Day 59 - Agility Class (week 3)

Jedi woke me up around 5:30 or so this morning with what seems to be becoming a bit of a habitual barking habit. For the record, this barking is not due to any sort of bathroom emergency. When I do finally get up he takes his sweet time getting out the door and has no real urgency to get off the deck and go. Indeed, he generally has to be reminded to get back out in the yard to poop before he comes back in the house.

I ignore him when the barking starts. I don't say anything, I don't do anything. He stops and I watch the news for a bit until I feel like getting up and then he gets let out. I'm hoping he figures out that the barking doesn't get him anywhere. It's not long and drawn out or anything, but I'd rather have that extra hour of sleep, you know. On the bright side, I probably shouldn't be setting an alarm for 6:30 anyhow if I'm going to make it to work on time, so it's probably for the best that he gets us up earlier.  :o)

For breakfast this morning we did a few leg pivots and then spent some time holding the jump bar. It's been a bit since we've worked on this one and Jedi jumped right in where he left off, if not better. He was giving really nice holds with his right paw. He still doesn't offer holds with his left paw, but he did offer both legs several times.

When I got home from work we went outside and spent lunch on the teeter. I set up the camera and hopefully got some decent footage, but I haven't had any time to edit it yet today. Hopefully tomorrow. Jedi did really well with me on his right, but kept pulling off to the side when I was on his left. My assumption is this was happening because I was crossing my body to reward with the food in my left hand. I switched the food into my right hand for the last few and this seemed to make a difference. I know I need to be better about rewarding from the correct hand. It's just nice to have one hand that isn't slimy, you know?

After I ate lunch we went back outside and worked on more sends/wraps around cones. I set up the camera for that, too, so we'll see what I got when I get around to editing it. Jedi did his first rear crosses, but it was completely unintentional and more related to his obsession of going counter clockwise -- So I had him pointed clockwise and he would duck in and go the other direction. I continue to do a lot more rewarding from the hand versus throwing out to get him to pay a little more attention to my turning cues. We did a few teeter slams with the toy to finish and those are definitely harder than when we have food!

We had to do the obligatory bucket refill after play time. From there on, though, it was a very quiet afternoon. Jedi pretty much slept until around 4:00 when it was time to get up and start getting ready to leave for class. I was surprised at how hard Jedi crashed on the drive over considering his nap-filled afternoon. He's such a good traveler and doesn't even stir when we come into town and start making turns and stops. I look back at him and he might open an eye, but then he goes right back to sleep. I don't think he was fully awake when we pulled into Canine Sports Zone and I got him out of the van -- it took him a moment to realize where we were. Then he was wide awake and thrilled to be back at one of his favorite places.

I was a good fifteen minutes early for class tonight, so we had plenty of time to settle in and wander around. One of the instructors at CSZ brought out her six-month old border collie puppy, Twister, to meet Jedi. They hit it off immediately! I remarked at how much better Jedi played with this puppy versus Massey at our Monday night class. He was completely quiet and both of them took turns and nobody was always on top. I guess Twister doesn't have dogs at home that will play with him, so he was happy for the play time. Jedi is always happy to play with new puppies!

Tonight was our third week of agility foundations and the main theme of the evening was crate games. While I always make it a point to make the crate positive and fun, I admittedly have not officially done "crate games" with Jedi yet. I see crate games as an excellent tool to help build impulse control and, well, I think Jedi is doing pretty well in that department so I just haven't been motivated to take the time and work with the crate that much. They had two crates set up and the class took turns working on the beginnings of crate games with our dogs. Jedi needed one reminder not to go out the open door and then he was like, "Oh, is that what you want, okay, I have this." We're probably at the point in life where I should start to ask him to wait until released from the crate, but this is where my laziness shines through and it's easier to just open the door and let him out (note, I don't open the door for barking, but I don't stop the wiggles).

While we were having the crate games discussion I kept Jedi occupied with his dinner. We were right next to a big overturned rubber bin, so Jedi was mostly offering the pee trick and two-on/two-off.

After our turn on the crate we were with the group practicing bottoms on the raised plank. I used a toy (tennis ball on rope) with Jedi and he did well, but it's clear that I need to start challenging him to hold him position when I run past. I think he's stopping more off my body motion right now.

