Jumping on round bales of hay

Hay Bale Jumping

Lusi just  loves hiking and is becoming more and more confident and adventurous. 
I thought that these shots of her jumping from one round hay bale to another were pretty incredible but Victoria tells me that these pale in comparison to some of the antics she gets up to now!

A safe landing!

This sport of hale bale jumping is something that she thought up entirely on her own! A little puppy agility training goes a long way!

Notes from a phone call: Tips to get your Dally running at axle

Just looking at some notes I made while talking to John Wilmot on the phone about getting Lusi started running at axle with the carriage.

John made several suggestions about the need for the following commands:

• Basic obedience commands
• "Heel". On and off leash heeling. In addition the dog must "heel" at the wheel. When heeling with a bicycle the dog should stay at the back wheel and not be forward of the pedals.
• "Get in" or "Get on" means the dog to get in the cart from the left hand side.
• "Lusi off" means dog to get off the cart.
• "Get under" means to get under axle or close to back step of marathon vehicle

The first stage of training to run at axle can be done on a longline, held by a passenger on the cart. (This is clearly us! We shall also probably be starting indoors in the arena since our winter snow seems to have just arrived!). Lusi is getting lots and lots of walking now and has been really good lately, (only the occasional chewing incident mars her report card!). Victoria has been doing quite a bit  of agility training with her outdoors on her woodland course luring her through a course.

The Spotty Dog Issue #1

Photo Collage: Lusi at Fairy Lake

Dotty Dalmatians: A letter to Celia

Perfect Harmony: Dalmatians working at axle

Photo by Dotty Dalmatians http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotty_dalmations/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotty_dalmations/4974050863/


Dear Celia,
At last I am sitting quietly and looking at Paul's photographs! The "Snowy Dalmatians" are just lovely. I love all of Paul's action photos; feet off the ground, bodies suspended, elongated bodies, bodies compressed like a spring! I am getting used to the Dally shape on the run now! There is something so fascinating about watching them running...but my favourite photo so far, even more than the action photos and the beach photos, is the one of you at the 2010 Irish Trials. This one I absolutely love...actually I love them all...but the Irish one is like a photograph reconstructed from someone's retelling of a dream: the little wooden bridge and the pebbled stream bed, the three Dals all perfectly in position with the carriage and the misty background!! 

I remember the first few times that we went walking off leash and Lusi had the chance to run; for a long time as a pup she would run and then go head over heals in the grass because her rear end was propelling her ever faster until she could no longer keep up with herself! She is a good runner now and these past two weeks of her going with the K9 Expeditions has been a wonderful way for her to keep in top shape and socialize with the GSPs too. She has been a very happy Dally! You can see from the K9 Expedition blog how the trips are organized but basically the dogs are carefully vetted for suitability and training, especially recall, and then introduced to one another one at a time, before they go out together. The hikes are arranged on a fitness level basis and Lusi is now doing about two hours, (running like a wild thing after the other dogs!). I can't tell you how much she is enjoying it.

Yesterday we both went down to the barn. The ground is still quite white over there though there is not much of a snow covering more ice than snow. The thermometer hovers around a few degrees below to one or two degrees above freezing by midday; clear blue skies make one think it is Springtime and that one should try and get ahead with the driving. In fairness, we are now driving three times a week but still restricted to the arena. I have been hitching to a Meadowbrook style cart and would really like to get the marathon cart out soon so that we can  stand on the back-step and guide Lusi from there. Still, every trip to the barn allows us to make some kind of progress and I am just so pleased that Dande is recovered from his injury. I had an excellent drive yesterday; it was so nice to see his body well rounded in the back and the neck muscles supple. A friend was also driving her mare in the arena and had attached some bells to her cart which seemed to intrigue him!


 Lusi is getting quite comfortable and familiar with barn life too. White on a snow white  background she disappears before your eyes. I must put a bell on her!

Today we  have snow again. The early morning snow etched trees are now heavily laden and snow clumps break off in the wind. I had a most marvellous drive and lesson Morgan horse carriage driving lesson with Dande and have permission to take Lusi up and use the arena now! I was really surprised to see how well Dande looked on video; the few minutes of the lesson on video showed a big difference from last year, lots of progress despite his being off so long from his injury.


So sorry to hear about Poppy. I do hope that she has made a recovery by now. Those skeletal and muscle injuries are so persistent and seem to take forever to heal! I think that one of the problems is that the body automatically compensates for these injuries and uses different muscles and this in turn causes further stress and injury to other sets of muscles, and ligaments!
love E

Photo Collage: Dande and Lusi at the Barn

Photo Collage: A Walk Across the Winter Cornfields