update

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It's been awhile since I've posted, so just a quick update...  Dazzle is doing fine after the neuter.  Actually, as much as I tried to limit him, he was back to normal activity the next day! Though I waited till the 3rd day to toss his ball for him, which about made him stir crazy! He kept bringing me toys to throw, so I had a nice pile next to me in the office :-) Each time I told him I wasn't going to throw it, it seemed he thought that meant I wasn't going to throw THAT toy, so maybe a different one would work :-) Other than the obvious, there is little sign of the surgery now and he has healed quickly.
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We went to visit the Dock Dogs Nationals yesterday, but I only stayed about 30 minutes because dispite several layers and a thick coat, I was quite cold and that hurts.  Dazzle was upset that he didn't get to play in the water with the competing dogs! It was overcast and only 40 degrees with a wind chill lower than that, but the dogs didn't seem to mind!  I did manage to time it (quite accidently) so I got to see some jumps of someone I know, so that was cool. 
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Dazzle seems to be calming down a bit with regards to Coyote.  So that's good!  We have been keeping them separated and/or muzzled, but the past few days we've let them together unmuzzled at times when they would normally be sleeping (mid-day, evening) and they have done just fine.  Today I even had them together when I was preparing and eating my dinner and they did fine.  They don't hate each other and they don't WANT to fight, so that certainly helps. The main issues have been over arousal/excitement or when Coyote thinks Dazzle has broken a "manners law".  Coyote has a very definite sense of what he feels is right and wrong.  Calm sensible behavior is right and excited or rude behavior is something he feels the need to address.  But it has gotten easier to interupt his "I'm going to take care of THAT behavior" attitude before he gets too close to Dazzle.

While I was visiting my parents, I saw a video on YouTube by BusyBees about how to teach a dog to roll a barrel along with how to make one.  Well, I didn't think the bike tires that were suggested would make a big enough "barrel" so I had my dad build one from scratch.  This is from 2 sheets of plywood and several 1x2 boards, then covered with carpet.  Dazzle LOVES it and thinks it's really cool to be up high.  His head is level with mine when he's on it!  He is as agile as a cat and can jump onto it from a stand still.  We've only worked up to rolling it a few feet at a time, but he's getting the hang of how to make it move on his own.  I'll have to get some video if it warms up outside.  For now we're playing on it in the basement.

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Dazzle is neutered

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The surgery today went well.  Nothing out of the ordinary and no complications with any part of it.  He is laying next to me now sleeping off the effects of the knock-out drugs.  He seemed really confused and a bit worried about the lack of function in his legs (due to the drugs  affecting the signals from his brain that tell his legs how to move). 
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He's still a bit wobbly, but doing much better than this morning. He has investigated the stitches and licked a bit, but hasn't been bothering it so I haven't put on a muzzle or cone, but I will probably put a soft muzzle on him tonight so he can't lick it while I'm sleeping and not paying attention. He's the only one in the office with me and the rest of the boys are gated out so he can sleep in peace. 
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The doc put in extra tight internal stitches to close the part that was cut, then put in subQ stitches on the incision and then used a skin glue on top of those.  So they should hold up to his activity level, which I'll try to keep low for awhile, but we'll see if he cooperates :-). I did drain the pool so he can't get soaked.  Thank-you Alicia for not going crazy with the clippers too!  The minimal shaving hides it well so he doesn't look like he just had surgery (except for the little shaved patch on his front leg for the IV, but that hair is pretty short anyway, so it's not too obvious, especially since his skin is almost the same color as his fur).
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So all is well -knock on wood- and we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that this helps alleviate the tension between him and Coyote and gives Dazzle a bit longer "fuse" than the hair trigger he had before. But we're going to continue with muzzles and management as fight prevention for awhile to give the hormones time to normalize till we see if this works.
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Freestyle Photos

Here are some of my favorite photos taken by Amber at All In One Studios during the freestyle event:

The other photos can be seen on her website at http://www.allinonestudios.smugmug.com/

Thank-you Amber!

Video of freestyle

Here's the link to the video of our competition performances and scores...

VIDEO:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLa4IKkwE2A

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Freestyle title!

We competed this weekend in the "Paws A Rockin" Freestyle event in Marion OH.  The photo above is blurry, but that's the best my little camera could do since flash photography isn't allowed and my flash wouldn't have carried far enough anyway.  A sincere thank-you to those who took photos for me, I know it's not your fault the photos are blurry!  Good news is that a private pro photographer was there taking photos of another dog and she was willing to also take some photos for me- for free! A huge thank-you to Amber Scott of All In One Studios in Franklin OH.  Her website is http://www.allinonestudios.smugmug.com/  I will soon be getting a disk with some much better quality photos on it and I gave her permission to put the photos on her website too. I'll post some here later when the disk arrives.

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We had a Belgian flag design and did our routine to the first 2 min. of "The Belgian Song"  The whole song can be heard on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTrNh3BlBLk I'm working on the videos of our routine.  I may or may not need to wait till I'm back home to upload them.

