Welcome Home, Nika!

Yesterday we went to pick up Nika!  All seven puppies were still there--we were the first to pick one up.  It's quite the crew.  They're all just so wiggly and happy and making cute little noises.  Good stuff.

We did a once-over on the puppy.  I took a look at her hernia, glanced again at her conformation, did a little playing with her, and it was clear that she was looking great.  We got all the info and paperwork from the breeder, and headed off.

She was absolutely perfect in the car.  I started driving while Dave held her in his lap.  She was alert and looking around, but looked confident and happy.  After about 45 minutes she got fidgety so we stopped and let her out at a gas station.  Sure enough, she peed pretty quickly.  When we got back in the car, she went straight to sleep and slept for the next hour.  We switched again at a field pretty close to home.  She got to run a little bit, and then got hot, so she turned and just dove into some tall grass.  Silly.  She was quiet the rest of the ride home.

We first took her to her new potty area and then we let Jonah out to meet her.  He was very polite but soon decided his yard was more interesting than she was.  Molly was good meeting her too.  Since then, Jonah gets a little upset when we spend too much attention on the puppy, and he'll tell her to get off when she jumps on him.  He's appropriate, though.  She so wants to be his best friend, and he's just not sure he's interested yet.  He thinks she's fine, but wants to make sure we still love him best :).

Her first night went very well.  I went to bed around 10.  Dave went to sleep at midnight and took her out then.  She woke up at 3 but didn't have to potty.  She cried for 15 mins or so, but then slept through the night until 6.  Not bad.

I guess a few things have surprised me:
-She was much better in the car than I'd expected
-She's I can't always tell when she's peeing!  A couple times now I've thought she was just sitting but then she'll get up and there's a little wet spot in the leaves.  Sometimes it's more obvious, but I want to be 100% so I can reward her appropriately!
-She's very brave.  We had her out by the agility equipment and she just started getting on things.  So, now she's been on the A-frame and dogwalk.  She didn't go too high, but I'm worried about the teeter and might put it down or block it off or something.
-Her breathing is a little panty.  It's warm, but not enough that I feel like she should be panting as much as she does.  We're keeping an eye on it.
-She's even more adorable than I could have imagined.  She's fantastic about being adventurous but then checking in with us frequently.  She loves following us, and is super excited to interact with us.

What fun, what fun, what fun.

Pictures soon.

June Goals

I just realized I never did June goals.  Oops.  Better late than never.

Here are our goals for the month of May:

1.  2 Qs at our USDAA trial.  I've entered 2 Standard runs, a Snooker, and Steeplechase (all S's). 
     Not at all!  This was super disappointing.  I'm still bummed about it, but I think it will help my attitude for nationals, reminding me that making Qs the goal isn't the right approach.

2.  Full height running dogwalk.  Ambitious, but if things keep going the way they have been, I think it's doable.
     Yes!!  It's looking really good and pretty consistent.  I'm sure we'll still miss from time to time, but I'm very pleased.

3.  Practice discriminations and contact-to-tunnel turns.
     A little.  We did do this, but today in practice they weren't looking good, so I think we could have done more.

4.  Work on teeter performance so he's faster and also doesn't consider flying off.
     Yes.  I didn't retrain it or anything, but it's looking good, fast and confident.

5.  Keep tugging.  I'd like for him to tug at both DogStar and the USDAA trial.
     Yes.  I'm pleased with the tugging.  It's going well, and we've tugged at DogStar, the USDAA trial, and a bunch of other away-from-home locations.  Good boy.


So, as we look forward to June, things are going to be different.  We've got nationals, which I had assumed we'd treat like a big 'peak,' with lots of training leading up to it, but Jonah's enthusiasm has been low so I'm actually stepping back before hand.  Then we've got the puppy coming home on Sunday.  Then we've got Dave and me going on vacation at the end of the month.  Things will be all over the map.  I think it's time to split up our goals.  It's not just about Jonah anymore, and I have a big part to play.  We'll see how I like this format:


Goals for me:
1.  Each day at nationals, go out of my way to have a conversation with someone new.
2.  Compliment at least 2 people/dogs a day at nationals.
3.  Make sure to give Jonah the attention he deserves while we have a new puppy.
4.  Treat nationals like a time to play with Jonah, not like a competition (hard to quantify, I know).
5.  Verbally reward every (good) running dogwalk contact at nationals.  


Goals for Jonah:
1.  Have at least one great run at nationals, defined as running happy and fast from start to finish, whether or not that's the correct course or whether there might be a dropped bar, etc.
2.  At least one jackpot running dogwalk contact!  
3.  Being able to relax at the fairground.
4.  Tug at the fairground.
5.  Practice focus games away from home.


