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Tip Tail - From Agility to Zen

Tip Tail - From Agility to Zen
About collie agility, dog training, collie rescue, and other fun dog things.

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Articles

The Missing Element in Training
2008-01-22 04:15:00
Since my post about Cesar Milan a while ago, and the comments I received on it, I wanted to post again. Not about Cesar… really. But about one of the comments (maybe more than one of them). Someone said that Cesar is more a dog psychologist than a dog trainer. I have said, for as long as I have been around dogs… okay for as long as I’ve been around dogs as an adult.. since my early 20s, that whenever I am with a dog, I am training that dog. And from what I understood, it seems a number of people believe that dog training and dog psychology are mutually exclusive. I beg to disagree. I think that they are intertwined. So much so that you cannot have one without the other when you are dealing with dogs. Sure you can teach a dog to sit, down, stay, heel… you can teach a dog obedience, agility, flyball, herding, tracking… and any of the other dog sports out there. And this is all training. However, if you want to really have a good working relation...
More About: Training , Missing , Element , Missi

USDAA for Chase
2008-01-21 02:59:00
Well I’ve made a decision today. Usually my main agility venue focus is AKC. And the only reason that is, is because there are more AKC trials around me than any other venue. However, the other venues are getting more popular and there are more of them. Plus, a few people now have commented to me that Chase would be a great USDAA dog. And so, I’m going to start entering him in USDAA trials. Though my clip on earrings might fall off when I run him… so I should leave those at home. I am going to see about running him in USDAA. There is a local trial here in April I plan on entering him in. Now.. I’ll have to hope that I don’t get sick. For some reason I seem to catch a cold during USDAA trials! I have done so now for 3 of them, I think. In four years. And I don’t like loosing money if I can’t go. It was fun running him in Snooker and he does have a Snooker leg. I did run him at 22″ though, when I ran him. He measures 21.5&Prim...
More About: Hase

Training Saturday
2008-01-20 21:05:00
After we got back from dog training yesterday doing obedience lessons… and after Tatum’s puppy class, the dogs all got some yummy Venison bones to chew on. Here is Lucy chewing, she is very happy! Yesterday was a great training day. I am having major PMS and feeling like crap, but I was able to keep myself upbeat and take my time setting up and tearing down crates, and dealing with the dogs. I had fun once I got to my classes which I expected. Even when I’m down or not feeling well, training always lifts my spirits. I was going to go to the Obedience Fun Match today and decided not too. Mostly because it was a stretch for me yesterday when I was feeling horrible. And, there is a winter storm warning for this afternoon and I don’t want to drive in the snow, it’s over 20 miles one way. So I thought of looking at directbuy for some household items, since they offer merchandise at manufacturer-direct prices. But I think I’m going to stay home t...
More About: Training , Saturday

This Weekend UpComing
2008-01-19 00:13:00
Well busy weekend.. again, of course. I should bring a safety utility knife with me in case I need it. Saturday I’m going to practice some Obedience with some friends. And.. oh, in the morning Tatum gets to go to puppy class. That will be fun I love Tatum and puppy class! Though she might need to graduate to a higher level class soon, because she retains better than the puppies. But it’s nice to work with her regularly. Sunday there is an Obedience and Rally Fun Match in South Ogden I plan on going to. Though if it snows, I won’t make the drive. Probably over 20 miles to get there. Maybe more like 30 or so. Or maybe even more. I just don’t want to think about it. I’ll bring Chase, Levi and Tatum and see how they do. Monday not sure yet, might have some more dog training. I get my nails done in the afternoon. Looking forward to that! So hopefully I’ll get some blogging time in this weekend. We’ll have to see. I need to do some laundry!
More About: Weekend , Upcoming

Animal Planet and Petfinder
2008-01-18 23:29:00
I got an email from Petfinder today about a new Animal Planet TV show. It’s all about Petfinder animals. I found this interesting article about it too. I guess they are going to follow some Petfinder dogs through the adoption process and as they are placed into new homes. How fun. I’m interested in seeing what sorts of training methods they will use. And hopefully they will find responsible people for these animals. The more awareness there is about companion animal adoption the better! I believe it is set to premer February 9th on Animal Planet . I gotta go set my dish to record.