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Dazzle did REALLY well and performed off-leash, in the new place, with great focus on me.  Focus and performance were actually better on Sunday, but the scores don't reflect that for some reason.

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On Saturday, we got an 8.7 for Technical Merit (out of a possible 10) and an 8.7 for Artistic Impression (out of a possible 10).  Great scores for a Beginner routine!

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On Sunday, we only got a 7.9 for TM, even though I thought it felt much more precise and smooth, but the AI score was higher than yesterday- 8.9

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I am thrilled with how well he did in a new place, off-leash and with an audience clapping during the routine for parts they liked, etc.  It earned him a new title of: W-FD/MF (which stands for: WCFO- Freestyle Dog/Musical Freestyle) WCFO stands for World Canine Freestyle Organization. On Saturday, we got a "judge's choice" award (a wrist watch) and a tug toy (though that was a separate award and I didn't write down what it was for, so now I can't recall).  On Sunday, we got a "highest scoring beginner A" prize (a book of tricks) as well as a nice trophy.

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Anita was nice enough to let me stay with her on Saturday night (Thank-you Anita!) and her dog Ceaser really enjoyed having Dazzle for a sleep over :-)  They played all evening in both the house and the yard- running and wrestling and having a blast.  I was worried that Dazzle might be tired and cranky for his Sunday routine, but I let him sleep in the van all morning till I was just about to take him in the ring.  Seems to have worked well!

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I'm looking forward to future freestyle competitions!  It's a great group of fun and friendly people.  It's also a more laid-back pace than most of the shows I have attended.  With about 24 compeditors each day and only 1 judge (who had to take a bit of time to do his written eval of each performance) there was plenty of time between routines and to get the next dog ready without feeling rushed.

Parade

This evening we participated in a large parade as a member of the training club's group. I don't know how many people/dogs we ended up with, but I know there were over 17 dogs, which is what I counted at one point while waiting.  The above photo was taken while we waited about an hour for the parade to get to our group's start.  As you can see, I didn't walk.  I'm SO glad I brought the bike because from the car, to the meet-up spot, then the whole parade and getting back to the car was quite the trip.  Dazzle was confused about why he was hooked to the bike but we just waited and waited, but he enjoyed schmoozing with the other dogs and people there.

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When we actually got to move, it was slow going, but I did very little peddling. Actually my hand is sore from having to keep the brake applied!  He was glad when we got to the end and was able to move out in a nice trot to get back to the van before it got completely dark :-) The participation and turn out for this parade is amazing!  I had heard of it, but didn't realize it was so big!  The parade started at 6pm and our group (in Division 8) didn't start till after 7:30! And the crowds you see below were typical along the whole route- several people deep.

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Dazzle is getting fixed

Well, the saying goes... "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" But since his attitude seems to be starting to break down, he's going to the vet early next month to get an attitude adjustment. I had planned to wait till he was around 18 months old, but based on his X-rays he had done for his hips, his growth plates were almost closed at that time and he will be 14 months old when it's done.  So I don't think it will be a problem. He hasn't gained any height since he reached 24" tall when he was about 8 months old.  
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He and Coyote have gotten into a few fights in the past 5 or so months, and with Coyote half blind and smaller, he's getting the worst of it.  Although the two have really serious fights, neither has gotten badly injured (scratches, hair pulled out, minor punctures) so I'm thankful they both have good bite inhibition and tough skin!  But since both Mike and I HAVE gotten some serious bites trying to break them up, it's definitely time.
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The fights are rare, but when they occur both dogs are pretty serious about not backing down or letting go.  I am noticing more posturing within the last month.  Dazzle seems to be the one starting most of the fights, but Coyote's not completely innocent.  I'm hoping that when Dazzle is no longer affected by "testoterone poisoning", we'll have peace restored.
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We are keeping a close eye on both of them in high arousal situations like when Mike or I comes home.  When they are not over-excited, they are fine around each other.  This afternoon when the neighbor was mowing his lawn, I kept Dazzle in the office with me while Coyote went out to "defend the yard" from the eeevil tractor.
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I am doing my best to reward correct interactions and redirect any posturing as well as using prevention at times when high arousal is likely, which I think has helped keep the fights rare. But I don't want to risk someone getting a ear bitten off or an eye punctured or some other serious injury.
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I stopped by the vet to pick up some supplements Coyote gets and put Dazzle on the scale. He now weighs 59 lbs!  I have found that mixing in pureed liver with his food has done the trick to get him to eat. He was 55 lbs 1 month ago, so he's gaining a bit of weight and looks good - more like a filled out adult than a skinny puppy and his hip bones aren't prominent anymore. This is a good weight for him, so I might cut back just slightly on his rations to maintain it.
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Storm issues

