Merry Christmas!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!
"For today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." -Luke 2:11

Teddy

Heidi

Gracie

Keep Your Distance

I really haven't been able to participate in any class with Teddy since I sprained my ankle. However, after sitting out for a week and a half over Thanksgiving, I couldn't sit still any longer, and poor Teddy was itching to get out and really run.

Teddy needs to be worked on a regular basis. I don't just mean chasing a ball in the backyard either. That just doesn't cut it. He needs mental stimulation, the challenge of running around while thinking about how high to jump and where he needs to go from here and hitting his weave pole entry. Challenging Teddy mentally is just as important as the physical exercise. This is what keeps Teddy happy and better behaved at home. Thinking dogs can get you into trouble when you don't give them something to think about.

So, we braved the cold and went to agility class this week. I decided that whether we did sequences or a course, I would just walk it and work on my distance handling. As I've stated before, Teddy is easily distracted. I've worked for years on increasing his motivation to work with me and to stay focused. This will always be an issue with us, but he has come a long way and made great improvements. It is because of this problem, that I don't like to get too much distance between us on the agility field. I've always worried that if he got too far away from me that he would forget about me and do his own thing, ie zoomies. So I baby him; I try to stay right with him to make sure he sees my signals, hits his contacts, and makes his entries. That's not an easy feat with a somewhat fast dog.

Obviously, I could not do that this week. I could only walk to wherever I needed to be, so there was no hope of staying with Teddy. Luckily, our instructor designed the short course so that it was ideal to work on distance handling. I did a big lead out and allowed Teddy to work ahead of me. I was shocked, Teddy actually did pretty well. He turned when I did, took a jump at a difficult angle, and did a 90 degree turn to hit his weave pole entry. The only thing he missed was after the tunnel, he was supposed to go 20 feet out to the table. I'm sure I dropped my arm or something because he took a jump instead. This exercise taught me a lot. My dog is more reliable than I think he is. I need to trust him that he knows his job that I have trained, and that he can do it without me being right on top of him. I know I crowd him too much most of the time. Teddy appreciates some distance between us, otherwise I tend to push him around obstacles. So unless Teddy starts to lose his focus and forgets that I am on the course, I've got to back off and let him fly.
*The pictures here were taken at the LRDTC agility trial in November 2008.

So Bummed!

I'm not supposed to be at home this weekend. I'm supposed to be three hours away at an agility trial, but fate had other plans for us. After running around on the lumpy agility field for an hour and a half, I go inside our training building and while simply walking across the nice smooth mats, I rolled my ankle. Argh! I don't know why, but I instantaneously got nauseous and started to black out. I've never done that before. I felt like I was either going to throw up or pass out. It hurt, but not bad enough for me to react that way, it was so strange. I couldn't have had that happen in a better place, though. Dog people are the best, they knew exactly what to do and they are very resourceful. They elevated my foot and wrapped an ice pack on my ankle with a leash. Then they kept me company until someone could get there to drive me home. I really do have good friends.

It's better today. I can put weight on it, but unfortunately, there is no way that I can load and unload my car much less run in the trial. I'm so annoyed that we have to miss all 7 runs this weekend. It was going to be a nice small, friendly trial. And we really need the ring experience. Teddy is really confused today. He saw me pack up all of our stuff for the weekend, and now, he's wondering when we are leaving. I worked from home today, and Teddy's been keeping a close eye on me like he does when he thinks we are about to go somewhere.

On a lighter note, I have recently made Teddy some homemade pumpkin cookies. It's tough to find treats that agree with his sensitive stomach, but these do, and he goes crazy for them. My friend sent me the link to the recipe, which can be found here. I did make a small alteration to the recipe. I used a full cup of pumpkin and only 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. I rolled out the dough an used a bone shaped cookie cutter to cut them out. I didn't make them as thick as the recipe called for, so they only took 25 minutes to cook. Teddy was very grateful.

Happy Halloween

Since Halloween is this week, I thought I would post a picture of my poodle pumpkin that I carved a couple of years ago. It's one of those fake pumpkins, which I love because I only have to carve it once. I freehanded the design, but I based it off of a poodle on a t-shirt that I have. And here is Teddy's costume this year:

Who needs Dalmatians? :) We entered a costume contest at the conformation/obedience show that we went to this weekend. It was a tough show- an open air horse arena on dirt and the weather was very cool. The distractions were too many to count. We were going for Rally Advanced Excellent legs number 7 and 8. I knew it would not be easy, but I thought it was doable, and I wanted to practice some control in situations like this.

