Wonderful AND Sucessful weekend!

On Saturday afternoon my friend Shannon and I drove up to MN to stay with Falkor's breeder Jen overnight and then go to trial on Sunday in Saint Paul. It was the first time Falkor has been back to Jen's house since he was a bitty baby. After a few minutes of tentatively checking things out, it was so cute to see this huge smile home over this face and he was galloping all around. It was such a treat to see Falkor's Daddy, his Auntie, his handsome brother and his little baby cousin. My friend Shannon had her Field Spaniel Phaser with us and Famke also came along so we had quite the houseful. Falkor played for hours on end and I don't think he stopped moving until we all fell into bed after 11 that night.

On Sunday morning we drove out to the St Paul Dog Obedience club and we competed in Beginner's Novice and Rally Excellent A. Falkor's BN run was very nice. He was a little distracted on the about turn during the heeling pattern and he had a crush on one of the gals that was a post for the figure 8 and wanted to smooze her. Such a boy! The other exercises were near perfect. His recall was beautiful!! We've been working so hard to squash the recall induced zoomies and all that hard work is finally paying off!! I was beyond thrilled when I found out we took first place in the class! Our very first first place. :)

Our Rally Excellent run went really well until the last station which was a bar jump. At our last trial Falkor jammed his toe on hard enough on the wooden bar jump that he cut it. When we saw the bar jump at the trial yesterday he seemed really spooked and it took me a bit to get him back with me and settled. We still managed to get a second place in the class!!

I am very proud of my big happy guy!!

First Rally Excellent A Leg!!

Instead of fighting the crowds out shopping on Black Friday, Falkor and I were at a Rally trial at our local club. I am so very excited that we got a second place and our first RE leg! It wasn't our prettiest run as Falkor was quite distracted by the smell of the sloppy joe's cooking in the kitchen next to our ring. :) Need to start proofing for that! BUT I am just so thrilled that I was able to get his attention back when he was distracted and he did NOT zoom at any point on the course. That alone is huge for us.

I was also interested to see how he would do with during the honor portion of the course. He is not used to working with a totally unfamiliar dog in the ring. I was very happy that he didn't even seem to notice another dog was in the ring with us.

Proud of my big happy boy! He got some leftover turkey as a jackpot reward and was a very happy camper. We are entered in a trial next Sunday in MN and then we won't have any shows until February.

"Choosy Danes Chose Jif"

"Yummy, yummy yummmmm"

"My tongue can allllmost reach the bottom."

"Mmmm my tongue is all sticky now."

Falkor got to lick out the empty peanut butter jar and was in total doggy nirvana!

Devil Dog??!

Last night I was filling out a Rally entry for Falkor and I somehow noticed for the first time that Falkor's AKC number has a 666 in it. Ruh-roh! LOL Ummm I think that says a lot. Maybe that explains why he is so naughty and his penchant for zoomies at trials. ;)

Deer and Ducks and Snakes, oh my!

Jackson and I took Falkor and Famke to our favorite field over the weekend to get some exercise and to enjoy the insanely beautiful weather. I'm able to let Falkor off leash to run around and investigate but I don't trust Famke off leash at all right now. She is most definitely a sporting breed and any critter movement sends her off flying.

We started off our little hike and while walking along the rock path I was a foot step away from stepping on a little garter snake sunning itself. Jackson was so excited to see his first snake in the wild, and luckily Famke was distracted by some birds otherwise I think she would have be on that poor snake in a flash. Falkor saw it but wasn't really interested. Phew.

We continued along and as I happened to look up a HUGE Buck came shooting out of the woods about 30 feet in front of us. Famke saw him immediately and was nearly levitating on the end of her Flexi (yeah good thing she wasn't off leash!). I was relieved that Falkor was distracted at the edge of the water and didn't even see the deer. Although he has a great recall in his field I haven't had to try to call him off a running deer before!

After our deer encounter, we walked along the edge the water and the dogs enjoyed splashing around and chasing each other. A handful of ducks decided that it might be a good idea to land in the water right where we were. Really??!! Famke was just beyond herself with excitement and luckily Falkor didn't care at all. The dogs were good and tired after our wildlife adventure and Jackson was so thrilled to tell Mark about all the animals we got to see.

Fall Pics and New Collar

Finally got outside and took a few pics of Falkor in his new collar. He heard Mark come home as soon as I started this photo shoot so he was not into cooperating with me. He is slowly starting to look like a grown up boy dog. I just love him to pieces!!

It was the best of times....it was the worst of times.

Deep breaths...oy!

This past weekend we went out to Omaha for a dog show and we were entered in Beginners Novice on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I originally decided to enter Beginners Novice because I wanted to be able to work on my ring nerves. Because of Falkor's previous zoomie outbursts, I stress in the ring and this in turn stresses him out. Everything in BN is on leash except for the sit/stay exercise and the recall. We practiced the BN exercises a great deal in the past month and a half and I felt we were ready.

Unfortunately, we could not make it to the trial on Friday because Mark couldn't get time off work. So we drove out on Friday night and Falkor and I enjoyed cuddling and watching movies together at the hotel. On Saturday we didn't show until early afternoon so we were able to take our time in the morning and we got to visit and watch lots of very talented teams compete.

Our run on Saturday went pretty well until the the recall. He was a little sniffy on the last turn of our heeling pattern and on the outside turn of the figure 8, but Falkor was very happy and attentive. I set him up for the recall, walked away, turned and called on the judges order and he came flying is as usual and about half way he veered off and exploded into a spectacular display of zoomies. Of course the audience burst into laughter and Falkor was thrilled to entertain his fans. Part of the issue is that Falkor stresses up. He winds up like a spring and usually jumps or recalls are what releases the zoomie monster. I have a hard time getting him to zoom during training so he saves this fun behavior for the trials. We desperately need more fun matches!

