All Logged Out

We are done in, done enough, are done with it.  The logging, aka cutting, splitting, loading, unloading and stacking firewood.  

Yesterday we took the tractor and trailer out with us when we took the dogs for a walk through the bush.  On the way back Larry drove the tractor and trailer down the trail and parked it at the closest spot to the pile of split wood.  Oh boy oh boy oh boy that maple is heavy wood when it's green.  Got it all loaded on the trailer and Larry started along the trail.  When he first drove in there I did think in my head that I wouldn't have been facing that way, but I (unusual for me) kept my mouth shut.  There is a bit of a hill, but with the ground being so frozen, we (or he) didn't think it would be a problem.  Well it was.  The tractor isn't 4 wheel drive, it started to slip on the steep bit, the tires spun and turned the frozen ground into ice.  The trail is just wide enough for the trailer, so he rolled back a bit, but there was no room to maneuver to back up, as the trail wasn't straight either.  So we just left it there because our boy David would be here today and he could pull us out with his landrover 'Gruff' and his wench...er winch. (That one's for you Suzanne!)

Later in the afternoon I walked out there and split the rest of the wood further up the trail, with the help of my buddy Jake.

This morning David and Gruff and his wench...er winch came out.

He didn't use the wench...er winch, he just pulled the tractor with the tow rope and it didn't take much and the tractor and trailer and Larry were on their way.

 I did have to yell once for him to lower the bucket before he whacked it on a tree, and he did squeeze a trailer tire against a tree trunk, but it was all good, not a piece of firewood was lost.

I continued on and gave the dogs their walk while Larry drove back to our wood shed thingy.

David helped us unload the trailer and we got the wood all stacked.  Larry and I went back out to pick up the rest of the wood, and I told him about a couple of good sized pieces I had seen on the ground.  So we drove out to where they were, were able to carry them out to the trailer, and sawed and split them right there.  Then we went and picked up the wood that I had split yesterday, heading the opposite way along the trail, which worked out just fine, and I mentally said 'I told you so'.  Got that stacked in the woodshed with Meredith's help, and felt a great glow of accomplishment, because, added to what we already had, we have enough wood in there now to get us through the next winter.  And then exhaustion set in.

Note 1 - A Facebook and blogging friend was describing a farm vehicle they had just bought, and she said it had a winch but spelled it wench, so I made a joke of of it.  I think of that every time I see winch now:)

Note 2 - How Gruff got it's name.  The Landrover club that David belongs to said his short stocky vehicle can go just about anywhere, like a little billy goat gruff.

Mine!

Making sure that the black and white bitch witch can't sneak that Kong away from him while he has a little snooze.

Sometimes we'd leave Calli back at the house with some peanut butter smeared on the inside of that Kong, while we took the two collies on a longer walk.  It's the monster size, so if the peanut butter is smeared right to the far end, the dogs really have a hard time reaching the last bit with their tongue, which means that the attraction of that Kong lasts much longer.  Luna would always remember about the Kong when we got back from the walk, and would head into the house as soon as she could, to see what she could salvage. She must have abandoned it at some point, which allowed Jake to get it.   

Maybe he's keeping his eyes closed so he can't see the 'look' that Luna would give him, to make him abandon the Kong and move away, which he would.

Through My Kitchen Window

If I could build the house of my dreams, one of the big requirements would be to have lots of windows in the kitchen, but specifically a big window over the kitchen sink.  When we did a major renovation to this house, that started a lot of years ago, and isn't finished yet (and never will be), we made what was already a pretty good window by the sink into an even better one.  

And when I say 'we', I mean Larry and I.  We added about 1000 sq ft to this house, part of which is a one car garage.  We re-roofed and re-sided the whole house, and replaced all the windows.  We did it all ourselves, almost.  We hired a neighbour and his machine to dig the holes for the footings, we had someone spread the concrete for the floor, we had someone install continuous eavestroughs, and Larry had a friend help with the electrical. 

