Tag Archives: wordless wednesday

What I learned at K9 Kamp

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PhotobucketWell, this week’s challenge was a fun one – though in order to get Bella to chase me around, I had to rely on the rope bone.  I suppose it was only fitting.  It’s the common thread that connects each of our weekly challenges, after all.   

I’m sad that K9 Kamp has come to an end… I had a lot of fun.  What did I learn?  Well, I definitely learned that Bella is motivated primarily by rope bones (although, I wasn’t too surprised by that revelation). 

I also learned that I need to work on her obedience and listening skills.  I’ve been kind of lax on that front – when you have a dog that’s as low key and easy to handle as Bella, it’s easy to let things slip.  However, that’s no excuse…   

Anyway, I plan to continue to play lots of tug with my little furball.  I hope we’ll be using some of the K9 Kamp exercises in the future too.

Thanks again to Peggy’s Pet Place and Kol’s Notes for inviting us to be part of this awesome challenge!

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Cleared for takeoff

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Bella has big ears.  I like to think of it as her wingspan.  I’m lucky she can’t understand me… when I call her “big ears,” she just wags and goes back to whatever she was doing.

Also, as usual, it’s time for another K9 Kamp update!  This week’s challenge was called Jump Around – it was definitely more complicated than any of the earlier ones.  How did we do?

PhotobucketThis week, I hang my head in shame.  (Bella, however, feels just fine
about the whole thing.)  We tried to do the jumping challenge, but Bella
wasn’t having any of it.

It just wasn’t her thing, I guess – and it
was a good reminder that I really need to work on obedience stuff with
her.

So, after trying (and failing) to get her to jump over stuff, we
ended up reverting to an old standby.  That’s right… it was rope bone
time. We repeated the Tug & Tone challenge, and I tried to convince
her to jump to get the rope bone while we were doing it.

Also, as if to
mock me, last week she also jumped over one of the baby gates while I
wasn’t home so she could go upstairs instead of being confined to her
usual area.  Apparently she’s happy to jump, just not when I want her to
do so.  (Although in the past, I’ve noticed that she often
miscalculates when jumping and doesn’t always make it.  She’s an odd
pup.)

Be sure to check out Peggy’s Pet Place and Kol’s Notes today for more updates, and visit them tomorrow for information on Challenge #5.


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Caption this photo: Are you watching?

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While I was visiting my dad, Roscoe decided to wrestle with Emmy (another of my dad’s dogs).  Think you can beat my caption?  Give it a shot in the comments.

Speaking of getting a workout… it’s time for another K9 Kamp update!  This week’s challenge was called Tug & Tone – it involved doing lunges, squats, and other exercises while playing a game of tug, as well as racing your dog.

PhotobucketThis week’s challenge was a bit of a mixed bag… Bella’s
favorite game is tug, so that part of the challenge was a piece of cake. 

Racing her was
moderately successful – she tends to get distracted easily, but I was able to
regain her focus by reminding her we had a good tug game going. 

Part of the challenge did involve getting in push up position; however, I have wrist issues and had to make a modification. I did some extra lunges instead – Bella didn’t seem to notice my substitutions.

Be sure to check out Peggy’s Pet Place and Kol’s Notes today for more updates, and visit them tomorrow for information on Challenge #4.


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Sleeping Dog #1 & K9 Kamp Challenge #2

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You may remember my dad’s dog, Roscoe.  His cuteness has been documented on the blog before.  I went to visit my dad this weekend (sans Bella – she and the hub stayed home).  On the technology front, it was a recipe for blogger withdrawal – dial-up Internet and a crappy cell signal.  Regardless, it was nice to spend some time with my family, and I still had puppies for entertainment!  One of those puppies was Roscoe, who managed to be insanely cute while taking a nap:

I’ll share more photos from my trip another day – I think this photo stands on its own.  Do you ever find your dogs sleeping in funny positions?

Oh, and I also wanted to update you on this week’s K9 Kamp challenge. This week, we were supposed to incorporate fetch into our workout.  However, there was a twist – after throwing the toy, Bella and I raced to get it!  (As you know, Bella and I already broke out the rope toy in order to
complete last week’s challenge.  So, of course that’s the toy we used
for the fetch challenge as well.)

Photobucket This week’s challenge was definitely more intense than
our walking from last week.  Bella’s pretty fast when she’s got her eye
on a rope toy.  However, she also tires out relatively quickly, so we
broke it up into several chunks of 10 minutes or so each.  (Also,
probably a good thing it wasn’t me asking her to fetch the rope bone and
bring it to me… she’s never quite mastered that game.  She always
takes the toys back to Toy Corner instead.  She’s like a homing pigeon.)  It was a fun challenge!

Be sure to check out Peggy’s Pet Place and Kol’s Notes today for more updates, and swing by tomorrow for information on Challenge #3.

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K9 Kamp Challenge #1: Make it work

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PhotobucketThis week’s challenge?  Walk it off.

The first K9 Kamp task was to walk for 60 minutes this week.  Given the fact that it feels like it’s been raining here for a month, I had a feeling that completing this challenge would be… well, a challenge.

We did manage to get in two good walks outside.  For the first walk, we had some company.  Bella had a play date with our friends’ new dog, Dozer.  (Photos below.)  It was the first time the two had met, so we decided to take a walk around the neighborhood together before letting them run around in the backyard.  (In addition to our walk, Bella got plenty of running and romping in that day as well.  She was one sleepy pup that evening!)

For our second walk, we managed to get out during one of the rare sunny spells.  However, to complete our final minutes for the week, I had to get creative.  Things here have felt sort of like a monsoon – going outside was not a great option, so I decided to improvise.  Bella and I did some laps around the house instead.  I’m sure anyone looking through my windows would think I’d finally gone insane.  In any event, I convinced Bella to follow me around the first floor by carrying her favorite rope bone.  It ultimately became a walk/tug hybrid, but I think we did the best we could given the circumstances.

Be sure to check in with Kol’s Notes and Peggy’s Pet Place today to read more recaps of the first challenge, and then check them out tomorrow for Challenge #2.  To tide you over until then, I leave you with a few photos from Bella’s play date…

I’m not sure what’s up with Bella’s face in that last photo… she
managed to get stuff stuck to her face during the course of the play
date.  I removed it, of course – but not without taking a quick photo
first!

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It’s okay to sleep in class if you’re adorable

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One of the (many) fun things about BlogPaws was the mix of human and animal attendees at the sessions.  Sometimes a well-timed bark would make everyone laugh.  Other times, it was just fun to look around and see a cute pup.  I’ve always said that school would be so much better with puppies.  I stand by it.

I love this photo of Tango (who attended BlogPaws with Laurie from Smart Dog).  This photo op occurred during one of our sessions.  Note the well-covered nose… it could get cold in the rooms, so I think Tango had the right idea.

Happy Wednesday!

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