Rally-O!

You might remember that last weekend Brutus and I were at a trial again.  After a 6-month hiatus from the obedience ring to rework our training, we returned to compete in the second level of Rally, Advanced.  This marks the first time we've worked off-leash in the obedience ring (our Rally Novice title was all done on-leash), and I had no idea what might happen.  Sure, we can do all the exercises perfectly in training, but I really didn't know what the added stress of the show atmosphere might do to my little goblin.

We showed both Saturday and Sunday, and I'm pleased to say that Brutus totally ROCKED!  Not only did he deal with the distractions around the ring well, he did everything I asked!  Maybe Brutus has figured out that when he's in the ring, all eyes are on him - he was just beaming the whole time.  We put in great exercises both days - the Saturday run earned us a perfect score (100 - the only one given out all weekend!), and our Sunday attempt wasn't too bad either - earning a 99 with that performance.  The latter is shown in the video below, the only thing that kept us from repeating our perfect score from Saturday was Brute's personal hygiene moment (darn itchy collar!!!) early in the test.

For those of you without the bandwidth to watch the video, here are a few still shots excerpted from that footage.  A little grainy, but at least it gives you a little idea of what Rally looks like.  The dog and handler must work their way through a 12-18 station course, performing the behavior indicated at each sign (which you see propped up on the floor).  The stations vary from something as simple as a sit or down to more complicated things like finishes, patterns around cones (spiral, serpentine, or figure-8), moving backwards or sideways with the dog staying in heel postition, and even jumps.  You cannot touch the dog in any way during the test, but (unlike traditional obeidience) the handler can give multiple signals (both verbal and hand cues) and encourage the dog in any way they'd like.  No treats allowed near the ring, but you are allowed to lure them with an "air cookie" without any kind of deduction.  I'll reluctantly admit that I think Brutus really believed that I had a hot dog in my hand during our test.  I feel a little bad for fooling him like that, but hey - you do what you have to do, right?

The guy walking around in the background with the clip board is the judge - he follows around to watch closely for any mistakes for which he can make deductions.  A perfect score is 100, and any little thing from a crooked sit or extra step can cause us to loose points.

 

I was so proud of Brutus I could almost cry.  Not only did we get a nice round of applause after both our runs, but also many great compliments from co-competitors, on-lookers, and even the judge.  We won the class both days, and during the awards ceremony the judge remarked how pleased he was to see an "off-breed" (bulldogs aren't exactly your typical obedience trainee) do such lovely work!

Here's Brutus resting on his laurels - literally.  Were awarded the blanket with our Sunday win, and the toys for our qualifying scores both days.  Also pictured are our blue 1st place ribbons and green Qualifying ribbons.

This makes our record 6/6 in rally in the "Q" department (including one extra Novice leg) - one more run and we'll have our Rally Advanced (RA) title & move up to Excellent.  We hope to keep our perfect record in tact next week when we compete outside on grass for the first time.  For that show the Frenchies and I will be traveling to extreme NE Ohio (Canfield) for one of the biggest shows in this part of the country (the "Steel Valley Cluster").  Since it's about and hour and a half from home and I am showing 3 days, Big Earl will come in really handy and serve as home away from home, right on the show grounds!

Agility might be more exciting to do, but seeing Brutus shine in the closer scrutiny of the obedience ring really makes me proud!  Hope to have more good Rally news for you in a few weeks!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Here is a cartoon I recently found through a Facebook friend.  It was drawn by Olga Gornorovsky, who obviously understands all too well what is like to live with Frenchies.  This is brilliant, and all too true!  From the Frenchies using mom as a pillow to the turd on the floor, no detail is an exaggeration!!

 

Evening

Morning

Mopey Monday

Phew.  Things have been crazy around here.  Lots of things going on, lots more upcoming in the next few weeks.   Been keeping Brutus and Carmen busy with trials & training, crazy heat & humidity going on outside, and there are all kinds of family events on the calendar for the next few weeks (including Paul's youngest sister getting married, and I'm in the wedding).  On top of that I've taken on some more dental responsibilities, working an extra few days a week in an office where I see up to 60 patients a day (yikes!).

