Taking it Easy

After all of that hard work of learning to weave in six days last week, we've been taking it pretty easy since then. Last night was actually the first bit of agility we've done since last Thursday.

Secret and the boys seem to be doing well adjusting to my schedule at the Humane Society. They have been quite spoiled by my parents, though, and that never hurts!

I left home around 7:50 a.m. on Saturday and they were only home alone until around 1:30 when my parents stopped by and took them up to their house for the rest of the day. I drove straight there after work and we did dinner for my birthday, then took Secret & Luke for a run through the woods on the quads (poor Kaiser is too little!). Boy did Secret ever have a good time! She alternated between following my quad or running between my dad & I. The dogs were definitely tuckered out after that little jaunt.

On Sunday my mom went and hung out with the dogs for a little over an hour, so again they got a nice little break during the day. This past Tuesday worked the same as the last, with them getting to hang out at the office for half the day. I have a full day of required staff training tomorrow from 10:00 - 7:30, so they'll get to chill with my mom again. I'm so thankful for this help so that they don't have to stay home alone for 10 hours at a time.

The hot & gross weather has finally broken! The last few days have been just lovely, which is why I couldn't pass up a training opportunity for the dogs last night (especially after mowing on Tuesday!). I set up an Open Regular course for the boys and worked Secret on all parts except for the 12 weaves. I substituted a teeter for a tunnel in one spot because I knew it would make her happy. :o)

In her first session I used the Wubba and only asked her to do hoops, tunnels & jumps. I even managed to throw in the teeter a couple of times while I had the toys out. In her second session, though, she really showed no interest in the Wubba from the start. I believe she had watched Kaiser getting treats in his session and had decided that was what she wanted as well. That was fine, I just started to add in contact work for her that session. My real issue with using the food rewards with Secret is that she slows down SO MUCH when she's working for food. She's easily 3x faster when we start out with the toys.

We haven't done work on contacts for a very long time -- If I had to guess, I would say she hasn't been on them since I did a video on the subject. YouTube says that was 6/29/10. Wow, really? Well, July was super hot and we really didn't do much more than jump work, so I guess that could be correct! At any rate, especially considering it's been that long, I'd say she was fantastic. Not the fastest performances she's had, but she definitely nailed her bottoms. Her teeter work was just splendid. I'd love to get her on a regulation teeter one of these days, though, to see if she handles it equally well. Mine is on the short side (hey, it was built for Kaiser!) and certainly doesn't "bang" on the grass.

When the boys were done with their drills, I pulled the weave poles apart to give Secret a quick refresher on them. She did the staked set of 2x2's perfectly the first time through. I ran her through them several times in each direction and also sent her through the solid-based set of 6 several times -- including running her into them from hoops or jumps. Considering we haven't touched the weaves for a week, I was super impressed with her.

This weekend I hope to start working her towards 12 poles. I still want/need to open up the 2x2's to try to get her single-stepping, though. Her footwork is improving, but she's still more or less hopping through the poles.

Bethany & Rascal are coming over tonight. I plan to set up the Novice equivalent of the course from last night and we'll see how they (Rascal & Secret) do on it. There are TWO discrimination spots, which both of the young ones definitely need more practice with! Secret is very much a "contact sucker" and requires quite a lot of direction to make it into the "out tunnel." Now that the weather is starting to be more bearable, we have a lot of work to get done this fall. I hate that Secret turns 18 months in the middle of winter. Hopefully some sort of indoor training opportunity falls into my lap...

Six Poles in Six Days!

Well, we did it! Secret is independently weaving six poles after just six days of training!! I am just bursting with pride over how well she is doing.

The first session started out as a bit of a struggle for Secret. I didn't make it "easy" for her and we started with four straight poles staked down with an open gate at the end (to make six poles). It took her a few tries before she remembered the game, but then you could really see the light go on and she figured it out rather quickly. Even still, I didn't change anything for the first session. I wanted to make sure she was totally comfortable with the new set-up.

In session two, I moved fairly quickly to closing the last set of poles because she was showing a very good understanding of what I was asking. By the end of the second session, all six poles were straight and she was starting to build confidence and speed through the poles. Her entries are amazing!

She blew me away in the third session. I was wondering what I could throw at her for a challenge, so I decided to try a front cross at the top of the poles. She barely blinked at that one in either direction, so I decided to really push her limits and go for a rear cross. If you've followed Secret's blog for any length of time, you'll know that rear crosses in general did not come quickly to Secret.

The first attempt was a complete flop, but she tried really hard for the second one, so I rewarded her even though she didn't completely navigate the poles correctly. After that she was golden and I did two rear crosses on each side. Rear crosses at poles on day six! For real!? She's so awesome.

I'm going to stop the daily video diaries now. Secret will get a few days off and next week we'll pick up where we left off. I intend to open the poles a bit to help her find her footwork & build speed. My goal is to have her one-striding through the poles before I add the second set of six. We'll also continue to proof distractions and work on even more challenging entries.

I am just thrilled with how well Secret's weave training has gone. It's been a very exciting week!

Weaving -- Day Five!

Day five was a good one! I started out with the two bases touching (vs. at the 9" distance the day before), so because I added something new, I opened up the angles a bit to get her comfortable with the change. She didn't even notice, so we moved fairly quickly to closing the angles. By the end of the first session, Secret was weaving four straight poles with bases touching!!

I couldn't be happier with her progress (okay, I lie, she could be faster) -- In our next session I will add another 2x2 base, starting with it opened to 2/8 and I hope to have her weaving six straight poles by the end of the third session. Six poles in six days!

Weaving -- Day Four!!

On to day four! I started with the weave bases @ 9" apart and angled at 2/8, then closed them from there. By the end of the third session the poles are NEARLY straight, but still 9" apart. For day five, I expect I will move the bases together -- And hopefully by day 6 she'll be weaving six poles!

I was surprised to get this good of a performance from Secret. It sounded like the neighbors on both sides were having pool parties (lots of screaming kids) and someone kept lighting off random fire crackers. This normally results in a total shut-down from Secret, but she kept working.

