EARLY LEARNING

Since the pups have been staying with me and Karen their owner was nice enough to let me continue to  keep/play with the puppies after she got back from her trip...I have got a golden opportunity to try all the things I have been reading about to raise puppies that I have previously only been able to read about. 

One of the best DVDs and books I have found is Jerry Hopes "The Breeders Guide to Raising Superstar Dogs".  I think it would be a cool book or DVDs for anyone considering getting a dog to read so you know what you should look for if you are getting a puppy for your next dog. 

Research shows that with a few simple things you can increase the neural pathways and the intelligence of a puppy and you can make their immune system stronger and make them able to withstand more stress and recover more easily in later life.  I personally think the first eight weeks of a puppies life is very important.  Of course genetics of the parents, how the parents are cared for, the stress the mom is under, the diet of the parents and of the pups, all those things play a big part in determining all a puppy is able to become too. 

So with Cherry's pups I started when they were 3 days old and did the ENS, early neuro stimulation for 14 days.  The ENS program is only done once a day and for only 14 days.  It is surprisingly easy to do....the first step is just taking a Q tip and rubbing in between the dogs toes for three to five seconds.  Right after that you securely hold the pup with their head straight up in the air for three to five seconds, then you securely hold the pup and put their head down for three to five seconds, then you put the pup on their back for three to five seconds and then put them down on a cloth that has been in the fridge a few hours, you leave them on it but they can wiggle or move all they want for three to five seconds.  I did the ENS with the daily weight at the same time each morning then gave the pups to Cherry to nurse so the minimal stress of the ENS was followed by something great.

Pups are born not being able to see or hear.  About the same time the eyes are opening-around 2 weeks the pups are also starting to hear.  When the pups could start hearing I started playing classical music which has been shown to increase neural pathways in the brain.  Any music works but classical seems to work best probably because of the nature of the different instruments and the tunes.  As time went on I added DVDs with sounds, vacuums, babies, kids, fireworks, gunshots, dogs. I also had the pups moved to the living room where they would be surrounded by the household dogs, the kids, and all the noises of a home. 

So that is basically the starting point of raising puppies to be superstars ;-).  Another HUGE thing is spending time with the whole litter, talking to the pups, and playing with them and cuddling them, touching them so they are used to being touched and handled.  That is one of the funnest parts and it is important to spend some time with each puppy individually. 

OF COURSE the biggest thing to keep in mind with early learning in my opinion is just spending time with the pup and having fun.  The goal is not that the dog can compete in obedience at 2 months, LOL, it is that the dog has fun with people and wants to learn more and looks to their person for fun!  You accomplish that and you are so far ahead of the game.  These pups have taught me they have their own agendas and they are very tiny THREE WEEK old babies with baby attention spans!  Ya gotta not pressure and go with what the puppy wants to do, a good lesson to remember when working with my adults too! 
KRISP:

I took some video of the early learning of each of the puppies, and of course I had to video.  It does not look that impressive and mostly I am luring the pups to sit, down, touch the target stick, and they do naturally come pretty well when placed away from you.  I just basically hope it is laying the foundation for the pups to be figuring out what people want, figuring out it is fun to work with your human partner and hopefully making it fun to play with me so they will look to their new human owners for those things when they go to their new homes.  :-).  PLEASE do not feel obligated to look at them all, I just posted so you could look at what you want ;-). 
DOODLES:

FIG

 

RAISIN

 

PEANUT

 

WE ARE STILL HERE!!!!!! WE MISS YOU ALL!!!!

WE ARE HERE-
Hey,....so sorry, it has been a long time since my life got turned upside down and boy, what a summer and Autumn.  First off I have to say I love my blogger life and my blogging friends have been so much a part of my life, following what they are doing and talking about what we are up to but when I hurt my leg and doing agility was out of the question and it got hard to even do most training with my dogs...it felt funny talking about the dogs, not much was going on....and it was a little easier to stay away I guess.  SOOOO I hope I can keep what has been going on short, but still catch everyone who has wondered where we were up.

