This weekend was the Ionia Free Fair in Ionia, Michigan. I had pre-registered Midas for one splash on Friday and one on Saturday. Due to a cherry mishap whose details you can read about here , Midas was not feeling well enough to compete on Friday.

Saturday

Up bright and early and see that Midas seems to be feeling pretty close to his normal self. Thank goodness!! Pack everything up (which is WAY easier with the soft-sided kennels) and head out. When we get there, there is no one there. Ok, there are people, but not many, maybe 15-20 total. Unload, set up the EZ-Up (I pinch my fingers TWICE during this) and kennel the boys. Register and find out the reason why there is no one there. There is another event being run by UAD somewhere else, which Milt is at, with all the toys/shirts (which was a real bummer because I wanted to buy one of each) and the fair hasn’t even opened yet.

Practice jumps went fairly well. Midas’s attention span is pretty limited. I haven’t had time to practice with him on The Chase technique at home so that was completely lacking on the dock. He was just jumping. Honestly though, I was so thrilled that he was feeling up to it after the cherry/rubbing alcohol ordeal that it didn’t matter. During competition his farthest jump was only 17′, which ended up being about 9th place in the senior division out of 15 dogs. Not too spectacular, but I don’t think he was quite 100% yet, and I also did not time my throws the best (again). I need to practice my technique at home! We stayed to watch Catch-It, which was really entertaining. Eric got some fantastic photos of that. But, I’m not posting any links to them until we get the rest of the site up and running .

Since we had a bunch of time to kill before we had to leave we decided to try Mason off the dock during practice again. It had been a month since the last time we had attempted and he’s now confident enough to jump out of the truck, both from the backseat and from the tailgate so he’s definitely getting braver. Eric had asked early in the week if it would be ok with me if he was the one to compete Mason. I had said that was fine but I would really prefer it if we could both compete both of the boys. If they would respond to both of us and if both of our throws were decent. Anwho, I told him to go ahead and see if he could get Mason to go off the dock (he went off the exit ramp with absolutely no hesitation again), but Eric was too nervous so I went up. Mason was SO CLOSE, he was hanging off the edge, but just not quite brave enough yet. I think we’ll try him off a lower dock for awhile before asking him to go off regulation again. He did run right up the exit ramp and dive into the pool to get the tug though . He’s so cute and enthusiastic!

Eric worked up to taking Midas off the dock during practice. This was Eric’s very first time ever jumping Midas. We had a couple of false starts and one refusal but he got him to go and it was near 18′ so he did really well. Proud of both of them!

Wiley was there (the adult silver from the DockDogs event in Battle Creek) with his family. I am completely in love with their toddler, he is the cutest baby I have ever seen. Mason thought he would stand up to Wiley with a little lip curl, but when Wiley sniffed him a little more he rolled right over onto his back. Silly puppy. We have video of Mason trying the dock out, Eric jumping Midas and Mason meeting Wiley and hopefully will be able to post those on here soon too. Until then, here’s some of Midas’s jumps:

While the soft-sided kennels were super easy to haul and set-up. The boys didn’t take to them as well as I thought they were going to. They were fine if they were both in them. But as soon as one was out, the other was not good. Mason would lunge into the mesh sides of his every time we went to put Midas back into his kennel, he was trying to reach him through the walls. Mason also insisted on lying in the seams and making one side lopsided while doing so. Midas learned that if he tucked his head under, pushed it into the door and started walking he could roll the kennel (like a hamster wheel), wherever he wanted to go. We came back from trying to get Mason to jump to find Midas half way to the dock, kennel upside down and some extremely nice lady trying to stop him. So…we’re going to have to get tie-downs for them and something to put on the floor to prevent them from rolling them.

