Chaos

This is what happens when I leave the greyhounds home with the husband.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cheeks of Steel

I recently noticed that Katie has giant, round cheeks. It dawned on me that she probably has very muscular jaws from chewing on two or three frozen, stuffed Kongs each day. Just look at the ripples in her cheeck below. This girl loves her Kongs. I have started stuffing them with kibble and oatmeal before freezing them. The oatmeal glues it all together and makes for a very stubborn Kong for a very efficient Kong destroyer.

Poopy Face

When I adopted Katie ten years ago, she had a raging bad habit of eating dog poop. Even on walks, she would dive for a pile from an unknown canine source. It was disgusting. She is the reason why we continue to muzzle our greyhounds. I was not going to have Katie wear a muzzle and not Travis. Then I got married and suddenly there were six greyhounds in the yard.... muzzling seemed like a good idea with so many. I know it seems so strange to non-greyhound people, but it is so nice not to worry about thin skin needing stitches when they are wrestling or get into a squabble.

Over the years, Katie's desire for poo diminished completely. For years, she was clean and sober.... until NOW! Like a ninety year old deciding to start smoking again... some bad habits die hard.

I do not believe most poop eating has anything to do with poor nutrition so no need to suggest miracle supplements. Katie is always HUNGRY. At the racetrack she was probably bored and hungry in the turnout one day. Gave poop a try and liked it. Once they start, it is a hard habit to break.

Uh, There Is Something In Your Teeth

Recently, I looked down and saw that Katie had a piece of chicken stuck between her front teeth. It had been there for a few hours. Poor dog had given up on trying to get it herself. I had to use tweezers to dislodge it. Kind of gross! Happy Friday!

Act Your Age

Katie is keeping fit and staying 11 years young. Such a funny girl!

Miss Manners

Ladies keep their knees together!

Katie was never a pretty sitter, but she could sit forever. The 3 minute sit stays with the handler out of sight from the dog in Open obedience competition was never a problem for Katie.

I promise to do a Riley post soon! She and I have been busy training.

Lab Puppy

My friend, Carol, got a new lab puppy just before Christmas. He flew in from Dallas, Texas. He comes from excellent performance lines which is very important because Carol trains and competes in obedience, agility, and field trials.

Katie, with her excellent social skills, shared some of her wisdom with the little Comet.

On a side note, this is also an excellent picture illustrating Katie's neurological weakness from the Fibrocartilaginous Emboli. The left hind leg just does not provide 100% support like it used to therefore her rear swings left and even when walking her spine is usually curved with the rear traveling left.

"Look, I am playing with the puppy."

"OK, I'm done playing with the puppy."

"Don't come any closer."

"Don't touch that."

"Mom, are you going to help me here?"

"Seriously, I have had enough of you."

Don't worry... no puppies were harmed. Katie is awesome. :-)

Valedictorian

And last, but not least, Katie would be the valedictorian in high school. Intelligent, hard working, and motivated, Katie would graduate head of her class.

Katie would be any parent's dream. She would keep her room clean, help around the house, and do anything asked of her.





She would be involved in lots of extra-curricular activities. Katie would be a team player and very good at sports.

She would be a wonderful older sister......

And a wonderful younger sister as well.

Just the most perfect, wonderful greyhound ever.

Stuck In Bed

I woke up this morning to find Katie stuck in bed.... literally. She was unusually polite for a morning of sleeping in. When I got out of bed, I found that she had poked her head through a torn blanket that had a hole perfectly sized for a greyhound head and neck. No doubt she was snuggly warm.

Closet Space

Just Stacker and Katie sharing some closet space. One of these days I will introduce "his" dogs to you. I just find myself with too much to write about my own. Stephen and I do not have any "our" dogs. Just "his" and "hers".

Hats

My local greyhound adoption group's calendar theme for 2009 is greyhounds and hats. I didn't want to send in a bunch of boring hat pictures so we "played" around with the idea. These were my favorites.

Reagan refuses to wear a hat. "Take that!" she says.

Reagan shows the hat who is boss!

Reagan says that Katie isn't the only greyhound who can fetch a hat.

An Asshat?

Katie likes to show off her talent for holding things in her mouth. "That'll be 3 salmon treats, Mom."

Riley enjoyed her new toy!

The First Time

Well, the name Wylie isn't working out very well. It does not roll off my tongue easily and most people think I am saying Riley when they hear it. So we are changing her name to Riley.

Riley enjoyed her first chicken back today. I usually wait for a weekend, so I can supervise how they are doing throughout the day.



