Tess update

Tess is out of surgery and is in post-anesthesia recovery. 

Everything went well --> I got to be there for the entire thing! 

I technically had class at the same time, but figured this was an important learning opportunity :)

Her anesthesia record looked picture perfect, the nerve block they did before the extraction was really well done, and after promising not to faint I got to watch the actual extraction. 

The nice thing about the dental nerve blocks (which I have practiced on cadavars only at this point) is that pain shouldn't be an issue when she wakes up - that nerve is completely blocked to pain for a while. 

I have copies of the radiographs that were done (the rest of her arcades look fine) which were very extensive, and the pieces of the tooth. 

It's nice to know that I can hop over to the next building and visit her at any point and see how she's doing.  I've been very careful not to interfere or hinder the students/residents and have made sure to let them know how much I appreciate them letting me observe, ask questions etc. 

I think that some people have no business being in the room as their pet undergoing a procedure, however if you can remain clinically detatched than you can learn a lot.  I think my line was, if something had started to go wrong, I would have left the room.  However, as long as everything was progressing normally, than it was fine. 

Being able to see the entire procedure really reassured me.  The anesthesia and the pain management was what caused me the most anxiety, and being able to see how well the nerve block was done, and seeing the anesthesia monitoring chart in person puts my mind completely at ease. 

Procedure summary:
M1 is completely missing with no evidence that there is any pieces of root left, and they confirmed that P3 sustained some root damage so it was extracted.

I will update again soon.

Tess will be OK

That's the mantra that I've been repeating to myself since dropping Tess off at the VMTH at 1pm for her surgery tomorrow morning.

As usual, Tess is doing fine and Melinda is a mess and slightly teary eyed.

I made it all the way until 4pm before going into the VMTH, tracking down what ward she was in, and sitting cross legged in her kennel while allowing her to lick my face (gross). By the way, she was sound asleep when I arrived, curled into a little ball on the quilt they gave her and I had to call her name several times before she looked blurry eyed around. In fact, I thought she was already sedated! But nope, that's my dog --> totally relaxed in a kennel, even if it's in a strange place, absolutely certain that I'll come back at some point. Such is the reward of consistent kennel training combined with making sure she has plenty of opportunity to get all that Brittany energy out during the day.

The anesthesia student came around to do her day-before surgery check while I was there so I got to do a bit more cuddling and coddling while "helping" with the check.

Everything looked good of course, with the Azo and BUN that was a bit high yesterday (at the pre procedure exam) at normal levels today, with a urine specific gravity check just to be on the safe side (that was totally normal).

For those of you who don't know, Tess is in for dental surgery to repair the tooth and/or extract it that was embryologically damaged when Harley (the German Shepherd) initially attacked her at 4 months of age. The molar behind the damaged premolar is also milling - either knocked out from the attack, or missing entirely, or retained because of the damage sustained. We aren't sure. Radiographs will tell us where it is (or isn't), along with the status of the damaged tooth (whether it's roots are still alive or whether it's dead).

Depending on what my schedule looks like tomorrow I may try to go see at least some of the procedure and she'll go home tomorrow afternoon.

This is going to be highly expensive. If an extraction is needed, it has the possibility to be one of the most expensive vet bills I've ever had, and that includes my horse. However, on an 18 month dog expected to live 15 years or so, with a totally fixable issue that will impact quality and length of life if not corrected, who has no other issues physical or behavioral and is a wonderful companion, I feel obligated (in a good way) to at least give her this one shot at keeping her as healthy as possible before compromising on a lower standard of "management" care. In some ways every one of my animals has gotten their one "big shot medical procedure" and thankfully I've never been faced with the decision of whether I will pay for a second one :). Is denial and the ostrich strategy (sticking my head in the sand....) a good one? Not sure. Thank goodness all my animal big ticket procedures have been spaced out enough that my emergency vet fund was able to get replenished AND the cost of the procedures haven't exceeded the cost of the fund (leading credence to the theory that life emergencies tend be equal to your emergency fund......a concept my parents taught me at an early age when I was bemoaning some disaster in my life that was equal to my emergency savings (which seems to stick around just long enough that you start thinking you might be able to use it for something fun......).

