Little Witch and A Birthday Party coming up!

My sister Terry sent me this photo of Little Zinna dressed up for Halloween. Oh what we put our dogs through....



Sadly Zinna will be missed this weekend at Zaz and Itz's 1st Birthday party. This is the first time in over 5 years that I am doing a "birthday party" for one of my litters. We did have a party 5 years ago for Zen and her littermates (Lucky,Bailey, Timmy, Chi and Unique). It was a great party BUT it was exceptionally LOUD! It has taken me 5 years to get up the courage to do it again! haha. But Zaz and Itz are such special little pups to me and I had to celebrate their 1st birthday. So joining Zaz, Itzy, Yaz and Zavvi at their first birthday party will be Zinna's littermates Zeki, Zev and Ziga. Do you think I will be able to keep ANY of those names straight? I will be going zzzzzzzzzzzzz oh whatever!

For those who have asked me about how I used the Manner's Minder for Contacts. I will try and find a video of the pups when I first started them on the plank. Unfortunately it won't show much as I usually just focused the camera on the plank and you cannot see the manners minder as it is much further away. I also turned off the "beep" sound on the manners minder so that it wouldn't turn into another cue for the pup. If I get a chance I will do this tonight or tomorrow but first I have to clean the house to get ready for our guests!

Here is a photo of Zen's 1st Birthday bash. The only missing pup from that litter was Unique who was in Denmark.

Manners Minder Remote Reward and fantastic customer service!

So I must say that lately I have just come to expect bad customer service as that is what seems to be the norm. In contrast, this past month, I have received some of the best customer service I have ever experienced!

I have been using the "Manners Minder" Remote Reward Training System to help train Zaz and Itzy on their contacts. The Manners Minder is a remote food dispensing reward machine. It has been very successful but I had been having some small glitches with the machine itself being slightly temperamental.

The Manners Minder is produced by Premier Pet Products. Dennis brought this back for me during the summer when he was back in New York. Although I was pleased with it and it accomplished what I wanted it for (running contacts); I had trouble with the remote at times. So I contacted the company this month (a few months after I initially purchased it) to see if they could help and they immediately mailed me a new remote to see if that would solve the problem.

Unfortunately that did not solve the problem and the machine was still acting temperamental. In response to that they immediately offered to mail me a WHOLE NEW MACHINE! I did NOT expect such an immediate response. What a pleasant surprise: a company that has fantastic CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I received the new Manners Minder today and it works like a dream! I can stand a huge distance from the machine with the remote behind my back and it still works! yeah!! I thought it was a good product but now I think it is a GREAT product. I can't wait to use it in teaching other behaviors now.

BTW, Our LI Sheltie rescue always used their martingale collars for our sheltie rescues (as shelties are prone to backing out of their collars). They do have some great products and how refreshing to deal with a company like this!

Zaz and Itz Training November 2009

I am pretty confident that Zaz and Itz are done growing. They have both been in season and they both seem physically grown up. So now agility training can really begin and it is such an exciting time for us! This is the stuff that I just love; the feeling that all our foundation work is coming together and the obstacle training itself is just a bonus.

Each puppy has their own little agility class during the week as well as our own training right here in my back garden. I am so lucky as both Zaz and Itz's agility classes are small and safe with friendly dogs and we get so much done in each class. I do most of my "real" obstacle training at home and use the classes to train around distractions and work on jumping sequences. I also try to take both puppies to private lessons with Lesley whenever I can. In between Nancy has been a great help to me with both puppies; a great sounding board because she has been playing around with running contacts also. :-) This past weekend I took Zaz to her first training day with Nancy and we had a great time. A puppy agility class with three shelties Zaz, Yaz and Wish; what could be better? And, no it wasn't a noisy class at all!

Since today was so beautiful we just had to be outside. When Dennis got home from golfing I grabbed him to do a little video of the pups obstacle training to show how they are progressing. After that we had a great walk with all the dogs and enjoyed the beautiful November sunshine. What a gorgeous day!

It was Bonfire night on Thursday and we have been so lucky not to have fireworks nearby. I feel awful for the dogs that have to put up with the fireworks all weekend. Lucky has come to stay with us for the weekend because the fireworks are so loud around his house. Lucky (Zen's brother) has been such a joy to have around and it has been a nice change to have a dog that likes to sit on your lap when we watch TV at night. Unlike my girls who are always scattered around the floor or in other rooms, Lucky loves to cuddle.

Anyway enjoy Zaz and Itzy's video and don't laugh at my constant "good girls"! I just cannot help it as they are just so GOOD and so cute and I just love both of them!

ArchAngel Halo Extraordinare

I just wanted to share a note I received last month about one of my pups. Halo is Jordan's baby girl; one of only two pups that Jordan gave me those many years ago. Halo was to have been my dog; the sable girl I had been wanting so badly. But things were not meant to be and Halo went to live with Karen in New Jersey almost 9 years ago. I know that these things always happen for a reason and I think that reason was that Halo was diagnosed with cancer 2 years ago. Karen fought as hard as Halo and with determination together they came through.

Can you believe the size of that Rosette?! I think it is appropriate that our Angel "Halo" (O'Bay Say a Little Prayer) has been awarded the title of ARCHex.



From Karen:
Just a quick note

Little miss Halo, the miracle dog fought cancer and has achieved more since that battle than many pups without her handicap. 2 years ago we could only hope that Halo would live to have a quality life after her battle with cancer. And, although she is somewhat challenged by the scars left by the radiation and staph infection, she has gone forward with the class and determination that is Halo.

This past week-end she earned her ARCHEX (APDT Rally Champion Extraordinaire). To get to this point she had to earn 10 QQs in Rally levels 2 and 3 and do so with scores of 195 or better for each Q. The ribbon we were awarded is bigger than Halo, but can't compare to the size of her heart. She is truly the apple of her mother's eye and loved to pieces. I have never had a dog like her and probably never will again. I've attached a pic of Halo, the judge under whom we earned the last qualifying leg, the ribbon and me. .

Gotta love this dog to pieces. Now we're back to some serious work in utility and herding. Yes Bernadette, Halo is back to herding along with Kismet. Halo's leg doesn't seem to be able to handle agility with the zeal that Halo likes to move, but she does very well with the sheep. She's not wild, listens and loves to work.

Thanks Karen for giving Halo the best home and a helping her recover from that awful cancer. Even though I cried all the way there and back; I think I made the right decision when I drove her to your home all those years ago!

Happy 3rd Birthday Kizzy, Wizz, Zoe and Oz (and the blog!)

It is hard to believe that it was back in September 2006 that this blog was started to keep everyone up to date on these potential puppies! Three years ago today Zen gave birth to her first litter of pups. Happy birthday to Kizzy, Wizz, Zoe and Oz.

The very first "Z" litter! Gosh what a hard time I had getting those owners to give their puppy "Z" names. I finally had to compromise and let them just pick names with "z" in the name instead of starting with "Z" as I really had preferred. Meanwhile the 2nd Zen litter had very obedient owners who named their puppies Zeki, Zinna, Ziga and Zev! They must have really wanted their puppies!

Here is Zen with her first litter.



Three years later and this blog has been a fantastic way to keep in touch with the growing OBay Family. I find it hard to believe that we have had over 190,000 visitors to the blog from 100 different countries! How fabulous is that?

Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and makes such lovely comments. I feel like I have so many more friends in so many different countries and maybe one day will get to meet everyone in person!