She was a bit slower on this day -- Likely because I left the dogs all day to work at the Humane Society. They aren't used to staying home alone very much, so I don't think they slept. In between training sessions, Secret slept next to me on the couch! I had to keep waking her up to go back outside.

The dogs seemed to do okay today -- They actually got to spend the morning at work with my parents and my dad brought them home at lunch time and gave them all their kongs that I had in the freezer. He forgot to turn the t.v. on for them (gasp!! lol), but they were all great when I got home at 5:45. I think they will transition well to this change.

Weaving -- Day Three!

I actually came into the office to edit video tonight because Secret did such a good job that I didn't want to wait to share it!!

From the video info:

Day three was a big one for Secret! She's really coming along nicely and we made a lot of progress today. I closed the spacing to @ 4' and we're at @ 1/7 rotation now. Woot, woot! Super job, girlie. I am super impressed with some of the entries she is giving me. She struggled with the off-side entries at the beginning, but she's really starting to get them now, even at very steep angles. Half the time you can't even tell just how much I'm asking for since I'm never on camera, but I'm impressed with her, so that's good enough. :o)

I wish we could get in a practice session in the morning, but she slides around on the grass enough when it's dry, I don't want to chance it when the grass is wet. Hoping to get a couple of sessions in tomorrow.

These three sessions were all recorded in about an hour's time period. I wanted to get all of her training in before I fed dinner.

Weave Training Begins!

Secret started her weave training this weekend! So far it's going very well. I have her first two days of training on separate videos below because each day ran too long to put into one. :o)

I hope to do two sessions tonight but won't be able to post video because tomorrow I start my training at the Humane Society. Still haven't figured out what the dogs are doing for the day...

At any rate, I hope to video the process from start to end!

Day 1



Day 2

Is summer done yet?

The above scene is pretty much what our week has consisted of, sad to say. It has been HOT and HUMID all week long. You know it's bad when the dogs don't even pester you to go outside.

Monday evening we went swimming with Rascal & Bethany. I learned not to throw sticks towards the rapids (hoping that it would come downstream and make Secret's life easier). What actually happens is that said stick gets sucked *into* the rapids and then Secret goes out and swims, and swims, and swims, and swims, and swims some more while looking for a stick that she believes must be out there somewhere. I actually had a brief panic attack that she wasn't going to come back and that she'd get exhausted out there. For a moment, I worried that I'd have to go out and get her, but thankfully that didn't happen because she's a better swimmer than I am, anyhow! With much pleading and begging, she did finally give up her quest for the lost stick and came back to the shallow water. Lesson learned -- don't throw stuff towards the rapids.

Today we learned another lesson. We had a huge rainstorm this morning and the creek was super high and fast on our walk today. The boys both cautiously approached the edge for a quick drink & foot soak, but Secret plunged right in as she normally does. The creek usually comes a little higher than her chest at its deepest point, so I imagine she was pretty surprised to find herself not only swimming, but quickly getting pulled downstream. It carried her down a ways and she battled the current for a bit before scrambling over to the side and running back up. I think it scared her a bit, which is no surprise because I was worried, too. It's a good thing Secret was pretty much born with gills -- She's one heck of a swimmer, I'll give her that!

Of my three dogs, I will say that Secret seems to handle the heat about the best. Because of this, I decided to go ahead and attempt to do some jump work last night. She complied, more or less, but her enthusiasm was definitely far down from where it has been in the recent past. Later on in the evening, when it had cooled some and the yard was shaded, I played with all three dogs over the jumps using CHEESE and her excitement level went way up.

Speaking of cheese, time to stock up and start cubing. Secret will start to learn to *weave!!* soon and it seems as though cheese is by far the easiest treat for her to find in the grass. I'm more or less just waiting for better weather and then we'll get started with the beginning of the 2x2 program. I'm very excited to try this method for the first time.

Life as they know it will soon change slightly for the dogs. I got a (much needed) part time job at the Humane Society that will involve working full days on the weekends. My spoiled crew is rarely home alone for more than four hours, and that happens rarely. I'm curious to see how they will handle this. I will also need to start testing Secret a bit more on leaving her loose in the house, as I really hate to have her in a crate for 9 hours a day. Thus far, she has given me no reason to believe that she will have any problems.

I spoke to my cousin and it sounds like with her help, and probably with my parents filling in occasionally, the dogs should get to get out once a day while I'm gone. That would make me feel so much better, especially in the beginning while they are getting used to the idea of me being gone all day. I'm sure a play date with Rascal mid-day would make them all very happy!

This should be a quiet weekend for us. Tomorrow I am doing a quick transport for Secret's rescue -- The Border Collie Rescue of MN -- http://bcrofmn.org/ I'll be helping to bring up three young dogs from Kentucky, which is also where Secret originated from! I'm so happy to be able to contribute in one way or another to this great rescue.

On Sunday we are FINALLY supposed to get a break in the weather. Crossing my fingers here, because I'm kind of starting to miss training the dogs! If the weather gods smile on us, perhaps Sunday will be the day Secret starts her weave training. :o)

Herding Day AND Happy Birthday, Secret!

First things first -- Today is Secret's birthday!! Well, the day I've chosen to celebrate her birthday, at least. I think I'm the only person who changed the birthday of the puppies after going by my vet said was her age, so it looks like we are celebrating alone. :o)

All of the pictures posted today were taken on the trip home from Secret's very first HERDING day yesterday! As you can plainly see, she was exhausted. Secret has decided that riding shotgun is the *only* way to go, despite the fact that it is decidedly uncomfortable and makes it nearly impossible for her to sleep. She gave up a time or two and retreated to the back, but only for a minute or so at a time before she returned.

I figured the whole herding experience would be pretty hit or miss with Secret. I thought she would either be completely out of control chasing after the sheep or completely terrified of them.

As it happens, it was far closer to the latter of the two scenarios, but thankfully she did improve greatly as the day went on. What is interesting to note is that she went absolutely bonkers watching the other dogs work the sheep. She would watch with rapt attention and strain at the end of her leash when the sheep ran past us. And there was barking... Plenty of barking... I have to say, she was by far the most vocal Border Collie there!

