For various reasons, we missed both agility (Sonny's and Luna's) and obedience classes this week. So, in an effort to keep the shelties from going stir crazy, I decided to work on some free shaping with a flat square of cardboard. It's something I've been meaning to work on for a while to help Luna with her contacts and Ajah and Sonny with their utility go-out.

I started Monday night with all three dogs and the goal of simply rewarding any interaction with the board. This was a resounding failure. Ajah got it in her head that I wanted a nose punch on the board, got pissed when I didn't c/t, and quit offering new behaviors. Luna kept walking around the board and staring at me. I c/t'ed when her foot accidentally brushed it, but she had no idea what I was reinforcing and ending up just standing there staring at me. Sonny came in sat next to the board and stared at me for a full 5 mins before I gave up.

I tried again last night with much better luck.

I started with the princess. My goal was for her to simply stand on the board. She came in and got c/t'ed for one nose punch and then I uped anti. One paw, two paws, all four. We got as far as her running onto the board, but she kept laying down. I lured her up to and stand and c/t'ed twice before quitting. The next step will be c/t'ing stands and then sits and working on her going to the board no matter where it is in realtion to me.

Luna was next. Eventually I want to work toward her walking across the board and stopping with just her rear feet on it. She seemed more excited this time. She had watched Ajah get loads of c/t's so she came in much more willing to offer behaviors than the night before. We went from nose punch to four paws pretty quickly. Luna has a very different learning curve from any dog I've worked with before so I don't think what I wanted was actually clicking in her brain just yet, but she was excited and happily offering behaviors which was a major break-thru for her. I suspect next time we will have to work thru all the steps again, but that's ok.

With Sonny, I wanted him to go to the board and sit squarely on it facing me. Waiting thru Ajah and Luna had him revved and ready to work. I've learned that Sonny doesn't free shape very well. He needs queing from me or he will just sit and offer attention. The key is giving the smallest ques I can possibly use and still get a response. With Sonny's attention and reactivity, this can be as small as a finger twitch or a shoulder shrug. By the end of the short session, he was sitting on the board consistently and even going away from me to the board and offering a sit, but he was being really sloppy, only touching the board with a paw or part of his butt toward the end. The next step will be to refine the behavior so that he is more careful in placing himself squarely on the board and facing directly toward me.

Maybe next time I will include the cat in the fun.

Whew, it's been a long time since I typed up a training session. That was fun. I should do it more often!

Wow, the last time I updated this journal was August of last year. Guess it's pretty clear that I've been neglecting their training.

We've been attending obedience classes with Deep South for quite a few months now. The club is using the back parking lot of a local hospital to hold weekly obedience and rally classes. That's been going pretty well. The only problem is, since I work everyday til 7 in Middle-of-Nowheresville, I have to bring the dogs with me to work to make it to class anywhere close to on time. That means I can only work one dog a week. I've been focusing mostly on the Shelties since they love any kind of work whereas Ajah's really only in it for the food. Plus, she throws very, very noisy fit if I leave her in the back room at work. Damn princesses.

Last week we FINALLY got back into agility classes. Some of the way-back-when agility people from Deep South have a site where they teach classes for $10/ class, which isn't too bad. Right now I've got Luna in a Monday night intermediate class and Sonny in an advanced class on Saturday mornings. Both classes have great instructors. All three of us are totally thrilled to be back doing what we love.

I cannot express how wonderful it is to have well trained dogs.

Let me preface this by saying my dogs have had A LOT of heeling training NONE of which involved jerking, choking, pinching, pulling or yelling, as well as very consistent curb work - making them aware what a curb looks like and asking them at the very least pause and wait for release.

Yesterday morning I took the two shelties for a long walk thru the neighborhood. I really should get off my lazy ass and do this more often, but it is really fucking hot out this summer. Anyway, they were just amazing. Never once did the leashes go taut on either dog. They stayed by my side, on whichever side I asked them to walk. I don't require that they walk precisely at heel position just that they stay within about 2-3 feet from me and not walk directly in front or back. They kept their focus on me. Not to the point of craining their heads to stare at my knees, but they were immediately responsive to change of speed and direction. I also got automatic sits at almost every curb. I've started to phase out treating this behavior, so both got verbal or physical praise every time.

