Re-visiting the hold an object trick!

Someone asked me how do you teach that. It starts with wrapping a paw around a pole. My dogs all need a refresher!! I think I may have missed making sure they REALLY grab the pole before I moved on to holding an object?Or I just need to work this out a little more. And Roscoe is SO insane, he wants to pick it up himself and he does well and has a good hold, but he needs to sit up more. I was very glad that Colby was so into it!! She is definitely feeling better!!! Still needs xanax most mornings to have a good appetite, but she is eating pretty well.



They are bored, the cold has meant fewer walks for them. This new snow we got worries me some as now I won't be able to see the ice, but that just means I MUST wear my cleats! Rain coming tomorrow, maybe it will be enough to wash away ALL the snow!!! THAT would be nice!!! Probably what will happen is it will wash away most, but then the well packed snow will just end up a SHEET of ice. Damn it all.

Too cold for photos!

Although, I really do need to get new video of Spur's handstand. He almost did it independently yesterday!!! He cheats and ends up backing up to ME and using my body, LOL!!

I gave Jewel a head rub this morning after cleaning stalls and she is shedding like MAD!!! Hahaha, it is 3 degrees out there and the horses are shedding! They start losing their winter coat as soon as the day light gets longer. She has a thick winter coat on her right now. Desert Arab breed that she is, grows a minimal natural winter coat and would shiver without her man made coat.

The sun is strong and sure does help on these cold days. I wear a lot of sunscreen on the small area of face exposed. Forgot one day and my freckles POPPED!! Ugh. As I age I won't be calling them freckles any more. They will be "age spots". Damn it all!!!!

No photos, no videos, it is just too cold

Although, I should film an update on Spur's handstand, because it is SO good!!

I manage to do fine in the cold. We have a big, beasty woodstove and passive solar house, so by the time the sun is up our house is about 80!!! I know how to dress, heater packets in my mittens and boots, bomber fleece hat, snow pants and 3/4 length down coat with a fleece lined hood. Yeah, my head is warm!!!. I get stiff, though, with all that on. And I also forget how cold it is! Walked dogs in the neighborhoods, shortening only those who seemed cold or where the wind was brutal. The goldens I walk just power along. So, tried to walk Spur out back, but on the snow his tiny toes got cold. According to the forecast, we may not be walking for a while. It is getting old. Being cold.

Colby is doing better, though!! Even eating without any xanax!! We are bringing out her special ball every morning and playing with her. Gives her some activity and some work out if we toss it on the chair for her to jump up and get over and over. :D She has lost so much muscle tone. The dog who always was fit and strong. Those days are over. But, at least she is feeling better it seems.

Roscoe spends the day chasing sun spots. He tried to move the vacuum yesterday from it's spot in the sun. LOL!! I moved it for him. Then the sun moved again to the vacuum. I gave up. The sun then went away. And we lit the woodstove again.

Last night on my way to dog class my little 4 cylinder car barely warmed up??? It is THAT cold. This morning, it is 0. And this along the coast where it isn't supposed to get that cold. Damn. The ocean is "steaming" because it is warmer than the air. I guess the ocean is warming us up??? Glad I don't live inland.

Too much snow for the yard, still

So, we rented a studio. Had a blast!! Roscoe played all the same exercises, good little old man!!! Amazing he is doing so well at 14!!! Kept the bars low for Spur because these pushes are very hard. We mixed it up, pushes, serps and threadles. It was our best session so far on this exercise!!!

She makes it look so easy!

Laura Dolan and Racer. Watching her has sure helped ME learn to run!!!

Been so long I had to sign in!

Huh, I wonder how many days absent before blogger signs me out? It has only been since Monday! :P

OK, so what's going on? TOO MUCH!! Extra work this week with folks away. Then a big storm. That always sets me back. With little old MinPins it is really best to shovel enough snow to get down to the grass for them to potty. It just makes life so much easier. So, lots of shoveling heavy wet snow. I was bummed we got so much snow. It had almost melted enough to do some agility in my yard. Oh well. Spur and I did have a really nice snow shoe yesterday. HE does great in the snow! The MinPins stayed home by the woodstove with stuffed Kongs. They are bored.

So, I just have to tell a funny story............my mother in law has had trouble with her feet. Not really sure the extent of it, but her feet hurt her to the point of nearly crippling her. It stinks, she is in a lot of pain and can't walk much. So, Rich's brother buys her one of those awesome foot/leg massagers. Stink you whole lower leg in and it massages your foot and calf. Sounded great, right? Oh, it hurt her. :( So, it gets returned and he then sends her one that she simply places her feet on and it massages the bottoms. She LOVES it!!! Rich and two of his brothers and their kids all went to Sugarloaf skiing. His dad calls them up there and leaves this message........."The vibrator arrived today and your Mom absolutely LOVES it!". OMG!!!! I can just hear the kids and guys dying over that!! Rich's brother actually recorded the message and played it back to their dad over the phone. Hahahahahahaha!!!!