After Spring agility camp...way back when ....I had injured my leg, I know I tore my meniscus- the cushioning behind the knee cap, and torn some tendons or ligaments -who knows what because the doctors don't seem concerned about that, because of injuries I had when I was a kid and when I broke my knee a few years ago the knee is in such bad shape they say fixing anything is out of the question, the only thing to do is to do a knee replacement.  Well, when I finally got to see a specialist he agreed my knee NEEDS a knee replacement and there is nothing else to do but he said he highly recommended I not get one because I was too young and it could potentially need to be redone twice more at least in my life time.  That was devastating news because I really cant walk much and it impacts not just agility but my daily life a LOT!  So the first specialist injected some hyalurine acid into the knee, OUCH, which after a few weeks worked well enough that I did not have to use a cane but it only lasted a few weeks.  I was referred to a specialist specialist, hahahaha, because the specialist said my case was too complicated for him.  It took 2 months to get into the specialist, specialist, but I have an appointment next Friday!  I have come to the point where I have really decided living now is what I have to insist on, and I will worry about the future when I have to, so I just wonder how long it will take to schedule the knee replacements if it takes two months to even see this surgeon. 

Along with hobbling around I started water aerobics, which has been heaven and I really enjoy-it has helped me lose 25 lbs as of this morning!!!!  yippie!!!

As far as the dogs we all had a full summer of just hanging out and being dogs ;0!  It has been hard on Cricket, the lack of exercise but she has been a trooper.  A thousand things I could have trained or done to keep them active but...I just needed to shift gears a little for awhile ;-)  

At the end of the summer a great opportunity came up.  A friend of mine, Breezes breeder who owns Cherry...the same Cherry that lived her for quite awhile a few years back....had to be out of town when Cherry was going to whelp a litter.  She asked if I would take care of Cherry and her pups.  It has been great, and has kept me very busy and having a lot of fun.  Cherry had her six pups 3 weeks ago. 

These are the babies at 3 weeks old: 
Newton Blue Merle Boy-the biggest guy:

Raisin-black tri girl

Fig-black tri girl who LOVES  me, LOL!

Doodles-black tri girl-an explorer

Krisp-black tri female-always the first up playing and the last to go to sleep, very playful right now

Peanut-about half the size of the other guys but sooo cute and playful-he holds his own!

I have been trying to do all the fun stuff I have read about to enhance early learning with the pups.  I did the early neuro stimulation to increase their brain power, played classical music which increases neuro pathways, let them watch the flickering lights from the TV which increases their neural pathways in the brain and spend a lot of time talking to them and changing their environment around, I make sure each gets some alone time with me/us and I spend a lot of time with them as a group.  It is soooo much fun to watch them.  Here is their pen, I have it set up so they are in the middle of the living room and in  the middle of life in the home, there is a little bedding area, then a potty area--and at three weeks they are doing great going in the potty area...then there is an area with toys, and perfect for play. 

Here are the puppies playing from yesterday morning:

 

 

 

HERE IS THE CRICK STAR-she is awesome with everyone, small puppies to big dogs, to any people she meets, can not say how much I love this girlie! LOL!

 

ANYWAY, so that is what we have been up to in a nutshell, hope to catch up on everyone as quickly as i can, thanks to everyone for wading through this long post and thanks for everyone who has always been out there for me and gave me so much support over the years!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Just checking in with everyone always means a lot!

What Makes a GREAT Coach?

It is blog action day again and the subject of today's blogs is what makes a good instructor/coach?

Being a good procrastinator I put off my blog post until the last minute, then what seemed to be such an easy topic did not seem so easy to write about. ;-) I have been very lucky to work with quite a few people that have been really great instructors but What does make a really good dog agility coach. I thought about how I would want to say a great coach keeps up on new trends in courses and handling, but might not necessarily jump on the bandwagon for every new trend. I might point out that a great coach makes things fun, that they have an ability to look at each team and find a way to build on their particular strengths. I could talk about how a good coach is like a good dog trainer and knows when to set you up for success to help you grow your confidence and knows when to challenge a team.