At one point, a small but very determined off leash pomeranian came charging off an empty porch, barking his fool head off, ready to take a chunk out of the invaders of his territory. The shelties looked to me for a signal. I had no idea if this dog was all bark, and if he attacked either dog or me, I knew Sonny would jump to our defense. I was not going to put him in that situation. I turned and gave that little sucker my best 'I'm the alpha bitch around here and if you don't back down, I will rip your face off' growl. The pom was taken aback long enough for us to turn and keep moving. As we passed the parked cars in the driveway, the pom's family came into view. They gave me the most bewildered look. I gave them my sweetest smile and just kept on walking my dogs.

  I just had the most wonderful training session with Suzy. As a quick background, Suzy had a bit of formal training 10 years ago when she was a pup, but the training hasn't really been reinforced since then. Most of the time, she seems to run on auto-pilot. She walks around with this out of focus, absent look on her face, like her circuits are just fried.

  So, tonight, I measured out her kibble and sat down on the kitchen floor with a clicker. With the first 10-20 bits, I loaded the clicker, clicking and just handing her a treat. After that I tried luring her into a sit, but she wasn't ready for that and just kept backing up or giving up.

  So, I decided to just click for behaviors I liked. I clicked for sits, downs, stretches, kisses, pawing, and eye contact. Watching her brain kick into gear was just amazing. She calmed down and her eyes cleared up and focused on me. By the end of the session, she was lying in a down right in front of me offering constant eye contact. I was tickled pink!

  I let her finish what was left her dinner and laid down in the bed with the laptop. When she finished eating, Suzy jumped up on the bed and snuggled up to me with full head to tail body contact. How cool it that!

  Woo! I went home for lunch and nothing appeared to have been eaten, torn, chewed, or swallowed. I'm sure we'll still have to be very careful about what gets put in the trash, but I'm excited for my little girl. *sniff* They grow up so quick. *sniff*

  Now the next household challenge will be introducing the dog we'll be sitting over the holidays and the cat we'll be fostering for who knows how long. Should be interesting...

  After a night of playing WoW on our super-cool new laptop and eating yummy mexican food in my toasty hotel room, I dragged my ass out of bed, ate a crappy continental breakfast, and slugged thru the cold and wet to day 2 of the show.

  Ajah wasn't entered on Saturday, so she got to spend the rainy, cold, nasty day cuddled up in blankets and coats and pillows in the warm car.

  Sonny had a fabulous jumpers run. One so nice that people were talking about it much later in the day. We took a very close third to two incredibly fast dogs. :) Then in standard, Sonny decided that tunnels were way more fun than tables no matter what the course map said, and we blew our chance at a double Q...again.

  When the weather cleared a bit, I let Luna out to run around off leash in the fenced area next to the arena. She had a great time splashing thru the deep puddles and running around in huge border collie style circles. The coolest thing was the fact that no matter what she was doing, the second I called her name, she whipped her little butt around, raced straight to me, and plopped that little ass right in front of me. It is so great to have a dog with a recall. There were several piles of dirt and mud and broken up asphalt that she and I played on for a while, racing up and down the hills and getting caked with mud. Luna is learning to be very sure footed and to accept weird, uneven, unsteady footing without batting an eye.

  Today is a big day for lil miss Luna. Today is they first time we have intentionally left her out of her crate for an extended period. Last week I got home to find Luna out of her soft crate with the a large hole torn in the door. Other than the crate, nothing in the apt was damaged, knocked over, or chewed on. Since then, we've been giving her short periods of freedom while we are away. She has been good every time. So, when I left for work, only Sonny was crated. We'll see what happens when I get back.

  I'd prefer not to have to crate my dogs every time I leave the house. I don't think I'll ever be able to trust Sonny loose. I guess it's separation anxiety, because when we are home it doesn't even cross his mind to get into anything, but when he is left loose in the house and we go away, nearly every time I come home to find something chewed into tiny bits in his crate.

  If she's been good all morning, maybe I'll leave her a stuffed kong to get her through the afternoon. *Crossing my fingers*

Damn, I love having a well trained dog. I just took Sonny out to find a vending machine in the labyrinth of a hotel I'm currently sequestered in. I had a leash on him, but shortly after we left the room, I threw it over his back and without my saying a word to the dog, proceeded to search the hotel. At no point did Sonny get farther than 1 foot away from me. When we went through doorways, he stopped and asked for permission first, and when we passed a grassy area, he stopped and looked at me, asking permission to go out and potty. After being released, he went out into the courtyard, peed, and came back to my side all without a word from me.

