Hope you are enjoying your week whatever your feelings on the matter. I am happy to be getting ready to see my family tomorrow, but sad with news of shootings from the east coast.
Really trying to get into the spirit. I'm off to the grocery to find crystal ginger. If I find it I am making a delicious sounding pumpkin spice cake for tomorrows meal. Wish me luck.
We have a fun course set up at the field. The course is built around a double box. Since my accell/decel workshop, I've been out there playing with the dogs. Even Olive gets to play with the jumps on the ground.
This is my first time working her where I'm running as fast as we can. Need to practice that alot. She likes to turn, she doesn't like to go straight. I'm using this drill with tunnels to get her excited about going straight. The big deal about this set up is to toss in a ton of decel so your dog isn't just running from tunnel to tunnel but is actually listening to you.
I've put up three of the drills I was working on, but the possibilities are endless.
Butter Cream. Oh so good. Oh so exhausting to bake. These little cookies absolutely melt in your mouth. Love them.
Toll House chocolate chip. I love these without the chocolate chips. Of the 3+ dozen, I made two individual cookies without chips. Hmmmmm, heaven.
I also traded my sister for some toffee bars.
Late last night I baked my last batch. Butterscotch brownies. Ah...well. An epic failure. They are not going into my cookie gifts. The butterscotch brownies are headed to Kels office. They won't care that they are a little too chewy and fall apart. The office workers will fall on the brownies like lions to a kill. I told Kel to be very careful when putting the plates of brownies out, he might get hurt in the excitement of the feed.
Sunday found me at a Kinderbox agility seminar. Olive got to play real agility. A couple of the exercises I couldn't finish because I was giggling in delight. So much fun playing with Olive. Best thing she did was turn nice and tight. Worse thing is running the line. Gotta work that acceleration with jumps!
I also cooked Goulash (in the slow cooker), entertained my mom (thanks mom for helping with the cookies), and saw the Hobbit (LOVED IT!). Gosh it was a very full weekend.
Here is the last of the Laura Hartwick drawings. Little Olive. The newest member of the Whiz kids. Joy and happiness wrapped up in a little package.
These silly little drawings have brought me such happiness. Today the frames I ordered arrive. I'll be framing the five this weekend and finding the perfect place to hang them.
Thank you Laura Hartwick of Team Small Dog for each of my wonderful drawings! You've done such an amazing job of capturing each of my super spectacular dogs.
Fin is at once shy, full of energy, cautious, hyped, worried, loud, and most of all she is my Finny Fin Fin. I adore this little spit fire. This dog gives it all she has. During the day if she is not sleeping in Kels bark-o-lounger, she can be found lounging on the steps leading to the upstairs with a view of the front door and outside to the driveway. She will alert us to any perceived danger, even if that danger is as innocuous as a bird landing on the front stoop. She, like me, dislikes confrontation, however, go to leave the house without her and you will still hear her as you drive away.
Fin gives her hugs rarely, but when you get a hug from Fin it is magical. My speedy little girl is wonderful and I am very grateful that I flew to Florida and brought home this funny little dog 5.5 years ago.
Standard: A clean run. This course was difficult for her for judging distance. You can see her jumping wasn't the best, but she kept the bars up. I am so proud of her for choosing to take the jump after the weaves. You can see in the video that she started to go around it and had to make a decision to actually jump it. Good girly! I also LOVE her turn out of the tunnel to the dogwalk. Super speedy and allowed me to drive ahead. Late cross at the ending by me resulted in some wasted time, but it was enough of teamwork to get the Q.
TWO gambles. I'm still giggling with the excitement. There was much miscommunication but Fin was wild and out there grabbing all the points she could even when I was standing still not doing much.
Jumpers: Not a Q, I sent her off course, but there is so much that is good about this run. My timing in the opening - sooooo very happy with my lead out and following FC. I could have run a little deeper to help Fin with the blue jump, but she saved me there. I thought overall her jumping was great. This was the last run of the entire weekend and it is good to see her still strong and happy.
