The Dog Blog

Saturday, February 26, 2011

5 Out Of 6 Qs

We were at an agility trial today. Results are as follows:

Tilda: Open Standard was our first run. We Q'd and took second place with 95 points! Her time was 53.99 seconds. In Open Jumps With Weaves we Q'd and took first place with 95 points! 37.23 was our time in that run. 5 point deduction in the standard course was that when we came to the table, she jumped on like she was supposed to, but then jumped off. 5 point deduction in the jumps with weaves run was that she missed a jump. So, that gave us our first Open Qs and gave us a double Q!

Gracie: In Novice Standard she Q'd and took first place! This was her second Q in Novice Standard, so she only needs one more Q. In Open Jumps With Weaves she Q'd and took first place again! This was her first Q in Open JWW. These Qs also gave her a double Q as well.

Buddy: In Open Standard he Q'd and got first place!! This was his first Open Standard Q and he has been trying for a while to Q in Open Standard. In Open Jumps With Weaves he NQ. So Buddy has one Q in each class.

It was a great day for all of us. Only Buddy didn't Q in Open JWW. Between all of us, we got 5 Qs out of 6. Not bad!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Is This Tilda Proof? - Mr. R. . . Is Back

Remember Mr. R the raccoon? Well, he already wasn't Tilda proof, but I thought I'd put this on anyways.

To refresh your memory, this is what Mr. R looked like before Tilda got a hold of him.

Then, he looked like this:

A couple days ago or so I was playing with Tilda. This is now Mr. R.

Poor guy lost his head.

This toy is not Tilda proof.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Happy Birthday Tilda!

Today is Tilda's 2 year birthday!

We decided to make her a cake :) We made a yellow cake with a vanilla frosting. In the frosting we put in little dog bones with a cookie cutter. She got a small piece, but we are eating most of it :)

Tilda waiting to have her birthday cake.

She seemed like she really liked it. She ate it real fast :) Tilda even got a couple birthday gifts :)

Tilda as a puppy.

Tilda 1 year old.

Tilda now, just a little before 2 years old.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Chocolate. . . Not A Good Thing (For Dogs)

On Sunday, Tilda got into some chocolate. We didn't know how much she had, so we thought we should make her get sick to be on the safe side. Even if she just had one piece, we didn't know if that was enough to hurt her. So, we took her outside, gave her the Hydrogen Peroxide, and she got sick. I would suggest calling your vet if you have to make your dog get sick, don't just start dumping a whole bottle of the stuff down your dog. We had to make her get sick before, so we knew what to do. So anyways, she got sick outside. She only got sick once and after that, we brought her inside. She seemed like she didn't feel real good still, she mostly laid around for the rest of the day/night. Later she was on my bed sleeping. I was in my room for a while, but then I left. When I came back in my room a little later, I noticed something on my bed. Yep, Tilda got sick on my bed. That hasn't happened before :)

She could have gotten sick when I wasn't in my room. Or, she could have while I was still in my room and I just didn't notice it. She did get up, jump off the bed, and sit on the rug outside my room. Then she jumped back on my bed. It could have happened before she jumped off the bed or when she jumped back on the bed. It wasn't a huge deal though, I just wiped it up and put the blanket on the floor to be washed the next day.

The things dogs do :)

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Iced Up

This is Tilda all iced up from being in the snow.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Drop It

A couple days ago or so, my sister was packing up some homemade muffins.One fell on the ground and Tilda got to it. It was fine she got it, but the wrapper was still on it. She was told to "drop it," and she did drop it. Wow, that is impressive that she dropped it when it was already in her mouth. We let her have it after she dropped it and the wrapper was removed. So, "drop it" is a good command to teach your dog. Since she dropped the muffin, if she ever put something in her mouth she shouldn't have, hopefully she would drop that too. I also do use the "drop it" command when playing with her. So the command does get used.

Teaching the "drop it" command really shouldn't be that hard. If you are playing tug-of-war with your dog, you can practice then. When you want your dog to drop the toy, stop pulling on the toy and just hold it. And of course say the "drop it" command. When your dog drops the toy, it would be a good idea to treat and praise what your dog just did. If your dog isn't dropping the toy, it might help if you pull out a treat.

Another way to teach "drop it," I think I read this somewhere, when you are playing, put a treat in front of your dog's nose. I would think you would probably want to say the "drop it" command, treat, and praise.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Tilda's Eating Routine

This is Tilda's eating routine. It's kind of my routine for feeding Tilda too. I mean, I was the one who started it :)

1. Tilda sits and waits while I dish up her food. She gets pretty excited and mostly won't stay sitting the whole time. She sometimes will get up and then sit and get up etc.

2. Tilda's food bowl before I picked it up to fill it with food. Yep, Tilda eats out of a frisbee. When she was a puppy, it seemed like she ate better with her food more spread out.

3. Tilda's food container. She eats Fromm Family Foods and has their Four Star Nutritionals Duck and Sweet Potato. She eats so much better ever since we switched her to this food.

