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Dolittle's got nothin' on me

You’re old and grouchy, and too lazy to take the dogs outside

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Oh no wait, that’s me!

It’s blowing and raining out there like a sum b and I just cannot muster up the cojones to take the beasts out in that mess AGAIN and wipe down 28 muddy paws AGAIN and do ANOTHER load of mucky dog towel laundry.  So we’re staying inside.

This executive decision makes Piper ANGRY.

Fortunately, she is relatively easy to placate with peanut-butter-on-a-spoon.

Unfortunately, I am pretty much out of peanut butter.  Which makes her angry all over again.

I feel her pain, for I too am angry.  Well, not angry so much as irritated, frustrated and demotivated.  And it’s all because of Dexter.

Sorry.

 I’m back in that place where I hate doing agility with this assinine, rocket-fueled, hay-for-brains dog again.  And I hate it here so much!  But it seems to be our go-to residence, and all roads lead back to GAH THIS DOG SUCKS SO MUCH WHAT DID I DO IN A PREVIOUS LIFE TO DESERVE THIS AND WHY AM *I* CURSED WITH HIM?!?!

After the fiasco/ last place finish that was Regionals in the early summer, I took a step outside myself and had a good hard look at what we were doing and tried to figure out why we aren’t getting anywhere.  Was I putting too much pressure on him to succeed?  Possibly.  Did I expect too much from a 2 year old dog? Could be.  Did I push too hard to advance him along?  Mayhaps.  So for the last 6 months I have had no expectations of Dexter, no expectations of success, and just tried to enjoy playing with him in class – no trials, no milestones, just trying to bond with my insane dog.  BUT YOU CAN’T BOND WITH INSANE.  *ahem*

I went to our last trial a couple of weeks ago with some expectations, I admit it.  I expected that my THREE year old dog could run a frickin’ Starters course with reasonable success.  I expected that he would not take a jump out of commission with his frickin’ face.  I expected at least one clean run after bloody months and months of work, sweat and border collie/rocket kickback dirt and slobber in my face.  I mean really, I don’t think a clean run in STARTERS, for crying out loud, is too big an expectation for a dog who has been doing some form of agility for almost three freakin’ years.

For all the good it did me, I may as well have run TWooie.

Hey, is that kind of comment really necessary?

Sorry TWooie.

But really, come on!  This dog has has every advantage – foundation puppy classes; clicker training from 8 weeks old; 2X2 practice on my lunch break every day; attention work and flat work; one jump exercises … the list goes on (but I can’t remember it all, cuz I’m old now).  He still can’t hit his weave entry 80% of the time and/or pops out of them to jump up and down in my face barking at me, he still takes jumps that do not exist – or if he’s feeling obedient, jumps that exist but are not part of the course – and he still just makes me a seething ball of teeth clenching rage!  AGH!  And most frustratingly of all, he REALLY LOVES THE DAMN SPORT.  Oh cruel irony!

At class this week I could only make the first half, as I had to speed across town to participate on a symposium about cats in my city.

Ah yes, a symposium about me.  This is wise. Perhaps are you are not as hopeless as I’d first thought.

 So I had to squeeze both dogs into one hour of class instead of two.  Jumped Springaling out of the truck and ran her through a pretty difficult and technical course with not a foot out of place.

You remember Spring, yes?  Adopted from an animal shelter at ~one year of age; she ended up there after being found locked in a cat carrier with no food or water in the middle of an empty field in the hot summer?  Was so anxious that she soiled herself every time I stepped out of the house without her?  Didn’t know a single command?  Peed when I looked at her funny?  Didn’t garner interest from a single applicant because she was so weird?  Was deathly afraid of the teeter? Has been taking agility classes for six months only?

My nose tastes good.

Then I jumped Dexter out of the truck and after about 10 minutes, really wanted to run him over with it instead.  We literally could not get past the third obstacle.  He took other jumps instead of the one he was supposed to.  He ran around me in a circle staring at my knees like they were going to break into song.  He did the weave poles instead (and did NOT get his entry) and halfway through them jumped straight in the air, raced back to me and hovered about two feet over the dirt floor and went BARKBARK in my face.

