Movin' on up...

Movin on up, to the East side....

Okay, not really, but I am moving. I decided that there just isn't enough Izzy and flyball to go around. So I'm starting a new blog about Izzy and Frodo, a blog about training and pictures and everything else that goes on when you're living with two goons.

So, I hope to see all of my readers (if I have any that is) at our new home...

izfro.blogspot.com

Honey.

Honey.
Originally uploaded by laurenscoombs

This is me turning off the auto setting on my camera. Honey the mule was not impressed. I have pictures of the mules complete with heads, but I actually like this one. It's peaceful. Maybe I'll share the rest tomorrow.

Flyball Class #13

Let's hope I can remember what we did. I really need to start writing these on Friday night :/

Anyway, Izzy was not (for the second week in a row) on my list of favorite people ever. She managed to snag some litterbox munchies on Friday night...AGAIN! I swear this dog makes a conscious effort to drive me completely insane. Hmph! Thankfully I lucked out once again and managed to avoid cannon butt for the night, yay!

When we first got there Izzy and I did some ball work (we are now using the bucket that I mentioned about last class) because my trainers were busy. Eventually one of my trainers came over and watched. She said that it looks good, but that Izzy is mainly getting the ball in haphazardly and not intentionally dropping it in the bucket, something I had noticed as well but was ignoring :p. But she said if I keep dropping the treat into the bucket for Izzy to get that eventually she should be able to catch on and make a conscious effort at placing that ball in the bucket. *crosses fingers that it is soon*

Then we worked on more chute work...I think. Erm. Yea, I'm pretty sure we did some chute work, but there was obviously nothing important enough for me to remember. I think.

I do know, however, that we did just some general work on the jumps...and that Izzy acted a fool through most of it. *glares at fluffy demon who is teh Izzeh*
Izzy has a problem where she will go down over all four jumps, turn left (as she is a lefty, how cute) and run around the first jump before getting herself on track and hitting the last three jumps. That, of course, will earn her a big, fat DQ for the team during competition. Not good. So when we went to practice I asked if we could put a barrier up between the last jump and where the box would be (had we been using a box), we did. Then, I sent Izzy down, she turns....and keeps on turning. :/ She ran in a circle took off towards a guy in our class who was working with his dog and feeding her cheese. She runs up and jumps all over him, begging for cheese. *sigh*

So we ended up with barriers on each side of the portion of the lane between the last jump and the box. Because my dog has no self control. And is a total PITA...
We ran that a few times before removing the barrier from the side where she went a visiting, and she did well and stayed on track *claps excitedly*
Then we tried to remove the other side barrier and she skipped the jump again. Alas, we are destined for a life of barriers! Did one more round successfully with the barrier and stopped there.

Honestly, that's all I can remember about class.

BUT, to make up for the crappy description, I have some pictures of Izzy flyball-ing.
They aren't the best, just from the trainer's P&S.

Izzy on the chute (and my foot! lol):Look, she's FLYING!:

Just one more...

and the hippest Facebook ID ever! I just joined the group for the class of my college. They're all going to want to talk to me when they see this...I just know it! I'm gonna be popular as heck!












okay. probably not.

I really have nothing to say...

...except that I need a hobby.

Bathtime Pictures!

As I mentioned at the end of my post yesterday I was going off to give Izzy a bath. I lied. I procrastinated (a talent which I have perfected) until today, but *drumroll* Izzy got her bath! And the crowd goes wild! Okay... maybe not. 

Anyway, this is how bathtime goes at our house:

"Lady, I swear, if you do not give me a bath

 I will never break a stay as long as I flyball!"

"I hate you. So, so much."

"I r a porkpine ... 

And I hate you, even as a porkpine"

"Have you humiliated me enough for one day?"

"I know I'm gorgeous,

you don't have to tell me."

"But I still hate you. Cookies may help though,

lots and lots of cookies. And walkies..."

Now I will admit that I lied again. These pictures were taken a few months ago as I can't seem to locate my camera cord at the moment. But they're still cute :P

Flyball Class #12

Wow, long time, no type!