It was a bit different when it was her turn, but it didn't help a lick that her sheep were getting a bit bully at that point and she didn't have the nerve to stand up to them. Once they figured they had her number, they took full advantage of it. That session felt like a giant fail to me, but watching it on video showed that it wasn't as bad as I thought at the time.

Blessedly, Kathy (the trainer) suggested that we try Secret again at the end. We switched out the sheep to a "friendlier" trio that would be easier for her to push. This session went SO MUCH BETTER! I'd been letting Secret watch the dogs before her as well as the working dog who moved the sheep into the pen. When we let her go, she was ready!

Hindsight being what it is, I think we should have stopped sooner than we did. It was wickedly hot with a heat index in the 90's and I think Secret was really starting to melt from the heat. She put forth a good effort, though, and I'm very pleased with her. Kathy thinks a lot of her issues are due to her young age and feels that she will likely improve quite a bit as she gets older.

I thought Secret would be completely shot for the rest of the day, but not quite. We ended up going swimming before dinner and then she even had a short frisbee session in the evening. Where does she find the energy!?

Anyhow, I believe our day's adventure can best be described through video! Enjoy! :o)

Secret 1 = Chiro 0

Secret had her very first visit with the chiropractor yesterday afternoon to assess her following that odd issue with her hind end. Secret was 100% a horrible, snarky bitch.

It is no surprise to anyone that Secret has "space issues." That said, she has made absolutely remarkable strides in her socialization and has been doing so much better around people. Her introduction to Dr. Schilling went quite well. Secret was happy to be out of the pen (where she had to wait while Luke had his turn) and she seemed very interested in Dr. Schilling and all of her stuff.

When Dr. Schilling made a move towards Secret's hind end to start working on her, however, Secret whipped around and snapped at her. NAUGHTY. I ended up holding her hind end up with my left arm and holding her head/collar with my right. As Dr. Schilling moved up her body, I kept having to reposition myself to keep Secret from being able to snap, which she did attempt to do at least three more times. Had Dr. Schilling brought her supply of muzzles with, Secret would have been modeling one.

All of this said, Secret did have some issues that surprised Dr. Schilling in such a young dog. Then again, she said she doesn't generally see many dogs of this age, so maybe it's more normal than we think. Secret was definitely "out" in her pelvis, had a few spots along her spine that needed adjusting, a couple of ribs were out of place and her neck was out of whack. Good lord, all of this in a yearling? My dogs are so abusive to each other and to themselves...

After the adjustments were done (in record fashion, I might add), we sat and talked for a while and Secret was quite comfortable and happy to wander around and/or lay by me. She didn't seem to harbor any ill-will towards Dr. Schilling so long as nobody was trying to touch her.

Dr. Schilling said that we might have to try the muzzle next time and/or explore different methods of getting the job done. It would be nice if Secret would just relax and accept it, especially if it turns out she's going to be a problem child and need regular adjustments.

We went down to the river on Wednesday via a trail in one of the parks nearby. The park itself is kind of shady (as in, untrustworthy people), but the trail is great and runs along the river for a bit, finally ending near a spot of rapids.

Due to erosion, one never knows what the area will look like from year to year. I was happily surprised to find that it is the perfect spot this year! There is a small patch of sand that leads into a shallow area that goes out a bit before dropping off behind the rapids, and in the other direction it actually stays shallow enough for the dogs to run in for several yards.

The dogs had a blast! Luke found a giant stick that I broke into two pieces. He promptly lost his, so Secret & Luke had to share the remaining piece. Much to my surprise, Secret beat Luke several times on the retrieve! She swims like a little fish.

I took lots of video clips on my cell phone, but there was an issue with the file conversion and when I tried to save the movie I created, I got error message after error message. Much to my dismay, I got so frustrated I just deleted everything. Darn it, and it was super cute.

It sounds like my cousin, Bethany, and I are taking the dogs swimming after work tonight. I will pack the actual video camera along and see if I can't get some footage. I will also be taking the camera with on Sunday for Secret's first HERDING DAY!!! Yay!

Then comes Monday -- Secret's birthday! :o)

Whoops, where does time go?

Whoops, I didn't intend to go nearly a week between posting -- but life has been fairly quiet lately.

That said, we actually had plenty of opportunity for training time this past weekend. It was fairly hot, but the rain held off and we got in several short sessions.

The "theme" of our training over the weekend was serpentines. I figure it's time to start throwing more handling moves at Secret now that she's developing more confidence & speed on the jumps.

I kept things very simple by using a staggered serpentine vs. a straight line of jumps. We progressed through various exercises and throughout the weekend Secret did incredibly well -- Lead out with a front cross, rear crosses, same-side handling, pushes, pulls, etc. Good girl! Her comfort with distance continues to increase as well, as I am easily able to send her through a pinwheel to meet her with a front cross on the landing side.

We are still having great success in using toys and only toys during jump training, but any time I decide to throw contacts in the mix Secret insists on a food reward. This was quite obvious on Sunday when I went to work Secret through portions of the course I had created for the boys. She started out gung-ho over the jumps for her fuzzy tug, but the very moment she set foot on the teeter she wanted nothing to do with the tuggy. Conditioned response, I know. Oh well, we'll keep at it and try to implement some toy work in with contact training in the future.

Yesterday I learned that Secret is terrified of bubble wrap. We have a giant box of it here at work from a package that recently arrived and who can resist popping a few bubbles as you pass? Secret was following me around at the end of the day yesterday and thus, was there when I popped a few bubbles. Imagine my surprise when she immediately tucked her tail and ran out of the room!

I called her back in and proceeded to try to give the bubble wrap positive association by giving her a treat every time I popped one, but it quickly became obvious that the kibble I carry in my treat pouch during the day was not going to cut it for that particular job. I might have to take some bubble wrap home and work on desensitizing her to this. Ever since the 4th of July, Secret has become very sound sensitive and this is something we need to work through.

It actually freaked her out so badly that her fear carried through to when we got home. The neighbor brats (sorry, kids) were outside playing baseball and any time the bat hit the ball and made a "chink" or "pop" noise, Secret would run and hide under the deck. Now really, she has been outside SEVERAL times while they have been playing and has never had any reaction whatsoever. The bubble wrap incident just seriously put her over the edge.

