For all of you who have seen Jake going kamakaze in the Congaree River video from Memorial Day weekend, I thought you might like to see the video of Jake's first time in the water. We were at Folly Beach and Jake was six months old. We were playing with his new water dummy in a tidal pool.

Jake's First Jolly Ball

We ordered Jake one of the 10-inch Jolly Balls since he loves the soccer ball so much but it wasn't made to stand up to dog teeth and claws.



Attack!


I just can't seem to get my mouth around this thing!


I like this ball, Mom!

The Bucking Bronco Takes a Break

We left the Bucking Bronco at home this week and instead Jake the Amazing Agility Dog was at my side. Of course, I came armed with a new treat this week -- itty bitty chicken pieces from our dinner the night before. Our first obstacle set for the night was the biggest Jake had ever attempted -- A-frame, tunnel, 2 jumps and then the tire. We planted one of our teachers at the exit of the tunnel with the chicken. Jake scrambled up that A-frame, hit his 2-on-2off pose beautifully at the bottom, and then headed into the tunnel at the slowest trot I have ever seen him use. Mid-tunnel, it must have kicked in that he was in the tunnel and he came zooming out, only to put on extreme brakes when he smelled that chicken. Jake repeated his calm performance twice more, all for the sake of that chicken. The jump and high dogwalk combo was done with a bit of trepidation on Jake's part but by the last repeat the confidence was starting to appear. The teeter totter was a great success with Jake leaping onto the platform himself and not even noticing the slight bang on the other end. The chicken was really working. Jake started to go a little crazy when we began the jump/chute set. He was so proud of himself that he was running to the jump backwards while I'm struggling to hang onto his collar. I was really proud of Jake tonight for not zooming even once. Chicken may be on the menu every Tuesday night if it produces such good behavior.

Our classmates:
Gracie the Golden Retriever taking the jump

Buttons the Boxer showing no fear on the teeter totter

Cosmo the English Cocker Spaniel zipping through the tunnel

River Song by JakeJake LOVES the river. You never accidentally say "river" in Jake's hearing. You use such euphemisms as "the R word" and "that place that is very wet". He goes absolutely bonkers when we pull out his lifejacket and his water dummy, the Ruffwear Lunker (NFI, by now we should have taken out stock in that company). He bounces around in the car and sings a really high shrieky song the whole way. [Click on the picture once to play video]



We took Jake down to the river. The river and the riverwalk were very crowded with people enjoying kayaking down the whitewater or families taking a nice stroll. Jake's normal fan club of just a handful of people expanded to ten to twenty clapping, impressed bystanders.

The river sounds really loud where I was standing because we're under the bridge and it amplifies the noise. (You should hear Jake bark under there -- he scares himself!) Listen to the people clapping on the riverwalk behind us. Jake always cheats by finding every rock he can on the way to get the dummy and on the way back. Even if you can't see Jake, you can see his big ears! [Click on picture once to start video]

Jake the Bucking Bronco

Some of you know how I secretly (well, not so secretly) dread Jake dissolving into the zoomies in our agility classes. We've gone several weeks without an incident and I was starting to breathe again. But for some reason, when I packed up all of our training stuff in the car on Tuesday night, I accidentally packed up Jake the Bucking Bronco aka Crazy Dog instead of Jake the Amazing Agility Dog.

Jake is always a little unsure of the teeter totter but managed to shake out a little confidence on the last two runs and didn't even seem to notice the motion of the teeter. Then we headed to one of Jake's favorites, the A-frame. I'm still learning to incorporate the clicker into this obstacle with some pretty wierd results on my part. Jake's daddy was bribed into attending the class and taking photos for me. His one complaint was how fast Jake was moving. The teeter pictures were so blurry that I won't bother posting them here. The A-frame was just slightly better:



My husband was eating cheese and drinking a glass of wine while we forged ahead on the new tall dogwalk. Jake did really well as long as I was confidently running next to him. And where you ask was the Bucking Bronco? Why, in the chute, of course, with Zoomie #1 and #2:



The chute was just the beginning of the obstacle set (we always backstep with Jake through multiple obstacles). Theoretically, Jake was to go over a jump, into the curved tunnel, over a jump and through the chute. For whatever reason, the tunnel just sends him over the top and into Zoomie #3 and #4:



I left the red-eye in because it just so matched his state of mind. One teacher said, "Wow, is he buckwild tonight or what?", followed shortly by a "Are you breathing?" directed at me. Probably not. Jake got put in a time out in a kennel while the other dogs completed their turn on this set. We took Jake back out and used several treat targets along the route to end on a positive note. Jake was good to his mommy on those last two tries:



Strangely enough, Jake was completely pooped and unconscious on the ride home.

Check out my Slide Show!

"You can't catch me, evil red dog, I'm the BLUR!"

