Finished!

Scent Hurdle training continues of a pace. Soccer is still working on the part about bringing back THAT barbell not just any old barbell. It'll come. Or not. Ahab is being very good about bring back his barbell and not Soccer's.

Knitting

Finished knitting my grey tank-top/shell/hiking base layer, whatever you want to call it. I think this'll be something to wear under other clothing as it isn't quite what I wanted for the world to see. No worries though, it'll get plenty of wear under other sweaters during the winter.

Pattern: improvised bottom up sweater, went to Knitting Fool to crunch the numbers for a set-in-sleeve sweater but didn't set-in any sleeves. Used an attached i-cord binding to finish off the neck and sleeves.
Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Sock in Ash
Needle: 2.25mm circular

Now I can focus on other projects.

Speaking of which, here is a new project I started a week or so ago; I'm not sure how, or if, it'll turn out.

It's a garter-stitch-sideways-vest. That means that it's a vest and I'm knitting it sideways in garter stitch. It's actually backwards in this picture, meaning the front is on the bottom and the back is on the top so you can see where the back of the shoulder is being shaped. I started in the middle at the front, knit a button band, then knit to the side forming the start of the neck and front placket, then increased for the shoulder, decreased for under the arm, and increased again for the back of the shoulder. I will continue across the back, then decrease for under the other arm, increase for the front of the other shoulder, and then decrease again for the neck and front placket. The front and back of the shoulders will be sewed together. So far it's been awesome for mindless knitting.

Then yarn is some Georga cotton I had in my stash.

More Scent Practice and Other Stuff

Scent Hurdle

Practice continues a-pace; Ahab is getting better and better at not picking up Soccer's barbell. Soccer is still working on the part about how I want HIS barbell not A barbell. It'll come. Or not. This is Soccer after all.

Knitting

Work continues on the Father's Day Socks. Urgh, men's socks are so huge. No one had better ever ask me for kilt hose......

The colour is terrible in this picture but to be fair my phone's battery was dying.

The little overalls are down to the bum short rows. No picture; no battery remember.

And on and on.....

Made Liver Brownies for the dogs on the weekend and they're loving training again. Those store bought treats are OK but there is nothing like a Scooby Sna... I mean a Liver Brownie.

Soccer continues to surprise me with Scent Hurdle, although I'm beginning to wonder if he's scenting to me and not to himself. It seems that if I touch a blank barbell he will start picking it up instead of his barbell but as long as I handle the blanks with the tongs he picks his barbell. Hmmmmmm. We're going to have to work on that as I really need him to scent to himself. No pictures as it's very difficult to take a picture and handle Scent Hurdle equipment at the same time.

Ahab continues to do well consistantly choosing his barbell instead of Soccer's.

Knitting

More progress on the little overalls and very little progress on anything else. Of course I was too lazy to take a picture and now my phone is charging anyway. Meh. Still, if I get these done I'll be able to focus on something else.

Friday Practise

Soccer was doing things at Scent Hurdle practice tonight that took Ahab weeks to learn. I now wonder if he has spent the past 4 years trying to tell me he wants to be a Scent Hurdle dog. It could all be a scam. Brought the Scent Hurdle equipment home to practice with just in case this turns out to be Soccer's sport.

Also started teaching both boys to jump through a hula-hoop. Nothing exciting about that but it's something they have never done before.

Knitting

Finished the first Father's Day Sock. As I examine these socks I think the colour is more of a charcoal gray rather than a true black. The first sock only used 47.5 grams of yarn and I bought 200 grams so I could make solid coloured men's sized socks. There may be enough for a women's pair too.

Progress continues on the baby overalls but I'm stalled on the tank-top and the little blanket. Maybe I'll get to one or both this weekend.

Scent Hurdle

Wow. That is all, just WOW!

I decided to teach Soccer Scent Hurdle, on the face of it this seems like a totally dumb idea since he sucks so badly at Flyball. Well, I've been practicing with him most evenings and he started picking up the bar bell from right next to me right away so I moved it away a bit and he was still consistent so I started hiding it; this is usually when most dogs start to struggle a bit while the figure out what it is you want them to do. Ummm, not Soccer so far he has found the bar bell every time. Every. Single. Time. And I've been hiding in in much harder places than I ever hid Ahab's bar bell. Colour me stunned.

