Crate Training Update and Some New Toys

It's been about a week and a half since I started working with Katie on crate (re)training and look--whose a happy dog inside her crate?!


I say retraining because Kate was initially crate trained as a puppy. But then once she was reliable in the house on her own, we took the crate down. A decision that one of us (me) regrets, because now she doesn't like to be confined to a crate. But, anyway, we made progress this week: Now, as soon as I open the crate door, Kate trots happily inside and waits for her treat. She will also go inside from a distance if I ask her to. So now we're starting to work on staying for longer intervals. I've been taking the crate to Rally and agility practices during the week and working with her there. I also took it to an agility demo last weekend just to see how she'd do. At first she was too excited to care about going in, so I didn't force her. But at one point, I caught her laying down inside it--for just a moment. She popped out once she noticed me looking at her though, the stinker. Once she'd done a few runs and was more tired, I tried her inside. I'd turned my back for just a second when I heard yelling and my dog's name and "Hey, catch her!" I'd failed to completely zip the thing shut (OOPS!), and--smart girl that she is--she took note and nosed her way out. :)

We had a fun day, though. Kate did a nice job on the course, which (conveniently) was a version of one we'd practiced in class that week. She did get mildly distracted by some duck poop which was unfortunately deposited right before the entrance to the weave poles (!), but she recovered and finished the course.

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I started a few new knitting projects this week (socks) and made progress on some WIP (mostly socks), and I'll post pics of those later. In the meantime, I treated myself to a yarn swift and ball winder. (About to be wound is Andes Yarn, purchased at Kraemer's, my LYS.)

And I think it's soooo cool that now I can do this:

Q for Katie!

Turns out that Katie and I did better at Saturday's trial than we thought. I just had an email from a friend who tells me that we actually got a Q ribbon on the last run which means we ran the course within the standard course time. Woo hoo! (This photo is an old one of Katie learning to do the weave poles. I didn't even bother to take my camera to the match!)

One Skein, 3 Runs, No Q

I was out of town at a conference the weekend before last, and now I feel like I'm behind on everything. Yeesh. But I had enough time in the airport and on the plane to complete a whole scarf. Well, almost. It's the "One Skein Scarf" pattern from Stitch n' Bitch crochet, and I used Patons Classic Merino Wool in leaf green as given in the pattern. The project was just as easy as the pattern promised, though my gage must have been a bit off because I ran out of yarn just as I was rounding the last corner with a mere 3 shells left to go. So I had to run out and buy more yarn in order to finish. But I did, and I'm really happy with the finished project. Now I can't decide whether to keep or gift it. I do love the color . . . .

And I accomplished one other thing recently, of which I'm kinda proud. This past weekend, Katie and I competed in our first ever agility trial. We had 3 runs, none with qualifying times (not to mention with many faults), but we definitely had fun trying. Kate surprised me by holding a stay at the start line when asked. That might not sound like much, but for us it's big. And although she did take a quick tour around the course on the first run, she came back to me and stayed with me until the end. On the second and third runs, she was so excited that she took the last obstacle and kept on going! Cute, but unfortunately, the rules say that I have to leave the course with my dog under control. Oh well. I'm thinking we'll do another trial in January which will give us lots of time to work on that little problem. :)

Thinking about fall

In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard writes about the moment when she feels the season changing--I can't remember now if it's winter to spring or summer to fall. Although I don't think this morning was the moment for us (it's a little early), fall-ish weather seems to have descended on eastern PA, at least for the time being, and in a good way. Ever the fashion-conscious canine, Katie rushed to the winter closet and grabbed this scarf.

Trial preparation update: Kate and I submitted our entry form for the upcoming trial--we signed up for three runs. I figure by the third try, Kate, the most distract-able of dogs, will be focused on the course and not on everything else around.

Final thought: this is, of course, a day with a sad history and legacy. I'm going to try to steer clear of the TV and seek other, quieter, ways of being mindful about past (and current) events.

Getting Started

Welcome to my blog. And to my first post on my new blog, which was inspired by the blog of a friend who is one of the best knitters I know and who, even though she only learned to knit about a year ago is far more skilled than I (I've been knitting since I first learned how in the 10th grade). AND who, over the past months, has patiently answered many of my knitting questions, shared books and supplies, and generally inspired me to keep working at it.

I'll be writing more about knitting later. For the moment, I'll be writing about another project I'm currently working on--agility training with my dog (Katie, the wonder dog, who also says she will be contributing to this blog from time to time). For the uninitiated, the sport of dog agility involves navigating an obstacle course with your dog. You want to get through the course with the fastest time and the fewest errors. Now, you may have seen agility trials on Animal Planet--and let me just state for the record that K. and I look nothing like the teams in those trials. Nonetheless, in a month, we will enter our first real trial, so I'll be writing here about what we're doing to get ready.

Here we are at a fun match a few years ago: