It's A Berner-ful Life

Some Nice Things

2011-08-02T19:24:00.005-06:00

After the negativity of my last post I thought I should concentrate on some of the nice things that have been happening lately.

Last year, when Bosley passed his Draft test, he qualified for the BMDCC Working Dog Award. To earn this award your dog must have a CD title plus titles in two other approved performance areas (draft, agility, tracking or herding). This award is to honour the working dog heritage of the Bernese Mountain Dog. The certificates are presented at the National Specialty and since I wasn't there this year, mine came in the mail a couple weeks ago. I still need to frame it, but here is a picture.

Another nice thing is that Bosley has earned both his Scent Hurdle Dog and his Scent Hurdle Dog Excellent titles in the past couple weeks. What is most exciting about this is that it makes him the first Bernese to earn a Scent Hurdle title and he gets his picture on the BMDCC website "Berner Firsts" page. You can check out the BMDCC website BMD Firsts In Canada but you need to scroll all the way to the bottom to find Bosley.

We also had something nice happen in agility. The Dogs In Canada agility stats for 2010 came out and Bosley made the cut!!! Points are based on YPS only and since we get to very few CKC trials, and Bosley is not always the quickest out there, I was very surprised at the results. He finished as the #1 Bernese Mountain Dog and as #4 in the Working Group.

Another nice thing is that I found this window static sticker this weekend at the dog show. It is really hard to find Bernese Agility stuff and I couldn't help but buy this sticker for my car. How cute is this?

It is nice to focus on the good stuff as sometimes it is easy to get caught up in those pesky negative thoughts. So, here is to "good things" :)

P.O.'d

2011-07-15T12:47:00.000-06:00

There are always people in this world who seem to live their lives looking for the negative in everything and stirring up trouble. How they live like this, and feel good about it, I will never know. I usually try to avoid these types of people and not get caught up in their world. I like to think of myself a positive, easygoing person and I try not to let little things bother me. But sometimes when my world encounters someone who I think has gone a bit overboard on stirring up trouble and negativity, I get a bit ticked off.

Last weekend, my friend Jo and I went to an obedience fun match in Calgary. The invitation for the Fun Match said "no choke collars or prong collars allowed". No problem - I never use either in my training and even if I did, I would respect the rules that other clubs have in place. So, we go to the Fun Match, visit with a few of the people there that I know from trialling, do a run through with Bosley (which I was very pleased with) and went home. I thought it was a good day.

Fast forward a few days and I hear that someone complained about me and how I treated my dog. They said I was using a choke chain and giving Bosley corrections. Now, first of all, NO ONE from the Calgary clubs know me or know how I treat my dogs in or out of training. They have maybe seen me in a couple trials or at the very few fun matches I have gone to. None of these people really know me personally. This makes me angry - that someone would jump conclusions about me and my training. Second, I was NOT using a choke chain. Bosley's obedience show and training collar is a martingale. If someone thought I was using something different, come and ask me - face to face - don't just assume. Third, the person hosting the Fun Match has got into trouble because of something that I didn't even do. I can ignore someone that I don't know who said something negative about me - I really don't care what people who I don't know (or who don't know me) think about me. But I do care that my perceived actions got someone else in trouble. That is NOT fair.

Jo took a video of my run through so that I could watch it to see how Bosley was doing in the ring (it is easier to see things through video then trying to remember what happened). The person who complained, who I am quite sure doesn't know either Jo or I, somehow found the video on Jo's YouTube page and forwarded it to the owner of the facility. The owner of the facility has threatened to ban the host of the Fun Match from using her facility again. So, I went back and watched the video again - maybe I missed something. The only thing in the video that I could see was that when we were waiting for our turn to go in the ring, I gave Bolsey a tug on his collar. It was a light, sideways tug that wouldn't have been strong enough to tighten the chain on the martingale. It was not a pop or a correction - just a "pay attention" tug. I kept his lead on during the heeling so that I could prevent any lagging, but I didn't need to use the lead/collar once during our heeling. His collar could be mistaken for a choke in the video - but how about someone ask me about it, not just conclude that I must be jerking and yanking my dog.

I am all for positive training. I am a positive trainer myself. But there are a group of people who need to get off their high horse and realize that just because you don't use a clicker 100% of the time, or use anything but a flat collar, or maybe add a correction (gasp) occasionally, that does not mean that those dogs are being abused in their training. There are certainly bigger issues in the dog world than someone using a martingale at a fun match.

Bad Blogger

2011-07-11T17:35:00.002-06:00

I haven't updated my blog in over a month! What a bad blogger I am. Does busy and tired count as an excuse for not keeping on top of my blog? Here is a quick update.

We have been trying to enjoy the summer before it is gone. We have been doing some obedience and agility training but I haven't had time to get Bosley in his cart for a while.

We were at an agility trial a couple weekends ago. Bosley earned an Excellent B Standard Q and and Excellent B JWW Q. That brings our total of 'B' Qs up to 8, so slowly we are making some progress there.

We also did some Scent Hurdle racing the weekend of the agility trial. Bosley was a good boy (but not too fast after doing agility all day in the heat) and he only brought back the wrong dumbbell once. He earn 10 more points towards his SHD title.

Thanks to Wendy at Paws On The Run Photography for the wonderful agility and scenthurdle pictures.

Maggie has just been hanging out. She did an agility demo on Canada Day and had a blast playing agility and visiting with all the kids.

Disappointed

2011-06-07T21:26:00.001-06:00

Well, it looks like we won't be doing a draft test this year.

At the beginning of the year, I was unsure if we would be ready to enter the DDX test. A couple months ago, I decided that we could be ready. We just needed to tweak our behind-the-cart skills and Bosley needed to get used to wearing the backpack for the backpack portion of the test. I was getting excited to enter.

There is one draft test a year in our province. This year it is being held in conjunction with the Alberta Kennel Club's big summer show at Spruce Meadows. The premium list for the draft test came out a couple weeks ago. There is no DDX being offered. They are only offering the DD test this year. I am not sure why as draft tests usually have small entries, so there should be plenty of time to test the few DDX dogs that would enter. The only reason I can think of is because the location it is being held at. The DDX test is very demanding, both in skill and in the type of terrain that you need to navigate. The backpack portion is usually in heavily treed areas with streams and challenging obstacles. The Spruce Meadows area is very flat and bare.

I guess Bosley will have another year (at least) to get used to wearing that evil backpack.

Possessed

2011-06-02T20:53:00.000-06:00

Something was really wrong with Bosley the other night at agility class.

Bosley is a dog with very low prey/chase drive. He never pays any attention to gophers when they are running around. When we are out for a walk and a rabbit runs by, he will watch it run and will maybe make a half-hearted attempt of 5 or 6 steps to chase it, but that is it.

That all changed the other night. It was our turn in agility and Bosley was on the top of the dogwalk, when a cat (who knows why there was a cat on the agility field) ran by. The cat was not even close to us, but Bosley saw it and stopped on the dogwalk to watch it. I didn't think too much of it because Bosley likes cats (well, he is more curious about them than anything). He ran to the bottom of the dogwalk and then took off like a shot after the cat. The cat hid in some tall grass and Bosley stuck his nose in there and got a swat.

It all broke loose after that. Apparently Bosley doesn't take kindly to being swatted across the nose by cat claws. The cat took off running with Bosley in hot pursuit, howling and carrying on like he was possessed. The cat climbed up this big log pile and Bosley climbed up right after him. The cat would swat him and Bosley would jump off the log pile and then climb right back up again. The cat finally ran and jumped over the 6 foot fence that surrounds the field. I thought that Bosley was actually going to jump the fence - he was trying to climb it and actually got his front paws to the top of the fence but luckily he couldn't pull himself over.

The whole time I was screaming at him and he didn't even look at me - I'm not sure he even knew I was there, he was so focused on getting that cat. I grabbed him and drug him back to the agility area where everyone was waiting for us to come back (they couldn't see what was happening from where they were). Everyone looked up shocked as I brought Bosley back, blood pouring from his face. A couple people thought he killed that cat, that was how much blood there was. Luckily, Sarah had a first aid kit so we were able to clean him up and disinfect the scratches. He only had a few claw marks on his nose, but they sure bled like crazy.

I really don't know what was with him. I thought dogs were supposed to be smart and when a cat swats them, they are supposed to learn their lesson. Apparently that just makes Bosley really, really angry.

MAD Maggie

2011-06-01T21:30:00.000-06:00

This past weekend we headed out to the first outdoor agility trial of the year. On Maggie's very first run of the weekend, she qualified in Masters Standard to finish her Masters Agility Dog of Canada title!

To some people this is not a big deal, but for Maggie and I, it is like getting an ATCh - something I was never sure we would achieve. This will be the last agility title that Maggie and I earn together. I promised her that once she finished her MADC, she would get to retire from competitive agility. She will still get to play and do demos and the occasional local trial just for fun but no more trialling.

Maggie is such a good dog and she really does love to play at agility but I know she doesn't always love the ring and she only does it because I ask her too. I can really see her slowing down physically and because her poor structure, I do not think it is fair to ask her to keep competing in such a demanding sport. It is sad to see our competing days coming to an end but Maggie will have fun doing other things. She loves to do agility demos and have people cheering for her so she will keep doing that. She will get to come out and have fun training but without the pressure of competing, so our fun is not over.

Maggie - Your Tour Guide

2011-05-23T10:30:00.000-06:00

"Hi, I am Maggie and I will be your tour guide for the the day. Today we are going to visit the University that is right by my house. We go to the University often but just to where the big fields are. My mom takes me there to do my tracking and Bosley gets to go there to practice his carting. We sometimes just go there for a nice walk around the lake. But today you will get a special treat. My Mom took me right on campus where the students hang out. There weren't many students there today because it is summer break, but a few people stopped to pet me, which is always nice. Anyway, on to our tour:

Here I am in the big sculpture thing that is right outside the Student Union building. It probably has an official name, but I don't know any of that stuff - I'm just a dog"

"Next we will visit the sculpture park where we find this interesting sculpture with a chair under it. For some odd reason, the chair is on these springy things so it moves when you are on it. Good thing I'm an agility dog and don't mind sitting on something that is wiggling around. Your everyday, average dog tour guide would not be able to show you this work of art by posing on it, so you are lucky that I am your tour guide today"

"Next we take a walk down the side of a building where we find this very interesting pattern. Not sure what this is all about, but my Mom thought it would make an interesting picture."

"Moving on to more of the sculpture park. This sculpture is filled with books. Not sure how they got all those books stuffed in there, but some of them looked interesting even though I didn't see anything dog related."

"Here is a picture of the entire piece of art. See the book on the very top? That's funny. On another interesting tour note, the long building in the background is U-Hall. This is the oldest building on campus. U-Hall was designed by a world famous architect, but I don't know his name, I just know he is very famous. The building was built right into the side of the coulee so that it would blend in with nature. Nature is good - so that was a very nice idea."

"Since the University was originally built into the side of the hills, that means that there are a lot of stairs. Here I am taking a rest on some stairs. We didn't go all the way up them, so I can't tell you what is at the very top, but I am sure I saw some doors that probably go somewhere very interesting"

"This is one of the newer building on campus. It looks fancy with it's big pillars"

"Outside the fancy, big pillar building are these mirror window things. I like these mirror windows, they make me look long and sleek like a Greyhound, don't you think?"

"My next stop on our tour takes us to this nice rocky place. It is kind of like being in the mountains. We climbed up the rocks and had a great time.

"This rocky place is also a good place to take a rest. If you are coming to this place, I suggest bringing some water. My mom left the water in the car and all that rock climbing made me thirsty. She should really know better, but she didn't expect that we would be doing any mountain climbing today"

"The final stop on our tour takes us back to the sculpture park. This piece of art has very nice lines and movement. It really 'speaks to me'. This was my favourite sculpture in the park"

"Well, that ends our tour for today. I hope you enjoyed having a look around the University and some of the interesting things that it has to offer. I also must mention that there are lots of gophers here, if that is your thing. I really wanted to chase them and catch them and shake them, but my Mom said that's not good for the tourism business."

"So, until next time, this is Maggie your tour guide wishing you happy touring"

Agility Class

2011-05-23T09:02:00.000-06:00

In this week's agility class we ran this Gamblers course from one of last years Regionals. It has lots of opportunity for some good points in the opening, which was nice to see. Some Gamblers courses have a nasty setup for getting opening points, especially for dogs like mine that need something that flows to keep their momentum going.

I was super happy with Bosley on this run through. He had a nice opening and he nailed the final gamble. In our set up, I think the teeter was a bit further behind the tunnel then the course map shows, as the dogs really had to go back to get the teeter and they could not see it at all when they exited the tunnel. This course gave me a bit more confidence with our distance work - we will get a Masters Gamblers Q yet :) Too bad all Gambles didn't have the teeter - Bosley loves the teeter!

Obedience Disasters

2011-05-22T20:57:00.002-06:00

So I am a bit behind on my blogging, so I will do a quick post about our obedience trial last weekend. I can pretty much sum it up in one word . . "Yikes!".

Friday's run started out OK - we lost 5 marks on heeling for a bit a lagging and a lot of sniffing the posts on the figure 8. Drop on Recall was great as was the Retrieve on Flat. Then was the Retrieve Over High. I threw the dumbbell, and sent Bosley out. He took the jump, went straight to his dumbbell and bent to pick it up. Right before he grabbed it, his nose came up and he was doing some serious air scenting. He caught the smell of something. I was hoping he would be a good boy and just get his dumbbell, but no, he figured out where the smell was coming from. Someone had a big bag of rollover on their crate just on the other side of the ring, and Bosley jumped the ring gates to go get it. Bad Boy. Good thing the owner of the treats saw what was happening and she grabbed them before Bosley could. Bosley then ran to our setup to see if he could get any of his own treats, but I always keep them zipped up in our training bag. By this time I was calling him and at least he was good enough to come running back in the ring, over the ring gates. Luckily we had a super nice judge who said "training in not allowed in the ring, but if you happen to send him out to his dumbbell again, I told you that training in the ring is not allowed". I sent him again and he got his dumbbell (which was still laying out there from the first throw) and brought it back perfect. Then, he stepped through the broad jump.

Saturday didn't get much better except that Bosley didn't leave the ring. But, we failed heeling. Heeling? Really? And he stepped through the broad jump again. And laid down on his out of sight sit - his stays are usually solid and I don't even worry about them.

I really left the weekend feeling not too good about the whole obedience thing. This is the first weekend I have ever felt like this after doing obedience. It wasn't just because Bosley failed a couple things - I can deal with that as long as I have a nice overall performance. I really had to work hard to keep his focus at all. Frustrating.

So, Wednesday I went to Calgary to do a private obedience lesson with an obedience judge/instructor/competitor. I have a great group of people that I train with here, but I just needed a fresh perspective on what I am doing. So I made the 4 hour round trip for a 1 hour lesson. We started with her saying "show me your heeling". I took about 3 steps and she said "OK, stop there". Uh Oh. She made some little changes to when and how I reward. She said Bosley has a great foundation but I just missed a step along the way and that is letting him know that when we are working, we are working. He doesn't get a choice and I can't let him gawk around. When we are working, he is focused on me only. She said I am too easy on him :) I laughed - I certainly know that is true.
She also gave me some proofing ideas for his dumbbell and some ways to make the retrieve more fun for him. So, lots of good stuff packed into that hour lesson. Now I just need to work hard at putting everything together. We have 2 months until our next trial and I really hope to see some improvement by then.

