1 year in pyrshep land

Well, not exactly a year since I got him the day he turned 2 months… 10 months it is. It feels like a life time. I just realized that I never even introduced him in a blog post, so there we go. 

Shaggy was born on april 19th, 2016. At 12 months his hight is 46,5 cm and he weights 11.2kg.

He is the most adorable little thing in my universe. But after having a pyr shep in my life I think I need to write a blog post about them, more specifically about Shaggy, since nothing is a rule when it comes to dogs. They are all different individuals that have different upbringings and different personalities. 

Before getting a pyr shep I did the research, don't get me wrong, I read all the texts and blog posts. I talked to so many breeders and pyr shep owners, and at the end of the day I felt so ready to have my own crazy unstoppable furry thing. To be honest I always thought that they were over exaggerating things. I was wrong, lol, so so wrong. I think no one is ready to have a pyr shep… if you'r up for it you'll have to face all the craziness that will enter your life at once like a hurricane. They are real tasmanian devils, they can eat everything that is around the house, destroy all your things, climb the tables, window ceiling, make your other dogs crazy, all at once!

Definition of happiness

When Shaggy got here, just a little furry ball, so cute, so sweet, so adorable <3 but already a force of nature, lol. We all know puppies love to bite, I've been there and done that time and time again. I always spoiled all my puppies and never cared for destroyed clothes or shoes. Shaggy was never satisfied with only the clothes or shoes, he wanted my arms, feet, hands. If it really hurts and I complained he would just bite stronger and shake his head, it was so exciting for him. My arms were a mess, so red and full of bite marks, everyone I knew was mad at me for letting him bite me like that. But he was so funny, and would stop at nothing to get to play with me. Also, I learned very soon that pyr sheps hate to be told what to do, things should be sooo much fun that they really want to do it, or you have to convince them that it was their idea. I prayed everyday that he could please please please, lose his puppy teeth very soon. 

A tip for those getting a pyr shep, things should not be on the floor. Nothing. Really, they can eat just about anything! Shaggy's poop was always a thing of art, so colorful and full of surprises, lol. Pieces of paper, clothespin, flip-flops, pajamas (right Susan :P), any kind of plastic container, shoes, books, plants, sunglasses, key charms, lettuce, entire socks, well you got the idea. If you want to keep something out of reach, make sure it is somewhere that a cat wouldn't reach. Or a monkey... Shaggy is half monkey, I'm quite sure. Once, when he was about 4 months, I put him on the service room, while I trained some tricks with Mike. I'm telling you, it didn't take more than 5 minutes. I came back, and it was Shaggy's turn to train some tricks, when I gave him the kibbles as reward he wanted to eat but was crying and acting weird, so I touched his belly just to be shocked by an *extremely* swollen and hard belly. Back at the room he found the dog food on top of a table, ate a bit of the plastic and a ton of food. We rushed to the vet, where ultrasound showed food, a lot of gasses and something that the vet though was some kind of bone, but I was pretty sure it was mountain apple seed since we have a tree in the garden and he absolutely loves this fruit! Another thing my other dogs never even cared about. 

Shaggy is a genius of trick training. He love it <3 Probably I owe 60 percent of our relationship to trick training. Everything comes so easy, and even when he is so crazy that I think he can not possibly understand something while doing so many things at once, he always understands… That's one of the most exciting things for him. I started agility as a trick for him, some straight tunnels, some cik/cap, some bang games. So much fun! He was making me believe everything would be so easy. Then it was that time of the year, finals at university, not much time, so many things to do. Shaggy was progressing faster than I expected, so the little time I had we trained agility. Agility was no fun for him. Pyr Sheps only have time for fun things in life. Shaggy was frustrated, he would run away, lie down and stare at me. Good luck calling him back! He would not run off, just stare in frustration. I was frustrated too, and didn't know what to do. So many times I thought that we were not having fun with this… So I let it go, and focused on the fun again. Tricks, straight tunnels, cik/caps, running contacts. If you focus on your goals with a pyr shep everything will fall apart. Focus on the small things, trick training, night cuddles, laugh at their mischief, let them be as goofy as they want, play, remember to have fun. Now we are having fun in agility. So far from perfect or ready, but so much fun! 

