Things I learned that might be important, but may or may not be important to you?

Sunday we took a boat trip with some friends out to Jewell Island. I looked it up on google and it is considered a "Party Island". Best if you don't like running into people to go on a week day or off season, but it was SO nice on Sunday and it was the day we had available. And the day everyone else had available, too. See the cove behind me - full of boaters? It was full!!! Party on Wayne!!! It was still LOVELY out there. We hiked. We swam. We ate. We laughed. We awed at the views and the scenery and how fortunate we are. The dogs had a BALL.
Roscoe found a heart of stone -


Spur is cute, this we know -

So, here is what we learned that is may be of some importance.



* - Dachshund's named Buster like to swim.

* - Jewell Island is beautiful!

* - Secure everything on the boat. Damn it, that plastic baggie got away. We are just like the other red necks in the cove. Yes, this we know. :(

* - When you find a lovely stone in the shape of a heart with two eye holes be careful. Your very good friend might say you now have a heart of stone. Geez, Laura!!!! Funny! Yeah, funny! Just so you know, Laura, funny girl.

* - Roscoe doesn't swim. OK, we already knew that, but had to remind Steve. He almost plopped him in to swim ashore like he did with the other two who swam nicely and looked adorable.

OK, now I am going to tell you the things that are of very most high extreme utmost and toppest most importance!!! -

* - Even though there are SIX outhouses on this island, just remember, behind a building or any structure perhaps one that might be a tower with an awesome view is a good place to take a shit.......... if you are STUPID!!! If you failed to realize you just passed an OUTHOUSE where smart people shit!



And I tell you this because it is of importance and because you may not know and because - my adorable, best little buddy, favorite little furry, very furry pal found this stupid ass's shit and smeared it all over his beautiful fur. Which meant, well, OH LORDIE, it mean lots of very bad words from my mouth, along with many "OH MY GOD"'s from my mouth and Steve yelling from the top of the tower asking if we were having sex? Um, NOT, those noises are different, Steve, these sounds coming from my mouth as my shit smeared, furry, very furry, stinky, gross, disgusting, very furry, best furry pal, who is now proudly marching along and causing me and Rich to nearly barf, these were NOT happy words said while having sex. These were BAD words, words of despair, disgust, dis - well, whatever, you know not happy words as we marched back to the last cove and I did my best to avoid my best furry little pal from TOUCHING ME, but then I HAD to touch him and wash off some stupid ass's shit from my best furry little pal who even growled at me as I was forcing him into the surf to wash off this oh so disgusting shit! :O

I am just telling you this so you know. Be aware. Be very aware that sometimes some stupid person might shit behind the building you come across while hiking Jewell Island even though the outhouse put there for just this purpose is yards away. It might happen. Just so you know. Important knowledge if you have a best furry little pal who OH so loves to roll in this excrement.


And one more thing of importance -

* - Be sure your boat is stocked with soap so you can properly wash your best furry pal when you return to the boat after he rolls in human exrement. We did have soap. THANK GOD!

He was very very tired on our return home trip he pushed his way into the spot Colby wanted and never moved the whole way home.At least he did smell better, but when we got home another bath was had. I think MY shower was one of the nicest showers I have ever had.

It was a lovely day. There are more photos I will load later. We did have a wonderful time, even though......there was shit.

He has become so resilient and recovers so nicely now!

I am so proud of my little paw wringer! In a few, easy sessions we are back on track. Lost SOME speed, but I see that coming back pretty quickly. There is a very slight delay between the hits on the strike pads and the launch of the ball, however. Do you see that? With more speed that is going to be pretty noticable, I think? I don't know how important that will be.

This really is a genius device!! -

Here we are back in the yard on the flat. I moved the launcher to the other side. See how his head is turned to the right, then he catches the ball in his left eye? I think placement of the launcher is kind of important, but not yet sure where is the RIGHT placement. -



Here we are in the agility yard on the full dog walk! Pretty cool, A? (I know, the quality stinks. I need to get help with my sony cam to get better quality videos and for slow mo editing!!! My flip is just crappy. Easy to use, but crappy.)-


Oh and you may notice his slight hesitation to go into the tunnel. A couple weeks ago some hornets made a nest in my tunnel. :O Poor little buggar got stung. I now check my tunnels every time before using them, but he is remembering and sometimes shows a slight hesitation, poor little guy! It is always SOMETHING, it seems! A year ago he might not have entered a tunnel for weeks, so he is showing great resiliency these days. Things can go wrong and he recovers pretty well. I am pretty proud of the little guy! He is trying with everything he has and seems to still enjoy the work, regardless of my idiocracy and the hornets and other things that just happen to happen. Like when I get STUPID, he is recovering from those times. He is figuring out that my stupidity is just a part of the deal and he'll forgive me my short comings. He is a GOOD boy! I LOVE him!! Oh wait, you knew that already?

