What a difference a year makes! Sept 27 tracks with River and Caden

At this time last year I was concerned about River's tracking here, with a drier climate and higher altitude. In many ways she acted as if she had never tracked before, and was flustered - I was flustered too! There have been some very trying times, but I have plugged away, because I know she loves to track and I love to track with her! She turned nine in March and is no spring chicken, but awhile ago, I decided to retrain her starts. Last Saturday I laid a track for her at Red Deer College near the soccer field. It was deserted when I laid the track. However, to be safe, I did not go too far onto the field. I then went to track with the other dogs - everyone did a track last Saturday.

Sure enough, as I was doing a short track with Caden, a big bus pulled up full of students dressed in soccer clothes. ARGH! I watched as a few started to do leg stretches and situps right near my start flag. Another bunch started to job in groups RIGHT OVER RIVER'S 4TH LEG! At this point her track was about 2 hours old. I decided I had better run it before a soccer game started.

River did so well ON VEG that I actually think she buckled down more because of all of the fresh scent from the runners and athletes crossing her track. It was a dry, cool, cloudy day. After I finished tracking with all of the dogs, there was a terrible thunderstorm. I don't know if that created more moisture in the air, but she sure impressed me.

In the above video you can see I am restraining her but she is being very dedicated to finding her treats and searching the primary track. This is despite the fact that runners had been all over her track about 15 minutes before.


In the above video, River is shown approaching the first turn, which is AT the curb, to the right. I walked with one foot up and one down along this leg.
She had another turn just past the trees and headed for the parking lot, but I decided to turn left to follow the curbe again! I think she saw the parking lot ahead and started to cast in circles and to me, she was not really tracking, she was worrying. I decided to lie her down (above photo), which is a SchH idea. I patted her and had her calm down. Once she was calm, she decided on her own to get up and go.

Here she is on the hard surface portion. There are two left turns. You can see her dip her nose, which is what I watch for. She also finds little pieces of dried liver in places. End of the track. It is feeling like old times with River, now that she is more confident in this new climate.
I've also been working hard on Caden's SchH style tracking. At this time last year he was still such a baby. I was renting a house in Ponoka and was simply proud of all of the dogs for making the transition (and proud of myself too).

He has so much drive and is very strong. This is OK, as long as he has his nose down and is checking the footsteps. I am still trying three tracks, two straight ones, and one with a turn. Last Saturday I decided that on his third track I would do two turns. As you can see, he did a nice job, but was still a bit too fast.

Ted and Jet did short tracks too, but I was rushing because of the soccer players and got no photos!

The Fur N Foliage event in pictures

Just a few photos I managed to take at the shelters annual dog walk event on Saturday.

The party can start once the dynamic duo arrives.

Who doesn't love that face?

The raffle table. Sadly I did not win the pink "Tiki Hut" dog house though I tried.

Beginning of the walk.

The agility guy decided to no show at the last minute so my gear was brought as the back up plan. Luckily I had some to bring.

Everyone had a blast on trying it out.

Minos made some new friends.

The food area. I can vouch that the hot dogs were fabulous.

Can you guess this guys breed? (photo above)

Giving out the big prizes to the walkers that raised the most in donations. (Congrats Missy!)

Susan and her helper filling out the "show" awards. Dog tags were being engraved at the table to the left.

We had a Santa's photo tent as well.

My sister and her boy kept me company at the table.

And me and my fancy signs. Who doesn't love FREE advice? We had great weather and a very fun crowd. I look forward to next years event.

Courses, Hollywood Dog Obed. Club - 9/27/2009

Before I reveal today's courses, I want to give a hearty THANK YOU to the Hollywood Dog Obedience Club & it's wonderful exhibitors. You guys were all an absolute blast to hang out with.

There was only 1 issue semi-worth mentioning & I bring it up simply as an fyi/lesson for all.

The issue had to do with an exhibitor who was not thrilled with their dog's VMO measurement. No problem, I can understand their concern when a dog measures up, but as I indicated, they would have an opportunity to receive a 3rd tie-breaker measurement - no big deal.