With all that on our plates, it's nice to have a day at home to re-cooperate and recharge for the next round.  I've got PLENTY to catch up on, so it's up to the dogs to make sure that the sofa doesn't feel neglected.  Seems like every time I wander through the family room, they've assumed some new arrangement for napping.  They usually start out all separated, as you see here, and everyone has their favorite spot.

Some individual shots of the happy nappers.

Trying to nap here, mom.  Can you knock it off with the flashy thing already?

As time goes on they usually end up clumping together.  Mason is pretty suspicious of Carmen, I think he figures she's just waiting to pounce on him when he's not paying attention.

Hey Mason, you look kinda sad.  Does someone need a hug or a nice puppy kiss??

Come on, I'm really a good snuggler.   I'll just move in slowly...

I most frequently find Brutus and Carmen together, they seem to be perfectly happy to share a blanket or use each other for pillows.

You've heard of pigs in a blanket -  I've got frogs in a blanket!

 

Big brothers apparently make great headrests!

After a while there is usually a pile-up.  I think there must be some kind of weird magnetic force that kicks in once they fall asleep. 

Sorry about the lousy quality, had to grab these photos with my iPhone camera before they moved...

... or woke up!

Must be nice to lounge around all day, not a care in the world, except for wondering when dinner is.

Hey, did someone just say "dinner"????

I'm trying to catch up on everyone's blogs, visiting even if I don't have time to comment.  Please bear with us the next few weeks - we are always happy to see how many of you visit us even when we've been slacking!  Tune in next time for results of our return to the rally ring this past weekend - let's just say that Brutus definitely earned his day off today!

Agility Update

It's been a while since I posted anything about our performance activities.  The weather has been SO inhospitable here - very hot & humid -  so we are very lucky to have air-conditioned places to train and compete.  The time practicing down our basement is paying off, as Brutus and I just had our best weekend of trialing ever!  

We ran in 5 events over two days (JWW, Std, and FAST for those of you who know what I'm talking about).  Two of those were Qualifying runs, including our very first Open Q.  That being said, all the runs were winners in my eyes, as Brutus did exactly what I asked him to!  The NQ runs were all SO close to being Q's, just little bobbles/handler errors that kept us from finishing all our Novice titles (a missed contact on the dogwalk in Std, a bad send in FAST, and over time in an open run because we had to restart the 12 weave poles).  

All of our mistakes were really handler-induced, but I'll take those problems to what we've been dealing with in the past!  NO ZOOMIES all weekend - hooray!!  I think we might finally be turning a corner, so now I can start handling Brutus normally instead of running in damage-control mode!

Here are videos of two of our runs, Open JWW and Novice Std.  For those that don't have the bandwidth to view them, the still shots were taken from those videos (that's why the quality isn't so hot).  I hope you can see progress from what we have showed you in the past, Brutus has come such a long way since our first trial at the end of last year (it's only been 8 months!).  I think I can speak for Brutus in saying we are having a blast competing!

Open Jumpers with Weaves (Q, 1st leg)

Novice Standard (Q, 2nd leg)

We can't wait to get back in the ring.  We have a few more AKC agility entries coming up (Aug, September), but for the next few weeks we turn our attention back to the comparative tranquility of the obedience ring.  We'll be giving Advanced Rally a try this weekend - our first time off-leash in that kind of venue.  ANYTHING could happen, from zoomies to Brutus laying down on me mid-test!  Please keep fingers and paws crossed that the "good" Brutus shows up with me this weekend!!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday: Flower Power

What's this smelly thing?

I'm not looking at you mom.  You're embarrassing me again.

 

 Fine.  One picture.  

Now go harass Carmen, she deserves it.

That's more like it.  She's a natural poser.

Wonder if these are edible flowers??

Why just smell a flower when you can eat it??

 

Birthday Treats

Wow - is it Monday already?  How did that happen?

