Hello lovelies! To whomever is still tuning in, thanks for still hanging in there!
Hmmmm...what to update on. I've got a few things and then I'll get to the title of this post. The french bulldog national specialty was at the end of October and Ruthie and I had our very first time in the ring! Considering that I didn't have her physically conditioned as well as I would have liked and had been seriously slacking on the training the past few months, she did REALLY well! She qualified in both Beginner Novice and Rally Novice! :0) I have to say that she is the most enjoyable of my dogs to take into the ring right now. Heffner is concerned about the other dogs, and I in turn am concerned about that. Bess either shuts down on me in the obedience ring or she stresses up in the agility ring. Ruthie just takes it all in stride and does her thing. Due to work constraints I was only able to attend one day of the national, but that day was quite full and a ton of fun. I have to admit that I am seriously considering a frenchie puppy. I have no idea on the timing or anything like that, but it's something that I have been thinking more and more about lately. I'm still on the list for a dane puppy, don't get me wrong there. But seriously, a frenchie puppy??!! Hard to resist!
In other performance related news, I have made the decision to pretty much retire Heffner from agility. This was going to be his last year regardless, but I decided that I want to retire him while we were still ahead. He's still very sound and not having any age related or other issues and I'd like to keep it that way. He'll be 7 in January and I think it's just time. Plus, I have to admit that dealing with the reactivity at trials was really just stressing me out and wearing me down. It's really hard to be in an environment where every single second that he's out of his crate I have to have my full concentration on him and what's going on around us. It's very draining and I know that it was also hard on him.
I am getting back into the agility ring with Bess this month. Actually next week I have her entered on one day of the AKC agility trial. We haven't done much in the way of training, but her over all conditioning is where I want it to be. The aspect of trialing with her that I still have a difficult time gauging is her stress level in the ring. We could either start off with a decent run or she could take off and rip around the ring. I'm expecting her to take off, but will hope that we can still get something out of that first run. We'll see!
And now to the actual intended topic of this post. Mandatory date night!lol I know it sounds weird and it's not quite what you think it is.;0) Since Adam and I split and I've been in my own house, I've been trying to find a balance with a lot of things. Trying to find time for everything. I really thought that it wouldn't take me as long as it has, but apparently some things will just take as long as they take. In my "quest" to find the right balance, I ended up over doing a lot of things and just generally burning myself out. Not getting even close to enough sleep because there just weren't enough hours in the day to fit everything in. And just running myself ragged in general. In the process, I started feeling like I wasn't spending enough quality time with my dogs. Yes they were getting out for regular exercise and we were doing whatever training we were doing, but I was neglecting those soft, sweet moments where we would just simply cuddle. Those moments where I wasn't preoccupied with what I was trying to fit in on what days, trying to figure out how to pencil everything in. I had stopped enjoying my dogs for the individuals that they are and was just doing what I felt I needed to to meet their basic needs. That made me feel horrible. Even more so when I thought about the fact that I am really they're only outlet for human contact. Yes I have friends over who also interact with the dogs, but it's not the same. So I decide to do something about it and instituted a mandatory date night with my dogs! :0)
The concept is really quite simple and I've found that it really helps to rejuvenate me in general. I take the dogs out for their respective exercise, feed them, and get them all settled in. Then I cook myself a lovely dinner, which usually involves all three hanging around the kitchen to see what I'm up to. Depending on what I'm cooking, I'll give them all little tidbits as I'm going along. Sort of pretending that they're helping me with dinner. ;0) Once dinner is ready, we all curl up on the couch, I eat my dinner, and we watch a movie or whatever. I don't take any phone calls. I don't do any texting. I don't answer any emails. My phone is pretty much MIA. All four of us just cuddle up on the couch, relaxing, and enjoying each others company.
Now I will admit that I feel a little "crazy dog lady" admitting that, but considering how awesome those date nights are for me, I don't really care. It was a real wake up call how badly I needed to just chill out savor these moments. I can't quite explain it, but it's one of those great, utterly peaceful moments that keep me going throughout the subsequent days.
