Category: Blog

Husband and I had a long discussion (well, several), about the dogs yesterday evening.  I acknowledge that they are rude heathen bitches.

Neither Macy or Dulce have a very good recall, and Dulce has a habit of taking off, making me stressed which makes the situation worse.  Macy just ignores us.  Maggie is very good about coming when called, most of the time, unless she is terrified.

Our priority right now is to come up with a dog containment system since we are going to have a stream of visitors, just like we did yesterday.  Our biggest problem, is that the only entrance and exit to the house is through a gate, and it is very difficult to know if the dogs are loose in it, and harder still to keep them going through the gate.

They are going to have to accept being crated.  Dulce is good at that, Maggie is the worst, and Macy is just a pain.   Macy can’t stand to be kept away from me, especially in the next room.  Putting her in Dulce’s extremely large condo worked well yesterday.

I currently have an exercise pen where the dogs can be put in the yard.  It’s 4’ x 4’ and really doesn’t give 3 adult beagles much room, even if they are all less than 13” tall and 15 pounds.

We do have a utility room that has a dog door and goes out to an L shaped, very large dog run.  We have been complaisant using it, and three panels of the dog run need to be replaced.  Our pooper scoopers have been charged with that.  When it is secure, we will be able to put the dogs in the utility room and they can have access to the outside.  That was the original plan and worked well until we got Maggie.

Maggie is just insane.  She screams and bellows at the top of her lungs when she isn’t happy.  If the weather is bad, she leaves, and since we live on the corner of said busy street, we don’t want her to end up a flat dead dog.  Our neighbors have retrieved her for us several times.  She will have to be crated during most of the day during most of the process. 

I think life will be better for everyone in the house when the house repair process is over.  Just don’t know when or how that will happen.

Well, she is a real dog, but she’s been a kennel dog since right before she went into heat.  She over 2 now, and really haven’t been able to trust her.  I have to shut the door to several rooms.

She’s been living in a Great Dane crate which has worked well but she hasn’t learned to be a good dog in the house.  She’s been out of the crate and not in it since I got home from work on Friday.  This morning I got woke up by 2 sets of damp paws (Macy and Dulce), which means they got up and went outside. 

I’ll have her in the crate when I go to work, but my plan is to transition her to the dog run and have her and at least Macy in the dog run during the day so we don’t have to have a pet sitter.  May have my landscaping people replace some of the panels of the dog run since I don’t have the time or energy, and would really to have them put sod in it.  In fact, stopped a minute and asked my Pooper scooper person who works for the landscaper.

Glad we went and had good experiences at Watts, the indoor arena we show at.

They raised a ton of money for canine cancer. Courses were very NADAC style even AKC standard. Could have organized better but since i dont have a good answer, i will leave them too. Got there at 7:20, left at 4:30 and only got on two runs in for each dog. We were entered in four each.

Since i am all About the beagles having a good experience i am not disappointed.

Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

I asked her if she wanted to get in the car while opening the self closing door to the garage and not only did she go into the garage, but she got in the cage in the truck by herself. Stress reduced!

Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

Took her to a different agility class might. She is very comfortable with her class mates and mixing it up is good.

I upped my criteria ttoo fast but desperately trying to get her off food on the course.

She took off but the matt thing worked. Instead of chasing her I went back to our base, yelled MAT a few times and she cane to it. Well, Elizabeth telling and fussing at her didnt help.

But was the whole plan and point of mat training. Give her a place she knows she is getting cookies so when she gets distracted I can get her there and dont have to chase her.

What, beagles get distracted?
Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

I realized we have a lot of people who don’t know Macy’s whole story.  She is very well bred, comes from a really good breeder that is good at matching dogs with people.

However, she did come a little claustrophobic and a little weird when it comes to changes.  Like she barks at the Christmas tree.  I have always thought she needs glasses.

Anyway, she did really well in agility class, had some sniffing and running away issues at fun matches, and she did really well the first two days of a three day trial.  THEN, she GOT ON a really bad teeter and fell completely apart.  She spent a year running out of the ring. Then she’d do anything BUT a teeter.  Well somewhere in all that she got caught in a chute in class, and spun by the wind so she was afraid of that too.

This is why I am REALLY happy she is happy and doing well at a three day, three class a day show.  In fact, last month I took her home because she got tired at a Teacup trial.  So yes, I am thrilled things are coming together for her.

Macy loves agility class. The reinforcement rate is really high. She really likes everyone in class.

Trials not so much.

Managed it today i think, though she did lose patience.

All runs were pretty fast and we know are 3 for 3 on teeters. They were slow and unconfident, but she got them.

We bobbled the beginning of standard, not sure why.

We got the send in FAST but the buzzer went off and we were trapped at the teeter. 59 points but 9 time faults. We needed 55 points total.

I did something really different in jumpers, only said two words, head and go at the end.

I have had several people layely tell me that they think the talking i do stresses the beagles.

When the timer said go Macy started moving so I did too. I can move faater and handle Smoother but it threw her and we missed a jumped We got the weaves. Head was because ahe was sniffing and go when she was decellerating at the end.

I had fun, and i think she did too.
Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

Dulce has Her official measurements due and yes she is a 12" 13 inch beagle.

Macy and i mucked up a jumo but got the teeter, so i rewarded her at that point.

Could get FAST togethrr but got that teeter and celebrated it.

Had a weave refusal in Open JWW plus 24 time faults. Very fast and happy.

So good beagle time. Plus the arena was very cool and the beagles didnt bother their neighbors.
Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

Brought Dulce as the premium and judging schedule promed a VOM was promised.

Not only was she here but a rep was here so we got measurements accomplished. It was cool and calm and she measures at 12" and 12 1/4"

Nice to have that out of the way.
Posted with BloghuB for Windows Phone 7

I don’t think Macy and I have ever trained when it was hotter – though she did have some early evening classes.  Even at 8:00 it was bad.

She was a little spotty, I’m not taking food on the course for her now and boy does she know it, and she forgets she’s going to get it later, or would rather eat the rabbit poop. 

Did lots of crosses, and she is REALLY good at rear crosses.  Not as good as Marcie was but close.

Had fun.

Disappointed Dulce’s Sunday night is cancelled.