Dear diary,

Today my minion took me on a car ride because she said I had Cabin Fever. First we went to the drive through biscuit place. I like them. They give mom money and me biscuits, all in exchange for paper!  Next we went to Petco, where mom bought me a green rubber fetch toy that bounces weirdly, and some cookies.

Then we came home, and now I am napping on the bed. Later, I plan to make my minion buy me chow mein noodles, which are my new favorite snack. Life is good.

to CH Pennypot Enchantress With Spilmah for BEST OF BREED at Crufts 2009! (Who is Lizzie’s quite-distant cousin!)

I have a new roommate, who has two dogs of her own, mini schnauzers Kiba and Stryder.  Lizzie is THRILLED to have playmates her own size, even if Kiba is not really in favor of this whole ‘playing with non-schnauzers’ thing.

Mere (the roommate) is an agility person (yay!) and will be teaching the pre-agility classes that we hope to offer at Dogstar Academy in the future. Her guys are both titled in CPE and it’s a lot of fun to see them work.

In other news, we started watching Susan Garett’s 2×2 Weaves DVD and I’ve done Day 1 with Lizzie, and she’s really got it down, with an 88% success rate in the first session! More notes on her progress soon.

Lizzie’s Australian relatives aren’t from Victoria, but everyone’s heard about the brushfires that have so far destroyed over a thousand homes and killed more than 100 people.
Check out the Virtual Dog Show to raise funds to help Victorian dog folks affected by the fires get back on their feet.

I really am still here, though! We’ve just been busy at work.

Been feeling kinda off (ugh) and just not had the energy to do anything but work and sleep.

I did make this video this evening though, with my new camera (prezzie from my grandma for my upcoming birthday.)

Lizzie demonstrates her “Wave” trick for the camera!

Now with a link, because I am a DOPE.

Lizzie has been spending a lot of time locked up, and she’s BORED. So we’ve been doing some trick training. She’s learned ’spin’ (and ‘rinse!’ which means to spin the other direction. ), and we’re working on wave and roll over.

I posted over on Dogstar Academy about what I *don’t* like about clicker training, so I guess now it’s time to rave about what I *do* like. I like how it engages dogs, especially dogs who get bored with a lot of repetition. And I think it’s a really, really powerful tool for behavior modification, especially when it comes to conditioning. There’s some research (I don’t have a citation but I will try and figure out where I read this) that suggests that the click- as a short, sharp noise- is just the type that is easy to condition a critter- human or canine-’s neurological response to, so that you can actually CREATE a positive feeling (increased neurotransmitter production) to that sound- an emotional response, not just a learned ‘food’s on the way’ reaction. (I would see if it worked in people, but alas, I am not food motivated, nor particularly toy driven, so I would be very hard to clicker train.)

I love how shaping games make my dogs think. Not all dogs like freeshaping- Mal doesn’t care for it. Kaylee hasn’t figured it out yet. But Wings ADORED it and Lizzie thinks it’s a pretty cool game, too- you can just about hear the little wheels turning in her head.

Lizzie is in season, as of yesterday. She’s 6 months and 4 weeks old. (Why is it the dogs you want to spay after their first season wait FOREVER to come in, and the ones you plan to keep intact seem to plan things so they can have the maximum number of seasons possible?) So no park, no class, and no walks on our main walking trail till the end of May. Oh well- we may be able to arrange a couple of playsessions with a friend and her (female) Eskie pup, and she can still play (some) with Indy, at least till she is further in (Indy sired a litter in 2004 and unlike Mal, KNOWS what that enticing smell is.) She was supposed to have a (leashed) playdate this afternoon with J’s eskie puppy and a corgi friend Biscuit (male, but only 3 months old)- but between the icky weather and her being in season, I’m not sure we’re going to manage it.

I was planning to take Mal to an obedience match today, but he hasn’t eaten well since Friday and is turning down cheese even here at home, which is his lowest-distraction environment (usually). So I’m going to wait and see- Novice isn’t till noon, and we can go and just do a PreNovice run (no heel free, SFE onleash.)

I’ve created a new blog, Dogstar Academy, for non-spitz and general dog content, so this will be the last update on Mal.