Category Archives: Agility
Looli…very adoptable doggie!
Looli is still with us.
She’s a sweet little girl and we make a nice matched set! But mom says that two dogs are enough for her.
So if you know anyone who wants a really friendly doggie, please comment below to get in touch with us.
To remind you: Looli is 8 years old, spayed, terrier-poodle mix (very curly hair, so must be a lot of poodle). She came knowing nothing, and is now pretty good at sit, down, come, fetch, ‘hello’ and she even does some jumping agility-style (see the movie clip)!
Sometimes she’s annoying, like when she nips at my heels so she gets first dibs on mom. Or when she rips up my toys. But mom says she’s really good because she seems to know what her toys are and hasn’t destroyed anything but… all the pillows, sofas, shoes, etc. are safe from her!
Here are some pictures of her:
Belly scratch please!
And here’s a link to a cute movie clip of her doing “agility.” (She’s no match for me, of course, but I let her think she’s a champ!)
If you know anyone deserving of such a great little doggie…please contact us!
The Peerfourmantz
OK, so Wednesday we went off on a nice car ride, me and Mom and Dad.
We ended up in this amazingly big, gorgeous park. I could smell so many new dogs around. This looked like it would be a lot of fun. Mom put on this yellow bandanna around my neck, and we went off to the side and practiced some of the tricks she had been teaching me. Then we came and sat on some stairs while some people with guitars and things sang songs.
Then mom took me on my leash to the middle of this big area and started to talk to people about canine freestyle and stuff. I just was going crazy with all the great smells wafting in from the grassy area to my back. When she put on the new music she had been playing since yesterday and finally took off my leash, I figured that while she was talking and playing the music, I would go explore. So I ran off. For some reason, everyone in the audience started to laugh. Mom came after me and grabbed me up. I could feel that she was upset. She took me to sit on a bench and she was sad. But then she did some more tricks with me there and fed me treats. So I guess it’s OK.
Here’s what we were supposed to do (filmed in our yard…keep watching for bloopers!):
She says she learned some lessons and that working in an open area like that is not a good thing with me, because I need more “control unleashed.”
She says that maybe we didn’t practice enough.
Someone said that maybe she should have just waited for me to come back and keep talking to the audience (but most trainers wouldn’t agree to that…that’s teaching the dog to do what it wants).
She says that there were more things she wanted to tell them, and then she couldn’t.
So here are the things she wanted to tell them, in case anyone reads this:
- Canine freestyle (CF) is a dog sport that came into being following the sport of “obedience”. People became bored doing just “plain old heeling patterns,” so they started doing it to music.
- Heelwork to music (HTM) means the dog has to be in a position close to the handler most of the time.
- CF developed from HTM, and here the dog can do more tricks and work away from the handler.
- CF is trained using positive reinforcement only, with utmost respect for the dog, its desires and its needs. Dogs aren’t forced to do things they don’t want to do.
- CF and HTM titling are open to any dog: the need not be purebred or pedigree. There is no CF or HTM titling available in Israel, but it can be obtained by video participation over the internet.
About me:
- I have titles in Obedience and Agility from the Israel Dog Training and Agility Club (a member of the Israel Kennel Club).
- I am the first, and to date the only, dog in Israel to hold a Rally-Obedience Title. I earned my Cyberrally-O Level 1 title in July, 2012. To date I have completed my first leg toward the second level (there are five altogether).
- I also volunteer and visit old folks homes to cheer up the people and show them all the great tricks I know.
Mom says she is upset because the people there didn’t get to see what a great, smart dog I am and instead they think she was silly. But her friend said that even though it didn’t work out like we wanted, it was better to try and fail, than not to try at all.
Here is a link on YOOTOOB of the absolutely best CF routine in the world (Caroline Scott and Rookie doing their GREASE routine).
If you would like to get together with me and Mom to learn or practice Freestyle or Rally, she would love if you call her! (Leave a message below).
I got a ribbon!
My 3 qualifying leg ribbons, Level-1 certificate and level-1 ribbon!
Hi everyone.
Ooh…I know, I haven’t written much at all lately. But I have certainly been really busy. I’ll give you a brief update.
In March, my mom quit agility. Just like that. One day we were doing it, and the next she was out. She quit the Friday sessions because she didn’t like that they were always doing long courses of 20 stations instead of concentrating on short sets and doing them perfectly. I think she has a point. Also I would sometimes run off to sniff the ground, and she got frustrated that none of the trainers were helping her address the issue. So we quit Friday (she hated going Friday afternoons, anyway) but kept going to the Wednesday evening training sessions
until …
the season came when there were these weeds have these little round burrs that drop all over the ground. My fur is like Velcro, and I couldn’t stand still for trying to pick them out of my fur. After 15 minutes of trying to distract me from cleaning my butt area, she just scooped me up, said “Goodbye” to the group and walked off the grounds. We have never returned.
However, I don’t really miss it, because we are busy doing other fun stuff. And that is basically, Canine Freestyle and Rally O.
I’ll leave the CF for another post.
Here I will say how good I am getting at CR-O! As you can see, I have already earned my Level-I ribbon.
Here are the links to the qualifying runs:
Now I am starting to learn the things I need to know for second level. I actually know most of them already, such as jumping over jumps and doing figure eight jumps (thanks to my mom who taught me in agility the cues for go around cw and ccs), transitions, leg weaves and spins (from freestyle), and tricks (I know a few).
