Monday Musings

Or maybe I should title this Monday Ramblings. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a rambling thread the way I have various thoughts bouncing around in my head. It all started in the middle of the night with a bad dream. A very bad dream. Probably fueled by the the fact that I was a bit over caffeinated yesterday and lots of focus on Heffner. As I've mentioned, Heffner is turning five on Sunday. An otherwise inauspicious age, except that I'm a worrier and he's had some back problems more recently that have me contemplating a lot of things in regards to his age. And then there were all the puppy pictures that I found of him yesterday during our clean up of the now crafting room. At any rate, the boy was on my mind more so than usual. In this awful dream, Heffner died. It's an inconceivable thing right now, but it's out there lurking some where in our future. I don't really want to go into it, but I woke up sobbing from it. Kind of a crappy way to "start" the day. Thankfully things did get better from there!

Today is a holiday, and after a brief pop into work to take care of a few minor things, I took the dogs out tracking! I was much nicer to Heffner this time and he did quite well on his tracks. The first track in particular he was actually following the track and not necessarily focusing on the treats. Two thumbs up! Bess also had a good time with her tracks, but I think I need to space the food drops out more. I'm pretty sure that she again found every single dropped treat. Which lead to a belly full of hot dogs and a dog who wasn't as interested in her last track. More to think of for next time!

From there we went home, the dogs chilled while I ate some lunch and packed up the truck for our obedience lesson. It was a good lesson as always and I really appreciate that our instructor keeps reminding me of how far each dog has come. I'm getting nit picky with some things, and with improvements coming in smaller increments, it's great to have a positive outside source letting you know that yes, things are coming along.:)

From there we headed home and the dogs got their weekly currying. I'm still amazed at how much hair I'm able to get off of Heffner every single week. It's still nothing compared to when he's really blowing coat, but it's still a lot more than I get off of Bess!

After doing some floor cleaning, I fed the dogs and finished scanning in the film pictures of Heffner. It's just so fun to look back on those pictures and remember how little he was and how ridiculously cute he was too!

And now we're going to do some trick training! I could get used to days like this.;0)

Oh The Weekend

With me being home this weekend, we had a nice relaxing time of it. Saturday morning I met up with a newbie to the dog show world. I brought Bess along as well so that her dog could get used to working with a dog ahead of and behind him. I also wanted the handler to have a chance to try working with a dog that was already trained so that she could kind of get a feel for what she was working towards. She's going to be starting in the conformation ring with a bang, having RCC as her very first dog show! Exciting stuff!

It was kind of fun though because I never do any conformation practice with Bess any more. She knows what she needs to do and she does it well. Even so, I was still so happy with how she was doing! She's just so stinkin' cute!

After that, it was back home to finish packing up all the Christmas decorations. THAT was a chore! And it took forever. Thankfully we're ahead of the game this year though. Last year we didn't get the multitudes of boxes back up into the attic until July; at which point it almost felt pointless. We just sort of crammed all the boxes into a spare bedroom and shut the door. Out of sight, out of mind! This year we got it all completely put away. Quite nice!

My original plan for today was to go snowshoeing with some friends. Unfortunately we've been seeing some unseasonably warm weather in our area the past few days. The day time temps have been in the mid to upper fifties. Pretty crazy for January. These warm temps have also reached up onto the mountain. Today alone the lower elevations of the Mt. Hood were expected to get six inches of rain. Not six inches of snow, but six inches of rain. Super sucky! Not the kind of conditions that make snowshoeing fun at all. Instead I ended up taking Bess out for a little hike and it was actually pretty nice. We were mostly protected from the rain and it had actually started to slack off by the time we hit the trail head. I put her raincoat on about half way through, but didn't bother with one for me. It ended up being a really nice outing and she most certainly needed the exercise!

