Leg lift trick

On wet days I find myself stuck in the house doing different tricks with the dogs.  Wicket is my advanced trick dog, since I have become better over the years at being able to teach shaping.  I tend to work on things that are a little more basic with my other dogs.  Okay, lets talk a little about the leg lift.  For years I have done balance work with my dogs & this takes it to the next level.  I don't know if this will work for you but thought I would share & you could come up with your own leg lift game.  After I taught Wicket to handstand I moved on to this trick on accident.  I set out the plunger & since he had done the back foot work recently for handstands, Wicket started offering a back foot to the plunger.  Of course the plunger fell over but I quickly rewarded seeing that this could be very useful.  I set the plunger again to see what would happen.  Wicket started lifting his leg to touch the plunger but knowing it would fall over didn't put pressure on it.  I did that several times then moved the plunger to the other side of his body which caused him to lift his other back leg.  I plan to phase out the plunger later.  This is Wicket's second session with the leg lift work.

Enjoy!

Leg lift video

Dog tricks

A few people have been interested in how I taught Wicket to do his handstand.  Here is my link that shows a short video on how to get started.  http://youtu.be/l3XwiENseyo
After you do the ground work test your dogs skills along a wall or door.  If the dog needs help start with your target object on the door.  Here is the end result.  http://youtu.be/_k03eNnw0-M

Happy dog training! -Heidi

learning...

The last couple of trials I have been doing some experamenting in the ring.  I wanted to push my team hard & see how we could handle things.  I found some interesting things.  When I let worry or stress creep in no matter the form I didn't run or handle my team very well.  When I focused on my team, running hard and didn't babysit we did some amazing things.  I was super happy with several runs.  A favorite run from each dog was the resent AKC standard run.  No, we did not "Q" but I walked away happy with how each dog did & how I ran.  Some may think it sad that we just barrly missed the Q but I like to think what fun we had & how much better we are going to do next time. :)

A Wicket video

The dogs and I went out for a show & go to practice.  Not bad for taking some time off from agility training.  I look forward to the USDAA trial coming up in a few weeks.  -H



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2SQUmxbJeA

Treibball

                                                       Heidi with Chloe & Wicket

It has been close to a year since I posted anything so I thought I'd get back into things with the new sport I have been training with my dogs called Treibball.  It is kind of like teaching your dog to play soccer.  Soccer is my favorite sport so what could be better then dogs & soccer together.  I just finished filming a mini video that gives an overview of Treibball.  Enjoy! -Heidi

Intro to Treibball

Cake anyone?

Blueberry Yogurt Coffee Cake

A recipe from the Best of Life book that I made over the weekend.  A healthier dessert that was wonderful.  It has homemade granola (also Best of Life) on top & I drizzled a little agave nectar to make it just a touch sweeter.  Definitely a keeper in our house!

December

 Being silly with Daddy.

 Eating an apple like a big girl. 

Ellie had a wonderful Christmas.  Lots of family fun and goodies to eat.  Wishing you all the best! -Heidi

Cleveland updates

October went by fast and November is going even quicker.  We are in the middle of adding an extra room onto the house.  I am looking forward to Ellie's room being finished so things wont be so busy anymore.  Any good decorating ideas are welcome.

I loved dressing Ellie up for Halloween!  She was the cutest little honey bee :)  We also had her urology check up recently and we were hoping everything would be great but it is about the same.  So we will do a recheck next year & hope for better news. 

I had two agility competitions last month with Chloe & Wicket.  Chloe finished a title and Wicket got his first agility Qualifying run.  We have a few things to work on to make the next trial even better.

This morning as I was getting ready I saw the cutest thing.  In my vanity mirror I could see Ellie.  She had pulled several books off her shelf and was sitting in the middle of them.  In her lap Ellie had one of her dog books open turning the pages to feel the different fabrics (a touch & feel book).  I couldn't help but smile at my sweet little book worm. 

Unplugged

After reading an article about a family giving up all technology for five days I decided it would be fun to try something similar.  For the month of October our family is giving up TV every Sunday.  Lets face it I watch way more TV then I need & I don't watch near as much as the average person.  I thought this would be a good way to get out and do other things during a month were the weather is awesome.  Have a family outing at the park or pick up a good book (which I am over due for).  Who knows maybe it is a tradition in the making.  I'll keep you updated on our simple Sundays.

How to win...

...a $5 Starbucks or Braums card.  I am looking for a new name for my blog.  Gone to the dogs doesn't cover everything.  Now that Todd & I have Ellie I post a lot about her too.  To enter post or email me your suggestions along with your name.  You can give as many names as you like.  Please remember to keep it clean & be creative.  Next Tuesday I will post the winner!!!  Thank you for the help everyone! -H

the scary wiggles

As I'm sure every parent experiences at some point or another babies become wiggle worms.  Ellie can wiggle and squirm with the best of them.  One Sunday Todd (dada) named her the pink tornado as she spun around none stop during church service.  This morning I had one of my greatest fears happen.  As I change Ellie's diapers she has gotten into the habit of sitting up multiple times during the change.  Sometimes I can distract her and keep her still with a toy, singing or even holding the diaper cream bottle.  As Ellie is getting older those little thing keep her less and less interested in being still on the changing table.  Standing right in front of Ellie I still was not quick enough to prevent the fall.  Yes, my 13 month old took a swan dive off the changing table!  Thankfully, it was into her bed and she hit nothing but mattress.  Talk about scary!  So, now we are moving to the floor for changing time.  I look forward to Ellie obeying when Mommy tells her to be still so she won't get hurt. 

