Sophie update

It is already mid March...this year is just flying by! We have had a busy few months.

Sophie is doing very well! We accomplished one of our goals for 2015. She earned her Flyball Master Champion (15k) title a few weekends ago in Las Vegas. She had a few hiccups but pulled it together to earn her title.

Teammate Reese and Sophie sitting pretty for their award picture. Reese received her 5K title the same day Sophie got her 15k. :-)

Last weekend, we ran UFli and she ran on a pick up team one day and singles/doubles the second day.  We had fun running start dog and got some really nice start times. She was able to run 5.3 which she hasn't in awhile now.

She isn't as speedy as she was in her younger days but she still gives it her all. I am hoping to get her to her Onyx and then retire her. She would probably happily continue running but its a very physically sport and I don't want her to over do it. We are also a small team and have lots of up and coming dogs that need spots to race. Once we get her Onxy we will turn our attention to trying out Rally and Barn Hunt :-)

Next time, I will update about Swyatt's progress and his first preflight experience!

End of the year

I did not draft any goals for 2014 with the addition of Swyatt to the household, the singular goal was just to find a new normal and keep everyone happy/healthy. I think we achieved that fairly well.


Sophie: My girl is 7 years old. Still as active as can be. Smart as can be and mischievous too. She has settled into her role as the older sibling quite well. She will chase Swyatt around the house but plays nicely and shares toys. She has come a long way in her leash reactivity. We navigated a very busy Pet Food Express for Santa photos with no reactivity. I couldn't be more pleased!

Goals for Sophie in 2015:

- Earn her FMCH (Flyball Master Champion) 15,000 points. She needs 1,152 points
- Earn her CGC - this has been on the horizon for numerous years. I always hesitated due to her leash reactivity but she has made amazing progress and I think we maybe ready
- Finish her CAT title (Coursing Ability Title) - needs one more leg
- Try out barn hunt - I think she will excel at this and as she gets older, I would like to start looking into events that are less taxing on her physically

Swyatt: Is approximately 2 and a powder keg of energy. He does have a very good off switch at home, provided he has enough exercise. He has come a long way in his dog social skills but still needs to work on remembering not all dogs enjoy a game of chase. I am happy with his progress in agility and  his growing ability to focus at tasks.

- Work on a solid stay - he has a good stay in his crate, usually waits to be released. But we need to
get him to hold that stay in other settings. Specifically at agility practice.
- Work on recall in distractions - he goes off leash hiking with the daycare and does great. I am not quite ready to let him loose when we hike.
- Introduce wall work and have a swimmers turn on the box - a biggie because given his size, I want to train a clean, tight swimmers turn
- side by side recalls - he has successfully done this a few times but we need to vary the dogs and practice it more
- Progress with his leash reactivity - this is more on me in that we need more training scenarios. I will admit, I have somewhat shied away from this. We have done several hike a bull hikes and he does well at those. But I haven't been as proactive at getting him out on walks in urban settings and working on his reactivity. But its time to do so. I was reminded recently of the progress Sophie has made and now it is time to focus on Swyatt making progress!
- graduate to being loose in the house when we aren't home - his previous anxiety about being left isn't evident anymore, he can stay alone for short periods. But now it is working on him not counter surfing.

The labbies are what keep me sane when work is crazy. I look forward to another busy and active year.

My personal goals:
- complete 365 project
- build my photography portfolio and take more classes
- make a budget and stick to it
- more exercise and hikes
- remember that the bad times will pass and stay positive
- be present and enjoy time with friends/family

Wishing everyone a happy new year!

Happy Holidays!

Ack I am so bad at updating! I can not believe 2014 has almost come to an end. Life with two labradors is definitely crazy and busy! I was in the car with Swyatt yesterday after class and as he curled up into a tired ball of fluff, I was filled with a sense of contentment. Life is crazy but thanks to these two, it is filled with laughs and lab kisses,

Quick updates on each pup…I will post our goals for 2015 in a separate posts

Sophie is now 7 years old. Some days she seems to slow down and others, I could swear she is still the energetic 2 year old that never got tired.  She has come a long way over the past two years with flyball. She can pass most any dog at this point, she is in good physical shape (back at 66 lbs) and her stamina has returned. She has spent most of this year hiking, playing flyball, swimming and chasing Swyatt around the house.  She is about a thousand points shy of her 15k title and we hope to get it in 2015. She has made great strides in her leash reactivity so I think we are finally ready to go for her CGC.

Swyatt: my crazy little guy. He is a little over 2 (best guess-timate) He has come a long way since he first came home. He is still a bouncing kangaroo but his focus grows by leaps and bounds every week in agility class. I finally found a "toy" that has him excited and willing to work outside of the house..a water bottle! He will do little victory laps with his water bottle. I can't imagine life without him. He really has completed our  little family :-)

Happy Holidays from our crazy little family to you and yours!

Happy Birthday Sophie

My pup turns 7 today. I can't believe she is already seven. Though the white on her chin reminds me all too frequently that time flies.

Sophie is my heart dog. I love my Swy guy but Sophie is the dog that forced me to grow up and to a certain degree not be shy and for that she will always have a special place in my heart.