Maddie is the sweetest dog in the world. Every day I thank the powers that be for allowing Maddie into my life. Maddie is not an agility champion. She only got one qualification in all my attempts to run agility with her. But Mads holds a very special place in my heart. I would be happy to take care of her for as long as she remains on this earth.
I've always said that Maddie is an excellent people trainer and should open her own school for "Proper People Training". She also somehow, runs the entire household. She quietly, consistently, always, gets her way.
Now as she nears 14 years old, Maddie often is in her own world.That world includes squirrels but sometimes is quite confusing to her. She has been diagnosed with dementia, loss of hearing, and her eye sight isn't what it once was. However, despite all that, if Maddie walks into a room and if she wants something the other dogs have, without any force or aggression, soon will get whatever it is.
When I first observed this force of will, I was sitting in a chair in my living room. Rocky was laying at my feet chewing on a bully. Mads walks in and sees Rocks chewing on the bully. She looked at Rocky with what could only be described as a hopeful expression and wagged her tail. When that didn't work, I remember very clearly watching Maddie walk over to a toy that was laying on the ground. This toy was one nobody wanted. It had been discarded in the living room.
Maddie picked up this toy and started to play with it. The intensity of the play increased. Rocky stopped chewing and watched Maddie. Maddie played harder and barked at the toy. Rocky got up with the bully in his mouth, Maddie started tossing the toy around the room. Rocky ran over to her (with the bully in his mouth), Maddie continued to play tossing the toy further and further and chasing it.
Rocky dropped the bully and chased the toy.
Maddie calmly walked over picked up the bully, lay down and started chewing. Rocky stood there with the toy hanging out of his mouth and just looked at Maddie. I laughed (not for the first or last time).
Maddie has taught me so much about enjoying life. Love my Mads!
This is another one of the wonderful artist drawings by Laura Hartwick of Team Small Dog. She has captured Rocky's sweetness and love of his orange ball. I love all my Laura drawings and can't wait to share Maddie, Olive, and OMG FIN!!!
This weekend was cold mornings, fast tough courses, warm middle of the day, and late cold nights. Spent time with my best buds all sitting together and some of us pot lucked with hot chili, jabalia, and split pea soup. Yum. I'm lucky at these pot lucks. My peeps like the bread from my local Nob Hill so that's what I bring. Easy.
Fin ran really well. A bit of early jumping in some of the courses with tons of distance between jumps, but very few knocked bars, and fun happy sheltie at the start line, and fun happy sheltie at the finish line. Love when my Finster is happy. I felt that for the most part I handled well. I tried to remember to support her on the areas that I know are problems, but just go for it on others. I was able to get to some front crosses that at championship 16 I would have been afraid to try (would caused Fin to crash), but at 12 we both seem to have more confidence. Yippiiieee!
The big news is that Fin got TWO gamble course Q's!!! TWO! Gamble is the area of improvement I feel I can grow the most. I just haven't been good at working the gambles. Both gambles did lean toward Fins and my strengths, but getting the gambles both days just made the weekend that much more!
Came home very late Sunday and my husband met me out at the car. He says, "Don't be alarmed when you go inside. Rocky tweaked something and isn't feeling well." Boy was he right. Poor Rocks is looking old and feeling the cold. Loads of massage from me over the next few days should put him on the road to recovery, but it is hard to see him so under the weather. The good news is that he is happy to eat (dish has to be elevated) and happy to potty...so it is just getting the tweak in his neck feeling better. Sucks to get old!
First off, Laura Hartwick from Team Small Dog sent me my custom art for each of my dogs. You'll be seeing it here as the days go by, but wanted to start with Tazz. Each of her drawings have captured my pups personalities to perfection. I get all teary eyed when I think about what an amazing job she did.
If you are interested in your own art, please visit her custom art website and order yours. I love purchasing christmas gifts for myself and there is nothing more special than a little 5x7 piece of paper full of personality.
