Auggie’s Retirement Video
I keep trying to put things into words and just… can’t. We finished our last run and I walked out laughing and smiling, then I took a breath, it sunk in, and I started to cry. It wasn’t a sobbing ugly cry like I thought it might be. Just tears rolling down my face and a bit of not able to say anything. He is just such a great dog and I love him so much. I know our journey together isn’t over, but this part of the story is, and it hurts a little. This is not how I ever pictured it ending.
I am now looking around to find somewhere he can play flyball, because I really think he would love it. We’re going to get back into getting him on sheep too. His breeder gave him a big kiss yesterday and said “You can still come to my house and play.” I know it’s not over. Stuff will be set up in my yard for the baby dogs and we will play on it. Just because we aren’t competing doesn’t mean he won’t play agility anymore. It just means I’m no longer throwing money at it, and we can just… have 100% fun without the pressure of trying to “fix” issues anymore. It’s all about fun from here on out and that’s how it should be.
until we start playing flyball.
Weavin’ Wednesdays
(Sing this to the tune of Maroon 5’s “Payphone.” Without Adam Levine’s really horrible falsetto. Think of Ne-Yo’s falsetto instead. Yeah, that’s it. Now sing.)
I’ve got a Payton, tryin’ to train him,
All of my change I spent on treats
Where has his brain gone,
Baby it’s all wrong,
Tryin’ to do these two by twos
Unfortunately every time I hear that song I FREAK out and practically kill myself trying to change the station, so I can’t parody the rest of the song because I have no idea how it goes.
BUT THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT.
LOOK AT THIS VIDEO.
Make sure you watch all the way to the end!
HE DID IT! Payton can weave!! This is the only time Payton is allowed to say “LOOK WHAT I CAN DO!” Yeaaaaaaah Pay!!
Training Challenge 9/17/12
As you know from Weavin’ Wednesday, last week’s schedule changed to suddenly include weave pole training for P. Surprise! Well, we’ll continue that this week. Maybe I can teach the baby dog to weave before there’s snow on the ground?
Auggie is having fun playing in the six weave poles as well. I don’t really need to work on his poles, they are his best obstacle, but he does enjoy them and it never hurts to refresh, so I’m letting him play after Payton.
M – W – F
Session 1:
Jump work
Set Point x3
Straight line x3
Straight line with height x3
Session 2:
Tunnel rear crosses (A)
Weaves
Session 3:
Weaves
T – R
Session 1:
Jump work
Set Point x3
Straight line x3
Straight line with height x3
Session 2:
Weaves
Session 3:
Table (A)
Weaves
Saturday and Sunday are Auggie’s last agility trial ever, so I will probably not take the time to train P during that weekend… I will be slightly preoccupied.
Painting Helpers
Yesterday was Payton’s annual. My new house is halfway to the new vet’s office, so Pay came to the new house with us while we painted yesterday. He was a very good boy, but I thought it was immensely unfair that HE got to be the first dog at the new house. So Auggie got to come today. My mom decided to also bring Georgie, and because that wasn’t fair to only take two, Pay came along today too.
All three dogs “helped” while I was painting my new master bedroom. Would you care to guess which of the three did NOT come home blue?
Can you tell from this photo??
AUGGIE decided to curl up in the corner of the room right up against two freshly painted walls. AUGGIE!!
You might not be able to see it – I didn’t see it until we all packed up to leave and then I went “hey, WAIT A SECOND.” It’s on her tail and there’s a small bit on her side too LOL. I have no idea when this even happened.
So PAYTON was the only dog who didn’t get in the paint! And he had TWO opportunities to get all painted, yesterday and today! What a good pupper.
The girlie, just because. Not the girlie I wish I was taking a photo of. I’m very unhappy because this house is taking a lot longer than I expected, and the longer it takes, the longer it takes to bring MY girlie home…
Someday. I hope it’s soon. =<
Wordless Wednesdays – Weave Pole Wednesdays? 09/12/12
Today was (is?) the premier of WORDLESS WEDNESDAYS. No words, just a photo. Except today is also… weave pole Wednesday. I had this idea ages ago when I was starting the 2x2s, posting all about Payton’s weave pole progress and eventually posting some weave pole exercises. But of course the 2x2s didn’t work out and we took a break from weave poles for a while.
Well, the other day Payton was running laps in the yard and came by the weave poles, hit the entry, and weaved two poles. Just hit the entry and weaved two straight up and down poles for no real reason at top speed. I almost fell off the deck I was so amazed. So I decided it was probably time to get back to training them.
Today we did three sessions with the clicker and shaping them, using a bit of weave-a-matic action to help us out. He is doing fantastic, getting low, going fast, and even one-footing a bit. Not too shabby for a dog who hasn’t seen weaves in months. I’m very thrilled with him and hope we will see some pretty amazing rapid learning over the next few weeks.
So instead of just WORDLESS WEDNESDAYS where I will post “just” a picture, I think I will also go ahead with WEAVE POLE WEDNESDAYS for a while and update on Payton’s progress with the weaves. Enjoy this week’s photo and some weavin’ action.
Training Challenge 9/10/12
I’m trying to get back into the habit of weekly updating. Monday is for the training challenge, I’ve got a new feature for Wednesdays, an idea for Thursdays, and Sunday needs to be for our weekly wrap-ups again.
So to kick it back off, here’s what this week looks like:
M – W – F
Session 1:
Jump work
Set Point x3
Straight line x3
Straight line with height x3
Session 2:
Tunnel rear crosses (A)
Retrieve (P)
T – R
Session 1:
Jump work
Set Point x3
Straight line x3
Straight line with height x3
Session 2:
Weaves (A)
Copcop (P)
Sat
Session 1:
Jump work
Distance grid – x4 out, x3 back in
Progressive grid x3
Session 2:
Sequencing (A)
Baby sequence of tunnel-jump (P)
Sun
Play day! Whatever we feel like doing. May involve taking P to the lake. Unfortunately our “beach” lake is closed for the season, so no more swimming for us both, but he can play at the other lake which is close to home.