Kip’s Stocking
2008-01-18 00:55:00
This stocking was made for me way back when in the way back days, when I was doing Greyhound Rescue. One of the people who adopted a greyhound.. his name was Ajax and he was a big white boy, made these. She made this of Kip for me as a thank you. I love this stocking. It looks exactly like him. I wish I had more for my other dogs but I don’t know how to contact her anymore, and I’m not creative enough! And… I’m still going nutty with my new camera and flickr. LOL.
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Talking Talkswitch
2008-01-18 00:48:00
I only got a cell phone last year. So that when I went to dog camp in September of 2006 I would be able to talk to my friends and family, and keep in touch with my husband and the rest of the dogs I left behind with him. Anyway, small businesses also need good phone systems. I would love to get some sort of answering service for Utah Collie Rescue, but it would have to be donated as we really can’t afford it. But for small businesses Talkswitch is a great option, and NeoBits offers this service as well as many, many others. In addition to Talkswitch, Neobits has over 15 brands of phone systems. And they can support from 2 to 250 users. Some of the brands they have are Avaya, Panasonic, NEC, Talkswitch, Allworx, Epygi … though I’m not really familiar with these brands. If I was in a small business, though, I probably would be. NeoBits has over 3,000 customers around the nation, and they have great reviews and testimonials on their site. So if you are in nee...
More About: Talking , Witch

Pack Play
2008-01-16 21:09:00
Tip Tail ?? Training four smooth collies and one border collie. And so I went out with the playing pack a bit and took some action shots with the new camera. I’m not getting pictures as clear as I would like. I sped the shutter speed up to about 340 (did some 500 but not sure which this is). And it got nice action stills but they are not as clear as I would like. Taking off my diamond pendants before I go out with the dogs so as not to loose them, I crouched down and snapped a bunch of quick shots. And I’m adjusting the brightness a bit, because they were pretty dark. Maybe I need to learn about ISO. There is so much to learn! Anyway, so here’s a pic for today! Oooo, I should do a wordless wednesday… LOL.
More About: Play , Pack

The Boys
2008-01-16 04:18:00
Okay here are the last couple for the day. I’m using this Wordpress Flickr plugin that I like so far, but I think Flickr might be a bit limited. I will have to play with it for a while. Anyone use Flickr and can give me some tips? Clicking on these images it will take you to the Flickr web page where you can see them full size. You can see very good detail on Chase (the black border collie) including his current lack of coat on his legs and stomach. His coat doesn’t look good, but the picture does! And Levi is being cute. Nice action shot of him barking. My sweet blue smooth collie boy, he’s such a goof. This is a typical pose for him. He likes to woof!
More About: Boys , The Boys

I Love Mustard!
2008-01-16 03:52:00
Of course, as I warned you, I’m going to be camera happy for a while. And this isn’t dog related… really, though Lucy likes mustard, and she likes anything with mustard on it… I had to post up this picture of the yummy mustard I just got. I have been asked to give an honest review of these two types of mustard. I love Grey Poupon and I buy it on a regular basis. I have never done a review, though. And I’ve never really tried a couple of different kinds side by side. The two mustards I tried were Harvest Course Ground and Hearty Spicy Brown. I have, quite often, bought course ground mustard and so I was glad to review this one especially. And I have to say, it is my favorite of the two. It actually has a nice sweet flavor to it, along with the mustard. But it’s not like honey mustard. Not honey sweet. It has a good rich flavor that really comes out. I tried it on a veggie burger with some ketchup and pickles. I also tried the Hearty ...
More About: Love

The New Camera
2008-01-16 03:33:00
Okay and here we are. The new camera. Here is a picture of Chase. I didn’t get his whole nose, but I think it gives a good idea of the camera. So far, so good. I’m glad I can just point and shoot if I want to. Because you know, I am so terribly impatient! And Chase was the only dog who was standing still for me (well, lying still) when I got home today. So he was the subject.
More About: Camera

New Videos Way to Go
2008-01-15 22:55:00
Making videos is fun. I have done it a number of times. As you can see from my prior post, I have lots of dog videos and agility vidoes! I even bought a video camera in order to record my agility runs, and other dog sports runs, for memories and to critique my running style. So anyway there is a fun site called YawpBox. Not only is it a social networking site, it is also a national TV show, and a national Radio Show. The TV Show gets all their content from the social networking site. Videos , people, etc. So, after you make your video, you can uploaded it to YawpBox, and it just may end up in front of thousands, or more, of people on TV! Are you brave enough to be on TV? I’m not sure I am… It is very entertaining to see regular every day people in their videos. Sometimes I get tired of all the perfect actresses on TV. And it’s nice to see regular people on TV instead. I think to really understand YawpBox you have to visit their website. There are categories...
More About: New Videos