Since my schedule (both work and otherwise) can be a little all over the place, I don't have a set week night reserved for this, but I do make sure to fit one in per week. It's pretty fabulous and I highly recommend it!;0)
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Monday, September 10, 2012
Pneumonia....Again...
One of my biggest fears when splitting up with Adam was being able to cover emergency vet bills on only my salary. It's incredibly convenient to be a two income household where the other person makes significantly more than you do. ;0) "Thankfully" I didn't have a house payment in August, so I was able to cover the vet bill without dipping into my savings. Thankfully I also have a savings account that allows me to not stress so much about emergencies with the dogs. It also keeps my puppy money safe (and yes, I am still holding onto my spot with the same breeder with the same great dane puppy bitch in mind!).;0) A girls gotta have her priorities! Anywho, I weathered that storm with not too much stress. Though it's a lot easier to say that now that I know what was wrong and Bess is clearly feeling much better. Obnoxiously so.
I take her back in to see my vet this Wednesday to get her final set of chest x-rays to make sure that the antibiotics cleared it up again. From the way that she's acting and her lack of coughing, I'm feeling pretty good that we're good to go. I have learned from last time though, and she won't be going off leash any where with a possibility of deer that she could chase and split her chest open again! One emergency vet visit is enough to last me quite a while, thank you very much!
Otherwise things are going really well! The dogs and I are still working on getting our routine cemented. Things will most likely change in the fall when I'm not having to take them running at 5:00 am to beat the after work heat. Unpacking is still a process. I have been horribly negligent with training, but that's going to end very soon. I'm trying to organize the vast quantity of dog stuff enough that I can get to my basic training essentials easily. We're going to be starting back to obedience lessons soon! Ruthie will be my primary focus for a bit because we've got the frenchie national specialty coming up in October. I even got my sparkly pink "obedience" shoes to go with our theme!
So there you have it as things are. Things are good. Busy and still settling in, but good. I'll leave you with a picture of Ruthie being SUPER helpful while I was packing things up at the old house.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder...
I've been waiting a little while to update the blog. Now that everything has already hit the fan and the fallout is mostly done with, I can finally stop being cryptic on the blog and just put it all out there. There has been a lot going on in my life lately.
Probably the understatement of the year.
Some things are still very personal and few people know about them, others aren't mine to share, but life has definitely changed over the past few months. Adam, my husband of nine years, and I got a divorce. It had been coming for a little while and though not terribly unexpected, it was still difficult and painful to go through.
I then bought a house. Turns out that finding an appropriately sized rental house that will allow not only three dogs, but two of which are over 40 lbs. is rather difficult. Not keeping all three of my dogs was NOT an option. Period. We moved into our new home last weekend and are all adjusting to our new life. At this point, I dare say that we are all growing to love it. The street is MUCH quieter, with less things for Heffner to bark at and he seems more settled within the house than he did at the old house. Though he's still mostly glued to my side, he's starting to realize that I really don't need a chaperone EVER WHERE within the house. The house is also one story which makes me much happier as these guys start to get older. Bess is adjusting the the living room floor. She's texture sensitive and the flooring in the living room is her absolute least favorite. But she will actually walk on it now, albeit hesitatingly. And Ruthie has only had two accidents within the house. This past week has been weird with getting things unpacked, set up, and figuring out what I need to buy immediately and what can wait. Now that we're more settled, I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to a more normal routine for us starting this week.
Work is still crazy busy. On the up side, it's job security. On the down side, we don't have enough people on board for our impending work load and that has me a bit stressed. So I just try and take it one day at a time. Thankfully I work with really awesome people, so it makes things so much easier.
I have been very fortunate during this difficult time in my life to have a great support system around me. People who were there for me no matter what in whatever way they could. It helped me immensely to get through all of this.
While things aren't entirely back to normal, we're getting there. I'm looking forward to putting more effort back into the blog again! I really enjoyed posting and I have missed it over the past several months. I hope that everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from everyone as well as starting to follow the blogs that I've loved reading!!
Probably the understatement of the year.
