My dog did not roll on his back and pee on his belly!!

Okay, maybe the part about peeing on his belly is an exaggeration, but Reuben has been known to stress out and shut down at agility trials. That was before his Addison's diagnosis.



Recently, he has been trialing very well, but he only trials at the place where we also train regularly.

On Saturday, we took him out of his comfort zone and did two runs at a run-through held at...a different facility!!!!! He was a bit hesitant on the first run, and became a velcro dog who missed two jumps. By the second run, he was much more confident and ran well. He was scared of the teeter, which made a noise similar of that to an M-80 going off in a sheet metal storage warehouse. However, the nice people who ran the event allowed us to go over the teeter a few times. Hopefully he will have good memories of this facility, because we are doing a trial there in the near future.





Sparrow, of course, couldn't care less about the different venue. Like usual, she was all in, all the time. Except for when Katie back crossed the A-frame. I guess we know what they will be practicing in the backyard this week.



In other news, the trees and bushes are finally starting to fill out, which means the yard will soon be completely private, and the neighbors will not have to be constantly reminded about the weird people on the street with the full agility set in their backyard.


(whee!)

in which there is a sparrow and a tree

Playing agility with Sparrow in the shadow of our great big maple tree.

PAL254272

Five years ago, Reuben was a lost little coondoggie roaming Lorain County, Ohio. Today, he is an agility coondoggie extraordinaire. And by agility coondoggie extraordinaire, I mean that he occasionally enters CPE and ASCA trials, where he sometimes qualifies.

But now, largely because of his little sister Sparrow entering the scene, Reuben has his very own American Kennel Club PAL number, and he is likely going to enter an upcoming AKC trial. He says that he is going to throw down at said AKC trial, and he will be the fastest Coonhound there.

I did not have the heart to tell him that, with about 99.9% certainty, he is right, only because he will be the only Coonhound there.

in which we train our dogs, videotape it, and put it to music, but never, ever music owned by WMG

Today, we have a fine musical selection of Okkervil River, "Kansas City," and Stars, "Ageless Beauty." WMG has probably never heard either of these songs. And that's the way we like it.

The Hound Express is Back on Track

Chugga chugga chugga Aroooo Arooooo!

What's that sound?

It's the sound of the Hound Express, speeding his way to agility success. All Aboard, Aroooooo!

Reuben and Dave and all of the other cool kids who attended Friday night's CPE trial had fun running Jackpot and Standard. Reuben came away with 2 Q's, a second place in Jackpot, and a first place in Standard.

The best part is . . . he did the teeter in competition for the first time ever without crawling under a rock and giving up on life. We suspect that his previous aversion to teeters was due in part to his undiagnosed and untreated Addison's disease. His poor little adrenal glands were limping along on their last legs, and just weren't up to the challenge of "OMG dog show!" plus "OMG scary teeter thingie!!"

Now that Reuben is on his daily dose of prednisone--just enough to replace the cortisol that his body cannot produce--and his monthly shot of percorten-v (ouchie!), teeters are no problemo.



Unfortunately, Sparrow had a bout of the Whoopsie Belly last week, so she didn't get to play. It was supposed to be her debut in Standard, too. Booooo! AND the course was a great set-up for a running dogwalk, one tunnel, dogwalk, right into another tunnel. Double booooo! Hiss!!!

As a consolation, here is the video of her last Sunday earning an Open Jumpers leg and 1st place at the ASCA trial. Go, girlie, go!

(One more leg and she'll be in Elite Jumpers. Gulp!)

what hound is it?

What hound is it right now?


Tall-dark-and-handsome-hound?


Retro-hound?


Time-for-bed-hound.

put on your wind pants. . .

. . . it's time to train agility.

sparrow agility 2.19.11 and 2.20.11 from prudence rabbit on Vimeo.

Or wear your Whole Foods skully and your thrift store jeans. You decide what goes better with The National and running contacts.

Agility, in the backyard--what a novelty! The squirrels thought so, too. At least they weren't throwing empty peanut shells on us. Dear neighbors, please stop feeding the squirrels peanuts in the shell. Empty peanut shells do not agree with my dogs' delicate constitutions.

Another highlight of the week: giant ice storm. Yeah! Fortunately, the agility gods were smiling upon us because the 25 foot limb that fell off of the oak tree missed my dogwalk by inches.

Wind pants cannot save us from flying topiary.