I LOOOOVE the Floozie!!!

Today I took the little girls,Mookie and Floozie to Becky's for a quick training session.I wanted to practice some basic foundation flat work round jump wings,and start Floozie's weave entry training.

I am so lazy at doing foundation stuff,its so simple,doesn't take long,and really pays off in the long term....I know all this and yet I am so lazy about it!

I'm going to at least twice a week do a quick session with jump wings,just doing go ons,front crosses,pivot turns and lots of rewarding in the reinforcement zones.
Just in 2 tiny sessions I have a great improvement :) (Shocker huh!? lol)

Floozie just got the idea of the weave entry straight away.I'm doing the 2 x 2method for the entries,and then will be using channel weaves.
Floozie is not just awesome,she is over flowing with awesome!In the first session she understood what we wanted,we'll revisit it on Sunday when I go to Becky's again,and next time I'll remember to video it :)
In March Flooz and I are in a Lucy Osborne weave training session,and I'm really looking forward to it.

Here's a couple of little vids of the Foof whilst practicing dog walks,she's so cute and she has the heart of a lion!!!

She is SUCH fun to train!



Seriously,look how happy she is!

'I love my contact position,I LOVE it!!'

Little things...

I'm lucky,I feel really lucky that little things make me happy.

One day last week the sun was shining,that made me happy.
I was able to get some nice photos,that made me happy.
Shady's topcoat is finally coming back in,and I'm getting my handsome black,shiny boy back,that made me happy.
I had fun at agility with 3 dogs which I love very much,that made me happy.

Most of all,realising how much little things make me happy,made me smile all day.

I wish other people could find happiness in the little things.

I don't have a big,posh or fast car,I don't need one.
I only just got a flat screen TV and cable last week,I wasn't unhappy cos I didn't have one.
I don't have a big posh house,but I have a home,which makes me happy.
I don't have designer clothes,or hair fresh from a salon,but I don't need them to make me happy either.

I surround myself with people/dogs and situations that make me happy,and I'm very thankful that I can. :)

Go hug your dogs,enjoy the sunshine,and feel happy!

Here's some photos which made me happy :)

Uh oh,there's someone in the bushes..



The neighbours have a new and very annoying dog which runs the fence barking at the dogs,Mindy is doing a great job of not joining in,which after a year in kennels where that is all you really have to do,is a big achievment :)



Lol Mindy's face cracks me up!





'There may be trouble ahead'.Notice Mook and Mindy laying in wait to steal poor little Floozie's toy :)





Bitches!!Love these girls :)Even those who are not meant to be here..cough cough Mindy!



Bitch mugshots!!







The girls equally get to the toy first when I throw it.
Mindy is the fastest over a longer stretch,but often over shoots the toy and then Floozie will nip in and grab it.

I just love to watch the dogs run,just LOVE it.



Check out Foof's crazy face in the background!She is determined to get that toy back.







Pretty Mindy just enjoying the sunshine.:)



Little monster..



Look at all the bits of toy which the bitch has chewed off.



'What?? I'm not doin nuttin!!



Mookie loves to play with tiny bits of toys,she plays like a cat with them,the others don't realise she has any thing,and look at her like she's nuts!You can just see she has a tiny bit sticking out of her mouth now.



Miss Mookie,best girl ever!




Floozie...aka toy expert toy destroyer....I need to get some tougher toys for her to play with lol.







Floozie was doing her Hanibal Lector impression lol.



'MMmmm nice grotty water to drink up here!'



Mindy cannot work out how to get up on the trampoline hahaha.

She's a Doozie too!

What??? You may ask....

I got Floozie's kennel club activity register registration through the post today,and that is her name.Floozie aka 'She's a Doozie too'.
I saw an ad for an American Bulldog in an American dog magazine around 20 years ago,with a dog named I'm a Doozy Too,and a relative named She's a Doozy.
I LOVED the name,and kept it stored away in my head,and now I mixed the 2 up and made She's a Doozie too :) I call Floozie...Doozie,so it fits perfectly :)

These couple of pics are from my phone.
Taken at the local pet superstore,which Mookie OWNS!!!
At least she thinks she does.She is desperate to get in there,through her I have become good friends with the managers,we were at the house last Friday for a meal :)
Mookie is hopelessly spoilt by nearly everyone in there,she get up on the counters,she helps herself to biscuits from the pix and mix aisle,and generally does what she likes.
She's so obedient,if there's not many customers in there,while I chat,I drop her lead,and she slowly and casually makes her way to the hallowed Aisle 2,the treat aisle.
I imagine in Mookie's head,Aisle 2 is what heaven looks like!!!

Here she is sitting on the cashiers chair waiting for a customer to give her treats from the bowl on the counter :)




She always likes to get up on the counters at the checkout!She is gauranteed maximum exposure to people who thinks she's cute and want to share their dogs treats with her.That includes many of the staff members hehe.

Lost....

