Flyball in Gettysburg: It wasn't just Indigo and I this time.

Ben flew into Newark late on Thursday night with a special travel companion. After a crazy, stressful morning of scrambling to find a new dog sitter, Ben decided that the only real option was to bring Teal with him on his visit.

I originally thought that this would be a reasonable idea since he was going to bring her in June anyway for our road trip back to the West Coast. We figured he could just leave her here until then. I guess our best decisions are not made a the last minute. It is great to spend time with her, but there are various reasons why having a puppy in my apartment is not going to work very well.

We haven't made a final decision about where Teal will spend the next few months. We will see how she does this week and then figure it out.

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Ben, Indigo, Teal and I drove 3 hours from Newark to Gettysburg for some out-of-region flyball. We arrived on Friday afternoon and met up with the Canine Mutiny crew to watch a Civil War movie and walk through a museum. Leashed dogs were allowed on the battlefield so a few of us took a nice long walk. Ben and a group of our flyball friends went to on a haunted ghost tour. I was way too tired.









We had just enough time to get unpacked and get to the flyball facility for single dog racing. We had a goal for Indigo to beat 3.94 seconds. We got her all amped up and she ran two 3.8's over 7" jumps! Her best was 3.86. She had her official personal best time the next day when she ran 3.90 as start dog over 10" jumps. Her team keeps getting more comfortable racing together and our passes are getting better. The team broke the club record again with a 16.70 seconds. We didn't stick around to see where we placed, but it definitley wasn't last this time!

Sue and Stingray the borderjack

Slingshot the borderjack

In addition to single dog racing, the hosting club offered a lane for practice. We bought Teal 5 minutes of practice time and she managed to focus for about 2 minutes. We were happy with that considering it was her first flyball tournament experience. Amanda gave us a mesh tug to use with her to get her attention with cheese when other dogs are around. She made some great progress overall with all her issues this weekend.







Ben had fun running Indigo when she was start dog. He also ran Selma, a black and white border collie that belongs to Kerry and Dave. I ran Amanda's dog Chase all weekend. It was one of those flyball tournaments that does not involve a lot of sitting around. With only 8 of us and two teams, we all had to be doing something! It was lots of fun and definitely worth the 6 hr drive back to Massachusetts.

I will post updates later this week about Teals training progress. In between dog training, hopefully Ben and I will have some time to tour the area before he leaves on Saturday.



Indigo was very unsure about Teal since she is not sure how to interact with other dogs. Teal has snapped at Indigo, but has also tried to play with her. Today Indigo gave in and they played like crazy. It was very sweet.

More Pictures of Teal

We got Teal's pedigree in the mail today so I took a couple pictures. We let her spell her name and she made a few mistakes, but still did a pretty good job. We would have just used Igniteds Passing With Flying Colors, but Flying Colors is a kennel name and it cannot appear in a dog's name anywhere. Well Teal sure showed them. Hopefully she will be a champion in the show ring one day so someone has to say her name out loud. At least Joy will have to say it when she gets her flyball awards.




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Here are a few newer pics of Teal. We went out in the field again on March 14th. She had a blast, but it was rainy this time. She got wet, but we got warm in the car driving between my sites. She was much braver this time about running through the brush and you can see that she hit her right eye a little. I took another pic once we got home so no one is worried that her eye is damaged. She is back to normal now.

Another video of Teal

I got some needed advice about how to train Teal, and this is my attempt to put the advice to good use. Teal really likes the tug, but it appears that she likes the ball almost as much. I am going to have to work on that with her. I need her to drive harder to the tug so she jumps off the chute faster. This is only her second attempt on the chute so I am not too worried, but it is definitely something to work on. She seems to get the general idea, but the "snap" off the box needs work.

Videos!

