Abby's Story

A video I made for a video contest thing. Enjoy!

Update!

Gosh it's been forever since I've updated this blog...


Well Abby has been doing great. Her agility is coming along rather nicely and hopefully we'll be starting some official classes soon. She's also mastered a few new tricks since I last updated. Her trick list now consists of...

Sit/sit stay
down/down stay
Beg
Crawl
Speak
Leg Weaves
Figure 8's through my legs
Roll over
High Five
Shake
Spin and Twist
Peek-a-boo

As well as some others I am forgetting....

For Christmas the pups got a bunch of treats as well as one of those puzzle toy things. She loved the treats, but the puzzle toy she didn't even give it a second glance, but Bo quite enjoys it...


We also had a very White Christmas which was a big surprise because we never get snow in GA, but the pups loved it none the less!

We also went to Alabama yesterday and she had her first attempt at dock diving! It was more sliding off the dock into the water though. She was a bit nervous because the dock moved with the waves, but I did manage to get her to jump(well slide) off after the bumper, but of course I had to let her do it on her own terms and hopefully she'll build of confidence and eventually be able to fearlessly jump off the dock! We'll be working on it a bit when we have the chance to get back up to the lake and use the dock. Maybe if we're in the water she'll have more motivation to jump? Guess I may have to try that out if I can get her up to my friends lakehouse next time they invite us up!

Think she could Pass for a lab?

Well I'm going to try and get her an ILP with the AKC. She has pretty much all the features of a lab and looks just like one minus her curled tail and the fact that she is slightly smaller then a purebred lab. But all I need to do is send in the pictures along with my application and let them decided if she labby enough to be a lab. However I might not be able to do it anytime soon most likely not until next year due to multiple reasons. Anyway so last night I just took some shots of her. They aren't really "good" quality and kinda dark, but I tried. Tomorrow I might try to get some good shots of her outside

Front View


Side View


The outtakes






I'm also going to see If I can get a good shot of her with her tail slightly curled

Update on Abby's Trick Training

Ok so as of two days ago Abby learned twist(spin left) which is her cue to spin in the opposite direction of her spin(spin right). We are also working on a few other tricks/commands specifically "fetch my slippers" and "get the purse".

Right now I'm working on getting her to bring the item to me by use of marking the behavior with the clicker. She's doing pretty well, but it might be another few days or so before she's got it down pat. So far she's got the idea that when I say "slipper" or "purse" she has to run to the item and pick it up. I'm slowly getting her to bring it back to me, but as of now she's doing fairly well with it.

And just cuz here's an old pic that I found and scanned of her from back when we first adopted her from the shelter(5 years ago)

A new food!

So I finally switched Abby to Wellness Core and she loves it. Now she actually cleans her bowl (shocker). I'm extremely happy with this food and recommend it to anyone searching for a good quality grainless dog food. So far I've seen a tremendous change with Abby's coat quality and I'm lovin it!

I'll add some pics later of her enjoying her new food

Hiking with Abby

well not exactly, but hey we still walked through the creek and made a little trek through the woods while my youngest sister learned to ride her bike at this one park. It was to hot for poor Bo to come along so he stayed home with my dad while me, abby, my mom and, sisters went out.

In the water


In the woods


We worked a bit on some sit and down stays, but she broke the majority of them because of the fact that the rest of my family was on the other side of the park and she hates being separated from every body. We also worked on a few retrieves, but she wasn't to interested in chasing bumpers today she was more interested on finding the rest of my family *sigh*

sit/stay on the bridge


And again

Abby Masters two more tricks

My little girlie learns so fast. Today she learned crawl and “bang”. She’s pretty much got crawl down, but bang could use some work. We also learned Drop where she just automatically drops to the ground instead of starting off in a sit position then going into a down. I just love how this dog is so eager to learn though I'm pretty sure it has more to do with her "prize" for every time she does a command right.

So that just leaves us with working on the following
- Back Up
- Weave through legs
- Wave
- Say your Prayers
- Get your Leash
- Put away toys

I took another video (yeah I’m obsessed with my camera XP) we’re on a roll that’s what 4 tricks in less then a weeks time woohoo…