Happy New Years, and how often do you come home from work and find out, Hey You've Been Blogged by Susan Garrett and did you know Blogged was a verb?

Actual photo from genuine Susan Garrett seminar, although Gustavo was not even born and I was there with somewhat of a puppy Otterpop. Who is now a Good Dog, Susan Garrett! Sort of. But we will just pretend, for now, that this is a real photo. And note, we both have little caps on! And note. Susan Garrett's outfit does not show any buttcrack, which sadly, mine does.

So a while ago, I tried to channel Susan Garrett. Or actually, sort of conjure her up. First I tried to talk to her on the ouija board like I learned in Paranormal Activity but Gustavo chewed it up so that was out. Then I got out a crate and stared at it and stared at it and chanted, WWSGD, WWSGD? And the answer came up, like a magical Canadian Voice, CRATE GAMES, and then magically Susan Garrett flew out of the interwebs and in a booming internet voice said, (and I paraphrase here) SUSAN GARRETT WAS NOT WEARING A SKORT.

I was sort of scared. Because, hello. Susan Garrett. And it took me so long to be ok with wearing a skort and I convinced all of you about the spunky, peppy, cuteness of skort and then booming internet voice indicating, perhaps, wrongness of skorts and of course. It's Susan Garrett.

But it is then that I realize, Holy Canadian Bacon, Batman, I have become the most genius marketer EVAH for Susan Garrett and Crate Games because how many Team Small Dog readers TOTALLY ALWAYS do whatever I mention? Like skort sales, through the roof! And you, readers, are probably all rushing out every time I type the words Crate Games to throw down $32.35 Canadian dollars for your very own copy?

Righty-o.

Sorry, Susan Garrett. I believe I over estimate my giganto influence on the dog agility population much of the time. Grandiose, big head. Susan Garrett, genius of the dog training and marketing, and Laura from Team Small Dog, skort wearing, sometimes E'ing, flibbety jib, will of the wisp, a clown.

But kittens, you all LOVED my Xmas cards, right?

So when Susan Garrett had this genius idea for me in her blog, first thing I did was make sure I was reading it with Canadian Brain Voice. Which I have been practicing just for this momentous occasion. That took a while because pretty much the only word I am good at is A Boot.

Used in a sentence, What the hell are you talking A Boot?

I'm not sure if this is important or not, but I'm just trying to be REAL here. And if you've ever listened to books on your ipod, you know how important Brain Voice is. Are you using mine right now? Oh, righty-o. You don't know me. I've been to a Susan Garrett Seminar (see photo PROOF above). I remember her voice so I can use it in my brain. She told her dogs, "Good GIRLIE," a lot and said, "Smack da BABEEE." I liked her Susan Garrett(TM) Voice. I hear others imitate it. But never the same.

For mine, have you ever talked to surfers? I have always lived very near surfing. I wear flip flops a lot. When I'm not practicing dog agility, Susan Garrett! So I have that kind of drawly, beachy duuuuuuuude thing. But I am also known for the loudest, most booming voice that all riders can hear, even on the far side of the arena in the giant wind storm. And neighbors of the ranch, I have been informed. And also I like to practice Madonna and Canadian accents. And I tend to talk really, really fast. And don't always make sense.

So just use that from now on. We'll call it Laura's Team Small Dog(TM) Voice.

Anyways, so then Susan Garrett has this advice for me that is designed to make me poor. Aha. Susan Garrett knows right where to get Laura and it is a place that has nothing to do with the dog training or anything because she can tell, we are going to go to Laura right where her cold little heart beats. In her money pit. It's like Susan Garrett can see right through me, in her magic crystal dog agility ball.

First she talks about her Susan Garrett's Magic De-Stressing Pixie Dust. Which is totally what I was hoping for and suspected she had all along. Because ta-da! I am pretty sure is what she uses on her own dogs, then makes us all buy the Crate Games video. Although maybe she used the Pixie Dust on me, because now I am advertising Crate Games for her, and HELLO! Brilliant, Susan Garrett! I think she used to be a pharmaceutical saleswoman. They always give out little pens and fleecey vests! Brilliant!

So her other idea is, test out this dog stress idea for Gustavo (Remember him? Actual dog involved in this now epic long debacle?) by I have to set up some super challenging practice sequences at our happy little practice field, and have someone watch and every time I screw up one of the challenging practice sequence I give Susan Garrett $5.

Not really. I mean, I COULD give Susan Garrett the $5, which I know she totally needs because she just remodeled her house and if you have ever remodeled a house, I don't care how many copies of Crate Games you sell. You totally need more $5. But I can also just give it to my watcher, which now I know all of you are jumping up and down and all, Pick ME! Pick ME!

Or I could keep the $5 which would mean either I have reached perfection, or I am a big fat cheater. Or not stressed. In no need of Pixie Dust.

And it is like Susan Garrett has entered my brain! Because she KNOWS it will be a lot of $5 and she probably even knows I am trying to say buddhist sayings in my head like Free Your Mind From Worry and not say them in my brain voice which turned into in crazy Sid Vicious meth voice which actually, may cancel out the Free Your Mind From Worry part due to the how scarey is it that your brain sounds like Sid Vicious on meth?

And then the challenge itself is sort of complicated, you go read it. It involves picking up the favor phone to dog agility luminaries except not ones that are my pals already and then doing the math that involves times the weave pole challenge by the contact challenge then subtract 3 points only (the equivalent of $15 but not sure if in Canadian or American dollars) and then by the end of it, is it really a trick question because in Buddhism you are not supposed to ever reach perfection and I'm not a Buddhist but still. I get tired just dragging the tunnel bags out when I practice.

I think I have to do the challenge with Gustavo, which stresses me out. Hello! Problem solved or just beginning. If she said, do this with Otterpop or with Hobbes, I'd be all, Ha HA Susan Garrett, just watch this. But already my beskorted knees rather quaking in their boots at the thought. Susan Garrett, your x-ray eyes see right thru me and I hope I am wearing really good underpants.

To Be Continued.

How can you start again if there isn't an end?

I guess as years go, this was one. Wasn't the worst, and wasn't the best. It would be super to end the year every time thinking, this year was The Best. And then you improve. This year felt like some wheels spinning, a bit stuck in the mud.

I think I am going to name 2009 The Year That We Sort of Spun Around in the Mud and Got a Little Freaked Out that We are Middle Aged Now and This is a Warning of What Could Happen if You're Not More Careful About How You Live Your Life and Don't Eat Properly and Watch Too Much Stupid Real Estate TV.

