6 months 23 days
2011/08/14
At the Edmonton shows it's all outdoors. We get set up with 2 tents, and I spend a TON of money getting back into dog shows (my 6 mo puppy DOES have 2 points, after all… ) - bought a hand dryer, a pair of fishtail scissors, a small grooming table, new shampoo and conditioner, a couple of shade cloths. And toys, of course, and… and…
we already have a couple of little red wagons.
This is one of the best things I've ever bought. In the early mornings I put all my junk in the wagon and both dogs - partly because I didn't want to have to discuss Lazy Leash with Syn from the parking lot to the tents, partly because I didn't want her legs to get wet from the dew before she went in the ring.
Anyway, the first day, Stitch finished her Rally Excellent title and I pulled her for the rest of the show. After that she had nothing to do but agility with my friend. Then Syn went into her third Rally Novice trial. She was doing fine, and in the middle of one exercise, she suddenly dropped her butt, threw up her head, and started running. Full of the joy of puppyhood, having gotten rather too little exercise in the last week, she cast off the surly bonds of earth and RAN. Fortunately she was on lead and in spite of my recent whining, she DOES know about Lazy Leashes, so she wasn't flying around the ring, she was only flying around ME. She went a dozen times in one direction, then turned and went 8 or 9 in the other. I'm sure I could have stopped her, but gosh, she was having such a wonderful time, and I was just trying really hard not to wet myself I was laughing so hard. Finally she stopped and looked at me. "What are we gonna do now, ma?" Oh, I don't know… how about finishing this serpentine? "OK!" so we went on and finished and, to my amazement (or perhaps horror), she qualified (with a magnificent 74/100), so that was her title.
And in conformation she got nothing but again did well, maintained her requisite 2-squirrel-jumps, had a good time and trucked around the ring brilliantly.
The next day, I took her in Rally again to try to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our fellow exhibitors, if nothing else. I heard this conversation: "Wow, did you see Sue Ailsby's dog totally lose control in the ring yesterday?" "Hey, give her a break, she's only 6 months old!" "Are kidding? She's in Rally! She can't be 6 months old!" And she did a decent job. That was definitely too many tries with no duration built up yet in the training, but decent nevertheless. One interesting thing was that in the EXACT same spot as the day before, her butt suddenly dropped and her head came up, but before she took off into the air I said Syn, no (our Zen cue). She looked at me, said "OK" and we continued on with the course, so when we were done she got a pretty lively snuggle for sticking with me. Got a lovely compliment from the judge about our relationship - that made my day.
And ignored again in conformation, but again she was exceptionally good. I really had thought it would take these 6 shows to get her to know which direction we were supposed to go in the ring, so we're WAY ahead of the game.
The third day, since we'd pulled from everything but agility and Syn in conformation, we relaxed a lot. My friend took Syn in the ring and I got to look at her. Apparently in the last week she'd grown about 3" of leg. In Calgary she looked like a nice solid happy puppy. This day she looked like Ichabod Crane with a big grin on his face, scrawny legs everywhere. Eeuw, time to go home and get used to that height. She's almost as big as Stitch!
The last day we only had Stitch in agility. I pulled Syn from conformation and spent the day just hanging around. Talked about using PWDs as service dogs with the parents of a couple of cheerful boys. Then, while we were sitting in the shade watching agility, a pair of young ladies came to stand beside us (7 and 9? 6 and 8?). They politely ask if they can pet Syn and I agree. She's a little leery, willing but uncertain. I'm not concerned about her damaging them, she's had plenty of practise coming to me for protection when she's getting overwhelmed. The petting goes well and the younger girl is eyeing the bungie tug toy I'm holding, so I hand it to her (I know by now that they have two Schipperkes). She holds it out to Syn, who immediately latches on and starts pulling. Soon the Syn and the kid are tugging around the area, Syn going mostly backwards, the kid going mostly forwards while firmly declaring "I will NOT let go! I will NOT let go!", and her sister coming over to give her a hand once in a while, else they'd have wound up back in Calgary… much hilarity ensued, everyone had a marvellous time, and shazam, Syn is no longer leery of children. I owe part of this little victory to Wangchuk Dorji, our visitor from Bhutan, who's been living with us for 6 weeks. He knows nothing about dogs, but loves them. He and Syn have been diligently teaching each other to play tug since he arrived. So to the wonderful Dobermans, the wonderful girls, and our wonderful friend Wangchuk, THANK YOU!