Lookit Chase Go!
2008-01-15 22:42:00
Well here it is, after long last. Chase ’s open Standard title run. Look at that boy go. When we work together, it feels so good. When he’s paying attention and we run like this video, it’s just so much fun! I love running this boy. He is.. well, I can’t say he is more fun to run than Levi. Because Levi is just different, and Levi and I have a different kind of bond that I have with Chase. The more I work with Chase, the more our bond grows. Which I like very much. Running a border collie is very different than running a collie. Tatum will be an interesting girl. I hope to harness her speed. Most collies I have seen doing agility don’t give it their all, even while they have fun. I hope she will give her all as she has fun!
More About: Hase

On The Go Shampoo
2008-01-15 20:48:00
So have you ever heard of dry shampoo? I have not, until today. And as you know I’m always out and about doing dog things. And traveling, too. I am not going to travel as much as I did last year, but I’m going to travel some. And when I travel it’s a pain to make sure the shampoo bottle doesn’t break open and spill all over everything. When I was at collie nationals in Boise back in April of 2006… they changed the time of the trial for the second day. They made it an hour earlier! Of course I didn’t look at the time for the second day, as they are always the same time for both days. Anyway, I got there late, and it would have been nice to have some dry shampoo to use for a quick shampoo, instead of having a greasy head! I might just have to throw a bottle of this stuff in my car. And in the trailer. Then I won’t ever have to worry about not having shampoo.. and a quick shampoo, at that. And I do get pretty slimy, sometimes, going all o...
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New Camera
2008-01-15 20:40:00
Okay I went out and bought a new camera. For, you may have guessed, dog pictures. It’s an Olympus Evolt e300 and it already came in the mail today. So far, so good. However I don’t have a Compact Flash card so I’m off to Best Buy after work today to get one, so I can actually take pictures and load them on the laptop. So.. if you see a lot of pictures in the next while, that is why! I have really wanted a digital SLR for a long time. I found a nice one, used, and it’s in good shape. I love SLRs. I used to use one when I was a teenager. And I knew how to use it, even. Now I’ve forgotten it all, and will have to relearn. But I’m sure I’m able!
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I Am Behind!
2008-01-15 16:07:00
Ugh.. two days of agility has really made me behind. In blogging, and in life. Yesterday I basically rested up all day, went to bed early. I also burned all the videos to DVD and will be giving them out to my friends who I recorded. I hope to get more vids of Chase and Levi up here too. The trial was up in Farmington and the drive isn’t bad up there and back. I even drove in the snow on Sunday morning.. I am proud to say. On the freeway! It wasn’t snowing much, just light, and the roads were wet not snow packed or icy. I’m so afraid of driving in weather since my second rollover. I always make sure I get a good auto insurance quote when looking for new insurance because driving freaks me out. Anyway it was a fun trial and I’m now trying to catch up on things like blogging! I also bought a new camera which I’m excited about! It’s an SLR… ooo watch out for lots of dog pictures!

Open Standard Title for Chase
2008-01-13 04:31:00
I am attempting to pull a video off a minidisc and load it on youtube… it’s Chase ’s open FAST run. He is such a great border collie. Beautiful. He got 79 out of 80 points… we didn’t get just one jump. However, the buzzer went of just before he got that last jump so his score was 78. He was 7 seconds slower than the first place dog. He got second place. That boy is a bullet and amazing! In Open Standard he did well, too. He qualified and got his open standard title. So tomorrow he’ll have his first excellent run. No more spending 2 years in Open like I did with Levi. Chase still needs some work but he’s coming along nicely. I did feel like I was pulling him in to me hard, and often. And the courses were not really all that twisty. Nice courses. His JWW run, which was our first, was a mess. But I think it was me because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind yet. My agility collie boy Levi did super too. No Qs, but he weaved and had...
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Agility Weekend Yay!
2008-01-11 17:05:00
Wow it’s been since the end of October 2007 since we’ve been in an agility trial. I’m looking forward to this weekend. Chase and Levi are both in everything.. it’s AKC and they have FAST too. So six runs for me. Three each for them. I hope Levi will eave and have spunk… it’s colder, so he should be better. He doesn’t like the heat. And I hope Chase will pay attention and watch me and we will have some good runs. We’ll see! I bought an ankle brace last night. Running around with Tatum in the back yard has not been good for my sprained ankle. I don’t know if there is a really good ankle brace for running dog agility, so this is just a generic one. I hope it helps. My darn sprained ankle… gah. What a pain! It’s so hard to stay off it especially with fun dogs to work with! I’m also bringing Tatum with for socialization. I’m planning only on bringing her Saturday. I shouldn’t bring her Sunday, will pr...
More About: Weekend , Agility