Wow. Long title. I think I camoflage crap with long titles sometimes. If you haven't figured that out. You get the idea though.

When it all starts again, on Friday 2010, everyone please remember. Only YOU can prevent forest fires. No. Wait. Take the bull by the balls. No. Wait. Dangerous. How about, no spinning mud life passing by not carefully taking bull by horns not balls but not getting gored in stomach and make good things happen?

Catchy.

Team Small Dog reviews Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr. for all the dog agility ladies and everybody else, too.

So it starts out like this. Robert Downey Jr. is my boyfriend. No, wait. He's Dr. Watson Jude Law's boyfriend. No, wait. He's criminal mastermind super foxy lady's boyfriend. And can she wear a mean Victorian inspired frock. No, wait. The answer is, Robert Downey Jr. is my new dog agility boyfriend.

He lives in a giant Victorian mansion with his other boyfriend Dr. Jude Watson Law and does experiments on their big fat bulldog. There are many dogs in this movie and I will tell you right now. Not one of them dies! If you are an animal rights fan, you will not like it that he does experiments on the bulldog, but you already know it won't die, so no underpants in any wads, righty-o? And since Robert Downey Jr. is my boyfriend, I am ok with all the experiments because, guess what? It will help us solve the mystery!

Look for circus dogs! Beggar dogs! Fancy dog walking dogs! A fair amount of dogs in this movie, and how much do we love it that no dogs will die. Many horse points, too.

The mystery involves Satan taking over the world, which would obviously be a super ginormous bummer so luckily my boyfriend is handling it. None of the black magic voodoo devil worshipers have dogs. They do have big black cloaks though. Here is a clue. Pay special attention to Satanic footwear.

During which you will be treated to such sights as:

• A Victorian lab with taxidermy diorama domes and much taxidermy equipment which will be used to solve the mystery!
• Robert Downey Jr. uses slow motion brain-cam to help solve crimes and beat up bad guys, and let me tell you. This slow motion brain-cam, applied to agility, would eliminate all E's from screeeeming monkeeeee agility forever!
• Lots of wall writing interior decor. If you enjoy handwritten and carved walls, you will like this movie.
• Robert Downey Jr.'s rippling abs which make you wonder, can the guy ever eat anything but salad and if I eat salad for 3 months, can I have such rippling abs?
• Lots of heavy chains and wood! Boats! Horses! Weird teeth!

Robert Downey Jr. is a super sleuth, obviously, he's Sherlock Holmes, and he figures out a very, puzzling mystery by the end of the movie. With a mind like Robert Downey Jr.'s, the USDAA would totally know where the Nationals are going to happen in 2010. Mystery, solved! But this is why Robert Downey Jr. is my new dog agility boyfriend, and not Mr. Ken Tatsch.

I believe Robert Downy Jr. would enjoy UKI Agility, anyways, based on all the London-y things you will see in this movie. Much twisty, turny, Euro-challenge intrigue. Not sure if director Guy Ritchie knows Greg Derrett? Anyone know? Cheery-o.

Many opportunities for practicing talking with your British accents after this movie. Which might also be helpful for UKI Agility. Unless your accent comes out sort of Canadian sounding. Which could be useful for hanging out with Susan Garrett? Unless, is it sort of offensive to talk with people from other ethnicities such as Canadian in fake accents? Because I am getting really good at saying About in Canadian. Like this. A Boot. And in UKI. A butt. Practice makes perfect, righty-o!

Anyways. Many thumbs up and everyone, I hope you like the movie.

Behind the scenes from Gustavo's Xmas summary.

The part that Gustavo neglected to show you in the photo essay of Xmas, is the part about how during Christmas I started telling time by coffee, cookies, and wine.

So every day sort of went like this. Coffees - Cookies - Wines - sleep. Repeat the next day. And the next. And the next.

There was some variation. Variation's names were Mocha, Candy and Margarita.

There are no skorts on the upcoming horizons for Team Small Dog. Until after this greatly fun event we are going to call The January of Salads. And after that, The February of Salads. And The March of Salads. All for the April of Skorts. Can't wait.

Also, speaking of skorts and salads, Susan Garrett said for me to tell you she was NOT wearing a skort. In case you were wondering.

Hola Gustavo! otherwise known as Team Small Dog goes off the grid in Los Angeles but then they are back and Gustavo will fill you in.

Hola! Gustavo can tell you why there was no blogs! Here he is telling you this on the interwebs but you can look at his photo with the Epic Swell behind him! Epic! Dudes! Is many beaches in LA and so little time!


Is Laura! She drove and drove and drove the car on many freeways and to places such as Nordstroms and the Mexican restaurant! She mutters under her breath many times and sometimes screams at people nice buddhist phrases such as FREE YOUR HEART FROM HATRED but she is flipping finger bird while being Buddhist!


Gustavo poses here with dogs plus N-dog.


N-dog and the Christmas train and Gustavo can tell you he is not afraid of the train and no more monkey bark screaming at the Christmas train! No peeing in the house! No bad dogs!


Otterpop is a big fat show off. Laura's sister uses dog agility pointy finger but I believe is pointing at the toy missiles that Gustavo will eat! Ironman shoots missiles out his fingers and Gustavo can eat them!


This one is a puppy and it does not have a dog name yet however it is friend to Otterpop because can throw the tennis ball and pets Gustavo very nice for such a puppy.


Epic Swell! When is Epic Swell there are millions of guys in plaid shirts with hoodies under them and they have no underpants under their waist towels doing street changing and they say Epic and they will all pet Gustavo!


Park! There are a lot of parks because of N-dog and the Puppy!


Park agility!


Bike agility!


This is the park Otterpop and Ruby hate. It is called the Dog Park and Gustavo makes 100 friends with people here who pet him and there are also dogs and Otterpop and Ruby hate this place.


Also Gary hates this place because dogs have sweaters! And the people stand around and want to talk about dogs. But everyone here pets Gustavo 100 times!


This is the best park due to the squirrels and N-dog will also help dig for squirrels and there were possibly 100 squirrels.


Gary taught the other dogs at this beach to do dog heeling due to the hamburger sandwiches in the bag! Gustavo too busy RUNNING for hamburger sandwich training. This is Santa Barbara which equals you are in the crate in the car then you are here then you are in the crate in the car until you are home.

This is the day when we find out who's been naughty and who's been nice and the year that Otterpop 2.0 might not get a lump of rocks in her stocking.

photo credit: Ellen Finch

Be Nice. Don't Bite. Cuz it's Christmas.

