Halloween Night

It's halloween night and we have trick or treaters!!!! What a great time to work on behaviors like sit or down with distractions and wait. Deuce is very excited to see each group of trick or treaters so is having a lot of trouble but working through it.

What have we been up to lately? We have been shaping the table now. I don't have a removable top but the table is very low so he has no trouble "loading up". This means get on the table and down no matter what.

I felt bad last night because we headed out for Metal fest which is a yearly gathering of local metal bands. We really haven't been doing much lately as far as going out because I hate to have Deuce in the crate too much. We did lots of playing before we left and I made sure he was nice and tired but I still felt bad. On a very funny side note, I had decided to dress up as we were going to go by a friend's costume party. I dressed up as axl rose. Tony ratted my hair and we put it up like Axl use to do it pre chinese democracy era and then I ripped some holes in some old jeans and tony made me a shirt that said "shit happens" which was one of axl's favorites to wear. I also had a bandana on my head with some sunglasses on top of that which was also a favorite of Axl's. Anyway, we stopped by the party, said hi and watched some the people and their crazy costumes and then headed out to MetalFest. When we got there, we heard they were having a mistress of metal competition. Most of the girls were dressed quite scantily and were way prettier than I was but the host Shawn talked me into getting in it. During the first round, we had to tell what tour bus we wanted to end up in after the concert and of course since shawn and I are in love with the same singer, she already knew what my answer was. The crowd cheered some of the bands and booed some of them. Many of girls had no clue what to even say so it was kind of comical, since it was about metal. In the second round, we had to tell what our favorite horror movie was and then we had to scream as if we were being killed. Well, I was in band for many years and have great lung capacity from playing in field shows so when it was my turn, I let out a yell that lasted for ever! I couldn't even believe I screamed that loud and that long. I got lots of cheers but of course the girls that were scantily clad got tons of cheers no matter how loud or good they screamed. Shawn reminded the crowd that they were voting for the best scream, not the hottest chick so we all had to scream again. I and three or four other girls got pulled into the finals and they had to re-vote and the former mistress got to pick the winner. Of course I got picked because of my scream, not because of my looks so I won tickets to a couple of concerts and a new KROCK tshirt. It was a ton of fun, got lots of high fives and lots of compliments on my scream. I still can't believe I got up there and did it because I was nervous as hell! I guess next year I get to help crown the new mistress of metal!!!!!! We got in around 1:30 and in bed around 2. We had such a great time but i still feel so guilty for poor deuce having to be in the crate so much yesterday. We are going again tonight but he has been out playing all day so I don't feel so guilty. Deuce did wake us up at 7 just like I thought he would but tony got up with him and let me sleep in. I got back up around 9:30 so got some sleep. I have been chugging caffeine all day today so hopefully I won't fall asleep tonight at the show!

I have to work tomorrow so I plan on taking him to work with me and doing some training. I am trying to get him into as many situations that I can to work his basic training. We are still working on his new tricks, shake, wave, and roll-over as well. He is a very fast learner so I am really enjoying adding some fun stuff in.

i think we are to the chewing phase

I think we are finally in the teething/chewing phase. He seems to be finding everything he can to chew on, so I am having to be ever vigilant and always have a toy to give him to chew on instead. He was very active last night as we were trying to watch tv (something i hardly ever do), so I was up and down all night! He got in the garbage last night on one of his missions and got a dog food sack out that of course is bigger than him and drug it into the living room to show me. He is such a little mess!

I started working on the table last night. I am going to use load up since that is what we used for Harley and is in my mind. For him, load up means get on the table and lay down and hold position till i say ok. Yesterday was our first time so once I get it more solid, I will use load up on everything and it will mean just get on whatever I am next to and lay down. Same thing with toes, whatever we are using, toes means get on with both back feet and hold till momma says ok.

The weather was nice last night so we did some bang game too on the teeter. When I was working the bang game, I notice a practice arrow in our yard by the fence. I was very upset to say the least. We have some college kid neighbors who have been very good so far but they are hunters. They have their target up against our fence and I had already told them that they needed to be very careful as we had dogs that were out in the yard sometimes. I marched over to have a talk with them but lucky for them, they weren't home. We live in the city so it is illegal to fire any time of weapon so they are breaking the law but i have let it pass till now. Based on how the arrow was, it probably ricochet off of the target and into our back yard but still it had enough force to burrow itself into our yard. I wanted to get things handled before tony got home but they never came home. Tony decided it was our arrow now and broke it in half so I guess they won't be getting it back.