Some things are still very personal and few people know about them, others aren't mine to share, but life has definitely changed over the past few months. Adam, my husband of nine years, and I got a divorce. It had been coming for a little while and though not terribly unexpected, it was still difficult and painful to go through.
I then bought a house. Turns out that finding an appropriately sized rental house that will allow not only three dogs, but two of which are over 40 lbs. is rather difficult. Not keeping all three of my dogs was NOT an option. Period. We moved into our new home last weekend and are all adjusting to our new life. At this point, I dare say that we are all growing to love it. The street is MUCH quieter, with less things for Heffner to bark at and he seems more settled within the house than he did at the old house. Though he's still mostly glued to my side, he's starting to realize that I really don't need a chaperone EVER WHERE within the house. The house is also one story which makes me much happier as these guys start to get older. Bess is adjusting the the living room floor. She's texture sensitive and the flooring in the living room is her absolute least favorite. But she will actually walk on it now, albeit hesitatingly. And Ruthie has only had two accidents within the house. This past week has been weird with getting things unpacked, set up, and figuring out what I need to buy immediately and what can wait. Now that we're more settled, I'm definitely looking forward to getting back to a more normal routine for us starting this week.
Work is still crazy busy. On the up side, it's job security. On the down side, we don't have enough people on board for our impending work load and that has me a bit stressed. So I just try and take it one day at a time. Thankfully I work with really awesome people, so it makes things so much easier.
I have been very fortunate during this difficult time in my life to have a great support system around me. People who were there for me no matter what in whatever way they could. It helped me immensely to get through all of this.
While things aren't entirely back to normal, we're getting there. I'm looking forward to putting more effort back into the blog again! I really enjoyed posting and I have missed it over the past several months. I hope that everyone is doing well and I look forward to hearing from everyone as well as starting to follow the blogs that I've loved reading!!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Reading Materials
I know that I was doing a monthly post where I would do a review on a dog and great dane related book that I had read. I have a feeling that it's going to be a little while before I get back on that train again, but I thought I would do a little post about what I'm currently reading and see what others are also currently reading.
I'm kind of juggling reading materials in three different areas. There's the work related area where I'm trying to get caught up in background information. Basically reading the papers and books that get cited a lot and that people in the field feel are the most relevant. My basic interest is animal behavior. The specific area that I'm doing my reading on is stereotypic behavior. It's something that I've found interesting for a while, but now that I'm actually doing some reading up on it, I'm even more interested than before! What kind of behaviors are people seeing in various animals? Do we know what triggers it? Do we know why it starts or stops? Is it good or bad? What are the physiological and neurological factors driving this behavior? What has been done to alleviate it and/or prevent it? It's some really interesting stuff!
My second category of reading material is dog related. This a really broad category and is anything from sport specific, to breed specific, to conformation, to movement, to just stories about dogs. I'm currently just starting "Peak Performance," but I'll be switching gears a little in a couple of days and taking on another book. As I rotate through my dog related books I feel that it keeps me mentally invested in the things that I do with my dogs and why I do it. It keeps me thinking (when I'm not having my moments of burn out more recently) about what I want to continue to do with them. Areas where I want my training to improve. Different methods to train the same task or behavior. I really like to rotate my reading material in this area because it basically keeps me thinking. I'm always picking up little golden nuggets from one area that will help in others. There's so much exciting stuff out there that it's no wonder I have a giant stack of unread books sitting on my desk just waiting to be opened!
The third category is just my "pleasure" reading category. While the other two areas are also enjoyable, when I'm reading those materials, I want to be more mentally engaged in what I'm reading. For those books I want to be really mentally present and trying to take in, retain, and apply what I'm reading. My pleasure reading category are the books that allow me to sort of check out. I get to read them simply for the pleasure of reading them. This is also the area that generally falls by the way side when I'm more backed up with reading in the other categories. I'm currently reading "A Dance With Dragons." This is the most recent book in the Game of Thrones series. It's taken me a while to get around to reading this book, though we got it right when it came out. I am happy to say that I'm not a bandwagon Martin follower. I was reading these books back before the TV series brought them to the attention of the mainstream world.