Reagan got her first "ou-wee" doing agility today. She jumped from too far back and misjudged what she was doing. She crashed and fell into the metal standard. She was a trooper. She walked it off and got back to work.





I try to be very careful about how I react when the dogs crash and burn. Even if they are limping momentarily or have some scrapes, I just tell them how awesome that was and give them a bunch of treats. Agility usually isn't dangerous, but occasionally you will have a mishap. I have seen people react really dramatic and concerned. I think when your dog is thinking "Yikes, what just happened? Ouch, that hurt a little." And the human follows up with "OMIGOD, ARE YOU SERIOUSLY HURT!!! OH, MY POOR BABY!!!" that you start to validate that something really awful did happen. It can make the dog afraid of the obstacle and it can take a very long time to correct a bad experience. Reagan bounced right back and did great.



I am retraining some of the steps to the weave poles. Last time, I taught Travis and Katie to weave and then taught them how to enter the poles. If weaving wasn't hard enough, poles must be entered with the first pole on the dog's left, 2nd pole on the dog's right. Reagan was not catching on, so I have opened them back up to about 4 inches apart and have added mesh guides to funnel her in correctly. Now we are working from a variety of angles and she is doing great.


I am also trying to make training with Reagan's meals easier. Raw food is difficult to work with since it is messy and not healthy for humans. She also finds it difficult to think straight and has a hard time concentrating with chicken in sight. I am working with Reagan on easy exercises and teaching her that she must work with ME if she wants ME to give her a chicken back or neck. In the picture below left, she is staring at the chicken back. When she finally looks back at me and gives me eye contact for a few seconds (below right), I tell her "jackpot". "Jackpot" is the word I am using to tell Reagan she has earned a chicken back or neck.



















Riley still needs to learn to use those big ears. She can be lured with food into a sit and down. She is making good eye contact with me. She seems to catch on quickly that doing this or that earns treats, but I'm not sure that she realizes the clicker is marking what earns the treats. I am also teaching her name. Since she is not inclined to respond to it, I only say it when she is looking at me and I have a treat ready.



I am going to make a valid effort this weekend to introduce Riley to the house. Her house time as been very restricted because she is quick to put her feet up on counters and tables, she is a chewer, and she is very excitable and scrambles across the hardwood floors. Keep in mind that I have noticed all of this while she is on leash or supervised and gated in a small room. I cleaned the house and picked up the clutter, so I think it is ready to meet Riley. She is going to need a lot of supervising.

And Katie says this is the first time she has ever been asked to fetch a hat. She says "Whatever, just give me a treat for it."

Dreams

Happy Dreams!


















Its hard to sleep with a vibrating pillow.

WHY? Part 3

Why does Katie stand up, turn around, and change her postion everytime we start the van and begin driving? Can't she do it when we are stopped and she doesn't lose her balance?

She Really Is a Useful Utility Dog!

OK, I know that my blog post titled "Useful Utility Dog" was contrived and a bit fabricated, but Katie really proved herself today. I have towels laying at the back door to minimize the dirt that the dogs track into the house. I had gathered them up and was standing on the patio shaking off the towels. Reagan and Travis thought it would be fun to get involved and to tug on the towels. Well, Travis ended up taking one of the towels out into the yard and didn't bother to bring it back. I was barefoot and didn't really want to walk through the pott yard to get it, so I asked Katie to get it for me and she did! It was clumsy because she kept stepping on it and then Reagan thought she should get involved. Katie didn't appreciate that. But my super duper utility greyhound brought that towel to me. I quickly ushered her into the house for a food reward. Since it was so cute and I was so proud of her, I recreated the situation and threw the towel back into the yard so I could video her. So here it is, my very useful utility greyhound.

Weirdo

Katie is a little weirdo. She will curl up, tuck her nose under a front leg, and lick her arm pit area.

It is very strange. She will go into this little trance and licks for a period of time unless we stop her. I usually will stop her because I hate the sound of dogs licking and she leaves a huge wet spot on the dog bed. She has never licked for so long that she has left a hot spot or damaged the skin in anyway.

I guess if she was living a couch potato life she might tend to do it more frequently out of sheer bordom and create hot spots. Has anyone ever seen this?

I have given up on the idea that Katie will every learn to track. Its

just too frustrating. There aren't enough years in my life (and certainly not hers) to give us enough time to explain the concept. Maybe some dogs are just better at distinguishing smells than others even amongst individuals of the same breed. For now, we just walk around in the fields after the other dogs have tracked.

Just Mean!

What's this? A toy?

Time elapsed - approximately 2 minutes.