tricky t-day

OK, I am done working on our left/right paws for a while. I don't think Misty is ever going to learn her left from right, no matter how much I work her. She does know I want her to alternate lifting her paws though. When I work with Oreo, she will stand next to me "marching", just hoping I will notice. It is so cute.

So, here is a video hi-lighting the culmination of our "kick line trick", with some ol' favorites thrown in. This is as good as it is going to get....for now. Maybe someday I'll come back to it, but we need a break from the paw discrimination tricks.

Sorry the video is kind of dark, we didn't have good lighting when I shot this.

And yes, Oreo did get kicked in the ribs toward the end. If he wasn't doing all that circling it wouldn't have happened. Sorry, buddy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfLdE83EmSU

We will be trying out "free timing" for next tricky t-day, like Ludo & Dee suggested. That means Oreo kind of gets to make up his own trick. Should be interesting, he is a tricky character.

No more griping

OK, my last post was a bit of a gripe session. I admit, I may have made a mountain out of a mole hill.

I watched "Slumdog Millionaire" last night, and realized I have no right to complain about a man not saying sorry about a near miss with a grocery cart.

However, although I may complain about small things, I also get very excited over small things.

For example, last night I was about to cook up a box of instant mashed potatoes. I flipped over the box to read the directions. I noticed the directions were different than usual.

Oh no, I thought, I must have bought the wrong kind.

Then I looked at the very top and saw the words, "NEW DIRECTIONS(thicker texture and no boilover)".

Well, I wanted to do a dance around the kitchen right then and there!

In the past, every time I made the instant potatoes I would have to watch the pot like a hawk, because if you stepped away for one brief second, the milk in the pot would bubble up, spill over the sides and make a big mess! It was the worst, and it happened just about every time.

So these new directions, that would prevent a messy boilover, was the highlight of my day! Now I can make instant mashed potatoes without babysitting the pot! I love you Betty Crocker!

See, little things can make me happy.

In other news....we brought the dogs to a local state park on the Hudson River. Here are a few photos. Oreo liked to get on the bench. He definitely feels more confident being up high when in strange places. Misty could care less, as long as she gets to stop and pee every few feet.

rude man

I went grocery shopping yesterday. I was walking up an aisle with my cart. Just as I got to the end of an aisle, I almost sideswiped a man who was walking his cart perpendicular to mine. I stopped before we had a collision.

Happens all the time. In fact, it probably happens 2-3 times each trip I make to the grocery store. I'm sure it happens to you as well.

Proper grocery store etiquette when this event occurs:
Each person pushing a cart smiles, and says, "oops, I'm sorry", then continues on their way.

Yesterday, I did my part. The other "gentleman" did not. He did not make eye contact. Did not speak. He didn't even glance toward me. He just continued on his way.

Oh, how it irritated me! How rude!

It is not like he had the "right of way". There is no "right of way" in the grocery store. There are no stop signs! He was just as "at fault" as me.

I thought about it all day. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning.

I tried to rationalize his actions.

Perhaps rude man was:

a. deaf - but he still could have put his hand up, in a "sorry" motion, and looked at me
b. unable to speak English - but even I know how to apologize in several languages, and if I was visiting a country, I would learn "sorry","please" & "thank you"
c. mad at his wife for sending him to the store, so he hates all women today

I'm going with "c".

If I see this man again I am going to:
a. shower him with kindness
b. give him a lesson in grocery store etiquette
c. ram my cart into his ankles

Circle the choice you think will apply.

OK, I feel better now.

its permanent

We've been having a great stretch of perfect summer weather. The next door neighbor's kids have been non existent. So, the dogs and I have enjoyed puttering around the yard, hanging out, and long, lazy afternoons.

I was contemplating signing Oreo up for a few early morning runs in a local CPE trial next Saturday, but decided not to because we hadn't received our permanent height card yet. He had two judges measure him, and he was right on the cusp of being able to jump 12 inches. I didn't want to risk having a third judge measure him. Since, I wasn't sure what would happen if that judge thought he should jump 16. Would that over rule the other 2 judges? Or would his original 2 measurements count?

Wouldn't you know it, our permanent height card came in the mail today! Now, it is too late to enter. Oh well. We'll just have to wait until August for our next trial.

Now we have our permanent cards for both DOCNA and CPE. I think those will be the only two venues we will be doing. After talking to a lot of people, they seem to be the two venues best suited for a team like Oreo and me. Both are friendly, laid back, fun focused, and never serious. Plus, neither requires me to travel, something I told myself I wouldn't do when I began this journey.

Oh yea, they are still selling sprinkles in the grocery store. I saw them on the shelf today. It is just illegal for restaurants to serve any food with transfat. I always have sprinkles in my cupboard. I put them on my sugar cookies. So, I always have a stockpile. I sure hope they taste as good when they start making them without the transfat.

Funny, how cigarettes are still legal, yet transfat isn't. Hmmmmmm.

no more sprinkles

I just heard on the news that sprinkles, both chocolate and rainbow, are now illegal to serve in New York State, due to trans fat!

My favorite summer treat is vanilla soft serve ice cream with rainbow sprinkles. Preferably more sprinkles than ice cream.

I can't see how sprinkles could be worse for your health than the ice cream, and yet blue slushies are still legal? How is it that blue dye no. 5 is good for you?

Guess it is going to be BYOS this summer. Bring Your Own Sprinkles. Or I'll be crossing state lines to get my ice cream fix.

Does anyone in Massachusetts know if sprinkles are still on the menu?

mirror image exercises

I set up some mirror image exercises that I got out of one of my clean run exercise books. There are several different sequences with the same set up of jumps and tunnel. I did three this morning - 2 advanced for Oreo, and 1 intermediate for Misty.

The two advanced were tricky, they slowed us down, and my handling was really exaggerated. In the end, I think I got better. I stood up straighter, and had more confidence that Oreo knew where I wanted him to go.

I am trying to encourage some independence in Misty. She is getting better about tunnel sends, but she really wants me to be moving with her for jumps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRjRMHB4HKM

At Oreo's agility class this week, my teacher set up the standard course from the CPE nationals. It had a lot of obstacle discriminations, and some obstacles thrown in to trigger an off course. She also set the green tunnel (our nemesis in our trial) under the dogwalk. I made sure to reward Oreo bigtime when he took that tunnel. In fact, I decided to reward Oreo for all his tunnels, and most of his contacts during class. I remember being at a seminar with a world team member who said, "The difference between world team dogs and other agility dogs is rate of reinforcement."

Since I can't use my clicker or food reinforcements in trials, I am going to start using more in class. Instead of just rewarding at the end of a 18 obstacle sequence, I'm going to start doing a lot more click/treating, especially for tunnels/contacts. It interrupts our flow, which I don't like, but if it helps Oreo become more confident and speedy, it will pay off in the long run. I also click/treated anytime Oreo looked at me when other people/dogs were close by. I deliberately parked next to my classmate who has a boisterous lab puppy. He goes nuts in his crate when she works her other dog. So, I did a lot of click/treating for Oreo tolerating that and focusing on me.