Agility Trial and The Dog Tank

It's been a few days, so I figured Jedi's blog was due for an update! Jedi has been doing well since his vet visit on Wednesday. I gave him another dose of Benadryl on Thursday morning, along with the last dose of aspirin that I gave him for his foot. I stopped the aspirin because I wasn't noticing that initial off gait anymore, but I have continued to keep Jedi's activity pretty low. I have to say, I'm kind of impressed with his ability to chill in the house with such a reduced activity level. Over the last few days he's been a bit fruity and saying he's ready to do more, but there were several days there where he actually stayed pretty quiet.

On Thursday Jedi got to go to puppy class with me. I let him have some play time dragging his leash this time, but limited his ability to run too much. This particular group of puppies is more about wrestling than running, so it worked out well. Jedi was happy to finally get to do something. We stayed home on Friday, mostly because we had an agility trial on Saturday and I didn't want Secret wearing herself out the night before if we went swimming or something. I introduced Jedi to the NADAC hoop obstacle, which was pretty much a non-event because we've generalized the sending around stuff skill (around/through, not much different I guess). I just ran him through a pinwheel and kept spreading the hoops further apart to build his send/distance, and then had him come into my hand for the holee roller ball as a reward to avoid any more tumbles. I don't know when I'll be comfortable letting Jedi fetch again...

Yesterday we drove over to Camp Bandy for another AKC trial. We left home at 5:30 since we were running Premier and it was the first class of the day. Jedi got breakfast out of a bowl, but truthfully I've been pretty lazy and he's been getting a lot of meals in his crate lately. I randomly work on the suitcase trick, holding stuff, and play on the FitPaws equipment, but yeah, lots of normal meals lately. Our Silvia Trkman class is done, so I have less incentive to work on specific skills now. I haven't gotten around to making our graduation video yet and haven't decided if I will. We'll see.

At any rate, Jedi did great at the trial. I set up one crate indoors when we arrived, because I only had four dogs between Kaiser and Kizzy in that Premier class. I ended up leaving the crate inside and using it as home base for the day. Jedi got to come hang out inside and watch the world go by several times, although most of the time when I checked on him he was sleeping. He got to tug by the ring, but eventually I took him out back and played there so as not to be so disruptive. We played our stay/go game, he did sends around a post, and we played check/nana around the same post. Jedi got to look at the sheep, but I think he was more interested in sticking his head through the fence to eat sheep poop. I bought Jedi a new collar from a vendor at the trial. It's bright blue sparkles. I haven't decided if he's a sparkly boy yet or not, but I like it, and the proceeds were going to Malinois rescue. I'll have to take a picture for the next blog post, I guess. I put Jedi up on the measuring table between classes. He gave me a really nice solid stand-stay and I pegged him pretty much right at 18" this time.

Saturday night I finally got video of something that is happening more and more frequently. Every now and then I'll be like, it's too quiet... I get up to do a head count of dogs and find nothing other than Jedi and Kaiser outside. Together. Playing! Kaiser mostly acts like he hates Jedi in the house, but when nobody is looking he seems to rather like him.

Originally I thought maybe we'd stay home today and stop putting so many miles on my van, but then I got word that the jumps I'd ordered were done. The guy that makes them only lives about an hour away from The Dog Tank and was willing to meet me there to deliver the jumps, so up we went! I only ever had one wing jump and both wings have busted, so now we have wings again. Yay! Also, these are much prettier than any of my other jumps. I would like more, but I'm glad I only got three because I had a difficult time getting them all into my van for the trip home. Almost had to collapse a crate, but I managed to squeeze them all in. I also talked the guy who made them into giving dock diving a try with his dog. The dog was jumping in from the dock within 10 minutes -- another addict is born!

Jedi had some super jumps today. He continues to improve on every trip. No doubt today he was a little higher than normal since he's done relatively little for the last week. There was a small group of folks wrapping up their session when we arrived and Jedi pretty much lost his mind until it was his turn. He was absolutely inconsolable today and would not be redirected from his screaming/barking until it was his turn. Jedi is quiet when he's on the dock. He's not quiet when he's not. That's pretty much how our visit goes. I am incredibly paranoid about Jedi hurting himself again. Because I figured the climb out of the pool might put a bit of pressure on the foot Jedi hurt last week, I opted to climb down the ramp and give him a boost up by his collar on every return. This seemed to work well for us, and isn't much different from our usual routine since I usually have to drag him out of the water anyhow.

Jedi broke the 15' mark while jumping today! This is good and not good (I don't want to say it's bad!). Obviously the fact that he continues to gain distance with each visit is awesome! The only reason one could view 15' as unfortunate is that it's the distance that bumps you into the next division (senior or something), against dogs that could be jumping over 19'. Oh well, we'll just have to see what happens in a few weeks. Maybe we can add another foot or two to his jump before then?  :o)  I went back and forth between the baby bumper and the full sized bumper today. I don't think Jedi cares at all, but I think the full size bumper tosses better so we'll probably use that. We can stick to the baby bumper for local swimming since the smaller size will encourage less water consumption. Interestingly, I tried jumping Secret with her beloved Wubba and found she also jumped better for the regular bumper, so I guess Wubbas will be her regular swim toy now (at least until she destroys the three I bought). I didn't try Jedi with a Wubba since I prefer the bumper and he likes them, too.

I mowed the lawn this afternoon and afterwards I set the dogs up for pictures with our new jumps. Luke didn't participate in that round of pictures, but since we were in posing mode I decided to go ahead and try to get a picture of all five dogs together. Luke really hates having his picture taken, so I try not to torture him this way too often. We got close during his half-birthday celebration, but I only managed to get four dogs for that because Kizzy took off on me. Kizzy was pretty much the problem child again today (perhaps I should revisit her stay work?), but we got it done. Jedi was a champ. It's obvious all of his posing and impulse control work is really paying off. For the important things. Like taking pictures.  :o)