Because they made a day for it :)

Puppy Day is here :)

Alright I will admit I had no idea it was today, matter of fact I didn't know there was such a day!

But, how rad would it be if your puppy was born on puppy day?! I think it'd be awesome or cheesy, which ever.

I of course found out about this after seeing the abundance of photos of all the adorable puppies when I quickly took a glance at Facebook. After seeing pictures and going 'awww' a million times and wanting to squish many cute puppy faces through the screen I decided to share my own cute wittle monster face.

I think AMP was the most adorable baby ever. By baby I mean when I first brought her home before the ugly wumpkin stages ;)

All together; 'Awwwwweeeee'

I may have a tiny morsel of a biased side, but we don't need to worry about that. I can't get over how adorable her little eyes were with those pink ears :)

Anyway, She is now much older and still a cute little thing, but with a naughty side as which she uses these very eyes to get her way. Who knew when looking at this picture those sweet eyes would be such a killer?

Ok maybe we did know......

Finding our instructions manual ;)

Instructions manuals are for dumb dumbs is usually what I think. I see the thing look at the pictures and then chuck it over my shoulder.

Dogs however have no manual. Not one dog works the same way and there isn't a set way to do anything. At least not in stone that is.

There are times when we ourselves don't know what to do anymore. We hit a wall..bang! And then seem to hit it again and again, and again, and againnnnnnnn. That right there folks would be the moment when we seek a little thing called help :)

Help is good and funny enough helpful..tee hee. Who would have thought that? Guess I should of read the manual.

AMP and I have not really hit a wall of great sturdiness, but I feel like I just need advice on what I am missing and possibly over looking. I want someone to set-up something for me and then we run it and then we get the damage afterwards.

Just as I was thinking I would like something like this to go down, like falling from the sky a Tracy Sklenar seminar caught my eye and now we're entered :) I am excited. I have heard nothing but exciting things about her and that she does a wonderful job, so I am sure we will learn a thing or two or A LOT!

Some of the key points I am looking for are:

-Jumping

-My running

-Timing

These are mainly things that we just aren't clicking on together right now, so they probably are those nasty buggers that I am over seeing what's going down.

The seminar is in June and I keep just counting down the days..tick tick tick.

June, er rephrase, this summer has lots and lots of fun plans ahead :) I can't wait to enjoy them with my crazy girl!

That'll Happen...

Snow will come and boredom will set in.

You will not know what to do with your life and then all of a sudden you get a wild idea :)

Lets' make a video :D Of what?

AMP doing her tricks!!

I am sure when the circus catches fire of this video they will be calling us up for a job opening...I can just tell ;) Wouldn't that be cool?

Until I saw a clown then I'd have to run away screaming like a barbi and never return :/ Go me!

I forget how many tricks AMP actually does know ;) I actually forget half the tricks unless I really think hard about it! I think it is about time to teach her a new trick, haven't done that for quite awhile.

Hmmm...what to teach?! I will have to get my trick sheet out ( yes I have a sheet of a bagillion tricks you can teach) and see what she doesn't know yet and sounds entertaining!

I have always wanted to teach her to stack things or put away stuff, but typically it results in my getting whapped in the face with an object- nothing sharp at least..whew! If AMP was a human she'd be one that would never be allowed around sharp objects. You's walk into a room and there AMP would be trying to spin a knife on her nose or something, or maybe doing the nastily and disturbing sword swallow...shutter.

For now we are just sticking to these safe and fun tricks :) We will be back another day to show you what else we have come up with.

Don't tell the Princess...

Well, I kinda forgot about posting the results and news from AMP's last trial...on here :/

I don't think she noticed so I'll just slip this in :)

Since it seems like forever ago I will just say what I can recall!

What I know for certain is that AMP ROCKED!!!!! She was a total genius and had her "big girl britches" on :D Going into a trial with her right now is always an unknown. She's a baby and of course things are going to go up and then going to fall back down- I am okay with this. I enjoy any run we have together.

Yea I am the shit ;)

Saturday ended with a Q in: Steeplechase, starters standard, Starters Pairs, Starters Snooker (SS title), and a Advanced Jumpers (my favorite run)!! I couldn't believe the amazing things she was doing during her runs. I was almost sending her off course as I was busy standing there in awe of her :) Distance as always is going to be our challenge. Truly, I LOVE it that way :) After working with a dog that coming into me is like pulling teeth I enjoy this new challenge.

Challenge is just what AMP likes :)

She is getting better about the distance and I know as time goes on we will have a nice balance :)

It makes me feel kind warm and fuzzy inside knowing that she has one Q towards nationals down AND is able to at least have fun at Regional (both of them)! Sitting in kennels is zero fun!

Being in a kennel is basically jail...

Sunday it just kept getting better!

