Goodbye TOD

The Sunday before last, our Beagle mix TOD (The Other Dog) got out of the house.  We followed all the proper lost dog procedures, but TOD never showed up.  On the following Tuesday, my mom and I went into the greenbelt behind our house to look for him.  We found his body in the creek bed, apparently sometime between Sunday night and Tuesday morning TOD was killed and eaten by coyotes.

We are still recovering from the loss of the best dog in the world.

--Olivia

Little Dog Lost

Today, Spryte and Brego went out to help get the newspaper, but Spryte never came back.  That was at about 9 am.  It is now past 11 pm and she still isn't home.  We have driven around to all of the areas where she was last seen, but none of our efforts have paid off.

So what should you do when your dog becomes lost?

The first item on my list is to alert the police, animal shelter, and emergency vet.  The police get calls all the time about loose animals.  I make sure I give a good description of my dog (most of my dogs have been out at one point or another), and I emphasize the fact that they have a microchip.

After calling those three places, it's time to put the microchip to use and alert HomeAgain.  They can put out a notice that a dog in the area is lost, so that people in the surrounding neighborhoods can be on the look out.

Lastly, I make "Lost" signs with a brief description (coat color and breed), and my phone number.  Unfortunately, the weather has been really crappy these past few days, and more storms and rain are in the forecast.  Usually here in Austin, it is hot and dry, so the signs posed a problem:  how to make them waterproof quickly and cheaply.

My solution:  An 8.5"x11" piece of paper fits almost perfectly in a  gallon size Hefty OneZip.  For further waterproofing, I inserted the paper upside down so that the zipper was at the bottom of the sign.

UPDATE:  Spryte is home!  She was found after a day and a half on her own.  Amazingly she crossed two highways without any injury!  She "got stuck" on the wrong side of the road and was too scared to cross back, but luckily some friends spotted her in their neighborhood and called us.

--Olivia

We Like: weave-poles.com

No doubt the hardest obstacle to train in agility is the weave poles. Many novice dogs and handlers tremble at the mere thought of performing the weaves at a trial. I say have no fear! Even though the weaves pose a unique challenge for the dog (they are the most unnatural movement for the dog), I think that everyone should train them with a positive attitude and a "this is just a game" mentality.

Over the years I have come across multiple ways to train the weave poles, each one working in its own way. At our club, the beginners class is introduced to channel weaves with guide wires. This method, while effective for some, did not work for my Papillon, Brego. He was just too small and could easily slip under the guide wires. After some research and asking around I came across the Weave-A-Matic training method. For Weave-A-Matics the weave poles are angled in a V shape so the dog learns to either single step or bounce around each pole. I used this method to train Brego's weaves.

After we realized that Brego would be our first actively competing agility dog, we invested in some weave poles from www.weave-poles.com. They are based in Houston, TX so the shipping time to Austin was very short (a couple of days). I love weavepoles.com because there are so many different styles to choose from! I chose a set of 12 indoor/outdoor weave poles that included two six pole ground placers. With the stick-in-the-ground attachments, these poles can go anywhere. They are great for training with distractions at the dog park. There isn't enough room inside the house to set up the full set of 12 weaves, but a set of six in the hallway is good mental stimulation for a rainy day.

Recently Emma and I were introduced to Susan Garrett's 2x2 Weaves training method (a subject for a later post). I watched the DVD and was instantly hooked. Here was a way to train the weaves using the same concept as clicker training! After a trial where Brego had some trouble with the weaves (not usual for him), I knew that I wanted to retrain using Susan Garrett's method. I went to dust off the neglected set of indoor weave poles and I realized that I could break them down into 2x2's! I set them up in the living room and got to work that night.

After a week of training (as per the 2x2 DVD) Brego was back to being a weaving maniac. Now Brego receives complements on his beautiful weaves!

--Olivia