Nothing more boring than other people's dog show videos and behold! Some videos from Bayteam Santa Rosa USDAA Team trial.

Look at little Otterpop go in her Grand Prix. It's Otterpop 2.0!


OK, 2 different dogs, same course. This was the Team Standard course at Santa Rosa. Comparing Otterpop's runs to Gustavo's are sort of like comparing a cerveza to a rum drink served in a tiki glass. Both are always a good thing!

First, Otterpop. Nice and smooth. A pole bobble. We move on. Thanks Otterpop. Remember when she'd get to the top of an a-frame and stink eye the judge then come down and express her hatred towards them for looking at her? New improved Otterpop 2.0. Just do it.


Here's Gustavo. Same course. A whole different thing called I need to do EVERYTHING a hundred times faster and never just STAND there with Gustavo. Help me remember that. Once we get through the extra bits in the beginning (it's Team. Screeeming Monkeees. Most E's) it goes better. We call it inspiration to get better.

The time Laura and Team Small Dog interviewed dog agility rockstar Ashley Deacon and superstar Luka and super wild Dash.

Maybe you've heard of Ashley Deacon and his dog Luka. On the dog agility rockstar scale, Ashely totally surpasses and speaks much more clearly than Ozzy Osborne, although is not doing Louis Vuitton ads like Keith Richards. Yet. Probably just a matter of time. Actually, Ashley doesn't even have his own rockstar bus with giant flat screen tv's everywhere even, which I thought was weird. He has a Rav-4, if you are wondering what dog agility rockstars drive. Full of kid toys and dog stuff.


Photographing rockstars can be really challenging due to security, agents, groupies, travel schedules and so forth. Luckily, I have finely honed paparazzi skills so it wasn't too bad. I just hid in the bushes sit outside his house for a couple days then followed him around as he went about his day.


Wait, maybe you haven't heard of Lady Gaga, either? In case you live under a rock, Luka, Ashley's first agility dog, a super cute Pyrenees Shepherd with little dreadlocks, recently won everything at the AKC Invitationals. The 16" Grand Prix and Steeplechase Finals at the USDAA Nationals. Won stuff in Europe on the World Team. That was just this year. The year before, not that different. The year before that, I think sort of the same. Ashley and Luka have something pretty special going on out there, that gives them the consistency to be one of the fastest AND most accurate teams out there. Anywhere. Period.


Ashley and Luka were one of the reasons I started taking lessons from Jim at Power Paws. Luka would always beat Ruby and I knew Ashley took lessons from Jim so I went up there for a lesson, and was all, "Jim, can you help me get good enough to beat Ashley and Luka?"


Jim just chuckled and took my money. We never beat them in anything. Although we have gotten much better from taking lessons from Jim! But between Ashley's super fast running and supersonic front crosses, and Luka's amazing training, tight turns and crazy fast running dogwalk, they are kind of hard to beat. I just moved Ruby down to Performance and that solved that.


By day, Ashley works as a scientist at Stanford. Doing molecular biology. You know, like crystallizing enzymes and stuff. You probably see his wife Jessica and his super cute little boy Liam sometimes at trials. And then of course, there's Dash. Because one Pyrenees Shepherd isn't enough, Ashley added on to the family with completely adorable and somewhat incorrigible Dash. Dash is young and wild. He will get older and beautifully trained. Ashley does not let him escape and is teaching him a super strong recall.


I mean, look at that. I am sure one day he is going to be an agility super champion. Right now, that's just pretty darn cute.


OK, you want to know a few of the things that ADCH-Gold and LAA-Gold Luka has accomplished? Luka has been in 12 US National Finals (AKC/USDAA) and she has won 9 of them. So let's start with the USDAA Steeplechase in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009. She's never been beaten in the Steeplechase Finals. In 2007 and 2009, she won the Grand Prix Finals as well. In 2008, was second. In 2006, Luka's DAM team, took 2nd place.

In AKC (Luka is the first Pyr Shepherd to earn a MACH), she won the 2006 and 2009 AKC Invitationals, and won her divison of the AKC Nationals in 2007. She now has a NAC MACH2.

In addition she has won AKC World Team Tryouts for the last 3 years in both selection categories. She has only been on World Team for two years (2008/Finland, 2009/Austria). In 2007 Norway dogs with a docked tail were not allowed to compete because of laws in Norway.

This year at the FCI World Championships in Austria Luka helped the medium (midi) team take Silver medal (with Karen Holik/Sizzle and Jennifer Crank/Blaster). She was the high combined medium team dog in the competition (team competition is a jumpers with weaves round and standard round). There are videos on Youtube.


Whew. So I'll tell you this. It's not just speed and training. Ashley is a thinker. He plans. He focuses. And then he gets out there and RUNS. Ashely, Luka and Dash, all very cool canines.

Gustavo is teaching me something, and I believe this is called a life lesson, and someday I will think of an inspirational quote thanks to him.

This is Gustavo's friend Luka. He tries to be just like her. Or really, I would just like to believe he tries. Really, he just wants to be him.


Luka is a super well behaved, super champion who knows how to fly on airplanes and never runs away and knows how to FOCUS. So while I would like to believe he is trying to be like her, really they are just looking at the same whistling parrot and they couldn't be more different. They are sitting under a table in a cafe here. Guess which dog did not eat hashbrowns off of my plate? I'll give you a hint. Luka does not climb on tables at restaurants to eat hashbrowns off of plates.


This would have been after Gustavo tried to escape under the fence to llamaland during his lesson with Jim. Which would have been before the lovely walk in a suburbia forest near Luka's house, where he managed to escape OUT of the forest under a fence into a suburban backyard near the forest. Right? How embarrassing is it when you are on a dog walk with super champions of dog agility and your dog runs away OUT Of the forest into someone's backyard?

Although, to make up for Gustavo, Otterpop did every single gamble that Jim set up for her in our lesson, effortlessly. Jim says I just have Herman Munster disease. Meaning at trials, when I send her into the gamble, I just meltdown like Herman Munster and how the hell is she supposed to get a gamble when I'm doing that? At least now I know the reason. Perhaps this is something that can be fixed with a pre-gamblers cocktail.

Ruby even got to do a little lesson, too. She was so happy to have some turns. I love running Ruby. The girl dogs were both so good and fast and like real agility dogs in our lesson, we left Jim sort of scratching his head for ideas to help me with Gustavo, who midway through the lesson plain old forgot how to enter the weave poles. Also I found out that for 2009, the year of Hobbes still laying down on the table, he came in number 2 in top ten points for Performance Standard. So I didn't feel like a complete loser of a dog lady when Gary caught Gustavo scaling a piece of furniture to make his way up to our kitchen counter later in the day.