We hung out in the house the majority of the evening and then went outside around 8:00 p.m. to do some one-jump work with cheese (since I had tried to do a quick toy session earlier and failed miserably). There was nothing going on outside at this time and she was fantastic & focused. Our one-jump work morphed into two, then three jumps of various heights. I had bumped Secret back down to 12" after the incident with her hind end, but last night I started to raise them again and she did a few reps at 26".

We have not had any further issues connected to the incident two weeks ago with Secret's hind end, but in an effort to cover all of my bases, Secret has her first appointment with the chiropractor on Thursday. Dr. Schilling is doing her monthly day of appointments at the dog center in La Crosse, so I decided to make an appointment for Secret & Luke that day. It will be much easier on the dogs than trying to cram into Dr. Schilling's porch, plus Secret is familiar with the environment. I'm curious to see how she reacts to the whole experience.

Secret vs The DTV Installer

The photos on the blog today are from our last photo shoot for Chuckle Pup. The first and last photo are the "glamor" shots that Barbara did as we waited for the owner to arrive. Look at how amazing Secret looks! I love them. The picture below is the only one of Secret that was picked from the shoot. I'll have to watch to see if either of my dogs ends up on the web site once it's made. Kaiser had a couple of nice shots.


Yesterday Secret had to get used to the idea of a stranger entering our house. I made the switch from Dish to DirecTV and this meant having an installer come into our house for over an hour. I can't believe how freaked out Secret was over the whole ordeal. I ended up putting her on leash just to make her stay by me and relax. She seemed to be getting over it by the time he left, but more than anything I think she was just crashing from being way overdue for her nap. I obviously need to have house guests over more often...

It's still hot here, so after work we went to the park in Sparta to give the dogs a chance to go swimming. The section of the creek that used to be "Kaiser-sized" has grown considerably and there isn't much left for wading. Secret didn't mind, though, and took off on the odd random swim a few times. She wasn't about to compete with lunatic-Luke for the tennis ball. I think we have more fun at the beach, but keeping track of three dogs on a crowded beach didn't sound like fun to me yesterday.

Secret met a couple of new dogs at the park and did fairly well with them. The first dog was off leash and its owner didn't seem to have any intention of putting him back on leash, so I let Secret off her leash so that she wouldn't feel trapped. They ran and "played" a bit along the shore, but I don't think Secret was completely comfortable with him. She barked and play-bowed at him, but I think his high energy level put her off. That said, the other dog had very good manners and didn't do anything to deserve her scorn. I put Secret back on leash when a lady walked over with a Chow. I let Secret meet the Chow, but didn't let it go very far because she seemed uncomfortable. Both of the dogs we met were boys, and we already know that Secret prefers girls (oddly...).

With a heat index of 105 degrees yesterday, there wasn't much else to do for activity, so we went home and played with the hose for a bit. Secret had a brief frisbee session after dinner when she was bouncing off the walls, but we kept it short due to the heat. I really hope it cools off here soon so that I feel more compelled to work the dogs again. I will have to mow the agility yard in the next day or two and I have yet to set anything since the last time I mowed. I really hate when that happens.

Secret = Saluki?

We were at an agility trial in La Crosse this weekend and on Saturday I had someone approach me to inquire about Secret's breed. She said she was wondering if she was Saluki, or at least partially so. I kind of laughed, that is, until I started to look at pictures of Saluki online this morning. lol Okay, maybe I can see the resemblance. Granted, we have absolutely zero idea of Secret's dad, but I doubt there are many Saluki running around loose in the backwoods of Kentucky.

Secret continues to do well and we haven't had any re-occurrence of the issue with her hind end. I discontinued the aspirin after giving her 1/2 tablet on Saturday morning. She will finish the 28 day Doxy treatment.

I gave up on trying to keep her "quiet" and let her play with Kaiser. We did a brief round of frisbee on Saturday following the trial, with mostly just rollers and short tosses to keep her on the ground. She didn't have any problems at all with this level of activity. I expect we'll start back up with low jumps this week, although it's supposed to be so blasted hot that I'm not sure we'll do much more than play with the hose!

Secret did well at the trial this weekend, but she did her fair share of barking. I elected to take all three dogs out together the majority of the time in order to spare everyone her barking fit. I heard her barking in the background on a few of my recorded agility runs -- Generally she would join in with Kaiser, as I don't believe I ever heard her while Kaiser was running.

There were a couple of dogs that she did NOT like, and a few of them were very surprising. One in particular was a little mixed breed male named Sparky. Sparky's owner describes him as terribly submissive and I didn't see anything from him to suggest anything otherwise. Secret decided from the get-go that she did not like him and did not want anything to do with him. She growled at him when I had her working the gate with me and would bark as he passed her kennel. I'll never understand what triggers her with some dogs and not others. She has an obvious preference for females, but she was terrified of the female Rottweiler that passed us and that made her skittish for some time. On Sunday I brought my bag chair over to the gate with me and Secret laid there for the entire class. That worked out quite well. :o)

There was an agility table set up outside the ring in the waiting area, so I made good use of that several times with Secret. She did a great job with sends and thought it was quite fun. I really need to get a table built for home if I have intentions of doing USDAA and AKC with Secret. As a whole, that was the only training Secret did this weekend.

One of the best parts of the weekend was seeing how much better Secret is doing with people in general. She seems to be exiting that fear stage and she sought out several people to my surprise. There is one woman who has always freaked Secret out in the past, and Secret was even okay with her! She has made great strides in that department.

All better?!? (!!)

Wouldn't it be great if dogs could talk and tell us what is or isn't wrong? It sure would save a lot of stress on the human side of the partnership.

Secret rapidly improved after our visit to the vet yesterday. She didn't budge off the dog bed until noon when it was time for a potty trip outside. She cried out slightly as she pulled herself off the bed, but part of that was her insane excitement to go outside (I'm sure she thought for a walk, since we always go for a walk at lunch).