On Sunday morning I took Falkor to a HUGE open field and ran him off leash for a solid 45 minutes and tried to get him burn off some of the crazy. He seemed more mellow but as we all know looks can be deceiving. ;) Our run on Sunday felt AMAZING until the recall again. His heeling was some of the best he has ever done...even in training! If I can get that kind of heeling at trials in the future I will be beyond thrilled. Finally the recall...called him he came about half way again veered a little to the right and I truly thought he was going to come front but just a little to the right. He got to my side and then exploded into wild zoomies. Ughh! Naughty boy!!

The judges were wonderful though and the judge on Saturday said "well you can't knock that kind of enthusiasm". LOL I am very happy that Falkor likes being in the ring and trialing...he just likes it a little *too* much. :) We will keep working at it. I got some ideas from our Advanced Obedience instructor and I'm looking forward to trying them out at our club.

Kick @$$ New Collar!

I have been running to my mail box everyday waiting for this collar to arrive! I found it on Etsy while looking for 2 inch collars and I squealed when I saw the dragon stamp. Falkor's litter was the Dragon's Lair litter, and Falkor is named after the Luck Dragon in the movie The NeverEnding Story.

The collar is just AWESOME! I am breaking in the leather and once the insane wind settles down I'll take some pics of Falkor wearing his new gear.

Pat Hasting Seminar in Canada

Last weekend I drove up to Falkor's breeders house and then we drove up to Thunder Bay Canada to see Pat Hasting's "Structure in Action" seminar. The seminar was AMAZING! I am a very visual learner and being able to see exactly what Pat was talking about through her slides and on actual dogs at the seminar was perfect. I learned a ton and I actually feel like I can look at a dog and see their structure. During the seminar Pat used two litters of puppies to illustrate various structure points. There was a litter of German Shepherds and a litter of Border Collies. Pat was able to show us an actual herring gut (OMG ewww) and more than one slipped hock. It would have been nice if there had been a smooth coated litter so we could really see the lines on the pups. It is harder to see structure on fuzzy, wuzzy puppies.

She also evaluated numerous adult dogs that either had prior injuries or where doing something strange with their bodies. It was very interesting to see how dogs compensate with other parts of their body when they have an injury.

I wanted to jump up and cheer when Pat was talking about how it is important for good breeders to be concerned about the structure of the pups they place in performance homes. She talked about how many breeders keep the pups with the best conformation for show homes and then place the other pups in performance or pet homes despite the fact that it is vitally important that the performance pups have really good structure. Here, here!

I highly recommend seeing Pat's seminar to anyone that wants to learn more about structure in dogs!

Puppy Paradise!!

Wow where has this week gone?? Last weekend I went up to Falkor's breeders house and got to love on a gorgeous litter of Dane babies that happen to be Falkor's nieces and nephews. As you can imagine they were entirely too cute and I almost had to sneak one home in my suitcase.

Oh the heavenly puppy breath! Jennifer had just introduced the pups to pottying outside and they were already taking to it at 6 weeks old! It was so cute to watch 7 little pups tumble outside and explore the world.

They have such unique personalities and you can already see so much potential. One of the girls is a mini version of her Momma and she is a little spitfire. It was a riot to watch her.

Here are some of the pics I took.

This is Ladybug's little Mini-Me. She has a lot of personality.

The gorgeous Harl boy. Oh I love him!

The big mantle boy and his sweet sister.

"Blue" was such a sweet, sweet girl. How could anyone resist that face???!

Dane Puppy Lust

Falkor's Auntie Ladybug had a beauuuutiful litter of puppies at the beginning of September and I am having major puppy lust. Falkor's breeder has a puppy cam set up so I have been spending obscene amounts of time watching adorable Dane babies play and sleep. There is a stunning harlequin male pup that I am obsessed with even though I know I can't have a puppy right now. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it :), I get to see the litter next weekend which I know will just fuel the obsession. But I get to play and cuddle puppies and smell puppy breath so the torture is totally worth it! I will of course be bringing my camera so I will be able to share the extreme cuteness with everyone when I get back. I can't wait!!!

Way, way too much fun!!

On Thursday nights our obedience club has member classes and for the current session they are offering a Freestyle class with the amazing Linda Farr. She did classes during the last session as well but we had to miss out because we were taking a Rally class. I decided to give this session a try and it was a complete BLAST!!

I was really interested to see how we would do some of the moves (namely weaving between my legs!) because of Falkor's size. He had no trouble at all and really seemed to love all the new moves we learned. I couldn't believe that after only a few minutes I had a 170lb dog weaving in and out of my legs (without launching me into space)!! We also worked on spins, twists, backing, alternating paws, spinning and twisting around a pole and bowing. Falkor was so happy and enthusiastic with a big goofy grin on his face the whole class. In addition to it being such a blast, I think the moves will be wonderful for body awareness and body conditioning for Falkor.

I feel so lucky that Falkor is always up for anything I throw at him and always with a big, goofy grin and a wagging tail.

Once I get our moves a little more polished I will take some video of them and post them on the blog.

The weather has been just breathtaking beautiful and I am just loving all the training we are able to do outside now. The summer was suck and I am so happy we are having such an amazing fall!

Oh and I just ordered a super fun collar for Falkor off of Esty. It's a 2in leather collar with his name stamped in it. I cannot wait to get it. Of course there were about 20 that I wanted to order but I was realllly good and only ordered one. :)

Have a great weekend everyone!!

CLWKS CHROMA Never Ending Story RA, CGC!!!

