Tracking Is Tough On Marriage

Stephen and I did some tracking on Sunday with Reagan and Riley. This was the third session for the girls. It was very cold and windy. Stephen was not properly reading my mind :-) and it was frustrating being that it was bone chilling cold and I was trying to track a greyhound who is cold even in our climate controlled house (Reagan). I needed to get her moving and tracking ASAP. Of course, if I had bothered to give Stephen clear instructions before getting Reagan out of the van, it might have gone smoother and faster.

Here is one of Reagan's attempts. I am following the training plan in the book Enthusiastic Tracking. All in all, I think Reagan got the short end of the stick that day due to our poor planning.

Like I said, it was very windy. We laid the tracks into the wind as suggested, but she still did a lot of casting from side to side.

I think Riley did a little better for Stephen. It probably helped that I was laying the tracks I wanted myself.

Anyone with tracking experience, please feel free to comment. I do not know what I am doing. :-)

Clockwork

Here is another doodle for training fronts. You click and treat when the dog is positioned straight in front of you. Ideally, you spit out treats, but in this clip I am feeding from my hand because it was something I did not want in my mouth. :-P You then pivot as if you are standing on a clock face. Starting at 12:00, you then pivot to 2:00 or to 10:00. You click and treat when the dog moves over (especially the rear end) and regains a straight front position.

I thought Reagan was especially cute at the end when she starts to wag her tail when it became clear to her what was right. I have had an unexpected consequence though. Reagan has since then started to think I was rewarding her for swinging her rear end back and forth, so she started to offer lots of back and forth moving. I am now rewarding her for moving into a still, straight, and front position and she is getting the idea.

Amazing Greyhound

Some folks were aware of the training potential of greyhounds even years ago. This is a video of Jay Sisler and his amazing dogs. He is most famous for his Australian Shepherds and is a well known figure amongst Aussie fans as he was important to the breed. He and his dogs performed an incredible show. The Aussies in this video are very well trained and are able to do tricks I would not have thought are possible. Now for my greyhound fans, after 4 minutes, a greyhound makes an appearance in the show for a couple of minutes. The greyhound is a huge jumper and does some astonishing tricks.

Weekend Agility

Last weekend, I had the luxury of having a friend available to video Riley and Reagan's agility practice.

Here is Riley working her way through a Jumpers course. For long jumping exercises, I reduce the jump height by a few inches since I'm more concerned with her crossing correctly and following directions. Otherwise, she is working at full height (24 inches) most of the time.

Here is Reagan doing the same course, but with weave poles. I really like this tiny, little greyhound.

My friend loaned me guide wires for all 12 weave poles. I think Riley is going to need guides in order to complete weave pole training, so I am excited to have them now. I have never used guide wires before, so this is new to me. My friend had been advised to gradually raise the height of the guide wires so they are eventually above the dog's head and at that point can be removed. That made perfect sense to me and worked well with Reagan the other day.

Am I Still a Vegetarian?

At the seminar last weekend, Kathryn was an advocate for keeping the treats in your mouth. The reason for this is that in formal obedience it is important for the dog to look at your face. The quickest way for your face to be worth looking at is to turn it into a cookie dispenser. Treats can then be given to the dog by spitting them out or by using your hand to take a treat from your mouth and hand it to your dog..... I have to admit that I am chuckling as I write this. I feel as though I am divulging a secret that only formal obedience trainers know. The rest of the world is so amazed that our dogs won't take their eyes off of us......... so now you know why. :-)


Here is Riley attempting to catch bits of cheese I am spitting out. You can see how it is a little slow going with her at times.... Snookums, don't get excited. I am still not giving her to you.

Well, at the seminar, I only had boiled chicken for Reagan. I was not willing to mess up her menu and give her cheese just yet. So I put boiled chicken my mouth and it was nasty. Since then I have also put Tyson grilled chicken strips in my mouth. That tasted much better, but cured any cravings I had. Occasionally, chicken smells good to me, but after tasting it again, it really did not excite my taste buds. Thank goodness, string cheese appears to be working for both hounds with no digestive upsets. Cheese is definitely the preferred treat for hiding in my mouth.

So am I still a vegetarian?

Get Close

On Sunday, Reagan and I attended a small, local seminar with Kathryn Willis. Kathryn has been training and competing in Dog Obedience for 15 years. Her Golden Retrievers have been nationally ranked for the last five years and have qualified for five National Obedience Invitationals. Kathryn has earned 3 Obedience Trial Championships, a perfect score of 200, over 50 High in Trials, and over 50 High Combined awards..... and best of all, Kathryn uses clicker training.

