Oodles of Zoodles

I’m not in the mood to write much lately. Well, at least when I wrote this I wasn’t. That was about two weeks ago now. The changing of the seasons, or really the lack of the changing of the seasons, has me pretty bummed out. Humidity makes me miserable and the weather has quite frankly been shit lately. (Update: The weather has NOT been shit this week, it’s been lovely and almost fall-like!) Sigh. I keep telling myself that eventually it will be cold and Goose and I will be happier again, even if it is dark when I get out to the barn. Did I mention it needs to be clipped again already?

Zuzu has mostly been her happy, bouncy self. Sometimes though, she gets weird and sulky and I’ve been feeling guilty that I can’t have a friend for her right now. She’s such a social dog and lights up around furry friends. Ellie moved to Maryland, Finnley hasn’t been at work much, Bruno isn’t at the barn when we are, and the little dogs in the office and the old girl Molly at the barn don’t quite count as playmates. Unfortunately, a second dog just isn’t in the cards for me right now. As much as I would love to give Zuzu a friend and though I truly believe dogs do better in pairs, I just can’t afford it. I spoil my animals with the best of everything that I can afford, and I’m barely making it happen right now. Poor Zu will have to wait until I’m financially stable (HA!) for us to get another family member.

I’ve always loved dog agility but have never been able to get into the sport through lessons. When we first got Maggie, I bought a few jumps and would mess around with her and Bristol in the back yard coercing them into jumping whatever I put in front of them. Seriously, those dogs were saints, I miss them every damn day. I bought a little tunnel when I got Zu and played around with low jumps for her last fall after she turned one. My Timehop app brought up some pictures of Maggie and Zu playing with the jumps last fall, and about two seconds into to looking through them had to close the app at work before I started crying. Miss that Beans every damn day.

Last fall, Maggie was so happy to have these out to play with. Zu caught on quick!

At the end of the summer, Beth mentioned wanting to sign up her baby Aussie, Chili, for an intro agility class. Excited for the opportunity, I signed Zu up too, and the classes started six weeks ago. A lot of it is very basic stuff, and the class is a little hectic with so many dogs trying to use the equipment and stay focused. Once she got over the initial “OH EM GEE THERE ARE SO MANY DAWGS HERE TO PLAY WITH”, Zuzu has been much better about watching me for cues and tackles challenges like a pro. There’s a few things we’re struggling with, but it’s more handler error and lack of direction than her being naughty. This is new for both of us so I don’t mind a little struggle! 

She’s been super willing about the tunnel and jumps, or rather jump standards. We’re working on teaching them to go through the standards, the idea being that the jump is more inviting without them having to put in a lot of effort right away. Zu is obviously great at the tunnel and doesn’t think twice about running through them and the jumps in sequences. I felt bad for another woman in the class who was having a difficult time getting her dog to understand that she needs to go through not around. She came up to me after Zuzu drove hard through the tunnel and jumps remarking on how natural Zuzu is at this, and she wishes her dog would be like that. While I was tickled by her compliment, I had to explain that this wasn’t new for Zu, who is luckily naturally brave but has been practicing tunnels and jumps for a year! I think the woman felt better after my explanation, and her dog has improved every week. It’s fun watching everyone’s progress, even if the classes are a little messy.

Agility has been a good outlet for Zu’s energy and has been a good bonding experience for us. I feel bad because, while she tags along with me basically everywhere I go, I don’t get a lot of time to focus completely on her. When we’re at the barn, I make sure to throw a toy a few times for her and she comes trail riding, but it’s not really Zu time it’s Goose time. We’ll see about signing up for a more advanced beginner class after this one, and maybe eventually we’ll get to the point where we can do a trial. We went to watch one with our coworker a few Saturdays ago and I have so much respect for the control the handlers have over their dogs with just hand movements and voice commands. I think Zu could be great at this, even if we just mess around for fun.

I brought down the two jumps I have in May, but they sat on my patio until last Sunday when I went to Beth’s house. We had planned a morning session to work on jumps and tunnels with the dogs, and between the two of us we have four jumps and a big tunnel. Her backyard is the perfect size to set up little courses and I think the dogs had a blast. It was challenging to get Zuzu to focus in a yard she’s used to playing in, but she clearly loves jumping and playing with me, and we had some awesome moments. Here’s some videos of the three fur-balls. 

