09/25/2010 Leads and Leashes Disc Demo in Rochester, Minn

Rain pelted Southeast Minnesota earlier this week, causing flooding, bridge collapses and highway closures.  I analyzed weather reports and data from the MNDot site; I questioned making the two hour journey into this area for the Saturday demo at Leads & Leashes.

Saturday morning it was raining, though forecast to stop by afternoon. The highways and roads we'd need to take seemed clear enough, and so Jeff and I packed the Fearsome Threesome in our trusty dog-hauler and ventured south. Highway 52 was open southbound, though a culvert had washed away in the northbound lane.

The Leads & Leashes website describes the facility as a "Country Pet Store & Pet Resort." It's fairly new and the agility room where we'd be demoing has a nicely padded surface and plenty of windows offering daylight.

Our group, the Minnesota Disc Dog Club, had lots of members helping with this demo, so I was a bit surprised when Zac and I were slated to demo. Zac really doesn't do much in the way of freestyle under his most favored conditions. This demo was vivid reminder of how much indoor disc is absolutely not a favored condition. He wouldn't even walk out into the demo area with me. I then carried him out, tried throwing a roller or two, but he kept trying to run back to the usually despised crate.

Zac is not the most-high drive dog, and I was saddened by his stage fright. Although I hope he lives forever, I hear a refrain in my head..."when I get my next dog, he'll be confident, when I get my next dog, he'll catch everything..." It is a curse of performance dog people, I think. We desperately love our dogs as if they were our children, and at the same time, we know they won't live forever; we hope the next dog we adopt has all the athletic attributes our current dog may be missing. And we feel guilty.



Photo by Sean Silvernail

Abby and I Have Started...

Yes, we've started retraining (or more accurately, training) our hope-n-pray running dog walk contacts to a controlled 2 on 2 off (2o2o in agility circles). 


Control is not Abby's forte, but it is kind of cute to see her leap back and forth over the practice contact.  Occasionally she'll land on top of it and slide down into position, which she holds ever so briefly. I try to deliver the reward as quickly as I can, but she's zipped into a different position before that happens. 


She may get frustrated, but while treats are to be had, she doesn't give up. Got to love her spirit!

Relaxed Weekend with Dogs

I completely ignored any thoughts about doing some dog sport training or conditioning --- we did get out for a trip to an organic farm on Saturday and lovely walk to Eagle Lake park on Sunday.








This is going to be all about a few photos. Abby, the sable sun doggess, Jeff and Zoey cavort on the lawn at the organic farm. Zac and I are below.

Two photos from the Sunday Eagle Park escapade: To the right is Zac, nestled among some Indian Paintbrushes. And below, Zoey and Abby grace the verdure.

The rest of the afternoon, I raked and pulled weeds, while the pups relaxed between bouts of barking. All-in-all, a nice, relaxing weekend.

Dog Sport Frustration

Yes, I need to get a life; I'm feeling frustrated with dog sports lately, and I realize there are far, far more important things to get frustrated about.

But, here goes the ranting and raving...Abby is good at agility and she loves it. My bum leg is really holding us back -- she does not tolerate slow and poor handling so well.

Zoey has been a little nightmare dog at agility. She still gets freaky on the dog walk, and beyond that, she runs off when we are finished with our run. (Same issue when getting her off the disc dog field.) Given that she won't come when called, I don't feel that I can trial her.

Abby has been doing Rally, but walking in a straight line is difficult for her, as is sitting still and not popping into a down, when we halt. She doesn't really know how to stand on command either. When she doesn't understand what's being asked, she likes to run in a circle and bark to signal her distress. To be fair, I haven't worked that much with her, and I've found her antics more amusing then frustrating.

I've decided to mix things up a little for now, and maybe mix things up more later. I took Zoey to Rally today instead of Abby and Zoey did quite well. It's a very quiet class and more controlled; it may be what she needs now. And I definitely need to feel as if we can be reasonably successful at something!

I'm considering pulling Zoey from agility and perhaps running both Abby and Zac each week. Right now, they share a class and alternate weeks. Given how much Abby loves it, and I think we'd really improve as a team with more practice, this is appealing. I'm a bit worried about the bum leg holding up, though. I have a few weeks to think about this, and I need to be sure there's enough room in Abby and Zac's class first.

And, disc-dogging, with my poor throwing ability, is bringing its boatload of frustration as well. I'm not even going there today!

(Photo courtesy of Sean Silvernail)

Conditioning for the Canine Athlete

It was cold and rainy last night, and the sofa with its blankets looked inviting. Rather than give in to the pleasure of cuddling on that sofa, Zac and I ventured down to Agile Canines Training Center for a seminar with Lin Gelbman and I'm so glad we did.

Very knowledge and experienced, Lin discussed some of the injuries performance dogs may suffer. She analyzed each participants' dog. Zac stacked up better than I expected. His back legs are somewhat thin and weak; his front is strong, as is his core. He also behaved well; focusing on his salmon Zukes, while Lin examined him---what a plus!

After this analysis, Lin reviewed exercises and a basic six week conditioning program for our dogs, to be followed by a maintenance program.

Just imagine, in six short weeks, Zac can have buns of steel!

Howlarious!

Promptly at 1:00 p.m., Zoey threw her head back and howled along with the first-Wednesday-of-the-month civil defense alarm!

Zac had a productive day, too. He modeled sitting-by-a-door for an article I wrote for Factoidz.

Not too Dogged Today

It was warm and lovely today, or so I heard. Totally nose-to-the-grindstone working on writing projects all day, I didn't step outside until about 3:00 p.m. to chaperone Zoey and Zac in the back yard and pick up poo before Zoey did. Be thankful there are no photos of that!

On a more pleasant note, the dogs and I are getting geared up for an upcoming disc dog fun match. Which made me think....I should set myself some type of challenge so that I practice throwing plastic and freestyle routine moves. Anyone have any ideas?