Well we had some fun today again - get to do loads with the Say Yes to Contacts Course with Susan Garrett.  Today we practised with me needing to nose target to a piece of plexi glass, and I managed well and we even got to the point where Mum didn't have her fingers over it.  I was pretty good too because when she dropped treats not onto the plexi I manage not to take them!

Then later on we played in the garden before Mum had to take Grandma to get new frames for her glasses.  She broke these when she fell over on Sunday.   I just didn't want to have to wait at first, but finally I gave in. I love the seesaw and have done it without chairs and tables, but the reason we are doing this, is to check that I don't get scared and slow down at its pivot point.  I don't care about that at all!

We played crate games too.  I'm not used to using Ponto's big soft crate but it is safer for me to run fast into.

Finally, we played chasing around a post, one day Mum says I will be running down the dog walk, getting my contact then racing to this funny looking post and tight turning around it.  Today is just the beginning.

Sunday today and Mum and I have already played a lot of games, I found walking on lead downstairs at heel or side and going back up easy - Mum was pleased.   Yesterday I did some jumping in the garden.  Ponto had a quick go too, she's at the beginning of the video.  Really Mum videoed this because she is practising her Front Cross and she realised how flappy her arms are when she watched this.  We're going to have another go today.

First though, I'm having a nap while Mum works really hard to get the skeleton argument for her assignment for her MA.  She has chosen to do: Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea are both hybrid texts, which sounds pretty complicated to me, but she has read loads and is going to use arguments by Bakhtin, Bhaba and Spivak she says.

Enough for now, I'm going to sleep for a couple of hours, then it will be time for a long walk at the beach.

See ya
Bob

Good morning

Saturday today, yesterday I went to agility training, there was still snow on the field but we managed to get a lot done, some slices, front cross turns and generally lots of fun.  I was naughty though and lifted my leg on the entrance to the tunnel (I wasn't supposed to be going through it) so Mum say's I've got to learn not to do that because it would be dreadful to do it at a show.

This morning I did lots of playing while getting my breakfast.  Just take a look at the videos here and you'll see what I was up to.  Also played retrieve with my tennis balls, cookie in the corner and some other good chase games too.

Hello again

Today it has been pouring with rain all day.  We only went for a short lead walk today because it was so cold and wet but Mum was so pleased with me because I hardly pulled at all and only needed her to stop a couple of times even though all the three big dogs were with us, usually it is me an Mum on my own.  

We played indoors as well today then Mum compiled these little videos of today, yesterday and the day before of each game.   The first one is hand targeting, the second is me on the travel plank and it was so wobbly because it was on the wobble cushions, the third was a make do plank across with a table (we used dog beds) at each end.  That was a bit springy but didn't faze me at all.  Hope you enjoy watching the show.

Wonder what we'll do tomorrow.

Bob

Hello again

Well we are working hard on our Contacts Course but Mum and I discovered that our Crate Games have been getting slopping.  Basically she had been accepting C.R.A.P. (Continually Reinforcing Ambiguous Performances) and not keeping to the important criteria, meaning I have to sit when she touches the crate door.   The video here shows how much we had slipped, even though I stay in the crate but often standing.  The end part is what we did this morning back to Stages 1, 2 and 3 and we definitely began improving again. 

We've videoed lots of our progress so will show you how our nose targets and plank work are going soon as well.

Bye for now
Bob

Hi again

This is exciting.  Mum is doing the online Contacts Course with Susan Garrett, we have already spent a lot of time working through the Focus for Work Section, but today we are going to really get going.  Not missing a bit of it, so that when I get to run like Dylan used to at shows or trials, I won't be silly like he was and fly of the contacts, I'll really enjoy hitting that taget at the end.

Just watch this spot to see how I enjoy it.

Bob

Say Yes!

Hi again

I am very excited today because I know my Mum has just signed up to stay in the IC Peeps at Say Yes and do Recallers 4.00.  

It's very cold here and we go to Amy for agility training this afternoon.  Looking forward to that.

Yesterday Mum was very proud of me because I run to her any time she recalls me, even when I'm busy having a game with another dog.

Until next time
Bob

Good morning!

Thought I would catch up on what I have been doing over the last week.  I really enjoyed agility training on Thursday and ran very fast through the tunnel and over three jump bumps.   Ponto was very naughty at agility though because she got the scent of something in the grass before she went in and just would leave it alone.  She must feel very secure at agility now because she is a nervous sort of girl and she had the confidence not just to be Miss Goodie Two Shoes.

On Saturday Mum went out early in the morning and left all of us with Grandma for the whole day.  I didn't sleep once, I wanted to know what had happened to Mum.  Grandma was very tired by the time Mum got back from her DaySchool for her MA.   She had had a good time though and I went to sleep very soon after she returned, I'd been so busy watching out for her all day I was quite worn out.