They put out jump standards for everyone to work on sending their dog through while they worked the last dog through the crate games. I took the jump standard that was next to the tunnel and chute, which may or may not have been the best idea because Jedi was a little obsessive about the tunnel. I've never asked him to send around a jump standard before and Jedi wasn't immediately clear on what I was asking, but he figured it out. For the most part, though, he kept getting stuck at the tunnel entrance. "Here, this thing here, you want me to do this thing now?"

Jedi learned a new trick tonight. Maybe not the best one, but it was kind of cute. I finally gave in and told him to "go, go, go" when he was doing his stare at the tunnel, so he blasted through it, came out the other end, and then blasted back through to come back to me. He thought this was very fun and did it several times. We killed some time by asking for some stays in front of the tunnel and these were very, very hard for Jedi. I'd worked stays with him on the other side and he rocked it (including me jumping and twirling all over with his toy), but the allure of the tunnel was too great. Homework!

Towards the end of class they took us in to watch the tail end of the advanced class in the big arena. I think the main purpose was to show everyone how the two-on/two-off exercise applies to "real" agility. We were on the side with the big wall so the dogs couldn't really see anything. Jedi just chilled. I picked him up to watch some at the end and he did well -- watching intently, but not screaming or barking.

We wrapped up with restrained recalls through the tunnel. Whee! Jedi's favorite part of class. Once we were done I let Jedi run through the chute and tunnel several more times on his own, which he thought was great fun.

Since we'd finished up Jedi's dinner at class, he got a bit extra when the rest of the dogs were fed tonight. He's probably due for a bump up in his food anyhow. I just had him do paw touches, focusing on having him touch with his right paw since that was his harder side. Since then he's been having a grand old time playing with the ice I dumped on the deck from the cooler.

Day 58 - Class Night

All of the excitement of the weekend caught up with my crew today and we had a relatively quiet morning. Jedi was wound up and in feet-chasing mode first thing this morning -- He also made quite a ruckus in his crate when the other dogs started stirring on the bed. The alarm hadn't gone off yet, though, so I wasn't getting up. I just ignored him and he quieted down again. It was raining during breakfast, so we did leg pivots in the living room. I've been able to abandon the target and Jedi is doing well with moving to each side. He does keep trying to target the dog bed in the living room with his back feet, though -- Hard to work around the distraction of so many target obstacles, I guess.

Jedi crashed by about 9:00 or so and stayed pretty quiet until lunch time. The rain was gone, so we went outside for his training session. I adjusted the teeter way down to puppy height -- the drop is just slightly higher than what Jedi was jumping on from the side. The first time he went over it there was a look of surprise on his face when it moved. But then he was like, "It moves!" and then it was game on and he was racing over and into his bottom. We also did plenty of slams hopping on the side. I'll have to try to get video tomorrow if the weather cooperates. We ended with some leg pivots.

After I ate lunch we went back outside for some play time, since Jedi was starting to go into crazy mode. We played with the two cones again, mixing up sending around a single cone, both cones, figure eights, coming to hand, and throwing the toy. I'm making sure to keep it fun, fun, fun and fast by not correcting anything -- with the exception of when I try to start him from my left and he circles to my right. That I fix. Really, though, he's reading my body really well. His turns to the right are nice and tight, while his turns to the left go a bit wide and will need a little more attention as we move forward. He makes progress so quickly, though, that I know he'll have nice wraps in both directions in no time.

Jedi played in the water bucket when we were done, and then got to play with the hose since I had to refill the water bucket after he splashed around in it. I think he has that game figured out and does it on purpose. Regardless, all of this fun play time did as intended and we had a nice quiet afternoon. Jedi woke up around 4:00 and I was still in the middle of something, so when he managed to find himself a paper bag and started to go to town on it, I just let it happen. I slightly regretted this when I had to start picking up the pieces, but he sure did enjoy himself.

Because he was so wired at this point, I decided it would be in my best interest to run some energy off of Jedi before we went to class tonight. We went out a bit before 5:00 and chased some tennis balls. This definitely helped take the edge off and Jedi crashed hard in the crate on the drive to West Salem. Kaiser got to come along tonight to be a new meet & greet dog for my advanced class, but he stayed in the crate for the puppy class.

There is one puppy who is always first to arrive and they get to class a bit early each week. This is the puppy that sends Jedi a bit over the top when they play, and this puppy gets a little too excited about seeing Jedi, so we used this opportunity to have both puppies NOT immediately play with each other and instead get them to focus on working with us until class started. Jedi did exceptionally well and we worked through a good portion of his dinner while he offered leg pivots. The other puppy owner pulled out a squeaky toy to help get her puppy's attention back on her -- Oh those dratted squeaky toys, but hooray for another training opportunity.

