+1 - A New Pack Member!

What an exciting weekend! We're adding to the pack. Not MY pack, but the extended pack. My dad is getting a dog!

When I was growing up, our home was a prime location for dropping off unwanted pets, and occasionally  an injured or orphaned wild animal. Nearly every summer brought a new animal, including one tiny puppy that was left at the mailbox. He was entirely too small to have walked over a mile from the closest neighbors, so clearly someone had left him there.

That dog died earlier this year at the age of 14, followed by my father's last remaining dog that passed away last month at age 15.

So, after decades of taking care of abandoned animals, in his retirement my dad found himself going through something entirely new - shopping for a dog.

We met this fellow at the Humane Society of Parkersburg on Saturday, and everyone - except perhaps Henry, who knows nothing about this - is very excited to get him home so my dad can start spoiling him.

Blitz's picture on Petfinder

Classmates

I had been a little anxious about class starting this week, but yesterday at the Orientation session I found out one of my former co-workers will be in the class with us. That puts my mind at ease a little. Plus, just being at the kennel club watching the dogs got me excited about class! We've been practicing our jumps the last two evenings to get back in the swing of things.

Clay Furnace Hike

It's been a couple of months since we've been in town for the weekend with nothing on the schedule. With work kicking into high gear again, Henry's had more time alone and, as a result, has been bouncing off the walls the last few days.

We got rid of some of that energy today at Coopers Rock with a hike to Henry Clay Furnace, up the hill to Rock City, then back to the car following the Roadside Trail.

 The boring, sunny, hot (but gloriously downhill) first section of the loop

The prettiest section of the hike where the trail follows Clay Run

Remains of the Henry Clay iron furnace

The first time we did this hike, playing in this creek was the highlight of trip. Today the creek was almost dry.

No water? No worries. Henry knows how to make his own fun. He ran his trademark speed circles in the weeds and had a blast. Unfortunately, his circle sprints are impossible to capture with my camera. ;)

Twelve hours later (plus lots more playing), we have success -- a tuckered out Henry!

Back to School!

Our hometown doubled in size today as many of the college students returned for the fall semester, but they're not the only ones going back to school -- it's agility time!

Henry is registered for the Fundamentals of Agility I class that starts next week. It's crazy how nervous I get before these classes. It's not as bad as I got as a kid, when I worried myself to vomiting in anticipation of the first day of school, but it's still far worse than it should be. I mean, we're talking agility. It's for fun!

Weave Poles – Tough to Make, Tough to Learn

We're trying not to let weave poles get the best of us.

Trying...

Again using the instructions at InstantAgility, I built a set of PVC adjustable channel weave poles. It required lots of measuring, cutting, and gluing -- and more gluing when the poles started coming apart!

Yep, my set came apart in the middle while we were carrying it outside for the first time. Apparently my gluing skills aren't up to par. I decided to leave it like that for a while since Henry's only starting training. It's easier to carry 3-pole sections anyway.

And then one of the end poles came off the base. Sigh.

To make matters even more frustrating, Henry seemed to be regressing. I started out using the methods we learned in my last class at the local kennel club. We learned to NOT lead the dog through the poles. Rather, we waited till the dog entered the first pole correctly and then rewarded the behavior. When the dog gets that, you move on to the next pole.

Well, with our new set of weave poles, we could never get past those first two poles. So yesterday, after watching a couple of channel weave pole training videos online, I moved the poles inside to the screened porch, reassembled them into into the full set of 6, and opened them to make a channel down the middle. Now I'm focusing on him entering the right way and going all the way to the end. I'll close the poles gradually and – fingers crossed – maybe he'll learn to weave. I'm afraid, however, that deviating from the class training methods will get me in trouble in the next class we're signed up for.

The best part of moving the poles to the porch is I no longer have to drag them out of the basement and into the yard every time we want to practice. Now we can step out the back door and practice for short sessions several times a day.