The PIG!!!
A favorite toy & more contacts
How many things can we get going on at one contact session?
Happy Training!... It's About Love!
Backyard Contacts - Part 2
Have to work from both sides of course!
Happy Training ~ It's About Love!!
Backyard Contacts 1
Another day, another session of contacts...and another video clip. :-)) Enjoy!
Happy Training ~ It's About Love!
More Rainy Day Contacts
I'm enjoying my new video skills way too much! Here's some more new "old" video. If we're inside it was another rainy day, (can't film in the rain).
Happy Training! It's About Love!!
Rainy Day Contacts
At long last...Here's a clip of Bungee practicing 2o2oNT contacts.
This was her 1st homework session that I videotaped. Lots of room for improvement. Lots more film stacked up to process now and certainly more to come from now on. :-) Best part - I did it all myself! :-))
Happy Training! It's About Love!!
Bungee & Guinness, ready to work. 
First I'd like to take this time to CONGRATULATE our dear friend, instructor & coach Sarah Mairs-Heaslip & her Border Collie "Jiggy", on their excellent runs & great success at this past weekend's Canada Cup! Congratulations also to Jessica Martin. Susan had to leave so Jessie ran Susan's dogs and her own in the final (money) round to 1st place. Nice job Jessie!! Video soon!!!
Training this week has gone absolutely brilliant with Bungee and Guinness. It has rained almost constantly the last week and frequent electric storms. It's so wet, we're about to grow web feet up here. Guinness even slid off the teeter twice in class the other night - a first for him. Bungee's obedience in class this week was very good, attention was offered in abundance, we started left turns and "Finish", (returning to heel). In agility, her improvement continued on contacts and I'm really happy with the success, but we're deserving if I do say so myself as we've been working diligently on them. Handling in general is very promising, turns are tight & understanding is very nice. We're also working on driving ahead solely off the pressure of my forward motion and doing a lot more work on "pressure" & motion with Bungee than we have with previous dogs. No tricks this week but we started her poles. Grids are included once or twice a week, one-stride grid work excellent, added her 1st spread tonight with the highest bar @ 16 in. at ~ 17 ft. distance. Lots of video & video stacking up in the DH's "to do" list, especially after Canada Cup. Finger's crossed for this weekend.
Happy Training! It's About Love
This Just In!
Photos & News of Bungee's Sister (:-)) Kvarkin's Cristal "Mia" (click on the link for more info)
Sister "Mia" has just returned to Sweden from her first visit to the World Obedience Championships with her "mom", Mona. I'm sure it will not be her last! It's wonderful that Mia has had a chance to survey the situation in advance and size it up for her own turn to compete someday!
Below, "Mia" also looks pretty happy to be home running in her green fields again!
Back at home she has some sheep nearby to keep an eye on.
What a beauty!
Now this is one HAPPY dog! LoVe it! 
Nothing like a good shake after a nice swim! Nice camera work catching that one!
Enjoying the good life of summertime!
Our many thanks to Mona Kjernholm for sharing these beautiful photos of Mia with us!
To read more about Mia, click on her kennel name at the top of the page and/or visit her page listed in the "Family Links" section at the side of the blog.
As ever, Happy Training and remember...It's About Love!
"...Love Never Fails"
This may seem a little "off topic" to dog training, and perhaps you've seen it before, but if this isn't proof that animals not only have Hearts of Gold, but understand, receive and give love, then I don't know what is.
In all that we ask of, do with and for our animals, we must never forget what they do for us in return, the relationships we're so privileged to have with them, and how very much "It's (definitely) About Love!" Enjoy!
Christian the Lion
Happy Training ~ It's About Love!
Now that I've learned to attach videos we will be enjoying a lot more film soon. I have been filming our work daily now for awhile and really looking forward to getting started posting it. I'm so anxious to get some film up that I thought I'd start with Bungee's 1st video to start things off. Guinness & Ketchy also make appearances in this video.
Enjoy!