Oh, while we were there doing nothing much all day, we entered a Canine Good Neighbour test. And passed with flying colours. Good puppy! So now she's Hunter Sync Or Swym At Dragonair RN CGN who loves dogs and children. That's a successful trip!
And now what have I learned?
I'm feeling much better physically than I have in a decade. I can even show my own dog in conformation.
I WILL hold on to Syn's joy with both hands. I will NOT allow it to escape.
She is one very smart little cookie - which is a good thing and a bad thing. Does she know she's in the ring? Hey, she knew the EXACT SPOT in the ring where she had gotten The Rips the day before. EVERY experience has to be a happy experience with this little squirrel.
My RV is getting an upgrade. I love my RV, but it needs a generator and a real closet and some other fixes. What does this have to do with Syn? Look at it as a commitment to spend some time actually showing my own dog.
She's a morning pooper ;*D Nice to know. And, having gone on leash for 2 weeks, she now thoroughly understands, and takes advantage of, the pee cue.
So now we're home and we can relax and fix the Lazy Leash and other things and get back into the Levels work… oh, wait, no, we're 18 days away from a water trial that I promised to support. Where? Yep, 8 hours away, back near Edmonton. I had hoped to have Stitch ready for Courier (the 4th level - Junior Water Dog, Apprentice WD, Working WD, Courier WD) this year, but it's been so wet and mucky we haven't even been able to get down to the water to practise - and if we could, the high water levels have destroyed my dock. We'll be going to a lake for a "holiday" this week to see if Stitch remembers enough from last year to give a credible performance in Working again, and introduce Syn to the water. She's doing all the Junior exercises - sort of. Today she retrieved a sinking toy from 2" of water in the bathtub, she swims with me in the hot tub, and she can ride on golf carts (which are sort of like boats, right?), so we've done all the practising we can short of actually going in real water.
Ah well, I don't care if she passes or not (I have a bridge for sale as well… ) but if she'll have a good time playing water trial like she did playing Rally, I'll put her in. If she won't enjoy it, they can thank me for the donation ahead of time.
we already have a couple of little red wagons.
This is one of the best things I've ever bought. In the early mornings I put all my junk in the wagon and both dogs - partly because I didn't want to have to discuss Lazy Leash with Syn from the parking lot to the tents, partly because I didn't want her legs to get wet from the dew before she went in the ring.Anyway, the first day, Stitch finished her Rally Excellent title and I pulled her for the rest of the show. After that she had nothing to do but agility with my friend. Then Syn went into her third Rally Novice trial. She was doing fine, and in the middle of one exercise, she suddenly dropped her butt, threw up her head, and started running. Full of the joy of puppyhood, having gotten rather too little exercise in the last week, she cast off the surly bonds of earth and RAN. Fortunately she was on lead and in spite of my recent whining, she DOES know about Lazy Leashes, so she wasn't flying around the ring, she was only flying around ME. She went a dozen times in one direction, then turned and went 8 or 9 in the other. I'm sure I could have stopped her, but gosh, she was having such a wonderful time, and I was just trying really hard not to wet myself I was laughing so hard. Finally she stopped and looked at me. "What are we gonna do now, ma?" Oh, I don't know… how about finishing this serpentine? "OK!" so we went on and finished and, to my amazement (or perhaps horror), she qualified (with a magnificent 74/100), so that was her title.
And in conformation she got nothing but again did well, maintained her requisite 2-squirrel-jumps, had a good time and trucked around the ring brilliantly.
The next day, I took her in Rally again to try to redeem ourselves in the eyes of our fellow exhibitors, if nothing else. I heard this conversation: "Wow, did you see Sue Ailsby's dog totally lose control in the ring yesterday?" "Hey, give her a break, she's only 6 months old!" "Are kidding? She's in Rally! She can't be 6 months old!" And she did a decent job. That was definitely too many tries with no duration built up yet in the training, but decent nevertheless. One interesting thing was that in the EXACT same spot as the day before, her butt suddenly dropped and her head came up, but before she took off into the air I said Syn, no (our Zen cue). She looked at me, said "OK" and we continued on with the course, so when we were done she got a pretty lively snuggle for sticking with me. Got a lovely compliment from the judge about our relationship - that made my day.
