Poodles, Dog Agility, Dog Training… and Knitting

Archive for August, 2011

Rush’s first trip to the Delta

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 Posted in life with poodles | Comments Off

I took Dancer and Rush (not Elly) to the Delta this morning. I chose a path where I rarely encounter other dogs--and we saw (but didn't approach) one other group, and that was it. It was a nice cool morning; ...

Huge big deal insight….

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 Posted in life with poodles, training | Comments Off

Huge insight on dog training: Play more than you do anything else. Two of us have started doing some distance training with our dogs. Now, Paige is a much better handler than I am. Really, she's amazing. Her dogs adore her; ...

A change….

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 Posted in training | Comments Off

I was gone for the weekend (went to my sister's wedding in Rhinebeck, NY--and yes, it got a little wet, thank you so much, Irene). This morning I put Dancer and Elly in puppy jail and took Rush for a ...

Back to “normal”

Thursday, August 25th, 2011 Posted in training | 2 Comments »

For years, Jay and I have had a morning routine. I get up with the dogs, let them out, feed them a light breakfast of kibble, make tea for the humans, and we all go back to the bedroom to ...

Learning from other dogs…

Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 Posted in training | Comments Off

I've started to work on WAIT with Rush. I ask him to sit (he has a lovely sit now), I step back a few feet, I release him with OKAY! or go back to him. I reward only if he ...

Interesting article

Monday, August 22nd, 2011 Posted in training | Comments Off

The New York Times has an absolutely wonderful article about decision making fatigue. Decision Fatigue It's a long article, but worth the effort to plow through. Among other gems, apparently dogs make better choices when their brain glucose levels are boosted: ...

Quick weekend report

Sunday, August 21st, 2011 Posted in life with poodles, trials | Comments Off

It was an interesting weekend. Dancer spent Saturday leaping her contacts and left me in despair (although she did manage a single Q for the day, in Full House); Sunday Elly Q'd in snooker and so did Dancer; in addition, ...

Woohoo!

Friday, August 19th, 2011 Posted in training | Comments Off

In the cheap thrills category: this morning I wanted to do faces and feet on the big girls, and I asked Jay to feed Rush a steady stream of treats (chicken heart bits) while I did a quick pass at ...

Working on the List…

Thursday, August 18th, 2011 Posted in training | Comments Off

I gather some people find my list somewhat overwhelming and think that I must be spending my entire life training Rush. Not really. Yes, I want to have the perfect agility puppy; yes, I'm obsessed... BUT a lot of that list is ...

22.2 pounds!

Monday, August 15th, 2011 Posted in life with poodles | Comments Off

Rush and I went to visit his vet this morning. He weighed in at 22.2 pounds and I just measured him imprecisely at around 16.5" at the shoulders. Rush continues to impress all those who meet him with his calm disposition ...