Video Disclaimer: YouTube attackes it's own choice of video thumbnail options to any video posted, just like it does on it's own site. Most of the thumbnails that appear after Bungee's video plays we know nothing about.
Happy Training! Always remember...It's About Love!
Bungee & Keen meet at The 2008 Canada Cup! (click on the link to visit Royacker's Kennels & the Canada Cup)
Introducing Bungee's half-brother: "Keen", shown below with Bungee.
Keen belongs to Stacy Winkler, owner of Pawsitive Action Training, located in Vista, California, USA. (click on the link to visit Stacy's school). It was great meeting up with them here in Ontario, Canada, at this year's Canada Cup! (click on the link to read more about the competition).
Keen & Bungee are both sired by Jenny Damm's "Elvis". (click on the link or see "Family Links" on the side of the blog). Keen is about 8 months older than Bungee.
Keen was entered in the Canada Cup - no small feat in itself for such a young dog! While it was not a perfect run there were many brilliant moments for them to be very proud of. Keen is really looking a lot like his father these days. He is also delightful, loving & SO sweet; visibly solid in body & brains. Watching his run, it's clear that Keen has the "right stuff" to go all the way in his sport career!
Here are some more photos of Bungee & Keen together.
BLOOPERS!
There is a great pond at Royackers Agility Facility, home of the Canada Cup. (click on the link to see the aerial photos of this amazing facility!) Though you can not see the beach or shoreline behind the dogs, there was a LOT for any dog to be distracted by as we were trying to get the photo in a scenic spot with the water in the background!
ooops!
This photo shows Bungee, a little of the pond, and a little of Keen :-(
A couple of dogs rather bummed out to stop & pose for photos perhaps? Come on MOM...there's a pond we could be swimming in RIGHT there!!!
If it wasn't Keen wanting to play it was Bungee.
Below, Keen's YouTube video: "Learning to Jump" (click on the link to go to Stacy's channel) Note: The video plays about 1:00 minute, the audio (music) goes longer than the film.
I will add the links to Stacy's website & YouTube Channel to our "Family Links" section, on the side of the blog.
Hard as it was not to have a dog entered, Royacker's Canada Cup has become an agility event not to be missed. The competition brings out some of the best teams in Canada and "Good Vibrations" can be counted on all the way around at Royacker's Agility events...always a friendly and absolutely beautiful place.
Stacy bringing Keen up to the trials just made the day all the more special, let's hope that becomes an annual tradition for them!
Now all we have to do is convince the rest of the family to come and it will really be a trial to see! Canada Cup 2009 anybody??? :-)))
Happy Training!
Remember...It's About Love!
Guinness & Bungee at Kempenfelt Bay
Agility & obedience training this week has been great. No matter what else we do, Bungee has worked on her contacts daily. Significant improvement at school this week & really great work at home. Started video recording our training sessions. I don't have enough disc space to edit my own video on my MacBook or our 1st video would already be up - but soon! I have to wait until the DH has time to devote his MacBookPro to the cause. Unfortunately his is in use long hours everyday for actual working, so maybe on the weekend. Ready to start Bungee's weave poles. Obedience focus this week is on heeling, particularly U-Turns. Bungee & Guinness are off to the phsyio vet for a check-up this a.m. A big agility weekend here in Ontario - Canada Cup on Sat. I hear Bungee's half-brother Keen is in town for the event. Hoping to see him again.
Happy Training ~ It's About Love!
Canada Day 2008, July 1
A new Dock Diver in the family?
A beautiful Canada Day spent at a friend's cottage on this beautiful lake.
Bungee had her 1st boat ride.
Here she is diving off a dock for the 1st time in her life.
Not sure if she'd jump in, or if she'd bring back the toy, I put the bumper on a rope.
She jumped in just fine, and brought the toy back too, but I could hardly get her back on the dock! Our friend's boats were tied along both sides of this really long dock plus many ropes tying the dock to shore, which I didn't want her to try to swim through. Not wanting to continually lay on the dock and pull her back up out of the water, we opted for the next best choice - a doggie life jacket - because it has a handle!
