Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Guess what I found out...

Hmm it's amazing how things work out.. The day after I decide to hold off on getting my pup, my friend Cindy emailed me and said that she is going to be repeating her Stella x Leroy cross for fall puppies!!! This cross just produced five gorgeous pups that all evaluated out as show quality. This is the cross that I had my heart set on a pup from previously, but mama Stella didn't have a black tri girl for me. So keep your fingers and toes crossed!
Nemo is doing really well with his new lessons. I'm seeing a lot of progress with c/t everytime he sees another dog. I think the positive association is starting to sink in. I've also taught him to roll over and Lord help me, that's his favorite trick now. Whenever I look at him and he knows I have a treat in hand, he rolls over and pops back up so proud of himself! I also hand feed him his meals and make him do downs, left/right spins, roll over etc. for his breakfast and dinner. It's so funny because now he'll go through a sequence of all those things before I ask him to do anything. He'll down, spin, sit, rollover, down again, all in a row just in anticipation. It makes me laugh and I just have to break down and give him a cookie :)
We're going out of town to Myrtle Beach this week and I hope to start class at BF3 when we get back. I can't wait for some beach time!!!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Ok I give up...

After three nights of tossing and turning, not being able to sleep, I decided that now is not the right time for a new addition to the family. It was strange because when I told Marcus how I felt about it, he tried to talk me INTO getting the pup, very strange... Anyway, I just never had a peaceful feeling about it, like I was doing the right thing. I'm too busy right now to spend the time with her that I should, and all my spare time is spent working with Nemo. I had to be honest with myself and realize that if I got her, then I would probably wind up slacking off with Nemo, and I don't want to do that with all the work I've put into that little booger so far. Basically my only "pro" was how darned cute she is! **sigh** Oh well, there will be the perfect pup WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Is she the one?


I THINK that we found my girl...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Summer is here!

I guess we've reached the end of our nice, cool, rainy weather. It's been in the 90's the past few days and the mosquitos are now out in full force.
Last night was P3 test and Nemo did pretty great. He passed all the elements required to graduate, yay!! Some of them were tougher than I thought they would be. For the down stay he had to stay for two minutes while everyone in the class jogged in a circle right in front of him. Terri walked one foot in front of him squeeking a toy, and then rattling a treat bag and saying she has treats - brutal!!! Nemo stayed though! :)
He was really cute on his recall.. He had to come to me in between two dogs playing about 10 feet apart AND in the middle of them was a pile of toys, eek! So I took off running and called Nemo from about 30 feet away, he took off for me, but as he passed the toy pile he did a double take but kept running so he almost flipped over himself. He didn't stop though, and came right to me.
We worked more on his tolerance of being near other dogs. He's showing signs of improvement. I'm going to repeat P3 even though he passed, so that we can work on that issue and just make sure everything is solid before going on to beginner agility class.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

You know what I mean....

Somedays training your dog seem glorious and wonderful and you think "Wow, I must have the smartest dog EVER!" and my goodness he gets so many treats and belly rubs, and then there are other days...
I imagine that raising children is much of a roller coaster than raising a pup. That's how I know I'm not ready for kids! :)

Monday, June 04, 2007

Okay FINALLY an update!

I've been having some serious A.D.D. lately! Anytime I sit down to post an update, something comes up that I have to mess with, ugh.... but now here I am, yay! It has been a crazy summer so far.

Training Nemster has been going pretty well, with some challenges, in between all of the rain that we've had. I met with Terri last night to work on some of his weirdo issues that have come up in the past couple of months (hormones...). On lead he has been going nuts when he sees another dogs, especially a moving one. So we worked with her dog walking circles around Nemo, and C/T everytime he sat calmly. We figured out that his "comfort zone" for a moving dog is 15 feet and 5 feet for a stationary dog. He did great walking directly behind and in front of Roo (Terri's dog), if I held a target stick with some peanut butter on it right in front of his nose. He completely forget that Roo was there, he was so focused on that peanut butter :) So we're going to work on shortening and fading the stick eventually.
We also worked on him walking right past her dog with my giving him cookies as soon as he saw her dog and on up to her, but no cookies after we passed her. So hopefully soon he will learn that another dog = cookies! He's also developed a fear of some strangers - mostly men, he will squeeky bark and try to hide, all the while wagging his tail (told you they were weirdo issues..). So Terri had her son and husband walk circles around Nemo and toss cookies at him. After a while Nemo was eating out of their hands and doing pretty well.

She thinks a lot of this is age and he just doesn't know what to quite do with himself. She said the cases like this that she's seen before, where the dog has been well socialized and has had no traumatic experience, have "outgrown" the behavior by 12-15 months old with continued exposure like this to people and dogs.

OTHER THAN THAT :) he's been doing great! We've been doing mostly flat-work, which I want to have down solid before starting any obstacles, since I have no clue what I am doing handling. He's learned to target great and we're beginning table work. Since he's lost his puppy fat he's gotten tons of energy and is fast fast fast!

Ok so that's all that I have for now! I've been meaning to take some new pictures but... The stinkers all had baths yesterday so maybe I will get to it today.

I promise I'll do better! :)