Mine will all be framed and hang on my wall so I can see them every day...that way when I'm really tired, mad, or frustrated, I'll look at these lovely drawings and remember why I love my dogs.
In the meantime, I did not get the blog action day post done. I had such great plans and absolutely no time. Here is my suggestion: Go get Nancy Gye's Alphabet Drills. More exercises than you can even imagine and look for a post from me working one tunnel and 2 jumps. Sorry it isn't more timely, but paid work is a priority right now.
Off this weekend for the last show of the year. Then a 4 week break. I can not believe Christmas is around the corner. If you are in a giving mood, think about giving to my friends over at Dreampower Horsemanship. They give so much to our community and work really hard.
This past three weeks has been interesting. We go from a very sick dog to a dog that is feeling great. A ton of chicken and rice have been consumed. Six days into it, another incident. Take a sample to the vet for analysis, they found nothing.
Five days later...last night. Poor thing couldn't keep a thing down and more brown spurts.
Today at the vet for tests. Something has got to be going on with this girl. I keep asking myself what am I missing?
Tested for loads of things. All negative. She is healthy. She is thin but not skinny. She is not dehydrated. All vitals are good. The only thing to do is to treat the symptoms. Since this is the 3rd event in as many weeks and I haven't been able to get her off of the chicken/rice, we are going with meds.
So meds are given. Except for the incredibly toxic gas, you would not know that last night she was curled in my lap not feeling well.
Hopefully this will be IT! We all want to go back to our normal lives...and I have work to do...don't need to be worrying about whether Olive has to go!
Olive's training is moving right along. Today was a weird day as a major system was down at work and I sat around waiting for the system to come up. A perfect opportunity to get some video. It was a beautiful day so I video'd some of the outside stuff we are working on:
Bang game - object is to jump on the teeter and make it bang. Stay in position facing forward until released.
Look ahead and run to toy - object sit your dog and toss a toy out in front, get lateral to the jumps, wait for dog to look ahead and then release while you run forward.
Look ahead and turn tight to me - object sit your dog walk up to the standard and release, dog should run through both jumps and turn tight to you
Go around the tree - object, work on turning tight
These are just a few of the things we are working on. Enjoy!
My hobby is training my dogs. I love agility and that is my primary focus for training, but also I have to train my dogs to just get along in the life that I lead.
Training one dog is relatively easy (unless, like me you are lazy). Adding a second complicates matters 2 fold. Now you have to train the first one to do the things you thought you had solid and on top of that, you have to train the new one. If you have dogs that bark, now you have two dogs barking at different things....or the same thing.
Let's say you've got those two trained and you add a third. The first two are getting up there and are pretty easy, but the third is a challenge. Jump ahead three years and add a spicy little imp. Fin was the easiest dog ever. She fit in right away and all the shelties agree, Fin is a keeper.
Adding the forth dog really gets to test whether you actually did a great job in training the first three... Nope, I didn't. Even though I really thought I had things under control, I actually let things slip because everyone got along.
Now, 5 years living with four dogs. Things are somewhat easy. There are problems (of course), but nothing that bothers you enough to fix.
Now, just because you've lost your mind, you add a fifth. You are thinking, the first two are really old.... glass of wine (or two) is looking mighty nice right about now! How much trouble could it be??
Well loads of trouble as it turns out.
Multiple dog families really test your ability to maintain the skills you have taught your dogs. Interestingly enough in the 4 months that Olive has lived with me, Fin and Tazz have forgotten their recall. Niether dog will sit on cue like they should, and basically bark a lot more then they used to. When I ask Fin to lay down so I can put the food bowls down, she barks at me (hmmmm, wasn't she my easiest?).
On top of the training, I am currently dealing with personality differences that are testing my mettle.
How do I do it? Well, pulling a little rabbit out of my hat, that rabbit is holding a book called Don't shoot the dog... then the rabbit hands me Rough Love...the the rabbit looks at the five dogs, laughs at me, wishes me good luck, and jumps back in the hat.