Ahab practiced distinguishing between his and Soccer's bar bell. This could be an issue if he was scenting to me, however he had no problems with it on his first try so I suspect he's been scenting to himself all along. Not that he couldn't decide it's too confusing later. ;-)

OK, to back up a bit for those who don't know what Scent Hurdle is go watch this video. I'll wait; watch it as many times as you want.

Welcome back.

Looks pretty complicated doesn't it? Not really. Down the course, choose the bar bell, back to the start.

So, obviously you have to teach the dog how to do this. There are a few stages and parts of the training that I'll try to break down for you. This is just a break down of the things a dog needs to know to play this sport, it is by no means a comprehensive training guide. Use what ever training method works best for you to teach your dog the skills he needs.

NOTE: I will use the pronoun "he" for the dogs but this doesn't mean female dogs should be excluded, I just use it because both my dogs happen to be boys.

1. Teach the dog to come back to you over the jumps. This is critical to make sure your dog can finish the game properly. We like to teach the last thing the dog needs to know first so you are always building backwards towards the entire pattern. Start on leash and build up from there.
2. Teach the dog to pick up a bar bell. They aren't very exciting so it can take a while before some dogs figure out what you want. This was Ahab's big challenge. If you find your dog is dropping the bar bell very quickly consider teaching a hold command.
3. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
4. Increase the distance you want the dog to bring you back the bar bell from. Start small, even just  few inches for some dogs and build it up from there. Make sure the dog will do this with the bar bell in a stationary position. Lots of dogs like to chase moving objects but when the object is sitting still it's a lot harder.
5. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
6. Now start hiding the bar bell around your house or practice area. Start with very simple hiding spots, behind a pillar or piece of furniture, even make sure the dog can still see the bar bell at first. Remember that the dog has no idea what you want him to do, you MUST break it down into really small steps for him. Gradually make this harder and remember to proceed at your dog's pace, some will go fast and some will go slow.
7. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
8. Introduce distractions, go to unfamiliar places like a friend's house or the park down the street and have the dog practice all his skills there. Again, this will be harder for some dogs than for others.
9. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
10. Introduce a second bar bell without your dog's scent on it. If you're playing with a team the team should have some "blanks", these are bar bells marked with an X. A really handy tool at this stage is a piece of peg board that you can tie the unwanted bar bell down to. This will help the dog understand he must bring back HIS bar bell, not A bar bell.
11. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps. Your dog should be getting really good at this by now, if not keep practicing.
12. Once the dog is consistent with finding his with one other choice introduce a third bar bell and then a fourth. And always move the bar bells around; the bar bells will be in different places on the box during a race so your dog needs to know to check all four spaces each time. Most dogs will develop a pattern of searching in one place first and then moving to check the other bar bells. This is fine.
13. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
14. Now start introducing other scented bar bells. Some dogs find it confusing to suddenly have their bar bell, and the blanks, and another dog's bar bell. Some don't. Go slow if required.
15. Keep practicing recalls over the jumps.
16. Start sending your dog down the jumps towards the box. You can start this earlier depending on your dog. For some you may have to break it down a lot, for others you may be able to combine some steps. Work with what YOUR DOG can do.
17. Once the dog can consistently go over all four jumps down to the box, find the correct bar bell, and bring it back you will need to start passing, and being passed by, the other dogs on your team.
18. Once the dog has this down pat you can introduce a dog running in the other lane. Make sure you switch lanes frequently and are always mixing up the pattern the bar bells in the box. DO NOT allow your dog to cross over into the other lane; this will get him disqualified from the tournament if it happens twice.
19. Go to your first tournament and have loads of fun. Even if your dog messes up completely at their first tournament (or more!) it should still be fun for both of you; your dog won't play if it isn't fun. We humans can learn a lot from that.

All of this can take several months, maybe even a full year. It all depends on the dog and your consistency as a trainer. If this is the first dog you've taught expect it to take a while since you are both learning.

Any questions? Leave them in the comments but remember that I'm NOT a professional dog trainer or anything like that.

Victoria Day

It's a long weekend in Canada, the unofficial start of summer. Much camping is being done in Canada this weekend, even if it snows. Which it probably has in some places.

Since Squish's thyroid means I can't go away I celebrated by taking my boys for an off-leash walk in Nose Hill Park. Major treat. The long rope on Soccer is just in case we meet another dog unexpectedly; he doesn't meet stranger dogs very well. As long as I see the other dog in time to recall him everything is fine, or as fine as it ever is when Soccer meets a stranger dog but just in case there's the rope.