In my experience with Shaggy he was way more stubborn than fearful. As a puppy he never liked people to get him, no one but me and my sister. He always loved to run and jump on my lap, sleep in my lap during competitions or seminars, sleep in my pillow at night. If someone else wanted to get him he would stretch his looong legs and put as much distance between them as he could, until he found an opportunity to jump off. He never cared about falling, as long as he could avoid contact with other people. I must say that he is so much better now. He loves everyone, and shows love to everyone. Dogs and people alike. Fear was always something that he solved by jumping on me, or asking me to hold him, just like a baby. My 46 cm lap dog <3 

There's so much to say about him! How he annoys High all day long, running after him to steal a ball while there are other 10 balls around the house. How he hates me when I blow on his face (he gets so offended!), how he tries to eat flies all day long. How he jumps in the swimming pool 20 time a day, and we probably will have to make a fence to keep him from swimming all day everyday. How he loves the Manner's Minder more than he loves me. But it would take me a life time to write it all.

 I just felt like I had to share a bit of my puppy with the world, and I don't mean to say that pyr sheps are horrible dogs and you should never have one. I absolutely adore Shaggy and I wouldn't change a single thing about him (maybe make him 3.5cm shorter :P) . He is crazy, stubborn, spoiled, unstoppable, but he is so perfect for me. I only mean to say that if you make the decision to have a pyr shep, prepare yourself for whatever comes. Make sure your relationship comes first no matter what, and remember to smile even when you want to kill him for destroying yet another thing. At the end of the ride I'm sure we will all have learned how to dance and laugh in a storm. 

                   Happy 1st birthday Grinch. Stay the same goofy thing forever <3 

8 million kisses

Thant's about how many kisses Mike gave me in this past months! I can't believe that my puppy is turning 8 months today. I look at him and he looks like an adult already… at least until he looks into my eyes and his soul giggles and dances like a child.

No dog will ever be perfect, in fact nothing will ever be perfect, but Mike is the closest I've seen! He never met someone that he couldn't charm, never met someone that he felt didn't deserve a kiss. He truly believes that he is a lap dog… if you'r a stranger or someone he really likes, doesn't matter because he will kiss you, jump on you, sit on your feet/legs/belly (depends if your sitting, standing or laying down lol). 

He is still loving every place we go, every dog he meets and he lives and breaths for cuddles. I believe that the only thing he ever tried and didn't like was "pitanga", but from deworming pills to carrots and papaya he will eat everything with a huge smile on his face! 

Mike is getting a bit braver every day, sometimes he just needs a leap of courage to do things like jump in the swimming pool or sniff a weird animal (turtles are weird in his opinion! haha). When training he is crazy, if we stop to breath for a second he will do 5 jumps and 2 tunnel by himself and look at us like "come on, follow my lead!". He loves his running contacts and don't you dare try to give him food instead of his precious ball. 

In the rest he is still enjoying his goofy puppy moments, and we are trying to make the best of it. I could never wish for a better puppy, but again I am a bit bias in this matter, as all my boys are perfect in my eyes :) 

Keep the fun coming and happy 8 months little fellow! We love you to the moon and back. 

Mike - 5 months

Oh time is flying! Baby boy is already 5 months…

Seriously there is no way in earth that he could be more perfect than he is, so playful and so much fun. He adores to give kisses, is very loud to voice his opinion about staying outside, loves all the dogs in the universe, is still getting used to lakes and all those scary waters, hates bath time with all his heart, has the funniest look any dog could have at this age, and is all heart and love! He is very passionate about agility and tricks, to be true he is very passionate about everything!

All I know is that time is passing too fast! Hope it keeps bringing amazing days, and that the crazy dude stays just as wonderful as he is!

Happy unbirthday to my little one and his sisters <3

Mike - 3 months

Heey, I told you it wouldn't take so long for me to write again!

I planned to come here sooner to introduce the new guy, but he sure is keeping me busy haha. His name is Mike and he will be 3 months tomorrow (although I'm sure that this isn't true, he is too smart for such an young dog!), he has only been here for a month but has already captivated everyone's hearts! Mike is not my dog, but he stays at my place some days a week and I take the time to teach him some things that his owner is too lazy to do himself (by the way, his owner is my boyfriend =P).

So far I can see that this is going to be a bullet train ride lol, this kid is special in so many ways! He is funny, crazy, super playful, really smart, crazy, fast, did I mention crazy?

