Catching up!

We've been so busy playing with our dogs lately I haven't been blogging about them!

As promoted in the Spice at the Florida Quad video Spice competed in the Florida Quad in late February. She played with Jack in the men's division.  This is normally a spot reserved for Ruckus but he just can't run that much anymore so Spice got moved up into that spot.  She did GREAT!  She and Jack made the finals, earned an awesome shirt and cool trophy and came in 2nd place overall.  It was an awesome finals round with Jack, our friend Chris and our friend Jason all going head to head to head for the 1st-3rd spots.  Very dramatic and fun to watch!  But really Spice did great the whole weekend because she came in 8th the day before in the Total Performance Toss N Fetch division out of over 60 teams!  Tali did well at the competition too!  On Saturday Tali and Jack competed in the AWI freestyle competition.  Tali made the cut to the top 15 and finished 7th out of 39 teams.

Two days later Spice came in heat - what timing!  She ended up missing the toss n fetch competition in South Florida as a result but Tali supported team Fahle by finishing 6th or 7th with Jack out of 50+ teams!  Groovy impressed us by playing some freestyle on the sidelines.  She was a little spooked by the environment but overall did very well and we were very happy!

In the mean time Spice and I have begun agility classes at BonJon/Sonlight.  She is doing very well and enjoying herself quite a bit!  The first week of class I was reminded that I hadn't taught her to down yet!  Things weren't going well with that effort once started either.  Jack questioned what type of down I was trying to teach (one from a stand vs. from a sit).  I got Jam and showed him what type of down I meant.  Spice was there when I did.  A couple of seconds later when I tried it with Spice again she did it!  She's had it ever since!  So a week later in class she was able to down on the table and even in the middle of the lowered dogwalk!  Cool dog!

This weekend coming up we have a USDDN freestyle and toss n fetch event in Land O Lakes, FL.  Very much looking forward to it.  Tali and Jack will be doing freestyle.  Spice and Jack will be doing toss n fetch as will Spice and I.  Our friends Jason and Andrea will be staying with us this weekend and that is always a lot of fun!

Some pics from the Quad and AWI!

Photo by Sarah Duke

Photo by Sarah Duke

Spice's catch to secure 2nd place!

Some Groovy Disc Dogging Video (and a little bit of Spice too doing baby dog stuff)

Spice and the Florida Quad

This was fun to make... do they have visions of a big win?  No... but that's only cause Jack isn't a quad type thrower - he excels at the 40-50yd throw instead but he still likes to go and have fun!

So yes... Spice is his 2011 Quad dog.  It'll be fun but also a little sad.  Sad because we had hoped Ruckus would have one more year in him but he just doesn't have the stamina anymore.  Sucks getting old I guess... but Spice is happy to step in (though Ruckus isn't happy she is!)!

What about me?  My quad dog is Tali girl.  We too have no hopes for a win but we'll have fun trying!

Zitella Solomon Catch for the Cure 2011

Had a GREAT weekend this weekend.  Every year our disc dog club holds a fundraiser toss and fetch event that raises money for the Cancer Society, BC rescue and Aussie rescue.  It's a fun event because its laid back, low key and everyone is there to have a good time for a good cause.  I was especially excited about it this year because it was Spice's disc dog debut!  We entered Jam, Groovy, Tali and Spice.

Jam... well Jam was adorable and caught a few discs!  She certainly was a crowd pleaser!

Groovy... Groovy was not too comfortable with the environment.  There was a skate and bike park at one end of the field.  Kids and weird noises are not her thing.  She played a little but wouldn't go past the 10 or 15 yard line cause that put her closer to the skate park!  But hey... at least she played!  She and Jack also did a freestyle demo after the competition was over and she did very well with that.  More discs in the air gives her less time to focus on what's going on around her!  We were pretty happy with that!

