Doodling

Here's a somewhat lame video of Moto and I "doodling". Hubby appeared with videocam at the end of our session, but since he was there I decided to do a bit of this so I could see what I had. His attention is very nice but he still needs to work his rear end more and remaining in position still needs work. I did try Laurie's suggestion (Thanks Laurie!) and it's working very well, need to do this a lot so it gets into his muscle memory.
Had a fantastic time at the Heart of America Shows - Blitz's breeders finished their new dog at the tender age of 1 year and 1 week old. They so deserve this and it was great to be there to witness the special moment.
Kathy of course dominated the weekend and on Sunday had a runoff against herself with her two amazing Goldens. One can only hope to be half the trainer she is.
Ayway, excuse my messy appearance, it was 6:30 a.m. and I wasn't prepared. Also my right hand appears to be at an odd angle, it's because I have a shark line on Moto and I'm guiding it from behind my back. This video is good for a few laughs if anything else!

Stage Four

OK, so another bad phone call. This time my friend who'd called me about the cancer said the tests have come back that it's Stage 4. I don't know what to say or do and feel very helpless. I've offered to go to chemo (which begins tomorrow) but not this time. I offered to hang out and watch a movie during the recovery from chemo and this is something we may do. It's unchartered territory, this close-friend-having-cancer stuff, and trying to respect boundaries while being supportive is something I'm trying to do right. Time will tell, but in the meantime I'm just so pissed off at them having to go through this.

Moto Uses His Noggin

This dog continues to astound me with his problem-solving abilities. He really, really loves to think which makes teaching complicated tasks delightful. For go-outs I've been using a square made out of PVC. It worked but at Obedience Camp Gary pointed out it may be too big. After looking at Moto's long back he conceded that my square may be the only alternative. We've been working on spinning and in addition he understands going to the square that I call "Place".
At last weekend's Topeka dog show there were some extremely sturdy mats on sale and one smaller one beckoned to me to be Moto's new "Place". It would really take some work to make a tight turn and sit and he would have to work to keep his long body on it.
Since it was completely different Moto did not understand the exercise (which was fine) and I lured him with food. It was a lot of work getting him to turn and sit and remain on the mat. But, after a few times he caught on and he figured it out! What fun to watch him work it out and turn and sit on his mat. When he does something right he wiggles all over with pride which is too adorable. That's how we ended our training this morning. We also did some picky training stuff - staying in heel with a change of pace (easy at home, needs work in other places) pivots with attention, front drills. It's coming but I will need to continue to take him out to other places as I am not getting the same results as when we are home.
Today: herding! Since he turned on I am excited about going. If this trend continues we'll enter some instinct tests in the fall - what fun!

Six Month Marker

It's been six months now since the car accident, so thought I'd make an assessment of how I'm doing. I think pretty darned good actually! There are still lots of frustrations since I still can't do everything I used to (like exercise). I had gone back to the treadmill - just walking like I was told to do - and even then it was too damned much. So now as I'm recovering from THAT, I will try the treadmill again, but the Dr. said just do 15 minutes *sigh*. I look forward to the day I can once again run a few miles every morning on it, but the good news is that day will eventually come, and I'm lucky for that.

The saddest thing is I don't think I'm my "old self" mentally either. My brain is a bit re-wired. I never was a nimble on my feet thinker, but there seems to be a lot less static noise, in fact it's eerily quiet inside my brain. It used to be like a little machine constantly churning and working through things and I used to have the most fantastic dreams. My wonderful chiropractor did a muscle test on my entire body so we could determine what whole food supplements would help me move forward in my healing. There was no surprise when she found my brain was not functioning at its full capacity. She also said I was still stressed out from the accident and while I'm pretty much sleeping through the night like I used to, she said it's not a deep sleep. So some supplements to help aid sleep and more for healing of my poor weary brain. When with a group of people say at a party I feel out of place and want to hide. I've never been outgoing but I've never had THAT feeling before. So...things have changed and I hope that goes away eventually. It just makes me real sad.

My left arm still bears bruises from the accident but you have to look pretty hard to see them now. I still have to work at using it - reaching behind my back hurts, pulling a shirt over my head hurts, raising my hand straight out and back hurts. But I do it, every day, and it hurts less and less.

So it sucks but it doesn't suck. I'm alive, I'm whole and I will recover. I'm extremely lucky to be here and have a pretty good handle on how tenuous life really is.

