Photos From Discovery Green

We had a great practice for DockDogs today. Foxy did some jumps around 13-16'.

I will have pics and some video up when I get back home. I am in College Station right now.

For now, I found these two awesome pictures of her from Discovery Green:

Foxy Makes It Into Another Article

My crazy girl is getting a lot of attention in DockDogs! I am loving it!

Her article is here: http://www.dockdogs.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1306&Itemid=273

Here is her segment of the article:

"Also making a large improvement in their jumping average was Kara Corn and her Border Collie Foxy. Starting out with a 7'7" jump, it didn't take long to reach a personal best of 10'9" early in the competition. But that was nothing compared to them breaking their personal best again later in the day with a 13'10" jump."

WOOHOOO go my speedy baby. Only 9 months old and already getting noticed!!! (I am not proud of her in the least bit! haha)

Saturday we are going to a DockDogs practice at our usual place, and then heading to College Station for the rest of the day and stay until Sunday afternoon. I am going to get away for a while since I have had a hectic week starting my new job and learning I have to go in for a pretty nasty surgery on the 25 (tonsils removed..which is a nasty ordeal when you are not a child!)

And..............

I must vent...in a very sporadic way...

I know this isn't really a personal blog, but I have to get things out in some way, shape, or form. So forgive me if this is not a "Foxy" post to her blog.

I am frustrated. VERY frustrated.

I WANT OUT OF HERE! I would even move back to my parents if they would let me. I AM GOING INSANE!!!!!!!! Frustration, frustration, frustration......to the point of absolute depression.

The reason why they dont want me to move back? They say crating my dogs is cruel, and that they would have to be 100% outside dogs...excuse me...NO.

Oh and the fact that I dont make my bed... because I dont follow rules.

HELLO how old am I? I am sorry but at 23, even if I moved back into my parents house..I should not have a "I have to make my bed rule." Call it being rebellious, or just plain stubborn.. but I shouldnt have someone telling me I have to make my bed at 23. On the other hand, I should not be expected to be stuck in this place constantly and watch a damn movie every night either. When I say every night, I mean EVERY night...weekend nights included. 7 days a week, 365 days out of the year. Shoot me. Now. End the misery.

UGH I shouldnt be getting yelled at because I want to do something else, or not want to go do something, or not want to watch a movie, or want to stay on the computer till all hours of the night... oh blah! I pay for the internet, let me sit on here 20 hrs a day, what does it matter? Oh yes, I forgot, I have to do everything else to make others happy..and not myself.

UGH sooooo anyways... when does the insanity stop? When does it all "happen?"

I am stuck, cant really go on with my life... cant do anything fun (except dog things of course) and everything is either frustrating or boring.

I want OUT, I want to GET ON with my life. I want the whole package (well I could do without having my own children) but everything else I WANT. I NEED...like everyone else on this planet does. I want it, however, to be RIGHT. I am in WRONG right now...well not IN, but I am trying to get rid of WRONG for good.

How hard is it to obtain happiness, when you are SUNK IN A RUT?

Cant get roommates... everyones either with a significant other, or married, or has children. It totally 100% sucks.

Get lost is what I want to do... move out of state, out of country, anything to get out of what I am so horribly stuck in.

And after all this, I am putting so much hope into it all turning for the good....

If it wasnt for the dogs, I would be completely lost after all of this frustration and depression.

God I sound like one of those emo kids...

Sorry.

P.S.
December 27, 2009 cant come soon enough- hope you are as into it as I am.

Foxy Gets The Job Done

Need I say more?



We got a new title (JJ-N, Junior Jumper National 10-14'11 jumps)
Won the Junior division in the 4th wave, and reached a Personal Best of 13'10"

On other news, I am really sick and am going to have to go through a lot of doctors. I got really bad last night and today has been an ordeal. Hopefully I get better, and can get my tonsils taken out soon so this does not persist.

Ready Ready Ready!!!!

So we are on for Fort Worth! I pre registered her in all the "waves." She is going to be a busy dog this weekend! We are entered for 6 waves so we might be coming back with a title this weekend... Looks like baby Foxy will be one up on Yoshi..hahaha

Here is some video and pics!

Fort Worth, Here We Come?

As far as I know, I am making the trip to Fort Worth for Foxy to do a DockDogs competition. The only thing that will stop us now, is if she decides on her practice day this next weekend that she doesnt want to jump anymore. So we shall see!