Jedi got a couple of timeouts during play time because he again gets a little hyper-focused on Massey. I watched very closely tonight and it's interesting to note that he rarely gets bitey or puts his teeth into Massey -- But he's VERY vocal and lays his entire body weight into the other puppy. Massey doesn't do a lot to get himself out of this situation, although there was one time where they reversed roles and I was glad to see this. Once the Dane started to get more active in play things settled down between Massey and Jedi and the three were able to do well together. Not sure where all of our other puppies were tonight!

One of our students just had an accident with her puppy, so we spent a good amount of time talking about clicker training tonight as a way she can keep her mind active and engaged while her body heals. She asked questions after she noted that Jedi was swinging back and forth between my left and right legs as I talked, so that led into a quick "how to" for how to start clicker training work. We'll see if any of them take it and run over the next week -- I hope they have fun stories to share of their progress.

We were able to get outside for part of the class, before the rain chased us back indoors. Jedi and Kaiser got passed off to the student without her puppy while I worked with another student's dog. Jedi wasn't too pleased about this at first and barked his disapproval, but he got over it when he realized I wasn't actually leaving. Funny, he will go away with anyone else, but I'm not allowed to leave him!

Jedi went into the crate with a pig ear for the advanced class and was a good boy while Kaiser was out doing his meet & greets. Both dogs got to come along when we went for a walk outside. One of the dogs in the class really struggles with small fluffy dogs, so Kaiser and Jedi were quite the distraction. Jedi was super well-behaved, though, and didn't do anything to provoke the other dog.

My dogs went back in the crate when we got back inside. Jedi barked a couple of times for attention. I backed my way over to the crate and rewarded him a couple of times for being quiet and then he went back to finishing off the pig ear. He stayed quiet for the rest of the night.

I didn't feed anyone dinner before I left home tonight, so I still needed to do that when we got home. Jedi finished his normal allotment during class when he was showing off his tricks, so he got a little extra when the other dogs ate. We tried for more leg pivots and were mostly successful, but he was a little all over the place tonight and having a hard time sticking to my leg. My guess is that he's just way overtired.

Day 57 - AKC Trial, Day 3 (16 weeks old!)

Jedi is 16 weeks old today! He officially survived his first 3-day trial, which included crating inside the whole weekend! I was lazy for breakfast again, so Jedi ate out of the bowl for breakfast again this morning. This also allowed me to get a bunch of pumpkin into him, as he started having the runs yesterday -- likely from the trachea and other stuff he's been getting in his crate at the trial.

We didn't have quite as much down time at the trial today due to having one less class in the middle of the day. I still made sure to get Jedi out to run in the field across the street. We played with the ball on the rope and after several fetches to get his ya-yas out we worked on our wait/release. He did really well with them. As he started to get tired he seemed to notice a dog across the field playing frisbee, but he was a good boy and stuck with me. I made sure to give him a couple extra throws after I put the leash back on so that he doesn't learn to associate the leash going on with the fun coming to an end.

After he cooled off in the crate for a bit I brought Jedi out for his lunch. We visited the measuring table again today. Jedi didn't shy away at all as I moved the measuring arm up, down, and all around him while he ate. Hopefully this is something we can continue to work on at future trials. In the event that Jedi measures anywhere near a cutoff point, I would like to make sure he's as relaxed as possible so that we don't end up with any sort of inflated measurement. Once he was done eating we went into the arena with a toy and just sat in the chair and watched. Well, I watched, Jedi tugged. Once he started to wind down I had him come up into my lap. He didn't seem to notice the agility until the last dog. He's definitely more visual that way -- The sounds of dogs barking and carrying on didn't phase him in the least, but seeing another dog run is super exciting.

When we got home today I had to mow the lawn. Jedi initially saw me pulling the mower out of the garage and went back into the house to try to avoid it. I was able to call him back out into the yard and shut the gate to keep him out with the rest of us -- the yard is big, he has plenty of space to get away from the mower if that's what he wants. He actually did fine once I got started, though. He hung out under the a-frame again for most of the time, but there were also a couple of instances where he came out and wandered around a bit, too, so he's getting a lot more relaxed about the lawn mower in general. It helps that the other dogs are good role models for him.

