Hikenit's Pets Zinger and Coconut

Update5/28/09 
Hello from Chattanooga, home of the best flyball Labrador and future best flyball Maltese?? That�s right! Zinger has a new sister. Her name is Pearl and is now 13 weeks old. Zinger loves her so much, except when she runs him out of the crate. It�s been a long search for another Maltese but this little gal is gonna be awesome to watch when she�s ready for running in the lanes. She already is tug crazy and will haul butt for it. Right now she�s settled in quite nice and is very much enjoying her first daycare days at Play Dog Excellent. They are such wonderful friends and they they take great care of the furkids. Gotta run for now but will be posting new pics of Pearl soon.

Update 2/11/09
Zingers Heat Seek team took 1st Place in the division 5 Heat of Dixie U-FLI qualifier/championship flyball tournament in Talladega, where he also got his Top Flight Executive 1 title. His training has been steadily climbing since the warm up began earlier this week so we are making a goal of getting a exciting title for him come August. Be on the lookout for the Z-Man!

Update 7/24/08
Zinger was the on the U-FLI cover page for two months before another dog was selected but we just found out that he is the pet of the month on the Wellness Pet Food Website. How kewl is that!. We are getting ready for some major flyball action coming soon so I have to go get the boy and run fast.

Catch ya later!

Update 4/21/08
News Flash!!! Zinger is now a Flyball Master. We went to the Chomp's tourney this past weekend after a two week stint of dealing with a bout of Kennel cough and the team still managed to get two first place ribbons for division, won every one of our races and only lost the heats that we messed up. The Heat Seek team pulled together in support of Zinger and helped him get the title of Flyball Master. It's taken a while to get to this level and now that we are on a team that is supportive enough and dedicated to winning and achieving clean, fast runs I know that we can continue the current success we are having. Kudos to all me teammates!

Abbey (our tiny height dog) was on her A game and really has turned out to be a great flyball dog. I see many great results for her future like this past weekend we she got the same amount of points in one weekend as she has in her very short career combined. Spring is in the air and the park and lake is calling us. Ahh, vacation too!

Update 3/10/08
Zinger has a new friend, her name is Zoey and she is a black Lab pup around four months old. I already started training her for flyball and working on basic obedience since my neighbor who owns the dog & is never home to take care of her. She bugs Zman all the time and runs in the house every time I open the door so I guess she'll be my pet project till she moves. Z likes her but she takes his rawhides away from him. He's such a good puppy!

Update 11/20/07
Another month has passed and we are getting ready for turkey day. Zinger had a good tournament last weekend here at the Chattanooga Chomp Whistle Stop tournament running 14 inch jumps most of the weekend. Our new team Heat Seek was running pretty good for our first tournament together and our height dog Abbey will be an awesome Flyball dog when her brain finally kicks in. Z and I are taking a couple months off and the team is running exhibition only on December 2nd at the Birmingham Bandits tourney. Zinger tore a nice hunk out of his leg a few days before the Chomp�s tournament, seems to be healing nicely for a licking dog. Please hair, grow back!

Update 10/26/07
Dear friends, I have sad news to report if you haven't already heard.

This has been a difficult month for Robin and I because our little girl Coconut passed away on September 30th. and 24 hour later Robin's mother passed away from a year long battle with lung cancer (she was a non-smoker).

Pat (Robin's mother) was Coconut's grandma and she sat in Pat's lap every time she came over. In her last days she was telling Robin to bring Coconut over to be with her in the hospital bed. I don't think anyone told her that Coconut was Ill also; she just knew that it would make her better if she was there.

