I have some VERY exciting news...

...wait for it...

...wait for it...

Think you can handle it?

...wait for it...

Last night at flyball Izzy ran all four jumps, triggered the big scary box with a perfect box turn, and ran back all four jumps. Get her to retrieve and I'm gonna have a flyball dog by-golly! I was so happy! The only help she had was my trainer standing at the end and telling her "go box" so she'd know to hit it.

I think maybe she just did it to get out of the doghouse after our last trip to the fairgrounds...brat.

My new goal is to have her fully retrieving by the end of winter break *crosses fingers*

Izzy is wedged so far in the back of that doghouse...

Izzy and I went to the fairgrounds again yesterday, started out great as we were the only ones there. Continued to be great for about 25 minutes and Izzy had great recalls and was having an absolute blast, she had a major frapping thing going on.

Then...it all went to crap. Izzy, the dog with the perfect recall who always listens (as long as there aren't other dogs close by) and checks in with me every few seconds...failed.
There was a bird hopping around and she saw it, and then her brain flew out of her fluffy butt and that was the end. She took off, full tilt after the bird, I recalled her. She didn't even think about coming back, didn't even slow down. Just ran and ran. I waited a little bit, tried again, nothing.

So I just stood there and fumed as that little brat chased that stupid bird all over the place! I think the bird was taunting her, it didn't go above 2 feet off the ground and would fly ahead, land, look back and call at her. Regardless, I was not a happy camper.

Eventually she got tired and then she had the audacity to come sprinting back to see if I'd give her cookies. She didn't get any cookies. Though I did give her pets and made myself act happy because I didn't want her to associate coming back to me as being a bad thing. Not sure if it would work after she's been associating it with good things for almost 3 years, but why risk it?

We went straight home and Izzy is in the doghouse for all of the foreseeable future.

Izzy had a wee bit of a meltdown today...

I had a viewing to go to (my great-great-grandfather passed away, he was well into his 90's and it was the most celebratory viewing I've ever been to), so I didn't get a chance to walk the dogs until later in the evening. I also forgot to feed them this morning and didn't have anything thawed for this afternoon so they just ate a little bit ago. Oops. Anywho, so it was probably around 8pm until we got started with our walk. Izzy first, as usual, and since it was late I decided we'd take a new, long route as one of my most favorite things to do is walk in the dark. I know, not safe, but I have a ferocious corgi with me, people will be intimidated, I assure you.

Anyway, we ended up walking by the elementary school where every classroom made a scarecrow and they all set out on the little hill by the school. It looks really freaking creepy at night because it's just a large group of human shaped figures, they always scare me for a second before I remember what they are!

Well, this is the first time Izzy as seen them, and as soon as they came into view she started growling, the low in her throat "I'm scared shitless but I'm gonna act tough" growl. Previously I've only ever heard her do this to other dogs or new scary objects. I wasn't expecting it for these new, human shaped things. But she did. So in all my infinite wisdom I decide that she's only doing it because she can't see/smell them well and if I pick her up and take her over to smell them she'll be fine. Uh...duh? You idiot! So I carry her over, she sniffs them, I put her down and she cowers and starts licking her lips (a clear sign that she's really stressed out and I'm a complete idiot). Izzy is not a dog that cowers, I've never seen her cower from anything before.

I knew at that point that I'd crossed the line and really just needed to get out of there without making it worse than it already was. So we walked back towards the sidewalk, I had to carry her because walking through the rows of scarey scarecrows was just not an option for her. She reached out and sniffed one as we passed, and after we were about 200 yards away she was fine again, but I'm still kicking myself.

Hopefully they'll still be up tomorrow so I can take her down in the daylight and do some work with the clicker around them. It's not like scarecrows are something she's going to have to deal with every day, and I know for a fact she's walked past all kinds of scarecrow decorations this year on people's porches for Halloween, but I don't want to just forget about it. We'll see how it goes tomorrow if they are still up...

I guess this is going to be my Halloween post for the year?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

There are going to be some ch-ch-changes around here (and by here I mean my home) with the dogs over the next few weeks.