The days of the competition are the June 13-15

We will get there Friday early afternoon, and leave Sunday late afternoon (or earlier if she doesn't make the finals)

Hallettsville Trip

So I took the dogs to this farm/hunting lease for the weekend and they had a blast. I am posting this on Foxy's blog though, because she enjoyed it a lot more than Yoshi. I totally wore both dogs out..in fact they are still somewhat tired acting =) Maybe I need to buy a farm for them..LOL

The Do Everything Dog

Foxy continues to be more and more fun. She officially is jumping off the dock...even though its only about a foot of distance. I have a feeling, she will quickly learn to jump further once the confidence kicks in with the drive! I was thrilled to see her brave out the scary drop.

Soooooo I think June 13-15 we might be going to Forth Worth to a Dock Dogs competition!!!! That is if I can find somewhere to stay. I am not paying $60 for a non refundable pet fee in a hotel, that is outrageous!!!

On to her video!



We start our agility classes as well too. Of course we will miss one if we do the Dock Dogs competition... but oh well, we can make it up! I havent done a lot of agility with her, but she seems to love it. I really think I need to focus more on having control out of her than going out there and doing the obstacles. I feel the control and the focus is the thing that is key with her. We will see how she does in her first lesson. Here are a couple of videos from a few weeks ago.







When she turns a year old, we are going to also join a disc dogs group and give it a try. She has been very great at catching the Chuck It from a run. Also herding is something we are going to try in the fall when it cools off.

I love having a dog that likes to do everything, rather than a dog that only likes to do one thing (cough cough, Yoshi and agility, cough cough!)

Hectic Times

well i wrote this big long blog and then i pressed publish, and it gave me an error code and it never saved the post as a draft...so i got screwed. I dont have time to write the whole thing out until later.. I have a LOT going on today. However, I was able to post on Yoshi's blog before it messed up! Have a great day everyone.

Stuff For Us To Do

I got the Strengthening the Performance Dog DVD yesterday and I have tons of ideas for both Foxy and Yoshi to really help them out. I am not sure if I am going to be able to do ALL of the exercises consistently, but I am going to try to do as many of them as possible. I will start updating on that when we get a program going. I need to write down the ones I can be very serious about, and get a schedule together.

I practiced walking with both dogs yesterday, I think I will be okay with both of them when I go to Brazos Bend with them and just me. I just have to keep Foxy on her Gentle Leader so it is a bit easier for me to have both dogs under perfect control.

I am planning on taking them (Foxy's second time and Yoshi's first time) on Monday...and possibly Saturday if I dont have to stay at the car show the whole time.

I am still over the top about agility starting back up for both of my kids in May. I was so scared that Yoshi might not ever get to run again..and now we are looking at starting back after his injury. Woohoo!

I really think Foxy is going to do great. I just need to learn to channel that energy into agility. =)

Other than that, not very many updates, it stormed today so I haven't been able to do too much. Yesterday was just me walking the dogs so it would have been a bit hard to try to take pictures.

Hopefully I will have the dogs' workout schedules together soon! I really need Yoshi in better shape than he is now. Though I think a lot of it is he needs to get his stamina back too..he gets tired easily!

Blah

Foxy is doing great, but me not so much. I think I have made some major stupid decisions and now I gotta backtrack again. UGH UGH UGH!

The dogs are keeping me sane...thank the Lord for dogs.

Miss Foxy Pants and Her Adventures

Well we are starting her first set of agility classes in May so we are REALLY excited about that.

We are still having lots of fun though, she went to Brazos Bend State Park with me on Saturday and I got some pictures of our outings.

She was really worn out that day!! lol

I am really getting more and more impressed by her. She is showing a lot more self control and she is coming along. She has grown a lot as well. The rest of this post is going to be purely pictures and video.

Here are her Brazos Bend pictures:

LOL this was the only sign that said that...

Being a good girl!

Pretty flowers

Such a goof!

Scary gator!


Here's some ballpark pictures:

She really likes him!


Here's a gallery of clumsiness....which is SO funny..because two days after that she started catching her first frisbees...LOL

Sooooo

Foxy decided at the Splash Dogs practice session that she was *still* not wanting to jump off the big dock so we didnt even go to the competition. I knew that if she wouldnt jump off the dock in practice, she wouldnt do it in front of a hundred people watching her..it would probably send her over the top.

While we were at practice she really showed her evil side.... of wanting to jump out at every dog and person who got close because she wants to play. We are definitely having a hard time with controlling the urge to jump up on everything. She does NOT do it to me hardly ever.. she knows to respect me..its just now she needs to have manners with everyone else. I have a feeling that this will be a looooooong process with her. I ended up having to put the Gentle Leader on her as she was starting to be a total brat before I left. Anyways.. I think our next thing is just going to random places and having perfect manners.. I think getting her so bored with people walking by might be the ticket...I better bring a BIG book!

