Ahhh!!! I am sure I saw something move in there!! Heeellpppp...
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| Ahhhhhhhh!!!! |
Oops no! It was just a shadow from the trees, my bad...
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Trick and Treat Tuesday: it's polite to say hello!
Ah well, a bit late, but I finally get back to tricks!
The first trick we taught Mawson was fairly simple and we learnt it during puppy school.
It is the hand shake.
They use that to get me embarrassed in front of my mate in the park.
It's easier if the pup is in the sitting position (luckily Bodhi just explained sit today!). The whole idea at the beginning is to get mister pup to lift his paw to get something that doesn't come easy. They nearly all do that. So, what you need to do is get a trigger in your hand, usually it works best with little bits of food. Show it to the puppy then close your hand, enclosing the food. Any puppy or dog will nose it and try to get to it, and they will certainly fairly quickly get their paw up and paw your hand. When that happens, get the cue reward either yes or click from the clicker and give the treat. Do not say anything else at that point. Repeat the action a few times, trying to make sure that mister pup makes a swift paw action touching your hand once with his paw and then go onto something else. Over the next few days repeat the simple action without saying anything refining the paw action. When it becomes regular, start adding your cue word after the action (it is important to start associating the word with the action but perform the action that the pup is learning first, then reward and add the word).
When that word gets associated, start moving the word earlier and use it as the trigger for the action, and then phase the treat out. Offer your hand as before but without the treat in (keep it in the other hand) and get the action going. Paw to the hand you are offering, big yes, then reward from the other hand.
Mum don't say to phase the treats out, keep the treats going, yes, aaallllll the time, treats treats treats. Actually you don't need to ask anything, just give the treats. Mum can do the trick part, I do the treat part...
The thing with teaching any behaviour is being patient. Just think about when you learnt to tie up your shoelaces. I am sure there was quite a few failed attempts and it took a little while to stick in your brain, even though now you find it (hopefully) trivial. Well that is the same with anything new you teach. If you go a bit too fast and things get a bit pear shaped, do not hesitate to take a step back and go back to the previous step.
The step where there are treats... WHAT mum? Why are you looking at me like that... I'm trying to help...
This has proven really useful for us as Mawson can be a bit shy of people and we have been succeeding to relax him by teaching him to say shake the paw (hand!) of people we meet in the street to good effect. By staying at a little distance he just says hello and gets treats and everybody relaxes.
Well, what a week-end!!
Woohoo! I did it! I am the king of agility!!! Ahem... well nearly... On friday, dad started throwing things in the car... a lot of things, so I got a bit suspicious. Usually that's when we go somewhere far that the car gets overloaded. Always thought that was mummy needing a loooot of things... but she wasn't there so maybe that's not all her fault? Mmmmm something to ponder... Then we drove off, I like long trips now, it's always a lot comfier.
I had to suffer a few hours of dad's "driving", then we arrived somewhere I had never been. There was some of those big horses running around and dad put the tent up. I knew all of the things he put in the car weren't all for me. Geez how much stuff does he need!! The evening was fun, we played ball and met plenty of minions and their owner.
The main problem was when we got to bed. Too many noises around and people moving, I had to warn daddy and protect the tent from the night monsters. I didn't sleep very well...
In the morning, plenty more people arrived and yayyyyy they started putting up some agility equipment! Woohooooo, I like agility!
Very quickly it was our turn on my fav event: novice jumping. We started and it wasn't right, I dropped a bar and stuff but that was because the minions around were all confused. We were the first one of the day and the timer didn't start!!!! How are they going to see my awesomeness if they don't time me? So we restarted, yippee!
And I flew round the course, dunno were dad was, I was doing everything, reading the numbers, turning all alone (:P) I met him back at the end of the course. He must have gone for a drink...
And it turned out at the end that I (ok dad..."we") won it! Fastest time of all the dogs aaaaand clear run, soooo.... I got my first qualification for a title, yehaaa.
