Round 2, Class 5

So I had this theory that if I wore Jake out before agility class, he would be less likely to suffer from an attack of the zoomies when off his lead. (Actually, he enjoys the zoomies -- I'm the one suffering). My husband got off early from work and we headed to Harbison State Forest. The forest has a walking trail that we use to exhaust Jake. One of us will run ahead and the other holds Jake, who is shrieking some crazy noise he reserves for "Hey, wait for me! I want to run, too!" Whoever runs ahead yells, "Come, Jake!" and Jake takes off flying. He runs legs stretched completely out, low to ground, and ears laid back for better aerodynamics. He can really run fast! He runs quietly until he reaches the person at the other end and then starts making holy hell. There's always big piles of pine needles from where he tried to apply the brakes to stop. Then Jake gets sent back to the other person which he doesn't do quite as enthusiastically since he didn't see any running on the human's part. We repeat this often along the trail and normally by the end he's so tired he just lays down. We headed home and I kept Jake busy for the next two hours -- no napping for Jake.

My theory was just that -- a theory. Our first set of jumps at class resulted in Jake hurtling himself around the yard and drive-by taunting the other dogs, especially his gal pal German Shepherd who wants to join in the chase so badly. I was mortified. I think my embarrassment is growing each time he zooms. It's so unfair to the other dogs and their owners. I kept Jake in an enforced down-stay until he was his turn at the dogwalk. When we headed for the dogwalk, I suggested we leave Jake on his lead and I would just do my best to sprint quickly. I didn't have to worry because the motion of the dogwalk scared him enough that he didn't have the confidence of the jump sequence he had done so well. Jake would run next to the walk so we'd have to coax him to jump onto the middle and run the rest of the way. We were able to get him to run the full length the last go and rewarded him well. Then there was the A-frame with two jumps preceding it. For good measure and to make sure Jake knew what was expected of him, we did one jump first. No problem so we added the second jump and the only problem was me keeping up with him! I like that problem. The chute and the weave poles went very smoothly and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. One of our new gameplans for the evening worked very well. We decided that telling Jake that it was his turn next always whipped him into a frenzy so they called my name, cattle dog, J-dog, anything, to not say his name directly. Believe it or not, it does work! I had brought his favorite fleece tug along in hopes that it would help in recapturing him during the zoomies so I did take Jake over to a far corner of the yard and played some tug with him to try to help release some of the inner play demons of his. The only thing that totally captured his attention all night was my chocolate chip cookie that a classmate brought to share and, of course, he couldn't have it! When the instructors asked if everyone would be signing up for Round 3, I was delighted to hear that everyone would be returning and that we hadn't been kicked out of the class yet!

Jakercise

Jake was so excited about agility tonight that when he saw me pack his bag and set it down in the dining room, he dragged the backpack to the front door and wouldn't budge. He began doing his best excited howling at the door and kept it up for a half hour until I grabbed my keys and his leash.

I just got back from agility and managed to make it through the class without a wet bottom. When we pulled up, the previous class was leaving. One of our obedience teachers was leaving with her Miniature Schnauzer, Capone, and she said, "That class just about killed me." Two other doggy parents leaving with their Corgis said, "Hope you have a better class than we did." On that note, I was a little nervous heading in.

We were adding a jump to the other obstacles, like the A-frame and the tunnel. The Boxer in the class enthusiastically ran over the lady who baits with treats at the end of the A-frame. She looked like she was playing football as she lowered her head and plowed into the poor lady. The dogwalk brought out all kinds of interesting canine interpretations. Tonight was the first night that the dogs ran the whole length of the walk. Some couldn't understand why they didn't need to jump on the table first (like they have done since day one) and would make some wild detours to include the table in the obstacle. Jake went flying along the walk and I ran alongside him and it was our best obstacle all night. I was so proud.

THEN we did the curved tunnel. I'm sure I mentioned how disastrous the tunnel was last week. This week was no different. Jake used this tunnel as an opportunity to drive-by run at all the other dogs (once again violating his favorite NO-CONTACT rule). He did this not once but twice. We had to take the jump totally out of the equation and have someone immediately stand in the opening on both ends, since he can switch direction in the tunnel at full steam. Catching him even with your body totally in the opening was still a challenge and he escaped twice. We actually had to have a brief powwow at the end of class to discuss options for catching Jake's attention when he goes zooming around.

We've been home about ten minutes and Jake is still zooming up and down the stairs while I type this, switching between his new monkey and a sock he's stolen from Joe's laundry bucket. It's like he's possessed by the Fisher Price Demon ("Must PLAY!")and can't stop running. Actually he just fell down on my feet, tongue lolling out and extremely happy with himself. Ah, the life of an agility fanatic!

Still in Training
Yup, that's us. We're the pair still taking baby steps. Jake's second set of agility classes began last week. I'm still not sure what to do with my arms and legs and head, etc., while Jake always does things at full speed. Last week went well, though. Jake does a fantastic job of leaving his back feet on the safety zones, never losing his balance, and clearing those jumps cleanly. A classmate of ours got a great picture of Jake jumping and I can't wait to get the file from him so I can share with everyone.