Curry & Jake playing in the creek

CACDC May Fun Day 2007

This Saturday our Carolina ACD Club had its annual May Fun Day (minus a match) on a lovely farm in North Carolina. A friend of ours rode up with us with her red boy Curry and her blue boy Diesel. Amazingly, the two-hour ride up was not as chaotic as you would imagine. Jake has been showing more and more maturity these days so besides the initial bonk-and-greet when the other two ACDs got in the car, the ride was fairly quiet. Every once in a while Curry would stick his head into the front seats and plant a really wet kiss right up my nose. I will always accept extra kisses!

Upon arriving we headed to the river across some hay pastures and past a few cows with Jake's new Belgian Malinois friend Eno. Jake was loping around in lazy circles trying to get his leggy friend to give him chase. Every once in a while Jake would get a little too lazy and Eno would make his squeak. We finally made it to the river and Jake gave us just enough focus for a few tosses of his water dummy. Eno's mommy didn't want to have to deal with 90 pounds of wet dog so Eno got a lesson in self-denial instead. It wasn't long before we were back on our way to the picnic area with Eno and his prize stick and Jake playing some more chase games with Mommy and Daddy. Have I mentioned that Jake has been off lead the whole time? Jake stayed close by and came whenever we called so we gave him that limited responsibility.

Jake, of course, was not worn out by any means at this point. Jake began a great game of chase with Curry, scrambling over logs and diving into the creek at the last minute. Curry, who wasn't so sure about the purpose of getting in the water, left the splashing to Jake. And when Curry got tired, Jake switched to playing soccer with the human children at the event.

And last but not least was the Hot Dog Bobbing Contest! Peachy started the game off with a splash...



but was no match for Dally, who gobbled down an amazing 30 hot dog pieces in one minute!



All of the furry kids had a go at the water dish loaded with hot dog pieces. Some decided the state of their fur was far more important than getting wet. Some gave it a valiant effort. The most surprising contestant was Jake himself! Jake spit out the last hot dog he tried so I wasn't expecting anything but a random lick at the hot dog water. No, sir, my speckled boy dove in and ate 14 pieces. Not too shabby for the first time he's ever eaten a hot dog.



My favorite picture is of dear Posey, of course. Nothing could convince her to stick her head in that nasty water and her face was priceless:



Tanna, the Hot Dog Queen, was made to go last to defend her title that she won at the Holiday Match. Tanna tied Dally for the 30 pieces and a tie-breaker round ensued. Tanna beat Dally by a whole two seconds and the coveted squeaky hedgehog was hers!



We had to dunk Jake into the creek again in hopes of making Jake's Bentley mark even vaguely white again. Instead we took home an orange and blue dog! That red clay will take several washes to get out of his fur. The rain began to fall a little as we headed home and it was hard to stay awake in the car with all those snoozing cattle dogs. Curry still found the energy to give me a few backseat kisses on the way home!

Check out my Guestbook!

From Cracker Boxes to Real Jumps

Who would have guessed that our chubby little spotted piglet would have turned into a lean agility machine? We should have known when he scaled those Cheese-It(NFI) and cereal boxes we got from Sam's Club(NFI) when he was only ten weeks old. We had already read every cattle dog book we could get our hands on so we had a pretty good idea that we wanted to do something with Jake to keep him exercised because "A Good Cattle Dog is a Tired Cattle Dog". Through many an agility class I have held my breath (literally) and prayed that Jake would find it deep inside himself to help me out a little so we could make a honest go of this dog sport. Tonight he gave it to me. I can't begin to tell you how proud I am of him. He may not have nailed every obstacle with 100% accuracy but he was brave on the banging teeter totter and shaking dog walk, he slithered through the weave poles, and he raced for that tunnel and left it without zooming (we did have one incident of the most incredible zooming INSIDE the tunnel). We instituted throwing the bait bag for Jake to head off any thoughts of zooming and only had him steal it once. He headed straight for the tunnel with that bright red bag and hunkered down with his new treasure. We humans had to think a little smarter for next time so we attached a leash to the bait bag just in case we needed to stomp on to prevent future hoarding. Jake was not alone in this wonderful display of canine enthusiasm tonight. His classmates -- Gracie the Golden Retriever and Buttons the Boxer -- were also doing their parents proud. It's so amazing to see these dogs who wouldn't even go near the obstacles during our first classes now whimpering and pulling to get on those same obstacles. Their body language shows just how much they enjoy being there. I can't help but be proud for Gracie and Buttons, too, knowing what I've gone through with Jake to get to tonight's class. Jake rode home in my lap tonight with his whole body pressed against me as hard as he could. I know he sensed how proud I was. I even stopped and got him some TCBY frozen vanilla yogurt to celebrate. He only got a big spoonful since he had so many treats in class and the rest went in the freezer. I feel like I can breath a little easier. Next week we have a little break while our instructors attend an agility seminar and then it's back to practicing!

