This week I feel a little like I'm frantically running from one thing to the next. Primarily of my own making and I will admit that I wouldn't remove any of it. Though I might say it while laughing at the slight edge of hysteria!
Monday was a holiday and I had the day off. So naturally, I made sure to fill it. In the early afternoon we had an obedience lesson. Dominic's very first one! He was quite well behaved in his crate while Miley was getting worked. Miley was understandably distracted and we have taken a few steps backwards. But that's alright. Once I brought Dominic home I realized this was going to happen and as I already mentioned, I've reassessed my training and competitions goals and time lines with Miley to reflect this new adjustment to our lives. Not that our training was getting stressful, but that has helped me to relax a little bit more. I have a picture in my head of what I would like Miley and I to look like as a team when we compete and I know that I can get us there. It's just a matter of taking my time and making sure I prepare us both appropriately. None the less, I will admit that there were a few eye rolls from me during our lesson and quite a bit of laughing from my instructor. Dominic was well behaved and we didn't really ask much of him. I basically wanted to introduce Jill to him and show her kind of what he was like. She had the pleasure of being able to pick up an entire great dane! ;)
From there we headed south to Silverton so my parents could meet Dominic. Jazz was apprehensive at first. Understandably, Miley tends to err on the side of playing too rough with him. Dominic very quickly realized that fluffy dogs have a lot to hang on to! Tails being the most desired handle. Miley was more than a little pent up and her ability to rein it in with either dog was non existent. So I hung on to her collar while everyone was out together. When Jazz and Dominic went inside with my parents, I let Miley off to stretch her legs a little bit.
Tuesday was an involved day at work involving some industry visitors that I got to show off for. I enjoy doing this in general, but particularly when the audience is very into and appreciative of the work that you do. Wednesday was another full day at work. Followed by a mad dash at home to take care of dogs and to get Miley and myself ready for the big Rose City Classic dog shows the next four days. The double specialty that has previously been held on the Wednesday before the four days of all breed shows got thankfully moved to coincide with another series of shows. I am particularly thankful for that this year!! Thursday was our first day of competition. Nothing for Miley, but we had a good time hanging out and chatting with friends. Miley and Dominic's breeder was there for the day before having to fly out for a board meeting, so I got to chat with her. Bess' breeder, Georgia, played a little prank on me that initially scared the crap out of me. If you don't know her, she's quite the prankster! I managed to lose my rose stickers (this is one of the few shows that they charge spectators admission for, so they mail rose stickers to exhibitors to exempt them from having to pay to get in) between my front door and the truck that morning so I had to step away from Miley's crate for a couple of minutes to get a replacement sticker from the show superintendent. When I came back, this is what I saw:
It might be a little hard to tell from the picture, but that's a stuffed orangutan in there with Miley. I have a certain fondness for monkeys. ;) This time, though, coming back to the crate I just see a furry blob in the crate and for whatever reason it made my heart drop. Apparently I wasn't quite as appropriately caffeinated as I thought I was! All in good fun! :)
After we were done with the show it was time to head home and play with both dogs. I think I mentioned it previously, but I registered for an online trick training class taught by my agility instructor. I hadn't really submitted much in the way of videos of where both dogs were at up to that point (not too surprising since the class just started on Sunday), so I did some training and some video taping and I'm pretty stoked with how both dogs are doing! I'm particularly proud of Dominic! He's really loving this whole training thing! I'll gab more about that class, but I'll save it for a separate post lest this one get super long.
Did I mention that I've had a little fun shopping the Christmas clearance area at PetSmart??? I've gotta have a little fun dressing him up before he's to a size where that gets really expensive. And it has the added benefit of combining some of my favorite things: Christmas, dressing up my dogs and getting things for cheap! Each of the three sweaters above were $4! Yes, I will spend $12 on sweaters that he will only be able to wear for a few weeks. But he'll look freaking adorable while he's doing it! And honestly, this is a heck of a lot cheaper than buying him multiple coats right now to deal with the cooler temperatures (admittedly, it's been in the upper 40's to low 50's this week, so there's not too much to complain about). I may have taken a video of him in the sweater on the far right.....
Today was more dog showing. Miley is such a solid girl in the ring! She did win her class today, but nothing beyond that. Then this afternoon, my friend Ashley came over with her mom's 11 week old golden retriever puppy!
The cuteness level here with those two was out of control! Dominic was a little befuddled by how easily she out maneuvered him. Then end result was two happily zonked puppies and two happy people who can now get a few things done around their respective houses. ;) I took advantage of how tired Dominic was by taking down his ears and letting them breath a bit before putting them back up. Doing ears is always way easier with a sleepy puppy. Unless you're Miley, who pretty freaking patient regardless, when it was ear time.
Tonight there's a get together of a lot of the dane exhibitors which is always a ton of fun! Getting together without the worries of ring times, standings or the immediate needs of every one's various dogs allows for some fun chatting, getting to know people better and also the opportunity to learn a lot from the people who have been in the breed for a while and been through all sorts of things. The rest of the weekend will be more of the same. Dog show, work with my dogs and hopefully fit in a nap or two. Each morning I end up making my coffee stronger and stronger. How did people get through the day without coffee???
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