So that's my current reading material. What are you reading?
I'm kind of juggling reading materials in three different areas. There's the work related area where I'm trying to get caught up in background information. Basically reading the papers and books that get cited a lot and that people in the field feel are the most relevant. My basic interest is animal behavior. The specific area that I'm doing my reading on is stereotypic behavior. It's something that I've found interesting for a while, but now that I'm actually doing some reading up on it, I'm even more interested than before! What kind of behaviors are people seeing in various animals? Do we know what triggers it? Do we know why it starts or stops? Is it good or bad? What are the physiological and neurological factors driving this behavior? What has been done to alleviate it and/or prevent it? It's some really interesting stuff!
My second category of reading material is dog related. This a really broad category and is anything from sport specific, to breed specific, to conformation, to movement, to just stories about dogs. I'm currently just starting "Peak Performance," but I'll be switching gears a little in a couple of days and taking on another book. As I rotate through my dog related books I feel that it keeps me mentally invested in the things that I do with my dogs and why I do it. It keeps me thinking (when I'm not having my moments of burn out more recently) about what I want to continue to do with them. Areas where I want my training to improve. Different methods to train the same task or behavior. I really like to rotate my reading material in this area because it basically keeps me thinking. I'm always picking up little golden nuggets from one area that will help in others. There's so much exciting stuff out there that it's no wonder I have a giant stack of unread books sitting on my desk just waiting to be opened!
The third category is just my "pleasure" reading category. While the other two areas are also enjoyable, when I'm reading those materials, I want to be more mentally engaged in what I'm reading. For those books I want to be really mentally present and trying to take in, retain, and apply what I'm reading. My pleasure reading category are the books that allow me to sort of check out. I get to read them simply for the pleasure of reading them. This is also the area that generally falls by the way side when I'm more backed up with reading in the other categories. I'm currently reading "A Dance With Dragons." This is the most recent book in the Game of Thrones series. It's taken me a while to get around to reading this book, though we got it right when it came out. I am happy to say that I'm not a bandwagon Martin follower. I was reading these books back before the TV series brought them to the attention of the mainstream world.
So that's my current reading material. What are you reading?
Monday, May 28, 2012
Hello World!
Ouch! Have meant to get on here many time, but it's the same ole story. Too much going on and not enough motivation to actually write anything. I've been in a bit of a slump with regards to training the dogs and getting myself to actually work with them on the variety of things that we need to work on has been trying. I've been feeling incredibly unmotivated and I don't like it. I've been keeping up on their physical exercise, so no fatties here!;0) Business at work has also caused my schedule to jump all over the place as well. Like I said, same story, different day. However, I'm going to make a commitment to get back on here at least once a week. I don't want to set the bar too high and burn myself out before I even get back into the swing of things, so we're starting with lowered expectations.
I don't even know where to fill things in. Currently all three dogs are in their summer time off. We won't be doing any competitions again until the fall. I'm actually pretty happy about this. I was getting a bit burnt out. I have more weekends free and I feel like I'm getting more stuff done around the house (because I am) and seeing more of friends (because I am), which are all good things. I'll still be showing Elizabeth's girl Ruby in conformation, so it's not like I'm disappearing completely, I just won't have my own dogs to juggle, which is immensely easier.
I believe our last big show that we did was the Great Dane Club of Northern California's fabulous specialty weekend! I still absolutely love that show, love the trip, and love getting to see everyone. They also pulled off an awesome addition to their fabulous show this year and had dual obedience and rally trials! Totally awesome! Naturally, I entered Heffner and Bess in everything. Without going into too much detail (and because it's been long enough now that my mind is a little foggy on the exact details), Heffner ended up doing way better than I expected and Bess did way worse than I expected. While Heffner still had his moments of distraction in the ring, I was incredibly pleased and impressed with how well he did even as things were heating up! Bess, well, she had a rather stressful day and admittedly I didn't handle it very well. I ended up scratching her from the second trial all together. She ran out of the ring during her Graduate Novice run and completely stopped moving during her Rally Advanced run. Not great. In all, she only qualified in Rally Excellent. Heffner earned to qualifying legs in Beginner Novice and one Rally Excellent leg! He would have had a second Excellent leg except that I screwed up one of the new stations TWICE! Ouch! In conformation I got to take Bess' sire into the ring in the veterans class. On Saturday he took best veteran in show!!