Well here they are. It took so long to upload them I lost interest in writing anything about them. First two are sheering sheep and the last one is Teal trying out the chute for the first time. If the last video makes any sense to you I would appreciate feedback about how to improve her training.

dog sports performance & bday weekend with the parents

My birthday was on Friday and since I really don't know many people here in Massachusetts it was not very exciting. I took Indigo to her first chiropractor visit with Dr. Bud Allen. It was surprisingly short, but I did learn that she has a very tight pelvis and that she needs to gain some muscle weight in her legs. It will be important for me to make sure I deal with these issues to prevent future injury. My plan is to continue taking her to the chiropractor on a regular schedule for adjustments, feed more protein and work on strengthening. How will I work on strengthening? Ben read my mind and sent me a video called "Strengthening the Performance Dog" for my birthday. I watched half of it so far and can not wait to try some of the exercises with Indigo. I also plan to get her an exercise ball from Clean Run.

That was pretty much the highlight of my birthday. Even though I spent my birthday doing nothing, Ben did his best for me to have a good birthday by sending me some amazing gifts. The highlight was a new Canon video camera! I am so excited about this new camera. My flip video camera is nice, but very limited. Watch out for some better videos very soon!

For my birthday weekend my parents came to visit. We started out Sunday morning going out to breakfast, where I would like to report I had my first eggs benedict ever. It was served with smoked salmon, it was rich and it was good. I look forward to eating this lovely dish again. When Ben came to visit I took him to Willamstown, MA to the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. At the time I did not realize that this is one of my grandmothers favorite museums. Her and my grandfather used to visit this museum when my uncle went to camp in Upstate NY.

When I suggested that we go to this museum, my mom remembered it and was excited to check it out. To get there we took a giant loop through the Berkshires. Our first stop was the Old Creamery Grocery and Deli.
Its a little old-fashioned grocery store that was packed with locals eating breakfast. It was adorable and something that is valued in New England and no where else in this country. I will miss these little markets when I leave.





We also stopped at the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail for a short walk with Indy. Our walk was cut short due to ice on the trail. The abundance of rail trails in New England will be another thing I miss when I leave.







After our walk we drove a few more miles to the museum. We thoroughly enjoyed the special exhibit, by Toulouse-Lautrec with his "vibrant and racy Parisian nightlife" lithographs. We also loved their permanent collection. I highly recommend this museum. It is worth the scenic drive to see this inspiring place. I wrote down my favorite paintings and lost the piece of paper.





On the way back we stopped at the Montague Book Mill. This place is like nothing I have ever seen before. The setting was shockingly beautiful. The GPS took us on a route that I was sure would lead no where and suddenly we end up in a parking lot overlooking a raging Sawmill river far below. It is a bookstore that took over an 1838 gristmill. Grain was brought in on the railroad to this building to be ground into flour and was a pick up point to supply local families with flour. In 1987 it was bought and transformed into a book store, and cafe. My favorite thing about this magical place was the relaxed feeling and the welcoming of dogs. Indy loved running around with the other dogs that were allowed to run free on the grounds.
















For dinner later that night we went to Carmelina's in Hadley, an upscale Italian restaurant with high quality food and presentation. They have the option to order small plates, which is always very much appreciated.

More pics of Teal

The first three picture are of Teal eating lunch on March 7, 2009. That is her 15 week birthday. One day I will do a sequence of all these photos, but for now you can see that she has gotten a little taller and a little longer than the last time I posted.
She is shaping up to be a very good puppy. She does have a demon inside her, but she is learning to repress it when needed. She has learned to sit very promptly and consistently. She does lie down very quickly, but I usually have to give her a little hand motion for that. She is also learning left-spin and right-spin but still needs treat encouragement. I am going to start teaching her left-paw and right-paw, and hopefully that can lead into looking right and looking left. She also know to get in her kennel on command and is getting pretty dang good at leave it.
She knows to tug when I tell her and when to drop it too. It was easy to teach her to drop it because she usually wants me to throw the toy again as quickly as possible. We are working on get it and bring it, but she usually just does those things on her own. She is also a good little dancer if you entice her with a treat. Right now I am most excited about teaching her to jump over a slat on the ground and quickly jump back. The point of this is to teach her muscle memory that will eventually lead into a very good box turn for flyball. I will put some videos of that up so and people can give me feedback about her motion.
The other great thing about Teal, which I have encouraged, but is mostly just her personality, is her love of people. She doesn't care if it is a big scary guy with a hat, a little kid or tiny old lady with a walker- she wants to jump all over everyone. She usually ends up on her back begging for belly scratches. I am keeping up my rigorous socialization routine because this is such a great quality and I only want it to get better.
All in all she is a really good, cute and fun little puppy.


