Jake the Triathlete

What a busy day Jake had on Tuesday! Jake's daddy is training Jake to ride with him while he bikes. It's a slow process so that Jake gets used to the running on asphalt without burning his little pads and my hubby gets used to Jake's body language. From the reports, Jake runs faster than hubby can peddle and might make a good sled dog instead. After a 15-minute bike practice, Jake went back to his favorite summer pastime of retrieving his water dummy from the still-cold Saluda River. Jake came home tired but we weren't done wearing him out yet!

Friends of ours got some mixed puppies (we're guessing German Shepherd/Lab mix) while on their honeymoon and needed to wear their tiny butts out. Jake was the perfect candidate for this job. Brigham and Tully were wobbling around the living room, chasing Jake's tail and trying to lick all the river water off Jake's coat. Jake would dive between the two puppies and roll upside down. They would pounce on him and begin licking the wet fur. Jake would spring up and whirl around and start all over. A brief potty break outside induced a serious case of the zoomies in Jake and the poor puppies were run over in his wake. Brigham was smart enough to hide between my feet. Jake was tired and the puppies were unconscious.

But wait! Jake's not done yet. On to his agility class where everyone noticed how much mellower Jake seemed to be. The teeter totter is still scary for Jake so it took a little coaxing and pampering to get him to cross it. Jake's giving me more focus these days but still loves to cheat on the jumps. We're introducing two jumps with two additional jumps going to the right and left. They are learning to follow us with other obstacles being around. Jake takes the first two jumps and runs straight for the treat. Why go the long way when you can run straight to the cheese? And then it was traveling plank time. Jake's daddy made him a super duper deluxe version with his logo and a carrying handle. It elicited oohs and aahs from the class. Jake is so distracted in class by everything and wasn't giving me his attention so I could show how improved he is at home. We headed for the A-frame to put into practice what we're learning on the plank. Jake almost didn't get the chance to try because of his earlier failures but he did his momma proud and nailed the contact every time. He's always loved the A-frame. A video camera was present for all of class this time and all of our embarrassing handler moments are now live and in color!

Cow Girls Kiss the Best

While we attended a wedding in Gatlinburg, Jake got to spend a few hours with his Nana in the mountains which meant MORE cows. The cow babies immediately came over to the fence to greet their favorite cattle dog. Let the kissing begin! Strangely enough, all of the adult cows started coming over to the fence. Soon we had the entire herd at the fence. They were pushing and shoving to sniff at Jake. Then the bull came to investigate why his entire harem was in this one spot. The fence started creaking and groaning from the weight of cow bodies so I figured it was time to call it a day. It was easy to bribe Jake away from the cows when we mentioned we were going to play in the river!

HyperDog Ball Launcher Revelation

Jake has never been interested in chasing tennis balls and definitely had no intentions of every bringing one back. We'd given up any hope of wearing him out just tossing a ball. My husband decided to try one last thing -- the HyperDog Ball Launcher (NFI). Amazingly enough, Jake began taking a sudden interest in chasing that ball down and bringing it down just in time to have a second ball launched. He's even taking the time to search in the ivy in the backyard to find them. I've happily used the ball launcher to wear his little spotted butt out.

Sooo, a hour before agility class last night, I opted to use a half hour of chasing the tennis balls to take a little steam off the top of his normal tornado energy. I brought him in out of the 83-degree outdoors to cool off before we drove to class. We began with the teeter totter and a new addition to the class, a black poodle named Amelia. Jake was pretty distracted by the addition of something resembling a small black sheep. I was fairly certain that Jake was going to be a holy terror all night since one of our former obedience instructors came to watch the class. I knew he was going to do awful things that she could report back to the other obedience teachers. I was wrong. Jake did the tabled teeter with little trepidation, ran a series of four curved jumps with no detours, and accomplished a jump/chute combo without barreling out in front of me. Our last obstacle set of the evening was the dreaded jump/curved tunnel/jump. Because the last jump was in front of the A-frame a target was used to keep the dogs from continuing on. Jake did really well the first three times and then we had a brief zoomie moment. Brief, I say, because it only consisted of three rounds around the yard before he came back to me and one of the teachers. We discussed some brief home strategies for taking the zoom out of his reaction to the tunnel. We ended the class with each of us demonstrating on the contact boards for our classmates. Jake wanted to go visit with the poodles after he completed the exercise two or three times. The exercise had become boring compared to the other dogs. I was so proud of Jake, though, for his behavior that we stopped for a grape slushee for me and a cup of ice for Jake from Sonic (NFI). He happily flopped down in his seat with his cup of ice between his paws. Once again I felt bolstered by signs of Jake's improvements. His focus was a little better, he had more control than just speed, and the zoomie incident was short-lived.

It Was Raining Cow Kisses

It's been a little difficult to keep up with Jake's blog since we've been out of town a lot this last month. We've had Jake at my in-laws' house for almost two weeks. We missed him terribly. After a trip to San Diego, I headed to my grandparents in the mountains of North Carolina. Jake was in tow and nervous that I was going to leave him somewhere. I made his day when we crossed the bridge and I whispered, "Jake, cows." He popped up in the seat and started whining to get out of the car. We headed straight for the fence once we parked in the driveway. It wasn't but a minute before all of the baby cows headed towards Jake. Jake laid down and waited. Soon there were eight baby cows at the fence. One even had milk dripping off her little face but Jake cleaned that right up for her! He'd lick a cow. The cow would lick him. He went right on down the line. Soon enough his old friend, the big strawberry cow with the white face, made her appearance at the fence to get in her kisses. Jake's head was one big slobbery mess but he was a happy cow dog. A quick trip into the cold mountain stream cleared up the cow spit and rinsed out Jake's mouth.