Agility time!

I must saw I feel like a bad pet mom. I meant to take my camera so I could take a picture of Sagira in her first real agility training class and left my camera at home.

Sagira did really well last night though. She didn't seem scared or nervous around any of the agility equipment. It helped that they introduced her to the tunnel and ladder when she was in her first puppy training class and when we would take her to Bark Park we would always run her through the tunnel just to keep her used to it.

I never realized how much you need to know as a handler to do agility. I have a new respect for these people.

Hopefully I will remember the camera next week.

Coach Collar

Just got back from doing another therapy visit at an assisted living facility. Sagira did pretty well. She did bark once at a lady with a walker, but that was part our fault because we didn't see her coming to tell Sagira to "leave it" first. She is starting to do better. She likes going to the assisted living facilities because other therapy dogs are there to play around with her as well.

Her therapy dog buddy Maggie had on a pretty Coach collar (the one I wanted for Sagira). So her mommy is going to keep an eye out for one for Sagira since she lives close to the outlet mall. Sagira has a Coach collar but not the one I wanted with the pink on it.

I also feel good, this one lady was scared of dogs because she was bitten as a child by a dog. By the time we left she quickly touched Sagira. It was the first dog she has touched since she was bitten. GO SAGIRA! It was a fast touch, but at least she was working on her fear, right? She then saw it wasn't so bad and decided to pet Maggie and Harriette as well.

Vet

Sagira went to the vet this past Thursday. She weighed in at 34.6 pounds. He said that she is looking good. I have noticed that when Sagira goes down our steps she never uses her back right leg. I asked the vet about this and he said it might be some hip problems. He spent a long time checking the way her leg bends, her hip moves, etc. He said that he didn't feel anything at this time. I asked if she would be able to do agility as she is supposed to begin her first level of agility this coming week and he said if we are not noticing her in pain it should be fine for her to do.

The picture in this thread is so cute. Sagira decided to take a nap on Samick.

4th visit

Todays visit went much better. She is still a bit nervous in the hallways but is doing much better in the patient's rooms. She even laid down in a few of the rooms today and looked very relaxed. She was in one of the rooms visiting a patient and the heater kicked on, that was new for her, but we reassured her that she was okay.

We have also been leaving Sagira out of her crate during the day since our three older dogs are housetrained and stay free in the house while we are gone. She does pretty good except she does like to destuff our comforters. It was a huge mistake to give her stuffed toys when she was a baby and now she likes to destuff things. Here is a picture of her and her mess. She has Starr up there with her looking guilty, but I know Starr didn't do it.

Sagira's 3rd Visit

Sagira did her third hospital visit today. Things were going much better until about half way through our shift. An employee didn't like dogs and scared Sagira on purpose. I don't know what kind of person gets enjoyment from causing an animal stress, but she sure did a nice job. Sagira was much better today until the lady decided to stare Sagira down and stomp her feet really loudly at her. Sagira of course backed up from the lady and barked, which we had to give her a correction for. I just don't understand people. If you don't like a dog, then ignore her. Must you really try to frighten her?

Other than that, things went really well. Sagira actually relaxed enough and laid down in two of the patients rooms with them. I think she will get the hang of this eventually.

Picture of the day is her after we got home from her visit. And Starr as well, what a spoiled dog, not only sleeping on the couch, but has to have a comforter to make it even softer.

Assisted Living

We just got back home from taking Sagira to an assisted living facility. She did much better there because other therapy dogs were there as well. She was having a ball with her doggie friends. Everyone said how cute she was. We talked with the residents. One of the gals just had a birthday and turned 100. Amazing!

Sagira has a new therapy dog boyfriend that kept following her around. It was a little Shizu and his name was Jimmy. He had the hots for Sagira, it was cute. :)

Sagira has a boo boo

We were outside cleaning up dog poop since the snow has finally melted. Sagira was running and playing like any normal day. She was extremely muddy though since the yard was so soft. We look at her and notice that she is bleeding under her eye. It looks like she scraped herself on something and tore off her fur and about 5 layers of skin. We immediately stopped what we were doing. Took her in and bathed her. We put some peroxide on the area and put some neosporin on it. I hope it doesn't leave a horrible scar. I feel so bad that this happened and don't even know what she did to cause it. :(

2nd visit

Sagira went to the Hospital for her second time yesterday. It was a bit more stressful on her than the first. As soon as we walked in the door, the cleaning lady was running the sweeper on the entrance carpets. So that scared her right off the bat. We then signed in and walked to the service elevators. A group of people were coming down the hallway with a person in the hospital bed, so we turned her around, placed her against the wall to protect her and made her sit. We petted her and tried to keep her calm so she couldn't really see what was coming down the path. After that we went up on the floors. She was still a bit shy. She barked at one of the doctors. Not sure why, but we gave her a correction for that. After that she did well. We got to all three floors and had about 10 minutes left so we took her into the ER waiting room. Everyone loved her and always comments about how pretty her eyes are. Hopefully her third visit will go better.

After a job well done we took her to the dog park to let her play. It was still snow and ice covered so we didn't stay long. I didn't want her paws to get to cold. But she loves going to the dog park.

My nieces also came over the other day. Which is good for Sagira since she normally isn't around a lot of little kids. Kena fell in love with our Weimaraner Starr and now says she wants a dog at her house. They are to cute. :)

So cold

Okay, okay...enough with the cold weather. BRR. Come on spring time.
Sagira on the other hand is loving all the snow. She would stay outside all day if we would let her.

Agility

Sagira is graduating from her agility foundations class. If she passes this class she will begin Level 1 agility in just a few short weeks.

I am also trying to teach Sagira how to smile on command. She will smile when she is super happy to see someone. Now the trick of trying to teach her to do it when we tell her to.

Busy day

We have been running around all day. We went to Pet People with Sagira and Starr to get Sagira a traffic lead for when we do her therapy dog visits. We also ran to Petsmart. Some guy in line kept staring at us, so when we went down an isle he followed us and asked what kind of dog Sagira was. He said he thought we had a Coyote on a leash in the store. Umm...okay? He told us how beautiful she is and his girlfriend asked to take a picture of Sagira. Funny thing is, this isn't the first time people have done this. A guy at the dog park was leaving (in his car driving away) when he saw Sagira. He pulled over and came up to the fence and started taking pictures of her. It is nice to know that we have a unique looking dog and she is such a sweet girl. I also forgot to post her video from when we first got her and Starr dog boots. It was really funny to watch them with them on. Good think we have her used to hers because they will protect her feet when we take her in the hospital as well.