3 Dog Days

Good day today. Raining this morning but I planned ahead and brought my running clothes to work anyway in case it stooped. The rain stopped but I was busy and didn't get time to run until a half hour before leaving time. I got out of shape getting injured, then the holidays and time off. I usually don't run unless I'm at work. So I've been doing intervals of 5 min run 3 min walk, repeat 3 times. But since I didn't have much time today, I decided to run for a mile and a half. Which I did. Slowly. 16 minutes and 6 seconds. But still a good run.

After work I took a walk in the hills with Alicia and three of her dogs. I don't know if Dottie is getting used to her dogs, or becoming more appropriate overall, but she was less of a pest towards them. She still bothered them at times, but it was more good than bad. Alica and I practiced obedience for a short time, then I had my private agility student arrive. After that it was puppy class time. The puppies are coming along really nice and today I had them doing a bit more advanced exercises like the figure 8 instead of just heeling in a line. At the end of class I had everyone heel around Pie, which was probably harder for Pie than it was for the pups. We've been working puppy motivational retrieves with toys, but I brought out a dumbell for the first time tonight and we were playing with that.

After class I played with the dumbell and Dottie in the house and she was doing great! She tends to get distracted at places like class and agility shows and does not so great with the retrieve then. Something to work on!

Dottie and Pie were chewing on bones nicely until a moment ago when Dottie abandoned her bone and took Pie's. Usually unless Dottie is kenneled, they cannot both chew on bones at the same time because Dot will constantly take whatever Pie tries to chew on. Pie just moves onto the next bone but then that bad puppy will take that one too. I try to run interference but no luck so far.

This weekend I have an agility show on Saturday, then a tracking day with the Schutzhund club on Sunday and Martin Luther King day off from work on Monday. Might go see Sherlock Holmes. Then I'm having a extra short work week and taking Friday off for a puppy agility seminar in Goleta with Dottie.

Dottie went to her first obedience class on Monday. I'll try to go every other Monday. When we first got there she forgot everything I had taught her, then settled in nicely and was fed an entire pack of hot dogs. But that's what I had to do to keep her focused and under control. I left with a brain fried puppy, a bleeding hand and a painful tooth mark under a thumbnail. She likes her hot dogs that puppy. To clarify, I have trained Dottie lots of other places, including getting some really good instruction at the Schutzhund club, but she's never been in a formal class setting before.

Looking forward to this weekend, but not the rain promised. Will the puppy seminar be canceled? I hope not!