Unexpected Trickery

Henry is a quiet dog (thank goodness!), but tonight when I got home he was wound up and in the mood to let out a yap to hurry me along. The "speak" command was on my mind because a co-worker and I had been discussing our dog classes, and in hers they tried teaching the dogs to speak.

Soooo, I thought I'd give it a try. Honestly, I didn't think he'd get it at all, but after praising him after the first bark, I could see the wheels turning in his head. He was really trying to figure it out. Barking is a good thing?! So we kept at it until we got the speak, bark, and treat lined up just right. This video is taken after a series of successful attempts.

Most of the time the bark doesn't come nearly that fast. He still has to think about it and seems to struggle to get the bark out. Sometimes it starts as a whine.

And hey, what is that in the background? Why, yes, it's the completed plank. Doesn't everyone have a blue and yellow board in their living room?

Front & Finish

I haven't written much about this class, which might make you think it's going horribly. Actually, it's not bad. It's just difficult to describe, especially since I don't know all the terminology.

Besides heeling, which we do a lot of, we've been working on fronts and finishes. We're making some progress. Henry has a tendency to not sit straight for come front (1st photo), and he prefers to set waaaaay out to the left of me on right finishes (2nd photo). That's why we're using the chairs to practice. It gets him used to going to the right spot. I've also started using a clicker to train at home because that seemed to help him pick up things in agility when he was having trouble.

Making the Plank

Work is progressing on Henry's practice plank. I ended up using a 2" X 12" X 10' board from the lumber section of Lowe's. I started out with a 10' particle board shelf, but quickly returned it when I realized it was far too slick. Henry couldn't walk across it completely flat on the ground without slipping.

Here's the primed board. I used old exterior latex paint for the priming. As you can see in the picture, I managed to get one can of flat and one can of satin paint because I bought them on separate Lowe's visits. Oh well, that's the least of our worries. I also picked up some pricey anti-skid stuff to add to the paint, but I'm not going to use that unless I have to. It was almost $5 for the little package.

I went with 30" contact zones instead of the regulation 42". I'd like to say I planned this, but actually I just eye-balled what I thought would be a good ratio of yellow to blue paint and completely lucked out getting it right. The regulation board is 12' long with 42" contact areas. Mine is 10' long with 30" contact areas.

Oh yeah, that yellow will wake you up! Initially I planned to leave the contact areas white, but when I looked up the size of the contact areas I saw that the AKC specifically said contact areas shouldn't be white for competition boards, so...I made yet another trip to Lowe's for the yellow paint just in case there's some reason white is bad. It seems to me as long as it contrasts with the darker shade in the middle it shouldn't matter.


I won't be needing the base until after the first of the year, so I'm not going to make that now. I'm just going to use the board for contact practice, maybe raising it just slightly to mimic what we were doing in our last class.

Weekend Fun & Relaxation

We spent the weekend visiting my dad and his dog. The dogs are finally spending time out of their cages inside my dad's house, and that gave them the opportunity to create a new game Friday night - an exuberant wrestling match miraculously confined to a large dog bed.

The cats, on the other hand, are masters of relaxation.

Last Overlook of 2010

On Election Day, we took what was probably our last Coopers Rock overlook hike of the year. The gate on the access road closes Dec. 1 (I think), and it's unlikely that we'll do the full 6 mile hike to the overlook during the winter months. We only did about 3 miles, which was quite enough because I didn't dress properly for the chilly day.

Henry found something interesting around a downed log. Probably a mouse or chipmunk trail. I let him dig for about 5 minutes and finally dragged him on when it became obvious he wasn't making any significant progress. It was the first time this fall that it was too cold for the chipmunks to be out scurrying around.