4. Myself scooping out her food.

5. A scoop of Tilda's food. She gets a 1/2 cup of food twice a day.

6. Tilda's food in her bowl/frisbee.

7. I touch her food to put my scent on it.

8. After I touch it I put it down on the floor. Now Tilda REALLY does have to stay and wait until I release her. While she waits I rinse off my hand and dry them.

9. Tilda sitting waiting to be released.

10. Or sometimes I make her go down and stay. She has to look at me to be released.

11. I release Tilda by using the "Free" command. "Free" is her release command for anytime she is released, including the agility table. I like "Free" better than "OK" because it isn't a common word people will say.

12. Tilda still eating.

13. All done. Since we switched Tilda to Fromm she finishes her food. Before we switched her, she wouldn't always finish. I wouldn't leave her food down though because I don't like self feeding. One reason that I don't like self feeding is that you might not be able to tell if your dog is sick. If you're not paying attention to your dog eating, you might not notice if they haven't had anything to eat for the day or you don't know how much they eat.

Maybe you think from all these pictures and writing that it takes a little while to feed Tilda. That is not true though, it really doesn't take very long to feed her.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Snow!

We got a bucket load of snow here!

As you can see it is quite deep stuff. It's hard to walk through, so that means Tilda has to work to get through it. Don't feel bad for Tilda though, we have a cleared out spot. That way she doesn't have to walk though the deep stuff every time she goes outside.

When Tilda has been outside playing and running around, she is full of snow. She gets ice balls on her, so if I were to pick them all off, I'd be doing that forever :) Yesterday I blow dried her. But we mostly just let her un-ice and clean herself off.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Is This Tilda Proof? - Mr. Hedgehog

I bought Mr. Hedgehog January 23rd, not even 10 days ago. This is what he did look like at the time I bought him.

You can buy the hedgehog toy here: Hedgehog-Dog-Toy

This is the start of the hedgehog being destroyed. Yep, she just started pulling the fuzz/hair out and went from there.

**************

Now. . .

The battle scene :)

Somewhere in the process Tilda pulled the squeaker out. As I said earlier, I bought this toy less than 10 days ago. So, that means Tilda destroyed it in less than 10 days.

This toy is not Tilda proof.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

1/30/11 Agility Trial Video

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Agility Trial Results

Today we were at our first agility trial in 2011. We only did one run, jumps with weaves. This was also Tilda and Gracie's first time running in Open. The results are as follows:

Tilda didn't qualify due to a knocked jump bar. We had a little problem with the weave poles, but the second try she did them fine.

Gracie also didn't qualify. It might have been due to two refusals. She was also touched by the handler by mistake, but by that time, she had NQ'd.

Buddy Qualified and got First! It wasn't a 100 % clean run, but he Q'd and took first, so it doesn't really matter. This was his first Q in Open JWW!

Now we'll have about a month off from trails. I guess I should really work more with Tilda on the jumping. We would have Q'd in a lot more trials if it wasn't for her knocking bars :)

Friday, January 28, 2011

Off Her Bed

When we eat lunch or supper we usually put Tilda on her bed. Lately, I can't remember how long this has been going on for, but she has been going off her bed and going down the stairs into the basement. Now, when we eat lunch we eat in the kitchen for the most part and that's when she gets off her bed. Supper time, she's fine with staying on her bed. So, my thoughts are that something scared her when we were eating lunch in the kitchen. And the fact that we were in the kitchen is a big part of this. I have noticed, that if we eat lunch in the dining room she is fine with staying on her bed like at supper time. I don't think it's just lunch time that scares her, but where we eat has something to do with it too. Maybe this all started when the garbage truck came down the road while we were eating. Or maybe the mail truck. Yes, Tilda has been know to be scared of the mail truck. Not sure if she still is.

Maybe she will get over this eventually. We sometimes do close the gate to the basement. Last time it was closed she got off her bed and didn't know where to go. Another time, she came into my room and just sat down or laid down next to the bed.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Rollin' Around

Dogs are funny, and Tilda isn't a rule breaker :) She likes to roll in things. Now, when I say roll in things, I don't mean the average. I know dogs will roll in poop and whatever else outside to make themselves "smell good." She did once try rolling in bird poop outside, but we caught her and no harm was done. But this is different, some of the things she has been known to roll on is leather, wool, new socks, and even wrapping paper! Why would she do that? Does it feel good to Tilda? Does it have a smell that we can't smell, but Tilda can and she thinks it smells good? Can dogs put there scent on stuff like cats do? So, why does she do this? It doesn't bother me, it's just interesting. I found this website when I was looking around for some answers: Dogs_Roll It was kind of interesting. And like I said, we don't have a problem with Tilda rolling in stuff outside.

Now for a video. She is rolling her head in leather ski/snowboard glove guards.

She seemed like she was having fun with it the way she was flipping it around :) It's kind of funny though, isn't it? If anyone has any other ideas why this is, feel free to leave a comment.