Today is Dally's 5th birthday!!! Yay!! I tell her she's a "full paw, plus a dew claw." Last night we took the girls to the Bluegrass Barkery and picked out a couple of peanut butter pupcakes as Dally's "birthday cake" tonight, and a couple special treats. Our five-year anniversary will be in mid-September, and with the World Equestrian Games going on, I know I won't be able to celebrate that, so we're doing her birthday special! I can't tell you how much I love that silly little Corgi--she lights me up everyday. I don't know what I would have done without her when I moved to Amarillo and that rough year in Oklahoma City. She kept me going and kept me (somewhat) sane. I never really knew a dog's love until I got her, and I'm thankful to my parents every minute for helping me pick her out and pay for her. (Although, truth be told, she picked me out...I was looking at her tri-color sister, but she sat in front of me in the barn the whole time barking at me that I was taking her home--I should have known then that she was bossy!)
A Mesa Update: She had her first official agility lesson this week. My friend, and trainer, invited me over because I had expressed concern that I didn't know what else I could be doing with Mesa as far as groundwork for puppies. So, Melanie showed me how I could be teaching her rear and front crosses on the flat, sending her around jump standards and crossing, and more target work. We decided since she was so focused on me and expected treats from me every time, I needed to do more target training with the treats on the target and teaching her "touch." Once she got that down, we can move on to working on the last quarter of a lowered-A-Frame for a short bit.
Also, she needs to learn the "Bang Game" on the teeter--learn to bang the teeter and not be scared. I don't have the world's best teeter, but Melanie gave me some tips to make it sound loud (put a cookie sheet under it on the concrete). Mesa's a little scared of the loud sound, so I'll have to wrangle Matt in to bang the teeter down while I click and treat her for not being scared.
A couple weeks of that, and I'll see if I can meet with Melanie again to judge our progress and see if we can move forward. Mesa turned 8 months on July 10, so I need to start getting serious about training. Another agility friend offered to help me work on Rally with Mesa and Dally so we can enter a few trials--I really need to give her a call and do that a couple of times because the year is half-over! (My goal is to get Dally and Mesa's Rally Novice title by the end of the year.)
Oh, and one more thing--last night we took the girls to downtown Lexington for the Thursday Night Live event and to walk around and look at the horses for Horse Mania 2010. It was fun, and not too hot! It was a great chance to get Mesa out and about, see new people (and kids--she's a little fearful of them if they make quick gestures), and new things. They didn't appreciate the fountains at Triangle Park--as much as they love the water in the creeks, water spewing up from concrete is not their thing!!
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