Living with Diabetes and Lapband

Agility Videos - August 25

Marcie's Standard Run

Marcie's JWW Run

Maggie's JWW Run

Maggie's Standard Run - A Q!

Macie!

I have a new puppy -- Tesoro's Herald Square -- Call name Macie to go with Marcie and Maggie.

Pictures at http://www.kweaver.org/photo_archives/macie_first_day/

When Maggie finished her Open Agility JWW in the spring, I knew it was time to get a new dog. It will be at least two years before Macie is ready to compete. Marcie and Maggie will be 10 and 9 respectively, and I just don't want to be without a competition dog.

I will be trying out conformation with her.

Hunt Test

I took Marcie to a hunt test this morning at the Lone Star Dachshund Conservatory. Maggie went along, but I was pretty sure when I entered I was only up to one dog (and I was right).

Lovely site! It's fenced in, to keep both the dogs and the rabbits in. It was very dry there, very grassy with cedar trees. They have put out pallets, chopped down trees, etc. to create places for the rabbits to hide. They put out water and feed for the rabbits too.

Here's how it worked. They listed all the entered dogs, and then drew small numbered balls for our running order. We got to go 4th, which I think was a really good place to be in. I could see what other people did, and give Marcie a change to get out and see what was going on.

When it was our turn, I was told to let Marcie off leash and to guide her into places where the rabbits might be. I actually flushed out the first rabbit, but Marcie was too far away to see it. She flushed one out later, but it ran towards the fence and she gave up when she saw it disappear at the fence. She didn't realize that they can't get out, and didn't keep looking.

She went back where she found it, and was very dilengent and excited about searching for it.

Unfortunately she didn't find anything else in her 30 minutes so we were excused.

I was praised by several handles because I didn't try to over control her, let her work, and didn't say anything at all to discourage her. I was thrilled because she came when she was called and she worked hard. I wasn't sure how that part would go.

One of different parts of that day is that one of the big bosses at Tuesday Morning was there. I think Rich's boss reports to him, but there may be a person in between. I'd first met Richard (yes, same name as my husband) and his wife at their house when they got their first basset hound. They are extremely active in the Basset Hound club now and have quite a few dogs. They do conformation and are just starting in field work. I will admit I didn't recognize them at first, since we usually see each other dressed to the nines for the company Chirstmas party and they aren't in my "dog database".

Really good article on dog training

I really like Jon Katz's articles, and this one is top on my list. Too many people ascribe human emotions, etc. to dogs. And it always gets in the way of finding a solution.

Do Dogs Think? - Owners assume their pet's brain works like their own. That's a big mistake. By Jon Katz

Owners assume their pet's brain works like their own. That's a big mistake.

Don't do this at home!

Photos

I've updated my photo album, adding the Spring 2004 - Best Friends

This is the most interesting photograph. Maggie doesn't like the camera and decided that she didn't want her picture taken, so the photographer and I decided we'd see if we could get them to interact and maybe she would forget the camera.

I was baiting Maggie over the teeter, and I forgot that Marcie would of course, follow.

I should have grabbed the board, but didn't think to do that, I don't even know if I realized they were both on the board until it tipped anyway. Baiting them all the way down to the bottom assured their safety -- the teeter automatically tips back into the original position.

FYI, having both dogs didn't really work, whenever the photogather thought harder than I was thinking about food, Maggie was off.

Obviously Marcie LOVES the camera.

Maggie

I finally have a decent picture of Maggie.

http://www.kweaver.org/photo_archives/cat_maggie.php

Someday soon I値l convert that to WordPress.