Walking With the Stump Kids

The Stump Kids and I go on walks everyday, at least once, if not twice, or some times three times, a day. I'm lucky to work less than 10 minutes from home, so I'm able to come home on my lunch. As long as it's not raining, I'll take the girls for a short walk just to stretch their legs, and mine. I feel like days that I don't get our lunch walk done are longer for me at work--I relish that time with them and the fresh air.

Then, depending on the weather, I'll take them for a walk after I get home from the gym after work. We'll walk anywhere from a mile to two, on top of the .75 mile loop we do at lunch. It keeps them in shape, as well as another way to exercise myself.

It's funny to see how some times they'll be total opposites at the end of the leash. Most times, LaMesa will be up front, leading the way, and Dally will be in the back, taking it all in and just shuffling along.

LaMesa leads the charge, always keeping an eye out for squirrels
up ahead. She doesn't pull on her leash, unless she sees the enemy.

Meanwhile, Dally shuffles along behind for the most part. Some times
she'll be up beside me or towards the front, but she likes to go at her own pace.

However, throw a squirrel in the mix, and they're both alert and pulling at the end of the leash! They are always on squirrel patrol on our walks.

LaMesa wears a ComfortFlex harness to help with her pulling. She can be good about heeling if I really make her do it, but I feel like walks are meant to be relaxing for both of us. Dally walks just fine with her leash collar and leash.

How do your dogs like to walk with you?

Wordless Wednesday - Sharon Woods Park

Weekend Work

This weekend was full of work for the Stump Kids--a beautiful weekend tends to do that when we're not at an agility trial. Saturday saw the girls in action at the BFO practice field working on weave pole entries at full speed (which is hard to get for Mesa when we work in the back yard or in the park, even) and different jump sequences with more than two jumps.

Mesa has been having some issues with her weave entries lately, once again, so I've been trying to work on those when she's coming off of tunnels or jumps, just like she would at a trial. I'm tempted to go back to the first couple of parts of the 2x2 weave pole training series to help with that, and might in April, when we're not scheduled for any trials and we can just concentrate on the basics and prepare to hit the summer trials. (I've heard it's best to not trial when you have to go back to the basics on certain manuevers like contacts, etc.)

So we worked on some weaves, which Mesa handled wonderfully! I also got to work her on a few jump sequences that I've seen at trials lately--she's in Excellent Standard now, so we need to work on harder sequences and accuracy. She handled everything like a pro, only running and barking at other dogs at the field a couple of times. (Note: I don't really work at the BFO field that much any more for personal reasons, however I appreciate having the ability to train my dogs in a different location than normal--Mesa needs that right now, Dally's past worrying about that. The distractions at the field is great for working with novice dogs because they need to learn to focus on you and not the distractions.)

Dally got some work in, too, with some weave poles and some short sequences just to have some fun. While we're preparing for Nationals in a couple of weeks (can you believe that!?), I need to focus on her drive and her fun with agility, so we don't need to work on sequence after sequence after sequence--that's not fun for her, so right now we aren't doing it.

Sunday we enjoyed a gorgeous March day and took a walk around The Arboretum on UK's campus. It's nice to be able to take the girls some place different to walk so we have a different view and different smells. We also took the opportunity for some photos, as you'll see below.

After some yard work (with and without the girls' help), Mesa and I set up the two jumps in the back yard to work on our homework from class on Wednesday--the letter "T" from the "Alphabet Drills" book. After working on her coming in parallel to my leg on a tight front cross, we worked on sends over the two jumps (in a straight line and in curves). I also worked on some gymnastics with Mesa--setting up the two jumps so she had to do a bounce (jump, land, jump) to work on her form towards the end of our work. She tends to lose her form when she tires during trials, so I need to work on that a lot.

So, all in all, a great weekend and we got a lot accomplished!

Relaxing At Home

Agility training and trials have been slow goings for us, so not much to talk about training or trial-wise, so I thought I'd share a few photos of the girls just relaxing at home.

(Dally would be so embarrassed if she found out this photo of her in an inappropriate position was streaming the inter-webs.)

One of the rare times LaMesa has sat still long enough for me to get a good photo of her!

This was the girls' Valentine's Day photo. 

Dally: "Appy Dal-entine's Day!" 

LaMesa: "Happy Valhund-entine's Day!"

We return to action this weekend in Ohio, so we'll have updates from there!!