Please keep your fingers crossed for Tessie that it will be an uneventful procedure and this will be our one big (and only...) medical adventure!

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The tree

The other day Tess and I took a walk through the UCD arboretum.

 

This place has lots of childhood memories, and when I saw this tree, I had Tess hop up for her picture.

Why? Because when I was a kid, I did the same thing.

 

 

 

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Puzzle puppies

I think Brittany's take 2 classes before leaving home at 8 weeks.

1. How to be absolutely adorable --> use your soft eyes and floppy ears to your advantage!

2. How to manage your ridiculously long legs

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Tess is helping me study

She looks asleep, but she's telling me to relax and not stress and vet school isn't all about the test scores.  And in approximately 30 minutes she'll wake up and remind me that it's healthy to get up every 30 minutes and engage in some puppy play.  Repeat as many times as necessary in order to learn the material for the test tomorrow. 

Cutie pie

Tess is back to normal from her incident with the German shepherd, and went running with me for the first time since the incident this morning.

Which makes for a much happier Tessie. She was pretty sure she was going to melt into a tragic puddle of goo every time that I put on my running shoes and picked up my keys without her.

Still on antibiotics just to make sure that anything going on with the joint and the superficial bit wound over it doesn't develop into anything, but is off of the NSAIDs and is showing no further clinical signs.

Things between harley and Tess are actually calming down now that they are allowed to interact (Harley is muzzled, which doesnt seem to mind at all.) Closely supervised of course, but regular, short sessions throughout the day.

Here's Tess this morning on the way to school.

 

 

 

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Tess pictures

 Where Tess spends the school day.  Sometimes Tess brings a friend and has to be in the smaller kennel.  But those are the shorter days and she doesn't mind.

Tess is not a fan of being in pain.  Neither am I.

Tess at the dog park!  I love this local (to school) park.  It's clean and safe.  She spends a lot of time running and playing, but to my delight she chooses to hang out with me as I catch up on studying when she wants some down time.

Tess is pretty sure that if she's cute, she gets to sleep here instead of her own bed (and she's right!)

Naughtiness

This is the face the naughtiness

 

 

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Nicknames

I learned a very interesting thing last night at dinner.

Apparently these days of double spacing after periods and such are OVER. I had no idea. It is grammatically/ stylistically incorrect to double-space now and the researcher I work for was recounting how she has had to go through whole manuscripts and remove the extra space and to get out of the habit of double spacing NOW. Ugh. This is going to be hard hard hard.

Although now that I look at this paragraph, the first in my life that I've not double spaced
after a paragraph is DOES look cleaner, more readable, and more like the stuff that
actually get published, I just have one question. AARENEX - WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL
MEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!

OK, that was more of a whiny wail.

I'm sure AareneX has plenty of other things to do than to tell me I'm 20 years behind the
times.

Do your animals have nicknames? I used to scoff at them - you give an animal a name
for a reason, because that's their NAME, why wouldn't you use it? And then I got Tess,
and the animal's name took on a greater significance.

"Tess" means "turn your head and look at me, and acknowledge my existence because
something else is coming". It doesn't happen to mean any of the following:
- You are so in trouble
- You better stop it right now!
- You are so cute!
- A greeting

All of these circumstances are better served by real commands such as "leave it", a
recall etc.

By using her name in these circumstances, I'm diluting the positive association with the
name, and/or teaching her that sometimes "Tess" means look at me and sometimes
"Tess" means I'm just happy/sad/angry/playful or just talking about her in casual
conversation. (Reason #umpteenth thousand why dogs are better than kids: you can
talk smack about them in front of them and they are still blissfully happy).

My boyfriend is a big fan of affectionate nicknames with his dogs. He plays the "name"
game with them and they absolutely know their names, but then he has a whole
assortment of things he calls the dogs when he's playing with them.