*sigh*

I am demotivated by my dog, I admit it.  I’m out of ideas.

Actually, you’re out of peanut butter.

Look – I don’t want to make The World Team.  I’m not trying to smoke all the competition in the 26″ class.  I don’t aspire to be anything other than a reasonably decent handler who is a good partner to her dogs.  And I can’t be all that bad.  I mean, Tweed and I did win Regionals this year, and that was no accident.

Ah sweet victory … how good it tastes!

I even put a MAD on Piper, and that was, like, impossible.  Because she is a terrible, glued to my knees and feet agility dog.

I’m about to get ANGRY again!

But there has to be some balance.  Dexter is not a baby dog anymore.  He’s a grown up dog who has been destroying the game of agility for me for nearly three years.  As much as it pains me, I’m |thisclose| to just calling it quits with him, and finding him something else to do.  It pains me because he almost has the trifecta of Agility Dog Excellence – he’s got Heart, He’s got Courage … too bad he doesn’t have a f*ckin’ BRAIN.

But I have a toy!  It’s a really long squeaky crocodile.  And it’s mine.

It makes me sad.

Things I really don’t want to hear about my rant are the following:

I lost my agility dog to cancer/accident/age/alien abduction last year and I would give anything in the world to play with him/her again.  You should be grateful you have a healthy young dog to play with etc. etc.  I know all this.  I too have lost agility dogs to age/retirement and death.  I grieve for them but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to kick Dexter in the nutsack some evenings.

It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. Sure, I hear you … but seriously, who goes on a journey without a reasonable expectation of arriving somewhere at least kind of awesome?  If my journey with Dexter was not through a war torn country full of land mines and muggers, I might be able to enjoy it a little.

There are more important things in the world than agility.  Yes, this is very true – but I _am_ talking about agility, after all.  Not world peace.  And Dexter would somehow ruin that too besides.

Mostly I am just ranting (with cleverly interspersed photos).  I know there is no good answer to any of this, except for “stop playing agility with Dexter.”  Which I just may do.

Well phhhbbbllltt on you then.

I just kind of think that my hobby should be fun.  Dexter makes it un-fun, sometimes.  Lots of the time.  Pretty much all of the time.  Stupid athletic dog.

*kicks the dirt*

On a more fun topic, it never fails to amuse me how gleefully fascinated TWooie is by peanut butter on a spoon.

Whereas Pfeifer was concerned that it was some kind of trick.

Are you sure about this?

But was then delighted when it was just plain old tasty.

Stupid Dexter couldn’t even get the peanut butter game right.

I’m going to buy some more peanut butter and try it out on my new cat, Cyrus.

I adopted Cyrus from my work.  He came in as a little kitten and because he was black and therefore “boring” he basically grew up in the shelter.  I tried to market him to every single adopter that came in, because Cyrus is AWESOME, and after months of failed efforts, I fell victim to the hype I created and brought him home.  And he is the sweetest, coolest, bestest cat in the world.

Unless you are toilet paper on a roll.  Then he just sucks.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I find the entire Dexter/agility debacle/dilemma very strange. I wish I had some insights or pithy observations for you. I don’t. I have known of a couple of dogs like this in agility, and I didn’t get them, either.

    One agility trainer I had years ago would take a spaz dog (it was a Schipperke, in that class) and have its handler do obstacle-sit, obstacle-sit, for the entire course. After a few weeks of that (omg, tedious to the max), the dog could progress to TWO consecutive obstacles. Might that help Dex keep his sh!t together on the course, do you think?

    Don’t quit, though. You can always quit later. Reserve that option. :)

  2. The toilet paper in my bathrooms is hidden under the sink, if you don’t remember to get it out before you sit down you regret it immensely. If I don’t keep it there my younger cat turns the entire roll into snow……

    Can’t help with Dexter, sorry!

  3. Stop running Dexter. Find someone else to play Agility with him and focus on Spring and the other dogs you have your hands full with. Dexter just might not be yours to run at this stage, unfortunately.