And ignored again in conformation, but again she was exceptionally good. I really had thought it would take these 6 shows to get her to know which direction we were supposed to go in the ring, so we're WAY ahead of the game.
The third day, since we'd pulled from everything but agility and Syn in conformation, we relaxed a lot. My friend took Syn in the ring and I got to look at her. Apparently in the last week she'd grown about 3" of leg. In Calgary she looked like a nice solid happy puppy. This day she looked like Ichabod Crane with a big grin on his face, scrawny legs everywhere. Eeuw, time to go home and get used to that height. She's almost as big as Stitch!
The last day we only had Stitch in agility. I pulled Syn from conformation and spent the day just hanging around. Talked about using PWDs as service dogs with the parents of a couple of cheerful boys. Then, while we were sitting in the shade watching agility, a pair of young ladies came to stand beside us (7 and 9? 6 and 8?). They politely ask if they can pet Syn and I agree. She's a little leery, willing but uncertain. I'm not concerned about her damaging them, she's had plenty of practise coming to me for protection when she's getting overwhelmed. The petting goes well and the younger girl is eyeing the bungie tug toy I'm holding, so I hand it to her (I know by now that they have two Schipperkes). She holds it out to Syn, who immediately latches on and starts pulling. Soon the Syn and the kid are tugging around the area, Syn going mostly backwards, the kid going mostly forwards while firmly declaring "I will NOT let go! I will NOT let go!", and her sister coming over to give her a hand once in a while, else they'd have wound up back in Calgary… much hilarity ensued, everyone had a marvellous time, and shazam, Syn is no longer leery of children. I owe part of this little victory to Wangchuk Dorji, our visitor from Bhutan, who's been living with us for 6 weeks. He knows nothing about dogs, but loves them. He and Syn have been diligently teaching each other to play tug since he arrived. So to the wonderful Dobermans, the wonderful girls, and our wonderful friend Wangchuk, THANK YOU!
Oh, while we were there doing nothing much all day, we entered a Canine Good Neighbour test. And passed with flying colours. Good puppy! So now she's Hunter Sync Or Swym At Dragonair RN CGN who loves dogs and children. That's a successful trip!
And now what have I learned?
I'm feeling much better physically than I have in a decade. I can even show my own dog in conformation.
I WILL hold on to Syn's joy with both hands. I will NOT allow it to escape.
She is one very smart little cookie - which is a good thing and a bad thing. Does she know she's in the ring? Hey, she knew the EXACT SPOT in the ring where she had gotten The Rips the day before. EVERY experience has to be a happy experience with this little squirrel.
My RV is getting an upgrade. I love my RV, but it needs a generator and a real closet and some other fixes. What does this have to do with Syn? Look at it as a commitment to spend some time actually showing my own dog.
She's a morning pooper ;*D Nice to know. And, having gone on leash for 2 weeks, she now thoroughly understands, and takes advantage of, the pee cue.
So now we're home and we can relax and fix the Lazy Leash and other things and get back into the Levels work… oh, wait, no, we're 18 days away from a water trial that I promised to support. Where? Yep, 8 hours away, back near Edmonton. I had hoped to have Stitch ready for Courier (the 4th level - Junior Water Dog, Apprentice WD, Working WD, Courier WD) this year, but it's been so wet and mucky we haven't even been able to get down to the water to practise - and if we could, the high water levels have destroyed my dock. We'll be going to a lake for a "holiday" this week to see if Stitch remembers enough from last year to give a credible performance in Working again, and introduce Syn to the water. She's doing all the Junior exercises - sort of. Today she retrieved a sinking toy from 2" of water in the bathtub, she swims with me in the hot tub, and she can ride on golf carts (which are sort of like boats, right?), so we've done all the practising we can short of actually going in real water.
Ah well, I don't care if she passes or not (I have a bridge for sale as well… ) but if she'll have a good time playing water trial like she did playing Rally, I'll put her in. If she won't enjoy it, they can thank me for the donation ahead of time.