Spring Training

2011-05-04T19:14:00.000-06:00

Last night was our first agility class back outside after the very long winter. Our last agility trial was in February, and I have given Bosley an agility break since then. I think he has been out to train twice in the past 3 months.

Apparently the break was good for him, because he was very excited to be out in class last night. We ran a jumpers course from a past regionals event, so the course was very technical with a couple very tricky spots. Bosley ran the course fast and smooth and we both handled the difficult parts well. It felt really, really good to run such a difficult course so well. We have a few agility trials planned for the upcoming summer months, so we have some work to do to get Bosley conditioned to do all that jumping again (although he didn't seem to have much trouble last night) and we need to work on distance again as we haven't done any gamble work for quite a while.

Nice Day For A Walk

2011-05-01T22:47:00.000-06:00

When the dogs and I went on our walk this afternoon, I decided to take one of my favourite routes starting at the University ending at Indian Battle Park (and of course back again). We haven't taken this route for a while, so I was excited to get going.

We drove into the parking lot and right near the spot where I always park were a herd of deer. Here are two of them, wondering why we were interrupting their grazing.

This picture was taken from my car window - those deer aren't too scared.

The dogs started barking at them, so they decided they would move on a bit.

So we started our walk. The first part of the walk is all downhill. The hill is long and fairly steep. This picture is near the top and if you look carefully, you can see two people on the trail ahead of us - they are at about the half way point of the hill. Our walk takes us down the hill, then over the pedestrian river bridge (which is where the road is that you see to the left) and then to Indian Battle Park which is in the area of the large suspension bridge on the far left of the picture.

Here we stopped in the park for a water break and to take some pictures.

This is the picture I used for Maggie's 52 week project. While I was taking pictures of Maggie, I told Bosley to go lay down. He decided the perfect place was in the shade behind the bench Maggie was on. You can see his big head if you look behind the bench. Funny.

We wandered around the park, which was very busy today, and then we headed home. This is the path heading back towards the University. Things are slowly starting to get green.

And of course, what goes down, must go back up. Here we are on the long walk back up the hill. This is about at the half way point. I needed to stop and take off my jacket - it's a lot harder work walking back up.

So, a very nice, enjoyable walk today. The dogs thought it was a bit too warm though - they are still wishing it was snowy.

Some Thoughts

2011-04-25T21:34:00.001-06:00

A couple weeks ago, a friend asked me if I have ever considered getting a different breed of dog. She knows I like to do lots of dog sport stuff and since she has Bernese herself, she knows that sometimes the breed has limitations when it comes to being competitive. Bernese are not the fastest agility dogs and they tend not to like work that involves a lot of repetition, like obedience.

My answer was easy - my dogs are my pets and companions first and competition/performance dogs second and I have yet to find another breed that appeals to me as much as the Berners do.

Yes, I could be a lot more competitive in agility with one of the "typical" agility breeds but I don't know if I could really provide the right type of home that a high drive, competitive dog would need. I love my cuddly dogs who fit well into my lifestyle. If I want to hike for 2 hours they are up for it. If I want to nap on the couch for 2 hours, they are up for that too.

There are plenty of breeds that I admire and some that I have seriously considered as a "contender" to fit into my household, but something or another just does not seem right. When we get a dog, it should be with some thoughtfulness considering how that dog will fit into our lifestyle. We may get a dog with the intentions of it being a "performance" dog, but often that does not always work out for various reasons. That is why, for me, my dogs are my pets first and if it turns out that they enjoy agility, obedience, or other performance events, great. If not, they are still my companion.

For me, at this time, the Berners are a perfect fit (well, I could do without all the shedding). They are goofy and make me laugh. They are sweet and sensitive. They are fun. They are easy going, "take things as they come" kind of dogs. They are smart but not in a "I need something to do" sort of way. They are always smiling. They make me smile.

I think the only thing that would make me look to a different breed would be the serious health issues in the breed. They have an unfortunate short life span when compared to other breeds of their size. But, it is hard to resist a face like this.

Perspective

2011-04-19T19:16:00.000-06:00

These pictures are from a couple days ago, and yes, we still have a lot of snow. Much of it has melted in the past day or so, but my yard still has a lot. Although it would be nice to see some green grass again, I don't really mind the mild temperatures and bit of snow that we have been getting. Compared to the devastating tornados, wildfires and flooding that are happening right now in other parts of North America, I am more than happy to put up with a bit of snow. Besides that, the dogs love it!!!

Children's Festival Demo

2011-04-17T20:09:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we had the opportunity to do some dog sport demos at the Children's Festival. Our local kennel club had space at the Festival and invited a group of us to participate. It was a very long day, but it was lots of fun.

Maggie had a very fun day. She got to visit with many, many kids and enjoyed all the hugs and belly rubs. She adores kids and is very gentle with them. Maggie also helped out in the agility demos and the rally obedience demo.

Bosley had a fun day also. He, however, does not enjoy the attention of kids (he thinks they are a bit scary) but he got to demo in scent hurdle racing, agility and carting.

When I was asked to to a carting demo, I wanted to come up with something that was informative, as well as a bit entertaining. Carting is not really a spectator sport - people may say "wow, look at that dog pulling a cart" but to hold attention for a 15-20 minute demo is tough, especially with so many other activities going on. So . . .

. . . I made these:

A giant milk and cheese to pull in the cart.

I made a little skit (thanks to everyone who helped out) and then did some basic carting demonstrations. I think it went well - I had fun anyway :)

Here is our carting demo:

There were many other great demonstrations throughout the day including agility, scenthurdle, obedience, tricks, freestyle and disc. Here is a video montage of the demos that our group did.

Dumbbell (the noun, not the adjective)

2011-04-13T22:24:00.005-06:00

A few weeks ago, it was suggested to me to use a wooden dumbbell instead of a plastic one, because the wooden ones have less bounce when you throw them. So I checked the usual obedience supply online stores and I ordered a plain wooden dumbbell. Then . . . I found the most beautiful dumbbells I had ever seen. I came across a website where you can order custom dumbbells made out of your choice of some very nice wood. Not your typical dumbbells, that's for sure. I contacted the lady just to ask a couple questions and check out the prices and I couldn't help but order Bosley a fancy, new dumbbell.

Bosley's new dumbbell is made out of Zebra wood and it is shiny and pretty.

If you would like to see more of these beautiful dumbbells made by Tracy Libby (who provides awesome customer service as well as beautiful work) , check out her website:
White Mountain Australian Shepherds

I'm not addicted to buying dog things. Really. I'm not.

. . . well, maybe a little bit . . .

But you can't find dumbbells like this just anywhere. :)

Exciting Weekend News !!!

2011-04-05T20:42:00.000-06:00

We spent the the weekend at the Red Deer dog show doing some obedience, some scent hurdle racing and lots of hanging out and visiting.

Bosley was entered in 3 obedience trials and after some really awful heeling on Friday, he pulled it all together on Saturday to earn his first Open leg with a High in Class. I was so excited and relieved to get that first leg - I was beginning to think it may never happen. Sunday his heeling was off again and he stepped in the broad jump for an NQ. But . . . his drops were perfect all weekend and his fetching was great too! I bought a new heavier wooden dumbbell and have been practicing throwing straight - and was happy that all my throws at the show were pretty darn good :)

Bosley with his HIC ribbon.

Hanging out at the show.

Saturday night was our Scent Hurdle team debut. We were all so excited to get out there and have our first race. We were ready at the start line . . . the whistle blew . . . and everything fell apart. The dogs acted like they had never been trained at all. Bosley left his lane to go visit a cute Sheltie at the other box, he really liked Kort's dumbbell and kept bringing back Kort's instead of his own. All of the dogs on the team had trouble of some sort or another. We were very discouraged after those first couple races. Everyone on the other teams were very nice though, and the more our team ran (we had 8 races) the better they got. In the end, all the dogs settled into the racing and we even won a few heats :) In Bosley's first ever scent hurdle race, he came home with 30 points towards his Scent Hurdle title. Not too shabby for our first race ever!

Here is a video of our team in action:

I can't not share the video of our team bloopers. Funny stuff :)

So overall, a very fun and successful weekend. Can't wait to do it all again :)

Thanks Amanda for the great pictures !!!

The Circle Of Life

2011-03-27T17:28:00.000-06:00

*** Warning - This Post Contains Graphic Wild Kingdom Type Content ***

Maggie and I went for a walk in the coulees behind our house this afternoon, in hopes of getting a good picture for her 52 weeks project. Maggie was out sniffing around . . .

... Then something caught her attention. "Hey, I think there is something interesting up here".

I caught up to her and found this:

And a little further on . . . this:

And not much further past that . . . there was this:

A very fresh coyote kill. I would guess this kill would have been from last night or early this morning.

The fur and hide, the intestinal content, part of the skeleton and the deer jaw were all that were left behind. The coyotes do not waste anything.

It is sad that a cute deer had to die such a horrible death, but that is the way of the food chain. The coyotes will eat what they can catch to survive - a rabbit, a deer or whatever else will make a quick meal.

Ready To Race

2011-03-23T19:03:00.000-06:00

We have our first Scent Hurdle race coming up very soon. Here is Bosley in his racing gear. Doesn't he look cute in his little racing jacket.

Obedience Fun Match

2011-03-20T21:53:00.000-06:00

We spent the day today at an obedience fun match. I brought Maggie along to hang out and at the last minute I decided to enter her in Novice. I was glad I did. She has not done any real obedience training forever, but she was so good today, and even took the first place prize! She is such a good, fun heeling dog, and I love doing obedience with her. Too bad she has such bad ring nerves at real trials - she could easily finish her CD if she didn't get so stressed in the ring. I am not going to push it, as that's not really fair to her - she doesn't care anything about a silly title.

I entered Bosley in Open and he was a bit off today. Lagging on the heeling and was really, really interested in one of the posts on our figure 8. He never stops to sniff the post people. The rest was OK. I needed to give a second command on the retrieve on flat, which was weird. His drop was slow so I gave a second command on that as well. I don't know why our DOR is falling apart lately - he was so fast at it before. I guess a step back in training is in order.

After all the obedience was done, we had a mock Scent Hurdle trial and raced against another team. Bosley was awesome! He didn't make one mistake in any of the heats and we did many more heats in a row than we had ever done before. He was starting to run out of steam at the end, and was going slower, but he went out every time and always brought back the right dumbbell. He was a very good boy. Our whole team did so well today and I am really looking forward to our first "real" race in a couple weeks.

Drive/Motivation Seminar

2011-03-19T20:22:00.000-06:00

Today I was out of town at a seminar presented by Schutzhund trainer Carolyn Herle. Carolyn is an awesome trainer and has tons of good ideas for building drive, attention, and motivation. I was very excited to get a working spot in her seminar because she is really good at finding things that work for your particular dog and handling style.

She talked lots about motivators and the correct use of markers and rewards. Also the importance of having a good bond with your dog, which is so important if you are doing competitive obedience.

During the working portion, she gave me lots of good suggestions and pointed out some things that I was doing wrong. Good thing dogs are so forgiving in our training of them! She also suggested that I backchain my CDX routine so that Bosley's excitement will build as we go along, as he will know that he is getting closer to his reward. That is important in dogs like Bosley who do not necessarily have tons of drive and need to know that the reward is coming.

It is also very interesting to watch all the other teams. Lots of good suggestions for everyone and with some dogs you could see the difference in attitude within minutes of Carolyn making some changes to how the handler engaged with their dog. Very cool to see!

Bosley says he is sad when he has to be in his crate. He would rather be out working and having fun.

(Picture by Amanda)

In The Ring

2011-03-14T17:07:00.000-06:00

We had another try at Open Obedience this weekend. I really debated entering this particular show because it was a part of a big conformation show and there was no separate area for the obedience rings. So, I went saying that if he was too distracted Friday, I wouldn't go back Saturday.

Bosley was a bit distracted Friday (lagged on the heeling, ran out to take the high jump during heeling and went to visit the stewards table instead of fetching his dumbbell), but still worked with me and we got through the routine.

Saturday we had 2 runs and he got better each run. The first run of the day was very nice, but I had a really bad throw over the high jump and Bosley went around the jump on the way back to me. Other than that, very nice marks for everything else.

His second run Saturday was the best of the weekend, Totally up and focused heeling. Happy, happy in the ring. That is what I want. He did decide to step through the broad jump though. But I was very happy with the rest of it.

His out of sight stays were perfect all weekend and his dumbbell work was good. We just need to get a routine where everything comes together and I am sure it will soon.

Thanks to Julia, I have some pictures to share. (Thanks again Julia)!

Our heeling pattern - love that big face looking up at me :)

Figure 8 - nice focus!

Setting up for the drop on recall.

Bringing the dumbbell.

I love this picture. Bosley presenting me with the dumbbell.

We have another trial coming up soon, so hopefully we can get it all together. I really like obedience, and being in the ring is good experience for both of us, but I do want to qualify one of these trials :)

Small City Living

2011-03-13T18:14:00.000-06:00

Sometimes when you live somewhere for a while, it is easy to take what you have in your own backyard for granted.

I live in the city (a small city) and although it doesn't have all the glitz, glamour and opportunity that a large city has, it does have many advantages. We can walk 1/2 block from our house to find this:

Ferocious!

2011-02-28T15:32:00.000-07:00

This picture makes me laugh. Maggie looks so intense and scary, but she is really just having fun playing with me in the yard. She loves to bark, growl and show her teeth when she is playing. She really wouldn't hurt anyone.

A Valentine Birthday

2011-02-14T20:50:00.000-07:00

Not only is today Valentine's Day, but it is also Maggie's Birthday.

Happy 6th Birthday to my sweet and silly girl :)

For The Love Of Obedience

2011-02-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

I really love formal obedience. When Maggie was a puppy, I took her to puppy class then to a basic manners class. It was fun and I learned a lot. But then, I took a set of lessons that was more formal - formal heeling, fronts, finishes and attention to detail. I loved it! My quest to compete in obedience had begun. When I was talking to Bosley's breeder about what I was looking for in a dog, I told her I really wanted a dog that I could compete in obedience with - I knew that was something I wanted to do.

I hear so many people say that formal obedience is boring. It is too "formal", too many rules, too picky. I don't think it is boring at all. I love the attention to detail. I love the problem solving to figure out what will work for my dog. It is challenging, it is sometimes frustrating, but at the same time it is highly rewarding. There is nothing better than the feeling of having my dog prancing beside me in a perfect heel - every move is like a well co-ordinated dance.

In this little city that I live in, very few people share my love for this sport. But, there are a few of us. There is a small group of us who get together every week to train. It is very informal - no instructor- just a group of enthusiasts with a common love and a common goal. We help each other and give each other feedback and suggestions. I learn so much from observing the other teams and helping them problem solve.

As for where Bosley is currently at in his training, I think he is doing well. We are getting ready to go back in the Open ring for another try. I am actually really looking forward to it. Bosley has been very enthusiastic about obedience lately and we really seem to be in sync. I am working hard on his anticipation (which is what failed us in our last trial). He is getting lazy on his out of sight sits, so I am trying to find something to keep him more focused during them.