Our Sunday jump school (I just apply horse terms to agility training. It’s basically the same thing, right?) helped us out for our class last night, and Zuzu was a superstar! We showed up to class and the instructors handed everyone a sheet of paper with two courses on it. It makes me laugh how this takes me back to my showing days of studying the course map and visualizing in my head. We even got to walk the course before we went in. It was a simple set up with three jumps and a tunnel in the ring, but involved a lot of turns requiring front and rear crosses (aka fancy footwork, I only tripped once) which is exactly what we all need to practice. We did have a warmup ring with a teeter, cones, and a few other things to play with, so after a few minutes in there to get her to focus on me, we waited our turn to go in the ring.

My goal was just to take my time and get her around and be as clear with my signals as possible. Most of the dogs that had gone in before me had gone slowly and taken their time, not super driven to run around which is perfect for our level of learning. Zuzu is so good off leash, and I attribute that to all our off leash hiking and barn time, especially trail riding. She knows to watch me where I am and where the horses are, all of which translates to the ring. I sat her at the start of the tunnel, called her through and off we went! She was amazing, I can’t express enough how proud I am of this baby dog! She drove through the tunnel and ran the whole course almost perfectly. I botched up a few times with my signals so we had one confusal (Confusal: not an outright refusal or runout, but a confusion due to handler error) but she was quick to react when I asked again. We got to run that course one more time immediately and did even better. I’m getting the hang of figuring out body language and signals, and she watches me the whole time. What a good girl!

We then had a while to wait as everyone else did their first course. We took a potty break outside (Zuzu did, not me) and stood to watch some people go before sitting next to Beth and Chili. I had just enough cell phone battery to video Beth’s last course and then for her to video mine, so we agreed on a good spot to catch the action. We waited probably 25 minutes between our first and second course, and in retrospect I probably should have gone back to the other ring to get her focus back on me. By this time, she was laying on the floor hanging out and not particularly motivated to do much. We watched Beth go, then it was our turn. Zuzu was once again a superstar, but not quite as sharp as she had been the first time we went in. Can’t blame her though, she really did nothing wrong and I made a bunch of mistakes myself. I’m very competitive against myself so am totally harking on the negative here, but I got too ahead of her and though she was watching me closely, she was a little too focused on getting snacks because I was in front of her rather than sending her forward. We did get it on video and I can’t say enough how good this Zu was. For only six weeks of class and after sitting around for so long, she was such a good girl and really seems to enjoy this sport. She got all the string cheese at the end of class and an extra cookie when we got home because she is such a GOOD DOG. Here's more videos of Zu and Chili being the superstars they are.

  

Our last class is next week, and after that I’m not sure if we’ll sign up for another just yet. Beth and I have talked about doing regular schoolings in her yard and going over to one of the agility centers to rent the arena for an hour to practice. With all that I think we can wait to sign up for another class until spring. I can’t really afford to do one right now with some vet bills coming up for Goose (no spoilers, but I honestly and truly DO NOT RECOMMEND HORSE OWNERSHIP! Seriously, don’t buy the horse unless you’re a millionaire) and think that playing around for the winter will be plenty of agility work for us. I’m still hoping to get her some sort of therapy dog certification, and will probably look into that in November. I’m excited to have an activity for us that will be giving back, even in a small way.

I also just signed up for a dock diving clinic on November 4th! Stay tuned, I’m hoping Zu will like this sport best of all. She is such a fish I’m not really worried about her getting into the water... I’m more concerned about her getting out of it! She is notorious for refusing to get out of the lake when we go hiking. She just swims around and snorkels.

In the meantime, have a video I took a few weeks ago of Zuzu chasing a mini drone around the office. One of my coworkers always has all these cool gadgets, and while they’re really just toys for humans, Zu was obsessed with this one! She couldn’t figure out if she wanted to kill it or was terrified of it, but we had a good time watching her run around the office chasing it.

In other ZuNews, I can’t believe this baby dog will be turning two next week!