Summer. Hrrmph.

It’s been a rough week for some reason, maybe summer is getting me down.  I just hate sun, I hate heat, I hate not being able to to take the dogs with me, to go to the park after classes and for the dogs to look like they’re going to pass out after 2 minutes of running around. I hate bugs, I hate sunglasses, I hate sweating and attempting to run in the heat and feeling like I’m trapped in the house until it gets cooler. I’m just not a fan of summer, never have been. Though we had some nicer (cooler) days this week, so I can’t really complain too much – just been missing Bright and feeling kind of cranky and not myself. So, yeah, I blame summer.

We’re actually doing more agility training than I had expected to do, mostly just because it’s too damn hot so playing in the arena is how the dogs are getting most of their exercise during the week. Asher has a million and one things to work on, Haku is continuing to enjoy his agility revival and Navarre always loves to play – and they all love racing around the arena, of course.

Looked at some jumping exercises with Asher this week, basically some modified set point exercises with speed. Asher is so much better at actually thinking about his body these days! And I don’t see the weird jumping he can do other places at the arena, with these exercises he looked nice and smooth and extended. Then we are focusing on collection with the Justine homework, and trying to stay consistent with that. I still don’t think he’s going to be even a remotely tight turning dog though.

Introduced the 12 channel poles, good lord, he’s going to kill himself. No lack of enthusiasm there, that’s for sure – but I’m not sure how much of this is wise to do at this point, as he is so new to weaving I don’t want him to learn to ‘plow’ into the poles. We were just doing some tunnel to weave with no motion from me and he’s throwing himself through them. So, hm, maybe best to put the weaves up for the most part until he’s a little more physically mature and then work more closed poles before going to the channel poles. We shall see. I did do a few sets of straight poles later in the week after that and, wow, yeah, even that little bit of channel work definitely increased his speed – but also his rhythm and footwork. He likes to weave! We will continue to do a little here and there, but I want him to grow up more.

Also did a few aframes in sequence, very easy sequencing, but he looked good at the arena, no issues. Some day we’ll get back to the dogwalk, which will definitely need more work. Didn’t get to the teeter this week, and thankfully a down is no longer required on the table, he likes to stick his butt in the air like Navarre – which is cute. Looked at some backside tunnel commitment he hadn’t seen before, needs more work with my opposite motion.

Of course, then we went out to Rhoda’s for another agility playday on the weekend and I don’t know what weird dog showed up. He couldn’t do ANY of the contacts, was downright scared of the dogwalk and acted like he’d never seen an aframe in his life. Lots of avoidance, running around, jumping off of everything, I have no idea what’s up with that. I tried way more than I should have to get him working on anything, just because this is not an issue he’s had in training anything really. I have no idea why he was being so weird. His weavepoles looked good, we did a little bit of jump work and he was fine – but the contacts, total avoidance. Is he sore? Worried? Going through a phase? He did run down a short wobbly plank off the table happily, but that was about it. And he was just being weird and clingy in general. He played a little bit with the other dogs, but mostly he just wanted to be by me. If he was a girl, I’d blame hormones.

So that was unexpected, we’ll take a look at the contacts again in their foundation forms this week at the arena. And of course he’s going down to Patrice in the end of this month in case it’s something physical. Maybe a break would be a good idea, it was just so out of the blue I didn’t know what to make of it.

Did a little bit of agility with Navarre this week, which looked normal. The weird part was I tugged with Navarre for the first time in quite a while and his whole back MOVED. I was uncertain if this was a good or a bad thing, but the consensus seems to be a good thing. He saw Maddy this week and she said he felt significantly better all over. Still a tense spot on his mid back and one side of his groin. His pelvic floor was considerably less restricted, and she felt that was good to go for now. This was particularly good as I had stopped giving him the metacam, so this was his ‘true to life’ feel. His mowhawk is still there, but less and seems to be getting flatter. And, yes, his whole back now moves in a way it wasn’t before. All in all, definitely making progress and he continues to be amazingly well behaved for body work now! God knows how this all happened to begin with, but he’s still hiking and swimming, and that doesn’t seem to be affecting anything. Knock on wood, the urination issue hasn’t returned yet either. We go back down to see Patrice the end of the month, but I’m hopeful that we are getting to the end of all this.

Both dogs did well at herding practice this week, I was all prepared to be right on top of Navarre – but he wasn’t doing anything like he was the week before. He was listening and trying and only two small instances of thinking about eating poo, but he stopped before he did. So hopefully he’s feeling better which is helping him relax and listen more? We can only hope. I attempted a tiny bit of shedding, but I always forget that it was Haku I did all the shedding work with, Navarre doesn’t know how to do a damn thing about it. I will say, Asher is going to learn to shed when he’s young – teaching them to put sheep together for years and then tell them to split them up is not a good strategy.

Asher continues to do really well in herding, sometimes I have to stop myself from expecting too much from him. I mean, he JUST learned his inside flanks, of course he’s not going to be perfect! What he struggled with somewhat with the group we had today was moving them into a corner area where they didn’t want to be – he doesn’t have the confidence to get up there and stop a sheep that really attempts to make a break for it, especially when I’m across the arena. He always looks to me to make sure he’s allowed to stop them, and by that point he’s lost them. So, yes, still has some issues really staying connected to the sheep, he’s still entirely too ready to drop them and run to me for praise and admiration. That is definitely where he and Navarre differ! Super pleased with how well he took this driving thing and just ran with it, such a clever puppy. We may not be perfect, but we are finding our way together.

Bummed we will miss the Ron clinic this month because of going down to see Patricia again, but looking forward to the three day event we have planned in October (when it’s cool!). And hopefully we’ll be able to go out and see Bonnie again this Fall too, she can teach Asher the secrets of shedding! We should be able to start playing around in the big field at Maddy’s, so I think that will be a great opportunity for both dogs and get a chance to really focus on outruns and driving without as much fence interference.

The sad news of the week is that Haku’s sister Twiggy unexpectedly passed away, hemangiosarcoma. Which just breaks my heart for Kathy and makes me incredibly worried about losing Haku – I just can’t, that boy means to much to me. Hearing her lovely words about Twiggy, they were so alike. They actually met each other a few years ago when Kathy was up visiting, she was a wonderful girl.

That litter might have been been, uh, quirky – but they are so special. Haku is getting lots of love these days, my favorite boy. So many wonderful dogs passing away recently, 2020 has been a hard year in so many ways.