Celebrate autumn!

It seems we are headed for the first frost of the season Saturday night as forecasters are calling for lows around 32. This is exciting. I absolutely love this time of year! I love the whole autumn scene: colorful leaves, frosty nights, harvest season, putting flannel sheets on the bed, digging out the sweatshirts, actually COOKING again (I have no idea what we ate all summer) and turning on the furnace.

Ah, yes . . . the furnace.

Every year, the Farmer and I play the “I can wait longer than you can to turn on the furnace” game. At some point, when we’re both shivering and turning blue and can see our breath in the house, we mutually agree that it’s time. I’m pretty sure we’re not there yet, so chances are the furnace will not be on this weekend when the mercury dips into the 30s. It’s only supposed to be cold like that for a couple of nights.

Although chances are the frost will not be a killing freeze, I need to take some cuttings from tender plants I want to winter over, just in case. These include the Coleus from Hell and the Stolen Birthday Begonia.

This is the Coleus from Hell.


It’s huge. It’s wonderfully easy to grow and thrives in sun and heat, making it a good candidate for living on our south-facing cement patio. Here's a closeup. It's darned pretty.


These are the Stolen Birthday Begonias.

They have bloomed non-stop in one form or another for over a year. This plant was grown from a clipping from the mother plant. I have two other pots just like it. They were blooming last September when I (okay, Paula, at my request) rescued the mother plant from abandonment at a dog show. Well, she asked a Boy Scout first and he said it was okay. Who’s to argue with a Boy Scout? So technically, they weren't stolen. Not exactly.

Finally, here’s my newest perennial, a Black Diamond hellebore.

I’ll have to cover it up Saturday night. Even though it’s up close to the house and probably sheltered from the frost, I’m not taking any chances. It’s from Marsha, Tammy and Michele, in memory of Connor, who’s registered name is Sunazie’s Black Diamond. It’s supposed to bloom early in the spring and will look like this.


I know autumn bums some people out because all the plants and flowers die, daylight hours are shortened and winter is just around the corner, but I always look forward to it as a break from the insanity of summer, when it feels like I’m doing 12 things at once. During fall and winter, that slows to maybe 5 things at once. I'll get cabin fever once winter actually arrives but right now, I'm ready for a slower schedule. Looking at the calendar, it doesn't look like that's going to happen for a while yet.

Several of you asked

The animal communicator who talked to Phoenix is Linda Thomas. She is from Moline, Ill., and her Web site is www.ispeakanimal.com

I really should make it a point to have her talk to my dogs every year or so, kind of like a routine doctor's visit. With that in mind, I need to keep a running list of questions, you know, those "Wonder what he REALLY thinks?" moments.

Cuz heaven knows I won't remember them all in my head. I've already thought of a few things I wish I'd asked yesterday.

A couple of friends on my malinois list remarked they were a little afraid of what their dogs might have to say. I think dogs are very forthright. They say what they feel but they aren't mean or vindictive about it. Although Jamie did say he thought Connor was a stuck-up snob. Which pretty much summed up their relationship perfectly. Still chuckling about that and it was 5 years ago.

And I'm still chuckling that Phoenix thinks the leash is to keep ME from getting lost. He knows me pretty well.

Phoenix and the animal communicator

I have had an animal communicator talk to each of my recent dogs at some point in their lives. While I’m sure there are some frauds out there, the women who talked to Connor, Jamie and now Phoenix have told me things that went beyond simple generalities that anyone with a little information about dog training and dog sports could come up with. They told me things that were specific to the situation, as well as confirming some of my own intuitions about my dogs.

The process is not as simple as having the communicator instruct the dog you want him to heel with heads up attention every time you go in the ring or telling him to just “go where I tell you” when running agility. I ask the communicator the question, she asks my dog and receives a flow of images and emotions in return, which she translates into words I can understand.

Here’s the transcript of Phoenix’s recent conversation and the thoughts and insights he relayed to me through the communicator. I definitely tried to keep my questions as open ended as possible and not lead her toward one conclusion or another.