Falkor got his third Rally Advanced leg yesterday for his RA title with a 94 and a second place! We had to work really hard for this title. Working through his zoomie and sudden anxiety issues was really tough, and I finally felt like I had the dog that I started competing with back again yesterday.

He did a really nice job yesterday and was his normal happy, enthusiastic self in the ring. The course was VERY tight and the judge told us after he handed out awards that we did a really nice job with such a big dog on a tight course. Some of my friends that were watching said it was fun to watch the judge's reaction as we did our run. His eyes were all wide and he had a big smile on his face. I don't think he was expecting such an animated performance from a Dane. :) He also told me that it was great to see such a nice working giant breed. I am really proud of my big guy!

We did it!!!!

WOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!! We did it!!!!

I am just beyond excited! Falkor got his second Rally Advanced A leg yesterday at the show! Honestly it was down right nerve wrecking at the beginning because he was completely LIT UP and was doing tight circles around me in between the stations. I was really worried he was going to lose it completely and zoom because he was so excited, but by some miracle about half way through he settled in and did the rest of the course beautifully. I was really worried at the jump because that has been the place where he most often zooms but he did a BEAUTIFUL job and I can see that all our jump training is really paying off.

People commented that it was really nice to see a happy working Dane. I said "yeah except he can sometimes be a little *too* happy" and they laughed.

Even though our score wasn't high because all the silliness at the beginning, we still got first place since there weren't many A class teams. I am just beyond thrilled we qualified!

Falkor got to pick out a cool new squeaky snake toy and has been teasing Famke with it since we got home. :rolleyes: (Such a brother!)

So we show again on Monday and then I think we are going to play around in Beginners Novice/Pre-Novice for awhile. I REALLLLLLY need to work on my nerves in the ring, I was a basket case yesterday, and I think I can do that better if Falkor is on leash in the ring.

Trial this weekend!! EEKS!

Falkor and I are entered in Rally Advanced tomorrow at our local Great Dane clubs specialty and then again on Monday at our local club's trial. There are actually trials all weekend but my very best friend's wedding is on Saturday and the show site for the weekend trials is not my favorite place to show. We will be showing there on Friday but since it's only a few breeds showing for specialties it's not as crowded and crazy.

I plan to bring my Flip camera and try to find someone to videotape us.

So if you have any spare vibes we could use them!!!! :)

Falkor LOVES the tunnel!

I think it's a riot that Falkor loves the tunnel so much. It amazes me that he can go so fast when he has to squish down so much! I need to get some tunnel snuggers though because sometimes Falkor takes the tunnel with him when he goes through. :)

Really great training session today!

Melinda over at Exercise Finished had this quote at the top of her last post and I LOVE it!

“It is better to do something and fail than to do nothing and succeed.”

I have been working really hard with Falkor on his zoomie issue and we had a very encouraging training session today. I took him and our handy, dandy quicky jump to a local tennis court. I've taken him to tennis courts in the past to exercise him and I thought it would interesting to try to focus only on training. So I set the jump up first and then got Falkor out of the car. I kept him on leash for a few minutes while we did a little warming up and then I took the leash off. I fully expected him to zoom off after he figured out he was free since we've used courts before to burn off energy, but he stayed right with me! We did some more warming up and then did some pretend rally stations. He was doing really well so I adding in the jump. We did the jump a bunch of times in between other rally exercises and he didn't zoom at all! I was kinda hoping that he would so I could try a few of the ideas I have to settle him down. He was so attentive and happy.
Now I know that this session nothing like a real trial, and doesn't come with the typical trial anxiety but it was still encouraging for me. Then we went to Bass Pro Shop and worked some basic obedience stuff. At one point we had a small crowd of employees watching me put Falkor through his paces. :)

The weather is GORGEOUS today and we are all loving it!! 71 degrees with sunshine and a quite a breeze!!

Need a Zoomie Antidote!!

AHHHHHARRRGGGGGGG!!!

Ok I feel better now. Yesterday Falkor and I went to the Iowa State Fair to compete in a dog show they have there on the last day of the fair , which is really just a match since it's not "offical". But it was a great opportunity to practice somewhere new and different. Different in this case means showing in the the Livestock Pavillion, on a dirt floor oozing with yummy livestock smells and nasty biting flies. Different also means being literally surrounded by 4H kids and their puppers which can be a bit tricky. They don't seem to notice what their dog is doing at the end of their six foot leash. Luckily, this building is one of the few at the fair that has air conditioning...thank god...because it was about 1.2 billion degrees outside yesterday.

We had to get there really early yesterday because you are required to bring your rabies certificate and have that checked by a vet. So we got there at around 7:30 yesterday morning and we weren't going to be showing in Rally until all of the conformation was done. I don't think we got into the ring until around 11:30. I was also dumb and didn't bring a chair so we spent most of the time standing around chatting with friends. Of course Falkor got lots of attention and was loving all the pets and cuddles. I thought maybe he's be a bit more subdued because we stood around for 4 hours!

The gal that teaches our Thursday night Rally class was actually our judge yesterday and she designed a beautiful course for us. We did the first half of the course and Falkor was doing AWESOME, he was right with me and performing each station beautifully. We had the serptine weave twice station along a back wall that the crowd was hanging over watching the dogs and Falkor actually weaved through he cones as he watched his admirers. He can be such an attention whore. So we are going along great until the jump. He went around the jump the first time so we did it again and after the jump instant ZOOMIES! And of course his adoring crowd thinks it is HILARIOUS and they start to whoop and holler. Now Falkor thinks he's really cute and really turns it on. I call him to me and collect him and Julie our judge asks if we want to try again and I say yes. So we try the jump again and zoomies again! So I start to walk toward the gate and call him to me.