Then dad tried to put me in the new crate he got me, so I "settle" and "relax"... It's all in cloth with zippers... so I passed my head through, mwahahah. I didn't break it, I swear, I just snuck my nose through the zip and pushed :). We were sharing the huge gazebo with my mate Jaxon and his mum Frankie. Jaxon also had the same crate than me, but I guess he must have washed it in a bit too hot water cause it shrank! it was real small. But he seemed to fit in I guess. He's a bit smaller than me, being a papillon and all. We had fun. And he is teaching me how to do a cute little face to get treats. He does that real well, but I guess being small and cute and with fluffy ears helps. My ears are not really fluffy :(. They are silky smooth though!
Then after a bit of wait it was time for another run, novice agility. Well that went a bit awry. I went a bit fast at the start and dad is too slow, gnehehe so I zoomed past him before he could get his fine positioning. Well sorry dad but I haven't got all day. Then again a bit later, he faffed about in the middle of the course and well there was a bit of a collision with dad, me and a jump... oopsy, well that was it for that cause I was a bit sore. Not as much as dad as he discovered later... He thinks he cracked a rib, oopsy bis....
Then we went back and I had to take a double take cause.. there was mum!!!! Mummy!!!!! Woohoo that's the besets ever run, even though mummy looked a bit stoned shall I say.
Dad said we were done for the day, but we looked a bit longer at the other guys running. There are so many good dogs out there! In the evening we went back to the tent. There was quite a bit of noise so I told it to mum, and she seemed to enjoy it cause she kept coming back and cuddling my head and then after a few time she came in the crate. She looked even more stoned in the morning.... But I went out of my crate for a cuddle. It was soooo cold in the morning.
We had a couple more runs on sunday. One where dad invented a course (well, dad you do that anyway....), and I saw my groupies so I went to say hello, but they seemed not to be happy and were waiving their arms and dad was rolling on the ground so I went back so see what all the fuss was about. We still finished with a place apparently though, I'm quite proud of my time and my awesomeness. Wasn't the idea getting as much ... oh! that was points not seconds? Ooops sorry...
Then mum went wild and entered us in Open jumping... Yeah good mum... and it was at the same time as the novice snooker run so dad had to remember two courses at once... He can't remember a full one alone how did she expect him to memorise two at once... But I did the hard stuff well, got caught out by the semi closed tunnel entry (not fair!) and didn't bothered finishing the last jumps... I was TIRED! Not too bad because it's usually quite hard and everybody enters even the master guys.
We continued looking at the other runs afterwards. The minions wanted to see what the gamblers were doing... I bet mum is going to add some more entries for dad and I to run in the next trials. Can see it's not her running! She just sits on her, ahem BIG BUM! On second thought maybe she SHOULD run...
We had to come back home afterwards because the minions said they wanted to sleep in their bed. Whatever, I liked cuddles with mum in the crate.
On the way back, though I was fully awake... I smelt some dodgy burnt smell around. Mum said that we were passing through the areas that had recently been burnt in the bushfire. It wasn't looking great :(
When we came back home, the minions told me that they found an 18th birthday party announcement in the neighbourhood for the saturday we were out, so we wouldn't have slept here either!
They took my bed out and I went straight on it for a snooze. Just opened my eyes for two seconds to get dinner and go do my business, then lights out for me and my trophies... zzzzzz
On monday it was pouring down with rain, dad dragged me out in the morning. It was all wet!!!
But then I stayed and looked after mum. She was looking all green and kept coughing. I guess she brought something back from her trip. That will teach her to leave me alone with dad!
 |
| mmmm should always be that comfy |
The main problem was when we got to bed. Too many noises around and people moving, I had to warn daddy and protect the tent from the night monsters. I didn't sleep very well...
In the morning, plenty more people arrived and yayyyyy they started putting up some agility equipment! Woohooooo, I like agility!
Very quickly it was our turn on my fav event: novice jumping. We started and it wasn't right, I dropped a bar and stuff but that was because the minions around were all confused. We were the first one of the day and the timer didn't start!!!! How are they going to see my awesomeness if they don't time me? So we restarted, yippee!