All of those things go into being a great coach or instructor, but when I thought of my own journey and what Dr. Phil would call those important life changing moments -the moments that leave a huge mark on our souls and that we will always remember and keep playing over and over in our minds, the things that really impact our journey...one moment came up for me that impacted and symbolized so many things for me ;-). ahhhhh, haaaaa, thinking of that I knew what I wanted to share with you all!!

I have been so lucky to have one truly great instructor or coach that made so many things possible for me. I looked on youtube and thank heavens I do have a moment that symbolizes what this instructor did for me. This is my very first AKC trial with Breeze in 2009. At the very end is my good friend and instructor yelling for me and Breeze, and you can tell she was running that course with us ;-). Her voice just says it all, that might have been just an ok run, but it was like I won the Olympics- ;-)
http://youtu.be/V6lHL_qzXU8


I was so lucky to have been able to work with Alicia Nicholas. She made me feel like all things were possible for me and I could do anything. She challenged me and made me feel respected. When she moved away at first I thought I would be lost doing agility but the attitude she inspired in me made it possible for me to train my next dog all by myself. I wish I had more of her yelling at the end of my video because I just can not convey all that that meant to me, but gosh I wish for all of you to have a great instructor at some point in your agility career that believes in you and is truly as excited for you as they would be for themselves, someone who inspires you, gets irritated at you when you could do better and who gets why agility seems so important to you!

Kathy Mocharnuk with CP Blew Breeze/ Leapin' Liz/ Hillcrest Quick as a Cricket

Moving on.....

I feel like I keep getting some of the same lessons in life but louder and louder, LOL! One of the lessons has been about taking better care of myself. I sort of feel like I am getting it, maybe...finally???

After going to the chiropractor and bursting out bawling where I could not stop I knew it was time to get it together and find things I could do to feel in control, and things I found fun since it feels like most of the things I do like have been put on hold. I started weight watchers and have lost 9 lbs and started doing water aerobics. The water aerobics is fabulous, I feel so good in the water and move so easily. Who knew, EXERCISE that is the high point of my day!

The last few weeks I met some of the nicest people-I must have the "look" because I have had so many people come up to me EVERYWHERE and ask what I did to myself. There have been a lot of people that have came up to tell me they had knee replacements and tell me their experiences, it has been really cool to get such great support from people I don't even know. I have got some horror stories about the pain right after surgery and the rehab but everyone has said they were so happy they did it. That makes me feel good!

FLOOR
In the middle of all this we have had to replace the flooring in our house. I am so excited to have tile in almost the whole house now, with the dogs I think that is going to be so much easier to keep clean and the current carpet is 17 years old, it smells and has holes. The down side is that it is something else trying to move everything, YIKES!!!

Here is a picture of what my tile should look like.....




DOG RELATED

My little nut Cricket swimming. She is so funny she always has to have a toy in her mouth and could obsessively swim in circles for hours I think ;-).

Ice packs and knee bling--perhaps pretty common things in agility!

ICE PACKS!!!!!!

Because what active dogs or active owners do not occasionally need these?

I find that when you are icing yourself or your dog on a regular basis you need a lot of ice packs so you can have some freezing while you are using one.


You know I love DIY, so with all that has been going on with my knees and I have Breeze who is a dysplastic dog, thought I would share how to make some cool ice packs.

METHOD ONE:pictured above...
Take 1 part rubbing alcohol + 3 part water. (that would be like a cup alcohol to 3 cups water) You can adjust and may prefer 1 cup rubbing alcohol to 2 cups water, but I like the 3:1 ratio.

Take the alcohol and water plus some food color, so that you know not to drink this... and put into a zip lock bag, and put that bag into a second bag so it is double bagged. If you have a food saver, I think that would be PERFECT!!!!

The trick is that if you like the slushiness this produces you are good to go, if you want your ice pack harder put in less alcohol and more water. The alcohol is what keeps your ice pack from freezing into a hard ice cube. If you want a softer ice pack do the opposite and put in more alcohol and less water. I like it a bit slushy when it is ready so that it conforms around the body area you are trying to ice. Put the whole thing in the freezer a couple of hours and you are good to go!