But I digress.  One of my favourite things was the greenhouse type window we installed in the kitchen.  It gives me a great view over the backyard, the hay field, and out towards the back of our property.

(Despite being next to the tap, I totally suck at watering house plants, so that is why the Jade plant looks so pathetic)

I spent a lot of time in the kitchen this week.

 The flowering Cherry burst into bloom while we were away.

And already it is just about finished, showering pink confetti with every gust of the breeze.

You can just see the staples still in the top of Jake's head.  He finally got them out yesterday noon, nearly two and a half weeks after the event.  When I took him back last week, the vet removed the stitch by his eye, but he decided that he wanted to leave the staples in longer.  The hair has got a good start at filling in the shaved spot.

Hindsight

You know the old 'hindsight is 20/20', the 'shouda, woulda, coulda, etc.  Yeah well, it bit me this morning, the hindsight thing. 

Jake had been showing some slight signs of improvement with his knee.  More times of  getting up from a down position without limping. The last few days or so I was allowing him to do the bush walk off leash.  Still controlling him verbally so he didn't do a lot of dashing around, but giving him that bit more freedom.

This morning I actually had a leash with me, just in case I thought I needed it.  Sometimes as we are about to go through the gate to the bush field, by the way the dogs are acting, we know there is some fresh coyote activity.  No signs of anything this morning, so off we went.  When we got to the back southeast corner, Luna suddenly was barking from the other side of the creek in the neighbours property. The creek as it crosses the property line, is in quite a deep cut in the ground.  We haven't fenced that part because there just isn't an easy way to do it.  Jake was gone after Luna before I had a chance to tell him to stay.  I can get all the dogs to stay if I get them before they start running, but once they have got running in a situation like this, they are so focused on what they are after, that a person might as well save their breath.  Next thing we hear Jake barking well into the neighbours.  Then we hear what sounds like coyote shrieking.  Then I start shrieking.  My theory is that if they are having trouble with a coyote, the more noise I make, the more back-up it sounds like is coming to their rescue, and hopefully the coyote will just keep going. Of course I am screaming for the dogs to come back.  Larry had run around the trail and met Luna half way.  I'd slid down into the creek bed and well, wasn't sure where I was going to head or what I was going to do next.  Then Jake came running back.  I hauled myself up the bank and made my way round to the rest of the gang.  Calli had been behind me, and had got herself stuck, so thankfully she didn't go anywhere.   There was a bit of blood in the corner of Jake's eye, and a bit in the fur in the top of his head.  I took a quick look and nothing seemed major.  When we got back to the house I got something to clean him up and have a better look.  Then I realized it wasn't just a skin wound on his head, it was a half inch opening right down to the skull.

So called my handy dandy vet just around the corner, and they said to bring him right over.  Poor Jake, he was sedated, shaved and vacuumed, had two staples put in the top of his head, and a stitch in the corner of his eye, where there is a smaller puncture wound. Thank dawg it missed the eyeball.  The vet thought the two wounds were made by top and bottom teeth, as in the coyote bit him.  At first I wondered if he had run into a barb wire fence.  I did wander out there later and the fences were either smooth wire or the non-climbable stuff.  No barb wire to be seen.

Although not really visible, the stitch is in the corner of this eye. 

It took Jake a long time to shake off the sedative.  Now at 12 hours later he is looking much closer to normal, but up until I left to go to agility this evening, he was wobbling around like he was an 18 year old dog.  It was worrying and sad to see him like that.  He got a shot of antibiotic and is on oral antibiotic for 5 days.  Hopefully it all heals up fast.  His nose seems to be swollen tonight. Poor little Jake.

And of course I'm whipping myself with a wet noodle for not having him on leash, for the sake of his knee. Why didn't I even consider that a coyote chase might be in the cards.  A $153 mistake, and that's getting off pretty cheap.