Let's take a little dog training quiz today.

So hypothetical situation. You are walking down to the beach even though it's nearly dark, and the only car up in the car park is a total gangster Suburban. You know the type. Shiny, detailed white with black opaque windows and giant rims. And when you get down there, there's 3 color sporting, gangstah type fellows, with visible neck tattoos, eating a pizza and enjoying the deserted beach. With their pitbull. Who has on a shock collar. And they're not using napkins.

Do your dogs:

A. Completely bypass the visible neck tattoo/pitbull situation and calmly walk south on the beach with you while you are trying to remember if blue hats mean don't really mention the words Westside if it comes up during conversation?

B. Go check out the pizza pitbull party, but recall back to you instantly and you all go off on your merry way, wondering if these cheery gentlemen would like a referral to a really super positive dog trainer that might help them get the shock collar off Big Buster with the Big Cojones?

C. Fully just run into the party uninvited, at warp speed, attempt to land in the pizza box, threaten the massive pitbull with what looks like a grenade strapped onto his neck, and perhaps one dog possibly even jumps up into one of the young men's laps perhaps soiling a starched white size XXL t-shirt feigning love but really hoping to eat the pizza, requiring you to run through the sand to start grabbing and shooing dogs away, even though it's hard to tear your eyes away from such poorly crafted tattooing visible on the backs of calves as well as necks and gentlemen are trying to catch pizza and pitbull simultaneously while you shoo and scoop until your dogs are removed from the party?

Just wondering. Let me know how you did on the quiz.

Welcome to UKI Agility International as explained by Laura of Team Small Dog and Keanu Reeves.

So my agility boyfriend Greg Derrett decided that us agility pansies over here in Not England needed some more agility fun and hence, UKI Agility International!

It sounds a little bit like USDAA but with more wacky, twisty, turny courses with crazy weave pole entries and places where you have to do the sideways fast scuttling like a crab handling. And you move up really fast through your titles if you WIN. You can still move up if you don't, though. Because sometimes some of us win, and sometimes some of us don't. You get points. Like Weight Watchers. Which you won't need if you are doing sufficient sideways speedy crab scuttling.

Also maybe Greg Derrett is coming here to introduce his agility? With his lovely wife. Who is also named Laura. I don't want anybody here to think all Tiger Woodsy and so forth and then Greg Derrett has to quit agility and who is the one that actually bashed up the windows with the golf club? PVC jump bar? So I think in UKI agility I can't call Greg Derrett my agility boyfriend anymore. I'm going to use a code word from now on. Keanu Reeves.

So meet my new agility boyfriend, Keanu Reeves. Who is not a golfer. Or married to a Laura.

With all that cleared up, here are some very nice facts about UKI agility that have me jumping up and down and clapping, like Hurrah Hurrah, which is what they say in England. Righty-o? Because for UKI agility, I'm listening to the Madonna soundtrack from Evita where she learned to sing with an English accent to play an Argentinean in a movie about a happy dictatorship. Also, remember when Keanu was British in the Dracula movie? You had to take a tequilla shot everytime he says Trahhhhn Sahhhhl Veiny-yah. Just like Madonna.

Any-hoo. As they say across the Pond.

There's a Performance type option called Select with one jump height lower, no spreads and a nice, 5'3" a-frame. In the UKI, all my dogs would jump 12", but I could run Ruby and Otterpop in the Select so they could jump 8". Ruby could do agility again! Thanks Keanu Reeves! This is particularly exciting to me. She could still do agility in CPE, but this sounds much more exciting! Wacky Euro-threadles and tight turns are FUN!

Also, for a dog that say has a teeter fear, or is distractiony, or is working on contacts, or all those things you wish you could just go in and do a couple rounds with that frisbee in hand for a quick reward, HELLO! Training rounds! You can be entered in the dog show, but go and do a training round with your toy. Brilliant!

Actually, why am I trying to explain all this to you? Just go look on their very organized and easy to understand website. All the rules are there. All the classes. What level you can start at, how high are a-frames, stuff like that. Everything you ever wanted to know about UKI agility even though you didn't even know it existed until like 2 days ago.

If you live by me, there are even some matches coming up in January. The very first one in California will be held in Beautiful TURLOCK by our friend Mary. Turlock, the glamour capital launch pad of the new UKI Agility International! We hope to see you all there.

In which today, an epic and over long and probably boring treatise on how dogs choose things and involves little cartoon devils and angels.

So Paul, a very loyal Team Small Dog reader, took a break from snow shoveling yesterday to offer a piece of advice. Right on, Paul! I can't imagine a life where there is snow and you have to move it from here to there in a genuine shovel! I had to wear a long sleeved t-shirt today and susnscreen! The gist of Paul's advice, try to be more fun than the things that distract your dog, and in that having fun, dog won't fall prey to distractions.

So I don't think that's bad advice, by any means. Agility is about interaction and total, get down, party fun between a dog and handler. So yeah, it's got to be totally fun and totally rewarding. And that's got to be a consistent habit. Agility is always super fun. When it's not, that's some troubles for all. You have to rebuild the bond, rebuild the relationship, back everything up. I am 100% for the idea that every single thing about agility has to be fun. Stinky old tables, and holding still on startlines and EVERYTHING, has to be fun to be good agility.

But the old rule, be more fun than what distracts your dog, this is the part that I don't totally buy into. Chasing squirrels or running border collies or whatever floats a distraction dog's boat, that's always going to be a high value reward. REALLY fun. Agility itself can be self rewarding. And I think that when distractions stress out a dog, there's a couple of results. Shutting down, or getting totally over the top insane. A party on, fun handler might not be the answer. A lot of dogs go missing in stressed out sniffing. No amount of fun from the handler can un-do stress. Stress has to be de-stressed. Distraction and stress, I don't think totally related to a lack of fun.

I can have both problems with Gustavo. He get so wound up, and so out of control that he starts doing TUNNELS! The jump OVER there! Does not see I just front crossed over HERE! Or, he gets so wound up, and overwhelmed by everything else going on around him that he RUNS under the score table where someone is feeding their dog some chicken and will EAT THEIR chicken then say hi to 4 people then run back on course and finishes in record time. Or he finishes his course, at 100mph, and explodes OUT of the ring in a frenzy to where he doesn't even see or hear me anymore. Let alone his leash that he has worked so hard to learn how to find after a run.

