I can see myself with a staffy some day!

This is Stan!Ebony's Wicked Sharp Tool. Stanley, for short. Great name, A?
He has a small wee wee for a bruiser of a dog. We LOFF Stan, the Man!! He was visiting at the agility show last weekend. He used to do agility. He was a top Staffordshire Bull Terrier in the country at agility. Now he does tricks. He has a back issue. He is a COOL dog! So friendly and funny. And powerful. His sisters now do agility. Eddie and Halle. I didn't get photos of them.

I love that you can feel their warmth through their thin coats. I love their huge smiles. I love their powerful bodies. I could see myself with a staffy some day. His sister Eddie is a top staffy in agility right now. In the country!!! Halle is just starting her career. These are our fellow students in Wednesday night class.

A chipmunk in his mouth?

I was talking to my friend, a jeweler at the dog show on Saturday. She is a horse friend and boards a few horses at her place. That day the vet was coming for shots and to float teeth and one of the boarders was going to be there for that. She got a call while we were chatting that when the vet went to float the big draft/gypsy cross he found a dead chipmunk in it's mouth. WHAT??????

Yep, you read that right. They are thinking perhaps it drowned in the water trough and the horse sucked it up? And then couldn't get it out? Rodents do drown in water buckets sometimes, but this was hard to believe. But, it is a true story!!! That sure has to be a new one for that vet. ICK!!! And the poor horse? I wonder how long it had been in there???? Oh nasty, nasty, nasty! You might think the horse would have been shaking it's head trying to dislodge the thing. ??????

AKC trial repot!

Wow, what a soggy weekend! But, today was LOVELY! Friday was just plain soggy. I scratched Roscoe. He ain't happy in the rain. Spur, he did fine and Q'd in all three runs. Good little Monkey Pants! He placed second in Jumpers only to a dog who is trying out for the World Team. That felt good!

He finished his Excellent A title, so from now on we work on double Q's and lots of points. Yay!! He's a "big" boy now!!!

His standard from today. Nice dog walk Spur-minator. Still not as fast as in practice, but sure has nice deep hit striding right through his contact. He knows his job!



His Open FAST which he didn't get. It was tunnel to weaves and I should have stayed back a little. Still, look how happy he was!! YAY!!! To think he was such a stress case I almost quit with him. Happy boy say his fan Mary at the score table and decided to show off!!! :D He LOVES his fans!!!



His jumpers from today. A little slow off the start, but then he runs pretty well. Good boy!!!! Placed third! Again, only to the World Team potential dog and a dog on his way to the Invitational, so that was not a bad run!!! :D



Roscoe ran one run yesterday and today. Yesterday he looked AWESOME, but took an off course tunnel. Today, a little pokey and down and he missed his weave entry. So unlike him, but outdoors is just not his think. Next weekend, two days indoors. I hope he feels happier.

We figured it out!

It's in the shade, so you can't really see, but before the straw was loaded on this trailer we looked at that bit of machinery on the trailer and wondered WHAT THE HECK was it???? (I had a close up shot from before the straw was loaded, but I can't find it now). We just couldn't figure it out. It had a place for the bale, but it was definitely not a baler. Now we know!!!! It's a mulcher!!! It chews up the straw and shoots it out. They use it for mulching the strawberries.

Before the crazy hail storm our poppies were BRILLIANT! Sadly, the hail storm kind of beat them down, but enjoy these amazing photos. I don't even remember where I got these plants, but they are so awesome!!!!

As we head into July, the lilies will open. Such pretty time of year, June and July!!!!

For those of you not on facebook, remember this weekend has lots of doggie events to attend. Starting today four days of breed and obedience shows at the Cumberland fairgrounds. Starting tomorrow three days of agility at Wasamki Springs campground. I'll be there running my dogs. And Saturday and Sunday Dock Diving at the Cabela's parking lot in Scarborough. All these events are free to spectators so go watch some dogs having great fun, regardless of the weather!!!!