Damn.

  Well, Ajah and Sonny and I are attending our first agility trial since Katrina this weekend. Honestly, the break in training seems to have had a much great effect on me than it did on them. Ajah and Sonny both jumped right into the swing of things, while I was floundering around, forgetting the course, making really, really late calls, and completely failing at both front and rear crosses.

  Despite my abysmal handling, we had a pretty good day. Sonny Q’ed and took 3rd in Standard against some very tough competition, and should have Q’ed in jumpers. There was a fast series of jumps leading to a 180 and a complete change in direction. It required either a rear and then a front cross on the same jump or a front cross on the 180 and then a rear cross on the following jump. Well, I was planning on doing the former, but as we down the fast series, I was so far behind Sonny I didn’t think I would able to cue him to turn away from me for the read cross. I signaled the rear, changed my mind, and tried to call Sonny around the inside of the jump. He had actually taken the first signal and had turned wide and away from me so that when I called him back toward me the jump was between us, so he took it. Sigh. Bad handler! Bad handler!

  Ajah had a really nice jumpers run. She was fast and clean…but she was ONE SECOND over time. AAAAHHHH! Again, my fault. We would have had the time if I had kept running the course after she finished the weave poles instead of standing there for a second shocked that she had done them all correctly. On the standard course, things were going great. Really great. We had 5 obstacles left. Well, Ajah missed the entry for the weaves, and I was prepared to ignore and just keep going, but the old stress just got to her. She squatted right there between the 2nd and 3rd poles. Poor dear. I scooped her up before she could go in the ring and carried her off. She’s not entered tomorrow, so hopefully a day to chill will help her. She only needs one more leg for her MX, and I would really love to get it this weekend. One more try.

  I had my first day of work at Petco today. I decided to bring Luna with me to get her used to the store before it opens to the public and fills with people and animals and craziness. I crated her near where we were working on stocking shelves so she could see me and I could keep an eye on her.

  She was just great. When we first entered the store, I walked her around and did some basic obedience which she was able to focus on nicely. Then she went right in her crate and settled down. There was a lot of noise since they are still repairing the store, a lot of banging and sawing and beeping and crashing, and she seemed completely unfazed by it. During our work break, she got to come outside and meet everyone and do a bit of obedience. I had to explain the rules tugging to a couple of the store managers. They were a bit horrified that I let Luna use her leash as a tug toy until I explained that it wasn't a toy until I said it was. I think they were impressed by that. I know that everyone was impressed with how well behaved, well trained and calm Luna was. Heck, even I was impressed at how well she handled all the noise and confusion.

  After the break she got a little upset to be back in her crate and not out kissing all the nice people, but after a couple of 'Eh!'s she settled right down. As long as she was laying down in her crate, I'd drop a treat in when I walked by. She's learning real quick that crate time is a time to chill out and relax.

  Hopefully she'll be as good this weekend at the agility show.

  Yesterday was a very momentous day for Luna.

  The dogs and I had gone out to the club’s old training site to pick up some of the left over pieces of equipment that nobody else wanted, and I was letting the dogs run around, playing fetch, tug, etc. while we waited for olde_scratch to arrive with the truck.

  Well, we’d been out there a while, and I was tossing the tennis ball with both the Shelties. When I throw a toy with those two, they both race out after it, Sonny always picks up the toy, and he and Luna tug and wrestle their way back to me. When they get to me, Luna lets go and Sonny hands me the toy to throw again. If I throw a toy with just Luna, she will chase it, but she loses interest when it stops moving. I’ve been doing a lot of work with Luna to build the retreive, ‘take it’ and ‘give’ and tugging and having her take things off the ground, though she would only pick things up if I was already touching them.

  So, ANWAY, we were playing fetch with the ball. I throw it for the 142nd time, and they both take off after it. All of a sudden, Sonny slows down, pulls up short, and looks over his shoulder at me. Luna whizzes by him, runs out to the ball, SCOOPS IT UP, and BRINGS IT BACK TO ME. I was so shocked I nearly fell over. I made a HUGE deal, big party, lots of hugs and praise and cookies.

  I thought it must have been a fluke, so I asked Sonny to wait and threw the ball again. Luna retrieved it AGAIN. She did three more times before I decided to stop pushing my luck.