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I guess it's offical- Dazzle is afraid of thunder.  It's 3 in the morning and I'm wide awake because he's definitely wide awake and trying to get inside my skin.  He started off running between me (in the office) and the sliding glass door near the kitchen barking ferociously every time he heard a thunder rumble.  Then he proceeded to crawl in my lap or try to get under the desk while shaking, panting, drooling, shedding, the works. Oh joy.
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I saw hints of this during the last storm so I have tried hard to gradually and carefully pair loud noises with his favorite things.  Not easy when he doesn't care for food treats which makes it hard to do rapidly repeated rewards.  But I have played and tossed/tugged his favorite tennis ball and even had the bite sleeve out.  At the festival Saturday, he spooked at the whip crack, but then recovered.  He didn't like the distant cannons, but he wasn't anywhere near this freaked out (thankfully!) I don't understand why tonight it's so bad.
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Between the storm cells when it quieted down he was willing to play with the ball and he chewed on a bone for awhile.  But as soon as it's loud again, he's back to trying to get into my skin.
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At least we're near the end of the storm season.  Hopefully by next spring he will have matured out of this.  Probably wishful thinking.  I may get and try some Melatonin for the next storm. Or maybe we'll have to move to TX.  I hear they are having a drought.
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Sleepless but sleepy

Ren Fest

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It was a great day to be outside enjoying history, well history with a large side helping of humor :-) 

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Dazzle and I visited the Renaissance Festival today.  He did great with the odd costumes, and the unusual sights, sounds and smells.  We were a bit too close to the front for a whip routine and he starled and barked at the whip crack, but recovered well.  He wasn't too keen on the cannon fire of the Pirate ship either (though we weren't anywhere near it). But other than those two things, he did quite well! 

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We strolled from one show to the next, so mostly I was sitting and he was relaxing in the shade chewing on sticks or snacking on grass. :-)  I did bring a bully stick for him to chew on (apparently certain sticks were better) and a ball for him to play with during the down times.  He was pulling a bit at the start because he kept wanting to go faster, but relented and walked nicely when he realized it was a "slow pace" day and not a "dog event" for him :-)  We saw a few other service dogs and spoke with several people who have, had or train service dogs as well as several people inquiring about his breed.

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Here's a few photos from the day:

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It was a VERY busy day there! But it only felt crowded in a few spots, like the "road" in this photo.  The rest of the event was more spread out and didn't feel so crowded.

We even saw the Queen! This was a parade of merchants and performers followed by the Queen on horseback.

Dazzle wasn't phased by the parade from our spot in the shade where he was chewing on a ball. Jugglers, drums, dancers, horses, odd costumes, yelling, singing...
- no big deal! :-)

I sat in the "chapel" to rest in the shade and this performer sat down and was talking to me about Dazzle and when she strummed her guitar he was all ears!  I wish I had gotten a photo of his head turned sideways, but this was the best I got.  Dazzle really liked the sound and had his tail wagging and eyes riveted on her as she played for the first couple minutes. After that, he laid down and chewed on a stick :-)

Muuuuudddd Shhhooowwww! 

The Mud Show is THE BEST!  We went to two of their shows and I emensely enjoyed both.  It seems they didn't practice their routine in the past 10 months because one guy kept forgetting his lines (and said "I guess we should have rehersed!")  But they did a great job of ad-libbing and kept the audience in stitches.  During the second show, they found a sign on stage that said "sauerkraut balls" and they found that to be funny, so they worked it into the show and it was hillarious! They said it worked so well, they might keep it in the routine!

I had Dazzle pose with 2 of them after their show. What he really wanted was to check out their mud pit! Yes, the guys are covered in mud! The one guy (that had wiped his face) is still holding their donation bucket.

I saw this guy in front of a shop that sold all kinds of fairy stuff and it just made me laugh so I had to take a photo. It is the legs and wings of a fairly sticking out of the frog's mouth :-)

Over all a great day and great socialization for Dazzle. We're both tired now and he's sleeping soundly near me. I'm going to go lie down to rest my legs and back.

Art Challenge

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I subscribe to a few different YouTube channels.  One of them is Kikopup.  Emily is a great clicker trainer and an artist who has several tutorials on her site about clicker training.  She recently posted an art tutorial titled "How to paint your pets portrait" found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQvERQoHvgg And she challenged her viewers to try the technique and post a video of their results.
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After watching it, I thought well that's a great tutorial!  But I don't have any paint or brushes or canvas (though now I'm tempted to get some!) But then I read the comments posted and in those she mentions that paint is not required.  A person can use what they have on hand!  So I thought, well I have a bunch of colored pencils in the other room, why not!  I just took a photo of Dazzle that I LOVE so I'll give it a try!
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This is the original photo I used:

I printed that out and put it over a piece of card stock and used carbon paper to trace the main parts of the image. I used the printed image as a guide for the colors too.

Then I started selecting colors, starting with the lightest and going to the darkest.  I did end up making Dazzle's body darker as I went along till it was just right.

Here it is after all the colors were added, just need to crop the sides...

