Small update....

So over the past few weeks there hasn't really been a lot going on. I bought an electric blanket, which is both good and bad. The good is that I'm nice and warm at night.... The bad is that neither me nor Muffin want to get out of bed in the morning.

Another good thing is that since switching to Orijen Fish, Muffin seems to be eating more regularly... I found a place with reasonably priced premade raw($1.50/lb for lamb, duck, turkey, & beef.... which is SOOOOO much cheaper than the store). I don't have to buy in bulk either, which is one of the main reasons I stopped feeding raw(no place to store it). So I think I will start mixing in some raw with his kibble... or maybe feeding them as seperate meals?

It's been freezing cold AND snowing.... so I haven't been able to get out in the woods for a bike ride.... I've been going to my brother's house so Muffin can play with his dogs.... it at least lets Muffin rid himself of some energy.

I'm also in between classes which stinks. I'm taking a 1/2 hour focus/heeling class on Tuesdays... and I decided to drop Muffin's agility class. We'll be doing privates every other week on Thursdays for a bit. He's still on the "getting used to the equipment" stage, but all the other dogs have progressed to doing small runs. I felt we were falling very rapidly behind, and that is somewhat stress inducing. I thought it'd be better for us both to work solo for a bit. This allows us to work at our pace without feeling like dummies because everyone is doing so much better than we are.

Muffin has apparently learned there is a big difference between the training facility and every where else. He "works" at the training facity.... he is "off" everywhere else, and therefore doesn't have to listen to what the "boss" is telling him to do. *rolls eyes* But, that's a corgi for you.

Actually, the main problem is that all his loose lead training has apparenlty gone out the window anywhere that isnt' the training facility. During the colder Months, I don't do any on leash walking.... I happened to have him in town the other day with me though..... It appears we are going to have to start at square 1 until he realizes "leash=walk with manners no matter where we are."

The breeding I had hoped to get my first Cardi puppy out of, is off. It was very upsetting to me... It appears that the next breeding with a possible blue show prospect male will prob be in another 2 years. I happen to really love Kim, she's been amazingly easy to talk to and her personality and mannorisms(for lack of a better word) are so refreashing! So, I think that I really want to stick with her for my first Cardi.

That being said, I was also getting very interested in terrier sports(GTG & Racing mainly)... terriers are also great dogs for agility and flyball.... so it looks like I will be bringing home a Jack Russell that I have been squeeing over since his birth a little over 6 months ago. So I guess in the end it all works out.

Pictures with Santa: FAIL

"NO MOMMY!!!! DON'T LEAVE ME WITH THE SCARY FAT MAN!!!!"
"MOOOOOOMMMMMYYYYYYY!!!"

"*sniffles* I want to go home!"

"NOW!"

Santa looks like he's using my dog as a guitarre here....

Muffin says, "Run away! Run away!"

Could he look anymore pathetic?!?!?!?!?

a mini update

First, since my new car just has SOOOOOOO much space, I decided Muffin needed his own little chill space....I'm halfway done, I just ordered a mesh divider to keep him back there so he doesn't have to be crated..... anyway here it is so far:

Then we had a visitor for the past two weeks(he went home today).... This is ein, his owner was in Japan so he was staying with me and Muffin. This was shortly after Muffin getting his CGC title(you can see the patch in the lower left corner). I left them alone in the car for a bit, so they were allowed free-range... this is where the ended up. LOL. This is also probably the last picture ever to be taken inside Charlie the Mustang.... RIP Charlie! You will be missed! :-(

We have CGC Status!!!!!

Yes, you read that right! Muffin and I took the CGC test this past Saturday and PASSED!

He is now: "The Muffin Man CGC"

I'm sooooooooo excited about it and can't wait for the cert to come in the mail so I can start taking some pictures for his scrapbook! (I did mention scrapbooks were my new found obession right?)

I think what makes this even more exciting is that I trained Muffin for the test myself AND took it with him. So we earned the title together, and it's the first "doggie" titled I've earned. I can't wait for all the future titles I'll earn in years to come, but in the mean time "YYYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY FOR US!!!!!!!"

Scrapbook Obsessed!

Yes, it's official.... I am OBSESSED with scrapbooks! Thanks Michaels... don't you realize how expensive all this stuff is!!!!

I was in Michaels the other day looking for a present for someone, well all the scrapbooks were 40% off... I found a "set" and a single one that I really liked... so I bought them.

What they don't tell you is that all the really cute little "embellishments" are WICKED expensive... but again, they're darn cute!