I didn't have class the past two weeks, one I missed for graduation and one of my trainers was sick last week. Anyway, we finally had class last night, so it's time for the weekly report (I know, you've all been sitting at your computers twiddling your thumbs, unsure of what to do without an update :P)!

So, there was only one trainer, myself, and another member there last night. Not sure where the rest of the members were, though it was storming pretty hard yesterday, so maybe that kept them away. I drove right into the storm on the way in, now I may be weird, but I absolutely love thunderstorms! And the lightening gave me quite a show on the way, gorgeous!

Now, that being said, I do NOT like being outside in thunderstorms with Miss Izzy. She is a pain in the butt and refuses to go number 2. So we walked around the grass outside of the training center in the pouring rain staring each other down. Izzy convincing me she doesn't have to go and promising not to go in the training center, and me absolutely not falling for it. 

I'm going to stop here and say that Izzy was already not on my list of favorite beings for the day. Earlier somebody in my family (though none will admit it) had left the gate into the back of the house down and Izzy ran back and helped herself to some litter box treats. Izzy, not sure if I've mentioned this before, has an extremely sensitive stomach and litter box snackies are just about as bad as it gets with her. I'm talking days of torture with her not feeling well and having bad diarrhea, which of course gets all over her fluffy pants, and thus we have to get in the bath and get washed off after every tip outside. Like I said, not on my list of favorite beings at the moment.

So we went inside when I was sure that she wasn't going to go to the bathroom outside. While we were setting up the equipment Izzy's ball work had come up and I ran something by the trainer that I had been thinking of for a bit now. Izzy has definitely been improving on her ball work, but she seems to have a problem being able to drop the ball into my hand. She knows that she needs to get the ball in my hand in order for me to click, but she has trouble judging the distance and space to actually accurately get the ball in my hand (if that makes any sense). She will proceed to pick it up, drop it, pick it up, drop it, etc. to try and get it in my hand, but it frustrates the snot out of her and eventually she will shut down. Not very progressive in training. Now, a similar topic came up on a flyball list I am on, and they mentioned using a bucket. So, the new plan is to teach Izzy that she needs to drop the ball into the bucket in order for me to click. I figure the larger opening and the clarity of the ball needs to be in the bucket will definitely help up and speed up our ball work.

Then the trainer decided to try something new to make Izzy even more interested in the ball, which of course I am all about! So she brings out her adorable sheltie and tells me to play fetch with her dog with Izzy right there and maybe she will get jealous when I am praising, paying attention to, and giving treats to the other dog. At first she is all about me having cheese (not something she gets a lot of) and trying to jump up on me to give her the cheese while I'm throwing balls for the other dog and giving that dog treats. In minimal time she gets tired of this crap and decides to go explore the building. So here I am, acting a fool whenever this other dog brings me a ball and Izzy is like "You are nuts lady, seriously off your rocker... and just for the record I hate you for giving that dog cheese, you will pay." 

After roughly ten or so minutes of her ignoring me and this other dog, she wanders over and walks over to the ball and sniffs it. YAY! Kisses and cheese and pets and praises galore for teh Izzeh! (she of course only cared about the cheese). Then she decides that was nice but searching for discarded treats around the facility is much more rewarding and can be done without having to listen to me, so off she goes again, and I play ball with the other dog again. She eventually wondered back again and after eyeing the other dog up she runs for the ball when I throw it and picks it up. Massive CHEESEFEST! And we stopped on that good note.

The rest of the class was mostly spent working on passing. The plan was that I would set up Izzy in a sit stay behind the second or third jump and then stand behind the start line and call her, then the other lady who came would release her BC to go down the lane, grab the tennis ball off the chute (behind which the trainer was standing and loading), and come tearing back the lane. We ran into a problem. Izzy decided that stays were way overrated and she just really didn't need to listen to them. She's such an objectionable little brat. So instead I would put her in the stay, take a few steps back, then turn and hoof it in the other direction and she would run after me. Not only was I mad that she wouldn't listen to her stay command, but I also had not signed up for physical participation. After all, isn't Izzy supposed to be the one running around like a fiend? Apparently not. We are definitely working on stays before next class *grumbles* 

Anywho, that was pretty much all we did last night. 

