I just heard clanging…
Loud clanging.
CLANG. pause. CLANG. pause. CLANG.
I thought Auggie was throwing a party in his crate or something so I turned around all prepared to tell him to knock it off… and discovered it was Pepper. She was laying down with her tennis ball and kept pushing it with her nose against the side of the crate – CLANG – and then lifted her head a bit so it would roll back towards her – pause – and then she’d push it with her nose against the crate again – CLANG.
Repeat.
Maybe my next dog will be a normal one.
Somebody’s in the wrong bed, and More Pepper
The bed with peppers on it and the pink toys would suggest this is not the correct bed for my bad monster. Auggie disagrees and submits the argument that technically EVERYTHING in this house is his therefore this is also his bed.
Somehow I can’t quite dismiss his argument.
Photographic evidence that she HAS slept in this house… this was taken her first night here when she finally settled in her crate and fell asleep.
This is typically the shot I get of her, LOL. I can’t get much further back.
So then I took the same shot of Auggie, LOL.
Monster man <3
She walked away from me for a second. Whoo! Standing by the jump chute (she won’t actually take any of the jumps even though they’re only 4″.)
Comin’ back to me.
Ahhh! They’re standing next to each other!!
Standing next to each other again!!
I tried to get a nice one of her and Auggie together but she doesn’t really listen to sit and she DEFINITELY doesn’t listen to stay so it wasn’t happening. Auggie sat there patiently and waited and finally I just told him he was a good boy, forget it, and he could go play now. Sometimes I think he must be sitting there next to me and Pepper, watching her, and thinking “Gosh, it’s just SIT. It’s not like it’s hard. Just SIT!”
She is settling down faster when I sit down somewhere instead of pacing around like something terrible is about to happen… the first couple of days, if I sat down at the computer or sat down to flip through channels on the TV, I ended up stuck there for a while because I wanted to wait for her to settle down before I got back up. Now she seems to have learned that, okay, if somebody has sat down, we’re going to be here for a bit so lay down and take a break! But she still won’t settle enough to take any naps outside of her crate (and even inside her crate, if people are around, she’s awake and alert)… and she still won’t play with anybody, including Auggie. Sigh.
Two Dogs, One Walk
(Two walks, actually – I took one, then the other, but it was the same route.)
Put Pepper on leash and head out for a quiet, relaxing walk.
Boys playing basketball = OMG. What is that. OMG. That is terrifying. OMG. That is the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life. OMG. IT KEEPS MAKING NOISE. WTF.
Dog barks from inside house = IT’S GOING TO GET ME.
Man using power saw in his garage = HE IS GOING TO SLICE US UP WITH THAT THING.
Car parked on street = OMG WHAT IS THAT. THIS IS THE MOST HORRIFYING THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE.
Black man wearing white hoodie = HE IS GOING TO END US BOTH.
Cars on street a quarter of a mile away = THOSE ARE CLEARLY GOING TO COME KILL US.
Back home, get Auggie. Take Auggie out for a walk.
Boys playing basketball = BASKETBALL YAY!!
Man getting bags out of back of car = WHAT’D YOU BUY IS THAT FOR ME?
Dobermans in house barking = HI FRIENDS LET’S PLAY!!
Man using power saw in his garage = WHAT ARE YOU MAKING IS THAT FOR ME?
Car parked on street = I’M GONNA GO THIS WAY AROUND IT, YOU GO THAT WAY, IT’LL BE FUN!!
Asian woman power-walking = YOU HAVE FABULOUS SHOES!!
Cars on street a quarter of a mile away = CAN WE GET ONE OF THOSE I LIKE THE RED ONE!!
Dad vacuuming out truck when we get home = HURRAY LET’S GO FOR A RIDE!!
Choose your moral:
To Pepper, everything is TERRIBLE. To Auggie, everything is AWESOME.
or
Pepper lives in a horror movie. Auggie lives in Teletubby Land.
Auggie + Kong = ANNOYING.
It’s not like I call him The Annoying Thing for no reason.
Every night this week Auggie has gone into his crate and lay down to lick and chew his Kong. He spends maybe an hour with it and then he falls asleep.
Now, this is nice. He gets out of my hair and leaves me alone.
What’s NOT nice is the slurping, the squeaking, the terribly disgusting, annoying sounds.
AUGH. SQUEAK-SLURP… slurp slurp slurp… SQUEAKEDY SQUEAKY… slosh slosh slurp slosh… SQUEAK… slurp slurp… SQUEAK-A SQUEAK-A SQUEAK SQUEAK… slurp squeak slurp squeak…
I even put a squeaky tennis ball into his crate hoping he’d start obsessively squeaking it instead, because that would at least be a positive change. NOPE. Still licking and slobbering all over the Kong.
