We did it!

We did it!

We survived the entire week. Three exams and a lab report later, Rugby and I are ready for the weekend!

While we were studying this week, Pam and Oskar were kind enough to let us talk some on their Pet Blogs United blog.



You can check out Rugby's post here. Take a look around the rest of blog while you are there, there are lots of other great posts, and cool blogs!

Afterparty

The Thursday night class can get a little crazy. Come prepared! :-)

Rugby, a lesson in Physics.

If Rugby were a positively charged ion, and the slope in the grassy area where we practiced today was a magnetic field.....

Then I could completely understand why Rugby's go-outs looked like this today.

The place we chose to set our jumps up at had a slight slope just in front of where I am standing. Not too big of a deal, just a little hill right?!

Well, I had imagined this video happening with Rugby running AT the camera instead of away from it. However, that hill did something very funny to Rugby's go-out. He could NOT run up the hill in a straight line. Every single time I sent him he would run straight until he got to the hill and start veering in the left. I broke it down and sent him straight half way and then straight the second half and he was fine. That just left me even more confused when I tried to put the two halves together and he still was veering to the left!

Once I realized what was going on, I switched sides and this is what we got -


It was wonderful! That was our really high note for us to end on.

I am not sure if we should work on this hill probelm or just ignore it until we have more repetitions under our belt. I am inclined to ignore it for now (no pun intended :-p). It is unlikely that we go into a ring that has a hill in it after all. Hmmm....

Closer and Closer

This video is of Rugby's scent articles this afternoon. He was using the number four article.

Random Learning Thoughts

Rugby works best when we train in the morning.

I have figured out go-outs for Rugby. At this point, every time he is sent he gets faster and faster. SO glad he gets it finally!

If we do more than one go-out in the same spot, Rugby finds it very offensive if I 'mark' and give a signal a second time.

Rugby is with any luck is going in the Utility ring this year.

We officially need baby gates.

NOW Rugby does directed jumping, NOT go-outs, thank you very much!

First Ever

...picture of Rugby running his big mouth. :-)

I can't believe its taken 2 years for my to get a picture of Rugby barking. I guess I haven't been trying hard enough. He is so cute barking, isn't he?!

Rugby was being a big baby about pictures today. He kept complaining that the sun was too bright and he couldn't possibly look towards the camera. So most of the pictures looked like this, with his eyes closed or his head turned. 

I'm TRYING to be patient with you...

  

When I turn my head back, you better have put the camera away.

Then he saw a dog walking down the other side of the street and all of a sudden he forgot about how annoying the sun was in his eyes. This is Rugby's growling face - gotta protect the pumpkin.

He eventually gave up trying to chase the dog away since they thought we were either pretty strange or pretty interesting and stayed there for a while watching. These are the closest pictures we got to our goal.

 What did I do to get him to stop complaining???

I left him on a stay and walked around the corner and out-of-sight for a bit. He was very curious about where I had gone without him, if he had missed out on anything fun, and when I was coming back for him. He stayed curious for long enough to get this picture...

We can add that to the list of reason to keep the out-of-sight stays in obedience. Good boy, Rugby!

The other side of Rugby

WARNING: In this instance only do I take NO responsibility for Rugby's actions. He has acted on his own behalf in making these risky/illegal/irresponsible decisions.

I came home from work a little early last night so Rugby didn't have time to put away all of what I will call 'incriminating evidence.'

I don't know what he had been doing, or where he went but this is what I walked in on!

"Can I keep it PLEASE?! We could by lots of rabbit heads with this!"

Just when you thought you knew someone...

Tick Neck Park

Friday Rugby and I took a trip to Tick Neck Park for the first time to do some training and check out the trails. Since it was right next to a high school there was kids running laps around the park and a field hockey team practicing on one of the fields.

We got there right before all the commotion started so we headed out onto the baseball field to practice our go-outs. I officially hate go-outs.

After go-outs we did gloves. Green gloves in the green grass - it needs some work to be consistent but not too bad!

Signals we moved into the shade for and worked both beside the playground and beside the field hockey practice. He did the signals at about 25ft and it didn't bother him too much. He wasn't entirely convinced that he was supposed to come to me on the recall signal. A couple of times I had to help him remember by hooking his lunge line to him and reeling him in.

Then we were done training so I gave him a full 15ft of line to explore as we walked around the park. Most of the time Rugby just fell into heel position beside me, except for the few times he pounced on an unsuspecting leaf. The trails were pretty disappointing, but it was long enough to give Rugby a good cool down after training.

Sock Dog

Dog Days of Summer

Last week after our obedience trial, Rugby and I met some of our Applewoods friends over at the Laurel dog show. There was something like 100 dogs there, with lots of them competing in the fun show.



I entered Rugby in "Most Obedient" and in "Best Pair" with Pete.

For most obedient, we had 3 "tricks" to show off. We started off with signals.. From there I sent him on a mini go-out. Our last trick was doing a drop on recall on the way back from the go out. The judges really liked Rugby's tricks and he got 1st place! If that wasn't cool enough... Caruso the standard poodle was 2nd and Pete was 3rd! The top three were all Applewoods students!

I was waiting in line with Rugby to compete in the "Best Pet Trick" division and at the last minute, Team Applewoods decided to do the tunnel of legs that we have done a couple times before instead. Since it was a group trick we were not judged. We did get to show off our stunt for everyone though.



Last thing we did was "Best Pair." I borrowed Pete for this one and had HIM walk Rugby. It was some tough competition since some of the dogs really looked like twins, but Pete and Rugby won that one too!



The very last competition of the day was "Best in Show" where they had all the 1st place winners come back in. The Best Senior Dog, The Best Puppy, The Most Affectionate, The Best Dressed, the dog with the most Terrific Pet Trick and the dog that Looked Most Like Owner, the Best Vocal Performance and Rugby!


That is the basket Rugby won for Best in Show! Rugby got lots of cool stuff in his basket, and decided to share it with some of his friends!

We really enjoyed the show ad spending the afternoon with lots of dog people doing dog things! We talked to the lady running it and asked if next year Applewoods could do some sort of "demo." She thought that would be a good idea, so we need to start thinking up some more fun group tricks to do!