Tali... Tali and Jack put on a toss n fetch clinic on Saturday and won the competition!  Tali and I did quite well too coming in 6th place!  Very proud of that girl!!!!

Spice... Spice did awesome for her first competition!  We still have a lot of work to do... a lot of foundation stuff for sure but considering she's not quite 9 months old and only been playing with us for 2 months she did great!  She definitely showed herself to be Jack's dog!  During his toss n fetch rounds with  her she was focused and returned the disc each time - even with me sitting on the sideline taking photos!  With me?  Not so much... she went visiting!  LOL  I'd be offended but I already knew she was more his dog than mine!  She and he also did a freestyle "demo" and she did good with that too.  Definitely need to get a go around or through installed on her... she definitely is still resisting that but it'll come.  I did some click and treat work with both behaviors tonight in the house and she did it quite well... it's just outside with a disc that we have to get better ingrained.  She finished 15th out of 29 with Jack though which is pretty decent and her first round she had a 100% catch ratio with 4 catches!  Not too shabby!  Looking forward to the things to come with that kiddo!

On Sunday I took Spice and Jam over to my friend Bev's house for a playdate and photo session.  Spice had a great time playing with Bev's dogs.  It was a lot of fun to see her romping with other dogs.  She especially loves Clark the Corgi and Focus the BC... but then again all my girls LUV Focus!  :)

Some pics of our weekend...

New play thing!

I got a new laptop a couple of months back - I've switched to a Mac.  I also got CS5 including of course Photoshop.  I do not find Photoshop to be intuitive at all.  Usually I can figure out most photo programs just playing around but this one frustrated me so last week I signed up for an online course.  I haven't quite finished the course and I've already learned quite a bit - and this is just a basic beginners course.  Very exciting.  I've been having fun playing with some photos this weekend and thought I'd share some of my new skills on my blog.  Still a work in progress obviously but having fun along the way!

The before and after of two of the pics I've played with...

Spicy musings

I have quite a bit of catching up to do on this blog.  Totally haven't written about our vacation, totally didn't wish Mickie a 12th Happy Birthday on here and write a mushy post to go with it and totally haven't stayed up to date on Spice or Groovy training info.  Well those posts will all have to come another time.

Tonight's post - well tonight's post is about Spice and her oddities but they are oddities that I already love.

Spice is a very cool dog and very unlike my other dogs.  Well... she might be a bit like Ruckus but only a bit.  She's much more confident than he was at the same age - though I do think she's going through a bit of a fear period right now.  She was barking at a sock under the bed this morning - when I pulled it out she jumped back!  Once she saw it was a sock she tore it out of my hand and started "killing" it!  :)

Spice is... well she's just different.  I'm trying to figure her out and I'm sure that will go on for years.  She's awesome but odd but still awesome.  One word that comes to mind is stoic.  Not truly stoic but somewhat stoic.  She loves to play disc but doesn't go out of her mind about it.  She loves to be with us and near us but again, doesn't go out of her mind about it. Well except trying to be friends with Mickie - she gets pretty excited about that - much to Mickie's dismay - but then again - maybe Spice sees it as her job to be her friend so is employing every method to do so.  I guess really it's that she's more business like.  One nickname for her is Napoleon - she does try to control resources around other dogs - not in a mean way - but in a "I'll take that cause I'm Spice" kind of way.  Very full of herself too!

She listens very well and learns very fast.  Unbelievable really how well she listens - especially considering she's 8.5 months old.  She is excelling at disc.  She LOVES butterfly tosses - she does go slightly out of her mind for those I guess.  She's very serious about 90% of the time - but in a good way.  She's an observer.  One of her disc oddities is her total dislike of us attempting to teach her a "go around".  It's like she is either uncomfortable behind us or sees it as wasted real estate.  I haven't decided which yet.  She also doesn't like to play into a fence... she definitely has that working aussie pressure thing going on.  It took us quite a while to get her to do overs and unders for the disc and I think it's related to the above issues but she's finally got that down and is happy to do them.  She definitely doesn't want to get up in your business with one exception... butterflys!  Turn a disc over and BAM she is on you for it.  Cool but odd.