Coconut would have been 17 years old on December 10th. and she lived a very indulged life. A few months ago she quit using her back legs and we were taking her for short potty walks holding her up to walk on her front legs. In her last two weeks she wouldn't eat much but still was full of spunk for a dog that wouldn't walk. The morning of her passing was very peaceful, I got home and Robin and handed her to me wrapped in her favorite polar fleece blanket and we went to out favorite spot (the recliner) and Robin went to shower. Within two minutes of me petting her, she moved a bit and I stopped petting her and tickled her nose. She always licked my finger to give me kisses and that was the last thing she did before taking her final breath. I am so blessed that this is the way it ended for her. It was like she was waiting on me to come home and get some daddy time before telling me it was time to go. I have never had a dog that impacted me as much as Coconut did. She was daddy's little girl, mommy�s woobie and Zingers big sister. We will miss both dearly.

Update 8/13/07
Zinger went to his annual Doggie Paddle Pool Party at Warner Park Saturday and he had a ball swimming with all his pals like Buddy, Emma, Tycho and Xander. I had to drag him out of the pool a few times to make him rest a little, if it wasn't for that he would have stayed in the entire three hours. This year was especially fun for me too as I didn't have a dog who "caddy shacked" in the water.  The after swim effect was in full force though, he peed 23 times from 3:30 till 6 and each one was from 3 to 5 minutes long. Whew! We have a Flyball tournament this weekend in Talladega and we hope to qualify for the U-FLI championships in November.

Update 7/16/07
Hi all, just checking in to give the latest news on the fur-children. Coconut is having a hard time using that knee that blew out so I'm in the process of making an assistance wheelchair for her. She had very bad scar tissue built up in that leg and it's really starting to bug her. Woobie will be right as rain with a few days of daddy therapy, which started this weekend. Zinger is bored right now; he has skipped two Flyball tournaments in order to perform well in the next few months. I've ramped up his speed training and started putting less focus on the fundamentals. It's really starting to show too. Last week at practice he ran a 4.02 on our new timing system (which is good enough to take fastest lab in U-FLI) and I have pretty much perfected his starts all in the .0??'s Can't get much better for the yeller lab. Back to the lake!

Update 4/7/07
Here�s another update on the Z-Man. Since November we have really raised it up a notch. Z is now running in the high 4's to low 5's second runs and his stamina is simply amazing. We went to Nashville at the Music City Road Dogs tourney and besides one goof where he went after a treat on the floor, he ran simply amazing the entire weekend. We came in last place for the team both days but that's the way it goes sometimes. Swimming around in the lake has really helped, other than the all the pollen in the water he really gets a great workout. I just have to take him to the park for a couple hours to pee out the 10 gallons he drank. We have a few tourneys planed from May till the end of the year, so he gets a month break and gets to enjoy the water and I get to ride my bike some. Stay tuned for more frequent updates.

Update 11/7/06
What a great past two weeks for Zinger. We went to Charlotte, NC Halloween weekend for a Flyball tournament hosted by Dogsmack and Zinger got his Flyball Dog Champion, the team placed 1st in our division in the Multibreed class and finally he is back to running in the high 4's to low 5 second runs. He managed to run a 4.299 on Saturday, which is only .003 second off the top speed for a Labrador. The middle of the following week I got an email from a couple in Illinois with a greeting from Zingers sister Casey. Zinger was very happy to hear from sis and really likes seeing her picture, so much he wants me to post it on his site. So click on the pics link to see his good-looking sister. The following weekend we went to Talladega for another Flyball tourney and continued getting great results and achieving his Flyball Dog Champion Silver title. Woo-Hoo!!!

Update 8/31/06
Wow! It's been a while since the last update so here ya go!

This past weekend Z and I went to Talladega for the Dog Daze U-FLI tournament and with the team we were running with, took home 2nd place on Saturday and 1st. on Sunday in our divisions. Zinger finally got to be a start dog again and ran a few heats at around 5.5 Sunday. He really is coming back from his crash in November and has taken this long to get his confidence back, My thanks to all who have helped me with his problem, especially Ayn, Kate and Sam!

The team also took a seminar from the Rude Dogs to help teams get a little more competitive and train our dogs to play the game better and at their full potential.  We really enjoyed it, and it makes all the research I have done on the sport come to light.

Many thanks to all the teams, people and dogs who make this game fun to play!