I don’t want to take it away from him because this is the entire point of the Kong, he’s supposed to lick it and keep himself occupied… but UGH.
I’m pretty sure he knows it disgusts me and that’s why he’s doing it. “Don’t want to play with me? Okay. I’m going to go be noisy and gross! Enjoy!” Sometimes he follows me around making these nasty slopping and slurping noises just to annoy me, without even having eaten anything, so that’s why I’m pretty sure he is doing this on purpose too.
The other day I told him I’m going to get a terrorist puppy and make it bother him all day long and THEN he’ll be sorry.
I don’t wanna go to bed
but I’m… sooooo tired…
I think I’ll just… lay on this pillow here…
Problem: I dumped the pillow there in a hurry so it’s folded almost in half. Dog is too big for pillow. And also IT’S ALL OF A FOOT FROM THE CRATE. JUST GO TO BED AUGGIE.
I thought for sure he’d get up when I stood up to get the camera, and usually when I turn it on and the lense extends he moves, but he lifted his head and looked at me… then put his head back down. Sooooo tired…
You can see his crate door in this one. Seriously, he’s that close to it. I actually had the pillow laying NEXT to his crate a while back and he would still lay on the pillow instead of the crate. Just a change of scenery I guess…
How can this be comfortable…?
Okay seriously. There’s no way that’s comfortable.
Little feets hanging off the back.
“Hi baby. Why don’t you just get in your crate? You fit in there.”
“No,” he said, and puts his head back down.
He stayed there for another ten minutes and JUST NOW finally got up and got in his crate. Weird dog.
My dog is going to devour me
First he leaned over, all sweet-like and gave my foot a teeny, tiny little lick. He knows I don’t like him to lick my feet but it was like a little kissy-kiss and that was it. No obsessive, slobbery licking. Just a little lick.
Then he leaned over and gave my big toe a NIBBLE.
He’s NEVER done that before. WTF. Just with his front teeth, he went nibble-nibble.
My mom told me this would happen. “If you feed the dog raw meat, how will he know the difference between raw meat and… well… you?”
And I said “If I wake up in the middle of the night and he’s eating my feet, I guess we’ll know it’s a problem.”
He didn’t even wait until I went to sleep! He just plain decided to try eating my foot.
Weird dog.
The nice thing about dogs
Last night my mom and I were putting all of the Christmas decor away – or at least attempting to. Our Christmas stuff all goes in a closet underneath the stairs in the basement. She said there was some stuff way in the back that might be okay to be donated or thrown away to make a bit more room, so I climbed into the closet and was going to pull all the stuff out that was wedged all the way in the back. It was COVERED with dust and dirt, and there’s no light in the closet, so I’m holding a flashlight in one hand, and very carefully pulling each box out with the other, moving it a bit and waiting to see if any spiders went scampering, then pulling it out the rest of the way.
So I’m under the stairs going “ugh, this is nasty,” and my mom is going “Yeah, there’s probably spiders in there.” “Waaaah!” I whine. “But probably no mice,” she says. “Probably just spiders.”
I reach for a box and move it just a bit to see if anything goes running – and RIGHT at that moment, SOMETHING FUZZY BRUSHES UP AGAINST MY BACK.
I FREAK out because there shouldn’t be anything fuzzy brushing up against my back! WTF?! I drop the box I just moved, drop the flashlight, I’m screaming, and I SPIN around…
and Auggie is standing there staring at me.
And I immediately start swearing and telling him I’m going to murder him. And he just smiles at me and wags his tail because I’m telling him I’m going to kill him again. And my mom is going “What, what?!” because I screamed, so I start telling her what happened, and it’s rather funny anyway but made even funnier by the fact that I continue to swear at the dog and threaten his life. And of course my mom starts laughing because it’s HILARIOUS. She’s seriously laughing so hard she’s in tears. And the dumb dog of course thinks something fantastic has just happened and is wagging around like a moron.
I then had to spend the majority of the rest of the night continually picking the dog up and removing him from the closet under the stairs. I picked him up once and took him over to where his little round bed is, set him down in it, and told him to lay down. Which he did while making bitey face at my hands because he thought we were playing. No, this is not a game. Neither is repeatedly going under the stairs and having me say “Auggie, get OUT.” Okay, maybe it’s a game to you, but I’m not playing.
Finally I gave up, took him out to potty one last time, and then put him in his crate for the night. After about an hour my mom finally goes “Hey, where’s Auggie?”
“Oh, I got sick of him, so I put him in his crate. That’s the nice thing about dogs, you know. When you get sick of them, you stick them in their crate, and it’s not child abuse.”