  I am still flabbergasted. You wouldn’t think something as small as a dog retrieving a ball would be such a huge deal to me, but it really is a major milestone for her to pick something up AND bring it back without any real prompting from me. She was still dropping the ball about 3 feet from me instead of putting it in my hand, but that will come soon enough.

  Yay Luna!

  Finally got back out to herding today. It went OK.

  I worked Sonny on sheep first. There was a lot of barking, but he did some pretty nice work.

  Luna was a total sheep chomper. She's getting more responsive to me when working sheep, as in, she acknowledges my existence for a brief instance before she sails back around and chomps another sheep. At least she not really doing the sheep any physical harm, mostly going for flanks and pulling wopl. In my opinion, those damn sheep deserved to be chomped a time or two after all the stomping they were doing at Sonny. At one point, she got a really good grip on a sheep's flank and went for a ride. She thought that was just great. She'll have to learn to calm down a bit and only use that kind of force when it's actually necessary. Maybe she just like the taste of wool! She did go for one sheep's face/ear when it was stomping at her. Wooly bastard deserved it! She didn't actually grip at his face, just jumped up and snapped at him. Girl's got guts.

  I am starting to see the beginnings of actual herding in her now. She's starting to settle down a bit and fall behind the sheep when I move them. She's not doing as much circling as before. Those are all good things.

  Sonny got to work ducks as well. Shelly actually gave me some good advice that I needed reminding of. I need to know exactly what I want to work on, what I want from the dog and the stock BEFORE we go into the arena. That's what I really miss about not having an instructor on hand, having someone tell me, "Work on keeping the ducks on the fence" or "Today you need to work on outruns." After I figured out what I wanted, Sonny did some beautiful work with the ducks. They are great for his confidence...and mine when things go right. :)

   Ajah is a wicked smart little dog. It’s kinda scary.

   The other night I was working on free shaping a nose touch to a clear plastic lid. I’d worked all three dogs once before. Basically, I held the lid in my hand and c/t’ed for any movement toward it. Up’ed the ante until I was c/t’ing for an actual nose touch. I tried not to give any help. Just sat there looking at the lid. All three dogs got it pretty quick.

   So, the next step in the game was to put the lid on the floor and do the same thing. I worked Luna first. She came in immediately nose touched the lid and got a c/t. Then we played the waiting game. She was waiting for me to do something, and I was waiting for her to touch the lid. She can be one patient puppy. Well, eventually she figured out that I was just gonna sit there, and she started offering intermittent nose touches to the lid. Sonny did much the same thing.

   Ajah came in, took one look at the lid, slapped it with her paw, and looked at me like ‘Where’s the click, bitch?” I waited. She nose touched the lid – c/t. OK. From then on she proceeded to bump it ten straight times. At one point about half way thru she decided that it was too much work to bend all the way down to the floor to bump the lid so she put her paw on the edge, flipped it up on its side, and held it there.

   There is a reason I love training with that little brat. :)

  As I’ve mentioned before, I occasionally bike Sonny in an effort to keep both of us in shape. ‘Course I’m not sure how well it works since I haven’t done it since before the storm. Well, today I dragged the bike out of the shed and got us both some exercise.

  I also worked Luna a bit with the bike. I’d like to eventually be able to bike both pups at the same time - brace biking. :) I had introduced Luna to the bike once before, just walking it around the driveway and giving her treats for coming near the bike and me. Today, I actually got on the bike and rode it up and down the driveway a couple of times. Luna, being the little header that she is, wanted to cut me off, so she kept come in front of the bike and trying to stop it. It’s amazing to watch this girl go into herding mode. Her whole energy and body posture changes. She lowers her head border collie style and focuses all her energy. It only took a couple of ‘eh eh’s to keep her from coming around the front of the bike and realize that this game was about heeling and not herding. Once she’d settled into moving with me next to the bike, I hooked a leash onto her harness, and we went for a short ride up the block and back. She hit the end of the leash a couple of times just forgetting what she was doing and getting interested in the things going by, but she’s not a leash puller at all, so she quickly fell into step.

  I’m really glad introducing Luna to the bike went as smoothly for her as it did for Sonny. She’s not really old enough to do any serious conditioning, but when she is ready, it’ll be an easy way for all of us to get some exercise.