Afterwards they crashed and burned. The stool in the top right corner is for Ahab to get into the Santa Fe (Bluebell), he can't jump very well anymore what with the missing paw and all, so he likes a stool to help him get into the car. I prefer it over trying to lift a 45lb dog into the car too.

Knitting

Here's an awesome, and appropriate, history post from The Knitting Needle andt he Damage Done:  http://theknittingneedleandthedamagedone.blogspot.ca/2013/04/queen-victorias-royal-example.html

Two Days of Scent Hurdle

Just because we're working to get Ahab's eligibility to race re-established doesn't mean I'm not still active with my Scent Hurdle team. On Friday I boxloaded after work and today I ran a friend's dog.

When I arrived on Friday the racing was well underway because they'd been able to start early. I wasn't able to leave work early so I got there about half way through, the first thing I noticed though was this:

One of my teammates had these buttons made up to drum up support for changing the rules so he can race again. I almost cried when I saw it; it's so very nice to see support for Ahab to run again. We handed out several to people at the tournament, one other team even took some for their whole team. Amazing.

Today I ran Digger for a friend.

She's a 12 year old miniature schnauzer. She still loves to play Scent Hurdle despite her age. One of my friend's other dogs ran in a race only a couple months before she tragically died at age 13, sure hope Digger can keep going for a long while yet. The leg in the background is another miniature schnauzer, Cuda.

Knitting

Spent most of the day working on socks, first while watching Vera and later at the Scent Hurdle tournament. We were initially told that Scent Hurdle would be able to start at about 4pm so I arrived at about 10 to and found out that it would be at least an hour before we'd be able to start. In the end we started at about 7pm, and didn't finish until 9pm. But because I ended up sitting around at the obedience ring for 3 hours I got a lot done on my Father's Day socks. No picture because I'm too lazy to go upstairs and get one. I'm about half way done the first sock now.

Also started the i-cord on my grey tank top but only manged to get about three rows done. Why is the end always the hardest part?

For the record it poured rain all day and was snowing as I headed home from Scent Hurdle.

All Together Again

Mom and Dad got home from Scotland this afternoon, jet-lagged but safe and sound. All the pets are delighted to have more hands to pet them. Mouse even sat on Dad for half an hour this afternoon I'm told. Squish and Soccer are all over everyone expressing their happiness that everyone is home again. It's very annoying but very cute. And the somber Ahab even cracked a smile. Twice.

Knitting

Mom tells me she wore her new sweater so much in Scotland that it already needs washing. So pleased she likes it, there is no greater compliment you can pay to someone who made you something that is meant to be used than to USE it. If you wear it out even better.

Started a pair of Father's Day Socks for Dad. Good old basic black. I think this is actually the first time I've made him black socks; grey was the closed I've come before. I did a pair with many shades of blue once; that was seriously pushing the envelope.

There might have been a trip to the LYS to get the yarn for Dad's socks and it's just possible a couple other balls landed in my stash. But since sock yarn doesn't count we don't have to talk about it.

Work continued on the second set of baby overalls, now joined in the round for the body. That's Squish photo bombing the background. Does it count as a photo bomb if the photographer is just too lazy to move the cat?

Introducing Ahab

Ahab is a Border Collie X Blue Heeler born with three paws. He's 10 years old now and the strain of walking wrong all his life is starting to show. He still does sports like Agility (for fun only) and Scent Hurdle but he's definitely showing signs of slowing down.

He's a retired therapy dog, I had to retire him because the group decided that dogs fed raw food were too much of a risk. Never mind that the the food I feed has never once had a recall or been linked to the death of an animal and almost all the big commercial kibbles have. I suspect the lawyers saw $$$.

Here he is when I took him into the office on St. Patrick's day. You can see that his right back leg just ends without a paw. He has a callus on the end so he clearly uses the stump. The speckling around his eye is new, he didn't have that 18 months ago.

Not sure if he'll be going back to the office soon as he had a bit of a mental melt down when another dog came in. We'll see.

Finished

Finished a pair of socks.

Yarn: 100% wool from Custom Woolen Mills, a local producer
Pattern: none, improvised basic sock pattern
Size: Women's Medium

All set for Mom when she gets home tomorrow.

Now to start a pair for Father's Day. Ugh, men's socks are so much bigger.

Weather

Snowed this morning on my way to work but was clear, sunny, and warm when I got home. Meh, spring in Alberta.

Progress

Progress was made on socks, only one in this picture, the other is finished.

