Go North Old Man

(Cottonwood/Kingman, AZ) That is the saying isn't it?

We had earthdog again today - much to Boogie's liking. Unfortunately, Boogie got a dud of a hunting partner. It was a very very old dachshund that barely waddled between the owner's legs the entire way. Boogie didn't know what to make of this. He would run out to hunt and then stop and worry about his partner. So he would go back and walk right along side this old dog. Boogie was very confused. So the hunt up wasn't all that fun as there really wasn't a partnership like there is supposed to be. That dog failed right away.

Boogie did a very nice indication but this judge didn't like it so much. Boogie got to go-to-ground first. He immediately went in, found the rats, and did his magic at the dowels. Perfect, now all he has to do is let Mike take him out. Nothing doing! Once again, Boogie didn't want the game to be over. Pretty smart boy....unfortunately it has to come to an end sometime. All that was left was to Honor. Good thing the rules only state that the dog has to look interested during the Honor.




In Senior, Boogie was absolutely perfect. Mike got him lined up in just the right spot.



He went directly into the tunnel.




Here is the judge listening to Boogie work so hard and timing him to make sure he works the full 90 seconds....that's never a problem with Boogie!




Then it was time for the recall. He came out like a rocket when Mike called him.




But on the way toward Mike, Boogie noticed the tunnel entrance. Maybe he should go down and play again!




Mike quickly told Boogie to stay and once again he stopped in his tracks. Good boy. How cute...he is panting so hard from barking, digging and chewing the dowels for 90 seconds.




My two happy boys.




This great performance earned Boogie a ribbon and a toy but unfortunately we didn't have time to stick around to get them. We had to start our journey toward "home". Boogie was so very sad to have to leave - this place had been fun! Earthdog, agility practice, tracking, hiking and nice weather. Why would anyone want to leave? I'm kind of wondering the same thing.

At 12:54pm we headed out for Washington. We made it as far as Kingman, AZ today.

We let 2iggie ride loose today instead of in her crate. I must say Slugger is the best boy. He let 2iggie take most of his spot. He had to be way forward - almost on the dashboard. Poor guy had to be in the sun the entire way while 2iggie was perfectly comfortable. 2iggie would maneuver and lay on Slugger and he would just let her do whatever she wanted. She seems to have everyone wrapped around her finger. And I think she knows it as they let her get away with anything.

So far an easy trip.

Debbie
3/28/10

Chainsaw Makes an Appearance

(Cottonwood, AZ) We were all up early today as the Earthdog test starts not too long after the sun comes up.

Masters was first and Boogie got paired up through a draw with his half sister, Jaldi, in the fourth brace. At the very beginning of the hunt, Boogie just wanted to check out Jaldi. I guess his first thoughts are always to be Mr. Studly. But after about 10 seconds he decided hunting was more fun.




Boogie did a perfect hunt up - like always. Jaldi indicated firs,t just perfectly. Boogie was looking around investigating the entire area and got two stickers in his feet. So Mike had to go over and get the stickers out and set him back down. After that Boogie went right over to the entrance and did a perfect indication! Here he is going down to indicate.





After barking a little bit he looks up to see if Mike understood what he was saying. Then he went back to work.



While Jaldi was trying to negotiate the tunnel (sadly never made it), Boogie was doing a beautiful Honor. If you look closely you can see Boogie is tethered to the ground. You can see the chain and orange flags just behind his front feet.



Then it was Boogie's turn to negotiate the tunnel. He immediately dove in, negotiated all the obstacles and turns, and got to the rats in just eight seconds.




They are allowed 90 seconds so he had plenty of time to spare. Then he had to "work" the rats for 90 seconds. He left no doubt that he was working. I think he did every thing that counts as working. He barked (a lot), dug, ate the dowels, and cried.

The problem came when it was time to open the lid and take him out. The second the lid was opened he backed up so he couldn't be reached. He's smart enough to know that when he gets taken out then the game is over. Why would he want the game to be over! So at the very end, Boogie failed. Oh well, he had a great time!

Shortly after that he got to do Senior.




Mike sets him up at the start line.




It looks as though he is right on track smelling his way to the entrance 20' away.