If they gave out Phd's for being "An Idiot", I would be first in line!

So, the UPS truck arrives with my second strike plate for my ball launcher. I am SO excited!! We have been practicing in the back yard on a flat plank. I had a plan. You know, those plans that idiots make? We plan it, write it down, going step by step - not. Carefully, thinking it through - not. Implement it step by step - NOT! That kind of plan. The Idiot Phd plan.
I am SO excited I run out to make sure the splitter connection works for both plates. It does! FIL is a freak, remember!! :D I set it up and carefully, ever so carefully, like a good little idiot I am, and check the location of the ball. I do have an Idiot's Phd, remember? I want it to land in front of the contact, so he has to look forward for the ball. Perfect!! Like Miss Idiot Phd, I am SO excited! It's PERFECT! I am so thoughtful, I do have this Phd in Idiocy.

See? Ball launcher is set back, so the ball ends up landing right in front of the contact heading straight away (I know it's off to the side in this photo, but it was straight away). Oh so perfect!!

Hmmm, do I have you all on pins and needles? Do you know what happens? Can you guess what happens? Do you know what happens when I bring out my little paw wringing worry wart who melts down if a bar drops or had to work for over a year to get over the sound of the teeter, the dog who skitters away in the kitchen if a utensil falls. What does Miss Idiot Phd do? Runs the little buggar on THE WHOLE FUCKING THING, from start to finish and ......ready?.........


...........the ball..... hits him in the side. OMG!!! If a dog could melt and curl up in a ball, that's about what he did. He cowered and melted and when I tried to just tell him to suck it up (even though I really wanted to rock him like a baby in my arms and apologize for my Idiot Phd) and play ball he squinted his eyes at the ball coming at him and cowered some more. He wouldn't even play our favorite game of "catch the ball just a few feet from me". He loves that game. :(

So, I regroup, I take the Idiot Phd from my name and put my smarty pants back on. I had to go find them, though, I tossed them away who knows when.........oh yeah, when the UPS man arrived with the second strike plate!!! >:/

I move the ball launcher and work on a conditioned response. Back to square one. Sound of the ball launcher = yummy meat balls. He recovered and thought that was pretty fun. I tried the ball a few times. I tossed the ball when the ball launcher sounded. I experimented. I found what worked and got him working again. He unwrung his little paws.

Then I brought out the Pin Heads. That always excites him!! That jealousy factor!! Suddenly he remembered he really wasn't afraid of this ball launcher. We had, after all, been working with it on the flat for days now! So, with the launcher repositioned we ended the session with some full dog walks and successful ball launches and chases. He looked pretty happy! Phew, crisis averted for the moment!!! We have lost some speed, but I do think we can gain that back once he gets more comfortable. Oi!!! I really must keep my smarty pants on. Poor little Spur Man needs me well dressed and without my Idiot's Phd.

Then as I came back from putting the dogs up I found Leta out wanting to train! Have I mentioned she now works for the ball, just like Spur??? It's freakin' adorable!! She LOVES to chase it and grab it!! So, we worked on her contacts!! She doesn't have too much speed yet, but it is coming and her hits are pretty consistent. She may not be one I can use the ball launcher with. She is feral, after all. She gets kind of nervous with noises, but is getting better. She is no longer afraid of my scooter coming into the barn.See? Speed is coming!! -

Still haven't decided!

As I dug out my soggy business cards from my fanny pack yesterday I realized I really DO need to order some more. I put off this sort of thing and instead waste hours doing nothing, like reading through posts on Facebook - time suck - or watching youtube videos. I watched some fun ones, though, like a comparison between a Western Pleasure Horse and a Dressage horse. THAT was cool!! Except that the Dressage horse kept wringing it's tail. I don't understand that. Why can't they figure out how to quiet those wringing, spinning (complaining!) tails?
Yes, I didn't make sure to take my cards out of my fanny pack as I walked in the DELUGE yesterday!! Mostly golden retrievers, who really couldn't care that it was raining 3 inches/minute or so it seemed. Almost ruined the garage door opener in my pack, too, but a few minutes in the bright sun to dry and it worked again. The cards were in a zip lock baggie, but somehow the "zip" had "unzipped". They are not ruined, but they look bad. I need more, new.

