Skijoring in the Cornell Plantations!

Skijoring

The snow and weather were great the one time we made it out skijoring this winter:

No snow... so urban scootering

This weekend Pogo was supposed to be in a dog sled race in the Wisconsin Dells, but that was canceled because our snow has melted. Annie brought her dog Summer to Madison anyway, and we borrowed my neighbors' dog Daisy and went dog scootering today around Vilas Park.

In addition, below is a photo of when I visited Annie in Naperville over winter break and went scootering with her there:

Back to health again!

I'm feeling much healthier again these days and have been doing agility training with Pogo, who has learned to push his way through a closed chute tunnel. I'm proud of him for learning so quickly (within a day using tasty treats).

I'm hoping next to teach him how to weave between my legs as I walk. I've seen videos of border collies doing that, and I think that Pogo is smart enough to learn if I'm smart enough to teach him how. He's a bit tall, but I think we can manage.

Dog sulky = Bike chariot

I haven't been able to do many dog pulling activities since mid-May, when a car accident left me in a brace with a fractured neck vertebra and broken collar bone. During that time, Pogo got exercise using our treadmill and chasing tennis balls rather than pulling me around on a scooter. I just got the neck brace (a.k.a. torture device) taken off yesterday and can now get back to dog pulling sports and boating. While incapacitated, I discovered that I can have people pull me around in the dog sulky behind a bicycle.

My visiting mom biked me to a physical therapy appointment:

Pat took me and Terra along on Madison's Ride the Drive:

We passed another dog getting a lift at Ride the Drive:

Pulling Power

I was very excited to receive my dorsal hitch dog sulky today. Thanks to Michele in Ohio for selling it to me, and thanks to Annie for bringing it to Madison. I tried it out along the Wingra bike path with Pogo (in the center), our neighbor's dog Daisy (right), and Annie's dog Summer (left). This first trial run went amazingly well, and it helped to have Annie biking ahead to motivate the dogs. All three dogs have been doing dog pulling activities like dog sledding and dog scootering, so they seemed to get the hang of it right away. I still have a lot to learn about which straps attach where and how to adjust everything properly. (You can click on the photo to enlarge it.)
Here's a video view from the sulky:


And here is Pogo helpfully hauling home a stack of library books last weekend in his wagon:

Urban scootering

I love it when Annie comes to visit from Chicago. Today was a beautiful day for scootering. Annie led the way on a bike. Summer (Annie's goldendoodle), Pogo (my Irish doodle), and Daisy (my neighbors' poodle) pulled me on the scooter on a loop around Monona Bay with little Terra along for the ride in my backpack. Yeehaw! Or should I say, gee-haw!

Pogo's new trick

Pogo can now turn off our hall light on command (see video below). The next step is to train him to toggle the switch in both directions. Good thing he doesn't seem inclined to do it randomly on his own.

Spring scootering

Our beautiful snow is melting in this 40 degree weather, so I took Pogo and our neighbor's dog Daisy out scootering along the bike trail today. It went well, and the dogs sped up as we got closer to the dog park.


At the dog park, we met another standard poodle who likes to pull. Hopefully Pogo and Daisy managed to convince her how much fun dog pulling sports are.

Team Oodle in the Dells

Team Oodle ran well at the Christmas Mountain Village dogsled race yesterday. Musher Annie stayed upright and did not finish last this time! Here they are in the starting chute, with Summer and Pogo in lead:

I was excited to get to try a dorsal hitch dog sulky after the race. The suspension and brakes worked well, and I was amazed at how smooth the ride was. Boy would I love one of these!

One guy built his own dogsled out of skis and hockey sticks:

And I enjoyed this scene:

Team Oodle in Naperville

On Saturday, we had fun dog sledding. We gathered a 5-dog team consisting of three doodles, a poodle, and a husky in Naperville. Here are Pogo and his buddy Summer during their pre-game strategizing session:I took this video while driving the team with Summer's mom, Annie:

Team Oodle at Winterfest

Pogo ran in his first sled dog race today at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve Winterfest. He was part of a 3-dog team along with his goldendoodle buddy Summer, driven by Annie on her kicksled. Team Oodle came in last partly due to a tangle at the beginning but finished the race and enjoyed the scenery (and apparently also peeing on the scenery). I was proud of Pogo for pulling hard. Thanks to our other neighborhood Fluffy Dog, Daisy, for helping him train earlier this week.

