Trick n Treat

Sugar the Golden Retriever is having a Trick n Treat contest. Sugar said variations are welcome, and hopefully she will accept this variation as Rugby's entry! We had great plans to take these pictures outside, but since it was raining so hard that they closed schools early we decided it was best to take the pictures in the new & improved training studio at Applewoods.



Max was supposed to be in the picture too, but he just refused to cooperate. Not to mention, we didn't really have a treat that fit on his squished in nose! These are the only ones Max wanted to be a part of.

Out for a Walk

Hopefully this video from Saturday doesn't make you too dizzy.


Charlotte loves Rugby. She likes Max better though.

Open B Dogs

Team Applewoods does it again!

This weekend I took Pete and Rugby to the Beltsville, MD trials. Pete needed one more leg for his CDX and Rugby entered just for fun. It was the first time that they were both entered in the same trial.

Here is Rugby from Saturday...



RUGBY STAYED SITTING FOR THE SIT STAYS!!! Thank GOD all those sit stays payed off. I was sweating it a little bit too since downs were first. I made sure with both dogs to walk around as much as we could in between the down and sit stays so they would be less likely to lay down.
His score?? Rugby got a 197!!

I was pleased with that score. It wasn't high enough for us to be competitive in the class but it is a lot closer than even two weeks ago!

Now Pete. Or should I say Peter of Hanover CDX?
Yup! Pete got his CDX on Saturday. His owner wasn't able to come for the first two legs so Pete was very excited that she was there on Saturday. He performed JUST for her this weekend.



He was showing off big time and got a 197.5!!!! There was a 3 way tie for 4th place so Pete had to do a run off with the other two dogs that had his score and didn't end up with the placement.

They both did well on Sunday too. Rugby got another 197 and Pete got a 194.5. I am sooo sooo proud of both of them and especially of Pete for finishing his CDX on such a high note! Jasmine was also there on Saturday and she got her first CDX leg in Open A.

Twinkie, Twinkie, Little Dog...

... is having a tongue contest! Turns out we have a ton of pictures with Rugby's tongue showing. It became so hard to pick just one I decided it would be best just to take a brand new one.

Rugby was shocked to find out I had waited so long to enter.

So he made me take pictures of him before he had time to dry all the way off from his bath. Then he was very cooperative and started waving his tongue around.

Out of these photos, Rugby picked this next one to be his official entry to the contest.

Negotiation

I have an exam in the morning. I really really was studying until this nasty little fly insisted on flying in circles right above my head. How can anyone concentrate with that constant buzzing?! How does a fly even get in the house?!?!

I was not particularly interested in scheming the death of this fly since it would mean interrupting my study time. That was until I googled the 'life expectancy of a fly' and realized that I might have to listen to that buzz for TWO WHOLE DAYS!

It was then that my stack of notes and lecture slides turned into a home made fly swatter. I spent the better park of 7 minutes waving my papers around the living room trying to swat this un-swattable fly.

At about 5 minutes into this chaos, I happen to look down at Rugby who had been laying at my feet. I had waken him up and he was staring at me. He was hanging his head a little so he was forced to look 'up' to see me. Rugby was really confused and worried that I had all of a sudden started to talk to myself and lunge around the living room flailing about a stack of papers.

I only diverted my attention to Rugby for a split second, since I was once again reminded of my mission by the buzzing of this eerily brave fly whizzing past my head. It wasn't long after that till the fly landed and I was successful at not only killing the fly, but also getting fly guts all over my notes.

Despite the bittersweet victory, I turned to Rugby with a "YES, I killed it!" His suspicious look slowly faded away and he jumped onto the couch to celebrate with me. Just so he could keep an eye on my, he made sure to find a spot that was nice and comfy across my lap this time.

This is when I noticed the second fly.

Great.

I was NOT having a repeat performance of that fly killing. New plan - stay seated and attempt to swat fly only when it is within reach. The fly is coming, so I prepare for his death with a firm grip on my home made fly swatter and raise the "swatter" above my head.

Not happening this time though, Rugby is prepared. Since I am reclined on the couch, he was able to march right on up my chest and reach out and snatch the papers from my hands.

Well, snatch may be an exaggeration (Rugby is a gentleman after all). He did take the papers from me though and climbed back down and into my lap to sit and face me, still holding the stack of papers.

Rugby offered me the following deal, "I will give you your notes back, only after you stop acting like a crazy person. Deal?"

