Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Flyball Running...For Me

Worked on Kastle's drive to the box for more speed, which involved me sprinting half-way down and back with him. I was very warm!

My video - I need to lose weight and start running again!
Kastle's video :-)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

TN Trip

We packed up the crew (minus Eden, who stayed with my parents), and headed to TN on Friday and stayed through Sunday. We stopped on the drive several times to let the dogs stretch their legs and get some fun pictures.

Kastle and Ike - Kastle at 1 year and Ike at almost 3 years.
Kastle was a little distracted...
At Cabela's with the giant, fighting bears.
The rest of them at Cabela's are HERE.

I wanted to get some pics showing Kastle's athleticism as well. He is such a leaper :-)
Intense little guy.
We had fun!
The rest of those pics are HERE.

On the drive, the squishy ball that he swallowed 3-4 weeks ago at flyball, finally turned up...it was swelled up 2-3x times the size it was when it went down and instead of yellow, now it's black. Tennis ball for size comparison.
 Gross but I'm just glad it finally turned up and I don't have to worry about an obstruction any longer.

We stopped at the river for some dock jumping. I practiced with Kastle off the dock, on the grass beside the water hoping that the leap for the toy would transfer to the dock and thus, a farther jump. No luck really...oh well, we'll keep trying!

I had Kastle evaluated by the helper/trainer that we plan on working with when we move, for IPO. He said that Kastle was a good dog and I would be able to go as far as I wanted with him. We are aiming to make it to Nationals with a non-embarrassing score :-) Someday, maybe. He had good barking, was calm when needed, good obedience and we got homework to do. He needs to work on focus in distracting environments (we trained next to multiple soccer fields...with soccer balls LOL) and his tracking was "sleeper"ish so we also are going to work on the drive to track and my line handling. Overall, a fantastic visit and I'm really excited to move and get to work on Kastle's IPO training. He figures that Kastle is actually mentally mature enough to start protection when we move - can't wait! :-D

Saturday, May 19, 2012

All Healed Up

Kastle's gums are all healed up :-)
Silly boy...
The rest of his teeth pics from today are HERE.

Kastle and Huck Finn

Kastle found Madix's "baby", it's a couple of years old now, a rope that they both love(d) to carry it around.
 Love this fuzzy butt...
The rest of Kastle with the rope are HERE.

Finny *loves* Kastle and they play together SO well, I love to watch them interact.
The rest of the photos with Finn and Kastle are HERE.

Happy One Year Birthday Kastle!!!!!

Kastle is one year old today! I cannot believe it! I love this dog so much, he is everything I had ever hoped for.

The stacked pics:
Head shots:
Derp!
With me:
With some color:
Video of all of his stacked shots month-to-month, backwards:
A year with me!
For the picture sets: STACKED, HEAD, STANDING WITH ME, SITTING WITH ME.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Introducing Flyball Passes

I was so so so so so so nervous tonight to introduce Kastle to passing...with a smaller dog that he doesn't "know" that well. He was marvelous. I had no reason to be nervous. He gave the lane beautifully and never once looked at Rhythm. We added a third dog to make more of a "team" and it looked wonderful. I am VERY happy! His box turn is looking clean and we had some even-early passes with no issues. Very proud!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Pond Jumping

Met with Lies today and went to Calvin to practice "dock" jumping. They have a small, in ground pond with borders that we can practice our throws and the boys' jumping styles. Kastle started out jumping flat but eventually he got the hang of trying to catch the toy and I was *very* excited by that. We then got kicked off the campus so that was the end of that. I hope that the catching will carry over to our competition in June...
He is too short to push off the bottom of the pond to get out and wasn't getting enough leverage to haul himself out so I had to assist him :-) LOL
The rest of the photos are HERE.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Agility

Went to Pawsitive to play around on the agility equipment some more. Kastle got to do: tire, A-frame, chute and then we went to short sequences: tunnel to chute, jump collection and two-jump combos/serpentines, tunnel-jump-jump, dog walk - jumpx3 - tunnel. He is slowly getting the hang of tying more than one obstacle together without looking to me, and not knocking as many bars while he is in drive.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

UKC Show + Fun Runs

Today Kastle and I went with both the Corgis, Jason, Lies and both of her GSDs to Centreville for a UKC lure coursing and conformation show. I wanted to get Eden's first leg of her CA title and introduce Kastle to lure coursing in the hopes that he could earn his title at the UKC Premier later this year.

