Dog Shaming Pizza Thief

Well Peanut is at it again! I was out of town for a few days and she was home with Ben. Poor Ben orders himself a pizza and then goes for a quick work out at the gym. When he came home he found his pizza missing. Peanut had jumped up on the kitchen table pushed the pizza on to the floor and tried dragging the entire box into her cage. Poor Peanut was not able to figure out how to get the box open so she ate a hole through the box and ate 3 slices of pizza. She didn't share her treat with Bailey or Ziva.

Dog Shaming the Butter Thief

Last week I posted on Twitter a list of the things Peanut had stolen and either eaten or taken to her cage to save for later. Someone suggested I keep a list of all the naughty things she takes. Peanut is a very smart dog and helps herself to things left on the kitchen table. I had forgotten about Peanut's love for butter sticks because it's been awhile since she helped herself to one. Well I took the butter out to refill the butter dish and as soon as I turned around Peanut didn't waste any time grabbing a snack!

Things Peanut Steals:

• Butter
• Yogurt containers preferably lime Okois
• Granola bars
• An entire pound of Hungarian Salami 
• Anything left unattended for too long
• Shoes

Santa Paws 2012

Flyball Dog Champion

Peanut won Flyball Dog Champion at Santa Paws, her 3rd flyball competition this weekend. Peanut was sick at last years Santa Paws tournament. It was right after she came down with Small Dog Shaking Syndrome  Now fully recovered yet a few pounds heavier from the steroids and new food stealing habit she was able to compete and won her Flyball Dog Champion ribbon! I can't wait to see her times and points, she must be getting close to Flyball Dog Champion Silver.




Here is Peanut in one of the races. She runs last- If I could get her to stop paying attention to the dog running back she would be so much faster! You can see her stop and snap at Maddie before running down. This was only her 3rd tournament, hopefully she'll get there!

Peanut on Prednazone

A rare moment of Peanut being quiet

Peanut was diagnosed with Steroid Responsive Small White Dog Shaking Syndrome on October 4th. Since then she has been taking steroids (Prednazone - hence steroid responsive). While the steroids have helped with the shaking, and she is no longer having seizures, they are having some side effects.

Peanut has always loved food but was never over weight. The steroids have caused her to be hungry all the time. Besides gaining weight she is now table surfing for anything she can her her chubby little paws on. While she has always been the dominant dog she is now having aggression issues when it comes to food, treats, and bones. She is not only guarding her own food but me if I'm eating, or the garbage can if it has food in it. Now Peanut is on 6 pills a day. Along with eating a lot she is drinking a ton, causing her to have accidents in the night. We have an appointment at Cornell on Friday to see if we can start weaning her off the steroids.

Fabulous Flyball!

Peanut was pretty naughty at flyball this week. She is starting to get into the habbit of running out of her lane and into another dogs lane! I'm not sure what to do to correct this issue but I don't want to enter her in any competitions until I'm confident she will stay in her lane and ignoor the other dogs. Shes still young I hope she out grows this soon. 

Awesome Fido Fest!




2 Fast Fur U Flyball Team & Victoria Stilwell

 Fido Fest on Sunday was an awesome time! I didn't see Victoria Stilwell's seminar but I did see her during the dog trick competition and she came to watch our flyball demo! This is the second annual Fido Fest at Boom Towne Canine Campus in Farmington and it is definately a huge improvement from last year. I am bias tho because this year Peanut was in the flyball demo.

Peanut and I in the line up

Victoria was so nice to take pictures with us



Peanut's team mate Lou Bob was in the trick competition. He performed his trick "Getting Ready for Bed". His trick consisted of opening his night stand and taking out his blanket and teddy bear, turning out the light and closing the door. Lou Bob did great in front of the audience and won 4th place out of 10! The First place winner performed an excellent dance with her dog.

Kathy & Lou Bob

The competiton

The winners



Trying to Update the Blog

Trying to update the blog over the weekend but Peanut wasn't having it. She insisted we eaither play with the laser pointer or she will nap on my hands! Such a silly puppy.

Great Flyball Pictures

This Friday at Flyball practice we had a great guy taking pictures of the dogs with his fancy camera. Useually it is so hard to get good pictures on my regular digital camera because the dogs are moving so fast.