We came out of the day with Qs in: Starters Standard (one more to be in all Advanced), Advanced Snooker, Starters gamblers (see it's starting to come), and 6th place in Rd2 Steeplechase! Like holy smokes the girls second trial running steeplechase and she makes round 2 and ends up 6th place with a bar even :O How could I not enjoy running this roller coaster of a girl?! I am simply amazed with her :)

My plan is to go the "short route" with her and once she gets all the standard Qs and then aQ in each game I will move her up :) I believe she can handle it without a problem and I don't enjoy nor think it's super fair for the dogs to run them in two different rings. I can't get ooberly focused with both it seems like! Jinx gets the raw end since right now the baby dog takes most of my focus. I'm working on balancing myself ;)

AMP did show though that we need to go back to startline practice world. Oh joy! She was very pushy at the start for most the runs, so I just need to keep reinforcing it and practicing it in high energy environments- we all know AMP is easy to do just that, get AMP'D ;)

See? "You taking a picture of me? Like, ZOMG that's so awesome!" AMP'D always AMP'D

Along with startlines is the world of jumping! Weeeeeee! Everyone I ask says that it's just confidence which I believe them, but it is annoying me. Yay go obsessive personality ;P SO, I will just work on her gaining confidence about jumping no matter where I am. It seems to be the biggest problem when I am sending her or racing far ahead. She isn't being slow or anything she's just putting in more strides than she needs and thinking really hard right now about- we need to get it to be more effortless. No problem we will get 'er down :)

Next to work on is A-frame. Apparently when she goes down the A-frame she is jamming to the cupid shuffle song :/ Like the song, but not a huge fan of it while she is shuffling down the A-frame. Bless her heart she does fast, but just coming over and getting where you need to be is so much more efficient :) I couldn't put my finger on what it was, but after our lesson with J-Hoye it is definitely stemming from her performance over the apex. We need to fly over the apex (she will show you how it looks in the video) and that then leads to awesome-ness the rest of the way down. I am still toying with the idea of training the box method running A-frame this summer to her since that is to her strengths anyway! We'll see.

I ain't flying now apex I am sleeping-sorta!

Besides the video that's all I got! Next trial is, cross your fingers, the end of March for 3 days! Pleaseeeeee Pleaseeeeee Pleaseeeeee let me get in! Otherwise I might cry and we don't wanna see that :/

AMP MAC USDAA from Kaitlyn Harren on Vimeo.

"A" game!

Sometimes AMP just surprises me. In a good way!

There are times when she does things that I am just totally like "How the hell did you know how to do that?".

I will admit I have sort of been hitting a rut in AMP's training :/ Dang. I train her, but I keep doing the same things I *know* she can do or have already taught her. Why am I wasting my time on that? What a good question.

I decided it was list making time. SO, I first started with a list of skillz I felt that were needed to get through an agility course and be successful and competitive. This means no "jerky" handling "COME! Fido! OUT! Fido NO Fido NO HEEEERRRREEEEE!!!!!!!!!" you know those people- not one of them. This also includes efficient turns and nice and reliable contacts/weaves to name a few items.

Then I made a "sub" list of that for of what AMP herself needs more work on ( by self I mean we as a team). After making that list I realized that when going to training and not being able to think of a darn thing I need to work on I was really wasting time.

There are SOO many things I should be working on with her. Not because she is bad or can't do it, it's her performance of it that might not be up to "A" game status. Which I don't expect it to be if I don't actually work on it and train it :)

Good thing is now we have many things we can set-up and work on to keep us busy, busy, busy!!

Yesterday at our lesson she proved that she is a genius though and even if my lack of training is bad she still manages to figure things out. I was truly shocked when at our lesson I did a rear cross in the weave poles 3 times and each one she nailed!!!!

:O

What a smart girl :)

Worth a thousand words

AMP has one of those expressions.

You see a picture and you can just see what's going on in her little melon :) I am happy she can't talk because boy I can only imagine!

Hmm.. I wonder where she gets it?

Father like Daughter :)

Are you ready!?

I'm a gunna spit on you!!

Only one more weekend of nothing and then we get to trial again!! WOO HOO :) And it's extra special because AMP won't get to train before it!! YAY!

I'm ready!

Somethings done and gone...literally ;)

Schnoodle survived her "big" day and I am still standing as well :)

Double plus...Whew!

Turns out she was able to get tooth pulled, Hip X-rays done, and Spayed! Ok, so I know it seems like a lot, but I think it beats having to put her under two times within a couple weeks to get spayed.

She is doing very good afterwards too, possibly, too well. She came home yesterday and was a little out of it at first, it didn't take long. Not 5 minutes after being home she was already barking in her kennel and ok with jumping around ( of course I didn't let the jumping around happen ).

Crazy enough-- vet's don't read blog posts, so therefore they missed a very informative last post about AMP-- They didn't send a cone home :o yeeeeee-aahhhhh! I kinda wanted to say " are you sure? Like REALLY sure?" They included the assuring disclaimer that I could come back to get one if needed. Thanks at least I know when I come back they won't be totally surprised.

Much to my surprise though she is doing GREAT! She doesn't bother them at all and they look super :) GOOOOOOO little evil dog! It did come back to me in my time of astonishment that she wasn't ever one to be bothered by things on her or sewn in her? I guess.... Like that time when I wanted to teach her a trick and that came to an end when she didn't even notice the tape on her nose, yea not bothered.

I am hoping this holds up through the itchy healing stage too :) Good thoughts please!

Vet believes she will have good or excellent hips! YIPPEY :) Not that I ever really doubted her hips being good, but still a nice re-assurance that they will probably be confirmed so :)

As far as the one less tooth-- Really it'll just be one less tooth that is able to grab my arm, leg, or any other appendage when tugging or mad that she didn't get a weave entry, or ect ect.... Sorry you had to go the hard way tooth, but your one that won't be missed!

And as I was thinking that possibly with her being no longer a 'real women' she would lose a slight bit of her bitchy side she clearly proved today that I am not gunna get of quite that easy! *sigh* oh well I guess once a bitch always a bitch. Besides I would hate to have to make a new harness label for her ;)