12 weeks old!

I can't believe Rampage is 12 weeks old already! And looking back at photos from when he first came home (over a month ago!!!) he has grown so much! So to celebrate we have some photos from our day (I have no clue what happened to week 10 and 11 of his life).

HIHI! I'm Rampage! Last time I did this at 9 weeks old, my mom worked from home so we had an extra special day. But she explained to me that she can't work from home ALL THE TIME, so it was just another day for me. But all days are fun!

We started out with our morning trip to the P-U-P-P-Y P-A-R-K (you have to spell it out at this house or THE PACK gets really excited and steps on me). My mom said that she wouldn't take me there until I was 4 months old, but I made sure THAT didn't happen. I've been going every day since I was about 10 weeks. It's not really a dog park, just a school that's been converted to a daycare/church with a 10 acre yard. Pretty sweet for us doggies. There are about 10 regulars that come to this park, but I've only met 2 of them and they're pretty fun! One is a beagle and one a bc/something mix (they're both really fat, but my mom told me that's not polite to say). I hear from THE PACK that they used to walk to the park all the time with mom, but we've only ever driven there since I started going. It seems REALLY far to me!

It's hard for mom to get photos of me at the park because I usually just hang off of a tug toy while she throws the ball for the other dogs. But she gave it a try!

Here I am chasing the pig-dog (PD). He's been pretty fun to play with lately. I think he gave up the hope that I'll be leaving anytime soon and gave into my charm. Did you know that PD skin stretches? I swear I can grab onto his neck in the living room and run to the kitchen with his skin in my mouth and PD doesn't budge an inch! Amazing! Maybe he's a super hero??!!??

Nah.............



Then I stole Icon's ball. He hasn't given into my charm yet... but it's only a matter of time...


Then me and my mom headed to work, where I get to sit in a crate in her car in the parking garage. BORING. All the security people know I'm there and ask my mom how I'm doing because I bark. A LOT. Occasionally, when I'm REALLY being cranky, my mom can hear me bark when I'm on the 4th floor of the garage and she's in her 11th floor office. Now THAT'S an impressive voice! But I've gotten a lot better recently. I usually stop barking by the time my mom gets from the car to her office.

So today I sat in the garage until my tummy started rumbling. Then my mom came out to take me for a walk and feed me! We walked around campus and practiced our 'sit' and 'down' and 'attention' and fun stuff like that. I impressed some young ladies with my suave 'wave' and then they squealed and said how cute and soft I am and gave me hugs (I get this a lot, and sometimes the guys squeal too).


Then back up into the crate. BORING.

But just before I decided to start barking again, my mom came back and we went for a trip to Oyster Point on the SF bay.

I stopped to smell the roses a bit. Until my mom told me they weren't roses. Ooops. Well I'm 12 weeks old! How was I supposed to know??


But anyway, smelling dog pee is SO much more interesting.


Then I saw a pond and asked my mom if I could go play in it? PLEEEEEZE?


She said yes, but I wasn't sure about the whole 'water' thing


But then suddenly, something caught my eye!


My mom called them 'ducks'. I thought they should be called 'lunch'


I tried stalking up on them a bit.


But then I kept hear a clicking noise. MOM! You're going to make them know I'm here!!!


So then I just stared at them for a bit (still heard the clicking though)


And that was my day! Now I'm at home bugging the PD and chewing on a pork neck. My mom got some video of me tossing a toy around but it didn't really turn out because it's so dark. Oh well.

Here's to looking forward to more good days in the future!

Bay Team USDAA

We were at a one day USDAA trial last weekend. The trial was one each of the non-tournament classes. We had a really good trial, both dogs were really 'on'. Apollo seemed to especially enjoy himself. Both dogs qualified in everything except Apollo didn't get the gamble, he still came 2nd though since only one dog in PIII 22" did ;). And both dogs placed 1st in every run they qualified in, except Icon's team didn't place in pairs. I always enjoy going back to USDAA so much after a bout of AKC.

Rampage got to meet his brother Riff for the first time in about a month last weekend. They weren't sure about each other at first, but it didn't take them long to remember. Rampage is the one with the more uppy ears and green collar/leash combo.










We have another USDAA trial this weekend and then I don't have anything for 3 weeks. I'm really looking forward to a break. I plan on doing a lot of training with Icon to prepare for nationals and of course the puppy needs a lot of training too! I want to switch Apollo to a running a-frame and the time off would be a good time to do it, but he only needs 2 more qq's for his MACH2 so I'm probably going to wait until after he gets those (which might be a looooong time). I also have a lot of stuff to do around the house during my time away from trailing. It's a mess inside and out :(.

I've put our videos from last weekend up on Vimeo here..

http://www.vimeo.com/album/59707

Rampage is such a cool little puppy.

He's so full of himself I can't help but laugh at him. Wherever he is, he walks around like he owns the place. He is quite built in his front end, so he manages quite the impressive swagger. He kind of (yes VERY loosely) reminds me of the Hector the Bulldog from the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons.



