Winter Solstice

Today is the shortest day of the year. I'm not a winter person, but I like this day because I know every day after will be a little bit longer. It's funny that this day is actually the first day of winter, because I think of it as a renewal.
Last Thursday, we had our first real snow of the season. On Friday, we tried to take Rival, Tundra, and Brink to my favorite trails up the crest road, but unfortunately the road was packed with fools and we couldn't make it there. We did get a short hike in Three Guns Canyon which made the day. The dogs had a blast, but it made me miss Colorado a bit.
I officially passed my Canine Medical Massage class and should be receiving my certificate in the mail any day now. I also openned a bank accound under the business name "The Total Canine". I hope 2011 brings canine rehabilitation therapy certification and a booming business. I know I'm looking forward to the new year and the sunflowers to come.

Practice Makes Perfect

Brink and Rival continue to work on their contacts. I don't think Brink and I have quite accomplished our goal of 1000 'Go Feet' yet, but we are doing some every day. Rival is also getting to practice his running dogwalk, although I know just doing the board he is not at full speed. He is still hitting the yellow 95% of the time and I am able to add some turns at the end and still reinforce that he has to run straight down the board. I did finally get some video of our back yard practice to post.



Last weekend Brink and I went to one day of our first UKI trial. I do think I will like UKI, but since it is not big around here yet, I was on a mission to use it just for training. So before every run I announced my intentions to train and went for it. Brink still thought it was the real thing and definitely pushed things. His dogwalk and teeter surprised me. I thought they would be better, so the trial at least reinforced that I have to train more. What I noticed was when there is another obstacle in front of him, he focuses on that before getting into his position of 2o2o. I will start putting a tunnel in front of the board at home and proofing that now. His A-frames still need a lot of work. Hopefully the changes we are making in training will teach him to keep his head down and stride to the bottom. Here are videos of three of the runs.



Our next trial is January 7&8 in Arizona. Last year at this trial, Tundra got her ADCH Bronze and Lifetime Achievement Bronze. This year I'm only taking Brink. But fingers crossed it will be a lucky trial for him too.