She remained quiet for the rest of the afternoon, but got up several times to switch beds, change position or stretch. Each time she got up she seemed to have an easier time of it. By the time we left around 3:30, she seemed completely back to her old self. I didn't even get the chance to help her into the car, as she jumped right in before I was able to lay a finger on her.

She tried to wrestle with Kaiser in the back yard upon returning home, but I quickly put an end to that and put her in her crate with a Kong, for it was time to take Luke to his massage.

Dr. Randy was quite surprised to hear just how quickly she went from refusing to stand on her own to bouncing around like a lunatic. He wonders if it wasn't something other than Anaplasmosis, but there is no way to know. We will continue on with the Doxy for the remainder of the treatment and I'll probably stop the aspirin this weekend.



It was just ever so much fun trying to keep Secret quiet last night. She was running around the house tossing her deer antlers everywhere, bugging Luke mercilessly and just all out restless. I attempted to let her go outside off leash, but it quickly became evident that this wouldn't work because she immediately tried to instigate play with both of the boys (and Kaiser was more than happy to oblige because he was rather bored, too).

I had taken Kaiser & Secret on a short 15 minute walk when I got home with Luke (okay-ed by Randy when he heard how well she was doing). This did nothing to wear her out for the evening.

She started out this morning wild as a coon, but she is currently following the daily nap-time routine. We will go for our usual walk today and I don't anticipate any problems, but we'll probably take it easy and not go quite as far.

This weekend we have a NADAC trial here in La Crosse. Home trials are always nice and the dogs (and myself) always appreciate returning to our own bed (and yard!) at the end of each day. Luke is bringing a cake to celebrate his NATCH that he earned at our last trial, so it should be a fun time!

Unexpected Vet Visit

Secret and I got back from visiting Dr. Randy a bit ago. I had to call them at 8:00 to see if I could get her in this morning, because her behavior has been rather worrisome.

Last night we did a jump session (mostly just a line of four straight jumps, plus a few 90-degree turns, set at 16") and later a quicky session on the dog walk. I waited until after 7:30 p.m. to begin mowing, so the dogs were pretty much running around from the time we got home from work until almost 9:00 p.m. Secret behaved completely as normal.

While I was in the shower, I heard a rather large thud/crash noise come from the bedroom. Nobody cried out or made any sort of fuss, so I finished my shower. I presume that Secret fell off the bed while wrestling with Kaiser, but there is no way to know for sure. She was sitting on the ottoman looking out the window when I came out. She, not unexpectedly, crashed for the remainder of the night at that point. When we got up for the last potty break before bed at 10:30, she was absolutely fine.

This morning, however, she would not get out of bed. Granted, she can be exceptionally lazy when she is tired and there have been several times when she doesn't get out of bed until I am well down the hallway or opening the door for the boys. I let the boys outside and she didn't come, so I went in to check on her. Secret had moved to the end of the bed, but was taking no action to get up.

It was raining, so I elected to go let the boys inside before I did anything more with Secret. I even proceeded to fill their food dishes, thinking SURELY this would bring her out, but yet still nothing. She was in the same position when I returned, so I picked her up and placed her on the floor. She remained standing, but was very stiff-legged and walked with her back arched down the hallway to the kitchen. She plopped herself down on floor once she got out there.

I let her lay there while I prepared breakfast for Luke. I left Secret's dish dry since I had no idea if she'd be eating or not and I didn't want a sloppy mess on my hands. That was not a problem, though, because when I placed her dish in front of her she vacuumed it up like normal.

She hadn't yet been outside, so I hoisted her up to see if I could get her to walk again. Her hind end started out slow and a little shaky, but she seemed to get better the more she moved. She even managed to get down the stairs in the garage with little problem. Secret was NOT happy to go out in the rain, but she followed me outside. She hesitated the first time she attempted to squat, but she went potty on the second try and pooped shortly after. At this point she trotted back into the house with her tail up!

Once back inside I had her lay down so that I could go over everything. I massaged, poked, prodded, stretched and manipulated everything I could and didn't get a single reaction from her. I went to the fridge and grabbed the cheese to see if that would prompt her to rise. It did, eventually, and then she happily followed me all over the house to get more cheese.

She tried to jump onto the bed while I was getting ready and only made it about half-way up, so I lifted her the rest of the way and she stayed there until it was time to go. Again, I had to lift her down and place her on the floor. She seems to start out rather stiffly and then her gait improves noticeably as she moves.

I called the clinic right at 8:00 a.m. and was able to get an appointment at 8:40. I had to drag her to the back of the car to pick her up since she wouldn't get up on her own, but by the time she reached the door to the vet's office she was trotting and wagging her tail. She was bright-eyed and happy to see everyone. I'm sure people thought I was being silly, but Secret proved my point when she sat on the scale and then struggled to get up (BTW, still 41.5 lbs).

After that, she seemed determined not to sit or lay down, likely because she knew she'd be stuck. She was standing when Randy came in the room and looked for all the world to be a healthy, happy dog. He took her temperature and it was slightly elevated at 102. I explained the previous events as he put her through all the range of motion exercises and she gave him no reaction. Finding nothing else, Randy took her for a blood draw to run for Lyme & Anaplasmosis.

It was about a 10-minute wait for the results of that test, so Secret did finally decide to lay down and relax a bit. This was good, because then Randy got to see her struggle to her feet when he returned. He did some reflex tests to make sure it wasn't neurological, and she was fine.

The Lyme test was 100% negative. He said that the Anaplasmosis test was slightly more inconclusive, but still more or less negative. Randy said that 1 in 5 tests come back negative, yet when they send it into the state lab at Marshfield for more in-depth testing, it will come back positive. Because of that and because we can't find anything else, we decided to start Secret on a course of Doxy, along with aspirin for the next few days to see what happens.

Secret got her first dose of Doxy at the clinic and I ran to the store to get braunschweiger, followed by her first dose of aspirin at home (1/2 tablet twice a day).

She pee'd and poo'd again when we got back to the office, then went absolute berserk when she saw the boys. She was running around the office completely normal, tail up, happy, & barking at me for treats. You would never know there was anything wrong with her.

