New toys

Phoenix and I went to Des Moines today to train with Renee and Ellen from KC and Shirlee, Earl and bunch of great Des Moines folks at the DMOTC building. Had a great time and it was worth the drive time. Wish we all lived closer together!

One of the hardest Open exercises for Phoenix is the 3-minute sit. Since the AKC shows no signs of coming to their senses and eliminating the ridiculous out-of-sight exercises any time soon, he and I will have to find a way to master it. It's the sit-in-one-place-and-don't-move concept that baffles Phoenix. Why in the world would anyone in their right mind want to do that? 

One thing a number of trainers around here use is a "sit board." It's a whole lot like his PVC go-out box except it's elevated off the floor, to make a consequence (falling off) of fidgeting around and moving paws. It's hard to tell in this picture but his sit board is elevated about an inch. (Doesn't anyone ever mow the grass around here?) Thanks, Earl, for the great idea and thanks, Nancy, for letting me borrow yours to try on for size.

I brought it home and caught the Farmer at a convenient time. He was waiting for hay to dry. That is sort of like waiting for paint to dry. I said, "Do you want something to do?" He gave me the hairy eyeball. He could have jumped up and down enthusiastically and said, "Oh, yes! What kind of weird thing would you like me to build for your dogs today?" But if you know the Farmer, you know that is not likely to happen.

I showed him Nancy's sit board and explained it in careful detail. He is continually amazed that people actually spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of thing but just nodded a lot and then disappeared into the shop. Ten minutes later, he came back with a fine and dandy sit board. Granted, it is not quite as polished as one of Earl's creations but like they say, it's good enough for who it's for. I tacked on some old mat and we are good to go.

Here is Phoenix, sitting on his board. I think this is his "bored on a board" look. He doesn't have much wiggle room. Hopefully this will make him aware of where his paws are and what he is doing with them. Left to his own devices, he is like a little hovercraft who can scoot out of position without ever seeming to move.

Yippee! The new Invince-A-Bell has arrived! It took almost exactly 6 weeks to get a custom size from J&J and it is perfect. I need to order another one as a backup.

We have one week until our Open debut at the Fort Dodge UKC trials this coming weekend. How I feel about our performance there will determine what we enter at the fall trials. 

And regarding the zucchini bread: yes, the Farmer eats it. No, I don't think he can tell there's a shredded vegetable in there. No, I don't think you could leave it out, either. Yes, I think you could substitute bananas or shredded apples. Yummy!