He's Still Broke

After quite a few visits to the chiropractor, getting Jake's pelvis sorted out to how it should be, as well as the tight muscles that went along with it, I was still seeing the same symptoms. (Lameness when he first gets up, which then he works through, and then seems okay)  So we went off to the vet. Luckily for us, our vet is just around the corner, well about a mile and a half away, since we are on a one mile square block.  Close enough that you can walk your animals there, or ride them if it's Pride.  It's been a godsend, especially in the early years when we seemed to be there too frequently.  I used to joke that I was expecting to be given a parking spot with our name on it.
After explaining all the symptoms, some of which Jake kindly demonstrated, because we had to wait a while and he had been laying on the floor, the exam began.  There was also a young vet trainee or wannabe in the exam room with us.  The vet spent a long time manipulating Jake's leg, to see if he could get any indication of where the problem may be.  The only time he got any reaction was when he did a posterior drawer test, and Jake indicated some pain.  There was no swelling in the area though. The then examined Jake's other knee (stifle), applying the same amount of pressure, and got no reaction.  His diagnosis is that Jake has probably hyper extended his caudal cruciate ligament (known as the PCL or posterior cruciate ligament in humans).  At that time he didn't feel it was necessary for x-rays.  So we are back on limited exercise and it's kind of a wait and see process.  Jake has very straight back legs, which probably hasn't helped, or maybe helped cause the whole issue.
It's always kind of fun going to see our vet.  The vet techs are fun and entertaining.  There are a few office cats that wander around.  The vet jokes with me about never bringing him a cut and dried, easily diagnosed, straightforward kind of case. Yes, we've had a few oddball issues over the years. He doesn't encourage a person to spend any 'unnecessary' money.
I wonder if Jake will ever do agility again, but it's not the end of the world if he doesn't.  There are more important things.

On Track

Jake that is. Or to be more specific, Jake's pelvis.  Our visit to the chiropractor on Tuesday was good.  Dr. Lana said his pelvis was pretty well where it should be.  Any limping we still saw was probably caused by soft tissue damage.  I am to keep applying the heat, and am gradually increasing his exercise and we'll just see how it goes.  The reason I was heating/massaging the opposite side to where we were seeing the limp was because the muscles on that other side were compensating and were showing some injury.  Well something like that, it all made sense when she explained it to me, but these days it seems to go in one ear and 50% seems to leak out the other, and I have to make up that 50% to try and make the story somewhat feasible.  Anyway, you get the idea.

So on the way back we stopped at the dyke and I took him for a bit of a walk to the north towards the train tracks and where the creek hits the Fraser River.  We usually never walk there, as it is not very long, but yesterday just at sundown it was nice and quiet and a good place for the two of us to have a little stroll.

And yes, he got dog treats from the doctor,  and I got a lovely chocolate.  I was offered another when I went back in to pay.  This thing called willpower that I usually can never find when I need it, said no.

I amaze myself sometimes.

A Member of the Gimpy Dog Club

After reading this blog post, I'm thinking of requesting a membership for Jake. The visits to the chiropractor are continuing.  What I was hoping would be a quick fix is dragging on. His pelvis doesn't want to stay in position.  It's better than when we started, but the ligaments have been stretched and the pelvis doesn't want to quite stay where it should.  So we are back to the restricted exercise, and now we have added heat and massage.  Our latest visit was yesterday.  Dr. Lana was complaining that his pelvis just didn't want to hold in place.  She figures the ligaments have been stretched and muscles are trying to compensate.
Last night I was all set to put the heat pad on him.  I made another cover for it, as Larry is using it a lot on his shoulders.  Quite often he has to get out of bed, throw it in the microwave, and slap it on his shoulder for some relief.  So the blue cover is for Larry, and Jake gets the yellow one with the cute pigs on it.  The bag is filled with buckwheat, and there is a pleasant porridgey sort of smell when it is heated up.  Anyway, I naturally assumed that since Jake is stiff/limps on his right rear when he gets up, that it would be that side I'd apply the heat to.  And then I suddenly thought that Dr. Lana had shown me the correct spot to treat, on Jake's left side.  Was my memory playing tricks?  Did she just show me on the left side because that was the side I was closest to?  The more I thought about it, the more confused I got.  But the right side seemed more logical, so that is what I did.  I phoned to the office this morning, but the Dr. wasn't in until late this afternoon.  So I heated and treated the right side again.  She left a message while I was out tonight.  Treat the left side.  Oops.  Thankfully Jake is a pretty cooperative patient.  We have another appointment at 5 on Tuesday.  Me and my 'heart' dog have a Valentine's Day date with the chiropractor.  Jake will get dog treats, I'm hoping for chocolate.