Tomorrow is the day of our exam in KC and I am feeling very good. Miller has been very happy and wanting to do agility in the yard which is so weird for him. He really doesn't like working in the yard but he wanted to do table with deuce last night. He kept on running out and jumping up on the table with trying to intercept him so he wouldn't jump. He thought it was a really fun game and was smiling the whole time. I finally had to put him the house and risk him eating something. Speaking of eating something, Harley ate a big portion of Strawberry's new JM food. I had gone over to the neighbors and left the wash room door open and I had her food in there partially open. Not sure how much he got but his tummy was not happy last night at all. I am going to have to go buy another plastic air tight tub I guess. Why are those little things so expensive?

Need to go work deuce. Decided to teach him shake too and that is coming along nicely but sit pretty is not. It is a hard behavior to get him to offer and when I use the cookie above his head he topples over. I put him in a sit with his back next to my chest so that he can lean back on me, which helps but he always swings around to face me, so I have to place him back in a sit facing away from me. Shake was super easy, I just put his paw in my hand and told him good shake and gave him a cookie. Well, better get to it!

another busy day, yeah!

I am getting so anxious for thursday. I just wish it would hurry up and get here. Miller seems to be doing great and I am having trouble keeping him calm and subdued, which is kind of weird for miller. I so want to go to nationals and am so hoping that we get a good report on thursday. I am hoping that the vet says whatever it was is healing. Okay back to the puppy since it is his blog.

Deuce is doing great, growing like a weed! He has an ouchy broken tooth which would explain why he isn't eating with gusto as he once did. It is a baby tooth so hopefully it will fall out soon, but in the mean time I just soak his food. I am also giving him yogurt as his tummy has been a little off. We are finished with this panacur he was taking for the possibility of giardia so I am hoping that is what was hurting his tummy. Of course I can't give just him something so everyone is getting yogurt in their food. Deuce is still doing really good in his training. We are doing toes on every surface we can and I am getting toes on surface changes,not just height changes which makes me happy. Means he really understands what toes means. I am trying to add movement on my part now to toes. We just started so he is having issues but are working through those. I have also been adding running around him to wait or running past him or doing silly things and he is holding both the sit and the down while i do that. I am also having Harley heel around him as he is holding position and this is the supreme distraction so we are working through it. I have also decided to start the trick training. We are working on shake hands and sit pretty. Just started both of them so he is still trying to figure out what the heck we are doing.

I think Deuce is starting the teeth process as he is starting to chew on lots of different things so I am trying to be very vigilant and always have a toy for him to chew on. Berry has all the sudden started helping him and has destroyed several toys for him. Funny how the adult dogs are reacting right now. Miller is regularly getting stuff off of the counter and eating it. Last night, we decided to go to the local bar and eat and we took deuce with us. He loves going in the car and sleeps in his car crate so well that we thought it would be easier on him. When we got back, Miller had eaten a whole big container of already made croissants. Berry had also chewed up his favorite toy so i give up!

Okay going to go train now. Two more days of waiting.

Hutchinson Weekend

Wow, what a fun weekend! Again, I thought I would be bummed about not getting to run Miller but really had a great time and stayed pretty busy. We didn't get to the hotel till 9:30 on friday night and for some reason, Deuce was really active and ready to go. I wasn't really all that sleepy so I stayed up and played with him while tony and the rest of the crew slept. We didn't get to set up our crates on friday night but this place always has tons of crating so I wasn't really worried. We got up early and headed over after stopping at the local coffee shop. We decided to crate harley and deuce together again and they did really great together. For some odd reason, I think it helps Harley to relax. Tony and harley had great runs with bobbles on both but he is learning. I have learned to keep my mouth shut, let him watch the video tape and reinforce to myself that Harley is now his and I have no control over how he runs him. I got to run in jumpers! My friend Lauri let me run her sheltie Cosmos. I had a great time running a smaller dog. Agility friends are the best!

We decided to take the dogs to the Dillon Nature Center so they could unwind after being in the crate for a while. Took a nice long walk and enjoyed the leaves and the wildlife. Harley went for a little swim in the pond and of course deuce wanted to swim too. Looks like we have two water dogs now in the family! After taking tons of pictures, we decided to head over to the Cosmopshere and let the doggies sleep a while in their crates in the car. The cosmosphere is awesome! I think I could have spent all day just in the museum, but we had to go see the planitarium, the IMAX theater and the science show. I convinced Tony to skip the science show since I play with science every day and instead just spend more time in the museum. I love museums so I was happy. The planatarium was all about the hubble telescope and the IMAX was about the forces of nature including tornadoes, earthquakes, and volcanoes. We had a great day learning all we could about rockets and space and even got to see the actual Apollo 13 capsule.