I hadn't really worked any behaviors with her other than disc related ones, house manners (no you can't take food off my plate or stand on my laptop keyboard, etc.), leave Mickie alone manners, etc.  I hadn't done any shaping or anything with the clicker.  The other night I decided to teach her to shake.  That failed miserably... she is not foot oriented.  So then I switched to a nose touch to a post it note pad.  She did fine learning it but during our session I had a feeling come over me that she was too "good" to be asking her for silly pet trick behaviors.  Now I've taught every dog to nose touch to a target so this isn't a new behavior for me to teach or anything.  The feeling quite surprised me and I'm still not sure what to make of it.  But it was almost the feeling that she was "telling me" something like "hey - just show me what you want - don't treat me like a chicken pecking at a piano at the fair".  Weird eh?  Needless to say we haven't gone back to the nose touch yet... I know in my head it's likely this thought came to me because of a book I read a few weeks ago but I know it's also partly due to her business like attitude.  We shall see... this journey is going to be an interesting one!  Of course she isn't really my dog at all - she's Jack's so I "can't" really get involved with her as much as I want to.  I'm really trying to let him do most of the stuff with her but she's so cool I can't help myself.   I told her breeder the other day I want a Spice of my own so I don't have to share her with Jack!  LOL

Anyway... not sure if any of this made sense... just figured I'd write it all down to see if I could figure out what I was thinking!  :)  I love this dog.  She's awesome!  But she definitely makes me think in ways the other 5 never have!  In the mean time I leave you with some pics of the Spice Girl from our disc dog play day last weekend.  OH!  She LOVES kids!  Imagine that!  Not a common trait with my dogs - Mickie is the only one that LOVES them.  Ruckus likes them (though he didn't used to).  Tali is comfortable with them to a point, Jam is tolerant of them when they are under control and at a distance and Groovy thinks they are aliens.  Then again Groovy thinks most people are aliens or zombies!  :)  Anyway... some Spice pics...

Kiera helped me walk Spice back to the car when we were done playing.  Along the way she said "You should keep this dog.  Spice is a good girl!".  LOL  No problem Kiera - this dog isn't going anywhere!

Disc Dog and Birthday weekend!

This weekend was the CFDDC Christmas Party and also my birthday!  Our friends Jason and Andrea came up from south Florida mid day Saturday and stayed overnight with us.  My friend Sally came over Saturday too and we had some disc dog fun!  It's cool that Sal is getting more into the sport and I see disc dogging in Tex's future!  Jolly of course already loves it and is a natural.

Anyway... Saturday we played with the dogs.  Groovy did great!  I wasn't sure if she'd be willing to play with strangers here but she did - she even played a little disc with Jason!  She and he were buddies by Saturday night!  Spice did awesome too - she was very happy to play with whoever would play with her both people and dogs alike!

Saturday night was the party and as always the Walkley's put out a huge spread of awesome food.  This time the theme was Southern food.  Couldn't have been more perfect for my bday!  The gift exchange was fun as always and the Fahle's did quite well at the awards ceremony too!  Jack and Tali won Supersport and Tali and I won Open!  Woo hoo!

This morning Jack had to fly out to Pittsburgh, KS.  His high tomorrow is 19 degrees.  Crazy!  Jason and Andrea hung around a bit and all the dogs (well not all) many of the dogs got to hang out and play together.  Spice and Kai love each other!  Tali loves Kai too!  It was a good experience for all of our dogs and a good "warmup" for our North Carolina vacation over New Years.

Some pics of our weekend...

Groovy checking Jason out to make sure he wasn't the boogey man!

Frisbee is a dangerous sport!  Actually she had no clue she was hurt!

One of every color!

Kai fits in perfectly with our red girls!