  5. i’m sorry you’re so frustrated. sounds like you’ve more than earned it, courtesy of you know who.

    bwahahaha! i literally laughed out loud b/c Dexter can’t even get the peanut butter game right. hilarious!

    umm, maybe Cyrus wants to play agility? that would take your mind off of how frustrated you are with Dexter.

    btw, i didn’t see anything about ‘sarcastic comments about playing agility with a cat’ in your disclaimer.

  6. Wait till you get into your 50s, then the crankiness seems to be a daily thing. But this line “He ran around me in a circle staring at my knees like they were going to break into song.” made me laugh so hard I started crying and had to go grab a Kleenex! I have a family reunion that I’m dreading going to tomorrow and somehow that line just made everything better, thank you!

    Sorry about the mental block Dexter is having with agility, maybe his brain just hasn’t dropped yet, sorta like his boy bits didn’t :-) Congrats on the new kitty and thanks for the great post!

  7. I know I’ve posted this before, but I have my own “not what I wanted him to be” dog – though in my case it is a dog I bought for conformation and therapy work who is too ugly for the former and too high strung for the latter. We eventually found a place for him doing obedience, and when I get my stuff a little bit more together I have very high hopes for him in that venue. It was an EXTREMELY frustrating road to get there though. Gave everyone involved mad teeth.
    I understand how Spring makes it somewhat more frustrating too. One of my other dogs was given to me when his breeder lost her job, and even though he wasn’t raised with therapy work in mind he is PERFECT at it. Go figure.

  9. Cyrus is gorgeous. Spring is awesome. And Dexter needs a break. Take him out of the game for at least six months. If you can manage, don’t even backyard agility with him. Cut him off from the drug.

    Play with the dogs that play WITH YOU. Enjoy them and agility. Then think about bringing back Dexter. Maybe. If he decides to play the game of agility and not the game of taunt the handler.

    Odds are he’s not being a shit on purpose. But girl. I feel your pain.

  10. Sometimes there are be careful what you wish for dogs. Beep has been my dog like that. Very talented and athletic, but hard to run! He is now seven and we still go weekends without a single Q, but when it all does come together it is awesome! There was a time when I thought my younger, much less experienced dog Poppet would get a MAD before Beep, but Beep and I did it. Whew! Hang in there! There is still hope and three is really still a baby dog, when you’re baby dog is super charged!

  11. I feel your pain foodlady :) my boy didn’t grow a brain until he was 4, now he uses it when its convenient for him, when he does he’s scary sort of smart. Don’t give up on him just yet :) Oh and the turning 40 thing, wait until you hit the 50 ;)

  12. So play agility with your other dogs and find something that works for you *and* Dexter. He’s got *some* of what it takes to be an agility dog, but not *all* of what it takes (yet, anyway).

    Life’s too short to make yourself or your animals miserable over a hobby.

  13. Sounds like Dexter hasn’t grown up yet, my Liam was the same way, so i quite doing agility and just worked on obedience obedience obedience, and fun stuff. These Borders don’t grow up sometimes till 5 years old. I would just totally back off from it all. Just a suggestion, lol

  14. Apparently a meltdown of gigantic proportions. We’ve all had them and then gone on to see all the wonderful attributes our dogs have to offer. Silver lining you have a mottley crew to work with. Work with Dexter on the things he excels at, not what you want him to excel at and enjoy the luv. Their life is way too short.

  15. Dexter is SLOW to mature! Let him grow up while you take little Miss Springing along! My boy Cutter is still an immature puppy who will be seven years old in 2 months! Sorry I’m no help am I? ;-)
    Janet w / 3 Aussies, 1 BorderCollie and an Irish Setter mix!

  16. I have had a similar experience with my Border Collie in flyball, and when I tried to do Rally with him, it wasn’t any better. (I won’t bore you with all the details and tears). I finally decided that it wasn’t worth all the frustration and decided that I will just enjoy what he loves to do best which is give me lots of love and fall asleep at night with his head on my shoulder.

  17. Count me in as well for loving the singing knees! Maybe the storm will blow itself out soon so that you can have a dry walk. I wish I could give you some gem of advice about Dexter – dogs sometimes have a way of upsetting the applecart of our expectations by simply being themselves – but I hope you find something soon that works out for the two of you. Your cats are beautiful btw.