Method 2:Get cheap gel liquid detergent from say the dollar store. Fill a ziplock bag about 3/4 full, seal and freeze.

JUST MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS PUT A CLOTH BETWEEN SKIN AND AN ICE PACK! NO FURTHER INJURIES NEEDED ;).______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
It took me a bit of time to post about what happened at the orthopedic clinic but I was waiting to be in a good frame of mind ;-) but somehow.....that isn't coming that fast!!!!

One thing is during agility camp the last day I felt like such a Wuss! One of the instructors was doing her best to hide her irritation but I know she was irritated just how slow I was going. I know I am slow but I was surprised at how much trouble I had, it really bummed me out.

Good news is I am not a wuss!!! I am thinking I was a trooper!!!!! Seems my left knee has a torn ligament and the right knee has a torn meniscus! No wonder I could not run, even though I really was trying ;-). I feel stupid now for not just sitting down and admitting I could not do it!

Anyway, the two comments I got the minute they looked at my knee xrays was, "WOW!, that is about as bad as it gets!" and "WOW, most 80 year olds have better knees" WHAT???? I do not think those are good comments!!!! hahahahah.

Seems normally they would do arthroscopic surgery on both knees but the doctor said because of the damage to the knees it was not an option. My left knee with the torn ligament is collapsing on itself when I walk,it has no cartilage left and the right knee with the torn meniscus has a tiny layer of cartilage but no cartilage between the knee cap and the bone.

So what do they plan? Looks like they are recommending a knee replacement of BOTH knees. I so wish I could find my Clean Run with the article about knee replacements but of course, I can not find it for the life of me!

It all sure explains why I have been getting slower and stiffer and stiffer, although right before the injury the knees felt better then they have in years, WEIRD!

So this is Kaiser and my appointment with the surgeon is August 29 when I am sure the plan will take better shape but the doctor said it will probably be four months wait to get it handled. The recovery time sounds like maybe 6 months plus or minus until I might be able to possibly do agility????? If I could find my article from Clean Run maybe I would have more answers ;-).

Worried about my doggie and where we will be by the time I can run again and worried about keeping everyone happy and occupied, day by day, right????

In the meantime, I have to have two hinged knee braces, and a cane, and lots of ice and being careful.



HERES ME JUMPING FOR JOY-AS MUCH AS I AM JUMPING BECAUSE I CAN FINALLY WALK WITH JUST A CANE AND EVEN A FEW STEPS ON MY OWN!!! Whoo hooo, might not seem like much but it is progress!

Bargains ......and a little rant ;-)

Rejoining the "real world" can be rough. I posted my video to youtube and found our my REPLY button to reply to comments will not work. How weird is that?

Being on the injured list has opened up some new experiences..I am not one that get to some of the discount stores that often, but I have been bored and shopping more so I stopped in to a Marshall's see if they had some cheap beds/crate pads for the dogs car crates.

Check out what great bargains I found:

I can finally get the dogs to the park every day so I tested this Chuck it type of toy, the chucker works OK..I could tell these were cheap balls and I would not let my dogs chew on them too much, but it was too funny that the first time I threw the ball Cricket came back with it deflated on one side of the ball. OH MY!

Second throw of the ball the other side was deflated and the ball was no longer usable, LOL There was a second ball that got lost in the field,..I did not bother to look for it. A cheap version of a real chuck it,but at half the price, it will do for today, after I find some other balls to use with it.

second bargain:

This disc thing is really soft, and red, and was about $7. It was cool! It flies good, Cricket was chewing it but did not put a mark on it,when she runs it folded up and did not get in her way. The red color was easy to see on the grass, I am getting more of these!!!

