Another day another Agility course

So we've had two more lessons since our last post. They've both gone surprizingly well. I really am waiting for her to decide that she just wants to be crazy and Frap around the course.
We are in pre-novice class but our courses are Excellent courses. Basically the thinking is if we can do excellents we should be able to Ace the Novice courses. In theory this will work if we can actually remember the whole thing. I wish we had big flags with the #'s on them, it would help but they have little like 4 inch cones with the #'s on them which is hard to see when you're running around at a million miles an hour trying to keep up with the dog.
Jasmine did very well able to do the weaves better, we're working on doing offside entry, which is confusing her and she barks at me to tell me that Hey your supposed to be on the other side of me mom! Our biggest mishap was of course Handler error. The first have and the second have have 3 same obstacles, a tunnel, a jump and another tunnel. The first half is Tunnel, jump tunnel. the second half is Jump, tunnel, tunnel. Well I kept trying to send her Jump Tunnel tunnel in the first half and she kept doing Tunnel jump jump. I was getting very frustrated and then someone pointed out I was asking her to do it backwards and since we had done it correctly once before, she was telling me mom you are telling me to do it wrong, I'm doing it right. Silly me. She still got cookies and a tug toy cause she did it right and I did it wrong.
We also worked on the serpentine which we haven't done in a very very long time and out of the entire class of 9 dogs, we were the only one who nailed it on the first try :) Yay for Corgi memory. My biggest "fear" obsticle is the Teeter. She does it great but last year she decided to do the SUPER CORGI off it at top speed and scared me to death. I'm really bad at telling her easy before it making her slow down. Asking a dog to slow down who does flying contacts tends to slow down your times and makes the dog more tired because they have to make up for the lost momentum. Well I'm going to have to work on trusting the dog and not my crazy voice in my head.
Well. Off to bed. Work calls bright and early.

Back to Agilty after a YEAR off

So Monday was Jasmine's and my first day back to Agility class since last year. This has been because of my work schedule, class schedule etc/etc. Thankfully though, last Valentines day I came home to "home made" to AKC standard Weave Poles and a 12 inch variable height jump. Well over the past year we've created a small dog agilty area up the property to keep the equipment on and have an area other than the front yard to practice in.
Anyway....
So Monday. I'm thinking, she's not been to class in a year, she's gonna go BANANAS when she sees Julie ( one of her favorite people-mainly for the cheeze), our trainer. Not to mention that there are soo many obsticles that she loves that she has not done in sooo long. We started out the class by doing a Novice course including a tire and the A Frame. Frame, never has been a problem. The tire, that's a compeletly different story. I'm a corgi, I'm short, I can easily go under that why should I go through it. Well we didnt even warm up on the course we just went. and BOY did SHE FLY. I forgot how fast that girl is. She was probably 12 feet infront of me and I'm just yelling obsticles and pointing and she nailed every single one of them. She did Cross infronts/behinds, went through the tire (first try) through the tunnels and finished without knocking a single bar down. Oh we were sooo happy and yes she did bark the entire time.
The next session we did included the A Frame, Weaves, Tire, broad jump and again many many jumps. The entire set went really really well until.... the weaves. :( Definately need to pull them out and work on them some more. She has the concept down but exicution is a different story. She breaks or does the I'm a Corgi, Why should I thing. Very irritating. Either way the day ended on her being able to run around like a lunatic jumping every jump in sight. I can't wait for a match, she will do very very well in a jumpers class.
Well that's all for the moment. We will continue our work with weaves and hopefully do better next week.

Long time no post, Alot to catch up on.

Well as you can see it's been a long time since we've posted. The summer has already come and gone but let me catch you up on the girls. Ms. Jasmine has decided that buterflies also known as "boo flies" are very very yummy and a ball to chase. She finally has got the jump in the air and bite at them down to an art and is catching them on a regular basis. I think the cooler weather is finally slowing them down enough for her to catch them.

"AH hAA Igotted you!"

"MMM snack time"

If you look really close at her mouth in this picture you'll see the butterfly.

"Rolling on the poor boofly"

Not only did Jasmine have a good time this summer playing with butterflies, she also has been tempted again by our resident duck "Peepers" and her batch of ducklings. This is the first time Peepers has had a batch of ducklings live to adulthood. All previous babies have been picked off by the Offsprey before they had the chance to grow. These ducks are unfortunately very very tame mainly due to Peepers being raised by my neighbors a couple years ago, so they tend to live on the property during the summer time. Being tame though does have its good points, upclose and personal pictures. Jasmine was not pleased at this photoshoot as I made her down stay for about 1/2 hour while I took photos.

"Good Dog"

"Brave ducks"

"pahhhlleease let me get them!"

Summer has ended and fall is here, time for our Halloween Dress up :) Unfortunately they do not make "Corgi" sized costumes. Here is the costume I got for Jasmine, a medium which I thought would be long/large enough for her. http://apparelandaccessories.petedge.com/assets/product_images/styles/medium/ZA539_230X230.JPG Well I was wrong, it doesn't fit her, doesn't fit Razzie very well BUT it does fit the cat :) Yes the cat is wearing the costume. Emmy is a very good kitty and doesn't mind being kitty tourtured as long as there are treats and pets.