Update 3/22/06
Zinger went to the U-FLI tournament this past weekend and did really good. He got his TF-I and TF-II titles all in one weekend. The best news is that the team beat our own best time and I finally have a dog that will run fast again and actually pass a dog. I look forward to the Perry, GA, NAFA tournament that the Gamblers is hosting in April.

Update 2/24/06
My boy is starting to get better at passing since his ill-fated crash in Nashville. We went to Huntsville a couple of weeks ago and we ran him in last position, he usually runs in first. He ran the whole day Sunday without faults but ran slow, but we continued to run around that 24 to 26 second runs which is actually good times for the team.

Last weekend we did passing drills with Jane Kline and Elaine Nichols from the Music City Road Dogs. They taught us the fundamentals of passing which all of us needed. Zinger did really well at the end of the day but still running the anchor position. His times were much better and we managed to get less than 24 seconds with the team we are taking to Talladega in March. We ought to do really well since Zinger gets to hit the Doggie Fun Zone a week before the tournament, he gets supercharged when he gets to chase a plastic bag over jumps, through tunnels and around turns. Most important, I�m hoping that it brings his confidence back.

Update 1/27/06
We went to a tournament this past weekend and Zinger got his Flyball Dog Excellent title Saturday. Sunday was a terrible day for Z, on the very first heat Sunday he crashed with another teammate on the first jump coming back from the box and hit the jump. He yelped out and ran off to the other lane with his head down and looking for me. I finally called for him and the judge came over to check on him. He was visibly shaken up but we continued on to try to finish the race. Zinger wouldn't perform the rest of the day, he kept missing jumps and so I put him in the crate and tried again on the third race. It got so bad for us that one of my teammates said "You want us to get Cassie?� In relief I said "yes" and walked out of the ring to the crate. Another teammate confronted me and told me to not leave the team hanging, I just couldn't see putting my boy out where he didn't want to be so I took the first chance I got and bailed out. The last race of the day just proved that he still wasn't ready to run again and so I devised a plan to run a green dog that we had there to get the freak-out phase over and done. Z bombed out on the first heat so I pulled him and out in the green dog. Wilber rose to the occasion and performed flawless and got his first seven points.

Back to proofing Z against the crash factor!

Update 1/9/06
Yeah! Flyball practice tonight, seems like there is some kind of Flyball practice everyday for Zinger and me. Monday is team practice, Tuesday  & Thursday is speed drills and obedience training at the park, Wednesday and Fridays are play days for him but I send him to day care to build his stamina and to give me a break at the same time and weekends are a mix, either a hike or swim but usually he just wants to nap those days, or maybe that�s me ;-).

Lately Z is starting to act like a Bear in winter hibernation, lethargic and lazy, it usually takes three times of "You want the ball, do ya, do ya!" before he starts barking for it. He never was much of a ball dog as much as he just likes things in his mouth.  He now goes through a 12 inch pressed rawhide bone in a week. That reminds me, got to go order some more!

Update 12/10/05 Today is my baby's birthday. I feel bad not writing anything in here about her so here ya go. Coconut (woobie) for short ;-) is my little Maltese who today turned 15. I remember the times when she was all spunky and loved to fetch little tennis balls and prance around and growl if you tried to take it. She would have been a great height dog for Flyball, she used to go camping with me and ride in the car but now her age is getting up there and she is content to stay at home and sleep. If I could only reverse time!

Coconut blew her knee out at age 3 jumping off the couch and riding the cat into the kitchen. Ahh the memories.

Here's to you my baby girl!
 Love you Woobie!

Update 12/10/05
The Chattanooga Chomp has a few new FDX titled dogs in the bunch; Z is not far behind and should be an FDX on his next race.