Like the fun circuit and the everything else circuit have crossed wires and this is fun but it is also confusing and his brain is playing Led Zeppelin 4 backwards and like the world all of a sudden TURNED INSIDE OUT MAN AND IT'S MELTING!

I think that Leslie McDevitt takes this on with all her Control Unleashed stuff. I had this book. I meant to reread it. I lent it out. Anyone have my book out there? Because I think I need it!

For dogs that have issues of being distracted, instead of trying to constantly have a handler that is more fun than eating squirrels and cats or chasing down RV's or running around after border collies, or self rewarding one's self with extra added agility obstacles, the dog learns to make the choice that will end up with a really good reward AND a choice that helps the dog not be so stressed out to where dog wants to chase the border collies. Dog learns a way of thinking that helps clear the brain synapses. Nothing turned inside out anymore, nothing melting, just a clear road to the reward.

Leslie McDevitt has good ideas. When Gustavo was freaking out over teeter totters, she had the good idea of getting the pressure off of him. Let the reward be running away from the teeter totter. Every time he gets near it, run away! Then gets closer, gets to run away. Hola! This, and making it a super high value, always fun and ampley awarded thing, made the teeter totter a-ok. It's maintenance level at this point.

Dog freaks out at other dogs? Teach it to look at other dogs. Let a calm look become reward worthy. Instead of forcing the dog "Watch Me! Watch Me!" dog goes from distraction to his own choice to focus back on the handler. That's what's rewarding. The dog making the choice.

So I think that Crate Games sort of has this idea, too. Dogs learn to make their own choice. Impulse control. I see this with Otterpop all the time. She is truly learning to control her impulses, which are almost always evil. It's like they're a little cartoon devil and angel over each of her shoulders. And Devil says, Go Get THAT! and Angel says, Stay there and Be Calm and she has to decide really fast and she has over time, learned to listen to the Angel. Usually. Sometimes the devil wins. But not a much anymore.

Example. Oh, this is becoming boring and epic. Come back and read later. Don't I get a day to be boring and epic occasionally?

Example. Today, we were practicing and this mangy old Watsonville street chihuahua came sauntering up the road and to the edge of the fence. We were working on Otterpop staying on a blanket, Ruby in an xpen with the door open, and Gustavo in a crate with the door open, and one dog at a time released to run around with me and play with the toy. Gustavo much of the time had his door shut, because, guess what, Training Hole and he can't do this if someone else is playing with a toy. Baby steps.

When that dog came up to the fence, Ruby ran out towards it once, I called her, and she turned on a dime and came in and continued to run around with me and play with her toy. She had to think about that good and hard, but was able to continue on playing with old Mr. Mangey sniffing around at the fence.

Wasn't sure if this would work with Otterpop. But boy oh boy, she barely even batted an eye. She knows how to not talk to that devil and made the choice to stay and run around with me and her toy and go back and lay quietly, not barking, on her little blanket. I KNOW that Otterpop, even a year ago, wouldn't have made this choice. This is new and improved Otterpop 2.0.

Gustavo? I didn't even let him loose. I KNEW he would run out to that fence, just to go see. And I KNEW I'd have to call him in 3-4 times before he'd refocus to me and come back and do his job. So I didn't even give him a chance. And whereas Ruby or Otterpop would have GET RID OF THAT DOG on their mind, he'd just want to go and see it, see if it scared him, and then if it didn't, see if it wanted to go get tamales and a beer. The devil, that I don't even think he knows is a devil, it's just Keanu Reeves or someone, says, Go forth and be Free! And take a free tunnel on the way! Angel doesn't much have a chance, maybe a couple minutes later. So yeah, he's blowing me off. Because I haven't trained him how to make his own good choice.

So yeah, I helped him make the choice by being pretty fun. And the reward was super fun. I am going back to how I used to reward him all the time. We just run around and he chases a furry thing on a piece of rope. Today's furry thing was a dirty old sock filled with fish. Uh huh. For like 30 seconds of him focusing, he gets to chase me and my pet dead sock on a rope filled with stinky fish for like 2 minutes. It's a sweet deal to be my dog. But he still has to make the choice.

Imagine the distraction of a giant dog show and dogs and chicken and ladies and toys and tunnels and everything all at once. This is the training hole I'm figuring out how to fill up.

What would Susan Garrett do?

So look. I don't consider myself a crappy dog trainer. Like, compared with everybody in my neighborhood, I am like Queen of the Dog Trainers. But I think if you stick me out there in the population of Dog Trainers, especially people who train dogs for agility, I am on the D-List. This makes me sad. But then I look at Kathy Griffin. And her bad plastic surgery. She does ok on the D-List. Can't I?

Then I look at Kathy Griffin again. Weep. I don't want to be HER. Um, C-List? Courtney Love? Nope. Just lost custody of Frances Bean and she is totally the queen of insane twitter tweets and crazy facebook posts. Nooooooo! I don't want this to happen to Team Small Dog! Poor Frances Bean!

So this means I need to aspire higher. Reach down a little deeper into my lazy little slacker, GenX heart. And put on my dog training pants. And ask the big question, What Would Susan Garrett Do?


Susan Garrett's answer to everything is Crate Games. I am pretty sure if I went over to her house and knocked on her newly remodeled door and told her about my problems with Gustavo, she would just take a bite of her carrot, and be all, "How's your crate games?"

And then she'd pull a copy of the DVD out from a box, try to sell it to me for $32.95 Canadian dollars, then send me on my way even though I walked all the way to Canada!


So we did some Crate Games testing yesterday, to see how is our Crate Games. I watched part of the video a long time ago but it made me want to claw out my eyeballs so I didn't finish it. I DID go to it in real life though, in a seminar with young and super evil Otterpop and the real Susan Garrett in the flesh. Somewhere I even have notes. Somewhere. I think there are a lot of little sketches of Susan Garret's face instead of writing notes in there though. I am not a great note taker. I would say more of a doodler. I do remember she wore a little black skort though.

Everybody's Crate Games at our house seems to work super on the deck. With one dog at a time. But as soon as someone is in a crate, and everybody else starts racing around after a tennis ball, only Ruby and Otterpop still have Crate Games. Gustavo's become erased. Surprise, surprise. I am going to go with the Susan Garrett theory here, and start from scratch. So, all you good dog trainers that read my blog, A-List ones preferably, if I can get him to be all relaxed and chill and impulse controlly on his own in there when everyone else is chasing tennis ball, is this going to help me?