Last night at agility class Spur came out again. I gave him two weeks off. It was Roscoe's turn. With three days of outdoor agility I needed to try to get some conditioned emotional response to doing outdoor agility and Roscoe got to run, alone. He went to class alone last week, he was THE dog at the seminar last weekend. It was his time. My time with him is limited, due to the inability to control aging. He's at least twelve. He's slowing down some, I can see it and it makes me sad. He still enjoys class, though!

Last run of the night, I decided to pull out Spur. It was the full course, kind of hard and lots of back sides. HE FREAKIN' SMOKED IT!!!! Instructor Anne was like......what have you been doing with him???? I said,.......um.......not much he has been on break. He was ON FIRE!! Leaping the a-frame apex, running perfect dog walks, doing super tight turns. He was FLYING. I think he needed that break. It needs to be part of our training program. On occasion, The Spur Man needs a break. I do think it also helps that we have the jealousy factor going on. There has been some screaming. Pull out Roscoe = crazy, monkey screams of despair from The Spur-minator! So sad.......good to make him want it that bad. I hope he shows that intensity this weekend!! :D And I hope there isn't too much rain for Roscoe. He will NOT run in rain, no way, it's a bummer man. No rain for Roscoe!!

Wow, the grass grows!

This hay field is ready to mow!!! Way over Roscoe's head!!! His world is a little smaller on this path!!! LOL!!

The Indian Paintbrushes just don't come out in film as brilliant as they are for real. They are SO tall this year!!!

You just can't tell, but this pasture is just FULL of Indian Paintbrushes.
The straw baled the other day. This will be used for mulching the strawberries!It's so pretty in the early morning sunlight. The farm changes almost daily.

I love that we live among the wildlife!

How many tail-less foxes can there be? This little guy/gal must be the same one I saw last year. I thought at first it was a stray corgi, LOL!!! It looks a little mangy, but not bad, and certainly plenty plump. Of course, that could be because it is a she and is pregnant. :P

I feel for the wildlife at times. It is a hard life. I can't imagine the ticks, the fleas and mange and the worry.
I do worry about the wildlife. We have the feral cats in the barn. Our dogs are pretty LITTLE. But, we live in a place that is SO awesome. Sharing it with tail-less foxes and deer and birds and last night what seemed like thousands of fire flies!!! :D
It is a wonderful, complicated, complete world out there and I love it all. I know many people who would be angry with the foxes, so many cats around here go missing. But, I believe we all have a place in the world and I appreciate seeing the animals right here in my back yard. My cats seem remarkably savvy. Heck, old man Zeus is pushing 20!!!! Why hasn't he been taken by a fox or coyote. He's savvy, that's all I can think. Don't mess with Zeus, he'll put up too much of a fight. Or he smells like death? I don't know, but he lives among the dangers like this tail-less plump (pregnant?) fox.

Lo's International seminar!

Yesterday I went to Lo's for her International seminar. We worked on back sides, pull throughs, twisty turning courses. I ran Roscoe most of the day and he LOVED it!! He did great!!!! It was his day, but at 12 years old (or older for all we know) he got tired. It got hot in the afternoon. So, I pulled out Spur.

Spur did a few dog walk sessions that were interesting. I have one on film. Notice his slow first run, getting used to the equipment. He needs tons of time before he will be comfortable on different equipment, so I am trying to get him on as many dog walks as possible.

This session was interesting. He nailed everyone heading into the agility field. Going the other direction with NOTHING in front of the dog walk except a HUGE open field that slopes down he had some leaps. But, notice after each leap he got it nicely the next time. Good little monkey pants learns well from absence of reward. He will never see a huge open field after the dog walk in an agility trial, so that was not really fair to set up for him. Still, he learned from the session! :D



On the way home we got caught in a major hail storm. It was NUTS!! I was scared and the dogs were, too. I was horrified that my new car would end up with dents all over it. I mean, Muffin Heads, it was BIG hail!! I think it came through OK. I see one small dent on the hood, but that's it. Amazing, really, it sounded like we were being pelted by golf balls!!! They said it was quarter size hail. It was SO loud!!!! We had to pull over and then I was worried about tree limps crashing on us. Yikes!!!!