After the show itself was over, we all (Ruthie came along as well for Monday's activities) headed down to San Jose to stay with my friend Megan, who was gracious enough to let us stay in her house! And the reason we were down that way was to go to a Denise Fenzi obedience seminar!! I was able to get three working spots so that all three dogs could get worked!! It was awesome!! She had some good ideas of stuff for us to work on and I was pleased with what advice she had. A lot of what she mentioned with Bess totally made sense. In a nut shell, I'm often way too much for Bess when I'm praising and verbally rewarding her. It's basically causing her to shut down a bit. There's a whole lot more, naturally, but I don't want this post to get too long.
And that pretty much leads us up to now. Just this past Tuesday Bess got spayed and also got a gastropexy. She is recovering beautifully, though the inactivity is starting to wear on her and therefore me.
All in all, things are good, I just need to get my rear in gear on a few fronts and get out of this funk that I've been in. Hopefully my posts will become more frequent than just once a week, but we'll see how things go. I really look forward to trying to catch back up on everyone's blogs and see what's going on. And the new Blogger format is creeping me out a bit. I don't do with change that isn't mediated by me!!!lol
I don't even know where to fill things in. Currently all three dogs are in their summer time off. We won't be doing any competitions again until the fall. I'm actually pretty happy about this. I was getting a bit burnt out. I have more weekends free and I feel like I'm getting more stuff done around the house (because I am) and seeing more of friends (because I am), which are all good things. I'll still be showing Elizabeth's girl Ruby in conformation, so it's not like I'm disappearing completely, I just won't have my own dogs to juggle, which is immensely easier.
I believe our last big show that we did was the Great Dane Club of Northern California's fabulous specialty weekend! I still absolutely love that show, love the trip, and love getting to see everyone. They also pulled off an awesome addition to their fabulous show this year and had dual obedience and rally trials! Totally awesome! Naturally, I entered Heffner and Bess in everything. Without going into too much detail (and because it's been long enough now that my mind is a little foggy on the exact details), Heffner ended up doing way better than I expected and Bess did way worse than I expected. While Heffner still had his moments of distraction in the ring, I was incredibly pleased and impressed with how well he did even as things were heating up! Bess, well, she had a rather stressful day and admittedly I didn't handle it very well. I ended up scratching her from the second trial all together. She ran out of the ring during her Graduate Novice run and completely stopped moving during her Rally Advanced run. Not great. In all, she only qualified in Rally Excellent. Heffner earned to qualifying legs in Beginner Novice and one Rally Excellent leg! He would have had a second Excellent leg except that I screwed up one of the new stations TWICE! Ouch! In conformation I got to take Bess' sire into the ring in the veterans class. On Saturday he took best veteran in show!!
After the show itself was over, we all (Ruthie came along as well for Monday's activities) headed down to San Jose to stay with my friend Megan, who was gracious enough to let us stay in her house! And the reason we were down that way was to go to a Denise Fenzi obedience seminar!! I was able to get three working spots so that all three dogs could get worked!! It was awesome!! She had some good ideas of stuff for us to work on and I was pleased with what advice she had. A lot of what she mentioned with Bess totally made sense. In a nut shell, I'm often way too much for Bess when I'm praising and verbally rewarding her. It's basically causing her to shut down a bit. There's a whole lot more, naturally, but I don't want this post to get too long.
And that pretty much leads us up to now. Just this past Tuesday Bess got spayed and also got a gastropexy. She is recovering beautifully, though the inactivity is starting to wear on her and therefore me.