But at the last moment he turned and went straight to the judges who are sitting right where the rats were. Smart guy...except that's not the rules we humans made up for this game. They swooshed him away and instead of finding the correct entrance, he found the false exit and went in there. Fail.

But he was happy as he found the rats and worked them the required time. Now came the hard part that we've been having trouble with. Mike had to recall Boogie within 90 seconds. Amazingly enough, Boogie came right out and chased after Mike. Huge success. Mike picked him up and celebrated big time.




Much to Boogie's chagrin, there was now a two hour break before his next turn. Needless to say, when the time came he was ready!

Mike set him down 20' from the tunnel entrance as required.




Once again he took off like he meant business.




He ran right toward the hidden entrance.




And then he continued right on by. Oh shucks.




He went another 10 feet beyond the tunnel entrance and started doing something I'd never seen before. I also found out later the judge had never seen this before either. Boogie started trying to dig his own tunnel entrance!




He kept digging really fast and far....and time is running out as he only has 90 seconds to get in the tunnel and all the way to the rats. Look how deep he has gotten since the previous picture!




Finally he stops digging, looks around and takes off running toward the opposite side of the layout. On his way, his nose must have smelled the rat scent as he made a sudden right turn and disappeared down the hole.

Needless to say, he worked like crazy with people hearing him all over the Earthdog area. We couldn't hear most of the dogs from where we were standing - but you can always hear Boogie and his half brother, Klev'r. They leave no doubt that they've found the rats.

After the required time, the judge pulled the rats. Now we just have to get the dreaded recall. Mike waited a few seconds for Boogie to take a breath and then he called him. Boogie came peeking out....




...and just as quick he turned around to go back in. Mike yelled "stay" and to everyone's surprise Boogie stopped in his tracks allowing Mike to approach and pick him up. What a good boy! That's a pass.




When the day was done, awards were handed out. All passing dogs got a ribbon and a toy. Then a special award was given out. It was given to Chainsaw....aka Boogie. He was given a dowel that he had chewed almost in half. When it was handed to Mike he said "Boogie must have been having an off day, he usually gets them chewed completely through"....which is so true.




After everything was done, Boogie led Mike down to the river for a quick cool down. He must think he's still at the dowels as he's biting the water.




Just above where Boogie was at the river, I spotted a tree that a beaver recently chopped down. It's just amazing how strong beaver teeth can be. Hey, come to think of it, this is what most dowels look like when Boogie is done with his turn in Earthdog!




Boogie had such a fun day. And we had a good time watching Boogie have fun and seeing all the other Sunkist dogs and people. The other four dogs didn't think it was a fun day at all.

Debbie
3/27/10

Mr. Popular

(Cottonwood, AZ) Thursday morning, Mike, Boogie, Sparkie, and 2iggie went to agility practice. I sure hope Boogie is making some progress - I guess we'll see next week.

Today was extremely windy but I really wanted to track with Boogie today as it will be his last chance for about 10-12 days. Mike laid two tracks then came back to the RV to get us. Boogie did great on his first two tracks each aged about 15 minutes. Mike laid the third track in a field we hadn't been in before. He noticed there were a lot of stickers in the field. So while the track was aging, we tried to put boots on Boogie to help protect his feet. I wish I would have had my video camera. At first he tried to take a few steps like a cartoon dog. Then he became super silly and was dashing this way and that as quickly as he possibly could. He looked like a tornado that couldn't figure out which way to go. So much for the boots.

So Mike had to lay yet another track, this time in the grove of trees I showed you the other day. Boogie did great even in such horrendous conditions. The things that impressed me most was that Mike accidentally put the glove at the start instead of the end. Boogie went right to the start, sniffed the glove for a bit then picked it up and handed it to me. Wow, what a good dog!

Today (Friday) Mike and Boogie did a very early and very quick agility practice. Then they went to someones house to load up all the tunnels for this weekend's Earthdog test here at the park. Then Mike went and helped dig all the trenches to put the tunnels in. This is a lot of work but this year a good number of people showed up to help so it only took a few hours.