Yesterday we had a walk at St Catherine's Hill for a change.  Oooh I enjoyed all the new smells.  We played too, I played figure of eights around trees and fetching my ball.  All this near where someone else's Mum was whistling endlessly for her two doggies to come to her.  I wasn't distracted at all.  When the Samoyeds finally returned I had a great game with one of them.  She was only a year old, so liked to play with me.  We walked together to the pond and then had a drink.

Today, Mum is busy typing up her notes on Bahktin this morning before we get to go out.  Wonder where we'll go today.  It is very frosty outside and everything is hard and cold.  The garden smelled completely different.  Maybe Mum will take me to the Forest - who knows?

Until next time
Bob

Books

Hi again

My Mum just loves reading books, every night she reads a book and often in the daytime too.  Tonight she went out and left us with Grandma so she could meet up with lots of other people who like reading books.  Now she's home and I'm having a nap but keeping my eye on her, just in case.   She's just downloaded a new book to read ready for the book club next month, and it's called Sh*t My Dad Says by Justin Halpern. Sounds as though it's a funny book to me.

As for my day, well I had a lovely walk on the beach with Mum, Percy and Dylan.  We played quite a lot of ball and I am better at that than Percy now.  Dylan kept barking because he didn't want to play ball, just chase stones into the sea when he got Mum to throw them.  I also love weaving between Mum's legs and suddenly diving into a down when she asks me to, you never know what I'll do next for her.

I'm getting the idea of not pulling on my lead now, discovered it means we don't get anywhere and it takes an awful long time to get to the beach or the woods.  So today I crossed the road from the car park to the grass without pulling at all even though Dylan and Percy were with me - that's a first.

When Mum isn't thinking about me and the other dogs at the moment, her brain drifts into either Jane Eyre or Wide Sargasso Sea.  She was reading a printout of "Colonialism and the Figurative Strategy of "Jane Eyre" today by Susan L. Meyer (in Victorian Studies, Vol 33, No. 2 (Winter, 1990)) and I could tell she had picked out the author's main arguments, but the problem is that they all rest on believing that Bertha (most commonly known these days as the Madwoman in the Attic) was black, not a white Creole but black.  However Mum has read Jane Eyre very closely and nowhere does it say she was black, seems Meyer is just surmising this from quotes about people having dark eyes, olive complexions and dark hair, problem is, Bertha is like that, indeed she is described by Rochester at one point as tall, dark and majestic, but then Blanche Ingram is tall and dark but her eyes are imperious.   Luckily all I have to think about is the best way to have fun and that is getting pretty easy, just do what Mum wants.

Bed time now so until next time.

Bob

Plans of Action

Hi Again

Mum has decided that it would be good to have not just a training checklist for me but to make a monthly Plan of Action like she does for her MA studies.  We decided that it would be a good idea to do the Critical Core Games every day until the end of January (we tend to do them most days anyway), along with practising my retrieve and my loose lead walking.  All the other playing which we still do is just an added bonus for me like when we went out in the garden this afternoon and played slice grids, 2o 2o and focus for one jump.  I am still a bit naughty and got too excited in the garden and kept jumping up at Mum after a while instead of sitting ready for another turn.  She doesn't like that so she just went indoors and you know what, she brought Ponto out to play with her instead.  Well I was a bit less cheeky on my next turn.

The Critical Core games are One Call, Collar Grab, Crate Games and IYC (it's your choice).  Seems to me that all of life with Mum comes down to IYC a lot of the time, but now she is being very specific about it with my loose lead walking as I would really prefer to pull her along to wherever I want to go and have sniff.  But I've discovered that the best thing is not to pull because when I pull we either stop, go in circles or turn back and if we are on the way the beach, and I know that road well, I start whimpering when we turn back.  However, it only took us about half an hour to get there this morning, Mum says it only takes ten minutes with my big brother and sisters!   Once we were on the beach she still wanted me to choose not to pull when we reach the sand.  I clicked on this one pretty soon and then sat as soon as she asked because I know that means my lead will come off - just so long as I don't try and run away.  Mum used to use two leads to do this so that if I went when she took my lead off, then I was still stuck because of the other lead.   We call that the two leash trick, I learned it in the house and garden first of all but it was far more difficult for me at first  at the beach or in the park.  One call was great, I love running my fastest to Mum when she calls me.  She often makes different surprises for me when I get there. Sometimes she'll drop a handful of treats over my head, another time we'll have a great game of tug or she runs off so I have to catch up with her.  I have to keep a close eye on where Mum is all the time because she isn't good at always walking just in one direction, and sometimes she hides from me.  We also play collar grab when I get back to her.  Now and then a collar grab means that my lead is going on, but I never know because mostly when we are out on the beach I just go off again.