Happy 12th birthday Miss Colby Carlson!!

She has been the nicest, sweetest, easiest dog we have ever had here!! No doubt, Rich's favorite!! :D

Born in a puppymill in MI, shipped to a RI pet store, bought by a college kid. He wasn't bad to her, but he got back to college and couldn't handle her energy level. She is one major terrier, hunting constantly and she needed a LOT of exercise for a tiny dog.

She was my first agility competition dog and took us all the way to the AKC Invitational in Long Beach CA. She hopped on a jet plane with us, it was AWESOME!!!

She has her MACH and a CD and is trained through utility and loves that routine (I will not put her in out of sight stays, though), and does lots of cool tricks. She has been through Mast cell cancer surgery, lyme disease which took two years to cure, knee surgery and recently her eye removal. She has been on expensive little dog!!

At night Rich tucks her in between us and covers her with the throw. She is spoiled beyond spoiled and we love her very much!!!

Today she got a big beef neck bone to chew on and spent her morning hunting the snake in the rock wall. She will work that wall all day, if I let her. She had grilled chicken for dinner.

Look what I just got!!!!

We got tired of the $100/week in gas for the truck and the weather just hasn't been great for scootering. Well, today was. Anyway, our plan is to sell the truck and get a "beater" for the few times we need a truck. It just isn't smart for me to drive a truck. So, after many trials and some pretty nasty auto dealers, we got THIS.............

Already jammed in my crates and shit! It has remarkable room for a car whose seats do not fold flat. What is up with that???? It would be so much nicer if they folded flat, but because it is so roomy the crates fit pretty well!! I may end up getting Colby a slightly smaller wire crate as she really doesn't need such a big on.

This is Colby's crate and she doesn't need such a big one.

The Cube! It gets about 32 mpg on the highway and about 29 around town. Consumer reports RAVED about it's comfy seat and with my butt/hip/leg issue I NEED a comfy seat. The seat is like memory foam. All the reviews mentioned it's comfortable seat. I sat in so many economy cars whose seat was SO hard and SO uncomfortable. Why can't they make a comfy SEAT!!!!

I wanted the red, but our choices were limited. There are not many around because of the tsumani. White is fine, I would never have done black. I just need to get some stickers to put on the windows to "color" it up, some!!! The first sticker will be "RUN FAST, Bark Loud". LOL!!

More owlet drama.......

From Mom -
Came home this noon to find owlet 3 on the ground !! The parents kept up a ruckus last night hooting and cooing. We thought about what to do and decided to get the ladder and put it back in the laundry basket. It was hard to pick up and had plenty of wing span and nothing broken or injured but we felt it was too dangerous on the ground. Within an hour it was out of the basket and branching on the ash tree.
No 2 watched the whole event from its perch on the pine tree 50 feet away.
Now No 3 is way up in the ash and No 2 way up in the pine talking to each other.

#3 on the ground -
#3 back in the basket -#3 exploring the tree branches -
#2 watching the drama unfold from the pine tree -

#3 -

Rescuer Mike putting away the ladder -

Owlet #2 is going farther!!!

Looking more like an adult! This is all the way across the driveway! Both huddled in the tree hole during the wind and rain.

Yikes, I have a LOT of dogs to walk!

I added a sweet sheltie for the week, just a one time deal. Fergus. Today I have a Fergus and a Fergie!!! Hahahahah!! That pretty much filled me up, then one of my "on call" walks called. I always hate when that happens, but I have to take jobs when I get them. So, they are at the end of my walks.

I am glad it isn't going to be 80 degrees and humid.

Enjoy some photos of my poppies. They did get beat down a little with the rain we just had, but there are more to come. SO PRETTY!!!! -

Something about worms!