He was a little suspicious, even went into defense, towards the boxes that control the lure speed. It was the first time I've ever heard him really growl. The coursing people were super nice and flicked the lure back and forth to activate Kastle's prey drive so that he could succeed. We did several runs that day and I am feeling fairly certain that he will be able to get his CA title in June.


They also had a small conformation show, two rings, in the inner buildings so Lies and I entered Nikon and Kastle in both of those as well. Kastle's first UKC show. I had no idea what I was doing but he was the only dog in his age/class so he "won" first place both times and then lost in the group ring against the other show dogs. It was a good experience though. I felt that the 2nd judge really looked at Kastle and really evaluated him overall instead of just writing him off as a long coat working-line. I really appreciated that. Plus, we got ribbons, which is always fun :-)

Friday, May 11, 2012

Bank Jumping

It was hot today so we decided to take Kastle and Ike to the river for some exercise. I tied Kastle to a tree first to watch Ike swim (with enthusiasm!) so he was dying to get in. Then I brought him to the riverbank and let Ike get almost to his toy before I let Kastle go, it gave Kastle enough drive to get out there. After he realized he might be able to beat Ike (we set it up so they could take turns) to the toy, he started to launch off the bank, he has a really good natural pop - there's hope for his dock jumping career yet!

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Intro to Agility

Besides the really horrendous class that we took in Kalamazoo, which did not introduce any obstacle besides the tunnel, Kastle hasn't had any agility classes yet. I really want him to be my agility dog as well so I felt like it was time to get started. After classes at Pawsitive were done, I got Kastle out and introduced him to some obstacles: tunnel, the proper way to do jumps, dog walk, a frame (by far his favorite), table and the tire. He is difficult to handle right now. He's too high for a "real" toy so I used one of Eden's stuffies and even food made him too high - I think he's overloading off the equipment itself. Anywa, when he's too high, he jumps flat, runs rampant and doesn't listen well - while whining/barking too. I finally got him calmed (tired/hot) enough to function and we managed to do a decent review of all of the obstacles. I'm thinking next time he will work for no toy and only food off-course...

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Flyball vs Pan

Tonight Kastle raced Pan in singles for both of his turns. He's getting awfully fast! :-) The only time he goes for loose balls is when I miss catching him on the tug, but overall, he's getting a lot more solid about just being rewarded on the dead tug (with no tennis ball on it).

Monday, May 7, 2012

Pencil Portrait

Portrait commissioned by Jason for me :-) REALLY neat!!!
The actual photos of each piece are HERE.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Canine Good Citizen

I took Kastle to the Humane Society today to see if he could pass his Canine Good Citizen test. He did great. The "neutral" dog lunged and growled at him (two separate times) and he did really well with that. It was a really hot day so he was whining and panting heavily but the evaluator said she would not hold that against him since he was clearly a good citizen :-)

Tests:
1: Accepting a friendly stranger 
2: Sitting politely for petting
3: Appearance and grooming
4: Out for a walk (walking on a loose lead)
5: Walking through a crowd
6: Sit and down on command and Staying in place
7: Coming when called
8: Reaction to another dog
9: Reaction to distraction
10: Supervised separation
 

ETA: The cert made it!

    

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Trial Shoes!

Jason bought me new training/trial shoes for Schutzhund, Agility, Flyball etc :-) The best part? They are blue, which is Kastle's color, and the official color name is Castle Blue! They're awesome, comfortable and I can wear them with no socks and my feet (nor the shoes) don't smell! LOVE THEM!
The rest of the photos are HERE.