However, the issue accelerated when the exhibitor turned their back to me during the conversation and continued to verbally express their displeasure amongst a crowd of people.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me. However, how you handle your disagreement is what counts and that's the point I'd like to make. There's no need to be disrespectful and in this case, verbalizing in a passive-aggressive manner to a crowd is poor sportsmanship.

As one of the witness exhibitors said to me "I'm so impressed with how you held your ground and wasn't intimidated by their poor behavior." The truth is, judges are NOT out there to screw people. While most exhibitors realize that, there are the select few who chose to take everything as a personal assault. Bottom line, if you don't agree with the judge, the issue is NOT up for debate, negotiation, commentary or criticism and emotions & knee-jerk reactions need to be avoided as they're comparable to a two-year old sticking their tongue out at an adult.

Learn from others' bad behavior and just don't go their.

OK, onto the Excellent Standard course.

On paper, this looked a bit wicked in a few places, specifically the #12 jump to the a-frame. However, I LOVED how it ran and the #10 - #13 sequence was my absolute favorite. But before I jump ahead of myself, let me back up a bit.

Sequence #4-6 was a straight line and except for just a few dogs, there were no off-courses. The larger challenge turned out to be the push-out to the #10 jump. Several handlers pushed out and then pulled back too early, causing a refusal at this jump.

Now on to my favorite section....I just loved the slalom-like maneuvering dogs did from #10 - #13. First it was the left turn to #10 & #11, then the right turn to #12, then the left turn to #13. This portion really highlighted the dog's athletic ability and kept both the handier and dog engaged. For me personally, it was very fun to watch.

The last sequence, #15 - #18 was handled quite nicely with no real surprises. Handlers were great at holding their ground after the chute to ensure the dogs would come in to them and stop their forward momentum toward the off-course jump. This group made it look easy!

Thanks again for another wonderful weekend.

I'm so glad to say that I caught an early flight home and won't be traveling until mid-October. I miss my home, husband and dogs, so this will be a nice break from the frequent flyer marathon I've been on this last month.

Oh, the only other noteworthy item was that the guy next to me on the airplane started talking about how he didn't enjoy sex with his x-wife and how his new wife was 'Wow!'. I couldn't even begin to tell you how that subject came up, but I'm getting really good at redirecting conversations back into 'safe territory'. Well, as the country song says 'God is great, Beer is good and people are crazy....'

Dog Heart Beat: Irregular Heartbeat in Dog

Irregular Heartbeat in Dog

Gosh... there's nothing to think that I am a vet. Let me, at the very outset, clear out one confusion. I write about dogs, dog behavior, dog emotions, dog food, dog breeds etc. You can also find some articles on dog diseases in this blog but I am not a veterinary practitioner. I am a dog lover, and love spending most times studying about them. I have dogs - who are my major sources of information. All I write here are what I have been learning by staying in close relation with dogs for over 15 years. The last week I received an email from somebody called Tina, who has a male Dob. She said that she is a regular reader of this blog... Thank you Tina and all my visitors for dropping by my blog! Tina said that her dog seems to be a little uncomfortable before he fall asleep. Whenever her dob is lying, he seems to be discomfort due to irregular heartbeat. She want an advice from me as she thought that I am a vet. No, I am not a vet... just a dog lover like you guys. Well, I had a similar experience! Tina's email reminded of my Cizar (Pronounce 'Scissor'), who had the same problem. This post is all about the dog heart rate and irregular heartbeat in dogs. Here are certain information about irregular heartbeat in dog that I could gather from my vets and other sources when Cizar was alive. I continued studying about heart issues in dogs from various sources. So, here's something that you might find really helpful!

