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!

Ears and Freestyle

OK, so it it sounds like these two things are totally unrelated? Unfortunately, that's not true at my house lately. Ack, have we been through it lately! Teddy started off with inner ear inflammation, then he got an infection on his outer ear. I thought that the antibiotics that he was on was hurting his stomach, so we stopped those as soon as his ears were better. When he continued to be a picky eater (a sure sign that something is not right with him), we went back to the vet to find out that Teddy's throat was very inflamed. I swear, if it's not one thing, it's another! With all of this going on, we've been trying to finalize our new freestyle routine for our first live competition. Whew!


Last week, Teddy and I attended an adoption event for a local animal shelter. We had promised to do some freestyle and obedience along with some of our other freestyle training buddies. We had a blast, but it was the most difficult evironment in which to perform, even on our best day. We were in a parking lot, with our ring defined by a few orange cones, there were cars driving by, dogs and cats waiting to be adopted, and a modest crowd of people on their lunch breaks standing around sending telepathic messages to my dog for him to come over and say hello. Those telepathic messages are stronger than a little black poodle can take. It's a good thing that everyone was easily impressed with a few tricks because doing our full dance routine was not happening. Teddy's good at schmoozing the crowd.

As I said above, Teddy and I have been hard at work on our new freestyle routine. We've been trying to put all of the pieces together and make sure that it fits with the music and it looks somewhat polished. We're still working on the last part. :) So, below is some video from our practice last Saturday. It's very raw. In fact, we totally scrapped the whole first part of our routine, so this was the first time we were trying out our new choreography. I'm also only half in costume- don't worry, the green shirt is not part of the costume. I'm taking a risk in showing this video because we look so rough. It's hard to see in the video, but the reason we had trouble with the hula hoop is because Teddy has on a light line, so I have to make sure that the line clears the hoop before I can move it, otherwise it would look a lot smoother. Anyway, enough disclaimers, we still have a lot of practicing to do in a short amount of time!

Agility Class Videos

I have compiled a few videos from the last couple of weeks of agility class. I was anxious to try out my new video camera on the agility field. I used a tripod because I really didn't want to take people away from their own dogs. I am happy to say that Teddy is doing so much better about zooming (knock wood). I am thrilled that he is really wanting to play with me and is trying really hard. Now the problem is ALL me. And I am getting really frustrated with myself. It seems that I can't do a rear cross. Ack! God bless all of the first dogs out there who have to put up with their handler's ineptness while we learn what the heck we are doing!

The first video is a rear cross exercise. As you can see it takes us a couple of tries to get it right. I was pointing my body in the wrong direction, and I wasn't letting Teddy get ahead of me enough to actually do a rear cross. You mean you have to let the dog go ahead of you to do a rear cross? I am so challenged!

Here we did some Greg Darrett box work. Good stuff. We were supposed to use 2 front crosses. I am having trouble getting my timing right on turns so that I don't send Teddy around or in front of a jump.

In this video, we got to make up our own course. Our instructor just wanted us to use each piece of contact equipment twice. That's why the sequence doesn't look smooth or flowy. At the beginning, Teddy got distracted by a border terrier puppy in an ex-pen on the field. He has to go check everything out. Sorry that you can't quite see the whole field.

This is just a short sequence that we did: tunnel-A frame-jump-weaves. I lost my connection with Teddy at the bottom of the A frame because I did not reward his 2 on/2 off contact, so he was looking for his treat. I was also glad that his weaves picked up speed by about half way through.

This sequence was kind of difficult for me because I am so handling challenged. We were supposed to try to run it first by staying somewhat in the middle. Again, you can see that I have trouble with my timing and body language. The second time, we were supposed to use a rear cross. I really struggled to not turn too quickly and pull him in front of the jump. I did some heavy editing so you couldn't see how challenged I really am. Boy do I have a lot of work to do. I think I need to take some private lessons without my dog. Poor Teddy!