A New Bait for only $9.00!

This is Kazee. She is a half sister to Fin and obviously her owner has found a cool way to make some quick cash.

I'm thinking it is a little cheap for such a cutie pie, but this is the east coast and I've heard there are great bargains on the east coast.

Accelleration....Deaccelleration

So, all of a sudden, Fin doesn't know how to do contacts any more. It is the weirdest thing. All my trainers and friends say, "This is a good thing...get it out of the way and it won't happen in competition!"

Good thing my ass! I want my beautiful, fast, edgy, barely there, speed demon, crazy, contacts back! Instead I get, is this it? how bout this? This is it, I know. Ok not that, how bout this?

The picture you see is a dog stopping at the top of the A frame and looking at me, stopping halfway down, looking at me, jumping off running by two jumps into the tunnel, looking at me. Me saying calmly, "No, lie down." Her saying in a sing song voice, "I don't hear you!"

God help me. Why oh why.

OK, I know they'll come back. Back to basics with a target. We'll get em back. It's just, come on, we've already been here!

Enough whining or I'm going to have to go into rehab. Let's talk about what this Blog is about.

Today we are going to talk about indicating a turn. What really indicates a turn? Well in my class yesterday, a light bulb went on.

I've been worried that Fin is going too wide on her turns. Even though I've been working on acceleration and deceleration for a while now. Last night I worked on it with Fin without alot of voice (the toughest part for me) and low and behold Fin understands that when I start to slow down, I'm indicating a turn. If I start to slow and cross behind I'm indicating a turn away from the side I'm on, if I decelerate and stay on the same side it is a turn to that side. I don't have to yell anything. How cool is that?

Ok, not cool enough to give up my contacts, but pretty cool nonetheless.

So what I learned in a short 30 minute session is that her going wide was all my fault (did anyone have any doubt that it wasn't my fault?). It was due to me not using proper acceleration/deceleration. One of the tips my trainer suggested (something I should probably know) is when walking my course to not only look for where the turns were and determine the best way to indicate the turn (FC, RC, threadle, Serp), but also to look for where you will accelerate and decelerate. Good advise.

Now I'm going to go work on my contacts.

Agility Dogs Walking

Went for an off leash walk today. Took everyone. Lots of fox tails, but I figured I'd groom when I got home. Here Rocky is running to Kel and Fin is coming out of the brush to ambush him. Sometimes I think Fin is part cat.

Kel was the photographer. He got all four to sit quietly for a few snapshots. I love my dogs.

Rocky limped the entire walk, but still had some go in him to chase Fin through the dead grass. He was a happy boy.

For some reason, Fin spent a weird amount of time either bouncing/running or stopped in the grasses.

While they ran around enjoying the freedom, I spent a good deal of time removing dead plant material out of their coats.

On the way home.

Fun Project

Today started off well with a walk in the field and a swim in the creek. Then we sat in the car (me and 5 dogs) waiting for Laura to drop off her van for repair. A quick drive back to Morgan Hill to start our project. Laura and her husband decided "no more procrastination." So today I found myself at Laura's house putting in a doggy door. Her husband was worried and suggested a handy man. Laura and me, we don't need no stinking handyman!

Saws are fun, especially when it isn't your house. This doggy door is going in the wall and the inside wall, insulation, and outside wall needed to be taken out so the unit could slip in.

We had a few helpers, here they are slacking off on the job.

Before we cut the precise outside cut, we took a moment to revel in the glory of two girls building something wonderful.

Laura got to work too. I let her determine the outside hole size. I didn't want to make the mistake :) She thought I was letting her do the easy job....little did she know, this was the hardest part of the job.

Another helper. Got wrench?

The unit comes with a depth for wide walls. Our walls were only about 5" wide. We had to "snip" the extra tin away. Oh, did I say about 5"? I'm one of those seat of my pants kinda handi persons. At some point I ask Laura if maybe we should read the directions. No worries, we were on the right track. Notice the girl handi person footware. No foot protection for us! no way no how...we might want to show off our sexy painted toes at any given moment.
I have this saw that I've never really used before. Boy was it fun. I'm thinking I need to do more sawing...anybody out there got a hole they want made?

The finished product. Laura will now have warmth in her house as she won't have to leave the sliding glass door open. I'm always suprised when these things turn out. I'm no less amazed we did it. Only took 4 hours. We did run into one small minor problem, there was an electrical conduet running right through our hole. No worries, Laura made a call and here comes a relative to save the day. Moms husband, and retired electrician, saved the day in a matter of 10 minutes had us back to work.

A fun fufilling day.

Fitness for Agility - new soup

I'm always in search of easy, yummy, filling, low cal, receipes. Sometimes I just come up with something off the top of my head.