On Saturday the courses were difficult with the signs I hate the most: the offset figure 8, the back up 3 steps, and the call front 3 steps back. And to top it all off the start sign was all the way on the opposite side of the ring, so we were disconnected from the beginning. I don't think I have tell you that we did not qualify in the Excellent class. We had a judge who was heavy with her pen, who took 10 points off where I would normally only use 3 points. I'm not going to say that we should have qualified, but I did feel that we were not exactly judged fairly. But I'm not one to argue with a judge. We went on to qualify with a 92 in Advanced, but the goal of getting my RAE in 10 straight trials went out the window. Easy come, easy go. They can't all be good days.

Back to the costume contest- you know you are having a bad day when you can't even win a costume contest and you get beat out by a man in a Scooby Do costume. Yes, you read that right.

Sunday went a little better. We did pretty well in Excellent, but Teddy was very tired from the long day before so he was distracted in the Advanced class. Thankfully, though, we qualified in both classes for our 7th RAE leg, so the weekend wasn't a total wash. We also stuck around late Saturday for the match, which was really good for us. That about sums up the weekend- just so-so. We're hoping for a better next couple of weeks.

Freestyle Brag

I was excited yesterday to get an e-mail from the Musical Dog Sport Association (MDSA) telling me that Teddy and I qualified for our first leg towards our Novice title. Woohoo! We entered MDSA's very first video competition back in June, and I have been waiting anxiously ever since to find out the results. I felt like a kid waiting for Christmas to come. But we finally received our score sheets via e-mail. I doubt our new routine will be ready by the November deadline for their next video competition, so we will hopefully earn our next leg next June.

Now for a Training Update:
Teddy and I are having a busy fall. There is so much to train right now, and lots of trials and opportunities to work. Here's a summary of what we are up to.
Obedience- I think we finally had a breakthrough with our leather utility articles. We have been able to do 5 metal articles for a while now, but we have been having issues with the leather. The other day, Teddy picked up the wrong article and then spit it out on his own and went back for the correct one. I think (and hope) that it finally clicked for him. We are having good luck so far, but I am going to stick with only two articles for a little while longer. Teddy is also retrieving gloves really well, and we are working on our go outs. One of the main things that I want to work on is our heeling. We'll never make it in the utility ring unless we can tighten up our heeling. We'll be doing rally again at the end of October.
Agility- After doing zoomies in the trial ring, we are back in class working hard on motivation and short sequences. Teddy's been doing great in class, and I've been so proud that he is coming back to me for more without giving up on me when I make a handling error. He's really trying. We are entered in a USDAA trial in a couple of weeks, so we'll see how we are really progressing. I'm hoping that it will help us to get in the ring more than twice per day. We are entered in an AKC trial in November, and I'm considering another in December, but I'm going to wait to decide about that.
Freestyle- Today is a deadline to enter a video competition. Since we just did not have time to film our routine, I'll have to wait until December to enter the next one. I want to get our filming out of the way early this time. We are also beginning a new routine, but we have a lot of choreographing left to go. I can't wait to finish this routine though and already have the costume and music. I'm excited that we will be doing freestyle demos in a couple of weeks at a big regional dog show. Last night I ran down to our training club to practice one of our old routines because I had forgotten some of the choreography.

I think that about covers it. So much to do and so little time when you have a versatile fun-loving poodle boy!

Rally-O Weekend

This past weekend, Teddy and I entered Rally at an obedience trial about an hour away from home. The great part about rally is that it gives us ring exposure and gives us something to do at trials since we are in between finishing our open obedience title and beginning to show in utility. I'm also hoping that it will help us improve our heeling, but that hasn't really happened yet.

We entered both Rally Advanced and Excellent on both days and got legs #5 and 6 towards our RAE title, so it was a great weekend. On Saturday, we got an 86 in Excellent. It was my fault that our score was so low: I should have retried a sign, but I chose to go on. It's one of those bad judgements you make on the fly. We did better in Advanced with a score of 98. Sunday, we got a 97 in Excellent and a 98 in Advanced with a 4th place.

While I'm thrilled with the outcome, I'm still not really happy with our performance. The judge was kind and light with her pen, but I feel like our scores really should have been lower. Our heeling has just not gotten much better, with Teddy not feeling compelled to be glued in heel position. He wanders too far to my left. We need to improve on this before we can even consider entering the utility ring. There is always something to train, but in the meanwhile, I'll bask in our 2 leg weekend. :)

Yorkie Time

For all of you who have not reached your cute quota for the week, or if you feel the need to gratuitously go "awww", here are a few new pictures of the yorkie girls, AKA the Twin Terrors.

