So we (Riley and I) ventured south this weekend to try out rally at the Hamilton club. Never been there before but the facility was nice and people seemed nice too. Left the little man at home cause he'd just be bored all day and I think Riley likes the alone time. Anyways, so this is the first time we've done rally since, oh let's say November. Bless their hearts, why do I make my dogs do these things? I put them in situations they aren't used to then expect them to focus? Geesh, what kind of dog owner am I? :)

Anyways, moving on. . .so Riley pulled off Double Q #6 for her RAE so I'm thrilled with that. Rally is not nearly as fun to her as agility. . .Susan says Riley thinks it's too slow for her, she likes to go fast, which I had kind of figured out myself but it's nice to have confirmation. The show always starts with excellent, which is usually our sticking point. I know part of the reason is that I'm more tense about Excellent so that goes directly to Riley and also another part is she's usually a little keyed up from the car ride, new facility, new smells, etc. Excellent started with all the signs we don't particularly care for. The moving down was the first one. That actually went pretty well and once she was down, she stayed down which is a huge improvement. Before she'd always pop up once I started moving to her left. The back up three steps, though she was practicing it well before we went in, she got pretty crooked on when in the actual ring. There was something about the back corners that she didn't like. . .at all. I could see her tense up about them when we got close. Apparently, she thinks there was some bad mojo going on back there. Didn't help that someone tried to open the back door right as we were walking by. And she had a great honor this time too. There was this novice golden retriever that kept trying to stir stuff up with other dogs so he went off during the honor. Riley's ears were flicking around like crazy but she stayed right where she was. I tried to use some of the advice from Lynn Reagan-Hull about creating a relaxed posture and it seems to help both me and her. Score wasn't spectacular but what should I expect since I haven't practiced with her. Deb of Deb's Dog Blog graciously offered to tape our runs. I'd never had the ability to review our runs before and it put some stuff in to prespective. It really didn't look as bad the second time as it felt the first time. Let's see if I can post the link here.

Advanced was a little better but still not as happy as I would have liked her to have been. I've figured out that she likes the sit pivot right sit sign but not the one to the left. It wasn't till yesterday that I figured out that I gave the wrong command for sit-pivot left. . .no wonder she didn't know what the heck I was talking about. We had a sit-stand-walk around that she nailed. She has always tracked me a little with her head when I go for the walk around but she stayed right there this time, which is huge to me. She took a moment to scratch (stress) before a swing. She actually moved fast for the fast sign in Advanced but not so much in Excellent. Here's the link to the video of this one. Let's see how our success hold up this weekend when we do a three day rally trial.

So my mom keeps my dogs during the day while I'm at work. She will stop by my house once I'm home to drop them off when she goes out to do the chores, and usually rings my door bell to let me know they are on the back porch. So last night, she did that except door bell didn't ring-maybe due to the cold. I just happened to hear the screen porch slam close on her way out. So I go out to investigate and yup, there's the little white dogs looking at me and doing their happy-to-see-you-dance. They get excited as they normally do and as I go to open the door, Riley starts screaming bloody murder. I mean, really screaming her head off. Ear breaking, heart wrenching, adrenaline pumping screams. I throw the door open and see she's got her foot stuck between the door frame and the flooring below it (the house is 90 years old and has settled so they don't match up totally). We are all totally freakin out cause I can't get her foot out. Eventually I figure out to push down on the flooring to make enough space to get her foot out. She hobbles around, holding her paw in the air and whimpers for minutes after that. I tell you, my heart was breaking and adrenaline was pumping! Oh my gosh! Still thinking about those horrible screams now. . .it was awful. She still hobbles around on it for a couple more minutes. I run and get her a baby aspirin in hopes that it will keep any swelling down and ease the soreness. She wouldn't let me touch it for a little while but she hates having her feet touched any ways so this didn't totally surprise me. After a half hour, all was forgotten and she decides to jump off the bed, about giving me another heart attack cause it's really high and onto hardwood floors. So all is right again in the world and I'm definitely gonna have to do something about that gap beneath the door, though I'd be surprised if that ever happened again cause she's gonna be super leary of it from now on.