Thing I need to work on:

  Targeting with all three dogs. I want to shape a nose touch to a clear plastic target. I need to practice my free shaping skills, and I'm really thinking of using a target to teach Luna 2 on 2 off on the agility contacts. I can also use it with the other two to teach 'go outs' for Utility.

  Teaching Sonny and Luna to play dead and roll over. Again, I need to work on my free shaping skills, and I can also work on luring with Luna. Besides, a dog can never know too many stupid pet tricks.

  I've now got a full set of 12 training weave poles at the house. Troy and I built them last week out of PVC in less than an hour. It was really easy, and we could probably sell the damn things for a decent profit if we wanted to. I need to make a commitment to working Luna on them at least a few times a week. I want her weaving skills to be up with the rest of her agility skills.

  I've also got my tippy teeter board at home again. I think I am going to attach it to something low and stationary to use as a contact trainer for Luna.


  Deep South's herding trial totally snuck up on me. I was thinking it was at the end of the month, but it's actually this weekend! Eek! Since Sonny has never worked ducks down here and since my work schedual is now totally random and stupid, I am going to haul my ass up there tomorrow and do a bit of duck work. Shelly is actually letting use her stock while she is at work. I had to promise not to let any of the ducks get eaten by a dog, though, so I don't think I'll be working Luna on them this week. :)

  Woo hoo! We got to go to herding today. I dragged my ass out of bed WAY too early for my liking so we’d have more time and the girls would get a chance to ( 'play sheep' )

  The one really important thing I learned today is that if a sheep really wants to go around the pen and is moving at somewhere near top speed, standing in its way will not in any way impede its forward motion. All that will happen is that my ass will make fond acquaintance with the pile of sheep shit that was once under my feet. Go me!

  Deep South had obedience classes last night. This is the third week they've had it since the storm, and we are getting more people out every time. It must be puppy season cuz, including my Luna, there were four puppies out last night, an afghan, a cardigan corgi, and a golden that the guy was being WAY harsh with. I swear to god. I don't know what it is with people down here that they want to hit their dogs to solve a problem before trying handing the damn dog a cookie for doing something right! The golden pup was just being a puppy, wanting to jump up on me and whine and being gently mouthy. This guy had a choke chain on the four month old pup, giving leash corrections for jumping and actually smacking with the end of the leash for mouthing me. It’s a fucking golden pup, OF COURSE it’s going to mouth. Sigh. ( Cut cuz it's so damn long )

  We’re going to herding again tomorrow morning. Let’s all keep our fingers and pads crossed that the girls get some sheep time and that Sonny gets some duck time.

  Sigh. I drove a total of 120 miles today to get to herd with only one of my dogs for a total of maybe 20 mins.

  Our area only has a couple of trials a year, and they are both in the late fall. So, right now EVERYONE is going to herding. That means no time for Ajah or Luna to herd. Only the dogs who are entered in the trial get to play.

  Sonny got to work twice. The first time, he went in jazzed, made an ass of himself, and totally pissed off the sheep. I'm sure it's all my fault, though. He seemed calm and collected when we went in, so I thought I'd let him pick the sheep up off the fence on his own. A mini-outrun. Well, he runs straight for the sheep, barking the whole time, splits them, circles them, and gives up after they all resettle in the corner facing him. I went in and helped him, but by then the sheep had his number. There was one big male who just kept stamping and threatening Sonny. I didn't have a stick, so I had to settle for kneeing and hip checking him into turning his head. It really doesn't seem polite to haul off and kick someone else's sheep...but I should have! We couldn't even get the damn things thru the Y chute.

  Between runs, I threw the squirrel toy for him and let him burn off some steam. The second time around, he was MUCH better. We did a run-thru of the A-course we'll be doing at the trial. I set him up close for the outrun and didn't pressure too much. There was a bit of a mess at first cuz he sliced in, then over shot, but then he and the sheep (this was a different set than the first time in) settled down nicely. We ran thru the whole A course with very few problems. Y chute was nice. Between Y and Z, he wanted to lift them off the fence, but I reminded him that I belong by the fence and he belongs on the outside, and we got it straight. Straight thru the Z chute and he beat me to the other side and actually drove the sheep to the open pen. Woo! Everyone thru the open pen and we made a nice turn which I c/t'ed for. He lost the treat in the grass and sniffed around for so long for it that the sheep decided to make a break for the gate. I yelled, 'Sonny, Help!' and he got right back to it, circled wide, gathered everyone in and brought them back to me. VERY, VERY little barking involved. Made the final turn beautifully, and he automatically came around and guarded the gate. Wow! So cool.

