Weekend Warriors

Well firstly (and I know that this is not directly related to Kassa) we ran (what I will humbly say) was a fantastic Judo tournament this weekend. I was really proud of how our team came together to pull it off. It did mean that my best boy got to spend all Saturday with his mom. She took him for his walk etc.. and they had a great time. Sunday we attended the Greyhound Winter Gathering that was held in Murfreesboro at the livestock center. It was a great place to meet other greyhound folks and was so good for Kassa to mix and mingle :). They had an area for the dogs to run as well as an area for vendors to sell doggy items. There was a pot-luck style table set for snacking and lots of doggy treats for the kids. I really enjoyed sitting back and enjoying the efforts that all the organizers made to put this meet together... especially after just coming off of the Judo event that I had just helped run. This morning I decided to give Kassa a treat and drive him to the ball park instead of going for our normal walk. He had a grand time and I was right on schedule and back in the house to head to work by 7:30. At that point I realized dropped my cell phone in the ball diamond I had to drive all the way back. Sigh... Well I found it so all is well however sometimes things do not go as planned.

Dear Deer

Well no pictures today. Kassa and I went out for a walk this morning and saw a family of 7 white tale deer. I fought off the strange temptation to turn Kassa loose and let him chase and we passed on our merry way. This morning there was no Kassa waiting for me when I got out of the shower. He was downstairs chilling on the couch. Sigh. I guess he is over the remainder of any separation anxiety he may have had. I've been preoccupied getting things together for running a Judo tournament on the weekend. After that is over I'll have more pics and stories of my favorite pooch.

Sit

Kassa did really well today on our walk. We encountered a lady with 2 toy dogs (on leash) and although Kassa was certainly interested in going over and saying hi (aka having a snack) I took him to the side of the road and he sat for me and had treats. We then worked more on his "sit" today at lunch time. He still randomly tries "sit" and "down" until he gets it right, however he is getting there. Thanks again to never say never greyhounds for providing the sitting training tutorial.

Greyhound weekends

Well Kassa didn't get a lot of walks this weekend. I considered taking him to a trail however I thought he would enjoy the time more off lead at the ball park. This of course is entirely independent of the fact that I got slammed around so much in Judo on Thursday and then again on Saturday that I was having trouble throwing the ball let alone hiking.

So Kassa and I worked a lot on "Come" and "Sit" on the weekend. Running right up to me on a "Come" and then "Sitting" and then treat. However Sunday he broke down a bit. He was coming but he was confused between sit and lay down. I think he was tired. When I got him home I re-enforced the sit again in the original locations he learned them. He seems to only want to sit on grass and not on the driveway etc. It will take a while to get him to distinguish that location does not dictate what I want him to do.

He also road around with me on Sunday as I did errands. He was fine in the truck for the few mins I had to run in and sat and lay down nicely for me during the ride. Kassa has also taken to sitting on the couch with me. He isn't a touchy-feelly dog in that if a couch is free he will take that one.. however at a certain point in the evening he prefers me and my couch to his bed.

In the mornings I go for my shower. Without fail I find Kassa laying motionless on the floor as though he has been shot. He will just lay there perfectly still while I get dressed etc however the moment my feet hit the stairs he is up and following me down.

Down!

To look at my blog you would think that Kassa and I don't do any actual training. In truth we do a little every day. I decided to video some of my down work with him. I started him using the methods described on the neversaynever greyhound blog. Downs 101 I am now working on making sure he goes down in different locations and that he will hold the down as described in Downs 104. As you can see from my video he still needs to work on the "Done". He often gets it but I think he still believed he could coax an treat or two more out of me. We are also working on sitting however I need my hill and the weather hasn't been cooperating.

Just a bit of Nature

Well I don't have much to say today other than Kassa and I took an extra long walk this morning and enjoyed a bit of nature. Any time we see other dogs Kassa gets treats and we just hang out for a while so that he can be in their general vicinity. No close work yet but I want him to feel relaxed and have a positive association when around all other breeds.

I was quite impressed with this last pic because moments before I snapped it a father was out in the snow wearing a t-shirt. He was shoring up this fort for his children.

Tennessee.. The Great White North?

Well Friday Kassa got a nice surprise. Not only did Mommy stay home all day but Daddy came home early and took him out some wonderful fluffy rain. We even saw some of the neighborhood kids sledding down the hill and jumping a make shift ramp. Awesome!

Every thing was being covered and it was fun to jump around in. At one point he thought I wanted to run and I slipped back and inadvertently demonstrated how to make a snow angel.

The next day we both thought it would be more of the same however in thefirst step we realized that it was not to be. CRACK. Our pristine snow had beenpreserved by aglazing of ice. No more runningaround in the fluff. It was like everything became the laminate floor with no carpet reprieve. It took a long time for us to find any recognizable smells, but in the end we did contribute to the effort to melt the ice.

The other thing we found was that there were strange new beings seemingly made out of the same fluffy rain and equally preserved. Now they didn't warrant much attention as they seemed very patient however they were something that should not be totally ignored.

All in all it was an extra long weekend filled with treats belly rubs and naps. No ball parks this weekend but however once on the road Kassa showed no indication of wanting to end our walks early. I also am about half way through reading "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson. I'm finding this book to be very enlightening and will have more on that after I finish it.