I started one last night for Ein, who is my friend's dog.... For those that don't know, last time I watched him while my friend was giving a speech down in FL he was attacked by another dog when I was walking him. He is aggressive and did start the fight... but still, he was on a leash and the other one wasn't. I don't think I need to say much more about that(other than GRRRRRR). Luckily, he only had a few cuts and bruises and my friend is a vet, and was able to call in an antibiotic Rx to CVS so I only paid $20 instead of $120 for an exam at the e-clinic PLUS the cost of antibiotics. Needless to say, I will not be bringing Ein to that beach anytime in the near future!

So the scrapbook is sort of my, "I'm SOOOOO sorry!" And since I'm watching Ein while he's in Japan giving a speech it gives me 2 weeks to get all the pictures I need. So far I did about 6 pages of the book.

Once that's done I'm going to start one for Muffin! SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!! SO EXCITED!

I can't wait to finally get my show puppy so I can do one that starts from puppy cuteness! Not to mention all those win pictures will look mighty awesome in a scrapbook! LOL. I'm still SO SAD that there won't be a male merle puppy in the spring litter. *lesigh*

Muffin's Christmas Photo Shoot, Take 2

So, because I have such amazing photography skills... I decided to leave matters to the pros!

This is the proof of the image that will be put on my x-mas cards.... yes, I decided it's best to let them make those too! LOL.

The only thing they are going to do is soften up the background a little bit so it blends a bit more.

Ever have one of those weeks...

where you wish you never got out of bed.... at all?

...........I just had one. Here's to hoping it's over now.

Although, I still can't decide which is the "worse" part of it.... the fact that my car is destroyed for the fact that I won't be getting my show puppy this summer.... :sigh:

My Christmas Elf...

Yes, we believe firmly that 'torment' should be a daily thing! LOL.

herding was....

AWESOME!!!!!!!

we have another lesson scheduled for a week from this comming sat. The instructor will be at a dog show this comming weekend, so we had to skip a week. :-(

AND!!!! on top of me finding a sport that he's actually into, he was so tired during our CGC/TDI prep course that he sailed through the "other dog" distraction without incident. I must remember to have him chase sheep before his tests.... though I'll also have to buy a case of baby wipes, bc he came out of the herding test covered in sheep pooo!!!!!!! (I guess that's what happens when you're only a few inches off the ground?)

As soon as he saw the sheep, he wanted in. It was SOOOO amazing to see that little light bulb inside his brain turn on. It was also really neat to see how he just knew to keep the group of sheep together. If one split off, he went after them and brought them back to the group without any kind of signal.

Muffin is a....

This is a stolen(but fun!) idea! LOL.

In honour of Friday the 13th.... this is the "wrong breed post!"

I was told by a guy how much he just *loved* my dog's breed after seeing a show all about them on animal planet. He said he never realized just how awesome Basset Hounds were before the show... When I told him, that my dog is actually a pembroke corgi and not a basset hound... he was "oh, well they look SOOOOO similar!"

Basset Hound:


Muffin:

There was another time, over the summer, when I was camping in PA. I decided to take a trip into Milford and walk around. A woman stopped in her car to ask me if my dog was a Dachshund.... Then she proceded to tell me that she ownes 3 of them!

Dachshund:

While it makes me laugh when someone who isn't into dogs guesses the wrong breed... it makes me sad when someone who owns mulitples (or I've even heard tales of people than saying they BREED the type of dogs they mistook one for!)!

Herding Instinct Test is Scheduled!!!

and I can't wait!

I hope he likes it! :-)

You know you're a dog person when....

you need something dog related and there it is... right in the trunk of your car.

Anyway, I bought a new bike the other day (does the happy dance). So I decided to try it out early.... well I ended up being longer than I planned... and I didn't have time to take Muffin home before leaving. I should also mention that I don't keep a collar on the woods... I'm paranoid that he'll get stuck on a branch or root or something. I do always bring a leash with me, just in case, but it's almost always a slip lead of some kind(so no collar needed).

Anyway, I had agility class last night..... and he had no collar.... but not to worry, I had an extra harness in the back of my car!

Yes, I carry treats, bowls, water, leashes, beds, collars, doggy first-aid stuff, and even cheap slip leads I can give away if I come across someone who has "forgotten" theirs.

Muffin's Christmas Photo Shoot, Take 1

Yes, I think I will be sleeping with one eye open from now on! LOL. I'm just glad that he humored me enough to let me snap these shots.

My plans are to put a Christmas-y pic of him on my holiday cards this year... I'm going to try photoshopping a few of these, but I think I will be attempting another photo shoot in the very near future.