My Take on Cesar Millan
2008-01-09 19:32:00
Okay I finally had to do it. All the controversy about Cesar Millan and I had never seen his show. I don’t have the National Geographic Channel so I rented some of his shows on Netflix to see what I thought. I only got one DVD, which is fine, and I’ve watched about 3 of the episodes so far. Can I form a full opinion on watching only 3 episodes? Well, maybe not, but already I think I have a good general idea. What I liked He is a very strong personality and he is a natural leader with the dogs. Dog respect him immediately and he probably gives off very strong energy so he can take charge with the dogs. This is great for him and it really works well with dogs. I agree that all dogs need to have a firm, benevolent leader to lead the pack. What I didn’t like I don’t think that what he shows on TV is really a good thing for the average general public dog guardian. Many, many people don’t have that strong of a personality as he does. Personally, and I&r...

Flyball on the Couch
2008-01-08 02:36:00
Well tonight we did some fun flyball training. As I want to start Tatum off right. I want her to have a super nice box turn. And I want to do drive shaping with her, so she can get high, and still be in control and think, and come down quickly when she needs to. Important for both flyball and agility. And even obedience, really. So I took a break from moving hosts and looking at cables and worked with the dogs a bit. I also want Chase to have a better box turn. So I stuck the tug toy up on the couch and played with Chase, jumping up on the couch, grabbing the toy, and jumping back off to me. Hopefully fast! With him I’ll eventually move this onto the wall, I think he’ll be great at, literally, bouncing off the wall. And Tatum was all wound up at that point, so I got her out too and put Chase away. And she will follow the tug toy with me, and she is even starting to tug! She does have a good amount of prey drive and I’m tapping into that. So she followed the tu...
More About: Couch , Flyball

Training Yesterday
2008-01-07 00:15:00
Yesterday we had a super long training day. It was fun. We went out to the barn. At first we did some agility, and Chase was so happy to be doing agility again! And Levi was, too! I want to work Levi’s weaves and he is doing really well. Hopefully he’ll weave this coming weekend at our AKC trial. I think he likes the cold weather better than the hot, so we’ll see how he does. Maybe we can get some legs towards his MJP and MXP. Chase is also entered, and in the barn he did great. And I’m learning to run him, finally. We have to proof his weaves and his dog walk. He will pop the weaves if he sees a tunnel. And his dog walk is a bit slow. But that’s so much better than having attention problems! Oh and I really need to get an ankle brace, dangit, for my ankle. Before the trial next weekend. Even just running yesterday, I can feel the ankle. Darnit. And maybe if I get a car spoiler, my car will go faster! We joke about that at work. Anyway then we ...
More About: Training , Yesterday , Raining

Slow Blogging
2008-01-06 23:54:00
I haven’t been blogging much lately because I’ve been changing hosts. I’ve gone to VPS. Wish me luck that it is better than shared hosting. It’s fun to set up, but dang I don’t want to have to do it again anytime soon! Anyway, I’ve been posting on Luna Tail about my progress.. check out the link above. I still have a number of things I need to do. Today and tomorrow are basically going to be work on the new VPS days. Which is a nice break, actually. Though the days go by too fast when I’m on the computer most of the day. Next weekend is an agility trial, which should be fun. I haven’t done agility in months!
More About: Blogging , Slow