The jump is like crack for Falkor...it makes him crazy! And of course I can't get him to zoom at our building. I chatted with some Dane people about it and someone mentioned that he might be stressing "up" in a trial situation. I do know that I get stressed in a trial situation and he can sense that. I know there is no easy fix but it sure would be nice if there was an anti-zoomie pill. :)

Some video of Falkor

Even though I've had my awesome lil Flip camera for months now I am just getting around to using it for training help. I've been meaning to tape some of our obedience/Rally practice so I can actually see what we are both doing. And after just taping one of our sessions I can already see things that we need to work on. Woo-Hoo modern technology!! ;)

It is still UNGODLY hot here...I am talking completely insane heat and we are just melting. Right now (at 8pm!!!) it is 101 degrees with the heat index. We are fortunate though because many fellow Iowans are dealing with awful flooding. :(

I took Falkor to Petsmart this morning and we worked on some obedience in the store. He was very *up* when we first got there but settled in and performed nicely for me.

I'm bummed because we didn't have our Rally class tonight because our club had its monthly meeting tonight. We need all the practice we can get!

So if you are interested in seeing Falkor in action you can check out our video.

"Born free....free as the wind blows..."

"Wow...Check this place out Mom!"

Zooooomies Unleashed

Putting on the brakes and coming back to Mom after being called.
Good boy!

My ears help me flyyyyy!

Success!!
I finally found a wonderful place to run Falkor and we were so very lucky that today's weather is down right mild compared to what we've been having.

It was funny because Falkor wasn't sure what to think then we first got there. I'm not sure what it was but he seemed a little worried. BUT that lasted for only a few mere minutes, and once he started sniffing and checking things out I think I actually heard him say "WAHOO!!!". He started zooming all over and once he discovered the water he was in heaven. He zoomed in and out of the water and alllll over the field. It was a blast watching him having such a grand time.

After we got home he went and flopped down in his crate and slept hard!!

*Mission complete*

It's freaking HOT and we are BORED!

Ok this heat is either going to kill me or send me to the loony bin. We are all going stir crazy here! I don't do well with the heat and it makes me feel yucky. I am frustrated because I have all these training goals and this heat makes many of them very difficult if not impossible! I have been making a big effort to take Falkor to new places to train but in this heat we can't be outside for more than a few minutes. It has even been awful hot in the early morning and in the evening!

I plan to take Falkor swimming tomorrow morning so at least we can do that in the heat. He is really needing exercise and I just feel trapped in our house. We can do certain things in the house for training and burning off excess energy but it's not enough. Thank goodness we have obedience classes during the week!

Come on FALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so we live in Iowa....

and I can't find a freaking field to run Falkor in??!!! I drove around for an hour last night trying to find a field/open space that would be good to let Falkor run around in. During the obedience seminar we attended Janice suggested that I find a huge, open place that Falkor can run in and burn off his zoomies. I had thought I had the perfect place scoped out, but when we drove out there last night there was a car blocking the road that lead into the field and since I was out in the boonies I didn't want to drive my car over to the other car to see if anyone was inside. Then we checked out a huge field that is actually a bunch of old soccer fields but we had a ton of rain yesterday and the field was a soggy, muddy mess.

West Des Moines actually has a very nice HUGE dog park, but a lot of really dumb dog owners go there and Falkor doesn't always get along well with large intact male dogs. It's not worth trying to go there and risking a possible dog fight.

I thought it would be really easy to find a big, open field since we live in Iowa for pete's sake!!! I am going to chat with some dog people from my obedience club and see if anyone has any recommendations of places we could try.

We had Rally class on Thursday and our instructor had a really great course for us to work on and Falkor did a nice job. He just LOVES Rally and gets so excited to perform each station. We starting working on the "Moving stand, walk around dog" and we've been practicing it alot since Thursday. We are also working hard on our left pivots which can be hard for a big dog. I need to help Falkor find a happy medium. He will either barely move his butt and scootch into place (usually if he's distracted) or he will do a ginormous leap with all four feet off the floor and usually land in place. LOL I think Falkor's mottos is "Go big, or go home". :)

Fantastic FUN Match!!!

Falkor and I went to a Rally fun match this morning and I am so very glad we went. It was a great experience for both of us. Falkor has only been to the building where they held the match a few times before today...we did agility classes when he was younger but they were held outside. So the building was a mostly unfamiliar place for him which is exactly what we need.

I am SOOO disappointed because when I pulled in the parking lot I remembered I forgot my darn Flip camera. :( I really wanted to video tape our runs!

The first course was very nice with a good flow and many challenging stations. Falkor was VERY up when we started our run and I was worried he might try to zoom but I was able to reign him in and our run went well. Even though Falkor can be a *little* more enthusiastic while working than maybe he should be, I MUCH prefer that instead of him being totally stressed and wigged out. The dog I had in the ring today is the happy, energetic worker that I had before the anxiety/freak out issues surfaced. I am just tickled pink about that!!

The second course was also very nice and Falkor was still very happy and energetic during the run. It was cracking me up because we had a few left pivot and left finish stations and Falkor would actually LEAP in the air to get back into heel position. We had a few people in the crowd cheering and clapping for us, which Falkor totally ate up! Such a show off. ;)

Now if we can have performances like we did today the next time we compete in Rally we will be set!! Hey it never hurts to hope right???? ;)

Blog Slacker Again!

Sheesh I have been majorly slacking on my blogging lately. I really need to get back to it because it helps me keep more organized with my training. Something I REALLY need to make an effort to do.