Last thing I new it was Wednesday, and I had promised to follow up Brutus' birthday post with another about the treats I made him!  I guess things got a little hectic after that, as we had an agility trial to get ready for and compete in - more about that forthcoming, including videos.  But for now I'll make good on my promise to tell you about the tasty birthday treats!  After all, I left you hanging with this photo to make you drool:

We first heard about these treats on Lorenza's blog, then saw them again in a post that Sugar did a few weeks ago.  Here's the recipe in case you haven't seen it yet:

Banana Honey-Nut Frosty Paws

1 ripe banana

4 oz of plain yogurt

1/4 cup peanut butter

1 tbsp honey

Mix all ingredients in a blender, pour into ice cube trays/molds

Freeze for about 2 hours.

(it also says you can substitute 1/2 cup water for the yogurt)

Sounded pretty yummy & easy to make, plus it's been so blazingly hot there - thought they would be a perfect treat to make for Brutus & company.  The whole production was closely snoopervised by Brutus, with Carmen and Mason hovering nearby (if you look closely, you can see Mason's snooter low in the picture).

 

They were really easy to make, just put all the ingredients in the blender and hit "liquefy".  After everything was blended, I let the Frenchies do a little taste test to make sure it met their approval.

Hey, I said a little taste test!  Great, another spatula with teethmarks in it....   And who's tongue is that??

OK, seriously Brute - we have to save some to freeze!

Brutus made sure I didn't spill a single drop of the tasty goo while filling the molds.

It took some work to convince Brutus that they really did need to go in the freezer.

Fast forward 2 hours, and voila!  Home-made Frosty Paws!

Something tells me these will disappear fast.

Yep, I was right.  This is the only picture I got of Brutus with his treat, since he woofed it down so fast.  Even Carmen was shocked how fast he grabbed it!

I made sure Brutus shared (he would have gladly eaten them all), as Carmen was really licking her chops!

Mason ate his in one bite (hence no photo), but then also helped to make sure everyone's bowls were licked clean!

The treats got rave reviews from not only our clan, but also Brutus' classmates, who were happy to have a ice-cold treat after our agility lesson that night.  I have to admit, I actually tried them myself, and would be happy to have one of my own for dessert!  Thanks to Lorenza and Sugar for sharing the recipe - we love it!

What do you mean they are all gone??

 

Happy 2nd Birthday Brutus!!!

Hey everyone!  Do I look any older??  I turned TWO today!  Kinda snuck up on me too!  Mom had to work part of the day (some nerve, huh?), but she made good on her promise to do a few special things with me this afternoon.

How do you like my birthday bandanna?  Much better than the stupid pointy hat, don't ya think??  I didn't even mind wearing it when we went out to do some birthday shopping.

First stop, PetSmart.  Yeah, it's a big box store, but they DO have tons of cool stuff!!

Sporting my "Birthday boy" bandanna while picking out some new toys. Decisions, decisions....

Here's where we stopped next.  Is this like PetSmart for humans or something??

I've always heard about this place, never been.  We stopped because mom had to pick something up here for me, and I actually got to go inside!

What on earth could I want from this place?  Hmmm..... 

When we got home, mom let me have all my pressies.   Wow - look at all this stuff!  I must have been a better boy that I thought!

A few (allegedly indestructible) stuffies (we'll see about that...) and some practical things too.  That little gray pail is a thermos so that I always have fresh,  cold water when we train or go to shows.  Pretty nice, eh?

And will you look at this baby?  My very own "fan club" BOL!  So that's what she was getting at Home Depot!  It has a big rechargeable battery (like the one you use for power tools), so we can take it anywhere to help keep me cool!

Oh, will you look at that.  Carmen ended up being the one in the silly pointed hat this year!  Not sure how happy she is about that.  You should have seen how many tries it took mom to get this one mediocre picture.  Ha!  Still, how nice of Carmen to let mom embarrass her to help me celebrate!

I was so touched by her thoughtfulness that I let Carmen play with my new Kong snake.  I mean you can't play tug-o-war by yourself anyways, so why not indulge her?

It was a fun afternoon, and the surprises kept coming!  Next mom got all this stuff out and said she was making a special treat for me and all my classmates at agility tonight.

You'll have to tune in tomorrow to see more about what she made.  All I'll say for now is that there is going to be a whole lot of this going on when you see the yummy things Mom whipped up:

Gotta go - someone needs to wipe up this big drool puddle on the floor before someone slips in it!  Thanks for sharing my birthday with me - too bad they only come once a year, huh??