First, she had to make contact with him. After I told her where I live (general vicinity, not exact address) and what Phoenix looks like (reddish brown fur, black overlay), she checked with me to make sure she had the right dog, describing him as intense, high energy, very athletic, very buff, a dog who loves to run. She “saw” an image of him running in a big open field. (This could be the hay field behind our house where we frequently walk.) She said he loves to run and he runs so fast he thinks he’s flying. He would view being able to run as a good reward.

My first question was about our out-of-sight stay issue. She told me he is very concerned (not afraid of, just concerned by) small dogs in the line up. Some of them are not very nice. He pictured a small terrier-type dog. There is also a white dog who is not very nice but is okay as long as it stays put. (I worked stays with Kathy and her samoyed Jazz a few weeks ago. There is no love lost between Jazz and Phoenix.)

Phoenix breaks the stays to find me because I keep him safe and he keeps me safe. That’s how it is. She suggested I use lots of positive mental imaging to support him while I’m out of sight and cautioned me not to think “Don’t move, don’t move” because dogs don’t understand negatives, which would turn the thought into “Move, move.”

He said he did not understand that I would come back. She assured him I would and he seemed surprised.

When asked if anything had happened to him during stays to make him fearful, he said no. There were often a lot of disruptions outside of the ring but that didn’t bother him. If there were disruptions in the ring, they didn’t involve him. Then he returned to the image of a little terrier-type dog causing trouble. (I really wonder whose dog that is!)

When asked why he was frequently sharp with other dogs who got in his face, he said they needed to learn some manners and he would teach them manners. Besides, the other dogs don’t need to be that close to me.

He has a large personal space. She said he showed her an image of a bubble all the way around him. During sits/downs, the bubble elongates. He is fine with dogs on either side of him during stays but his personal space extends further in front and behind him and he does not want any dogs in that space, sneaking up behind him or approaching him head on. He likes people much better than dogs.

He wants to know where I am all the time. It’s important to always know where I am. How can he take care of me if he doesn’t know where I am?

He sees no reason to give me eye contact 100 percent of the time in heeling. He knows where I am! He can see my feet. He told me not to worry so much about eye contact.

He overthinks things and is always reading me and trying to figure out what I want. I need to keep positive pictures in my mind of what I want him to do, not worry about him doing the wrong thing.

When we are in the show ring, he sees me as the leader because the judge talks to me and not him. I am obviously the leader who gets respect. Outside the ring and in training, he thinks we have an equal partnership.

His job is to take care of me. Other dogs do not need to be close to me. If he can’t intimidate them non-verbally, he will intimidate them physically. Some dogs are okay to be near me but most aren’t.

Phoenix and my father-in-law have never gotten along, so I asked about that. She said my F-I-L doesn’t like Phoenix so Phoenix doesn’t like him either. Phoenix says whenever he is around my F-I-L, my F-I-L is thinking about a GSD that bit him several years ago and my F-I-L is sure Phoenix is going to bite him, too. (Yep, that would be the neighbor’s not-so-lovely GSD. He is no longer alive.)

When it comes to The Farmer, Phoenix said, “I’ll share her. If I have to.”

He had a question about weave poles. He wanted to know why he had to do more of them. We had to work on this one for a minute. I haven’t been asking him to do more than 12 poles but I HAVE been asking him to do them without me running alongside him. At the agility trials last weekend, I was able to leave him in the poles several times and position myself for the next obstacle. Phoenix was concerned that I had “left him” in the poles and wanted permission to leave the poles and come with me. I told him no, it was very important for him to do all of them, then he could catch me. He said okay but it seemed like the poles were “longer” when I wasn’t near him.

Then he asked about the “moving house.” The communicator explained that Phoenix calls anywhere he sleeps his “house.” He wanted to know where the “moving house” went. The communicator asked if I had an RV. I said no . . . but I had (had being the operative word, at this point) a tent. That was it! He wanted to know where the tent went after we abandoned camp and went to a motel last weekend.

He also said he likes staying in motels better because I am more comfortable there. He could tell because I enjoyed my shower on Sunday morning. He was laying at the bathroom door and knew I enjoyed all the hot water. He wants me to be comfortable.

I asked about his relationship with Jamie. Phoenix said when he arrived, Jamie “moved over.” He was very specific that Jamie had not moved up or down in pack structure, just over. It was a lateral move.