We are back to the basics on the three youngest dogs (the old ones get to do what they want). It is the little things that make a difference.
Wait until I release you. Consequences for not waiting.
No barking/reactivity at weird things (like changing the garbage or walking down the hall). Consequences for barking is crate time-out or use crate as a preventative.
Sit means sit.
Down means down.
Do not get up on things unless asked (the hardest for Olive). Ok, this rule is for Olive only.
Although rules aren't that much fun, they do make for a much better quality of life. Rules are in place. Damn rules. Rules are hard.
A long time ago, Laura and I looked at the schedule and saw there was not much happening "agility wise" up in the bay area for Nov 17/18. Then we saw that DART was doing a trial down in LA. We thought, "it would be fun!" Let's do a road trip.
In our minds we pictured a fun road trip.
The reality is much more concrete and desert like then green and sunset like.
We did in fact question ourselves maybe for about 2 minutes...then we jumped in the car and headed out. Yes, rain was expected. No, that did not stop us. Yes, our husbands agree with you, "We are nuts."
Left Morgan Hill around 3:15pm. Drove for about 2.5 hours and then a quick gas break, bathroom break, and two of the 5 dogs needed a quick potty break.
Arrived at the hotel about 8:30pm. Since Olive is in heat, Laura and I thought it best to get separate rooms. A good idea considering Fireball is totally head over heals in LOVE! Arriving in our rooms I see we have connecting doors. I open mine, Laura opens hers. I immediately get Olive and head back over to my room. NOT a good idea.
Laura headed out to pick us up something to eat. I baby sat. I had the connecting doors open a crack so I could keep an eye on the dogs. Evidently Fireball is not the only one smitten.
For the next 30 minutes Olive stared at the door.
I open it a crack and guess who is on the other side.
Poor Fireball. Two more weeks and she won't know you exist. Now stop that chatter and whining, mom will be home soon.
With an hour more driving in the morning, we got up before the crack of dawn, pottied and fed the dogs and headed over to the site. A very nice place to hold a trial. First up for us was Master Gamble. Fin nailed it!! Laura got it with all three of her dogs! Yippee! Fin now as her Performance Agility Dog title! Yeah!!
Next up Grand Prix. A very tricky course. I made one mistake, was a little late on my turns causing some wide turn, Fin left the ring to find her cheese but came back, but over all, I'm happy with her jumping and would have Q'd if I had supported the jump after the tire just a tad bit more. Good Girl Fin!
My third run and my last, Steeplechase. Held her on her first contact so I could direct to the tunnel (wasted a good 2 seconds) but a great run on a course that was tricky but fast.
Olive was entertained the entire day. We worked on her sit stay and tug, sit stay and get the ball, and we walked and walked.
Rule #1 when walking Olive: Do not get distracted looking at ducks or the pretty view. She will take the opportunity to roll in Duck Poo. All over her head and nice jacket that used to be clean. Not anymore.
Mom, I like duck poo even more than cat poo!
Walking is always an adventure. We worked with a long line so I could practice her recalls.
Recalls were great. Even though the only reward was a good girly and off we went again.
The view was really nice.
Olive was mildly interested in those ducks/geese.
Started driving around 3:15 to head home. (Sound familiar). One stop for gas and didn't even potty the dogs, just drove.
Good nights sleep and we are up and at 'em this morning!
Now that I have sit stays on all dogs, thought I'd try for a group shot on such a beautiful day.
Wait, what happened to #5???
Ahhh The ball is in the pool...no Olive, stay means stay. Even if the ball is going to drown.
Fin is totally disgusted. She does NOT want to be next to Olive. Olive smells funny or something. Sorry Fin. Someone has to be next to Olive. We need to break up the B/W girls. Mom wants contrast. Olive is that little bit of contrast...even if she is still looking at her ball.