With the chuck it today I noticed Cricket is used to low flying objects to play fetch. She does not look at me and track the toy, she waits until she sees the toy whizzing by her. The chuck it was a crack up because I kept throwing the ball high, because I can not throw, it was not on purpose, but Cricket would stand in readiness until she heard the ball bounce, she kept expecting it to whizz by and it did not, so she spent a lot of time looking for the ball. LOL

The greatest bargain I got were some Merrell barefoot technology shoes. I love my Vibram toes shoes for agility, and I have a pair of blue/black Merrill's I use for all my everyday wear. My poor Merrill's are looking old, so when I found TWO PAIRS OF MERRILL'S for less then one pair usually costs me, I was all over that!!!! Just a shame they had my favorite style on clearance, but none in my size, so I have some VERY BRIGHT shoes to wear with shorts, but hey people will see me coming ;-).



Tomorrow is an appointment with the Orthopedic clinic. I am going to complain for a second. I have Kaiser insurance and I feel like we pay a lot to have it. When I got hurt I went to Kaiser after a few weeks of not getting better. I saw a physicians assistant, and of course he said you need to see a specialist. FIVE WEEKS later I have finally got in to see someone at the ortho clinic. Five weeks was how long it took when I said I would take the first available appointment,anytime that was open. When I got the appointment card I look and I am seeing another physicians assistant. REALLY? My friend just got hurt Saturday, a knee injury, she saw a specialist on Monday, had a cortisone shot and got an MRI today. Some days I have to say I really do not love Kaiser, ;-). If they want me to get an MRI who knows how long that will take? YEP, I need people to wish me some luck, hahaha!

I'm HERE!

I'm still here, I have not fallen off the earth or been abducted my aliens, LOL!

I actually have just had the worst year for accidents and injuries, earlier this year I broke my foot and then several weeks ago I really did a number on my knee. My poor dogs have been stuck in the house, I can't take them out to play or hike, and agility has been out of the question-I miss all that sooo much! Nothing to put a person into a depression like their doctor suggesting they use a CANE!-well, nothing except trying said cane and finding out I really couldn't walk without it, OUCH!!! That sent me spiraling into a depression-well maybe not a depression, just into a period of quiet ;-). I sort of feel like I needed a bit of a quiet time.

Thank heavens things are starting to be better, I still am about as slow as a turtle but I have felt like rejoining the world, so I am trying to catch up with blogs and get back in touch with my blogging friends as quickly as I can.

Let me tell you I firmly believe all situations have something to teach us and through this whole chapter in my life I have learned to take better care of myself and to really cherish my health. For YEARS my dogs have had chiropractic adjustments, laser light therapy and massages, WELL I have been doing those things for myself, a little late to start but really nice and helpful none the less. I know now why Breeze co operates so well with her therapy, it is nice to be a little pampered.

So here is a little video I did of our first trip back to the park. I could not tug or run around but at least the girls could play fetch. Check out how Cricket understands you don't take Breezes' toy when we play fetch so she holds her toy in her mouth and pretends she is fetching Breezes toy. LOVE how my dogs work it out and get along so well. Not to worry, if we all tug around each other Cricket tugs and Breeze sits back and chews on her ball. Of course I can put Breeze in a down and let Cricket fetch or put Cricket in a down and let Breeze tug, but some days it is just more fun to let them play the game they have worked out .

My Friend Who Helped Shape My Attitude ;-)

Taken from facebook--photo by Bark Talk

Well, it is blog action day again and the topic this time is ATTITUDE.

OMG what a topic! I have so many thoughts and opinions about attitude.....but I have been thinking for days and was having trouble deciding what to talk about without sounding like I have that area covered, I think most of us know the type of attitude we aspire too, but bad attitude or misplaced priorities sneaks up on us all when we least are aware of it.

I finally decided I would share an experience that I hope will always profoundly affect me and I hope will always help to shape how I view any time I walk in the ring with my doggies. This experience has helped me be way less judgemental about my performances, although of course I always strive to do the best I can and made me appreciate my doggies so much more. It makes it easier for me to meet my goal of finding several things to be EXCITED about with each run.