Clockwork
Auggie has certain things timed. I’m told he starts to get very antsy before I get home – running around and hovering by the door, waiting, because he knows I’m due home any minute. He definitely knows when dinner time is (sometimes even better than I do – he’ll be doing the Dinnertime Dance and I’m like “Dude, calm down, it’s not time for – oh. Oh yes it is. Sorry.”)
But the strangest thing he has timed… is knowing EXACTLY how long he has to fool around outside and make it back up to the stairs once I’ve said “If I have to come get you, you’re in BIG TROUBLE – okay, you’re in BIG TROUBLE.” The dog somehow has it timed. He knows how long it takes me to threaten him, turn around, go slip my shoes on, grab my coat, and step back to the door. Because it NEVER FAILS. I get my shoes, grab my coat, and open the door… and he’s standing there innocently like he’s been waiting the whole time to come back in.
I don’t know how he does it, but this is a skill he has perfected.
And I hate him for it.
Teaching Auggie to smile
I’ve decided it would be incredibly handy to teach Auggie to smile on command. Sometimes in the face of treats Auggie becomes SERIOUS DOG and doesn’t give me a smile… so if I’m trying to pose him and I have treats on me while I do this, I get SERIOUS AUGGIE IS SERIOUS photos instead of a normal goofy looking Auggie. Therefore, if I can be holding a treat and tell Auggie “smile!” and he will smile, I will get PERFECT pictures!! It’s genius, you see.
Except I forgot that my dog is an idiot and while trying to teach him a new trick he immediately begins offering up every single trick he already knows, or other things we’ve been working on. Like I’ve been working on cop-cop with him on and off for ages, so when doing heeling work, he attempts to get between my legs and stand on my feet. Or when trying to work on a down-stay, he likes to roll over.
The last trick I worked on with Auggie was teaching him to speak. I figured teaching smile would start rather the same, where I would click/treat any movement of the mouth, then start to narrow it down to the kind of open mouth expression I wanted. This was not a bad plan.
Except, again, I forgot that my dog is an idiot.
Therefore, this time, Auggie decided that I must want him to ROLL OVER WHILE BARKING.
Why, Auggie? Why? This is why I do things like buy a yellow submarine costume and put you in it.
Auggie attempts to communicate
I decided a while back that I might teach Auggie to speak. Part of me thought this was a terrible idea, for once I taught the dog to bark on cue, he might NEVER STOP. Another part of me thought, because he barks when he’s being bratty and playing, if I could get him to bark on command, I could also basically get him to be bratty on command. (I can hear you out there asking, but WHY would you want your dog to be bratty on command?? Well, the answer is because I’m crazy of course.)
Either way, I decided to just go ahead and do it. Tonight I sat down with the clicker, the dog, the big bucket of treats, and a plan… click any vocalization, no matter how quiet, that might be considered a bark. Whining, whimpering, grunting, wookie-noises, or various other attempts at talking were not to count… only what you might call a bark.
What happened next was so hilarious I had to actually stop and get out the video camera to record it and show people how absolutely ridiculous my dog is. So watch the video… and enjoy.
Obedience Trial Fail
I told everybody after the fact that Auggie added yet another BD leg today.
Except the only problem is that BD is not actually an AKC title… and it just means BAD DOG.
What a BRAT. The first day, I’m told his heel was wonderful, to which I replied “Except for that time he was ON THE WRONG SIDE.” I took a right turn and he decided to skirt around and was on my right side instead. Of course I was halfway across the ring before I realized. And there was a halt in the middle there and I stopped and he sat like three feet from me. When we got to the other side of the ring and did an about turn, I told him “HEEL” again and he got back where he needed to be. I don’t know how he got on the wrong side. They told me he was watching me the entire time but I think he must have taken his eyes off me when I turned and that’s how he ended up on the wrong side.
But he totally blew it with the stand for exam. For one thing, I stood him and said “ST-” and before I could get out “-AY” he was sitting down. $%&&(%@*%. So I stood him up again and this time he stayed standing. When the judge touched his head he was fine, but when she went for his back, he danced over to the side. And when I went back towards him, he was dancing in a circle or something. I could have killed him.
And then of course I went in for the group sits and downs which was a complete waste of time anyway since we already NQ’d, and he was doing fine with his sit-stay until the dog next to him got up and started wandering the ring. He got up and FOLLOWED her, nose glued to her butt. ($&@*(*($&@&$@ HORNBALL!! Sooooo we didn’t even get to see how many times he might have rolled over in the down-stays.
Ugh.
The second day, he wanted to greet the judge for the SFE. Stupid stupid stupid overly friendly dog! At least he stood still when I walked back to him this time instead of doing a stupid circle dance.
Also Auggie thinks calling to front and then going to finish is stupid and he would rather just do it all the first time. Which is ANNOYING because I NEVER call him to heel position, it’s ALWAYS to front. Dumb dog has the game figured out and wants to play by his own rules.
He checked out on me two seconds before the long sit was done. He literally got up and the judge said “return to your dogs” immediately after. AAAAAUGH. So again, we didn’t get to find out if he was indeed going to start rolling over during the long downs.
At least the judge the second day thought we were funny. At once point during the heel free, I stopped and Auggie sat, and the judge said “forward.” I started forward… Auggie did not. I looked over my shoulder and said to him, “So, are you coming, or not?” And he leapt up and ran after me back into heel. He did a few other snotty things and after the call to front fiasco and I put Auggie’s lead back on, I was laughing at my little brat and told him he was such a bad dog, and the judge said “no, no! I like you!” I suppose a comedy act like Auggie and I is probably rare in obedience. As long as a judge has a sense of humor I always seem to make them laugh… too bad there’s no award for Best Comedy Act. Kinda like at an agility trial I was at where I would have taken first for Loudest Handler.
I honestly can’t decide if Auggie thinks this game is stupid and I should call it quits. I wonder if part of the problem is we’re at the same site we’ve done agility at for years. We pull in and he flips out thinking we get to play agility, and then we go do a one minute sit stay instead. If I were Auggie, I’d feel ripped off, too. He apparently does well at heeling off lead (though he’s definitely not as tight as I’d prefer) so I’m thinking next time I get the chance to do obedience, I will also enter the next level up in rally. At least that part of it he seems to enjoy. It’s this whole “standing still” and “don’t move” nonsense he has a problem with.
Fun with Twist N Treat
I keep meaning to sit down and record a video where I go through the various treat-dispensing toys I have for Auggie and give a review on them. This morning, when I fed Auggie his breakfast, I went ahead and got out a couple of them I don’t normally use to try them again so I’ll have my thoughts on them fresh in my mind. After I played with a couple of them, I put the rest of Auggie’s breakfast into the twist ‘n treat and gave it to him.
He’s pushing it around the kitchen and then pushes it in here, and then over towards the stairs. “Auggie, don’t throw that down the stairs,” I tell him. He pushes it back in here for a little bit, and then a couple minutes later he’s back over by the stairs.
“Auggie…” I tell him.
Then I hear “thunk, THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK” as the twist ‘n treat has now been tossed down the stairs.
“AUGGIE, I TOLD YOU NOT TO THROW THAT DOWN THE STAIRS!”
Go downstairs, get the twist n treat, and bring it back upstairs (and SHUT DOOR to basement stairs.) A minute later he BARKS. WHAT? It’s EMPTY, that’s what, and he’s complaining that it’s empty. Are you kidding me?? He’s never complained when his food is gone before. My mom pointed out he probably wanted his green beans, so I got those out and stuck them in the twist ‘n treat and gave it back to him.
About ten minutes later, BARK again. What now?? It’s empty AGAIN, that’s what!
Today is apparently Supreme Brat Day.
Little Comedian
So I’ve been working on Auggie’s one-minute sit stay and three-minute down stays. During the sit stay he started to lay down, so I’m standing across the room from him and go “No, Auggie – sit.” He continues to lay down. “Auggie… AUGGIE…”
He looks at me, and instead of sitting, he proceeds to ROLL OVER.
Which of course makes me crack up, because not only does he look ridiculous when he rolls over, but again, I can just IMAGINE this happening during the obedience trial. All the dogs are in a line doing a down stay and mine is like “Durp durp *roll over* *roll over* *roll over* What am I supposed to be doing?? *roll over*”
So later that night I was telling my mom about this, and I said something like “And I was like, no, Auggie! Sit! Sit!” and laughing about how he then rolled over… and then I look over, and there’s Auggie across the room from me, SITTING, and looking at me with this sad look on his face, like “I AM sitting!! What more do you WANT from me?!”
It’s a really good thing he’s so cute, or the brattyness would not be funny AT ALL.
Oh, Auggie…
I had kind of a rotten day today. Not the worst day in the world, just stressful. I broke into the bottles of wine from our wine tasting feature and drank a glass of wine halfway through the day, it was that kind of day. Auggie has been having to work for his dinner through heeling exercises lately and I almost skipped it after work today and just threw it in his bowl, but I went ahead and worked on it with him anyway, and he did WONDERFULLY. I was starting to feel glum and thought I couldn’t clean his heel up enough in time for the obedience trial, but after today I feel a lot better. He’s actually doing much better than I thought. Outside he starts to get really wild on me but inside he really has a lovely off-lead heel (and the trial is indoors.)
