The Meta-Grete

On Thursday, I stumbled across what my friend Jeff would call "a glitch in the matrix."

Through random googling, I found a reference to a ship called the Meta-Grete. Shipping Database record for the Meta-Grete. At first I thought it was a bug in the Shipping Database site. Perhaps they had a bad webcrawler that found Grete's blog. (I know... I have such little faith in technology sometimes.)

However, I then turned to Google Image Search and found the most amazing Picasa album.

A man known only to me as Captain273 actually has pictures of the Meta-Grete. Turns out he was started his sailing career on the Meta-Grete.








View Captain273's entire album of the Meta-Grete here.

Small World.

the zoomies

if only there was an agility obstacle made out of soft dirt, mulch, or sand....

ever since she was a puppy, grete has had a soft spot in her heart for hills, and she's had a soft spot in her heart for soft surfaces like dirt and mulch.

she had already had the zoomies at least 3 times at Marymoor last weekend when we stumbled across 3 hills of mulch. grete totally lost it and had her fourth or fifth case of The Zoomies.

just in case you didn't know, the zoomies is the technical term for when your dog starts zipping around uncontrollably, having the time of their lives. it's usually a good thing. (as long as you're not training agility at the time. ;-))



grete was clearly having the time of her life... and so was i. :-)

we love marymoor.

seattle dog walkers

A while back, we looked into a doggie daycare. It just wasn't right for us. I'm too much of a germaphobe, and I also don't like the dogs are left to entertain themselves with each other. (I also hate dog walkers at dog parks with a passion -- too many dogs (with someone OTHER than their owner) for too few people.)

Believe it or not, I would prefer someone come to the house in the middle of the day and just take Grete for a good long walk. It's cleaner and safer, and it's guaranteed 1-on-1 attention.

I keep meaning to look into Seattle dog walkers so that I have that as a fall-back plan if I can't take Grete to work. (Doctor's appointments and job changes do happen after all. :P)

Here's my first cut at a list. Any thoughts? Additions? Subtractions?

Rain City Pets
1/2 hour rates:
2 walks a week: $20 per walk
3-4 walks a week: $19 per walk
5 walks a week: $18 per walk

Dawg Dayz
1/2 hour rates:
$18

Little Furry Things
1/2 hour rates:
1 dog $18
1 dog, 5 days a week, $85
1 hour rates:
1 to 2 dogs $33
1 to 2 dogs, 5 days a week, $155

Waggy Dogs
30min- $19/dog, $3/exra dog
1hour - $29/dog, $5/extra dog

Seattle Green Dogs
Private Walks/Hikes
$35 for an hour walk in your neighborhood.

Training...

For a blog that is supposed to be about dog training and a dog that is learning agility, I seem to be dropping the ball these days -- both on the blog and at home. I just went back and reviewed my old TODO list post, and I have to say that our evening training has distilled down to working on Two-On Two-Off contact position and the jump -- and not much else. We do informal flat work with the tennis ball as a reward at work.

For better or worse, we've dropped a bunch of things off our training list. For example, we no longer work with the box. It's not actually an agility obstacle. I think the point of the box was to have a non-agility obstacle that you could cheaply have two of so that you could work on left-side vs right-side obstacle discrimination.

We also don't work with the target plate anymore. I think this might come back to bite us, but for now, since we're working on simply shaping the Two-On Two-Off contact position, I'm not sure the target plate is all that necessary. We'll see about that.

I think a revised version of our Training TODO list would look something like this:

Flat Work
left side almost stationary flat work
right side almost stationary flat work
left side faster flat work
right side faster flat work
pull turn left
pull turn right
push turn left
push turn right
left-hand front cross (right->left)
right-hand front cross (left->right)
break (drive forward to take something)
ok (release)
jumping up to get something (getting excited)
regular down
down on an incline
down at my side
sit and STAY (distraction and duration)
down and STAY (distraction and duration)
play (fetch)
play (tug)
distracted recall

Obstacles
hoop (need to work on distance)
tunnel (straight; curved; s curve)
1 weave pole gate (full circle of approaches)
2 hoops (left side; right side)
4 paws on wobble board
make wobble board move (banging it down)
sequencing more than 3-5 obstacles
** new ** 2 weave pole gates together (rotating second gate)
** new ** the jump (staying close to the jump)
** new ** the jump (sending her out, up, and around the jump)

I think I'm getting sloppy. We're definitely progressing, but I liked our teamwork better when I was more methodical about working through the todo list. I think I might have to make a more formal version and start taking notes in class again.

In other dog agility related news, we might be going to a fun match (for exposure - not for real trial or real competing) in December. Stay tuned!

I'm looking at you.

Despite my best efforts at the dog park on Sunday, Jason still takes better pictures. Here's one of my latest favorites of Grete.

Zoom

Jason took this picture. I can tell because it actually pans with the dog that was zooming around the park. I'm not that good with the camera yet. :-)

Sing, Paco! Sing!

Paco is another friend we made at Golden Gardens this past Sunday. His owners -- a father with a baby strapped to his chest and a precocious little girl -- seemed pretty nice, but Paco soon got in the way of Grete's fetching. Paco didn't really sing for the ball -- but it certainly looked like he might. We eventually ditched poor Paco and his family after he got a little anxious about Grete coming back up the hill toward his owners.

Dog Park Friends! Sunday @ Golden Gardens

After having a couple bad experiences at the Woodlawn / Green Lake dog park, we decided to hit the Golden Gardens dog park this weekend. There were a couple growly dogs that kept picking play-fights in the mud at the bottom, but otherwise it was a pretty pleasant experience. We also saw some pretty cute and friendly dogs. Sadly, I forget this plump little Boston's name...

be teh rok...

see more puppies

Happy Halloween!

Grete in her cyberpunk puppy costume (and other Halloween pictures) can be seen here: 2008 Halloween.