He loves ice-cream; gets really frustrated when we all go into the sea and he reaaally doesn't want go, then he goes anyway hehe; he loves to pull Koda's tail; still tries to find milk in our fingers; already pees lifting his rear leg; destroyed two books, my bed sheets, my flip-flops, and one specially selected plant in the garden…

The tricks are coming along very nicely, that's my favorite thing to do even with my grown up boys, but puppies are so fun! It's hilarious when he doesn't get something right and starts to try his own ideas haha. On the other hand he is really the easiest puppy I ever trained! Once I jackpot something: it's done! he gets it super fast, and has not yet started to challenge me with any trick. Right now he is obsessed with lifting his side legs, he does it 20 times a day in the most unexpected places lol. He is so much fun!

I'll leave a video here so you can see for yourselves what I'm trying to say! The video of the side legs is a bonus for those that read the blog ;)

See you next month with the 4 months video!
Enjoy

2015.1 just the beginning

This year has been amazing so far! From all the things I planned to do, some actually happened and some didn't.

I went to the AyC with Koda, and I already made a post about it… so if you haven't seen it yet I'll leave a link to the post here. :) In short we need to compete more often hehe. Koda was very insecure, waiting for me and passing by several obstacles, something that is not common in our trainings. But we are both ready for more! It was fun!

My plans regarding college changed a lot since december. I was accepted in my first choice, nevertheless, I decided not to go (actually I postponed my acceptance to fall 2016 only so my parents could calm down a little lol). It's not an academic decision, my heart just belongs here! I love everything that I have here and I'm not ready to let go of it.

Besides, remember the tattoo I mentioned on the last post? the one that my parents weren't very fond of… well I did it with my sister! For the ones that don't know, we are twins! Guess it will explain the tattoo <3

In agility, the boys are doing fantastic!! I love it more and more by the second! We have been doing A LOT of RC this year, but when we get to run a course they do great. I'm very happy! We are not quite done with RC but I never thought we would come this far, so I'm very pleased already. I won't post a video of it tough haha, will leave it for latter when we finish it.



If I have one regret this semester is that I didn't attend Tobias Wust and Daniel Schroder's seminar, only because I would loose too many classes… but it's my only regret. I've loved the year so far and it will only get better and better!

Here is a sum up of this semester, hope you like it!

Americas and Caribbean championship

Yes, it came and is already gone. Today I was doing a classification essay for my english class, and since it was free topic I decided to write about dogs. More specifically, about types of agility handlers. The difficult part was that I could't write about my type of handler, because I was ashamed of it. The truth is that I am from the kind of handler that doesn't  fight. I practice agility because I love it, my dogs love it! So why can't I try harder when it comes the time? I'm disappointed, not because I didn't end up on a podium, but because I didn't even try. I could've run more, I could've been a better handler for Koda; but I did't try, I was frozen. By what? I don't know, it just happens.

Despite my disappointment with myself the trip was amazing! my little boy handled everything nicely, it was our second competition in A1 and he had his first non disqualified run (not quite a clean run but we will get there lol). His contacts where a disaster, but I tried on some old and forgotten stopped contacts a week before the competition, because I didn't want to stop his running contacts just for a competition. I was afraid it would fall apart, and I didn't try it since we got back so I don't know how it will be. Oh well, I will see it done eventually. He doesn't know weave entries as well, but his speed is quite nice, so I'm happy with it! We will train some entries and work on start line stays. I promise to myself that I will discover my inner warrior, I really want to get in the course like I do in trainings or better, I want to watch a video from a competition and say "I really tried hard to be there for my boys."

I also saw many friends that I hadn't seen for so long! It was amazing to see each one of you. I made many new friends as well, and I promise I'll try to talk more next time lol, I'm really shy and quite in a group conversation, but I can be talkative sometimes (believe it or not). By the way, I loooooved to see Finwe! the first pyr shep I've seen and he is just amazing!!

So sad I couldn't stay for Tobias and Daniel's seminar. I'm sure it was amazing and it would be grate to learn from them, but  it would be too expensive to stay one more week at the hotel, and it was too much time away from school (I don't want to fails school due to absences when it is so close to the end lol). But I hope we have the opportunity again and next time I won't miss it.

I made a video with our runs, hope you enjoy it.

Happy holidays

Yes, it's been a while. The reason is that my posts are getting to boring and repetitive… Koda is still perfect, High is still my perfect beast, life is normal! hahaha

This semester was crazy. Life wise, I applied to college in the US, and I was accepted in one college already! it's not my first choice but I only receive the other decisions latter, so when I decide where I'm     going I'll make sure to tell you guys. Sure the boys are going with me, or else I wouldn't go, but I'm scared. All of this is scary. I'll be leaving home, going to college, moving to a new country, wow! Hope I can deal with all that. Also, I just turned 18… nothing changed lol, except that now my mom lets me drive; and although my parents don't like the idea I plan to get a tattoo. 