Here's Bungee diving off the dock her 2nd time.
And many more times after that!
Guinness dives off sometimes but not as often - he'd usually rather just swim.
He always wears a life jacket.
You might think this little "Otterhead" had a little Otter blood in his veins the way he takes to water and loves to swim! 
Bungee got really into this dock diving thing! 
Our sincere thanks to our friend Marilyn, for these wonderful photos!
Happy Training! It's About Love!
Bungee's Favorite Treats!
Salmon Brownies - pictured cut & ready to feed.
It takes longer to cut them than make them! EASY Recipe below.
Why do I like these treats best for training Bungee contacts?
Because she loves them and they seem to dissolve in her mouth instantly! They hold up nicely in my hand for using them in training too.
You may have to know Bungee to appreciate what a slow, slow, SLOW eater she is. She can chew a single kibble longer than any dog I've ever known. These brownies seem to melt in her mouth so fast, we can make great transitions to tugging for a stress-break and/or release off the contact.
The Recipe:
Salmon Spelt Brownies - Bungee-style
Ingredients:
1 Large Can Salmon (400-450 gm. or 14-16 oz.)
2-3 Cloves of garlic (peeled & diced fine)
1.5 - 2 Cups Whole Organic Spelt Flour (any whole wheat flour will do)*
Parmesan Cheese for a topping - optional
Instructions:
Peel & dice garlic fine or peel garlic and dice in food processor.
Add salmon (entire can including liquid) & food process.
Add spelt flour to food processor & mix that all up.
Spread the batter on a lightly oiled cookie sheet.
Sprinkle the batter with parmesan cheese if preferred.
Bake at 350 F. or 176 C. for 10 - 15 minutes.
If you want them to melt in your dog's mouth a little softer is better, (baked about 12 min.?) they will still hold together nicely in your hand in training.
Pictured below what I use to make them: food processor, cookie sheet, oil & brush to spread on cookie sheet, spoons to spread brownies, organic spelt flour, canned salmon (more shown than needed for 1 batch) & parmesan cheese
It may surprise you when the batter winds up looking like this big lump inside your food processor, but keep going, that's just right.
*I have also made them with organic chick pea flour and "Canine Life" formula base (click on this link to read more about this food). But any regular flour of your choice would probably work.
Here's a finished batch with parmesan topping:
The DH adds his tip: cut them with a pizza slicer! A knife works just fine too.
I take them to class in a little plastic container. I toss them in the freezer in between classes or training sessions.
From Bungee's house to yours, Enjoy!
Happy Training! ~ It's About Love!
Barking is something our Princesse Bungee doesn't do too much of. However Bungee's "brother" Guinness, our Border Terrier, does plenty of it. So, when I saw Turid Rugaas's newest book: "Barking, The Sound of a Language", "A Dogwise Training Manual", I couldn't wait to get a copy.
At only 108 pages it's an easy read. There are many photos picturing just how to do certain things too. It is simple and to the point, while providing great insight into the behavior of barking and the language of dogs. Turid identifies 8 different categories of barking types, and outlines positive and helpful ways to deal with them when they are a problem.
Of course, the author being Turid Rugaas, you can rest assured the suggestions are 100% safe, kind and beneficial for the dog and handler.
I was pleasantly surprised to see how much information there was that was not only appropriate for Bungee, but for Guinness and for us too! I'm sure this information will be helpful to us for as long as we have dogs to bark.
This small book is a gem, worthy of a spot on any trainer's library shelf. Lucky dogs who's owners take the time to read this book!
I bought my copy at Clean Run.
The publisher is "Dogwise Publishing": www.dogwise.com and listing the phone number of 1-800-776-2665 on the back of the book.
Happy Training!
enjoy ...It's About Love !
Contacts: #1 Training Tip - Keep them FUN with a capitol "F"!