Her classes are going fine, but this week is the last bit of them..and so now we have to figure out where we are going to go from there. Last week, Rachel was not sure what to suggest to me. The next "basic" class she is giving is a CGC class and I am not going to push CGC on Foxy because the greeting part of it is going to be way too hard on her at this point. I have a feeling it is going to be a maturity thing and of course a training thing. So we arent going to do any CGC stuff yet. So hopefully by Wednesday night I will have a game plan for Foxy for the next few weeks. If not, we will have to take private lessons, but I really dont want to rely on those as they can be very expensive, and then I dont want her getting used to always being by herself in class.

Foxy Goes To Splash Dog Training!

So we drove the 80+ miles yesterday to a little town called Plantersville to do some Splash Dog training on a regulation dock! Well Foxy did not come close to wanting to jump off the dock, but we did get her to go from the exit ramp and into the "scary clear water!" It was definitely hard for a lot of dogs to get used to the pool water rather than pond water. Some wouldnt even go in from the exit ramp. I feel like after a few sessions, we might be going off the dock if we go once or twice a month. Dock Dogs is also going to start holding competitions there after this May... soooo we will be able to do a lot of competitions soon. And maybe by then, she will be ready! It was a lot of fun, and when she understood what was expected of her, the joy just lit up all over her face and I saw that "drive light" flash on. She would charge up those dock stairs when it was her turn!! I think she is really going to enjoy this sport!!! It will be a good extra thing to be involved with when we dont have agility going on =) Anyways..on with the video!

She has been great!

Foxy continues to get better and better with everything. She surpassed my expectations in her last class. She was able to walk on a loose leash, without the Gentle Leader. I am thrilled with her progress. Her recalls have gotten REALLY good, and he stay is becoming pretty rock solid. I can go about 50 feet away from her at the ballpark. I am just SO happy with her. I might bring out a jump and a tunnel tomorrow....... and teach her to go in between the standard...and all the basics of tunnels now that I feel like she is really in tune with me. We are going to do some hefty cavelletis and such so she will know how to use that hind end and so we will have a good jumper..I dont want another incident like Yoshi (he seriously lacked in jumping ability!)

Here are two fun videos... at the ballpark and the other SWIMMING!!!!!

Videos and Crazy Ears

I got some for fun videos up of her the other day. Still waiting to get to go to that pond to start training for Splash Dogs.... her ears are starting to get interesting... I hope and pray they start pricking more... both of them!

Miss Foxy Pants = Dock Dog?

She had another good class tonight. Loose leash walking, behaviors with duration, recalls, etc. Still a bit crazy at times, but she at least settles down now. However, I stayed after her class to watch the agility class and well..... she was acting a fool watching. I am going to have lots of work to do for her to settle down while others are running........

Next week is her last class for the 6 week session... Hopefully we figure out what will be next for her. I am hoping not another "puppy obedience" class.....I want something a tad bit more for agility... I am also going to set up a private lesson or two with Rachel to get us started on more groundwork for agility.

We are going to have lots of sessions tomorrow. I might try to video them. So keep checking back.

Annnnnddddd drum roll.......

We are going to try our first competition ever at the end of March... Dock Jumping!!! We are going to enter the Splash Dogs competition in Pearland.. so we are going to do lots of "pond practice" until then. I am SO excited that I have something to look forward to. More info to come... I will try to get pics or vids of some of our practicing.

Lots of progress

Foxy did the best ever in her class on Wednesday. She was very well behaved and I got a lot more out of her. I wont go into a LOT of detail as I have had a REALLY terrible week and such. But she is coming along great. She is starting to work more like she does at home. I was very impressed with her.

And I got impulsive.. she kept trying to put her feet on the teeter (the part that points up) when we were near it walking in our circle for loose leash walking. It was like she knew what it was. So I slammed it down and she wasnt scared of the noise... so I let her walk on it at the end of class. No problems....she did a foot high teeter......and was fine. Of course I was taking it slow and steadying her with my hand on her collar...but she was AWESOME. I couldnt believe it. I wasnt really trying to get her used to the obstacle, just seeing how she would react...she reacted how I thought she would, rock solid and ready for more..but still..shes awesome!!!!!!!!! She will do great things. I love this dog, I love how she learns things, I love her energy, I love her tenacity and drive. She is amazing, she is beautiful, and I cant believe she is mine. I cant stop bragging about her now... lol.

