Agility Ruby :)

I have been asked whether Ruby does any agility these days. Well yes, he does 🙂

During the summer he looked mostly OK, but there were a few times when his back got tight after activity. Each time I made an appointment with physiotherapist, and he was good for another two weeks, then he got tight again. One month ago I took him to a chiropractor to see if he could find the source of this issue. I was amazed when

The Catch

(c) braydawg @ flickr

On today’s walk Java pounced on the ground and grabbed something. I thought nothing of it. She is often being silly playing with freshly cut grass. She happily turned toward me, then lost what she was carrying, found it again and carried it to me proudly. Uh-oh that didn’t look like something she would do if she was playing with grass.

I asked her to drop it and her look changed from one of pride to utter disbelief, but drop it she did. It was a small gray mouse, the limbs twitching as its life was ending, hopefully not from illness or a poison, but from the shake I saw Java give earlier. I was surprised (she actually dropped it? What?!) and relieved (I’m so glad she didn’t eat it) and happy (yay, she’s not picking it up again!) and worried (what if the mouse carries a disease?) and honored (it looked like she was bringing her catch to ME) and amazed (here she is with her first catch and she actually cares about what I think) all at once.

And all I had on me was boring old kibble.

Sometimes You’re Up, Sometimes You’re Down

When running contacts still included… you know, running

Java’s running contact training has been going really well when we were able to train a few times per week. We even had a 10-day long pause one time and when we started again the dog walk was a bit higher than before and Java was still running like a champ. But we were only able to squeeze in a few trainings before life interfered again and this time we were unable to practice for three weeks straight. And then it all went downhill.

Visitors From Down Under

Java said she likes Nic. A lot.

I’m writing a bit late about this, it’s been a hectic week so far and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better. This weekend I could barely believe it when I came to a trial in Hrušica and they were really, truly there – Em & Nic of Lumen’s blog fame, no sign of jetlag, and learning to speak Slovenian faster than should be possible. My mind just couldn’t compute that someone who lives on the other side of the globe and I only know over the internetz actually materialized in Slovenia.

The Journey

Dog training is unlike any hobby I ever had. Well, it’s not really a hobby, it’s a passion. I had a passion like that once before. It was computer programming and it opened doors for me that were closed for most of my peers. That was pretty cool. I can be fairly competitive and previously I could find easy ways to compare myself to others. If I found myself lacking in some area it was usually because

Teaching a Tucked Sit

Sit was the first cue that Ruby learned as a pup. I was reading When Pigs Fly at the time and I learned there are many ways to get a behavior – luring, free-shaping, targeting, molding and capturing. I decided to capture sit since he was sitting on his own when I prepared food in the kitchen.

Capturing simply means you observe the dog in day to day life and click when he does the behavior you would like to put on cue. At first the dog won’t know what you’re clicking, but with time he will offer that behavior more and more often and eventually

Sleeping In

Do these dogs make my bed look small?