That night we went out to Yoder KS, which I think is an Amish community and had dinner and pie. We were stuffed to the gills but I knew that Deuce was going to be ready to go. When we got back, spent some time in Lori's room talking about League stuff and injuries and random dog training. We decided to take the puppies out and do some training. The hotel we were in had a water park for kids kind of like the great wolf lodge but smaller so great training opportunities. We worked on behaviors with the kids screaming and then found an atrium with a bunch of round tables to work restrained recalls and outs and toes. It was a great distraction working both puppies at the same time. Deuce even got to play with Solei and they had a great time. Deuce also got to play with zoom and even edge. Deuce still was pretty active when we got back so stayed up with him and finally got to sleep around 12. I did not get a ton of sleep this weekend so will probably go to bed very early tonight.

Sunday dawned early again. I had let Deuce stay loose in the room and even on the floor as he seems to be a hot dog and gets really hot sleeping with me. I didn't find any accidents so two times now we have stayed in a hotel and no accidents YEAH! I had his little pop up crate set up and would feed him in it and then try and go back to sleep. They are so use to getting up early and eating that they can't seem to break that habit. We were literally 3 minutes away from the trail site so we really didn't need to be up so early but the boys didn't see things the same way I did. Again, Tony had some great runs but just no Qs. He is learning so much and I see the light bulb going off every run! I got to once again run a friend's dog, but this time it was an aussie named Scoot, the same scoot that i helped take care of when I went out to North Carolina for nationals. We got a Q and a good time! I had so much fun running him as he runs really nicely and fast and I can actually do some rear crosses. I am not use to a dog that doesn't really check in as Miller does every single obstacle so it felt so much smoother than when Miller and I run. I ended up doing some shopping too! I love not running as I feel like I get so much done and get to socialize so much more!

The drive home was uneventful although I was very sleepy and had to have Tony drive from Salina on. Played with everyone and let them have some outside time. Now the pup is under my feet snoozing and I am wanting to snooze too. I guess I will end on this. Had a great time this weekend, got lots of training with distractions in, even some training right next to the in and out gate. Am still keeping my fingers crossed to run at nationals so i am hoping Thursday will hurry up and get here so I will know one way or another.

Getting excited to go to Hutch

Sorry I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately. I have been a little preoccupied and in the mornings have been really busy for some reason. Check out my performance blog for the latest on miller so I don't have to type it twice:) We are going to see a specialist on thursday Oct 29th so I am hoping we get answers then.

On to my little or should I say big Deuce man! I kind of had let him go about his own business for a few days and boy can I tell! We had to have some remedial sessions on toes and a few other things but now we seem to be on the right track again. I am really thinking about going to the Ann Braue seminar and take Deuce if I don't have to spend a ton of money on Miller and his injury. I think I will probably audit but we will have to wait till next week to decide.

I have to tell you a funny story about Deuce and how he trains us. We have bells on the door in the back so they always ring when we open them. Most smart dogs figure that out and will ring them to tell us to let them out. Well, Deuce figured that out really quickly so he will go in the other room and ring the bell over and over for any reason. Since I don't know when he is playing or when he is serious, I always let him out. He seems to really like being outside even if it is raining or windy, dark or light. He will even get in the pool if it is freezing outside! Anyway, last night he was ringing the bell constantly and when I would let him out, he would go out and then stand there and look at me, like aren't you coming out? I had gotten tired of him doing this so before we went to bed, I ignored his bell ringing and made him come up to the bed. We always start out with him in the bed with us and I was reading and he came up, sat next to me and then proceeded to pee all over the bed. I couldn't believe he did that! I had to strip the bed and then couldn't remember where the other set of sheets were so just grabbed a couple of comforters and slept on those last night. He got most of the pee on my big body pillow so everything had to go into the wash. URGH! He is too smart for his own good!

Since I am not running this weekend, I hope to get alot of training in at the trial. Probably won't blog again till sunday night. I do want to say thanks to all of my friends out there who have been so super supportive of miller and I through this frustrating time. Your kind words and encouragement and support have been really really great and helpful and I love you all. No one can beat doggy/agility friends (and mommies)!

