"Sit Up And Beg"

I really should have blogged yesterday as soon as I got home. Because I waited, today's post is going to be a bit of a conglomeration of things. I'll start with my intended post for today and then work through the rest.

My little trick video that I'm going to post for today is the sit up and beg trick. I've actually worked with Bess on this trick a long time ago and she just sort of caught right on to it. I don't even really remember how I got her doing it. I think I just lured her up and it happened to be one of those behaviors that she gets much enjoyment out of, so it stuck. At the same time that I was originally teaching Bess this trick I was also trying to teach Heffner it. That was a big fat no-go. So for this video I was working more on duration with Bess. For Heffner, I was just trying to see if maybe with more body control he would start to get it and not do as much hopping. With more work I think that I could have gotten more duration out of Bess and with a LOT more work, I think Heffner would have eventually gotten it. As it stands, you can see a decent amount of duration from Bess and you can see that Heffner is starting to understand what I wanted, but he still wasn't entirely into doing it. I have a feeling that this may be due in some part to the conformation of his rear. He's rather straight in the rear and I think this effects his ability to balance his much heavier upper body on his back legs. Without further ado, here's the video:




Yesterday was another fun filled day! Kennedy and I headed down to Corvallis to watch a canine freestyle competition. Kennedy had heard about it and posted it to our drill team to see if anyone was interested. Naturally, I was.:0) We went down to get some possible ideas for the rest of our routine and also to check out the other novice level teams. We wanted to get a good idea of just how precise we were expected to be, what the competition environment was going to be like, and just get an overall feel for how things went. I failed to take any pictures. Sorry!!

Since we were going to be in the "neighborhood," I had asked Angie of Double D great danes if it would be okay for Kennedy and I to pop by and play with her puppies that she has on the ground right now. She was game, so Kennedy and I got some fawn puppy lovin'! Yes, I do realize that I am a very lucky person!:0)

Afterwards we headed on home. I got home and just sort of vegged out for a while. In the evening I hopped on Facebook (because I'm a bit of Facebook ho!) and read some pretty awful news. My friend Shana's dane Mars, had suddenly died at their home from what appears to be heart problems. His sudden and unexpected death just sort of hit me. He wasn't my dog, but back in the day when Heffner could play nicely with others, Mars and Heffner had been together on a few outings. And being friends with Shana, I got to hear about Mars even after I stopped taking Heffner out on group outings. So her posting on Facebook that Mars had passed was a shocker and just brought up all those awful thoughts of what would I do without my dogs. I laid down on the floor and spent some time snuggling both of them. They just thought it was great that I was down at their level and easy pickins', but being able to hug on both of them was very comforting.

Which brings me up through tonight. Tonight we have drill team practice, which I actually need to leave for right now! I hope everyone's Monday was bearable and give your dogs an extra hug!