The Days of Johann, an agility dog!

The other day Mum was whining because it was so cold. Well, we got what we wished for, it warmed up a little on Sunday, enough for us to get in a little backyard training work.

We warmed up with some mouse pad work for my contacts. Now she can send me out to the 'get it' pad very reliably. We just need more work with the pad on the dog walk. But it's progressing.

We worked on tighter turns. I've been running pretty wide lately. And when she'd try to cue me to turn tighter, she'd mistakenly pull me off the jump. So we worked on that some. Mum's getting her timing down, and learning to hold instead of move too fast and pull me off. She just needs to remember to work in those moves when she's running me through a sequence. We liked the results so far. Still needs work, but...

Mum also likes to work me on some gambles as much as she can, especially with weaves. She set up three jumps with a rear cross turn into the tunnel, then I had to come back into her with a fairly nasty weave entrance, with her layering the three jumps. Did it the first time and two times after. She was pretty proud!

After that we worked on the teeter. Mum is putting the mouse pad at the end of the teeter for my 'get it.' She wants me to go to the end of the teeter and ride it down to get it faster and get me more confident. We're progressing on that. Mum had no idea how much the teeter based moved with little 'ole me on it. She's gonna have to get some weights for it!

Then Mum wanted to work Gracie on her weaves, tight turns, and some rear crosses. Gracie missed a couple of entrances to the weaves, but made it through nicely about 85 percent of the time. But Mum found that there is something about our weaves that throws Gracie off. One of the poles just doesn't sit right and it confuses her. That's why she's been better on the weaves at Trainers and in competition (at least when she'll stop and do them), than she has been at home. So Mum made sure to check the poles this time and it really helped Gracie.

One of our pet peeves about working in the backyard is that we just can't get any speed up, like we can on a larger course area. Mum can't run full out, or we'll all run into the fence. So Mum works on her voice and takes shorter strides to get us more motivated, and works us on specific things likes weaves, teeter, and close turns.

So here's the vid of our training session:


And on the upcoming agility front...

Trainer has set up a practice session on Thanksgiving Day! How lucky can we get? Turkey, veggies, pumpkin The National Dog Show, football - and now agility!

And we'll probably be able to get in a little practice tomorrow afternoon - weather forecast is looking good!

Our next agility trial is the weekend after next in Lafayette on rubber matting. Since we got to practice on the flooring a few weeks back, Mum and I are really looking forward to it. Then we have a USDAA trial the weekend after that, followed by CPE the next weekend. I'll be working on those SQ's and Gamble Q's for my ADCH. And, Gracie gets to run in both the USDAA and CPE trials. We can't wait to see how she does. Maybe she'll get her first USDAA Q? Here's hoping! Then it will be Christmas. Just can't believe it came up so quickly.

So what else has been going on with us?

We did have to take our car in for repairs the other day - we didn't get bad gas afterall, dang it! Seems the ignition coil went out and we had to have it replaced. Have to tell ya, we are soooo glad we got that extended warranty. The bill would have been over $700, and we only had to pay $50. Whew! Sometimes extended warranties are worth it.

Mum went to take a shower the other day and ran out of hot water. Oh you should have heard the noises! Not fun when it's this cold outside. She thinks the water heater elements are going out on the water heater, again. So she is going to have to drain it, replace the elements and fill 'er up again. She just hates that job! After she's done, I may have to wash her mouth out with soap. Good thing she watched the repair man the last time we had a problem with the darn heater. At least now she knows how to fix it. Oh wouldn't it be nice to have a tankless water heater and get rid of this stupid big tank that needs work all the time!

For fun here's a list of 10 things your dog will be thinking on Thanksgiving Day!

The custom agility skin for our Palm Centro shipped yesterday, so we should have it soon. Can't wait to show to all of ya!

I found out the other day that my Canine CPR lens was nominated for Best Pet Lens in the 2008 Giant Squid Awards! If you Squidoo, head on over and vote for me, K?