Of course, I had to ask about cats. His response was: Squirrels, rabbits, cats, they’re all the same. He wants to catch one but doesn’t want to hurt it. Wants to touch it so he can be the winner. Then they run and the game starts all over. If he hurt one, it couldn’t run again. Right now, the cats always hide and he can’t touch them, so the cats win. He doesn’t have a kill instinct. He wouldn’t kill a cat.

He wants his crate covered at shows. Please cover the crate! That way he doesn’t have to defend his territory. He can rest. He doesn’t have to watch everything. When his crate is covered, his “bubble” is much smaller. Otherwise the bubble extends beyond the crate.

He loves mental challenges. He’s very athletic and physically hard but very emotional and sensitive. He needs to take care of me because I am his support. When we go for walks on a leash, the leash keeps ME from getting lost, that’s what the leash is for.

We had a little time left so she talked with Jamie, too. He told her the bed (lambskin pad) he sleeps on in our bedroom gets too hot. That’s why he starts out sleeping on it, then shoves it out of the way. But he doesn’t want to go sleep anywhere else because that is HIS spot. He thinks we should put a stone floor in the bedroom so it would be cooler for him.

He wants to jump in the van and be able to go straight into his crate. The way I currently have the crates set up, he has to jump up and turn hard to the right. He doesn’t like that.

He doesn’t like going to the chiropractor at all but he likes the woman chiro better than the man chiro. The woman has better hands.

He also still likes to show off and be the center of attention.

If you’ve had an animal communicator talk to your dogs, I’d love to hear about your experiences.

Agility, camping and divine intervention

The DMOTC agility weekend was everything I had anticipated — a lot of fun with my dogs and friends. Phoenix and I had some great runs, some “almost” runs and and some "WTF was I thinking?" runs. Like Tammy says, “Don’t tell me everything that went wrong, tell me what went right.” Even amidst the train wreck runs, there were always elements to be proud of.

This was the first trial we’d shown in since the rule changes at the first of September. Phoenix seemed to like the new table rule, since I dropped him each time and never asked him to change position. His auto drop, which has been hesitant because he never knew if I really meant it or was going to ask him to sit instead, got faster all three days.

Plus the judge’s count starts as soon as the dog’s paws hit the table, which reduces the amount of time he has to spend there . . . he thinks that's a good thing, not so much for me since my catch-my-breath pause has been shortened.

Camping was great, at least the first night. The weather was fine and there was a beautiful full moon. I know this because the guy in the campsite next to ours was proclaiming it loudly to everyone he could find, then he started calling people on his cell phone and telling them about the moon. Apparently he had never seen one before.

Did I mention he had a beagle tied to a tree? Did I mention that it bayed? Endlessly? One of his telephone conversations, after pointing out the incredible beauty of the full moon, included the observation that “There’s some kind of dog trial around here this weekend, there’s at least 100 dogs in the campground.” Yeah, buddy, and have you noticed that YOURS IS THE ONLY ONE MAKING ANY NOISE?

After a good night’s sleep in spite of the moon man and his beagle, I woke up Saturday morning to find the ceiling of my tent about six inches above my nose. This was not a good thing. The dogs and I crawled out and a flashlight inspection revealed a broken support pole. Seriously. The metal had just crumbled at one joint and a big chunk of the pole was gone. Too weird. This was not a cheap Walmart tent and although I’ve used it for six years, it hasn’t been used that hard.

In spite of many offers to “fix” the tent pole, I opted to camp at Motel 6 Saturday night. Ye olde duct tape repair might work on the tent pole . . . but I took a dim view of finding out at 2 a.m. that it did not, then spending the night trying to avoid suffocation by 10 yards of wet tent fabric. I "sold" my camping spot to Jill and pointed out due to Saturday’s heavy rains, she now had waterfront property.

In any event, it was the last camping trip of the season so I’ve got all winter to fix the pole or buy a replacement. Or maybe this is the Sign From Above that answers my “How long is this really going to be fun?” question. Van camping is still an option although C3PO doesn't have as much available space as her predecessors, C1 and C2, making it more difficult if I have both Belgians with me. Hauling 26" crates in and out of a vehicle multiple times a day in order to have sleeping quarters is not my idea of a good time.