She is completely crashed now, which I expect to stay the same for the remainder of the day. No lunch-time walk for us today, which doesn't matter much since the weather is cruddy. Luke has a massage appointment this afternoon at 4:00, so I can check back in with Randy then to let him know how she's doing.

If we don't see fairly quick improvement, we'll figure out what to do next. I would suppose x-rays are high on the list, but Randy didn't feel the need to do that until we find out of the Doxy works.

Hopefully it does and we don't have to worry about any other possibilities. I can't help but be nagged by chants of "displasia" in my head. It's something that I worried about when she was a puppy because she would often sit funny, but then that went away and I haven't really thought of it since then. It would be pretty classic for something like that to flair up after all of her activity last night. But let's hope it's just Anaplasmosis and the Doxy will fix her right up.

It's hot

Perhaps we were just exceptionally spoiled last summer (we were), but good heavens, it just seems miserable this year. This summer has been warm & humid, almost without relief. It's a darn good thing we have the creek to cool us off on our walk!



In one direction of our walk on the bike trail (at work), there are two bridges that go over a couple of smaller creeks. One in particular has fairly easy access for the dogs and I can actually manage to get down there, myself, if I wish. Usually I just let them go cool off and wait for them on the bridge. It's amazing how refreshed they all are after a quick dip! It makes all the world of difference on our return trip and a spring always returns to their step afterwords. Sometimes I feel bad that there isn't water in both directions of our walk!



Secret has been doing great in her training this week, despite the heat. I'd like to wait to do all of our training until about 8:00 p.m. when things start to cool off, but she will have none of it. Our MO is typically to set up the day's exercise immediately upon getting home from work, then we go in the house to cool off. Generally this lasts about 5 minutes before Secret is bouncing off objects and driving everyone nuts, so then we go out to work.

The name of the game this week is speed. Nothing but speed. On Monday I set up a speed circle that consisted of five jumps and a straight tunnel. I started with just one jump before the tunnel and kept building on to that. As I added jumps, we occasionally had issues with her cutting in and skipping jumps on the corners, but she figured it out and did very well. She really is getting so much faster! Working the circle had the additional benefit of allowing me to start to add a little more distance between us -- which was fine for the straighter sections, but this is where I found she would tend to cut in on the corners. In time it will come together.

Last night I set up a straight line of four jumps into a C-shaped tunnel =

C I I I I

All spaced @ 20' apart to allow for a nice, even two strides between obstacles. I mixed it up with regard to where we started and finished. My main goal was to be able to send her into the tunnel without having to escort her to the entrance, so as to allow me a bit more of a head-start back down the line. She did pretty well with this. Secret was easily moving out enough to make the two-stride line pretty much every time. She's starting to open up nicely! All jumps last night were set at 16".



I got an e-mail from Melissa at the Border Collie Rescue of Minnesota this morning and have exciting news! Melissa is coordinating a BCRMN herding fun day!! She knows how badly I want to get Secret on sheep, so she let me know about it so that I could be sure to get my name on the list before it fills. I am so excited! So now we finally have a date for Secret's first "date" with sheep -- Sunday, August 8th!

It will be her birthday present. I hope she likes it. :o) It really couldn't have worked out better. I was planning to attend a UKC agility trial in Iowa with the boys that weekend, but I canceled that idea just yesterday due to the crazy amount of $$ it was adding up to (Seriously, it was going to be a $500 weekend and for what? We can't do UKC agility with enough regularity to chase the big titles.). So the timing for the herding day was just perfect and now I don't have to feel bad for canceling the UKC trial. :o)

I'm excited, can't you tell? Let's hope Secret shares that enthusiasm when we get there.

Secret's "First Job" (more or less)

Yesterday the dogs and I traveled to Stockholm, WI to photographer Barbara O'Brien's farm for a photo shoot. Not an audition, but a real, live, honest-to-goodness job. :o) Well, more or less. This particular photo shoot had zero budget and the models were not getting paid, but we were given a lovely gift of our choice of one of the collars or leads being used at the shoot.

The collar I chose for Secret didn't even end up being shot, which is a darn shame, because I think it's absolutely gorgeous! It stuck out to me the moment I saw it, so I kept a watchful eye on it all day (leaving it in case they wanted to use it) and snagged it towards the end of the day. Secret would have modeled it nicely for them, but they didn't seem all that interested in photographing the collars. The focus of the day seemed to be on the agility slip leads.



Truthfully, I am completely baffled by the whole experience. It was far more disorganized than I expected. The owner had lots & lots of leads strewn about a picnic table and several people picked out whatever they wanted their dogs to wear in the shoot. Nobody really kept track of anything and several items were used for more than one dog. The shots themselves seemed to be more of the "artsy" variety than of a "showcase the product" variety. I think she's looking for shots to use on her web site as filler and not necessarily product representation.

Secret's big shot came and went when she failed the, "Will your dog tug the leash" test. lol Everyone thought that surely the Border Collie would tug the leash. Well, no. I got her to put her mouth on it a couple of times but she showed no interest in tugging -- So the wild-eyed Australian Shepherd gladly took that job. Luke would have loved to have stepped up to the plate, but alas, again nobody wants a solid black dog.

The above-mentioned "artsy" shots meant that there was to be no pretty posing, as my dogs tend to be so good at doing. The first shot we took was from above. The model stood and held the leash and I had to stand outside of camera and get Secret to pull forward towards me. She did very well at this part and stood very nicely for the shot.

The second shot was of the model & Secret walking towards the camera, again with a tight leash to show off the product. They were walking at a snails pace, which immediately threw Secret off. Her default was to spin or stop. If she did pull, she pulled fairly sharply off to the side and most of the time with her ears back. Hopefully they got something decent out of it.

Kaiser had the same series of shots and he did remarkably well for his first time working with a model. She didn't try to touch him, so that made him happy. The model did try to touch Secret to manhandle her into position once, and Secret lost all confidence in her at that point.

We were one of the first people to the farm, so we were also one of the first to be done. They asked us to stick around if we were available, in case they needed any other shots. Well, they ended up having an over-abundance of dogs in attendance and barely managed to get through everyone before the light went away. So in essence, we stayed several hours longer than necessary for no real reason.