On a good note, always end on a good note, while we were working the member came in with the dog that Izzy tried to attack last week. She did great, no teeth or snarling, they even sniffed hello before Izzy begged some treats from the owner (which of course she got *sigh*).

Now, I need to go give Izzy a bath, she looks bad. O.o

OMFG it's hot!

According to weather.com it is currently feels like 92 degrees and the humidity is at 59% here in Bloomsburg.

We can't do anything in this heat. *stomps feet*

I have no air conditioning, so we sit here, laying on the tile floors panting, windows open and fans going. Last night at about 6:30 I took the dogs around the block, just around the block, and when we got home I was drenched in sweat and Izzy just laid on the floor and panted and panted and panted. No matter how much I use the Furminator on her, her coat is just too thick and she roasts.

Now that schools out I'm going to start getting up early and exercising the dogs, but I still hate to see them so miserable during the day :(

I do know, though, that there is no way she is going to be able to function for more then a few minutes at a time during flyball practice if this heat continues, which it undoubtedly will for the rest of the summer.

Hopefully tonight it will cool off enough for us to go down and soak in the creek, and hey, maybe one of these days I'll actually have something productive to write about!

/ totally unproductive whiney rant

Just like training, always end on a good note, so...

I'M A GRADUATE!!!
(I'm second from the left)

NO MORE HIGH SCHOOL, WAHOO!

Little girl tried to steal Izzy

Nothing new on the flyball front, still working on the ball with Izzy and slowly improving so I figured I'd tell you all about the little girl who tried to take my dog yesterday! lol

Only 2 days until graduation and I'm super busy, so I'll keep this short!

I've been walking Izzy up Spruce Street (the steepest street in our town) when it starts to cool off most nights, but yesterday my mom told me that it wasn't that hot out (total lie!) so we went early. About halfway up Spruce St. I saw a friend of mine, who was headed down to the park to hang out with friends and asked if I wanted to walk along. Hmmm, walk to the park...or walk up this friggin ginormous hill...tough choice. So we walked back down the hill (I'm not yet ready to admit we skipped our workout :p) and while we were headed towards the park there was a group of people having a cookout and this little girl (probably 2 or 3 years old) came tottering over towards Izzy (Dad in tow) to say hi.

Once she got close though, she decided she was kinda scared of Izzy, so of course Miss Attention Whore throws herself on her back and works her cuteness to her advantage. The little girl's father took her hand and rubbed Izzy's tummy with it. The little girl started giggling like mad. Now, I'm really not a little kid person...at all, but it was so adorable! When we got up to leave she reached out and grabbed the end of Izzy's leash from me and started waddling away. I kept ahold of the middle of Izzy's leash in case she would pull or something, and just followed the little girl around for a bit.

Then she took Izzy back towards the rest of the people and up to her mom, turned towards me...and waved good-bye. LOL! She expected me to leave Izzy there with her, and let me tell you, she was not a happy camper when she was told she couldn't have Izzy. We stuck around for a few more minutes, Izzy of course had to stay long enough to make sure people weren't going to feed her, before she finally gave me the rest of the leash back and I could get going. :D

Then on our way to the park a guy came around the corner with an aggressive schnauzer and a petrified manchester terrier *facepalm* So the schnauzer is lunging at Izzy, which sets her off, and of course we're too far past her threshold for her to acknowledge me at all. To make matters worse, little manchester terrier freaks and slips its collar, so guy has to try and control lunging schnauzer while chasing down petrified manchester. Good times, eh?

We ended up not going to the park, instead we went home and calmed down. Perhaps that was karma for not completing out workout?

You like?