Foxy's Class Wednesday Night

Foxy did pretty good in here class on Wednesday. It is just when Rachel comes around to check on our progress that Foxy will fall to pieces because shes so excited that someone is around her! *sigh* She just gets soooo crazy! As soon as this weather is more cooperative, I am going to start taking her to a bunch more places so she gets used to all the bustle of new people and such...not that she is scared of any of it...but so she learns not to launch at everyone and everything and try to lick them or it to death...ha!

We worked on an exercise for loose leash walking, we did have some good moments of that. So I will continue on that. We will continue on quick downs. She does pretty good with downs, and I figure once she understands what we will be using these downs for one day, they will even be a lot quicker. =) hehe

She has NO problems being touched or handled. I do notice she works best for me though, so although she does love other people, she definitely is more of a one person dog when it comes to listening and performance wise.

Also on the sidelines, we worked on weaving through the legs...she is really liking this fun game. hehe

At home, she has been eating her dinners from her treat ball and so she likes that, she has been doing really good in the house. She also has consistentally been looking at the doorknob when she needs to go out...she is not sneaky about it like Yoshi was when he was little.

All in all, I am pretty happy with her progress. Yes, she probably could be a lot further along, but I havent overfaced her, and she's happy and I am happy. I am doing what feels best with her. I am getting a couple of my books from Clean Run today... so we will start doing a lot more work when I read them.. I really have been waiting for these to come in. Shes at a perfect age where I can really work with her a lot longer to get a lot more out of her. Its time to start some more serious training =)

Foxy's Brother Is A TV Star

There are a couple of short clips of Foxy's littermate Freddie in this news segment. He is the black tri puppy in this video. Also a couple of other Contact Point dogs are in here as well. http://www.piousdogproductions.net/wmv/dog_agility_newscast.wmv





Foxy has really come a long ways with manners in the house. I am able to let her be a lot more free at night time without watching her like a hawk. I am happy as she gets to have a bit more fun. Another wonderful step. I cant imagine my life without her now... she has been absolutely wonderful. She and I share a pretty close bond now =)

Foxy Wanted To Post Her Own Blog

Before I let her say what she wanted...I bought her a new collar today, I wanted to see which size fits her well before I get her a custom one..so this one will have to do for now! I love it though, it is pink plaid! =)

Now here is Foxy:

"Hey everyone!"

Foxy's Class Last Night

We do have lots of work to do. But here's some more details of what went on last night!

When I first got there, I could tell she was going to be over the top if she was extremely close to all the dogs and people so I went towards the back of the room so I could have our little area already "reserved." Most the dogs are very young puppies in the class, but of course Foxy is the most..errr.. hyper. She is the only Border Collie though, we are the only ones in the class that are going to be going for agility as well.

Before class started, I started working on sits and downs, and then paying attention to me while walking on the leash. She did pretty good with this. Yes I dont expect perfect focus on me yet, but I had some nice moments were she did focus on me a lot.

When class started, we started with going from fronts to the sides. Which Foxy did beautifully right away. She really followed my hands well. I have a feeling this week, we are going to do a LOT of different variations of it to get as most out of it as we possibly can since this seems to be a STRONG point she has.

Then we did something she is NOT so great at... walking up to her without her jumping up. This is what I found out I need to work on majorly with her. Now normally with me, she is pretty good about not jumping up when I walk up to her and such..but if its someone new, she goes over the top and wants to jump all over them forever. Which people are SO bad about not following the "doggie rules" and petting her when she jumps up. SOOOOOOoooooo major boot camp coming up where Foxy is going to get ignored until all four paws are on the ground. This was our MAJOR WEAKNESS.

We did sits, to stands...which to my amazement...Foxy learned the command in less than a minute. She was amazing.. lol we were all impressed.

Then it was down from a stand..which she did really good. I think the only dog to be able to drop immediately into a down. Good girl!

We then worked on getting touched and stuff, which Foxy has NO problems being cuddled or restrained or touched or messed with.

I also am going to use this week to work on the bite inhibition a little more, she has about a week left of it.. so I am going to work on it a lot this week. She hasnt ever been very bad though.

Things for us to work on:
1. NOT jumping up on strangers
2. Start on loose leash walking
3. Working with distractions around (will probably take her to the college walking track and stuff for this)
4. Sits, downs, stays, comes (just getting more solid behaviors)
5. Work on the "wave" command more so she doesnt confuse it with everytime she sits.
6. Start with off leash stuff at home inside (walking next to me)
7. Trick training- not sure which tricks I am going to work on this week. I am going to make a list of the ones I want to teach her and then go from there.

This weekend and tomorrow I am probably going to do a lot of work with her. Its just been so rainy and wet here consistently for almost 2 weeks, it has been hard to be able to do much. Hopefully the weather starts cooperating where we can start boot camp up.

