A BEAUTIFUL JUMPER

Yesterday, October 20th, at our Four Paw Agility class, Winston once again proved himself an able, if sometimes distracted student.
His warm up lesson was to wait in front of a jump until I gave him the command, then to jump, first to the left, then to the right, once with me facing backwards. He did well at this, and he’s getting much better at waiting until released. Both Jan and Ann complimented him on this.
Winston’s next lesson was to go over five jumps in a straight row. It took of couple of tries, with me at the starting point and instructor Eric at the finish with a touch plate and treats. Once Winston got the idea, he did all five jumps with ease and it was beautiful to watch. Everyone commented on what great form he has. He’s a natural jumper.
His third lesson was to run a circuit of one jump and one tunnel and keep running it until I said to stop. The tunnel is a tube about 12 feet long, two feet high and is curved at a 90 degree angle. Winston managed to run the course twice before getting too distracted. Tunnel, jump, tunnel, jump. Then he lost his concentration and on top of the tunnel and ran about half way across it. A nice feat, but sorry, Winston, no treat. When we were looking he also ran up to the top of the steep ramp, which is about 6 feet high. No fear of heights for Winston!

FOOD

At Agility class last night we had a fruitful discussion about dog food. Eric and his wife, who works for Pet Pros in Lake City, have done in-depth studies of what to feed dogs.
Here are the conclusions we reached –
1. Dogs need variety in their meals. Feeding them one kind of protein, especially beef, can lead to allergies and other problems. Best to feed them different foods on a rotating schedule – dry food in the morning, canned food in the evening. Or chicken one week, lamb or a different protein the next.
2. Raw food is good. We didn’t pursue this topic in depth, but it seems to improve their energy, their coats and their dispositions. Raw can be mixed with store-bought. Caution – this is controversial. Do your homework here.
3. Grain is bad. The consensus was it’s best to go grain free, just like for humans.
4. Don’t leave food out. If a dog doesn’t finish his meal in 20 or 30 minutes, pick it up and feed it to him at his next meal. Eric explained that the dog will quickly learn the routine. This does a couple of things – it shows the pet that you are the source of food, and, once the routine is set, and he doesn’t eat, it alerts you that something may be wrong.
We originally started Winston off on Blue Buffalo puppy food kibble. After a while though he started turning up his nose and leaving most it uneaten. At the same time, he was having bouts of gastric distress, leaving messes that I had to clean up. I hate cleaning up messes, especially the ones that stain the carpet. I’ve since learned that a number of Blue Buffalo products were recalled due to excessive vitamin D in the formula.
So we tried some Newman’s Own Organic, but same result – a turned up nose and the runs. Was it too rich?
I stopped by the Mud Bay at University Village, and the nice clerk there gave me some samples that met my criteria. What a useful service this is. I narrowed it down to Evo and Instinct. After learning that Evo was recently purchased by Proctor and Gamble, I settled on Nature’s Variety Instinct Grain-Free Nutrition. We’re starting with some Chicken Meal Formula and a variety of their canned foods, even one with rabbit. Dogs eat rabbits, right? Winston’s been on that diet for about a week. So far, so good. He likes the canned food best, but does OK with the kibble.

WINSTON TAKES ON A PIT BULL. A Tale of Two Dog Parks

About once a week, we like to take Winston to a dog park so he can run and wrestle with other dogs and play “chase me.” We usually go to Magnuson Park because it has a nice area exclusively for small or shy dogs. Big dogs and Winston are a big concern for us. He’s small, fast and basically not afraid of big dogs, but we’re told being small and fast can trigger a big dog’s predation instinct.
However, Magnuson Park is about a half hour drive from home, and Shoreline has an off-leash area much, much closer. Last Saturday, we decided to check it out. It’s tucked behind Shoreline Community College, and has a quite large fenced in area. It’s pretty nice. Except for the small dog, shy dog area, which is a small, dirty, barren fenced in area about the size of grocery bag. Insert disappointment here.
But as long as we were there, we decided to let him play in the big dog area. He immediately found a nice, medium sized friend to play with and they did great for a while, racing all over and rough housing. Then a young couple whose foolish grins flashed cluelessness, decided it would be fun to take their adolescent, untrained pit bull off its leash. Of course, it went straight for Winston and started worrying him and made him yelp. Winston responded by turning around and taking off after the pit bull, barking and growling. He was giving him what-for. Peggy said, “I want to leave now.” But the young couple leashed their dog back up, and we let Winston continue to play with his new friend. Then Mr. and Mrs. Clueless decided to let the pit bull back off its leash, and it went right for Winston again, biting him and horrifying us, but once more Winston wasn’t going to back down. After much shouting by us and barking by the dogs, the young couple packed up their dog and slunk off. Take it to training!
The next day, after church, we took Winston back to Magnuson Park. The weather was gorgeous, and there were lots of fun, well-behaved dogs in the small dog area, all with concerned, well trained masters. Winston ran and wrestled and played “chase me” until he was worn out. It’s fun to watch Winston run. He really takes off in a blaze, tail sticking straight out behind, a master of speed and broken-field running.