Rhys' first birthday was on January 24. . .yeah, I know, just getting round to blogging about it now. I still can't believe he's a year old already! How crazy is that! It's been so neat to watch him grow up (and keep growing and growing. . .your suppose to be a "small" dog). Bless his heart, he's such a good boy! He is such a sweetheart and loves to cuddle. I call him my little lovebug cause if you sit down, he wants to be right there touching you. I always say Riley has had to put up with my slow learning curve, but apparently Rhys is falling in to that same category too. Unfortunately, he's had to deal with my ineptitude as a show groomer and conformation handler, and performance handler so he's another "trainer dog".

So in honor of this milestone, I had gotten these little "pupcakes" from Three Dog Bakery and tried to commerate the moment with pictures, etc. However, I attempted to borrow my mom's camera, which did not go well. It apparently is extremely sensitive to movement so most of the pictures did not turn out that great. However, this is one of the better ones I got. Cheryl pointed out to me a couple weeks ago that I should make training sessions out of meal times (another duh moment) and make them wait for their food. . .sort of builds control, etc. So they've really picked up on it well, as can be seen. In the second one, if I make them wait for any length of time, Rhys kind of poops out and figures "why bother stressing about this, might as well take a nap".

I finally gave up on taking still pictures and used the video function on the camera. Again, don't expect high quality footage as a) I'm using a little point and shoot camera and b) I'm also trying to hold a cake in my other hand.

Once I released them, they had no idea what to do with these cake thingys. . .the cakes are kind of hard, and they've been used to eating raw so it threw them for a loop. It's kind of like a typical "first birthday" video of any kid anywhere-cake and icing go every where, kids looks messy, laughter is had by the onlooking parents. You can hear me snickering in the background at their antics. Riley figured it out and started taking her cake down. I eventually ended up holding Rhys' cause he was having some serious struggles. Apparently, the icing is really gummy cause he was smacking his lips like crazy. This attracted my mom's cat Piper, who comes in at the end and finds the icing to be of interest and helps with clean up.
Happy Birthday big guy! I look forward to many more birthdays to come!

Ah man! Deb has found my secret blog! ;) I got the idea from you anyways, Deb! I found yours via Holly, I think, and thought what a great idea it was. I needed some place to write down my adventures in the dog world so borrowed your idea. I have stuff to say but no where to say it. However, I'm always kind of self-consicous about . . .well me and stuff I do/make, so haven't really gotten around to sharing it with anyone. However, since I started leaving you little notes on your blog, I think my commando sleath moves have been found out and sublietly is over. ;)

Unfortunately, I'm not as good about posting as you are. Problem one is short term memory loss. Something about running agility, probably more than a little adrenaline, and how fast it is and, frankly, results in my having no idea what the heck just happened. Hence, I can't write more than "boy, that was a nice run" or something along those lines. Problem two is, the things I think are significant, no one else does so I talk myself out of writing them cause no one really wants to read them. This theory is really kind of silly, since a) I haven't published the post to any one so no one is reading it anyways and b) that's the whole purpose of a blog is to basically to write about whatever is on your mind.
You've also made me realize, I've really got to invest in a video camera. There are tons of people taping runs and now, like a duh moment, I realize that I really need to do it too. It's made me realize that Riley is a great dog and is not the problem. . .I am. I've got to tape and figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong. I feel like my limbs flail around when I'm out there so I need to figure out what kind of signals that is sending. Maybe one day I'll pull it together. ;)
Anyways, thanks for the inspiration and the thoughts from your blog.