He swaggers around, that is, until a dog barks in the distance and he comes running to momma. Apparently distantly barking dogs are his kryptonite. Nearby barking is a-ok, but in the distance??? Ooooh, scary. That kind of ruins his macho image. He doesn't seem to care at this point but once all the other puppies start laughing at him, he'll be more brave!

Random dog photos

Icon does his 'Fraggle' impression


Puppy!


Foster is always so serious


And Polly so lazy


Icon's just handsome


Rampage got his nose dirty helping me with yardwork, but you can't tell if it's his color or the dirt! He should have 2 freckles on his nose, not 2 freckles and a smudge.


Some cute border collie expressions




Rampage is really starting to grow up!

Back home from the Rose City

It's three days later and I'm still recovering from my trip to Portland. I guess I'm getting old because I used to be able to do things like this without even getting tired. The puppy was so good on the trip home. It was a full 12 hour drive and he only barked occasionally, and handily right before rest areas so I could let him out to eat/potty. The problem with him being so great on the drive, though, is that he was wiiiiiide awake when I arrived home at midnight and wanted nothing more than to fall into bed. He woke up more than once that night and every night since then. I think our schedules are out of sync and I'm the one suffering!

But overall I had lots of fun! It really is a nice trial. I saw a few dogs have trouble with the surface, but both my dogs really like it (I keep their nails extra extra long for this trial). The courses were really nice overall, I especially liked the Standard courses and ISC courses. Monday's JWW was fun too.

Apollo went 6/8, which wasn't as good as his 8/8 last year, but I can't complain. If he had gone 8/8 we would have gotten MACH2 though. Oh well. We don't have another AKC trial until March and for some reason we stop qualifying at the March Dixon trials so it will probably be a loooong time before he sees MACH2, but I asked Apollo his opinion and he said he doesn't care about some silly MACH2 title.

Icon also had a really good weekend going 7/8 for the regular classes and won both ISC (We had a run-off with Jester for the ISC Std - what fun!)

I got all of Icon's videos except for ISC JWW and most of Apollo's and I put them on vimeo. I don't feel like embedding them all here, so I'll just post one.


Rose City - Icon ISC Std -> Take 2 from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

The clubs offered high in trial for std and JWW on Friday and Saturday (I'm not sure why they didn't on Sunday/Monday) and Icon won High in Trial Std on Friday and High in Trial JWW on Sunday. That was pretty cool, we've never won high in trial before and I never expected to. It's based on the number seconds you are under SCT for your height and it's easier for the 20" dogs to have better numbers since they jump 6" lower but have the same SCT. And it's much easier for the fast 16" dogs to win it since they generally have 3-4 seconds more SCT.

So I have 2 big ribbons and big bowls and for this momentous occasion I even took a photo of Icon with them, I have no clue what to do with them now. Icon's a bit wet in the photo because we had just finished playing with the hose.

Icon's new hangout

He started laying here about the time the puppy came home. Hmmmm... coincidence?



His fur tickles my neck when I'm watching tv.

Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous northern California day. The kind of day that keeps me thinking I will never leave the bay area. I went to practice at Diamond Bar with Jack, the 10 month old BC I'm working with. Diane told me I was welcome to bring and work my dogs too, so I brought Icon, Apollo and Rampage. Foster stayed home with a nice juicy bone.

Jack worked really nicely for me and started tugging right away. We worked on the stuff we did in class along with the teeter bang game, which he picked up really quick, and some simple nose targeting. I guess I worked with him about 45 minutes before I put him away and set up a course. I decided to do a european jumpers course that looked challenging and pretty easy to set up. I was wrong on both counts! The course wasn't very difficult to run, but it was a pain to set up. Although it was probably easier than some of the other courses I looked at. I guess the moral is to always practice with other people so it's easier to set courses.

As I set courses I let the dogs run around (except for Jack, he was back in the kennels). Rampage was a good dog and came whenever I called his name (and whenever a loud motorcycle went by). He generally left the other dogs alone, but he did molest Icon a little.



And that's about how much training Rampage got at the field. I was just too busy with the other dogs to do anything more. I thought that I could train him between runs with Apollo and Icon, but I had to put him back in the car when I started running the dogs since he was too loud.

I thought the challenging parts of the course would be getting Icon to take the broad jump and the little circle of death in the middle. The first time I ran it with front crosses and he did fine until we got to the bounce jumps at the end where he took the first one fine, but plowed through the last two. It was really my fault because I gave him no indication that he needed to collect at that point. Not to mention that after his crashes I took a look at the spacing and they were really too close together. I mean, if I took out the middle one he could have bounced jumped the first and third.

The course didn't go so smoothly with rear crosses. I lost him to the tunnel between 7&8 and our turns were wide (but our turn at 14 was actually nicer with a rear cross).



I also ran it backward (but first removed jump b/c of the combo and replaced it with the teeter). We had challenges there with the weave entry from the tire (the tire was closer and a bit more offset in the actual course) and at the end I tried to wrap to the last jump, which he didn't read very well. He did much better when I serped it.

At the end I spent about 30 minutes more with Jack. But by then I was pretty tired. I was there 3.5 hours!