Please Tell Me It's a Mirage!

Supposed to turn to rain later, and warm up, and then they are dangling a carrot at the end of the week.

Forecast

Today

• 4°C
•  
• 60%

Sun

• 8°C
• 4°C
•  

Mon

• 7°C
• 6°C
•  

Tue

• 9°C
• 5°C
•  

Wed

• 8°C
• 5°C
•  

Thu

• 10°C
• 4°C
• 60%

Fri

• 11°C
• 4°C
•  

Issued : 8:39 AM PST Saturday 28 January 2012

Leash Arrest

Jake had another trip to the chiropractor's on Wednesday. At least this one wasn't during a snow storm.  His pelvis was 'out' again.  After the last visit, we were to keep him quiet for a day or two, which we did, sort of, and the adjustment held for a couple of days.  But then after that he was limping again when he got up from a resting position.  No doubt running around in the snow, slipping on ice, etc was his undoing. 

Dr. Lana said he wasn't quite as bad as the first time she adjusted him, and this time told me to keep him quiet for five days.  So I wanted to know how quiet was quiet.  She said on leash, no opportunity to do any crazy erratic movements, no scrambling on the wood flooring, no mad charges down the stairs.  Thankfully the snow is just about gone, although there is still some in the bush, and it is old, icy stuff.  

Really though, Jake is a relatively easy dog to keep on leash, although he can really look 'sad' and make you feel sorry for him.  There is a gate at the top of the stairs, and he only goes down on leash.  We don't make any fast moves, no mention of taking dogs for a walk or out for a pee.  Those words by themselves can create a mad scramble to charge down the stairs, made much worse because each dog figures they should be the fastest and the first.  No tossing toys in the house.

So when we go outside in the morning, Jake is on leash, and wondering why he can't race with Luna from the back door to the first gate.  After dragging him around with me into the chicken coops and the sheep barn, I was reminded that actually he DOES. NOT. WANT. to go in there.  And the sheep were totally freaked out too.  So now he gets taken so far, and then I have a big clip thing on the leash handle, and I just clip that to the closest fence.  He waits patiently, and will sometimes lie down.  I haven't taken him through the bush, because of the icy snow still on the trail, and he just can't figure out why the change in routine.  Why is it just me and him walking up the road first thing in the morning, when he'd rather be racing through the bush with Luna.

He's a dog that is quite happy to stay outside after we come back from the morning walk, and lay on the driveway.  Can't let him do that, because all of a sudden he might leap up and charge over to the fence to see what the chickens are cackling at.  Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day.  The sky was clear when I woke up and stayed that way all day.  The kind of day that just kept you in a good mood and smiling.  So Jake got to share in it too, from his vantage point on the deck.  

I am doing my two mile walks still, and it is fast enough that he keeps up a steady little trot.  My theory is that some steady trotting like that, with his pelvis in the correct position, is good.  It gives the muscles, ligaments etc. a bit of a gentle work out while everything is in the correct position, some practice so to speak, at holding it all in the right place.  Dr. Lana said that would be fine, we are just trying to avoid any erratic movements. 

Two days down, three to go.  Pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

Luna's Snowballs

She makes them and then she eats them.

There is no way she would have let me pull on those snowballs like she was.  She would have been leaping like a fish on the end of a line if I had been pulling on the hair like that.  I just left her to it, and a bit later she was all cleaned up.