So I thought, oh, maybe he knew I had a crappy day and he’s just being good to make me feel better.
Well, my dad took me and my mom out for Mexican food for dinner, and when we came back I was carrying the leftovers downstairs to put in the fridge down there… and Auggie pranced up behind me and nipped at my foot! WTF Auggie! He has never been the kind of dog to nip or mouth unless I’m running and playing with him and getting him overworked, but all of a sudden he has apparently decided he wants to be. Yesterday it was my knee while I was carrying the pumpkins, today it’s my foot while I’m carrying leftover food. I don’t know what his problem is but it’s not cute.
So much for thinking he was being extra good to make me feel better.
Argh…
I feel awful. I have a sinus infection/cold/flu type thing going on, I have no idea. I came home from work and I just wanted to run a hot bath and try to drain my sinuses. But first I was going to feed Auggie and potty him. So I fed him and took him out to potty, and he bolts to the back fence to, I assume, bark at squirrels. Then I notice he’s not barking and his head is down and he’s EATING something.
So I yell at him to leave it and then run back to see what it is. I’m guessing it was a tomato or something from somebody’s garden that a squirrel dropped in our yard but I can’t really tell exactly what it is. Better safe than sorry, so I go grab the hydrogen peroxide. One capful… nothing. Fifteen minutes later I give him a second capful. He finally harfs up… one small mouthful of foam. So ten minutes later, a third capful. And this whole time I’m standing out there with a fever wishing I were asleep or dead.
FINALLY after the third capful he throws up three piles, one of which included his dinner. I thought he just snagged a nibble of the whatever-it-was but nope, there were huge pieces of it in his piles. So I follow him around some more and he seems done. Okay. Into the house and shut into the kitchen while I go pick up the piles of puke, drag out the hose, hose them down, and put the hose back. Come inside, survey the kitchen for more vomit… nope, nothing. Get my hands all washed up.
It’s now past six PM.
Sit down and start thinking about taking that hot bath. Check e-mail first.
Aaaand Auggie harfs under my chair, all over the white carpet that my dad INSISTED on putting down. Including nice yellow bile and even a couple green beans from his breakfast this morning! So now I have to put the dog in the crate and get the Green Machine so I can clean that up. Which of course needs more solution put in it, because I didn’t refill it the last time I used it and noticed it was going to need more solution soon. Take the machine back downstairs so I can clean out the brush head and the waste tank… and I spilled the waste tank, full of pukey-water, all over me.
Poor Auggie is now still in his crate, but without a pillow or any snuggies, because I am NOT in the mood to have to fish out a puke-covered pillow and take it downstairs to do laundry. I hope he’s seriously done puking now, because I definitely don’t feel good enough to give him a bath tonight either.
I do, however, want to kill myself.
Ugh.
And right after I post this the first time? Cue Auggie throwing up a mouthful of bile. At least I got him out of the crate without having him step in it… this time.
Big Faker
Last night I took Auggie out running with me. When we were almost to the end of the run, I looked at him to make sure he was doing okay and noticed that at some point in the last two minutes he had started limping. “(#$*()@” I thought. ” Can’t have my little guy hurt.” I wasn’t sure what he did but he was definitely limping, so I decided I’d pick him up and carry him the rest of the way home instead of making him walk the remainder of the way and possibly hurt himself more.
So we get inside, I put him down and start taking off his harness so I can take a look at him to try and see what he did… and no sooner did I get the harness off than he leaps away, wiggling and giggling, and runs to go grab a toy to play. Limp? WHAT limp??
)$@*(%ING FAKER.
Well, I say that, but later that night he was licking his front paws. I thought about putting bitter apple spray on them but he wasn’t really chewing them up, so I didn’t. I sort of think I should have, because he threw up three times in the middle of the night last night, and at one point appeared like he threw up some fur, like maybe he’d chew some off his foot. I’m not sure if he licked something nasty off his feet and that’s why he threw up or what. He has no limp this morning either though, and was chasing after a tennis ball like nothing was wrong. So, yeah. Giant faking faker, Auggie. I’m onto you.
Something has been here
I didn’t feel very good after my run this afternoon (note to self – one hour is NOT long enough for Mexican food to settle in your stomach) so I ended up huddling in the bathroom for a while. At one pointed I heard Auggie sniffing and snorting outside the door.
Well, when I came out of the bathroom, I kind of expected to find Auggie waiting for me there. Instead, I saw…
Evidence of a monster! And yet, no monster to be seen…….
