Day 1

Today Tim and I went to check out "Sierra"--now "Helper".  (As in "Go team Helper!" from the Venture Brothers.)  We are now a two dog family.  Ioda likes her about as much as he likes any other dog, she's tolerable, but not interesting.

Tim is smitten.  Our deal was, I would get to pick the dog (ideally an agility dog for me), but he would get to name her, with both positions having veto power.  I'm really happy with the interest Tim is taking in her, asking about how to proceed in training, all the details, what's the time line, even though I picked her out.  (And by picked her out, I mean I scoured the web and then we went to the rescue and met her.)  Helper is a squirrelly little dog, maybe 30-ish pounds and 18 inches tall.  We think she has some sheltie and maybe some border collie.

Helper is light on her feet and bounds into the air on a regular basis.  She's also currently sitting in her kennel squeaking.  They is a lot to work on to turn her into an agility and flyball dog.  On the plus side, she does seem to really enjoy squeaky tennis balls, running, and jumping.   She also has a good foundation for a solid recall and great eye contact and attention.  On the down side, she can be a bit snarky with other dogs and her attention span isn't very long yet.

Tonight Tim and I worked with her on the recall game (calling her between two people and dropping cookies between our feet when she comes) and teaching her her name.  We've also been stuffing her full of cookies when she's quiet in her kennel.

I think Ioda would roll his eyes if he could.  But at least today Helper's really motivated him to be on his best behavior and work just a bit harder.  Ioda also likes his treats and toys more after Helper has shown interest in them.

My short term goals for Helper are 1. learning her name, 2. a solid recall, and 3. click = treat.  Right now she knows sit = get closer to the ground (either a sit or a down), so we're using this as something she can do to get what she wants (from the "Nothing in life is free" method).

With Ioda, since he was recently diagnosed with hip dysplasia we're taking it easy from agility and flyball for a while.  Which means we'll probably work on our scent discrimination and directed retrieving.  For fun we're working on paw targeting, specifically back paws.  This is something I should have worked on with him when he was young, because now it just blows his mind.  Hopefully I'll have Helper knowing click = treat soon and I'll be able to work with her on this as well.