The Days of Johann, an agility dog!

Uh, oh...I think I may be in trouble!

2009-07-15T08:17:00.000-04:00

Well, guess this is what happens when you're an agility dog, right? BOL!

Gracie and I tackle the Nina Ottosson Dog Turbo!

2009-07-13T08:24:00.004-04:00

We finally have video of me and Gracie tackling the Nina Ottosson Dog Turbo that I got for my Birthday!

The Dog Turbo, is one of the more challenging Nina Ottosson Dog Toys. Of course, Mum, Gracie and I wouldn't have it any other way, BOL! We all like a challenge. The Dog Turbo has channels and pegs. Mum puts the treats in the channels and we have to move the pegs with our paw or nose to make the treats come out the sides. Mum thought this type of toy would fit well with our likes and personality.

A few things we have to say before you watch the video. Firstly, we were (oddly enough) not quite prepared when we opened the box that Mum was going to need to teach us how to play with the Turbo. But it makes sense now, of course.

Mum started by putting the Turbo on the floor with the treats in the channels and just let us play with it to see how we would interact with it.

Gracie and I both immediately started trying to get the treats out of the channel with our tongues, successfully I may add. So it was up to Mum to teach us to use our paw (or nose in my case, at times) to move the pegs to release the treats. She put her hand over the channels and tapped on the pegs, telling us at the same time to use our paws. We know what those are, so we picked it up fairly quickly.

Mum started by putting the pegs fairly close to the treat exit place, so that we would be successful quickly. And she turned the puzzle so that we understood the direction the pegs have to go because the channels are curved. She even turned the toy sometimes for Gracie, so that she would better understand the direction she needed to paw at the pegs.

This video shows our first interactions. Now that we've got that down pretty well, Mum is going to increase the difficulty by not moving the toy and by putting the pegs further out. Then she's going to increase it even more by putting the pegs into the circular section, so that we have to move the pegs around the circle and into the channel area for the treats to be dispensed.

I have to tell you, both Gracie and I just love the toy. Mum was really selective to get a toy that both Gracie and I would like. We like to use our paws and our noses, and moving those pegs seemed to Mum like something we would really enjoy.

So enjoy the video, and remember where you can get this super cool dog puzzle, and others! They are great toys for indoor play and working our brains when it's too hot or too cold to get out there and work our bodies.

EDIT: We've been having some folks indicate they couldn't play the vid, so we reinstalled the code. Hope it's working better now! If not go here!

And if you're looking for the link for the shop that ships Internationally, click here! :)

We loved Dogged Pursuit!

2009-07-12T10:32:00.001-04:00

Our Twitter bud, Dusty, was super kind enough to send us his new book, Dogged Pursuit: My Year of Competing Dusty, the World's Least Likely Agility Dog.

What fun we have had with our evening parties this past week, as Mum has been reading us this super great book. It surely gets 5 Paws Up from both me, Mum and Gracie.

It's witty, fun, intelligent and a great story about being involved in this wacky sport we love - agility.

Like Mum, Robert learns early on that his sheltie needs a job. And just like Mum, someone recommends agility. So sure, just like Mum, Robert decides to give it a go, sounds like a fun time, right? But sadly Carmen, is diagnosed with hip dysplasia early on, and her agility career is over.

But wait! Rob is hooked and what do people that are hooked on agility do? Yep, you guessed it, they get another dog. So Rob heads off to the Central Illinois Sheltie Rescue in search of the next great World champion agility dog. But things don't go as planned and Rob, and his new teammate Dusty, have a lot to work through.

We had a hard time putting this book down and have to say that we may have finished it in record time. Mum was smiling and laughing her way as she read us the book. Occasionally Gracie and I would bark out in agreement with some of the things she was reading us, like....when Rob equates the embarrassment of knocking a bar to a little like 'farting in church', BOL!!! When he describes the measuring judge as 'having the bedside manner of George S. Patton'. And when they had finished out a run 'with more refusals than a Catholic girls' school on prom night'.

For folks like me and Mum being fairly new to agility, it sure brought back a lot of memories of our early, and even current days, in the sport - fitting in with the 'crowd,' getting used to traveling to remote locations, learning the rules, dealing with the competitive spirit, and the ups and, literal downs, in the ring.

If you like agility, you'll love this book. It's a great Summer read and we highly recommended it to anyone who enjoys agility or just loves dogs. Just one thing...we were aching for more!