And on the Knitting Board Blanket.

Also got the ends woven in on the grey tank top but it looks the same so no picture.

And did some weaving with my Niece when I went to visit them for dinner today. A lovely time was had by all.

Introducing Soccer

Soccer is a Catahoula Leopard Dog I think; he was a rescue, this is not a common breed in Alberta.  They're from Louisiana and I understand they can be found all over the southern US.  He is small for a Catahoula at barely 40lbs but his markings and behaviour all make me think Catahoula. Plus he has a Catahoula butt; it's distinctive.

Soccer is presently 11 years old but he still thinks he's a puppy. He has the attention span of a gnat, for example he is still trying to master the Flyball game after 5 years of training. I don't think I can entirely blame the trainer (me) in this case since it only took me 6 months to teach Ahab to play Scent Hurdle. Whether this is because of his breed or because he's Soccer I'm not entirely sure but the one other Catahoula I've met has been just as squirrelly as Soccer so I wonder if it's a breed characteristic. I still love him anyway.

I sometimes call him my 'toothless old hound' since he lost 11 teeth a few years ago after a massive infection ate away much of one of his teeth. The vet had to take out a number of other teeth to make sure the hole closed properly and he didn't end up with additional problems. She did a fantastic job as he's had no problems in his mouth since. This could explain the Flyball reluctance although I don't think his mouth hurts.

Here you can see his partly blue left eye; called a 'cracked glass' or 'broken glass' eye. This is one of the characteristics that makes me think he's a Catahoula as they are common in that breed.

Believe it or not as Catahoula's go Soccer has pretty tame markings. Here he is trying his best to hold a sit stay for me. Clearly a tall order.

Friday Fun Day

Yeah, yeah; I know it's Saturday but there was no way I was writing this up on Friday.

Fridays are the day my dog club practices 'Dog Sports!'; name coined by a friend of mine. Ahab still remembers how to do Scent Hurdle despite not having practiced for a few weeks. We were focused on Agility in preparation for Pet Expo for several weeks. Soccer doesn't do Scent Hurdle as he just doesn't seem to have the brain power. Unfortunately, Ahab can't run in a Scent Hurdle tournament because he's missing a paw.

Which totally doesn't make any sense as three legged/pawed dogs can run in Flyball which has to be harder on the animal than Scent Hurdle would be. There is a proposed change to the rules that would allow him to run in independent tournaments, that is, ones not sanctioned by the CKC; but the membership still has to vote on it and I don't know how much opposition there is. As I understand it there is a strong "pure breed dogs only" group and the CKC does not allow handicapped dogs to participate.

I understand there are concerns about abuse towards an animal that truly cannot do what the owner wants but I know Ahab can do this and there is NO WAY I'd let him run if I thought he was in pain. Plus, he will only ever run if there is a height setter (small) dog to get the jumps to the lowest setting. Since most of the team is height setters this shouldn't be a problem.

Knitting

Made some progress on a pair of socks, I suspect these will go to Mom for Mother's Day. This will hardly be a shock to her as she usually gets socks.

Further progress on the Knitting Board Blanket. I really need to come up with a better name for this project.

The technique of working a knitting board is quite neat, especially for larger projects. I can see how one could use multiple colours on each row and cables and different stitches, even lace, are possible according to the books.

Also, got some yarn for an Ugly Christmas Sweater, it's cheapo cotton from Walmart so it fits the "Ugly" part perfectly. I do plan to do an intricate intarsia sweater, hopefully this year, but I couldn't resist this yarn; the ugliness just called to me.

Check this out - Franklin is always funny, he has a new post on the Lion Brand blog

Orange Crush

May 5, 2015 will go down in history, at least here it will. Alberta elected an NDP government after 43 years of Tory rule; and the Calgary Flames managed a win against the Ducks.

Have to say the NDP victory surprised me. I expected the PCs would not do as well as they have in the past. There was a lot of anger at what looked like Tory arrogance and entitlement starting with the Wild Rose floor crossing last December, followed by the now-infamous mirror comment by then-Premier Prentice, a wildly unpopular budget featuring tax hikes (for everyone but corporations) and cuts to services, and then ignoring their own fixed election date to even call this election a year early (to the tune of about 30 million dollars); it just didn't look like a strong starting point to me. Not that I'm any sort of political pundit or anything. I expected a small majority, maybe even a (gasp) minority PC government despite the pollsters all say the NDP was more popular than expected. The last few elections Albertans just seemed to hold their noses and vote in another PC government. Of course, there just didn't seem to be much of a viable alternative either.