After that, we took Boogie and 2iggie and drove to Sedona to visit some good friends. Boogie has met them before and loves going there because one of his best friends lives there. Meet Murphy. Murphy is truly the gentle giant. His paws are literally bigger than my hands and his head is much bigger than mine. But he is the most gentle happy boy you could ever meet....and a little slobbery at times.




Boogie's "best friend" weighs twice as much as me....yes me! So here is Boogie at 19 pounds playing with his friend that weighs over 150 pounds. Just a little size difference.




When these two play, everyone needs to clear out as they both go all out. 2iggie was very scared as she thought this huge "horse" was going to hurt Boogie. Of course Boogie was having a blast but 2iggie didn't seem to understand that. So she was barking her head off and lunging at poor Murphy. But if Murphy would even glance her way, 2iggie would run and hide behind Mike and bark. Don't know why she would be worried....Boogie's in there somewhere.




They started out playing inside...




But Boogie and Murphy were having a blast. Boogie would grab a whole mouthful of Murphy (all hair I'm sure) and pull with all his might, crying as he did so. I think he was crying because he was so frustrated. No matter how hard he pulled he couldn't begin to budge Murphy.




What you can't tell from my pictures is that they were playing chase around the furniture, over the furniture, and through the furniture! They were really going at it. (That's Murphy's dad, Paul, in the background.)




After much chasing and wrestling, Murphy got Boogie down. (Gosh, he looks so little!)




But isn't wasn't long before Boogie said "I can do that too!"




We decided it was definitely time to take it outside as they were getting more rambunctious all the time.





The action was non-stop. Unfortunately I was having trouble with my camera and couldn't get many pictures. And the ones I did get weren't very good. But you can still tell they were having fun and really going at it.




The scenery all around the house it absolutely gorgeous. I was having so much fun watching the boys play that I only glanced up once to get a quick picture of the red rocks that surround the house.




Just because I looked up to see the scenery didn't mean the boys were going to stop playing.




Finally after a couple hours of hard play, the boys stopped for just a second. I just love how they are looking at each other. Such friends.




I think Boogie's playmate got tuckered out. It doesn't matter where we go, all the dogs want to play with Boogie. He must have some aura about him. He is definitely the popular one.




2iggie seemed glad to leave although she made great strides while she was there with both the people and the dogs. She tried to get brave and sneak up on Murphy but he'd turn around to see her and she'd run around the hot tub with Murphy in hot pursuit. Then Boogie got jealous that Murphy had a new playmate and he barked his head off. Too funny.

When we got home Boogie insisted he wasn't tired at all. But a couple hours later he finally decided it might be fun to dream about this play date. So he got in his normal sleeping position and went off to dreamland. This is one relaxed dog.



What a fun afternoon. Amongst all the playing, Mike and I did have some time to visit with our friends. It was so very good to see them. What a great family...nice people and nice dogs.

Debbie
3/25-26/10

I'm Lost

(Cottonwood, AZ) An update on 2iggie: She is acting a little more herself today. Her tail doesn't work a whole lot better yet but her mood is improving which I'm guessing means she is in less pain. She is doing a lot of stretching though.

Boogie went to agility practice alone this morning - meaning he was the only dog that got to go. Mike said they had a great practice.

Late this afternoon Mike set three tracks for Boogie. It was intended the age of the tracks would be 13, 16, and 16 minutes. In actuality, they turned out to be aged 25, 30 and 35. And instead of being on totally flat ground as in all previous outings, the ground had many small hills every 20 yards or so. The green lines of grass are the fronts of the hills.




The last track was in a grove of trees.




If you look closely you can see the small hills every 10 - 15 yards.




Overall he did a great job but we did have some troubles. Poor guy was trying so hard but he did go pretty far off track a couple times. Probably due to the age of the tracks. But he never gave up. And he was always very excited for the next track.

We've definitely got a long way to go. But Boogie's game that's for sure.

Debbie
3/24/10

Broken Wag

(Cottonwood, AZ) Sunday, Mike took Sparkie, 2iggie and Boogie to Sedona for a nice long hike - after stopping for agility practice on the way.