Here's the finished product!  I'm very happy with how it turned out!  I didn't expect to get a result I would be willing to post :-)  I have worked with clay and carved rubber, but drawing is not my strong suit.  So the tracing method worked really well for me!  I CAN color between the lines :-) 

Not sure if I'll do anything with this, but it's currently posted to my bulletin board by my computer. I made a 40 second video using the photos I took during the process (which are also posted above).  If you want to see it, it's at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSSmlnilPkE

Beautiful Day!

Today was perfect!  70 degrees, sunny, nice breeze and low pain.  Dazzle and I spent the day out and about.  I took several photos of our time hanging out at Brookville Lake Dam.

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My favorite! Up on a parking barrier.

More serious pose:

He loved running ahead and back on the dam

"You can't see me!"  Snacking along the town side of the dam

He also went down the lake side!  He scared me because he RAN down the steep rocky slope and then RAN back up!  It was very steep and a long way down, but I guess he felt he needed to check out the path at the bottom. OY! Here he is scrambling back up...

He enjoyed watching the speed boats and stopped often to stare (This is the railing he jumped to go down the rocks!)

Posing with the lake in the background...

I only walked a little ways down the dam before turning around.  Dazzle was running out and back and from side to side having a BLAST!  Very few people out there today, but he ignored the ones that passed us.  His zoom mode and pure enjoyment brought smiles to their faces.  After our walk on the dam, he was hot, so I braved the grassy slope down to the water and let him swim for awhile.
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This boat pulling kids on a tube came pretty close to the shore and Dazzle, but he just watched them.  He was busy fetching his ball

While we were down there, some kids came down.  Dazzle mostly ignored them, but had to go see if they might throw something for him :-)  They were confusing him by throwing rocks into the water. He would swim out to where they hit the water and look around for what was tossed.  We left shortly after that, but they did toss a couple sticks for him which he loved.

Before we went to the lake, I did some errands and then we went to the gun range. I was working on his obedience and playing with him while the gun club practiced trap shooting.  We started off a good distance away (across and down the street) but gradually worked our way into the parking lot and then up to the building just behind the firing line.  He was fine with the commotion and got some attention from the shooters who I hadn't seen in awhile (ammo is just too darn expensive!)

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On our way back home from the lake, I took the scenic route with the windows down just enjoying the day and good music.  Dazzle slept in his crate :-)

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Overall, a wonderfully pleasant day.  I wish they could all be as beautiful!

Fundraiser success!

Bear drops a dollar in the bucket during a previous fundraiser
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I didn't take any photos, but today Dazzle and Bear and I went to Bass Pro Shops to do a fundraiser to help a local K-9 officer get to a National level competition (which he has to pay for out of his own pocket). Several troop members also arrived to help and I thank them emensely! It really makes a difference when there are more people and dogs to draw the crowd and help explain to folks what we are doing there. One of the troop members is putting together a YouTube video of his dog fundraising, so I'll post that if it has any of Dazzle taking money.
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Dazzle started out distracted, not really wanting to "get the money" and "put it in the bucket", so Bear was doing all the work and filled his bucket pretty quickly! Then Koda arrived to help take some donations and put them in her own bucket. After Dazzle got over the excitement of having several of his girl friends there (and after Dianne gave me a few pieces of freeze-dried liver) Dazzle decided he would work, even gently taking money from Bear's mouth a time or two! (They both got treats for that retrieve :-) Out of the $330 we raised, Dazzle put $75 of that in his own bucket.
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He was really more interested in sniffing and greeting and leaning on people than taking their money, but he did do it about 70 times (he got a $5 bill :-). By the end of our three hour session though, he decided he was done and laid down to take a nap. But that was at about 2:50 and we finished at 3:00 :-)
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We have also been working on his freestyle routine and he's doing well with it. He seems to really enjoy it when we practice in time to the music. If I try and work on pieces of the routine while the music is playing in the background, he isn't as excited. But if I wait for that part of the song, he's more animated! I think he already knows the song better than I do and he loves the ending pose :-) It's one of his favorite moves plus it's always followed by his reward, so that helps too. I'm really looking forward to performing on the 26th and 27th, but the only thing I'm not sure about is how audience applause during his routine will affect him. We haven't done anything in the ring while people are clapping, so I'll have to keep my fingers crossed that he will be able to focus!
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Maybe I can give the troop a sneek preview of the routine after the troop meeting and they can applaude to see what he will do.

An Excellent Weekend! New title too!