TDAA 10/10/10

Sunday, October 10th, Peggy and I drove down to Auburn with Winston to watch the finals of the TDAA National Meet. The actual title of the meet was the 7th Annual TDAA Petite Prix National Agility Tournament. A big name for a lot of little dogs. It was held at the Argus Ranch for Dogs.
We had no idea what we’d find and we were just dying of curiosity to see for ourselves what a Teacup Dog Agility Association meet was like. Would it be outdoors or indoors (it was raining that day)? Would there be a lot of people or not very many? Would there be food?
What we found was startling. First of all, yes, it was held indoors in a nice, very large pavilion, Argus Arena. Yes, there were lots of people there and dozens of dogs. And, yes, there was a food trailer with hot dogs and burgers. We’ve since been told that Argus Ranch is like heaven for dogs and agility training. It certainly is a large, well-kept facility.
Argus Arena is about 26,000 sq ft and is set up with two rings, one on each end of the arena. One ring was set up with 4” jumps for the smaller dogs, and the other was set up with 8” jumps for larger dogs.
Happily we ran into Robin and Norm Carlson who are the owners of Winston’s agility school, Four Paw Sports Center in Lynnwood. fourpawsports.webs.com. They were there competing with their two dogs, toy Klee Kai (which is the singular and the plural), and kindly spent quite a lot of time showing us the ropes and explaining the courses and rules to us. Klee Kai are miniature huskies and they are beautiful, bright energetic dogs. www.huggablehuskies.com
The courses consist of jumps and various “touch” obstacles, like ramps, teeter-tooters, hoops and tunnels. Teams are awarded points for completing the obstacles in a particular order in a set period of time. It’s as much of a test for the owner as it is for the dog. Though the competition can be fierce and the rules somewhat complicated, the emphasis is on fun. It’s really a delight to watch the little dogs in action. They work so hard, and they really want to please and they love the challenge and attention. Winston said that he run those courses faster than anybody. We’ll see.

MAKING STRIDES

Saturday, October 2nd, was the day of the big event – Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, a 5K walk through downtown Everett and the Historic North Everett Neighborhood. It was sponsored by the American Cancer Society. With her freshly minted survivors medal, Peggy headed up the team Tough and Determined (TAD). TAD raised $1,075 and came in 18th out of 82 teams in funds raised. Joining the team were Sue, Chris, Judy, Carol, Marcia, Jacqueline, and others, and well as yours truly. Helping to guide us were Marcia’s dog, Huck, and Jacqueline’s dog, Moxie.
Winston was with us the whole way, and excited to be in this wonderful event, surrounded by brave, determined, compassionate women. He charmed the walkers, especially the kids, who took breaks to pet him. He may be an Agility Dog in training, but a 5K trot proved a BIT too much for his little legs. Thanks to Carol for helping to carry him.

THE WALK

In reading books on dog training, and watching Victoria on “It’s Me or the Dog” or Cesar Millan, “The Dog Whisperer”, one basic becomes very clear. Dogs need to walk. (An aside – it’s a lot more fun to watch Victoria with her English accent, her little sports car and her naughty leather tights.) They are meant to walk. Like Millan says, “Birds fly, fish swim, dogs walk.” They need to go out with the pack daily at least and explore their territory. It’s “Reading the Sniffington Post.”

Before Winston came into our lives, we were looking for a house and one of the qualifications was that it had to have a yard for a dog. Well, the economy sunk the whole house idea, and in retrospect, it may have been for the best. We still live in our townhouse, so every time Winston needs to go out, we have to leash him up and go with him. We can't just boot him out to the back yard and call it good.

We take him for long walks twice a day, after breakfast and after dinner. Additionally, we take him out for pee breaks and short walks at least 3 or 4 times a day. This has the side benefit of getting us outside and exercising. I’ve lost 5 lbs. since we got Winston and it’s because of the daily walking.

We’ve also come to know and appreciate our community and our neighbors. Our complex is like a park in the middle of an urban area. We have 7 fenced acres of forest and native shrubs, fir, pine, cedar, and salal, holly and rhododendrons. There’s a mountain trail that goes around the outskirts of most of the property. Winston and I love to walk it on our morning rounds. I appreciate how beautiful and peaceful it is, and note the changes brought by the seasons and the constantly changing weather. Winston is on the alert for the hated squirrels, birds and bugs to eat. This is where he learned to stay away from yellow jacket nests. Also, he wants to smell the news left behind by other dogs in the community, and I let him take the time to do this.