Harley is:
-Ms. Pointy Ears
-Guard-a-puppy

Reed is:
-Foot
-Mr. Foot
-Happy foot
-Senior happy foot
-golden puppy/boy
-golden foot
-prancey foot
-Box of rocks
-cuddle foot
-THE foot

Tess is:
-Snarfer (named for the snuffling noise that she constantly does with her nose)
-White Devil (Matt is not always pleased with the plotting, expression she has when she
is made into a cuddly puppy against her will)
-Terrorist
-Drama queen

I have chosen "Snarfer" for my working nickname of Tess. I use Snarfer when I'm
playing with her and rolling on the floor, when I'm asking how she's doing, when I say hi,
in frustration when I'm trying to sleep and Reed and Tess have decided to do a
reenactment of sheep jumping across the bed while the insomniac counts them.

If I was some big shot trainer, or had better self control, I probably wouldn't need to rely
so much on a nickname to cover up for my training deficiencies. However, for my needs
(which apparently include being able to yell "SNARFER" in exasperation across the
house when she's sneaking into my closet for the umpteenth time to steal a stuffed
animal) I really love having that nickname.

So when do I use her real name?

-when I'm sitting in the living room and I'm not sure where she is and all I want her to do
is peek her head around the corner of whatever room she's in.
-when I'm going to follow it with another command and I want to get her attention first
-when we are out for a run and I know that she's about to get distracted by something
and I either want to release her to go play with it, or give her a treat instead for playing
the name game
-When something really good is about to happen - getting fed, I came home early and
snuck into the backyard the back way and she's no where in sight, I have a special treat
in the kitchen etc.

I've even given a nickname to my cat Mickie in the last couple of weeks - "Ninja Cat".
(named so because she has gotten adept at sneaking into the bedroom to sleep on the
bed, where she is strictly forbidden based on Matt's low opinion of cats. She scorns this
opinion and chooses to appear only after a time when she knows the odds of Matt
actually getting out of bed to toss her out is very low. She increases her odds of staying
by silently sneaking on the bed to cuddle at his feet, and only gradually moves her way
up to sleep on his pillow, on top of his face around 4 am.

So who doesn't have a nickname? Farley. It's probably because Matt isn't around Farley
enough to help me out. I'm boring and unimaginative and he's responsible for the
creation of most of the nicknames.

I'm not sure that it's necessary with a horse, since she's usually attached to me when
we are working. But I can't whistle and it would be nice to have something that she
consistently comes to that also isn't something I use as a cuss word when she's about
to buck me off at the start of a ride. When I bring her a bucket after a ride I call out
"Farley Girl!" in a sing-song higher voice, and with that call I can get her to look and
whinny at me several acres away, so maybe that's her nickname - "Girl", to remind her
that even though I unthoughtfully saddled her with a boy's name, she's still a pretty little
mare pony. Farley is registered as "TKR Triforta", so perhaps "Farley" is a nickname,
but I'm not so sure.

It is my personal belief that horses rely more on body language, and a dog can be
trained to understand verbal cues regardless of overt body language. For example, Tess
will sit on verbal command whether I'm standing on my head, doing the jig, or
performing a cartwheel at the time of the request. How many horses have we seen
continue to trot on through a beginners frustrated "Whoa!"s as they clutch with their
heels and lean forward? Perhaps with a horse it's more important to choose a
nickname that within your frustration, it's impossible to say without making you smile just
a little bit inside, thus defusing the situation.

Do your animals have nicknames? Do you double space after periods (and will you
change just because of convention?)? For those of you with dogs or other animals that
you regularly require "off leash" control and don't rely as heavily on body language for,
do you differentiate between when you use their name and nickname? Or do you have
a special "show name" that you only use in the ring so that the dog knows they are
"on"? (If I had to have a ring name for Tess, it would be "Derby" since her full registered
name is "Tess of Derbyfield"). What do you think about my "horse versus dog" theory?

Zeke's update and new paper posted

In the interest of not being sued (the email has one of those confidentiality thingy's at the end) I won't post a reprint of the email I got back from Zeke's, but here's the summary.

They attributed the softer product to the new packaging (sealed better probably), and while they didn't outright admit that the formula had been changed, they did say that the Z-bones are designed to be softer --> I'm assuming that the unsaid statement is "....than the Z-ridges".  The reason given was that the softer product prevents it from breaking into potentially hazardous choking pieces.

Zeke's did say I could leave the bones out of the package to dry them out (tried that and it still isn't close to how the old product was), or baking them in a 120 degree oven for about 30 minutes.   Haven't tried that......