Dazzle and his winnings

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A very good weekend! Todays first show resulted in a score of 100! That's the third qualifying run in level one, so we earned a URO-1 title today too! It also earned us a 4th place ribbon because there were 4 other scores of 100 (tie broken by the amount of time it took to run the course.) I was only 1 second faster than the person who got 5th place. When I saw that 5th score of 100 go up on the board, I figured it had knocked us out of the ribbons, but I was surprized when she called our number for 4th place. No matter where we placed, I was VERY pleased with his performance!
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VIDEO: Our perfect score run in UKC Rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KRIAnx7ny8
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For the fourth show of the weekend, I moved him up to level 2, which is off-leash. Since we do all our training off-leash, I didn't expect any problem. However, when we started out, it wasn't pretty. He was sniffing and wandering and NOT really heeling. About sign 3, I tried moving my left hand up as if I had a leash in it. He looked up, saw that and swung right into heel position. The rest of our run was beautiful! So I guess I have a heel cue I didn't know about :-) I don't practice with my hand like that, but I guess it's what he needed.
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The 4th show was held in a part of the building where the obedience shows had been. So it was in a completely new ring/area from his three level 1 runs. Don't know if that made any difference in his attention level at the start or not. I'm just glad he realized I intended for him to be working and not out for a stroll! He was startled by the flash or beep from my camera at the start too and whipped his head around toward it (& away from me). Not sure why, maybe because the room was so quiet? So the person I asked to take photos of us didn't take any more. So no action photos from this weekend and just the one video. There was no pro photographer either. :-(
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At sign 3, I did lose points when I walked past the sign, but then immediately realized it and went back for a "do-over". So it didn't disqualify us, but it did knock off max points. His inattention at the start lost the rest of the points. We finished with a score of 91 and a first place blue ribbon. We got a 1st place only because we were the only dog in group A :-) Which means Dazzle and I have not earned a title in any other venue higher than entry level and we don't have any standard obedience titles in AKC or UKC and I'm not an obedience instructor. Everyone else that was entered in level 2 or moved up to level 2 was in group B. So they HAD earned those titles or were instructors, which is who I was competing with for all the level 1 runs. So while I don't think his level 2 run warranted a blue ribbon, I feel it represents the 3 excellent level 1 runs he had
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So now we can concentrate fully on practice for next months Freestyle competition.
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UKC Show results from today

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Dazzle and I spent the day in Dayton at the UKC Rally show. It was our first time competing in a UKC event. There wasn't any A/C in the room where the Rally is being held, but thankfully it wasn't as blazing hot today as it has been this past week! Opening the windows actually helped!
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Dazzle did really well and I'm very proud of him. There were 2 trials today. We were in level 1B for both (there were no A's). In the first trial, he earned a 99 out of a possible 100! He lost the point on a very crooked sit-front for the first sign, but we had a rocky start because I forgot to remove his collar tags. So at the start line, I was fiddling with that and a bit distracted, but after the first sign, we were back on track and it was beautiful. There were 27 dogs in that level 1 B class with us. 4 got scores of 100, so we didn't place in the ribbons.
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In the second trial, his run felt even better than the first, very smooth and he was very responsive, I really thought it was going to be a 100. Out of the 19 dogs in our level, three others got scores of 98 along with us. No one got any higher than a 98. So this judge was scoring a bit lower than the first judge. The 4 way tie is broken by the time it took each dog to run the course. While I felt like we were moving out, apparently the other three were faster :-) We got 4th place, and a nice rossette. Points off were for a crooked sit (which I didn't think was very crooked at all) and a bump on a 270 left that was a tight fit right after the call front- left heel forward.
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Over all, I'm thrilled with his runs today. He is improving in his attentiveness and responsiveness and he's not crowding me on left turns like he was previously. Left turns used to be a bump with almost every step, 360's being the worst. But the left turns and 360 left today were picture perfect. Our freestyle practice has helped with that!
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If we can have as nice of a run tomorrow for the first show, he will have his UKC Level 1 title and I'll try a level 2 course (off-leash) for the 4th show.
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I didn't get any photos or video of his runs because I forgot I had the cameras in my bag, so I didn't ask anyone to use them. Maybe tomorrow. Not sure the lighting will be very good though. Most of the course is back-lit by windows and there's not a good place to stand to avoid that.
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OFA results and a video

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I got the results of Dazzle's X-rays back from OFA (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals). His hips and elbows are both good! No surprise there :-)
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I'm still playing "catch-up" from the weekend away, but getting there. Still have several emails to go through and need to vac the floor, but the grass is cut, the dog's pool is clean and Dazzle got a bath (he stunk from the dock diving pool water) :-)
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I finally got a chance to check out the lure coursing video and it's not as bad as I thought. I took the best part and put it in slow motion at the end. He looks SO COOL running flat out! His movement looks very efficient to me. I wish they had a radar gun for this event!
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VIDEO: Lure Course (plus slo-mo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRMLDa27lDw
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Photos and video

Photos and a video link from our weekend...
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First, 2 photos from a visit to the park last week that I didn't get a chance to upload:
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He enjoyed a romp in the tall grass. He bounced around in this in much the same way he did with the soybean field, but it wasn't as visible :-) I could only hear him!
Posing for a profile view...

Photo of him wearing his 3rd place ribbon from the Amature Division Finals:

Chillin' at the tent. You can see the blue (turquoise) of the pool in the background. The pen of puppies was just out of the photo on the left side.

Playing around with photography on the long breaks.

"Mr. Dazzle, it's time for your close-up" :-)

JUMP! Not much "air" on this jump.