Here are videos of our qualifying runs from the weekend, one in JWW and one in Standard. Phoenix took a bonus jump at the end of his JWW run so the jump with the bar falling was not actually part of the course.

Heeling class

Several of you have expressed an interest in the heeling class I’m taking with Phoenix, so here’s a little info.

As advertised, it focuses on heeling skills and nothing else so is a good fit for dogs at any level of training, providing they have a good foundation with attention work. Of course, no one would heel their dogs for an entire hour but there are plenty of breaks so the dogs aren’t working constantly. The hour goes really fast and it’s a very high energy environment, which both dogs and handlers reflect.

We’ve only met twice but here are some of the things we’ve worked on:

• Teaching words to fine-tune heel position. These include cues to find heel position, move up, move back, get closer, get off and get your butt in. Personally, I tend not to use a lot of these words since my theory on heel position is there’s only one correct spot and if I have to adjust the dog to move up, move back, etc. once he’s there, then the dog is not taking enough responsibility for finding the correct spot in the first place.

BUT . . . it is VERY helpful for the dog to be able to adjust himself and maintain heel position out of the context of actual heeling. For example: if you set up two inches off the mark where the judge wants you in the ring, when you set up for sits/downs and then have to scoot over, etc. If you haven’t taught these little doodles, your poor dog won’t have any idea how to move himself accordingly and it can be a stress builder in the ring.

Plus, teaching the dog body awareness is extremely valuable when it comes to working glove/article turns as well as turns during heeling.

• Teaching words and body language to cue speed changes. I had never taught “hurry” before but it has turned out to be an incredible tool for tightening up our about turns and the outside turn of the Figure 8. Our instructor calls it the “dizzy turn” and that’s pretty much how you teach it — psyching the dog up to drive to the right while you turn in place. Phoenix thinks this is great fun. He’s probably just waiting for me to fall over.

• Group heeling! Those of you who started training back in the Dark Ages of jerk and yank may flinch at the memory of forced group heeling marches around a building, popping a choker and chanting “Heel, good dog, heel, good dog” while the instructor monotonously intoned “Pop and release, remember to praise.”

Our group heelwork has NOT been like that! With a variety of different dogs and handlers, all moving at different speeds, frequently stopping to reward/release and the instructor calling unexpected speed and direction changes, the group heeling sequences are definite energy builders. Phoenix’s tail probably hurts this morning because I don’t think he ever quit wagging it last night. This is a great confidence boost for both of us, since my overall goal for the class is to get my happy dog back. He’s working with a focus on releasing to play as a reward and I’m using very limited treats.

One of the unplanned benefits is that the class is held in a huge training building and half of the building is devoted to agility classes on that evening, so there is a constant trail of dogs and handlers going to/leaving the agility area, plus all the wonderfully enticing sounds of teeters banging and tunnels being pummeled. Many great opportunities to enforce and reward attention!

It’s also been very beneficial for working on Phoenix’s “strange dog” issues. He’s getting to hang out by dogs he doesn’t know and dogs he knows and doesn’t like and last night he even made a new friend, a cute little American Eskimo girl from the agility class.

Random thoughts on random subjects

Autumn starts today (or tomorrow, depending on which calendar you look at.) The forecast high is 80 degrees with tropical (there’s that d*mned word again!) dew points and the possibility of severe thunderstorms. I’m lusting after crisp autumn weather, falling leaves, apple cider, Halloween, etc. . . . and we’re replaying July and August.

*****

Phoenix and I are taking a heeling class on Wednesday nights. It is so amazingly, awesomely, totally COOL to be taking a class, not teaching one. In the 3 1/2 years Phoenix has been with me, we’ve taken a total of one, count them, ONE, obedience class. Many agility classes. One obedience class.

Phoenix isn’t the first dog I’ve trained (in spite of frequent indications to the contrary!) so we don’t really need a constant parade of classes in order to make progress. I can — and do — train mostly on my own. But wow, is it great to be able to focus on my dog for a whole hour in a busy class environment without having to split my attention seven different ways for students. What a treat.