All in all, things are good, I just need to get my rear in gear on a few fronts and get out of this funk that I've been in. Hopefully my posts will become more frequent than just once a week, but we'll see how things go. I really look forward to trying to catch back up on everyone's blogs and see what's going on. And the new Blogger format is creeping me out a bit. I don't do with change that isn't mediated by me!!!lol
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Wow
So that's the longest that I've ever gone without blogging! Holy cow! Lots of the usual. Busy with work and busy with the dogs. I ended up getting offered the new position that I was applying for. And my boss has counter offered. I'm just waiting for my official offer letters to give my final decision.
Gad zukes! The biggest problem with going this long without blogging is that there's way too much to catch up on to fit it adequately into one post. And since my memory can suck at times, I'd probably be pretty sketchy at trying to retell it. I'll do a brief over view.
I mentioned that Bess got her Beginner Novice title! She still didn't sit on the one and only halt in the heeling pattern. And her sit was a bit dysfunctional throughout, though she managed to totally nail the halts on the figure eight. Go figure, since I never throw in the halts when I'm practicing. I just reward for staying with me and for the speed changes. She also got another RAE leg that same weekend. Her performance in rally was pretty poor. Obedience was definitely much better. And then I did this crazy thing where I stopped coaxing her through part of the Advanced run and put my hand on my stomach like I do for our obedience heeling patterns. And she magically got better. I'm not saying it was great, but it was much improved. Maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel!
I also audited a Dee Dee Anderson obedience seminar. It was great! A lot of information packed into two days. Lots to think about and work with.
And then this past weekend I had the danes entered in an AKC agility trial. I apparently did some misrecording of where Bess had what legs. I thought she was in Excellent JWW but it turns out she was one run short. The flip side of that is that she actually qualified in Open Standard back at the beginning of February and she is now in Excellent Standard. Well, this past Saturday after two crazy runs in FAST and Standard (due to too much rain all week, the dogs didn't get a lot of exercise and an under exercised Bess is not such a great thing), she stuck with me and nailed her Open JWW run for that final leg!! Heffner was fabulous in both of his runs that day, but we had little bobbles that cost us the runs. However, he was really enjoying himself out there and I can honestly say that I had more fun running both dogs that day than I've had in a quite a while!!
Technically I had the dogs entered again on Sunday, but that wasn't to be. Ruthie seems to be a little constipated and she also periodically goes through these phases where she gets ticked off in her crate at night and will scream at random hours for no reason that I can figure out. Saturday night was a particularly bad night and she was sounding off at least once an hour. I don't think that I got more than a half hour of "sleep" at a time all night. When my alarm went off the next morning I got up and was going to see if some coffee would help get me through. Unfortunately that just wasn't going to be enough. I was not functioning really at all. There was no way that I could memorize courses let alone run them. And operating on less than all my faculties while trying to maneuver my very large reactive dog around an agility trial venue is not the smartest thing to attempt. So I drove up the fairgrounds to pack up my crates and headed home to try and catch up on some sleep. As soon as I hit the bed, Ruthie started screaming in her crate again. I'm not going to lie, I was not terribly fond of her at that point. Because I was seriously sleep deprived and about to lose my mind and possibly go all homicidal on her screeching butt, I put the bark collar on her and peace thankfully reined in the house.
My wonky sleep schedule over the weekend left me feeling almost hung over on Monday. And I've got a relatively calm but long day at work ahead of me tomorrow. Fingers crossed that all involved are feeling cooperative tomorrow. My sister also went into early labor today and I'm kind of on pins and needles waiting to get the call to head down to the hospital. So lots of exciting things going on!!
I hope that my absence hasn't upset anyone!! And hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a more regular basis. :0)
Gad zukes! The biggest problem with going this long without blogging is that there's way too much to catch up on to fit it adequately into one post. And since my memory can suck at times, I'd probably be pretty sketchy at trying to retell it. I'll do a brief over view.