I haven't posted about the awesome seminar we went to during the July 10th weekend. Our local club hosted a competition obedience seminar with Janice Gunn, who is an amazing trainer out of Canada. I got a working spot with Falkor and it was a fantastic weekend! I would highly recommend her to anyone that gets a chance to go to one of her seminars. Janice is an awesome presenter and a very down to earth person. We had a lot of working time in the ring which was great and I feel like I learned a lot. We even got some one on one training time with her to focus on Falkor's zoomie issue. Of course he didn't zoom in the building so Janice could see exactly what he does, but she gave me some very helpful suggestions about things to try with him. She also suggested that I find a BIG open place where I can take Falkor to just run and run. I've scoped out a few places around here and as soon as this awful heatwave breaks we are going to give it a try.

Janice has a specific system that she uses to teach heeling and I am going to try it with Falkor. Heeling is my weakness and I think her system will help us get a good foundation started. I also hot a ton of ideas for teaching higher level exercises and we have started working on broad jump training and go out training.

Falkor was a very good boy at the seminar and wow was he tired by Sunday night. LOL I was interested to see how he was going to do because he is not comfortable being crated at the club. He has no problems with being crated at home or in the car but he doesn't always do well when we are away from home. So I took his giant soft crate and a HUGE rolled rawhide bone to hopefully keep him busy while he was crated. It worked like a charm and he had no problem being crated when we weren't working in the ring. It was a big relief for me. Although our problem isn't totally solved because I tried to crate him at the club on Monday while I had Famke in class and he was acting like a ding dong in the crate the entire time! We'll work on it!

We are currently in a an Advanced Obedience class and we just started a Rally class this past Thursday. He was VERY *up* during class on Thursday and it was great to see all that enthusiasm and excitement. I just need to be able to harness that energy a wee bit. :)

We have a Rally fun match tomorrow (WOO-HOO!!!) at a local training center and I am just thrilled. It's been really hard to find or get to fun matches around here and that is what we desperately need. I am going to try to bring my Flip camera and mini tripod and tape our runs tomorrow.

Ughh the heat is KILLING ME!! The way our house is set up makes it hard for me to train inside, with the exception of stays and stationary things, and its been too bloody hot to train outside. It's well into the 80's with 100% humidity at 7 in the morning!!

Zoom, zoom, ZOOM!!!!!!!

Unfortunately, we didn't get any RA legs this past weekend :( On Friday, Rally was scheduled to start at around 1pm and I wanted to be at the show site about an hour to an hour and a half before we were going to show so I could wear Falkor out a bit and get him used to the show site. He gets VERY excited when we arrive at a show site and it takes him a while to settle in. Welllll we left Des Moines so we would arrive at the show site around 11:00-11:30....we missed the exit (I think while driving through a storm complete with tornado warnings) and got to the show site at 12:50!!!!!!!!!! I honestly thought we were going to miss our ring time entirely. I should have just scratched since we got there so late but the course was really nice and I felt we could totally do it. So we get about half way through the course and get to the jump...he takes the jump and gets the super, duper ultra zoomies. He zoomed ALL over the ring, out of the ring and back in the ring. This zoomie episode was of epic proportions complete with flying lips and people in the crowd marveling "I didn't think a Dane could move that fast!". I finally got him and the judge said "I'm so sorry" and we left. I think I should petition the AKC to offer a title in zooming. I have no doubt that Falkor would be a zoomie champion!

I debated allllll day about whether to scratch on Saturday. I decided that I would work him really hard on Saturday morning to tire him out and walk him around the show site, check out the course and then decide. I got him worn out a bit and the course was really nice again. I decided to give it a shot. Falkor seemed really calm and content before we entered the ring but right when we got to the start sign he slammed into a down flat on the floor. I asked him to sit and he did and we started...he was really, really stressed. We got about half way through and he wouldn't front on the halt...call dog to front sign. I tried it twice and he was just getting more stressed. He started looking toward the gate entrance and I was worried he was going to bolt for it. I called him to me, took his collar and asked told the judge I was sorry. I know a big part of it was that I was SOOOOO stressed out worried that he was going to get the super zoomies again and he could tell I was way stressed out which stressed him out. It sucks because he doesn't' do this stuff at our obedience club building and we have SO few fun matches out here at different places, which is what we really need. We won't be trialing again for a loooong time until we can get this stuff sorted out. So I am bummed things didn't turn out better but what can ya do??

Bass Pro Shop Field Trip

I have been trying to make an effort to take Falkor to new places and work some obedience stuff since he tends to more distracted in unfamiliar environments. He has been doing well with our little field trips and we decided to head over to Bass Pro Shop today. I found out right after we got Famke that Bass Pro Shop allows dogs in the store and we've been over there lots of times with Famke for socialization, but today was Falkor's first time there. For anyone that hasn't been to BPS before it is a HUGE sportsmen's paradise. They have trophy animals from floor to ceiling, a floor to ceiling fish tank with 3 ft long fish, an arcade type shooting gallery complete with a huge nature scene, and obviously loads of merchandise. When we first walked in Falkor was a bit unsure of the slippery concrete floor but after he got his footing and a few treats he was fine with it. The employees are wonderful and many of them keep treats in their departments so Falkor got loads of treats and pets. There were a lot of kids there today as well and he got lots of loving from the kiddos.

We worked on some obedience and he did really great. He was very distracted at first but after just a little bit of warming up he worked hard and did a great job. I'm proud of my big, crazy boy!

We are entered in Rally Advanced in Fort Dodge the weekend after next. It's a very nice show site so I hope we can go, have a great time and do well!!