Team Building

Applewoods is unique in that most all of the dogs, whether they are day care dogs, boarding dog, dogs in for training or any combination of the above all run in one large and fluid pack. Because it is a requirement that all the dogs have finished or are in the process of finishing a training program (for safety) the situation becomes more unique. Now we have the large group of dogs that have a shared vocabulary. This makes it possible for us to communicate with all of them individually, or as a collective easily and without confusion. It is also what make it so easy for us to do lots of fun things with the dogs like our tunnel of legs, retrieve day, trip to Main St, dog house shots, or our New Years shoot to name a few.This is the team that I am referring to today. Team Applewoods!

Sometimes the dogs have to have their own team building exercises! Since we don't want to deny them this bonding opportunity.... here are photos of our most recent "team building activity."

We started out practicing with Pete and Sugar since they are older and have more training and experience.

Once Rugby got the hang of it, Holly (the 5 month old lab), was added too.

She didn't mind at all! (might even say she thought it was boring. :-p)

Also, Jake did wonderfully with his surgery yesterday!

Happy Thoughts

Just wanted to ask everyone to keep their paws cross for Rugby's friend Jake. He is having surgery to have a brain tumor removed in the morning. Jake is Lilly's house-mate - you might remember him from our 25 days of Christmas pictures.
Since we will be Jake-less for a while here are some pictures of him and Lilly from last week. They are quite a pair, huh?

Their co-operative face

The Serious Face

The I-Think-She-Might-Have-The-Ball Face

The I-Can't-Believe-She-Threw-The-Ball-And-I'm-Still-Here Face

The Happy Dog Face

The "LOOK, SQUIRREL" Face

And Lastly, Jake's I-Have-A-Better-Stay-Than-Lilly Face



GOOD LUCK JAKE!!!

Moooo

Rugby met the scariest cow EVER today. We had to do a bunch of doodling before he was comfotable next to this THING. This picture was taken before the doodling, and you can see he is making sure to keep watch so the cow doesn't do anything tricky when he isn't looking.

We have been really busy with school starting, and helping to re-model the training studio at Applewood Dog Training, so not much blogging time lately. It looks realllllllly good though! We will be sure to share pictures once it is complete.

Review

We have kept with the go-out plan that I mentioned before. The focus and comprehension of this exercise is improving with each day. Sunday morning we went out for 20 minutes. Every single go-out he did was perfect and at 30ft. I only had to 'mark' him to a spot once, and he went straight out and sat when I told him. That wonderful glimmer of hope made my day.

This evening we went to the busy play ground again and did some more go-outs in the field behind it. Not quite the repeat performance from Sunday since he stopped short twice, but pretty close. I was most impressed with the fact that he didn't even bat an eye when I sent him on a path that included surface changes (grass to blacktop/sidewalk, grass to blacktop to grass again, etc). Of course the kids didn't bother him at all - that is one thing that isn't a very good distraction any more.

I am very pleased with him. We just have 10 more feet to add on, and then we are back to marrying the go-outs with the directed jumping again.
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This is the video from last weekend's trail (the one where he threw HIT away to lay down during sit stays.....)
Since then we have done 1098341230984 sit stays and we have about 20394820983 more to do. :) I can tell we have put off this sit-stay work for way to long because the amount of times I am having to go back and reposition him.

On the bright side of things, I am really really pleased with the rest of Rugby's performance. He gave me a steadiness and fell into a very nice working "mode" where he has previously never given that to me. Had he qualified, this would have been his highest score yet in Open. Since the scores are steadily increasing, it is reassurance that we are on the right track! There are some things to work on still, but he is definitely improving!

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I was so distracted by Rugby's NQ last weekend that I forgot to mention that Lilly, the golden retriever, got her third novice leg and a 3rd place in Novice B!!! YEAH Lilly!

Please Wash Me

...

I think it's bath time.

New Gear

As Rugby gets closer and closer to stepping into the Utility ring, I decided we better get our equipment in order. Thats about the time we stumbled across Wyndsong's Custom Article Bags. Pretty soon I was picking a color, and sending pictures of Rugby in so he could have his own custom bag.

We got the bag in the mail yesterday and it is AMAZING! It looks great and fits Rugby's articles, gloves and go-out sticks perfectly! We love it!!!

It looks just like him, doesn't it (besides the fact that Rugby isn't exactly white right now)?

It even has cute bead pulls on the zippers!

Thanks a bunch Mandy! We couldn't be happier with it!