Oh come now Olive. It isn't that bad. Tazzie what are you look'n at?
I went to powerpaws class on Tues morning. I have been leaving Olive in her crate at home on Tues so she can sleep. She needs to be used to being home. Also left Rocks, Mads, and Tazzie in the house with the doggy door open.
When I arrived home, I was a little surprized as no dogs came running happily to greet me. As I walked down the hall, I was asaulted by a horrible smell. Entering my office, the first thing I see is a line of shelties staring at me from the other side of the sliding glass window. The smell so bad, that they wanted nothing to do with it.
Looking at Olive, I find that while I was away, she was ill. Both ends. All over everything including her entire body. She had a coat on so that was the first to go. Imagine a brown dog with a shiny white body only where her coat was. The question is, "how to pick her up to put her in the shower?"
Gross.
Outside everything went. Into the shower Olive went. Heavy use of air freshener, lavender shampoo, hose, and beds in the washer.
Holy heck, what a mess.
Chicken and rice for Olive. Then for Fin. Now for Tazz. ......... Ok, you guys. Enough already. Knock on wood that Maddie doesn't get it. Rocks had the same thing about a week ago but I didn't think anything about it then. Now the connection seems clear.
Olive seems just fine and dandy today. Is eating the chicken and rice, drinking, peeing....all the normal stuff.
No, before you ask, no photos. Tooooooo gross for photos.
PS: Punishment truly works. Olive will be going with me everywhere! I will never leave her home again :)
Drove up to Nunes Agility Field in lovely Turlock California. A great weekend celebrating ADCH's for both SpaceMonkey AND Fireball for my buddy Laura, as well as running some really fun Agility.
Fin gave me an early Christmas present and got us a bye for GP regionals. Yeah! Always wanted one. Now I have it.
Even though I might have made two mistakes during the GP run, Fin just gave it her all and brought home the Q! She is running really well. Still some early jumping, but I believe her confidence is getting better and better.
We also did well in a number of other runs. Maybe not all Q's, but really only the last run on Sat was not great jumping.
Olive also had a great time. She rocked her new rain coat, stayed warm, played, played, played, and interestingly enough seems to be getting ready to go into heat. Showing her hussy side all weekend. She does love her boyz!
This weekend had a mountain of chip delivered to the traning facility. 20 cubic yards. Didn't seem like much when I ordered it at the chip place. Seemed like an insurmountable pile when I showed up early Sat Morning to begin spreading it.
First sprayed the entire area with weed killer (hopefully this will help with our maintenance). Grabbed a shovel and filled in the squirrel, gopher, and mole holes. Grabbed the wheel barrel and filled it with chip. One barrel down and Rachel showed up to help. Yippiee! Three barrels down, Laura arrived. Fantastic! Six barrels and counting, Cindy parks her car and says she is ready!
Slowly but surely, we loaded our two wheel barrels and one cart and pile by pile we moved chip from the pile in the parking lot to small piles surrounding the field.
After we got a number of loads out to the field, I started spreading while the other shoveled and dumped.
In a little less than 2 hours, Cindy was scraping the ground to pick up the last of the chip. I was amazed.
A weekend of really great running, and then not so much.
Fin has left me puzzled after this weekend. We had more nice runs this weekend then we've had in a long time. Loads of Q's, but mostly, fun happy sheltie running. She seemed to really like the 12". Except for Gamble, of which we got zero for two, the only reason we didn't Q in everything was a couple knocked bars and 3 spectacular crashes.
We got:
-2 pairs Q's
-2 standard Q's
-3 snooker Q's
We didn't Q:
-steeple - crash
-jumpers - knocked bar - and then followed a refusal because I was out of position
-GP - knocked bar, teeter (I don't wanna), a crash
-standard - crash
-gamble (2 of these) great openings just didn't get the gamble
For the most part, her jumping looks good. Happy happy. Then there are times when it doesn't. I'm analyzing the video to determine exactly where the crashes are (no too worried about a knocked bar right now). Of course she has been checked out and doesn't seem to be in pain nor has eye issues. I believe it is confidence.