Then Jake planted me on my rearend in the wet leaves at agility class tonight. He was determined to be the class clown tonight and did a stellar job of it. He got the zoomies doing a curved jump series and did an amazing job of drive-by zooming every dog in the class (I'm sure I mentioned the no-dog-interaction rule before) and still managing to complete his run through the jumps several times, backwards and forwards, before we were able to get his attention with some cheese. His second round of zoomies hit doing a curved tunnel and he kept using the tunnel as his banking run. You'd think you could just stand at the other end of the tunnel and catch him but NO. And, fortunately for the other dog parents, this looked
like such great fun that some of the dogs repeated exactly what Jake did. The Golden Retriever was the only one to shake things up a little by trying to swallow the target and her treat whole. And then there were the weave poles. Jake spun around me in his excitement, wrapped that leash tight around my legs and twisted around. Our instructor is always telling us not to "bowl" your dog (in other words, throw your dog at the obstacle) but I don't think anyone explained to Jake not to bowl with his Mommy.

The Christmas Crazies

I'm not even sure where to begin...hmm, how about almost four weeks ago? We packed up our car, filled every nook and cranny with Christmas presents and dog toys, and hit the highways of the South. My family is spread out everywhere and we had made a schedule which allowed us to see them all for the holidays. We headed to Chattanooga first. Rainy, nasty days awaited us but Jake can always find someone to play with in a household of small children, a Border Collie and my dad (aka The Man Who Will Never Grow Up). Jake always enjoys sleeping at the foot of our bed, part of a special treat for going out of town. And, of course, Jake's taken to sneaking up on anyone's sofa, as long as it looks like a comfy spot for a nap.

Jake found himself privileged to be allowed on the couch even more when he proved his usefulness in making my 5-month-old baby sister laugh. She's a tough little cookie to make giggle and Jake had the trick down pat. He would nose bonk her little hands and then when that got old he'd lick her ears. And just when it seemed that she had had enough, Jake would roll over upside down and let her slide her little hands over his belly. She kept her hands flat open on his fur and reveled in the softness (can't blame her since I don't it often myself). Even when she grabbed onto his jowls and tugged, Jake just enjoyed the attention. He looks like he's suffering from lack of attention, doesn't he?

As much as Jake likes to shred my tissue paper and steal tape while I wrap presents, I was sure that Christmas morning was going to be spent prying Santa paper, bows and gift bags from Jake's jaws. I was wrong, actually. Jake and his buddy Ian just watched from the outskirts of the present frenzy. Every once in a while Jake would get up to sniff some interesting present, only to be told, "No, Jake, no" by my three-year-old baby brother. Jake would go flop back on the wooden floors with a theatrical sigh. The only toy that seemed to bother him was a robotic dinosaur that was slowly making its way across the floor. Jake put himself between the toy and the babies and made sure it got nowhere near them.

And what more could a good cattle dog ask for but cows for Christmas? We headed next to Brevard where Jake got to spend two weeks staring intently at his cows. There were new ones to meet and his old favorite to lick. In my attempts at keeping Jake busy on the pouring rain days that hit us, I discovered just how awful smelling bullysticks are (for those of you who don't know what these are, you're better off not knowing) and just what a mess Jake could make with a rawhide wrapped in chicken jerky. I definitely had to pull out the vacuum before my mother saw that mess!

Jake did his usual job of rounding up everyone's socks for them, whether we wanted them rounded up or not. No one took me seriously when I said that Jake was a sock thief. Eight unmatched socks later, my parents started looking for their missing socks wherever Jake looked the guiltiest. Not to be outmanuevered, Jake took to sneaking work gloves just as easily. Jake only got caught because my mother noticed him laying on her WHITE couch.

And, just to make sure the holidays weren't dull, a pretty Golden Retriever found her way to my grandparents house and we took the wet, friendly dog in (she'd discovered the cow pasture stream). We called everywhere we could think of to leave messages about finding the dog. She obviously was loved, didn't have a matte in her flowing fur, and was as sweet as they come. Jake and his new friend played for hours in the basement. They rolled around, did some chest banging, and turned rag towels into new tug toys. About the time Jake was actually worn out, the owner called the house and came to get her girl, Gracie. Jake sure missed Gracie for the next two days before we headed home. Jake kept going to the garage door and pawing at it for me to let him in so he could find Gracie. Gracie's mommy even sent Jake some fabulous doggy biscuits, which made the best crumbs (have I mentioned what a messy eater Jake is?). Jake and I were glad to finally get home. The cats were happy to see their mommy, too, but not so thrilled to see that I still had the dog in tow.

Jake's Very Own Logo!

A fabulously talented graphic designer friend of mine created a logo just for Jake. We wanted to capture what was essentially Jake and incorporate his name. She used Jake's very own silhouette and included his Bentley and eye patch. One of my favorite parts is the little crest of hair on his chest. I asked my friend to also create a generic version of his logo (in both red and blue) for other ACD owners who might like the logo but didn't want Jake's name plastered across their chest. We're pondering what venue to use to allow everyone to share in Jake's logo. My husband and I already have T-shirts with Jake's logo on them and a handful of greeting cards and postcards to test out the logo. Today's the first chance I've had to wear my new shirt and I can only say that I look like a devoted president of the Jake Fan Club. (Note: In order to protect Jake's logo, I've had to post it at a very small resolution.)

I posted all three of the logos to the Cafepress website but haven't redesigned the logo yet for dark colored shirts. So for right now, grey, white and some various ringer colors are available. Click on the top banner below and it'll take you to the store: