Monday, April 18th, 2016

Groups

Baxter went bouncing out to the yard. He soon came bouncing back to say a hello to me. When he was finished his greeting, Baxter set off to do some exploring. During his explorations he found himself a toy. Baxter went racing off with it in his mouth. He then came across Justice and asked him to play. They bounced around for a little while then Baxter went racing off with his toy once more. Baxter brought his toy over to a puddle and ended up dropping it. He spent the next several minutes trying to figure out to get it out with completely submerging his head. Eventually Baxter was successful. Shortly after he went racing off around the yard after Percy.

The next group decided to start their morning with some light exploring. Maple, Birdie, Sophie, and Nick didn’t make it very far into the agility yard when they stopped to check out the rocks and the puddles. Charlotte, on the other hand, was quick to race off further into the yard. When she realized no one was following her she went running to see what the others were up to. Sophie, having seen all she wanted, made her way over to the driest part of the yard. Charlotte and Birdie had no cares about the wet and were soon traipsing around in the mud puddle. Maple decided to stick with Nick and do some exploring in the grassy portion of the yard. It didn’t take long for her to need to run. Not too long after she started, Birdie and Charlotte joined in. The three of them went racing over to the tunnel and soon they were having a blast racing through it and over it and Ariel ended up on top of it. I left them to their antics and went to go and visit Sophie. She was pretty happy to see me and get lots of pets and loving. Charlotte and Birdie left the tunnel and ended up back in a puddle having a grand old time splashing about. Maple, having lost her running friends, went to wrestle with Aurora. After some wrestling Maple ran off and found herself a toy. She then had to go and rip around the yard showing it off to everyone.

Tanner, Kimi, Lobo, Zak, and Finnigan all set out to the agility yard to start their morning with a little exploring. It wasn’t long before Zak was off racing around the yard. Finnigan and Lobo were quick to go chasing after him. Kimi took a break from checking things out to watch the other three race around. Tanner wasn’t too interested in the running and continued on checking out anything that caught his attention. The racing fizzled out when Finnigan was distracted by something in the dirt. Lobo went to join Kimi and do a little exploring together. Kimi didn’t want to move too much since she found a dry spot to hang out. Zak went running over to the big puddle and settled himself down for a bit of a wallow. Finnigan never one to turn down fun in the water went to join him. Lobo made his way over as well but he wasn’t about to get himself overly wet or dirty and so was stuck watching from the edge of the puddle. Soon Zak left the puddle and went racing off around the yard once more with Finnigan and Lobo racing behind him. Tanner not wanting to be run over came trotting over to me for some pets and cuddles. After a little while he left me and headed back out to do some more exploring. Zak spotted him and went trotting over to see if maybe he might want to play. They bounced around for a little while until Tanner decided he wanted to do some more exploring. Finnigan took this break from running to go and find himself a toy to have a little chew. Lobo headed off to do more exploring around the yard. Zak ended up back in the puddle and Finnigan went to join him. Tanner came back over for some more pets. Towards the end of group Zak and Lobo started wrestle and have a ton of fun and Finnigan turned his attention to getting Tanner to play with him.

Tasha and Boris were so happy to go outside first thing this morning. Tasha had the biggest smile on her face as she was trotting around all the dogs in circles. Boris had so much energy that he started to play right away. He ran up to each dog and pounced at them to see their reaction before picking his playmate. As Boris was running around with the dogs Tasha stood by him to watch, she ran up for a little bit and ran with him and Boris started to tease her by running in the other direction. Tasha wasn’t as energetic as her son so she didn’t follow him across the yard, instead she stuck by me to be pet.

Juno and Zennon both have so much energy! They were so rambunctious in their kennel as I was about to let them outside that Juno couldn’t stop howling and Zennon was running around in circles. When they got outside they ran across the yard then calmed down as they started to explore. They both sniffed around for a while before meeting up with each other by the door, I called them over to me and knelt down as I gave them lots of cuddles. On their walk they both wanted to go off trail so badly to explore some more. After a bit of convincing I got them back on track and they were were behaving so well. When I put them back in their kennel I noticed I had a couple treats in my pocket and I gave them each one for being good dogs.