Update 11/28/05
In just one weekend Z and his teammates got their UFli Top Flight titles. The constant exercise has transformed Z in a upper 5 second dog compared to a constant 7 second runner only two months ago. Now if I can only get the rest of them doing the hill sprints :-)

Update 10/24/05
Z has really knocked off some fat the past couple of months. The diet of Bil-Jac and constant exercise has really paid off. We are going to the park a few times a week and practice recalls over 200 feet, over four jumps and finishing up one small hill then one big hill. He really does great at this and is really starting to show at Flyball practice.  He just turned two years old and has a little more while to go before he totally grows out of the puppy phase. We have a U-Fli tournament on November 12 in Talladega and I have high hopes that won't be sniffing butt down at the other lane like the last tournament.

Update 9/19/05
Zinger and I went to the Chattanooga Kennel Club show this past weekend to do a Flyball Demo and run the Doggie Fun Zone course a few times. We set up the Flyball demo and practiced a few recalls but we didn't have any ring gates or fencing so we opted out of the demo. A few of our dogs and Howard from the Georgia Cyclones brought a couple of his dogs to help out. They did a few runs and we called it quits. After sweating all morning long it was time for the fun zone, Zinger freaking loves running this. I spent forty bucks the entire weekend and Zinger managed to come out with a best time 17.25 seconds. To check out the photos go to http://www.doggiefunzone.com, click on photos and go to the Chattanooga Kennel Club. See Z soar.

Update 8/23/05
Well Zinger had a terrible Flyball tournament this past weekend, he didn't finish one heat he was in and got excused on one race. Saturday night we had a nice long look at each other and I made the choice to give him another shot at it Sunday, and he didn't perform, I was pulling him out of the tournament all together. Zinger wouldn't stop sniffing and trying to be social with the other teams dogs. Zinger could have been banned from racing all together but a lot of teams know that Z is just a big dog with still the mind of a puppy, and I'm sure everyone there could see the frustration on my face and most likely heard a few "four letter words" at the same time. I wasn't mad at Z at all; it was my fault for not proofing him in that situation.

Sunday he still bonked three times but managed to take home a Flyball Dog title with the help of the team. I finally figured out the way I was going to get him for not even looking at another dog was to block his view all together, so I did and it worked a few times. Anyway, I have been trying to figure out ways to get his attention when he is 50 feet away and in social mode so I decided to try a electronic collar, "NO" not the kind that puts the dogs on his knees, I would never even think of it, but a buzzing pager. I let him run around and called his name and nothing so I paged him. He looked at me and put his tail between his legs, lowered his head and came running to me. Needless to say, Zinger has never been great at heel work but the rest of last night he wouldn't leave my side, Is that a bad thing, YES! I tried the rest of the night to send him out and he wouldn't leave me to get the ball, I hope I didn't break him! My poor puppy, I love Z so much and I only want him to do well, I was just trying to break him of being over social. Hopefully, he will get back his confidence and participate again in Flyball. Back to the park for him to try and "Hit It"

Update 8/18/05
This weekend you can see the Chattanooga Chomp Flyball Team in Talladega, Alabama. We have very high hopes for our newest dog PDQ, as he is our King Height Dog. He takes the jumps from 16 inches down to nine so hopefully he will get into the groove and make us all proud. As for Zinger, his new diet really seems to be working on his energy level, we tried him out doing some recalls at the park and he didn't poop out. Yippy!

Update 8/17/05
I was just looking at some pictures on the Play Dog eXcellent website the other day and thought I was looking at a picture of Zinger on there, well I sent it to Channel 3 to showcase the Dog Days of Summer. I was talking to Bev and Nancy at PDX about Z's Diet and mentioned the photo I saw and then they smiled and told me it wasn't Zinger...Oops!  Anyway we have started Z on a new diet of Bil-Jack "The House Special" and a half-cup of green beans for dinner; hopefully we can pep up his energy. It's not that I think he is overweight although performance handlers would disagree, so I am knocking a few pounds off of him in the process of his new diet.
 