Well, agility is still my thing. The boys are amazing, Koda surprises me in every run, and High bites; that's his thing, I guess he just likes my taste. Contacts are not our thing, they both do the see-saw, they both don't know what the hell are they supposed to do in the dog walk nor in the A-frame, so we are back to Running Contacts class and this time with both boys; let's hope it works! 

Another exciting new is that next year I'll be going to the Americas and Caribbean championship with Koda, no expectations. It is very likely that he'll be perfect and I'll ruin all our runs. No problem, I'll get over it eventually. It will be amazing, I really miss my friends from other parts of Brazil, I want to meet some new dogs and it will be my first agility trip with my boyfriend. After the championship we will attend a seminar with Tobias Wust and Daniel Schroder. I can't wait, I'm sure that the entire trip will be unforgettable. 

As usual I made a video of the year, and it's nice, hope you like it. Next year I think that I won't make a birthday video for the boys, simply because I never remember to film things; I used to film Koda's every footstep when he was a puppy but a year ago the camera got heavier therefore more difficult to carry it around. Still I'll try to make two videos of the year, since I'll be in Brazil in the first semester, and in the US in the second semester, fun adventures ahead. 

I mentioned on the last post that High had some puppies, and I get to see some of them very often. I love them, seriously they couldn't be more perfect. The owner of the female - Eva- is keeping two puppies, the big brown boy is named Juca, the big black girl used to be called Highzinha because she is just like High in every way, now she is called Stella, God bless her owner lol she's a little beast like her daddy. 

And just to explain why Ellie don't appear much on the video, she had a tiny pup <3 Her pregnancy was not the easiest, and she didn't have much milk, it was hard for both Ellie and her puppy but thankfully they are marvelous now. Just not much agility for her on the last months; She knows many many new tricks, such a smart ass! I didn't get to film her tricks but I promise I will. 

Well, the post is really random. I actually came to wish you all merry christmas and a wonderful new year! May 2015 bring you the best adventures. 

Puppy breath

Hi guys. It's nice to write again! it's been forever, and I was about to make one of those blog posts where I say that it's been a while and then do a summary of what happened. But that is what I have done on the previous posts, so I guess I'll do something different this time haha.

Well, I do have some things to tell you and the most exciting thing is that High is now a daddy. Of two litters! High is 3.6 years and all his tests are fine, so now it came the opportunity to breed him to two amazing females and the puppies are here already. wow, time flies!

First litter is out of Eva Blue Abunella. She is a blue merle, with really amazing temperament and desire to work, she practices agility and is really focused and fast. She had 3 black girls, a blue merle girl and two brown boys. Since her owner lives so close to me I get to see the puppies a lot and ooh how I missed the puppy breath! it's been a long time. So here they are... Also, there is this black female that is just exactly like High at her age, the other day I got her on my arms and she growled at me!! I think she is going to follow her dad's footsteps. lol.  

The second litter is out of Zara Brownie 418 dos Pardais. She is just the sweetest and most beautiful girl around, and yet takes her job so seriously! She is an amazing agility dog and play time companion, although I live really far from her owner I got to meet them several times and Brownie is just an angel, everything someone could wish for. She had three perfect males, a blue, a black and a blue merle. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to meet them yet, But here they are. 

Both girls are from amazing and traditional bloodlines here in Brasil and I couldn't be happier about it. And that is it. Hope I can keep you posted about them. ^^ 

Blonde girl

I'm back ˆ.ˆ that was fast!! But I just came to let something for you to see. It's not about the boys, but I am sure you will love her just as much. Here a video so you guys can see what I said about Ellie, she's indeed a special girlie <3

And she is already learning a lot of tricks, just wanted to show a sneak peek of her, the best is yet to come!

So much can happen in a month!

Hi guys, almost two months and I'm back ˆˆ with lots of news.

First we've had some agility competitions and the boys did fantastic! Koda is amazing me more and more, he is turning out to be such a confident and independent little boy. Now he is also showing the bad side of this, which is that he is not all the time next to me, when I'm not doing something he used to lay on my lap and sleep, now he is all exited about exploring haha. It doesn't have bad effects on our trainings tough, because he is so focused and really going to the obstacles forward instead of staying next to me kind of confused, and he is doing all the tricks with his new confidence and trusting me more and more.