You can get the book at Clean Run and Dogwise for $24.95 (and remember, Clean Run has discounts for multiple book purchases); or you can head on over to Amazon for the Kindle version at $9.99 or the hardback at $16.47 with a 34% discount. (Prices are listed as of this date)

OMD! This is hilarious!

2009-07-12T10:27:00.001-04:00

What talent! And what a big bladder, OMD!!!

Day in, and day out!

2009-07-08T11:17:00.001-04:00

Ahh....the life of a dog! It's not bad, fur sure! Most work days are pretty standard for us. We get up, eat, help Mum with work, do some training, take a long walk, and then Mum goes back to work for awhile. Then it's veg and cuddle time on the couch for all four of us. Love that!

Thank goodness the weekends are a little more energetic, or we would go bananas! BTW - I love bananas.

Yesterday we woke up kinda late for us, 6:00 AM. And of course we immediately started waiting for our breakfast!

Mum got a little work done. She stopped in mid morning and gave me a nice massage, since my iliopsoas has been stiffing up again. Then she noticed that I was really starting to blow my coat, so she took off after the big brush. Here's the result of her efforts to my dismay. I think I've lost half my body weight and she didn't even use the Furminator!

After that ordeal, I had to get away for a little break. The landing on our stairs is a super nice sunny spot at a certain time of the day, and I took advantage of it.

Gracie took advantage of her bed, next to Mum's feet. She likes to stay close :)

Before we know it, it's time for dinner, then of course a little agility! Gracie's really loving her dogwalk and targeting training. She just can't wait to get out there! We need to check to see if she's got some of that ephedrine in her, sheesh! But in reality, I think it has something to do with food :)

Since I'm on low activity duty because of my muscle tightness, Mum got out my big birthday present, the Nina Ottosson Dog Turbo. It's something I can do that wears out my brain, and deters me mostly from manic running and wrestling activity. Mum says, 'thank dog'!

Interestingly, it takes just a bit of training to help me understand how to play with it. But I picked it up pretty quickly, as did Gracie :) We love the toy and can't wait to share more of it with you. Video to come later, we promise!!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Fun Games - Bang. Wait....Double Bang!

2009-07-07T08:02:00.001-04:00

Gracie and I are dead, dead doggies, Mum shot us both, OMD!!! Just kidding...

This is one of Gracie's favorite tricks and also one of the first tricks she learned. When Gracie learned this trick, Mum knew that she was finally having some fun in life after coming to live with us after being taken from a hoarder. Way to go Gracie!

So to make it more interesting Mum decided we needed to 'play dead' together, now that was a trick, literally. First you'll notice that one of us likes to go right, and the other likes to play dead left. BOL!!! So Mum just has to make sure I'm on Gracie's right, or we bang into each other, we don't like that and well, it kinda ruins the trick :)

Since this vid, we don't have to go into a down first, we'll go 'bang' from a stand or a sit! But Mum still likes to point that finger gun at us, BOL!!!

A little of this, and a little of that!

2009-07-01T10:38:00.001-04:00

It's gone from super hot, to super cool...and the last few days have been so nice outside! A great relief after the 90's we had last week.

We were Twittering with a friend of ours in California last week and told them that we had a lot of Cardinals this year. (Great bird herding, by the way). They just had to see a pic, since they had never seen a Cardinal.

For some reason this is the first year we've seen Cardinals in our neighborhood since we moved here. Don't know why they weren't here before, and we don't know why they came back. But it's cool to see a variety of colors of birds for herding, BOL! BTW - they like to fly into the windows a lot, silly birds.

Mum took some pics of the flowers blooming in our yard this week. Here is one of our yellow daisies. Mum loves how the sun is backlighting and enhancing the cool yellow color of the daisies.

And here's our lavender, in full bloom. Mum loves it when I zoom through it, 'cause I smell so good when I come in side.

Here are our Black Eyed Susans, not many of them this year, but they look nice!

Awwww, and our Hydrangea. It's looking very good this year with all the rain, but now that it's gotten really dry, Mum is having to water it a lot. See, it's getting droopy.

So what else has been going on? We've been working on our running dogwalk, of course, and doing some other agility in the backyard. We've been taking some long, long walks since the weather has been cooler (we missed those with all the heat). And we got somethin' in the mail this weekend.

