Saturday, March 7, 2009 at 7:20AM 
They tell me that I am going to the show today but all I want is food, food, food. I think that is better than any old show - don't you?
They say it is supposed to rain. Pray that there isn't any til after Fiona shows then Mommy can wash her then. Otherwise, it's wrap her up like a mummy time.
More later.>>
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 8:29PM 
When you go to a conformation show, from the outside in it looks easy. But is it? Thinking about teaching your dog to walk next to you. Does it do it from the moment you acquire your pup or do you have to train it to heel? What if you had to teach it to stack a certain way or keep that tail up or find how to get a bounce in your dog's step when it would rather be playing.
Then throw in the mix that your dog is unfamiliar with strange noises, lots of dogs, a guy or gal (judge) going all over their body and getting up close and personal. How would YOU like someone doing THAT to you?
Can you imagine being a dog and looking at what a conformation show is from their perspective? I often thought about it. Have you?
If you get into that mindset at your next show - fill me in on what YOU think the dogs are thinking.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008 at 8:50PM 
Well, we just got back from having a fab time at our friends Yvonne and Alex. The crew is sitting in their living room sopping wet and they had lots of snow and if I can get a video rendered, you may see then running like the dickens outside having a grand time.
Sassy had her shots so yesterday she was sore but not too bad. She weighed in at 4lbs 6 ounces. Her vet loved her patellas - said wow - really great ones. He thought she was in excellent health and we are glad and he said - oh my this one looks like her mommy - such a beautiful face. That was nice.
We spent a really great time at our friends but one can't sleep with 6 Havanese in a queen size bed. It's way too funny and we had all sorts of issues with technical stuff but hey that calmed down and we watched TV and human daddy snored and Yvonne had to say - ah let's go to bed and Risa was asking for hours already.
Today we tried to render a video but will have to give it a shot here. Till now, you can look at Sassy and her mom out in the backyard at Yvonnes. She soooo adorable in looks and personality - I tell you. Big dogs, little ones - she got her grounding and played in such a short time - it was great to see. Even when Britney (an old Beardie - the leader of the pack at Yvonnes and Alex) was barking she said - what was that and continued on without issue.
I need to eat but wanted to say Sassy did well on the long ride there, the shots, the strange house, the different bed to sleep on and all those doggies to play with. She had a roaring good time and so did the rest of the pack but when we said home, Katsuro got excited then the rest did and they are almost all conked out except Louis, our visitor (who goes home tomorrow - sniff) and Sassy who are playing up a storm. More tomorrow and hopefully a video but too tired tonight to pull it together.
By the way, Sassy has really and I mean really perfected her jumps through snows and her going up and down stairs. Me thinks she's going to be quite the athlete like Wasabi.
Monday, November 26, 2007 at 9:11PM We condition our dogs by playing realistic sound bytes that simulate anything from a roaring thunderstorm, to rain to street noise, to traffic and much more.
Tonight we are concentrating on the sounds of storms. We will change the sounds and vary the level of the sound throughout this process. This way when your puppy hears his first real noisy traffic or a roaring storm, they will be less apt to react to noise as it will be familiar.
Each day, from now until they go to their new homes, they will experience sound conditioning in a place - their xpen next to my desk where they feel secure. At times Wasabi (Havanese mom) may be feeding them, others we will be playing with them and at times they will just be sleeping or playing with the guys. By associating sounds with various 'good memories' we attempt to minimize the startling effect that we all have from a loud sound.
Our oldest golden retreiver was a rescue and a prisoner of her fear till we did slow conditioning with her. No one and nothing should be a prisoner of their fears.
By practicing positive slow conditioning, we hope to eliminate these common fears that occur with loud noises in 'some' dogs.
We fear what we don't know.