Once Bess and I got back, it was time to tackle our spare bedroom. The room had kind of turned into a crap repository. We cleared out a few things, but here are the before pictures:

After a whole lotta rearranging, filling a big box of stuff that could be thrown out, and an even bigger pile of stuff to be taken to Goodwill, here is the end result:

I now have a scrapbooking/crafting room!! I'm so excited! And I actually have a room where I can also prominently display the dane related stuff that I've been accumulating.:0)

In the process of cleaning up and off the desk, I uncovered some packets of pictures that had been sitting there forever. As I started leafing through the pictures I realized just how old they were. I found the majority of pictures I took of Heffner when he was a puppy!!! I'd tried looking for the pictures before, but had struck out. These pictures were back when I still had my film camera and was fighting the move to the digital. I now have no idea why on earth I was so stubborn about switching to digital, but I was. I'm going to spend some time tonight scanning in all those pictures. He used to be so LITTLE!!

I also have this random little video clip of Heffner trying to dig Adam out of a sleeping bag. Our projector is currently in another state getting fixed. In the mean time, we've got a TV in the office. We pulled in a sleeping bag, some pillows, and a comforter and with the dog beds on either side of us, we've got quite the cozy little TV watching next going on. Anyhow, here's Heffner having some fun with Adam!


I hope everyone had a great weekend!

The Art of Listening

With the big Rose City Classic (RCC) coming up this week, it gets me to thinking about a variety of things. First of all, I'm excited to see all the people that I'm going to get to see! There's a lot of conformation people that I really only get to see at shows because we all live so far apart. With this comes a whole lot of fun social get togethers after the days showing is done so that everyone can get caught up. Long days of showing followed by fun evenings gabbing together over drinks and good food make for very full days!

More than anything though, this show is a learning experience. It's about learning how to handle your dog in a very busy environment with a myriad of things going on. Learning more about various breeds that you may only see at dog shows. With all the performance events going on, you have the opportunity to learn more about the different sports and various levels of difficulty, in addition to seeing some top dog/handler teams. But most of all, there's a lot to learn just by closing the mouth and opening the ears to all that is going on.

Sometimes it seems that people get so caught up in trying to impress others with their "knowledge" that they don't stop to think about what they're saying. There's the old saying that "it is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." Often the person doing all the talking and "impressing" does not understand that they are indeed show casing their lack of knowledge, or just generally making themselves look like an ass. With the number of top notch professional handlers (both performance and conformation), breeders, and exhibitors that abound at this show, the smart person keeps their mouth shut and absorbs everything that is going on around them. There are many things that are not said in front of a person who has shown that they tend to run off at the mouth. There are also many things that are not said in front of someone who has expressed a particular opinion or allegiance. A lot of times it is better to go under the radar and just listen and learn, than to try to stand out and be "known." Then again, there's also a lot that doesn't get said around a person who is an unknown entity. Oh the politics of it all!LOL If nothing else, it can be quite entertaining!

Regardless, there's going to be a whole lot to take in over the week and I'm looking forward to good friends, good times, and lots of listening and learning.;0)

Tracking And More....

I finally done did it! I got the dogs out tracking last night!! I got the harnesses adjusted (and then realized they actually need to be adjusted again for the dogs in a head down, sniffing position where certain areas tighten up), gathered up my gear, and then took them out separately. Heffner was unfortunately the guinea pig. Unfortunately, because I didn't pick the best terrain initially for him and I sort of over estimated the amount of spacing between each treat drop. Aaaaaaaaaaaand I put his tracks closer together than I really should have. D'oh! At least I learned and Bess had a better time of it.
The terrain was more pitted and the grass was longer than I should have started him back up on. It's been over a year since I laid a track for either dog. I laid three simple, straight tracks. But for Heffner, they were definitely closer together than they should have been. I could tell that he was getting confused by the scent coming from the tracks I had laid to the right on our first one. We still carried on and he did quite well, it just wasn't as overly positive of an experience as I would have liked.
I did a much better job with Bess. I kept the treat spacing more frequent and spaced her tracks out a lot more. The last time I did any tracking with her, it was difficult to get her to keep her mind on the track and she showed more interest in trying to play in the field. This time around she was ALL business! It was great! I'm pretty sure she found every single treat I dropped.LOL She did stray sometimes off the side of the track and I held back from immediately correcting her to see if she would find her way back and she did! All three tracks were a success.