As all of you imaginary blog readers may have noticed, we do indeed have a new title picture! Yippee! A huge thanks to Babyblue5290 from Chazhound for the awesome photoshopage (again, my blog, my words) talents

*round of applause*

She even guessed our flyball team colors (yellow and purple) without me even telling her:

'cause I'm sye-kick. DUH! ;)

(her words, not mine, lol)

Anyway, your jealousy over my new pic is understandable, invisible blog readers.

Flyball Class #11

Last night's flyball class went both well and horribly. It went well as far as performance goes, but as far as behavior goes it was our worst class yet. I do think that going swimming earlier in the day and wearing her out made Izzy more irritable then usual, so we will definitally not be doing that anymore!

While helping to set up the equipment for class Izzy and some other dogs (sheltie, 2 BCs: one Izzy knows and a new student) ran around off leash. Izzy, as usual, didn't try to interact with the others but instead scoured the place for any forgotten treats, which is fine with me. All went well until one BC, Jenny (who I am falling more in love with each week) decided to herd Izzy every time she moved. Now, she had done this last week and Izzy hadn't minded at all, but like I said before, tonight she was more irritable and told Jenny off. Jenny didn't really seem to get the picture, she would back off for a second and come up behind her again. My trainer, who I trust thoroughly and completely with Izzy, said to just let them work it out for a bit, and Izzy told Jenny off about two more times before Izzy went to search for treats in the back room and the trainer called Jenny off because she didn't want Izzy to feel cornered in the back room. They were perfectly fine with each other the rest of the night, they sat by each other when the other dogs worked and everything was good, so I'm not worried.

Before I start talking training, I figured I'd post a few diagrams of a flyball course so that all of you who are reading my blog (okay, I am well aware that nobody reads my blog, but in an attempt to boost my self esteem I'm going to pretend I have a billion and a half readers like Fugly Horse of the Day, an amazing blog, does :D) can visualize what I'm trying to say.

Diagram #1:
Diagram#2:

Izzy did some ball work while the new dog was evaluated, she is now to the point where about 60% of the time she is dropping it in my hand. The rest of the time she just picks it up and drops it, or "throws" it at me, so I'm just working on getting her more reliable with that and and then moving on to further distances away. Then Izzy, the trainer, and I worked on the same thing we had worked on last week. I hold Izzy behind the last jump (jump closest to the chute or box) and the trainer stands behind the chute, not to be confused with the box.

Chute:
Box:

The chute is used before the box, right now she is learning to do a proper swimmers turn on the chute, and once she flyballing (this is my blog, I can make up words if I want to!) on the chute, which includes grabbing a tennis ball that is velcroed to the chute and bringing it back over the jumps, then she will move on to the box. Just wanted to jump in here quick and say that I am a novice/green/beginner/whatever you want to call it - at flyball. Everything training wise or procedure wise that I say, has been relayed to me by my trainers, and if I say it wrong that is totally my own fault as well (Read: Don't try this at home! :p).

Anyway, as I was saying, I stand behind the last jump and my trainer stands behind the chute. She starts revving up Izzy and Izzy starts to lunge into her harness because she's so excited (good girl Izzy!), I let Izzy go and say "over!" as she's jumping. Izzy jumps on the chute and my trainer pretends to throw a treat back towards me, Izzy falls for the oldest trick in the book and jumps off the chute to find it, and when she's back facing me I call her, tell her to "over!" again and click while she's going over the jump. Treats and kisses! She's such a good girl :D

At this point I'm going to stop again and say that I think clicker training is the best thing ever, I LOVE it! Pretty much everything Izzy and I do in flyball is done with the clicker. Clickersolutions.com is my favorite clicker training link (tons of information) if you'd like to learn more.

Back to training now. One of Izzy's main problems with this exercise is that she doesn't understand why she should have to run all the way back to me and do all those extra jumps, when she knows my trainer standing behind the chute has treats. *sigh* Izzy's whole world revolves around her stomach, if she is going to do something it isn't to make me happy, it is to get food. So sometimes instead of coming back to me she will sit on the chute and try to convince the trainer, through sad corgi eyes, that she should just give her treats there, which she never does, but that doesn't stop Izzy from trying!