I will continue to work her light during the next two weeks, grids and working on trouble shooting her problem areas. Next trial is November 10-11. I will see how she is jumping then.
Set up a set for balance. Olive really enjoyed this game. Tail wagg'n the whole time.
Headed off for a show this weekend. I have no balance right now. Go from one thing to another. The show is three days. Usually I'd skip Friday this time of year, but for some reason they have grand prix on Friday. Gotta go to that! It is Fins first show at Perf. 12. Hope to enjoy the ride and rock those courses!
Olive will come and enjoy watching and practicing puppy games.
In the meantime, gotta do something nice for Kel's B-day. I'm thinking fish tacos and cupcakes. All while watching the Giants game.
Standing in line at the airport on Sunday evening to get home, the lady next to me said, "Do you live in Phoenix?" I said, "No San Jose." I'm thinking, why is she asking me about Phoenix? Then she said, "Why are you going to Phoenix? For business?" I said, "I'm not going to Phoenix." The plane is boarding at this point and I'm thinking, "oh good, we are on time." Then she said, "This plane is going to Phoenix." I said, "No, this plane is going to San Jose." We both yelled up to the boarding guy, "Where is this plane going?" He said, "Phoenix." About 50 people got out of line and sat down. They ended up stopping the boarding, and removing another 15 or so off the plane that got on the wrong plane. Thank you lady. Appreciate it. I would have cried if I ended up on Phoenix.
Got back at 11:30pm Sunday from Seattle. Door to the house in the garage, locked. Nice to know that the house/puppy sitter is good at locking up the house. Unfortunate that I never lock that door and had no key to the house in my purse. Really unfortunate my husband did not have a house key either. So sad for my sister that I had to call her at 11:45pm to get out of bed and give me a key to my house. Fortunate that she lives one mile away. In bed around 1.
Don't go on vacation again...ok?!
Monday up at 5. All pups up and at em. Pottied, fed, and exercised. Olive needs a little more playtime. Mommy needs a little more sleep... "Would you stop barking at me Olive?" At work at 7. Loads of work. Off to the agility field to teach around 5:30, got to work Olive and Fin. Bed about 10.
Tue up at 5. All pups up and at em. Pottied, fed, and exercised. Olive needs a little more playtime. At work at 7. Loads of work. (Is this sounding similar). Leave house at 8:10 to go to powerpaws. Fin "rocked" the 12" jumps. Really looking good. Agility is getting fun again. Back to work at noon...back to the agility field at 5, home at 8:30, bed around 10.
Wed. To change it up, after I pottied the pups I put Olive in bed with Kel who said he wasn't getting up this morning. I took a shower. Olive was such a good girl and cuddled with her daddy the entire time. Good girl. Now back to work it is.....
I like me some 12" jumps!!!! Just get rid of the white devil. She scares me.
Kel found Kells where we had a couple brews and watched the 49ner/Seattle game. We were very quiet in our cheers for SF. We were surrounded by disgruntled Sea Hawk fans. Hee Hee.
Our room at the Inn a the Market. Very nice accomodations.
Took a tour of the underground areas in old Pioneer Square. Wonderful stories, fabulous walking tour.
Walked the water front many times. Did not take the ferris wheel, although I bet it was cool at night.
Saw some shrunken heads.
Saw some umbrella art.
Took the Monorail (short monorail ride, only 1 mile).
Had many a glass of brew or wine.
Took a photo with a pig at Market (funny story, as Kel is taking this picture, an old guy was standing behind him tossing me kisses...hysterical).
Got hungry and ate cockroaches....ok not really...just pretended. I didn't even pretend.
Looked at the space needle.
Looked from the space needle.
Hung out with butterflys.
Sat in furniture too big for us.
Saw some amazing glass!
Glass was inside and out!
Took more photos of the space needle (artsy ones).