I have also been dabbling in Utility training. His articles are coming along well. He is happily retrieving the metal article now. I am working on him scenting the metal articles and he is doing good, as long as I only do 3 or 4 repetitions at a time.

I have started "Seek Back" work. I am really trying to figure this out by trial and error. In AKC obedience, they have a directed retrieve, so there is tons of info on how to train that. In CKC there is no directed retrieve, but instead, there is the "Seek Back" exercise. No info on the internet or in books on how to train it - so I am just making up my own version. So far, so good. Bosley is happy to run out and bring back the glove - but of course I am only walking a short distance after I drop it, so it is still in plain sight.
I have a plan for teaching the Go Out, but I haven't started training it yet. This seems to always be a tough exercise for dogs to learn, so I want to take my time and do it right.

Bosley is such a good obedience dog. He tries hard to figure out new things and really tries hard to be right. I also use minimal corrections in my training, so he is never worried to try something new. He is a great obedience dog :)

The Search

2011-02-11T14:57:00.001-07:00

"I'm Sure My Toy Is In Here Somewhere"

"Pounce"

"Yup, Found It!"

"Throw It Again, Please"

It's Never Long Enough

2011-01-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

My sister and brother-in-law had to say good-bye to their dog Oreo the other day. They got Oreo from the animal shelter when he was just a young puppy and he spent the last 14 years being a loved companion. Oreo was the sweetest and most gentle dog I have ever met and he will be dearly missed by everyone who had the great pleasure of knowing him.

Special Friend

I lost a special friend today

the kind you can't replace,

and looking at his empty bed

I still can see his face.

I see the endless energy

the sparkling puppy eyes,

Not the tired, fragile friend

I had to bid goodbye.

I know he's in a special place

our Lord has for such friends,

Where meadows, fields & flowers

help make them strong and whole again.

I remember how he'd run to me

to play his favorite puppy game,

And how his ears would perk right up

When he heard me call his name.

But as those precious years went by

And we both aged and grew,

I'd find him often slowing down

But-we had still so much to do.

It will truely be a struggle

I don't know how I'll face each day,

I have to let him go--I know

But in my heart he'll always stay.

This special place our Lord has made

Health and strength, wait for him there,

So with my very special friend

I'm sending all my prayers.

I know he's watching over me

He'll be with me when I cry,

So with one more kiss on his beloved head

I told my Oreo Dog goodbye.

By Christina L. Tronnes

Special Delivery

2011-01-20T20:59:00.003-07:00

I ordered Scent Articles a couple weeks ago, and they were delivered today! I am very excited.

Here they are - 6 each of leather, metal and wood.

Bosley stopped in to pose with his new articles.

That is not all I ordered. I also ordered this very nice carrying bag with a Bernese on it. I got red numbers on the articles to match the red bag. Those in turn match Bosley's red cart and carting harness. I know he won't be carting and doing articles at the same time, but I thought it would be nice if all his activities "matched".

I am very excited to start scent article work. Tonight Bosley was holding the metal dumbbell and fronting with it in his mouth. For the past few weeks, we have been working on him holding a metal spoon to get used to the feeling of metal in his mouth. He doesn't love the metal, but he will hold it now.
I gave him the leather article, which I thought he would have no problem with, and it made him gag. Funny. The leather smell is really strong right now because they are new, so hopefully, once they air out and get used a bit, that strong smell will go away and Bosley will quit gagging.
Of course he has no problem with the wood articles, as that is what we use in scent hurdle.

For now, we are going to work the metal articles and get him used to retrieving them and then scenting them. Then I will move on to leather. It will be a while until he is working the whole pile of articles, but we are in no rush.

Frosty Paws

2011-01-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Hey, You! With the mittens and the warm boots! It's -20C today.

I don't have mittens or boots. I only have paws. Tender, soft, house dog paws.

My paw! It is cold. I can't even look at you - taking pictures of my awful plight.

Look at my sad face. Look at my cold paws.

Are you just going to stand there - doing nothing?!?

I think this one is going to fall right off. You won't think it is so funny then, will you?

Do you see this look that I am giving you?

My feet! My feet! I can't stand it anymore!!

(You are going to put this on your blog, aren't you?)

Save Me !!!!

2011-01-16T17:02:00.000-07:00

Silly Pet Trick

2011-01-07T16:18:00.000-07:00

My dogs only know a few basic dog tricks. High five, wave, play dead and spin are among the basic tricks they both know. Bosley does known one other trick though :

Setting Goals

2011-01-03T18:23:00.001-07:00

At the beginning of a new year, everyone seems to be setting goals and making resolutions for the year. I have already set my dog training goals in an earlier post.

Why do we (I) set goals?
**Goals let us think about a specific outcome we would like to achieve.
**Goals give us motivation to achieve those outcomes.
**Goals allow us to make a plan and give us direction to follow through.
**Goals encourage us to work harder and achieve things that would otherwise not be possible.

I have my broad goals for the year written down on this blog, but inside those larger goals, are more detailed, specific goals. For example: I have a goal of getting Bosley's CDX. A big goal indeed. But inside that big goal of "CDX" are all the little components that I need to work on (motivation, effort, not anticipating, rock solid stays, etc). Breaking down a large goal into little pieces, makes the goal seem much less daunting.

When making goals, they should be SMART.
S - Specific - rather than "I want to get agility titles" a specific goal would be "I want to work on distance and get a gamblers title". Goals must be well defined and broken down into manageable pieces.
M - Measurable - In dog training the most common measure of a goal is a "Q' or title. But it can be measured by smaller increments as well, but you must determine what defines success before you start.
A - Achievable - If a goal is not achievable, you will become frustrated and give up. Be honest with yourself - break things into smaller goals if you need to.
R - Realistic - Be honest about your dog and your training and don't set goals that are unrealistic. Goals should be set so that they are within your expertise and your dog's capabilities.
T - Timely - Setting a goal too far into the future will likely lead to procrastination. Setting a goal too near in the future will likely not give you time to get there and result in giving up. You need enough time to complete your goal and keep you motivated.

I hope that everyone has at least a couple goals to work towards this year - dog related or not. It is also important to remember that it is OK to change and adjust goals as we go along. Things change, priorities change and goals evolve. It is OK to take a step back and re-evaluate where we are going and how we want to get there.

52 Weeks For Dogs - A Success !

2011-01-02T10:22:00.000-07:00

One year ago, I signed up for the Flickr "52 Weeks For Dogs". This is where you post one picture per week of your dog (it must be the same dog each week). Bosley was the star of my project in 2010. It was a great way for me to get my camera out more often and try to get shots I normally would not think of taking. It was sometimes difficult to stay motivated to do a shot each week but I finished the entire project. Some of the pictures I really love and some are just so-so (those were usually the weeks I left my shot until the last minute).

This was my picture for week 52 - the final shot of the series. It is one of my favorites of the year. I love the light and the frosty whiskers.

Here are some of my other favorites:

This is just plain cute :)

I like the tones and how Bosley is gazing over his shoulder.

Gotta love that goofy face!

I used this picture for my Christmas cards this year.

You can see my entire 52 Weeks project on my Flickr page : Bosley's 52 Weeks For Dogs

In 2011, Maggie is going to move to the 52 Weeks project. Maggie is much harder to photograph because she is not near as cooperative as Bosley. She also seems to give the camera only one look - and that is one of annoyance. It will give me some new challenges, that's for sure.

Bosley is not totally "out of the picture" when it comes to Flickr. I signed him up for a 12 Weeks project where I need to submit 1 photo a month of him. It should be fun and he loves the camera!

A New Year Some New Goals

2011-01-01T16:20:00.003-07:00

Happy New Year!!!

A new year means it is time to look forward and to set new goals. Although goals may change as I go along, they are a great motivator. Something to look forward to and at the end of the year it is great to look back and see how far we have come.

Bosley is ready to head into the New Year.

MAGGIE

Maggie will most likely retire from competitive agility early this year. She has been telling me she has had enough. I would really like her to get her MAD before she retires (she only needs one more 'Q').

Maggie will get to do more tracking this year. I think it will keep her mind busy (which she needs) and will keep her active. I have no goal of doing any tracking tests, just to have fun.

BOSLEY

In 2011, Bosley and I are going to work hard to get his CDX. I am certain he can do it, and hopefully within the first half of the year. I really want to start doing Utility stuff more seriously, and am going to be ordering scent articles in the next week or so. I hope to be ready to compete in Utility by the end of the year.

In CKC agility I would really, really like to finish Bosley's Championship. He has a chance at being the first Bernese to get the new Select Agility Championship title and as far as I know, he is currently the only Bernese competing at the Excellent B level. So maybe . . . if we get to enough trials.

In AAC agility, I would like him to be competing at Masters level in all events by the summer. This is totally possible, as he only needs one more Advanced Jumpers and one more Advanced Snooker. Hopefully by the end of the year he will have his MAD and maybe his Masters Gamblers?

I am still considering if I want to pursue a DDX. Bosley really loves carting and I am confident with his carting, but the DDX has a backpacking component. Bosley does not love the backpack. Depending on when and where the test is this year will determine if we train with a DDX goal in mind.

We are also going to be competing in Scent Hurdle this year. Our team is coming along really well and I am sure all of us on the team will enjoy putting a Scent Hurdle title on our dogs this year.

Best Wishes to everyone in 2011.

A Look Back At 2010

2010-12-30T19:43:00.001-07:00

I can't believe that 2010 is almost over and that it is once again time to look back at our accomplishments over the past year.

MAGGIE

Maggie got to drop to Veterans in agility this year, and it was great for her. She earned 10 agility 'Q's over the course of the year in only a few trials. Statistic wise, this was her best agility year ever! She also earned 2 titles this year - Advanced Agility Dog and Masters Snooker Dog. I am so proud of her for getting a Masters title.

I also did a bit of tracking with her - nothing serious, just letting her "find the cookies". She loves it and I am looking forward to doing more.

BOSLEY

I had many goals for Bosley this year in agility, obedience and draft. We worked hard all year (well, most of the year) and had some great times together accomplishing those goals.

In CKC agility, Bosley earned both his Excellent Standard title and his Excellent Jumpers With Weaves title. He also earned 6 'Q's towards his Masters titles.

In AAC agility, Bosley earned 12 'Q's and 2 titles (Starters Game Dog and Advanced Agility Dog), which I am very proud of. I am really happy with how far he has come on his distance work and his overall skill. It is just a matter of time now before we have some Masters 'Q's.

Bosley earned his Draft Dog Title this year. This accomplishment was high on my goal list for the year and since there is only one trial in Alberta a year, we only had one shot at it. He was a really, really good boy on test day and we did it!!!!

Earning his Draft title also qualified Bosley for the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of Canada Working Dog Award. To earn this award you must have earned a CD title plus titles in 2 other CKC performance events (not including Rally).

Our other noteable accomplishments were that we got in the Open Obedience ring and Bosley wowed me with his focus and enthusiasm. We also joined a Scent Hurdle team and Bosley learned scent discrimination.

I am now trying to prioritize my goals for next year and take a hard look at what is most important for me do - both in training, competing and for the general well being of my dogs.

These Boots Were Made For Walking

2010-12-28T19:22:00.000-07:00

I finally got a new pair of winter boots. My old pair was heavy and bulky and made my ankles hurt because they weren't very "bendy". I found some pretty Sorels on sale and I had a hard time choosing between the red tartan pattern or these pink beauties. I didn't really need to wear them today because it was warm and there is not much snow left, but I wore them anyway. They are great! They are light and I can actually climb hills without my ankles and legs screaming at me.

Oh, I got some pictures of the dogs today too. I hardly ever take my camera with me on walks and today I had my camera but forgot to take pictures until we were heading home.

Maggie and Bosley are racing to get back to me . . .

Bosley pulls into the lead . . .

Bosley wins with Maggie close behind.

Hi Maggie!

I am not sure what Maggie is doing in the picture. Sneezing? Laughing at Bosley? Watching a bird? Who knows.

The dogs had fun romping in the coulees (even if they are bare of snow) and I had fun stomping around in my new boots.

Too Much Time On My Hands?

2010-12-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Probably.

Keeping Fit

2010-12-27T18:00:00.001-07:00

I think that most people realize how important it is to keep ourselves and our dogs in shape. It is especially important for dogs who do any type of dog sports to stay conditioned. Most dogs that are well conditioned are less likely to suffer injuries than those dogs who are "weekend warriors". I say most dogs because overall structure plays a very important role in injuries and what your dog should be doing.

Earlier this year, I attended Pat Hastings "Structure in Action" seminar. Pat Hastings is very well known for her method of structurally evaluating puppies. Her seminar was very interesting and it really makes you think about the stress we put on our dogs' bodies when they are not structurally suited for what we are asking them to do. Maggie was a demo dog at the seminar and Pat did an evaluation of her. Maggie has had injuries and trouble jumping since she started agility. She doesn't have the best structure (straight in the front and the rear, loose elbows and slipped hocks are some of the structural deficiencies that were pointed out) and this shows in her gait and athletic abilities. Her body will break down much quicker than it should, therefore it is very important that she keeps her muscles strong.

Earlier this month, I attended another seminar hosted by a veterinarian who specializes in rehabilitation and performance dogs. She gave us lots of useful information about conditioning our dogs including endurance training, strength training and stretching. She was also doing individual evaluations so I had Bosley evaluated. I worry about him getting injured simply because of his large size - 100 pound dogs were not really meant to do agility. She was impressed with his overall structure, conditioning and movement. She said that the majority of Bernese she sees pace and he does not pace at all, even at a slow walk - so that is good. He did need one minor spinal adjustment and she said he should loose a couple pounds (she likes to see dogs very, very lean) but that was about it.

So what are my plans to keep Maggie and Bosley in shape? The usual daily walks including 20 minutes of trotting for endurance training. For strength training, they use the fit-ball a few days a week - they love their peanut ball which is good. I am also going to get some PVC and make some cavelettis and start working with those as well as they are great for conditioning and strengthening. I am also going to try to get better about doing stretching exercises with them - I should do them everyday, but I find it boring so I often forget.

Here are Maggie and Bosley showing off their peanut ball.

Here is Bosley hanging over the ball. This is not one of his exercises, but I couldn't hold the ball, keep him on and take pictures all at the same time.

It's Christmas

2010-12-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Nothing says Christmas like a good game of Santa Hat tug-o-war!

Merry Christmas to everyone out there in blogger land.

If You Are Thinking About Participating In CKC Events in 2011 . . .

2010-12-12T20:26:00.004-07:00

. . . make sure you are aware of the title tracking changes for non - CKC members.

The Canadian Kennel Club has been going through some financial difficulties and has been restructuring the way it does business. They recently passed some changes that includes charging a fee to all non-members to keep track of your 'Q's or points towards a title. In other words, if you want your title recognized, you either need to join the CKC or pay the fee (which is per dog, per title).

