Head Down

Here's what Pepper learnt last week:

Last night she was sitting in the most ridiculous "split legs" position, playing with one of her favourite things - a tiny ripped off leg from a stuffie (in this case her nemesis the hedgehog) She plays with these tiny pieces for ages, carrying them around, throwing them in the air and hiding them under the couch for us to "rescue" Silly pup.

No easter for me

Yep, because I've been working the whole time. So no time for blogging either
This is just a quick one - up at dog club last week, we arrived to find vandals had been (probably late the night before) and the had tagged everywhere - on the club house walls, the inside lights the doors. But worst off all they had spent quite a considerable of time smashing all 6 of the brand new big lights that are for lighting up the area to work the dogs. Totally disgusting and heartbreaking. The amount of time it took to try and get the glass picked up off the astro-turf wasn't nice either. (and we couldn't get it all, so its dangerous for the dogs now) The club had worked for years to fund those lights and some little thugs come along and destroy it for nothing. Makes me sick to my stomach.

Wordless Wednesday

We're on the move.......

Last week my partner found out he had gotten a new job, and its in Auckland. Sooooooo its another move up the country for us. What a hassle moving is, even within your own country! Having to resign from my job (it will be sad to say goodbye) and apply for a new one, organise the end of the lease at our house etc etc.

The hardest thing of all though is trying to find somewhere to live that will take Pepper, what an absolute nightmare its turning into. We don't want to buy at this stage and it seems anywhere that will take a dog is hideous and run down or too far out of town (for Ben's liking anyway - I'd be supremely happy to go live out in the country but he doesn't want to have to commute into work everyday) I'm sure something will crop up eventually but in the meantime its stressful and frustrating.

Anyway, here are some happy ball time photos from the dog park that's just down the road from us.

"Are you ready Pepper"

And shes offPretzel legs prepares for takeoff

Good Catch!

Oh and we had a funny experience at pet store yesterday (one of a well known chain of stores her in NZ that offers puppy classes as well as a in store vet) I needed to buy a new clicker because my old one had given up on me. I took it up to the counter (Pepper was with me of course) and the lady there said to me "Is your dog trained with this, I've always wanted to see a dog that knows it" and proceeded to point the clicker straight at Peppers face and click it rapidly 7 or 8 times. She then looked at me (I was nearly hysterical with trying to hold my laughter in as Pepper was looking at me like "What the hell just happened there?") and she said "why isn't she doing her tricks?" Oh dear. I was about to go into a rant about how clickers are used to mark a behaviour, that the click won't make her "do" anything and that if she is going to click at my dog like that she can treat her thank you very much. But instead I just gave her the wee booklet that came with the clicker and suggested maybe she read it one day.

Update

Heres this mornings efforts - we're getting the door clicked shut today :)

Closing the door

First of all, Pepper got a new collar because someone chewed someones other collar to pieces.

We've been working quite a bit on targeting this week - foot targeting an icecream lid to start with - we've got quite good distances, about 6metres after 2 sessions, and targeting it up on the couch, on a chair etc.

Then I decided to try and teach her to push the door shut with her nose - we've done lots to "touch" targeting with my hand but not nose-to-object targeting.

At first I was using the command "touch" but then she was getting really confused, looking for my hand so I stopped that and started using "hit it" but then sort of stopped that too. She figured out to touch the piece of paper quickly, but getting her to actually p-u-s-h the door took a bit longer. After the first nose targeting session we spent some time learning to push my hand with the touch command and clicking after she put pressure on my hand for prolonged periods of time. Today when we went back to the door she pretty much got it straight away! I love watching her think! She's so quick.

Still a work in progress, only had two sessions so far...

Edit to add - The videos pretty long and boring - quicker version is in the post above :)

Oh and we had our first rally-o class last week.
Pepper had absolutely zero focus to start with: plastic ears, head in the clouds type of thing. Normally she's pretty switched on to me whenever I ask but after some great tips from Sonia our instructor she was much better and heeling with lots of attention.

I was really happy that for the entire hour we were there we only had about 3 episodes of barking (as apposed to barking the entire time we were at club only 6 weeks ago) so we're making progress there.

Rally-o seems to be a really great "sport" and I think Pepper & I will really enjoy it. I like that you can talk away to your dog as much as you like, it seems to be laid back and friendly. I hope it takes off in New Zealand as very few clubs offer it at this stage.

Pony post - Before & Afters

I wanted to share some pictures today of two horses I've had in the past that came to me in a not so wonderful states. The first was a 14.3hh 5yr old morgan/TB cross called "Aidrey Lassie" (or Lass to her friends). She was brought sight-unseen by a lady that I worked with and when she arrived off the truck her new owner was horrified - she was in terrible condition. The new owner was not very experienced with young horses and Lass had really not done alot so I agreed to take her on to school for a few months.

This is what she looked like the day she arrived to my paddock (about 1 month after her owner had brought her)
And these pictures were taken about 8 weeks later!

Its amazing what good feed, good grass, regular exercise, grooming and a pair of scissors will do! She was a cool wee horse, we had alot of fun.

The next is my favourite wee pony ever - Panda an miniature timor pony. My friend Chloe and I brought her when we were 14years old for the princely sum of $25 from a horrible disgusting hideous man who had neglected a large number of miniatures he had inherited from his sick father. Our non-horsey parents didn't find out about her for 2 weeks - they were horrified! She was a bag of bones, riddled with lice & worms, had a terrible skin condition, awful feet and was just miserable. She also had a horrible cough due to having a deformity to her soft palate.

These pics were taken the day we brought her.

But with proper treatment (worming, shampoo's, farrier, feeding, covers etc) she soon picked up and became the happiest (slightly out of control) creature on the place. We loved her to pieces. She came everywhere with us and our "big" horses and was a such a character.

Sadly she passed away 6years ago from pneumonia (gosh time goes fast, it only seems like yesterday) and she is buried in our garden.
RIP little savage pony