And I flew round the course, dunno were dad was, I was doing everything, reading the numbers, turning all alone (:P) I met him back at the end of the course. He must have gone for a drink...
And it turned out at the end that I (ok dad..."we") won it! Fastest time of all the dogs aaaaand clear run, soooo.... I got my first qualification for a title, yehaaa.
Then dad tried to put me in the new crate he got me, so I "settle" and "relax"... It's all in cloth with zippers... so I passed my head through, mwahahah. I didn't break it, I swear, I just snuck my nose through the zip and pushed :). We were sharing the huge gazebo with my mate Jaxon and his mum Frankie. Jaxon also had the same crate than me, but I guess he must have washed it in a bit too hot water cause it shrank! it was real small. But he seemed to fit in I guess. He's a bit smaller than me, being a papillon and all. We had fun. And he is teaching me how to do a cute little face to get treats. He does that real well, but I guess being small and cute and with fluffy ears helps. My ears are not really fluffy :(. They are silky smooth though!
Then after a bit of wait it was time for another run, novice agility. Well that went a bit awry. I went a bit fast at the start and dad is too slow, gnehehe so I zoomed past him before he could get his fine positioning. Well sorry dad but I haven't got all day. Then again a bit later, he faffed about in the middle of the course and well there was a bit of a collision with dad, me and a jump... oopsy, well that was it for that cause I was a bit sore. Not as much as dad as he discovered later... He thinks he cracked a rib, oopsy bis....
Then we went back and I had to take a double take cause.. there was mum!!!! Mummy!!!!! Woohoo that's the besets ever run, even though mummy looked a bit stoned shall I say.
Dad said we were done for the day, but we looked a bit longer at the other guys running. There are so many good dogs out there! In the evening we went back to the tent. There was quite a bit of noise so I told it to mum, and she seemed to enjoy it cause she kept coming back and cuddling my head and then after a few time she came in the crate. She looked even more stoned in the morning.... But I went out of my crate for a cuddle. It was soooo cold in the morning.
We had a couple more runs on sunday. One where dad invented a course (well, dad you do that anyway....), and I saw my groupies so I went to say hello, but they seemed not to be happy and were waiving their arms and dad was rolling on the ground so I went back so see what all the fuss was about. We still finished with a place apparently though, I'm quite proud of my time and my awesomeness. Wasn't the idea getting as much ... oh! that was points not seconds? Ooops sorry...
Then mum went wild and entered us in Open jumping... Yeah good mum... and it was at the same time as the novice snooker run so dad had to remember two courses at once... He can't remember a full one alone how did she expect him to memorise two at once... But I did the hard stuff well, got caught out by the semi closed tunnel entry (not fair!) and didn't bothered finishing the last jumps... I was TIRED! Not too bad because it's usually quite hard and everybody enters even the master guys.
We continued looking at the other runs afterwards. The minions wanted to see what the gamblers were doing... I bet mum is going to add some more entries for dad and I to run in the next trials. Can see it's not her running! She just sits on her, ahem BIG BUM! On second thought maybe she SHOULD run...
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| Handler's conga line |
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| Too complicated I'll sit that one out! |
On the way back, though I was fully awake... I smelt some dodgy burnt smell around. Mum said that we were passing through the areas that had recently been burnt in the bushfire. It wasn't looking great :(
 |
| bit eery |
They took my bed out and I went straight on it for a snooze. Just opened my eyes for two seconds to get dinner and go do my business, then lights out for me and my trophies... zzzzzz
 |
| zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (in style) |
On monday it was pouring down with rain, dad dragged me out in the morning. It was all wet!!!
But then I stayed and looked after mum. She was looking all green and kept coughing. I guess she brought something back from her trip. That will teach her to leave me alone with dad!
Monday, 11 November 2013
Well, what a week
The posts this week have not been as regular as normal because I went to a work conference in Fremantle (on sponges!). Mawson was too busy to write while getting ready for his trials and partying with his dad!!! It was the first time I went to the west coast of Australia, and it was a pretty hard week of work and not a lot of free time to visit.
