Bath Day + Pupdate

I don't bathe my dogs very often. In fact, I bathe my dogs so infrequently that every time I do bathe them, I do it only because I can't remember the last time I did it. So needless to say, when Bath Day comes around, it's kind of a big deal.

Our Bath Day began because of Audrey. Now, as you may have realized by now, Audrey is, for lack of a better word, a BAD puppy. When she is outside her main objectives are to eat/grab as many items as physically possible. Grass, twigs, plants, rocks, ants, flowers, leaves, unidentified objects, and so on. What she does is she'll get one of the aforementioned objects and race to the flower bed that she has claimed as her own personal sandbox. Once there she will dig, chew, and eat as many items as possible. If she can tell that you are on to her she will start racing around the yard with the object in her mouth, wait until you can almost catch her, and then take off again. She was having a wonderful time at her salad bar and sandbox when I realized just how dirty she had gotten.

Her bath was fairly uneventful. She did manage to climb out of the utility sink twice but was unsuccessful in jumping off of the washing machine. She is probably going to be too big for the utility sink by her next bath anyway, so we won't have to worry about that. After her bath I thought she should meet Mr. Blow Dryer. I've never met a dog who actually likes the blow dryer but after a few minutes of screaming and trying to simultaneously rip my arm off and run away, she finally settled down a little bit and let me finish. After that she was so tired that she slept soundly in her crate for the rest of the afternoon...
Obviously I'm lying. She slept for maybe an hour and then went straight to the water bowl to ruin her lovely blow dried ears and then ran outside after Mom had watered the grass to play in the mud.

Speaking of being bad, we have a theory about our precious little Audrey. She's got these gorgeous golden/yellow eyes. When they are fully golden she behaves like an absolute angel. When her pupils get big and her eyes look more black, that's when you know she's going to be bad.

Now although her registered name is Argyle's Velveteen Rabbit, we also have her "official" name that we call her. We call her Audrey Bella MalaMala:

Audrey - after the amazing Audrey Hepburn
Bella - after the main character in the Twilight Saga
MalaMala - Mala means "bad" in Spanish and clearly she's bad x2

So whenever she's got the black eyes she is known as MalaMala. :) She's got several other nicknames as well including variations of Audrey such as Audrina/Audrita. Apparently Field Spaniels do this little dance move when you call them to you, they will come and then suddenly their little butts curve around and reach you at the same time as the front half of their body. I was told that this is called the "comma" for obvious reasons, but we also call her Chueca (crooked in Spanish) or Cashew.

Tonight I had Dad and Matt deliver her to me at work at 5:45 PM so I could have a few minutes to work with her. She met some kids and did quite well with them except when all four of them wanted to pet her at once. She sniffed a child in a wheelchair, and met several new people. She met a gigantic chihuahua x who she was quite smitten with (she would play bow and then smack him in the face with her huge paws), and a crazy chocolate lab. I told the lab people that she is often mistaken for a lab and they thought that was funny, but even I have to admit she is the exact same color as a chocolate lab.

We worked a little bit on loose leash walking/gaiting. She did a little bit of free stacking, and she sat politely for everyone who asked her to sit. Overall, the only issues she had were when the group of kids were trying to pet her and she got a little nervous, but I know she needed to poop too. So that might have been why she was antsy.

Oh and as per the usual everyone and their mother (literally) was quite confident that she is a Cocker Spaniel.

Weekly Socialization Pupdate!

Yesterday Audrey (and Dad and I) went to JCPenney's. Well technically Audrey and I just went to the parking lot of JCPenney's while Dad shopped inside. We walked around the parking lot and encountered several new and interesting things such as:

-a storm drain
-landscaping wood chips (which she was convinced was just lots and lots of FOOD)
-bushes/palm trees
-gravel
-cars passing by very closely (and probably wondering what we were doing)

And then we went back to the car and I opened up the back of the TrailBlazer and we trained a little bit in the cargo area. After all of the other things she experienced, she decided that the scariest part of her day was the cover flap thingy in the back of dad's car (its hard to describe exactly what it is, but basically if you put groceries or something in the cargo area you could then pull this cover to conceal the packages). She bumped it with her nose accidentally and it made a funny sound and then to show her nothing was dangerous, I pulled it out and again it made a loud noise and she tried to leap out of the car. So we'll have to work on that again soon.