This is copy/pasted directly from the CKC 2011 Business Plan:

Non Member Tracking Fees

• Canadian Non Member pays $55/dog/title/event admin

fee

• Track & award its titles

• Payable within 30 days of receipt of first award

I know that the CKC's intent is that more people will become members and they will have increased membership revenue. I really don't think that they are taking the performance people into consideration in all of this. Not everyone, especially the dog owner who may enjoy participating in rally or agility, but do not show or breed their dogs, wants to be a CKC member.

Hello CKC - you are not the only game in town when it comes to performance events! In fact, in agility, CKC is barely a blip on the Canadian agility scene. AAC and NADAC trials, far out number CKC trials. In Rally Obedience, there is APDT and CARO. Not to mention all the other dog sports that are not sanctioned by the CKC at all (flyball, freestyle, etc).

If I was new to dog sports and had the choice to pay a fee to the CKC or join another venue, guess what, I probably would not be paying the CKC. Especially considering that the entry fees for CKC events are nearly double what they are in other venues.

CKC performance events are already hurting. Just look at obedience. Not many people seem to do traditional obedience anymore. The more the CKC excludes people from the performance events, by adding fees or forcing people to join the club, the less likely it will be that local kennel clubs will offer events such as agility, obedience or draft, as no club wants to lose money due to poor entries. This means that we could be seeing the end of some of the performance events and that would be sad.

If you are already a CKC member and disagree with this new business plan, please email your local director. The link to the BODs can be found here: CKC Board Of Directors.

**Update Dec 20.

The CKC decided to change this fee to a per person fee, not a per dog/per title fee.

Catching Up

2010-12-07T14:53:00.001-07:00

It has been a very long time since I updated my blog. What a bad blogger I am. A few things have happened since my last post.

It has snowed a lot. Here is Bosley sitting on a park bench that is nearly covered in a snow drift.

In November, Maggie earned her Masters Snooker Dog title at the CAA trial. This is her very first Masters title :) What a great way to finish off agility for the year.

This past weekend, Bosley made his debut in Open Obedience. One of my goals for this year was to get him in the Open ring - and we did. Not only did we get in the ring, but Bosley was great! I really didn't know how it would go, but he exceeded all my expectations of him. I still smile and get tears in my eyes when I think about how he was in the ring. He was happy, happy, happy for the entire 2 runs that we did. His heeling was great. His drop on recalls, which we have been working so hard on, were perfect. He was such a good boy. Teaching him the retrieve was by far the hardest thing that I have trained him to do. It took an entire year of training to get him to retrieve his dumbbell. In the ring, he RAN, he actually RAN out to get his dumbbell and RAN back to me. It would have been perfect if he had actually waited for me to send him :) He anticipated the retrieve over high jump in both trials. I didn't even care just because he was so enthusiastic to go get his dumbbell in a place that he had never been before. And in Bosley's defense, we have only practiced the retrieve over high jump maybe twice in the past 2 months. I will need to work on this, as I don't want it to become a habit, but for now, I will take enthusiasm over perfection.

I was also happy that I kept my ring nerves so well under control. I was a little nervous before our first trial, but once I got in the ring I was fine. The second trial, I barely had any nerves at all. Oh, but I do need to practice throwing the dumbbell. Haha! I had to do 3 throws to get it far enough over the high jump.

Now I am so excited to get back in the obedience ring. I know that Bosley can get his CDX. Too bad there are not anymore obedience trials until March. Oh well, that just gives us a few months to work out all the little kinks.

Photo Contest

2010-11-02T14:13:00.000-06:00

Every year, the company I work for has an employee photo contest. I have never entered before, but I took this shot right before the closing date of the contest, so I sent it in.

Guess what !?! It won 1st place in Canada with over 350 entries in the contest.

Halloween Agility Trial

2010-10-25T21:41:00.000-06:00

We were in Calgary all weekend at an agility trial. The last trial we were at, I came away feeling very frustrated. This weekend was much better :)

Maggie was entered in 3 runs each day. She was having some trouble with the weaves this weekend again. In her warm ups, she was very stiff bending to the right and then last night I noticed some warm spots on her shoulders. Despite the weaves, she ran very well all weekend and earned a Masters Standard Q. I was very excited about that. That is her second Masters Standard Q in 2 trials. For me this is a huge deal - to have 2 masters standard Qs.

Bosley ran very well this weekend too. He made his Masters Standard debut and had a great run except for being slow in the weaves. He was clean but 0.22 seconds overtime. Really? How does that happen?
In his second standard run, he was slow in the weaves again and actually popped out. What? Then I realized that I was worrying about the weaves and was hovering about 2 feet away. Bosley hates that. He just likes to do things on his own and as soon as I gave him his space he was back on track. Not sure why I worry about him in the weaves - he is a great weaver. His third standard run was great once I got the weave situation figured out. It was a tough course and Bosley ran perfect - except that I was out of place on a front cross and he had a refusal on a jump. Bosley did get an Advanced Jumpers 'Q' this weekend - yay for Bosley - those jumpers courses are not easy for him to make time on.

So I came away from the weekend very happy. I am feeling good about the way Bosley is running and I am happy that Maggie is still having fun doing agility. I can really see Maggie slowing down in general with the amount she plays at home and how long it takes her to tire out on walks, so am I glad that she can still have fun galloping around the agility course.

80%

2010-10-16T15:39:00.000-06:00

I am about 80% ready to enter Bosley in Open Obedience in December. There is a trial in Calgary that is Obedience only and it should be a nice, quiet trial without too many distractions. I have my entry form filled out, but I still haven't mailed it.

I am 20% unsure mainly because Bosley is not always 100% on his attention in the ring. We are also still tweaking his drop on recall.

The other night we did a complete run through of an open routine exactly the way it would be in a trial - no treats and no talking between exercises. Bosley did very well. Today we did another run through in a place that Bosley had never been before. His first run through was good. His second time through, he was a bit more distracted, but we made it through without me losing him completely.

In a real trial, I think if I can have his attention and focus during the heeling, the rest will be OK.

The entry form is in my car. I just need to put a stamp on and mail it. I will need to decide soon.

Just Pictures

2010-10-05T20:37:00.000-06:00

The Case Of The Missing Eggs

2010-09-25T13:56:00.001-06:00

On Friday September 24th at approximately 4:10am Maggie and Bosley were fed their breakfast. They were given a meal of beef, organ meat and a raw egg. The very tired Food Giver forgot to put the eggs back in the fridge and left them on the counter.

At approximately 4:40am the Food Giver left the house where she last saw the dogs sound asleep in the bedroom.

At around 1:45pm, the Food Giver came home to find a crime had taken place.

Somewhere between 4:40am and 1:45 pm, 2 eggs were stolen from their carton and have disappeared.

Evidence Exhibit A: One destroyed egg carton with contents missing.

Evidence Exhibit B: Sofa with bits of egg shell left behind.

The Suspects:

Maggie.

Maggie is a well known counter surfer with a long list of charges and convictions. She usually shows no remorse for committing her crimes and previous punishments have not deterred her from repeat offenses.

Bosley:

Bosley is an opportunist rather than a ring leader. He will take advantage of any situation to suit himself. He is often seen following Maggie around reaping the benefits of her counter surfing ways. He has had charges against him in the past but the charges have always been dismissed.

The suspects have both been interrogated and neither are talking. Paw prints taken at the crime scene reveal very little as both prints from Maggie and Bosley have been found. Since they live in the room were the crime took place, we expected to find their prints. However, no other paw prints were found in the vicinity. We still do not know exactly who stole the eggs. We still do not know the whereabouts of the missing eggs, but we have our suspicions and we are not holding out much hope of finding the eggs alive. This crime is still under investigation.

If anyone has any further information regarding this heinous crime, please call:

1-800-BAD-DOGS

Trials and Tribulations

2010-09-22T21:33:00.001-06:00

On the weekend we were at an agility trial in Medicine Hat.

It has taken me a few days to blog about it because, well, I was quite frustrated and disappointed. I thought if I had a couple days to think about how things went, I would feel better. I don't.

It wasn't all bad - there were some really great moments with both dogs.

The good:
-On Saturday, Bosley made his Masters Gamblers debut. The gamble was a tough one (of course, we are in masters now). Bosley got the final gamble! I was thrilled! Unfortunately, we ran out of time, but he did it!
-Bosley's weaves on Saturday were amazing! I mean, really, really amazing. I don't think he has ever weaved so fast as he did in his standard run.
-Maggie earned her first Masters Standard Q
-On Sunday, Maggie got the main gamble in her Masters Gamblers run. I totally underestimated her and didn't think she would get it. There was a dogwalk in the final gamble, and she missed her contact, so we didn't Q, but now I know she can do it!

The not so good:
-I don't think Bosley broke out of a trot all weekend. This is the slowest he has been in a very long time. We were over time on several runs.
-After having amazing weaves on Saturday, on Sunday Bosley seemed to forget how to weave at all.
-Bosley totally blew me off on our last run Sunday. He smelled something delicious and was too busy sniffing the air to pay attention our run. I excused ourselves from the ring. He hasn't done this in a very long time.

I guess am very frustrated because Bosley has been so "on" for the last few trials. I don't know what the difference was this weekend. The weather was very cool (I wore long underwear all weekend) so that wasn't a factor. I did the same warm-up routine and he seemed fine before each run. The only difference I can tell is that we didn't go home at night. When we don't sleep at home, he is restless all night, so I don't know if that made a difference or if I am just grasping at straws, trying to figure out what happened.

The final results for the weekend:

Maggie - Masters Standard 'Q'

Bosley - Advanced Snooker 'Q'. Advanced Standard 'Q'. Advanced Agility Dog of Canada Title. Moves to Masters Standard.

Here are a couple videos:

Bosley Advanced Standard. Awesome weaves!!!!!

Bosley Advanced Snooker. I usually play it safe in trials, but I took a chance and did the weaves.

Finally !!!!

2010-09-17T14:25:00.000-06:00

Today I finally received Bosley's Draft Dog title certificate in the mail. We passed the test exactly 15 weeks ago today. I know that the CKC is doing some major cutbacks, but 15 weeks to get a title certificate?? The weird thing is that he earned an agility title the same weekend and I got that certificate over a month ago.

Scenthurdle

2010-09-10T10:55:00.001-06:00

Bosley is still working hard on his scent discrimination and practicing to be on our scenthurdle team. So far he hasn't got kicked off the team :)

Bosley is careful and thoughtful when it comes to the scent work and last night was the first time we have practiced with a fully loaded box. In practice he has slowed down over the jumps on the way to the box. When we first started training with only one dumbbell in the box (no discrimination) he would fly out to get his dumbbell. Now that we have added discrimination to the box, he is much slower going out. I am hoping that once his confidence goes up, his speed will get faster.

I am pleased with his scent discrimination - he is making the correct choice more and more often now. Of course, at home he is more accurate than in practice, but hopefully with more practice he will get more confident. I am still very happy with his progress. If 2 years ago, someone had told me Bosley would be on a scenthurdle team, there is no way I would have believed it.

Here is a little video of our practice last night introducing our team. There are 4 dumbells in the box for each dog, and the dog must choose his own dumbbell.

Trial Goals

2010-09-01T09:33:00.001-06:00

After every trial, I look at how well we did or how well didn't do, and decide what I need to work on in my training. I did the same thing after the trial we just had and I have a few training goals in my mind to work on over the next few weeks. This post is NOT about those training goals. It is about something personal I need to work on when I am at a trial. That is taking care of myself.
When I am at a trial, I get so wrapped up in what is going on - pottying dogs, getting ready to run, warming up dogs, cooling down dogs, volunteering, visiting friends, watching people run their dogs, etc, etc. I get so wrapped up in all of this stuff, that I forget about eating until I start to feel ill. I also never drink enough water and so by the end of the day I have a headache from being dehydrated.
My goal for future trials is to take the time so sit down and eat properly. That does not mean grab a couple snacks (although I really enjoy snacks), instead I need to eat some real food. And drink more water or energy drinks. And eat breakfast before a trial - I am really bad about eating breakfast.

Bernese In CKC Agility

2010-08-31T19:29:00.001-06:00

This is a bit of continuation of my thoughts from my last post and how few Bernese actually participate/qualify in agility trials in Canada. I looked up some CKC stats and last year (2009) there were 34 agility legs earned by Bernese. Out of those 34 qualifying runs, 19 legs (56%) were earned by my 2 dogs.
Understandably, most people do not get a Bernese Mountain Dog with the intentions of doing agility with them but there are many people who have been very successful competitively with their Bernese. As a matter of fact, just this past weekend, a Berner earned an AKC MACH4. That is a pretty amazing accomplishment for any dog to achieve.
I think most people think of Bernese as big, lumbering, lazy dogs but in reality, they were traditionally used as an all purpose farm dog who would work all day with it's owner. Bernese may be lazier now than when they had to work on Swiss farms all day, but I think the majority of them still really love to work, especially since that means they get to spend time with their owner. Bernese are really all about the connection they have with their people and agility as well as other dog sports are a great way to fulfill that need.

Compliment

2010-08-31T07:20:00.001-06:00

I am not the type of person who seeks out attention or public recognition. Some people thrive on being the center of attention, but that kind of stuff makes me a bit uncomfortable. However, this weekend at our agility trial, I was extremely honored to be given a Judges Choice Award by Christina Saunders. She used myself and my dogs as an example of a team that can compete in agility and enjoy agility even though I do not have one of the typical agility breeds. (There are very few people competing with Bernese in agility and Bernese are almost never seen at the higher levels.) She mentioned the people she sees that make excuses in training and trialing because they have a breed that is not a Border Collie or a Sheltie and she complimented the way I train and handle my dogs. I just run my dogs for who they are. I have had a judge in the past make a mean, off-handed remark to me about Bernese in agility, so to have Christina give me her judges choice award based on the breed that I run, that means a lot to me. It really does.

I guess I don't think about this stuff too much. I just have fun with my dogs and don't use their breed as an excuse for not being able to accomplish something. I am proud to run my big Bernese in agility. I owe much of this to Sarah and Amanda. They never have any "breedist" attitudes in class and problems are always training issues, not breed issues. I know not all instructors or schools are like this and I always feel so lucky to have such supportive instructors and agility friends.

Go!Dog!Go! Agility Trial

2010-08-30T15:09:00.000-06:00

This weekend, our agility club hosted our annual agility trial. It sure is great to have a trial at home and not need to travel, even if the weather was rainy on Sunday. The best part of the weekend was seeing the group of new students from our club participate in their very first trial. This group started training last spring(2009) and they have been working so hard to get ready for this trial. All the hard work paid off and they all did great! I was so excited to see them run and see their dogs have a great time out on course. I think the handlers had a good time too and if they were nervous, you sure couldn't tell.

For my own dogs, I couldn't have been happier with them. The cooler weather sure does make a difference in how they run. I have also been feeling more confident on course lately, so that may make a difference as well.

Maggie was entered in 5 runs over the weekend. She ran well in all her runs - she was fast but didn't get the zoomies and she tried very hard. She had great times in her 2 Masters Standard runs, but had weave faults in each. She tried very hard in the 2 Masters Gambler runs and had lots of points in her openings, but distance work is hard for her, and although she tried hard to figure out what I wanted her to do, she did not get the final gambles. She did have an awesome Masters Snooker run and earned a 'Q' for her efforts. Yay Maggie!