Anyway, on the to Christmas Puppy!

Muffin's Photoshoot

At first he was giving me lip....

Then he realized there were cookies involved....

My new all time FAVORITE photo of him:

Practicing "Stay"

We went for a nice walk yesterday. I brought my camera and tried "posing" Muffin several times...

Unfortunatley, I didn't remember to bring my memory card with me to work... but I can assure you I will post the pictures tomorrow....

rest assured, some of them are very very cute.... of course I could just be biased, since I think the subject is so incredibly cute himself! :-)

Muffin's Full Portrait

I hade allie do this a while ago, way before I started this blog, so I never added it... but here's my little guy in his full portrait! :-)

Agility was SOOOOOO fun last night!

Well, last night was our first class!



I love the instructor! She's awesome, and incredibly patient and sweet. Muffin was afraid of the tunnel at first, and she just sat there holding him, letting him sniff it as much as he wanted. He went halfway and in and than came back out A LOT! and she just stood there, until he decided he was ready to walk the whole length of tunnel on his own. She even made it a point to say that she will NEVER force a dog to do any of the equipment, they have to decide on their own that they're ready to do it.



We only introduced the dogs to the tunnel and the weave poll, but I still just had so much fun! I'm really looking forward to all the classes to come! :-)

Allie made me some sketches of Muffin!!!!

I went to meet the breeds in Jacob Javitz!

It was actually really fun!

They had a demo ring set up where they were showing you what ralley, agility, obed, etc looks like!

They had some amazing doggie performers too! :-)


Other than that, it's been raining here ALL weekend, so I didn't get to do much of anything.

I found out muffin is dealthy afraid of the agility wait table on saturday. I was finally able to get him on the table after much much louring... but he would actually shake on the table he was so scared... poor guy, I wonder what happened to make him so afraid.

We start our agility classes tomorrow... so hopefully he gets over this fear.

Don't blog when you're tired!

I reread my post from yesterday about agility.....

Don't post when you're tired... your brain may know the correct spelling of a word, but that doesn't mean your fingers do!

Signed us up for agility!!!

So, I signed us up for a Tuesday agility class.

I know that I should "stay focused" on obed so we can get a CGC and TDI as soon as possible... but what is life without a little fun!

Actually I think the class will really help. It seems that there is a very tight bond formed between a dog and their person as they progress through agility. It is a "team" sport after all. I'm hoping going on all these "scary" new things, filled in a class with new dogs will help him build some confidence. Plus, agility requires a dog to learn to focus on you and only you, and it also reinforces the basic components of obed (sit/down/stay/come).

And if it doesn't do anything else, it will allow us to hang out and "play" for an extra hour every week regardless of the weather.

Just some pictures...

Since he's just sooooo cute, I'd thought I'd share a few more! :-)

We're not doing much today... my school schedule is a little weird today. I have a meeting at 3:15 with a prof to discuss my research paper, then at 7:30pm I'm meeting someone from Craigslist about a bike. I have my brother's old bike rack on the back of my car, and I'm ready to go! Hopefully this means we can make our Sunday bike ride a regular thing!

Forgot to mention...

Muffin had an appt with a new vet on Sunday.

We just went in for a checkup so I could meet the vet/check the place out etc...

Anyway, it's Dr. Wen's office (if you google him, he's a very well known holistic/alt-medicine) vet. Dr. Wen only sees dogs with Chronic/life threatening problems, so he has an associate vet that does all the annual checkups. I'm fine with that because they practice the same style of medicine, and I know he will be able to go to Dr. Wen with any questions he may have... where as another vet wouldn't have that fast pool of knowledge at his finger tips.

Out of all the vets I know who have a clinic, I liked them the best. Muffin only has rabies and DHPP, they didn't push any other vaccines, they didn't push getting Muffin neutered now. He did say it's better for his "health," and should probably be done around 2 yrs of age.

They do both conventional and alt medicine, which I like.

AND! They confirm their appt the day before! :)

What a weekend!!!!

***apologies in advance, but I did not bring a camera with me at all this weekend. The D90 is a bit much to lug around most places... I think I will be looking into getting a smaller one... hopefully this one won't get stolen!!!!***

So we woke up early Saturday and headed to Bay Shore for our Group Class. Once again, Muffin was AMAZING!We were working on Sit/Stays.... namely on the walking away from the dog part of a sit stay. This was the very first time that I had ever tried this with Muffin. We usually do sit/stays and down/stays with me by his side.