No sooner than I blog about our contact woes than we find some answers the very next day. Of course my whining surely created the motivation I needed to make a new training plan.
"Be A Splitter, Not A Lumper" ~Bob Bailey
I realized I was guilty of lumping Bungee's contact criteria. I looked at the level she IS successful at now, instead of the level I felt she should be at by now. That was a key question. Had I moved forward too fast?
I had. Bungee is always so brilliant at what she does right, it was easy to lose perspective and lump her criteria to a level that was too high too fast.
Success creates motivation. Bungee needed to be successful, so I really needed to split the behaviors to the point where she could be.
"The world moves double time when working with animals" ~ Bob Bailey
Next, I reminded myself that Bungee likes action! Toys, things really moving along fast. Fast to her is fun.
So, I played to her strengths for success in class since it is proving to be a tough environment - which meant toy rewards, shorter sessions, split criteria, all creating a much higher RR. If I could only get one great nose touch - that's what I'd take, until I could get two.
At home I reminded myself that she is (like most dogs) highly motivated by a little bit of jealousy and also that sessions must be short! So for a quick shot of instant motivation and fast turnovers, she is now always taking turns working contacts with my terrier at home. He loves them, it makes for great, quick transitions between them, so that's producing a lot of good energy too. That made contacts instantly more fun for all of us!
In making my plan I also reviewed what was right, (which was a lot)!
Even at school, going into 2o2oNT 'position' was strong, but focusing on targets after even a few repetitions when food was the reward and distractions abound was just too much for her. Part of the problem was surely an insufficient history of fun on contacts at home, making the work of mediocre interest to her at best.
The whole picture improved with the new plan at school Wed. night. Attention came back to task, she was more successful, that created a cycle of fun - the way it should be. I know we still have a lot to do to at home to improve her overall outlook about them, making fun a habit!
"Want more? Expect more!" ~ Bob Bailey
My immediate goal is simply to make contacts the most fun they possibly can be here at home, with the hope that the spirit of excitement carries over to class. If we can make that joy for contacts a habit, we're golden for the rest of the job, no matter how long it takes.
So that's where we're at now and it's really paying off quickly!
Today, a week after "turning over a new leaf", we got MANY nose touches on 1st touch, dropping into position, from the end of the travel plank, motivated as heck. WoW! It's all about the attitude.
Don't Get Frustrated - Stop & Evaluate!
When it comes to training, one of my overall goals is to produce the results we need with the least amount of stress & strain on both of us, particularly her!
Training positively (the Bailey way) provides one with a clear framework for evaluating results and examining challenges. Since I've learned it, it's never failed us, and I'm far from a pro. If I can learn it anybody can.
Creating good contacts is a daily process over a long period, and we both have to enjoy them. I know that contacts done right are loads of fun. So again, that is the #1 thing for us to focus on now - keeping them fun!
Every training session I have with Bungee teaches me a little more about who she is and what she needs to be successful. That's still a big part of the picture in our world.
Happy Training!
...and remember ~It's About Love!
Bungee's Wednesday Night Agility Class
I decided against trying a time out with Bungee in class this week, over this distraction challenge during contacts. With a new plan, contacts went better and everything else went wonderful as usual. Bungee is an all-around fabulous dog! But because I mentioned time outs, I wanted to talk about them and why I chose to defer using one. Most of what I am about to share about this I have learned from Susan Garrett through the many years of attending camps, workshops, classes and private lessons.
New Kvarkin Family Photos from Finland & Sweden!
(Left to Right): Mia, Spice, Ogin & One
Bungee's brother & sister, One & Spice, recently made a trip to some agility competitions in Sweden with their families. While they were there they got together with brother & sister, Ogin & Mia, who live in Sweden. The 4 pups are shown together above. Missing from this get-together of Kvarkin's "Champagne Kids" are Chili & Bungee. These pups are growing up fast! It's wonderful to see them together like this at one (1) year old.