Ouch

I'm handling a friends 10 month old border collie in a puppy agility class. Last night was my first night with him and he wasn't sure of me at first. He's done a lot of conformation and obedience with 'guest handlers' so he does work with others, but at first he would only work for me with food and not tug, but we were doing stationary exercises. I could tell he wasn't comfortable with me just yet. He started tugging with me when we started moving around a bit.

At one point when I was trying to get him to tug, I bent down and he jumped up and *BAM*, he got me on the bridge of my nose with his teeth. Ouch. I almost blacked out for a second. I was sure I'd have black eyes this morning, but I don't really. Under my eyes looks a bit puffy and darker, but that's it. The bridge of my nose has some scrapes though. And I do have a nasty headache. Maybe this is how Jack christens new people because after I recovered from that incident we worked much better together.

Rampage is doing well. I know he's been getting bigger, but yesterday I saw that he's bigger than my cats now. So I have proof! It's pretty sad, they don't stay little long enough! Of course I like him better now that he has a longer attention span. Along with "wave" he quickly picked up "speak" (I might regret teaching that one so early) and will back up for me, but I don't have a word on that yet. I think our next session will be on roll over or turn since he's offering me those quite often. It's so cute to see him offering behaviors, he does it with such enthusiasm and spunk.

9 weeks old!

Rampage is 9 weeks old today! How time flies. He has grown so much! It's really quite incredible.

Hi! I'm Rampage! My mom worked from home today, so she could spend time with me {editors note: I didn't work from home JUST to spend time with the dogs, that was just a perk}. We spent a lot of time outside today cause it was beautiful and sunny.


I got to chase the cats a bit, but they don't mind. I just kinda run in circles around them.


Then I had to take a nap and I was put inside! How rude!


But I got to look at another cat, so it was ok.


For some reason my mom thinks that pig-dog is handsome and had to take his photo too. I just don't see it.


Then I got to come outside again and I jumped for joy.


I really don't believe in going around things. I go right through. Here I am doing my first agility jump. I also tried to go on the dogwalk, but my mom dropped the camera and ran to take me off.


Then something really strange happened. That black and white dog that I try to get to play with me suddenly started chasing me!


Mom said he was trying to 'herd' me. I don't know what that is, but it sounds cool.


It was a busy day. I think I'll fall asleep in my water bowl


What??!? It's comfortable! See ya tomorrow!

Comparisons

I found my notes from when Icon was a puppy and of course I can't help comparing the two of them. I surprised myself because I actually kept really good notes from when Icon was 8 weeks and 3 days (the day I brought him home) until he was 12 weeks. And at that point my notes just stop. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe it was at that time that Apollo had his 2nd TPLO surgery and I was very busy with him and his rehab, so something had to give. I'm sure I kept training Icon, I just didn't have time to write about it.

Some differences between Icon and Rampage that I've noticed from reading the notes is that Rampage is more independent than Icon ever was. I mean, Icon pretty much always wanted to interact with me and followed me around everywhere but given a choice, Rampage would choose to play on his own. So I need to take his choices away for now. But he's really quite inventive in finding things to play with!

Rampage is very aware of the world compared to Icon at his age. When we were at the trial and when I went to train he watched other dogs on the course (calmly as of now), Icon didn't notice until he was around 5 or 6 months (and he was NOT calm about it). Rampage will hear a bird sing and look for them in the air. He'll hear me start talking to someone on the phone and will tilt his head and look at me. He watches TV! None of my other dogs watch TV even now, although I know it's not an uncommon phenomenon in the dog world. Of course he's also very selective in his hearing when he wants to be.

I had thought that Rampage slept an inordinate amount of time, but reading my notes from Icon he slept a lot too. I guess I noticed it with Rampage because I was home with him for a week and a half before going back to work. I was at work with Icon where he got to sleep pretty much all day with a few play sessions in between.

The pull n' play puppy gym

Rampage really likes the pull n' play puppy gym I bought for him on a whim. For christmas Debbie got us some attachments that go with the gym or the hippo discovery place mat (which I have attached to the xpen and he likes that too!). I was really surprised at how much he likes it. I bought it expecting to be one of those things that look cute in photos but never gets used.



Trying to swing like tarzan


Oops!



Polly decided he needs to supervise for safety since it appears Icon just watches the puppy crash with only a smirk on his face to show he noticed

Rampage waving

Rampage can wave with his right paw!


Rampage waves "hello" from Agility Dogs on Vimeo.

Puppy pictures!

I've been going back and looking at old Icon puppy pictures. I don't really remember Icon playing with Foster and Apollo, but I have quite a few photos of it, so he must have!

All puppies eventually give Apollo the "I give up!" pose. I think Rampage gives up more than Icon did. My grass sure looked nicer when I got Icon! But that was February and I think it had started spring growing.





Rampage running to attack me


Just standing and looking dorky. Hmm, I think I'm going to tape his ears soon.


Stealing Icon's soccer ball.



This is what Icon thinks about that!


Puppies sleep in such uncomfortable ways.