Riki and Rebel... new pictures

I finally found time to download the pictures of Riki and Rebel from the digital camera!!  So here they are.

This is one of Rebel's favourite spots to lay during the day.

And here is his other favourite spot!  Notice the nice ray of sunshine he has found!!!

Don't count Riki out!  He also has his favourite spot on the back of the other couch in the living room.  He can also be found lounging on the cushins (those pictures did not turn out too well).

And if he is not on the couch, he is wrapped around this chair in a corner!

Rebel lays the smack down....

Taz, in his usual fashion, likes to get in the face of the cats and pester them.  This morning Rebel would have none of that nonesense.  He issued a low warning growl and when Taz did not back off, out came the paw.  Smack dab on the side of Taz' nose followed by a hiss.  I heard a distinct thud so I knew that contact had been made.  No claws came out so he was lucky it was just a warning tap!! Taz continued to stare at Rebel in disbelief for a few seconds before turning tail and running for mom!  He came to me with his head hanging low.  Poor boy deserved it as he likes to pester the cats.  Gizmo loves the game.  These guys, not so much.  They have not figured out the joy in playing with Taz!!  The resulting arguement put Rebel in a bad mood and he would not accept petting from me.  Two minutes later, when the food came out however, he had forgotten about the whole incident!!

Riki and Rebel take on PetSmart

Riki and Rebel will be gracing PetSmart with their presence from February 27th until March 6th.  Come out and visit with them!  They need all the people handling in the world.  They guys are maturing by leaps and bounds!  Today, while I was sitting on the couch, they both jumped up and laid down beside me.  AMAZING!!  They do enjoy being petted and scratched and often will roll onto their backs!  They will follow me in to the bathroom for more attention so they are starting to understand where the love comes from!  Now to get them to come downstairs more (I think watchdog Taz is getting in the way of their fun)!

Now on to doggie news....

This friday night is Just For Fun again.  We get to play a game called Beat the Clock.  I will have to look that game up on the internet to get a feel for it before friday night.  Taz and Pepper will be playing the game so this will be interesting!!  Saturday is the usual flyball practice, except we will be at the Metis Centre so we have more room to run back.  I am hoping to keep working on Taz passing Bandit as he is doing sooooo well at the building.  He does love to growl at his tuggie when he gets up close to me!!  Saturday night will also see Taz working on his manners while another dog and handler are running the agility equipment.  Step one in creating a better mannered dog is a jar of peanut butter and lots of treats!  I am thanking Shirley in advance for her time and knowledge so that I can get Taz back into the learning mode for agility.

Sunday will see us out at Sondog Agility for another Just For Fun day.  I will bring Taz for a run or two, except the style will be different as it is NADAQ instead of AAC.  Pepper and I had fun the last time and it will be good to get Taz out onto a different surface, even if he will make a fool out of himself.  I will be taking lots of preventative measures with him while we are passing other dogs on the way in and out of the ring!

And so begins another busy weekend for us!

FREEDOM!!!

So last night was the first night that Riki and Rebel had run of the house with Gizmo.  Everything, and everyone has survived!  Nothing was knocked down and there was no mess!!!  Gizmo is extremely tired today, which is good.  A tired kitty is a good kitty.  Riki and Rebel seem to be quiet this morning as well.  No running up and down the hallways yet.  Last night it sounded like they were running the Indy 500 down my hallway.  I am glad that they had a good time.  They will continue to have run of the house all the time.

All dogs are tired as well.  Funny how they can sleep and sleep and sleep!  Recharging their batteries for a romp in Rebecca's field tomorrow and flyball on Saturday.   I still have to post the videos from the Just For Fun night last friday.  Taz had a perfect run and we got a nice mention from Shirley.  He loves to jump and run!!  Pepper did awesome as well.  Working on those handling skills.  I noticed that the more clear I am with my commands and body language, the quieter she is on the course!  Practice, dear Pepper, practice!

Inmate #2

Alright... got a picture of Inmate #2 aka Rebel.  It's not the greatest picture (don't where why there is blue in his eyes) but you can see he is very similar to Riki.

Yes, that is my lovely foot in the picture as well.  These guys are pretty resourceful.  They managed to steal Ken's sandwich this morning while I was out of the kitchen for 2 minutes.  They did not get through the plastic all the way but they were determined!  I swear they tagged teamed the sandwich stealing.  Will have to triple my efforts to keep them off of the countertop in the future!

Inmates

Finally, got a picture of Riki to put up on my blog!  It's not the best, as it was taken with my cell phone but you will be able to see just how funny this guy is!  I poked my head in the room last night and this is how he was chilling!

Rebel is exactly the same but his face is a wee bit different.  The only way I can tell the two apart is that Rebel has a collar on and Riki does not!  Doesn't he look so proud??

Taz had an awesome weekend at flyball!  He got to practice passing Rudy in his lane and it was wonderful!  If he keeps this up... things will be great for him!

This friday is the Just for Fun night for agility.  Come out and watch Pepper and Taz have a go at it!

Weekend fun!

Boy this past weekend was a busy one!  Pepper and Taz got to play a game called Dare to Double in the Friday night Just For Fun league with D & S Dogs of Course.  I have played this game before with Pepper and found that my best laid plans always went out the window so this time I decided just to make it up as we went.  Well did that ever go wrong!  Besides her stopping and sniffing the ground because of the lack of direction, we went over time and our points got halved.  Bummer eh?  It was fun nonetheless. 

Taz got to go out and have fun as well.  We have now found out that he doesn't know how to collect himself before a jump (he likes to fly to the jump) and ended up taking down a bar.  This, of course, caused him to shut down for a few minutes.  I did get him to do another tunnel and the A-Frame afterwards but boy, do we have work to do!!

Flyball Saturday was AWESOME!!!  I had two successful passes with Rudy where Pepper brought the ball back to me.  You see last year, Pepper and Rudy collided in the racing lane when she was coming back with the ball.  Now she is giving up the lane early to him to avoid another collision.  Taz had the pleasure of running past Bandit (who was standing still) and Hazel.  He ignored Bandit each time!!  Next week, maybe we can have them move a bit to simulate Bandit taking off.  Taz is getting the hang of this flyball thing!!

Sunday saw Pepper running in another Just For Fun league, except this time it was at Sondog.  Slightly different rules and some different equipment.  I can tell you she enjoyed running on the rubber covered dog walk and A-frame.  The Hoops were something new but by the time we were done all 6 runs, I believe she understood that "through" meant to go through the hoop!  She had loads of fun and so did I!!  I can tell that she likes to work at a distance and really reads my body language.  I accidentally pulled her off a couple of jumps just by rotating too much too quickly!  We will be working on that in the future!!

Last night Pepper had her normal agility class and we brought out the weave poles.  Our instructor had us send the dog through on side (handler on the right hand side) to see if the dog's could find the entrance and work the weaves.  Well that was a piece of cake for her!  Next challenge.... off side weaves (handler on the left hand side of the weaves).  Well she found the entrance but only did one weave.  We had our work cut out for us!!  By the end of the night, however, she was able to weave through 6 weave poles, off side with a jump infront of and behind the weaves.  YEAH Pepper!  For everyone out there learning how to weave, your motivator is the key!  It must be thrown low and at the right time!  Weave poles are fun and should be trained that way!  Don't worry about speed because that will come with confidence!!

Now for a lovely little break of no dog sports until the weekend again.  Look for Pepper and Taz tearing it up on the racing lane at Paws 'n Train this weekend!  I love tired dogs!!