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The fireplace is scary!!!

My parents frequently have a fire in the fireplace at their house. Dylan has never had a problem. I also had a gas fireplace at my old duplex. We used it often to heat up our basement. Dylan never thought it was scary.

Last winter, Dylan was scared of Paul's fireplace. For some reason fire inside of Paul's house is scary when it's not anywhere else. Dylan is an experienced camper and never had any issues with the campfire either.

Last winter we'd do some clicker training and eventually I got him retrieving a ball off the hearth when there was a fire going. He'd do okay as long as I didn't let him shut down too much before doing some c/t with him for working near the fire.

Last night we went to Paul's after fire. I was thrilled to see the fire crackling when we arrived. Dylan, however, was not happy. He decided that it was safest to hide under the dining room table as far away from the fire place as possible. I decided it was time to get the clicker out again. We used our homemade target stick to help Dylan gain some confidence around the fire. Dylan doesn't quite understand that he is supposed to touch the green end. I haven't been that picky when I used it in the past. As long as he touches the stick, he gets a click and a treat! It wasn't long before he was leaning over the hearth to touch the stick - right near the crackling fire. The rest of the evening, his tail was wagging! He avoids going too close to the fire but at least he isn't hiding! Guess we'll be working on this again this winter! Hopefully one of these days he will realize that the fireplace really isn't scary!!

We had fun!

Marley wants everyone to know how much fun she had at Tanner Park yesterday. We went with our TipTail friend and got to make some new friends from Resqtails too. Marley chased and played with muffit and was a super happy girl. We were happy to have Paul and Leon join us too!! I didn't get many good pics. It's hard to get good pics of dogs that are moving. But here are a few:


Some of our new sheltie friends:
Leon is such a happy boy!!

Twist and Zoe want treats!!!

It's not his leg...

I finally had Dylan in to have his leg checked for the second time. Turns out it is not his leg; but rather his right side of his body. Thermal imaging showed he has hot spots on his right shoulder and right hip. The Chiropractic treatment showed his sternum is pulling to one side. My vet said the muscles are tight and inflamed. Hopefully getting his spine back into alignment will help and I'll also be doing some new stretches with him to stretch out his spine. I love having a vet who is in tune with this stuff and understands the needs of a flyball dog! A regular vet was crazy if I had gone in and said I think there is something wrong with his leg but I'm not really sure!

He's been having a few issues with his box turn at practice. My new flyball club has a new and different training prop than he is used to. He's been turning really wide and doing some funky stuff when he gets up on that box. So my vet ordered that he not use it for a while - at least until we see if that helps him get better. He is fine without the training prop and does a great box turn consistently when it's not there so we might as well not use it. We can't race with a prop there anyway!

The Flyball Box is fun!!

Last Night we got together with our Friends Chase, Muffit, and Cynthia to do some work on the flyball box. They came to our house this time and it's great that they did. I cleaned all the walnuts but more fell during the day yesterday so we found a small patch of grass that was mostly clean of walnuts to work on.

I stole this pic of Muffit because I think he is so cute. I hope my friend doesn't care! He's a typical frantic border collie who at 5 years old had had no training. This is pretty normal for a border collie who doesn't get to work. Or at least that's been my experience. That's why it so important that people that get this breed - understand their need for work and mental stimulation.

All the new sights and sounds at our house were very distracting for him. I'm really glad he came over there though because he did really well. He had to take a few minutes to focus then go off and check things out. He also did some VERY nice box turns when he was there.

Dylan, Chase, and even Marley got to do some box work too! I was most impressed with Spicey Love Muffit though! He is coming along so well and I hope they know they are invited to come back and use my distracting yard anytime they want too!!

Time to see the vet!

I'm happy to say that we made it through the whole month of September without going to the vet! It's a miracle and I am nearly positive it's the first month this year that I have not been in a vets office with one of my dogs!

We are going in this afternoon though but at least it's October now. Dylan's going for a Chiropractic. They are having a special today and I have been wanting to take him in because he has been limping a little bit off and on.

So I get to take off from work early and take Dylan in to see the vet. I'm happy he is going in even though it's been a week and a half or so since I have noticed him limping!

Happy Dogs!

Just found this pic again and had to post it. Reminds me of last summer when I had Zip!!!