These are pictures of her first time out in the field with me. She did great! She followed me all around for the whole day and never complained about being tired. She did get a lot of breaks as we drove from site to site, but she was still a trooper. She negotiated some pretty serious obstacles for a little puppy- jumping over logs, crawling through dense brush and climbing steep embankments. It was fun to have her out there with me, and since she stayed so close to me I didn't have to worry about keeping track of her. I think she is going to end up being a good little woods dog.

Smorgasbord Post (all dog related of course)

Did you know that Smörgåsbord [ˌsmœrɡɔsˈbuːɖ] is a Swedish language word which refers to a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table? My parents used to use that word from time to time, but I had no idea it was really one word. I really like figuring out the origin and propper use of phrases like smorgasbord- this website satisfies a lot of that curiousity http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html#errors

I want to know when the pilot period for Shoreview park starts? That sucker is only 11 minutes from our house!! We would be in dog heaven- and not even have to pay taxes to support it. Yeah for making other people pay the taxes for us.

And on a slightly less exciting (but still important because it means we will be here to enjoy the new dog parks) I got an email today officially announcing my acceptance into a PhD program at UW. I am going to be studying the effects of urbanization on small song birds. The project is not yet well defined because it depends on the amount of funding we recieve. Bottom line is that I am going to be capturing and holding little birds in my hands for the next few years- CUTE! Its not exactly clear where the funding will come from at this point, but anything is better than "looking" for a job- in light of the current economic situation that is. It also means we don't have to worry about what to do with the house, that our flyball team might field a division 1 team, and that we don't have to move crosscountry during our action packed summer. After I get done I plan to get a prestigious faculty position in a quaint little college town.

And finally, here are some pictures of Teal. Even though she has a demon inside her, she is such a cute and good little puppy. Turns out I only have a few funny ones to add. I will take some soon that represent her better. She didn't want to go into the bag at first, but then she caught the sent of food. She will do almost anything for food, including putting herself in her kennel unbidden.
I think she stayed in the bag for about 3 minutes licking up all the tiny crumbs of food she could find.

Pilot Dog Park in Shoreline, WA.

The city of Shoreline has been "discussing" options for dog parks in recent years. Currently they do not have one at all. We live on the border of Shoreline and Seattle, so any dog related news in Shoreline is big news for us with our 6,000 square foot city lot and 3 dogs!

From the City of Shoreline Website...................

At its January 26 meeting, the Shoreline City Council approved two pilot sites for off-leash dog parks recommended by the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services (PRCS) Board and the Off-Leash Dog Area Study Group. The two recommended sites are at Richmond Beach Saltwater Park and Shoreview Park.

Members of the PRCS Board and the Off-Leash Dog Area Study Group presented these recommendations at a public presentation on October 29. The PRCS Board presented their recommendation to the City Council on January 20, 2009.

The City of Shoreline and members of ShoreDog will be working together to begin preparing for the opening of the Shoreview site this spring. Richmond Beach Saltwater Park will open this fall.

The PRCS Board accepted the recommendation of the Off-Leash Dog Area Study Group for two pilot sites located within Shoreview and Richmond Beach Saltwater Park. The Shoreview site is located in the northeastern corner of the park in an open lot that was previously used by the Shoreline Community College as parking. This site was recommended as a traditional Off-Leash Dog area to be open for the entire one-year pilot period. The site recommended for a seasonal timed-use site is the south end of the beach at Saltwater Park. This site would only be open from November 2009 through April 2010 for the pilot period.

The continuation of this area as a park will depend on how this pilot goes, so we better use it a lot and keep it looking nice.

The Richmond Beach site from

ronaldbog.blogspot.com