As much as I don't care to be wet, this felt good in the 92 degree heat!

Big jump! Nice focus on his toy!

Comin' at cha!

Future Dock Diver! One of the puppies in the pen near our tent. They were SO cute!

VIDEO: Dock Diving Competition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKraDw1lyOk

The above is video of a few of our jumps. Not sure why the video of our jumps during the finals weren't on the camera. The announcer, as you can hear, was enjoying my name :-)

Fantastic Weekend!

Thank-you to the Nature's Variety vendor who took the above photos and emailed them to me! I didn't catch her name and she didn't sign her email, so unfortunately I can't thank her by name. UPDATE: her name is Michelle. :-) I have lots more photos and videos, but I'm still not at home, so I'm not able to edit them for upload till I get there.

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Dazzle entered his first official DockDogs event this weekend (as if you couldn't tell from the photos :-) and he did exceptionally well! Our goal was just to have fun because I know he loves doing it, but more on our surprizing results in a moment. It was a VERY hot and humid weekend (90 degrees plus high humidity and not much breeze), so I was glad we were at an event where Dazzle could stay wet and that I was told to bring a shade tent! Thankfully, the event was only 6 minutes from my parent's house because we needed to arrive at 7:30 to do a "day-of" event registration and those filled up fast! They reached their maiximum of 40 dogs entered, so there was plenty of great competition. There is a big dock diving club in that area, and I saw many people with that club's T-shirts and some I recognized from photos on their website. After getting our area set-up, we settled in to wait till the practice jumps.

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My biggest fear was that Dazzle wouldn't jump because he had never jumped into a clear pool before. He has only jumped into lakes and rivers where the bottom was not clearly visible. I have heard that it bothers some dogs to be able to see the bottom, I'm guessing because they can't see the top of the water. So it looks like the landing is much lower than it is! So when we did our first practice jump, I didn't let him go to the end of the dock where the pool was. As soon as he got up on the far end of the dock, I put him in a stay, walked to the end, released him and tossed the toy. He was concentrating on the toy and by the time he could see into the water, it was too late to stop :-) The practice jumps were not measured, but I know his first was a pretty short jump. He did slow down and try to stop at the end, but momentum carried him into the water. After that, he didn't have any problems with the jumping in. After his first jump, he did have some trouble finding the exit ramp. But once he found that, he was able to quickly get out after all other jumps. So I was confident I hadn't just wasted all the entry fees and we would have a fun weekend.

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I signed up for 5 "waves" meaning a total of 10 jumps. In each wave, the dog gets to jump twice and the best jump of the two is what gets entered into the record books. They break each wave into 4 groups of about 10 random dog/handler teams. The 1st group lines up in their running order and each dog jumps once, then they get back in line for their second jump. After all of group one has gone twice, then group 2 lines up and repeats the process. Our first wave, we were in group one, after that, we were in either group 3 or 4. The group has nothing to do with the dog's abilities, it's just a random order to make line-ups and waits shorter for the dog's actively jumping.

Official Jumps:

WAVE 1 (9:00)

His first official jump was 14' 5" which is at the top of the "Jr"? division (I think it's called Jr.) which is any jump from 1" to 14' 11". All his other jumps were near the lower end of the Senior division which is 15' - ?' 11". I just looked on the Dock Dogs website trying to find the different distances for each division, but didn't find it listed.

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His second jump of the first wave was 15' 7" so he was into the Sr. division and that's the distance recorded for his first wave jump and was good enough for 8th place in the Sr. Division.
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There was several hours between that wave and the next, so we went to check out the other activities at the Canine Fun Days event. They had agility, "fear factor" which I didn't get more details on, lots of contests and games and the thing that caught my eye- an open lure course for any breed! I know he loves Lure Coursing, so I signed him up for a run. He got himself all worked up watching the dogs ahead of him, so we had to move away till it was his turn. He really opened up and was flat out running after the lure the whole way! Great big grin on his face :-) I tried to get some video, but I'm not sure if it's "watchable" from all the zoom issues I was having :-) I'll have to view it and see if it's worth posting. I tried to stay zoomed in on him, but at the farthest zoom setting, the camera is super sensitive to movement and I kept "losing" him in the view finder.

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WAVE 2 (12:30)

The first jump of wave 2 was 16'5" so he added almost another foot over what he jumped this morning. His second jump was only 15' 11" and I think it might have been because of a bad throw of his toy (possibly the one in the photo above where the toy is chasing him :-) We again placed 8th in the Sr. Division. There were 40 dogs competiting and between 10-15 were in the Sr. Division each time.

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We both took a nap in the shade of the pop-up tent as we waiting for the 3rd wave. I was glad I was told to bring a lunch and snacks as well, since the food on site was typical "festival" food and was typical festival prices.