Bosley worked very hard this weekend, and was under time in all his runs (even Jumpers). He had an awesome Advanced Standard run, but then knocked the very last bar - it was totally my fault too. There was a very odd finish line, so I decelerated at the last jump instead of running straight through, so Bosley pulled up and knocked the bar. His second Standard run was very nice too, and he "Q'd that one and was 11 seconds under time. He was the only dog who qualified in that run.

Bosley's Advanced Gamblers runs were really, really good. I used to dread running in Gamblers, but I have worked hard to get some distance with Bosley, and he rocked it this weekend. He 'Q'd his first Gambler run with 48 points. The second run he 'Q'd with an amazing (for Bosley) 76 points where he managed to do the 12 point mini gamble twice. This one had a tricky final gamble and only 2 dogs were able to get the final. So now Bosley moves to Masters Gamblers (yikes!). We will need to work on more distance in the weaves and get him more confident turning away from me.

Bosley ran nice in both his Advanced Jumpers. The Saturday run, he knocked the first bar, but did well on the rest and finished 4.5 seconds under time. In Sunday's run, he ran fast the entire course, even through the twisty parts, and he got his first Advanced Jumpers 'Q'.

Bosley was also entered in Advanced Snooker. We had a great opening and needed to get to the end of 6 in the closing to qualify. Bosley knocked a bar in the #5 sequence so we got tweeted off. Not sure why that bar fell, but it was raining when we were running so maybe that was why. Regardless, we were so close, and Bosley ran great.

Only one more outdoor trial left this season.

There's An App For That

2010-08-25T21:01:00.002-06:00

Not too long ago, I downloaded a fitness app for my Iphone. It is just a simple GPS program that tells you how far you have walked/hiked/ran and how long it took you. It records your progress and it also maps your route (which is very cool). I thought it would be a fun app to have, but I always forget to turn it on when I start our walks. The other day, I was taking the dogs for their quick evening walk around the neighborhood and I finally remembered to turn that darned app on for once. I was very surprised to find out that our "short" walk was actually 5km (3 miles) - granted, it is all on sidewalk with no hills, so it doesn't take us too long (40 minutes). Now I am curious to know how far we go on a "regular" walk, which is on average 75-90 minutes (when the weather is cool enough, of course). Hopefully, this app is a good motivator for me and the dogs to walk longer distances and try out new hiking routes.

**** A couple people have asked which app I am using. It is the Sprint GPS. I can't remember if it is a free app or not. If not, it was only a couple dollars.

Find The Berner

2010-08-24T18:55:00.000-06:00

Birthday Surprise

2010-08-21T13:23:00.000-06:00

Four years ago today, a little baby Bosley was born.

Here is Bosley the day we brought him home at 9 weeks old.

Here is Bosley now: grown up and handsome.

Today we got up and went for a nice birthday walk. It was very cool outside this morning, so we got to take an extra long walk, which rarely happens in the summer. So that was a nice birthday surprise for Bosley.

We then came home and took some birthday pictures.

There was another birthday surprise today. I thought Bosley should wear his backpack on his walk so I put the pack on him and when I opened it up to put in some bottles of water: Surprise - there was a toy inside. A while ago, I lent the pack to Wendy as she was thinking about purchasing one. I let her try out the one I have to see how her dog Coulee liked it, and as a thank you, Wendy left a toy inside the pack with a thank you message attached. Bosley is not much into toys, but Maggie has been playing with it all morning.

New toys make Maggie very happy - thanks Wendy!

Agility At Spruce Meadows

2010-08-02T21:23:00.001-06:00

This weekend we had the pleasure of playing agility at the world famous equestrian centre Spruce Meadows. The Alberta Kennel Club held it's annual summer show at Spruce Meadows for the first time this year. It is such a beautiful venue -everything is so pristine. There are even people in big golf carts who come by to drive you, your dog and all of your gear to and from the parking lot. Very fancy!

Here is Bosley posing next to one of the horse exercise paddocks. There were horses in it earlier in the day, but they were gone by the time I got out my camera to take pictures.

In addition to the thrill of competing at Spruce Meadows, Bosley had a really good weekend. He only had one run that was a bit pokey, but the rest were great. One of his standard runs was 13 seconds under time, which is huge for Bosley. His weaves were really good - he is finally getting used to the 24" spacing. He did miss 3 weave entries today - one because he was distracted by something outside the ring and the other two I thought he got, but he missed at the last second. More weave entry work coming up for Bosley. He responded nice to my handling and even did a beautiful serpentine today. He had some really nice runs, and besides the couple of flubbed weave entries, I was super happy with his performance all weekend.

We came away from the weekend with 3 Qs - 2 Standard and 1 JWW. (We should have had another standard Q, but for some weird reason Bosley stopped to sniff the table before he jumped on, so we had a refusal.) So in 2 weekends, Bosley has earned 6 Excellent B 'Q's. I am pretty amazed with that actually. Now I really want to do more CKC agility - but there are no more trials nearby until next summer. Bummer.

Here is Bosley outside the agility rings. Look at that beautiful grass we got to run on. It was perfect - no lumps or bumps and no gopher holes! I can't wait to go back next year.

The funniest part of the weekend was the huge crowds that would come and watch. We are not used to this in agility. Everyone would cheer when the dogs did something good and they would "awwww" when a dog would knock a bar. They would laugh when handlers messed up. Bosley got lots of cheers for his weaving - I don't think people expect a big dog to be able to weave like he does. The spectators really enjoyed watching and it is fun to see the reactions of people who are not involved in the sport. As competitors, we get so focused on watching the handler errors and the technical side of the sport, that sometimes we forget to watch just for the fun of it.

Summer

2010-07-25T20:04:00.000-06:00

It's Summer! Break out the sunscreen. Put on those sunglasses. Soak up some rays.

Get me back in the air conditioning!!!!

Bully Stick Baton

2010-07-19T21:14:00.002-06:00

I have been working to try to get Bosley moving a bit faster in agility. To motivate him, I use his most favorite treat in the world - the bully stick. I had Bosley entered in a CKC agility trial this weekend and the bully stick made the trip with us. I played "Pass The Bully Stick Baton" with Cindy for each of Bosley's runs - as I was entering the ring, I would pass the stick off to her and as I was leaving the ring, Cindy would pass the stick back to me and I would toss it to Bosley. It worked well and Bosley had an awesome weekend (for the the most part - I will get to more in a bit) and was under time in every run except for one, and we had a good excuse for that one.

The weekend was full of challenging courses with difficult weave entrances. Some of the courses really made you think and you had to handle your dog well to be successful. I was happy with my handling for the most part. I had a late cue that sent Bosley to a wrong tunnel mouth, but overall I was happy and I was really pleased with how Bosley responded to my handling.

The very first run of the weekend was a JWW with a very tough weave entrance and there was a lot of discussion during the walk through on how people were planning to handle it. Not many dogs got the entrance and there were some interesting handling choices. The only way I could figure out to make the entrance nice for Bosley was to do a lead out pivot (the weaves were the third obstacle). It worked beautifully and Bosley got the entrance and 'Q'd his first run of the weekend.

My favorite run of the weekend was the last JWW course of the weekend. The course was tight and it almost made me dizzy but it really forced you to handle your dog. It felt like I did about 20 front crosses but I think I really only did 5. Bosley did a great job on this course and all the front crosses really kept his lines tight. Bosley was 1 of only 2 dogs that qualified on this course - there were lots of off-courses and lots of lost handlers. Here is my drawing of the course - it is not exact but gives an idea of how the course flowed. Can you figure out where I put in 5 front crosses? **(My handling choices are at the bottom of this post).

Bosley had one qualifying Standard run. It was a nice run except Bosley got stuck in the chute. I really hate the long CKC chutes and this one seemed quite heavy and I saw a few dogs get tangled. I sent Bosley in the chute and when I looked back, he was stuck. I was just reaching to grab the end of the chute when he popped out on his own and we finished the course - he was even 6 seconds under time with the few seconds lost in the chute.

The rest of Bosley's runs were nice and he had some really fast straight lines. A bobble here and there, but overall one of the best weekends Bosley has had.

The weekend was not without mishaps however. First, there was the chute incident which I already mentioned. Bosley was over time on one run and that is because he broke the weave poles. He missed the entrance on the weaves but he hit the poles so hard that a pole went flying. I thought it had popped off the base but the judge came over and the pole had actually snapped right off. So I stood there, not sure what we should do and the judge said to send him back through the poles (with one missing). Bosley was funny and weaved through as if there were actually a pole there.

The biggest mishap happened on the very last run of the day. It had just started to rain and there had been a big drop in temperature. Bosley knocked a bar on the second jump because he needed to sneeze right as he was taking off. Since we NQd, I thought I would just run and see if I could really get Bosley moving. I got him moving all right - right over the top of the A-frame for a crash landing on the other side. I forgot about the higher, steeper CKC A-frame and when he went over the top he couldn't collect and fell. He fell hard but landed flat on the side of his shoulder, so luckily he didn't get hurt. It was very scary for me. A lesson learned - know when to push for speed but never sacrifice time for safety.

** Front crosses: 7-8, 11-12, 14-15, 16-17, 17-18

Agility Fun Match

2010-07-11T17:06:00.001-06:00

The dogs and I spent the day at an agility fun match. It was a perfect day weather wise - cloudy with a bit of a breeze to keep those pesky mosquitos away. The match was lots of fun and several Go!Dog!Go! students that will be starting to trial this fall were there and they all did great! We have another awesome group of competitors coming up - I can't wait to see them all at their first trials.

Maggie and Bosley did well today and had fun. They each did a Masters Gamblers, a Snooker and a Masters Jumpers. Maggie was speedy and had lots of fun. She knocked a couple bars, but overall did great! She had lots of enthusiasm and tried very hard all day.

Bosley had a very good day. He was fast in all his runs - he loved his bully stick reward (he will run fast for that)! He did an awesome threadle in the jumpers run (yay) - he doesn't always get those, so I was happy. I was most happy with his Masters Gamblers run. First, he is not even in Masters Gamblers yet - he just got into Advanced. Second, the gambler run was from this years Ontario Regional Championship and it was HARD. He got the mini-gamble twice and . . . he got the final gamble! I was so happy with him, I didn't expect him to get the final at all.

Here is a link to the Gamble: Regionals Gamblers Course

My new shade tent worked out well, expect that I didn't take into account how high my x-pen is, so the x-pen would not fit all the way to the back. Crates will fit perfect or I will need to buy a shorter x-pen to fit better.

New Tent

2010-07-07T15:06:00.000-06:00

I bought a new little shade tent today. I have a nice, big tent that has lots of room to fit many dogs and friends, but last summer 2 poles broke during a storm. I want to get the poles replaced because nothing is wrong with the rest of the tent, but until then, I thought it would be nice to have a small tent for day trips or fun matches.

I found this little beach tent that should work well. It is easy to set up and will easily fit an x-pen or a couple of crates and a chair or two. It has a front and back door for nice airflow and it is silver on the top so I hope that helps reflect the sun. It will be a bit of shade and shelter anyway and since it didn't cost very much, if it doesn't work out, I won't be out a ton of money.

The dogs like it already. I swear I didn't make the dogs pose for this picture. I set the tent up in the living room (I didn't want to set it up outside incase I didn't like it and needed to return it) and the dogs made themselves right at home. I am surprised I even got it put together because they were trying to get in it while I was still setting it up.

Now What?

2010-07-05T20:02:00.000-06:00

We are half way through the year and I have been contemplating how my training will go for the next half of the year. The dogs and I have taken most of the past month off of training - we even skipped a couple agility classes, which I have never done before. Since the draft and agility weekend at the beginning of June, we have done very little. We had been training so hard, I felt I needed a break and that the dogs deserved a break too.

Here is Bosley at the park enjoying a well deserved break.

We are now ready to get back to work. Bosley has his "game face" on and says he is ready to get back to work too. No more slacking off.

The break has been good and I did a bit of obedience work with Bosley over the weekend. He was super excited to be working again and had lots of enthusiasm.

I now really want to concentrate on Open Obedience. Since it is nice outside, I can take my jumps to the park to practice. I have some ideas for keeping Bosley's motivation up that I want to try.

I think I want to go for Bosley's DDX title, but since there are no more draft tests until next year, we will wait until the fall until we start any serious DDX training.

We have also started to work on scent discrimination. I am not sure when our scent hurdle team will be able to get together to practice again (the summer is so busy for everyone) but I really want to get a good start on the discrimination since Bosley seems to love the rest of the game. I am using a method that I found posted on a Berner Yahoo group. If I have success using this method, I will describe it in a future post.

Agility. I have Bosley entered in a few upcoming trials. Two of the trials are CKC trials where I am now working on Excellent B legs. A total of 20 Excellent B legs are needed to complete a Championship title - that is a lot! I will really need to think about if this is something I really want to pursue. There are so few CKC trials that I can go to (within reasonable driving distance) and CKC is soooo expensive (I can do 2 AAC shows for every 1 CKC show), so I don't know if it is reasonable to set that goal.
My main agility goal right now is speed. Bosley needs to get his speed up on the course. He is usually very accurate and responds nicely to my handling, but he can be slow. He is a big dog and not built for speed (I am not making excuses, just being realistic), but I know he is capable of being fast when he wants. I just need to bring that out more in agility. Fun games and better motivators (ie yummy food) will be what we need to work on to get that speed up.

"See, I can run fast when I want to."

(BTW - this photo was my first attempt at panning - I was happy with how it turned out, although the background was not the best to show off the movement.)

Poor Maggie is becoming more and more just my cuddler on the couch and less active in "dog stuff". She did an agility demo this weekend and loved it. Tracking is put off now until it is cooler outside. She is entered in one upcoming agility trial for a few events later this summer. I basically want to keep up her agility skills and play around with a little rally but she doesn't love competing at all. She loves doing agility demos and has some more of those coming up too -she is such a nice, happy dog and really enjoys meeting people so she is a great demo dog.

So that is my current training plan for now. I know the summer will fly by, like always, so I hope to get in some good training sessions before we are stuck inside again.

Maggie and her Kong

2010-07-04T18:53:00.001-06:00

When Maggie is eating a treat or chewing on her Kong, she always needs to lay on her bed or on a pillow (that Bosley has left on the floor). She never will just lay on the floor and chew something. Today I looked over and saw this:

There was a flip-flop on the floor in the livingroom (left there by Bosley, of course) and Maggie thought that would be the perfect place to enjoy her Kong.

What a funny girl!

Pole Weaving

2010-06-23T20:01:00.000-06:00

Bosley really loves the weave poles so I thought it would be fun to try to take a few pictures of him weaving.

Here is Bosley getting ready to weave. Doesn't he look happy?

"Yipee!! Look how fast I can go!!!"

Apparently, weaving needs be done with one eye closed. Kind of like threading a needle, I guess.

Keep that eye shut :)

Look at the bend in the poles, and those crazy looking legs (and the shut eye).

I like this picture with Bosley's eye peaking out of one side of the pole and a big smile showing on the other side of the pole.

I am not sure how weaving with both eyes shut works?

"Here I come!"

Titer Test

2010-06-22T14:59:00.000-06:00

Last week I took Maggie for her yearly check-up. This was the first big check-up she has had since her Mast Cell Cancer treatment last year. I asked the vet to do a full blood panel work-up as well as titers.