Dogs don't always show rhythmic beats; a slight break in the rhythm of heartbeats of dog as he inhales and exhales is quite normal, although the heartbeat should be strong, prominent, steady, regular and evenly spaced rhythm. Factors like fear, anxiety, fever, excitement, increases the heart rate in dogs. Exceedingly fast heart rate in dogs also indicates anemia, severe loss of blood, shock, dehydration, heat stroke, and/or cardiac and pulmonary diseases. On the other hand cardiac ailment, pressure on the brain, or in worse cases it indicates an advanced morbid condition leading to collapse of the circulatory system are the indicative of slow pulse rate. Excessively irregular, i.e. unevenly spaced heartbeats or disordered pulse in dogs under normal situation is a sign cardiac arrhythmia.

Vets use stethoscope to listen to the dogs heart beats. We can do it ourselves without a tool. Just place your era against the dog's chest and you can get the heart sounds clearly, provided there's no external noise around. The sound s should be distinctive and number of beats of most adult dogs at rest position range between 60 to 160 per minute depending on the breed size. The puppies in normal condition shows the heart rate around 220 beats per minute.

The heart sounds shouldn't heard all over the chest region. If it happens you dog has probably an enlarged heart and it's the time to give a call to your vet. You can hear heart murmurs... common thing, if the murmurs are not too intense. Slight heart murmurs are normal and caused by speedy blood flow through the heart. Serious and intense murmurs are indication of heart disease and/or anatomical defects. Anemia also causes heart murmurs. Your vet is the right person to diagnose what kind of murmur it is and what should be the steps of treatments. The seriousness of the heart murmur can only be determined by a chest x-ray and/or an echocardiogram (ECG) or an echocardiogram.

"Cardiac Thrills" in dogs are again serious issue. Cardiac thrill is describe as the palpable high-frequency vibration felt on the wall of the chest over the heart. If a dog has a structural defect in heart the speedy flow of blood causes vibrational sound called Cardiac thrills, which may accompany cardio-vascular ailments and cardiac murmurs. A thrill indicates serious cardiac condition.

If your dog seems to have any of these condition(s), you should call for a vet. No wait, no experiment, no taking time... just be serious about your dog's cardiac health. Most likely heart conditions in dogs are heart murmur, enlarged heart, Dilated Cardio Myopathy (DCM) etc. and are caused due to deficiency of L-Carnitine (antioxidant - natural protein) and Taurine (amino acid found naturally in the muscles of the body and heart tissues) deficiency. Bad news is that there's no way to say, except conducting a biopsy of heart tissue, if a dog is deficient in these essential nutrients. And sadly this investigations cannot be routinely carried out on living dogs. You can find L-Carnitine and Taurine pet supplement, that many vets are preferring to maintain the cardiac health in dogs.

You might like to read about Blood Pressure in Dogs, Canine blood pressure measurement. I thought you will also be interested in how YOUR stress can affect your dog!

Courses, Hollywood Dog Obed. Club - 9/26/2009

Today I was successful in staying out of the very hot sun the majority of the day, but I was a tad bit worried about the Standard judge. It had to be 115+ in the sun, but she did hold up. Standard, with no shade, had to have been brutal.

Today I had jumpers and started off the day with Excellent. The course flow was terrific for the dogs with it's big loops and handlers looked very comfortable with the increasing dog speed as the course continued.

Obstacles #7 - #14 was a NASCAR race track for the dogs with a bit of collection and a side switch between #14 & #15. Ironically, this sequence was very similar to a challenge on yesterday's Standard course (not done intentionally), although in this case, the dog's path & momentum made the sequence much smoother.

I drew in red the path the majority of handlers did, which was a rear cross on the landing side of #14 so that the dog was on their right side going over jump #15.

The last line of jumps was a straight run to the end and the dogs seemed to really enjoy it.

I've also added my Open & Novice JWW course as the nesting was nice while still keeping the appropriate amount of challenges.

On other news, the club and handlers have been very supportive, nice and helpful. The other judge and I have worked hard (thanks to the effort of the ring crew and exhibitors) to move through the trial in a systematic order so that no dog or person was left sitting in the sun. Lots of folks are helping out when they can and it's been pleasant.

We go back in a bit for an evening BBQ and I'm looking forward to it. I heard the film crew for the Mentalist was briefly back again today so I'm still hopeful to run into Simon!