Today we went to Eaton Rapids to meet with Mike from Mid Michigan Kennels. It was fantastic! The drive was a little over an hour and the last bit I felt that we might be lost but we found it without any troubles. Mike ended up being an extremely charismatic man, easy to talk to and with a lot of knowledge. His office walls were covered in awards and certificates. He used to be on the police force and in the army as well. Anyway, after watching me play with Mason and his tug and some discussion about the differences between scent tracing and tracking we headed out to a field not far away. We will be working on scent tracing with Mason. This means that he will not be following the direct path of the missing person, but getting their scent on the wind and following that. I was really nervous. I was worried that he wouldn’t care that one of us was hiding or not. Once we got there, Eric had instructions to walk around the outside of the field to get to the tree at which he was going to hide behind. He took Mason’s favorite tug toy with him. This way, when we started Mason out in the field he would not be able to just track Eric’s footsteps around the outside. Also, he didn’t get to watch Eric leave, we had him between the two trucks. Once Eric was in position we headed out into the field. Mason was allowed to go to the end of the leash and wander as he pleased. All of a sudden, his head snapped up and Mike gave me the instruction to release the leash. Mason darted off to the right and at first I thought he was on the trail of something not-Eric. But then he veered left. Back and forth, working the scent cone just like Mike said he would. Here’s a rough diagram of what it looked like:

It was honestly pretty awe-inspiring to watch. Once he reached Eric he got huge praise and to play with his tug, which he promptly retrieved back to me We were ecstatic!! Unfortunately, Eric didn’t get to see him in action. So, I went and hid this time on the opposite side of the field from the start point and behind a huge pile of rocks. He had to work a little harder and get a little closer but he found me. The funny thing was, he had lifted his head, eyes pointed right at me and didn’t even see me until he had run right into me. Mike said he “wasn’t seeing with his eyes, he was seeing with his nose”. It was awesome! I couldn’t stop smiling. The final verdict was to play this hide-and-seek game with Mason around 2 times a week until April, in different areas, environments and seasons. Then we could enroll him in classes. We got instructions on how to further the training but with the same basic concept as what we did right there. Mike said that he thought Mason had it in him: he has the nose, the personality, the drive and he’s people-oriented. He said we have done a good job socializing him. I am soooo excited!!

Tonight was Midas’s first obedience class…that we actually made it to. It was the second class for everyone else. It went WAY better than I had expected. The trainer confided that it had gone a lot better than she had expected too. He was still whining unfortunately. But, it was A LOT quieter than the banshee screaming he does at dock jumping events. A LOT. This was so quiet that when we first went in and someone asked if he always did that, I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I was so used to trying to ignore the full-throated screaming that I didn’t even hear the tiny little whimpers he was emitting. He did really well in all the tests. His sit/lay down are grudging and slow, even with treats so we need to practice that, he used to have a strong sit and a really strong lay down. Since he became so preoccupied with every other dog in the vicinity, he has been ignoring people for the most part. This worked for us in several of the exercises where he was expected to stay in a sit without jumping up and also to walk through a crowd without nosing people. But, we need to do some serious work on where he is allowed to pee and where he isn’t. He peed when left with the trainer. I’ve been working on that, it is a lot better, but still not great. He fails the CGC test if he eliminates during it. So the to do list after Class #2: work on no whining, no peeing, sit, come, lay down and focusing on me. Sounds like a lot, but he’s quite a bit more mellow than some of the other dogs there so at least I don’t have to beat that too.

We also checked out a soft-sided kennel for the boys. I’ve been really wanting to get one so that it is easier to haul, pack and unpack at dock jumping events and when we go camping. Unfortunately, all the ones I found were quite expensive with a lot of bells and whistles that my boys don’t need. I finally stumbled across one I thought would be ideal on Ebay. When I did a quick search I found out I could get it cheaper at Clean Run. Eric was leery because the price was so cheap so we went to Wal-Mart to see what it was like (they only had the one that is 2 sizes smaller than what we want). I think it is going to work great for our boys. It is easy to pop up, clean and haul (we have to work on the folding it back into a circle thing ). But, the best part is that I ordered two of them, they’re being shipped to my house and it was cheaper than the cost of only ONE of the other soft-sided kennels we’ve been looking at. It is not for chewers or dogs not used to the kennel but both the dogs are kennel trained and don’t chew in their kennels. Also, this is not going to be an every day kennel, it will only be used on trips and we’ll be present so they should both work great. I am so excited to get them! According to the website they should be here on Saturday.