So last night when she started doing that I moved in front of the last jump, so she wasn't jumping anything, and when she came off the chute I grabbed her harness, ran back to our starting point, and only then did she get her treat. I think she understood after doing this a few times that she was going to have to come back to me to get her treat, so we were able to do one jump again, then two jumps, and then we tried 3 jumps. When we tried to have her go over three jumps, she was fine going out, but then decided on the way back that she didn't really need to take that first jump, went around it, and then flew over the other two. The trainer moved us back up to one jump, she ran it well, and we called it quits (always end on a good note!).

Then we went to sit down and watched Jenny do her thing on the course (she does the four jumps, grabs the ball off the chute, and comes back with the ball. I'm jealous!), and about that time one of the other students came in with her two dogs (one Izzy never met, and one BC mix she was fine with in the past) and Izzy flipped out! I don't know if they caught her off guard, or if it was because she didn't know the one dog (even though she had already met a new dog fine that night), or what it was. This was the first time her trainer's were able to see how she reacts to dogs while we are on walks, as she is a completely different dog at flyball. She pulls like a Mac truck, straining to reach the other dogs and makes the most high-pitched screaming sound I've ever heard come from a dog. I hauled her off to the side and we did attention work off to the side, she settled quickly and was fine.

Later during class my one trainer was working with Izzy on some obedience as we were pretty much done doing flyball stuff, she took Izzy over to Luna (one of the dogs that Izzy had reacted to when they came in the door), and they said hello and everything was good. Luna's owner was giving Izzy some treats, and then I'm not even sure what happened but Izzy and Luna got in a scuffle. It was noisy and there were lots of teeth, but it was dealt with very quickly and effectively, and they were seperated. As my trainer said, they were just warning each other, there would have been blood if they had meant it. And even after that Izzy was still interested in Luna, and not in an aggressive way, but a curious way. They were fine being around each other for the rest of class.

I really think Izzy was just having an off night, because she is usually much more relaxed then that. *sigh*

Homework for Week #11:

• Ball work: Continue working on consistency and begin working on distance.
• Recall: Work on sharpening her recall, maybe this will help with getting her to come back to me off the chute.
• Build a jump: I'm going to try and get her to retrieve the ball over the jump once we get distance on the ball, so I want the jump to be ready.
  

General Note: There are no posts for Classes #1-10, I was lazy and not posting at the time.

Had a great walk today!

I decided to skip school today because everyone who is going to prom tonight (read: not me, all my friends) got to leave at 11:00 and the rest of us (read: me and underclassmen) would have to sit through an assembly that praised the football team for a billion hours, so I stayed home. And now that my finals and homework are over I have nothing to keep me inside, so I grabbed Izzy and we hiked up Spruce Street, the steepest street in our town.

By the time we did that Izzy was panting pretty good and it was only getting hotter, so we swung by the house and grabbed Frodo (I usually don't walk them together, but I figured nobody would be out with their dogs in the morning) and off we went to the little creek I found the other day (see the post I made yesterday). As soon as we reached the development where the path is both dogs started getting excited and knew exactly where we were going, and as soon as we reached the creek Izzy splashed right in (she has no grace in the water, lol, she just pounds right in) and flopped down, a huge grin plastered on her face :) Frodo doesn't get as hot as Izzy does, so he wasn't so gung ho about getting in the water, plus he had to pee on everything before even thinking about the water. *sigh*

Eventually Izzy got up and decided to do some exploring. Izzy is very reliable off leash, so I just dropped her leash and let her do her thing. Frodo, on the other hand is a PITA and isn't reliable anywhere without a ton of attention, obedience, and proofing in the area (which hopefully we will be done with by July), so I had to wade into the creek and follow him around. I hadn't really planned on getting in the water myself, but I forgot to bring along his long line so I just sucked it up, but ohhh boy was that water cold!! Thank goodness I had my Crocs on, they are the best water shoes ever!