Although, I can't understand why he hasn't stop by to say "hi"?!?!?

I Guess being an AKC Agility judge doesn't have much pull here in the Hollywood area .

Ah, a girl can dream though....

Border Collie Walk and ball update

My friend Penny and I walked the Border Collies at Three Mile Bend last Sunday and I got some great shots!

Three Mile Bend is a phenomenal dog park...huge, with tons of places to swim. Penny has the boomerang, and the dogs are "staring" and waiting for her to throw it! From left to right are Duncan, Jet, Brock, Ted (foreground) and Ruby. Jet and Ted are mine. And yes, we can tell them apart. My little "Otter" Jet brings it back while everyone waits to pounce on shore, including someone's Bernese puppy. I didn't get a photo but Penny's boy Brock has so much style, he could be a dock-jumping dog! However, he was wooing Jet on the whole walk, so in gentlemanly fashion, "let" her retrieve the toy. Here is Brock flirting with an unreceptive Jet. He thought it was the best walk ever! Jet thinks he is an idiot (that is what Jet thinks of everyone, nothing personal).
"Lie Down! Autumn Pathway. We can't resist practicing our herding commands and they are handy on the walk. Remember in "Border Collie language" it can mean to stand or lie down, but does mean stop. It's all in the tone. "Buddy" the Great Dane stops by. He looks like one of the Moose I hear frequent the Bend in the mornings and evenings! But, a friendly guy. Notice Jet looking away. She thinks he is an idiot.

My dogs have Balls!!! Back home - ball update. I now am the proud owner of four dogs and four Giggle Balls. Ladies' sizes and boy - size. I just can't believe how River plays with her own ball. In nine years I have not seen her so enchanted with a toy! I might even bring it tracking!

Scott Glen and Don win 2009 USBCHA Nursery Championship!

Please go to Jenny Glen's blog to see PHOTOS and read this exciting news. The finals are in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Jenny took a great photo of the pen, after Scott and Don completed the course. I get choked up just looking at it. You can read more about Alta-Pete Stockdogs here.

Don is also the Canadian Nursery Champion. What a year! His mother Star is handled by Alasdair MacRae. I've seen Star in trials and she is a beautiful dog to watch. She has WON the USBCHA Open championship twice. The time I saw her in Wisconsin was a week before the National. She is owned by Eileen Steinman. His sire is Don, and Irish import.

Below is a picture I took of Alasdair and Star getting the shed in Wisconsin (Jefferson)...Don's mother.

Scott was the first Canadian to WIN the USBCHA, and with Pleat who he bred (Ted's sire). He also won reserve that year. Last year, Ian Zoerb from Alberta won the National. All I can say is I AM SO PROUD AND HAPPY! and GO ALBERTA!! WHOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I feel so blessed to be associated in a small way with such a great trainer, and nice person who truly deserves this win. For those who don't know, the Nursery is like the Kentucky Derby, where the best up and coming young dogs under three compete in tough conditions.

The Open finals continue tomorrow. How I would love to be there. Thank heavens for some good blogging by those involved to keep us up to date!

Courses, Hollywood Dog Obed. Club - 9/25/2009

I'm down in Southern California and it is very dry and HOT at 105 degrees. Lucky for me, my judging path was a saunter and not a marathon.

Some of the local exhibitors were starting a pool as to which judge would cave first from heat exhaustion. Apparently it's not uncommon for judge's to go back to the hotel with heat stroke.

Well I'll tell you, I'm feeling ill. But not from heat stroke...I ate way too much at the Cheesecake Factory. It was so good, I just couldn't stop!

Back to agility....Today I judged Excellent Standard and you'll notice #2-5 is similar to last week's NC course, however the rest has an entirely different feel.

Often times when I come into an area to judge, the local handling flare comes out. That was the case today as handlers maneuvered obstacles #6-8. I'll admit, my thought on how handlers would negotiate this sequence was different than what actually occurred.

In the diagram, I've got the handler's path in red and the general dog's path in green. Let's talk about the handler first.