A word of caution: Be sure and watch out for thin ice on ponds and lakes this time of year. It can be very dangerous for us pups. Here's a sad story of a couple of pups that went after some Geese, fell through the ice and didn't make it.

I will miss you, 'till we meet again...

We can hardly contain ourselves - Mum and I are hosting a new photo contest/giveaway on our website to ring in the Howlidays. It's called Johann's Howling Howliday Giveaway!

And the best part? I get to play Santa!

So what is Johann's Howling Howliday Giveaway? It's a photo contest and all you have to do is submit your photo, Mum and I will put it up on the website, and then people and pups can come to the site and vote! And the best part is they can vote as many times as they want for your pic. All the instructions are on the site.

Putting together the giveway has been loads of fun. This past week, Mum and I have been contacting lots of new friends we've meet over the past year at companies that have all kinds of cool products, foods, treats and more, for us pups. We got an incredible response and have loads of super cool dog stuff for prizes for our contest/giveaway, and more is on the way! Some of the goodies have already arrived in the mail!

Here's all the cool stuff that's already arrived. Have to tell ya, Mum had to pull out the cheese to keep me out of the giveaway loot!


We sure want to give our biggest thanks to the companies that have donated so far:

• www.tkqlhce.com%2Fclick-3161837-10379986%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.onlynaturalpet.com%252Fproduct_detail.aspx%253Fitem_guid%253D419536F0-7570-4913-AE25-E39B53FA4D9B%2526click%253D6875%2526mf%253D2%26cjsku%3D269016&id=preview" target="_blank">Dr. Harvey's donated some of my favorite treats - Power Patties.
• Paw Naturaw provided us with some of their awesome raw, dehydrated pup food.
• PetSmart is donating a Furminator Essentials kit valued at $100.00.
• www.shareasale.com%2Fr.cfm%3Fb%3D145141%26u%3D146080%26m%3D18219%26urllink%3D%26afftrack%3D&id=preview" target="_blank">GollyGear is giving some lucky pup a $25.00 gift certificate.
• RockStarPooch.com provided us with a really cool dog tee.
• www.sewcrazydoglady.com%2Faffiliates%2Fscdl.php%3Fuid%3Dlesliemay&id=preview" target="_blank">Sew Crazy Dog Lady is giving away a custom collar, and they're not just for small dogs, they specialize in big dogs too!
• www.jdoqocy.com%2Fclick-1830651-10468924&id=preview" target="_blank">Chimpfeet provided us with some super cool holiday dog toys.
• Rachael Ray is giving us a paw print stocking filled with Rachael Ray Nutrish dog foods and treats.
• Hachette Book Group gave us their Indognito book to add to one of the prize packages.
• Canine Earth is donating a bottle of their new Organic Coconut Mint Cleaner and spray.
• Petside.com provided us with some cool two-legger tshirts and dog tags.
• www.cleanrun.com%2Findex.cfm%3F%26aff%3D86978&id=preview" target="_blank">Clean Run is donating three $10 gift certificates.
• And that's just the beginning, we've got new giveaways coming in nearly every day!

The contest officially opened on our website Sunday and we already have some cool buds with cool pics entered.

We sure hope that you'll enter too! Just find the cutest, funniest, or howlingest, howliday photo and send it to me, ASAP. The faster you get your pics in, the more votes you can get!

Mum and I are gonna have to run out and get some more office supplies, so we will be all prepared to hopefully send you prize package!

Once you enter and want folks to come and vote for you, put this button on your site to remind them! Just right click the button, save on your computer, put it on your blog or site, and link it back to the contest page.

Looking around YouTube the other day for something new Mum and I could do, and new tricks I could learn, we came across a bunch of our the folks we follow on YouTube who are into blowing bubbles!

Originally inspired by Misha and Noriko Aso...


It pretty fun (and interesting) watching all these pups learn to blow bubbles. We're definitely gonna have to give it a try - a great winter fun activity.

Here you can see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tpKMhMzEmQ">Josie, Roo, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oydGyqTYhw">Dazzle, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUavgg3M8hc">Hemi - all getting their bubbles on.