High is also growing, we are coming along as a team and understanding what both want much better. It is amazing to run my giant boy, he has such a sweet soul and it visible in his eyes the joy and passion, although it is way easier to see when he is not barking so much, it happens when I run and give the proper command on time, yeah I can do it also on competitions!! found out that this last weekend, we were so connected, it was special. Not so good times but I'm not worried about that yet, we were close to our first exam to A2. It feels good... But it will come soon, we are connecting, and our time will come. We also had a super chaotic run, the last one of the weekend, and it was crazy! a loot of barks, yes he likes to complain with me, show me what I'm doing wrong.
Koda shined on our latest competition, setting best times all the time. My crazy pup <3

Koda, Duda, Shannon and High

Now we will have 3 months of no agility competitions, and I will put my heart and soul into running contacts. At first I just wanted because it does make me smile every time I see it, and I would love to do it with my boys, but after more than a year trying unsuccessfully I must say that it's now a matter of stubbornness, if that word exists. So many people came to me telling me to give up, but I don't do it, and I won't do it, I'm not a quitter. High's RC were almost done, but for some unknown reason now he refuses to touch the contact, so we went all the way back. Koda is much more complicated, think we will enroll on the next online class, see if we can find a solution. We are working!

High's RC before they collapse...

I have some other news that are not about my black boys, but are about a really special little dog that stole my heart pretty quickly. Ellie. And I found myself to be really good with shelties, not only koda, but the others as well. So I'll start from a place where you can understand how special she is...

Ellie is a stubborn sheltie, fearful and full of personality at the same time. She is sweet and her favorite place in earth is at my lap where she feels like she's the queen of the world and can bark with all the other dogs. I've known her for some time now, but I did't use to interact with her that much, until my boyfriend started training her. She was doing fine, but shelties are difficult and she never really liked it, so I started walking with her, and spoiling her, teaching some tricks, and we got along so well. Before I could notice she was my shadow... We are progressing as she wants, but it's stupid how happy I get every time I train her! she knows cik/cap and tunnels, we've done some short sequences, she's amazing. My eyes sparkle when she jumps and barks to get in the ring.

I used to only play with her in the agility field, throw the ball and let her run after it with koda, or run and let them chase me. Koda is such a good model! I say Ellie is becoming my mini Koda, that's perfect, I already love her! She also gives me some challenges and that's perfect. She used to run out of the ring and no one could ever train her because she didn't let people get her, nor follow hands. I worked on that first, she will gladly follow hands now, and first trick she learned was to jump on my lap so every time she would run out of the ring I set down and she would come running and do her trick, lovely lovely girly!

Then I tried to teach her pivot to start the heeling, but she would NEVER offer me things with her front paw, I've seen many dogs that don't know how to use the hind paw but never one that doesn't know that have front paws. So I made her do her favorite trick but every time she put one paw on my lap I'd reward her, gradually I put my hand closer and closer and now she is much happier knowing she has front paws hahaha. I'm sure she has many many more challenges to give me in the future, but I'm so glad for that!







I think next posts will come sooner this time! see u ˆ.ˆ

Happy Birthday

So as I promised here are the birthday videos of my boys. Koda turned 2 on April 2nd and High turned 3 on April 3rd. I could never put in words how happy they make me, give joy to my life every day and challenge me to try new things all the time. I'm thankful for everything and most of all for having them on my life.

I love you boys <3 here to many many more years together!

Good life

 Wow, I just noticed that I didn't post this year yet! I'm so sorry for that. It doesn't mean that I don't have news just that we were quite busy ;-)

The boys never get tired of the woods. They love to run free with all the other dogs and just play around... we should do it more often!

As I mentioned on my last post we are training at an agility school, and I'm really enjoying it! We've been training more than never and gaining a lot of confidence, mostly with Koda. I still have to keep up with High's hurricane competition mood, and try to calm down, but we are doing just fine.

We atended two competitions this year, one was a for fun competition and both the boys did fantastic! I am so proud of High because he really listened to me even when I thought that he would do something wrong he did great, all the mistakes were my fault... we ran on the open category A2/J2 and disqualified, and ran on his normal category A1/J1 and got 4th place. Beautiful contacts, dropped few bars only on the last run because he was tired, and had an awesome day after all.

Koda ran beautifully as always, I walk on the ring confident with this little boy! He doesn't stay yet so we have to let go and ruuun, and he is getting faster and faster, so soon it will be a problem... gotta work on that! He ran only the novice but got first place of all heights. Well done baby!

