Falon’s World

Mason’s last Intermediate Obedience class was Tuesday. He did wonderfully. We got our nifty certificate and I’m thinking about continuing on with him, to read where, go here.

I also talked to the instructor about Kya and will hopefully be enrolling her sometime this summer – if all goes well with her training – which so far it is .

Midas’s class went very well, he worked entirely on his martingale for the first time since we started training. This is one of the dogs in our class:

Isn’t he cute?? His name is Lyric and he has a tiny white spot on the very end of his tail, that is always wagging. How adorable! To read more about how incredible class is going, go here.

Kya’s starting to really show some steps forward now. I’ve been following advice I got from The Pit Bull Forum and it’s really paying off. She will eat out of my hand and she’ll eat dinner right in front of me. She’ll sniff my hand whenever I reach for her and she’ll even step up and sniff my face/arms/legs etc. She licks me occasionally.

Big Break-through #1: The other day, I was taking her out and Mason also had to go so they came out together. Mason went right back in and when I went back to get Kya (she’s on a long-lead), she actually play-bowed!!! This is a huge step! So, I kind of jogged around a little and she ran, tail wagging and butt-tucking, around me. Then she even ran part of the way to me. I had to get going so I started toward her, and while she still crouched down to the ground, her tail kept wagging!

The more I work on hand-feeding her, the faster it is going. Now it doesn’t take long at all and she will eat from my hand. But, try to move this outside and we have to start from the beginning again. She’s started to come to the kennel door when I come for her now, instead of backing into the corner. When I reach through the slats, she actually moves towards my hand instead of away.

Big Break-through #2: Yesterday morning, it was time to go inside so I knelt down and called her. She sunk to the ground like she always does. I started to stand and go to get her and she actually came to me! All the way! Her tail wagged a little but she was still down on the ground for the most part – but she did it all on her own! Another big step

We had Rally class number 2 and Agility class number 3 this week. The instructor said that Midas is not quite ready yet to compete in Rally, but he’s very close. Agility was amazing, he’s so dang fast and he loves it. To read more Rally, go here, for more Agility, go here.

Midas’s agility class on Friday was a blast, we came in second out of about 8 dogs in a game called Snooker, to read go here. Then Saturday and today we had a dock jumping event right here in GR.

These photos pretty much sum that up:

Interested? Go here to read about it.

KYA

So, our household is up to three. Kya is still in her shell but she opens up with the boys sometimes. She’ll wag her tail and bounce and run and lick and play. She even has shown an interest in retrieving and a toy drive – which just about made my day to discover!

This is a deceiving photo, she looks like she’s happy but really she’s stress-panting:

She now feels safe to go in her kennel when she’s feeling stressed That’s a step.

She’s comfortable around the boys though for sure (Midas is a goober):

MIDAS

Every time I see this photo of Midas I realize how much grey hair he has . He’s not even three yet!

But he’s still a playful fella!

He sure likes to relax too though!

MASON

Mason’s always a happy, desperate-to-please guy. He’s so dang cute!

His world not only revolves around us, he also adores Midas:

They even snuggle:

Our happy fam

We went to see Timber tonight to make sure he’s adjusting to his new home well and that it really was a good fit. He looked like he was very happy but he definitely recognized us and was thrilled to see us. It was harder to leave him this time because I know I won’t see him for a long time…if again Look at this face – *cry*

Mason got to have two obedience classes this week. One Adam went to with me and one I went to on my own (Adam wanted a nap), so I have photos for the first one. The rest of the story is here, and here is a photo of what I see at each lesson:

Eric is still taking his lessons, and still seems to enjoy them. I believe he will be continuing on for the next two months as well. He is doing very well

Today we went to Howard City to see my little cousin wrestle. He’s really, really good. It was a lot of fun to watch, but also kind of crazy. There were loads of kids there. When they lost they cried:

There were kids as young as four wrestling:

There were some girls:

They make some crazy faces:

This is Nicholas, getting revved up for his turn:

This is a photo of him actually wrestling, with his coach (also his Dad) yelling in the background

He’s such a little guy but he’s so good!

I got a couple of videos too

These are all from the same time/same opponent, I just had to keep adjusting to try to get the best that I could.

Nicholas ended up with a First Place win! That was pretty awesome too. I got a photo of him with his little chart and his trophy.

His older sister, Paige, helped to run the timer during the whole tournament and so we thought she needed to be in a photo too, for all of her hard work:

There are more photos that Eric took here, and my Dad’s photos are here.

Today we got up semi-bright and early and headed to Kalamazoo for the UKC conformation and weight pull event. I was very excited. It was pretty awesome.

I was really interested to see the labs but there were only 3 that I saw. I liked this male pretty well but he doesn’t have the head that I’m looking for:

There were three wirehaired Vizslas, I’ve never seen one in person before. They were interesting looking

…I think Tess is prettier though.

A TON of White German Shepherds:

There were standard poodles:

Spanish Water Dogs, but we know the woman that was showing her so that was pretty cool

Cute little exhausted puppies:

Little girls, with little dogs:

And LOTS of American Pit Bull Terriers . I was thrilled, I really wanted to see some representatives of the breed and were they beautiful!

The weight pull was amazing too! I can’t wait to get Mason started in that!! There were dogs that refused to pull and dogs that were pulling over 3000 lbs.

Friends of ours tried their German Shorthaired Pointer for the first time:

They brought their son to watch too – he’s so adorable!

This dog is pretty amazing and is also a Spanish Water Dog, from the same family as the one listed above:

It was a very cool show and I can’t wait for the next one!