Tuesday, June 10, 2008

The Beach

We took the girls to the beach this weekend to beat some of the heat. This crazy heat has made exercise difficult and the quantities of water consumed in the last couple of days has been absurd. Right now we are all basking in that glorious invention...Air Conditioning!

The water was very cold and Makin wasn't interested in a long swim. Tessa loved chasing the ball though. She has a lot of enthusiasm for retrieving and is quite good at leaving the ball for me when she brings it back.

On another note, Makin has been having a bit of the reverse sneezes. Not sure if its allergies or if she caught a bug. She has improved over the last couple of days. We may have to take another trip to the vet though. We can be nervous nellies when it comes to the ladies.

Not sure if anyone will notice but Tessa has put on some weight and muscle. We have her on a higher protein diet and she looks great. I wish we had switched over a little sooner. The weight is making her look less like a puppy.

Below are some beach pictures and hopefully a video. The whining is Kiley the aussie who can't figure out why she isn't allowed to play.








Monday, June 2, 2008

Last Weave Pole Class & VCCNE Fun Day

We had our last weave pole class this week. We struggled a bit unfortunately. All week when we had practiced we had trouble with entrances and the difficulty continued during class. As I had mentioned in a previous post the weave poles will always be something we have to work on but I am happy with our progress. The most valuable thing we learned is one of the techniques for teaching the poles. Makin's next class will be "the Five Directions". This class will teach us to be better handlers and learn things such as front and back crosses as well as a variety of other things. Should be a good one.

Tessa is slated to start her agility work as well. She will be in a class called "Communications". This class will be one of two parts of what is the base for the agility training. Within this class we will work on Tessa's attention and focus on us and our communication with her. Hopefully Tessa will have a little head start as Makin has been through this class and we worked on Makin's homework with Tessa here and there.

We also attended the Vizsla Club of Central New England's (VCCNE) fun day this weekend. The event is a chance to get together with a bunch of different Vizsla owners, view some different activities to keep your V busy and support a club that has a number of very devoted folks who are responsible owners and sometimes breeders. The event is good fun every year. Kim from Forest King Vizslas organized and planned the event and I must say she did a fabulous job. There were a variety of different seminars that you could participate in. Seminars included first aid, intro to birds, agility, flyball, rally and obedience.

We actually ended up running Makin through the agility course which included a dog walk, A frame (we did hit our contacts), tunnel, A frame, pinwheel of jumps and weave poles that Makin actually got through on the first run . We didn't push our luck on the weave poles after that though.

We then had the opportunity to let the girls out in a field with some quail. Tessa was all speed when she hit the field and although she caught the scent of one bird I am not sure she knew what to do so she did a bit of running and very little hunting. Makin, on the other hand, had been reved up for the three hours we had been at the event. The minute we walked up the driveway she figured out there were birds and stared at their location the entire time we were there. She forgot about them only when we were doing agility. Makin was let off the leash and she was off. About two minuted later she found me and handed me bird 1. She took off and brought me bird 2. Before I knew it she was gone again and arriving with bird 3 which laid an egg as it was set at my feet. Crazy! Now I feel guilty that this bird crazy machine is doing agility instead of her dad being good to her and having her hunt. This may have to be another hobby to start into!

A bunch of crazy V folk.

During on quick bursts of rain everyone, including the dogs, tried to get under the tent.