Last night we bought the boys a Chuckit (Chuck-It?). It is the most amazing toy ever. I can throw at least twice as far and I don’t have to touch the slimy ball when it gets back. When the toy first came out I remember thinking “I am not paying $10 just so I don’t have to touch some drool”. I normally get drool on me even if I’m not touching the toy…somehow. But, it is so nice. I still probably would have dealt with the drool but being able to throw way farther without hurting myself is pretty great too. We took the boys to the park and Midas was whipped after about 10 minutes, he only kept going because Mason did. After 15 minutes Mason was lagging on the way back so we called it quits. Mason is getting pretty fast, he can almost keep up with Midas now, he doesn’t lose distance consistently like before. His stamina isn’t quite the same (he is still a baby), but his drive is at least double Midas’s. I have to watch him closely because he doesn’t know when to stop, he would just keep going until his poor little legs couldn’t keep up any more. It was kind of dark at the park because we went later, so when I would throw far, Mason couldn’t run fast enough to actually see where the ball would land. It is so fun to watch him track it down. I LOVE it. His drive and determination to find that ball before coming back makes me so proud. He doesn’t give up, no matter how long it takes him, he eventually finds the toy every single time. It’s great !

Midas needs to get in better shape. I’ve gotten some tips from other dock jumping trainers but most of them just don’t work very well in our situation. I’m hoping at least running a lot will strengthen his legs and increase his stamina, even if it’s not the exact same exercise/muscle groups he uses when dock jumping. If anyone has any suggestions, I am all ears!

Also, if anyone knows where I can get a really firm (but reasonably priced) dog bed and one of those dog cot-type beds, please let me know! I’ve been looking. When I find a decent price, the shipping pushes it right over the edge into “too expensive” land.

We traveled up to the Traverse City Cherry Festival this weekend for another Ultimate Air Dog event. We camped out in my parents’ friends’ side yard. It was fun.

Friday. We got to Interlochen late so we had to hurry to TC to get there in time for registration/practice. There was an insanely long line of dogs waiting for a practice jump. We got up there twice and it went really well. Midas was revved and he finally has caught on to our “The Chase” training. I am so excited! He’s finally, finally going for the bumper like he’s supposed to. His jump: 18′3″!!! That’s a new personal best! AND he jumped a foot early - so really it was 19′3″. My fault for setting him up in the wrong spot, don’t have that down pat yet. But, overall it was great. Then that night Midas cut his paw pad on something and it was bleeding like crazy. My dad doctored it all up though, some baking soda to stop the bleeding after it was cleaned up and then super glue to top it off - worked like a charm.

He only wore that for 20 minutes, until we were sure the bleeding had stopped. He was so good, never even nibbled on it.

Saturday. It was chilly, it rained and it was windy. Midas was in a mood and jumped horrible, which complemented my horrible throws. Yeah, we did bad. I was crabby after he tried to lunge up onto the dock when it wasn’t his turn and he tore open one of my toes…I’m buying Crocs now for dock-jumping. His longest jump was a measly 15′8″ which was a complete disappointment after the excitement from the day before.

Some photos of my truly horrendous throws:

Those were almost too embarrassing to post. Oh well, we are both still learning. Practice makes perfect.

Other dogs were awesome and fun to watch. There were some amazing Labs and Border Collies with such intense concentration it was scary. Then of course all the usual people that do amazing: Rajah, Oskar etc etc We got to help out with the medals. That was fun. I like to feel useful and I love to help out, especially at places that I am involved in anyway. It was a good time. I prefer events with a little less people though.

Obedience. Last night was supposed to be Midas’s first Obedience class…which we missed all but the last ten minutes of. The directions I got were for Cherry St. downtown GR and really it was supposed to be in Ada . So, then we had to hurry home and get the real directions and then hurry there. I was really bummed. Really, really bummed. The class went over so we sat in the truck and waited….and waited…and then just for a change of pace, we waited some more. Finally it ended and I got to speak with the instructor. She was terrific. She told me to work on Midas with focusing on me. She also said that the prong collar might work out very well for me, if I use it correctly. After a lengthy conversation we headed home. I felt much better and not so depressed. Tonight after work I practiced some of the things she said and it worked fairly well. I also took Midas for his very first loose-leash walk ever !! I was so excited! It was lovely. The thing about the prong collar is that he self-corrects himself, I don’t have to do a whole lot. Once I taught him that the concept was to stay on my left, next to me, he pretty much did with no direction from me. There were a couple of mistakes, but it was our first walk so there’s plenty of time to finesse. I am hoping it will carry over to the dock jumping competition at Traverse City with Ultimate Air Dogs this weekend.

