Pet Relocation Party Pics and Windsurfing Dogs

My brain is still on Memorial Day Vacation so here's some entertaining pictures. Keep Austin Dog Friendly attending the PetRelocation party last week. Along with the yummy eats from Dagar catering (build your own sliders, spinach dip, queso, fruit with chocolate sauce, and hummus), I also scored some snazzy tee-shirts. Oh, did I mention the ice sculpture? See pic? :o) PetRelocation.com offers support services when moving your beloved pet across the state or across the world. Moving can be difficult on everyone, but PetRelocation makes it easy for your furry (or scaly) creatures. Here's Rachel from PetRelocation.com and myself.



Here's some pics of Mouse and Basil wind surfing. Fun Fun!

Picnic with your pooch event at Chandler Park, Georgetown, TX

from the promoters

Picnic with your Pooch
http://files.georgetown.org/files/2009/05/picnic-with-pooch.pdf
Benefiting Georgetown Bark Park
Saturday June 6th 4pm-7pm
Chandler Park(Across fromm Georgetown Country Club- 108 Spring Valley Road)
Georgetown , Texas
This one of the most beautiful parks in Central Texas!!

• Free Barbeque
• Bring your own beverages, chairs
• Music by the Post Hole Diggers
• Come with or without your leashed best friend
• Microchipping and registration will be offered for only $20.00
• Canine contests show quality ribbons awarded to Best Kisser and Best Tail Wagger

$20.00 donation per family would be greatly appreciated 100% of dontation goes to bark park fund

Dog Training Goals for Mouse and Basil

I had my first private lesson with Judy Ramsey @ Dogwood Dog Training in Houston today. We've been going to competitive classes with Judy and Debbie, but now my schedule only permits private lessons now. Boy are we glad to be back with Dogwood.

A few things for my kiddos to work on:
Basil: needs to be taught precise heel position. Many dogs guess at where heel position is, but we're going to teach Basil exactly where it is. When in a sit position, her neck should be lined up to my left pant seam. The exercises to do this follow:

1. With Basil in sitting position, say "sit", I step right and say "close", and Basil should follow ending up in perfect heel position.
2. With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel" and move my left foot forward and to the right. My foot should land to the right of my right foot. Basil should move with my left foot and end of in heel position next to my left foot. The purpose of this exercise is to teach her to follow my foot, and not just move forward. This will teach her to heel close, instead of out wide. Heeling wide is a common small dog habit.
3. With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel", and step forward with my left foot. She should follow my left foot. After she has mastered a single step, then we'll move onto two, three, and four steps. This is to teach her where heel position is whether or not my left foot is moving.
4. Right Pivots: With Basil in sitting position, I will say "heel", and step clockwise (to the right) with my left leg. She should move to the right with my left leg. This will teach her to hug close and tight to my left even when I am moving right. If I keep repeating this pattern, I will eventually make a hexagon shape with my foot pattern.


Additionally, I'll use rulers or pvc to keep her from heeling wide. With the rules or pvc to the left of both of us, it will encourage her to keep from going wide and sticking close to me as we move. Dogs will naturally stay further away from random things on the floor, unless they are attracted to them of course. To do the right pivots with pipe, I can place pipe in a hexagon shape and work my dog inside the hexagon. Over time, the dog will continue to stay close to me even if we are far away from the rulers or pvc. Then we can fade out the rulers or pvc. I also need to be really low key with Basil as she is easily excitable. I used to let her bounce around, but now there will be no more bouncing. No bouncing in the show ring!

Mouse: Need to build drive and motivation for heeling. From now on, we will not heel from a sitting position. We'll do 80% from standing, and 20% from a sitting position. We will also never heel "Slow". We will always heel fast and reward Mouse in the forging position. The final goal is to get him to heel at least 100 ft at a fast without lagging. Also, I will start incorporating 270 degree right turns into the heel pattern with "get-its" immediately out of the turn. Then a very short heel (15 feet) then another 270 degree right turn. Over time, I should start doing variable rewards after the turn. More jackpot rewards for Mouse.

KADF Social Event @ South Austin Trailer Park May 31st

Next Keep Austin Dog Friendly Social Event will be at South Austin's Trailer Park on May 31st, Sunday, 6-8 pm. The food trailers are Torchy's Tacos, Shuggie's, and La-dee-dah. Additionally, this event is BYOB! So bring the 4 legged, some drinks, and having a good time meeting other dog owners.

New Additions to Keep Austin Dog Friendly are: Lofty Dog, Thai Fresh, Rio Grande, Taco Deli, Taverna, , Perla's, Frugal Media, El Arroyo, Cuatro's, North by Northwest, and Zocalo's. Additionally, more guidelines on dog ettiquette are posted at www.austindogfriendly.com.

CGC testing May 14th in P-ville at Doggy Day Out

Doggy Day Out Kennel and Daycare in Pflugerville will be offering CGC testing this Thursday May 14th starting at 8pm. Cost will be $10. Please call 251-3009 or email training@doggydayout.com if you are interested in having your dog tested, as spaces are limited.

