Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Spring Break
Rugby came with me to Florida. He is having a GREAT time. Here are some pictures from the airport.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Park
Rugby and I went to Patapsco State Park yesterday and he had a great time. :P Here are some pictures of the big guy. He really loved running in the water. He got a bad case of the zoomies and ran around like a maniac when we went through it. On the way back, he saw it and started getting excited before we got there. So Silly! Oh yeah...he got a hair cut on Saturday, he is pretty cute, right?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
More Snow
This time we got a lot of snow and Rugby realllly enjoyed himself. It was over his back in most places and he had to work really hard to get around.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
On Campus
Rugby finally got his stitches removed today (longer than one week...i know :p). He was already wound up pretty tight from not really doing anything for two whole weeks, but once his feet were free....he was a wild man!
Before when we were waiting in the vets office to get them out the ladys at the desk were like...ohhhh hes the good one (they remembered him from before)! All we did was heel into the office, I 'placed' him onto the chair next to me and had him doing a down stay and they were very amazed that he was actually listenting to me. While this was very flattering..I must say in a way it is also very pittiful that a simple down stay can draw so much attention. They were also amazed that his bandages were intact and not torn to shred. HAHA!
He was supposed to come in his bag to class with me but I he was not having any part of that. He was way too hyper and too excited to sit in a bag for that long. So we walked around campus for a whole hour. Good thing we did because it took 30 minutes just for him to settle down and remember all his manners. We worked on so many things and he did incredibly well! I never realized how useful the set up of my campus was for training!!
The biggest thing is that there are about 1 million stairs (I wish I was exaggerating) and Rugby after a few flights of stairs was heeling up and down them. Before he would try but just ended up heeling for a couple steps then going to the bottom or top and waiting for me. But he got enough practice today that he took his time and stayed beside me the whole time.
Our second biggest distraction is people (first is dogs). There is definetely not a shortage of people on campus and Rugby after the first half hour was heeling very nicely thorugh crowds and weaving in and out of people with me. (We are going to pretend the first 30 min. never happened since he was so excited lol) We practiced our halts a LOT since those seemed to emphasize his distraction level (if he sat where he was supposed to he was paying attention, if not...). This also helped me to see what things we needed to work on more. Quite a few times when we came to a halt I would drop him (down him) with people still walking around us. He didn't have a problem with that at all, as long as I made sure he heard me. ;)
We placed onto benches, and step things and anything I thought he could jump on. He actually suprised me with how well he did on this considering we haven't really been working on it (oops).
We are supposed to be working on figure 8s and finishes. With all the good stuff we found to work with on campus, things to walk around was not one of them. There were a couple of lightposts and things that we did circles around but nothing really catered to our figure 8 needs. We did practice the finishes though. After we practiced 4 times there (all in differend places) we stopped to do another set of sit/stays, comes and finishes. I called him to me and wrapped the leash behind me and before I could say the command Rugby ran around behind me and was in heel position! LOL He finally got it! YEAH!
We changed surfaces lots and lots of times, and even walked on some of that orange construction/security fencing that had fallen down. He had no problems with anything! We even walked passed a guy in a wheel chair and it actually made Rugby really happy! His butt started wiggling and he tried to go over and say hi. :) He also met a lady that has 3 maltese at home and she told him he was very cute.
I am very very happy with him. He did everything very well today. Now he is one tired puppy and crashed out in his bed beside me.
Before when we were waiting in the vets office to get them out the ladys at the desk were like...ohhhh hes the good one (they remembered him from before)! All we did was heel into the office, I 'placed' him onto the chair next to me and had him doing a down stay and they were very amazed that he was actually listenting to me. While this was very flattering..I must say in a way it is also very pittiful that a simple down stay can draw so much attention. They were also amazed that his bandages were intact and not torn to shred. HAHA!
He was supposed to come in his bag to class with me but I he was not having any part of that. He was way too hyper and too excited to sit in a bag for that long. So we walked around campus for a whole hour. Good thing we did because it took 30 minutes just for him to settle down and remember all his manners. We worked on so many things and he did incredibly well! I never realized how useful the set up of my campus was for training!!
The biggest thing is that there are about 1 million stairs (I wish I was exaggerating) and Rugby after a few flights of stairs was heeling up and down them. Before he would try but just ended up heeling for a couple steps then going to the bottom or top and waiting for me. But he got enough practice today that he took his time and stayed beside me the whole time.
