The Weave Pole Challenge

We haven't practiced the weave poles since the time that i took that picture, so Oscar has totally forgotten how to do them! He never really did them that well anyway so its probably best that we re-train them again anyway.
This is going to be the 5th method that we have tried now! We have tried the channel weave when he was younger, Susan Garretts 2x2 method earlier this year (which went badly because i never actually had the DVD), the 1 pole at a time method(which was the most successful) and we tried using guides too (which also went badly because oscar either jumped over them or went under them!)
 
Now we are trying the simple,original 2x2 method!
We had the first session about a half an hour ago and it went brilliant! Oscar got it immediately,he is going through 2 poles with ease, and with speed! I know its only 2 poles but its a start.

So I'm going to try and train Oscar 6 poles by the start of next week, lets say by Tuesday. Its a challenge really and it started 30 minutes ago!

I'll keep this updated on our progress,i might even record a few sessions! 


( you can tell that it's my week off school, can't you?)

The Bank Holidays! Gota love 'em!!!

Who doesn't love bank holidays?!?! And to make it even better its Halloween break now too! 1 week off from school....thank god for that! It was definitely a long time coming,but its here now so hurray!

We never went to Kennedy Park in end, instead we went to my grandparents for dinner which was probably better anyway considering it was raining nearly all of Sunday. So I'm planning to go some time this week,or maybe agility class but I need to see whats going on first.

Seeing as it was raining Sunday i made it my duty to give Oscar a bath. He didn't look dirty on the outside but he definitely needed it! Not so sure he enjoyed it though,either way,its done for the next few months now!

He was so happy and innocent. He had no idea what was to come..... the dreaded bath!

Please can i get out now???

The bath did serve some purpose though,other than just to clean him.........


.....it turns out he is a dalmatian in disguise!!!!






Despite the rain yesterday i cleared up in the evening which made quite a nice sunset picture which i could not resist!

And thats really all that happened yesterday!
We did more stuff today though and hopefully we will do some more things this week.

Today we did some agility,and i got out my A frame,which isn't actually finished yet but i used it anyway! It turns out that Oscar LOVES the A frame,i couldn't keep him off the thing. Any chance he got he was up it,you pointed at it and he was like ' do you want me to go up it? Cause i will,as fast as i can,so do ya,do ya??? '

Look,i made my contact!

I can do this too!

But i really do love it up here!

The A frame has other uses too........

........ Its a good place to shelter from the sun!

We also played with his interactive toy,which he really likes to play with.

We are still restricted to on leash walks because the fields still aren't empty which is a shame but we still make the most of them and the natural surroundings too!

The Dog Days...or should I say School Days?

I really should apologize for my lack,or rather disappearance,of posts lately! One word........School!!!

2 months back at this point and Halloween break is quickly approaching, it arrives on Friday! The longest stretch of the school year without a break.......I think?? 

Oscar has been good, his usual self, if not a little more energetic when we come home from school,what with being alone for a while he just cant contain himself! 
We haven't really been doing anything too interesting since i went back to school,and we haven't been to agility training in about 2 and a half months either (bold agility dog owner indeed!!!) I keep meaning to go but there is always something going on during the weekends and we obviously can't go during the week, and school can take all the blame on that one!

We came very close to getting another dog recently. Our friends (we carpool to and from school together but its really very hard to explain) took in 2 lovely gordon setters who were badly treated and skinny. There is a male,Alfie, and a female,Beth, and they are,supposedly, pure bred working gordons. 2 weeks after they arrived Beth had,to the owners surprise, 6 puppies! Everything has been going well,apart from 1 death, and i had asked about getting one and it was all looking good but that soon fell through. They are planning on selling these puppies for €400 each!!!!! And that to me is totally wrong! These puppies are not KC registered,they do not know the father (because its not Alfie), the came from a rescue dog and they have nothing standing for them in terms of working achievements (the parents not the pups obviously). And not to mention no health tests (but they aren't necessary in Ireland) 
So its a no go on that idea.
But we still may be getting another dog. A rescue dog though,i think its better to rescue. So fingers crossed!

I really do not know what to talk about? I haven't done anything interesting in 2 months!
I did take some photos of Oscar and the horses yesterday.

Large,Medium,Small!

And i have a few more photos of some kittens that I'd like to share.

Hopefully we will be able to get to the JFK center some time next week. I think Oscar would enjoy the trees and the woods and the open space....Oh and the mini train!!!!! I'd love that too,it would be nice to have an outing with him and hopefully my friend can come too.  He cant be let off leash (not that I think I'd let him anyway) but we can use the long line.

So maybe there will be many more updates to come!

Fun,Fun,Fun....and some agility!

Had another fun day today,or evening in this case! My brother has his friend over so me and Oscar spent the lovely evening outside in the garden and went for a nice walk in the field.

Oscar had dinner early tonight because it takes him a little while to eat a pig trotter and i wanted to get a walk in after dinner too.

