Heart Like a Dog

The Good, the Bad, and the Oh My God of living with dogs!

You’re Going the Wrong Way!

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Thursday night was agility class.  Normally on agility nights, Delilah and I head over to the training center, while Hubby takes Sampson somewhere special.

Hubby had something to do immediately after work so we decided that I would take Sampson with me and he could hang out with Sara’s dogs, Chuck and Orbit.  When Hubby had finished what he was doing, he would swing by and take Sampson for a little walk around the neighborhood.

When we got to The Mellow Mutt, Brisco and his mom was there.  She had let him off-leash so he could run around the training room but when she saw us approaching she made to leash him up.

Hey I’m Brisco, what’s your name?

 

I suggested that the dogs run around a bit before class started if she was okay with it.  So she opened the gate and Sampson and Delilah ran inside.

Then I remembered that Sampson is not supposed to be running.

I grabbed him and put him out in the common room with Chuck and Orbit, while Delilah and Brisco played in the tunnel.

You hide in the tunnel Brisco, I’ll be the dog with the glowing eyes and I’ll chase you. Go!

 

Would you believe that no-one else came?

We had the agility course all to ourselves so we did three and four runs at a time!

Apparently Brisco’s mom and I run the agility course wrong.  We run along the outside of the ring, which means we work extra hard. (Well if you’re a long time reader, you know this is the story of my life! My nick name should be Wrong-Way-Stone) LOL

Sara arranged the course so everything was along the outer edge of the ring, then she made us run it, with us on the inside.

Hubby had arrived by then and took a short video of Delilah and I.

As you can see, we need a lot of work, and having me run in the middle with Delilah on my left side threw us both off.  You can also see how tired we both get after running the course twice.

Since we are only doing this for fun and I have no intention of ever running a real agility match, it doesn’t matter to me if we are perfect or fast.

The point is that we do something fun, we bond as a team and Delilah gets a mental stimulation as well as physical.

Does your dog need mental stimulation as well as physical exercise?  What kinds of things do you do to provide that mental stimulation?

P.S. In a comment a few weeks back Misty said she’d love to see a video of us doing agility.  This one’s for you Misty!

Not THAT Kind Of Dog

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Delilah and I did another drop-in agility class on Thursday evening.  If you remember from my Tick Tick BOOM post a couple of weeks ago, Delilah was a little snarky in class.

You can imagine that I approached the class with a mixture of anticipation and fear.

We took our position in the back of the room again, same cast of characters as the last class with the addition of an unruly Cocker Spaniel and our Alaskan Malamute friend, Brockway.

Sara started the class by going around the room and introducing each dog.   When she got to our corner she said, this is Delilah the chocolate lab, she would prefer it if your dog did not put their nose in her butt, because she’s just not THAT kind of dog.

I giggled a little, but it didn’t ease my tension.

At the very back of the room (which is where we were) is a large pen and even though Delilah gets really snarky behind barriers I decided to try to work her a bit while the other dogs were running.

When a dog started their run, I walked into the pen and told her to heel, we then did three to five laps around that small pen, with a nice lose leash.  She did awesome.

Once we did that, I brought her out of the pen and we practiced our look command.

We did this every time a dog ran, my goal was to keep her focused on me and not on what was going on in the room.  It seemed to help me, until a dog would come too close.

I worry about the big dogs, I worry about the little dogs and I worry about the Delilah-sized dogs.

The big dogs worry me because I’m afraid that if she snarks at them they could hurt her and the little dogs worry me because I’m afraid she will hurt them.    The Delilah-size dogs worry me because I don’t want her in a dog fight.

Basically I just worry.

The Akita (Boots) got distracted on course and headed our way.  Delilah’s never officially met Boots and I panicked.  Luckily I remembered to drop her leash so she didn’t feel trapped.  Sara walked over and Boot’s dad came over to retrieve him, Sara and I were talking to Delilah and she was fine, of course it also helped that Boots wasn’t rushing up to her snarling.

After the situation was diffused I shared my observations with Sara.

Typically Delilah goes after high-energy, bouncy, off-the-wall dogs.  If a dog walks in calmly, Delilah is a dream, but if a dog prances, or dashes in, she wants a bit of that dog.

Sara agreed with me, she thinks Delilah is disciplining the not-so-well-behaved dogs.  At first I wasn’t too sure about that, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me.

Speaking of not-so-well-behaved dogs, someone was giving me a devil of a time during one of her runs.  She wouldn’t do the A-frame, instead she kept running into the tunnel and every time I went for her, she ran the other way.:-(

I was so mad, I practically picked her up to get her on that A-frame.

Epic Fail.

How do you redirect your dog when they stray off-course?

Confirming Pavlov’s Theory

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Did you have a nice, long weekend?  It was a pretty chillax weekend at Stone Manor.

We had a cookout on Sunday, I always love having my family around me, especially the little ones.

Even though we teach our grandchildren, nieces and nephews to respect the dogs, they are dogs after-all and should always be watched.

I don’t want to say the kids are afraid of the dogs, although upon the initial entrance, they tend to shy away.  I think that’s mostly because the dogs are big and rambunctious and eager to greet everyone.

After a few minutes the kids are running around creating chaos and the dogs are looking for a safe place to hunker down.

Normally the kids can do whatever they want when they are at my house, but when it comes to the dogs I am very strict.

I don’t allow them to feed the dogs (unless we are with them) or to go near the dogs dishes when they are eating.

There is no hitting, only nice petting and absolutely no jumping over the dogs.

We do however encourage gentle interaction with the dogs. So imagine my delight when Hubby was preparing the dog’s dinner the other night and I captured this photo of my little niece.

I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to capture her with her arms around both dogs, but this one with Sampson is so adorable.

If you notice, she has her head turned slightly towards Delilah.  I’m not sure if you can see it in the picture, but Delilah was beginning to drool, which had my little niece totally engrossed.

Almost immediately after this picture was taken, she knelt down on the floor underneath Delilah and stared and pointed at the drool.

Auntie what’s that?

That my dear is Delilah confirming Pavlov’s theory.

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