Our second biggest distraction is people (first is dogs). There is definetely not a shortage of people on campus and Rugby after the first half hour was heeling very nicely thorugh crowds and weaving in and out of people with me. (We are going to pretend the first 30 min. never happened since he was so excited lol) We practiced our halts a LOT since those seemed to emphasize his distraction level (if he sat where he was supposed to he was paying attention, if not...). This also helped me to see what things we needed to work on more. Quite a few times when we came to a halt I would drop him (down him) with people still walking around us. He didn't have a problem with that at all, as long as I made sure he heard me. ;)
We placed onto benches, and step things and anything I thought he could jump on. He actually suprised me with how well he did on this considering we haven't really been working on it (oops).
We are supposed to be working on figure 8s and finishes. With all the good stuff we found to work with on campus, things to walk around was not one of them. There were a couple of lightposts and things that we did circles around but nothing really catered to our figure 8 needs. We did practice the finishes though. After we practiced 4 times there (all in differend places) we stopped to do another set of sit/stays, comes and finishes. I called him to me and wrapped the leash behind me and before I could say the command Rugby ran around behind me and was in heel position! LOL He finally got it! YEAH!
We changed surfaces lots and lots of times, and even walked on some of that orange construction/security fencing that had fallen down. He had no problems with anything! We even walked passed a guy in a wheel chair and it actually made Rugby really happy! His butt started wiggling and he tried to go over and say hi. :) He also met a lady that has 3 maltese at home and she told him he was very cute.
I am very very happy with him. He did everything very well today. Now he is one tired puppy and crashed out in his bed beside me.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Toothless
Well, not really toothless, but he does have less teeth! :) He is feeling much better today than yesterday after the surgery. He is pretty much back to normal. Hardest part of it all is that he really is fine, but he still isn't allowed to have too much 'exercise' so he doesn't break the stitches in his legs (dewclaws removed). The bandages also have to stay 'clean and dry' for a whole WEEK!!! I think that is pretty much impossible with Rugby seeing as we do so many things outside, and he really enjoys to get dirty.
He also isn't allowed to get a bath untill the stitches are out! YIKES! They must have forgotten about white long haired dogs when they made these rules! He is going to be a mess!! :p
We finally got the 'paw' down. I decided officially that Rugby is the biggest show off in the world. The biggest reward I can give him while training is let him have an audience while he does something correctly. Take for instance the other day while we were practicing our 'fetch' command. Usually we are alone or in the company of strangers that have no idea what we are doing, nor do they care or pay attention to us. But this particular time my mom was watching. So he finished doing his 'fetches' and I told him how smart he was and my mom chimed in. She told him how smart he was and he ran over to her, almost as a 'well, if you liked that then watch this.' He proceeded to run back to me, take the dumbell out of my hand and run back to my mom dancing. After that he came back to me so that I could tell him 'give.'
So today we were doing our 'paw' since it requires little to no effort on either of us and my sister was there. He did it a couple of times and when she told him he was smart he ran over to her all happy, came back and sat facing me waiting for me to tell him to do it again. Which I did, and he very exuberantly placed his paw in my hand. He is most definetely proud of himself when he 'gets' things. It makes me laugh!!
He also isn't allowed to get a bath untill the stitches are out! YIKES! They must have forgotten about white long haired dogs when they made these rules! He is going to be a mess!! :p
We finally got the 'paw' down. I decided officially that Rugby is the biggest show off in the world. The biggest reward I can give him while training is let him have an audience while he does something correctly. Take for instance the other day while we were practicing our 'fetch' command. Usually we are alone or in the company of strangers that have no idea what we are doing, nor do they care or pay attention to us. But this particular time my mom was watching. So he finished doing his 'fetches' and I told him how smart he was and my mom chimed in. She told him how smart he was and he ran over to her, almost as a 'well, if you liked that then watch this.' He proceeded to run back to me, take the dumbell out of my hand and run back to my mom dancing. After that he came back to me so that I could tell him 'give.'
So today we were doing our 'paw' since it requires little to no effort on either of us and my sister was there. He did it a couple of times and when she told him he was smart he ran over to her all happy, came back and sat facing me waiting for me to tell him to do it again. Which I did, and he very exuberantly placed his paw in my hand. He is most definetely proud of himself when he 'gets' things. It makes me laugh!!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Teeth Pulling
Rugby and I are about to head out to go to the vets today. I am a little nervous and I know teeth pulling isn't anything serious but still!
Yesterday was a nice long boring day for Rugby. I had school and work so he pretty much did nothing. I know my sister took him for a walk in the afternoon. When I got back from work we took advantage of the unusually warm weather (70*) and walked around the block in the rain. We didn't practice anything, he was on his lunge line so he could just run. He was wayyy hyper when I got home from having just layed around all day and he was very appreciative of the walk. ;)
Cross your fingers! Here we go to the vets!