Anyway, we went pretty far upstream, with Izzy never leaving the water and Frodo weaving between walking on the overly vegetated bank and pouncing through the shallow water (I think he likes the bank more because it's too hard to pee in the water, lol). When I decided we had gone far enough and told Izzy "Okay, let's go!" (which is more of a suggestion than an actual fast, hard recall) she decided that she would rather keep going, so I ran and hid behind some bushes where she couldn't see me and sure enough about 15 seconds later I hear her plowing through the water and booking it in the direction where we came from *sigh* She pretends to be so brave, lol. I stepped out and called her back, she came whole butt wagging, acting like she hadn't seen me for a million years, and of course she stuck close and listened beautifully for the rest of the trip.

Then when we were almost back Frodo bolted after a frog, caught me off guard, and my shoes slipped on the algae covered rocks on the bottom of the stream. Down I went! I was soaked so we headed home, and I had to walk home (along Main Street no less!!) dripping wet :p

Now both Izzy and Frodo are out cold:

Izzy (Bahaha!):

And Frodo:

One thing I wasn't thinking about when I headed out this morning was that Izzy and I have flyball tonight! I hope she recovers in time :p

The good, the bad and the ugly.

I figured I should probably kick this sucker off with some goals and obstacles, so that I can come back and mark our progression. I guess we'll start out with the obstacles first...

Obstacles

Numero Uno: Izzeh vs Teh Ball!
Izzy has absolutely no interest in playing fetch. None at all. Zilch! She never has, ever since she was a pup, which never really posed a problem...until flyball came along. It's kind of a big deal, lol. Since we've started flyball, she has started to become more interested in the ball, even if it is only because she gets food for picking up the ball (typical corgi!), but it's a start. We are currently at the point where I can set the ball in front of me and about 60% of the time Izzy will pick it up and drop it in my hand, the rest of the time she just picks it up and drops it wherever. That's what 8 weeks of training has accomplished... *sigh*

"Mom, Iz soo tired from playing wif dis ball!"
(Pfft! Yeah right!)

Obstacle 2: Izzy vs other dogs...sorta.
Izzy doesn't deal well with other dogs who aren't confident and can "talk dog" really well. She doesn't get along with pushy dogs, agressive dogs, or dogs who get in her face. She also acts like a complete idiot when she sees other dogs while we are out walking, though this is more my problem and lack of leadership, then it is hers. She can work in a class situation with other dogs just fine, but if a dog comes up to her she will curl her lip and growl. Thankfully with the amazing knowledge and help from my trainers we are working on this as well. Last week she ran freely around the facility with 3 shelties, a border collie cross, and a border collie who spent most of her time circling Izzy. And she didn't growl once!! I was SO proud of my little brat! :D I know it's a far cry from being able to do well around other dogs she doesn't know, but it's still a big step and I'm more than happy with it!

Obstacle 3: Izzy vs the crowd.
As I mentioned before, she is a therapy dog and she does fine with large groups of people, but when the maniacal, barking dogs are added as well as the general chaos of the flyball scene are added, she can get quite stressed. This I think will be one of the hardest issues to overcome because I have very few opportunities to re-create a setting like a flyball tournament to desensitize her to it.

Now, the fun part!

Goals

Goal #1: Actually flyball :P
I'd like to get Izzy to the point where she can actually complete the whole sequence. I could really care less about time right now, I would just like to see her complete it safely, with a little bunny butt hopping down the lane and a nice swimmers turn. Safety first!

• Subgoal 1 - I'd like to see Izzy actively fetching within the next 8 weeks.

• Subgoal 2 - I'd like to see Izzy grabbing the ball off the box in the next 10 weeks.