Just to the west of our property, there is a city right-away that our community association, with the help of the city of Shoreline, has turned into a very nice trail. Before the association took on the project, the area had a small, muddy trail through it, and it was overgrown with blackberries and full of litter. Groups of low lifes used it sex, drinking and drug use. There were fights. People were afraid to go there, especially after dark, and the police even advised single women to stay away. Now the neighborhood takes great pride in the trail, with it’s paved path, mowed lawn, and gardens of native plants in bark mulch donated by the city and spread by volunteers, including me. No litter, no blackberries, no one lurking in the shadows. (Political plug – vote yes for Shoreline Prop 1 so we can continue to do this kind of thing.)

At the trail, Winston likes to climb one of the big boulders, check out the grassy drainage channel, roll in intoxicating smells on the lawn, and poop under the wild roses. There’s one special place in the ivy where he likes to sniff, then paw with his back legs (where did he learn to do that?), then suddenly leap back onto the lawn.

On our way back home, we walk on the sidewalk outside the gate. This is where we practice our “walkies.” I throw back my shoulders, put my head up, shorten his leash and WALK. Winston has to walk next to me nicely with no marmaduking around. No going after skateboarders, bikers or other dogs. For walking nicely he gets a treat. For not walking nicely, he gets me nagging at him, “Winston, walkies! Walkies!” and he gets a tug on the leash. He’s getting better all the time, and it's a pleasure to walk him.

AGILITY WEEK 3

This week Winston went to his third Agility Training class at Four Paw Sports Center in Lynnwood.
http://fourpawsports.webs.com
The instructor is Eric Sanford, a sweetheart, who has deep experience in Agility training and participation with this dog, Savannah. Winston has two classmates, Ruthie, owned by Jan, and Sophie the Poodle, owned by Ann. Both Sophie and Ruthie have a least a year experience with Agility, and it’s really fun to watch them tackle the courses with expertise and gusto.
What Winston lacks in experience, he makes up for in sheer brains, talent, athleticism, and the desire to get a treat. This week we (Winston and I are a team) ran a circuit of five jumps, then to the “table” to finish and wait. He hits the afterburner when he heads for the table. That’s where he gets a treat. We ran the course a couple of times straight on, then ran it backwards, then we took a deliberate detour. After that we worked on taking a jump a number of different ways, straight on, then cross ways. This involved some coordination on my part, so anytime Winston got confused, which wasn’t often, it was my fault.
After that we worked on teeter-totters, one small, one large. Winston had trouble on both of them. Normally, he’s very brave, but today he didn’t like the alarming movement of the boards. He’ll do better next week. He also had trouble with the slalom course, managing to make it through only about half-way. But by then it was late, he’d had a long, eventful day, and a little dog can only be expected to do so much. Also, he had to pee.

THE BLESSING OF THE ANIMALS

On this Sunday, October 3rd, at the Center for Spiritual Living, Rev. Kathianne Lewis gave a blessing for the animals. She started off with a quote from Chief Seattle, which I think sets a wonderful tone for this blog, “If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth.”
During the service, Winston was waiting patiently in the van. He, of course, got the full force of the blessing.
Sunday was close to the feast day of St. Frances of Assisi, who wrote the Canticle of the Creatures, an ode to God’s living things, “All praise to you, O Lord, for all these brother and sister creatures.”
Peggy is a founding member of the Spirit of the Sound Choir, under the direction of the brilliant Eric O’Del, where she sings tenor. That evening the choir gave its third performance of the day at Amazing Grace Spiritual Center. Winston and I were there of course. (Winston elected to stay with the car.)
Eric O’Del is also Spiritual Director at Amazing Grace, and during his inspirational talk, he talked about animals, too. Well, one animal in particular, the dog Faith. Dog Faith was born with deformed front legs, and with great care and tenderness, her masters taught to walk through life on her hind legs. Her YouTube video is worth a watch.

Brilliant and Beautiful – Winston, Dog Prodigy

Winston was born for Agility Training. Toward the end of our first class at Four Paw, after he’d shown the class that he knows “touch me”, “watch me”, and other basic tricks and had made a few jumps, and was practicing his “wait”, Jan mentioned to the Eric that Winston was just a year old. The Eric, the instructor, was visibly astounded. “He’s only a year old!? I can see the flash bulbs popping and hear the crowds cheering now!”
Winston is certainly one of the cutest dogs on the face of the planet, but is he really that smart, or are his owners just seeing stars? Most dog owners believe their dog is wonderful and unique. Loving masters would do that, but both Peggy and I have skeptical, analytical minds. Honest. Early on we suspected that Winston had something special, and we get more convinced of it every day.
A week or so after we first got him, and he was still learning to be toilet trained, Peggy came back from Winston’s early morning walk and said, “Here’s something interesting. If he just pees and wants to go back in, I say ‘You’re not done yet’ and he goes back to the side of building and poops.”