Goals for Nika (!!):
1.  Get used to her crate.
2.  Get accustomed to a schedule of potty training.
3.  Practice sits, downs and tugging.
4.  Meet a LOT of new people and dogs.
5.  Play with LOTS of new objects--we'll see how long a list we can come up with by July!

Blog Action Day: Positive Attitude Acrostic

Once again it's time for a Blog Action Day post (when lots of dog agility bloggers post about the same topic on one day).  As always, thanks to Steve at agilitynerd.com for organizing.

One of the things I love most about agility is that I feel it is constantly pushing me to be a better, more selfless person.  Thus, I was pleased to see that the topic for today's post was attitude.  Of course, attitude is very broad.  As I was thinking about it, my ideas were kind of scattered, so I figured I'd try doing a little acrostic of the word "Positive," which was of course, in true cliche form, what I first thought of.  The acrostic was fun--I encourage you to try it.  Which words would you use to describe your vision of a positive agility attitude?  Would you use positive as your stem word, or something else?

          Patient

          Optimistic

          Supportive

          Innovative

          Thankful

          Insightful

          Victorious

          Efficient

Patient.  For me, patience is one of the hardest and most enduring lessons of agility.  I've had many moments of impatience--when our beginner classes went at a slow pace, when Jonah is nervous and runs slowly, when he's a little off or the weather's bad and all I want is to train-train-train, and more recently when I set my sights on Qs and titles and we don't earn them as quickly as I'd expected.  Now that I know Jonah can run brilliantly in a trial, I want him to do so all the time, and I constantly need to remind myself to be patient and enjoy the journey even if it means some NQs along the way.  (What do you think?  Would you choose "patient" for your P word?  Is it more important to be "prepared" for anything?  "Proactive" about handling and looking out for your dog's safety/interests?  Something else?)

Optimistic.  I'm generally a pretty optimistic person, but Jonah keeps me on my toes sometimes!  At our last trial when we came out of every run with something to be disappointed about, I knew that I had to put on a happy face and go have a party to make sure his confidence in the ring stays high.  So it's all about spinning things around.  Slow down on the table?  Sounds like time for the table game!  Nervous about people around the ring?  In class, we can see how silly we can make our classmates/teacher act to try to distract us :).  Jonah has his issues, but he's also very talented.  There's so much to be optimistic about in our future together.  (What's your O?  Sometimes we have to be "outrageous" to motivate a less-than-confident dog.  Or "outgoing" with peers to keep learning, or to find partners for pairs or DAM team.  We have to be "organized" to keep track of lots of trial premiums, health schedules, training plans, etc.)

Supportive.  This is one of my big current projects, and it has to do with people relationships, which are often harder than dog relationships.  When I first started agility, I was of the mind that I should be learning as much as I could, but that I had little to offer.  Now I know that everyone has valuable experience, and that we owe it to our peers to lend a hand, offer advice, rejoice together or simply be present with those having tough times.  Two of the people who started trialing at the same time I did have lost talented, young and promising dogs.  I felt at a loss at how to help them.  Some members of our class have had trouble teaching running contacts, and I want to be more supportive of their hard work.  I love agility because it allows us to all run for the Q and not as much against one another.  We're all in it together, and we depend on one another for support.  (What do you like for "S"?)

Innovative.  This is the fun part!  I love that agility, especially with a low-motivation dog, requires you to be creative.  You don't want to be drilling the same things over and over, so we get to mix it up.  I love handling in different ways, setting up wacky courses, doing short sequences, and then sometimes doing 'training' in a totally different atmosphere--like going to the beach and finding random obstacles to play with.  It was truly freeing when I got to the point where I really believed that whatever was best for my dog was what I would do, even if it wasn't what everyone else was doing.   What's your favorite innovation in training?  Or in trialing?  Do you prefer a different "I" word?

Thankful.  We could never do it on our own, and so many things need to come together for agility to be successful.  Around the world, most people would think our pampered pets are totally outrageous.  I am thankful that I am able to feed my dog quality food, give him veterinary care, and spend leisure time with him, giving him exercise and mental stimulation.  Sufficient food, health care and leisure time are luxuries that millions of people around the world lack, let alone dogs.  So let's be exceedingly thankful for our situations, and let's think about how we can contribute to changing the systems of injustice in the world around us, too!  (If not thankful, do you prefer "trusting," "trustworthy,""timely," "truthful," or something else?)

Insightful.  For me, this is all about knowing your dog, reading the environment, and being perceptive about how to make the most of any situation.  How can you make your dog have the most possible fun?  It's been an amazing process for me to get to know Jonah more deeply.  Now I can predict what he's thinking a lot of the time.  I know when he's going to get a drink of water, when he's ready for bed, when he's about to jump from one side of the couch and onto my laptop if I'm not careful, or when he's uneasy about another dog.  I still have lots to learn, but this insight is really very special.  I'm often a little dense, but I like to think I'm getting to be more aware of my dog!  (What about "intuitive," "interested"?)

Victorious.  Jonah has made me redefine victory in every run we do.  Basically, it's always a victory, and I just have to figure out a rationalization to make myself believe it :-).  I'm lucky that we rarely have an entirely bad run.  Yes, he had an off course, but he charged off that start line like lightning--victory!  Sure, he missed a weave entry, but he ran that closing line better than anyone I watched--victory!  Spectacular running contacts--another victory!  Really any time I see his happy grin, his bouncing excitement and his sparkling eyes, it's a victory.  (If you come up with a better V, let me know!)

Efficient.  If V was hard to come up with a good adjective, E is just hard to choose.  I went with efficient because it's a little different from what I've written so far, but things like "enthusiastic," "energetic," "entertaining," "engaging," or others are probably closer to the central theme of positive.  Anyway, efficient has three main ideas for me.  First, it's important to train in efficient, well-planned sessions so the energy stays high the whole time.  Second, I really love handling courses with dog efficiency in mind--the shorter the path, the sooner you get to party at the end!  Third, efficient training means less pounding on a dog, which is good for long term health.  

I can't wait to hear any comments you might have, and I'm looking forward to reading all the other 'attitude' posts, too!

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures from our visit on Sunday:

FoxHill's Thessalonica

Maybe we're being unwise, but we decided to go ahead and get the little girl with the hernia.  Very exciting!  We heard from friends who are breeders that it's not a big deal, and the vet encouraged us not to be concerned, although the quote for the repair ($300) was more than I'd seen online (more along the lines of $50-$100).  That was for the hernia alone, so when we do it with the spay we'll save by only doing anesthesia once, but still a chunk of cash.  Obviously worth it, though.

Until now I hadn't let myself get fully invested that we were getting a puppy, but now I'm starting to.  We'll pick her up on Sunday.  Her name will be FoxHill's Thessalonica, and we'll call her Nika for short (we'll pronounce it like knee-ka).  Thessalonica is a city in Greece that I did but archaeological research on last year.  In scholarship I like to refer to it as  Thessalonikē (Θεσσαλονίκη), but Thessalonica is another spelling alternate and sounds more feminine :).  Anyway, it's a beautiful city with both modern and ancient appeal, a lovely waterfront, and excellent pastries!  I was going to upload some pictures of Thessalonikē, but it turns out all my pictures are of dorky archaeological things like Greek inscriptions, acid rain-damaged monuments, and the remains of old mosaics.  Not impressive pictures.  Here are some prettier shots from my trip, though, to give you an idea of why we might name a puppy after a city out there:

This is Mount Olympus, home of the gods!

So, 5 days and counting!  

Puppy Picking Stress

Well, yesterday we went to meet puppies!  I was so very excited, but honestly it turned out to be quite a stressful adventure.

We pulled up to the farm and it was a great place.  They had lots of animals around for herding, etc.  There was a sign for fresh eggs (duck or chicken) at the foot of the long, winding driveway.  Welcome to rural western MA (which I love...almost as much as VT).  As we got close to the house we saw them.  There was an ex-pen set up, and when the car pulled up a whole little crowd of fluffy critters came over to see what we were all about.  So.darn.cute!

We met the breeder who seemed very nice and knowledgeable.  She had answers to all my questions.  She's also a vet tech, which was a nice thing to hear.  After a few minutes of general oohing and aahing over the puppies, we got to meet the dam and sire.  I was impressed.  Bill, the dad, was super friendly.  He came right up and gave me kisses and wiggled happily at me.  Nell, the mom, was a little bit more reserved at first, but soon she had her head in my lap being petted to the point where I wasn't sure I would be able to get up.  Both looked very nice structurally.  I love Bill's conformation.  Nothing I can pick apart.  The one thing about him is that his coat is curlier, and I like the smoother coats.  Nell was a little bit heavier than my ideal dog, but still quite lovely.  She doesn't have the long, thin nose that I'm more used to with Jonah and growing up with a collie, but her angles both in front and back are quite nice.  A little bit straight behind.  She also just had puppies, so I don't know that it's fair to be too picky about her.  She moved a little less gracefully than Bill, who was beautiful to watch.  But again, probably the fact that her teets were clearly hanging down had something to do with that!

