Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The many faces of DJ


The last class of our 6-week class was last night. There's another session that we didn't sign up for because of the heat and the fact that I'm planning to move in mid-July. It's really hot (and buggy) but we're going to drop in on at least 2 of the 6 classes if there's space.
Deej kicked butt in class last night, he was fired up! It makes me sad to not sign up for the class when he has such a great time.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Walking

DJ had a fantastic walk Sunday morning. He was the picture of perfection walking by many dogs -- on narrow sidewalks, no less.

He had many snacks for being such a good man and looking at the approaching dogs calmly and then walking by them. There was one wiener dog, I can't spell daschund whom he did want to have words with but still was pretty low key.

This morning on the beach there was another turtle but by the time I saw it, it was like 7 and we were leaving and it was surrounded by fat people taking pictures with the flash on their little cameras.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Agility!

We had class on Monday. Though it was hot, DJ had a great time.

I realized how much he loves agility! He does get burnt out at trials though so I'll take that into account in the future. He's much more reactive by the last day of a trial, frayed nerves and not being able to really relax in his crate I'm sure.

He was thrilled to be back to class and even ignored a sheltie nearly jumping on him. Sheltie was thisclose and he just wanted to run the course. Yay!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Turtle power

I wish my camera was working (needs new battery) and that I carried it around all the time.

The dog beach we visit every morning also happens to be a turtle beach. Big sea turtles visit every spring and summer to lay their eggs, I can't remember if they are loggerhead or leatherback, I have no idea what the difference is but there's a shortage of one or the other. They usually do this in the dark but there are some stragglers who are making their exit as the light comes up. Which is also when we happen to be walking.

DJ always enjoys sniffing along the turtle tracks and sniffing around their nests, he doesn't dig or try to disturb them, just curious. So this morning I noticed some fresh tracks and a new nest as we strolled along the beach, Deej made a beeline for it.

With his tendency towards inconsolable hysterical excitement, it was with some dismay that I saw a turtle making her way back to the ocean just past a slight rise on the beach. I would have seen her sooner had it not been for this damn dune.

I ran after DJ calling him but he caught the scent of turtle and ran ahead of me, just out of grasp as usual. In these circumstances I'm always on the fence about making a diving tackle or just hoping he will remember that he has had some experience with "leave it" and "here." Obviously we need practice with super duper exciting level distractions such as rabbits and turtles…and likely any other novel wildlife…

Soooo he ran screaming up the turtle and circled her barking and lunging. I followed trying to grab him, also screaming, dodging flippers and turtle head as I chased him in a circle. We ran around for a minute and then I thought, ah ha I'll go the other way. But then he reversed course as well. We ran around the turtle for minutes, me desperately trying to grab him…finally, finally he backed off a bit and I was able to grab him and pull him, shrieking, away. I fed him some treats as he looked at the turtle but we were still too close for him to do anything but grab the treats and frantically bark.

Good times… he was pretty tired this morning after the walk and all the excitement. He was back in bed before I even finished breakfast.