I wasn't planning on giving Jedi another play session tonight after all of this, but he had other ideas. He looked just desperate as he stared at the toy box in the garage, so I gave in. We tried something new with the cones today -- I added a second cone to the mix. We started out having Jedi distinguish between a tight send around a single cone versus going out and around both cones. I was surprised at how naturally this came to him. He read my body language really well. I was even able to move the cones apart a bit further to make the push to the second cone a little more challenging.

After a bit I moved the cones even further apart and started to introduce the concept of a figure eight. This one was harder for Jedi at first because he's used to just going around the cone and flying after his toy. Now he actually had to pay attention and come into my hand. I held my ground and after a few times of circling around me to come back to the toy he figured out to come straight to my hand after going around the cone. Once he got that in both directions I was able to combine it into a full single figure eight. He's a quick learner!

I was lazy again for dinner tonight. I think our class with Silvia Trkman is supposed to start back up this week, so we'll have to get back to work!

Day 56 - AKC Trial, Day 2

Many people have asked me why I'm driving back and forth to Middleton this weekend. The nearly two-hour drive is draining to do twice a day for three days in a row, no doubt. I have Luke at home, so that is one reason --  But oh my lord, I can't even imagine spending two nights in a row in a hotel with Jedi right now. Thank heavens we can come home where he has all of his stuff, but more importantly the yard to keep him occupied. Last night he was go-go-go almost until we went to bed (he did finally crash on the couch) and tonight doesn't appear to be much different. Yes, I think I'll make the drive for him and for my sanity.

I finally caved this morning -- Jedi got breakfast out of a bowl with all of the other dogs. This was a combination of pure laziness and a time crunch, as all of the foam rolling and stretching I'm doing to try to help my back takes up a good amount of time. I waited to feed the dogs until after I was done with that and I only had about a half hour before we needed to leave, and I still needed to shower. So yes, here Jedi, eat out of this bowl. This is when I noted that I don't really have a "place" for him picked out. Secret and Kaiser eat on opposite sides of the island in the kitchen. Luke is over by the computer desk, and Kizzy is on the side of the couch. We need to figure out a spot for Jedi once this becomes more of a regular thing. I just put his bowl down in the middle of the kitchen and he pushed it over against one of the cabinets.

Jedi had another super day at the AKC trial. Most of the day I moved the screen away from his crate (just keeping it around the Klee Kai crate) and he had a wide-open view. Coming off a dog like Kizzy, I really appreciate his ability to hang out and quietly observe the world around him. I threw a beef trachea in his crate this morning and he gnawed on that off and on all day.

Between runs this morning I took Jedi into the main ring area to work around people and other dogs, as well as the sounds of the trial. They have a nice solid wall between spectators and the dogs in the ring, so I wasn't too worried about being a distraction. Good or bad, this also meant that Jedi didn't have the ability to see the dogs running in the ring, but he could hear them. I had the fuzzy octopus and we worked on stays and releasing on a verbal "okay." I've been working adding silly movement to try to throw Jedi off and he's doing really well. He still occasionally stands up or breaks on his own, but overall I'm very impressed with the progress he's making. He's showing really good self control, and also a very clear understanding of the release word. I'm glad for the reminder we had in Jedi's class this week to make sure they understand the word and that they aren't releasing on a motion cue.

We didn't have the rain-filled day that we thought we would, so we had plenty of opportunity to get outside to stretch our legs and play. Before lunch I took Jedi across the street to the big field. We had it to ourselves, so I took off his leash today to keep him from stepping on it. Today I brought the frisbee and we played with fetching rollers. Much like Secret, Jedi's "tell" that he's tired appears to be that he stops and chews on the disc. That said, he continued to jump up and grab at it the whole way back inside, trying to convince me that no, he really wasn't tired!

I let Jedi cool down a bit after his play session before I brought him out for lunch. Today we spent his entire lunch on the measuring table. I was glad that I opted to do this when I noted his first reaction was to shy away from the measuring arm again. I just fed him handfuls of food as I moved the arm up, down, and around him. It didn't take long for him to stop shrinking away from it and just stand relaxed. Because he was so much more relaxed today I was able to move around and look at the measuring tape while he stood very naturally. It was a solid 15" on the nose, so either he grew 1/4" overnight (hey, possible I guess, lol) or he was shrinking away a bit yesterday when we got him. I'll go with the latter and redact my statement from yesterday, as Jedi is easily 15". So while we're almost at 16 weeks, I'll say that his 15-week stats are 18.3 lbs and 15" tall.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty quiet with just short trips in and out. Once we got home, mostly based on our experiences last night, I opted to run Jedi with the tennis ball to try to wear him out a bit. He did super with his sends around the cone -- we've been struggling lately with sends from my left (he likes to cross behind and come around my right), but tonight I held my position until he came around and he seemed to figure it out quickly. I wasn't a slacker for dinner and we worked on leg pivots. I took the little plate out just to get Jedi started, and then we quickly moved off of the plate. The main focus of the night was getting him to stick to the right leg away from the plate. He tried to offer the left leg a few times, but quickly realized that this wasn't getting him anywhere and swung to the right leg. He's making a lot of progress with this one -- still just turning in circles, but we'll get there.