I am very conservative when it comes to vaccinations in my dogs. Both Maggie and Bosley have had their puppy series and a one year booster and nothing since (following the Jean Dodds vaccination protocol). Maggie has not had any vaccinations for over 4 years. Her titer levels came back great!

The rest of her blood work came back good as well. The vet was worried about her kidney values (creatine specifically) as last year it was on the high side. The vet was pleased to see that the creatine value had dropped a bit and stabilized although it is still a bit high but within the normal range. She figures the higher value has a lot to do with Maggie's water drinking habits - she drinks very little. If she was drinking a ton of water and peeing a lot, she would be more concerned. I worry about Maggie's kidneys because when she was a puppy she knocked a bottle of Ibuprofen off the counter, the lid popped off and she ate a bunch of it. Ibuprofen can cause kidney damage in dogs and although there were no signs of damage when she was released from the hospital at the time, I still worry.

Maggie's glucose was a bit low, but both the vet and the pathologist think it was because the blood was shipped to Calgary for testing and the blood will use up it's own glucose (or something like that). She has to go back for a quick glucose test later this week, as a precaution.

I am always nervous waiting for test results to come back - even if it is just routine blood work. I am very glad that the vet gave Maggie a clean bill of health.

Flood

2010-06-19T11:29:00.000-06:00

For the past few days we have been getting a lot of heavy rain. Today it is finally sunny again. We went for a long walk this morning with the intention of getting this weeks photo for Bosley's 52 Weeks For Dogs project. The river is flooding from all the rain, so I wanted a picture of Bosley posing at the flooding river.

I like this picture of Bosley as we are about to go though the tunnel that runs under Whoop-Up Drive. I like how his wet footprints show up.

I am very nervous around water, so I didn't want to go right down to the river. The river is moving very fast and it is very high, so we took the pedestrian overpass that crosses the river.

Walking over the pedestrian overpass is very safe, but I still feel nervous when I see and hear all that water rushing underneath the bridge. Bosley posed for a few pictures on the bench before we crossed (quickly) over the bridge.

Weekend Details

2010-06-08T12:43:00.000-06:00

I couldn't have been more pleased with how Bosley worked during the entire draft test on Friday. His off-leash heeling was very good - especially considering we were outside. He got a couple nice comments from the judges on his heeling as well as his "halts" and his back-up from the basic cart control section of the test.

For the freight haul, the judges have the option of judging each dog individually or doing a group freight haul. Due to the large number of entries, they opted for the group haul. This means that 3 dogs go at a time and each take a turn at being the dog in the front, in the middle and in the back. You are not allowed to pass the dog in front of you, which means you must adjust your pace to the lead team. I was a bit worried about this, as the first section was all downhill and Bosley loves to try to run down the hills and we were in the middle position to start. I made sure I left a lot of room between us and the lead dog and made Bosley go SLOW down the hill. He listened very well and we had no problems. The dog behind us however would not slow down and the handler had to grab him to keep him from running into us (an automatic fail). At first I felt bad that they failed because we were going so slow, but draft work is really all about control and control is essentially what determines a pass or fail.

There was one section of the test that got many dogs, especially the non-traditional drafting breeds entered (a Standard Poodle, a Portuguese Water Dog and a Rough Collie). The dogs had to pull their loaded cart (40 pounds) straight up a hill, stop, make a sharp left turn a go straight down the side of the hill. Many dogs refused to do the hill or could not get enough momentum going up the hill and the loaded cart would just pull them back down. It was too bad, as many of these dogs tried so hard but they just couldn't make it.

Overall, I thought it was a very good test. Lots of challenges but not impossible. The judges were great and everyone was very encouraging. I met some great Berner people too!!

Bosley was #7 in the test. They had very cute placards to put on the back of our cart for the test.

I think I will leave my license plate on.

Maggie and Bosley were also entered in agility over the weekend. Bosley got the last "Q" needed to finish his AgXS title. He had a couple other really nice runs. We had some miscommunication on a couple other runs. Overall, I was happy. He was very slow in the weaves - trying to be careful and adjust to the 24" spacing. By the end of the weekend he was figuring it out.

Maggie made it very clear to me that she was not happy that I was making her jump 20". She cannot jump 16" in CKC until she is 7 years old. I pulled her from her runs on Sunday and I pulled her entry from a CKC trial in July. If she is not happy, I am not going to force her to play.

BMDCC Draft Dog Test

2010-06-04T18:16:00.003-06:00

Yesterday we drove to Edmonton for some agility and a draft test. Today was the draft test. Out of 12 entrants 2 dogs passed. Bosley was one of them!!!!!!! He was a good boy all day and worked very hard.

Sunny Days

2010-06-03T12:01:00.001-06:00

The rain is gone away . . . could spring actually here to stay?

Rain, Rain Go Away

2010-05-28T17:52:00.000-06:00

It has been raining buckets the past couple of days. Here is Bosley outside saying "Let Me In! I am a Mountain Dog not a Water Dog!"

2010-05-24T22:44:00.002-06:00

We spent the weekend at an agility trial - the first outdoor trial of the year. Saturday it was pouring rain, windy and cold (just above freezing). I thought the weather was miserable - my dogs thought it was the best agility weather ever! Overall, I was happy with both dogs all weekend. I didn't take my video camera along, so I have no video, but here is a quick rundown:

Maggie
Advanced Standard 1 - The first run of the weekend and she (of course) got the zoomies, tried to get me to play "catch me if you can", and basically had a fun time. For her silly antics, the judge gave her "the judges choice award" - partly because of how goofy she was, but more so because Maggie really reminded the judge of her friend's Berner who recently passed away.
Advanced Standard 2 - Maggie ran great - we argued a bit about the down on the table, but the rest was good enough for a Q. This finishes her Advanced Agility Dog of Canada Title and she now moves to Masters.
Masters Snooker - We had a great opening and did 4 reds. We were on our way to start the closing when I broke the #1 agility rule - "never take your eyes off your dog". I thought Maggie was with me, but she ducked behind me and took a jump - so we got tweeted.
Masters Gamblers. Our first time in Masters Gamblers and I was very proud of Maggie. Her opening was decent - not a ton of points but enough. The closing was a tunnel and then a send to a teeter with about 20 feet of lateral distance. Maggie came into me after the tunnel and I stepped into her and told her teeter. She looked at the teeter, looked at me and then went right out to the teeter! This is a big deal for me because the teeter is far from Maggie's favorite obstacle and for her to go out and take it from that distance made me very happy. She didn't get the rest of the gamble because I positioned myself wrong and she took a wrong jump - I didn't care - she did a good job.
Masters Standard - I was thrilled with the way Maggie ran in her first Masters Standard run. She knocked a bar and then popped the weaves, but she was well under time.
Steeplechase - ran clean, but at the end of the weekend was losing her oomph so we were just shy of making time.

Bosley
Advanced Standard 1 - I was trying to keep Bosley moving and got a bit far ahead of him in the opening line and he missed a jump. Heading to the weaves, something outside the ring caught his attention and he ran past the weaves. After I got him refocused in the weaves he ran the rest of the course great.
Advanced Standard 2 - It was pouring rain so I pulled Bosley from this run. The dogwalk is hard enough for him and I didn't want to risk him slipping off.
Advanced Snooker - had a good opening but just barely ran out of time in the closing to get enough points to qualify.
Advanced Jumpers - He was a bit sniffy on the start. We had 5 faults but I can't remember why - a refusal maybe?
Advanced Standard 3 - A nice run with no bobbles that I can remember. Q
Advanced Gamblers - I had an opening planned so that we would get a fair number of points. The mini gamble was jump-jump-turn away to a tunnel and I was going to do this twice in the opening. Easy I thought. But Bosley suddenly had agility amnesia and forgot what "turn" means. I had to quickly make a new plan and wasn't sure if we had enough points. Bosley had no problem with the final gamble - a jump, then a 15' send to a tunnel, then a straight line to the teeter and then to another tunnel. We ended up having enough points (barely) for another Q.
Steeplechase - An OK run, but Bosley isn't fast enough to make time. He had really nice weaves though.
Advanced Jumpers - The last run of the weekend. By now, the sun was out and Bosley said he could not possibly go any faster than a trot with the sun shining on his head. He ran clean but was 3 seconds over time.

Despite the weather, I was really happy with the weekend. Bosley focused really well and his weaves were great all weekend. His distance work is coming along nice and doesn't even hesitate on the gambles (so far anyway). We really just need to work on his speed - that is hard with a big dog who's natural working speed is a trot - 100 pounds is a lot of weight to be running and jumping all day.
Maggie ran well all weekend. She is now in Masters in all her classes except Jumpers. I never usually enter her in jumpers, but now that she is in veterans I think I will start. The lower jump height is making a big difference for her - both in how much more she can do in a weekend and in her attitude.

Just When You Think Things Are Going Good

2010-05-12T20:48:00.003-06:00

I took Bosley out for some carting practice tonight. I have been feeling very confident lately about how he is doing with all his commands and his cart control. Tonight my confidence got taken down a notch or two.

Whoa???? What does that mean? Easy???? What does that mean? Stand still while you go get the harness????? What does that mean?

On a good note, Bosley's verbal left and right directionals were good. I have totally (well, mostly) faded all arm signals for left and right turns. Bosley is also getting very good at tight turns and can almost do a pivot without moving the inside wheel. Tonight was also the first time I did any significant handling from behind the cart. I directed him over 2 narrow bridges with me totally behind the cart and he didn't even run into the side of the bridge! We don't need to do that for the DD test, but there is a whole section of the DDX test that all handling is done from behind the cart.

We did tonight's practice at a busy park and I am usually good at avoiding people so that we don't get stopped by curious onlookers. It is not that I don't want to talk to people about what I am doing with Bosley, but when we are training I would rather not be disrupted. Bosley also totally forgets what he is doing when someone stops to talk to him, and I really want to keep his concentration on his job. Tonight however, a couple flagged us down, and I couldn't ignore them without being rude, so we stopped. The lady asked me what we were doing and asked a couple questions about carting. She then asked me what mix of dog Bosley was. I said he is a Bernese Mountain Dog and I got that look that let me know she has never heard of that breed. She then said "He really looks like a St.Bernard. Is he a St.Bernard mix"? Yes, that is exactly what he is. Funny!

The Neighbours Must Wonder . . .

2010-05-09T17:50:00.002-06:00

There are no alleys in our neighbourhood. We back directly onto the neighbours' yards that live behind us, which leaves very little in the way of privacy in your backyard. Sometimes the neighbours must really wonder about me when they look out their window and see me taking pictures of Bosley posed in the yard looking like this:

I was working on my 52 Weeks For Dogs project this week and since the weather did not cooperate, I did the photo shoot in the yard. There was a challenge this week, simply called "Pop Culture". I wanted to keep a "dog theme" in my project, so I did an internet seach for dogs in Popular Culture. What I came up with was Charles M. Schulz's cartoon character "Snoopy" was the most popular dog in Pop Culture. So I decided to go with that theme and have Bosley pose as Snoopy's alter-ego Flying Ace.

The neighbours must wonder . . .

Earning Her Keep

2010-05-08T22:02:00.000-06:00

During the winter, our agility club rents a horse arena for our weekly classes. Today the owner of the arena had a giant "Barn Bash" with lots of people invited for a supper and dance (with a live band). He invited our agility club to come out and asked us if we would put on a little agility demo before all the eating and dancing and partying began.

I usually take Maggie to demos because, well, because she is Maggie. She makes a good demo dog because she is goofy and loves everyone. Today she put on quite a show. We divided into teams for a relay race and Maggie really played it up for the crowd - galloping at full speed and going through the weaves so fast she was a blur. OK, I might be exaggerating a teeny bit, but she did have a few cheers from the crowd about her weaving ;)

We also did timed individual runs to show off our stuff. Maggie placed 3rd and won $20 courtesy of the owner of the arena. It was lots of fun. I really love doing demos - it is fun to show what our dogs can do in front of non-agility people (and if you mess up the crowd gets a big kick out of it).

This and That From The Weekend

2010-05-02T20:20:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we went to an Obedience Fun Match. I was very happy with both dogs.

Maggie did pretty good and placed 2nd in Novice with a 196.5. She lost a couple points for lagging on heeling and a crooked front on her recall. She won a cute stuffed toy for her efforts, which she promptly ripped the head off of, strewing stuffing all over the ring.

Bosley did great in Open Obedience! His heeling was good (got distracted a couple times) but his figure 8 was very nice. He actually downed on his drop on recall - the first time ever at a match. He did take a few steps first, but he dropped. He got perfect points for his retrieve on flat! He was so excited for his retrieve over high jump that he went out before I sent him - oh well, we can work on that and I would rather have that then him not wanting to go out at all. His broad jump was awesome! We haven't worked the broad jump at all for a few months now but he did great. I had to call him to front as his broad jump is still not fully trained. I hope to get some more obedience training in over the summer and maybe be ready for a fall show - we will see.

Today I had full intentions of getting some carting practice in. I should have went out first thing in the morning when the weather was nice because it got rainy (I even heard some thunder) this afternoon. I know we won't melt if we get wet and draft tests go on even in the rain, but . . .

Here is Bosley saying he doesn't mind if it is cloudy and rainy out.

Steeplechase Video

2010-04-27T21:06:00.001-06:00

Here is the video of Maggie's weekend Steeplechase run. She was very slow and careful in the weaves but rocked the rest of the course. This dog makes me laugh when I watch her videos.

Weekend News

2010-04-25T22:28:00.001-06:00

We had a busy weekend. Saturday, we went to Calgary for a one day agility trial. It was a nice, small trial and we were done by 3:30.

Maggie had an awesome day. She Q'd in Steeplechase! I couldn't even believe it when I looked at the results. She even knocked a bar, but since Steeplechase is a time plus faults event, her time was fast enough to make up the 5 faults. She is never fast enough to make Steeplechase time, never mind to make up time for faults. Yay Maggie! Maggie also got a Masters Snooker Q with 43 points. I did 4 reds in the opening so that we only needed to finish #3 in the closing to qualify, but Maggie was speedy and we finished all the way to #5 in the closing. Maggie also had a 32 second Jumpers run, but because she was faster than I expected, I couldn't get a front cross in where I planned, so I caused her to drop a bar, so no Q on that run but she was fast!

Bosley had a not so good day. He was Mr.SniffyNose all day and I had to work hard to keep him with me. Arrggg! Just when I was saying how good he did at our last trial. He did get an Advanced Snooker Q with 40 points despite making me think on my feet when he dropped a red bar and I had to scramble to find another red to finish the opening.

Today we went to Cowley for some training. I took Bosley and his cart and we did a run through of the basic cart control exercises. We did some weaving around pylons and lots of backing up. Bosley did very well. I was especially happy with his verbal directionals - he did them without hesitating. Judi gave us lots of good tips and some great ideas to get started on our DDX work.
Both Maggie and Bosley did some heeling and they both were very focused even with all the new dogs practicing around them. There were a couple other Berners there and before we went home, Maggie got a chance to visit and play with them a bit. It was a good day.

Dogs Should Not Eat Chocolate . . .

