Poodles, Dog Agility, Dog Training… and Knitting

Archive for December, 2007

Two for Dancer, Two for Elly

Sunday, December 30th, 2007 Posted in trials | Comments Off

I had a lovely time with Dancer and Elly at the Rainier Agility Team's CPE trial this weekend. It was our first experience at CPE, and I found it a great venue in which to get Dancer a bit more ...

Elly finally catches a rodent

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 Posted in Photos, dog park days, poodles | Comments Off

I took Elly and Dancer to the puppy park today. Elly loves to dig holes, trying desperately to catch the rodents that live in them. I'm pretty sure they're voles, but it's hard to tell. Today she got especially involved ...

The Solstice

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007 Posted in not poodles | Comments Off

Thankfully, the winter solstice is past for another year. I hate the weeks just before the winter solstice, as the daylight hours get shorter and shorter and the nights go on and on. You wake up at 6 AM and it's ...

Poodle Necks

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 Posted in knitting, poodles | Comments Off

I made these neck warmers for Guy (Dancer's brother) and Sophie, who live in Denver.

Me and My Big Mouth

Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 Posted in dog park days, not poodles | Comments Off

I've got to learn NOT to tell people when their dogs are fat. I really couldn't stand it, though. She was talking about how she needed to put a little more weight on her already overweight lab. So I told her ...

Dogs and Their Choices

Thursday, December 20th, 2007 Posted in poodles | Comments Off

I think dogs definitely have strong feelings about what they do. My Elly is never happier than when she is tracking a rabbit or squirrel, even though she's never caught one. You can see it in her whole body for hours ...

The joy of agility…

Sunday, December 16th, 2007 Posted in poodles, training, trials | Comments Off

Cheryl asked me to write a brief bio for her web site, since I'll be teaching the fundamentals course again starting in January. It wasn't particularly brief, I'm afraid, but oh well. Anyway, it got me thinking about why I do ...

Where you’re looking matters….

Sunday, December 16th, 2007 Posted in training | Comments Off

I've been working with both dogs on their contacts. (I'm always working on contacts.) I've made this observation: if I look at the end of the contact--stare at it while running--the dog hits it, every time. If I look up at ...

Predator!

Sunday, December 16th, 2007 Posted in chondrosarcoma | Comments Off

I've had an interesting experience the last few days. I was rejected by an online (Yahoo) chondrosarcoma survivors support group.Why? Well, I didn't want to provide my phone number. To an online support group. Apparently, the moderator feels the need to protect ...

Contact Training

Monday, December 10th, 2007 Posted in training | Comments Off

I started serious training of contacts with Dancer today, finally. It took me forever to decide what kind of contacts I wanted. I'd hoped for a running contact but wasn't getting one once she got excited about the contacts. I ...