More snow today, about 6 inches on top of what we had left from Saturday morning.  It was a different kind of snow, and it balled up on Luna's hair something fierce.  Jake not so much, but his hair is much softer than Luna's, and of course Calli only got a few around her feet.

It was Jake's turn for the chiropractor today, in another freaking snowstorm like the trip with Luna in November.   We have been noticing that Jake was limping for two or three steps on his right hind when he got up from his chair or the floor.  If you didn't see him get up, you'd never know anything was wrong.  Before making an expensive trip to the vet, I wanted the chiropractor to check him out first.  Dr. Lana said his pelvis was quite twisted, and Jake was not happy when she was adjusting it back into position.  We are hoping that it does the trick.  It wasn't an instant fix, she said it might take a day or two, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Since the University had closed for the day due to the weather, David was able to drive me, since he is the only one with snow tires.  We went from everything all white and snowing at our place, down the steep hill to the valley along the river.  Just past the dyke where we walk the dogs, the snow had stopped, the road was black and wet.  It was like coming into a different world.  Of course on the way back, we drove back into the winter whiteness.  A farmer at the bottom of the steep hill back up to our neck of the woods flagged us down and told us not to attempt it, he said most had failed.  I'm sure David on his own would have tried it anyway, but his dear mother suggested we had better take the safe option.

More snow is predicted for tonight.

And Luna, well she hasn't been this clean for a long time.

Sunshine!

Just to prove that we do actually get sunshine, occasionally!

What a nice change from the grey.

And that manure pile, well it makes a great perching point.

Sunny during the day, and just below freezing at night, just how we like it:)

The manure pile's a bit smaller now.  I moved about 18 wheelbarrows worth to mulch the rhubarb and the blueberry bushes, and I'm not done yet.

We've been promised another sunny day tomorrow!

How Things Can Go Wrong

Things don't always go as planned at an agility trial.

Listen carefully to the audio.

There was only one snap closing the x-pen, and Luna pushed until she was able to squeeze out at the bottom.

If the panels were overlapped a bit, one snap would have worked just fine.  Calli was in the x-pen with her, but she heard Jake bark, and she was determined that he wasn't going to have all the fun.

And here's when things go right.
The last two runs of the day.
They were Jumpers runs, so only jumps and tunnels.
In her first ever Advanced Jumpers run, Luna had a qualifying run.
Larry had just arrived from the White Rock farmers market.  I asked him if he wanted to run Luna, but since I was already walking the course, he told me to go ahead.
You see me look back as she is going through the last tunnel.  She had rattled the bars on two jumps near the end, and I was checking to see if they were still standing



And here's Jake's Masters Jumpers run.  After he barks, you can hear Luna start to shriek in the background.
There was another dog there at the trial that sounds just like Jake when it barks.  Jake was in the x-pen with Luna when that dog was running, (and barking), and Luna still got upset.  And they say border collies are smart......:)
(Not sure if there was a lot of dust floating in the air, or dust on the camera lens)

So Little Time, So Much to Do

Here's a picture taken at the agility trial on Saturday, the only one of a bunch that was anywhere close to decent.

Jake : You keep saying 'ball', over and over, and I keep looking at you, and I want to know where that d*mn ball is!

Calli : Lalalalalaaaa.....rabbits, squirrels, I don't care what you say, I refuse to look at that camera....

But would you hurry it up, my back legs are slowly sinking

Luna : I hear you, I hear you....but something way more interesting is happening over there....do they need my help?

It was a good trial. 

Some videos were taken.

You may get to see some someday.

45 buckets of blackberries picked as of this evening.

It's a late but great year for blackberries.

Pride's Tree

If we open the gate to the bush field at this time of the year, Pride has one thing on his mind.

He knows the way, although Luna is quite willing to help him get there.

Here he is, turning into the 'door'. 

See that tree that takes up most of the top left hand quadrant of the photo?

It has these on it.

And some of them end up on the ground

Pride searches around until he finds one.