Apparently he thought I needed his giant sheep, so he pulled it out from where it’s lodged (under a tripod table next to his crate), out of the room, and all the way down the hall. Then he left it there for me I guess, because he is nowhere to be found. I think he’s downstairs, I haven’t actually seen him since I came out of the bathroom.
It’s actually sort of creepy… the sheep… just staring at me…
This is a sign he has too many sheep toys
Auggie dropped a sheep toy in the kitchen and came in here to bug me. I kept telling him “Go get your sheep!” so he’d go bring it to me and I could throw it for him, and pointed in the kitchen. But he was looking over at his toy box. “No – go get your SHEEP! Your SHEEP! It’s in the KITCHEN!”
He went to the toy box.
“No, the SHEEP, Auggie!”
He grabbed something in the toy box.
“That’s not the sheep.”
Then I looked at it.
“Oh wait. Yes it is. Sorry.”
Seriously… the dog has his own personal flock of sheep toys. And I don’t help it any because if I find another cute sheep toy I HAVE to get it for him. A couple weeks ago I found a sheep BALL. How cute is that?! A SHEEP BALL! It’s like it was made for him! So now he has a sheep ball.
Only Auggie
Seriously, aren’t dogs supposed to be all worn out after playing at doggie daycare all day? Like they come home and sleep all night because they’re soooo exhausted?
Why is it that after I picked up Auggie, the first thing he did was go stand by the cabinet where his food is and demand to be fed… and then the second thing he did was grab an empty water bottle and run laps around the house at top speed, crackling the bottle in his mouth, for approximately ten minutes? Then want to play fetch over and over and over and over and over and over until I finally had to stop the game because I was STARVING and wanted dinner?
I think my dog is set on reverse. The more energy he dispels, he just gains that much more he has to burn.
Why Auggie Doesn’t Sleep In My Room
It was storming last night so I figured I’d put Auggie’s pillow in my room and have him sleep in there. He’s normally not bothered by storms but I figured if the thunder WAS bad and he DID bark, it’s easier to have him in my room than in the room next to me in his crate.
So he was pretty good for most of the night actually. He didn’t even ask to get up on the bed; he was happy to just lay on his pillow and sleep.
Until about 6 in the morning, when I rolled over, which was apparently his cue to be a pain. Because all of a sudden, HEEEEEERE’S AUGGIE! Front paws up on the bed, staring at me with that big idiotic grin, going “OH HAI MOM!” fffffff
So I pointed at his pillow and was like “lay down. go to bed.”
Which apparently meant he needed to do a happy play dance at my hand. No no Auggie. That’s not what I mean at all. And it doesn’t mean grab the tennis ball and try to throw that at me either. No. No. Lay DOWN. Go to SLEEP. No no I don’t want to see the play dance again. STOP IT GO BACK TO SLEEP.
Ugh. At least today is the day I don’t go in to work until late, so I had plenty of time to ATTEMPT to fall back asleep.
Agility today – Bloomington, May 29-31st 2010
I am having a hard time putting it into words.
First of all, we had a three day agility trial, Saturday-Monday. On Saturday, Auggie got the last Q for his OJP so I moved him up into Excellent A JWW. It was a surreal feeling to finally be able to move my dog into Excellent. I asked J if she could think of a good reason not to move him up, and she couldn’t think of one, and I couldn’t either… so up he went.
On Sunday, he got his first ever Excellent Q.
Today he also Q’d in Excellent Jumpers, so that’s TWO already down towards him AJP – but that’s not really the highlight of the day.
He had no Q’s in Open Standard all weekend. Saturday he didn’t even really run. He went back to the start twice because I’m 99% sure he thought I threw hot dog down on the ground and he wanted to go back and eat it (he saw me throw his leash down.) So I just pulled him and didn’t run.
Sunday he went past the table and then froze next to it and stood there smelling it for probably 30 seconds. He would NOT get on the table. So finally I passed it by and went on. The buzzer then sounded for max time, so I turned, yelled for him, and made a mad dash for the last obstacle, which happened to be a tire. Auggie took off with me. And it was beautiful. Top speed running and a gorgeous jump through the tire.
He gets a pass for Sunday, because it was REALLY hot all weekend and he tried, but it was too hot – and also because we suspect there was a bitch in heat being run out there and she got on the table, and that’s why all these dogs (including Auggie, of COURSE) kept smelling it obsessively.
But today.
Today, for one thing, I almost put him over the wrong jump. He wasn’t really coming with me, and finally I realized I was asking him to come over the wrong jump. Oops. LOL.