Anyway, I was able to walk the full length of the leash(about 6 ft) away from him and turn my back to him. I only tried for like about 1 minute each time, because we were next to the divider and there was an obnoxiously loud agility class on the other side... I'm not sure what they were doing but the dogs kept slamming into the divider and barking non-stop. I didn't want to chance waiting too long.... I think I'll be stopping by the pet store to pick up a 15 ft training leash... I have a 30 ft one... but that's probably a little tooooo big to bring with me to class....

Afterwards we played in the school yard for a while, he got to run around like a maniac!!! :-)

On Sunday, I decided to go see what my brother was up too... first we walked all the dogs down to the beach(Muffin, Chowder, and Bassie)... they got to run around the park at the beach and play for about 30 minutes...Then my brother and I decided to go biking through the woods.

He knows a nice trail that goes from Manorville to Riverhead, it was a fantastic trail! There was NO ONE on it at all, we passed a river that the dogs were able to play in, and it was a 4 hour trip!

So not only did Muffin get to run and expel a lot of energy, but I got some exercise as well! The trail was nice and flat for the most part, so I was able to bike more or less without problem...

Once we got to riverhead, we stopped at a taco place, and we split a giant burrito and chips, then we headed back to the car.

By the time I got Muffin home on Sunday, he was so tired he didn't even want to get up to get out of the car!!!! But, as they say, a good dog is a tired dog!

Just for fun....

ahhhhhh....... Life is Good!

sorry for the crappy cell phone quality....

Kirkland Chicken and Rice... the miracle food!

I dont' have that long to write...

It's been about a week of full meals, nutrical, and some peanut butter! He's gaining weight and looking like a normal dog!!!!

When I run out of Kirkland I'll re-evaluate the food... I'd like him to be on something a little better.... but right now the most important part is that he actually eats it!!!

oh yeah, on the weight thing

So he wasn't eating the EVO, or the TOTW... so I decided to try Instinct Rabbit dry.... not a big fan of that either....

Well I was at Costco on Tuesday since I had the day off... and since I had to start buying all kinds of canned(aka really expensive) foods, I decided I'd pick up the Kirkland Chicken and Rice... not the best food, but for the price the ingredients are actually pretty good.

Well guess who started chowing down on the dry kibble without the need for canned foods!!!! Yes, that's right! Mr. Picky! *rollseyes*

At least he's eating though. I'm still mixing in some canned, and giving nutrical. I guess I'll wait till he's a good weight and then decide which direction to take. Ideally, I'd like him on a better food... but if he's not going to eat the better food?

I'm bad at updating

OK, so I'm horrible at updating this already. Between work & school all my free time is spent either sleeping or with Muffin. I don't even watch TV anymore!... but that's ok bc TrueBlood is over until the summer. LOL.

Anyway, Group class started this past Saturday. Muffin was the best behaved in the whole class. I was very proud! :-) They made me so nervous on the phone when I booked my spot in the class bc I thought that everyone was going to be WAYYY more advanced than us... but they weren't.

To break up the constant obed and do some fun things, we've decided to take an agility private lesson on Monday's at 9pm. So that's a half hour private once a week, and an hour group. I was also doing sit/stay and down/stay in the woods on Sunday. He was doing them great! :-)

As far as the agility.... I'm still a bit iffy bc I don't really want to start jumping him yet. He's still only around 14 months, so he's still growing. I'll start with simple things like the tunnel, the wait table, and possibly the A frame... I'll leave the real "jumping" things till he's a bit older.... Maybe another 4 months or so... I know the AKC allows dogs 15 months and over to compete... but I would feel better waiting till he's about 18-20 months to start him on the jumps.

I definatly think he gets to a point where "enough is enough." I had some time to kill Saturday after class... so I was waiting outside a store with a HUGE field behind it. I thought I'd train a little there... Muffin was just not listening to me. I thought it was because it was a new place and we had to work on focus... so when we got home I tried training a bit again... and again he just wasn't listening to me. But on Sunday, when we went for a walk in the woods... he decided to act like an angel... So hopefully breaking up the obed with agility will help keep him interested.

ok, that's all I have to say for now.

Wow I haven't written in a week!

I can't make my training class for tonight, unfortunately... :-( but Muffin has been picking everything up very quickly! I'm very happy! :-)

As far as his weight concerns are going: He seems to really like Instinct Rabbit canned and is taking the nutrical nicely.... This past week he's been gaining a bit of weight... so that's a start.

Since I have nothing exciting to say, I thought I'd add a few new pictures of the Muffin Man. We decided to take a hike this past weekend.... and I remembered my camera! :-) Enjoy!