Wow!

I just had THE nicest compliment!

I walk a neighborhood with a ton of dogs in it. If you don't like dogs, this isn't the neighborhood for you! I LOVE it. I walk a golden every day there. As I was passing a house with an australian terrier, his human yells out to me "HI Amy". I stop to chat for a minute. She tells me she has to say of all the people she sees out walking dogs, and she sees a lot pass by her house, I am the only one who looks like I am having fun and enjoying myself. :D I thanked her ever so much!

I DO enjoy my job. I LOVE to be out and about walking and I like walking at a brisk pace, especially with an active dog. So, I know what she means. I see folks out walking their dogs who just drag their feet and looking totally bored and tired and self absorbed. Or are chatting on a cell phone or listening to music. HUH? This is a beautiful neighborhood with kids, dogs, awesome flower gardens. Lovely neighborhood where folks wave and say HI and dogs greet and walk together. It's a fun neighborhood to walk. I SO enjoy my walks there and the golden and I walk with a spring in our step and move out and enjoy it!! We walk.......with purpose and with some place to go. It's what I do. I walk very few dogs who just want to plod along. Some do, but most want to move out!!!

The nicest compliment I have gotten in a while!!!

BARK weekend trial report!

I know, a little late, but you have to understand how I feel in the heat...........I HATE IT!!!!

OK, so this was a slightly rugged trial. First, it is a three hour drive there. Second, the heat outside was BRUTAL. Yes, we stayed in an AC hotel, we ran agility in an AC sports arena, but STILL we had to walk and potty the dogs and get our stuff in and out. It was HOT! Third, it was not a good weekend for dad's.

Friday we arrive and set up and have dinner. We leave the dogs in the truck with it wide open. We can watch it from the restaurant. At some point we all notice something strange. Our friend Nicole is sitting on the pavement next to the truck. Her car is there, too, but it's strange that she and her friend are sitting there. Turns out her dad had just died unexpectedly. Poor Nicole, it was very sad and very hard. She just lost her mom three months earlier. I guess he couldn't live without her. Nicole stayed for the trial, but the poor thing, it was so hard.

The next morning we arrive and are getting going and I get a call that MY dad had a heart attack. MY DAD? He is a hard working organic farmer? But, he is 73 and these things happen when you are that age. He is fine, but that call was FREAKY!!!! It was pretty crazy. Stress, stress, stress.........

We set the dogs up in an x-pen. First time doing that. Douce (shih tzu), Roscoe, Colby and Spur. We line the pen with covering so it's only open on top. It seems more comfortable, they can move around more and stretch out. Easier for us than bringing in four crates. Howeverrrr.............The Spurminator had other plans. By the end of the first day he figured out how to escape. It happened once while I was there organizing my treats. Next thing I know I have a dog in my arms. Guy next to us says....."Nice catch!". Um, thanks, but dude that's not a catch I wanted. BAD Spur, back in your pen!!!

About a half hour later I am watching the Master's ring and Pam comes along with the Spurminator in her arms. This is a THREE foot tall x-pen! Little buddy, that's a BIG jump!! Crate time for The Spur Man!!! >:/

The next day Douce escapes! DOUCE! He's an 11" tall shih tzu. Surely he didn't jump it???? We are thinking he climbed it. Crate time for The Douce Man!!!! >:/

Roscoe ran great for a few runs, then looks a little sore. I am thinking he "pogo-sticked" too much at the x-pen. That would be jumping up and down each time I came over, in hopes I would pick him up. He can't do that in a crate, so we'll see next time. He just seemed a little sore by day two.

OK, so the x-pen was a good idea. In theory. In practice - NO! Crates all around, next time!!

It seems it was a "run-a-way" weekend. This was Spur's last run, jumpers and he takes a WEE detour to say HI to the judge. "Hey there judge, watch ME run!!!! YAY for ME!!", she just stood still. I squeek out "SssspuRRRRR" and we continue. Yeesh! I knew that would happen one day. He's SO loves his fan club!



Even with all these strange events this was a VERY fun trial. AC worked great inside this place. In fact, at one point I had to put a coat on Colby!!! The hotel was LOVELY and relaxing. The trial ran very smoothly as BARK trials always do. Spur finished his PII title, so he is now in PIII completely. Those are MASTER'S classes!!! :O OMG, Baby Spur in Master's classes?? He ran his first two standard PIII, with a nice Q in his Sunday run. Saturday we had some issues. It's harder. The in-gate is WAY busier. The courses obviously harder. It will be an adjustment for us.