(L - R): Spicey, Ogin & One
One & Mia
Wait a minute...Who's taking the photos now?
Below, Helena (our talented family photographer) and Mia share a moment.
Ogin
Mia
Last, but not least, my personal favorite of the collection...
Beautiful subject (as are all), fabulous photography!
This photo deserves to be entered in competition!!
Ogin swimming
Many thanks to Helena for sharing these beautiful photos with us once again!
You can find links to each of these dogs at the Kvarkin Kennel website, and/or their own individual websites & blogs by clicking either on Kvarkin's name at the top of this post, or in the "Family Links" section to the right of the page.
Happy Training!
...as always, remember ~ It's About Love!!!
TRICKS!
I almost forgot! We're gaining ground on two new tricks, Roll-Over & Cross Your Paws. One is really a break-through!
Roll-Over ~ Believe it or not, the hardest trick for Bungee has been "Roll-Over". It was a trust issue. It all goes back to when Bungee was small, and we tried repeatedly for a few weeks to tape her ears. We did this with her on her back on the living room floor. She did not like this experience one bit. Bungee has suffered great suspicion about certain kinds of living room floor activity ever since.
Knowing this, we have both gone to extra lengths to gain her trust back, and also given her lots of time & space to decide for herself, the living room floor was safe when we were sitting on it too. She loves her tricks & balancing, and I have always done lots of shaping and playing with the dogs on the living room floor. But the wrong kind of movement from me, would signal her to flee into the next room. The cure for this has always been for me to play with Guinness, which she absolutely can't resist and back she'd come to have some more fun.
However getting her on her back on the living room floor was not happening for the longest time.
Drum Roll please....
For 3 days in a row, Bungee has practiced Roll-Over to the left on the living room floor with me sitting on the floor next to her, and even did it in class Monday night!
That's a personal biggee (for us more than her)! Now we'll get her rolling over in both directions.
Cross Your Paws ~ one of my favorite trick moves, but it's been a little slow coming. After last night's class I realized it's coming a little better than I thought. I was actually sitting on the floor of the training hall with Bungee watching the Utility (Level 3) obedience dogs work after we were finished. I was trying to get Bungee to Roll Over, which she did several times. But do you know she offered me Crossed Paws the 1st three times! I couldn't reward them because I wanted Roll-Over. But I was tickled anyway : - )) Definitely a glimmer Cross Your Paws is coming!
Sitting Food Bowl Retriever -no progress - for shame on me!
I have to remember to work on this!
Happy Training!
Enjoy the process...It's About Love!!
Jump Grids
This round of grid work has been interesting and beneficial. We started out day 1 with Bungee having some challenge between jumps 4 & 5 on the Progressive Grid.
She was adding one stride instead of a bounce. It was visible this was a result of speed and inertia working together. To resolve this I tried to slow her down visually, by adding visual complexity to jump 4, which did not resolve the extra stride. Next I added visual complexity to jump 3, which did not resolve the extra stride issue either. Next I changed the angle on jumps 2, 3 & 4, leaving the previously added visual complexity in tact, which solved the problem nicely. I "undid" the visual complexity, piece by piece, in the same way I added it until we were back to success with a regular, "plain", progressive grid, which took several sessions over a couple days. It could have gone faster if I'd worked at it more than once a day but I did not.
From the beginning she was almost causing me to brag over her One-Stride Grid, but w/ jump 4 at 20' distance we hit a snag where she double-strided out to 20'.
I'll explain the resolution to this when we get back to it.
Contacts (I told you we'd have a lot to write on this as we went along!)
I'm looking for really specific behaviors here. I want Bungee to go from the position I have her take, into 2o2oNT in one direct, smooth, dynamic move. I want to be standing up when I release her, and working up to sending her from 1' behind her and/or 1' to her side, etc.
Achieving 90% success on slanted plank in basement (food rewards (R), zero distractions), achieving less success on training stairs on field (food or toys R, variable but mild distractions), achieving very mixed results in class (food R, many distractions), much too often what Sarah & I commonly agree on as "crap".
