Author Archives: dazzlesmom

From 6-13-16

Voodoo did FANTASTIC at the Italian Festival today! It was really hot (near 90), so we mostly went from shady spot to shady spot. He got lots of practice with just chilling and watching the world go by. I kept him well hydrated and his fur wet. Rather than having him do a lot of walking or me having to hold him, I had him ride on my scooter (which also kept him from getting stepped on).

I got us there early, before it technically opened so that the crowds wouldn’t be as heavy. And we stopped a distance away from anything I thought might be scary so I could judge his reaction before we got close and I took video. He took all the strange sights, sounds and smells in stride. Like he saw the carnival rides and crowds all the time 🙂 The thing that most got his attention was the leaves blowing along the walkway! He about jumped off the scooter to get one. And when he did a potty stop, he picked up and carried a leaf with him till he was done, which got a couple “awwww, look at him” type comments.

Playing with a new food dispensing toy from his Aunt Julie: https://vimeo.com/170336137

He definitely wasn’t gentle with it 🙂 I’ll need to try it on a solid surface and see if it will stay upright better.

Video from last night of Voodoo playing with the stuffed dog. He loves to wrestle with it and sleep on it. Till he notices me taking video 🙂 https://vimeo.com/170324434

From June 11th: (Last one I’ll update for today, but this one has some excellent photos) 🙂

Voodoo had a BLAST at the Lab Cub’s Fun Day today.  He played for 3.5 hours straight!

Video:

And some of the photos I took:

(Click on any photo to make it bigger)

Some retrieve practice we did yesterday.

We have also been working on whistle recall, the sit target and laying on his side (which will progress to nail trimming) but I didn’t get those sessions on video. His recall is excellent, the sit target is still a work in progress but it seems like the light bulb was starting to come on near the end of the session. And the lay on your side is still in the very beginning stages.

6-8-16 Voodoo had a visit from Earl. Mostly Earl wanted to sniff and mark the yard and Voodoo was happy to follow him around

He did some schmoozing with Dae and Earl got in on it

Voodoo tried to gently wear him down and get him to play

And it worked!

We visited Newport on the Levee in the afternoon. Voodoo was definitely tired after we wandered around at his pace and saw lots of people, some odd squeaking motorized toys, people in “bubbles” playing in the water, a small train taking people on a short trip along the sidewalks, fountains, the river, people setting up tents and rides for a festival taking place this weekend, and more!

He looks so happy sitting at the entrance to the “Purple People Bridge”, but we didn’t walk along that since he was pretty tired just getting from the car, through the crowds and to this point.  I carried him to a shady bench where he rested and watched the action.

I took him in the bathroom to get him a drink and he was surprised to see another puppy in there 🙂 It was hard to play with and after one sniff he was no longer interested.

I tried to get him to pee in the planter since it was the only surface not paved as a sidewalk, but he didn’t want to “go”.

He was kind of fascinated by this fountain. Not the water shooting up, but the drops hitting the surface 🙂 He got wet in the spray and I’m sure it helped him cool off.

He was also distracted by this pidgeon that flew right past his head and landed in the parking lot.  I let him watch it awhile and when he turned to look at me, I clicked and gave him a treat and he was no longer interested in the pidgeon.

6-9-16 DAZZLE PLAYED WITH VOODOO!! This was the first time they played together. We happened to be in Home Depot at the time, waiting for someone to help at the saw and the dogs got bored 🙂

6-10-16 Play date with Desi the Rottie and Reeta the Schipperke (Second time playing with Reeta)

He and Desi had fun playing a gentle game of tug

Love this shot!

Video of the three of them playing:

From June 8th- Had a nice time at the KY Horse Park watching part of the Arabian show. Voodoo was a bit unsure of the horses at first, especially ones that walked right by us, but after he laid in the grass with Dazzle and watched them for awhile from a distance, he was fine with them.

Then we moved to another shady spot with a picnic table to watch the warm up ring and by then the horses we ‘old hat” and he took a bit of a nap.

Then we went to “The Big Barn” (Indoor arena) where we watched an Open Western Pleasure class

We also watched an “Arabian Liberty” class where a horse is turned loose for 2 min. with music and the crowd making as much noise as possible to excite the horse into prancing and galloping around the arena. I moved away from the ring at the start of the class thinking he might get spooked by all the noise, but all the whooping and whistling and banging on things didn’t bother him a bit.

Worked on several things today

I am SO pleased with his retrieve progress!  He has such a lovely and calm hold. And he was able to pick up an item he wanted to shred (paper towel covered PVC).

Also taught him to sit on the disk target. This was the first session on this and eventually it will turn into ‘directional control’, meaning I will be able to send him different directions from a distance, for field work, by teaching him to move from one target to another as they get farther and farther apart.

I added a whistle cue to his sit (haven’t put it on a verbal or hand signal yet), but I want the whistle cue to be strong for field work or an emergency stop at a distance.

And lastly I taught him a hand target today, but I didn’t get the first steps on video.  So all I can show is the results after one short session. I think he likes this one 🙂

I love that he self-entertains at times and likes his crate enough to go in and hang out in there on his own.

I’ve been working on whistle and name recall with Voodoo and he’s doing great!  At this point, I’m using both his name and a whistle, because he has a strong recall on his name and I’m teaching him the whistle. Eventually I’ll only need the whistle, but can still use his name for recall also. Sometimes I wait till he’s distracted by something, other times I drop treats, like in the video, to give myself time to get away from him far enough to call 🙂

From June 7th: Voodoo had a play date with Reeta, an energetic and FAST Schipperke. They started their play in the basement, but Voodoo is now able to jump on/off the bales, so we moved outside so he wouldn’t be jumping. Here’s some video: