They call me spoiled....

Everyone say's I'm spoiled and Mommy says nope! Spoiled pups have no manners! I am pampered not spoiled. :) I have perfect manners... well... most of the time!

My life right now is so much different from my racing life. I have 3 huge dog beds, the biggest crate that they make, tons of these things called toys (I'm still trying to figure out how to play with them), and I always have a rawhide to chew on. I learned how to 'beg' for food from the cat! They laugh at me since I only beg for cereal right now...

I know how to sit, lay down, and wait. I love to go visit strangers! Those strangers keep getting scared of me though... :( I am an expert car jumper! Car rides are so much fun. I don't even care if my nose gets frozen in the wind.

I do get scared and lonely when my parents are at work. The neighbors sometimes even hear me crying. I started having to wear my muzzle in my new beautiful crate. My parents are worried I might hurt my teeth chewing on it, plus that was an expensive crate! I just have to get used to things again. The holidays threw me off, it's hard to remember what normal is again.

Here are some more pics of my pamperedness!

This home stuff.....

Well on Saturday 1/3/09 I will have officially had my very own family for 3 months! It's amazing the crazy stuff that has happened to me.

So far I've dug a hole in the front door (shh.. we don't talk about that anymore) Eaten a metal crate ( I just was telling Mom and Dad that I wanted a bigger and better one) Tried to eat a kitty, but know now that they are friends, not food. Those kitties are funny little creatures.

I met a couple crazy loud dogs named Max and Belle. I might had bitten Belle in the butt this past weekend... but she jumped on my head and was asking for it! We really do like each other. Max is a big dog. He constantly barks and barks and barks. He always is pestering those humans for a biscuit or rawhide or some loving. His barks are so loud they make the windows rattle. Max the tank really needs to learn some manners. A week ago I was standing politely like I was told to in front of the open back door at Max and Belle's house. Waiting for Mommy to stop talking and take me home. Max just went barreling right through me! Went between my hind legs picked me up and carried me on his back down the stairs! Once a realized I was outside I ran back in to make sure Mom wasn't mad at me. I tried to wait I really did! Mom and all the other humans were laughing really hard so I don't think they were mad at me.

Max and Belle also have an evil kitty named Cutie Cat. This feline is much more evil than my 2 are. (my kitties, sounds good doesn't it?) Anyway, Cutie Cat smacked me in the nose on Christmas morning! I didn't even do anything. I know not to look at or walk up to , or chase those kitties. She walked right up to me sniffed me like we were going to be friends then bam.

I got her back though! Mom and Dad left me over there all by myself with the craziness on Sunday. They had to go to a Christening (whatever that is) and it was far far away. I was laying on the sleeping bag by the Christmas tree and I see her sneaking up on me out of the corner of my eye. Creeping closer and closer.... I looked Grandpa in the eye (kinda telling him to 'watch this') then turned and gave a single bark to Cutie Cat. HAHAHAHA little furball ran upstairs as fast as she could. I didn't even have to move a muscle. Just laid there like a good pup and watched her run away. It's all in the timing....

Pics of me and my new friends!

Changing of the blog!

My blog is now going to be written by Rainy. :)

3/13/2008 Fifth session of clicker training

We had a MAJOR breakthrough today! Leo finally understood targeting. It was definitely the light bulb moment! Previously he knew what I wanted and just completed the task and went "oh look I get a cookie." I try to always feed his treat about 1/2 from where his nose is normally and his chest. Well after a couple targeting clicks I started noticing that his nose was in the 'treat place' way before I could get the treat there. Now I actually hold a treat in my left hand before I ask for him to target, so I don't have to fumble around to get the food out of my pocket. He was STILL getting his nose back there before my hand did.

Leo touched the OJ container, heard the click, swung his head in and was going "hello?? where's my treat?? I know I get one! Right here! I get one right here!" Smart little pony (or er.... humongous pony) I have the target on a stick. This was the first session that I could move the target as high up as i could get it and Leo would reach way up to touch it, and still get his head tucked in asap for his treat. I could walk all the way across the paddock and he would walk all the way across to touch that target and get his treat.

Unfortunately the light bulb moment didn't cross over to backing up. Leo would still back up when asked, just didn't anticipate and tuck his head in for his treat. We're still only working on picking up his front feet so I can be close by with a treat. He did less backing up today when asked to pick those hooves up, but still backed up at times. I wonder if it's because I do the backing up exercises right before the 'pick up your hoof' one. I'll try to switch it around next time to see if it works better.

I added in a couple new things. I started asking him to lower his head, by placing my hand at the top of his neck behind his ears. We only did that 4-5 times. I don't think we're ready for that one yet. I have a feeling he wasn't putting his head down because I was asking him to, but rather he was going for grass! Whatever works! He still got clicked and treated. :)

Next I tried to get him to target my hand. Leo picked it up within 2 tries. After those first 2 targets, I started walking a couple feet away and asking him to come to me and touch my hand. He did it without hesitation. By this point I was starting to run out of treats and we had been working for longer than usual. I ended the session by going back to targeting the OJ container. Then we had a nice yummy apple and plenty of scratches. I'm so excited! I just may try and go out to the barn Saturday night to fit in another training session. I can't believe he remembered so much after not doing any clicker training for a good 2 1/2 weeks.

3/11/2008 Fourth session of clicker training

I've had some personal stuff going on in my life so I haven't been doing the clicker training. We started back up today and Leo didn't forget a thing. We always start with targeting on my OJ container. Then we move on to backing up. Today we added a new thing into the mix. Picking his 2 front feet up. My goal is to have him hold his own feet up for me and I'm sure his farrier wouldn't mind it either! LOL I just stood by his shoulder and ran my hand 1/2 down his cannon bone. Eventually he shifted the weight off that hoof, so I clicked and treated. It only took 2 times before he was actually picking his foot all the way up. We only worked on his 2 front feet. I wanted to be close to his head so I could still treat quickly. The problem I ran into was that he would start backing up, which technically DID lift his feet. Just not quite what I was picturing! Maybe it was because we worked on backing right before we switched to the feet? Time will tell I guess.