After a recent bath:
Heidi

Gracie

And together:

In their new hoodies (why a dog with perky ears needs a hood is beyond me):

From the front And from the back
And to top off the adorableness, here's some video. This is what you get when you sit on the floor with the camera. Heidi is the smaller one that is very toy crazy. Gracie is our plus sized model.

These girls crack me up. I love it when they carry the same toy at the same time.

A Horse of a Different Leg

Normally, in my family's line of business we are fortunate enough to be able to help people and improve the quality of their lives. Once in a great while, we get the opportunity to do the same thing for an animal. This story began over a year ago.

Lovey is a paint mare horse, who was dangerously malnourished with a life-threatening injury. While living with her previous owners, her right front leg got tangled in a wire fence, cutting off the blood supply to her hoof, ending with an amputation. Her wound became badly infected, and she would have died within days had her owners not surrendered her to the Humane Society of Pulaski County. The story made the nightly news, where my mom heard the horrible story. She then convinced my dad to call and offer our services to see if we could help Lovey.

Over the next year, under the care of the Humane Society Lovey gained around 300 pounds and had revision surgery to repair the amputation site, and got her strength back. It was because of her sweet nature and good attitude that she earned the name, "Lovey".

Fortunately, we have a prosthetist on our staff that owns horses, so he and my dad worked together on the fitting. We had to wait about a year, though, for Lovey to heal enough to be fitted for her new leg. Here's a picture of the casting:

About 2 weeks ago, we went out to deliver the finished product. We were met with a crowd of around 5 different media outlets. Lovey had quite a fan club to witness her first steps on 4 legs. She took to her new limb amazingly well; she will need a lot of therapy, and like humans, she will have to build up her endurance of wearing the leg. Her shoulder and leg will have to gain strength again and she will have to learn to hold her leg straight instead of crossing it over the other front leg. Here is a video of Lovey in her stall before she put on her new leg:

This is when we put the leg on for the media to see. The lady in the orange t-shirt talking is Kay Simpson from the Humane Society of Pulaski County.

And finally, here is Lovey walking on her new prosthetic leg:

We have heard that Lovey is doing great with her new leg, and has adjusted well. I hope to get some follow up video in the future and check in with her progress. Lovey's caregivers told me that they are getting a special trailer for her so that Lovey can travel around and make therapy visits. She will make a great therapy animal. I have to include a picture of the bottom of her new hoof. Now wherever Lovey goes, she will leave a smiling face on more than just the people she meets.

The day after Lovey's fitting, my family and I left town for a week of vacation, but we found out that the Fox News channel as well as CNN picked up the story and replayed it over and over. We've been amazed at how far this story has reached so far. We even got a thank you card from someone in New York. As a family and as a company, we were honored to be able to help this sweet horse. We are thrilled to be able to make a difference in the life of an animal. If you would like to learn more about Lovey and see a more complete version of the story, you can check out some of the media coverage here:

http://www.dallasnews.com/video/dallasnews/wfaa/index.html?nvid=267166

and here:

http://www.fox16.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=4B166215-3C3A-41D5-939D-98EBCAB3E9D8&gsa=true

Teddy the TV Star

At the end of last week, Teddy and I had the chance to go on a local morning news show and help promote our training club. Even though it was a very early morning, we still had fun. It's interesting to take Teddy to new places and to see how he reacts. He was actually a lot calmer than I thought he would be and pretty much took everything in stride. I guess that's the difference in a 5 year old versus a 2 year old- he's settled down a lot. The only thing that bothered him was when one of the cameras moved on its own in front of us, but he got over it. We sat on the interview couch and answered questions. My favorite part was at the end when the anchor told Teddy to sit and give him five. I was asked later if that was planned and practiced beforehand, but it wasn't. We only had time to exchange names and a handshake before going on air. Below is the link to the video of the interview:

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/thismorning/story.aspx?storyid=69297&catid=143

And, as mentioned from before, I took some birthday video after Teddy got his birthday haircut. It's all pretty silly, but if the shoe fits...

Teddy is 5!

Well, last week Teddy had his 5th birthday! I can't believe how quickly these last 5 years have flown by. Not only has this curly headed boy taught me a lot about training, he has taught me patience, diligence, and how not to give up. I still have a lot left to learn, and I hope that he will be around for many more years of lessons.