We adopted her a year to the day after losing our family lab Shasta to cancer. Sophie was going to live with my parents and she was supposed to be the family's dog. My parent's other pup, Stitch had a very different opinion of this and two weeks later, Sophie, her crate and five million toys were ensconced in my two bedroom apartment as I prepared for the last semester of law school.

To say those first few months were hard is an understatement. She was a completely different puppy than Shasta i.e. Sophie was your typical lab piranha puppy combined with the energizer bunny. Its how I found the lab board, crying, stressed and totally at my wits end, I went looking for help.

7 years later, Sophie is responsible for getting me out of my shell. I have met some amazing friends and found the crazy world of dog sports all because she pushed me to find ways to deal with her crazy energy, reactivity and general labrador craziness. It has been a journey with lots of laughs and some tears. She keeps me on my toes!

Happy birthday baby girl! Here is too many more birthday celebrations, flyball races, hikes, games of tug, swims and naps.

a very wordy wednesday

Anyone that has ever seen Soph race in flyball and sprint for her tug knows she is a high drive dog. She introduced me to the crazy and fun world of dog sports and life hasn't been the same since.

When I was ready for a second dog it was because 1)I wanted another fur kid and 2) I wanted to start training another sports dog. I knew there was always the possibility another dog wouldn't take to dog sports and accepted that chance. I tried to hedge my bets by looking at drivey breeds and asking rescues if potential dogs had retrieve or tug drive.

A teammate found Swyatt on petfinder. He was tugging in his video and his bio said he had retrieve drive. Upon meeting him, I fell head over heels in love with him and he came home with us.  It's been a whirlwind of a year with him. He is a cuddle bug and smart but so spazzy. He very rarely shows tug drive and even less outside of the house.

I have said since day one, that when he puts it all together in his head, he is going to be an awesome sports dog. But to be honest I was starting to think that day was probably not going to come. I rarely saw a focused drive just a spazzy crazy energy that usually translated to Swyatt taking off like a rocket and ignoring everyone or chasing dogs neither being ideal.

I signed him up for agility basics just hoping to get some focus work done that might maybe translate into other aspects of his training.

Last night was his third class. I have trained with this instructor before, she was Sophie's trainer, so she tends to use Swyatt as her demo dog. He has been doing well and focusing but isn't super engaged. Almost just going through the motions if that makes sense.

But last night, last night I saw that high focused drive that I knew he had in him but that I was starting to think would never emerge. He did restrained recalls. Something we have done for the last year but in recent months he has blown off more often than not. But this time I saw him hunker down and fly to that tug. Admist four barking dogs. Over and over he flew to that tug and wouldn't let go. He tugged like Sophie does on a flyball recall, with his full body and all his energy. 

He was super engaged, focus and driven. It actually made me tear up a little because he seemed so content and excited. It was an awesome thing to see...I say see because he did all this during the demo phase. Him and I still need work to get that same level but we are on the right path. I am beyond excited and looking forward to building his drive and our bond. 

I think a lot of it is, my trainer doesn't worry and is 100% engaged. She drops the leash and I am freaking out that he may run up to another dog or go off and pee on something. She is just engaged with him and working. I need to find my inner calm and do the same. I need to be 100% engaged, not worried he is going to run off or the multitude of other issues that may occur. I just need to work with him. 

Semi wordless Wednesday

I have long had a love of photography. But only recently have I started to try and really use my camera outside of the auto mode.

Thankfully for me, I have two willing (ok semi willing) models.

I am still learning but I am pretty happy with how these two came out.

Soph has a wonderful sit stay and tolerates my constant photos

Swy is making great progress with his sit stays and tolerating my photo obsession. Also holding a treat by my head works ;-)

Swy begins his agility journey!

Swyatt and I started agility basics. The class is meant to help teach focus and get you ready for agility. We do no work on equipment, its all agility on the flat as the instructor says.

I am thrilled to be back in class. I love flyball's team aspect (most of the time) but the one on one working relationship that agility fosters with your pup is priceless. Sophie did well in it but her drive just wasn't there for agility so we stuck with flyball. I think the one on one bonding with Swyatt will be really good for both of us!

To be honest, I went into class expecting to spend the entire class trying to calm Swyatt down and if lucky maybe get him engaged/focused. But I did not give him enough credit for how far he has come.

The walk in was what I expected, he barked a lot and was pulling. But once inside, he saw the three other dogs and didn't flip out. We walked to the far side of the crating area, and put our mat down in front of a crate. The instructor had us work with our dogs as everyone settled. We did some nose touches and overall Swyatt did pretty well focusing on me and the cheese. I could tell he was nervous as his nose touches were turning into mouthing but that is also impatience for his food as much as nerves since he does it at home too.

I eventually settled him in his crate and he was able to relax. We did various focus exercises with our dogs and he did really well. He got to be demo dog for teaching a release cue. I was a little worried he wouldn't work for someone else, but he immediately offered his default behavior which is a sit and then was given the release and cheese. He went back and offered another sit and so forth. Glad to see our work on default behavior is paying off!

The hardest part of class for him was circle work. Not the sit stays/down stays that we did outside of the circle as others ran. He did those like a champ, because that is something I have been working with him at Flyball. Sit next to the ring and watch dogs fly by while giving me nose touches or other commands. But actual circle work with him trotting or running was very hard for him. Something to work on in the upcoming classes.

Very excited to see how the next six sessions go and for future progress. :-D