Cake!

A wonderful lady from church (Kris) told me she really wanted to take birthday pictures of Ellie.  Kris made a cake especially for Ellie.  I wasn't sure if Ellie would do much with the cake since she was very neat at her party.  After warming up Ellie finally got into the cake and even decided to stick her foot in it (soccer play?).  We had a blast!  Thank you so much for the wonderful memories Kris!

Happy Birthday Ellie Rose!

I loath...

Scorpions!  Waking up to someone telling me "move, move there is a scorpion in the bed" is not what I wanted to hear last night.  Then to my horror have my pillow used to squish the thing.  My pillow did no damage to the scorpion but a shoe on the bed did (after several attempts).  I was the flashlight gal during this bug squishing episode.  After the thing was dead I checked and rechecked my pillow before using it.  My nerves were on edge that is was very hard to go back to sleep.  Just a few weeks ago I was chased down by a scorpion in the bathroom.  After Todd squished that one we were talking in the kitchen were I spotted a light brown moving critter on my shoulder from the corner of my eye.  Let me just say Todd said my feet were moving so fast it reminded him of a cartoon.  Then of course I landed squarely on my rear which lead to a nice size black & blue mark.  Yeah, that one just turned out to be a June bug that landed on me but at the moment I so thought it was a scorpion.  I look forward to cooler weather for many reasons and the scorpions leaving is at the top of it.

experiments...

So I did some experiments this week.  One,  almond milk & pudding mix does not thicken very well.  Two, getting dogs to pay attention to me when coming out of the house.  My dogs have good recalls but when we first exit the door for walks things are a little crazy.  Wicket is so excited up races out the door (once released on cue) and makes a line between me & the tree line (bunnies & squirrels oh my).  During the back and forth runs of Wicket, Chloe is afraid she will miss the fun critters too.  Now Wicket never leaves my sight but Chloe does & comes back 85% of the time when called.  I have been working on ways to keep them from doing their ritual run out the door.  Treats work with Chloe but once I am done Wicket still goes crazy & makes his frantic run.  So, I tried toys.  Well, well I think we found a winner.  I pulled out several toys & let the dogs tug with me when they came out.  Since I only have two hands & have to push a stroller they had to take turns as we walked.  Once I told them all done they would walk a head of me & we would play recall games.  If the dog came, that I called, fast on the first call they got to tug with me.  This was way more fun then all the critters in the woods.  Now I have a way to reinforce my recalls, not running crazy when first leaving the house and that mama is lots of fun.  Granted this was not difficult for my dogs since they have a recall foundation.  Think outside the box for the behaviors you want to change.  -Heidi

The 4th of July

 Heidi, Ellie & Todd

Ellie 10 months old

The three of us went to have sweets with some of our family on the fourth of July.  Ellie had a great time getting into things.  No fireworks this year because Ellie was just way to tired to stay up.

A TV star...

Well, five minutes of fame anyway.  Chloe and I filmed for our local TV show Dog Talk.  Chloe is tv material but I better stick with dog training.  After driving for an hour and a half I finally made my way into the KSBI studio.  I felt so bad that everyone had to wait on me the one and only who couldn't seem to find the place.  The staff at KSBI were all very nice about my direction disability and we finally got the filming done so they could go home.  The episode Chloe and I will be one airs August 6th.  Check us out!

The busy dog trainer-June

How many of us keep track of our dog training? One thing I have learned over the years is the people that excel at what they do usually keep track of their training one way or another. I am a big fan of quick and easy record keeping. I am going to share with you one way to keeping track of your dog training. First, I make a spreadsheet on the computer. I list the skills for a week that I want to work on. Then, in the columns next to the skills I can place the date that I worked on it & the number of times a day. This helps motivate me to do daily training with my dogs & gives something specific to work on. Now that being said I use this for skills my dogs have already been taught & I am wanting to improve upon. When I teach a new skill I keep track differently because I need to do more writing on that new skill.

Tea Tree Oil

Most of us know that tea tree oil helps keep fleas & ticks away from our dogs but it can also help with another pesky bugger. I'm talking about chiggers! I just happened to run out of my dog shampoo (with tea tree oil) & was using another that had been sitting in the cabinet for a while. Todd & I keep getting chigger bits when we were in the house. I finally came to the conclusion that in years past we had never had this problem because I used shampoo with tea tree oil on our dogs. So, I set our to buy some shampoo & see if I was right. As soon as all the dogs were bathed the the furniture sprayed with tea tree oil & water we had no more chigger bits. The only down side to this is you have to bath the dogs once a week &/or spray them with tea tree oil every time the go out. That being said I live in the country were the dogs get into the tall grass. If you live in a neighbor hood then you are not going to have chigger problems like us country folks. Just thought I would share what I learned this month! -Heidi

The nine month old

Just before Ellie turned nine months she decided to try everything. Ellie started crawling, standing while holding on to things & her first tooth came in. It has been an exciting time! Ellie is keeping me on my toes now that she is on the go. Here are a few pictures of her.