After the race, I took Summer and Pogo out to try the kicksled myself
and found this historic bridge (see video):

For more photos from the race and ice caves we visited afterward, check here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/chaopricha/WinterFestOodles?authkey=Gv1sRgCNuoq_2Qpt2Y7QE#

Skatejoring!

It turns out that Pogo is good at pulling people on ice skates, too! Wingra Lake was smoother today than I've ever seen it before. Pogo pulled me and Pat together all the way across the lake without our help. Here's him getting warmed up:
He also gave "rides" to several of our friends:

Snow!

Turns out that Pogo loves the snow as much as I do! We tried skijoring together for the first time today, and Pogo pulled well. Here are two videos. He went faster when we promised him breakfast on the way home.


After a break, we headed out to fetch our Harmony Valley Farm CSA fruit box from the other side of the neighborhood. Pogo pulled it home in his wagon through the snow. Even though not everybody had shoveled their sidewalks yet, and the curb cuts were filled with snowplowed drifts, Pogo pulled the wagon happily straight through it all.

Over the moguls and through the snow,
To fetch our fruit box we go!
The dog knows the way
Across the highway
Through the white and drifted snow....oh!

And in case you are getting sick of winter already, I just found a couple of goofy dog photos on Pat's camera from this summer:

Thanksgiving Fun

Pogo gave scooter and wagon rides to my family:






























After dinner, my cousin tried brushing Pogo's teeth (video):

More fun ways to exercise fluffy dogs

Pogo has a new sled dog buddy! At the dog park this week, we met a doodle from Chicagoland named Summer and her owner Annie. We harnessed up our dogs together and took turns having the two dogs pull us on a bike. How fun!





Here are three videos showing our dogs bikejoring together.




And below is another way we've found to wear out Pogo.

Dog pulling sports

Check out these four videos of our dog pulling activities.

A. Dog scootering: (i) the gear, (ii) the action!



B. Wagon pulling: (i) hauling veggies, (ii) hauling me!





We're looking forward to trying skijoring this winter.

Happy Trails to Kaylah (Daisy)

What a beautiful day! Kaylah did well biking again. I later trimmed her nails and groomed her face, butt, and feet. She was patient for all of that.





Tonight, neighborhood friends adopted Kaylah and renamed her Daisy. Look at how well Daisy's curly hair matches her new mom's curly hair. It wasn't easy for my husband to take this photo of them, because our dogs Bear and Terra kept trying to sneak into the shot.

Congrats Daisy! It's been fun fostering you. We look forward to seeing you around the neighborhood. If you ever need a pet-sitter, you know whom to call.

Kaylah's settling in

Here's a video of Kaylah biking with my husband again this morning:


Just now while I was sitting at the computer, Kaylah plopped her head in my lap for a snuggle.

I now have confirmation that she's not deaf. She was in another room, and I called her name and whistled, and she came trotting over to me. Excellent.

Great News!

A couple of applications have been submitted for Kaylah, and hopefully she'll get to go home with a family soon.

I crated Kaylah in my bedroom today while I was at work in case she had more diarrhea. Turned out that she didn't, but she willingly went into the crate and quietly laid down in it. What a good girl!

She's starting to display more of a personality. Today for the first time she came up to me a few times to say hello. When I let her out of the crate this afternoon, she play-bowed to my toy poodle Terra and barked at her to try to get her to play. And she briefly chewed on a few dog toys tonight.

Kaylah is now sitting more reliably on command with a combined vocal+hand signal. She's getting better at the sit-stay command, too. And tonight, she pulled our red wagon around the block outside. I later tried to see if she would sit in the wagon while my dog Bear pulled it, but she would have none of that and jumped right out. One downside of the day: she pooped in our living room again tonight, but at least it wasn't diarrhea anymore.
Tonight as it's getting close to bedtime, Kaylah went right into her crate and curled up. She seems very cozy in there.
I see many poodles and doodles online that need new families. I wish that more of them were looking for new homes in the Madison area, because I've heard from multiple other families here that would like to adopt a dog like Kaylah. If you are interested in adopting a dog like her, keep checking Petfinder, because Fluffy Dog Rescue and other organizations regularly have poodles and doodles to rehome. In addition, the Pefinder classifieds section and Craigslist both have poodles that families want to rehome directly. Here are a couple more photos from Kaylah's adventures today.