So, for once his birthday fell on the night of our favorite class-agility. Teddy was recovering from a bad case of pancreatitis from the week before. If it had not been his birthday, we would have stayed home to continue resting. I decided that we would just go and play because I knew that he had missed going to class and he would enjoy just being there. I had no expectations, Teddy could do whatever he wanted, and I couldn't complain. That's pretty much what happened, too. If you didn't know any better, you would think that the dog in the videos below was just slacking off or did not know how to do the obstacles. But, I know my dog, and these are definitely videos of a dog not feeling well. We have been making small progress here and there, and Teddy was not himself that night. That being said, we are having some contact issues, as you can see when I reached under the A frame and pulled out a target, Teddy remembered his job. But that's a story for another day.

Teddy is getting a little better as time is going by, but I have to be very careful what he eats, and I'm letting him take a break for a while and rest so that he really heals. Anyway, watch the videos if you dare, but please don't judge. They are not meant to be shining examples of how an agility dog is supposed to look, it's just a recovering dog on his birthday having fun and doing what he wants. But the second video does have music! I have one more video taken in my backyard, but that will have to wait until I have time to do the editing.

Happy 4th of July!

Teddy and I hope that you have a wonderful and safe 4th of July celebration!! God bless America!

Freestyle & Thyroids

While I was away on vacation, I received a nice surprise in the mail, my freestyle pictures from the Tulsa competition. I finally have some real freestyle pictures, not just some blurry frames captured from our videos. I'll share a few of them below, but to see all of them (and you can use the links on the page to find other people's pictures or even other dog events) go here and here. I joke that you could probably flip through the pictures and it would be like watching a video of our routine. :) Special thanks and credit goes to Sirius Photography for the pictures.

OK, I look really stupid in this picture, but I think it's funny because it looks like Teddy is trying to tell time.

I like to start with a jump early on because Teddy loves it so much.

Here's the famous bunnyhop! This is my favorite one: And here's the final pose:

Now for the second part of my bipolar post. Teddy has had a hypothyroid since he was around 3 years old, or at least that was when he began showing symptoms of it. I knew something was wrong when he would play with a toy for about 30 seconds and then just lay down next to it pitifully. It would take him days to re-energize from an obedience or agility class. After a lot of testing, we landed on a hypothyroid diagnosis, which was a relief when I thought about what all could have been wrong with him. Anyway, he's done great on the medicine. It really brought him back to his former self.

I get him tested about once or twice a year to make sure that the medicine is still working. I've been thinking lately that Teddy has been acting a little poopy, but every time before, his test results always come back on the low end of normal. Well, about a month ago, my vet determined that Teddy did need a higher dose of his medicine. I can't believe what a difference it has made in his attitude. He is extra bouncy again and happy, and his energy level is through the roof. I've been concerned lately because of the increasing temperature and humidity, but it hasn't seemed to bother him much.

We didn't have a day off from doing something, whether it was a therapy visit or an agility or obedience class for several days. I thought Teddy would enjoy spending an evening at home, just chilling out. Nope! He was driving me crazy, while I was trying to work on a project, bringing me toy after toy. It's so great to see him so happy to get out and play and work. Now I can feel better about how he will feel the next time we have a trial weekend. But- be careful what you ask for- with energy comes the need to find a way to use it up!

I'm Back!!

OK, I know it's been forever since I've updated my blog, but I have a good reason. I've been out of town for a couple of weeks. Then after getting back home, I've had to get caught up on everything that I've missed with work and my extracurricular activities, and I did not have internet access at home. Ack, it's enough to make you need another vacation!

Besides dogs, traveling is my other passion. For two weeks, I went all around the Alps. I spent most of my time in Switzerland and Austria, but overall I hit 5 countries. The mountains were amazing. Overall, I was impressed with how clean these countries were. There was a noticeable lack of trash on the streets, the air was fresh, and the water was so clear. Let's just say that my system was in a shock when I stepped back into the Atlanta airport. The food was amazing, too! I basically ate my way through the Alps. I'm sure I ate my weight in chocolate and cheese. Mmmmm! When in Rome.... The other thing that I loved about being there was all of the dogs. It was great to see dogs out with their owners everywhere. I wish that more places here in the States were as welcoming to dogs. I did see a lot of poodles, too, which was very fun. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

This was in Zurich. I didn't know my dog had his own store. Those crafty poodles!

This was taken at a park in Zurich, overlooking the Neiderdorf neighborhood. I was afraid to sit all the way on the wall because there was a 40-50 foot drop on the other side. As I have determined before, I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of falling!

These are the bears at Bern, Switzerland. Some stupid tourist had just dropped their umbrella moments before.

The Swiss countryside:

The Jungfrau at Interlaken, Switzerland:

This was taken from the train going up the Jungfrau:Here is why we did not get to go out onto the observation deck at the top of the Jungfrau. Check out the completely horizontal icicles! Yes, it was tough to breathe up there. I felt a little light headed, like I had taken too much cold medicine.