But we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Barbara's place is a beautiful farm. It was a fantastic experience for Secret. For the first time, she got to see goats, sheep, chickens, cats & horses! Her general attitude was disinterest, uneasiness and a bit of fear. She thought that finding poop in the grass was more interesting than sniffing at the goats who all came up to the fence to investigate her. I sure do wonder if she would show more interest if turned loose in a pen with them. Well, maybe not goats -- They were hard-headed little things that kept butting at the fence when the dogs were there, so goats might not be a good introduction for her. lol

She showed the most interest in the chickens who were wandering freely about. There was one that she managed to circle around (on her flexi) a couple of times before the chicken ran off squawking. I don't know that Secret has ever seen a cat before, but Barbara has especially brave (and friendly) cats. One went strutting past Secret without a care in the world and stood there calmly as Secret sniffed it all over. She whined and then it walked away -- It's probably better that she met that particular cat vs. the one who swatted at Kaiser later in the day!

We ended up not leaving the farm until 8:30 p.m.! I felt horrible that I had not packed dinner for the dogs, but they did receive several treats throughout the day. We stopped for gas in Winona and Secret took my spot in the driver's seat while I went inside. She was zonked out cold when I returned and was reluctant to return to the back seat. Instead, she decided it would be easier to heave herself over to the passenger side -- and there she stayed for the remainder of the trip home!

We got home around 10:30 p.m. and nobody had forgotten that they had not received their dinner. I stayed up with them a bit longer to allow for one more potty break before bed -- Secret decided to make another dent on one of her deer antlers for a bit before she crashed on the couch. I practically had to drag her off to get her to go outside a bit later. She was so tired!

It's been a very quiet day at work, indeed!

Video! Frisbee Fun!

Secret goes to the fair!

Last night was 4-H dog agility night at the La Crosse Interstate Fair, so I decided to take Secret over for some socializing time. Heaven knows she needs time around children, and what better place to encounter a whole slew of them?

She was FREAKED OUT when we first arrived. The smells, sights & sounds all really overloaded her system from the start. I ended up having to tighten her collar because she darn near pulled out of it on the way past a group of teenagers at table.

Her tail was tucked all the way up under her belly when we entered the agility barn. Secret was whining and very unsure of herself. We weren't there long before I saw Diane & Holly -- Secret loves Holly and was super happy to see her. We took a seat next to them on the bleachers and Secret very quickly started to come out of her shell as I put her through her tricks.

A short while after we'd been there, I was approached by a gentleman with the 4-H project. He asked if Secret was with the project and explained that outside dogs were not supposed to be there. Oops! I've always brought my dogs to the fair in years past, but I guess their policy has changed. He said we didn't have to leave, but asked me to move to the back so as to not be so "obvious." I gladly obliged, as Secret was being a pest in the bleachers, anyhow, constantly trying to crawl underneath on the search for food. :o)

There were some great kids who helped with Secret's socialization by giving her treats and having her do tricks. She still doesn't quite understand these "little people," but she did very well around all of them. Secret didn't lunge at a single running child, but she was completely baffled by the two boys with balloon swords!

We walked with Diane & Holly to the food stand after we were done watching and Secret got to take in lots more sights & sounds. While waiting at the food stand, a very young girl (about two or so) came up behind us and grabbed Secret around the waist. OMG! That could have been a nightmare, but Secret did so, so well and just whipped around to stare in horror at the little creature. A different young child later asked to pet her, but after the previous freak-out I figured perhaps it would be best to not push her at that point. After two hours, I thought Secret was probably done and we didn't need to push her anymore.

Secret went NUTS when we got home. Her brain was definitely in that over-tired, over-stimulated state and she ran laps around the living room for a while before crashing. It was a great experience for her and I'd love to repeat it, but I guess we won't push it now that we know dogs aren't supposed to go to the fair anymore. :o)

I have video to share! We did this before leaving for the fair last night. It's just something thrown together to show her jump training progress. Check out the new speed gears she's starting to find! And the tug!! She adores the furry tug that I bought over the weekend, which is a surprise since it doesn't squeak. lol

Boomers!

Isn't Secret just a horribly leggy thing? She was just standing there barking at me like usual, so I snapped her picture just now. She gets sassy when she's bored. And look at that body! Is she part Dachshund?



The weather was just crazy last night! The first storm started to roll through around 4:30 or so. I was doing a video for Kaiser outside when the rain started. That's the time of day when Secret generally goes nuts, so I hurried and took her outside to try to get in a quick frisbee session before the rain started coming down too hard. We weren't out very long before she started to melt, however, and we were quickly driven back indoors.

The rain blew in sideways for some time. It was really coming down! When it stopped for a bit, I considered taking the dogs outside to play -- Until the tornado sirens started to go off! Whoa, really? I've never heard them since I moved to Sparta!

Ever curious, I immediately went outside and brought the dogs with me. Luke and Secret were NOT fond of the sirens one bit; Kaiser was oblivious. Secret pretty much went back into the house the moment I let her and then went and hid in the corner. Poor thing, she was really freaked out!

The tornado sightings were a few miles away and we were thankfully out of harm's way. I was able to get Secret to come back outside after the second siren had sounded -- She relaxed at this point and chased Kaiser around the yard.

Shortly after dinner, another round of rain and lightning rolled through and Secret crawled up by me on the couch. I hate to see that storms are scaring her now. There was a break in the action for a while later in the evening, so I elected to go to bed early before it all started up again. Sure enough around 10 p.m. we were treated to an even bigger thunder & lightning show that went on for some time. Secret didn't seem too bothered by it at this point, but even Luke seems to do much better when we're in bed.



This last series of photos is Secret enjoying her prized deer antlers. Oh my, she does love them! And thankfully, she hasn't yet poked out an eye....



I hope to get another video made soon if the weather cooperates. I'd really love to make a frisbee video, but I haven't quite figured out how to do it (successfully). I also want to put together a video of the jump work we've been doing. Hopefully in the next couple of days!

Another away trial!

Secret got to go to another "away" agility trial this weekend -- This time in Burnsville, MN, while the boys played more NADAC agility.