But I had to come back quickly to see the boys running at our first big agility weekend trial!
The plan was to take the flight back on friday afternoon, rent a car and drive in the evening to arrive during the night. Tadaaa! Ready for the start in the morning.
Exceeeeeept, well good plans always go wrong don't they. And this one, well, why go a little bit wrong when you can make the news... In summary, the flight went ok until we tried to land... high gusts of wind made the whole thing a bit of a disaster. People were crying, and being, let's say "unwell". We didn't succeed to land... We got diverted to the military airport at Newcastle, cause we didn't have a lot of fuel... then they tried to get back to Sydney but we didn't make the extended curfew so we got diverted to Brisbane... Great! I didn't know I had booked an around-the-country flight!!!
We arrived to Brisbane very late, and they got us accommodation for the night and rebooked us for a flight the next day, as they say in the article... What they didn't say was that we arrived late, took ages to process and get to the accommodation, where we arrived approximately at 2am. We were booked in a flight at 6.15am in the international airport, which meant leaving at 4am (we had to get our own taxi btw...) so the night sleep was well not really there... I must say that the flight crew and the guys from Brisbane were really nice. The ones on the Sydney side were letting the side down. I have heard and dealt with some rude and uncaring representatives which was a shame after the whole episode.
But I arrived (finally!) at Sydney, booked a rental car (a pretty rubbish one at that), and drove to Bathurst. Not sure how I made it there in one piece, after not really sleeping for two days. Guess the coffees and the singing to myself in the car helped...
Anyhow, I'm pretty happy to have made it even if late. But not really fussed about trying that again. So next time, I'll check not to go to a conference the week before a trial.
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| Representation of the sheep trading from Freo (at the maritime museum!!) I love the eyes... |
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| An old building of something... I forgot... I was jogging! |
But I had to come back quickly to see the boys running at our first big agility weekend trial!
The plan was to take the flight back on friday afternoon, rent a car and drive in the evening to arrive during the night. Tadaaa! Ready for the start in the morning.
Exceeeeeept, well good plans always go wrong don't they. And this one, well, why go a little bit wrong when you can make the news... In summary, the flight went ok until we tried to land... high gusts of wind made the whole thing a bit of a disaster. People were crying, and being, let's say "unwell". We didn't succeed to land... We got diverted to the military airport at Newcastle, cause we didn't have a lot of fuel... then they tried to get back to Sydney but we didn't make the extended curfew so we got diverted to Brisbane... Great! I didn't know I had booked an around-the-country flight!!!
We arrived to Brisbane very late, and they got us accommodation for the night and rebooked us for a flight the next day, as they say in the article... What they didn't say was that we arrived late, took ages to process and get to the accommodation, where we arrived approximately at 2am. We were booked in a flight at 6.15am in the international airport, which meant leaving at 4am (we had to get our own taxi btw...) so the night sleep was well not really there... I must say that the flight crew and the guys from Brisbane were really nice. The ones on the Sydney side were letting the side down. I have heard and dealt with some rude and uncaring representatives which was a shame after the whole episode.
But I arrived (finally!) at Sydney, booked a rental car (a pretty rubbish one at that), and drove to Bathurst. Not sure how I made it there in one piece, after not really sleeping for two days. Guess the coffees and the singing to myself in the car helped...
Anyhow, I'm pretty happy to have made it even if late. But not really fussed about trying that again. So next time, I'll check not to go to a conference the week before a trial.
Friday, 8 November 2013
Euh... really?
While I am away, Martin is doing keeping the monster occupied as best he can, but now that's getting a bit silly, no? Where is my garden?! That's a good course to mess with a puppy's head, a bit too advanced and too cramped for the Mawsonator still. He hasn't even got space to turn!
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| !!!!!! |
Don't worry too much, it didn't stay long like that though. We do like to see that there is a bit of grass under the agility equipment!
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