Maverick and Shyla are so sweet when they’re outside with our huskies. They all get along so well and it’s so obvious that Maverick has a little crush on the girls. When they got outside this morning they both went their separate ways as they started to sniff around. Shyla always takes off to the further yard to do some serious exploring by the fence. She always likes to be independent as she explores but when she’s done I call her over and she comes running over to me for cuddles. Maverick couldn’t seem to leave the girls alone and only sniffed around for a bit before following them around the yard. At one point he got so excited that he started to bounce around them to get their attention, once he did he started to jump on their backs to play.

Nymeria is such a crazy girl, you can tell just by the way she acts that she’s a puppy. This morning she was jumping up on the kennel door to go outside but when I opened the door she stepped away and didn’t want to walk through the doorway, after I helped her go through she ran as fast as she could outside to begin playing with the other dogs. Tennya ran outside and headed straight for the farther yard. She loves exploring there and always sniffs around the grass. She had her nose glued to the ground the entire time before I got her attention by showing her a bone. She ran up to me and snatched it out of my hand to go chew on it in the corner of the yard. Nymeria saw Tennya eating it and ran over to see her, she didn’t want the bone though she just wanted someone to play with her. Before Nymeria ran to see Tennya she was running around by the door near Winston. He’s not much of a player but he loves cuddles and attention. He was really entertained by the fact Nymeria was running bouncing around him in circles with no specific direction. He started at her as she played. I walked up to him to give him some cuddles and he jumped up on my legs as I was kneeling down to give me the biggest kisses ever. I got slobber all over my face! When he had enough of me he ran over to go see Julie by the door and sat with her until it was time to go inside. He loves to sit there and watch everyone rather than to run around. Tennya played with Nymeria for a little bit when she was done with her bone, she was getting so excited watching this little puppy running around that she was acting like one too! Tennya started to bounce around in circles to tease Nymeria and she kept on pouncing at her ankles in a playful way when they were running together. They both loved it!

Indi is such a funny girl, she has a very distinct personality I find that comes out when you’re with her one on one. In her kennel she loves to act like she’s the boss and do whatever she wants. When I walked in there this morning with her she jumped up and kangaroo kicked off of my chest! she kept doing it until I left, but outside she’s much more calm. She was sniffing around for a little bit but kept on getting distracted by all the dogs, she went up to each one just to say hello then ran back to me to be pet. She couldn’t stay anywhere too long though and was always on the move. She loved to run around but had too much fun following her nose to play tag with anyone, instead she just had a good time on her own while socializing with every body.

Enhanced

Boris got so excited as soon as he saw me. He then very quickly got himself under control and sat and waited for me to leash him up. We then made our way outside to do some work with a fair amount of distractions. I let Boris have a quick look around and then it was time to work. I started him with the easy stuff like ‘sit’ and down’ and took it a step further and worked on his focus. We also did a little recall work. With Boris much more focused and intent on work, we set of to do some loose leash walking. This then turned into some heel work. Boris was awesome and really impressed me. To end the session I asked him to watch me one more time while he was rather distracted. His eyes snapped to mine so quickly, it was awesome.

Next up it was Tasha’s turn. I headed outside with her as well. Tasha was super eager to work for the treats. We did some ‘sits’, ‘downs’, ‘stand’, and recall work. I then made her do some doggy push ups, which is basically going from a sit to down back to a sit. After that we just leisurely wandered the yard enjoying the nice afternoon.

Nymeria took a little while to become focused during her enhanced, since she has so much energy it takes a few minutes for her to calm down enough to listen to my instructions. Once I brought out treats she focused more on me but was still very excited and so we worked a bit on completing the task at hand whether a treat was present or not. She did very well at her basic commands and knew them all well without me showing her treats, but I had to show her a treat to get her to do recall and stay. I tried to work on “leave it” but she was more focused on me than the toy that I offered. We'll start with that one tomorrow.