The nice folks at Animal Planet sent us some Groomer Has It poo bag holders, for blogging about the show. We had fun watching the show, and want to congratulate Huber for winning this year's Groomer of the Year. Maybe you can buy some loose diamonds with your winnings, Huber! Thanks Animal Planet for the poo bag holders, we like 'em!

Today we're supposed to get some deliveries from the Brown Dude. My uber cool Birthday present is supposed to arrived today - the Nina Ottosson Dog Turbo. We can't wait for that!

And Mum order some memory to upgrade my 'puter. Now she can get some of my work done faster, BOL!!!

We updated the front page of my website - JohannTheDog.com - 'cause we found some neat dog gear, toys, treat and other stuff pawing around on the Internet this past weekend. You may want to check it out - those Nite Ize toys are super cool (they have balls and discs that glow), and you won't want to miss the Tuffy's Sheep. You know us herding breeds love our sheep!

We also really thought the Tubtrugs are cool, they are made from 100% recycled post industrial waste, and Mum thought they'd make great cooling off tubs for me and Gracie. And Clean Run has a new Ice Pod Cooling Disc to help keep us pups cool in our crates while waiting our runs.

And the best new thing? Two brand new Nina Ottosson toys are on the market now - the Dog Trubble and the Dog Domino, and the supplier will ship nearly anywhere in the World.

You may want to head on over to Raise a Green Dog this week, we found some super cool green toys, treats and other gear. And we'll have some other information from our friend Eddie at Pets for the Environment and his buds at the Environmental Working Group about a study they've just released about fluroide in dog food, yuck!!! That's nasty stuff if you get too much of it. So stay tuned.

We're gettin' ready for the big Fourth of July weekend. We hope to get in some nice hiking, agility practice, a little barbequeing, and more! Hope you all have a super great holiday!

Targeting experiment!

2009-06-28T11:13:00.001-04:00

Remember I talked about how we finally (and I mean finally!) got Gracie to drive through the weaves independently to a target?

Mum was so excited, now she doesn't have to babysit Gracie, or even cheer lead her through the weaves. She doesn't have to bend over to keep Gracie driving through without looking up. How nice! Now, she can save her breath for the rest of the course, BOL!!

So we got to thinking. We thought that Gracie looked faster in the weaves with the target out about five feet from the last pole, but we weren't certain. So we decided to do a video and time comparison. Yep, she's faster! Another great benefit :)

We decided to compared her weaves from last week with the nice weaving she was doing last November, since they were her best before her targeting. (You'll remember those weaves from our obstacle time comparison post last December, where her avg. weave time was around 3.328). Mum felt like she needed industrial handles to cheer and motivate Gracie.

Gracie has shaved off nearly a quarter of a second on her weaves on average, and consistently over the past few weeks. One of her weaves we got on video was timed at 2.96 seconds, a big change from her fairly consistent 3.25-3.32 seconds before targeting. Good going Gracie!

We've been using open food targets for a long time (well, as long as the 3 (or is it 4) years we've been doing agility :). Mum, Gracie and I like them. And they work well for us. We've learned that we have to do the obstacles before we get the target, and learning that wasn't too difficult. Gracie and I may have had just a couple of run arounds to the target when we were learning the weave targeting, but we moved on and have never done it since.

The thing we like the most about open food targeting for us is the independence it creates - independent weaves, working from a distance, independent contacts and more. And it creates drive, something Gracie needs to work through because of her lack of confidence, and something I needed after my iliopsoas pull to regain my confidence, and my speed.

There's a nice interview with Stuart Mah in Clean Run's June 2009 issue about targeting. He's a big subscriber to targeting, even though it has fallen out of favor by many.

Here's the vid of Gracie's weave comparisons, before targeting and after targeting. Hope you enjoy!

Hey! I'm working here!

2009-06-26T06:11:00.001-04:00

Happy Take Your Dog to Work Day!

I'm a lucky pup, I get to go to work with my Mum everyday. I hope some of you get to share in the fun today too!

Later, I gotta get back to work. Mum's working my paws to the bone, BOL!!!!

For Michael...

2009-06-25T19:28:00.001-04:00

Great birthday, so far!

2009-06-25T17:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a perfect birthday so far, and we still have hours to go! BTW - if anyone wants to know I'm 5 years old today :)

The day started with some nice duck necks included with my kibble, nummo!