  He's thinking out there. More and more he is understanding the tasks involved and how to make the sheep do what he wants. I'm learning to shut up and let him figure things out for himself instead of directing his every step. It's a great feeling to know we are working together out there to get something done and when I need him, he's there to help. :)

  I stuck around after our second run, hoping to get to work at least one of the girls. No luck, but I did witness something that made me thank my lucky stars AGAIN that I am not using Shelly as an instructor.

  She was working George. John and Leonore's younger, male gsd. He's a totally sweet, wonderful guy. Shelly was working him, and he seemed to be testing his limits with her. He was being grippy and unresponsive to directionals and downs which resulted in Shelly yelling at him even more. Well, old George runs in and gets a chunk out of a sheep under Shelly's nose. At this point, Shelly had had it. She chased George, who at this point is scared shitless of her, for a good five minutes. Finally, she calls for him to down, stalks over to him, grabs him by the collar, and hits him in the chest with the stock stick over and over and over to the point that I can hear his owners, who are very correction based trainers themselves, saying under their breath, 'OK, that's enough. That's enough.' Sad thing is, good old George gets up and works after this. Works great. Yes, it worked, but it didn't have to happen. This dog already had a problem of bolting in agility and obedience training when he thought he made a mistake. This is not going to make things better. There are better ways. Ways that don’t destroy trust and break bonds.

  I am sorry I ever trained Sonny like that. No, I never hit him with the stick (although Shelly did once), but constantly yelling and pressuring and pushing and waving a stick at an already abused and unconfident dog does nothing to help him. That’s not the way to train a friend and partner.

  I got a pressure washer yesterday. Yay for new toys! So, olde_scratch and I spent a few hours out at the agility site playing cleaning with the pressure washer. We got the contacts done and some of the jumps and tunnels. I'll have to go out and finish up later.

  Since olde_scratch wasn't playing fair and sharing the washer (the big poopie-head!), I had plenty of time to play agility with the dogs. Sonny and Ajah were both blasting thru the weave poles. I guess doing next to no agility will do that. Sonny's contacts are looking just great. He's speeding over them and only reducing his speed as is necessary to made a clean 2 on 2 off stop at the bottom. We'll have to see is those behaviors will hold up under trail stress.

  As usual, I was really happy and impressed with Luna. She does everything at top speed. She RUNS the conacts. She is doing the teeter on her own now. She think it's cool to make it slam to the ground under her. She also thinks tunnels are the funnest things ever!

  We were having to roll the tunnels over to the pressure washer since the cord too short to reach across the field. Luna decided that the tunnels should NOT be moving like that. She's a natural header, so she wanted those tunnels to STOP! First she tried circling the tunnels and giving them 'the eye.' Yeah, she's a Sheltie with eye. I swear she's half BC. When that didn't work, she came in and started nose punching them. No luck. By the time she started gripping them, we'd gotten them all moved where they needed to be.

  She's doing weaves really well. I used to have to call her thru, but now I can run next to her, and she understands that the idea is to run down the middle of the split poles.

  She's doing so well, it's hard to remember that she's not even 6 months old. I really need to work a lot more on obedience and rally with her, since not only can she enter those trials at 6mo instead of a year for agility, but they are a lot less stressful on her joints.

  Woo hoo! I got everyone's feet done last night. Ajah was a snot as usual there was squirming and yelping. People must think I am trying to kill her. She's such a drama queen, she'll yelp BEFORE I clip her nail. *eyeroll*

  Sirius was great. Weird cat loves to have his nails clipped. And Sonny was his usual stoic self.

  Luna is getting WAY better about it. When I first got her, it was a bit of a battle to get her to hold still, and even after she'd settle down, she'd get all squirmy when I'd switch feet. This time she was squirmy for the first minute or so, then I gave her a look and a grumble, and she settled right down. Let me clip all her nails and trip the hair between her toes with no problems. I swear by the end she was falling asleep. Goofy thing. The next step is introducing her to the nail grinder...OF DOOM!

*sigh* Unfortunately, I can't bathe any of them until I get my dryer back from Bill (even if Luna did jump in the tub with me last night:), so I'm stuck with stinky dogs with nice tootsies.