Penny & I went to Rally class today & had a great time. She was pretty snarky w/ one of the dogs there (full moon fever), but is really good about focusing on me when I ask her. This class is really fun & even if I never actually try it out in competion, it gives us some fun rainy day things to do. Her finishes are still pretty bad, but that's b/c I didn't work on them one single day last week. But her heeling was decent, her automatic sits are perfect & her fronts are pretty good too (I need to work on getting her to come in closer to me.)

We walked the course that they had set up & she did surprisingly well. I used very little food (only for finishes) and she was pretty good about followingly my lead. Problem with this whole Rally thing is my 2 left feet. Penny's staring at me and not watching where were going & I run her right into the cones. I tend to make my circles around the cones too tight & she ends up knocking them over. Considering this is only our second time attempting anything like this, we're doing pretty well.

Lola had class today and is really doing much better. I'm still putting aside my feelings for the GL & keeping it on her as it really seems to calm her down. It's not forever...just till we get over the hump. Debby has this thing she does in class for barking dogs. When they start barking, she has the owner walk the dog around their chairs (there are usually 2 or 3 in a group) and refocus. While Lola rarely barks anymore, she does get bored (and frustrated). She will calmly lay down sometimes, but other times she walks to the end of the leash, sits to faces me & pulls backward on her leash (stubborn little turkey!). I do hand targeting w/ her to get her back to me, but have found this also works to refocus her attention on me. It also helps us work on heeling & sitting in the right position (she's on the inside closest to the chairs).

She did show off her BANG! trick & roll-over but she wouldn't jump up on a pause table for handling (it was covered in astroturf...maybe that was it).

Sherman & I skipped class & I took him & Penny on a long neighborhood walk together. As the EW harness is no longer effective for her, I put her on the GL b/c I was feeling lazy & just wanted to get some exercise.

Debby & I then went to the PetExpo. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more vendors, but I did get Lola a pretty pink & purple coat for winter...that is too small :o(.

While I doubt Sherman will ever like Lola, he is much more tolerant of her. She trys to get him to play with her every single day & he just doesn't appreciate her exhuberant play style. He usually ends up snarking in her face (which she just view as an additional invite to play).

She can, now, lay next to him without him chasing her off the bed or giving her the Lion's Roar he's so famous for.

They can even chew next to each other peacefully.

He still likes her best when she's sleeping...

Wow...what a slacker I am!!! I won't let it go this long w/o blogging again. Not that we've been slacking at home. Lola graduated from Annette's Teen class & started Debby's Manners class, Sherman started Shelley's CGC class & Penny started Rally class.

Lola continues to be a nightmare outside on leash...very reactive & barky...lunging at every dog she sees. I finally realized that on our nightly neighborhood walks she gets particularly stressed & anxious the further we get from the house. This isn't a problem in the car & she is definately not as freaked out once we reach our destination, usually daycare or class (will have to revisit the park soon to see if that has changed). This is a new thing (last 2 months) & she was walked plenty in the neighborhood as a puppy w/o incident. So, I'm working on gradually walking her greater distances and not pushing her. We'll get there.

Sherman is just a flip out in class...his heeling is a mess and the sight of food sends him into a frenzy. I never work on heeling with him b/c he rarely pulls on lead and it wasn's something I felt I needed to invest time in. It would help to have that behavior in tight class environment. A new challenge for us. It should be an interesting 7 weeks.

Penny is a bit rusty as all we've really worked on in the last couple months are her leash manners. I'm only working her a couple times a week & really need to up the anty. By the end of class she was back in the groove. She could be pretty good at this Rally thing if I could commit to a solid daily training schedule for her. I'm gonna drop into Annette's Advanced class a few times so that should help too.

There just aren't enough hours in the day!

I'm not sure if you can see the depth of this hole that the dogs have dug...when Penny is at the bottom digging, you can only see her little nubbin'. Penny & Lola have a little system going. Penny gets deep in the hole & kicks the dirt out...and Lola is right behind her moving that dirt so it doesn't go back into the hole.

