Tip, agility dog wanna-be.

Tip is 2/3 of his way towards his first agility title. We have the green Q ribbons and blue first-place rosettes to prove it! He put in a very nice run in jumpers at the Capital DTC agility trial, 19 seconds under course time.

And he held his start line stay until I released him and sat nicely at the end while I put his collar back on. (Bo, are you taking notes???)

Bo, Agility Dog!

Bo earned his USDAA Agility Dog title today, at the Hog Dog trial. He drew a pairs partner named Pagan, a lovely red border collie. Both Bo and Pagan ran clean in the pairs course, giving Bo his AD title. Yeah!!!

how to tell your dog he is wrong

well -- how to tell him he has picked up the wrong scent article. I think I have been waiting too long, and am going to try some advice on walking in towards him as soon as he has made a wrong article choice. must think this through first, though...

articles still OK

practice this afternoon went OK.

1. all metal. 6 unscented and one scented. worked the whole pile, brought back the scented within minimal fuss.
2. 5 metal + 3 leather, + scented leather. worked pile briefly, found and retrieved scented.
3. 5 metal + 3 leather, + scented metal (in the middle). Bo went out eagerly and worked the pile really hard, going round it 3 times, scenting hard, and kept forgetting to go to the center. He did not just pick up a leather one, so I finally went and pointed out the one in the middle. he picked it up and brought it and we had a party.
   

I think this might be starting to work?!?!?!

a really good utility practice

The theory is that Bo likes the nice weather. We went in to do some utility practice while Paul was in his fencing lesson. Bo was darned near flawless.

We're still humoring him on the scent articles. I've decided to only do 2 reps in each practice. metal wth 3 unscented metals: no problems. leather with 3 unscented metal and 2 unscented leather: no problem. The go outs were to de for. he did his signals at a distance....

utility ... its enough to drive you nuts. perfect one day, a catastrophe the next.

a near flawless agility practice

Bo and I put in 3 creditable runs in agility practice. It was amazing! I think he is much happier in the warm weather than all that horrid snow and cold and dark.

Hoping for some qualifying runs this weekend: USDAA on saturday and AKC on sunday.

Biking with small dogs (part 2): the smalls approve

Paul and I took Tip and Bo about for a cruise around the neighborhood. Tip looked beyond pleased, seated in his Royal Howdah with a canopy overhead, while his minion (Paul) did all the work.

Bo, of course, was a bit bunched and stood the whole time, with his head poking out, ear fringe flying in the wind. Paul reported that he looked quite happy, too.

Biking with small dogs (part 1): the baskets

Having obtained two bike baskets for small dogs (after careful perusal of options reviewed on DogJaunt, I chose the Tagalong bike basket).

Putting the baskets together was trivial:

Even a child could do it.

For once in my life, I thought I would try taking someone's good advice. In this case, it was MA's advice to train the dogs to get in the basket, instead of just shoving them in, strapping them down, and biking off at top speed.

Both dogs soon came to learn that sitting in the basket earned them treats.

In fact, we turned around during breakfast to see that Tip had voluntarily jumped up and sat in the basket, awaiting his treat.