1. I've decided to stop feeding Mollie raw as she did not do well on it, at all. Not in the least. So last night I took a crash course on home-cooked pet food as I knew I didn't want to go back to feeding her kibble. I also decided that I'm going to try Izzy on this for a bit as well, just to see if I can't get her stool to firm up a bit. So I searched the internet, talked to some people on a dog forum I belong to, and went to the grocery store last night at 9 o' clock at night. Here's what I'm trying first...

2.5 lb hamburger
.5 lb plain yogurt
12 oz pureed sweet potato

The recipe also called for 4 oz of liver, but I'm going to hold off on the liver until my next batch, mainly because it will almost certainly cause loose stools. It also called for calcium, which the dogs will be getting through raw chicken wings at least once a week to keep their teeth clean, though I'm not sure how may they will be getting yet. Instead of the recommended fish oil capsules they will be getting a squirt of the Grizzly Salmon oil I have for their Omega 3s.

The biggest thing I'm really going to try and work towards is variety, both because it's good for the dogs and because Mollie gets sick of food very quickly. The amount of food that I made with the above recipe I'm thinking may last around 3 to 4 days or so, depending on how much Mollie and Izzy need to have per day.

I am also going to need a meat grinder. Turkey alone here is $5/lb when it's ground O.o I can't afford that! It'll be so much cheaper to grind my own food. They'll be getting stuff like squirrel, deer, etc too. Everything I feed raw that I can get off bone. I found last night at the store that they sell a lamb/veal/beef ground blend, it's only like $3/lb, so they will be getting that for sure too. I also looked at some of the fish they had set out (the actual fish counter was closed), and there was nothing under $8/lb sitting out! Again, O.o I'm hoping they sell cheaper fish at the actual counter.

I really do not think that dogs need vegetables and dairy products, but if they will eat it and are healthy and feel good on it, then so be it.

2. Frodo is driving me insane. He has started to be a real jerk towards Izzy and Mollie. Pushing Mollie around and starting scuffles with Izzy. So Mr. Jerkface is back on a stricter NILIF program, will be on a leash that's attached to my belt when he's awake, and sleeping in his crate at night.

Okay, so that's really all the ch-ch-changes that I have planned for now, but you never know when more will pop up and I will have to add them to tehlistofdoom!

Le Purpose o' de Blog.

Now that all of you, my (non-existent) readers, have been wooed by my fantabulous picture introduction, I guess it's time to bore you now...

Training - when I originally decided to stop posting Izsheflyingyet? and start this one, it was because there really just wasn't enough information to update regularly when the focus of the blog was solely on Izzy and her flyball training. So although much of this blog will be about Izzy and flyball, I also plan on focusing a lot on Frodo's reactivity issues with people and (to a much lesser extent) other dogs. I'd like to be able to look back once we've gone as far as we can with this issue and see how far we have come. I'll be using a combination of decensitization, having him focus on me, and the Look at That! game from Leslie McDevitt's Control Unleashed (amazing book, I highly suggest it to everybody). In addition to these two main components of the training section of this blog, I will also post regularly on stupid little tricks they learn and eventually, I hope, our Rally practice sessions.

Feeding Raw - As of today Izzy and Frodo have been fed a raw diet for 43 days. I'm trying to feed as close to a prey model raw diet as posssible, with 80% meat, 10% edible bone, and 10% organ meat (with 5% of that being liver), though right now I'm feeding more bone and no organ meat as both Izzy and Frodo have sensative stomachs and enjoy making this hard on me. I've been feeding Inky raw (though it's only been cut up bits of meat for now) for 3 days, and he seems to really like it. I'm gradually going to work him up to chunks of meat and eventually bone. Mollie started her raw diet yesterday and ate like a champ, though all today she turned up her nose at it. We shall see how long this strike lasts...

Pictures - Because all good blogs have pictures! Right now I only have a Canon Powershot S3 IS, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, though I would love a DSLR. I go through phases where I take pictures of everything and then I lose interest and won't pick up the camera for weeks, so that's pretty much how it will go.

Rants - Everybody loves a good rant. I think this is pretty self explanatory.

Misc. - Like the AKC I will have a group where I just throw random stuff.

I think that is all...