It was a beautiful day so instead of doing the hike they'd planned, they went on a longer hike that was about three hours. Sparkie got to be off leash the entire time but the two youngsters were on Flexi leads the entire time. Even so they got a lot of running in during the hike.

By the end of the hike, Boogie and Sparkie were tired but 2iggie was still zip-zapping everywhere and was eager to do much more. But Mike thought they'd had enough so they came home.

About two hours later, we took Boogie out to do some tracking. He is doing so well and really loves it. He's progressing well but I'm finding things we definitely need to work on.

When we got home, less than an hour later, 2iggie was in a lot of pain. She moved from spot to spot trying to get comfortable and was crying a lot. We tried to think of all the different things we'd fed her, what she ate on the hike, etc. but we couldn't think of anything that would have made her sick. She was a very unhappy puppy for sure. When it came dinner time, she ate just fine, drank fine, and was doing her business fine. This was good as we figured it meant there wasn't any blockage anywhere. But she still wasn't happy at all.

Monday she woke up and was still not happy. She ate fine but I noticed that her tail was way down between her legs. I figured she must be in a lot of pain because her tail is always up, kind of like a flag pole.

It wasn't until later in the afternoon that Mike tried to lift up her tail. She screamed loud! That's when I remembered somewhere way back in my brain that there was some kind of syndrome when a dogs tail goes limp. I seemed to remember that it usually had to do with dogs that did a lot of swimming or swimming in cold water. But 2iggie hadn't been in the water.

So I called Karen Hunter figuring she'd know about it since she has a doggy swimming pool. She wasn't home but Steve looked it up on the internet (we were traveling so had no access to the web). Sure enough, he found it.

This condition has many names, all meaning the same thing. Of the six or seven names, Broken Wag seemed most appropriate for 2iggie. If you look back at previous posts, you'll see 2iggie's tail is always wagging high up in the air. Here's what it looks like now (Tuesday) at full arousal. All other times it hangs straight down. This is about 180 degrees lower than normal!




It's a little better than a couple days ago but still not the flagpole we're used to. She can't wag it at all. It's just one sad, limp tail.

After researching the condition we found that it is usually found in dogs that have been kept in a crate for long periods of time and therefore have a very low conditioning level. Then they go out and exercise a lot which overuses the muscles. The poor dog then ends up with Broken Way (or Limber Tail Syndrome). It is very painful (as we saw) for the first couple days. It can take a few days to three weeks to heal. The dog is to rest until the tail returns to normal. Poor 2iggie - she had too much fun after a year of spending most of her time in a crate.

Boogie, however, is in fine form! We made the hour and a half drive down to Phoenix Monday for Earthdog practice. At the very beginning of practice a rat got loose in the yard. So they needed a dog to find it. Guess who got called for the job? Boogie!! He was so happy. He took off like a shot and immediately ran to a particular bush. He disappeared into this large four foot tall bush. Just a second or two later, there was no doubt Boogie had captured the rat. Good boy, Boogie. What a hunter. Job well done, back in the car he went. What?! That wasn't what he had in mind at all.

During practice he got two turns (like always). Here he is entering the tunnel at full speed. I find it amazing how far he has to crouch down yet he can make his way the 30' to the rats in six or seven seconds. He even has to go over a roller inside the tunnel and through a constriction.




We worked on his two problem areas and he was perfect! Let's hope he remembers that this weekend during the test.

Here is my attempt at an artistic picture of Boogie at Earthdog practice.




At the end of practice another rat got loose. I don't know how Boogie got so lucky but they called for him again! He was in heaven! He again found the bush where the rat was hiding but this one was trickier. It got out of the bush without Boogie noticing. Mike noticed and called Boogie....who came like a shot. What a good boy! He chased the rat into the next bush where he made the catch. Just to let everyone know - after practice the rat carcasses are taken to the local wildlife rehabilitation center for the animals to eat....well except for the one rat that Boogie ate. Of course right after eating the rat he wanted to give me a big kiss. I wasn't so receptive!

We didn't get home from Phoenix until almost 9pm. Boogie sacked out on the couch in his normal position. Why is it that every time I try to take a picture of him sleeping, he opens his eyes as wide as possible just as I start to push the button.



Debbie
3/21-23/10