2010-04-21T21:49:00.000-06:00

. . . But I Should!

Yesterday I saw this chocolate bar at the store and thought it seemed interesting, so I bought it. Oh My! It is delicious! Really, really delicious. Dark chocolate that melts in mouth and then gives you a little spicy kick. Mmmm Mmmm!

I had to go out and buy more today before everyone else discovers how good this is. I don't want to run out.

Productive Day

2010-04-17T19:40:00.000-06:00

It was a beautiful spring day today. The snow is mostly all melted from the big dump that we had on Wednesday. Bosley and I went to the park to practice carting. We started with some off-leash heeling and a stand-stay. Both went well, even with the distractions of other dogs nearby. I then got out the cart, put Bosley in a stand stay with the cart and harness about 20 feet behind him (like it would be in a draft test). He moved when I left to get the harness. I put him back, harnessed him then went back and got the cart. He hitched without moving at all - good boy! The rest of the carting session was great. His halts were very good and his slow was good too (we sometimes have trouble with that). I was really impressed with his "gee" and "haw". We have been working these commands lots without the cart but I wasn't sure how much he would generalize them. He is stronger with the "gee" (right) command, but by the end of our session you could really see the "haw" (left) light bulb come on. I was very happy with how Bosley worked today.

I finally got Maggie out to do some tracking today. I wanted to do 3 small tracks with her, but I didn't take enough treats so we only did 2 small tracks. I am using the footstep method AKA "The Hansel and Gretel" method. On the first track, I had to point out the treats for about half the track and then she actively started sniffing for them. I had a glove at the end with a big pile of treats on it. The second track, I only pointed out the first treat and she started searching for the rest. She didn't always search in the right direction, but I just let her try to figure it out, I would just hold her leash so she couldn't move too far off the track. I think that in a couple more sessions she should have the "game" figured out and I can start spacing out the treats more and making the tracks longer.

As well as doing some fun training with the dogs, I also got some much needed housework done and even fit in a little afternoon nap. A productive day indeed.

Snowballs

2010-04-14T15:18:00.002-06:00

We had a huge spring storm pass through our area that left lots of heavy, wet snow. It is the perfect type of snow for making snowballs. I was tossing some snowballs at Bosley and he tried his hardest to catch them.

Get Ready . . . Here it Comes . . .

I Think I Got It

Here Comes Another One . . . This One Looks HUGE

. . . Open Wide . . .

BBB and The Homecoming Queen

2010-04-12T18:56:00.007-06:00

We had a great weekend in Balzac at an agility trial. The trial was very relaxed, moved quickly and was lots of fun. The dogs both had a good weekend too.

Bosley, affectionately known as BBB - Bad Boy Bosley - had to change his name this weekend to BBB - Best Boy Bosley. In January, I trialled Bosley at this same arena and I was so frustrated. He was so busy looking around, sniffing things and being a very Bad Boy. This weekend, he was wonderful! He didn't gawk around at all and I could actually just run the course and not have to keep on him every second. I am not sure why the difference - I have been getting him exciting on the start line by asking him to bark (he likes that), so maybe that helped. Or maybe the brain fairy finally paid him a visit :) Hopefully the focus and enthusiasm is here to stay.

Advanced Standard 1 - Bosley was having a beautiful run but for some reason ran past the teeter after I did a rear cross, so we had a refusal.

Advanced Standard 2 - Another really nice run. I sent Bosley to the table and instead of going straight to it, he ran all the way around before getting on. I thought we had a refusal, but the judge didn't call one. The rest of the run was clean. When I went to check the results later I was disappointed to see we had time faults. 0.47 seconds over time! What a bummer. The table run around wasted about 3 seconds.

Starters Gamblers - Nice, nice, nice. Not a huge amount of points in the opening (26) but we were in the perfect place for the final gamble. The main gamble was chute - tunnel -jump in a curved formation. Bosley did it easily and without any hesitation. "Q". This was also the last Q Bosley needed to finish his Starters Game Dog Title.

Advanced Jumpers - The last class Saturday and Bosley was a bit slower than normal. He ran nice the entire course until the last obstacle. It was an "S" curved tunnel and when I rear crossed it, he jumped over the end instead of going through. Silly dog - I shouldn't have rear crossed there I guess. He would have been over time anyway.

Advanced Standard 3 - Bosley was running so nice and I messed him up because I put a front cross (for some reason I don't know) in the wrong place and not how I walked it at all, so instead of sending him to the table, I sent him out to the teeter.

Advanced Snooker - I had to do a bit of pushing and pulling and needed to use my verbal "turn cue" a couple times but Bosley had a nice opening. Unfortunately, he missed his weave entrance in the closing and we got tweeted off at #5 (needed to finish #6 to Q).

Maggie - The Homecoming Queen. Jolayne nicknamed her this because of Maggie's severe Going Home Syndrome. Maggie usually runs the beginning of the course in a trot and then as soon as she knows we are in the homestretch, she takes off like a rocket. This weekend was no different.

Advanced Standard 1 - Maggie was running great in the first part of the course (even faster than a trot). We got to the weaves and she refused them, I reset her and she refused again. Maggie then went a bit wild. She ran away from me play bowing and bucking and trying to get me to chase her. I finally got her to the next obstacle and she ran the rest of the course at top speed, bucking and jumping the entire way. It was hysterical! The judge was laughing, I was laughing and anyone watching couldn't help but laugh at her. I love to see Maggie enjoying herself like that.

Advanced Standard 2 - Not as wild as her first run and we fought about the table. Maggie refused the weaves again but I got her going through them (slowly). She finished in her usually Homecoming Queen style.

Advanced Gamblers - Maggie had a nice opening with 24 points. We were in a perfect spot when the whistle blew for the main gamble. I knew if she went out to the tunnel I could get her back to the #3 jump but I wasn't sure she would send out to the #4 jump. She nailed the final gamble for a "Q". This was the last Advanced Gamble Q she needed and now she moves to Masters.

Steeplechase - Maggie was pokey at the start and then when I went to send her in a tunnel, she went way out of her way to take the A-frame instead. So instead of finishing the course, I just did a big loop with her and ran off.

Standard 3 - Maggie started out slow and when she got to the weaves she got the entry but I could see she wasn't going to finish them. I did something that I really hate - I put my hands in the poles and lured her back. She finished the poles and had a nice finish. To my surprise, she made time (by 3 seconds) and Q'd!

Masters Snooker - Maggie had an OK opening although she kept thinking it was time to "run home". We needed to get to the end of #5 in the closing, which were the weaves. She refused the weaves again so we got tweeted.

I really think Maggie's back was sore this weekend. She was jumping well but it is not like her to refuse every set of weaves. It is probably time for another chiropractic adjustment.

I had one other run this weekend. Sarah asked if I would run Gyp for her in Masters Jumpers. Gyp is such a fun dog to run - she is very well trained, responsive and fast, fast, fast. I had a blast and we got a "Q" and had the second fastest time out of all the Masters dogs. Thanks for letting me run her Sarah!

Goofy Maggie

2010-04-07T14:32:00.002-06:00

A quick video I took the other day while playing with Maggie.

Spring Updates

2010-04-06T19:53:00.004-06:00

I have really been neglecting my blog lately so I thought I better do some updates.

We have moved all the agility equipment back outside for the spring. No classes now until May, but we are entered in a couple agility trials this month.

I have started Maggie on a joint supplement (Recovery SA). She has seemed stiff in the rear lately and sometimes has a bit of trouble getting up off of slippery floors. A lot of dogs seem to have nice improvements on Recovery and I have noticed that Maggie seems to be a lot more energetic the past week or so since starting the supplement. She has even got the "zoomies" a couple times. I hope this will help keep her moving - she is such a happy, active dog so I hate the thought of her slowing down because of soreness. I will see if I see any improvement at the next agility trial - I should notice it in her jumping and her weaves.

If the wind ever stops blowing, I want to try to get Maggie out tracking this spring. I think she will like it. I have also been thinking about entering her in a rally trial. I will need to find a nice, quiet trial for her.

Here is Maggie, enjoying the spring sun that is shining through the skylight. Maggie loves laying in the sun that shines in the house - I find this very odd because she is the first dog to run for cooler cover when it is warm outside.

Bosley and I are slowly getting ready for his next draft test. I have only had the cart out a few times, but I have been doing lots of flatwork with him. Mostly directionals, the slow command and the halt command. His directionals are coming along nicely - he is about 90% on his "gee" and "haw" on the flat with verbal commands only. I will see how well this transfers over to when he is in the cart. I want to be really solid on the carting basics before the test. His backup is awesome! We still need to work on getting tighter turns and some control (Bosley should not think carting is a race). Harnessing and hitching is always a work in progress too.

I am still doing bits of Open Obedience practice with Bosley. I am mostly practicing on my own as our obedience classes are done now to make way for the busy summer agility classes. I have been super happy with his "drop on recall". Amanda pointed out to me that when I say his name before I say "down", Bosley seems confused. That makes so much sense, as calling his name should always mean "come here" or "pay attention". As soon as I stopped using his name, he no longer seems confused and I am getting nice, fast drops. Yay! Thanks Amanda. Now I just need to work on precision with everything else. I wanted to get him in the Open ring this spring, but that is not going to happen - so maybe the fall if he is ready.

A picture of Bosley's big, fuzzy feet. He really needs a toe trim.

One Year Later

2010-04-03T07:00:00.001-06:00

It was one year ago today that I received the results of Maggie's pathology report diagnosing her with Mast Cell Cancer. A year ago I was afraid she wouldn't see her fifth birthday. One year later and she is still as wild and goofy as ever. Thank goodness for an early diagnosis and treatment.

No Nonscents

2010-03-21T21:48:00.003-06:00

No Nonscents is the name of the Scent Hurdle team that a group of us are trying to get off the ground. Amanda at manymuddypaws has been talking about forming a Scent Hurdle team for a couple years now. She got a few of us interested too and today we had our second practice. The first few times Amanda mentioned Scent Hurdle to me, I just kind of brushed it off, thinking that my dogs could not do "that". But it is a lot of fun and it is fun working as a part of a team.

Scent Hurdle is similar to Flyball (Scent Hurdle actually is a much older sport than Flyball) but instead of a flyball box at the end, there is a box with dumbbells. The dog must pick their own dumbbell out of the box (by scent) and race back over the hurdles so the next team member can go.

Today we started with scent discrimination work and all the dogs are doing great. I thought it would be really hard to teach the scent stuff, but all the dogs are catching on so quick - it is really amazing to watch.

I am training Bosley to be on the team. Poor Maggie just gets to watch from the sidelines. Maggie's idea of retrieving is to get the dumbbell and run away trying to get someone to chase her. I am sure during an actually race, she would be trying to entice all the other dogs to engage her in a game of keep-a-away. Bosley takes things, like retrieving, a little more serious.

Maggie can be our team cheerleader (that is more her style anyway)!

Here is Maggie at practice today, hanging out on the couch with Gyp. Maggie looks pretty content with her job as "cheerleader", don't you think?

Back In The Saddle - umm . . . I Mean Cart!

2010-03-18T22:01:00.003-06:00

The ground has finally dried up enough that we can get out in the cart again without having the wheels caked in mud. Bosley says that we need to practice hard over the next couple months to get ready for our next draft test.

I was playing around with the editing options in photoshop and turned one of my photos into this:
I thought it looked like one of the old pictures you see of the traditional working dogs in Switzerland.

Maggie In Rally Class

2010-03-13T17:28:00.002-07:00

The other night was the last night of our latest session of Rally Obedience. Amanda set up a tough Novice course and we had a mock trial. I was super happy with Maggie - she was upbeat with no signs of stress.

She has been doing so well in class and is finally happy doing obedience again. I would love to take her back in the ring again. She only needs one more leg for her Rally Advanced title and 2 more legs for her CD, but I am worried that if I take her in the "real ring" she will shut down again. I worked hard to get her happy to do obedience again and would hate to ruin all that work. I will try to do a few more fun matches at new places and see how it goes and decide from there.

An "Excellent" Weekend

2010-03-08T13:06:00.002-07:00

This weekend I had Bosley entered in a CKC Agility trial near Edmonton. The drive was long (6 hours) but the hotel was decent (yay) and the trial was fun although it seemed to move slow. Overall, I was pleased with Bosley this weekend. He was a bit gawky on Saturday, but never left to sniff anything. This weekend was the first time he ever saw the 24" spacing on the weave poles. His weaving is much smoother with the wider poles although he popped the last pole on 3 runs - not sure if this had anything to do with the different rhythm in the poles or if it was because of something else. He usually doesn't pop poles.

I was generally happy with my handling this weekend. I pulled Bosley off a couple jumps because I started moving laterally away before he was fully committed to the jump, so I will need to be more aware of that. I also popped him out of the weave poles because my hair was in my face and when I moved my hand to get the hair out of my eyes, Bosley popped. I pulled my hair back under a hat for the rest of the weekend. There were 3 courses that had a turn away into a tunnel off the A-frame. Bosley nailed the first 2 (perfect) but on the third one, I was too late with my "turn" cue and he was already looking towards the next obstacle and missed the turn.

Now to the videos:

This is Bosley's first run of the weekend. He started to sniff and when I called him back he was too close to the double jump and he knocked a bar. Too bad - otherwise it was a nice run. This was also the first time he saw the wider weave poles spacing.

This video is Bosley's Excellent Jumper With Weaves run on Saturday. You can't tell in the video, but I was planning on doing a lead out pivot, but Bad Boy Bosley broke his start line so I just had to start running. It worked out in the end - Bosley got a 'Q'.

This next run Bosley got stuck coming out of the first tunnel and was a bit slow going into the weaves. This run was a bit slow and Bosley missed my turn cue into the tunnel but he ran fault free for an Excellent Standard 'Q'.

This next JWW was a fun course. Bosley had been popping the last pole, so I gave him a little extra support on this run. Too bad he dropped a bar.

This next video was our last run of the weekend. You can tell Bosley was getting a bit tired. He managed to earn a 'Q' though (1 second over time for 3 faults) and I even did some rear crosses on this run. This run also finished Bosley's Excellent Jumpers With Weaves Title!

Overall it was a good weekend. I have decided I really need to get a GPS for my car. I got lost a couple times and if it wasn't for Amanda navigating and reading the map, I might still be trying to find my way to the trial :) Amanda was also my offical videographer for the weekend - so I kept her busy.

Baker

2010-03-03T19:00:00.004-07:00

I recently found out that Bosley's sire, SwissKiss Fabulous Baker Boy aka "Baker", passed away a couple weeks ago. I never had the opportunity to meet Baker, as he is from a breeder on Vancouver Island, but from everything I have heard he was a wonderful dog and a great representative of the Bernese breed. He had some wonderful accomplishments in his life including a BIS win and National Specialty Awards of Merits. Sadly, he left this world too soon at the age of 9.5 years, diagnosed with the aggressive cancer Malignant Histiocytosis.

My condolences go out to his owners Madeline and Geoff.

Birthday Agility 'Q'

2010-02-15T14:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was Maggie's 5th birthday! She got to celebrate by dropping to the Veterans class in agility at a Calgary trial. I have been waiting a long time to drop her to Veterans - the 22" jumps were just too hard on her.