The dogs just love to roll in worms. They even sometimes will argue about who gets which worm. Resource guarding worms!! Here is Spur, happily smeared in worm and drool........

He even drools, then that ends up mixing with worm and........well......ick!!! Thankfully, worm/drool mix doesn't smell too bad and once dry can just be brushed out.

Happy, worm/drool smeared dog..........

Just an amazing story!!

My mom has a big elm tree in her front yard. Some barred owls have nested there in previous years. This year there have been some issues. An owlet fell out a few weeks ago. She was told to take it to Bar Harbor as it might have a broken leg. Well, it was walking on it's legs, so she was sure they were not broken. My friend Laura suggested contacting Avian Haven. Well, their site said if the bird is in good shape, simply return it to the nest.

That was fine, but it fell out again. This time it didn't look good. She put it back, but it came out....... again. She called Avian Haven and they sent an "ambulance" to come get it. Turns out it broke it's wing, probably on the first fall and was really in rough shape. But, they have been feeding it and another barred owlet about the same age was recently brought in and the two snuggle and soon will go with the surrogate barred owl parents they have that have raised many owlets over the years. Just amazing!!! They think it should be able to recover and be released. So cool!!

Anyway, there is more to this story..........ANOTHER one fell out. This time mom said it was big and FIERCE! She left it there and called Avian Haven again. They instructed her to cover it with a towel and use heavy gloves and put it in a box until Mike got home. Then again cover it and use heavy gloves and hold it's feet (talons!!!) between your fingers and spread it's wings to look for bruising. It looked fine and she said the wing span was more than two feet!! It looked good, so the instructions were to take a laundry basket and fill it with pine needles. Then tie the basket to the tree near the hole. But, be sure to wear a hard hat and goggles (since you are only born with two eyes and want to keep them!!! Seriously, they said that to her!!) and then put the owlet in a paper bag so it doesn't screech and attract the parents. Then gently put it in the basket.

They did that!!! And we are now getting updates!! She sees and hears the parents tending to it and it sometimes comes out and she has photos!! It is SO cool!!!! -


This was the next day after putting it in the basket. You can just barely see it's head looking over the left side of the basket and if you look REALLY carefull you can see another owl/owlet in the hole above it (maybe click on the photo and it will enlarge?).....
These were taken today. .........So, if you are driving down the road and see a laundry basket attached to someones tree, don't worry they are not loony. They are tending to an owlet!!!! :D

So little time!

I know, I haven't been very good with blog entries lately. The weather has been FABULOUS, finally, so I am not sitting at this desk much.

I do have some awesome flower photos and farm photos to post, but I have to find time to load them.

Roscoe won the drumming challenge. He was number 3! Silvia was pleased as she really wanted him as a winner. She thinks he's pretty cool!!! So, since I have all her DVD's I asked if I could be upgraded from auditor to participant in her running dog walk class. She said SURE!! Only a few weeks left in the class, but that's cool!!

Off on Saturday to Lo Baker's for a half day seminar on dog walks. So, that should be good/interesting.

Work has picked up in a BIG way. I often have a slightly lesser summer schedule due to teenagers home who can walk the dogs or teachers home, but this year, nope no drop outs and a few additions. I hate to think this way, but I just added a 10 month old. That means "job security". I have several very old dogs and unfortunately that means "job insecurity". Sad, but it's just part of the business. I really didn't have an opening for another dog walk, but this one is in a good location and can be done later in the day as they don't leave for work until mid-morning.

Oi!! It's all good. I am so pleased to be busy and in demand, even in a bad economy.

Roscoe was awesome in dog class last night. Go figure. He can do class outside like a wild man, but outside trials bum him out. Spur, not so into class. It's hard when he worries and slows down and looks stressed in class. I sometimes think of not running him at class, but he very much needs to get used to different equipment and other dogs around him. I just hate to practice slower behavior when he can be so good. He's a tough one, for sure.

We carry on and work through it. I have to remember how bad things were just a year ago. Things are SO much better now!