Link to AKC CGC test: http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/

Geekstravaganza 2009 May 17th, Buffalo Billards

Not Dog related....... but.....

Geekstravaganza is a charity geekfest the Austin Browncoats host
to raise money for a worthy cause while uniting Geeks, Nerds and
Browncoats alike. This year, we're supporting SafePlace, in
their goal to end sexual and domestic violence through safety,
healing, prevention and social change.

Each Geekstravaganza, we invite a new musical act to regale us
in song (as we do our best Carlton dance). This year, we're
honored to have Marian Call, a geek goddess, visiting our
section of the `verse. She'll perform two sets, while spinning
plates in both hands and jumping on one foot. Seriously. She's
that good! (Don't hold us to this, though. Marian might not have
told us, per se, that she can do this, per se, but, maybe?)

"But what else can we look forward to, huh?"

How about an All-Geek Talent Show, All-Nerd Costume Contest and
all Sci-Fi Trivia Bee. Winners get to bring home fabulous prizes
and proudly let their geek banners fly! Last year, our talent
show winner was Austin's own Ernie Cline, writer of geek
favorite, Fanboys. Think you have what it takes to win the big
prizes? Get your geeky talents ready, because we hope 2009 is at
least the 12th root of 2 times better than Geekstravaganza 2007.

"Is that it? Really?"

Nope, that's not it. There is more! We'll even have some
awesomely geeky (verging on a little too cool) demonstrations
and an Air Combat tournament judged by Austin's favorite ninjas,
Cry Havoc. What's Air Combat? Wouldn't you like to know! Real
geeks know Air Combat, but if you're just borderline geek, keep
your eyes on this website for an update on our Air Combat
tournament!

When: May 17th, 2009, starting at 5PM

Where: Buffalo Billiards, Austin, TX

Why: Geeks like to do good works!

www.geekstravaganza.com

May 7th Training

With less than 10 days to our obedience match, I took the kids out to Central Market Westgate's Parking lot for some work. While it was hot and humid, Basil was always on the ball. Mouse was my concern as it appears that he had forgotten the "get" command (jump to get a treat from my right hand). The "get" command is the foundation for all of the exercises, and how he forgot it overnight is beyond me. After several days of slowly reteaching it, he's finally catching on, again. Now I need to work on his motivation, some fun games, the recall, and the right finish. Whew. I'm supposed to be writing the basics of teaching a retrieve now, but that will come in the next post. Training my dogs can be mentally draining.

PetRelocation Launch Party

From the Promoters:

Please join us on Wednesday, May 20th, in Austin, Texas, to celebrate the newly redesigned PetRelocation.com and launch of our social network, MyPetMove.com.

As an Austin-based company that services the entire world, we're currently experiencing fast growth in the pet travel & transportation industry – so come see what the buzz is about!

Complimentary food and drinks will be provided while they last thanks to our local sponsors, Dagar’s Catering, Tito’s Vodka and Molotov Lounge! Live entertainment will feature Uncle Bruno, one of Austin’s best up-and-coming funk bands.

RSVP Here: http://event.pingg.com/PetRelocation

Hope to see ya there!

Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Nationals 2009 and SWOM Tweetup May 20

After spending a combined 69 hours in a car with 2 people and 3 dogs round trip, we made it back from the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog National Specialty Show just North of Salt Lake City, UT. Every breed has a specialty show put on by the national club yearly. Usually, the location of the specialty will rotate across the country so that club members will get to attend the shows that are closer to home. Specialty shows usually include activities that are breed specific (ex: herding for border collies, drafting for newfies, and tracking for bloodhounds) in addition to conformation shows and an obedience trial. Dog above is Morgan from California. Specialty shows are great as you get to meet other owners from across the country, and you get to see many dogs of the same breed. As an owner for 2 rare breed dogs, this is a real treat. This year, I had the great pleasure of meeting an entleburcher! Looks like a Swissy with short legs. Pictured below. National breed clubs have many functions in additional to organizing a specialty show each year. National breed clubs are responsible for maintaining and improving the language of breed standards, heading up programs to improve breed health through screening and careful breeding, educating the general public about the breed, educating conformation judges, rescuing and rehoming dogs, and maintaining various records about the breed. Join your national club for more info. Also, Upcoming event....: Society of Word of Mouth Tweetup http://twtvite.com/hgb6us Cuatro’s, 1004 W 24th St, Austin, TX 78705 http://www.cuatrosaustin.com/ 1004 W 24th St, Austin, TX 78705 , Austin, TX

When? May 20, 2009

What time? 5:30 - 7:30pm

Keep Austin Dog Friendly starts Blogging

Welcome to Keep Austin Dog Friendly's Blog. Due to the high number of Austin Dog Friendly Events, event announcements will be posted here. Additionally, training adventures of Mouse and Basil will be here. You can also follow us at :

www.twitter.com/pookiesoup
www.twitter.com/mousethedog

Training for Monday, May 4:
Precision work and the get-it-stand on Mouse at Whole Foods Downtown. Mouse is more than distracted by people walking by with plates of bbq. Tough work for a hungry dog. Woof Woof! More proofing work later on today.