Spur - PII dog! We still need to get more speed and confidence, but I see that coming.........slowly and methodically, it will come. As with everything Spur-like, these things will take time. He did have two iffy dog walk contacts. One was called the other was not. I need to re-group and go back a little in my dog walk training with him. As with all things Spur-like, this will take time. We take August off from trialing, so I have time to get some good work done with it.

What do I learn from these trials? That no matter how well or how crappy we do, I think my dogs appreciate our teamwork and that I do this super fun sport with them. They may leap out of x-pens and pogo-stick themselves sore, but they are not bored, they are not home living sedate lives curled up on the couch, they are mentally and physically involved in my life to the fullest and they work for me and with me and we work as a team and I think they appreciate all of it. I think they enjoy it and are fulfilled and certainly NOT bored. Maybe I am seeing my world through Rose Colored Glasses, but I LOVE those glasses, they fit me well and don't hurt the bridge of my nose!

And besides, they get tons of turkey and chicken and cheese and I KNOW that's really, REALLY important to ME!! I think it's the same for them! Especially the cheese! I love cheese! Turkey, chicken, cheese, baked potatoe, pizza crust, waffles, meatballs, egg sandwich, cheese covered enchilladas........Roscoe even likes his radishes! Yeah, we eat well at dog trials! I didn't bring radishes.

You wonder why I haven't been posting daily?

Cuz my cup runneth over!!! My gardens are in full bloom and need a little tending, the grass is growing like........well,.........grass, dog shows, BARK camp, lots of extra work since it's summer and folks are vacationing, it's just a BUSY time of year!!! I have my summer reading to do, too. I mean, really, THAT has to be fit in there somewhere!! I got 8 books for my birthday last week. :D

So, here's a sampling of our incredible gardens. They just burst with color this time of year and are actually fairly self-reliant. We keep splitting up the lilies, but they just end up bigger and better!!!

Doesn't the agility field look lovely behind the lilies???.........

My little porch set up. Do I ever have time to sit there? Nevah.........

Roscoe has been enjoying the over grown radishes. Yep, he loves his radishes!........

Won't let anyone near him when he has his radish!!!

Our lettuce is amazing!! Fresh salads every night!!

Did I mention the grass?? Jewel wants to know if it makes her butt look big? Well, YAH...........not just yer butt, Miss Jewel..........

This is a volunteer sunflower!!! The first photo was taken last week. Look at it THIS week!! Talk about a burst of growth from some heat and sun!!!

This lily clump is from ONE branch!!!!

Mrs. Bluebird. Mr. Bluebird.

My new vinyl sign for my truck!!!! $25! :D

I may not post again until next week. Off to my last summer agility trial this weekend. Then we take a break from agility. It's just TOO hot!! Thankfully, this trial is indoors in AC at a sports facility on field turf. Spur loved it there when we went last spring, so I am hoping he will love it again!! All three dogs are running. Colby is doing a couple of jumpers runs.

Wow, what a week!

OK, I could have had some nicer weather. HOT isn't MY favorite. Um, let me rephrase that.....HOT SUCKS!!! I was so unhappy to see such heat coming for my week off. Three days at BARK camp with 99 degree weather and nearly 100% humidity wasn't fun. I wanted to work Spur some, but working that little paw wringer when I am not at the top of my game isn't a good idea. I only brought him out a few times when I could make an easy course for him. Roscoe worked his heart out, good little bad dog!

Then over the weekend we did the Riverside USDAA trial. Spur FREAKIN' ROCKED!!! I am SO high from his last two runs!! We did have some down runs, too, though. I can't just forget those, he melted down a couple of times. Running fine, but not with his Monkey Pants on. Who knows what gets him, but my gut says it's all me and he reads my mind/emotions so keenly. His down runs were Gamble (I am not good at handling gambles, it took a long time for Roscoe to be good at gambles) and pairs, which I usually like OK, but I was worried about it a little because it was his first run of the day after looking pretty scared about the teeter the day before. I realised later, as you will see in these runs, that I had nothing to worry about!! :D

Colby finished her MAD with Jones - YAY!!! I haven't had a chance to load that run. It wasn't pretty, I wanted it CLEAN so she wouldn't have to keep trying. I wanted it with Jones and it took us five tries to get it, so this was really sweet!!!

This is Spur's Standard run yesterday to win his class and be the fourth fastest of all the heights of dogs in that division!! He ROCKED!!! His dog walk was perfect and we could have taken a couple seconds off his time had he gone down faster on his table. My table at home needs replacing, so I can't use it. Rich just cut me a new board, but it still needs paint. Gotta get that done!!! -



This was his Grand Prix fun. LOVE his teeter in this run!! Just perfect and the teeters at this trial were very loud and scary, but he just got more and more comfortable!!! GOOD LITTLE MONKEY PANTS!!!! -

I HATE this weather!

Would I rather it be snowing? Maybe? Would I rather it be 20 degrees? Maybe?

I find my productivity sinks to an all time low in this weather. I feel holed up in my totally closed up house with the shades drawn. Remember, we are passive solar. GREAT when it is 20 degrees, but 90 and humid, not so great. We have the AC going in the office and will probably sleep there tonight.

I am off tomorrow to BARK camp in NH. This may be my LAST camp. For several reasons.......Lo and George talk about moving. And I am SO tired of nasty weather for camp. I just don't remember nice weather for camp. It has either been brutally hot or raining. Neither are good conditions for dog agility. :(

The truck is clean, mostly packed and we are ready, but goodness I can't say I am all that excited and I LOVE BARK camp.

I haven't posted here lately because I essentially invited myself to the morning running contact sessions over the weekend out there. Val Henry was doing a two hour morning session and it was AWESOME. I LOVE her!! She has dogs who are not crazy, mental cases and has had to work on motivation (hellooooooo.....remind you of anyone.........named.......Spur?) and she has an incredible eye. She sees things going on that not many people see, so that was really cool. Spur was invited to be a demo and unfortunately between my "stage fright" and his reaction to it and subsequent melt down he didn't perform all that well. But, telling Val our story and our work and progress she feels I am on the right track and the work I am doing is just fine. That's cool. But, she feels I need to do more seminars, more classes and just conquer my stage fright. Not sure I agree. We end up practicing pokey and worried and not what I want to practice. I have to give it some thought.

So, my plan had been to work Roscoe for camp. It is a Masters/International course group camp and perfect for him, but not so for Spur. But, it is obvious Spur and I need the work? Or is it? I just don't know. I sometimes feel that maybe we should just train at home or in private lessons and practice GOOD work, instead of trying to work through our stage fright issues? I just don't know.........

And I feel like I have somewhat limited time with Roscoe. He is 11 and how many more years does he have? Probably a few, but now is the time to work him hard. He is in great shape and mentally doing pretty well. He has always loved camp.

Anyway, stayed tuned I may report in on Friday, but I won't be posting here until then, at least. This is vacation week for me!! :D YAY!!!! Of course, I would be a LOT happier if it were not 90 and humid and muggy. But, vacation is vacation, right??

Wimp.com has some fun videos

This one is so cute, although I keep wondering about this deer. Will he/she never be afraid of dogs? Still, it is FREAKIN' cute!! The last twenty minutes show two cats watching from the porch railing. :D

http://www.wimp.com/oneball/

My nephew stopped by!

With Shilo, his pit bull. She is SUCH a sweet dog! We certainly didn't introduce her to MY little MONSTERS. Colby would MAYBE be OK, but since she has become a total bitch in her retirement I wouldn't want Shilo to have to deal with that. Spur MIGHT be OK, but he has trouble sometimes with big dogs. Roscoe would be.......BAD......and Shilo definitely doesn't need to meet Roscoe. :O

Dug out of my purse my first photo of Roscoe. I thought I ought to preserve it digitally, since it is getting a bit worn. This was Roscoe the first week we had him. What a FATTY!!! Because he was so food motivated he kept getting cookies at the shelter in hopes that would make him nice? Um, no, Roscoe will take the cookie, THEN bite! Bad dog! Cookies do help, some, but really it was all the training and self control work we did that helped him. And the fact that we learned he doesn't WANT to be patted. So, why pat him? He's really quite good so long as no one TRIES to be his friend. He picks his friends and that's his choice. He doesn't HAVE to be friends with a lot of people. He just doesn't. He has few friends. That's just how it is.

Goodness, he was FAT!