Goal #2: Getting in shape!
Izzy currently weighs 18 poune starts activds and is at a pretty good weight, but I'd like to get her down to 16 pounds by the time shely hitting the box and running the whole sequence. Right now she is pretty active, but can get tired sometimes during class when we practice the jumps, so generally getting in shape is one of my main goals right now. With the help of an agility trainer I've made Izzy a little workout schedule (which she so loves, lol):

• Hills, hills, hills! I live right next to a college campus that is located on a huuuge, steep hill. Izzy and I have started walking up the steepest hill up to campus and then on to a hill on top of that hill which leads to upper campus. Lots of work and huffing and puffing on my part, but it's good for both of us (though that's not what I'm thinking while hauling butt up them, haha). We've been doing this on all cool days, and when school lets out (only 6 days!) we are going to be getting up early, like 5 a.m. Eek!, and doing it every day.
  
• Swimming! Probably my newest favorite activity. Neither Izzy nor myself deal well with the hot summer weather...at all. Fortunately, the other day I discovered a hidden little river that spreads out into a lagoonish body of water, and the water is cooooold. It's about a 10 minute hilly walk from my house and comes up to about my thigh at it's deepest so Izzy can swim (yay for short legs!) and I can rescue her easily should I need to. I plan on walking up and down the river with her a few times a week. I wasn't sure that she would like the water, but when we found it she surged right in. Thatta girl!
• Puuuuuull! I've been walking her in her flyball harness as she pulls like a little monster in it, so that should help her build muscle and endurance as well.
• Diet time = much woe. Any of you who know corgis, know that their world completely and utterly revolves around their stomachs! So obviously Izzy was quite saddened by the lesser amount of kibbles setting in her bowl every night...let's take a moment to feel bad...thanks, she'll appreciate that. I've reduced her kibble intake from 1 cup to 2/3 cups a day. She's eating Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream, LOVE IT!

Goal #3: Getting her comfortable.
I'd really love to see Izzy get to the point where she feels more confident and comfortable in noisy, chaotic places like flyball tournaments and other areas where there are lots of dogs.

Well, I have to go let people give me money now :D so I'll be back tomorrow!

Guess I should introduce us, huh?

I've only had this blog for a few months, I guess I'm about ready to post an introduction thread and get this blog up and running. Anywho, my name is Lauren and I am ruled by Izzy and Frodo, 2.5 year old corgi siblings.
Izzy (looking very ladylike, I might add)...
and I started flyball classes about 9 weeks ago with a pair of great trainers and a bunch of other awesome dogs. We do have quite a few obstacles that we need to overcome before we will ever be able to compete, but for right now we're just having a blast and taking it one step at a time.

A little more about teh Izzeh (since this blog does revolve around her):

I got Izzy (and her brother Frodo) as 14 week old puppies, and though I had done some reading on the breed, nothing prepared me (a 16 yr. old novice owner) for raising two hellion corgis in an apartment. Yes, I am pretty much insane. I am convinced that the only reason they managed to reach adulthood is because it would be impossible to strangle something that is so darn cute!

Exhibit A-

Exhibit B (Double Trouble)-

The most adorkable beings ever? I think yes.

Moving on, Izzy (aka: Coombsie's Faery Chariot) and I practiced our (okay...her) bunny butt off and at just over a year old passed both her Canine Good Citizen test as well as her Therapy Dog International test, on the same day!! Woot! Although we don't do all that many therapy events, she did accompany me to my National Honor Society project this year where we taught little kids to take pictures, she graciously posed.

Izzy the model-
"Corgitude? I haz it!"

As far as daily life goes, Izzy spends most of her day lounging around while I'm at school, dreaming of 'walkie time' and food while I pack my brain with history and english (dogs, of course, are more funner :p). Living without a yard and two energetic corgis is probably not the most efficient way of doing things, but we make it work with lots of off-leash time, swimming, and walking up nice steep hills. Plus Izzy burns a lot of energy beating up on poor Frodo...

...after all, what good are brothers for other than beating up?

Well, what more could you possibly want to know? Oh, yeah...that whole flyball thingamajiger. Eh, that can wait until tomorrow. I know...the suspense is killing you :p