Last week's class was actually a bit of a head-banger for me, causing much thought. This is my 3rd agility dog to teach contacts, you'd think I'd know something by now and be experiencing the best results yet. I almost gave myself a headache thinking about that one last Wed. on the way home after class. But Bungee is quite the individual and no where does she show this as well as with contacts. But we'll get it.
Back to what I want, (like this ever matters to a dog :-) I would have liked for Bungee to have the same intensity for contacts for the prospect of food R's as toy R's - and there's the rub most of the time. I'm just getting crap using food R's at class, unless I never want to leave her side. I am not stuck on food being as meaningful for contacts at class as places of lower distraction, like home, but the correct behavior is not an option.
To get success w/ food rewards in class I've struggled to find a point to maintain her attention, carrying her travel plank clear out of the agility ring to a quiet place on the side and working slowly back into class. Or I might get one dynamic nose touch or sometime two, but never three, the 3rd one is always crap and I can see the eyes look up from the job to whatever else is going on that she can spy, or glaze right over in stalk-something mode, or even the old freeze & stall doing nothing. All signs that motivation for the task is lacking - my challenge.
Toy R's present quite an improved picture, but accuracy can suffer. For instance, outside at home, quite commonly her 1st nose touch is close but no beep -call it a "drive-by", an air swipe, the head is definitely making the right motion, but sorry Bungee, I'm not buying it, no beep-no paycheck, but on a high note, with the toy, she's really into it. However, if I leave her in position for a 2nd chance to touch it, she will always nail it for a beep the 2nd time, the 3rd time, etc. I quickly started breaking it off after the 1st chance w/ no beep, seeing a pattern trying to emerge where she makes contact on the 2nd nose touch attempt.
We seem to have hit on a winning combination for that first successful nose touch, with one specific toy and the training steps by using only a long, narrow, tug toy (Crash Test Toys: Fur T-tug, small ball, extra long shock-cord handle), and one beep - one reward. With this toy, I can get it really compact in my hand, have her get in position on the last stair, and release her to successfully dive directly into a nose touch much more reliably, and still provide a really nice, quick toy reward, keeping hold of the handle but having a toy that flies right out on the ground ahead of her a good meter to release her to. This system has enabled a lot of quick repetitions of success - at home, and motivates her to drive into position accurately for a beep the 1st try. We'll see if we can maintain this behavior at class.
Keep in mind I have already done a lot of rewarding, standing next to her with food for correct nose touches to a target or the "Touch It" from many places. As well she has often worked with the distractions of food and toys on the ground while she nose touches, though I have not been leaving toys on the ground lately for two reasons. 1st, I want her head & eyes ahead as she works & releases, which I cannot be sure of when there is a toy ahead to focus on or distract. 2nd, a toy on the ground ahead can be as much of a challenge as any other distraction if she switches to stalking the toy. This is most likely to happen in class when the environment is more distracting. We will have to come back to this step but first things first.
Now in the general effort to clean up all behaviors, (back to when we backed up a bit in obedience) I am looking for only excellent behaviors, which creates a lower RR for a time (DRE's). With that she needs to learn to drive into nose touch position on one chance, with me standing upright. This is the only way we can advance so that I can take other positions to send her and move myself. At home this is a case of reinforcing very selectively, and waiting her out for the good behavior.
At class a little extra dimension of challenge exists. There I'm almost ready to employ a time-out at class if she's not as interested as need be to perform correctly. I may either take my terrier, and work him in front of her of her crate if she fails to find interest in our contact training, or borrow one of her buddies from our instructor and do the same in an effort at jealousy as instant motivation.
This may seem an overly-heavy set of requirements that I'm expecting of her to some, but if she can't do a correct nose touch from a still position on a mock-contact, she hasn't a hope of managing one in trial, especially with her speed and the confidence on equipment she has demonstrated so far.