A little light shed on the knee issue

I had Falkor into the vet last week for his heartworm test and the vet and I started chatting about his knee issue. He has been doing very well with our continued therapies but will still toe touch on occasion and very occasionally he will be slightly gimpy after certain activities. Our vet just got a new fancy schmancy x-ray machine and we decided to take some x-rays of his knees to get a better look. We lightly sedated him so we could get some nice clear shots without him wiggling all over. The vet was also able to do very thorough physical exams on both of his knees. Now the good news is that the vet doesn't think Falkor had an ACL issue after all. Based on the exam and the x-rays both of the knee joints are very solid. Now the only way we would know for 100% is if we scoped the knee. The bad news is that there are some minor arthritic changes in both knees. There has to be a reason that a dog that just turned two had these issues. The vet suggested possibly Osteochrondritis Dissecans (although that usually presents in very young dogs) or that he just has bad knee structure. :( Obviously I'm not happy with either of those possibilities but I am happy that he doesn't have an acute injury.

Even with this possible new diagnosis we will be sticking with our current rehab/physical therapy plan which has been working very well for Falkor. I am hoping to find somewhere outside where I can swim him 4-5 times a week. We've done the swim therapy with the underwater treadmill but I can't afford to do that as much as I would like to. With this new information I don't know what our future hold in regards to performance events (especially agility) which makes me really sad but I can only take one day at a time. I am hoping and praying that the rehab and physical therapy can get us to a place where we can compete in all performance events safely, but we'll see.

I know that things could be so much worse and that it certainly won't be the end of the world if we aren't able to compete in certain events, it's just that I had such big dreams when I welcomed Falkor into our home and hearts. And obviously none of this makes me love him any less. Falkor is my heart and I just adore him. I am just saddened at the thought of not being able to do everything I intended to do with him. Who knows...maybe everything will be just fine and all this worry will be for nothing....I can only hope.

Great Dane vs Baby Pool

It has been bloody hot here in Iowa! Summer came early this year and woooo-weeee we've been trying not to melt. We got Jackson a Slip N Slide and I think the dogs like it even more than Jackson does. I also hauled out the kiddie pool and filled it up with nice cold water for everyone. Falkor loves to dig at the shapes on the bottom of the pool and bite the water coming from the hose. Famke had big fun as well and both of the dogs were soaking wet in no time. Thank goodness for cool water in the hot summer!

Falkor Turns 2!!

Jackson singing "Happy Birthday" to Falkor.

Mmmm yummy dandelions!

I cannot believe that my baby boy is two years old already...sniff, sniff. ;) It's been a fantastic adventure so far and I really look forward to our what our future holds! On his birthday we took Falkor to Three Dog Bakery so he could pick out a special toy and treat for his big day. Jackson was so excited that it was Falkor's birthday, and he sang "Happy Birthday" to him about a dozen times.

I just *wub* my sister!

As you can see from the photo Falkor just loves his lil sister. They are just way too cute together!

Falkor and I started back up member classes at our obedience club two weeks ago and I think we are both very happy to be back in class. We are taking a proofing class with our dear friend Shannon and we are also taking an intro to formal retrieving class. The classes are going very well so far and I continue to be impressed with Falkor's can-do attitude. In the proofing class Shannon has been coming with some really unique proofing exercises and I think the class has been great for our team building. We did one exercise with having the dog do a stand stay, you walk out in front like you would for a SFE, and then you squeak a squeaky toy under your foot. It was a total riot to see the expression on the dogs' faces! We have also been working on recalls with lots of different distractions and that has been super for Falkor.

I am really excited about the formal retrieving class because Falkor is the first dog I have ever taught a formal retrieve. He is doing AWESOME with what we have started with ("holding" lots and lots of different things in his mouth) and I am really proud of him. We are doing a team approach to the training and we are teamed up with Shannon which is great because Falkor adores her. I will say the logistics of physically handling a Great Dane for training the retrieve is interesting. LOL There is a whole lotta head/mouth to hold on to. Hehe

Falkor has been exhibiting some anxiety in various situations, which is unusual for him, so we have been working on some games and ideas from the wonderful book "Control Unleashed". I have already seen some dramatic change and we just started working on the stuff in the book! I highly recommend it for anyone with a dog that is excitable, anxious or in any way reactive. I don't consider Falkor reactive but he can be VERY excitable in certain situations and I think the games in the book will be very helpful for us.

We have also been having a great time biking together (well before this awful million day rainstorm started grrrr). Falkor really seems to enjoy it and I am seeing increased muscle definition in his legs. We don't go far because I am still building both of our tolerances but it has been really fun. Now if the darn rain would stop!!!!

Way too much fun!!

What a great weekend!!! I had so much fun that I didn't want the weekend to end. We arrived in Waterloo early Friday evening and after wrestling Falkor into the elevator ("I don't care what you say or do I am NOT going in that scary glass box!!!") we settled into our room for a bit before Jennifer and Janelle got into town. After Jennifer and Janelle arrived we went up to their room and let the dogs play while we chatted and caught up. We ended up chatting until around 1:00am and I decided that I should try to get some sleep since we had to get up really early the next morning. Falkor and Famke totally crashed about a minute after we got back to our room and we all slept like the dead until morning.

We got to the show site just in time for it to start torrential raining outside (groan). We all got soaked trying to potty the dogs and get into the building. Rally Advanced was set to start around 8:45 and the course the judge set up was really nice. It was great for big dogs and had a really nice flow. Jennifer went in with Falkor's Auntie Ladybug, did beautifully and ended up with a 92 and a third place. Janelle went next with Falkor's brother Cooper and also did a really nice job. Falkor and I went last and I am SO proud of him. He gave me beautiful attention and we had a great run. We ended up with a 94 and a second place!!!! First place was a 96. The judge commented that Falkor was a really nice working Dane. I am really proud that we did so well our very first time off leash at a trial!