"Razzie getting into the spirit of Halloween"

Corgi ears are not made for costumes

"Emmy NOT Amused"

"Ok Fine, I'll let you take my picture, but I'm still not amused"

Ok so that's enough catching up for now. There is probably more still to add but I'll just have to add it later.

How to make a corgi a giraffe

Okay so poor Razzie has hotspots, again! I have been treating them at home but today they were getting beyond home-care so off to work we went. We ended up clipping her naked, cleaning her, getting an antibiotic shot, getting more antibiotics to go home, and turned her into a giraffe in the process.

Lets just say that she is not amused. She is spending most of her time hiding under Bens computer chair sulking. Thankfully this is only for a couple days till the antibiotics kick in full force and they're not so itchy. I've decided that the hot spots are seasonal. Food changes haven't made a big difference, and they come about around the season changes. So I'm gonna blame them on pollen.

If you're wondering why she has a cervical collar on and not an elizabethan collar (e-collar or cone collar) it's because the e-collar rubs right on the bottom of the hot spot. The Cervical collar just misses it and she can't reach her armpits or back leg , where more hot spots are :(

On another note. Jasmine is getting very good at stupid dog tricks. She knows the obvious ones, sit, stay, heel, come, etc. But she now knows her right foot from her left, left being her best side.

Very excited "left"!

Will leave treats alone that sit on her feet.

She is very good at sad puppy eyes though.

I'm not looking.

Please please it's right there!

And we're working on rollover. The only problem we have is she only rolls one way. :P

Snow?? It's March

Okay so yesterday I thought the weather was just a fluke. Like a strange thunderstorm rolling through, but no. We had snow/hail yesterday for like 5 hours, which the dogs loved.And you know you MUST play Frisbee in the snow. It makes it so much more fun.

Today I wake up to this crazy blizzard like snowstorm. Thankfully it's not huge flakes or anything but its still sticking to the ground. But seriously this is from yesterday, you could see across the lake:

Today you can see to the end of the dock. Woo hoo for snow! The girls have to go do their daily rounds around the front yard to make sure there are no evils (ducks) hiding in the lawn. You never know with all this white stuff falling from the sky.

Razzie actually caught one a couple days ago which impressed me. It's an amazing feat for an 11yr old girl with arthritis. All she caught here was a snowflake in her eye.

Thankfully I don't have to go back to work till Sunday.
No work means more time to play with the Corgwn children outside. Toss some snowballs chase ducks and all other things fun to snow loving Corgwn.

First Snow

So the weather man has been talking all week about snow. Well it finally hit, the little trace that we got the dogs very much enjoyed. They were out in it for a while frolicking and bouncing around. Jasmine was trying to eat it as it fell. She was not very pleased when the ducks, aka evils, showed up to try and crash her party but she didn't let them. She was very adamant about them not coming on the lawn. Silly girl.

This was the first time Razzie has been with us when it has snowed. I didn't know what she'd do, or whether or not she'd even want to go outside in the cold, she gets a little stiff in cold weather. She showed us that snow and cold weather don't faze her and she can play just like a pup. She kept trying to sniff the snow and got it up her nose quite a few times and then all you heard was corgi sneezes.

Tonight the snow is continuing to fall, almost 1/4 inch now and I don't think it's going to stop any time soon. The Corgwn should have a great Sunday running in the snow if this keeps up.

The importance of Thyroid testing.

We've had Razzie now for almost a year but we were still having some "aggression " issues with her and I was beginning to think that we were never going to be able to leave them alone without the fear of coming home to some bloodshed. Training was helping, NILIF rules were helping, but still every now and then we'd have a little spat and I couldn't trust Razzie with other dogs. I was beginning to think this was the way life for us was going to be.

I asked the Vets at work and they recommended various things from training to puppy Prozac etc, rechecking her thyroid (since she's already on thyroid meds.) to make sure she's at a good level. Well I decided to recheck her thyroid since it was a good start and it was over 6months since she was last rechecked. Well it turned out that her level was too low and she needed her meds upped. Well those of you with dogs with low thyroid levels know that they can be quiet moody and unpredictable.

I have had her medication changed for a little over 1 month and she is acting like a normal dog ( for the most part) and has even started playing. Maybe it's just coincidence or the medication but I personally don't care, I'm just happy that she can play with Jasmine and other dogs now without always trying to fight with them. Hopefully she will become a normal stable dog with a little more time and effort.

Great Agility Equipment for Corgi's

So I took a little trip to Ikea today and as I'm walking past the kiddy section I see something I have been searching for for a long time. A little inexpensive kiddy tunnel! It's the perfect size for Corgi's and I won't feel bad if they destroy it. I spent a whopping 18 bucks on it and it's perfect!My home made agilty course is now one step closer to being complete. Even the ol' girl is trotting through it. Jasmine on the other hand is flying through the thing each time she sees it opened up. Silly girl.