On the official competition I ran only on the A1/J1 with High and he did really well on the first run, perfect contacts, really loooud but that's fine, I just have to work with him because every time that there's a miscommunication or for any other reason he does a refusal and I try to put him back on the obstacle he almost bites me, and he is not like that on trainings, not anymore at least... On the second run I was mentally exhausted and he was even louder, so after he missed his best contact (see-saw) I kind of gave up, but it went better than I expected! perfect weaves, running contact on A-frame, and did all well until we disqualify on the last jump hahaha. Stories to tell.

Koda was perfect as always, but even faster and more excited! I could not keep up with his speed on the novice's straight lines, but he did magnificent and got first place. Although we had no competition, because there are only few people that attend to our regionals, and it is a new sport around here so not many people practicing yet, therefore he was the only dog of his height on novice.

I think that our biggest struggle lately are the running contacts, such a simple concept and so hard to do it! High have perfect strides, good jackpots, already on full height dog walk, but only for few repetitions than he slows down and misses everything, he is not adjusting well... think I'll try fewer repetitions and vary slower the approach. Koda is a never ending story... the reason why I started running contacts, but my biggest challenge! I don't know where I messed up but he always jumps of the end of the down ramp on the DW, always!! I go back to the ground, perfect. A bit higher, perfect. A bit higher, he jumps. It goes on and on for nine months now...  I thought about 2on2off but than I saw a video of Jenny Damm and Miss Lilli and it inspired me, I hate to give up and it's really rare for me to do it, so I will try more, be creative... one day we will have those running contacts. 

"I'm going to succeed because I'm crazy enough to think I can"

At last, out tricks... yes!! we have a lot of new things to show, but I'm saving as many videos as I can because their birthday is next month so I have two videos to make =) and I hope you'll enjoy it. Probably it will be my last post before the boys' birthday so you will see all the news and 2014 video update! 

till there ˆˆ

all in all

An entire year training at home, my first goal was to come here at the end of this year and say that I changed things, that all I did was worth it... it was! I don't have words to describe this year, it was unbelievable. My boys are greater than ever, and our love and connection grows every day.

My goal with High was to connect, we had similar passions and that brought us together, but now we have deeper reasons, there is nothing I'm prouder than my dog laying with his head on my feet right now while I'm writing this post. This is everything I wanted to accomplish with him. I love my silly dog and how after 2,5 years he've returned to the puppy mood I always loved, and his eyes show joy in everything he does... he is my dream dog.

We finally went on a competition, after an entire year we went to the Brazilian Championship for the first time. With no major expectations, since we are changing his A-frame... and he did a great job. I will not say that it's always awesome to run with him, on trainings we have a different interaction, and run as one, not aways perfect, sometimes really chaotic, but aways trying our best and running our hearts. On competitions all changes, I don't like to be on the spot light, I get to nervous and he feels it, he gets nervous too! He barks, he bites, he doesn't listen, my legs get heavy and I can't run, I forget to talk, I get lost... can you imagine?

But no, our last competition was not bad! High was awesome, he did his contacts, and got all the slalom entries right, we finished 2/4 runs. The ones we didn't finish were absolutely my fault, because I almost fall on a jump, and dropped it, on the other run he touched the contact but did't wait for the release, so I sent him back on... But I have no regrets, we can only grow, and we are working, having fun will always be my priority.

Koda is a different story, my goal was to come here and say, what I proudly say now, I did my agility and social sheltie from start to where we are by my self, I did it! I proved to myself that I can overcome challenges, and work out of all difficulties on the way to raise the dog I wanted. He is perfection on furry ball form! But yes, he is still a sheltie, do not expect to see him offering to go to anyone arms but mine. on the other hand, get a ball and he will run with everyone. I'm so pleased with all we've accomplished. There's a long road in front of us, but we've come a long way in such a short time. It's easy to run with him in agility, it flows naturally, my challenges with him will come in a different way, I don't know how, but they will, otherwise where is the fun? We had a lot of challenges, but overcame all, and I hope we continue this way.

He also competed, for the first time ever and already on the Brazilian Championship. He did an excellent job, only doing wrong on the parts I already knew he would, the obstacles he have difficulty. All in all, a perfect weekend, on the best companion we could ever wish for! I so thankful for the friends we found so far, and even though supported us all the way. They gave us strength to come this far, and keep going, and always try something new. Thank you so much.