Raising Funds for Dogs?
2008-01-06 05:14:00
Well as you guys know I do a lot of dog rescue, and I’m pretty much in charge of Utah Collie Rescue, too. We have Tony, who is a rescue boy and he needs a home! He is so sweet and wonderful… alas, I digress. Fund raising for collie rescue, or for any other organization, can be very difficult to do. Getting the word out about the cause is hard. Reaching everyone who is interested in the cause, be it dogs, cats, children, or anything else, can be the most difficult part, and, sometimes, the most expensive. I know from experience that it’s hard to contact everyone, and I am not crazy about doing it either! Finding a community to help out with this is invaluable! Shoutback is a website that will give you the opportunity to fund raise, and even run auctions. Here in Utah raffles are illegal… but maybe I can do an auction. I’m going to look into it because I’m always looking for ways to raise money for collie rescue here in Utah. I was really thin...
More About: Dogs , Funds

Lucy and Tatum and Hosting
2008-01-04 19:06:00
Just a brief mention of the server change. It seems we had a bit of a hiccup for a while and Tip Tail was not displaying. Hopefully that is fixed and will remain so. As I go along and move the other blogs and sites I have to remember to keep checking the ones I have already moved, so that I haven’t screwed anything up! And, outgoing email isn’t working right, so you won’t be getting comment replies until that is worked out. Sorry! Now about Lucy and Tatum … it seems Tatum is starting to really settle in, now. We’ve had her since the beginning of September 2007, and that collie girl is becoming a handful. She is sassy, typical of collie girls. And Lucy, too, is sassy. Lucy has been pack marm in our house since she arrived, even as a puppy. Tatum, now, is challenging that. And after four months, it usually takes that long for a dog to really relax, it’s coming out. I think I’m going to have to start up the NILIF program with her. She respe...
More About: Hosting

This is It
2008-01-04 00:24:00
If you are viewing this post, the domain name has successfully propagated and this is the new host! Yay! It can take up to 72 hours for the domain name change to make it’s way all the way across the web. So with time, and patience, this will be the new home of Tip Tail!

Moving Hosts
2008-01-03 00:10:00
Ugh. Moving hosts takes a long time. I was hosted on Blue Host, a shared host. And I was getting the Exceed CPU messages too often for my liking. So I’m moving to a VPS, Virtual Private Server. I did some research and I think it’s best for me. I hope I have enough space, memory, etc for all my sites. Of course it being a VPS, It’s bascially a blank empty box and I have to install everything except the Operating System, from scratch. PHP, MySQL, Virtual Hosts , etc. So it’s coming along. Taking a while, that’s why I haven’t been blogging much, but it’s getting there! Anyway… that’s what I’ve been doing lately.

Self Defense
2008-01-03 00:04:00
Dogs make me feel safe. I like having big strong dogs… always have. Sometimes I toy with the idea of getting a small dog, but for some reason I always gravatate toward the larger breeds. Not huge… not the Mastiffs or the Danes (though I love Danes and would love to have one sometime), I like 40ish pound dogs the best. Which is, I guess, medium sized. Although I feel more secure with my dogs, in the house and out, I would not consider them a means of self protection. First and foremost, even if they were defending me from an attacker, I would assume they would be held accountable for any damage they would cause anyone. And that I will prevent with everything I have. I do go jogging, sometimes walking, and so I tried out some self defense products for myself. The ones I tried, and really liked, were 2 pound hand weights that included pepper spray. They are great to use when walking, though you have to have your hands free, which is hard with dogs. One for each hand. ...
More About: Defense , Self-Defense

Chase the Puppy!
2007-12-28 16:40:00
Do you play Chase the Dog at your house? Most dogs love this game… where they get to run and you chase them all over the place. As a general rule I don’t play Chase the Puppy . The only dog I’ve played this game with is Angel. Mostly because she gets so very excited. Her ears go back and she wiggles her whole body. She grabs clothes out of my closet, usually a sock, and runs and I chase her. She doesn’t destroy the sock.. but even if she did, they are cheap dog toys. She has so much fun. She usually runs out the dog door to get away from me. But then she comes back in again for more fun. Levi will even chase her an nip at her, getting in on the fun. Tatum so wants to be chased. Our collies don’t really play that much. Chase the border collie plays with her some, but doesn’t chase her around like she wants. So last night I started to chase her in the house. Oh boy, she loved that! She put her ears back and her head down, just like Angel does...
More About: Hase

More articles from this author:
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