Yesterday was a nice long boring day for Rugby. I had school and work so he pretty much did nothing. I know my sister took him for a walk in the afternoon. When I got back from work we took advantage of the unusually warm weather (70*) and walked around the block in the rain. We didn't practice anything, he was on his lunge line so he could just run. He was wayyy hyper when I got home from having just layed around all day and he was very appreciative of the walk. ;)
Cross your fingers! Here we go to the vets!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
This Morning
Today Rugby worked a little bit...
We did some downs, stands and 'places.' We ran short on time so Rugby had to come to school with me today. Since the class started at 11:30, parking was scarce and we had quite a walk (that he had to heel the whole time) to get to the lecture hall. Before we got into the building I shoved him in his dreaded bag, and crossed my fingers that he didn't let out a bark in the middle of class like last semester when he barked in my discussion group (thanks Rugby lol). I was banking on the fact that he was tired from working that morning and from walking to the class. He did better in that he didn't bark, but he wasn't exactly happy in his bag. He just moved around a lot and was panting (if was a gorgeous 57* today). Occasionally he would whine a little, but it was barely audible so I would just give him a little poke through the bag and he would be quite for a little more.
After 45 minutes (class is hour and 15 min), I thought I was pushing my luck as he continued to stir in his bag. Last time it was just a discussion, with a TA and not a 'professor' so his presence could be looked over. Not today though, this was a huge 250-300 student class and if he barked I was sure I would be in trouble. I also figured that if he had that success, maybe next time he could last a little longer. He knew I was nervous as anything so that probably didn't help much. So we snuck out of class early today and heeled back to the car, with the occasional sit/down thrown in.
He did wear himself out though becuase when we came home for lunch he fell right asleep. I was going to the barn after and I grabbed my keys and asked 'you comin?' to which I usually get a dog running to the door, or at the very least he will stand up and give me a cute little head tilt. Today all he did was open his eyes and just fell back asleep. Poor guy was so tired he didn't even want to go for a car ride! :p (although if he knew we were going to the barn I am sure he would have woken himself up...he starts whining as soon as we turn onto her street! haha) So he stayed home and slept with my sister and was energized again when I got back from the barn.
We even broke out some new toys that we had been hiding from Zena since she destroyed a couple in the first hour she was here. He loved them, and he played hard enough for him to be sleeping again. :)
So we didn't really do a lot of work, but it was a start. Tomorrow there won't be time to train (maybe in the morning some) and thursday he gets his baby teeth pulled so he definetely won't be up for it. I guess I just don't see the point for now. We will start again Friday or Saturday, depending on how good he is feeling. Rugby needs some new pictures too huh?
We did some downs, stands and 'places.' We ran short on time so Rugby had to come to school with me today. Since the class started at 11:30, parking was scarce and we had quite a walk (that he had to heel the whole time) to get to the lecture hall. Before we got into the building I shoved him in his dreaded bag, and crossed my fingers that he didn't let out a bark in the middle of class like last semester when he barked in my discussion group (thanks Rugby lol). I was banking on the fact that he was tired from working that morning and from walking to the class. He did better in that he didn't bark, but he wasn't exactly happy in his bag. He just moved around a lot and was panting (if was a gorgeous 57* today). Occasionally he would whine a little, but it was barely audible so I would just give him a little poke through the bag and he would be quite for a little more.
After 45 minutes (class is hour and 15 min), I thought I was pushing my luck as he continued to stir in his bag. Last time it was just a discussion, with a TA and not a 'professor' so his presence could be looked over. Not today though, this was a huge 250-300 student class and if he barked I was sure I would be in trouble. I also figured that if he had that success, maybe next time he could last a little longer. He knew I was nervous as anything so that probably didn't help much. So we snuck out of class early today and heeled back to the car, with the occasional sit/down thrown in.
He did wear himself out though becuase when we came home for lunch he fell right asleep. I was going to the barn after and I grabbed my keys and asked 'you comin?' to which I usually get a dog running to the door, or at the very least he will stand up and give me a cute little head tilt. Today all he did was open his eyes and just fell back asleep. Poor guy was so tired he didn't even want to go for a car ride! :p (although if he knew we were going to the barn I am sure he would have woken himself up...he starts whining as soon as we turn onto her street! haha) So he stayed home and slept with my sister and was energized again when I got back from the barn.
We even broke out some new toys that we had been hiding from Zena since she destroyed a couple in the first hour she was here. He loved them, and he played hard enough for him to be sleeping again. :)
So we didn't really do a lot of work, but it was a start. Tomorrow there won't be time to train (maybe in the morning some) and thursday he gets his baby teeth pulled so he definetely won't be up for it. I guess I just don't see the point for now. We will start again Friday or Saturday, depending on how good he is feeling. Rugby needs some new pictures too huh?
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