And then he does it again and again, until he can't find any more.

Jake thinks it should be his tree.

To Jake, those apples are multipurpose objects.

You can toss them like balls.

Once again I demonstrate my inability to throw a toy and photograph the action

I was doing okay this time, until that black and white beast jumped up to steal it.

Finally, success, for both me and Jake

And after you're done playing with it, you can eat it.

We'll be back at it again tomorrow.

Conditioning

The last month or so I've made some effort to do something that you could officially call exercise.  When you have a farm of sorts, you are always doing some physical kind of stuff, but these days we tend to take our time, and don't work ourselves into a sweat on a regular basis.   I wanted to do something that got my heart rate up and kept it there for a little while.  If that something is a thing that exercises the dogs at the same time, so much the better.  I have more than a couple of pounds I'd like to lose, not that this is enough to shed them very fast, but it's better than nothing.  So sometime between  6:30 and 8:30 am I head down the road in my 'athletic gear' (yeah, I want to make it look like I'm officially exercising).  I have Jake and Luna in tow, well maybe it's more like they have me in tow, but they have got with the program now, and the pulling on the leash is pretty minimal.  I usually start out at a run from our place.  I really am not a runner, but the first part is a bit downhill, so I feel like I want to run.  When I hit the uphill to our neighbours driveway, quite often I walk and then run again at the next downhill.  I go two miles as fast as I can walk it, with two or three little stints of running mixed in.  It takes me about 25 minutes.  I heard by word of mouth that a dog chiropractor said that exercising your dog at a steady trot is an excellent conditioning tool.  When I walk, it's fast enough that both dogs are trotting, although Luna just barely.  When I run, Jake has to run, and Luna gets this great ground covering trot going.  Makes me think of a horse that Meredith had borrowed from a friend to ride in 4-H.  She was a bit long-backed, like Luna, and she had this great ground covering trot also.  The dogs travel in front of me.  Jake likes to walk out to the right, on the pavement.  If I say 'car', he drops back behind me and into the heel position.  For some weird reason though he seems to prefer to be on the pavement rather than on the grass shoulder.  Every once in a while, but not every walk,  he will turn back at me and give me this look like I am the most wonderful person in the world......awwww:)   Or he'll turn to Luna and sniff her face and maybe give her a lick, like she's the best friend he could have.  Sweet Jake:)  

The photos are taken on our driveway, I didn't want to take the camera with me.

This isn't the 'look'.  His whole face and ears would be softer looking

The road we live on is a bit of a commuter route to get to the freeway, so that time in the morning, the cars can be going by pretty fast.  Unless I'm sure I recognize the vehicle, I usually don't look at the driver.  Well I can't really see them anyway through the tinted windshield, and then if it actually IS someone I know, and I don't realize it, and don't wave, they might take offense.  So most of the time I act preoccupied, and then I don't have to worry if it's someone I know or not.  The other day I glanced up and someone in a red car, don't know who the heck it was, waved at me with one hand and the other hand was holding her phone to her ear (illegal here). Yeah, well I'd rather she kept at least one hand on the wheel, considering that I'm pretty sure she didn't know me.  It's always interesting how the cars pass us.  I walk facing into traffic of course, and try to get on the shoulder, but if it's all wet and tall grass, I don't really.  Some people seem to think they are doing you a favour by moving over a whole two or three feet.  Never mind the fact that no one is coming the other way, and that they can see ahead for half a mile or more.  Gotta love the ones that move right over to the other side of the road a couple of hundred feet before they get to you.
Usually I see something a bit interesting, even if it's just a pair of mating crows:)  The other morning I saw one neighbour pull out with his big cube van, and rip the lattice work off a section of the fence he was cosied up to.
The neighbours dog that is chained out it the middle of the front lawn.... well now it's a dirt patch.... barks and lunges at us.  Uggghhh.  At least it's not out here all the time, and I have seen it going out in the truck with the owner sometimes.  Great dog owners they are not:(  I always speak to the dog, and keep meaning to take a dog biscuit that I can toss it's way, but so far haven't remembered.