As far as the variety goes, they suggested the apple flavor as the closest to the original flavor Z-ridge that I liked. 


So, I'm dissapointed.  I don't like the new, softer product and don't particularly want to pay top dollar for something that I'm going to turn around and bake in my oven (If my boyfriend doesn't like my biothane endurance tack in the dishwasher, horse blankets and pads in the washer, I'm not sure how he's going to feel about dog cookies in the oven.....).  I'm still interested in a dental treat that makes a difference, but for now, I'll probably give her plenty of other stuff for her to chew on like nylabones and ropes and hope that makes a difference.

I'm in the process of composing a Tess update post --> We tried agility lessons, found a book that changed both of our lives, and went on a 4 day backpacking trip together.  In the meantime, go over and check out this very cool paper that just published online: "Empathic-like responding by domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) to distress in humans: an exploratory study".  It's posted in the Mendeley journal club link found in the sidebar of the blog. 

Yet another Kong recipie

Very similar to the one previous to this one, but using a hard boiled egg.

Ingredients:
Kibble
Hardboiled egg

Put some kibble in the kong, slice a hard boiled egg in half.  Squeeze halves of boiled egg into mouth of kong.  The egg's rubbery texture does a great job not letting the kibble out too easily, while resisting being pulled out of the kong, but also enticing the dog to keep trying.

Kong Stuffer

A non-frozen suggestion that is lower calorie than some of the earlier suggestions

Recipe:
1/2 ripe banana
Kibble

Fill half way with kibble (I used ~1/2 of Tess's breakfast) and then break half of a very ripe banana into the large opening and slighly mash around.  The banana consistency does a great job of holding in the kibble and not sliding out, while still being accessible, even when not frozen. 

Zeke Dental update

Remember the glowing review I gave to Zuke's Zbones (their dental treat) as compared to Greenies? 

I need to update my thoughts a bit.....

I originally fed "Z-ridges".  They were on sale because they were being discontinued and replaced with "Z-Bones", a product that had a different name and packaging, but I was told was an identical formula. 

Here's the issue --> the flavor I tried was "Original Fresh Breath".  I haven't been able to find it in the "new" product, and I've been told several of the "old" flavors have been discontinued.  The only flavors I can find are ones like "carrot", "apple" etc.  The ingredient lists ARE very similar, but the products with the "extra" flavorings break down much quicker and seem softer than the one I originally tried.  And when I say broke down faster.......it takes her 5 min or less to get through the new one compared to 20 or more minutes for the original product.  I think it's because the flavoring ingredients break up the product enough that it doesn't hold together the same.  Could it also be because of the addition of tapioca?  I'm not sure, but at least until I can find a flavor that behaves more like the original fresh breath I originally tried, I'm not sure I can whole-heartedly recommend this product, and I'm not sure it's worth the cost to regularly feed.  Very disappointing how differently the "new" product performed (how long it lasted, perception of the "roughness" of the chewed surface etc.)

Here's the ingredient list for the product I originally fed: (Original Fresh Breath)
Potato starch
Vegetable glycerin
Cellulose fiber
Alfalfa concentrate
Natural flavor
Lecithin
Whey
Vanilla extract
Clove powder
Parsley powder
Nutmeg powder
fennel seed powder

Here's the ingredient list for the new "Z-bone" product: (Clean Carrot Crunch)
Potato starch
tapioca
Vegetable glycerin
Carrot
Pumpkin
Alfalfa concentrate
Cellulose fiber
Beta carotene
Lecithin
Natural flavor
Parsley
Ground clove
Rosemary extract
Fennel seed powder
vanilla extract
Calcium propionate
Zinc propionate

I'm going to contact the company and see what they say.  

Happy I gotcha anniversay!!!!!

One year ago Matt drove me to Oregon (and back in one day!) to pick up Tess in the rain.  She was a scrawny little thing with ears that drug in her food dish a definite opinion about life.  Not content to cuddle on my lap, she perferred launching herself, jumping bean style, at the dashboard to better see the scenery.  As much as I wanted a cuddly puppy on my lap, except for a few precious minutes here and there, she wanted to be in constant motion sniffing and exploring her world.