We have one more day of the trial to make it through. I have more faith in Jedi than I do in my back (and the rest of my body, for the compensations it is having to make for my back).

Day 55 - AKC Trial, Day 1

Today was the first of a 3-day weekend of AKC agility, so it will be Jedi's longest trial weekend yet. It's also going to be his first weekend spent inside at the trial, as the whether isn't looking good for crating out of the van (today was too warm and the van was parked on the street, so I couldn't keep it wide open). Today was our latest start of the three days, since Time 2 Beat and Premier JWW were running first. We left for Middleton at 7:00, after doing leg pivots outside for breakfast. This is our second of five trips to Middleton in the span of a week...

Everyone traveled well this morning. They were all eager to get going and I had to keep kicking them out of the van as I got it loaded. Jedi surprised me when he suddenly appeared in the big crate in the back. That's a pretty big jump, I didn't know he was capable of that yet! Sorry little dude, until you outgrow Secret, that's her spot. (And hopefully that never happens!)

I got a decent parking spot at least, but we were kind of screwed for crating since I rolled in so late. There were no spots available on any edges/walls, mostly thanks to all of the selfish people who spread their crap out and take up space needlessly. That meant that I had to set up in one of the middle rows. This is more concerning for Kizzy -- I stuck her crate in the center and hoped for the best. I also brought in the blankets from the van to help cover the back of the crates, knowing that she pulls them in and it was likely hopeless.

Overall everyone did well inside today. Jedi was slightly obnoxious first thing. I think I had Kaiser out of the crate and Jedi started barking. I told him to hush and he got even louder -- he is so sassy. He looks me straight in the eye and screams. Well fine, then, you don't get to look at me. I pulled the poster board screen in front of the crate so he couldn't see us anymore and he was quiet. That was really the only episode of the day where he barked. He did really well, including when I took dogs out to run!

Around mid-morning I took Jedi across the street to the big open field. There were two other dogs playing fetch over there -- One had a squeaky toy and I wondered if I would lose Jedi to that, but once I showed him his ball he was game on. He got in lots of running before we went back in. I made sure to practice waits/releases to the toy and Jedi did really well, he's really starting to make the connection.

For lunch I just asked for paw touches, but Jedi was offering side legs and pee trick on the cooler so we did a lot of that. I made sure to move the cooler back and forth to work both sides and we were able to get pee trick on the left side today! After he ate I took Jedi over to the measuring table to try to get a height on him. I wasn't having a lot of luck on my own, so thankfully someone took pity and helped me out. Jedi was skittish about the measuring arm at first, but he quickly got over it and we were able to get a fairly trustworthy measurement of 14.75". I think tomorrow we might go eat lunch on the measuring table with the arm moving around and over him.

Jedi had a very quiet afternoon in the crate and was sleeping most of the times I looked in on him. Hopefully this trend continues the rest of the weekend. We had a quiet drive home, and Jedi lived with the fact that there wasn't a water dish in his crate. We just beat the rain home, but had to do dinner inside tonight because it started up shortly after we got home. We worked on putting various kitchen utensils into the bowl, and then finished up with 4-in using the same bowl. As Jedi gets bigger it's getting a little harder!

Everyone is pretty tired and nobody really wants to play with Jedi tonight. Hopefully that means he, too, will settle down and crash soon.  :o)

Day 54 - West Side Park / Sparta Walk

I was a little better this morning, in that it only took me about two minutes to get out of bed instead of five. Sigh. I took some time to ice and stretch before feeding the dogs and I managed to get through a round of teeter slams for Jedi's breakfast. Jedi gets pretty excited while I'm feeding the other dogs, so I've been working on directing his energy to a toy instead of trying to latch on to me (feet) or one of the other dogs (usually Kizzy). He's doing a really good job redirecting that energy to whatever toy is closest. If I had more hands I'd try to get video of him violently shaking it as I distribute bowls to everyone. I had to go into the office this morning, so Jedi was happy to get his Kong today -- at least for that he knows to go straight to the crate when I start handing them out.