Mum worked a little, and then we went for a nice walk before it got super hot (it's 93 degrees now, yikes!).

After we got back, Mum worked some more, and then before dinner, she gave me a few goodies! I got some Honest Kitchen Nuzzles, a stuffed dinosaur, and a Bobo! Won't be long till that BoBo is destuffed, fur sure!

The best part is that Mum says my big present isn't coming for a few days, but she told me what it is! I've been wanting one of these for a couple of years, since the time we saw some of our buds in Europe had one.

It's a Nina Ottosson dog toy!!! OMD!!! Mum says she ordered me the Dog Turbo. Mum picked the Turbo because she thought it fit most with my personality.

I can't wait till it gets here! Pretty soon I'll be ready for a playstation 3, BOL!!!

Near dark, after it cools off, Mum says we're gonna go work on my dogwalk again, I love that!!! And she's got a new set up. She tore up part of the the patio she built before I was born, and is using the bricks to prop up a level board for me before the end board (which is our teeter board). Can't wait to test it out!

Gotta go, Mum's getting out the Homemade Frosty Paws now! Can the day get any better?

Today is my birthday!!!

2009-06-25T12:11:00.001-04:00

Today is my birthday, so I'm super busy having loads of fun. Stay tuned for all the good stuff!

Around the Agility dog-o-sphere!

2009-06-24T00:16:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since we did our 'around the agility dog-o-sphere' post. So let's get right to it, lots to cover!

Our friends Katie and Eric at Agility Vision have some new stuff going on. The first exciting thing is that Katie now has a blog, and she's been showing some cool training she's doing with her Sheltie, Miley; particularly the proofing of five weeks of running dogwalk training (ala Silvia Trkman). So check it out. And click on the pics of the post for the videos.

Speaking of Silvia, we found this post and video of a seminar she recently held. I picked up a few little tips, you may too!

Secondly, AgilityVision now has a new forum where you can ask Katie about some of her super secret training techniques. Katie was kind enough to share on the forum the tips she gave us for helping Gracie get deeper into the yellow on her running dog walk. Check it out.

AgilityVision is also doing some super cool VOD and DVD seminars - one of which is the upcoming foundation skills DVD by Russian Champion Svetlana Tomanova, "Secrets of Russia: Foundation by Svetlana Tumanova." Why look into rv camping when you can get great training info right in the comfort of your own home :)

Mum and I will be getting an advanced copy of the DVD which goes on sale July 1st, so stay tuned for our review. Did I tell ya, I am a lucky dog!

Last from AgilityVision - they are going to EO coming up July 25th and 26th, so stay tuned. We'll let you know what they'll be filming and how you can see the action.

Speaking of EO...The British Agility Team for EO has been announced. Their team will include Dave Munnings, Greg Derrett, Bernadette Bay and others. Should be some great competition! You can also see the teams from Holland, Belgium, France.

Here is the complete list of entries for EO, as well as the country list. US competitors include:

Aiko & Susan Cochran
Skylar & Ann Zarr
Bree Sea, Nika & Elicia Calhoun
Dan & David Skvorak
Slick & Lisa Marie Bowers
Yankee & Olga Chaiko
Sweep & Roger Anderson
Roo, Binkie & Jannneke Case
Smitten & Melanie Miller
Reebok & Lisa Jarvis
Export & Tracy Sklenar
Harry & Anna Ericsson
Rock-It & Barb Davis
Sully & Mary Jo Johnson
Jazzmine & Della Sliker
Jeep & Katie Trachte
Breeze & Anne Stocum
Jib & Suzi Cope
Jente & Sue Megenity
April & Lori Borrowman
Chase & Deborah McBride
Siryn & Sarah Dow

(I hope I got everyone's name right, reading the EO site was kinda challenging :) Good luck to everyone!

If you're looking for some agility courses to get ideas on training, check out this new site AgilityCourseMaps.com, brought to you by Team Fernandezlopez. Don't worry, they say they get full permission from the judges before posting the course maps. Oh, and if you can, be sure and give 'em a tip for all the hard work it takes to put something like this together for the good of the agility community. We know how much work goes into something like this is.