This specific contact improvement I'm seeking is another small but important step where we are spending quite a bit of time. I won't say we're "stuck" as I do see improvement, but I haven't seen that breakthrough I'm expecting just yet.
Don't get me wrong, I'm as interested in running contacts as the next person, and a running frame might even be within our scope, but that has nothing to do wtih the fact that beautiful contacts with good nose touches are a skill I still want Bungee to learn and think she's going to need - especially with the penchant Canadian judges have for putting tunnel mouths next to the bottom of frames & dog walks for immediate u-turns into those tunnels.
Obedience
I am really impressed with the progress Bungee is making in obedience in the few short weeks we have been taking this sport seriously (meaning doing regular homework and attending regular classes). Her heeling tonight was different as night & day from just three weks ago. That is with the barn doors to the agility field wide open and a gamble class going on right outside. It's as if something clicked and she just suddenly "got it". She is such a happy worker, we get many compliments on her great attitude, quickness to learn and good looks. I'm still practicing my footwork. :-))
As they say in Hollywood, "That's a wrap".
Signing off,
Hug your dogs & happy training,
and remember, It's about love!
Bungee & family are enjoying the beautiful summer weather we've been enjoying this past week. Temps are on the up-swing now - thoughts are with our friends & former alumni off to a few sweltering days of training at camp.
On a good note, this has made for lots of great swimming and long, enjoyable summer days & summer nights.
Jump grids, contacts & obedience have occupied much of our practice time this week.
Family matters have settled back down to almost normal. Our laneway expansion came to a sudden stop when our poor contractor cut phone service to two families on our road (the neighbors and us) due to improperly marked or unburied phone cables hiding in high grass where we never mow. We're promised Wed. for getting the wire buried and then we ought to be back on track to finish the project.
The (Mac) thrill was almost gone when the hard drive on my MacBook died Sat. night at 10 p.m. But Mac being what it is, the DH not only was able to replace the hard drive, but I only lost about 2 hours of unsaved content, my last back-up had been at 7:47 p.m.
Unfortunately that was the latest round of downloaded digital pix of Bungee and a whole gang of dog pals swimming at a local conservation area lake. :-((
I can tell you Bungee and "brother" Guinness, definitely enjoyed themselves, the water, and all their swimming pals immensly.
Happy Training - next back to that update.
Gotta' LoVe the 1st Week of July!
(Air show photo via iPhone! Wow eh?)
1 Week - 2 Holidays !!
July 1 - Canada Day!
4th of July - American Independence Day!
This year that means long weekends at each end for us! Yippeee!!!
I guess it's a good thing when you're too busy training & living to write on your blog, but that's been the case the last week or more. We had a really terrific Canada Day long weekend - 3 days of yard work and 1 day of play. We all had a great, long & sunny day, visiting, boating & swimming at a friend's lakeside cottage, with Bungee even trying her skill at some Dock Diving!! (Pictures next post.) Classes were closed for 2 days this week. We only got to Bungee's agility class last night and a private this morning for each of the dogs. Both were welcome fun - the dogs definitely do not like being kept away from school!
Training is moving along on all the basics. This week we will re-visit our Susan Salo jump work for both dogs. As that takes at least 15 jumps to set up, this work limits me from setting up other things while it's going.
Meanwhile excavation and expansion of our laneway has finally begun, the 1st of bigger & better improvements to come.
On a personal note, this seems to be a season to fight the feeling of frustration of not trialing more than we have. But, "To everything there is a season" they say, and faith tells me there is a reason somewhere, (which does not yet mean I have a clue what that reason is!) Somehow we manage to stay busy as ever and just as on-the-go, go figure.
One thing is certain, Bungee and I are going to have a LOT of fun when we finally get there! In fact, we're having a LOT of fun anyway right now!
Happy 4th of July to all!
We have another long weekend to enjoy now too with July 4th upon us and this one is all play!
Best Wishes to everyone for success & fun in all your trials!
Happy Training ~ Hugs to all the dogs!
...and remember: It's About Love!