This was their designated dig spot, but it 's gotten so deep we're (aka Scotty) gonna have to fill it in so it doesn't cause foundation problems.




The girls also search for treasures in the ferns...

Class tonight was Sssooooo much better. Lola was a bit barky at first, but I had the Gentle Leader on her & that helped. That is until she decided to play drama queen and throw herself to the ground or fling her head back in forth till I thought it was going to pop off. But that didn't last long.

We started working on attention (I'm still just using her name rather than a word and it's working very well) while Annette was going over some stuff. And I got her to focus on me while Apache was doing the demo for graduation games. We did some heeling, recalls, sits, downs and stays & she was wonderful. She's responding well to "Leave It" if I get it out before she obsesses and I managed to keep her focus on me when the Fox Terrier was close.

I feel rejuvenated!

Some wedding photos from the big day!

The ceremony at Phipps...

Kevin & Katie at the Inn

Riding on Molley's Trolley

My Mom, Carl, Kevin, Katie, me & Scotty

The Hurley clan...Uncle Rich, my Dad, Aunt Kathy, Aunt Patty, Karen, Aunt Mary, Uncle Cliff, Aunt Betsy, Mark, me, Bird, Katie & Scotty

The bridal party at the park

Me cheesin' it up.

This is Kevin's wedding weekend so Lola goes to Camp and Sherman & Penny have to deal w/ being neglected (just kidding...they're fine).

Here are some pics from the rehearsal dinner:

Aren't Scott & I a cute couple?

My Mom & Carl...

Carl & Pastor Clement...

I've actually done a good job all week of working with each of my dogs. Ideally I would give each of them 1/2 hour of my undivided attention each day. I managed this 3 days this week...better than nothing. Sherman gets his beloved neighborhood walk & we do practice basic manners, attention, automatic sits, recalls, etc. But mostly he just walks & pees on stuff.

Penny & Lola had a couple of LLW & training sessions. Penny is still doing well w/ her leash manners & we started advancing on behaviors I've been slacking on...Stand, Finishes, longer
Stays w/ more distractions & distinguishing cues. I also do lots of targeting w/ her because she LOVES it.

Lola is doing better with LLW & I'm doing better about working her within her threshold. We can make it 80% of the way down the block before she starts to lose focus. Up to that point, she is fabulous. Lots of attention, very loose leash, staying close to me. But we hit the last house on the street & I lose her. So I turn around & head back down the street. We'll get there. We also worked on Heeling, Stays, Finishes & Targeting.

By the end of the week though, I just wanted to go on a walk. No training, just a plain old walk. I took Sherman & Penny together & she pulled a bit at the beginning but quickly remembered her job. Then I took Lola out on a Gentle Leader (which she was less than thrilled about, but forgot about quickly) and it was a God-send. It was the nicest walk we've had since she was a puppy. I refuse to use it as a crutch as it's easy to forget about the training & just manage things (which I did w/ Penny & have regretted)...but it's good for occasional use.

Little Miss Full of Herself and I went back to class tonight. I should have known we were in for trouble the minute we got out of the car. Lola was barking & lunging at all the other dogs, flailing herself around at the end of the leash & generally being a total brat. ~sigh~ How the hell did this happen? I've done everything right with this dog...super socialized her with people and dogs as a teeny puppy, enrolled her in 1/2 dozen classes, taken her lots of places to experience lots of things and done training at home with her almost everyday. It must be my destiny. I went through all of this with Penny...I didn't however, create the monster that she was. It's just frustrating to take so much time & end up with the same thing. Maybe it's a Boxer thing, maybe it's an age thing, maybe it's just me & I suck at this. I don't know. Lola is lucky that I love her & will continue to put in the time to make her as perfect as Penny. I must say...working through all of these issues is very fulfilling when your hard work pays off.