Search and Rescue. After watching Mason at my grandparents’ place hunt up the stick we throwing during fetch and have the determination to keep at it long after Midas had quit, I decided maybe he would excel at something beyond therapy training. After a little bit of research (very little, not a whole lot I could find on the Internet for Michigan), I found Mid-Michigan Kennels, Inc. I emailed the trainer and he requested that I call. I talked to him today after work and he was great! I am bringing Mason there on Tuesday. He’s way to young too start real training, but I can start playing some games with him to see if he even has the right “stuff” to do SAR. I’m pretty excited.

RAW Food. I’ve been researching the benefits of switching the boys to a raw dog food diet. We have a line and are probably picking up an extra freezer on Monday. This is not just for the dogs (if we even switch), we need the extra space for all of our extra food…Eric can not go by a bread sale and not buy at least 3 loaves. Unfortunately, everything I’ve found online is waaaayyy to expensive to switch. I joined a couple of raw yahoo groups in Michigan and am hoping to get some more info. I also haven’t contacted any meat shops in the area yet. If anyone has any additional info, good or bad, please let me know!

Dock Jumping. Tomorrow we are heading out bright and early to Traverse City to take the dogs to the Cherry Festival. We are staying with my parents good friends and they are going to be there too. It will be the first time either have seen Midas compete, I’m nervous! He is competing both days too. After watching all the photos that Eric took at Battle Creek, I realize I am throwing WAY too early for him to even attempt to catch the bumper, so I hope to work on this during the practice dock time. I worked on him in the backyard again tonight and it went very well. He’s doing really well with it, I can only hope it transfers to the dock. Mason has started getting out of the truck by himself now, so maybe he’s worked up the nerve to actually jump off the dock - only one way to find out .

Midas

Thus far, Midas has been jumping beautifully on his own without any training from me. Both events we were at, the announcers commented on the nice POP he gets from the end of the dock, which is exactly what I want him to do. He does not follow the bumper though and I would love to be able to compete in Catch It and Extreme or Ultimate Vertical. So, I’ve purchased a golf ball retriever, which I can jam the bumper into and practice EV/UV and many have advised to practice with a hurdle. I have printed plans for a hurdle made of PVC pipe that we can do ourselves. Unfortunately, the water at the dock we use is so low we haven’t been able to practice off of it at all lately. Therefore, we revert to land training. I put two chairs and a 2×4 out in the yard. The 2×4 was just sitting on the ground between the two chairs. This is to get Midas used to jumping over it and between the two chairs (for now). He did alright. He would only jump it if I directly asked him to though. Next I moved it up to the chair rungs, approximately 7 inches off the ground. He did alright with this as well. Then I tried tossing his toy for him while he jumps the hurdle. He did that. Then he apparently got bored because he laid down with a stick instead of coming back for more. Fine.

Mason

With Mason I’ve basically just been building up his drive for the object. It’s working great. As soon as I take any toy out of the “special” bag he goes nuts. He jumps, he drools, he spins, he snorts…and he inevitably trips and does a nose dive into the dirt . He’s so darn cute. So, I play with him with the new bumper and start The Chase technique, he’s definitely lunging after it now. He even occasionally catches it, but his eye mouth coordination isn’t quite that fast yet. Then I tried the hop over the board on the ground, oh sure, no problem. Then I moved it up to the 7 in mark and he sailed right over it before I was done getting it ready. I praised him heavily. He does great lunging at the bumper going over the hurdle. He even goes over the hurdle by himself without any direction (I think because I praised him so much for it). I have got one eager pup here whose training I think is going to be a breeze.

Today marked our first DockDogs event. I was nervous. We took off about an hour later than I had hoped for Battle Creek. After getting lost we were even later. But no big deal because there weren’t many people there for the first wave and we weren’t even registered until the second wave. We unpacked right next to the fence and unloaded the kennels, cooler and of course the boys. The day started out overcast and slightly chilly and ended up sunny and extremely hot, with a few scattered showers in there to make it interesting. The first wave got started before we had an opportunity to get in any practice time. It was fun to watch. There were a TON of labs at this event. I registered so that I could get my nifty little orange bracelet, which allowed me to bring Midas up for practice. He was a complete jerk on the leash of course again.