I'd guess that 90% of the handlers did a front cross on the landing side of #6 and then added a rear cross on the take-off side of #7. Unfortunately, as you can see from the dog's path, most dogs either went to the right on landing after #7 or they had to do a hard adjustment to turn toward the left toward #8.

When I had designed this course, I had imagined handlers would treat this sequence either as a pinwheel where they kept the dog on the right (and possibly adding a front cross on the landing side of #7/take-off side of #8) or by doing a post turn over #7 so that handlers could stay on the left side down to the a-frame.

The area that most impressed me was #13 - #18 and the speed and distance handlers had. They were able to make this look smooth.

OK, on to other non-agility news. Before we began the agility trial, there was a film crew out at the park where we were filming an episode of the Mentalist. Ah, I just love that show! As I said to a few friends, I'm not a star chaser, but the thought of seeing Simon's smile 'live' had me rubber necking in hopes of spying him. Unfortunately no luck, but it was fun to be in the same place.

Tomorrow is jumpers and I'm hoping my judge's path is in the shade. Could I be so lucky? After judging, the club is doing a BBQ and Croquet is on the agenda as well. Ah, anyone know how to play????

Teaching an old dog new tracking tricks

I am proud to say that River has been learning some new ways to track, at nine years young! I had always let her cast too much, in part because I was a greenhorn at urban tracking, and in part because I thought it was her style. But it is a waste of energy - especially in dry conditions and at her age. So I have been spending the past month working on a strong scent pad and start using footstep style tracking methods. River is UTDX-ready but I want to improve her veg starts...there is no end to training and her hard surface work is much better than her veg now, which can happen if you don't keep up your veg work in tracking. In the video below you can see she is getting it at the beginning. I've spent the past month doing ONLY veg with her, and lots of scent pads and starts. She liked this because it meant lots of cookies. This was her first hard surface track since early August. You can see how hard she is working at the start to keep her nose down! I am so proud of her. We were tracking in the evening and by the time we ran it, it was pitch black at 8:30 PM.

She starts out good on non-veg, but I can see that she is slightly stressed about how I am keeping her on track by using a tighter line. When she began to make small circles, I said no once, but she is not used to verbal corrections. I decided I would keep a tighter line and restrict the size of her circles with a tight line. She did this Open Box shaped track to the glove, and despite some circling on hard surface I was very happy. I stopped video -taping to help her and handle the line better. There were enough treats that she got going again and it was a positive experience. But, it was the START I was working on. Sometimes when we train, we have to realize that when you try to fix one problem, another one can pop out. Bob Vest, a herding clinician, compared this to a bucket of water. When you plug one hole, another one can pop out, draining your bucket. With work, you plug the holes so your bucket (the dog) can carry all of the water.
I headed out around 7 PM but by the time I laid tracks and ran dogs, it was after 8 PM and pitch black. I went to a Church that has a big field and nice parking lot. The grass was very sparse, but it let me see where I placed my treats to ensure the dogs stayed on track. I wanted to focus on handling, but did snap a few pictures of the other dogs.
Caden did three tracks much like we did two weekends ago. By the time we did his last track it was pitch black and I could not see my landmarks, but he did he turn dead-on making me feel very confident in this training approach.

I did a short L - track with Jet as well. She did an awesome job of following the painted line after her non-veg turn. Ted did a scent pad and start only, as he needs to calm down to get going. As usual, I drove home on a tracking high! Even though the season is changing, it is still great to get out.