Update 8/03/05
We are headed to Nashville this weekend for a Flyball scrimmage at Pup Scouts, home ot The Music City Road Dogs. We are taking the newest members of the Chomp to test the waters in a tournament situation. PDQ "Our cherished height dog" will be participating and we have very high hopes for him on the 20th in his first official tournament. Meanwhile, Zinger and I have been working on his speed, I stand near the box and have someone else start him and he takes off like a rocket and grabs the ball, then I run back to the start line and he comes just as fast as he can to catch me. Hopefully he will get it that he has to run that fast all the time.

Update 7/05/05
Zingers first successful Flyball tournament was a hoot! We went to Birmingham, Alabama over the past weekend and Zinger got his first NAFA point on Saturday, Sunday proved to be even better with 7 points. Our team had to jump 16 inch jumps the entire weekend which is the max jump and unheard of to actually get points, but they managed to survive and Zinger helped three of his teammates get Flyball Dog titles. WOO-HOO! Now if I can only get him to run 102 feet, get a ball and jump over eight 16" jumps in less than six seconds then I would be jumping for joy. So now it's back to speed drills and restrained recalls until August 20 at Talladega.

Update 6/20/05
Zinger is now an official Canine Good Citizen, I have wanted to get this with him for a long time now and I guess the puppy spastic phase is starting to go bye-bye, I will miss it but Zinger is starting to grow up. Our Flyball tournament is July in Birmingham and he will be ready.

Update 5/12/05
Well Zinger has had a great spring doing Flyball but has a terrible week this week health wise. His little tummy has been hurting for a couple of days now and is staying home resting up for the Flyball scrimmage in Nashville this weekend. Yesterday I took him to the vet and he suggested that he might had ate something he shouldn't have but it was not life threatening. Only thing that was is when I let him out of the house last night and he took off down the driveway after a cat and ran right in front of the car. I screamed at the top of my lungs and just knew he was going to get hit so I rushed down to the road and grabbed him, he was lying down on the road but it was just because he knew he was in big trouble. Other than this Zingers Flyball form is really starting to take shape, the jumps are getting higher and he is more confident and reliable about coming back to me. His teammates also notice the change and that makes me very happy.

Update 12/2/02
Zinger has now been with us for an over a year now and has grown up to be one awesome doggie! His Obedience classes have halted for the moment but Flyball and Rally Obedience is his main thing.

Zinger gets to go to a new Dog Daycare here in Red Bank called Play Dog Excellent. He has a great time chasing all his buddies around and tries his best to win the small dogs over.
Update 10/18/04
Zinger and I got out first taste of competition this past weekend at the Obedience Club's Trials Rally Fun match. After sitting around waiting for a few hours, Zinger eating a wad of rubber bands he found on the ground he was bored and looking somewhere to bolt to.

It was our turn on the course and so Zinger started off by pulling the leash "which is a 1 point deduction every time he does it" at least 6 times. After starting off with him pulling away I decided the only way I could get his attention is to snap my fingers a few times and it worked. Now that I had his attention I had to keep it. Our instructor Nancy Miller has always told the class to talk to your dogs why doing the training and now I knew why. The only way I was going to get his attention was to practically scream at him but it worked. So off we went to finish the course. In my mind we had a very good run except for the beginning but the judge didn't think so much of it. At the end we all gathered around the judge and received our scores. Cris and Bev scored pretty high and really deserved to win in my eye and Zinger and I scored a terrible 63, which is an NQ. Apparently we had screwed up on three signs that were a 10-point deduction each sign. I don't know how we did it because he did everything he was supposed to do, other than the pulling on the leash. I guess she paid a little more attention to us because of me trying to get Zingers attention by snapping my fingers.

Oh well, back to heeling and attention work!
  
Update 10/12/04
A Happy Birthday to my boy Zinger, 1-year-old today. I gave him some special dog treats that a website owner gave us for posting some pics of him on his website; http://www.yellowlabretriever.com/. He really likes them and I am sure to buy some when he runs out. Tonight we celebrate by going to class and doing some heeling, I know, I know. Not much of a celebration, but he has to get this stuff. Anyone wanting to show up this weekend can see us do his Rally fun match at Notre Dame High School. He should do well but I ain't holding my breath on him winning. I'm not the most graceful at these kinds of things.