Anyway, one of our new things is little dogs. There is a Bichon, Fox TerrierX and a Cairn Terrier in our class...and of course, Annette had Chip (affectionatly referred to as Demon Dog). Lola's never really been around little dogs and she's decided that it would be best to eat them. Well, probably not, but she gets so overstimulated when one walks past her she loses her mind. After about 20 minutes of sheer frustration (and Annette reminding me "YOU wanted this!!") I decided to put what I've learned reading all of these damn training books & break out the Peanut Butter (which I carry w/ me in a food tube & use if I need the "Big Guns"). I did open bar/close bar with Lola, which is essentially, little dog is near...Lola gets PB; little dog walks away, PB goes away. This actually worked pretty well if the little dogs weren't too close. We need to do more work on this & I may try to find a small dog class I can participate in (at a distance, of course) to work on desensitizing her.

By the end of class, I was exhausted.

The nice people at Pup-peroni had a photo booth promotion at Sandcastle & emailed me this picture of Lola & I. She's a riot!

Merlin looks pretty cool cruisin' too. Debby was off to the side playing in the tumbleweeds.

Lola & I went to Sandcastle's Last Splash of Summer w/ our friends Debby & Merlin. Getting her into the park was a bit of a challenge b/c she was very worked up and barking & lunging at every dog in site. Had I been by myself, I would have taken a long time making it to the front gate by backing her up when she flew into a fit. This is very effective for her, but takes time & I didn't want to hold Debby & Merlin up.

Lola was a bit hesitant and basically hung around in the water up to her elbows for a while. She eventually got a little brave & started to swim.

You really can't tell in this picture, but she did NOT like swimming. She actually panicked and tried to crawl on top of another dog. I stayed close to her & pulled her off him & she then tried to crawl up my body. Our swimming was done for the day after that as she wouldn't even go into 3 inches of water.



She did enjoy a yummy Frosty Paws after the swim.



And then she jumped in the trunk when we got back to the car. She was ready to go home.

Lola has a tumor on her toe. I noticed when she came in from outside last night that she had a large red bump on her back right foot. After concluding that she didn't have a broken toe (my first thought), I thought perhaps she got bit by something. It was a large, raised, red sore that can only be described as a raspberry w/ fur on it. She wasn't limping or favoring at all so I decided to wait & call the vet the next day.

Dr. Fitzgerald knew what it was right away (although she did entertain my thought that it was a bug bite after my eyes became the size of pieplates when she said the word "tumor"). The exact diagnosis is Canine Cutaneous Histiocytoma (Wow that sounds scary! For more info, see http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1676). Apparently it's pretty common and appears in only a day or two. The tumor is benign & should disappear on it's own, but if she's chewing it or it becomes a problem for her, they want to remove it. Let's hope it goes away soon b/c she does not like the spray I have to apply 2-3 per day.

Poor little toe!

Well, we're all settled back into our routine and Lola is B-A-D bad!! She's lost the concept of being housetrained (she peed in my shoe & has pooped in the house multiple times). She has also completely lost all concept of LLW ~sigh~. I tried to take her on a walk & wanted to murder her after 15 minutes. She was failing around at the end of the leash like a fish. None of my old tricks worked. Back to the drawing board. I just need to start back at the beginning and take it slow.

Penny fortunately has not lost the concept & we had a wonderful walk around the neighborhood complete with lots & lots of attention and zero pulling. We even passed 3 different dogs w/o one single outburst. That's my girl. I did have my treats & clicker w/ me as I was unsure if she'd have forgotten all of our hard work. It was a good move on my part b/c I rewarded a lot of attention & loose leash at the beginning & then phased them out by the end of the walk.

Sherman was very happy to be back to securing the neighborhood. He's getting very good at automatically stopping at intersections & while I still have to cue him to sit, he does it w/in a split second of asking.