The dogs were in heaven playing with each other. Falkor's breeder Jennifer is fostering a Great Dane puppy name Takoda and he and Famke became fast friends. They played really hard and did a great job tiring each other out.

I am SO sad because I didn't get any video or photos of the trial. :( I dropped my Flip camera on the way to our ring and when I handed it to Jennifer to video our run it wouldn't turn on. I was able to get it working later that day when I took the batteries out and put them back in. And I had taken the battery out of my camera to charge it on Thursday and I forgot to put it back on before I left on Friday. Grrr! We did however get some pics taken by the show photographer and Jennifer took some with her mega fancy camera. So hopefully we'll have some good pics to share soon!

It was a blast hanging out with Jennifer and Janelle and we were able to enjoy lots of laughs, good food and good times with dog people. What could be better?!!

Rally Trial this Weekend!!!

I am SO very excited about this weekend!! Falkor, Famke and I are traveling to Waterloo tonight to meet Jennifer (one of Falkor's breeders) with Falkor's Aunt Ladybug and his brother Poet, and Janelle with Cooper (another of Falkor's brothers) for a dog show. We are all showing in Rally and Jennifer will also be showing Poet in conformation.

I am really looking forward to visiting with Jennifer and Janelle and I know the dogs are going to have a ball! We were trying to figure out the hotel room situation and briefly considered sharing one room but we thought 3 humans, 4 adult Great Danes, one baby Great Dane and a young Field Spaniel in one room might be a *bit* much. ;) I don't think the humans would have gotten much sleep at night.

Falkor and I are entered in Rally Advanced A on Saturday and Sunday at the trial. We have been working really hard on the Rally exercises off leash and I think we are ready. Notice I said think. ;) I am thinking positive thoughts. I am sure it will be very interesting at the very least.

I plan to bring my camera and Flip so there will be many photos and video to share after the weekend is over.

Rally Advanced....here we come!!!

We were tagged!

We were tagged by the handsome Great Dane Jackson and his Mom Kathie for a photo game. Here are the rules:

Here are the rules:
1. Open your first photo folder
2. Scroll down to the tenth photo
3. Post the photo and tell the story behind it
4. Tag 5 more people

The photos is from the Doggy Swim last fall at one of our local swimming pools. Some of the local pools open one day for dogs to swim before they drain the pools for cleaning. Falkor has SO much fun! He loves the water and it was a blast watching him run around like a nut.

What Falkor has been up to...

Falkor would like to introduce all of his friends to his new little sister, Famke. Famke has her own blog as well and you can check it out here if you want The Fab Famke. To say that Falkor loves his new sister would be a gross understatement. He just lurrrrrves her! Famke was a bit overwhelmed by his enthusiasm at first but now they play nonstop. Falkor is just thrilled to have another dog in the house again and he is incredible with her. He will sometimes accidentally step on her toes but he plays VERY gently with her. Famke loves to boss him around and Falkor LOVES that. He loves the bossy girls. :)

When they wrestle is it a total riot. Famke will lay on Falkor and just chomp all over him. They are quite the sight to behold.

The session of Advanced Obedience that we just finished was incredible!!!! Our instructor was amazing and I feel like we got so much out of the class. I was able to work with Falkor off leash a lot which was very helpful for us both. We have worked really hard on his zoomie recall issue and he is doing so much better. Being able to work off leash has given me so much more confidence in our teamwork. I am really sad that this session of classes is over and I wish that the same instructor would teach the next session but I don't think someone else is going to be teaching.

Knocking hard on wood...Falkor's knee seems to be doing very well. We continue with all of our rehab and physical therapy work and since the weather finally broke we've been able to start biking which is awesome! At his last rehab vet appt the vet said the knee feels very stable to and there is virtually no swelling. Yippee!

We are entered in a Rally Advanced (eeks LOL) trial at the end of April which I am super excited about because some of Falkor's family will be there! I think we will have a great time together.

I am looking forward to getting back into tracking with Falkor as well. So much to do so little time. :)

Falkor is ranked in Rally!

I just saw on the Great Dane Club of America's website that Falkor was ranked as the #14 Great Dane in Rally Novice in 2009 with a average score of 92 for our RN title. :) Woo-Hoo we were in the top 20!

We are going to try for the first leg of our Rally Advanced title here pretty soon. We are going to go to a trial in Waterloo with some of Falkor's family at the end of April. It will be such a blast!

We are currently in a session of advance obedience right now and it has been really fantastic. We have a very small class and we've been able to do a lot of work off leash which is awesome! Falkor especially loves the class because it is allll girl dogs and he is a total ladies man. He is SUCH a huge flirt. We've been working on his zoomie issue and I think we are making some great progress. We are also taking an Utility for Beginners class and an attention class during members night and they have been a lot of fun as well. I just LOVE how Falkor is such a willing, happy worker and he loves to learn. He is so enthusiastic and we have so much fun together.

His knee has been doing very well (knock on wood) and we continue with all our rehab. I am so happy that the weather is slowly starting to warm up so we can get out and exercise more.

And the reallly exciting news is that Falkor has a new baby sister. Hehe like how I snuck that in there?? And she is not a Dane!! We welcomed a sweet lil 15 week old Field Spaniel named Famke into our home and hearts this weekend. This has been in the works for a little while but I was afraid to post anything about it until it was for sure because I was afraid I would jinx it. I absolutely adore Danes and I will always have at least one (maybe two ) but I wouldn't want two Danes so close in age. We will no doubt add another Dane to the family once Falkor is a bit older. We'll also need to have a bigger vehicle by then. :) I am working on Famke's blog and I will post a link once I get it up and running. Falkor is head over heels in love with her and is just DYING to play. She is a bit overwhelmed by his exuberance but I'm sure they will be ripping it up in no time.

