6 inches

Well, we got an additional six inches of snow over the past day.



And, I've been told by my family that I have an unhealthy obsession with taking pictures of my dogs in the snow. But really, how else do you get good pictures of dogs other than taking a ton all in one session? I normally get a lot of blurry ones, many with the dog partially or fully out of the frame, and most of all, pictures of my dogs' butts.

Though some of the butt pictures are actually pretty nice.



Pallo has been getting better and better at staying still long enough for decent pictures, but remains difficult to get good, focused pictures of.



Koira for some reason has always been easy to get good pictures of. She even takes good pictures when moving. Though, perhaps, not always the most graceful pictures.



However, as always, Pallo managed to trump Koira in the totally not glamorous picture department



He is kind of a fun dog to take pictures of now though, because he is just so plain goofy, I always get a good laugh looking at them all afterwards



The dogs have had the zoomies for the past day and a half constantly now. We never get snow, and when we do, it is an inch, maybe two at the most. Deep snow is something I don't think my dogs have ever had a chance to run wild in.



Koira was zooming around, snuffling the snow, digging up toys that have been abandoned in the yard for days or weeks, since now, with the snow, they are exciting again. Her butt tucking zoomies last about as long as we stay outside and active, before she had to come in and thaw by the fire.



Pallo gives me this look every time I call him to head inside. He would rather stay out, so I get to get glimpses of him zooming past the windows, snow flailing behind him, as he runs like a crazy dog around.



Overall, I have to say we are enjoying our snow day.

Border collies are loud

We woke up to snow this morning.

Not a whole lot of snow, for sure, but it was snowing like mad, and begged for tracks to be made in it.

Koira was happy to oblige



Pallo just wanted me to throw the damn ball already



But, we had a visitor. A visitor named Possum. A very pretty border collie visitor named Possum. A very loud, pretty, border collie named Possum



She likes to do the signature bark-scream if the frisbee doesn't get thrown right away. And then growls up a storm at Koira when the frisbee does get thrown, since they both are frisbee dogs.



Koira even reverted back to the days of chasing other dogs rather than the toy, letting Possum win the frisbee more often than not.



Not to say Koira doesn't love herself some frisbee lips of her own.



They even got into some pretty intense tugging for a while, using the frisbee.



I'm starting to this this frisbee might not last as long as I was hoping. Though, for a soft frisbee, this Ruffwear one has lasted over 8 months already, which is pretty good, considering how hard on toys my guys can be.



Pallo thinks frisbees are stupid, and wants me to just throw the damn ball already



Contrary to what the snow may imply, it was not all that cold out there this morning, as Koira was happy to indicate with a huge, panting mouth and tongue the size of my car.



She was content to run after the frisbee as long as I would throw it though. She even started to pick up her own bark-scream from Possum's example. Though, I have to say, border collies are much better at being loud and obnoxius. Koira, try as she might, just can't get that earsplitting high pitched note into her pleading barks.

Training Seminar

I had the good fortune to attend a training seminar taught by Touch N Go this weekend. For those who don't know, they are the world record holding flyball team in U-Fli. Obviously, they have a good bit to teach the rest of us, as they are the first (and I'm not positive, but they may be the only) team to break below 15 seconds.

I attended all three days of the seminar, starting with Green Dogs/Young Dogs on Friday, then with more advanced dogs on Sat/Sun.

A few things I learned that I am going to use on my dogs:

First, a game that cures ball dropping, called the Hand game. I especially plan on teaching this game to Pallo, as he has the ball dropping issues, but I'm sure Koira will benefit from learning it as well.

The idea is that first, you teach the dog a simple hand touch with their nose. Quickly moving on, you teach them to pick up a toy and touch that to your hand. Moving as slowly or quickly as you and your dog are able, you gain distance and variety of toys, as well as eventually making your hand a moving target, first as an empty, wide open hand, then eventually as a fist holding your tug toy. The idea is that in competition, the dog will still bring the ball all the way to your fist, then grab the tug once there.

The other training tip is using a touch stick to train a box turn. Both of my dogs currently have a box turn that isn't terrible, with Pallo's being pretty good. However, I believe that teaching them the touch stick method, and a wall turn, will help their box turns improve and become faster, snappier, and with less of a chance of double hitting.

Pallo picked up right away that the name of the game is to touch the end of the stick with his nose, click, treat. (Generally not a clicker training person, but it makes this particular game easier.) He occasionally forgets, but pretty much has it down. Koira on the other hand started out afraid of the stick for some reason. It wasn't until this morning when she saw Pallo touch, click, treat over and over while she didn't get anything that she even would touch her nose to the stick. Hopefully if I keep up with it, they will progress to doing over-and-backs using the stick quite soon, and from there to wall hits. I haven't decided if I will use it to retrain their box turns, or just do touch stick and wall turn training to help build muscle memory of a proper turn, and see how well it transfers over.

There was a lot more information at the seminar, including jumping drills, striding corrections, and more, but for now, I think these two games are what I will work on. Though, if I can get someone to video tape Pallo's full runs, I might add striding props if it looks like he needs them.