Remember Mum and I had been working for a long time to learn how I can jump into her arms after an agility run? Here's the method (with some variation) we used, from Gone to the Dogs. (The reason it took us so long is the transition from lap to Mum leaning on the wall, so we moved back to Mum sitting on pillows before leaning. It really helps my confidence when Mum has a leg out for me, her leg furthest away from me. And, Mum has a treat in her hand nearest my nose after jumping, really helped too, BOL!) Enjoy!

Be sure and keep an eye out for Dog Sports Magazine's September issue. Looks like we're gonna be in it, OMD!!

Life and Times of Team Whisner attended a nose work seminar. Seems there's a new dog sport a paw (or is it a foot). Anyway, check out their post on the seminar they attended and then head on over to the website for the new titling and governing body for the sport, the National Canine Scent Work Association. Hmmm...may be some interesting trick work in my future :)

In case you missed Rockin' Rory and Tony, from New Castle, Indiana (hey, that's where my Mum was born!) on America's Got Talent last night, check this out! We sure and wish them luck, and hope they make it to the finals!

I love this video on teaching a puppy front and rear cross. Enjoy!

If you'd like to see some great clicker and trick videos to get some new ideas for training, check out this YouTube channel from Emily Larlham at Kikopup!

DogChannel has an interesting article with info from Debbie Gross-Saunders about stretching your dog, worth a quick read.

This blog post from Justine Davenport is a great reminder to give it all you've got all the time you are training with your dog. It includes a video training session by Greg Derrett. In it you can see that there is no down time, no time to be confused, just action and reward, action and reward, giving 110%. Love it!

Ingerid Margrete of The Wins & Losses of a Clicker Trained Agility Dog found this fun video. And be sure and stop by to see some of her posts, training with Fanny Gott and training her running contacts.

A few other vids...check out Jenny Damm teaching Ogin some tunnel discriminations; Scandel learning proprioception, and Chris Parker proofing weave entrances.

Nancy Gyes has a new blog. Looking forward to some great posts and info. Thanks Ellen for the head up :)

That's it for now! Enjoy!

Running dogwalk - it's coming along, nicely!

2009-06-24T00:13:00.001-04:00

Gracie and I have continued working on our running dogwalk training over the past weeks. And we think it's coming along very nicely, although a little slower than we expected, mostly because of time we have to work on it.

You may remember in previous posts (Progressions #1, #2, #3, #4), we had a bit of challenge in getting Gracie to run deeper into the yellow. Well, it's fixed for now!

We got some great tips from a great agility trainer (aka, one time world team member who I'm sure would love to remain anonymous :). Thank you to her for helping us get Gracie running through. It was a super easy fix, and an idea that we would never have thought of. I'll be sure and ask her if it's ok to share her tip and get back with ya.

Now that Gracie's running through, and I'm doing pretty well in striding through the yellow, we raised the board another 6 or so inches. And guess what? We've been at 100% for the past three sessions at the height in the vid below. So it's time to raise it again tonight! Yeah!

Fun Games - Are you shy?

2009-06-17T09:06:00.000-04:00

You would never know it when you meet us, but Gracie and I are kinda shy, NOT!!!!

We may be shy about getting an auto insurance quote, but we certainly aren't shy for clicks and treats, BOL!!!

This trick, for some reason, was a little more difficult for me, not so much for Gracie. Gracie figured out she had a snout right away. Me? Not so fast. First Mum had to teach me that I had a nose. It took a little time, but once I got that, doing the trick was a breeze.

Because I get kinda manic when I learn new tricks, I don't like to hold behaviors. I like to do 'em and go on with life! So until Mum can teach me to 'hold' it, this is our latest installment of Fun Games - Are You Shy?

Double Time!

Midwest Dog Agility Championships on tap for October!

2009-06-17T08:40:00.004-04:00

The 2009 Midwest Dog Agility Championships have been announced.

Here's info from the website:

The event will take place this year at Libertyville Sports Complex in Libertyville, Illinois on October 23-25. Rain or shine they'll be running on sport turf, dry & comfortable, at the indoor facility, so you won't need any outdoor chaise lounges, unless you want to use one indoors :)

Here's the premium. Ilze Rukis will be the judge. Rukis started in agility in 1996, and has judged events for ASCA, AKC, NADAC and TDAA, and the regional “Incredible Dog Challenge”.

You can join their Yahoo Group for updates, and/or complete a form on their site for email updates.

Karen Pryor's got a new book: Reaching the Animal Mind!