*****

A woman e-mailed me. Her daughter showed the family dog at the county fair 4-H show and “did real good.” Now the mom wants to show the dog. What does that involve and how much does it cost?

I wrote back and told her about getting the dog registered, encouraged her to have it spayed/neutered, talked about taking group classes and/or private lessons, the need to train consistently for about a year before being realistically prepared to show, told her how to get a copy of the obedience regs from the AKC, explained how 4-H county fair judging differs from AKC obedience trials, encouraged her to join the local obedience club to get involved in the sport, talked about entry fees running about $25 per class, plus motel and travel expenses and the need to enter trials in advance.

That was three weeks ago. I haven’t heard a word from her since.

*****

Big camping weekend coming up! The agility trials this weekend are held near a really nice campground run by the local conservation board and this is an annual group camp-out for a bunch of us. The number of die-hard (which might be another word for stupid) campers has dwindled a bit over the years. Several folks have fallen under the spell of the local motels. Others have graduated from tents to actual campers with microwaves and air conditioning.

But there are still a few of us who enjoy putting up our tents and roughing it. Is it truly roughing it if you can have a hot shower in the morning and your friends in the campers make coffee for you?

Each time I crawl in or out of my tent, I wonder how much longer I’m going to think this is fun, so I plan to enjoy every minute of this weekend. There will be campfires and s’mores and all that good stuff. Can’t wait.

*****

I’m re-teaching Phoenix’s send to the scent articles. Initially, I thought it would be best to send him after a sit, giving him time to focus on the pile before going to it. Having taken that in the ring this fall in Versatility and Wild Card Utility, I’ve changed my mind.

As with most things, the re-training is going slowly. In spite of the reluctance and confusion he showed about the turn and sit in the ring, he’s pretty darn sure that’s what I want in training.

I’ve changed the command although I’m not sure that has registered much. He pays more attention to the context/set-up of the exercise than the words I’m using.

******

We had some cat-induced drama at our house earlier this week. We’ve had some trouble with the neighbors’ cats hanging out at our place. Farm cats being what they are, I can’t exactly call up the neighbors and tell them to keep their cats at home. That only works for their dog. And it doesn’t really work so well for him, either.

Anyway, I let the dogs out before bed and there was one of the neighbors’ cats INSIDE the fence of the dog yard. There was a great deal of yelling and yowling and tooth-snapping and even some fur flying while the cat, both Belgians and I ricocheted around the yard for awhile. The cat escaped and has not been seen since. Hopefully it spread the word that our place is not safe.

A weekend at home

I stayed home over the weekend. Can you believe it?

Well, not totally at home. Saturday we went to Kay's and trained. Sunday, I planned to go to the Amana park and train but it was raining. So we went to the old barn in Amana where they hold the farmer's markets. We train there a couple of times a year. It's a good place to go when the weather is not cooperating.

The barn foundation is made from sandstone. The structure dates to the mid-1800s.


Another view of the barn, showing the sandstone foundation.


Here's where we train. Nix is sitting at the far end. It's an awesome place to work heeling, recalls and retrieves. Plus there are endless opportunities for Figure 8s around all the poles. Plus the floor is sniffy-good wood chips, so lots of chance to reward/correct for working through distractions.

After we trained, we went for a walk. In the rain. It wasn't raining that hard. The dogs didn't care and I didn't figure I'd melt. There's a paved trail around the Lily Lake so we didn't slide around in the mud. Here are the dogs with the Lily Lake behind them.


The Lily Lake is a man-made lake between Amana and Middle Amana. It is covered with water lilies. They bloom in the summer and are really pretty. Of course, I never think to stop and take a picture of them in the summer when they're pretty. I wait until mid-September when they're getting brown and crusty.


One section of the trail goes across a levee between the mill race and the Lily Lake. The mill race connects six of the seven Amana villages. The folks who settled the colonies transported stuff from one village to another via the "race."


Here's another section of trail. We walked for 45 minutes and had it all to ourselves. Maybe that's because it was raining. Ya think?

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. Now we can get psyched up for two weekends of agility, including the big camping fest of the year at Granger this weekend. Rain, rain, go away!