Then he came off the a-frame… and nearly off-coursed to the dog walk. I yelled “Auggie… Auggie… AUGGIE DON’T YOU DARE.” Everybody laughed hysterically (I think even the judge laughed) but he DID come back to me. Then he blew past the table and took his sweet time coming back to me.
So I had been thinking… if he was screwing around, if he knocked a bar, if he was off coursing… I was just going to kick it into high gear, run as fast as I could, and he either kept up or he didn’t. So he was sitting on the table and I was looking at him thinking there’s no way we had a Q going, what with the two delays as well as a refusal at the table, and I thought “Okay you bratface. Now you’re really gonna get it.”
The judge finished the table count and I flung him into the weaves. Through the weaves.
Then I ran.
This is, in theory, a bad thing to do to Auggie, because if I get too far out he panics, thinks he needs to catch up, jumps WAY early, and tends to crash jumps because he’s freaking out trying to catch up. I blew a Q one weekend because I started running fast to the end, and before he even took off I realized what I was doing and what it, in turn, would do to Auggie – and sure enough, he crashed the last jump on the course and I could kick myself for blowing that Q!
But it’s just what I decided to do today. I wasn’t worrying about the Q because he’d already blown it for me.
So we leave the weaves, and Auggie comes over the triple jump. I pretty much expected he’d crash it. Except he didn’t. And then he zips into the chute. And I was yelling for him to come out of the end of the chute and waiting a half-second to help him get over the next jump – his breeder was watching and says he beat me to the jump, he came zipping out of that chute so fast. Next was the dog walk and I am bellowing “WALK IT WALK IT GO GO GO GO GO” and I’m racing him to the end of the dog walk. I beat him to the bottom. He comes down the dog walk and I gave him just enough time to hit his down contact, then I turn, and it’s basically a straight line of three jumps to the finish line… and I’m sprinting it.
And oh my God, here comes Auggie, right with me. Like a bolt of lightning, he is FLYING, and he’s jumping, and it’s awesome.
We didn’t Q.
But he didn’t drop a single bar.
And it was amazing. I keep thinking about it and I want to cry. Auggie used to run like that. The first time we ever ran, I staggered out of the ring with him in my arms and I heard some person say “One day, that dog is going to be awesome.” But he has had so many roadblocks and has taken so many confidence hits that he doesn’t run like that anymore, and I’m left trying to figure out how to restore my dog’s confidence so I can try to regain some of what he used to have. And today, I saw it, right next to me. My little dog broke free and for just a moment he was the dog he used to be. And he was awesome, and I am so proud of him and I don’t CARE that we didn’t Q.
Because now I know that the little dog who will be awesome some day is still MY little Auggie. That dog is still inside of him. I just have to figure out how to unleash it and unleash it all the time.
And today I really, honestly believe it again… that one day, my little dog is going to be awesome.
Here’s the video.
I Picked A Booger
This morning I loaded Auggie into the car to take him to doggie daycare. I’ve been taking him every Wednesday, and this morning I had a meeting at my bank to talk about getting pre-approved for a mortgage.
The bank branch I had my appointment at is on the same street as the daycare facility, so I figured I’d just take Auggie to daycare a bit earlier than usual, drop him off, then turn around and drive back down to the bank for my meeting.
As I’m putting Auggie into his soft-sided crate in my back seat, I notice that the top panel is still unzipped a little. I remember I unzipped it so there was a small hole that more air could circulate in through, since it was rather hot this weekend. Somewhere in the back of my mind I considered zipping that shut.
I didn’t.
Halfway to daycare, I hear Auggie rustling around in his crate. “What are you doing back there?” I ask him (because I always talk to my dog as though one day he will open his mouth and answer. And honestly, if he did one day, I’m not sure I’d be surprised.) “What, are you throwing a party in your crate or something? Stop it. Settle down.”
He does for a little bit. Then I hear more rustling. Again, somewhere in the back of my mind, I have this niggling thought about that unzipped top panel and wonder if he’s trying to open the panel more so he can stick his head out the top of the crate… but I quickly cast that thought aside.
Until I glance in my rear-view mirror.
And see AUGGIE’S HEAD.
I can only assume all the rustling around I heard was him wiggling and maneuvering around to get the panel open further than the small hole I had left open. Because he had it open about halfway, perched his front legs on the top of the crate, smiling like a smug little booger all proud of himself, looking around and watching the cars go by.
I dropped him off at daycare and informed him I was not coming back for him.
Then I went back out to the car and very firmly zipped the top panel closed.
What a complete and total booger.
Naturally Jumping Method – Week 4
Week 4 went pretty good! Moving the jump heights up to 10 inches didn’t seem to throw Auggie off much at all, so I’m glad. All of the jumps are still set at 90 inches apart.