Oh, how little has changed.

As I look through my pictures I've taken over the past year, the vast majority are of Tess asleep...

It's not that she isn't cute when she's awake, it's just that catching her awake AND not moving at the speed of light is hardly possible --> and she's just so darn much fun that I'm usually too busy singing and dancing and tugging and jumping....and generally having a BALL with my puppy to pick up a camera and capture the moment. 

I find that when I show off pictures of my pets, I tend to chose the same favorite ones over and over.  So, instead, for this special anniversary, my pictures have a theme.

I present to you, my favorite sleeping pictures of Tess from our first year.  (in no particular order). 

On the way home from Oregon.  The toy pictured came from a group of gifts given to me by my co-workers at my job I had left the day before.  When asked what I wanted, I replied "puppy stuff". 

 My recliner --> somehow when it's YOUR dog on the furniture it isn't nearly as bad as someone ELSE'S dog on the furniture.

 At the AERC convention

 On the way to school.  A more unusual position.....

 Yesterday.  In the truck. 

 An now for a close up.....(her ear hair looks funny because I let her play with Reed and he slobbered all over her).

 Another pic from the trip home from Oregon.

 My absolute favorite pic of Tess.  Taken the first day we were home.  I made the bed she's laying on :).

 With another toy from my co-worker

 Her favorite pal, Reed.

 Why won't she cuddle with ME like that!?

 At my aunts house over the summer.  By this time I figured out she didn't like hard surfaces, so there's a pile of towels for her to lay on.

 Can you pick her out?

 Her first service dog outing. 

 Camping again.

 More at the aunts house

 Not technically sleeping and a pretty awful picture.....but it's sweet.  It's late at night and she's keeping an eye on me. 

Dog Bite Prevention Week

Dog bite prevention week is coming up!!!!!  In that theme, I have several recommended links. 

Those of you on facebook saw me post this earlier this week

And here's an excellent post on dogs and children.

I. HATE. GETTING. BIT.

I've never had a serious bite.  Most of it is psychological fear thinking about GETTING bit.  I don't have a tragic story to share or even a particularly amusing anecedote.  I just absolute hate the idea of getting bit by a dog (or a parrot. And probably reptiles.  I'm working an exotics rotation tomorrow so I'll let you know).

I'm not a dog person, yet I have a dog I love, so I'm sensitive that not everyone welcomes my dog in their space (whether from fear, personal preference etc.).  Tess is unlikely to bite anyone EVER, but I still do games and "tricks" and watch her carefully in public to protect her and people who might want to pet her.  Any dog can bite under the right circumstances. 

I carefully watch dogs in public, especially if the owner seems especially unaware and the dog is stressed or showing anxiety, or engaging in behaviors that signal a dog that isn't under control, like straining against the leash.  Yes, it might be because they are "just so friendly and just want to stay hi....." but an over excited dog straining against the leash shows a lack of control and head on greetings on a tight leash, whether dog-dog or dog-human is asking for trouble.  :). 

Be safe, be aware, and please share your favorite story, picture, or post for bite week. 

Kong Stuffers

I use a lot of kongs and food toys to keep my busy not-so-much-a-puppy-any-more's mind engaged, and distracted from her neferious plan of world domination.  Or at least the "kingdom of bird" domination. 

As both a reminder to myself AND to provide ideas to others, I'm going to post stuffer recipies that I was really happy with. 


**Please note that they worked for my dog and me, but may not work for your dog.  I'm lucky to have a dog with a stomach made of iron.  Thus diarrhea and vomiting are unlikely no matter what crazy stuff I throw at her, and yes, I do feed my dog "people food".  Portion control is key, use common sense of dogs condition and activity level when choosing your food stuffs.  Your mileage may vary. 

General guidelines:
I like freezing the whole kong after stuffing it, so most of the recipes are frozen --> although they don't have to be.  It just makes them last just a little bit longer....while still making it possible for the dog to the food if they work at it, because it gets easier as it melts. 

Another option to make up "discs" of soft food that freezes hard that can be forced into the mouth of the kong.  This is a good option if I want to feed less in a kong, BUT still don't want it to be too easy to get the food out, at least in the beginning.