When I got home we went outside to do some leg pivots. Jedi will come to the left side without a target, but he's kind of clueless about keeping on the leg for anything but turns at the moment. I was unable to get him to come to the right leg without putting the target/lid on the ground. At that point he doesn't really even step on the target, but he understands what it is that I want. We'll have to get back to working on this.

After I had my lunch we went back outside to wear Jedi out before my 2:00 meeting. I picked up the yard and then we played ball. I took video today to show how intense he is about his tennis balls. If the quality comes through well enough, you'll also get to see just how horrible the gnats are here right now. It's disgusting to spend any amount of time outside because you get swarmed by gnats. Can't say that Jedi seems to notice or care.

I refilled the water bucket when we were done and Jedi decided that (and playing with the hose while I was filling the bucket) was good enough for swimming today. I'm kind of thankful that he didn't go diving in the poop pool. Gah, that thing needs to get emptied soon; it's gross.

I like to keep the trialing dogs pretty low key the day before a trial (assuming I can actually run tomorrow...), so that meant Jedi was off to a solo outing today. I had a couple of errands to run, so I figured we'd just stay in Sparta tonight. I parked at Walgreens and we walked down Hwy 16 to Rudy's, turned up a block, and then walked back.

We didn't run into a lot of people tonight (surprising for how nice it is), but there was a lot of traffic along the highway. The surprise of the day was Jedi's reaction to big trucks -- apparently they are kind of scary now! It started with a large piece of farm machinery that rumbled past and seemed to take Jedi by surprise. As we rounded the corner up by Rudy's a big milk truck went past and Jedi scrambled to the end of his leash trying to get away. This was the first time he's really taken any notice of vehicles. It's also the first time he's had to face this sort of thing alone, so that may have had something to do with it as well. The street back was much quieter, but when we got back to the van we spent some time just sitting in the grass watching the vehicles go by and he did fine.

Towards the end of our route I walked by what looked like an alley that had a green sign saying, "West Side Park." Never heard of it. I looked down the driveway and saw there were a bunch of kids that looked to be having baseball practice. Hmm, I figured we could check it out.

It was an interesting little park set back in the middle of some houses. With the exception of one newer playground set, there was a bunch of old stuff that appeared to be handmade out of wood and metal. One of these had a sway bridge, so I had Jedi climb up and go across the bridge a couple of times. It wasn't super bouncy, so he didn't really even notice it. He got to climb up onto the newer set as well -- it went a little higher than some of the others we've seen, so he got to have a nice view from the top.

We continued to walk the perimeter of the park. Jedi didn't seem to take note of the baseball team until we got right over by the fence where they had all of their stuff. Prior to that he was too busy finding a dead bird and then a dead rabbit (thankfully I noticed that one before we got too close). We also got to deal with a barking, fence-charging dog. It was our second of the night and thankfully both times Jedi was a super good boy and didn't react at all other than to give the dogs a look like, "You crazy!"

It wasn't a super long outing, we were only out for about a half hour (good thing we found that park or it would have been even shorter). It was a good experience for Jedi to go out by himself, though, and learn to handle stuff on his own. He walked very nicely on leash, too -- I hope I continue to be spoiled by his good leash manners, as I've really not had to put much effort into that at all. His only "fault" is that he still struggles a bit to stay on one side, although if I insist he complies -- so I guess the real problem is me, right?

For dinner we did a couple of teeter bangs and then worked bottoms on the dog walk. I probably should have ran Jedi after dinner again because he's been loony tunes since then. First he was running laps with the ice cubes I dumped out on the deck from my latest ice pack, and now he's convinced Kizzy to wrestle with him. She must have missed the memo about chilling the night before a trial! I guess we'll see how that goes tomorrow, eh?

Day 53 - Chiro visit (Rising Sun Animal Wellness Center)

I slept better last night but was awake at 5:00 this morning. By 5:30 I figured we may as well get up, and unfortunately this is when I found out that my back was no better yet today. Jedi's crate is positioned immediately next to the bed, which makes it that much more difficult to get up when one cannot bend or otherwise move. Again, he was blessedly patient and waited for me to get through all of my contortions to finally open the crate door. Breakfast training was again done in the living room and pretty much just consisted of holding the jump bar.