  18. Sorry you’re so unhappy with Dexter. Maybe leaving agility for a while (with him, I’d keep trialling Miss Spring since she’s obviously a rock star!) would be the best thing to do, for both of you. I do know how you feel, my almost 3-yo often doesn’t make it to the third obstacle, and he also has had all the advantages. OTOH, he’s an intact male basenji. Someday he’ll take delivery of his brain, and then…..

  20. Cyrus looks just like my Ivan! Handsome boy. Sounds like he is nicer than Ivan, though, who is cool unless you are my *other* black cat, in which case he is a jerk.

    And black is SO not boring.

  21. Cyrus is B E A you-tiful! I’m a sucker for a long haired black cat. The shadings in the coat are just so gorgeous. It always boggles me that people overlook them.

    As far as agility — damn. Damn Dexter specifically. lol But really, what you have acomplished with Spring is really amazing. Don’t let anything (including zomg adrenaline junkie BC’s) take that from you. Run her like she’s your first and only dog.

    I do actually have a thought as to what would give you a grip on Dexter. Same thing I used to get my Pippin dog on an even keel. Remember the video of a certain little blue merle mini Aussie? Yah, him. He’s doing great, pretty much a normal dog nowadays. So e-mail me if you like — afinstrom@comcast.net Advice is the one thing that is always free, and like free things, I know it’s not always wanted. :-D But I would like to help if I could.

    And luv me some Piper dog. Bitches rock.

  22. I feel for you with Dexter. I have a very similar dog who also made agility un-fun and I had many of the same feelings as you. And then the other day we did a brilliant run where he listened and watched and it was perfect. My dog not long turned 5 years old – FIVE!!! We have waited this long!!! And I’m scared to believe that a corner has been turned and all is good i agility now. We will have to wait and see until the next competition!!

  23. Some dogs are just harder to run then others. Ive run excellent jumpers course 50 times now and have one Q. Its no longer about trying to get Q’s. I work on little things. Can I get that lateral send to #8 jump. Or how tight can I get the turn around #9. And that is just recent. Mostly I was just trying to get around the course and usually just hung on for the ride. I just wanted to let you know that you arent alone. Success is handing you leash to the leash runner and walking out the the my start line position. ( my dog is 5 and I got to do this last weekend for the first time) LOL See, little things. Good Luck!!

  25. Oh I feel your pain with Dexter. I too have a super crazy, super fast dog I had to take some time off with him because of his anxiety and fear issues but we are back into the training mode. One thing I have found is that channel weaves could help with the popping weave poles to come back. They will teach him to drive through! Keep using the 2x2s for your entry work!!!

    I also agree with the obstacle, sit obstacle, sit combination. It would help him to not get so high, get the gist of what you are doing so he can learn. Then every now and then, expand it and evaluate his progress. He is still a young dog who has potential to be great! Sometimes they just need more time to grow up!

  26. I have no advice but can only relate all too well and tell you an abbreviated version of my trials and tribulations with Jet. Jet my 4 yr BC is the same way…Though I knew from the start he had impulse control issues, was a big boy (he covers a lot of ground and is fast) and has more drive and speed than the ability to “think” when under the influence of the drug called agility. At the start line he would tremble and his eyes were pinwheels of mass course destruction. To this day our runs consist of moments of shear brilliance or he loses his head (I can literally see his brain hit the ground) and the wheels come off…. It is getting better…but do note he is 4 coming on 5 yrs…Most herding folk do not consider a dog solid until it has as many years on stock as it does appendages… :-) I figure Jet and I have one more appendage before we run out since I am counting his tail…LOL!
    I too was very frustrated and had moments where I wanted to quit. But like Dexter he loves the sport and when he is being a team player…he is really nice…Just recently after a trial where I did not feel he was being a team player, I considered quitting for awhile and work on team building with him or something I was not sure what? Then the next trial he was awesome…So after much thought I decided to do my best to no longer get frustrated…it does neither one of us any good and felt I had to take some responsibility for what he is…because I trained him. So for better or worse we still trial and work hard on team building…I also before a run try to get into his head when I warm him up with attention games, jump come cookie, send, jump turn come cookie….basically the Linda Mecklenburg recall to heel exercises with a jump thrown in… And when we are 6 dogs out, I do heeling and warm up exercises. Is it a fix? No, but it does help him to focus on me and his job rather than get on the start line and both of us fret about what is to come… and or for him to be so amped up he is past all reason and loses every molecule of trained behaviors in his over loaded brain….I make him focus on me until we get on the line…that is when he is not dragging me into the ring….LOL! When things start to go south on a run I make him sit and this is the big tell, he can’t sit he is so over the top, so I wait him out until he does sit, then we calmy resume our run. Most judges are pretty good about letting us continue as it is obvious his brain has departed is body. ;-) Reading your post it was like déjà vu for me…so I feel your pain…I really do…
    Bottom line is you have to do what is best for you and Dexter, unfortunately I don’t think anyone can tell you or suggest what to do to make it better. Because what works for one team may not or will not work for another…My one and only suggestion would be to get a second opinion with another trainer… I mean nothing against your current trainer…but a second set of eyes will see things your current trainer has seen all along…if that make sense?
    Candace and Jet wish you and Dexter all the best….