Three dog days and a Missy update

Sometimes having 3 dogs is a challenge. Not in the day to day routine which would be the same regardless of how many dogs I had, but in the little details. I happen to have 3 very different dogs so trying to provide for their specific individual needs is where the challenge comes in. Each has different exercise requirements as well as different mental stimulation needs. Fortunately for me only one is high energy. Most of the time I find this fun. My dogs are all very cool.
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Adding to that challenge lately are my issues with one that isn't doing so well. Missy has progressed to having her episodes much more frequently. She also had a pretty big seizure yesterday as well. Fortunately I caught it on video which is on it's way to the specialist along with other video of her symptoms and her x-rays. We thought we had it figured out but either we are completely wrong or we are on the right track and she just needs different medication. Or something in between. (or I thought I knew what was going on even tho I didn't really because I was in denial to avoid that whole loss of control thing) Interestingly she seems to be doing somewhat better since the seizure but that may be due to a medication change just before it.
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Dealing with a dog that was before very low maintenance (she is the perfect dog I must admit) to one that is high maintenance on top of keeping the other two happy at the same time has been interesting to say the least. Many days I have felt like I am floundering in that department. Beyond the general stuff with the dogs there is also the matter of the kids, husband, and work as well. I am mentally exhausted most days, hence my lack of posting. Thank goodness my family already has low expections of my domestic responsibilities.
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I was also circling my wagons so to speak. I know there will be differing opinions on what I should have done and what I should do next with Missy's case. I wasn't sure how much I wanted to share because I wasn't ready to dodge the arrows. (been blogging awhile so I know how it can get with public opinion) I do not mind suggestions and opinions as long as they are given in a respectful manner and with the consideration that no one knows my big picture situation. Consider too that sometimes what a person wants to do and what they can do may not be the same thing.
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For now I must wait and see what the specialists say and go from there. Think good thoughts that it is something not to big bad and scary. I haven't forgotten about the training posts I promised. Once things are back to a dull roar I will get back to that task.
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For anyone local (Mid-Coast Maine) please come join me at the Humane Society of Knox County's annual pet walk on Saturday. I am doing a training demo and manning the free training advice table as well. Stop by and say hello. Another area trainer will be doing an agility demo and Santa will be on hand for photos with your pet. There will also be a micro chipping clinic for those in need. It is always a fun event and is a great fundraiser for our local shelter. Please come support them and make a donation. I know this year they are in great need of donations and have MANY mouths to feed. FMI check out their site: http://www.humanesocietyofknoxcounty.org/ Hope to see you there!

Heart...

With a title like Heart, I'll bet you're expecting a flowery inspirational message. Well, not today ladies & gents!

Today's blog is about the rock band Heart!

As you can see by the pictures (from my camera phone), I spent last night at the State Fair which featured Heart as the entertainment for the evening. Heart is from Seattle so it wasn't surprising that the show was sold out and the crowd was hyped.

One of the best things about being an adult is going back and doing things you didn't get to do as a kid. Seeing Heart, a band whose music I grew up with, happens to be one of those things. As some rockers age, they loose their edge....

So are you wondering if Heart is among them? Well, let me just say the concert was AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING!!!

Ann's voice is soul gripping and she made the notes sound effortless. Seriously, I left the concert certain I could belt 'em out as graceful & powerful as she did! Lucky for everyone, I got over that euphoria quickly before I foolishly acted on that pipe dream .

I've been to dozens of concerts and shows in my lifetime. Everything from musicals, symphonies and opera up through country, heading into cult bands like the Grateful Dead and into rock bands such as the Police, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi and Motley Crew (to name just a few).

What makes a concert or show so amazing is when you feel the energy and mood as if you were hearing it fresh and for the first time. It's captivating and takes you out of reality (without the use of drugs - a slight poke at the Grateful Dead followers of the old days ).

In this case, I've listened to Heart's music for decades and have always enjoyed it. Last night, I got to live it with the artists and watch it come alive on stage. I could actually feel the power of Ann's voice from within myself. It was easy to be carried away into feeling the connection through their music.

Beyond Ann's soulful sound, credit also needs to be given to the musicians creating the beat, complimenting the mood and bringing the sound alive with their exceptional talent. This is a solid band whose sound can only be described as 3-D because it has so much dimension.

Nancy's guitar talent is beyond impressive and her voice is beautiful as well. An added addition to their line-up of guitarists was a gentleman from Alice in Chains, a rock band with a bit of an edge.

I have to say, if you EVER have a chance to see Heart in concert, do NOT pass it up. I'm off to go dig up my old Heart CD's to download onto my ipod...maybe I'll try out those high notes while nobody is home