A few years ago I had a very good friend, her name was Carol and she did agility here in Southern California with her cattledog JC. Carol was just starting agility when I was starting agility with my sheltie Chloe. We ended up in classes together many a time and Carol was a very driven person which did not fit well with the local agility club so her and I found ourselves on the outside a lot of times. Eventually we drifted together and ended up spending many an hour talking about agility, handling, training etc. Carol was always FANTASTIC about building my confidence and telling me what I could do. She is responsible for me having the courage and confidence to go ahead and try teaching agility which had always been a dream of mine. Carol inspired me to think that I could do well at agility and helped me not just look at the list of reasons why I might have trouble but to really see my strenths. It is always so cool when you find people willing to help you have confidence. Not that it was always easy sailing, Carol was opinionated sometimes and a perfectionist with herself, so we did butt heads a few times, but overall we had a lot of fun.

Carol had bonded very deeply with her dog JC and in fact her latest grandchild ended up being named after her dog. Only dog people would understand that ;-). JC was amazing and Carol loved to show her off, JC was trained to do pretty much what any service dog could do, just because Carol loved to teach her tricks. When ever you saw Carol you could bet JC would be close by.

Carol started to have some memory problems, and problems swallowing and speaking so she went into the doctors. The answer to what was happening was devastating. Carol had ALS and it was affecting the upper half of her body first, alarmingly fast she was having trouble swallowing food, she slurred quite a bit and had trouble moving her left arm. Carol had just got to Excellent B with JC and she was really proud-as she should have been because JC was lightning fast, very well trained, and her and Carol had a bond like very few people have with their dogs. Not long after the diagnosis Carol entered JC in what was to be her last trial. I went with Carol to help her out, I was not competing but I walked the courses with her and helped come up with a plan.

Right before it was time to run the course Carol turned to me and asked me to run JC. Carol was not hurting she just felt I would have a better chance qualifying. I am a RN and I had a feeling that Carol would not be running JC many more times, and I knew things were going to get harder so in a decision that will haunt me I said I will if you really, really don't want to run JC i would run her for you but she wants to run with you. Carol still felt she was going to beat the disease so I do not think she had the feeling of urgency-it had not crossed her mind that this could be one of her last runs. I figured with their bond and communication even with Carols illness they would do ok. Of course if Carol was in pain or I thought she would be hurt I would have LOVED to run JC. JC is lightening fast and fun.

Carol went out and ran JC and of course did not qualify, but she came close and I know JC was smiling that day. As it turned out that was the last time Carol was able to do agility. I had tried to find her an instructor that did NADAC and was willing to work with Carol so she could still run JC but Carols illness progressed too quickly for that to be possible. JC was retired from agility and became much more then an agility dog, she became Carols service dog and very rarely ever left her side. JC would fetch the phone, or pick things up, close doors, fetch other things Carol needed and she was always there to provide comfort.

I believe it was about 18 months from when Carol learned her diagnosis until her struggle here on earth was over.

The reason I thought of that story when the subject of our blogs is attitude is that Carol was a person that really understood about supporting and empowering her friends. She always wanted to be the center of attention but she still wanted her friends to feel good about themselves. I wish I had been there more for Carol the last few months but knowing Carol changed me. I really miss her a lot.

I think the other thing I wanted to say is that just as JC and my own dogs do not care if we get lots of Q's and personally when I have to run my last run hobbling over the finish line with my walker, lol, I hope what will matter to me is how I have grown learning to handle competition and how I have learned not to give up practicing new skills and learning how to work better with my puppy team mates. I get sad seeing some friends who turn their dogs over to people that might be slightly better handlers, because "friends" tell them someone could do better :-(. How about pointing out how well you are doing with your dog, or helping you build more skills or pointing you to a mental management course or book, I am so glad I had a friend who kept reminding me that I could when I was not sure :-). Of course there are always people who might do it better, that is sure true with my dog, but that ignores what the whole journey is about to me.

It is fun to embrace competition but geeze let's not be so serious that we forget at the basic level, this should be about learning, growing, connecting with our team mate and our community. We never know when our last run or our dogs last run will be so try to keep it all in perspective and just have fun!

Check out more links to blogs for our action day at http://dog-agility-blog-events.posterous.com/pages/attitude