That's a bit how I felt today after my agility lesson.
I took all the 'Dream Team' (Shady,Mookie and Floozie) along to Dave's this morning.We haven't done much agility in the last few weeks,what with Floozie and Mookie both being lame before or around Christmas,then the 3 week Christmas break from agility,THEN the snow,we haven't done it consistently twice a week since Novemeber.

I was happy with what each of the dogs did today,very happy in fact,I just felt a bit lost.
I think because it was the first time I have handled Shady with Dave for well over a year,so it just felt different.
We did some pretty simple sequences,which he did nicely,better it seemed when handled from behind.
When we did one stetched out section,on the first attempt he went round the jump in the middle,but having gained no reward,on the second attempt he jumped it happily.
He's really thinking about his pacing and jumping,which is a huge improvment for him :)He's only being jumped on small jumps right now,there i no rush to get him back to full height.
We also did a lowered A frame,which he did a few times,with good 2o2o each time,and he was happy to tug on there too,which is good as it means I'll be able to take him to some UKA shows which allow training in the ring,and play tuggie when he gets it right.
Lastly we did a few sets of weaves.The first few sets I did a few weeks ago,he was popping out at the 10th pole,but today,perfect each time.
Weaves are amongst Shady's favourite if not is very favourite piece of equipment :)

Floozie is also jumping small,she's a medium dog,but we've not really got her jumping her 'real' height yet.She's been having the odd one thrown in to a sequence,but as it was only her second time back after injury,we kept them down.
We did some harder sequences with her today,which resulted in a few Staffie tantrums lmao.
When she gets frustrated,and/or doesn't understand what we want her to do she has a little screaming 'tantrum'!Thankfully she's been trained using shaping so much,she works right through her frustration as she is so desperate for her reward.

I really DO need to teach her to weave,oh and do a seesaw!I am just entirely too chilled out about competing these days!
I did say to Dave today 'oh God I can see what she is going to be like at a show now',as she was having a tantrum,screaming and not listening first time,and scarily he agreed!
We did some tugging on contacts with her too,which she was happy to do.In fact Floozie is happy to tug any time,any place,anywhere :)
Next Tues I have a lesson with Dave and we're going to concentrate on weave entries,using the 2 x 2 method,and seesaw.

Mookie,we did a few sequences which I had to do a snake (serpentine)in one direction then on the way back,have her run along side and parrallel to the middle jump in the snake,keeping her in the RZ (reinforcment zone) before sending her over the last jump.She did it beautifully :)

So yeah I was happy with all 3 dogs today,but then I always am.I feel I just felt a bit lost because I'm training all 3,there all at different stages,although Shady is grade 4,and Mooks is grade 3.Shady hasn't trained for 18 months so is rusty,and Mookie is more than capable of winning out of grade 3,and 4 probably,its just me that screws her up!
Then there's Flooz,who was doing so well,but I feel a bit out of touch with our training as she's been out for the best part of 2 months.
I just need to get a few weeks of twice a week training under my belt so I feel 'normal' again.
Makes me wonder how much the dogs feel weird about it after being out for a while?

Still loving the snow here,although,ok snow haters I will admit I am a little,just a little annoyed that all my damn agility training keeps getting cancelled.
Pete and I took Bug,Flooz and Mindy out ffor a run in the countryside round the kennels.

Bug was(was being the important word here)enjoying playing with his stick,but check out his eyes,he knows he's a being hunted down.



Floozie,aka The Foof,Falafel,Foofie,Foofoo,Foofighter etc etc was hunting him,she wanted that stick bad.



Any country folks out there?


Know what these tracks are?



They are the tracks of a very angry Staffie!



A brief period of mutual stick chewing arose.





But then the 'Foof' started to decide she wanted it all to her little diva self!



Still looks fairly calm right?



It didn't last..



Foof really has a foul mouth whilst all this is going on!!



Miss Falafel!



Duel at dusk :)



'Throw it,throw it throw it!'



I stopped into the kennels after our walk to nick some sweeties from the staff room lol.I found little Skyla chilling in her ex pen and snpped a quick photo.
She is truely hilarious,she looks like a cross between a Womble and a Corgi puppy!



After our walk in the country we dropped the dogs home,and went walking with Shady and Mookie.We just spent half an hour in a local field letting them run and playing fetch with the tuggie.Then we did some road walking,I was gonna write street walking,but that is not what we were doing lol.We went round to the local Tescos,whilst Pete went in a few people came to say hi to the dogs.Mooks enjoys meeting new people,and Shady,well he enjoys ignoring people while they try and get him to engage.
He makes me laugh,he just looks at them with a look which says 'you're not my mummy!'
I never understand the peopl who feel like every dog must talk to them?Even when the dog is clearly not interested.
If I meet a dog and chat to the owners if the dogs seeks to engage with me I'll fuss it,if not I'll say hi and ignore it.
Does make me laugh if I tell people Shady is not interested in strangers and you get the immortal line,'oh no ALL dogs love me'!
Oh really?Well you'd better make that ALL dogs but not Shady,or my Collie Minstrel come to think of it.