  27. It sounds like Dexter’s brain goes into “fried egg” mode over more than agility obstacle and at that point he’s unable to learn…basically “going over his threshold”. I’d say keep agility fun for you and quit doing it with him for awhile. You’ll know when YOU are ready to take on teaching him again and by then maybe you’ll have a new idea in your back pocket to help him keep his brain inside his head so he can actually work WITH you instead of insisting that agility must be done all by his onezies!

  28. You made me laugh even as I felt your pain. I can only echo the advice of those who suggested taking a break from agility with Dexter – it will be good for both of you. And you can enjoy agility with Miss Spring. I know Dexter was going to be – and may still be – your agility dog but clearly he isn’t ready for it yet. The suggestion of a different trainer is also a good one just for the second set of eyes and new perspective.

    I loved all the pictures and your new black kitty.

    I don’t know where I heard this story – here? – and I shouldn’t repeat it now but I can’t resist. A woman is at an agility trial and her dog is doing “a Dexter”, running wild and having a ball but paying no attention to her or the course. The woman finally breaks down in tears and the judge tries to console her by saying “He will be a wonderful dog when he is grown up”. Now the woman starts to sob “He is TEN years old!”

    Hang in there! At least Dexter gives you lots to write about.

  30. While all my Agility experience comes from your (awesome) blog, Dexter sounds like my Lab, Max. Fast, smart as hell, but all he wants to do is run as fast as possible all the time. I think if I’d tried doing Agility with Max three years ago (he’s six), I would have wanted to kill him. Maybe just let Dexter run the crazies out? While Max still goes all out all the time, he’s a lot more attentive now than he has been since he was a puppy and scared of everything.
    Good luck!

  31. ranting is allowed! always better to rant about what you’re sorely tempted to do than to actually do it. plus reading your rant reminds me that i’m not alone when my dogs frustrate me to the limits of my sanity.

    i hope you find a good solution for something to do with dexter that allows you to keep agility as a fun hobby.

  34. Oooooh. Have had cat-who-attacks-tp. The solution for us was putting the roll on backwards so the paper rolls out the back: magic non-shredded tp bliss. Now I have a tp-stealing human child. Perhaps it’s karma.

    Dexter reminds me of Kim Collins’ Sierra – a rocket who destroyed courses. She had a ton of heart but couldn’t sit still long enough to listen, so terrorized courses instead. Perhaps it is worth contacting Kim to see if she has any helpful suggestions or try to get into a clinic with her (she used to do summer camps) I think Dexter might benefit from CU style intervention. Not entirely sure if he would need a “mats in between obstacles” to ground him kind of framework, or more just thinking and connection … but it certainly can only help him and would be totally worth checking out even just for the sanity-saving aspect of it all. I feel your pain!

    I have a dog who I pulled from agility because she was disconnected and had other issues, but she hated it, so it wasn’t so heartbreaking. And another dog who loved agility but has a mysterious shoulder ailment so we dropped it all for a while and moved onto other things, and are just fine with that.

    At any rate, enjoy the Spring (SO CUTE she is), and maybe CU can bring Dexter some Brain?!

