I've gone and done a mean thing.

Rocket is a very bad brother.  He feels it necessary to practice his "art" on the girls as much as he can, and while Jeremy and I have done everything to discourage what he does, after about 10 seconds he'll go back to doing what he wants to do.  His art includes:
1.  Trying to drink pee.  Gag.
2.  Following girls around and keeping his nose in their butt while they are peeing.  Yuck.
3.  Sniffing every possibly spot a girl peed in the yard and trying to taste every spot. 
4.  (see a pattern emerging?)
5.  When he wants satisfaction, he knows no bounds.  This is the main reason he and Ruby have disagreements - she is clearly saying "eff off buddy" and he's saying "I do what I want."
6.  I've noticed as he's gotten older than he will blow me off.  I tell him to quit - it lasts ten seconds and he goes back to trying to do what he wants.  I've tried everything I can think of - redirection, immediate time out in his crate, immediate "go lay down," grabbing his muzzle to get his attention...nothing works.

As a last resort and to reduce stress on the girls, I went to Bass Pro and got a shock collar.  The evil person inside of me thought it'd be funny to see his face when he goes to sniff a butt obnoxiously and gets a mild correction - would he associate vajayjay with a shock?  I sure hope so!

So I was a mean mom and set him up to fail.  I let him outside with the girls, all wound up, to see what he would do.  Somehow, he managed to foil me - everytime I told him to leave it and gave him the warning sound, he quit.

I'm sure he'll get a correction at some time, but it won't be tonight.  I'll have to try tomorrow to see if he understands the warning sound already (how I don't know) or if he needs the correction on the lowest setting.

Such a slacker.

I've been a training slacker lately.  We've had voluntary OT at work the last week and some odd days, and we're in winter break for our classes at the club, so I haven't been doing much.  I should, but I feel like I don't know what to work on...what if I start working on something and I screw it up?

I need some motivation!  I think I'll enter Ruby in our trial in Feb and see if we can get our last two RN legs and last CD leg.  Maybe that'll get me the motivation to get out and work more, since I have to fix her recall.

Prozyme: Day 5

Well well well......I'm almost ready to call this stuff magic.  Almost.  I'm going to give it a week or so more and see what a difference it makes in that amount of time, but the changes I noticed already are crazy awesome.

1.  Both Rocket and Noodle no longer look anorexic.
2.  Rocket's spine/hips/ribs are starting to no longer be clearly visible.
3.  He's eating.  Every. Meal.  Every one.  No fuss, no refusal.  Puts his head in the bowl and eats until the food's gone.
4.  He's up to 7 cups of Acana a day...and he hasn't gotten sick once.
5.  He's EXCITED.  The dog I swore wasn't going to be normal until he was neutered is excited for meals. 

I can't wait to see if he keeps getting better.  Maybe he'll actually look the way he's supposed to soon!

For some reason, I have the urge to train Allie.

Allie and Noodle are the "elusive" dogs - the ones that I've tried to train, but to only minimal success. 

Noodle is a lost cause (but I may try earthdog with her, someday - girl's got some prey drive and an awesome sniffer!) but Allie...Allie was my starter dog.  She went through all of our public classes at DMOTC, but once I became a member, I focused more on Ruby, the more willing worker that doesn't have the attention span of a hummingbird and doesn't lose her brain when people are around.

She knows all of the novice commands except for heel - I couldn't get any attention from her....ever.  Her damn nose gets in the way of EVERYTHING.  But as I've gotten more experience with training, I want to try again and see what we can do together.

I'll have to bring an extra crate with me tomorrow and see how she works at the club.  :)

Prozyme: Day 1

We're trying out Prozyme on all of the dogs....my biggest worry was that Capt Butthole and Noodle wouldn't eat the powder on their food, but they were happy once I put a little bit of warm water in the bottom of the bowl.  Rocket managed to maintain interest in his food and ate everything in one sitting, so I'm hoping that means he'll continue to improve.

Cross your fingers that it makes a healthy impact on all of the dogs.....they're supposed to eat less, less shedding, no allergies..all the great things that happen when dogs have healthy insides.  I'm going to keep track of their progress here, along with their training schedules!

AKC/Eukanuba National Championship

Rocket wanted to give a "woof" out to his uncle Courbet, GCH CH Bruda the Artist is Courbet, for going BOS at the Invitational this weekend.

CONGRATULATIONS to his breeders/co-owners, Sandi Hunter & Cherie Holmes, and his owner Elaine Herndon!!!

Making his editorial debut....

Been awhile!

We "graduated" from our advanced obedience class last night, but it probably doesn't really count.  We did novice Obed run throughs last week and last night.  Rocket's not really ready for a heeling pattern - we're still "training" heel, but we gave it a shot.  He did a good job, but I want his heeling refined more - head up looking at me at all times would be our goal, and he's just not there yet.  The world is too distracting for his intact little mind.

We're trying two methods for weaves in agility - channel and 2x2.  I have no clue which one we're actually going to use, since we just started the 2x2 and we've been working the channel method every other class.  I'll keep working on both and see which one clicks in his little brain.

Leah and I went and visited his breeder on Sunday -  and after discussion, my husband and I are going to wait until he's two to make any life altering decisions about him.  I'm going to worm him again and the Prozyme has been ordered, so we'll see if that makes any difference.  He's a much more reliable eater now, it just seems like the nutrients don't "stick," so he remains skinny.  I'm switching him to Acana Wild Prairie - we thought he had a chicken intolerance but apparently it was just the Pro Plan overall, not the protein source. 

Breeder will be featured in DPM for November, so ads were needed of her dogs, and at the last minute, it was decided that Rocket will grace a page this month!  Good thing Leah, in all of her designing creative awesomeness, already had an ad made that only needs to be changed to black and white and needed a word switched.

I'm looking forward to seeing this month's edition!