Before the competition we spent a perfect week learning with Tiago Rocha and Dan Wroblewski. Carol Engelke was always there and helped us a lot, helped me to talk when my sis was not there hahaha. Not only them but all the Dog World team, thank you so much for everything, mostly for having us again, and for all your friendship. We love you guys!

And the final touch to the perfect year came now, on the end, and changed a lot, I decided that I didn't want to train by myself anymore, so we are training where I started, where all this craziness began, and I'm loving it, we found crazy people like us, and ooh it feels good, to share every experience, and learn together. Our journey is coming along perfectly, I'm glad that I took all the steps that brought us here. And may it keep coming next year.

It has been a perfect year! Merry Christmas to all of you!!

It's been a while!

We haven't done much...

The days are flying! and all the time I can find we use to train the boy's running contacts... no progress on them as well! we went all the way back to the floor with Koda, and High is going quite well! nothing to complain, we'll get there sooner or later.

Normal trainings are rare those days, but a strong foundation is fundamental, so we are taking this opportunity to work on that. I'll post the videos of our last training. Koda did really well, no more problems with tunnels, nor jumps. I'm also finishing his slalom  \o/ no videos though...
I'm really amazed with High's turns! all the bars were my fault, I was late! if I had done the front cross, like I did with Koda, the bars wouldn't have fallen, but I wanted to try this move... anyways, both of them did great, and I'm really proud!

Also, my pups are on Kjara's new video! it was awesome to be part of this video, both of them did fantastic! check it out =)




They are learning some new tricks! just some fun stuff to play around!




That's it! (=
Hope to come here sooner next time haha

Running Contacts

Okay, so here it is, my latest training! unfortunately I just remembered to film it on High's last run, but he did 5 nice JPs in a row \o/ and Koda did nice too, I'm proud of him! not much separation on rear legs but he was still accelerating, I need to find better set up, maybe coming from a tunnel so he'll have a faster approach... lets see how it goes  =D

under the heaven

 Today was a really inspiring day! in the morning I was seen my youtube and found a video that changed my day, more than that, it changed my mind!

 thanks Susan for your amazing words, and for sharing your knowledge!

 Then, me, my sister and the dogs went hiking =) finally the winter is over! so it was so much fun!

 When we got home I thought about training running contacts with the boys, but the truth is that I was a bit disappointed with RC, they seem so impossible, and far... and last training was terrible, with not a single hit! But I remembered Susan's video, and with it in mind I went to one more training section, with no expectations! I just wanted to have fun with them, doing what we like and simply because we love it! if it take forever for us to have those running contacts, it doesn't matter! what matters is that we'll have fun in every section, from today on! because if it doesn't happen, why am I doing this?

and today, with no expectations we had an amazing training full of jackpots!

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven"

we are not in a hurry, because there's nowhere we want to be, we love the present!

Life is a mystery

I know you're done! let's get out of here!!

I'm not writing much, I know! but today I'll bring some good news...

One of things I love the most about life is how unpredictable it can be, we make plans, we dream, we live... but we can never know for sure whats going to happen.

I studied in a brazilian school, called NAP, but my 1st plan always was to get out of the country to go to college abroad, if I don't have an american diploma it's complicated, not impossible though. in july I asked my father if I could go to the american school of my city and he said no, since I was going to lose a semester and it's way more expensive, but when I finish the school I would receive two diplomas, an american and a brazilian, so it would make my life way easier. anyways, I went to my normal school when the vacations ended, one week later my father called me and said he changed his mind and I was going to the american school. and here I'm! classes are good, teachers are amazing and class mates are awesome. I wake up at 5 a.m and I come back from school around 4 p.m, and still I always have a lot of homework to do, so, no free time at all! and that's the reason why I'm so absent in here...

My boys are not in second plan though, so I'm still working on a lot of different things with them whenever I find time. we've been training some new tricks, so I promise a new video soon! running contacts are also on it's way, of course way slower, but not stopped. and we have been working on a dream! I always wanted to teach frisbee to them, but I never could, even teaching so many tricks and agility foundation, it was always an impossible job to teach frisbee to the dogs, but now they are catching the frisbee \o/ not perfectly, but it's the beginning, and I'm happy! now we'll keep moving, maybe slower, maybe life twists again and we are able to go faster, who knows? what matters is that we won't stop, because we love what we do!

list of tricks for this year, let's see how far we go.

the boys are bored with all that free time! 

really bored!! lol

There's nothing like time

  People say that time is the best medicine, it's true. Time brings confidence, take away fears and build trust! today my baby sheltie is 16 months old and only getting better and better with time and patience.