So then we went back to the puppies.  There was a deposit in on one of the males already.  He was handsome and the breeder said 'the most laid back of the group.'  Not what we were looking for, anyway. Then there were two girls, and the breeder was deciding between those two if she wanted to keep one.  One would go to someone else.  I was a little bummed to not have first pick of the girls since I'd come the very first time she'd offered us to visit, but apparently others had come before.  Oh well.

In general, the puppies were hard to keep track of!  They're all black and white, and moving around so fast.  They all look to be nice puppies.  I brought out all four of the girls and stacked them as best as I could to look at their builds.  One was noticeably straighter behind.  That's out.  Other than that, though, they all really looked nice.  One was a little thicker than the others with slightly less layback in the shoulder.  Not ideal, but still a nice puppy.

There was one girl who Dave had commented on right from the beginning.  She's a real darling.  Her structure looks quite good (possibly a tiny bit toed out in the right hind, but her body was curled to the right while I was looking at her, and it was hard to tell how consistent that would be).  It is not easy to get a little puppy to stand and stay standing square!!  When I picked her up, she was the most confident of the group.  The others were quieter and a little wary of me putting them up on the table and poking around at them.  Not anything bad, but they had their heads down a bit and were less perky.  This girl was happy to be there.  Very alert.  Some of the boys were pushy.  She wasn't pushy, but very interactive.  We played a little tug and she seemed to enjoy it.

When we asked about personality, the breeder said overall it was a little hard to tell.  They were similar dogs and that's why she was having so much trouble with her own decision.  She talked about the most laid back male, whom she had placed with a family with two young boys.  Another she said was consistently a little more assertive, getting in front of/on top of the others.  The girl we liked she said was always the first awake and the first to catch on to things.  She was the first one to play.  Very aware, very smart.  It sounded great.

But.

She has an umbilical hernia.

In fact, the breeder said that this was the dog she had wanted to keep, except that the hernia made her unsuitable for breeding.  She says that the hernia can be fixed at the same time as a dog is spayed and that it's not an issue for someone who's not going to breed the dog.

So, we are tentatively going to get this puppy.  I've called the vet, emailed Grace, read lots online, and I am rather stressed about the whole thing.  It can be caused by trauma or can be inherited.  Some say definitely pass on a dog with one.  Some say it's a sign of a bad litter--stay away from the whole batch.  Others say it's no big deal at all, and may even go away on its own.  So right now I don't know what to do.  Maybe we should just take one of the other girls.  I'm sure they'd grow up to be lovely dogs.  But this one seemed special somehow.  The jury is currently out.  Chances are good we're getting a puppy (we put in a deposit), we're just not totally sure which one.  Here's a quick peak of what we MIGHT bring home next weekend:

Cutie, eh?

Rest and Other Things

We haven't done any agility since Wednesday's lesson.  That's pretty weird for us.  Jonah just hasn't seemed so enthusiastic about it lately, though.  If you had asked me how I would prepare for nationals, I probably wouldn't have said I would take time off.  But if that's what he needs, that's what he needs.

Today was the Gemini trial that accepts day-of entries, but it's pouring out.  I really only wanted to go to get good, confident and fast runs in, and rain doesn't help with that.  A standard Q would have been nice, but it's better to make every trial a good one than push through and take a step back with confidence.  So, our next trial is nationals.

I have been taking Jonah for more walks around the neighborhood.  We're spoiled having a huge yard, and going for walks really doesn't get him much exercise, so we usually don't do it.  It's good for him in other ways, though.  We've been working on not getting excited by cars.  Then I tried tugging with him at the elementary school down the street.  He tugged quite quickly, actually.  I was impressed.  What wasn't so impressive was how he didn't hold his attention on me--when a bunny hopped out of the bushes he switched his focus entirely over to it.  Oops.

Today instead of the trial we went to watch my dad's triathlon, and we took Jonah.  I was super pleased.  There was loud music.  There were crowds.  There was rain and wind.  There were children.  There were other dogs.  There were runners.  There were bikers.  There were cars.  There were emergency vehicles.  There was the beach.  It was, to say the least, a stimulating environment.  We had a few 'oops' moments.  I was tugging with him and accidentally stepped on his toe.  He yelped and then another dog nearby reacted to his yelp and he barked at the dog.  He barked at one child who ran towards him.  He was a little over-interested in some cars.  Still, I'd give him an A-.  He was nice and friendly to my whole extended family (my uncle and aunt were there), and was polite meeting new friends.  We did tricks, tugged, and then spent some time just hanging out.  It was great.  I need to do more things like this with him.

Tomorrow is a big day.  We're going to meet the litter of puppies!  They aren't ready to come home yet, but if we're happy with the sire, dam, and choose a puppy we like, we'll go ahead and put in a deposit.  Very, very exciting!!