Then we went to PetSmart where she saw and experienced even more things such as:

-the automatic sliding doors in the front which she was unsure about at first, but then once they didn't eat her, she waltzed right in like a champ
-the Banfield sign was apparently quite fragrant (and thankfully didn't fall on her)
-a black lab/chow was OBSESSED with her (staring, whining and lunging at her) the entire time we were there so needless to say I didn't allow her to say HI to him
-she peed (what dog doesn't pee in PetSmart?) and so I cleaned it up and when I threw it away the sound of the trashcan closing scared her but she recovered and ate some food near the trashcan

She also allowed one of the cashiers and one of the groomers to pet her and give her some food (and she sat when they asked her to!) Also a little girl (finally) pet her while she was busy sniffing Dad's shopping cart. Overall it was a pretty eventful day, I just wish there were more dogs and people at PetSmart. I might take her on Saturdays since the weekends are always busier.

Even though yesterday was quite tiring for her, I think, last night and today she's been quite the little hellion anyway. :)

Goals for 2009

Borrowing the idea from Kim over at OTCH Rah I decided to post about my dog goals for 2009.

Mackenzie:
Finish her Rally Novice (RN) title with at least one placement.
Start/(Finish?) her Rally Advanced (RA) title
Get a Companion Dog title (CD)
Find/Take a Canine Good Citizen test (CGC)
Pursue a new dog sport (tracking, earthdog, musical freestyle, etc.)

Audrey:
Debut her in July at the Field Spaniel National Specialty in Wisconsin
Get her in the ring as much as possible
Get as many CH points as possible
Start/Finish her Rally Novice title
Get her CGC
Start her Companion Dog title

Me:
Socialize and train Audrey for Conformation AND Obedience/Rally
Train/polish Mackenzie to finish her RN and hopefully earn legs towards her CD
Figure out how to attend as many shows as possible to achieve these goals


Some lofty goals, I know. Lofty in that we live in the Valley and everything takes 10x longer for me than anyone else. The last show we went to was in August, and the next show we're going to is in February. At this rate it could take two years for Mackenzie to get her CD. Either way, we've got the goals in mind. And I do believe that we've got a solid chance at achieving a good number of them. If I lived in a city where shows were close by I would have a much longer list by now. Plus all four of my dogs would be able to pursue all the sports they wanted to. We would be taking classes nearly every night I bet. Obedience/Rally, Disc, Musical Freestyle, Tracking, EarthDog, the list would be endless. Unfortunately, I love the Valley.

So instead of whisking myself off to Austin or San Antonio, I would much rather stay right here and if I'm lucky, I can slowly make an impact on the Valley's dog-owning public.

Shenanigans

While I was at work today my brother decided to make some lunch for himself in the oven. Somehow when he was getting the tray out of the oven, he dropped something and ended up slamming the door of the oven so hard that the St. Francis of Assisi clock hanging on the wall fell to the ground and broke in half.

Everyone starting yelling and my parents went running in to see what happened and amidst all of this, Audrey was nowhere to be found. After things calmed down a bit, she reappeared in the kitchen and asked my Mom to open the door to her crate because she wanted to put herself to bed for being bad! My silly puppy.

We had a training session tonight and we worked on:
Sit
Down
Stand
Look (at the food in my hand)
Watch Me
"Audrey"
Shake
Touch (when we worked on it she would touch the palm of my hand with her nose and Spencer - who also knows the touch command since I teach it to all my dogs - was touching the back of my hand trying to get a click)

We also worked on ignoring food on the floor and watching me instead, which will come in handy in the ring when other exhibitors drop their bait. So far she's really solid with Sit, Stand, Watch Me/Audrey, and Touch is coming along real nice. We just started 'touch' yesterday but I find that dogs always catch on really quickly to that one and I use it as my gauge to see if they are truly understanding the clicker.

Our next adventure is going to be getting her used to the PediPaws (dremel-y thingy) and hopefully getting a bath sometime this week.

Socialization

I think we're doing pretty well so far but just to track our progress I'll write down what we've done in the week that we've had her:

Handling (every day):
Mouth/looked at teeth and removed objects from mouth :)
Legs
Paws/cleaned
Nails
Tail
Belly/wiped after she peed in her crate
Back
Cleaned/handled ears
Collared since the day we got her/we work on collar grabs everyday
Car harness
Sweater
Snood
Bandanna
Santa Hat

We haven't had a bath because I don't like bathing dogs that often. But I imagine she'll need to get used to it soon enough. Maybe sometime next week I will give her a bath.