2009-06-16T09:06:00.005-04:00

So excited! One of my favorite pup trainers, Karen Pryor, has a new book out today!

It's called "Reaching The Animal Mind - Clicker Training and What it Taches us about all Animals."

Here's what Dogwise says about the book:

From the pioneer in the field of clicker training comes an illuminating and revealing look into the minds of all animals.

Karen Pryor has improved the lives of millions of animals. A celebrated pioneer in the field of no punishment animal training, she introduced an innovative training system in her groundbreaking bestseller "Don't Shoot the Dog!" Now, after thirty years of training creatures both tame and wild, Pryor presents the sum total of what she knows about teaching animals and what they in turn have taught her.

Pryor's all-positive clicker-training system is a safe, effective way to modify and shape behavior. Karen can teach anyone to train animals with a cheap, plastic, hand held clicker, rewarding wanted behaviors -- click! -- and ignoring the unwanted. No leash-jerking. No pushing. No smacking.

Animals quickly learn that one behavior gets them a reinforcing click and a bit of food, and undesirable behaviors get them, well, nothing at all. Given the choice, animals quickly focus on what works and abandon what doesn't.

"Reaching the Animal Mind" uses clear, accessible language that will allow anyone to master Pryor's training system. Pryor also entertains by introducing some of her more interesting pupils. Ponies are taught to surf, gloomy birds learn how to play, a rhinoceros routinely leans against a fence for a pedicure, and dogs learn everything with pointed ears and shining eyes that seem to say "You want what? I can do that; watch me!"

Throughout the book, Pryor provides Web addresses where the reader can access video of the actual training sessions that she describes.

Practical and engrossing, Pryor explains the science behind her system, how it works and why it works, its applications for teaching humans, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to clicker-train your cat to give you a high five or your dog to find your car keys. What could be better than that?

Read an excerpt. Dogwise has the book for 25% off at $18.75 and Amazon for $16.50!

Hot, but fun weekend!

2009-06-15T22:27:00.008-04:00

It was a pretty hot weekend. Not so much in temperature but with humidity. Yikes, Mum's shirt was soaked all weekend, and Gracie and I needed some cooling off!

So Mum went and got out our kiddie pool. Dog did that feel good! Gracie of course had to attack the hose when Mum was filling it up. But the minute that was over, I was in there baby! Cooling my heels (wait do dog's have heels?) Anyways, it sure was nice to have our kiddie pool back, you really know it's summer then!

Mum wanted to update everyone on what's blooming in our yard. Here's our lavender, it's gonna be a bit smaller than last year, but will be smellin' heavenly in no time. Maybe I can get Mum to make me a lavender wand for my crate?

Here are the Anthony Waterer Spirea in the front of our house. They need a trim, badly! But Mum didn't have the heart until after their first bloom. We love the color!

Here's our Hydrangea, it's just starting to bloom. Mum and I think it's neat how the blooms start green , turn to light green, then cream color, then light brown and dried. Mum leaves the blooms on the plant until late fall, then she cuts them and adds them to the wreath on our front door, that's filled with dried flowers. Lots of people have asked her how she makes them. She doesn't buy a thing from Total Merchant Services to make them, she just gathers up weeds and spent blooms and puts it all together. Makes every one unique, fun stuff!

Mum trimmed more shrubs and, of course, we helped gather up the sticks. Love that! And then each day we got in a little dogwalk and other agility practice. No vids, yet. But Mum did snap a pic of me going up the dog walk to get in a good ear scritch!

Hope you all had a super cool, super fun weekend!

We are happy flappy!

2009-06-15T22:01:00.009-04:00

The nice folks at Flappy Dog Toys sent us a couple of samples of their uber cool new Flappy Toys. There are actually five kinds of Flappys for just about every type of pup:

Tuffy Flappy for the tuff pup
Fluffy Flappy for those liking a softer, crinkle touch
Fleecie Flappy for the cozy set
Flossy Flappy to keep those toofers clean and have fun at the same time
Floatie Flappy for the water lovers

We received the Tuffy Flappy for Gracie, and the Fleecie for me, since I love my fleece! Both Gracie and I went completely nuts for them.

Mum decided to show you all my tugging skills out in our backyard between a little agility practice. Then, she was working on getting me revved up for my running dogwalk practice so she used it to entice some speed outta me, and it worked!

Check it out! Oh, and guess where you can get 'em, yep, JohannTheDog.com!

