Standing Outside The Fire

June 12, 2013 By Jodi

Last night was the last Freestyle class for Delilah and myself. Ariane said it could be as long or as short as we’d like. I figured if I could string three tricks together I’d be happy. I took the four or five solid tricks she knows and plotted it out in my head, how I might be able to make them flow together.

All week I’d been thinking of the song I’d play for our performance, I was pretty set on “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White Tees, but decided to go through my songs on the way to class and see if I found one I thought fit her personality a bit better.

As it turns out, I thought the lyrics to Standing Outside the Fire by Garth Brooks exemplified her zest for life pretty well.

We call them cool
Those hearts that have no scars to show
The ones that never do let go
And risk the tables being turned

We call them fools
Who have to dance within the flame
Who chance the sorrow and the shame
That always comes with getting burned

But you’ve got to be tough when consumed by desire
‘Cause it’s not enough just to stand outside the fire

We call them strong
Those who can face this world alone
Who seem to get by on their own
Those who will never take the fall

We call them weak
Who are unable to resist
The slightest chance love might exist
And for that forsake it all

They’re so hell-bent on giving ,walking a wire
Convinced it’s not living if you stand outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

There’s this love that is burning
Deep in my soul
Constantly yearning to get out of control
Wanting to fly higher and higher
I can’t abide
Standing outside the fire

Standing outside the fire
Standing outside the fire
Life is not tried, it is merely survived
If you’re standing outside the fire

Normally I love to go first. Not last night. I waited. We went fourth. What I didn’t anticipate was a change in venue, from our little corner of the room to the center. The center she associates with scent training.

Yeah, I lost her a couple of times. But I promised you the video so here it is. Ariane was filming and might have missed the first few seconds.

If the video doesn’t work, click HERE.

Next time it might be wise to let her scope out the food situation BEFORE we start the routine. I do think she has some great spins and her leg weaves are coming along nicely. We’re certainly not ready to step into a real ring! Although I would like to continue working on tricks and work up a little routine.

I think she has potential, what do you think?

Can You Spare a Stamp?

December 19, 2012 By Jodi

Before I get to showing and telling you what Delilah and I learned at Tricks Class last night, I’d like to ask a favor of you.

There is a young boy in Kentucky who is dying of Cystic Fibrosis, his dying wish is to make the Guinness Book of Records for receiving the most Christmas cards.

Can you spare a card and a stamp to help make a dying child’s wish come true?

Dalton Dingus

HC 62

Box 1249

Salyersville, KY 41465.

You can send it to the above address. My card is going out in today’s mail.

The last night of tricks class.

Boy am I glad I told our instructor that I’m a blogger, now as she walks around the classroom observing us, she happily picks up my camera and snaps some pictures.

The first trick we learned is back-up.

You train this by standing in front of your dog with a treat in each hand, place a hand on either side of their face, then slowly walk towards them. If they sit down or don’t back up, try again. If you get a tiny step backwards, praise and treat.

Most dogs can be trained to back up using this method.

Ariane tried it with Delilah as the model.

Aren’t I cute?

She ended up having to put her hands behind her back and work with one hand, two treats is just one more than Delilah can handle.

What worked best for her was when I put a treat in front of her nose and pushed it towards her. Sometimes she sits down and I just lure her up again and start over.

She has stepped back in this photo, I can tell because I’m smiling.

Another way you can train this trick is by creating a sort of tunnel for your dog by using one wall and some chairs, you want it big enough for your dog to fit, but not large enough for them to turn around.

I think I’ll try this in my hallway.

Dance, Stand or in Delilah’s case….Hop.

Take your treat and hold it up high, your goal is to get your dog up on their hind legs, where they can either just hold a stand, or take a couple of steps or hops.

If you’ve trained your Target or Touch command and your dog is comfortable with it, you can use this. I like the treat because I want her to learn the verbal cue I will be using which will probably be hop.

Give me the damn treat!

You want to make sure your dog is not touching your body with their paws…that’s cheating.

Weave

The last trick we learned was Weave, as in between your legs. You know it and probably some of you ~~showoffs~~ dedicated trainers have already taught this to your dog.

This is the trick where you walk and your dog weaves in and out of your walking legs.

Finally, the last night of class, the last trick turns out to be the one I wanted most to learn. This trick will come in handy when we take our Freestyle class next year.

To teach this trick you start with your dog in a heel. It doesn’t matter which side as long as you remember to lead with the opposite leg.

Delilah’s on my left, I step forward with my right foot and place my right hand behind my right leg, luring her through.

KEY COMPONENT: toss the treat away from you, this lets your dog know they are to go completely through your legs.

I step forward with my left leg and lure her back, again tossing the treat.

No-one said teaching it looks pretty, BUT note, I have no shirt that imitates stomach flesh this time!

We practiced this a lot and by the time we had finished I would have to say we probably took about six to eight steps before I made a mistake and had to start over.

Now THAT looks better.

We learned a lot of different tricks. I know that I won’t be working on training all of them, but there are a couple I’d really like to focus on.

What kind of tricks do you do with your dog? Have you ever taken a tricks class? Would you?

You Want Me To WHAT?

December 12, 2012 By Jodi

Yesterday was Tuesday, you know what that means.

Yup, Tuesday night tricks class.

We were a little bit late and Ariane was handing out hula hoops.

I don’t know about you, but hula hoops aren’t my thing. Don’t get me wrong, I can do a mean impression on the Wii balance board, but put a real hoop around my hips and all bets are off. (You might want a video camera handy though, it would probably be very amusing.)

Thankfully the hoops were for the dogs, not for the people.

This is super easy! I don’t know why YOU can’t do it.

No my sweet, they are for jumping through.

What? You’re asking me to jump through hoops? WTF is that about?

Well that’s how it would have gone down if Delilah could talk.

Thankfully she cannot.

I don’t have any other pictures of her using the hoop, but try to visualize it. Stand the hoop up, slide just a bit of the hoop between your legs and hold hit there. This frees up your hands.

Then using a treat lure your dog through the hoop, and toss the treat away from you. In this manner the dog understands that you want them to go totally through the hoop.

You can call it whatever you like, I’m using “HOOP.”

Boring.

No comments from the peanut gallery Delilah.

Once your dog is comfortable going through the hoop you can raise it slightly if you’d like. For Delilah I had to throw the treat quite a distance, because if I didn’t she didn’t pick up her feet properly.

Ariane says it is because she is focused on the treat, so it makes sense to toss the treat.

I also used the hoop to lasso her, when she got away from me once. 🙂

Another trick we learned is Peek-a-Boo. This is when you lure you dog around your right side and they come to a sit between your legs.

I hope to get a couple of videos together maybe this weekend so I can show you how it looks. The key to this trick especially with a dog the size of Delilah (or if you have super short arms) is to use two treats. With one treat you lure her around your right side.

(No, that is not flabby stomach hanging out of my shirt, it is the design of the shirt, it’s got patches of flesh color on it. Which isn’t to say that I DON’T have flabby stomach flesh, it’s just not hanging out of the shirt. give me some credit, I have a little class.)

Timing is key. When she reaches my side, I should step to my left with my left foot and reach between my legs with my left hand, thereby luring her through to complete the trick.

If I’ve done it right, she will be sitting between my legs.

I’m hoping the finished product will look way more polished than this when we’re done.

Heart Like a Dog

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

Standing Outside The Fire

Can You Spare a Stamp?