People she's met:
Young adults
Middle-aged adults
Older adults
Seniors
We need to find some kids

Sounds:
Doorbell
Dogs barking
Squeaky toys
YouTube
TV/Loud Movies
Cars
Clapping
Yelling

Objects to chew/Play with:
Nylabones
Tugs
Squeaky toys
Ropes
Small/Large toys
Rubber chew toys
Frozen teething stick
Food bowls (I think we might have a future Frisbee dog on our hands, seeing as how she's really into playing with the other dogs' food bowls)

Dogs/Puppies she's met/played with:
Other dogs being boarded at the kennel (Random assortment of breeds)
Other dogs belonging to her breeders (Flat-coat, Corgi, another Field, Borzoi, Springer, Silky Terrier, and obviously her mom and littermates)
Our dogs (Scottie, Boston, Dachshund)
Rambunctious puppy at Petsmart (GoldenDoodle 6mo)
She saw a few dogs at the Vet but did not interact with any of them
I will start bringing her to work on Fridays for more dog socialization

House training:
Peed in crate twice
Peed in house once
Pooped in house once
Has produced something outside nearly every time we've gone out/will alert us that she needs to go out by running to the door/doing the crazy poop dance

Crate training:
Occasional singing
Plays quietly in crate now
Sleeps through the night
Waits to be let out in the morning without whining until she hears me wake up (just like Mackenzie and April)

Places/Experiences:
PetSmart for Christmas pictures
Vet's office for shots
Car rides to see Christmas lights/PetSmart/Vet/Post office/etc.
Post office
PetSmart after the Vet to choose a bowl/toys
Dad's office

Surfaces:
Grass
Mud
Concrete
Gravel/Street
Tile
Carpet (here and at Dad's office)
Uneven surfaces (water hose in the backyard, sticks, stepping stool in my room, the step to get into the living room)

Eating locations:
Bathroom
Kitchen
Bedroom
Living Room
PetSmart

Whew, I got tired just writing this out. For one week I think we're doing pretty damn good. The main things we need to work on are meeting more Kids/more people and Dogs. And obviously HANDLING. We worked on stacking in front of a mirror last night and we got some pretty good free stacks until she discovered the pretty puppy hiding in the mirror. She's made tremendous progress with her crate-training and we're hearing less and less of her lovely singing voice. I think our guide from now will be The Puppy's Rule of Twelve (Positive Paws Dog Training).

Christmas Photos

I made a sorry attempt at taking some Christmas photos with the dogs this morning. For some reason they can only pose two dogs at a time. The split second I try to get a third dog, or God forbid a fourth dog in on the action, they all get up real nonchalant and leave like they've got to go read the newspaper or something.

I did manage to get a few good individual ones of April especially, a few of Audrey, a couple of Mackenzie trying to eat the Santa hat off of her head (isn't she supposed to be the most highly trained of my dogs?) and one pathetic one of Spence with his elf hat on which I had to delete. It is impossible to get a good picture of Spencer. He always looks so utterly sad and so black in his photos. Audrey on the other hand is going to be a natural I think. When she hears the little tune of my camera turning on she looks right at me (just like Mackenzie used to do before today...)

I will post the good pictures as soon as possible.

For now you get Audrey's Christmas Card.

Introduction

Welcome to Audrey the Field Spaniel's blog! I will try to update as much as humanly and doggedly possible. For starters though, I figured you were all in for an introduction post.

No, I never planned on getting a Field Spaniel, but when opportunity knocks, at my house anyway, we answer that door (some of us even bark and run wildly out the door to greet Opportunity). So when the opportunity presented itself that I was being offered a show quality/show potential Field Spaniel, I answered the door with puppy food, chew toys, and leash in hand.

We've always been a dog-loving family, but up until recently that's all we were. Our dogs obviously got good food, regular vet visits, toys, etc. But then my senior year of high school, I got accepted to Cornell University halfway across the country and I was leaving everyone and everything I had ever known. While I was living in New York (all alone, yet surrounded by people) I started wanting and needing a companion, a sense of family. After many months of research and a solid stack of information, I convinced my parents that I needed a puppy. For Christmas of my 2nd year of college, I got the greatest puppy the world had ever known. This blog is not about her, but she is such a huge part of my life that she needs her own part of the intro.