The seminar focused mostly on teaching the dog that he/she has a rear end, how to move the rear end, and where the rear end should be (something Riley, pictured above, needs a lot of help with). The difference between a nice obedience performance and a great obedience performance often comes down to straight fronts and finishes and a good heel position. With 4 legs, its easy to forget where the rear is and to let it drift off to the side. Kathryn taught us several "doodles" to help explain the rear end to the dog.

The first "doodle" (shown below) is teaching the dog to move into heel position or "get close" (dog is parallel to handler's left side). I have always been in a bad habit of asking my greyhound to sit and then positioning myself parallel to my dog (except with Katie, somehow I managed to explain to her how to move her rear end). With finishes (dog returns to heel position and sits next to the handler at the end of each exercise), it was always hit or miss. I would get credit for my dog's effort at finishing, but would lose points for the sit not being parallel or straight.

This is not the most interesting video clip, but I have to say I was quite thrilled to see how just twisting my hand with a treat and stepping back with my left foot encouraged my dog to move her rear into a more parallel position. You start by clicking and treating just a small side step, but eventually require a move into correct heel position.

S.L.O.P.

Here is the latest S.L.O.P. (Superior Life Optimizing Pudding) or veggie mix recipe. Because I am keeping a food diary for Reagan, I wanted the mix to contain vegetables and fruits only. Normally, I will add meat, yogurt, eggs, or cottage cheese, for example, to improve the taste. However, this time I wanted it to be purely vegetarian so I would have less variables to contend with. Garlic is always a great additive. The dogs seem to love the taste and smell. I also avoided items like radishes and bell peppers and added more fruits.

This mix is also a great example of using what you already have. I had frozen green beans and peas that were leftover from making vegetable soup this winter. I am also on a strawberry kick, so I generously cut the tops off for the hounds. In addition, I added carrots, parsley, kale, spinach, tomatoes, apples, a kiwi, and a garlic clove.

For more S.L.O.P recipes, click on the following:

Holiday S.L.O.P.

Saturday's S.L.O.P.

S.L.O.P.

Lastly, please vote for Katie in the Bissell photo contest if you have not already. You can only vote once. The contest ends on Tuesday, I believe. If you are not shy, please forward to your friends. I greatly appreciate it.

I promise to get back to some training posts! I attended an obedience seminar today, so I am really excited about working on what we learned.

Dear Diary

I need to complain. Reagan continues to have digestive troubles. Yesterday she had a digestive blow out in her crate..... poor dog :-( and there is nothing like walking in through the front door after a long day at work only to be hit with a horrible stink. All of you dog lovers probably know what I mean.

Greyhounds by nature, genetics, or whatever seem to have sensitive digestive systems. A friend recently joked that she had heard someone say that the greyhound was the only breed of dog that could poop more than it ate...... isn't that the truth.

Some greyhounds have more problems than others. Travis was one of those rare greyhounds who could eat anything with no problems. In the past, I have always cured my greyhound digestive woes with raw food.

For example, I rarely feed foster greyhounds raw food, but Smithy the foster did not do well on kibble at all. He had all of the digestive problems you can imagine and was losing weight fast. One day, exasperated with my kibble options, I gave Smithy a turkey neck. I hurried home at lunch time expecting a blow out, but Smithy was fine. In fact, Smithy was perfect. I continued to feed Smithy raw food and he continued to thrive and his digestive problems were gone instantly. It was amazing.

I have fed 9 of my own personal greyhounds raw food with excellent results with the exception of Reagan. She is very inconsistent. Sometimes perfect and sometimes NOT. So I am going to finally get to the bottom of her issue and determine the cause. I am going to limit the variety of food especially with training treats and keep a diary of all the "ins" and "outs". I think its possible that she is perfectly fine eating raw food, but some of the treats I use in training may not be agreeing with her. I hope I can get this figured out.

Big Girl Now

I am pleased to report that Reagan is now doing weave poles like they are suppose to be done. I have closed all 12 completely. No offset poles. No "V's". I have guides on the last 6 just to make sure she finishes, but she has been entering them perfectly and smoothly finishing through the guides. She looks great. Its funny how it will suddenly click. They look as though they will never get it and then one day they do. Now we just need to practice and build the muscle memory.

So for those who ask when I will finally enter Reagan in a trial. I think I am aiming for September. I would prefer to stay close to home for the first few trials (in case we bomb :-) and we don't have any local trials in Georgia during the summer. Six more months gives us time to really put it all together and attend some agility run-thrus for practice. I also need to get her spayed and recorded with the AKC so she is eligible to compete. Plus she is not even two years old yet! There is no rush.