USDAA Northeast Regionals livestream!

2009-06-12T11:03:00.003-04:00

Cool! Looks like the folks at USDAA are testing some new software for the live stream event at Cynosport this fall.

The best part is it looks like they're going to be testing it out during this weekend's Northeast Regionals. Details here. Check during the weekend and hopefully you'll get a chance to watch some of the action!

Guess what we'll be doing this weekend between our agility practicing?

A little backyard agility fun!

2009-06-10T20:01:00.003-04:00

We got to do some agility a week or so ago. We've been doing some since in the backyard (including our DW retraining), but no video. Just this vid from last week.

We had a big breakthrough just a few days before this vid. Gracie can now drive to a target after the weaves and doesn't need any 'babysitting.' Wow, this is huge for her!!!! It's taken a long time for her to be confident enough to get to this point and we are super proud of her. To get her to drive Mum was having to really stick with her in the weaves and cheer her on with good girls. But now, she's driving on her own. Mum is so happy!!!

Hoping to get a vid comparison of her weaves before targeting and after targeting this week sometime, and time the difference. Should be interesting! She sure doesn't need any fat burner, skinny girl, but Mum could, BOL!!!

For me we worked a little on tight turns and both Gracie and I got some work on rear crosses. I didn't need them so much, but Gracie sure did. And she did great! We think she is really starting to read Mum. Oh, and you can see Gracie doing a little heeling, she likes it, I don't :)

So here's the vid, enjoy!

Doggedness pays off!

2009-06-10T19:55:00.002-04:00

Purina Incredible Dog Challenge 2009 schedule announced!

2009-06-10T19:01:00.003-04:00

Wow! This is super cool! The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge schedule has been announced for 2009. And guess what? The Eastern regionals are coming to my backyard!

Here's the schedule:

Western Regional
June 12th and 13th
San Diego County Fair - San Diego, CA

Eastern Regional
August 7th and 8th
Indiana State Fair – Indianapolis, IN

National Finals National Finals
October 2nd and 3rd
Purina Farms - Gray Summit, MO

The events include Incredible Freestyle Flying Disc, Incredible Agility, Incredible Diving Dog, Incredible Head-to-Head 60-Weave Pole racing and Incredible Jack Russell Hurdle Racing. No golf trophies at this event, just shiny pawsome dog agility medals! Woofs!

Good luck to all the competitors!

Fun hiking weekend!

2009-06-09T08:43:00.001-04:00

After we got the new Raise a Green Dog website live and worked out a few little glitches, we got to spend some fun and quality time together. This weekend, we went hiking, not once, but twice!

On Sunday we went down to our usual hiking place near the White River Park just down the road. But on Saturday we got to go to a new hiking place. Mum took Gracie and me with her to stock up on dog food from our great friends in Pendleton. When that was done Mum surprised us by taking us to Falls Park near there for a nice little hike!

Little did we know that there was a Lions Fair going on there, so it took us a while to find a parking spot, but we finally found one. Then it was off on our little hike.

On the way to the trail we saw this super cool stone design, take a look it says 1888! That's older than the hills (and Mum, BOL!)!

Then we made our way to the river. We had to cross it on a little footbridge to get to the other side where the trail starts. I saw some ducks I wanted to herd...

And Gracie was enthralled with the falls...

Then we finally made it to the trail, a very tidy one at that. We like a little more off-road, but we were having fun, nonetheless. We saw squirrels, lots of birds, bugs, and plants. We even saw some leaves that needed acne treatments, they were all spotty, probably a fungus or something. We thought it was cool, but Mum was ewey all over the place. Guess she thought she may catching somethin, or somethin, BOL!!

We stopped to check out the river, me at the bank...

And Gracie at the bridge...

Gracie was getting super overstimulated with the new environment. Mum wishes she would have brought Gracie's clicker to help her focus at times and work on impulse control. Mum couldn't even get Gracie's attention to sit and take a treat. Next time, fur sure!

Overall it was a super weekend. No agility, but hiking galore! We hope you had a great weekend too! And here's a little video of scenes from our hike. You can hear the fair (and the screaming little two leggers) in the background, BOL!!!

It's time for.....hammie agility!

2009-06-09T08:19:00.001-04:00

We found this last week, too cool! This Hammie knows his agility stuff (or is he a she?), BOL!!!