I am serious here. I need some help! Calling in on the favor phone, A-listers!

This sort of sounds like a mission statement of couples counseling so just pretend you are Dr. Phil while you are reading it except not as bald.

Gustavo doesn't ever sleep when he's in a crate. He sits alert and STARES. Like for hours in the car. Never once takes his eyes off the back of my head. At agility. STARES. Possibly accessorized by strangly, screamy, monkey noises.

Any time he's in a fenced area, like someone's yard, his first priority is to find a way OUT. Right away. He can squeeze through a rat sized crack. He is obsessed with ESCAPE.

He has never met any, single person he doesn't LOVE. If he meets you for 2 seconds, he LOVES you. He is totally sincere. He LOVES you.

When he is out in open space, it is most important for him to RUN, as fast as he can. As long as he can. RUN fast, and don't stop. It is a bonus if there is something to chase, but not neccessary. The RUN is what's important.

Stare. Escape. Love. Run.


I have been thinking a lot about Gustavo and agility. It's not that he can't do it. Slowly but surely, with a hundred million trillion repetitions of everything, he has learned the behaviors. He can do them in sequence. Under no distractions, he does an amazing job. He is certainly always blazingly fast.

But under distractions, his brain short circuits and I haven't figured out a way to get his brain to either stay with mine, or to click back in to gear quickly. This happens when he's out, and gets a whiff of a critter. He doesn't have the reliable head whiplash recall back to me that the other dogs do. Out in a field, with no distractions, he does, and it's a beautiful thing to see when he tears back in, like a tiny lightning bolt. Under distractions, he does click back in to gear, but it's not instantaneous, and during agility, that equals an extra tunnel, a weave pole drive-by, and perhaps a trip out to the edge of the ring before he whiplashes back onto course. Same thing happens out in the forest, bunnies and deer have the same effect on him as agility.

He's come so far. He made it through a fear period. He made it through the dreaded teeter totter phase. But if we're going to become an actual agility team, I think we have to backtrack to some basics. Foundation garments. Like Mormon underwear. Spiritual foundation garments. Because I think that we have a Training Hole. A black hole. A deep space black hole, like the kind that a spooky space ship could drive out of at warp speed at any time.


We have to fill up the hole. Starting now.

To where Gustavo STARES at me during agility to get information, and uses that particular information to lock in on an obstacle. Not just his own idea. Does the obstacles I am showing him.

To where Gustavo becomes obsessed with NOT ESCAPING, and does not run out of the ring and then run back in. And runs to his leash like he does every single time he practices, and not out to his fan club after a run.

That Gustavo LOVES you, but he mostly LOVES me, and wants to just do the agility with me, not go see every single person he loves and jump on you to get treats.

And most of all, that we both run our fastest and hardest. And then everyone is happy because he gets to RUN.

My favorite things about the DAM Team weekend in Santa Rosa, and don't even get me started on the Christmas cookies part.

Our Motel 6 room had 2 beds, and our room was super quiet and disease-free and I brought my own comforter and the dogs never barked. Hardly. They were like totally behaved and exhausted and fell asleep and didn't use the beds for launch pads all night. Mostly. Also Starbucks was almost right next door. Is this because I'm creepy and old that these are facts that make me happy?


Ruby ran in the exciting dinnertime class called Strategic Pairs. The prize was beer. This is the FUNNEST CLASS EVER!!!! Her teammate was Tantrum the speedy Papillon. And Tantrum's person J.D. who totally had the good strategy and I thought we were going to win some beer but Hobbes's team knocked our team off the podium at the very end. Where podium equals everyone is sitting around drinking beer and eating pizza. Ruby was SO HAPPY to have a turn and ran fast and not crashy and I was very proud of our little dogs who were so STRATEGIC almost winning beer with the border collies.


Otterpop ran like a champion all weekend. She got a team Q, and won her Grand Prix and Steeplechase. She ran fast and she ran like how we practice. I of course did manage to totally mangle her SuperQ attempt in Snookers, train wreck style. Me and Otterpop were like all in BFF land all weekend. No sore leg. No barking at judges or anybody. If Otterpop was a Facebook friend she would have been sending me farm ducks and fish and posting little hearts all over my wall and I told her if she keeps acting like this, I am totally getting an Otterpop tattoo.


Gustavo's team was fun yet disturbing. Perhaps we will talk more about Gustavo and agility tomorrow. I will tell you right now though, the Screeeeming Monkeeeees DID have the most E's in Agiliteeee and came in LAST PLACE. Wow. But we had the best shirts. Gustavo had some awesome, amazing parts of runs, and he had a lot of parts where he just disregarded that I was actually out there doing agility too, and sort of like, you know, the one IN CHARGE of the agility, and found extra tunnels or blew off all the weave poles or ran away. Although I will say he never got freaked out by anything, was blazing fast, and did dogwalk contacts, teeters, and some stunning weave poles. His team is made up of dogs that all have some bugs to work out, and some of my most favorite agility friends. Gustavo is special. We have a long journey ahead of us, me and him. We may need Dr. Phil. But he's the one sitting on my lap, right this minute.

Read all about it on my teammate, Vici's blog.

The tv just said that We make the joyousness of the season deliciously affordable, and I thought, I am going to shoot you, tv.

Perhaps you've heard of the Screeeeming Monkeeeees. Because I mentioned them here. You bought some shirts, right? Think nice presents for brothers-in-law. Aunties. Etc. Due to the shirts, this will be Gustavo's first time on a DAM team at the big before Xmas USDAA in the freezing cold Santa Rosa.

Yes, let me explain. I am taking the dogs on a weekend holiday to sleep overnight at a grody Motel 6 by the freeway. So I can spend all day, for 2 days, captive inside a freezing cold covered arena, while an icy cold rainstorm goes on over it's roof. And outside it's drippy walls. Wearing a spiffy, matching shirt with other blue-lipped agility ladies in that holiday tradition we like to call DAM team,.

I believe that at this same dog show last year, I uttered the words, "I have never, ever been so cold in my entire life." You did not hear me though, because my whole face and body were buried under 17 parkas and my teeth were chattering so hard it sort of sounded like iiiii hhhhhhhhhnnnoooot eeefffah pin soooooo ccccccccccld nnn my lfffffff. I could not even use pointy fingers whilst running courses because I don't know where my hands were.

All this and more!

Well, really, not more. Did I mention Motel 6? For some reason, Motel 6 is like Disneyland for dogs. I don't want to know why. Do not suggest reasons. I am turning off brain now to these thoughts.