Now I feel a little stupid

I took Deuce to the vet yesterday to have him looked over. It was time for his last set of puppy shots and he wasn't previously feeling well so didn't know if we needed to just examine him for what was going on or give shots or what. He seemed fine when I came home, had not thrown up and was very perky so we decided to go ahead and give him his last set of shots. My vet did do a fecal on him to check as we have had some giardia going around and they did find two suspicious looking cyst like objects in his fecal float so we decided to go ahead and treat him. I am going to take him in today to bathe him and then will bathe him when he is done with the treatment. We haven't noticed any problems in the other dogs so we are just going to wait and watch them and treat accordingly. Giardia is so widespread and is everywhere so it is not a major concern in my book. The funny thing was, his poop was full of hair and the vet asked me why that would be and I remembered as I was grooming berry on sunday, deuce was running around eating the hair. That would probably explain the puking! I didn't really examine the puke as it was 5 in the morning, but I bet it was full of hair too! Boy, I feel stupid!

On to miller. My vet looked him over yesterday so he would have a better feel for what was going on to talk to KSU or whomever we end up going to. He watched him gait for quite a while, both walk and trot and then watched the videos I have posted on youtube to see how he normally runs and how he ran at Lincoln. He did some manipulations and we decided that it wouldn't be a bad idea to go ahead and do a hip x-ray, just to rule stuff out. I am also going to get him started on Duralactin, a natural pain supplement, and some JD dog food just in case. He did previously throw up when I tried to supplement him so I am hoping he doesn't have an aversion to the supplement source. I am going to try everything in my power to get him well, but am also going to be very realistic about nationals.

I feel like I haven't been doing much training with the puppy lately as my mind has been elsewhere. We have done lots of just everyday training (sits and downs and waits), but I need to get back into my foundations. I asked for toes today as we were walking and he looked at me like I had lost my mind. Need to get back to work with him for sure!

sick puppy?

Not sure what is going on with the puppy this morning. Let him sleep in the bed for quite a while last night before i put him in the crate. Sometime between then and 5:20 am, he puked a whole bunch in his crate. I didn't notice for some reason when the alarm went off so let him out where he pooped and peed like normal and then i fed them. He wasn't interested in his food but seemed fine. Waited and waited and then gave up and took him back upstairs when I found the puke. It looked like not solid food but mashed up food which scared me. He ate last night at 6 ish so he should have digested his food by the time he would have thrown up. Of course the first thing I thought of was obstruction! I put him back in the bed with me and he slept in till 7 and then we got back up. He was hungry and that point and ate his food and is now playing. I am going to call the vet and make sure I don't need to bring him in. I may take the day off if I need to. He is currently playing like crazy with Harley so seems fine.

I didn't take him with me last night when I took Miller to Topeka to the chiropractor. I was talking about him to Dr. G and he made the comment that Deuce is going to be bigger than Miller (not good) and that he won't be very agile. Really hurt my feelings. I don't want a huge dog as it won't be good for agility and will be a ton harder on their joints to be big and doing agility. I guess if he can't do agility well, we will do herding or obedience or something different but I really want another agility dog. I wouldn't mind having a dog jump in the 24 inch class but that totally screws me in USDAA once again. He would either have to jump 26 inches or be put in performance like miller. Not that i don't like competing in performance but would like to have at least one dog in the championship level.

On to miller news. So i took Miller to the chiropractor yesterday. He watched him walk alot and said he looked alot more lame than the last two times (he seems better to me) he saw him. Worked on him for a while and of course adjusted different things which is good, not the same adjustment every time. The other vet Dr. S did some chinese medicine with him and some acupuncture on his knee. Not sure why they think it is in his knee as they don't think it is ligament or joint but they don't know what it is. I called my vet last night and we talked for a long time and he is going to call some vets up at KSU today and see what they can figure out that we need to do diagnostic wise. He was throwing around words like MRI or CT-Scan and I was about to pass out! Those cost a ton of money to do! At this point, nationals is not in the picture at all and we might be taking at least 2 months off, if not more. Dr. J, my vet, also knows someone that has a nice clinic in Mission KS that could do some work on him as well. It would be great if I could get him in at KSU and do some physical therapy there. If it is a soft tissue injury, we need to be doing PT right now. I can attest to how much soft tissue injuries suck and am still battling mine! I will do everything in my power to fix him and get him better so this may be a very long and interesting journey.