  35. I feel you. I don’t do agility, but I used to try and work my Faith collie on sheep. *shudders at the memory*. Faith loved working sheep, but she only loved it if she could do it her way. Which included:
    * sending sheep ass over teakettles over a four foot fence;
    * refusing to work the five sheep in the round pen, but when put away chewed through her freaking reinforced cable to get to the thirty unsuspecting sheep in the pasture;
    * blithely ignored my recall(s), causing the owner of the sheep to open the gate so he could try and corral her with the four-wheeler;
    *whereupon she took all thirty sheep out through the open gate and proceeded to drive them towards the highway.
    Luckily, it was August, so she stopped on the way to the road and plunged herself into the water trough. No sheep were actually harmed during Faith’s months of stock terrorizing (well, at least not permanently), but, yeah.
    Faith retired from stock work.
    I’ve thought she might make an agility dog, but, uh, after reading your post, maybe I don’t want to go there either. :-)

  36. I’m sorry about Dexter. I feel your pain. I had had two Border Collies who were marvelous, biddable, intelligent dogs. Then I got Logan. I wanted one that was outgoing, high-strung and a clown. That was what I got. I honestly did feel he would be my best obedience dog yet. I did puppy classes, puppy agility classes and at some point he turned into a crazy, wildly spinning, barking, nutty, bat sh*t crazy dog!!!!!!!! I feel like I missed some aspect of socialization/distraction training and I get very frustrated with him. He’s so weird! Most dogs and people have a learning curve, his is a zig zag. Now he knows it, now he doesn’t, now he knows it, now he doesn’t. I last did agility classes with him at age 1. I haven’t had the courage to try again. He’s now 6. He does have two obedience titles and three rally obedience titles. I feel very discouraged but even top obedience trainers in my area just say that “he’s a lot of dog and you do I good job with him.” That does make me feel better, but he still frustrates me so much. I don’t have any advice, only sympathy.

  37. i don’t know what to tell you about dexter, but your rant just made me snort my peanut better out my nose! sorry to laugh at your pain……..no not really, it WAS funny.

  38. Are you sure that Dexter’s not related to my Seamus?? Seamus is now 6, and you just summed up his 2 or 3 year old self. It’s taken me a long time to bond with this dog because he used to lose his brain so easily- so much drive it just takes over whatever common sense he might have ever had. Many moments of considering strangling him once I could get hold of him!
    If it makes you feel any better, he did seem to grow a brain around 5 or so, and though there are still situations I know I can’t put him in (taking him to a soccer game, or a dog park where everyone has a frisbee or a chuck-it comes to mind), he’s one fantastic dog now. Mind you, his main career is assisting in marathon training with my husband, and trail running with me, and not agility.
    Sometimes it just takes these guys a while to grow up, I guess.

  39. I know a dog similar to your Dexter, at least he sounds like a dog I know. My friend’s dog is about 3. You’d think she’d be grown up, but she’s not. She will be wonderful agility dog at some point, but right now, in her brain, she’s a baby dog. She doesn’t lose her marbles the way Dexter does, but she tackles my friend at every possible chance. The same may be true for Dexter. Needs more time to grow up. My friend has put her dog up for the better part of six months now, and will likely wait a while longer. Sigh…no easy answers.

  40. Love the photos. Black/Tuxedo cats are the best – I have two that walk the dogs with me. Sweet, trainable, even tempered.

    Now.. Dex… the only thing I don’t recall you mentioning that you’ve tried, is running his arse off before a competition, then competing him. I mean dumb-ball for an hour, 2x a day, at a competition, preferably before the first run. Wear.him.out. Day before. During the event. Find friend to wear.him.out.some.more. If tongue isn’t dragging on the ground, he’s not tired enough.

    And now that I’m rambling… maybe… agility is something done only in the ring. No more lunch time weave poles. No in the field tunnel. Agility is special, and if he wants to do it, it has to be in the ring. Don’t know… just thinking of “opposite” of what you’re maybe doing now.

  41. I feel you so much. I was in the same position as you are and I HATED getting advice, and I hated it even more when it was from people who succesfully solved the situation.
    So I’m just offering moral support. Or something.