We picked Lola up from Camp on the way home from the airport. Sherman & Penny aren't getting picked up till the following day, so Lola will be an only dog for 24 hours or so. She was so pooped she didn't really seemed to phased. She seemed to have a great time at Camp and was very excited to see us.

I took advantage of an extra day off work & took her out to North Park again. She had an absolute blast & ran her little butt off. She is great with all of the other dogs (a welcome change from S&P) and makes a point to always check in with me.

After she was good & tired, I went out to my Mom's to pick up Sherman. He was bouncing & wiggling around like a little puppy. Apparently he was miserable in the basement (a huge Duh??!! moment for me...Sherman was petrified of our basement & wouldn't step foot in it for the first 3 months we had him) so my Mom moved him to the garage where he was happy as a clam. I really think he liked the peace & quiet. He really only slept there & stayed there while they were at work...other than that he was pretty busy. He went to the park 3 times, to see my Grandpap, laid in the sun & "hunted" while my Mom & Carl worked in the yard. But he seemed pretty happy to be going home.

Penny apparently also had a great time. So much so that she seemed rather depressed to be away from her buddy Baron. She got to show off the "snarl & snort" for her Grandpa Don & played musical pots w/ her roomates. She seemed more happy to see Sherman than Lola, but happiest to see me & Scotty the most.

Scott & I took off for Mexico for 5 days. After a rocky few pre-vacation days (a leak in our main waterline & the threat of hurricane Ernesto), we ended up with a perfect trip. Great resort (Royal Solaris in Cancun), beautiful weather and lots of rest & relaxation.

I ordered a bunch of stuff from a new place, http://www.k9rawdiet.com/ (thanks for the hot tip, Debby). I got bully sticks, achillies tendons, some liver treats and tracheas. Not only is the woman who runs the site fantastic (could be the best customer service I've ever dealt with online), but the quality of the products is amazing.

The bully sticks are huge & were only $4. And I've bought trachea before (aka Moo Tubes), but they were nothing like the ones I got at K9raw.

Thanks for some great products Mindy!!

Lola had her first outting at North Park today. They have a wonderfully huge Off Leash Area for the dogs to run. I used to take Sherman & Penny there a lot but grew leary about moronic dog owners. So we went very early (8:00 am) hoping the idiots perferred to sleep late. Lola went alone as Penny's new found protective nature is more than I wanted to deal with.

Lola had a blast. She ran & ran and played & made lots of new friends. She's funny in that she's pretty independent & would run to the far end of the park all by herself. But she always came back when I called her. Good practice for us.

Here are some pictures of Penny & Sherman last summer when Debby & I went a few times...just to give you an idea of the size of this place.

Penny running...



Taking a rest...

Sherman just runs around & pees on stuff...

When we were kicking around adding a 3rd dog, I decided I wanted to get another female as Sherman & Penny both seem to prefer females to males...Sherman in particular. I was given a lot of warnings about 2 females living together and the potential problems it can create (They call them Bitches for a reason). While appreciate all of the advice, things have gone well thus far...Penny & Lola adore each other.

I understand there could be problems once Lola hits her social maturity & I always on the lookout for warning signs. Penny has become very protective of her and I'm trying to get the point across to Penny that it's MY job to keep them all safe. Penny's trust in me is growing & I'm hoping things between my Boxer girls always stays as it is now.

I love to see the fruits of my labor! Boot Camp has definately paid off for Penny. I took her & Sherman on their first joint walk in a long time. I did use the Easy Walk (which I'm now calling the Pull A Lot) at first and it sucked. So I put the lead on her collar & guess what...no pulling what-so-ever. She got to the end of the lead a couple of times & I gave her an "Eeeasy" and she slowed down. It was wonderful. AND...she came face to face w/ a cat and when I said "Leave it" she turned, looked at me, then kept going. I love it!

Lola is another story. She just isn't getting it. Well, that's not true...toward the end of our walk she was starting to get it. Her new thing is...she pulls, I stop, she sits. At the end of the tight leash. I'm gonna have to try a new approach.