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First, I really like “Me or the Dog”.  Victorial Stillwell uses positive training techniques to solve problems with dogs and owners.

The second show I really like is “Pit Boss”.  Unlike Last Chance Highway, Shorty solves problems.  He convinces people to spay/neuter their dogs.  He places dogs in homes while taking care that it is the right home for the right dog.  The whole show is about education and what Shorty does is educate people.

You won’t see me with a pit bull in my home, but I really admire what he does.

Yep, someone else isn’t real pleased with Second Change Highway.

UNDERGROUND ADOPTION SERVICE | Dog Star Daily

I’ve watched three episodes now ( or most of three) and I have figured out why it bugs me. 

The lead character say’s “Selling a House is as good as Rescuing a Dog”.  Huh?  That’s just weird.

Also, they aren’t solving the problem.  Okay, tonight, the guy was being foreclosed on, and yeah, the best thing to do is place the dogs.  But on the first episode, I thought everyone would have been better off if she’d gotten all the dogs spayed or neutered, rather than being so intent on taking dogs and sending them up north.

Even if they don’t have dogs in shelters up north, why are they pawning off the problems they have to someone else.  Education is harder – but that’s how they solved the problem.  I’m not sure that there is a shortage.

The last one that bothers me is the trucker who is making a living off of taking the dogs up.  Clever of him. 

I still think solving the problem is betting than pawning it off.

I now have the following:

• channel weaves (had them)
• tunnel (was in storage)
• chute
• 5 single jumps (need to find a way to make them panels some of the time)
• double jump
• triple jump
• broken small contact training

I have a teeter and a contact trainer coming. 

Unfortunately we only get a couple of hours a day to train indoors.

I got most of the equipment on ebay.  The double and triple jumps are especially a good deal.  I’ll have to put some pictures up.

Had some problems with the AKC registration.  I used a credit card that got involved with a credit card fraud problem, which made AKC look at everything harder, and they wanted a separate statement from the co-breeder.  Dara was awesome, filled everything out, and got it in the mail right away.

I just went out to the AKC website, saw that she was transferred on 7/9/2010, which was the first day of the shows.  Not that it mattered.

She’s now listed with the rest of my dogs on the AKC website.

Little things.

Fun thing – most of the people who visited with her at the show commented that she was “sweet”.  How you get that out of 30 seconds of petting a dog I don’t know.  And they don’t see that the second I put up a barrier in the house or close a door, Dulce has decided I have set up yet another puzzle for her.  Also that she likes to drag the other beagles around by their ears, and while they both outweigh her, she wins.

Well, the last time I showed conformation (Macy), I took her home and made an appointment to have her spayed.  Yes, I realized instantly her tail was that bad.

This time, we’re going home and going to try to grow some muscle.  The dog was skinny when I picked her up and lost a pound since I had her.  It’s not a issue of not eating – the dog eats – it’s an issue of needing muscle.  So we’re going to spend the next six months growing muscle.

I’m also going to spend about two Saturday’s a month in conformation class, and relax.  It’s been a rushed few 8 weeks since I got her, trying to get our act together.  Today I do think it came together, and I think I did fine showing – at least I didn’t do anything stupid enough it made the breeders stop talking and notice that I was doing a bad job.

Nice thing is, that it was a 4 point major each day, and it was spread out amongst the breeders, so they could each have one.  Couldn’t have been much better.

The goal now is to have Macy ready for Rally Novice, and Dulce ready for conformation in December.

I did better today, the judge was slower, and I had time to think.  Also had a better collar and lead.  My coach told me I had her too tight and I think it was because was because the collar was upside down.

I also have to look at the dog and not the judge. 

I came home with more hair products than I’ve bought for myself.  I also came home exhausted.  Took a long nap once I got home.

I doubt we’ll win our class.  She is an older, more mature dog and Dulce is, unfortunately, “scrawny”.  But I wanted to get our first shows over now, so when she was in better shape, we’d show better.

Got to see a LOT of people I haven’t seen in year, or at least several months.  Even ran into a non-dog person who was just there to see the show.

Fun!

Can’t believe how much hair the breeder took off, but I know what to do now.  Will probably choose to be a little more natural, but we’ll see.

She also gave her more tail.

I learned a valuable lesson.  I need to catch the beagle first.  Also my lead wasn’t working, so got something that would.

The other beagle people all agree it was better than what I was using, and said she didn’t like it.  In other words, it’s the right leash.

We had fun though, and it was nice to meet the other relatives.

She is snoring now.

Here’s a quick video tour of the backyard:

Best parts:

Don’t have to drive anywhere.

Just about everything I need is in the house or the yard.  I am going to look into some real contact equipment and might get my teeter base back from a friend of mine.

Oh, and my own stereo music, though I suspect I could plug my Zune into the system at either place I train now.

And my own network.

This has been my biggest issue with Macy.  It’s weird, because Marcie and Maggie have rock solid stays and I have decided this is NOT going to be an issue with Dulce.

I’ve been doing lots of research.  I like “When Pigs Fly” because it

follows Karen Pryor’s philosophy and my own.  It is also available on Kindle.  Which means I could instantly download it.  Also, there is an ongoing series in Clean Run which I am going back to read.

When Pigs Fly has a whole section on Stays – I shared this link on Facebook so I wouldn’t forget it (which is why I am blogging about it – if I write something down I remember it)

http://kindle.amazon.com/post/3T7LFH3VS3F0U

I also did a private lesson with Paula Weir at Dog Training Center because I didn’t really get it when she covered it in class and at the time I thought we weren’t going to have class for two weeks.

Basically both sources tell me the same – start by clicking and treating the stay behavior.  Then drop the click while still treating.  Extend over time before distance. 

However, it takes a LONG time to get a stay that way.  Sometimes I’ve tempted to go back to the jerk and yell method, but I know it will come, I got there with both Maggie and Marcie.  Maybe I just don’t remember how long it took.

I mentioned that to EE – that I don’t remember training any of the basic behaviors that Marcie did well.  She doesn’t really remember either – though we did our early work with a different instructor.  She thinks that Marcie was an “old soul” and just knew what I wanted and did it.  Wish these two girls were like that – but I’m not sure that the old soul part is true.  I just think I probably spent more time on the preliminaries with Marcie and don’t remember it.  I also don’t think much of any training on Maggie because, well, she’s Maggie and she was always weird.