I saw this Turkey meatball soup on the biggest loser and have wanted that receipe. I had not found it, so I made up my own. My first attempt...well let's just say, didn't work. This second attempt has definately hit the mark. First make the meatballs:
-mix raw ground turkey, garlic paste, basil, chili, and a splash of worstasure sauce.
-make into little turkey balls
-heat a fry pan and spray with pam
-cook over medium heat (don't overcook)
-set aside (I put in a Tupperware in the fridge)

Slow cooker on low, add
-two cans of low salt/low fat chicken broth
-two cans chopped tomatos
-two cloves garlic
-dried portcini mushrooms (one package)
-salt and pepper

cook on low 4 hours
add meatballs
cook on low 2 hours (or just keep cooking until ready to eat)

Yum!

A Vote for Obama is a Vote for Puppies

What would this world be without puppies. So I'm really excited that a puppy will be in the white house. One starts to wonder what kind of puppy should be in our white house. I have four that want to run for the white house.


HiMarks Holy Mackerel!: Her primary talent is leaping joy. She can leap from the floor to a 4foot tall kitchen counter with no effort whatsoever. She can jump straight up next to her momma and tap her mom on the top of her head. There is never a dull moment with this little giggle fest. The joy aura that surrounds this dog is contagious and the white house staff would be forever smiling. The staff would be an active bunch as she tends to get a little wild and perhaps bouncing off the walls during cabinet meetings might not be appreciated.

Montage Mad About Madeline: Maddie is perfect for those long difficult meetings with foreign officials. Her primary talent is loving affection, distraction, and negotiation. Maddie ALWAYS gets her way. She has the entire house wrapped around her little paw. Maddie is most talented at getting what she wants using fine tuned manipulative techniques. If Rocky happens to be chewing on a bone that Mads feels would be better served in her mouth, she will bring something in and play with it a few feet away from Rocky. She will make whatever she has so enticing that Rocks will drop the bone and go over to take whatever Maddie has away from her. She willingly gives up her item and before Rocky can think, Maddie will have the bone, curled up in the best bed, chewing away. Rocky can only stand there befuddled as once again he was out maneuvered by his little sister.

Hillstone's Razzmatazz: Tazz would have worked if Palin was elected (pretty, but not alot upstairs). Tazzies main talent is certainly his devotion to his resources. I'm not sure that this would work in the white house, unless we could turn his obsessive compulsive behavior to work for the good of the country. Tazz would promote, more for us and less for them ideals...maybe not the best strategy for our country, but if Tazz were to be the dog in the white house, I guarantee none of our resources would be going to foreign countries. All of our resources would be locked away in the white house with Tazz sitting on top of them making sure none of the foreign doggies got any bones.

Montage Sierra Granite: Rockys main talent is his compassion. Rocky would make a good diplomat, he doesn't want to go to war, but when push comes to shove, won't back down. Rocky is eager to lay quietly at your feet acting as a calming influence during those long difficult meetings. He is eager to go for a walk to shake off the nerves and focus on what's important, generally a easy going guy... except when it comes to balls and bullies. Rocky isn't very good at sharing these very special items, and during a negotiation, would not budge an inch if these resources were on the bargaining table.

Maybe my crew wouldn't make the best white house dogs. Each has their talents, but I would miss them too much.

I'm Baaaaack

So I arrived back from the big trip to Arizona. Got a bunch of stuff in the Van. But of all the things I can't find, I can not find my docking station for my movie camera. I have absolutely no idea where it is. This means I have no way to download my movies and pics I took, nor can I recharge my video camera battery.

Could I have left it in AZ? Of course that is one possibility. Have I lost my mind? That is the other possibility.

I remember wrapping it up standing in the kitchen saying to myself, "Well, it would be a shame if I left this here." Evidently I did. I can NOT remember putting it in anything I packed nor can I remember leaving it there.

OK, enough of my battered brain cells, let's talk agility.

I went over on Friday to the USDAA Nationals (www.USDAA.com) and stayed Fri/Sat/Sunday for all the fun. Brazen Benji Warriors came in 8th OVERALL. This is out of 174 teams! Go girls! There were many many of my friends there and quite a few made it to the finals. For me the highlight is always the night agility. Friday night was PNS. Very exciting and fun. Saturday night was Steeplechase and Performance Speed Jumping. Somehow the agility under the lights seems very magical.

The daytime agility is fun too, but there is so much going on all around it is hard to concentrate.

The overriding theme was "Hot!" the weather was blazing hot on Wed/Thurs, a little better, but not much Fri/Sat, and then on Sunday, I think it finally came down a little (either that or I was getting used to it).

Shopping was ok, but I feel that if the USDAA would lower the cost to vendors, more would show up.

There were so many good dogs there, it was a little overwhelming. I'd see a great dog that I know turn in a blazing run that I would feel no one could beat, then a dog/handler team I didn't know would come in and beat them by more than a second. How could that HAPPEN? It was all very exciting.

So. Hopefully I will find my camera connection soon. Until then, you'll get old pictures or none at all.