I did not expect an NDP majority. Wow. Now Rachel Notley and her team of, mostly rookie, MLAs are off to form government. Interesting times for sure as we find out if the NDP can rule a province which has been entrenched under the same party for so long; during an economic down-turn no less. I don't think they're going to have an easy time of it and unless they can maintain the trust of the electorate they're not going to get a second term.

The former Premier, Jim Prentice, did win his seat but resigned as leader of the PCs and as an MLA before they'd even finished counting the votes. Not sure that was a good move, maybe he was just shocked at the scope of the loss, but it certainly came off like he was not going to play if he couldn't be the leader.

The Wild Rose party did well forming the official opposition. Will make for some interesting debates with two such diametrically opposite parties sitting in the Legislature.

Also have 1 Liberal and 1 Alberta Party member elected. The Liberals just seemed like they didn't know what they were doing this election, I can't recall if they even had an official leader at this time but I don't think they did. Maybe they'll be better positioned next time. And the Alberta Party are the new kids on the block, and so, did quite well all things considered.

Enough political stuff.

Knitted on a stealth project tonight so no pictures for obvious reasons.

Also no updated picture of the knitting board blanket. Will try to get one soon.

A New Direction

Working back and forth on the knitting loom wasn't holding my interest so I decided to try something else. I'm now setup for a double knit baby blanket. I'm working a simple three row pattern in a contrast colour to help keep my interest as I know that plain stockinette will bore me to tears and I didn't want to work any complicated stitches or cables on my first try at this.

This is working much better for me.  Although, the gauge seems a bit loose; I think this needs a thicker yarn when setup as a knitting board. The yarn is Red Heart Comfort Solids and it's a fairly thick worsted/aran weight. I think I'll keep going with it for now but this might be a pet blanket rather than a baby blanket since the stitches are loose enough to make me worry about teeny, tiny little fingers getting caught in it.

Progress was made on the grey tank top too. It's off the needles except for the finishing around the arms and neck. I think I'll use an applied i-cord. And, naturally, all the ends still need to be woven in. Maybe I'll get to that during tonight's hockey game.  Go Flames!

Speaking of hockey; last night was just plain weird. It was Saturday night, during the Stanley Cup playoffs.... and CBC had no hockey. Well, maybe if I had cable or satellite instead of Peasant Vision I could have found something. Fortunately, I found some episodes of Campion at the library earlier in the day so I watched a couple of those. I like this show, it's too bad only two seasons were ever made.

Pet Expo 2015

Whew.

Pet Expo was actually last weekend but I'm just getting around to writing about it now. My dog club the Calgary Longshots has demonstrated dog sports at the Pet Expo for several years now and it's always a tonne of fun.

This year the demo ring was outside, always a risk in April in Alberta; we could have been buried under a heap of snow. This year it was dry but quite cold and windy on Saturday, to the point where we hardly had any audience to watch the demos. As you can see all the humans are all bundled up, and we were the ones running around. I can understand why people didn't hang around to watch much.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

Here I am trying to keep up with Soccer on our first run. He had energy to burn at this point but did get tired as he did more and more running.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

The sand-and-wood-chip footing in the arena was a pain (literally) too, it was freshly harrowed sometime during the week before so it was soft and deep; and well, I nearly twisted my ankle 2-3 times during the first demo. As the weekend wore on and more people and dogs ran over the surface it got packed down and easier to run on. Fortunately, no dogs got splinters in their paws either.

By Sunday the weather improved a lot. Here are me and Ahab strutting our stuff. As you can see it was still cool enough for sleeves but without the wind from the day before and with the sun shining it was much better.

Photo credit to Jeanie Thomas.

Because we did so many demos, 4 in two days, we had some real problems with fatigued dogs by Sunday afternoon. Soccer flat out refused to do any Flyball, even with help he just wandered off to sniff the ground so he got pulled. And we found out Sunday morning that one of our dogs had been running the day before with a puncture wound that she didn't let on about. Dogs can be far too stoic sometimes. She was pulled the moment her owners found out she was injured.

All in all though, a good time was had by all. I hope they invite us back again next year.

Knitting:

Still working on the grey tank top but it hasn't changed much since the last picture was taken.

Looming:

Changed things around a bit on the loom. I didn't like the long board so I made it into a square instead. This way I have less risk of knocking the lamp next to me onto the floor. Hopefully.