant ones, see: Intermittent Reinforcement.

All About my Siberian Husky

SUMMARY: Sheba the Wonder Husky.

(Wow, no posts for an entire month? I have so much to say, too! Maybe later--)

Sheba lived to the wonderful age of 16.  (See a few photos on Sheba's Page.)

Here's her entire history with us in a single wonderful image:

Found in imgur.com: Most accurate description of a Siberian husky I've come across.

At the Trial Sunday

SUMMARY: Not much to say.

Wasn't in quite as much pain today as yesterday.

A good night's sleep helped--thanks to some tough love on Human Mom's part.

When the dogs ask to go out in the night, I usually know that they mean it, and I let them out, they do whatever they need to do, and then they come back in. (For Tika, that's almost never unless something's amiss; for Boost it's more likely when she's on prednisone.) The last 2 or 3 times of the dozen times that Boost said that she HAD to go out on Friday night, I finally went out onto the porch to see what she was doing, because that was excessive even for pred.

Sure enough, she made a beeline from the porch to the back hedge and buried the whole front of her body underneath and stood there, rustling around a little but essentially in one place. What the...?

I called her out, a big miffed, but she did not COME out! My good little obedient dog! I went over and pulled her out, with her resisting mightily. Didn't look like she was eating anything. Dark out there and I couldn't easily see what was so fascinating.  I chased her away from it repeatedly and gave her her Hurry Up and pee command, which she finally did, then dove under the hedge 30 feet away and made her way back to the same spot by going along behind the hedge.

So, last night, after I'd been asleep less than an hour and Boost said that she HAD to go out, I took her out on a leash. Sure enough, she wanted to go to the hedge. I didn't let her; instead, I walked her in circles telling her (in a bit of an annoyed voice) to Hurry Up. She looked at me like I was nuts and kept trying to head back to the shrub. I just kept saying No!  Finally she peed a little tiny bit, I said she was good, and took her back inside.

Then apparently she realized that Human Mom was not going to let her do that any more, and we slept through the night. I have not yet gone out to try to see what was under the hedge.

-------------
Chip is, I think, getting the nose-touch-to-target thing even though I'm doing it casually. Yay.

He didn't make nearly as much fuss when I took Boost out and left him in his crate has he did 2 weeks ago, in fact today almost none at all.

He was pretty good as I walked him around, letting him sniff and roll on the grass, and giving him hot dogs when he looked at me or turned back to me. Even played tug with me on his tug-leash when I made an effort to be very exciting and run back and forth, so he was less distracted today than he has been. He still walks by dozens of dogs just looking or whimpering, then suddenly ferocious barking at the end of the leash. Always a challenge of some sort.

Today he rejected a chunk of fried potato (like hash brown/country fried) as not being actual food, but decided that bacon counted as food without having to think about it at all. You can be assured that he did not get much bacon, because it was MY bacon, nom nom nom!

------------
Tika's idea of staying in her crate.

(Sometimes she can unzip it partway or all the way. I came back from one of Boost's runs and noticed that Tika's crate was empty. She had wandered off in search of the food she'd been getting at the score table.)


-----------
What Boost won this weekend. She's such a good raffle girl.

She also made the weave entry correctly ONCE today. The other times, like yesterday, went in at the 2nd pole or ran past them.

Today i just concentrated on keeping her running, didn't care whether we want past jumps or anything. Her contacts are still good, her sends to tunnels of course are lovely. In Snooker, a bar down and refusal on the weaves in the closing, so not even a regular Q, let alone SuperQ.

Other 4 classes ranged from mostly lovely and fun to "please take an obstacle, ANY obstacle, I don't care!"

Ah, well, we're all here together and having a good time.