It's actually sort of festive and jolly in this weird way that agility trials can be.

Gustavo's DAM team partners are 2 of my favorite agility friends with very cute 16" black and white dogs, a sheltie and a border collie/corgi/something type. Fast Paws Fin has her own Team blog! Their dogs are a little more, shall we say, consistent, than Gustavo. But it's Gustavo! Anything could happen. And he'll look great doing it and just think of all the screeeeeeeeming! Whatever happens, it happens with Gustavo's special flair and style and god just help all of us now.

Otterpop is on a Performance team with a great Jack Russell. This is a lot of runs for her crappy leg, but I really think she's holding up great, and has never been practicing better or faster in her life. Although she hasn't been practicing that much. But she is learning to do a handstand! A barking handstand. There is a lot of holding it together for Otterpop to do to exist in a covered arena with a million border collies for 2 days. God helps us all now.

There's even a night time dinner theater class called Strategic Pairs that will feature a run by Ruby! Anything can happen and there is pizza and beer to go a long with it.

So there you go. Barack Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize and last week signed off on troops to Afghanistan. Global warming global warming gang violence. Technology is moving so fast that it makes me want to roll up into a little ball screaming. There are freaking little cheerleaders in colorful knitwear accessories screaming on a Gap commercial about how cute are these boots. Ho ho ho, I'm going to the dog show.

Franky, I can't even think of a title for this, which if it has stumped Laura for words, then it clearly gets to be Favourite Picture.

Photo credit: The incomprable Rob Michalski, best alternative agility photographer around.

I was digging around thru my photos and found this one. It wasn't what I was looking for, but this is a Damn Fine Photo. If there were no more dog photos ever, I'd be happy with this one.

Can I get back to the digging part for a minute? The only way I can find ANY photos right now is by digging around on hard drives and clicking. I used to have a very organized iphoto database until the day the Spongebob camera ate the thumbnail previews. That's right. A $15 digital camera I was using as an Otterpopcam nuked my database. So finding any photos right now is sort of like getting dressed in the dark. Which is how I usually get dressed anyways. Which you may have guessed. And I'm afraid to plug any more toy cameras into my computer. Otterpop just has a giant yellow plastic necklace to wear for special occasions.

You wanna get Team Small Dog a swell gift? A tiny spy cam with a remote that I can clip on to a dog bonnet so the dogs can take more photos for me. Or you know how to restore thumbnails in a giant iphoto database, and yes I already tried what the internet told me to do to bring it back to life and it didn't do jack.

Holiday refrigerator arts on the way! Thanks to all my new internet friends who have emailed me photos of their uncannily similar to Gustavo dogs. Holey smokes. I had no idea. We have a little cult going, our little black dog club. Onward and outward, righty-o.

Team Small Dog takes the holidays very, very seriously.

I was going to tell you about going to practice yesterday morning before work in the FREEZING! Of where there were icy bits on the grass and Gustavo ran around like a CHAMPION and I ran until I almost passed out with stabbing lung pain and fainting! Fainting, kittens! But didn't, and was happy to be out galavanting around in the sun, even if it did involve ice.

But then I came home and it was so nice in the dog heater chair and I am teaching Otterpop a very funny trick in the house and then buying brother in law xmas gift on the internet and then what was I talking about?

Oh, that you were so worried about my icy bits? And the swooning? You were totally thinking just then, right, if Laura was my REAL friend and not my INTERNET friend, and I would make her a hot toddy to ward off the fainting and sew her dogs little ice proof outfits?

Except, do we even know what is a hot toddy? Does it live in a thermos and involve rum and coke?

For my INTERNET friends, who I like to pretend are my REAL friends because whatever DID happen to all my real friends, after you became super famous museum show having artists who then became pals with rocks stars and I became the somewhat chubby friend who may somewhat forget to brush one's hair? Like, hello, at least I didn't hole up in a modular with 16 cats and a candle making kit. I just switched over to dogs, people. Dogs. It's not LIKE cats.

Anyways. Friends. Your own ho ho ho delivered to your do do door, just send me your u.s.postal address to laura _at_ teamsmalldog _dot_com and get yer own autographed team greeting.

Yep, you there. Let me know you exist and get a fine little piece of mail art as proof that we're pals now. The magic of the interwebs tells me there are pretty many of you out there. You are either hella bored or you sure like my dogs, so now's yer chance to look at 'em every day on your refrigerator.

Or else you find out I am totally a serial killer stalker and I show up at your door and am demanding hot toddy. And you live in Canada!

Righty-o. My few remaining real friends, who maybe now sort of are turned into internet friends, I won't let Gustavo chew on yours. Not even the corner. Internet friends and friend friends and we are all friends, I am just trying to send you a damn Xmas card. So there.

Right up there with the time we listened to 8 hours of Christmas music without stopping and frankly, we were never the same since.

This adorable Christmas moppet dashed across a road near the Fish and Game office yesterday evening, where dogs are actually supposed to be walking on a leash not running amuck chasing bunnies at 100mph, and found the only hole in the high security fence to the top secret marine estuary off limits beach where NO ONE is allowed except for the scientists who conduct important marine experiments out of view of the public. Me and the other dogs had to wait for him to come back, crouched in the bushes by the fence, trying to look all casual to the scientists who all picked this exact moment to leave work and slowed down when they drove by us. Like, don't mind us, we just like sitting here in the bushes by the side of the road in the freezing cold, whistling through a hole in the bottom of the fence. I kept pulling a kleenex out of my pocket and blowing my noise to avoid eye contact. Then it got dark. Eventually he came back.


This snuggly Christmas bumpkin heard the UPS guy's truck a block away and beat him to our front door, her rapid fire ballistic barking nearly drowning out his amused chant of "Hey they wanna get me? They wanna get me?" as he merrily tossed our luckily non-fragile parcel on to the porch before I could even begin our whole impulse control regime of Dogs Have To Go Lay in Their Beds When UPS Guys Come. Leaping and barking and one thought only, to GET that UPS guy. I just hucked her up like a football, tucked her still freaking out little self under my arm, and we waved brightly through the window at the shorts wearing UPS guy like nothing just happened here.


I would say the holiday season is off to a Team Small Dog start. At least no one peed on the Christmas shrub. Ho ho ho.

Covered with dogs during the plague.

I have been sick. Like should have been lying in bed sick all week but still going to work sick which resulted in totally lying in bed sicker and henceforth, current state of whinging. This is just how it goes.