By the by on a totally different subject, had been reading the blog of Susan Garrett's (found once again via you via AgileGold) but hadn't seen the one about the Kleenex needed. And I really did need Kleenex. . .breaks my heart to think about that subject, though I know some day it will come. We lost Champ in November, our first "house dog" and I could never actually write it on the blog cause every time I did, I'd start crying. Not something particularly desirable when one is at work. Riley, if you haven't noticed, isn't a very well bred Westie and came from a backyard breeder in Bedford. I have worried for awhile now that her life will be cut short due to some freakish genetic disorder or malady or injury so this subject is kind of in the back of my mind a lot. We know a couple of dogs who've died unexpectedly under anesthesia for routine work so how can I not worry. Then I kick myself cause she's only 3 1/2. . .will be 4 this year. She's still so young and has so much life in her left. I can't dwell on stuff like that. . . geesh, you can't live in the "what ifs". But still, your heart breaks just a little at the thought that one day, the sweet brown eyes won't be there to look in to your eyes any more. Oh pull it together. . .see I'm sniffling again about this! ;) Anyways, thanks again and I'll see ya sometime soon.

What a fun weekend! Riley blew me out of the water this weekend. She had back to back double Qs on Friday and Saturday! This has never happened before! That was amazing and an absolute 180 from where we were in November. She had some really great runs and I'm totally proud of her.
Friday was such a stress relief. I skipped out of work. Had a minor cold so didn't want to go anyways. Lots of my friends were there at the trial and Riley was raring to go and we were ready to do some agility. I have a horrible short term memory when it comes to running my courses so don't remember exactly what happens. All I know is that I planted my foot when trying to send Riley to a tunnel, and next thing I know, I'm pitching forward on to my hands and knees. I was worried I was totally going to land on top of her and with that, Splat, there would be no more Riley. Amazingly enough, I missed her, she committed to the tunnel and then she's gone. I scramble back up and try to beat her to the end of the tunnel, which I barely did, still off balance but manage to send her over the next jump. Amazing but miraculously no refusals were called in all of this mess and we were clean! We got a LOUD cheer when we finished and I took a bow. Geesh! Thanks for rubbing it in, yall! ;) Riley got lots and lots of cookies for that one.
Repeat great performance on Saturday (minus the falling and me making a fool out of myself). Sorry, can't remember any further details than that.
Sunday, courses were a lot tougher. . .understandable, as they can't always be easy. We've got to do a little more table work. I'm thinking she's developed some stress over it, so we need to make it fun again. Too much time jacking around on it, trying to get her to sit. I gave Riley a really bad entrance to the weaves in her standard run so she missed the entrance. I put her back in and then she started popping a couple poles. I didn't bother correcting them. She'd done them fine all the rest of the weekend so why bother. Jumpers was a different story. Hit the weaves fine, did the next couple jumps and sent her in to the tunnel. As I moved to the cross to the other end of the tunnel, I waited on her. And waited . . .and waited. Called her name. Thought crossed my mind that she was pooping in the tunnel, though I know she didn't have to go. All of a sudden, I look down and she's right behind and had been there the entire time. Good grief! Well, now what! ;) I look up and the judge is cracking up and so is the crowd. Take her over the next two jumps and try to send her back in to the tunnel again. Still a total refusal. Oh well, now we're done and make a quick exit. What can I say. . .after two great days, I can't blame her for blowing off some steam. She thinks it's funny (and it was) and I knew there was no way we could double Q three days in a row. She just can't be serious all the time and just wants to run for the sake of running (skip all those silly things we have to do, let's go now!).
She's such a fun little dog to run. I've finally figured out what she needs to be sure of what we are doing and how I need to prep her before we go in. She hates having to wait to go in so I timed it just right this weekend, with getting her out right as the 8 inchers start (she was dog 7 or 8 the whole weekend). Too much time waiting = stress in her book. She even wanted to play with her toys after the run, which hasn't happened in a while. Covering her crate is also making a big difference too, as she can relax and take a good nap before and after each run. Oh and leaving her little brother at home helps a lot too I think (unfortunately). Sweet little girl! I'm so lucky to have her in my life.