01.24.08
Is she pregnant???
After:
Before:
01.07.08
Ziris
Photos of Ziris after she ran 1.5 miles with me. We would have done 3, but unfortunately Mr. Labman decided to let his Lab run off leash with him. I tried letting him get ahead of us, but once he did…. he started walking or I should say staggering at a snails pace. I stopped and did some obedience with Ziris to let the guy get further ahead before we started running again, but we were catching up too quickly!!
Please people, keep your dogs on a leash when in public areas!!!
Viking Dobermans
I completed Viking Dobermans website, other than wanting to add a guest book and some pages need some text added. Feel free to take a look!!
Green Dogs
Sorry, I haven’t posted in a bit. Between doing websites, work, holidays, kids, planning a litter, working out, getting sick, twisting my ankle, dog training, interviews, checking out master programs, and potential career changes…. I have fallen a bit behind in updating my website!! I don’t know, maybe I should sign up for few more things 
With the new year, I have made a resolution to simplify my life. No it doesn’t mean cut back on the things I am doing, but better manage my resources. I spent my one day off completely cleaning out my basement and organizing all my dog stuff. It is amazing how much better that makes me feel. Since I have moved dog equipment has been scattered about which adds to the chaos. I can sleep easier at night, know EXACTLY where my stuff is. I also pulled out a tiny fridge I haven’t used since college and I am using if to store home cooked dog food in. I have to be careful and keep the dog food separate from human food because with an Au Pair in the house, she will eat my dog food….. ’cause she doesn’t know any better 
Well, after taking a the week off I have started back to training. With Jingo and Cosmo on holiday in NC, I am left with two green dogs to train. Here is how it is going:
Ziris: Ziris tells me she knows how to sit and platz, but not really. What I mean is, she will sit and platz very nicely when I ask her to, but will get up and do whatever if it is convenient. I had intended to work on her focus, but when I realized she didn’t get the concept that sit means sit until I tell you to move; I decided it was best we back up. All I can say over and over and over to people is if you do the ground work right in the beginning everything will fall into place. In this instance, Ziris wants to give me good focus but she keeps hopping out of place….. wait a minute…. didn’t I just tell you to sit?!?! Ok, than why did you move? Once I discovered that was a problem, I got out of the fuss position and told her to sit. I gave her a little tug on the lead and she came running. I told her no and immediately sat her again. We worked on that a bit until she realized that her butt doesn’t leave the ground until I release her…. oh, and then we had a problem with the release. She thought release meant go check out other stuff. So my training the last couple of days has circled around sit and platz until I tell you otherwise and when I release you… I release you to play with me, focus on me, come to me, get petted, hugged, and other great stuff…… not to go look for that hot dog that just went flying over your head seconds ago.
Speaking of that, Ziris is going on a diet. Now, it may be fault; I don’t know (although I thought she arrived a tad on the heavy side). She needs to loose weight. I have been feeding her what I feed my crew and I swear she is growing before my eyes. So I cut her food down by half and since the weather has improved, I plan to take her running. Curious on how this will go, but as long as she isn’t Coudai take II (ie sending my rolling down the trail on multiple occasions)… I will survive.
Coudai: Coudai, Coudai, Coudai…. it is time for you to grow up. She knows Sitz and Platz BUT will try every freaking thing to get out of doing what I asked her to do when she isn’t interested. She finds way more pleasure in doing her own thing than doing obedience with me for treats or toys. SO I took Butch’s advice and decided it was time to tighten the screws down a bit and let her know we can do this a couple of ways We can all have fun or you can do it because I said so. Well, she decided to work because I said so…. but her attitude sucks at the moment. I am not overly concerned because I think it will come back up, but she will need a few more reps to reinforce not listening sucks!!
Although I will say she put on her most impressive protection performance this weekend!! Just when I am not sure I can tolerate her poor obedience attitude, she pulls out an excellent performance!!! Every weekend she has gotten better and better. I really think Agir’s offspring are slow to mature in attitude.