But some new things for me are “go to target” and “pivot.” I’m pretty good at both of those already and I hope to get my first let soon. (A big problem is finding a good place to set up the course and filming it!…but that’s not MY problem.)
Just for fun…here are some of my tricks.
OK, mom has just finished cleaning the driveway and she’s about to set up a new course! Bye for now.
Please Note: All is Back to Normal
Hmmmpphhh and double bah!…I wasn’t wrong last post (Jan 9th!). Things were underway. Awful, horrible things, namely that my Mom went away for more than TWO weeks, and I was left in the care of the two kids. OY!
Well, I did get food, and water, and a walk now and again (not very long ones, though). But brushing…forget it. And neither did Honey, and the fur-bunny clumps were rampant. I did miss my mom.
Jubilation, when she returned last Monday night (i.e. Jan 24). I knew something was up when they put the two of us in the car. Last year it was the same! We got to go to the airport to pick her up. Silly Oded tried to hitch us up with our seat belts, but put mine on Honey and Honey’s on me. So she was kind of squished into it, and I fell out of mine. Luckily…no sudden stops or anything.
I can’t tell you how happy we were to see Mom back. I licked her 362 times! (One lick for every hour she was gone.) She sat in the back of the car with us and scratched behind our ears and I was so happy I cried.
She started right in the next day brushing us. Honey had a garbage-can-full hairs brushed out of her coat. I had some mats starting on my back and some knots on my legs, and that wasn’t much fun, but I got a scissor trim to my legs and top-knot and that helped things a bit. She also said I got fatter. Hmph. So now I am on a diet. This is not fun.
On Friday we got in the car and I thought we were going to agility, but they only had an obedience class. Something about having no one willing to drag the trailer up the hill at the end of the day (Linda said she will drag it down). Maybe they should hitch all the dogs together. We could pull it. But the obedience lessons were fun too, but not as much fun as jumping and climbing over things. Hope that this problem gets solved asap.
OK, you may ask. If she’s been back since last Monday, why haven’t I posted anything since? Well, this is because she has been spending every moment at the computer either catching up with work, or posting to her own blog and putting on it zillions of pictures she took while away. Who cares? Not even one pic of another dog. Blah.
So this morning, she finally, finally, let me get my paws on the computer and say hi! again to all of you.
Well, just to let you all know that I am back in the office chair again!
I Pass My First Agility Trial – And Celebrate
Hi Everyone,
Good news, good news.
Last Friday I ran my first agility trial, despite Linda’s thinking that perhaps I wasn’t ready. Well, what does she know. I passed! My first try! Yay me.
(Actually, I think I may have been the only one in the novice level — 4 of us — to pass!) Yay me!
My final score was only 10 points off: 5 off for not touching the white contact on the A-frame, and 5 off for stopping to investigate some delicious smell in the middle of the field. That’s a “Very Good” score. Yay me!
Unfortunately, no one filmed my historic run.
The next day I decided to celebrate, so during the long walk we took, I found a really delicious pile of poop and had a good roll in it. Delightful!
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| Look at that coating! |
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| Another view. I can’t fathom what’s “ick” about it. |
Unfortunately, there is definitely something wrong with how humans appreciate vintage poop. I get home and get marched right up to the bathtub.
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| All that fragrance…down the drain. 😦 |
Now I smell like passion fruit and mango. Now THAT’s “yuck”!!!
Hi! My Name is Pepper
Hi.
My name is Pepper.
I am a miniature poodle (or so they think; there might be some other stuff mixed in).
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| My regal pose! |
A couple of years ago, I was lost, and a nice woman (I call her Mom, now) found me and adopted me. One day I will tell you about that.
Today I live with in a house in Israel, with my family (mom, pop, some older kids, another dog, and a really stupid cat).
I love people, love life, love food and love to play. I love my Mom most of all. One day I think I will try to superglue myself to her.
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| Honey, Mom (Linda) and Me! |
Since I’ve been at this house, there is one special day every week (well, most weeks) were we (Mom, the other dog, and I) hop in the car (I love cars!) and go to this huge field where there is all sorts of neat equipment to jump and climb on and in. This is called “Agility.” Agility has got to be one of the most fun things a dog can do (other than rolling in a dead animal, I guess). I love it! Mom loves taking me to Agility, because she says I have a lot more “drive” for it than Honey. (Honey is the other dog. She is kind of wimpy, and doesn’t like running around much.)
Mom also loves teaching me other things. I love learning lots of new tricks. My favorite one is where I bring her a tissue when she sneezes. I also know how to pick up my toys and put them in my toy basket, and I can pick up clothespins off the ground when she drops them when she is hanging wet clothes up on lines outside.
Here’s the tissue trick:
Now mom wants to teach me “Canine Freestyle.” This is where the dog and their human do moves together to music.
Here’s a link to a really famous Freestyle team – Carolyn Scott and Rookie, the golden retriever, and here’s one to Kate and Gin (border collie) at he finals of Britain’s Got Talent, 2008.
Canine Freestyle is really complicated. And I think it’s really going to be a big adventure to learn it. So that is why I have started this dog blog. I hope you will enjoy my adventure with me.
Please stay tuned for more posts!
All my love,
Pepper
Patter from Pepper 