We started off playing a few games of tug and fetch and then i took some photos of shadows. No,I'm not crazy but yes,shadows. They make really nice pictures. Sadly i didn't get great ones tonight,i was trying to get one of me and Oscar tugging but i couldn't get a good one. I got this one though,

Its not great but its the best one i have,neither of us are in the positions i was aiming for but as you can imagine,its hard to tug and take a photo of your shadow at the same time.

Oscar really enjoys jumping up and grabbing his toys in mid air so i took advantage of this and  got some good shots,this time much more successful than the shadow ones!

We also played the 'race for it' game. Its supposed to help get the dog to work away from you in agility and race ahead of you,but we will see how that goes. For now Oscar enjoys it and it gives me good photo opportunities!

He does actually get to tug and retrieve the toys too,it wasn't all 'race to get it and then me take it away',although i'm pretty sure that Oscar enjoyed the racing for it and jumping and grabbing it parts!

Tug,tug,tug,tug!!

Here i come!!!

Again,again!! Throw the toy!

That was most of the playing part,i don't think he has ever played for so long with the same toy! 15 minutes with the kong one and another 15 with the snake! Improvements! 
We also did agility,well at least a type of agility,if you could call a line of 3 obstacles agility? Thats what we did anyway,lets call it 'mini' agility! 
What was this 'mini' agility course made up of? A tunnel(it was actually 2 but they make one long one),an old car tire(yes,i'm still using that tire for yesterday!) and 1 simple jump. Hard? Certainly not,for Oscar anyway!

Tire!

Jump!

Tunnel! (with crazy ears!)

So that was our 'mini' agility all over and done with so Oscar,being the clown that he is,played some more!

I just have to show people this one,its hilarious!

He is just crazy about this snake toy!


After all the fun and excitement we had a walk to 'cool' off,and it was a nice walk too! Oscar was very good,he practically stayed with me the whole time!
I just couldn't resist a good game of hide and seek. I can't say that i hid too well though,how could it?!?! It was an open field with nothing to hide behind,so most of my hiding spots were just me lying flat on the floor. I hardly ever got to hide though,Oscar was on me like a bullet anytime i even thought to walk away from him!

Haha,i found you! Silly human!

Oscar is now fast asleep in bed. I bet all that chewing on the pig trotter took it out of him!!!  Although i will admit,today wasn't his most active day,he only got 1 walk today! I know,lazy right,but i just wasn't feeling well at all this morning,and walking around only made me feel worse but i think he has forgiven me for missing a walk and a few training and play sessions today. He isn't the type of dog who holds grudges,he probably doesn't even remember what he had for dinner yesterday! 
But with that said beagles are known to be able to remember different scents and recognize them in the future,so maybe he remembers a lot more than i think,after all he remembers all his tricks very well.

One bad thing was discovered today though. You know that new field we found,the one with the stream? yeah,that one,well the only way to get to that is to go through the second field we walk in but.....
..... thats now occupied by horses!!! :-( 
So we are back to one field again. I wouldn't mind walking in there with the horses but the electric fence is on so now i can't get in there anymore. 
And just to add to it,although not as bad as i can buy some more,i lost the cat nip!!!  Oh,wait,i never mentioned that before! Well Oscar is trained to find cat nip! I wanted to do something other than tracking(because its very time consuming planning and laying tracks every week) and something more challenging than just finding food or toys so i trained him to find cat nip. I got the idea from customs dogs,and they way that they are trained to find drugs and stuff,so i just used cat nip instead because it wouldn't harm him and it was easy to get in pet stores. But now i have gone and lost it! I don't know how,the container it was kept in is still here and i remember putting it in there the last time i used it!
I suppose i can always get some more somewhere.

I'm all typed out now,so i will leave you with this nice photo i got in the field today,

The Irish sunset!

Walkies Fun!!!

The weather has been really nice today,and it wasn't too bad either yesterday! So with the weather so nice me and Oscar went exploring!
We found a NEW FIELD to walk in!!! Thats 3 fields now,and if the horses leave the others then we will have 5 to walk in!! Our walks just keep getting better and better and longer and longer!!!

There is one very good thing about this new field............

..............Its got that!!! A stream!
I knew there was always a stream going through the fields because it flows though one of the other fields we walk in but this is nice and wide and shallow too!
So i wore my wellies,which felt so weird on my feet because i am so used to wearing my hiking boots.
But.........

.......Oscar wasn't too pleased with our discovery and tried to keep his paws dry!

It was a battle of wills,but in this case,i won!!!

The walk wasn't all spent down in the stream though,we did do some dry land walking too! (and probably to Oscars delight)

Stretch!!

"I can heel if i want too!"

 I'm coming!!

Oscar has some fans!!

Just to give him a bit of a challenge on the walk we did a 2 minute down stay.....

...... which he did great at!!! 


Then just to add to the day we played with an old tire i got!

Through

All 4 paws on it

Up on it

And the day was ended by relaxing on the grass,well i was sitting on the tire but it made a rather good seat!