Adventures Training Beagles

Author: kathleen

  • Jun 17, 2016

    I am picking up a new pup tomorrow (started this Friday)

    His name is Jamie, after my favorite show beagle “Ben” who happens to be in his pedigree several times.

    We lucked out because Jamie will be 6 months old the week before the National Specialty. Now I normally would not go for the National Speciality to show such a young dog but I am planning to be there any way.

    Takes all the pressure off!

    He is definitely a conformation dog first even though he has quite a bit of growing to do before we will know if he can get a championship title.

    As he grows we will see what else he wants to do.

    Yes he will be trained for service dog work too.

  • Macy and Dulce tried to kill Macy

    FYI: Most of this is in pieces on Facebook.

    So, I don’t know exactly how this happened, but I have a pretty good idea.  I was getting ready for our Alaska cruise, and was switching purses.  I know I had all the edible stuff higher than Macy can reach when I got distracted and ran a quick upstairs errand.

    I come downstairs and find Macy eating Orbit gum.

    As always when little beagle girls are naughty, I grab syringe and hydrogen peroxide.  Dulce swallow hers and upchucks.  Macy, drama queen, fits me tooth and nail.

    And then doesn’t upchuck.

    Well, I run her to the emergency vet, and on the way she produces copious amount of stomach contents, including the chewed up gum.

    Emergency clinic people say she didn’t eat enough to  hurt her, especially since it was Orbit, and oh, please don’t do the hydrogen peroxide anymore as they can aspirate.

    I learn on Thursday that the hydrogen peroxide can also burn, which is what happened to poor Macy.

    She weighed around 15.5 pounds the last time she went to the vet.  Wednesday I was running getting ready of the trip, and noticed vomiting and diarrhea, but didn’t worry about it, as she is a beagle.  But Wednesday night I notice that she is substantially lighter.

    So off to the regular vet we go on Thursday as she is not eating.  I recognize only one of the vet staff, and he works with Esmond, not Baber, and Cordias is off.

    My first issue – no phone call by 10:00 am telling me she’s been seen and is still alive.  No phone call by 12:00 am either, and am told I will hear from the vet by 12:30.  Tech calls, and reads me the riot act about inducing vomiting by hydrogen peroxide – my response: then we need a safer protocol because beagles are naughty.

    I stop by the clinic to check on her on the way home, and she is noticeably  better.   Have a conversation with Dr. Barber, where she mentioned that Dr. Cordias lost her dog while on a  Alaskan cruise.  Well, yeah, I knew that but did you have to remind me.

    They give me choices, as they want two rounds of IV fluids and so do I.  Oh, and the evening vet staff is better than the morning – they got told who I was.  Probably the second call when I referred to Dr. Esmond as Kirk – I asked, if Dr. Barber can’t get to her right away, please ask Kirk on her.

    Shift her to the emergency vet at the end of the day, then back to them in the morning.  Didn’t really work for me if I am cruising and I want to spend the evening with her to decide if I am going.

    Send her home with the IV capped, keep an eye on her and see if you can get her to eat ID, then back to the vet.  Oh, the pet sitter has a taxi service so that works.

    So we go home, we spend some time loving each other and by 5:00 am we realize that we both made some mistakes but we love each other, and head out to the cruise.

    I’m talking to the vet clinic in the morning and after the flight to Seattle, realizing all the time I can always get on a plane back to Dallas.  I’m also watching Dulce on the surveillance cameras, and Macy after she gets home from the vet.  I have an App for that, and I can look at the dogs anytime I want on the cruise.  I have plenty of people who would go to the house if I see something wrong, and a system to get them into the house, so I feel good about it.

    Of course, I haven’t slept since Tuesday night very well, so I am not the easiest person to be with.  But I’m getting there.

    And with my knees, I’ve eased some pressure on them by using the wheelchair service. 

  • Fun product

    I do Windows Phone so not sure if it would work for me, but this looks like fun:

    Though it does say connects with Windows. 