Now for something not so funny. Our bathroom project is just going from bad to worse. OK, well, we have had SOME good. The new contractor came and did all the walls and finish work, so that is done. But, now we have the tiled shower to deal with. We had hoped that the shower pan would be OK and we could just get the tile company to come fix/finish the job. Well, Rich tested it with water this morning. It seems that the pan is LEAKING!!! That is a MAJOR hassle. It means demo on already done work by the IDIOT we hired at the beginning. It is INSANE!!!! He had the gal to leave us a bill for $1000 for work he did before we let him go. Right!!!! It appears now WE will be handing HIM a bill for about $1500, or more, and that IS accepting payment to him for SOME of his $1000 bill. It is a mini-Holmes on Homes show!!!

My idol and teacher!

They are all just crazy fast! These are her two young dogs. The little one is probably the fastest dog in the world!

Another NQ!! GOODNESS!!

We are sure in a dry spell lately. This makes trial number 7, no double q. This time he blasted out of the short AKC chute and took a jump on the other side of the weaves. No video, but I can tell you I was LATE calling him out of the chute. And I knew that might be an issue. His class chute is very long, so the short chute is like a particle accelerator!! LOL!! A lesson to me to be EARLY with my cues!! Like as soon as he is committed to the chute I should have been calling him to me! Oi!!! Still, he ran great!!

Yesterday we worked on his hand stand trick. I call it "Bum's Up". We haven't worked on it since last winter and he didn't miss a beat. In fact, this was the first time trying it in a new location and with just my arm, not a pillow to reach for. OMG, he is SO cute!! I love when he throws his legs up straight!!! We still have some work to do getting it independent, but he sure has an understanding. I think getting him to figure out he needs to put his nose on the ground for balance will be the hard part.

I know, where have I been????

OK, so our bathroom re-do is moving along, but not without some bumps in the road. MAJOR bumps in the road. Like having to fire the guy we hired and that just plain SUCKED. Turns out he really did dupe us and was WAY over faced on this project. He should never have accepted it and totally did not let on to us his lack of abilities. In fact, because of his poor workmanship the project will end up costing a lot more than necessary and there are some pretty major issues we are dealing with. It's all good in the end, but for the fact of extra cost! Plus, having to deal with his current invoice. We "owe" him for the work he did. Huh. Really? I don't think so. We will sure be considering how much he has cost us and will deal with that as the project finishes up.

It WILL be nice and I am starting to think about paint colors. :D Getting VERY sick of the noise and construction dust, but the new guys are very nice and doing a great job.

No new photos. The snow is still here, any new photos will all look just like the last ones snow shoeing. White snow, black dogs. But, here are some of Spur's trial videos from last weekend.

I loved this run. It just felt good. Connected. I never got too far ahead, I showed him the way and he came out of the tunnel before the weaves knowing where he was going and he doesn't slow down for his entry and drives nicely through his weaves. Felt good!!!



This one we were not as connected off the start. Slower into his weaves, but we did an awesome "push" on jump 6, the red wing jump second before the yellow tunnel. Everyone was freaking out about that as we don't see that in AKC much, but for Spur that was easy. We have trained those lately and this one was just easy!!! Then he missed the jump after the yellow tunnel, not sure why I seem to indicate it pretty well, but he just ran past it. He finishes up nicely, though!!!! Yikes, I run the outside line and nearly behead myself on the wall support!! :O

What no more double Q's???

We seem to be in a "dry spell". I think it has been SIX trials!! That is epic for Spur. He has been a Qing machine, up until now when we only need three for his MACH. Damn it! We SO wanted to get that during one of the 4pawrule trials, their MACH ribbons are ENORMOUS and beautiful!!! Oh well. He IS running great, and our NQ's are all silly, stupid mistakes on my part and his. Just little things.

Here are some highlights from last weekend's three day trial. I LOVE how he is off his starts and how happy and proud and barky he is at the finish!!!

I put in a map of a crazy dog walk set up. I have never seen that before, going into a wall, with an about turn. Trying to imagine a big dog handling that!! :O

Snow shoeing!

Boy, is my body feeling it! Amazing how I think I am in such good shape, then try something different. Just different muscles needed, I guess. Seems like walking muscles would do, but not quite. Roscoe made it out a couple times, even! He tends to get too cold, but we had some sun that warmed him enough. Spur manages now that I trimmed his paw hairs. On occasion, if it isn't sunny he gets cold feet, but usually can tough it out. The next few days I am not sure I will even attempt it with him. Too cold!!

We tried bringing Colby once the trails were packed pretty well, but she wasn't happy. The bright sun off the snow is not good for her sight. Sucks. Her world is DEFINITELY smaller now with this snow. She isn't eating well, she just seems to feel like crap all the time. Did I say it sucks? Yes, it SUCKS. I give her some xanax in the morning and that seems to stimulate her appetite. I bring out her favorite ball to play some on the bed, keeping Spur away from it, if I can. But, she is just not a happy dog. She isn't aging gracefully. SUCKS!!!

Well, it is now 2013!!!

Happy New Year, everyone!!!!
2013