Update 9/21/04
Zinger is now part of the Chattanooga Chomp Flyball Club, taking Rally-O classes & intermediate Obedience classes. Hopefully after all these classes he will be one smart cookie, oh well...he already is. I am having a grand time with my fur-child and he really likes going to class to wrestle with the other dogs, large and small. Last night a Rally-O class he bombed out on the course and scored a NQ, which is non-qualifying. After running in the park for an hour and being at the OCC building for 1and1/2 hours he was spent. He did all of his commands perfectly except sit. I don't know why but he just starred at me every time I said sit. I guess I am going to try the set-up command next time, I think he is just getting confused or then again I might be the one confused. Anyway, back to the bump and grind.

Update 7/20/04
Well it�s been a while for updates on Zinger so here yaw go. We have finished another Obedience class and one session of a new Rally obedience class. The Rally class is pretty fun and the other dogs are really fun to watch. Zinger really likes doing this but I am having a difficult time judging when to exercise and feed him, also the wreck that we had a few months ago is making me a little dizzy at times while running through the course and causing us to screw-up a lot. Anyway, I am pretty determined that I will get the hang of doing this Rally thingy for both of us to enjoy. I'm a little hard on Zinger at times but he still has a lot of puppy left in him which makes his concentration go to the dogs "no pun intended" so we start next week for the second session and we will be ready.
 
Update 5/26/04
Zinger has completed his third Obedience class so he has the baby, puppy & regular class under his belt.

We thought that the final class of regular obedience was going to be a show of what he has learned but when we got to class we were stunned to see a course set up. All the dogs in both classes went head to head and had to run obedience Rally course that demonstrated all of the things he has learned over the past few months. When it was Zingers turn he had a rough start with an itching spell but he managed to complete the course. We waited for the other dogs to finish their runs and stuck around a few minutes only to hear that he had tied for 1st. place. I was so stunned to hear that he scored a 94 out of 100 and had to run again for the tiebreaker.

The other handler and dog went first and I watched with nervous eyes, then it was Zingers turn.

We got to the start and he looked right at me and I said, "let's go" and off he went. Sit, Stay...Down, Stay...jump and sit on & on. I knew that Zinger had it in him and he showed it on that run...A PERFECT 100! We were both very excited and he knew he had won. We walked up to Nancy the instructor and Zinger got a new leather leash and a play toy for first place. He pranced around with the play toy like a trophy and everyone got a kick out of it. I have to say it made me so proud of him that he got 1st. so we signed up for the new Rally O class next session.

I really have to thank Nancy Miller and Tom Cawood for helping me with Zinger and teaching me how train Zinger. I really appreciate the Obedience Club of Chattanooga, for the quality of trainers and club members that they have.

3/23/04
My boy Zinger is now 5 months old and has really come a long way in Obedience class. He will soon be a Chattanooga Obedience Club member where he can further his training. We are having a great time with him and really he seems to like us too.
Click on over to see his progress over the past few months.

Welcome to the world of Pearl and Zinger.
Pearl, the new baby Maltese.

Zinger "the puppy" a Labrador Retriever gets to go and do all kinds of stuff to keep him busy. We practice Rally obedience and also participate in Heat Seek Flyball Racing Team. Click on over to see his pictures and read the current skinny on the yeller lab.

Enjoy!

We happily recieved Zinger from Lone Oak Labradors in Livingston, Tennessee

Zinger's Pedigree Here!

My hobbies and interests include geocaching, hiking,
cycling, woodcarving & photography.��And my Pet's

Zingers Pics & awards, 12 weeks to present

Zinger's new Flyball Team with members
from Chattanooga and various parts of Georgia. Email me if your dog is fast as lightning and you want to give it a try. hikenit at yahoo.com

Also check out my links page

Coconut: Forever Loved & Painfully Missed

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