To Prick or Not To Prick

Well, I posted on the BC Boards if people thought Foxy's ears might go prick (which I would LOVE). There was a red tri that's ears were almost the exact same as Foxy's at her age and now her ears are prick.... do we have a shot for prick ears???? Let's keep hoping!!! =)

We have class tonight... I am pretty excited to see how she does.

Need Ideas For Crate Bedding

Foxy is starting to pick up a habit of wanting to go potty in her crate if I have her crate pads in the crate with her. If I only put one crate pad down, she scratches it off to the side so it doesnt have a function. If I put 2 or 3 in there, normally the pads stay in place. However, shes been going potty at odd times in the crate fairly often with these in there. If I DONT have a crate pad in there or just one of them, any slight movement she makes while sleeping or settling herself echos in this horrendous scratching and clawing noise to the upstairs (house is a loft style so sounds carry big time here) and yes I need to get some sleep at night. So I need something that will muffle out sound as well. I dont like the thought of her lying on plastic all night either. She must be crated at night as this is a leased place. I have two options to go to that could work: Find a crate pad that will stay in place and will muffle sounds and wont be extremely lumpy so she wont feel the need to potty on it... or move her crate back upstairs beside my bed (she tended to be a bit quieter and more settled because she knew I was "watching her").

Anything out there that is "Border Collie proof"???

This is our only really difficult thing with her so far.

I measured her with a tape measure.. I think she is around 16-16.5 inches tall. I hope she grows a lot in the next few months.. I want her to be around 19.5-20 inches full grown!

Videos 01/20/08

So here was warming her up...notice how bouncy she is being...LOL



Here is the box exercise..its pretty long.. so if you get bored you can skip over to 5:30 and it gets more exciting! She has done SO great since we have only done this exercise a couple times since the last video.



And here's just having fun playing..I still cant get her to do too many complicated things with the ball in my hand as she is SO focused on the ball. We are getting better with it though!



Last week she got her last set of shots, she weighed 18 lbs.. what a BIG girl!

I think we are going to start following the Sue's training levels with Foxy. I think it will be good structure for her as well. We also will be working on more tricks soon and more exercises for her to think...such as putting metal food dishes inside each other and stuff like that.

Class Starts Tomorrow!

Foxy is starting an obedience class tomorrow. As Rachel is the teacher, I know she will gear it towards agility for me and Foxy =) I am GLAD that I have her in a class so I can follow a structured "curriculum." I am also glad that I can get her started in some more serious training. I cant wait to see how she does. This will be a pretty small class as I know it wasnt advertised much, but it will be great for Foxy to get into the class scene and to see what our strong points will be, along with the weaknesses. She is already starting towards a brilliant career.. I am excited and thrilled, but this time around, I do not feel a huge rush either. I am completely happy with getting everything down right with her, meaning the groundwork and foundation skills.

Hope to have some good news after the class...and hoping Yoshi continues on with his recovery as it looks like we might be able to show this weekend!

Picture Post

So since I could not go to Yoshi's trial as he is still limping..I went and took pictures of Foxy today to try to quit thinking about this discouraging week I have had. The camera drives me up the wall because the shutter speed is SO SLOW.

Training 01/09/08

Earlier in the day



This was 5 min after I introduced the box.. the goal is for her to eventually put all four feet in the box so she learns where her hind end is... and to teach her how to think!

Starting Some New Stuff

Yesterday I added something new to our exercises.. I started the target training. She picked it up quickly. I only had to do two five minute sessions and she really got it down. You could really see her thinking. The second session she picked it up right away and didnt forget a thing. We went through all the basic stuff too and so we were able to do a bit longer of a training session. Next week I think we are starting some sort of obedience class. I am not sure.. I really want it geared more for agility but I think there are supposed to be a lot of puppies in the class so it might be a really good class for her just for the experience.

I am really starting to see more and more of a well behaved dog out of her. She is doing so much better with containing herself while we are inside. She has really come along in the past week or two.

Foxy Loves Agility Trials!

Because there are lots of people everywhere..so she was completely happy the whole two days because she just got to be in the mix of everything. Each day we came back from the show she was just conked out for 3 hours or so sleeping very hard.

She really seemed to enjoy the scene very much. Nothing scared her..in fact she just was even wilder as she wanted to go to everyone and say hello. LOL

I did get some attention work with her, but I didnt ask a lot of her except to try to be polite and not jump on people (still a work in progress...haha) =)

Picture Post

At the ballpark in the chilly weather!!!! She is turning into the most beautiful girl...I love her so much






And this was about a week ago.. the funny ways BCs sleep... hehehe