There aren't really dog walks when I'm sick. Instead, they all pile in a clump wherever I am and either sleep quietly on top of me or play violently on top of me. Mostly play violently. Because of the no dog walks part. I like to think that Gustavo is all grown up, I have a nice household of mature dogs who are caring and understand that even my skin hurts today and we need to just lay low.

Instead, I have running and leaping and running and leaping and attacking the toys and the blankets then someone starts the howling. Ruby eyeballs the mayhem, climbs atop the couch, starts flapping her ears and shivering, and it's because I do believe she is trying to figure out how to fly across the room above the fray. She tries to figure out how, but it's useless, she just doesn't fly, so gives up and joins in the howling. I have no voice, and just pull a blanket over my head and try to use psychic powers to get them to stop.

Once or twice, I feebly load them all up in the car and drive down to the whale skeletons. Let them all go and shuffle off in their dust down towards the sea. It seems like a hundred miles. They tear in circles and I shuffle and then I pack them back up in the car, and hope this bought me a bit of time of dogs that will just sleep by my side for a while. I come home and crumple on to our couch, which technically is a loveseat. Not sized to hold a human and 3 dogs of any size. There's always a way though, dog on my chest, dog on my head, dog on my legs, and I wait for the plague to go away.

I am sick. The dogs are unexercised. They make me pay.

We interrupt Team Small Dog for a little bit of burly lumberjack horse agility from an undisclosed foreign country.

I'm not usually a Click On This Video person. If you email me a video, I probably don't click on it because, you know, dancing cats and stuff. And it will be going around the interwebs at warp speed (I learned that from Star Trek) and I'm going to get it emailed to me a hundred times and this is one of those internet things that makes me grim and humorless and makes me stab the delete button with a quick, hard jab.

I'm also not a Share What I Do All Day person. I'll share now because you see where I'm getting with this. Most of my day is spent in the company of horses. It's just how it is. I like giving the illusion of my life of leisure frolicking with dogs, but pretty much I am at the barn most of the time. I either sit on horses and make sure that they go around nicely for their people, or sit on a fence and shout loudly at people so they can get their horses to go around nicely. Or I just walk around and shout and then go give shots and wash scabs and it's really that glamorous, my real life.

This video, though, holey smokes. An agility lady put it on Facebook and something propelled me to click it, and I know. You're grim and frowning now and you've already seen it a hundred times and you're hitting delete on me right now. But I don't care. Because all I care about now is how can I build a giant, adorable, tunnel shed for my most special trick pony? I'm totally going to go and teach him to join the dogs' circus bucket trick right now. This has given me a vision and the vision is frightening and this makes me joyful.

A historical geography lesson in the context of difficult weave pole entries, not to be confused with stipper poles.

I went out to practice really early yesterday morning before work, because I wanted to see if we learned anything in the seminar. And I was sad. EVERYBODY else went back to the Silvia seminar but I had to go to work. Also, Gustavo had started doing one of those dogwalks with the slowing down on the down ramp at the seminar, and that freaked me out. You've seen that, right? Slow down a little to hit the yellow paint? NO! Not the dogwalk we want. Regular old fast, not what we're looking for. I like agility that looks a little CRAZY.


I think it was just the nerves of the whole thing. Mayhem Gustavo was back practicing, and the super fast dogwalks were right there the whole time. And we practiced some of the wild seminar pole entries. I believe these are called the kind of poles you do if you live in Europe. Somewhere like Slovenia. Weave poles, right? You know that's what I mean and not stripper poles if I say poles? Just checking. And now, back to our history lesson.


I realized I had NO IDEA where Slovenia was. It is a sandwich between Austria and Croatia, in case you're as lame as me about Central European Geography and History 101. Former Yugoslavia. When I was all blah blah blah I met Silvia Trkman My Agility Hero, which is what I tell everybody now, and it makes most people sort of glaze over and look at me funny, someone asked me where Slovenia was. I sort of gestured vaguely east with a fluttery hand, mumbling something something former communism. Slovenia is actually the happy country that came out of Stalin, Tito, death of the USSR, and Yugos. In case you were wondering.

The time that Laura and Team Small Dog goes to the Silvia Trkman Seminar and does some pulling up by the bootstrap character building.

This is me and my new pal Silvia Trkman. She came all the way from Slovenia to teach some seminars in the US, and I was able to do a Monday Master's Handling class. Silvia is totally my agility hero. She is super nice, has amazing dogs, is completely waify adorable, and had a lot of helpful advice for everyone taking her class. Also she talks with this super foxy European accent.


I ran Otterpop on the first and last runs of the day, and Gustavo on all the ones in the middle. Otterpop was awesome, speedy and SO MUCH FUN TO RUN. Silvia gave me a couple of really good pieces of advice about her. One had to do with those times she just ducks into tunnels before my very eyes. That maybe if I wasn't turning my head at that tunnel she wouldn't duck in. Don't look back and just GO!


Gustavo was somewhat more challenging. The seminar was aimed at "Those who are doing agility at the highest levels." Not exactly me and Gustavo. One of the themes of the seminar seemed to be, These Weave Pole Entries Are CRAZY INSANE HARD. Gustavo seemed a little worried and off his game to me, kind of stressing out and not running his usual manic self. He looked nice and fast, but not that I HAVE LOST MY MIND CHASING A BUNNY fast that makes his so exciting yet challenging to do agility with. We just felt off. I was nervous running him, and he hates making errors and I was making him make errors and do you see where this is going? Silvia was patient and helped us a lot on pole entries and Gustavo was hitting them like a champ by the end of it.


She also had me just dig in and run with him. I trained him from the beginning by watching a lot of her videos, and I realize that I've lost some of that crazy fast running at all times since I try to be more accurate and get to my position. He runs best if we are both out there basically hauling ass no matter what, everywhere. And still being accurate and getting in position. But if I do a Stop and Send, things just don't look as clear to him. This so hits his nail in the head. The thing was, he was running just fine, like a nice, fast, little dog. But I know he has the potential to be so much more. I need to combine the handling control that works with the nice, fast little dog with the super insane mayhem of GOOOSTAAAAHVOOOO!


I was really proud of his poles and his teeter totter. I'm not sure if it was my nerves that kept him from running balls out wild, but I'm glad Otterpop stepped up to the occassion for him. Silvia gave us some good things to think about. I was so happy to meet her in person and feel so lucky I was able to have this opportunity. Hopefully she didn't think I was a stalker freak. There are a bunch more photos of the seminar if you go on my Facebook. Thanks, Vici and Ellen, for taking the photos of me and Team Small Dog and to Ashley for organizing this!