Today Heffner had another chiropractic adjustment and it was fabulous! Sandi seriously has magic hands! It's just amazing to see the immediate difference that the adjustment makes. I almost think that today's adjustment showed a more noticeable improvement in his walking than last week's. It was just amazing! He is almost walking like Bess now. He's still throwing his hip a little when walking, but it's sooooooo much less than it was. He also held the last adjustment really well, which helped to make a more visible improvement today.

He currently is on 24 hours with no exercise. If we can go 48 hours, she said that's even better. He's also still on the limited exercise of only walks. She did say that after one more adjustment she thought I would be able to start jogging him again!! Ideally I would see her again next week, but the Rose City Classic (RCC) combined with the holiday on Monday is making that very difficult. If I can't set something up with her, then he'll have to wait until the following week. Obviously I really want to try to find some day that works because I want to start reconditioning him and getting him back into tip top shape. We'll just have to see what I can swing.

I am currently thrilled to be having a pretty low key weekend ahead of me. This is EXACTLY what I need leading up to RCC. There's going to be a whole lot going on, very long days, and the house is a freaking disaster area right now. I always start to feel like things are out of control when I can't keep the house in the minimum condition that I want it to be in. Down weekends are good for this! Not that we are completely without plans, but I'll talk about those plans in other posts.;0)

I hope that everyone had a fabulous Friday and here's looking to a great weekend!!

Web Site of the Month

My pick for Web Site of the Month for January is Idita-Walk! I can't remember which blog specifically I first heard about this event on, but it was definitely a husky dog blog. At the time I heard about it last year, I think the event was already half way through and I wanted to join in from the beginning. Now we all have the chance to sign and do something that's good for all of us!

The premise of the Idita-walk is that you shoot for walking 1,049 minutes between February 1st and March 31st. Once you sign up and pay your "entry fee," you gain access to an online log that will allow you enter your daily totals throughout the course of the event. It's a great way to encourage people to be a little healthier, get their dogs more exercise, and promote the Iditarod a little.:) I've signed Adam and myself up for it already!

I found out from the pedometer challenge that I did last year that I walk a lot between the dogs and my job. In order to make things a little more challenging for myself, I'm shooting for walking at least 2,098 minutes during that same time period. AND I will only be counting the walking/running that I do with the dogs. Nothing else counts. This should be a lot of fun and I'm excited to see where I end up! Gives me something to beat for next year!;o)

Blogger Tuesday

I thought of another goal that I have for this year! I think I mentioned at some point last year that I wanted to add in a little clicker training, or something along those lines. I didn't really do that. Well this year, I'm going for and I've actually already been following through with it! I started out with some clicker basics that I picked up from Jennifer over at Never Say Never Greyhounds. I liked her idea about introducing the clicker using an empty yogurt cup.

In part I want to add in the clicker so that I can nit pick our obedience work a little more. So a sub-part of the general clicker goal, is to once a month find some aspect of one of the obedience exercises that I want to work on specifically with the clicker to sort of fine tune. For this month, I'm working on fronts. Both dogs have a tendency to sit further away from me than I would like on their fronts. I'm hoping that bringing in the clicker will help to adjust that and I think I'm already starting to see a small change. It doesn't hurt that it gives me more incentive to actually practice what needs fixing.;o)

The second sub-part of this goal is that I want to train the dogs on random tricks. Something to spice things up a bit and do something out of the ordinary. The main problem that I have is that I'm not terribly original. And sometimes I'm lazy. I like it when someone can spell things out for me and give me ideas of what to work on. Videos are a definite plus! And that's where my Blog of the Week comes in! I picked Smooth Sailin' Agility, because she has started a weekly trick thread! She gives the trick, describes how she broke it down and then gives a video demo. Perfect! Oh yes, and they do agility.:)

I'm also videoing each of our practices for at least my own benefit. I'll probably periodically post at least some of the videos. This is definitely helping to make training a little more fun!

And Now the Video

I took a bunch of little video clips yesterday while at the sled dog races. A shot of the parking lot, some shots of dogs getting hitched up to their teams, and lots of shots of various teams leaving the race shoot. As a warning, you may want to start out with the volume either completely off or turned way down. There's a lot of crazy dog noises!