autumn

we had a bit of trouble last night at class (another dog had peed in the building earlier / she wasn't used to the videographer moving). we managed to work through it with a bit of training and get another great submission ready for scoring. echo is an absolute delight to work with!

i told my partner that if he charged up the gopro, i'd make a video for him when i took the dog out to the local nature preserve. turns out it makes some nice crunch-crunch sounds.

a few clips from jean's treibball training session this afternoon. she was actively afraid of the ball a few days ago, so this is awesome progress!

we had to cut down a maple in this spot last year, as it was in danger of collapsing on our house. i planted this three-foot-nothing white oak to take its place, and i'm excited to watch it grow! the soil is super rich and well-draining right here since we had the stump ground down and left all the mulch to decompose. basically black gold.

edit: seeing all those invasive privets in the background.

i started this online scent work course about a week ago, and it has been a lot of fun! i'm used to more showy dog sports (agility, rally obedience, dock diving, etc), so finding something chill has been really eye-opening. you can see right around the 1:45 mark where she sniffs the other colander, realizes there's no scent, and immediately plops her nose into the correct one! i'm just so amused and delighted.

started a few days ago getting her acclimated while i walked beside the bike, and we took our first trip around the block today. she stood up a few times, but for the most part was comfortable lying down.

jean has earned 500 points in fast CAT since she started in february, so she got her DCAT title today (first was BCAT at 300 points). very proud of her! it has improved her recall and behavior around other dogs so much. 😊

this is what peak performance looks like. 😎

but seriously, this lil' chihuahua mix runs like a greyhound!

photos by stirling hasen.

we have a looong way to go, but i like to keep video records of even the not-so-good practice sessions. she's really disengaged with me for a big portion of this video (probably because it's our first time doing this outdoors). hoping to eventually get her into rally obedience. :)

it's her absolute favorite activity in the world!

i’m really vibing with this game. absurd, casual, sometimes disturbing fun. slapping and jumping are the only actions, and it’s very england.