  He used to be afraid of jumping, and today I raised his jump quite a lot and he was just perfect! I'm training the hand stand trick for some months now, because every time I tried to move to another step he would stop giving the behavior I wanted, I know learning is not linear, but he wasn't progressing at all! and now he's progressing every day and we are almost done =D and ahh the tunnels, he's getting better with them too! he's really less apprehensive and it's a relief.

   High also had some problems, he used to get frustrated and bite me, during our trainings, and he never cared about my body movements, he would bump on me if I was on his way... both this problems were solved with patience and persistence, but it all came with time.

   So yeah, we should not be afraid of time, it brings new adventures, a whole new bunch of bravery and when it arrives it leaves great stories behind! and never ever give up when you face with problems that apparently have no solution, time will make it all better.

training adventure

 There is one thing that amazes me about training dogs, it's how unpredictable they can be... of course once you have been training a dog you know what will be easy for him and what will be trouble, but there is always some surprise, for good or bad!

 yesterday I went train my boys for the first time in almost 2 months, I attended to a seminar a month ago with Koda, I'm training slalom and running contacts with him but that's all, we haven't trained much more than that... High was really sick this days, it was a really tough month for both of us, a lot of medicines, vet every day, steroids, corticoid, anabolic... was suspected that his body was destroying the cells it produced. After a looot of prays and dedication not even the vets believed that now he is not just alive but with all rates back to normality =)) I just can thank God for this miracle!

  It's been two weeks since High is better, so we went for some exercise, and both of them were amazing, I couldn't be prouder. For the first time ever I finished a "big" exercise with Koda, he listened to me so well, he was flying trough the field, and he was jumping that high for the first time, on the video he is not that fast because he has trouble with tunnels so I had to do a thousand tunnels before the course and we still have some trouble with communication, but that's perfectly fine for me, he's young and we have all the time we need to improve!

 About High, it's so hard to write or remember yesterday without tears in my eyes, he was so perfect, he IS so perfect! he was way slower than his normal supersonic self, but I really don't care! he was happy, healthy, barking, listening to me, and in the middle of the run I could almost see the smile on his face, and this meant the world to me! it's all that matters!


ps: Shannon is my sister's dog! the golden fish =)

agility foundation and seminars

 As I already said, agility is more than a hobby for me, it's a passion and a life style! but I'm not a really good handler, so my favorite part is the foundation... I guess it has something about my love for teaching new things, anyway, today I want to talk more about those two things: agility foundation and seminars!

 Foundation: there is nothing more important than foundation when it comes to agility, it's obvious that all of us want to go to the obstacles and see  our dogs doing it all, but why the hurry? if you think about it, teaching foundation helps with good performance in all the obstacles, makes the dog enjoy every bit of it and even makes our dog healthier, because if we didn't spend so much time in foundation we would be more tempted to put them sooner in official obstacles, what in some cases (like teeter, slalom, a-frame) is not good for dogs younger than 12 months, at least.

some things that I consider awesome to teach are:

jumps-  Silvia Trkman tight turns- cik/cap 
             Susan Salo- jumping skills

cik/cap and grids (until 3min)

slalom- it depends on your dog, with Koda I tried:
channel and 2x2 (Susan Garrett), both are awesome, but Koda did better when doing for 2x2 method, because he thinks to much... so you have to try it on and see what works for your dog!

channel (until 35 sec)

2x2

A-frame- for the health of the dogs I think no one should do stopped contacts on A-frame, so for me it would be running, there are a lot of methods, Silvia Trkman's running, box, strides...

dog walk- stopped contacts are more common on this obstacle, I use it with High but I'm thinking about other options too, well with High I'm retraining it with nothing but teaching him that he needs to run until the end and the criteria is to put two front paws on the ground, but there are a lot of methods: target (nose or paws), 4on, lure with food, and so on.
- now I'm trying running contacts with Koda, Silvia Trkman methods, and I'm in love!

stopped (from 1:19 to 2:19)

beginning of running

teeter- as all the contact obstacles, there are a lot of choices- 4on, target, lure with food... I'm trying Wendy Pape method and it's great so far.

of course those are just options!

 About seminars, there are few things better to make everyone enjoy the sport more and more, it's unbelievable how all the agility people are amazing! seminars are so much fun! we get to learn, meet awesome people and have a great time, also the memories last for life time long... so enjoy it <3

Lisa Frick and Tereza Králová seminar

Samy Wroblewski seminar

Polona Bonac seminar