This Is What I Do In My Spare Time

Guess who?!?!

It's computer-game Maxwell!

The demo for the pets expansion of The Sims is out, and I have already spent far too much time playing with it.

The pre-made Aussie looked terrible. It had a tiny head, rough collie-like mane, and too much tail (or not nearly enough, for the tailed dogs). So, I made my own from scratch! Each individual patch and color is a separate layer. I also customized every feature, such as muzzle shape, ear angle, and waist tuck. The avatar still isn't a perfect representation of him, but it's darned close.

Now I have to wait for the full game to be released, so my sims can play with Maxwell!

Teaser 2

You’re planning a long road trip with your dog, going halfway across the country to visit some friends. You decide that you’d like to find a local trial to run in while you’re there, and will plan your travel dates accordingly. Your dog is very noise sensitive, but does well in small indoor venues.

You’ve never tried to compete outside your home region before, and your trainers and friends have never been to your destination city. After some searches on the websites of the various sanctioning bodies, you find three promising trials, all indoors. How do you know which one to enter? What if one of them is right next to train tracks? What if one of them echoes a lot, or is in a huge sports complex? How do you decide which one is right for your dog?

DogTrials.net

Different Is Good

Sadie had a really good class tonight. She hit all her contacts and stayed (mostly) focused. There were a few bars down, but not too many. One was apparently a bit of an oh crap, dogwalk moment and she adjusted in-flight for her dogwalk approach. Another was a handler check-in on the end sequence of jumps. I thought she was out of that habit, but oh well.

I am finding that the new instructor very nicely compliments Mr. Trainer. I get very different advice from them, but on completely different aspects of the sport. For example, Mr. Trainer has me thinking about optimizing her path through a course to get faster times. My Tuesday instructor talked to me at length tonight about her physical capabilities. In particular, her lack of core strength. She offered a few suggestions to help with it, and encouraged me to have Sadie evaluated by a specialist that visits the club regularly.

Of the suggestions, one was to get balance dome for her to stand on. It forces the dog to use their core muscles to balance on the tippy surface.

The other one I loved... You get a boogie board, put it in the bathtub with a few inches of water, and get the dog to balance on it. That's right, hang 20, doggy!

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There has been some interest after that teaser post. Never fear, more teasers are coming! I'll probably post them once a week for the next two months or so. Guesses and thoughts are welcome in the comments!

Neglected, But Not Forgotten

I realize that it's been nearly a week since my last post... Oops! I'll just give you a few doggy highlights:

Sadie's new Tuesday night class is going well. We had a substitute instructor last week, who I had actually had once before with less than stellar results. However, I think that the combination of Sadie being much more skilled and less reactive, plus my greatly increased dog training confidence, lead to a good class. The instructor gave me a lot of good handling / course-planning information to absorb, though I think some of it is still too advanced for Sadie.

Thursday night at the shelter was a teaching night. I had about 6 new volunteers, all of whom were very interested in the dogs. One guy annoyed me greatly by texting during the class (even the lecture portion), but ended up being the best of the group when out with a dog. We even got to practice problem-solving! Our chosen dog managed to squeeze past one of the trainees, but just wriggled in a happy flurry of joy right back to me. Then he escaped again, this time by slipping his collar! I found him a better-fitting collar before we went outside.

We went to the Adirondacks for the weekend. It was nice and cool, though a bit rainy on Saturday. Maxwell practiced off-leash recalls. Boy, baby food is a great reinforcer when outdoors! Both dogs did a fair bit of running and romping through puddles. And when they got hot, both dogs ended up swimming! That's right, Maxwell went in the lake, beyond where he could stand, all on his own. No life jacket!

Sadie has a bunch more trials coming up. I also need to find some matches and/or run-throughs for Maxwell. A friend just had an extremely successful first trial with her young dog, and I have to admit to a little jealousy. I am very happy for her, but wish that I thought Maxwell was ready. I've considered it, but he's just too drivey and distracible: a bad combination for a loose dog in a new place! I just keep reminding myself that the things that make him such a challenge NOW are the same things that will make him an incredible agility dog LATER.

Lastly, I know I left a cryptic post and a rather info-less link a little while ago. Rest assured, more teasers to come!