Improvement :)

So Rugby went to class tonight. I was soo proud of him. Tonight was the first time he did a stand-stay in class, and also the first time he had to stand for exam for anyone but my brother without me beside him. He was great and if he broke the stand I missed it. This was also the first night that he did a recall without his longe line on! :)

I think he was extra good tonight because we have been stuck inside with the ice and everything so he was very happy to finally get some real work. We have to see next week if today was just a fluke. ;)

Missed Pictures

So, found a couple more pictures of Rugby on my sister's camera that I hadn't seen. This was a couple weeks ago before he got his haircut, while I was in Florida. I think my favorite picture is the one with the bunny ears. It just suits him. ;) ha

Funny Boy

I woke up to this sound this morning...
I tried to ignore it, but I just kept thinking it was Rugby at the door and he needed to go outside. As much as I wanted to sleep, I did not want to clean up any of his morning bathroom break from my room. So I fought the sleep and rolled over, just to find my little troublemaker not at the door, but with his newly proclaimed toy. He wasn't much playing with it....just carrying it around. He was really really proud of himself too. Enough to figure out how to carry this big bulky thing and jump on the bed (took him a couple of times) and shove it my face so I could see it. ;) I was so proud of him I grabbed my sister's camera and got a couple pictures!

Drink up, Rugby!

Ice and Snow

This morning Rugby went outside to pee on what was snow, but now is just a layer of ice. He was peeing on a slight slope, and he tried to lift his leg when his other back leg started slidding back. So he gave up on the 3-legged peeing and just stood there, as all his legs continued to slide away from him untill he was barely standing and his belly was about 1/2 in away from the ground. I think what was really hilarious to me is that he did not stop peeing the whole time and just let himself fall. :) Silly dog.

Here are some pictures from yesterday when the snow was actually snow. My computer has completely died and won't start, preventing me from resizing the photos, so here they are in their big, original form.

Oh yeah, Rugby also got a haircut yesterday and I am quite proud of myself! Since he is actually a little clean for once in his life, he is hard to see in the snow....luckily he has his camo jacket on so we can find him! :p He convinced everyone to play with him yesterday. He is a charmer!

Thats the end! If I do say so myself, I think Rugby is ridiculously cute. ;)

Shagg Dog

Here is Rugby in the New Year. We were outside working on some heeling, recalls and holding. He did pretty darn good. :) We also started our retrieve class last Saturday, so he is going to be a learning machiene.

Brrr.

So it hasn't gotten any warmer (3* when I went to work this morning), but thank GOD it is supposed to get up in the high 30's tomorrow. I just can't take it anymore! We have been working a little bit yesterday and today. We held our dumbell and went up and down the stairs today for the first time. We also tried to get our downs to be a little straighter. Well...everything needs to be straighter I guess. He is getting a lot better at coming, and coming in front of me, but we haven't been practicing any where else but inside for obvious resons. Maybe we can go outside a little tomorrow since it is supposed to be warmer. Thats all. He needs a bath and some new pictures. We have to work on that ;).

It is so COLD!

So, got back from Florida yesterday, was pretty excited to see Rugby. I have decided that next time he is coming with me. ;) I definetely wasn't expecting it to be this cold outisde! It is a high of 20* today!! We just went outside to potty and it was only 12*. Poor Rugby, we were both shivering waiting for him to finish and he had his coat on and everything! I hope it warms up soon I hate the cold!

Vacation

So Rugby has stayed home with the family while I am off in Florida this week. This is the first time I have had to leave him since we got him! I am a little scared (don't trust too many people with my puppy...including my family) but I am sure that he will survive. I just keep telling myself that the worst they can do is wave treats infront of his face, let him get away with a couple bad things and feed him food more often than he needs. None of it will kill him so I guess I should just relax. ;) Good Luck Rugby!

My brother was finally able to get Rugby to do a down, so that is a good sign. They don't ask the right way and even if they did Rugby doesn't really respect them enough to listen (he has been able to get away with not listening to them too many times). At first when I noticed they had to ask 3-4 times and add all these movements and stuff to get him to down that it would make it harder on me, but it hasn't had any effect really and he still does it the right way with only the verbal command when I tell him. My sister still can't figure out how come if she gets a treat and drags it around Rugby still won't sit or down for her. I caught her doing this and Rugby was completely blowing her off. I told her she was insulting his intelligence and called him to me and had him sit, down, sit. He did all three right away. I have offered to teach them how to train Rugby and tell him commands but no one wants to so untill they do he just wont listen to them.

He is having a whole week off from training and I am sure he isn't even having to work a little bit(seeing as they can't get him to even down). BUT, he is getting played with a lot and taken for extra walks. I suppose he will just be extra eager to work when I get back ;)

Class Time

So, Rugby went to class, and he did pretty well except that he forgot how to come! (not entirely, but.....still sucked). We actually had been working on it, but only at home so that is where the problem comes. We need more distractions and more places to practice. He did good with everything else though. He heeled, downed, sat and stayed.

We went to the barn this morning, and he stayed out of the way of the horses, and stayed close and barked less (less is relative...he is a loud mouth there). I can't quite figure out why he barks to much there, because he is relatively quite most other places. We did have to work to get him quite so maybe he is just a big-mouth in new places? Hmmmm.

We both stink like horse poo now though, so we need to take care of that!

Hold it

Now that we are back to training more regularly I think Rugby is much more happy. Sunday we took a walk at our grandmothers house, and worked on our heel, down, stand stay and come. The down and stand were good, the heeling while moving was okay. The problem is he knows he has to be on my left side and in the right spot, but he does not know that as 'heel.' At least not as well as I would like. The come is also a little lacking. Later that day we went to our aunts house, and he played with Ben the ginormous golden retriever for the first time. Ben loved him and would lay on the ground just to be on Rugbys level.

Can't really remember what we did Monday but today we worked on the hold for his retrieve. This way we can work up to having him walk around with the dumbell in his mouth, and also eventually get him to pick it up off the ground. We also got some help on the heel/come/heel thing so we can keep going with that.

It is time to go work again now that Rugby is done sleeping so here we go...

Back to Work

We have really been slacking, and taken a break over the holdiays from most of the formal training. Today we got back to work a little bit.

Started with fetching. He really loves to retrieve and is doing really really well. I think we need to work on the hold (officially) so we can work our way to picking it up from the ground.

We did a lot of heel/come transitions, and I think it helped him understand what each of them were a little bit. I didn't have to help as much getting him from the come to the heel. He also came in closer the first time I asked for a come from further away (does that make sense?).

We also did a couple of stand-stays. I recruited my brother to walk by and touch rugby for a couple of our stand stays and Rugby didn't care. I need to find someone he doesn't know to do it though (or at least someone he doesn't know well).

Then we played the sit game a couple of times, but this time I also didn't help him any. He did pretty good for most of them. He will definetely get it if we practice some more.

I have noticed just the past couple of weeks that I have soo much more of his attention. He has finally decided that I might be a little bit interesting. I think that not only can he understand me better, but he can better express himself to me better. I don't know if this has made his personality stronger, or he just is showing it in a more appropriate way, but he is as cute as ever!! He has been minding his manners around the horses more too and sticking around and being a little more attentive. I can see a glimpse of the mature Rugby...the training is starting to show in him.....a little. haha ;)

But we do need to work on a little barking issue we have. He doesn't really bark at home, or places he goes a lot. BUT new places, he is a barking machiene. And he doesn't even really need to be barking at something...just barking. He likes to hear himself bark, just a little conceited.