Mum was really annoyed with me a couple of days after Christmas because I like to steal other dogs' tennis balls.  Well I got this one and I just would not bring it back.  They got it in the end because a young boy (who was with the other dog) grabbed my collar - good thing I know about playing collar grab else it might have frightened me.  Now Mum has determined that I need to learn to play with tennis balls when we're out and bring them back to her just like I do in the house or garden.   Yesterday and today she brought a whole bag full of tennis balls with us.  First she put Ponto's long leash on me then threw the ball.  I didn't go all the way back to her at first, but then I saw that she was having such fun all by herself with two other balls that I better get closer and drop the one I'd got.  As soon as I did that she threw another one for me so I ran back to where she was playing and dropped it and another ball was thrown for me.  I just loved this game, and today and the beach I did it without a long leash on, besides, she didn't have to stand on the lead once to stop me running away I was having too much fun.

Happy New Year

Well it's 1st January 2013 today and last night my mum was considering carefully both my goals for this year and her own.   Taking Susan Garrett's advice on this she visualised them as having been achieved by this time next year.
 
So imagine now it is 31st December 2013 and look at all these things we have done:

When we go to the beach I just love to chase my toy and bring it straight back for Mum to throw again even if it is my very favourite tennis ball and there might be another dog wanting to steal it from me.

Also on the way to the beach I walk loose lead so nicely next to her that people can hardly believe I'm a sprocker, except I look like a springer spaniel.

We played at least one or two Recallers Games every day.

Last year I learned loads of tricks and games and now I can do even more.   At the rest home where I visit the old people they love to see me hide my face behind my paw and cross my front legs. I do spins and twirls and walk backwards from my Mum.  I can skateboard and hold a pole in my front paws - I often borrow a walking stick to do this trick,  I even do the washing line trick that was Dylan's speciality before he developed his back problems.

We had a brilliant time at Devondogs Summer Camp and Mum learned loads.   She stopped accepting any  C.R.A.P. which is an acronym for (Continually Rewarding an Ambiguous Performance, courtesy of LOH)  from me.    This year she also made certain that when she asked me to do anything she followed through with that behaviour.

We have trained all year weekly for agility with Amy, who I really like although when I first went there I was a real naughty pants and stole her glove and it took me ages before I decided to give it back to Mum.  I was a baby then though, I am more sensible about these things now.  Ponto has been very helpful in my training because Mum trains her with Amy too and because Ponto is a good agility dog Amy is able to train Mum how to handle properly so that she doesn't mess it up so much when it comes to my turn.

All this has resulted in me becoming a good agility dog.  I just love tearing over jumps, weaving through poles and running across contact equipment and we chose to learn contacts with Amy in the 2o2o position and I always get my contacts!

I became a member of UKA and was measured when I was first about to enter a nursery class.  Luckily I am only 16 1/2 inches high at my withers and so I have been classified as Medium height.   Because of this it means that in 2014 Mum and I will go to some KC shows as well as UKA.   KC don't have a third height between medium and large and Mum thought it would be too high for me as she doesn't want me to strain my joints too much.

My first go in nursery at UKA was such fun.   I had to really focus on Mum and rely on her to tell me where to go and what to do even though I was very excited and wanting to run very fast, which I did.   She was so pleased with me at the end because I got a clear round.  I really enjoyed my first Steeplechase run too, there are only jumps and tunnels in that and so no stopping for contacts anywhere.   I got a clear round in that too and Mum was over the moon.  My first show and I won two rosettes.    In September I was old enough to enter the Midi Performance as well as Steeplechase.   Mum didn't want to overdo it with me so we just did three runs, Jumping, Agility and Steeplechase.   Next time we entered the games and it was Gamblers, where Mum decided where we would run before the gamble.   I thought I was just doing agility again but it was different because a whistle gets blown and then we have to race to the last little bit.   I won my first position rosette in that.     It is a big relief for Mum that I am enjoying playing at agility with her so much because she didn't enjoy play at agility with Ponto at shows because Ponto can be a big old grump and have a go at other dogs sometimes.

The other thing Mum has concentrated on this year apart from me, I'm the most important after all, is her studies.   She is taking an Open University Masters Degree in English Literature.  This means that I lie quietly in my crate, same as the older doggies, while she reads or types at the computer a lot.    She has worked very hard and her lowest mark for an assignment was 65% and her highest 85% so she is pleased.  She finds  it very rewarding doing all the reading and research but struggles a lot as, like me, she wants to be good at everything.

Percy and Dylan are still fine.  Percy's melanoma in her mouth hasn't increased at all, so hopefully she will have another year or so of enjoying trips to the beach and forest with the rest of us.  Dylan's back legs don't seem to bother him much either and he still loves racing along the beach with me.

I can't believe it, Grandma was 94 in November. I think she will live till she's 100.