Shady lives to play,also he's a bit of a git when he chases Mookie,and sometimes nips her if he gets too excited,if he has a toy,he doesn't so I'm lazy and instead of teaching him not to do it,as I have with Floozie,I use the toy instead.



'Come on daddy TUG!!!'



I didn't want to interupt Mookie's non stop running around so this was the only photo I got of her,in the half hour we were down the field.



Hehehe,Shady loves to face plough through the snow to keep cool.



We had walked into the night,I never want to come in when there's snow outside,like a child!
Mookie on the other hand doesn't want to hang around if she's been walked in the snow but on the lead,and who can blame her,she's practically naked!
Its ok to let our dogs off lead in the dark,they're not gonna go anywhere,but you never know who else's dogs might be off too,and there's some dogs around here which I would not want the dogs to run into!

Shady and me do our bit to keep the neighbourhood clean,he find a bottle on nearly every walk,and he carries it till we get to a bin,when I take it off him.He evens heads for bins himself now lol,he knows the drill.

Videos don't lie!

Here's a few little vids from the Course walking seminar.
The weather only just reached freezing point all day,but we still managed to have a good time.

This is just a short video,but it makes me laugh so I've included it.
After the first exercise Mookie finds some food on the floor and our teacher tries to make her leave it.
I know it will play on her mind so I tell him to let her eat it lol,you can just hear me saying 'let her eat it,I like to encourage the naughty sniffing behaviour' hehe.
I still give a lot of my commands a fraction too late meaning I don't get the turns as tight as I could!



Here I don't go far enough forward,and so my movement forward after I release her makes her think we are going forward,so I send her off course.
The second time we get the right course,though I have a couple of the imfamous 'Mookie turns',ie wasting alot of time!

I love running Mooks,I'm almost too chilled out with the way I handle her!But I'd rather be too chilled out,than too stressed out which is what i was with Shady!



This is the video which taught me the most I think.
I start off without a plan,which means I am only destined to fail.There were several ways to handle this.
I probably would have left with Mookie on my left,but as someone else said,I would probably have had a better turn leaving her on my right,rear crossing her behind 2,then getting a front cross in for 3 - 4.
What I see most is how I turn off from Mookie when I get it wrong.I asked my friend to look out for signs that I demotivate Mookie by doing that,generally she runs around which is her default behaviour no matter where we are,if she barks at me I know I've frustrated her.I'm gonna try not to disconnect so much though.
I mostly do that with her because I used to have Shady always switched on during lessons/classes,and he thrived on that.Mookie I tried to make like that too,but I learnt that actually I feel she needs time to kinda decompress,to not have anything expected from her.
Like with Shady i would play play play,but that is HIS default happy behaviour,and I think I kinda pressured Mookie by expecting the same.I feel she chilled out and enjoyed agility more when I let her do her own thing between our turns.Playing non stop works for Shady,sniffing and eating rabbit poo works for Mookie lol.

So I have 3 failed attempts at the start.
On the second attempt,she goes right nicely after 2,then I pull off too fast and bring her inside number 3.
After the 2nd attempt I have a small tantrum,throwing my hands up in the air after being told I can not do it by handling her on the other side,and moaning like a child that I can't do it lol.Don't worry Mookie knows its a pretend tantrum too,it doesn't upset her :)
On the 3rd go I get a better turn from 2 - 3,but forgot to put the front cross in,then pushed Mookie round the wrong side of 4.
After the 3rd attempt I realise I am being ridiculous,look at it properley,work out what I have to do,and do it.hehehe I must be a really frustrating student!!
I am impressed by Mookie's turn from 4 - 5,its not perfect,she lands and then turns,but she lands lovely and short and turns on landing.If you could see how unable she was to check her stride and land short,you'd understand why I'm pleased with it :)
Amazing what you can learn about yourself from one minute of video!

2 posts in one day....

Because we have snow!!
I just LOVE snow,lots of people here hate it.England does tend to grind to a holt if we get so much an inch of snow,and yes people loose work because of it,I do myself.
But to me its worth it!
The pure fun you and the dogs can have in it is more than worth the inconvenience and slight loss of earnings.Who cares about that?We get if we're lucky about 10 days of snow a year,so I'm a gonna make the most of it :)




Coming up!










Flooz's face really shows her emotion,HAPPY!!





I can have endless fun throwing snowballs at dogs :)











LMAO!!










This started as a stick,but they have whittled it away to nearly nothing,it is however still valuable enough to argue over ;)




Mindy likes the catching snowballs game too:)




We bumped into a friend walking her 3 Tervs :)




L to R,Tarn,Tia and the irrepresible Ash.







Beautiful little Tia who has just celebrated her first birthday :)




We met Bobo on the way home :)