I mentioned that Bess got her Beginner Novice title! She still didn't sit on the one and only halt in the heeling pattern. And her sit was a bit dysfunctional throughout, though she managed to totally nail the halts on the figure eight. Go figure, since I never throw in the halts when I'm practicing. I just reward for staying with me and for the speed changes. She also got another RAE leg that same weekend. Her performance in rally was pretty poor. Obedience was definitely much better. And then I did this crazy thing where I stopped coaxing her through part of the Advanced run and put my hand on my stomach like I do for our obedience heeling patterns. And she magically got better. I'm not saying it was great, but it was much improved. Maybe there's light at the end of the tunnel!
I also audited a Dee Dee Anderson obedience seminar. It was great! A lot of information packed into two days. Lots to think about and work with.
And then this past weekend I had the danes entered in an AKC agility trial. I apparently did some misrecording of where Bess had what legs. I thought she was in Excellent JWW but it turns out she was one run short. The flip side of that is that she actually qualified in Open Standard back at the beginning of February and she is now in Excellent Standard. Well, this past Saturday after two crazy runs in FAST and Standard (due to too much rain all week, the dogs didn't get a lot of exercise and an under exercised Bess is not such a great thing), she stuck with me and nailed her Open JWW run for that final leg!! Heffner was fabulous in both of his runs that day, but we had little bobbles that cost us the runs. However, he was really enjoying himself out there and I can honestly say that I had more fun running both dogs that day than I've had in a quite a while!!
Technically I had the dogs entered again on Sunday, but that wasn't to be. Ruthie seems to be a little constipated and she also periodically goes through these phases where she gets ticked off in her crate at night and will scream at random hours for no reason that I can figure out. Saturday night was a particularly bad night and she was sounding off at least once an hour. I don't think that I got more than a half hour of "sleep" at a time all night. When my alarm went off the next morning I got up and was going to see if some coffee would help get me through. Unfortunately that just wasn't going to be enough. I was not functioning really at all. There was no way that I could memorize courses let alone run them. And operating on less than all my faculties while trying to maneuver my very large reactive dog around an agility trial venue is not the smartest thing to attempt. So I drove up the fairgrounds to pack up my crates and headed home to try and catch up on some sleep. As soon as I hit the bed, Ruthie started screaming in her crate again. I'm not going to lie, I was not terribly fond of her at that point. Because I was seriously sleep deprived and about to lose my mind and possibly go all homicidal on her screeching butt, I put the bark collar on her and peace thankfully reined in the house.
My wonky sleep schedule over the weekend left me feeling almost hung over on Monday. And I've got a relatively calm but long day at work ahead of me tomorrow. Fingers crossed that all involved are feeling cooperative tomorrow. My sister also went into early labor today and I'm kind of on pins and needles waiting to get the call to head down to the hospital. So lots of exciting things going on!!
I hope that my absence hasn't upset anyone!! And hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a more regular basis. :0)
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Quick Check In
I realized that I hadn't posted anything in over a week and thought that I should do a bit of an update. Things have just been so busy and I've had a few different things going. First and foremost, Bess got her third and final qualifying leg for her Beginner Novice title this past Friday down in Albany, OR!! The next day she also managed to get RAE leg #7. I have more to say about all of that, but I still have much to get done tonight.
Part of the reason I've been preoccupied is that I'm applying for a new position at the same campus that I work at. Without going into too much detail, my primary responsibility would be training animals. Pretty cool! With the application for this position I realized that I haven't done a serious revamping of my resume in about eight years. And writing a cover letter actually took two nights to get through. I already have an interview on Monday!
I've also developed this strange fascination with trying to get an adequate amount of sleep lately. I've been going on a rough max of five hours of sleep a night on week nights and sometimes less on the weekends, depending on what I've got going on. I discovered that getting to bed a little bit earlier and "sleeping in," i.e. not getting up early to work the dogs on the week days, has been decidedly delicious!:0)
I've also been taking some fun new exercise classes with some of my coworkers and it's been a blast! Tends to tweak my evening schedule with the dogs a fair bit, but it's been overall worth it.
So things are good here and I will hopefully be getting around to a more detailed post on the previous weekend with Bess in a day or two! I hope everyone is doing well despite a variety of not so good news that I've been getting caught up on. Two more days and then it's the weekend!
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