I only entered her in 2 runs - Masters Snooker and Advanced Standard. Her Snooker run was a bit choppy in places but we finished to the end of #6 in the closing for 40 points and a 'Q'. This is Maggie's first Masters 'Q' too, so that was exciting. I was also very happy with Maggie's Standard run. She had some speed, didn't argue with me about the table and got all her contacts! She wouldn't go near the weaves however. At this particular arena, there is something in the back area that many dogs do not like - Maggie included. We have had problems at previous trials too, where she has refused to do obstacles that are in the back of this arena. So, we had a non-completion on the weaves, but the rest of the run was great. I was very happy and Maggie was loving the lower height jumps. She can really get some speed going now that she doesn't need to struggle over the jumps.

Here is a video of Maggie's Snooker run:

Bosley did not run in the trial this weekend. Wednesday he was a bit lame on his rear leg so I pulled him from the trial. I think he slipped on the icy deck and pulled a muscle. He was still limping a teeny bit on the weekend, but seems to be good today.

C-BARQ

2010-02-08T18:58:00.005-07:00

C-BARQ, (which stands for Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire) is an online dog behavior test that assesses your dog and lets you know where any behavioral problems may lie. Now, most people should already know if their dog has behavior problems, but I thought this test would be interesting to do as it is developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania's Center For the Interaction of Animals and Society Department.

The test compares your dog to other dogs of the same breed as well as all other breeds. The test questions are based largely on fear, aggression, energy, attachment and trainability.

Maggie's Results:

Maggie got 1 red flag in the main test (a red flag is a less favorable score than at least 75% of the dogs in the comparison sample). She got a red flag for Chasing (89th percentile) compared to other Bernese. Compared to all the dogs her chasing was in the 64th percentile - so not that bad.

Maggie also got 3 red flags in the miscellaneous categories (less reliable scores and subjective categories). She had a red flag for Coprophagia - bad Maggie likes horse and deer poop. She also had a red flag for Food Stealing (counter surfing when no one watches). A final red flag for Barking - she likes to hear herself bark.

Bosley's Results:

Bosley had 3 red flags in the main test area! He was in the 79th percentile for Familiar Dog Aggression in the Bernese comparison. I am not too sure about this one - it was because he growls at Maggie when she approaches him when he is eating his meal or a yummy treat. In the all breed comparison there was no red flag as he was in the 55th percentile - so an average dog.

His second red flag is for Attachment/Attention Seeking. He was in the 89th Bernese percentile and 84th all breed percentile because he is very attached to me and follows me from room to room.

His 3rd red flag was for Energy. He scored in the 12th percentile for both same breed and all breed comparisons. OK, Bosley is a fairly calm dog, but is not really that low energy. He is good at conserving energy but I don't think that he should have scored that low.

Bosley also had 2 red flags in the Miscellaneous items. One was for Coprophagia (stupid horse poo) and one was for Begging (yup). We are working on the begging - really we are.

Are you up for the test? It is quick to do - just sign up and answer 101 questions and you get your results immediately.

C-BARQ Test

Agility Seminar

2010-02-06T18:11:00.002-07:00

The dogs and I have spent the past 2 days at a Terry Simons Seminar. This is the second seminar I have done with Terry, and I again came away with lots of good, useful information.

Yesterday we worked 270s and Serpentines - so basically cueing our dogs to take the back side of a jump. I thought I was decent at handling serps, but I learned a lot this weekend about how to make them more efficient and exactly where to put the serp cue. Don't stop moving, run the line and don't ever walk backwards.

Today we did lots of serpentine work - including finding serps that may not be obvious. We also worked threadles and push throughs. The threadle footwork we learned was great - it totally made sense to me and I wasn't tripping over my own feet like I usually am when I am doing a threadle. I will need to practice it a lot more to be able to do it without thinking about every step and it is a slightly different body cue for my dogs, so they will need to get used to it too.

We also did some tough weave entrances today including serping into the weaves. Very challenging and fun. Bosley rocked the tough entrances - even the serp entrance. I ran Maggie sparingly this weekend - she has been feeling really good and I didn't want to push it with her. She was fast and responsive when I did run her, which was great! She is loving jumping 16".

Well, the dogs just ate their supper and are passed out at my feet - they are tired from all the thinking they had to do this weekend.

Flickr Project - Week 4

2010-02-01T19:16:00.004-07:00

This is my Week 4 submission for Flickr's 52 Weeks For Dogs. It was hard to get nice lighting with the bright snow reflecting in the window but I liked how this shot turned out.

Click Here To View Large

Pet Friendly???

2010-01-28T14:56:00.003-07:00

Why, oh why is it so difficult to find decent pet friendly hotel rooms?

I have been searching for a hotel room in Edmonton but Edmonton just does not seem to be very pet friendly. There is a shortage of hotels that will accommodate dogs and the ones that do allow dogs are are often in neighborhoods that do not seem very safe or the hotels are older and not well kept up.

Don't even get me started on the "small dog only" rule that many hotels have. How stupid is that policy?

In my recent hotel search, I found one "pet friendly" hotel that seemed nice but there was a $75 pet charge! $75 - how is that "pet friendly"!?! Ridiculous.

(Bosley, Amy and Maggie relaxing on a pet friendly hotel bed)

I did book a room in Edmonton. Well, a in city just outside Edmonton to be exact. It is very close to the trial and not too expensive. The Yellow Pages ad said the rooms are "clean" so that is a bonus :o

A Dork and A Star

2010-01-24T20:27:00.004-07:00

This morning we drove out to Cowley where SAWDA was hosting an Obedience and Rally fun match. I went out for the Obedience portion because I wanted to try Bosley in Open. We have never done a complete run through of Open so I really wanted to see where he is at. I almost left Maggie at home, but then I decided to bring her - I figured she could try novice - I would just need to keep it fun for her and take her out of the ring if she started to stress and shut down.

Bosley is a Dork. That is a Dork with a capital "D". We really need to work on distractions and we need to get out and train in new places. I don't know if it is stress that causes his gawky-ness or if we just need to do more proofing (or a combination). I can't wait until the weather gets better and we can train at the park. Anyway, Bosley was so busy looking at things and not focusing on me that I was a bit frustrated. His heeling was laggy, especially on the outside turn of the figure 8. When heeling, I like my dogs to be looking up at me and when they just plod along beside me, I get a bit stressed. It took Bosley about half the heeling pattern before he actually looked at me. On a positive note, his retrieving was good - we have done little retrieving in new places, so I was pleased. He NQd the broad jump - he ran up to it and stopped like he didn't know what to do next. I took him back and ran with him once and then reset him and he did it fine. The out of sights stays were perfect - this is the first time we have practiced out of sights in a new place so I was pleased. So I was a bit frustrated - I know Bosley has the skills and working ability to do well in Open, but his easily distracted boy brain seems to cause us some problems.

Maggie was a Star today. That is a Star with a capital "S"! She was up, up, up for her whole novice routine. Her heeling was perfect - happy, totally focused, tail wagging, tight turns - perfect! (The heeling pattern was long too - and with 4 halts.) She did an auto finish on the recall, but everything else was bang on. She finished with a score of 196 and second place. Yay for Maggie! No signs of stress in the ring and when we were leaving to go home, she tried to run back to the ring area (hopefully that is a good sign).

(Thanks to Maureen for the great pictures!)

There is another fun match next weekend - so we will go try this all over again. If I can keep Maggie happy in the ring, I will be happy. If I can get Bosley to focus a bit more, I will be happy. Isn't dog training fun!?!

Self-Control

2010-01-13T16:41:00.002-07:00

Bosley needs a little practice at this. Apparently the command "leave it" does not count as soon as my face disappears behind the camera.

For Sarge

2010-01-11T20:01:00.003-07:00

My sister had to send her beloved Border Collie, Sarge to the Rainbow Bridge today.

Sarge will always be remembered for his silly puppy antics, his love of playing fetch and as a wonderful companion. He will be missed.

(Sarge at 13 years old)

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Author unknown...

First Agility Trial Of The Year

2010-01-11T19:16:00.003-07:00

We didn't start our first trial off with a bang, but I am mostly pleased with how it went. I have a few things to work on with Bosley thats for sure.

Our first run of the weekend was Starters Gamblers. It was perfect - we even got a mini gamble and when the whistle blew we were in the perfect position to start the final Gamble. The final Gamble was jump - send to tunnel - stay out into another tunnel. Bosley went right out to the tunnel and finished the final gamble perfectly. Sounds good right? Not quite. There was something wrong with the timer so we had to do a re-run. In the re-run, I messed up my handling sending him into the final gamble and Bosley was confused as where to go. He tried hard to figure it out, but we ran out of time. Bummer. That's the way it goes sometimes, I guess.

The next two runs were Advanced Standard runs. On the first run we were doing great and then Bosley decided he would admire the judge as he was going up the teeter. He fell off the teeter, gave me a confused look and then hopped back on the teeter into his 2o2o position. Funny, but an NQ. His second Standard run, he went to check out some tunnel bags on his way to a jump so he had a refusal. NQ. On a good note, his weaves were beautiful and fast.

The last run Saturday was Starters Jumpers. He ran well, didn't stop and look at anything and he got a Q. Now he moves to Advanced Jumpers.

The first run of Sunday was Steeplechase. I usually do not enter my dogs in Steeplechase because it really is a fast dog game and my dogs just do not have the speed to qualify (well Maggie can have the speed when she decides to). My plan for steeplechase was just to run as fast as I could and have fun. There were 2 sets of 12 weaves and Bosley missed the entries on both sets - odd for him. It was a fun course.

Next we had 2 more Standard courses. Bosley was really gawking around on both runs. The first one he missed an easy weave entry because the sun was right in his eyes. NQ. The second run, he was so busy looking at where his treats were hidden for the end of his run, that he totally missed my serp cue and had a refusal. NQ.

The last run of the day was Advanced Snooker. I had my course planned so that we needed to get to the end of #6 in the closing to qualify. We should have been able to do this easily as I picked a good path that would have minimum yardage. Once again Bosley was gawking around, missed my cue to go over a jump, so I had to regroup him and get him back. This wasted a few seconds. The #6 in the closing was tunnel-jump-jump. We were just going to the 2nd jump when we ran out of time. Arrggg!

Bosley had some great moments this weekend - his weaves were good and when he is focused he really responds well. I really expected to get a Standard Q this weekend - so I am a bit frustrated that Bosley was so unfocused at times. I need to figure out how to keep Bosley's focus, especially now that the courses are getting more difficult and the times are getting tighter. I know I need to be tougher on him and give him a verbal correction when he starts gawking - this usually works. I also would like to get Bosley moving faster - he is really agile for such a large dog and he can run quite fast, so I don't like to see him trotting along the agility course. Maybe wind sprints are in Bosley's future training.

I also need to do some more jump work with Bosley. One of the judges (who also has Bernese) came to talk to me about Bosley's jumping. She said that he is using his front to propel himself over the jumps not his rear. He needs to learn how to use his rear end better so that his jumping is more efficient. She gave me some good ideas to start with and suggested using Susan Salo's jumpwork videos.

Week 1 of 52

2010-01-07T21:44:00.004-07:00

This week began the first week for 52 Weeks For Dogs. I had a specific idea in mind for what I wanted - a picture of Bosley at sunset with the Rocky Mountains in the background. It is hard to capture on camera exactly what I have visioned in my mind.

This is the photo I chose for this weeks project. Although the mountains are not as vivid as I had hoped, I thought this picture had the best light on Bosley's face.

These are the runners up:

I liked the sunset and mountains on this shot but I didn't love the light on Bosley's face and his chin and neck seemed to blend together making him look awkward.
I really loved the background here. The colours of the sunset and the sillouetted mountains were very much like I had visioned. I found the snow on Bosley's face distracting and thought that the stronger background took away from the focus of the project (Bosley). I still really like this one though.

A Puppy Story - Part 2

2010-01-06T07:00:00.001-07:00

When Maggie was about a year old, I began my search for another Berner. I didn't want a puppy right away as Maggie was still a handful and so I wanted to wait until she was at least 2 before we got a new puppy. I had been looking around at several breeders when I went to the local dog show to see if there were any Berners entered. There were only a couple entered that weekend, but it was there that I met a wonderful lady, Maureen, who was campaigning her BISS boy, Onslow. He was so gorgeous and sweet, I knew that I wanted a boy dog next. Maureen was not planning any litters at the time, but she gave me the names of a couple breeders that she recommended. I knew that both these breeders had long waiting lists for their puppies, but that was fine with me as I wanted to wait at least that long before adding a new puppy. I called one of the breeders (Wanda) and she invited us to come up and visit and meet the dogs. She happened to have 2 litters of 3 week old puppies at the time. I didn't even ask about the puppies, assuming that they were all spoken for (and remember, I wanted to wait), but Colin saw those cute puppies and asked if there were any males not spoken for. Wanda said that she thought she would have a couple males available, as she had 3 litters that year and she normally only has one litter or maybe two. One mom was who 5 years old, never had a litter and so Wanda knew it was either breed her now, or spay her.

I asked Wanda lots of questions ( hopefully the right ones this time) and she asked us lots of questions. She was so helpful and sent us home with her contract to read and an application to fill out if we decided that we would like a puppy from her.

I filled out the application (before Colin changed his mind about getting another puppy right away)- it was about 5 pages long with lots of detailed questions about us, our home, what specific traits we were looking for in a puppy, and so on. Then we waited. We didn't know if she would approve us or if one of the puppies would match what we wanted. A few weeks later we finally got the word - she had a puppy for us!

We drove up to pick up our puppy on a Saturday. We had no idea which puppy we would be coming home with. Wanda had the structural evaluations done and 2 temperament tests done on the puppies and from there she matched up the puppies to the people.

When we got to Wanda's house, she was busy filling out paperwork with another couple. She sent us down to the puppy room to wait for her. The room was filled with all these cute, fluffy, sleeping puppies. As soon as the puppies realized that someone was there, they all started to wake up and come to visit us. There was one large puppy (Mr.Black), who ran right over to us and was very friendly. He then proceeded to bite the nearest puppy on the ear until he made them cry, then he would move on to another puppy and bite it on the ear. He was feisty!

While this was going on, there was a puppy stretched out (Mr.Green), sleeping in the middle of the room. All the other puppies were climbing over him to get to us and he would just open his eyes, grumble at the puppy tripping over him and then he would go back to sleep. Colin said "I want that one - he is lazy!" The puppy eventually opened his eyes and noticed we were there and came to visit.

By this time, Wanda was ready to let us know which puppy would be going home with us (she knew I wanted an obedience/performance dog, but wanted a dog that was a lot more mellow than Maggie). She looked through all her notes and had it narrowed down to 3 puppies. One of the puppies was Mr. Black (the biting puppy), one was Mr.Sparkles (a very cute boy) and one was Mr.Green (the lazy puppy). She eliminated Mr.Black quickly - thinking he was too dominant. She thought Mr. Sparkles was too barky. She thought Mr. Green was just right - he was middle of the road energy wise and thought he would make a good performance dog.

So, I got Bosley before I thought I was ready, but he turned out to be the perfect dog for us and I can't imagine not having him.

I am in regular contact with Wanda and she is always so supportive and appreciative of everything I do with Bosley.