  42. Quitting, for a while at least, is probably a good idea especially since you have Srping to keep playing with. I would suggest just taking him out for fun, and to maintain skills. I would also suggest flyball. Dexter sounds like my Yuri. We never made it out of Starters, but he was the bestest flyball dog ever! He was able to use all of his athleticism and enthusiasm for playing, but it wsa simple enough that it didn’t fry his wee brain.

  43. Try him on sheep again? Even basic stuff requires a fairly high degree of self control and thoughtfulness in a dog. Might transfer over? Course I know you hate getting advice but you did ask!
    Didn’t you?

  45. I run a Cardigan Corgi in agility. He’s a nice high drive little guy who gets about 90% of the game. What he doesn’t get is the table. And as a result, what would otherwise be a clean run goes down the toilet due to that one obstacle. It has happened many, many times. I’ve watched the puppies I was in Foundation classes with, go on to MACH and then MACH again, But, oh, no, not us. And then, on the rare occasion the table is successful, guess what, he knocks just one bar. We all have our demons even though it seems everyone else is on the easy track to success.

    Here’s a Zig Ziglar quote I read recently. I am taking it to heart!

    ” Success is the doing, not the getting; in the trying, not the triumph.”

  46. You know, it’s nice to see that so many people also have crazy dogs!!! I felt bad today, about putting up a post yesterday that says how much he frustrates me (and he does) when I have also come to think that his craziness is a challenge to my training ability and it is teaching me how to lighten up sometimes and he makes me laugh!!!! I’ve laughed more at Logan (just in a daily routine) than anything else in my life. A friend suggested that he needs his own Facebook page to keep people updated (and laughing) about his behavior. Maybe that is the same with Dexter. He is in your life to teach you something, you just need to figure out what.
    Funny Logan story, he hates birds, always has, loves to run after them and bark. Well, we were out hiking and he decided he needed to poop. For Logan, this is a big production of running and then circling before pooping. Well, he’d run off the trail into an alfalfa field, started to do a straight out run to circle and poop and just as he’s squatting to poop a huge flock of barn swallows swoop by him to catch all the bugs that he just flushed out of the field (with all his running and circling.) He of course sees the birds and is pissed off, off he runs (mid-poop) to bark angrily at the birds. Then he runs back to me, trots with me for a while and then realizes that he still needs to poop, off he goes again, zoom, in the alfalfa field, circle, starting to poop, and here comes the barn swallows again, after the bugs, off goes Logan, mid-poop. By the third time this happens I’m laughing hysterically, holding my sides, staggering around. To this day, I can’t tell the story without laughing like crazy. Wish I would have had a video camera. He really hates birds now, won’t even let them near the back porch to nest!!!

  47. Laughed so hard! Photos and your comments are just too funny. But I can relate! Rescue Lab. Sweet, sweet girl. And a total Wild Woman. Though at 10+ she is getting just a wee bit slower. And even comes when I call…sometimes. Sigh.

  48. Try flyball for a while. He actually sounds like he would be incredible in it, and you already have your foundation training.

  49. Well, border collies are just too smart for me! If Spring loves agility, maybe just do it with her and enjoy Dexter a while longer, then work on some other approach that might help him build skills useful for agility, before actually going back to agility….if that makes any sense…..
    Cyrus is amazingly similar in appearance to our late Lucy-cat. Let’s hope he doesn’t get into the peanut butter jar – the dogs will lick him til his fur is gone!
    Thanks for sharing your life, even the frustrations – ranting is always better than some of the other behaviors we humans can do when we are angry, and reminds me that we all have stuff to rant about. Take good care.

  50. I think Dexter has more brains than you’re giving him credit for. You and he are playing different games, that’s all. You’re playing agility. He’s playing “f*ck with food lady to see if I can get a rise out of her”. This has been going on for a long time. So I’m wondering what might be going on during his agility runs with you that *he* perceives as rewarding? Maybe I have it all wrong – it’s just a thought.

    Maybe he’s just more interested in the play than the precision, and he sees the agility ring as a massive solo dog park with the best toys he can imagine, where he can show off in front of a bunch of other dogs who have to wait their turn and he gets to wind you up at the same time. *That* certainly sounds like a fit for the Dexter we all know and love…

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