2-3 layers is good for stuffing. 

Specific stuffs:
-2 of any of the following: cottage cheese or yogurt (I like plain), rice, applesauce (non-sweetened).

-Canned food with chunks of meat in a "gravy" (like Taste of the Wild).  Smear peanut butter on the small hole.  Loosely fill the kong with the chunks of meat and the drippings, fill with water and freeze solid (1-2 days).  Meat chunks are easier to get out, but must work thorugh the gravy flavored ice.  This recipe lasted HOURS and she didn't get frustrated with it and give up. 

-Chunky cut up fruits and veggies like apples, carrots, bananas.  A bit of peanut butter smeared on the inside of the kong and across small hole.  Fill with water and freeze.  Or mix in yogart/canned food and freeze. 

As I come across other combinations that I like, I will post!

Treats for Dental Health? Greenie Review

After watching Tess come out of anesthesia and how miserable she was, AND knowing the dental health IS important to overall health of both animals and humans....I'm really interested in NOT subjecting my dog to any procedures that require her to be knocked out than what is strictly necessary.

I don't brush Tess's teeth.  See my comments on the nail-trimming post...Eventually I will be able to handle her mouth, have her open it on command etc --> but in the meantime it's a battle that I do not need at this point in our training. 

So, I need other options.

I give her plenty to chew on - but she's a powerful chewer (even for a 30 pound dog) so I have to chose carefully.  For example, nylabone dental chews (blue bone with nubbies) is one of her favorites......but she can destroy one in just a couple of hours, and can tear off big enough chunks to give her diarrhea and vomiting......The only chew products that are tough enough for sustained chewing are also too hard for them to do an effective job cleaning the teeth and gums.  I also worry about how hard they are that they might actually do damage to soft tissue in her mouth.  Any soft toys are instantly destroyed before my eyes and destuffed before I can blink twice. 

Some people swear by rawhides and other edible chews.  Tess snarfs them as fast as possible and I've had to pull more than a couple out of her throat and every time I take one away because it's getting to a "snarffing" stage it increases the value of that rawhide because she knows she only gets it for a limited time and she snarfs it even faster.  She's very food motivated and its hard to convince her I have ANYTHING of larger value than the rawhide that she possesses. 

So, I decided to try a dental chew product, like greenies. 

In fact, I tried exactly that: greenies.

They have a couple of things in their favor.   They were developed by a vet, they are recommended by vets, they are certified by a dental pet organization and they've been around for a while. 

So, I bought a month's supply.

Especially because they are pricey and have to be fed at least 5 days/week to be effective, I wanted to evaluate them critically.  Do they really work?  Was this good money spent?  Will feeding this product once a day do something else to my dog nutritionally that is unintended? 

I did some internet research.  I was esepcially concerned that there seemed to be NO data supporting their claim that when regularly fed they improved dental health....except perhaps keeping breath fresh, which is the least of my concerns (although it can be a small indicator of oral health). 

It looks like there were some concerns over the digestibility of greenies and a possible risk of GI obstructions - but greenies had been reformulated recently and were much more digestable, including being able to dissolve/be soft in glass of water over night.  This at first reassured me - but I was also confused how something the consistency of a gummy was helping to keep her teeth clean.....

Especially something she didn't exactly spend anytime chomping down on and swallowing. 

Then I learned something else.  Greenies was recently bought by the "Mars" company (yes --> that Mars company you are familiar with in the human world) and the product was immediately reformulated (to be the more gummy texture I had noticed).  Additionally, wheat - which I believe was absent before - is now like the 2nd ingredient on the label. 

And folks, unless I've missed something major, that's the final nail in the Greenie coffin for me.  No clear evidence or explaining of how this product works to promote oral health, the product is eaten in under one minute with no apparent oral effort, and it contains a significant amount of wheat. 

I started to look for something else. 

Zeke's brand dental chews were on sale at the local pet store so I picked up a back.  Once called "Z-ridges" I believe they are now called "Z-bones".  Same formulation, but different name and packaging.  Wheat and corn free, it takes Tess 1/2 hour to get through one.  The texture is a mix of hardness that breaks off in tiny chunks when aggressively chewed that are rough enough to create some abrasion, but soft enough not to do damage. 