Moto training notes: I took him to where my office is. It's in the center of town (mind you, it's a very small town). There's a fountain and cars stop regularly at the stop sign, and there's a day care next door. I was really happy that he took a treat right away. We did a little bit of play but he jumped into working mode very quickly. Now another problem arose: he's lagging when I change to the "fast" pace. We'll work on that at home, tomorrow morning. He did some nice heelwork otherwise and understands he has to keep his head up when working. I really hope I can get him to love heeling as much as I do, to me this truly shows the relationship with your dog. To the true obedience fanatic there's nothing better than a lovely heeling team. We'll keep working at it. This is a picture of Blitz in his one show he was well enough to enter. Blitz adored heeling as you can see. I know I won't get this much flash, but I think Moto can produce a lovely, floating cadence once we get our teamwork figured out.

The more you learn...

...the more you realize you don't know. I took Moto to a shopping center yesterday and discovered he has a completely different way of dealing with stress than his sire, Blitz, or Dusty. Well DUH he's a completely different dog! Maybe it's not stress, rather lack of confidence. Either way he was working very sluggishly. I had anticipated this and thank goodness I had a plan and that was simply to make every new place we went FUN so he would realize every trip with Mom was a new and exciting adventure!
So after I saw he wasn't able to work the way I wanted, we played "which fist has the cookie" which he enjoys, the "touch my hand" game and I did a lot of playing and having him do some quick tricks that he enjoys. When I saw he was relaxed we started doing some heeling and it was very nice. We did some small segments so he could be successful as well as some easy stuff and it worked out well. Patience is going to be key in building this partner into a happy confident performer.
In Obedience class today he was relaxed so I stepped things up a bit - I am fading the leash and trying to get the level of accuracy without using it as a guide. Moto enjoys problem solving and responded pretty good to my patting my leg and a light touch on the collar. As long as we have good weather he'll go a different place every day and I think/hope this will pay off in the long run.

Hey, I have a dog!

I had an absolute blast going to the Topeka shows this weekend. I miss showing terribly and find myself living vicarously through my showing friends. Kathy dominated going HIT and H/C all weekend with her two remarkable dogs. It was thrilling to watch some of my friends in runoffs for various placements. The weekend was topped off by a gal who got a 199 in Open A...an extreme rarity. Great gal and a lovely dog. She wound up doing a runoff for HIT with Kathy. Her lack of ring experience led to a bobble but watch out for this team in the future.
I brought Moto along on Sunday and as with the sho n go last weekend he was a poopy performer. I'm going to have to backchain even more to reinforce lagging and being slow is NOT an option, while being motivational at the same time. Kathy reminded me of some games I can use while holding him accountable for his end of the leash as well. I was not terribly pleased with what I was getting, and after all the awards we were all packing up our cars to go home. I went back to the building to use the restroom and empty rings were just beckoning me. Everything was done with and everyone was gone except for the janiters cleaning up. I asked permission to enter the ring, the gal shrugged and said go for it. I don't know what made such a difference but Moto was back! He pranced, he held his position, he did his lovely attention and his recall was to die for. We did it short & quick and he got a nice big jackpot reward and we called it a day.
It could be he just needs more exposure to busy situations. That's an easy remedy.
Shopping centers, here we come!

DANG it!

Sheesh if it's not one thing, it's another! Good news is Dusty is continuing to feel better and is pretty much his healthy self. We will see if that lasts once the meds wear off. If he gets ill again it will almost certainly be that he has organ failure, we'll do a blood panel and change meds to aid his ailing kidneys if need be. But today is a good day, so I'm grateful for his being here, my special boy.
The bad part is I feel like I've been in a car accident - go figure! The 19th of August will be the six month marker. Dr's told me it would be over a year before I felt better. Recovery takes a lot of work and dedication - more than I ever imagined. What's interesting is before Dusty got ill I felt pretty darned good and had begun my exercise regimen again. I was told to simply WALK on the treadmill (which drove me crazy) but this time I listened and just walked for 1/2 hour and only went about 1 3/4 mile *sigh*. I guess between that and picking up Dusty constantly I re-injured a few things. The connective tissue in my hip area was simply agonizing and it felt like I had a cyst in there. Last time I experienced this pain I went to the Dr as it was right after the accident and they rushed me to the hospital fearing a blood clot. So I knew it wasn't that, off I went to the chiro where I discovered I was horribly off (she said one buttcheek was higher than the other) but she couldn't help the hip area - it was muscular so she sent me to her massage therapist. This lady is AMAZING. She said the connective tissue was all balled up the size of a walnut and did some simple touch therapy. The results were immediate and amazing - shock waves went all down my leg and my toes started twitching! I feel a lot better but am no way back on track. Rest is BORING. They said next week I can start walking again but only 15 minutes. My level of frustration is very, very high as I am so sick of getting into a routine that soon is disrupted - again.
Moto didn't get trained at all this week because of Dusty and now me. I find it interesting to note that he appears bored. This is the dog that loved lounging around the house doing as little as possible. He now finds things to do and stirs up the pack looking for action. This weekend is the Topeka dog show so I'm looking forward to cheering on my friends in their breed and obedience endeavors. Maybe after this weekend I'll feel up to training again, and Dusty will continue to be healthy.
As with my cancer friend, hope keeps us going.