The weekend started out SUPER fun.... As I cleaned up the yard Friday before we left, I noticed that both Secret & Luke had some pretty foul diarrhea going on. I pretty much have to blame the (somewhat old...) chicken drumsticks I gave them Thursday evening. My fault! Kaiser got one out of the new package and he was totally fine.

Luke was pretty much cleared out by Friday night and pooping normally, but Secret was still spurting out liquid (sorry blog readers). That made me REALLY nervous when I found out that our hotel room was on the FOURTH FLOOR. Come on, really. Who puts dogs on the fourth floor?

The good news is that Secret got over it quickly, had no problems overnight AND did incredibly well with her first elevator experience. Of the three, I think Luke is the only one who has been in an elevator before, but none of them really even noticed it.

Our room had two beds, so Secret & Kaiser thought it was much fun to bounce back & forth between the two. The two beds also made sleeping arrangements a bit nicer (for me). Luke got his own bed, while Secret & Kaiser stayed by me.

Secret did very well at the trial, once again in her own crate while the boys were together in the pen. The only issue we encountered was on Sunday. There was a woman crated across from us who brought her young daughter along -- I'd guess 3 or 4 years old -- And she didn't watch her AT ALL. This little girl would go randomly wandering around the crating area and it drove all of the dogs bonkers, Secret included. The whole crating area went berserk during the morning briefing and this mother never went and fetched her child.... It was like that most of the day.

I managed to get in some training time with Secret at the trial! We played only briefly on Saturday because I was armed with nothing but kibble, but Secret hopped over a single jump a few times for me off leash with LOTS of distractions around.

We went back on Sunday armed with CHEESE! It was towards the end of a Jumpers round, so it was more on the quiet side, but there was still plenty going on to pull Secret's attention from me. She did great! We did tons of single-jump drills, figure-eights, recalls, rear crosses, etc. She was a good, good girl! I was happy to get her on the turf for a bit, too, as she slipped around a bit on the wraps and needs to figure out how to handle herself on surfaces other than grass. It would also help greatly if I shaved her bushy feet -- I tried with my little trimmer on Friday and the amount of hair was too much for it! I'll have to get the horse clippers out for this hairy girl.

The dogs were all pooped on the trip home, so they didn't see the gorgeous view out the window!



Before going home, we stopped up at my parent's house for my grandma's birthday dinner (she's 81 today!). Between dinner & cake, I took the dogs outside for a run -- Secret & Luke had a BLAST! I've never seen Secret run so fast! We played a fun game of, "This way -- No, this way! -- No, THIS way!" :o) She thought it was a hoot and must have put on a mile of running, at least.

In the house, my dad surprised us with DEER ANTLERS! I bought a couple of these at the show this weekend ($$$) and when my dad found out that the dogs liked them he went out to the garage and produced four of them for us! Secret went nuts with them (and the various squeaky toys she kept pulling out) for the rest of the night. Even at home she didn't crash until about 9 p.m. because she was chewing on her new antlers. These things are a hit -- and it appears that they will last a good long time!



And while this is Secret's blog -- It's Luke's turn to brag! Luke got his NATCH this weekend!! Here's his video:

Fourth of July = Fireworks

Secret survived her first Fourth of July holiday -- Complete with three days of non-stop fireworks in our neighborhood.

I was gone for several hours on Saturday doing a transfer for an Aussie rescue in Minnesota (time to pay back the rescue gods -- after all, apparently NINE people were involved in bringing Secret & family up from Kentucky!). It was about 8:30 or so when I pulled into the garage and immediately heard the fireworks going off in the yard behind ours. Sigh. I'd forgotten how gung-ho they were about the holiday last year.

Surprisingly, Secret was absolutely fine. Luke is the one I always worry about with such things, as he really hates loud noises like thunder, gun shots and fireworks.



To try to build positive association with the sound, I took Secret out for some frisbee time in the back yard. At that time, the neighbors were mostly setting off whistling fireworks and ones that more or less stayed on or near the ground -- Sparkling fountains were a big hit with them. Secret seemed oblivious to all of it and happily chased after her disc, ecstatic to be free of her kennel after several hours.

I decided to let Luke play frisbee for a bit with all the commotion as well. His brain goes into shut-down mode when he sees a disc (or ball), so he was, no surprise, just fine with this plan. We sat in the grass to cool off and "watch the show" for a bit before going inside and everyone was doing remarkably well.



That is, until the neighbors shot up their first boomer into the sky. That's when Luke high-tailed it under the deck and started to dig a (bigger) hole. I think Secret fed off Luke's fear, more or less, and she followed him and cowered under the deck. We went inside at that point, but the damage was done.

Secret was REALLY off for the rest of the night. She immediately went and hid in the bathroom. There was a moment when I thought she wouldn't even eat her dinner (and THAT would be remarkable) -- And while she did end up eating it, she did so in record time and then retreated to the couch to hide without doing her usual ceremonial 10-minute licking of the bowl.

For the next couple of hours she huddled on the couch, half sitting, half laying down, and breathing fairly hard with a terrified look on her face. I pulled her onto my lap once and she got up and left as soon as the next boom went off (the whole neighborhood was lighting stuff off, it seemed). I tried again to get her to stay on my lap a bit later and this time she obliged and seemed happy to stay. I stroked and massaged her in an effort to get her to settle down. Finally, around 10:45, she fell asleep.



Poor girl! Everyone was exhausted on Sunday. I made sure to come home from my family dinner early enough to try to be home in case any more fireworks started off in the neighborhood.

Oddly enough, Secret was absolutely fine throughout everything that went on Sunday & Monday evening. She seemed completely oblivious and unfazed by everything, a total contrast to Saturday night. I was happy about this, mostly because I worry about her developing a fear for thunderstorms the way Luke has.

We didn't get any real training time in this weekend. I attempted to do some jump work yesterday, but it was so hot & gross out that Secret didn't last long before she wanted to go back in the house. This week looks to be a lot more of the same.

We walked to the vet clinic on Saturday morning to get some more syringes for Luke. I took Secret with me because it was time to get a new weight on her -- 11 months is just around the corner! She weighed in at 41.2 lbs and she now stands 21 1/2" tall.