Yesterday morning I was so organized for the farmers market that I even had time to do my walk/run before I left.  It was about 6:30, and it was a beautiful morning, mild and the sun came out.  An hour and a half later when I got to the market to set up, the clouds there were just about on the ground, and it was pouring rain.

And Luna says...'can we just get going'...

This morning I'm thinking it's time to change it up a bit.  I'm planning on heading out on my bike.  Of course though now I've 'trained' Jake and Luna to expect that they are going out.  I might just ride the bike around the small block across the road from us, to give them a bit of a trot/run,  and then head out to do a bigger loop on my own.  Better get going before the rain (is it ever going to end?) starts up again.

One Damn Bar

Today we went to an agility trial.  Luna and Jake were each entered in 6 runs.  I ended up running both dogs, as Larry has been having back issues for the last while.   Generally his back has been improving, but we went to help set up for our club's flyball tournament yesterday, and things didn't go well for Larry and his back.  The first thing was that he tripped over the handle of a wooden dolly that I had left down on the ground instead of flipping back upright.  Then he thought that it would be okay to unroll the big rolls of rubber matting by pushing them with his foot, but I guess that wasn't the right thing to do either.  So he decided that it didn't make any sense to try run on a dirt floor, in case he ended up jarring his back some more. 

 It did make it rather interesting for me.  For the most part Luna and Jake ran in different rings.  Sometimes it meant that I would have to go and walk the course for one of Luna's runs, but I had already walked Jake's course, but hadn't run him yet.  In other words I had to keep two courses in my head, and might not run the older course until after the one I had just walked.  Running dogs in agility is a bit similar to riding a horse over a jumping course, but I think it is harder.  You and the horse are basically one entity, you go where the horse takes you. Well actually you are supposed to go where you direct the horse.  Sometimes though the horse makes a sudden unexpected move, and the two of you part company.  Been there, done that, not fun.  At that point though, generally you don't have to worry much anymore which direction the course headed. 

 In agility, you have to remember the course that the dog has to take, and then you also have to remember your own 'course', which gets the dog to take it's course correctly.  The path your course takes can be drastically different to the course the dog takes.  Sometimes I had to remember Jake's course, and Luna's course, and also be studying the map for Jake's next course.  Jake was just about the last dog in the ring in all of his classes.  So I might run Jake, and then go to the other ring and run Luna.  By the time I had come back in from the 'after the run, go outside and play fetch with the dog reward', the walk through for Jake's next course might be happening.  If it was a class where I had to make up my own course ( Gamblers or Snooker), well I better have something figured out, so that knew what course to walk when I got out there.

What I'm trying to say with all this rambling is that my brain got a workout as well as my body.  And I'm happy to say that both brain and body came through pretty well.

Out of the 12 runs, Jake ended up with two Q's (qualifying runs), and Luna with one.  Not a very good percentage, but a few of the runs were pretty close.  Jake had a nice Standard run, and a really nice Snooker run.  Luna had an absolutely brilliant Gamblers run, her only clean run.  She finished first in her group with the highest amount of points, and it went pretty well exactly as planned.  Unfortunately Larry had left at that point to go to pick Meredith up from the airport, so it didn't get filmed.  Too bad, I would have like to have seen that on video.  

That run has moved Luna up into the Master's Gamblers class.  

Meanwhile, Luna is still stuck in Starter's Jumpers.  That is a pretty simple class, just jumps and tunnels.  Being Starters, the course is relatively easy.

There is just the problem of that one bar.

One of these days.....

Oh, and the best part of the day really, was that Luna initiated quite a few on leash greetings with other dogs that were successful and didn't end with raised lips and a showing of teeth.  Unfortunately because I was constantly in and out of the ring, I never had any treats on me to reward her, but the praise was lavish.
It just made me smile:) When I think of how snarky she used to be the beginning of last year when we were at a trial....wow, huge difference!