More Swiss countryside. Moooo!

This is the view from the top of the bell tower in Innsbrucke, Austria. On the top left, you can see a ski jump.And here is my favorite souvenir from the trip, 2 white porcelain dancing poodles. I saw it in a shop window in Innsbrucke and had to have it. I guess they are waltzing.

This picture was taken from the inside of a gondola that we took up a mountain. You can barely make out the rainbow that followed a short rain.

Pictured behind this church steeple is the highest peak in Austria. It's the one that is often covered in clouds:This is me throwing snowballs off of the high Alpine road. Being from the south, we don't see a lot of snow, so you have to humor me here. Standing behind me (and laughing at me) is a nice Australian man. I've learned that when you go on trips like these, hang out with the Australians and you are guaranteed a good time.Here are the steps of the Mirabell Gardens in Salzburg, Austria (think "The Sound of Music"):

Same place. Check out the dark clouds:

This is a higher view of Salzburg:This was my hot chocolate from the famous Cafe Landtman in Vienna, Austria. I also shared the plate of cakes with my table. It was just so pretty! I told you I ate my way through the Alps. And here is the Opera Toilet that was in the subway in Vienna. I had to take a picture of it. The bathroom was playing waltzes- it was so funny! You see the craziest stuff when you travel. BTW, it was the Australians who found it first! OK, I won't bore you with anymore pictures. Well, maybe one more. After being gone for over 2 weeks, I was ready to get back home. Teddy was living the high life at his grandparents house and learning all about Yorkshire Terriers. How could I stay gone from this face?

Best Week Ever

So, who's having the best week ever? Teddy and I are. OK, so maybe not the entire week, but definitely the weekend. We attended our first ever live musical freestyle competition. We drove through very bad storms on Friday, including torrential rain and what looked like a funnel cloud to get to Tulsa, OK for the Bow Wow Pow Wow.

So, here's the rundown. We were entered in the novice freestyle class on both days with a brand new routine only weeks old. My main goal was to keep Teddy in the ring and somewhat focused on me and the choreography. That would be a major victory with our history of distractions and zoomies. Everything went better than I expected. He got a little happy in the middle of the routine, so I had to really work to keep him from zooming, which meant a little spontaneous re-choreographing. I am also use to practicing in a building with really high ceilings, so you can imagine my surprise when the hula hoop hit the low florescent lights- oops! The final tally for Saturday was second place in the class and our first novice leg, including a score of 9.0 in artistic impression. We also won best costume, high scoring large dog, and high scoring out of state dog. I was shocked to say the least. We could have gone home Saturday, and I would have been thrilled. Below is the video for Saturday:

Sunday did not go quite as well, Teddy was a little off. I think he was tired. He did not rest as well as he would have at home because the hotel made him a little nervous with all of the slamming doors. We had a slow start, and he missed the first jump over me. I did my best to salvage the routine and to keep us going, but Teddy even fussed at me towards the end. That was Teddy's way of saying, "Where's the treat!". Anyway, we got our second novice leg with a third place. We also won high scoring large dog and outstanding musical interpretation. Here is Sunday's event:

Overall, we had a great time! The host club was genial and did a great job putting the event together. We met some wonderful teams and saw some very nice routines, including an incredible silver miniature poodle named Emily. Now we just need more practice and to work on including some better moves.

Nerves of Plastic

And I don't mean the kind of government plastic that is used in helmets and bullet proof vests- I mean the flimsy kind that toy model kits or happy meal toys are made of. That is me right now. The closer we get to our first live freestyle competition, the more nervous I am getting.

My nerves are magnified by the fact that Teddy has been sick recently wtih a very bad sore throat. Thankfully, he is much better and took his last dose of medicine last night, but the medicine has made him feel lethargic and just plain lousy. Therefore, our practice on Saturday went pretty badly and did nothing for my confidence level.

After resting for more than a week, Teddy returned to work with me yesterday, and he went with me last night to help teach a class. I think he really enjoyed getting out and being around people again, he was pretty happy to be there. I gave him some puppy crack (aka Nutrical) with his dinner last night to help him feel better. It seems like every time Teddy gets sick, it takes him longer than most dogs to bounce back to his old self. I don't know if his thyroid problem has anything to do with that or not. Anyway, we are going to sit out of agility class this week just in case.

So, we'll just take our chances this weekend at the trial. That's all we can do anyway. I love my boy, and he is smart and talented, but he is a bit unpredictable. I never quite know what I'm going to get with him when we walk into a ring. Whatever happens, happens!