    The reviews are good, but I know that I’d have to have two – one for each cage.  I still suspect Macy would end up eating all the food.

  • Dulce isn’t as bad as I thought

    Sunday morning, went to go work out.

    Slept in, took my time, so was heading out 11:00am.   Dulce decided she needed to go out first, so I let her out the back yard.  Went to do the same, human style, and came back a few minutes later.  Opps, no Dulce, and the gate is open.

    I headed out to look for her, and immediately started calling her.

    She trotted right back in, and in to the house and out to the gym to workout.

    ====

    This is the second time she’s gotten out since we got her, and both times stayed close and came right back.

    I”m used to the hunting beagles who like to go walk about – Patty, Marcie and Maggie were all walk out beagles.  Marcie made it all the way to the pound once.

    So the running away from me really scared me.  She’s been doing it since I got her at 10 months old, and was accidently reinforced by an idiot dog trainer who was “helping” me.

    So between Wednesday’s fix at agility and learning that I can really trust her – I think we are making progress.

  • Progress!

    Since we came back from our winter break, Dulce has been horrible at dog agility.

    Why?  Well, I finally broke down and stopped carrying food in my pockets when we were training.

    Why?  Well, 90% of the time when we go to an agility trial, she runs out of the ring.

    So to fix the agility trial problem, I took the food of my pockets and the problem appeared where we train.

    I also realized that she wasn’t even sitting – so I have been spending the last few weeks working on our sit.

    I was thinking that once I got the sit, I might get my agility dog back but it didn’t quite work out that way. I would get a sit, then she’d back to where the treats were.

    To get my agility dog back I discovered I could get her to sit in a cage, then go on the field, and then get our party.

    Weird, but it’s working.

  • Sits

    I am still not getting consistent sits.  If I’m in the kitchen yes.

    If I have food in my hand and I am just starting my day?  Not so much.

    In the middle of a training session?  Sure, especially since the food is evident.

    Wanting in the house at the door?   Not so much.

    Definitely a work in progress.

  • This is a test

    Now is the time for all men to come to the aid of their country.

  • I think I know how my dogs feel

    I went to class last night – the week before we’d come up with a plan for Dulce and her naughtiness.

    I started to follow the plan and my instructor completely changed the plan!

    Argh!

    And poor Macy – she is suffering from impacted anal glands again, and kept feeling like she needed to poop during the run.  I put her up, but at least that let me focus on Dulce.

  • Agility Trialing has become fun again!

    Though it might be because I go on Friday when most of the people who are there are also retired or work on their own schedule (and yes, I’m both).

    I take distractions with me, and I’ve got things set up so that I’m physically comfortable, without having to exert a lot of effort.

    Both local Friday trials were an absolute blast for me this month.

    I also think that will help both dogs performance.

    I did cancel a March trial but I want to spend more time working on their behavior before trialing.

    Macy is slow but accurate.

    Dulce is still a goof.

  • Interesting Day

    Went to the Greater Collin County Kennel Club agility in McKinney – great trial, love GCCKC and their people.

    However, Macy ran JWW just like the judge.  Slow.  (Her class was an hour behind schedule, and don’t asked about Dulce’s).

    It was an interesting run, she did everything absolutely right, looked happy, didn’t stop everywhere, but I was two jumps ahead of her. And of course, if I slowed down, she did too.  So there was no letting her catch up to me.

    Sort of like a certain beagle who was on TV last weekend.

    The good news was that I had plenty of time to work on Dulce’s focus.  I would take her in the building, ask her to sit and reward her if I got one.  If I didn’t she went back to the car.  We even had time to try that on the practice jumps.   With the food several feet away.

    By the end of the day, I was getting sits everywhere but the ring.

    I did surprise both the judge and the rep.  I was a good student and did what my instructor said.  If I didn’t get my sit, I walked out of the ring.

    I did excuse us.  I explained to the judge the first time, that I knew if I didn’t get the sit, she’d run out of the ring, and that this was the best option.

    The rep was in the ring the second time – and I told her I was preventing the loose dog that runs out of the ring.