Lovely photo of The Spur man!

My friend Joy Elliot took this!! I love how she captured his happy face -

Huh, I don't know how to make it smaller. I'll work on that.

Trial report!

First - Laure, Lance and Vito!! I can't seem to post a comment in MY comment section replying to your comment. How dumb is that??? Anyway, um......nope, no stride regulators for The Spur Man. That could just be the thing to never get him on the dog walk again, LOL!! I probably could work them slowly with a plank, but no, I'll work through this. He was SPOT ON this weekend with his dog walks. PERFECT, low hits. Not super fast, though.

Saturday's first class was Novice FAST. He got the bonus, but then the scribe removed it. Judge doesn't know why, says she doesn't remember even though it was only 20 minutes earlier and he is one of only TWO mix breed dogs at this AKC trial. Doi. I didn't argue. He knocked the triple and that kind of bummed him out. Like all weekend bummed, but he pulled it together to Q in all is other runs.

Good little man finally got that last Open Standard leg with a lovely run. Not super fast, he was still thinking of that knocked triple. **Not to self, do some triples at home on occasion.

He won his Excellent Standard saturday, but that was the A division, so not much competition. Sunday I thought he might run faster, but not really. He was good, but not as fast as he was at the NEAT trial a few weekend's ago. Still thinking about that triple? Perhaps. He Q'ed and ended up second in JWW and that was the B division. But, the super fast dogs all NQ'd. It was a HARD course. He was not super fast, but he ran it nicely and confidently.

Roscoe was only entered Saturday. He was a mess. Not at all into it and I pulled him out half way through the course. He just doesn't want to do it outside, plain and simple. He does fine at home and at class, but not at a trial. It's just not something his mind can wrap around. Darn. I hate seeing him that way.

Just some more running dog walk work

At home he is faster and it's causing some different striding. That's running dog walk speak for leaps. "Different striding". He is wanting to do a two strided down and he can't do that! His most comfortable is a three strided down.

See -


I am going to see if I can work through this before running to Silvia for help. Hopefully, we can work it out. He does know his job, I am sure of that, but it is a fine line with running dog walks!

I wonder if it says PITA on my file?

I love my vet. She and I go way back. She was the best vet I ever worked with. She used my technical abilities to the fullest. She knew how to train a tech and make use of one. She and I were a good team. She could send an animal back with instructions on procedures and know I would follow instructions and get it done. Why did I quit? Her asshole husband who had a hand in everything there. I couldn't take it any more. Plus, the clients could be such idiots and my tolerance for that got less and less and I was getting burned out. I miss it, though. I miss the mental challenge and helping the animals.

Anyway, when I call for an appointment I say..."I need and appointment with Dr. Bond, please". Clear as can be. I see only her. I don't know the other vets there well enough and MY vet knows my dogs and knows my skills and together we manage Roscoe well and with reasonable comfort.

Made the appointment. Got a call from Randi later that day asking if I really wanted an appointment with Dr. Bond, because my appointment was with the other vet. HUH??? I clearly stated my wishes. This happened last year and I showed up and stupidly said to the vet who walked in....."Oh, hi, what are you doing here?". Embarrassing as stuff like that just comes out of my mouth, but whatever, I spend a lot of money there I want to see MY vet only. So, this year I should have doubled checked with the idiot receptionist. That's my biggest complaint with the office. THE IDIOT OFFICE HELP!!! OMG, they are horrible. And changing all the time. It is the clinic's worse feature. They can not get good office help and keep them. I don't know why, but it has ALWAYS been an issue and it makes me nuts.

Thank's for Randi. She's a friend, I know her from outside the clinic, and she took care of it and we made a new appointment. I have no patience for such silly things. It doesn't seem like Rocket Science here. Listen to the client on the phone and do what you are supposed to do.

Rich asked me one time why I didn't teach dog classes. I said because the general public would not be happy with my style. "Do it right, dumb ass!!".