Practice Jumps, Round One. His practice jumps weren’t anything incredibly spectacular, but at least he was jumping right off. The first practice jump he skidded to a stop and then hopped off the end. Eric eyeballed the second jump and figured it was around 15′, which is farther than he jumped in his previous competition. We swapped the dogs out and I brought Mason up on the exit ramp (after asking permission since he’s under the minimum age of 6 months) and tossed the bumper for him. Once again, no hesitation, he flew right into the water after it. I tossed it out again farther, where he would actually have to swim to get it and he did just as good. What a trooper.

The Competition Jumps. After the judges meeting, we waited a few then grabbed Midas to get in line. We were the first group in the wave. He howled, growled, barked and warbled the ENTIRE time we were standing there waiting for our turn. We were 5th in line to go. I was not really nervous because I knew from the last time we competed that he wouldn’t be making it into the finals. We were basically there so that he would get used to the atmosphere and maybe in the future make it into the finals. His first jump I just set him where I happened to be standing and it worked pretty well. He got a 16′5″ jump! I was thrilled! Back in line and waiting very impatiently (on Midas’s part) and nervously (on my part). Our second time up I tried to set him where I had the last time. He set his personal best at 17′1″!!! I was sooo excited!

Medals. After the other two groups in our wave went Eric went over to ask about medaling. Midas got his very first medal! His qualifying medal for the Senior Division Then we found out he actually had a shot at the amateur finals. I was shocked. We waited through the 3 pm wave and then got the results: Midas made it!! He was in 6th place for the amateur finals.

Practice Jumps, Round Two. We had quite a bit of time to kill before we would be up for the amateur finals. I decided that we should take Midas up and do a couple more practice jumps, to keep him warmed up muscle-wise, and cooled down temperature-wise. We missed the measurement for his first jump and it looked like he hit around 17′ again for his second jump. We also got permission to try Mason off of the dock. He was pretty excited but the actual jump was a no-go. Poor pup, the water was farther down from the dock than he is tall. He was awfully close though. Maybe next time.

Finals. I was INCREDIBLY nervous waiting in line for our turn to jump for the finals. We were around 7th or 8th to jump. A couple teams didn’t show up so it messed the order up a tad. The first jump I lined Midas up far too close to the dock and not only gave a release word, but also called to him. That threw him off, he did a stutter-step to balance out and ended up with a 14′6″ jump. I was very upset with myself. Up for our second jump and I tried my best not to feel nervous, to line him up at the right line and to handle him exactly how I do every other time we jump. He managed a 16′6″. He did a very good job. If he would’ve been able to repeat his placing jump he would’ve made it into the final 4. Oh well, maybe next time. It could’ve been that he was too tired, too sore, or too out of shape to do this so many times. I probably shouldn’t have done 2 practice jumps, one would’ve sufficed. And it was definitely my fault for screwing up the first jump of the finals. We got a pretty medal though, showing that he got 7th place. Unfortunately while lined up on the dock he got into a tussle with the unaltered silver lab in 6th place…twice. A big guy ended up standing between us. While yanking on his choke collar, he gagged himself and vomited between my feet. Terrific. At least we made it through the day. I can’t wait for obedience classes to start.

Other Dogs. Sara (I met her at UAD) was there with her dog Oskar. He ended up placing first in the amateur finals with a jump of 19′3″ I think. There was an adult silver lab there that was terrific to see, so gorgeous - I can’t wait until Mason grows up. There was a 10 week old yellow lab pup whose owner put her into the pool to watch her swim, absolutely adorable! Also, about 1/2 the size of Mason at that age. Country, the Greyhound who holds the record at 28′10″ was there, which was kind of like seeing a celebrity. Bill who I’ve only talked with through email was there with his chocolate lab Jazzie. She placed into the finals, but I don’t know what she ended up getting. We met a couple who had a German Shepherd and a Malinois and happened to have them on a raw diet. I got many of my questions answered from them about the raw diet, it was great. The girl running the registration was great and extremely helpful. Bob seemed like a nice guy and the guys that were helping out with order and wrangling were very nice too and helpful.

Side Note. Two of the guys working the event said that I looked like Cameron Diaz. I thought that was pretty neat…if far from the truth haha.