Success!

Take the photo on the left and add it to the photo on the right, and what do you get....
A qualifying run by the Luna(tic)!

Take the photo on the left and add it three times to the red dog in the header photo, and you get triple qualifier Jake!!

Okay, my photo attempts totally sucked this morning, it is gloomy inside and out, and this just seemed easier.

Oh yeah, sugar was on sale the other week, and what with different stores doing price matches, I managed to get a bit of a stock for the jam making.


We went to an agility trial yesterday.  It ends up being an all day affair.  Up at 6am, and it takes us about an hour to get ourselves and all the animals organized before we leave.  Calli stayed at home, and Meredith took her for a walk midmorning before heading to work.  It took us half an hour to drive to the trial site, which basically just leaves us enough time to get our dogs settled in their crates before we have to walk our first course.  Jake was the 4th dog to run in his ring, and Luna was the 8th in her ring, so the first hour is a bit hectic. Once we have that first run under our belts, it is a bit more relaxing. The level that Jake runs at is a very large group, so after that it probably averages close to two hours between runs.

Remember how we have been practicing the weave poles every morning.  I had said to Larry that his aim at this trial was to complete the weave poles successfully with Luna.  At the last trial I don't think he had one successful weave, and he just gave up and moved on without her ever completing a set.

Yesterday, that first run just after we got there, she got those weave poles first attempt!! In fact all four times she did the weave poles during the day, she got it right first try.

Amazing what some practicing can do.

That made me so happy, because I know how frustrating Larry was finding it. 

He was pretty happy too.

And, Luna did not knock a bar down all day!  And, most of her jumps through the tire were good too.

  We've realized there's another thing that Luna needs to practice.  When she goes into a tunnel or the chute, where she loses sight of the handler, when she blasts out she quite often moves towards the direction she expects the handler to be.  Doesn't always matter if there is a jump 15' ahead, and you have told her to jump while she is still in the tunnel.  The pressure you put on her (movement and body position) when she comes out also makes a difference, and until the dog and handler know how to work together as a team, there are going to be problems.

We do have an old tunnel at home, so we will set that up and do some practicing on that too.

And I need to do some serious practice with Jake on the dogwalk and a-frame.  He is very slow, and I've totally messed him up on getting his contacts.  The dogs have to touch the yellow zone on the way down, and one of the most popular ways to teach that is for the dog to race to a stop at the bottom, with two feet on the ground, and two feet on the equipment.  Jake never raced to the bottom (he is very movement sensitive and really is not thrilled about being on that equipment), but somewhere along the way I've totally messed him up and he creeps down and doesn't seem to know what he is actually supposed to be doing.  And then I get tired of waiting and just tell him 'okay' when he's got into the yellow zone because time is ticking on and we need to get moving to the next obstacle.  This of course makes things worse, because with each slow step I'm sure he's thinking  'is this the one that will get me the 'okay'?'

Back to Luna.  I ran her in one class, which was Steeplechase, which is open to all levels.  Larry also had another class at the same time, which is okay, they realize you can't be in two rings at once and just move you around in the running order, but it does mean that you have to remember two different courses, and Larry has a hard enough time remembering one course.  Since I had already run Jake in that class (clean run for him!), we decided I would run Luna in that one, and Larry would run her in the Advanced Standard.  Good decision, as Larry got a clean run in his class!  Didn't go so well for me.  I forget that I have to handle her different than Jake, so there were a few little glitches, but overall pretty good.

Here's Larry and Luna's clean run

And not to neglect my sweet little Jake. 

Out of five runs yesterday he had three clean ones, and the other two were very close. Unfortunately Larry wasn't able to film any of the clean runs.

Oh Jake, see what I won yesterday........

Give that to me you little b**ch, didn't you hear I won THREE of those ribbons.

And Mum only brought this one home for a photo op anyway...

.....but...it makes a good toy...

Wanna play tug?

Oh yeah, there's a bit of a chicken story over here.