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WAVE 3 (5:30)

Since we were next to last in group 4 and it was about 1.5 - 2 minutes per dog and there were 40 dogs, we didn't jump till closer to 6 or 6:30 pm. His first jump was 16'11" and his second was 16'5". Again 8th place in Sr. Division. I guess the other dogs in that division were also getting longer and longer with their jumps. :-)

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I packed up most of our stuff (some I left in place till tomorrow) and headed back to my parent's house very happy with his performance, but very tired and sore. We both went to bed early and he slept very well :-)

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DAY 2:

I got there early again to get a good parking place in the shade (till near the very end of the day at least) just across the dirt road from our shade tent so I didn't have to lug Dazzle's crate out of the van today. He wasn't in it much, unless I needed to use the bathroom or go to the registration table. The rest of the time he was just lounging around with me under our tent. I definitely need to get a reclining lawn chair if we do more of these!

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WAVE 4: (9:00)

We were in group 3, so it was closer to 10:00 when he did his first jump, but I don't think either of us was awake! He only jumped 13'11" :-) He just loped down the dock and didn't really try very hard. But the water must have gotten him awake because his second jump was 16'8" keeping us in the Sr. division, which I was happy about :-)

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WAVE 5: (11:30)

His first jump was 15' even, so I really worked at getting his second jump bigger. It must have worked! He jumped 17'0"!! His longest jump of the day! They also had a person with a rader gun who said he came down the dock at 19 mph!

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I was going to pack-up, but then another compeditor said "aren't you going to see if you made it to the finals?" I thought that because we were near the lower end of the Sr. division, that we wouldn't have qualified, but went to check any way. I found out that for the finals, the "Amature Division" is for jumps of 17' 11" and less. They use the dog's longest jump of the competition to determine placement in the finals and take the top 8 dogs. Dazzle's 17' jump put him at dog #6 on the finals list for amature division! I was shocked! So we went back to nap till the finals started at 2pm :-)

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FINALS: (2:00)

Amature division went first and since there were only 8 dogs, it went pretty quickly. Each compeditor got 2 jumps, just like in a regular wave. His first jump was 17' 9" and only 2 dogs jumped further (they both jumped over 21'!) so we were in 3rd place going into the second round. His second jump, he didn't hold his stay at the end of the dock because I got him TOO excited and so he didn't have his usual moentum and he only jumped 16'5" but the other dogs (with the exception of the 2 already in first place) didn't break the 17' mark so we stayed in 3rd place!!! I was on cloud 9. Never did I think he would qualify, let alone win a ribbon, goodie bag and even $50! It was great icing on the cake of a fantasic and fun weekend. Plus, he got the unofficial Sr. Division Dock Dogs title! (Unofficial because I didn't have the funds to become a member of Dock Dogs, so his jumps aren't official). I'll do it next year and then his title can be official :-)

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Between runs, I made several new friends and enjoyed chatting with lots of people there. The folks next to us had a whole litter of chocolate lap puppies in a big pen and I enjoyed watching their antics as they played. I got an adorable photo I'll title "future dock diver" of a puppy sleeping with his head and front paws in his water dish :-) We had a nice view of the pool, so I was able to watch all the compeditors diving, some of which were jumping over 22'! Although it was really hot, it was a great time and I look forward to doing it again.

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I'll post the photos and videos as soon as I can. Mike says our DSL is down at home for an "indefinite time" because the cable co. doesn't know WHY it's down. So as soon as that's back up and I can get on-line, I'll post the great photos and videos taken by the new friends I made. thank-you to those who were kind enough to do that for me!

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I did get to meet Cindy and Fever, whom I knew only from a Malinois talk list and her dog was jumping big! I stayed around to watch her in the finals, but didn't stay for the official results. She thought she was either 3rd or 4th place. Way to go Fever! Thanks in advance for the photos you took of Dazzle too!

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You would think Dazzle would be tired this morning, but he's been busy carrying around his toy, shoving it at me and my parents trying to get us to throw it for him. My little energizer bunny :-) Off to play with him now...

Seriously Funny!!

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We have dried out from the rain, now it's oppressively hot and humid. Dazzle still wants to go outside and play though, so we do short play/train sessions to work on parts of his freestyle routine for next month (between his dips into the pool).
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The seriously funny part of this post is a video clip I did the other day. I took him out with me to get the mail, and he ran into the soybean field and started bouncing around! I was laughing my butt off. So while I won't let him do it again in case it damages the crop, I did have to let him do it one more time so I could get it on video :-) I said absolutely nothing while he was doing this, it seems he was doing it just for the fun of it! I added the sound effects to make it even more funny. Turn up your speakers though because for some reason the background music is really quiet.
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VIDEO: Soybean Fun - HILARIOUS!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-xv6_IeAFg
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Rain, rain and more rain

This is from Batesville (about 15 miles west of us)

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For those who know me from outside this area, we are fine. We only got about 3" of rain, but just a little to the west of us got SIX inches of rain today! They had to close parts of the highway to the west of us in Batesville because there was several feet of water rushing across it! More heavy rain predicted for tomorrow. I just heard on the news that Louisville got NINE inches of rain today! Yikes! The entire parking lot of Churchill Downs is under water.