I Need Air, Dad!

Jake presses his nose against the air-conditioning vent as hard as he can when he's hot or we're passing a stinky something. He uses your knee like a person dogrest. His eyes narrow to mere slits and he seems to really enjoy just smelling. Here he is on my husband's knee, inhaling deeply. He likes the air best when we drive by a cow pasture or a pungent chicken factory.

May Fancy Dress Photo Contest

So the AuCaDo forum is having a cross-dressing fancy dress photo contest. I tell my husband I'm going to enter the contest but have to figure out a costumer for Jake. My husband responds that Jake is a MAN'S dog and I can't do that to him. To which I responded, "Jake is totally my dog and the least time I checked I'm not a man." A quick trip to the Dollar Tree (NFI) got me a few little girl's dress up items. Jake didn't fuss over the boa or the high-heeled shoes but did want those sunglasses off so I had to bribe him off-camera with a big porkskin bone. It worked well and I only asked him to sit still for four pictures. Now let's see if we win!

Camping with Dad

Jake went on his first camping trip in the mountains of NC. We weren't sure how Jake would react being somewhere strange without his mommy nearby for a whole weekend. I was going to be staying at my mother's, which wasn't far from the campsite. Once their campsite was set up, Jake made friends with an Australian Shepherd named Porter at a neighboring campsite. Apparently Porter likes to play rough like Jake so they had a blast. They were getting so tangled up in the leads that both of their daddies decided to take them off.....so a few minutes later both of their daddies were chasing after their dogs! My husband reported that Jake responded to a DOWN and he caught him easily. Jake was a little uneasy being in the tent when they went to bed and kept circling the whole tent. He eventually laid down in his little sleeping bag.



The rain began around 4 AM and didn't stop all day Saturday. My husband, stepdad and stepbrother took Jake with them on a 6 mile hike. Jake was able to be offlead so he ran ahead and then circled back behind all three of them and back to the front. In other words, Jake's 6-mile hike was actually a 12-mile hike. Because it was still raining, only one quick picture of Jake was taken to mark the special occasion. A brief swim in Looking Glass Falls wrapped up their outdoor adventures for the day. My husband brought Jake back to my mother's house for me to dogsit while they went out for BBQ at a dry restaurant. Jake was exhausted!



Jake went back out to the campsite after dinner and made a new friend, a three-legged black lab named Jake. Our Jake was practically in an exercise-induced coma by the time he crawled into the tent. Our ride home on Sunday was very quiet because Jake was still sleeping!

The Further Agility Adventures of the Blur

We have so many pictures of Jake with the background totally in focus and Jake's speckled body completely out of focus that we've nicknamed him The Blur. He's just so fast! We truly appreciate when we're able to capture him in focus. Here we are racing by my husband on the A-frame (yup, I'm blurry, too, desperately trying to keep up with Jake).

Recently Jake has been impressing us with a new found calmness and maturity. That doesn't mean he has stopped zooming or shrieking entirely -- it just means that Jake can be stopped in his zooming tracks and shrieking is normally reserved for yodeling sessions with his daddy. This last Tuesday at agility made me proud. The curved tunnel still sends Jake over the edge of excitement BUT after one full zoom around the yard I was able to get Jake back into the tunnel and over the jump. And, of course, putting my own body were it should be always helps clear up confusion for Jake. Being able to return him to working is a HUGE step in the right direction. My husband had to bring me my purse during class and Jake took a flying leap off the A-frame to get to him. Jake kept leaving the A-frame to go see my husband. Practicing with a distraction was a little difficult but not only did he stop racing to see his daddy and came back to me but he laid down at my feet. He got treats for that huge recall. We were introduced to the pinwheel jumps which Jake found to be totally boring and I obviously wasn't getting him jacked up enough. Maybe next time!

How Fetching!

Jake got his first Fetching Tag (NFI) today! We noticed Jake's name tag had been rubbed totally blank. Obviously going cheap on the tag didn't pay off. So we decided to fork over the dough for a Fetching Tag. Little did we know how hard it was to pick Jake's by-line that would appear on the second side. There were so many to choose from and we knew we'd be stuck with it for a while. And then we saw a picture of a Dalmation wearing a "See Spots Run" tag and we knew that was perfect for our little spotted blur. It came in the mail last week and he's been clanking around the house with it on his collar.

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.

Let the Handling Begin!

I have frequently lamented that I wish I had a better concept of what I'm supposed to be doing with my arms, legs, and hands during agility class. I've studied books and videos but, when you're racing willy-nilly after your dog just hoping to keep your feet under you, books and videos go right out of your conscious thought. This Tuesday's agility class began to cover the issue. It wasn't until after class that our teacher let us know that she had snuck some handling training in on us. She said the lot of us are over-thinkers and she didn't want any of us to panic. But, wait, I'm skipping to the end. So back to the beginning...