Tails From The Deep

The girls all had swimming again this weekend. We had to torture Katie with a van ride. The swimming is just so good for her. Its such a safe way to tire her out without the risk of injury.
The weather was perfect.... clear and 70 degrees F. Eva had removed the plastic bubble that surrounds the heated pool in winter. Great for swimming and picture taking (thanks, Stephen).

Both Reagan and Riley swim with a lot of force. It reminds me of Travis. He would swim so hard to get to his bumper as fast as he could. I don't think Reagan and Riley realize that they can relax and swim.

Sometimes Reagan just can't look :-). So dramatic!

Both are rough with my fingers. I have to be careful not to lose any.

Swimming is hard work.... taking a break with Eva.

All in all, I'm very pleased with how well all of the girls are swimming.

Lions, Tigers, and Vans, Oh My!

I really am sad to say that Katie has full blown anxiety about riding in vehicles. The new van has a well established pattern at this point. We thought she was doing well riding in Stephen's car, but recently started to show similar signs of anxiousness.


As soon as the vehicle (especially our new van) begins to move, she begins panting, shaking, and refuses food. I wish I knew what she is afraid of. Does it produce an uncomfortable sound (I'm thinking no, now that she has showing problems with other vehicles)? Do the bumps in the road scare her? What is it? What makes a 10 year old greyhound suddenly fear her second home? The van used to be a means to all the fun stuff we do, a safe place to rest, and a comfortable way to travel.


I have tried placing her in a big crate, a small crate, and in different locations in the van. I have tried letting her ride loose. I have tried giving special treats and stuffed Kongs during the ride, but she will not touch them until the ride is over. I have tried giving her an herbal supplement with calming properties to no avail.


Katie's first thyroid test was slightly low, but a second test result came back as not low thyroid. The vet humored me and let me try treating her for low thyroid anyway, but it had no effect. She has had acupuncture again and appears to be free of any pain or physical problems.


I never thought I would leave her behind, but I have started to. I try to pick her trips wisely. Minimize the drive time and maximize the exercise, play, and work time. Stephen has been great about taking her hiking with his greyhounds which is a short drive away. I never thought she would stand for me to leave her behind, but she almost appears relieved as I walk out the door without her now.

Greyhound Puppy Fix

For the greyhound folks who never get to see greyhound puppies, here is a blog documenting the progress of a litter of AKC show greyhounds born a few months ago.

The pups were born to a friend's (Helen Hamilton) greyhound, SBIS CH Aryal Aroi Stoney Ridge RE TD NAJ SC (aka Lyric). The father is Ch Aragon Silver Cloud CDX TDX (aka Merlin). He actually passed away several years ago.

Helen and I have corresponded via email for a few years now. I finally met Helen and her 2 show greyhounds, Lyric and Whisper, in person when we were in California for the AKC Invitational, December 2007. Helen competed Lyric in conformation and I competed Travis in agility.

Lyric and Merlin have/had both beauty and brains (Lyric is the fawn in the background in the picture below). She is a conformation champion and has won Best in Show at a Greyhound Specialty (in other words, against lots of greyhound competition). She also has a Tracking Dog title (I'm so jealous of that:-), Rally Obedience titles, a Novice Agility Jumper title (more agility titles to come, I am sure), and a Senior Courser title. Merlin was also a conformation champion and earned his Companion Dog Excellent title in obedience and his Tracking Dog Excellent title (very impressive). Merlin and Lyric have also won High in Trial (highest score) in obedience at greyhound specialties.

I love when breeders try to adhere to the breed standard without sacrificing brains, athleticism, and performance. Both parents of this litter are very accomplished.

Hiking with Greyhounds

Last Friday, Stephen and I took a day off from work and went on a "staycation". We were recently planning a weekend trip of hiking and staying at a Bed & Breakfast. When we started adding up the figures and it was just too expensive to go, so we decided to take a day off for a "staycation".
We headed up to Amicalola Falls in north Georgia for a 10 mile hike. I am not sure if I have ever hiked 10 miles before. We took Reagan and Riley along. We thought that maybe... just maybe... they would come home tired.
We found a vomiting log..... well the sap that had been pouring out of it was frozen.

We also found a flag.

I let Stephen hold Riley's leash for a while, but the novelty wore off and he gave her back to me.
Despite 10 miles, this is how Riley and Reagan looked during the last mile..... not very tired at all and still leading the way. Stephen and I decided it was about 2 miles too long for us in one day.All in all, we had a fun day away from work and burned lots of calories. Reagan was still a pain in the butt when we got home. She strolled around the house licking dog beds, crates, and floors and drinking too much water.