This is the old photo I used and while it is fine, it isn't great. Well, OK, it's great of Spur. He is SO photogenic! My choice is between these two. Helen can lighten up Spur's face, which I think must be done. I am leaning towards the second one. It is simply the cutest one of The Spurminator!! I just LOVE those crazy, furry ears!! L. O. V. E. - LOVE them!!!
Have I mentioned lately how I think he is the cutest dog, EVER? Like there has never been a dog as cute. NEVER, ever, ever, ever.........HE IS that CUTE!!! Have I mentioned how he melts my heart? Have I ever said that before? Maybe if I say it one more time it will really sink it. Maybe you all are barfing on your keyboards?

Sorry!! I just get all stupid when it comes to The Spur Man!

HOW freakin' cute is HE????

Fun, can cost SO much!!

September will be here soon. Which means my hiatus from agility trials is over and we will be back at it!! YAY!! Can you all stand my excitement? Can you handle the thrill of hearing about our wicked awesome "wraps" and "back crosses" and "front crosses" and start line "sling shots" and running like the wind with my hair flowing behind me!!! And how WICKED awesome Spur is. He is....wicked awesome!

Rich told me he thinks I have a favorite. HUH? ME??? Never!! I don't know. They are all different and I love them all with everything I can muster, my dogs = I love them, but Spur does make my heart turn to mush. He is very special.

Running like the wind with my hair flowing behind me and my dog happy and fast and barking and awesome, wrapping jumps and zooming through the yellow contacts. Yep, that will be us, next weekend!!

Or is that just the image in my head through my rose colored glasses?

Well, I can hope that is the image seen. And not me stumbling along forgetting the course, flailing my arms, repeating words that make no sense to my dog, tripping on a root, forgetting to tell my dog which obstacle. That image won't happen, nope, no way, ut uh, ain't gonna happen!!

We are going to RUN LIKE THE WIND and Spur is going to HIT EVERY YELLOW contact zone!! And wrap jumps like he is a boomarang, zooming out of them with zippy speed and accuracy! He is going to BARK LOUD and RUN FAST!!

Did I tell you I bought that t-shirt? I did! WICKED cool shirt! First night - I dripped chocolate from my ice cream sandwich right on my chest. Right in the middle above the words, so it is totally apparent and glaring, dark spot on the lovely butter yellow. I tried "Shout" on it. The spot dimmed. Hmmm, I am not a laundry expert so it may always have that little dim mark right there glaring at everyone. I have a spot marker I can try. It's old, I haven't used it in years. I don't usually worry much about spots. I just designate spotted, stained clothing as "dog clothes". Who will notice, anyway? Surely not my dog agility friends. They all have those dim spots on their t-shirts, too! That is if you can find those marks under the dog hair. Lots of people wear rose colored glasses in dog agility.

They entertained us all weekend!

Spur really likes Joe. These were times I was glad I didn't bring Spur.

I think it would have been a case of "three's a crowd" and Spur would have been upset by this display. (Spur can be a real asshole some times. Sweet as pie, but not always the most social with other dogs. I seem to end up with dogs like that. At least he is sweet and social to people!)

Joe and Shilo. Not upset!

This performance was adorable and entertaining!! You can't see it, but they basically were in a circle of our chairs, the "fighting dogs" in the middle. We cheered them on! We placed bets. Shilo was a winning favorite, but Joe held his own, especially when the humping started, bets were on Joe - but the humping was stopped by the "refs". He finally got the zoomies, shot off like a crazy dude, Shilo soon after. She snapped her collar right off!! :O We had to find a spare collar for her. She was "Stony" for the rest of the weekend.

Being a pit bull has it's disadvantages. You simply can not let your guard down, so she was tied except for on her walks. Mom has cats. Shilo's life is different than another dog's, but she sure has a nice life. She is adored by my nephew, well monitored and not allowed to get into trouble. He knows the rules and he sticks to it with her. It's part of the deal. I made sure he understood that she is held to a higher standard than any other being on earth. One false move and she could be in a lot of trouble. He understands. She's a good dog.

Still recovering from a week of family!!!

A few of the fun dog photos -

My nephew, Eric and his pit bull Shilo! How cute is she? He's cute, too, but she's cuter!!! :DShe played well with my Mom's Joe. He's a total Heinz 57 dog. GREAT little dog!!! Just the nicest boy! Shilo did very well making sure she didn't over-power him, which when you compare sizes is NOT easy. LOL!!! She is one big, muscled, rugged pit bull!! He's a short, crooked legged little dog.