Jake had been kept in his kennel for most of the day because we were working in a gated community that doesn't allow dogs on the construction premises. I got home in enough time to change, grab Jake's treats and newly painted travel plank, and get to class. He was a tornado on the other end of the leash whenever another human tried to say hello. Fortunately, we did some calming plank exercises first. I took Jake's plank far from the other dogs and Jake repeatedly did 2 on, 2 off for me. When Jake got bored, he simply laid down and sniffed the grass. I was able to comvince him to show the teacher at least once when she made her way to our plank outpost.

The teeter totter was a little scarier this time with a bit of banging but nothing a lot of cheese couldn't overcome. Our second set of obstacles was the tire, jump, and chute. All of the dogs like this set and were jumping around and shrieking impatiently. Jake was last to go. We backtracked the obstacle as usual with much success. I was hard-pressed to keep up with him and not bowl the teachers over. Jake would slam on his own brakes when he reached the target and his rear end would come off the ground. The fourth go-round Jake came leaping out of the chute to land on the target. It was so hysterically funny that all of us were amused. We shouldn't have laughed, in retrospect, because little did we know the fifth time around was the charm -- the zoomies erupted the minute he shot out of the chute. It took us quite a while to get him back under control. I dreaded the series of three jumps coming up after that horrible display. We limited Jake to two and pretty much quite while we were ahead when he got it. Last but always time for another zoomie was the jump, tunnel, jump combo. (Insert sneaky handling lesson here.) We handlers were to learn a back crossover for these obstacles. Let me begin by saying that I never had a chance to practice it. Again, we went last. We went straight for the tunnel and then the jump (altering the route to suit Jake's attention span happens often). Jake skipped the jump as often as he could to run straight for the treat, which he didn't get. Finally, we got him to understand that the jump was an integral part of receiving that treat. We added the first jump back. He took the jump, flew through the tunnel and ran off into the yard. Yup, zoomie time. I was able to coax him back into the tunnel to come to me for a treat. I was trying so hard to remember to breathe at that point. I know being in his kennel for such a long time without our normal daily routine of focus games and a way to shed some energy had a lot to do with it but it was disheartening all the same.

Zoomie-Free Zone

Taken a few weeks ago, this picture is of Saki, the Sheltie, in Jake's agility class who is demonstrating running the dog walk.

We missed agility class last week because we were out of town and Jake was at my in-laws. It made us very nervous to leave Jake for so long. Jake loves my in-laws and their two dogs, a miniature dachschund named Stymie and a German Shorthair Pointer named Sadie. Still, we had never left Jake for that long loose in someone else's house and yard. Fortunately for all of us, Jake's report card came back with lots of gold stars -- he was well-behaved, "fit right in", and quietly crawled into his kennel every night. Small sidebar discussions later revealed that Jake routinely stole socks and took up residence under the beds with his contraband, shot out the front door of their office but returned when called, and abused his riding privileges in the car when he discovered himself seatbelt-harness free. He wouldn't be a cattle dog if he didn't try!

Jake greeted us with wiggling, wiggling, and more wiggling -- an action only interrupted by sloppy wet kisses. Jake stayed on my feet throughout dinner. I found myself with an audience during my shower because he refused to take his eyes off me and kept his head in the shower but as far away from the evil bathwater as possible. He finally relaxed a little at bedtime when he flopped down on my legs. Every once in a while he would get up to give me a nose bonk and then lay back down.

Then last night, just two days after picking Jake back up, we headed to agility. I had no idea what to expect and kept my hopes of Jake behaving well to myself. Jake proved me wrong! We began class using a traveling plank, a training device designed to help dogs learn the "two-on, two-off" positioning of the feet for safety purposes. Jake was a little confused by the first use of a clicker but quickly learned that the clicker signaled treats. It took me longer than him to coordinate my body and my brain to the new exercises but I wasn't alone. Luckily, this is something we can and will work on at home and anywhere else we can imagine. Our first sequence of obstacles was the tire, one jump and the chute. All of the dogs charged into this sequence with gusto, including Jake. We repeated our gameplan of starting with the last obstacle first and then backing into the next obstacle. Once we had gone through the entire sequence twice, we stopped while we were ahead and I still had Jake's focus. The teeter totter was next on the menu. The teeter is currently positioned just a hair above two tables so that it only moves an inch or two up and down on each end. Jake got to be the guinea pig for the class and no amount of bang or bump seemed to bother him with buffalo jerky and string cheese waiting on the other side. Last but not least was the weave poles. Jake did them so well the first two times that it was hard to be disappointed by all the total cheating he used for the next four turns. To end on a positive note, we opened the weave poles a little more and sent him through the last two sets. It was nice to have a zoomie-free class without all the total-gym experience I normally get from wrestling with Crazy Dog on a Leash.