During day 1, I ran with him on all of the jumps. Every now and then he does knock a bar… but Clothier says not to worry about dropped bars. She says it is a natural part of the process of re-learning how to jump and that every time they knock a bar it helps them think stuff over. I’m not sure why I don’t have all 6 jumps recorded – I must have had another issue with my memory card.
Day 2 was REALLY windy – apologies for my camera wrist strap blowing into the shot during one jump! I was worried the wind might throw Auggie off a little, but he did fine.
For day three… there is a reason I only have five jumps shown here and it’s not a memory card problem. But I’ll talk about the video itself first! My mom was operating the camera and she made a few observations. Auggie still stutter-steps up to the very first jump before he gets into the rhythm of the last four jumps. The first jump is the bar he usually knocks, as well – probably because of the inefficient jumping.
I tried a few other things with these jumps, including sending him ahead (wasn’t sure if he’d do that, but he did!) and standing right at the end to call him through. Usually when I call him through I’m standing back several feet and sometimes even run backwards as he approaches to build up his drive, so that was a little different for him – but he’s pretty much unphased by it, which is great!
Another thing I’ve been noticing is that he hugs the standard pretty tight. Clothier wants the dogs to run and jump in the middle of the jump, but because Auggie has done agility training for so long he has learned how to hug the standards and try to make things a little more efficient when it comes to turning, crossing, and so on. When I run with him or am behind him, he always takes the last jump right over the middle because he’s in the process of turning to me – if I’m right ahead of him, he doesn’t make that change and stays to the side, hugging the standard. I’m not exactly sure if I should be concerned with this or not. My instinct is to not be worried about it…
NOW… why there are only five jumps shown in the third day. My mom was working the camera for me that day because it was raining – just a light drizzle, but still raining, so I asked her if she would come out and stand over the camera with an umbrella so my camera wouldn’t get wet.
Right before we did our sixth jump, it started POURING down rain. I’m standing there going “Oh holy crap – hurry Auggie, hurry, go through the jumps!” I’m flailing around with training treats in my hand, trying to get him back into the channel to run through the chute, and for a split second Auggie stands there, tries to blink the rain out of his eyes… gives me a Look, and proceeds to run back to the house – leaving me standing out in the pouring (did I mention it was COLD RAIN?!) rain, yelling “YOU GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT AND DO THOSE JUMPS!!!”
Thus, there are only five jumps in the video… because Auggie was standing up on the deck wanting to go inside and refused to come out and jump one last time.
Here, have a picture of my dog, after I came in and toweled off my hair and had to change my clothes because I was soaked through.
Look how proud he is of himself. Brat brat brat BRAT! He later asked to go outside, and when I opened the door and informed him it was still raining, he proceeded to go out in the still pouring rain and prance around going “La la la, I’m playing in the rain, la la la~” BRAAAAAAT!
Oh yeah – I bought a ton of PVC and spent a good portion of Saturday afternoon in the garage, listening to it thunderstorm outside and cutting pipes down. The two jumps at the beginning are my “Junior AKC” jumps from Toys R Us, and are now four feet wide, so they match the rest of my jumps (finally!) and I am now all set to add additional bar jumps to create an oxer for the coming weeks of the jumping series. I need to break out my coloured tape and start striping stuff again!
Sadly, it is quite cold again today. The beautiful spring weather has been replaced by… well, icky spring weather.
The Mud
It’s too early for this. It’s only February. The SIXTH of February! Why is all the snow melting? Why is the backyard suddenly a big mud puddle?
I gave up and deposited One Whole Auggie into the bathtub – which caused him to think I was about to commit murder or something – and then immediately after I got his paws rinsed off I lifted him out onto a Doggy Towel, and he got the wiggles and giggles, the post-bath zoomies, the friskies… whatever you want to call it.
Note: wrestling with your dog in a towel after his bath is potentially teaching him Bad Things. Because he tried to wrestle with me while all I wanted to do was wipe his paws off, and he’s squirming and wiggling in my arms, trying to get away, trying to grab the towel in his mouth, tail wagging, happily panting… I took the towel over to the door and scrubbed down the mudprints he made on the carpet (he’s a fast one, that little guy – like all bad little dogs he makes an immediate beeline for the carpet when he has mud all over his paws) and he again tried to grab the towel and wrestle with me. From BEHIND he tried to grab the towel, and I wasn’t looking, so in my scrubbing motion with the towel and his forward lunge to grab said towel, I ended up clocking him in the head with my elbow. Apparently, he was unphased by this, and leapt around to dance in front of me and again try to grab the towel to wrestle.
Sigh.