Tough Sledding Ahead

I've learned a bit more about the cancer my friend has - it's Stage 2 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. They have to do more testing this week to see the exact nature of it but the good news is that it is the slow-growing kind - thank GOD. Then chemo will begin. From talking to my friends in the medical field this is highly treatable with a good outcome. Meantime I need to find outwhere I fit in this and how I can be of help.
Next, my beloved Dusty isn't doing very well. A few days ago I'd found vomit on the floor of undigested food. With five dogs it could have been anyone. Then yesterday morning I saw it was Dusty. He began having acute diahrrea and when he didn't get up to greet me when I came home from work we rushed off to the vet. He was given rehydrating shots and shots to calm his gut as well as some medications. His night was a bit better - only getting up 3 times with diahrrea - and ate a few bites of yogurt and chicken broth and is resting. But, he's not snapping back the way I would like. The vet warned me this could be the first signs of organ failure which was my first fear. I hope this restful sleep will heal him and he will continue with me for awhile longer.
Moto training log: we went to a sho n go this weekend and it was blazing hot. Moto responded with a very unimpressive performance. Even though the building was air conditioned his energy was low. I think it's time he learns he needs to hold up HIS side of the leash and while he's too soft for a pinch collar, he did respond nicely to a "no, you're going too slow" grab underneath his head and forcing him to walk a bit faster. As always it's a delicate dance of motivation/compulsion with this guy. He's also responding beautifully to herding and showing instinct. We're going herding today if Dusty is feeling better. As it currently stands we're just making decisions hour by hour.

When a Friend has Cancer....

...what do you do? Just got off the phone with her and I'm numb and reeling. Tomorrow she and her husband will find out "the prognosis" and treatment and life expectancy. What the hell? It's one of those "it's supposed to happen to everyone else" syndrome. Not her. Not them.
Do I yell It's Not Fair to her? Do I cry with her? Am I supposed to be strong? I don't know any of this yet.
I just hope that this has a happy ending, that it's one of those cancer success stories. But for now, even though you don't know her, please pray or send good energy.
She'll be needing it.

It's getting Interesting

Thanks to Gary Platt for taking and sharing this picture. He could make a living with his wonderful pics. This was from Obedience Camp 2009 - what fun!

Moto has really been blossoming since the camp and surprises me each day now. Surprise #1: he LOVES the frisbee. None of our dogs loves the frisbee except as a tug or chew toy but he really lights up when I throw it and loves retrieving it. I've added this to our training repetoire as a reward. Surprise #2: he prefers praise over treats! He's such an eager eater but it's quite clear that now he would rather hear me say"Wow, good boy!" over Here's a Cookie. Surprise #3 came today as we reviewed some things we hadn't done since before the car accident. He understands now about going and sitting inside the box on go-outs. He understands directed jumping from a good distance. He understands the broad jump (with a little guidance). Really, all he needs is stringing everything together and some fine tuning. Last: that darned heeling. I thought I had pretty good heeling until I went to Platt camp. When there I discovered several holes, the biggest of which is he still doesn't have good control of his rear. The second thing is that darned attention isn't where I want it either. So we are doing some big-time backchaining to get this under control. Also, he can do signals at a distance but what degenerates is the folding Down. So still need to work on the "back back Down" to get that in muscle memory. But, the mechanics of ALL the exercises - Novice thru Utility - have been trained! Woohoo! I was shocked at how much he remembered.

I need to be very careful to nurture his New Attitude as it quickly deteriorates with drilling and overdoing picky things. My drive for perfection can sometimes go a bit too far and I need to take that 1 inch of progress instead of shooting for that mile.

Best of all, I have more energy than ever since the car accident and while I'm not pain free by any means it is not getting in the way of my doing things.

YAY!