I will admit that it looked tasty enough that I stole a little chunk from Tess and tried it.  :)  It was good.  Hard but chewy at the same time --> didn't get gummy.  Actually a pleasant flavor.  Made me wonder if I ate one I too could have shiny teeth without having to expend any actual effort.  :). 

Overall I'm really pleased with the Zeke bones and while I probably can't afford to feed them on a regular basis, I'll do my best to feed regularly enough to make a difference. 

If I was really brave I'd just give her a raw drumstick or wing or something and let that do its work....but I'm a wimp :)

I'm seriously scared

Tess is scary smart.

How in the world am I going to:

1.  Stay ahead of the this dog as we BOTH learn agility
2.  Not completely screw up this dog by inadvertently rewarding the wrong stuff.
3.  Keep her little mind active enough that she doesn't start developing alternative career plans such as "official stuffed animal destroyer", or "vet" (because at this point I pretty sure she could go through vet school and pass the boards before I can).

Just had a training session where I was reminded how very fast her little mind moves.

a.  We have only done 6 weave poles.  She's not solid on all her entries, so we stayed there for a while.  My trainer ("K") said that you don't want to stay at one place too long because they can get "stuck" so I decided to go ahead and add another 6 pole set in line and see how she did with 12 --> were our problems a lack of understanding or boredom?  Ummmm.....considering she flew through the set of 12 with NO problems and actually got FASTER with BETTER foot work, I'm thinking the latter.

As that little project only took 3 minutes of my planned training session I decided to do some shaping exercises.

b.  For the online clicker challenge I have a couple of tricks in mind, including her doing various figures around my legs.  I decided to work on a figure 8 through my legs at a walk.  This was our second session on this behavior, so of course I'm breaking it down in itty bitty steps and keeping a very high reward rate.......one BIG exaggerated SLOW step after another.  After one or two trips across the room, I was ready to start another one.  I stood, with Tess on my right, and my legs slightly apart.  "Ready?", asked.  In response Tess started doing FAST figure 8's through my only slightly parted legs, as I stood there.  Ummm....yeah.  Very good Tess.  Way to generalize.  I guess we have that one down.  Ummm.....how about going forward with me with your head between my knees?  OK.  How about backing up with me keeping your head is between my knees?  Ummm....I guess that's it for today. 

Tess is VERY good about generalizing.  This is bad, this is good.  It means that any errors in my training instantly carry over to all sorts of behaviors.  It means letting her break a control behavior (like house, sit, down, stand) at ANY time IMMEDIATELY transfers to training.  It also means that a skill learned on a "transition" object like a travel plank for contacts instantly transfers to obstacles.  It definitely keeps me on my toes and I quickly know whether I've screwed up somewhere......

Whew....sometimes I think I got a Border Collie with floppy ears.  Who likes birds instead of sheep.  And prefers to focus on birds instead of me.  Without a tail.  And without fear.

And by the way - having done exercises with friends, clicker training each other through shaping (friend has handful of m&m's and clicker.  Without luring, tries to shape a behavior in other person), I know from personal experience it is not the easiest thing to figure out how to get those m&ms!!!!!!  I'm in awe of how FAST Tess can figure out what I want.  That's genius right there....

An Online Challenge

Here's a fun online challenge if you are out of ideas of what to teach your dog next!

Join the facebook group here (if you have trouble, email me with your name and I will invite you from the facebook page), and then take a look at the challenges set on the youtube channel.

Read the details on facebook, but in a nutshell it looks like you chose a challenge and then post a video response of your dog doing then trick.  You can also "set" a challenge by emailing a video to the event organizer (see the facebook page).  The goal is to teach your dog as many tricks as possible in a year (cut off is April 30, 2013).  Please note the focus is teaching your dog to do these tricks using POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT. 

I suppose technically there are points and such for setting challenges and completing challenges, but even as competitive as I am --> I'm just looking forward to some inspiration over the next year.

Resource page has been updated

I have added some books, vidoes, youtube channels and websites to the resource page. 

As always, if you have a favorite that isn't listed, let me know!  I don't necessarily add resources I haven't personally reviewed - but I'll put it on my "to read/watch" list!