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Thankfully we are on high ground and if there is flooding here, we better be building an ark!

OFA X-rays

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Last night, I got to bed around 1am. This morning, a bad thunderstorm woke me up about 6am. Being in tornado alley, I have a hard time sleeping during bad storms. Actually, Coyote had gone in the closet (where he prefers to hide from storms). With the "bed troll" off the bed, Dazzle jumped up and tried to get inside my skin he was cuddling so close. I think he was reacting to the really loud thunder and rain on the windows, but he's never had any issue with storms before (to the point of going outside to play in them!) So I was up. He was showing signs of nervousness about the storm. Hopefully THAT won't be a regular occurance.
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The hardest part was convincing the dogs that even though we had been awake for 3 hours, they weren't getting breakfast. That's because at 8:45, I took Dazzle to his vet appointment to get his hips and elbows X-rayed and I knew there was a good chance they would sedate him. Mike fed the others when he got up.
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The X-rays are something the breeder requires so she knows if his parents are producing healthy, sound puppies. These X-rays get submitted to OFA for review as "preliminary" findings. Next year, when he's 2 yrs old, we have to do it again for his permanent record. The breeder also requires more views than what OFA requires, so we had several elbow views to get.
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When we arrived, the vet office had some unexpected emergencies, but Dazzle and I didn't mind the wait. They gave him some "happy drugs" that made him pretty woozy. He still reacted to movement and being moved and loud sounds (the thunder a few times, the phone, etc.), but if left in one position undisturbed he fell asleep. I stayed with him the whole time which I think really helped keep him calm. A few times when he reacted to something, I saw him catch sight of me or hear my voice and immediately relax.
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They did 2 X-rays of his hips because the first set wasn't perfectly aligned (2nd set looked excellent!) Then they did 2 x-rays of his elbow (flexed and extended) but when the film was developed, they found that the ID tags weren't visible. So those were done again. Then he was fliped over and the other elbow was done flexed and extended. After each shot, the films were checked before he was moved to the next position. Lastly, we did a craniocaudal view (Sphinx position with his front legs extended and nose pointing to the sky- to move it out of the way of the X-ray of his elbows). He was such a trooper!
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We did put a muzzle on him because as he was getting drowsy, he did a short, low grrr at the gal who walked into the room. He quietly grr'ed again one time while laying on his side during X-rays, but those were the only times. Other than that he was very good for the manipulations.
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The vet said the X-rays all looked very good. Nice smooth joints and tight fittings. The vet also said his growth plates are close to being closed and should be solid in a few months. After reviewing the X-rays, we packed them into an envelope with all the needed paperwork and I stopped at the post office on my way home to get them in the mail to OFA. It was really pouring buckets of rain being blown sideways at that point.
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Dazzle had to be carried from the vet office to the van and curled up in the back of his crate. He didn't move the whole way home, even during the P.O. stop. Once we got home, he tried to stand up to get out of his crate, but his legs still weren't really responding to the signals his brain was giving him. He was carried into the office where he figited about. Mike gave him an ice cube which he really enjoyed, but then had to leave to take his vehicle in for an oil change. Dazzle was acting like he might need to go out, and was kind of able to get his feet under him, so I took him out into the rain. He did a great job of balancing while he emptied his bowels. I thought at one point he might fall backward into the pile! Thankfully he didn't.
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When he came back in, he went right to his food bowl and stared at it and me and kept checking it like he thought food might have appeared while he was looking at me. :-) Considering he's not very food motivated and has never done this before, it seemed he thought he was really hungry. I gave him a few handfuls of food to see if he could keep it down and he ate the food faster than I've seen him eat- ever- like he was a starving street dog (or one of his brothers :-). After being encouraged into the living room and a short nap, he got up and went back to his bowl on his own. He was walking a bit better, though still wobbly if he tried to turn fast. I gave him the rest of his breakfast and again he wolfed it down.
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I went back to the living room and sat in the recliner. Dazzle got in my lap and went soundly to sleep (& I fell alseep too) till Mike called. Originally I was going to be bringing my van in for an oil change when his was done, but both Dazzle and I were very tired. I went to bed where Dazzle curled up with me (even with Coyote on the bed!) and Mike came home, got my van and took it back to get the oil change- thanks Mike!! By the time we were done with our nap, Mike was back and even had the groceries he bought all put away. Dazzle was moving MUCH better and was acting more normally.
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By 9pm, Dazzle was DONE with napping, he was ready to PLAY!! Didn't matter that it was still drizzling and raining off and on outside, or that it was now dark, he wanted to play.
Hhe kept running outside at full speed and then looking at me through the sliding back door, then running back inside. At one point, he came running in full speed and lunched himself into my lap! I finally gave in and tossed his toy in the house a few times, then told him he needed to relax. Now I'm updating this blog while he is back to napping next to me. I'm guessing that after all this sleep, he's going to be pretty cranked up by tomorrow morning!
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