Mackenzie changed my life. From the moment I got her, we had this thing. This connection. It gets hard to describe without sounding a little bit crazy, but we have this relationship that is unlike any I had ever had with another dog before her. Like I said, our family always had at least one dog at any given time and we loved and took care of it. But with Mackenzie I wanted and needed to do more, I wanted the perfect dog. Because she was the first dog who was really mine. We got her at 8wks and she was on her first cross-country plane ride before she was 3mo. As a young dog on a college campus, she got to do some amazing things. From picnics with the President of Cornell, to lacrosse games with our Big Red Pep Band, Marching Band practice on our astroturf football field that she peed on, running off leash around the quad of one of the most beautiful college campuses in the country, and of course quality time spent at our Ithaca home. I raised her the best that I could while still concentrating on papers, exams, friends, parties, road trips and everything else that comes along with going to a really tough yet continually exciting Ivy League University. Despite the craziness of having a young puppy during the hardest part of my college years (or perhaps because of it) Mackenzie turned out beautifully and our relationship is incredible.

After I graduated from Cornell in 2006 with a B.S. in Communication, naturally I accepted a job as a dog trainer. Mackenzie comes to work with me 2-3x a week and loves everything and everyone at work. Since our graduation from college, we had a little bit more time to pursue other activities. Shortly after I accepted my job as a dog trainer, I met a woman who started a Therapy Dog organization in our area, so a few weeks after meeting her, Mackenzie and I become Delta Society registered Pet Partners. I knew that Mackenzie was destined to be a star from an early age, so we also began training for competitive dog sports. Being severely limited by our geographic location, we did the best we could and prepared for a "local" (2.5+ hours away) dog show in August of 2008. We competed in Obedience and Rally and came home with one Qualifying score in Rally (which was one more than I thought we would get).

At the time of the show I was a few weeks from being 25yo and had never in my life been to a dog show. My parents, both in their mid-50s had also never been to a dog show. Now none of this is for a lack of dog-show enthusiasm, but simply because there aren't any dog shows nearby, and Mackenzie is our first "performance" dog. And although for the past 15+ years we've only had purebred dogs, Mackenzie was our first to be able to compete in AKC events (she has her ILP/PAL number which means she is identified as a purebred Dachshund even without AKC papers and able to compete in all events except Conformation).

Obviously we've still got a lot to work on, but being in the ring with Mackenzie for those few minutes was electrifying. We are absolutely addicted to it now. We hope to continue to compete as long as she and I are having fun, and hopefully manage a few titles before she retires.

That being said, our first experience at a dog show was spent entirely on the Obedience side of the convention center. I have zero experience watching even a millisecond of Conformation, because I was too busy watching the Obedience dogs (and freaking out about when it would be our turn). My parents, who I banished to the complete opposite side of the convention center so that I could concentrate, did manage to watch a few breeds in the Conformation ring and my Mom the always popular chat-magnet, spoke to a few Conformation competitors about the trials and tribulations of dog showing.

Going on those few minutes of experience, we are now plunging headfirst into that world. I've always dreamed of owning and exhibiting a show dog, but honestly I've got no clue as to what I'm doing. Now I've got this crazy biting, running, yelling, absolutely breathtakingly stunning puppy who I'm supposed to turn into a show dog - Audrey the Field Spaniel.

A few weeks ago a client of mine asked me to temperament test a litter of Field Spaniels that she had bred. When I was evaluating the "white" puppy I said "This would definitely be the puppy I would take home today!" As it turned out, when we went over the temperament test sheets "white" puppy scored the best. After the temperament test on the litter, the breeder/owner drove up to see Pat Hastings so that she could evaluate the litter. Pat Hastings rated the "white" puppy as the "Pick of the Litter" and rated her as having the best conformation for the show ring.

And then, surprisingly, they offered her to me. My first AKC registered show potential puppy, of course I said YES.

So here we are.

It has officially been one week since I brought her home. She continually bites our ankles, toes, and pants, she sloshes around in the water dish for minutes on end, she chews on our wooden coffee table, and the metal legs of our computer chairs, every toy in existence is strewn around the living room, and perhaps her greatest claim to fame is that she has tried repeatedly to rearrange all of our dog-furniture (beds and bowls).

We've done very well with housetraining (only a couple accidents so far) and she has been introduced to the clicker. We've worked on attention, a loose show stack, her name, watch (me), look (at the food in my hand), sit, down, and come. She will be my first entirely clicker-trained dog (Mackenzie would be considered a crossover dog) and I get giddy at that thought.

This blog will primarily be about Audrey's training, my research and training about what I need to do and what I need to teach her, our daily adventures in socialization, pictures, and questions.

While this blog will be primarily about Audrey, I can't promise that our other two dogs (April and Spencer) won't make surprise cameos. Especially seeing as how Audrey just got here a week ago and already she's got her own blog. But I'm sure they're all just dying to steal the spotlight away from Mackenzie for once.