Peanut Flying

Peanut is starting to single bound on most of the hurdles now!



Lou Bob!

Pretty Tula

Peanut doing a full run

Peanut is doing soo good at flyball practices lately! She is trying to single bound between the hurdles. Shes doing pretty good but we need to work on rear end awareness to strengthen the muscles in her rear legs. We have started doing this by practicing her sit pretty and then getting her to stand on her rear legs from the sit pretty position.

Peanut Graduates Really Reliable Recall Class

Last night Peanut graduated from Really Reliable Recall class at Lollypop Farm! This class was a great opportunity for us to practice and strengthen her recall. This is something I will always need to keep working on with her but the class gave us some great ideas. Last night Peanuts challenge was to come to me when called across a room filled with yummy treats and fun toys. To my surprise she came each time with out stopping for a snack! She even came to me right away while someone was shaking a food bowl full of treats. Now maybe if there was a squirrel in the room as a distraction it would have been a different story.

Almost Ready to Compete

Peanut is learning so quickly during her flybal practices. Last Friday we had another break through! She has been running the jumps and grabbing the ball consistently for a few weeks now. On Friday we added loading the ball into the box. Now when she runs and jumps on the box the tennis ball will release and she will grab it and run over the hurdles again back to me. She did fantastic on her first try! It feels like not long ago I was trying to teach her the swimmers turn on the box. They grow up so fast :)

Here is a video of her practicing the jumps last week. The jumps are her favorite part.

Really Reliable Recall

Peanut started Really Reliable Recall class Tuesday at Lollypop Farm. I wanted to enroll her in this class for her own safety. Peanut loves to run and shes very fast. She has slipped away from me a few times outside and every time she does I am so afraid she is going to get hit by a car. Our first class went well, we practiced outside which is great since it offers lots of distractions for her. We practiced coming in a fenced in area and on a 40 ft. lead. I made sure I had some great treats with me but still sometimes she would rather see what everyone else is doing than come to me. The instructor told us that the key to getting them to come when called is you have to be more fun than what ever they are currently doing. They called this "Having a Party" So I have to be more fun than a squirrel!? That's going to be a challenge. Our homework for the first class is to write down all of the toys and activities our dogs like so that they can be used as distractions in upcoming classes.

Peanut sniffing a donkey after class!

Flyball Practice 3-4-11

Peanut is really starting to figure flyball out. Last Friday we worked hard on her box turn. Before then she was doing the turn well but we had not incorporated the ball yet. We finally got all of the pieces together and had her doing a swimmers turn on the box and grabbing the ball! Our first little break through. She is going to be a flyball queen in no time! Of course I was not able to get this on video but I did get some pictures of her practicing the box turn.

Naughty Little Peanut

I love buying different treats for the dogs. This week I bought new organic duck treats. All four dogs loved them. They broke up nicely to use as training treats so I was planning on saving most of them for Peanuts next flyball class. Well Peanut had something else in mind. Stupidly I left the bag sitting on the coffee table and went to work. By the time I came home on lunch to check on the pups Peanut had already taken the bag of treats and eaten all of them! Poor girl had a tummy ache for a few days.

Flyball at Boom Towne

I was able to get a good shot of Peanut during flyball practice at Boom Towne. In this video she is practicing jumping with the other dogs. This was her first time doing this specific warm up but she did really well. Normally she jumps alone, this technique is used to get her used to what a tournament would be like. She always has so much fun at flyball, it is a great way to burn off some of her energy. We practice with a great group of people and dogs.

Peanut the Run Away Doggie

Peanut has been escaping from the house lately. She keeps slipping out the front door and running around like a crazy thing. The scary part is she runs so fast I cant catch her. I mean I can't even come close to catching her. We do practice the come command but this has shown us how much more we need to practice. I took Peanut & Bailey to Lollypop Farm recently to practice. They have a secured fenced in area that I was able to let her run around in. Of course she came to me every time then. This is one of my goals for 2011, practice the basic commands with the dogs so they do it right every time. As you can guess come is #1 on our list of commands to keep working on.