Wish we would have entered!!

Our obedience club had a trial here this past weekend and I stewarded for Open B on Saturday. It was a great learning experience and it was great to watch all of the handlers and dogs perform. It was my first time stewarding for obedience and I was worried that I would screw something up but my best friend Shannon stewarded with me and showed me the ropes. I love watching a great team perform and it's always nice to be able to root for and congratulate your friends for doing well.

I was able to see the Rally Advanced course on Saturday and it was a course we totally could have done! Now I am kicking myself for not entering, especially since the trial is at the building that we train at and it only minutes from my house. I was hesitant to enter because we've been having some zoomie issues but Falkor has been doing so well. Oh well there's nothing I can do about it now!

We've been busy doing training at the club which has been great. We just started a new session of Advanced classes and new member classes start on Thursday. I am also assisting Shannon with a puppy class she is teaching on Wednesdays and then we do some training with our dogs after class.

We had some mild weather on Saturday, before ANOTHER blinkin' snow storm yesterday, so I decided to take Falkor tracking after the trial. I laid a long track with 3 turns and Falkor ran it like a freight train! Tracking in the snow is awesome!

Fun with Show and Tell

Falkor goes to "Show and Tell"

Falkor was lucky enough to go to my son's preschool on Wednesday for a "show and tell" of sorts to celebrate Pet Week. Jackson was simply beyond excited about bringing his dog to meet all his friends and teachers. Falkor adores children so I knew he'd be in heaven being surrounded by a herd of preschoolers.

When we arrived in the classroom the kids were wowed by Falkor's size and they were all very eager to meet him. There was one little girl there that isn't enrolled in Jackson's class (I think her parents were checking out the class) that instantly fell in love with Falkor and she was stuck to him like glue the entire time. It was so stinkin' cute. The kids were wonderful and were all great about taking turns and asking questions about Falkor.

Falkor was a rockstar! He was excited to be around so many little ones but he stood perfectly still to let all the kiddos pet him and he didn't try to drown anyone with Dane kisses. ;) I am VERY proud of him.

I am so thrilled that my best friend Shannon volunteered to come along so she could take some pics for us!! Thank you Shannon!

Falkor and His Boy

Falkor is just phenomenal with Jackson. He is always so very sweet and follows him everywhere. I'm sure it helps that Jackson is a food pez dispenser at times. ;)

Here are my two boys sharing a hug and a kiss.

Progress Report and Some Fun!

We had our appointment last week with the vet hospital and it went very well. The vet was impressed with the rehab plan that we have in place and wants us to continue it to the letter. The only things we'll be adding is additional exercise, massage, and of course the hydrotherapy. It was great to get a baseline from a professional on how Falkor is doing right now. I also had my best friend Shannon take some photos of Falkor so we can have a visual of what Falkor's body looks like as time goes by. I think that will be very helpful as well.

I am going to try to start biking with Falkor to get some additional exercise. I can't walk fast enough to keep him at a slow, steady, trot and I can't jog to the end of the block. ;) Now if the freakin' Iowa weather could cooperate and stop snowing that would be wonderful!

I found on Sunday that it is Pet Week at Jackson's preschool and his teacher had sent out an email asking if anyone wanted to share their pet with the class. I emailed her back and told her that we would love to share Falkor with the kids. So Falkor will be visiting Jackson's classroom on Wednesday. Jackson is SO excited and I know that Falkor will be in heaven surrounded by a bunch of little kids.

At school today they made paper bag puppets and the kids could choose to make either a dog or cat. Jackson chose to make a doggy and it actually looks like Falkor! LOL His teachers also asked the kids to name their puppets and Jackson name is puppet Kumar. Kumar is Falkor's nickname. :)

I took these pics of Jackson, Falkor and Mini-Falkor. :)

A Trackin' We Will Go

I totally have the tracking bug again and decided to go tracking with Falkor today before we went for our walk. We had rain for nearly half the day yesterday (yes RAIN) and the snow has gone down quite a bit in some places and the ice was washed away. It was VERY windy today but I was determined to get out for a short track at least. I laid a track with 3 turns in a field very close to our house that we've tracked in quite a bit. Falkor gets SO very excited when he sees me haul out our tracking gear. He did GREAT on the track and we were both really happy with our outing.

Then we went for a nice walk around the big pond at the library. It was nice but the wind was a bit much. I couldn't really feel my chin by the time we got back to the van. :)

And in knee related news Falkor has not toe touched even once in three days!!! He wasn't toe-touching all the time the begin with but I'm pleased to see that he is not doing it at all right now. I am really interested to see what the vet at the rehab hospital has to say on Wednesday.

Falkor's Whole Album

Since I couldn't get Blogger to post more than 5 pics at a time and Falkor's book has 25 pages I figured I would make a pic with all the of album pages on it. :)

(Click on the image to see it bigger)

Update on Falkor

Falkor seems to be doing really well....I am almost afraid to type that out loud. ;) We've been doing the supplements, the PT exercises, the therapeutic training tasks, and controlled exercise and it's been going well. We had our appt. at the vet hospital that offers hydrotherapy scheduled for this past Wednesday but that was rescheduled due to the @#$%#$ ice storm we had. The ice storm also kept us from exercising outside yesterday and today. Boo :( So we've upped the obedience work and such inside to work him out a little bit and tire him out physically and mentally.

I am DONE with winter already!!!

More pages from the album

For some reason I can't post more than five pics so here are more of the album.

Falkor's First Year Album

I finally finished Falkor's "first year" album. It has taken me forever to get it finished but I am happy with how it turned out. I love doing acrylic albums and had a lot of fun with this one.