Since we got up so early I had plenty of time to get ready to go into the office, so Jedi spent the morning in the crate (it's been a while since he's had to do that!). I got home shortly after noon, though, so it was a shorter day. He's got the Kong routine figured out, though, and runs to the crate when I start handing them out to everyone.

For lunch today we went outside and I sat next to the stick-in-the-ground pole. I didn't really have a plan -- I'd still like to see him offer circling around the pole (cik/cap in Silvia's world), but I figured I'd click for any interaction. He did lots of hugs/holds and offered the pee trick several times, which is pretty funny next to the pole. We didn't do any full circles, but he moved around the pole a good bit. I should try for circles again one of these days.

I had a meeting at 1:30, so play time had to wait until after that was finished. After the yard was cleaned up I figured using the Chuck-it would be the easiest on my back. It was still a bit of a reach down to get the balls, so I ended up just sitting on the ground after I did a couple of sends around the cone with Jedi. I'm blessed that he (and Secret & Luke) are so good about bringing the ball back within easy reach. I guess it would have been that or not playing at all today!

It was only in the mid-70s today and really quite lovely, but we did throw balls for a bit and it was long enough for Jedi to be certain he was going to melt away. I gather this by the dramatic flair he had when he flopped himself into the pool when we were done, and then by the blissed out look on his face as he lay completely emerged in the water. I tried to ignore the fact that there was bird poop everywhere as he plowed his head under the water. He didn't care, he was happy. There's no way I can dump the pool right now, so I guess I have to live with it.

I got super lucky by getting Secret in for a visit with her chiro vet today. I called this morning after much procrastination and was elated when they said they could squeeze us in this afternoon (I would have gone tomorrow if need be, but I prefer to have a day between adjustments and a trial). We left for Viroqua at 3:15, with Jedi still wet from his pool play and ready to crash for his afternoon nap. Jedi got to meet Dr. Marta a couple of days after he arrived, when he came to the last night of classes that Dr. Marta and Wisp were attending with me. I figured she would be happy to see him again.

I brought the bag-o-fun along and kept Jedi entertained as we waited in the exam room. This is one of Secret's favorite places to visit and she seemed a little disgusted that she had to share her time with Jedi, but she got over it once Dr. Marta came in to give her attention. I had to put the toy away to get Jedi to even acknowledge Dr. Marta or her assistant.

The toys had to come back out once they started working on Secret, because Jedi was a little too interested in helping out. The fuzzy octopus kept him occupied and out of the way. Once Dr. Marta finished up with Secret she asked if I wanted her to give Jedi a puppy adjustment to get him used to being handled this way (no charge). Well of course, yes please! He stood exceptionally well as she moved his hind legs and then worked her way up his back. It was nice to have this early introduction for him, since I'm sure he'll eventually beat up his body enough that he'll need an actual adjustment. With the way he fetches at this early age I can tell he's not going to be terribly careful about preserving himself.

Marta brought Wisp out to say hello before we left (Wisp is a border collie who will be a year old at the end of next month) -- I took Secret back out to the van first since she tends to be just awful to him. Jedi got to say hello, but I limited their interaction when I noticed that Wisp had some goopy eyes going on. Dr. Marta said she thinks it's allergies, but I'd prefer not to take any chances of it being conjunctivitis (pink eye). Jedi didn't care to be restrained back from Wisp and started barking, but as they were moved further away from each other he was able to settle back down. When we got home the neurotic side of me wiped Jedi down and cleaned off his face where he might have had any contact with Wisp. Yeah, if it really was pink eye I'm sure it's too late, but it made me feel better.

When I got home I absolutely had to mow the front yard. Everything needs mowing, but the back yard is going to have to wait. I opted to leave Jedi out of his crate for his first real experience of being left unattended in the house. I left the front door open (screen door closed/locked) in case he wanted to watch what I was doing, but I didn't really see him as I walked back and forth. When I came back in the house he popped his head over the top of the couch, so I'm going to guess he was just hanging out there the whole time.

For dinner we went outside and I managed to squat down enough to reward Jedi for slams on the teeter. It was nice to do something other than the pee trick and holding that we've been doing the last couple of days. I think Jedi agreed, as he was very excited to play on the teeter today. One of these days I suppose I could lower that thing and let him go all the way across. He's definitely got the side slams down.