...is an epic fail this week. Something is seriously screwed up with all the footage I took a couple weeks back while I was hiking with the danes. I can view the files just fine in Windows Movie Maker, but beyond that it's all scrambled. I don't know if it's the videos taken on that camera (it's a new point and shoot that Adam got to take on his trip to Germany) or if it's just the footage taken from that day. I need to do some testing. So unfortunately today's Movie Monday is a no-go.:(
I will let you in on what I'm planning for my video blog for the month though! Since the big Rose City Classic is coming up starting on the 18th of this month, I'm going to shoot all sorts of footage while I'm there. I've got a variety of friends who will be there competing in a variety of sports with a variety of dogs, so my plan is to bring them in on it as well and do some chatting with them! Hopefully it ends up turning out well!
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Hello 2012!
Happy New Year!! While 2012 is only almost a day old, I'm pretty happy with how it's started! We had a nice laid back evening at our house with an old friend and his fiance, who I got to meet for the first time. Then today I headed out with Bess and Ruthie for an obedience lesson. The lesson went really well and I was happy with how both girls are progressing! Bess is getting ever closer to an actual honest to goodness dumbbell retrieve! It's taken a long time and we still have a LOT of work ahead of us, but she's starting to get it. And once she's really got it, I know that she'll fully enjoy it. At the moment her enjoyment is hesitant. She's not entirely sure of what I'm asking her to do and why I keep building on what she's already mastered. We also had some off leash heeling that was wretched today! Yay!!Ruthie was also doing a great job as well! We have a stay! There are still aspects of the stay that we need to build on, but thank goodness it's there. And she actually has a stand stay as well! This may not seem terribly impressive when you consider the fact that she's a finished champion and conformation dogs do a whole lot of stand stays. However, I pretty much broke her stand stay once we brought her home. Sit was the first thing that she learned and she got heavily rewarded for it. As such, it's her fall back behavior. We've had to put some time in getting the stand stay back.
We also had a little frenchie team practice! Good lord these dogs are adorable! Each practice we improve more! We did some group stays today and while Ruthie's group stays are still rough, she is greatly improved from where she was at previously. Yay!!
And Ruthie also has an competition obedience collar!lol The above picture is the collar that she will be competing with.:0) I have to remove the dangling thingy, but otherwise it fits within the rules. I asked our instructor today just to verify. I bought the collar originally because it was just too freaking cute to pass up. And at $10, there was no way it wasn't coming home with me. Then I got to thinking that it would be awesome if it could be Ruthie's competition collar! She doesn't pull on the leash at all, so I don't need to worry about the collar busting. And that collar combined with my shiny gold "obedience" shoes will definitely make us a team that stands out! Though I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing right now!lol I'm starting to think that I need some pink sparkly shoes to go with her collar. Maybe some pink sequined pants as well? Maybe a blinged out top? he he he.....At any rate, this upcoming Sunday we'll get to try out our ensemble as well as our skills at the frenchie obedience match. If nothing else, I promise to try and get at least some pictures. We'll see about video.;0)
Heffner pretty much got to bum around the house today. After I got home from the lesson and practice, I took a lovely nap on the dog beds with him that I think he enjoyed. We were up pretty late last night and I was totally zonked.
I hope everyone is having a great start to the new year!
Thursday, December 29, 2011
2012 Goals
I go into year long goal planning with a little trepidation. You just don't really know what the new year will hold. There could be injuries (we've had that), there could be set backs (we've definitely had that), and there are any number of unknowns that you really can't plan for. So completely ignoring all of that, here is what we're shooting for in 2012, broken down by dog and by sport.
Heffner
Agility
Our goals here are pretty mild because I go into it knowing that we aren't going to be trialing a ton. In AKC agility I would like to finish up his Excellent Standard title. We need two more legs there. And I would like to finish up his Open JWW title. Because for the love of gawd, I would like to no longer be in Open Jumpers!!lol I can't remember entirely, but I think he only needs to more legs there as well. For CPE agility I would like for him to finish up all of his Level 3 classes. I think he's at least half way there. And with the number of CPE trials that I think we should be able to hit this year, I think it's doable.
Rally
I am sooooooo excited that AKC is doing away with the honor station in Excellent!! This makes trialing Heffner so much less stressful! Now I just need to focus on getting him less stressed overall when in the ring. I've read up a little bit on the new stations and I think that we should be good to go on them by April. Because of these changes, I will happily wait until April to begin trialing him in rally again. Which means that Lodi will be our big welcome back to rally.;0) Our goal for 2012 is to get that RE title that I know he is capable of!
Obedience
For the most part, Heffner is retired from obedience. I use that phrase loosely because it's not like he really had much of a competition "career" any how. With respects to obedience, I will only be showing him at specialties. Because Beginner Novice doesn't have any group exercises, I would like for him to finish that title in the new year as well. There are more than enough obedience trials near us that this should be a totally doable goal. We will continue training however, because I would eventually like to show him in the versatility class. There's also that newer Teamwork class that sounds like a lot of fun and a different type of challenge.
Lure Coursing
Since the big boy did show some interest in the sport at the one practice that we attended, I would like to try him out at a few more practices to get a better feel for it and then possibly enter a trial and see what comes out. Our only goal in this sport for the new year is to try it out more and see what happens.
Bess
Rally
Bess only needs four more legs to get her RAE, but we seem to have stalled out. While her limited performance in the obedience ring seems to have improved, her level of depression in the rally ring is clearly evident. We'll keep working on this and see what we can do. I don't think that four more qualifying legs over the course of a year is too lofty of a goal. After that, she will be semi-retired from rally and will only be competing at specialties.
Obedience
We've seen some pretty great improvements in obedience and I'm really happy with the direction that we seem to be going! I've got her entered in a trial coming up in January. I was going to enter her in Graduate Novice again, but then chickened out. The trial site is going to be pretty crazy and distracting and I don't want to overload her too much and turn it into a negative experience. Therefore, I entered her in Beginner Novice. For 2012 I would like to put a BN on her as well as either a CD or a GN title. The BN is definitely doable. The CD will be the hardest because our off leash heeling is still pretty terrible and is the one thing that I'm really having a hard time figuring out how to fix. The GN would be the next most achievable after the BN due to the lack of off leash heeling. But we do still have the off leash figure 8.
Agility
Bess made huge improvements over where she started out at the beginning of this year. The beginning of this year so a total mental break down in the agility ring that took several months to fix. She's a stresser, and it had apparently built to the breaking point for her. We've had success this fall and I'm hoping that we continue to improve as a team. I feel like our runs are still pretty inconsistent because I'm not entirely able to trust her and am wary about her getting the urge to zoom. Which means a lot of looking back and stutter stepping on my part. This is not always conducive to good clean runs. I guess my goal for 2012 should be to trust Bess more on the course and hope that we start to jive better as a team. For her, I would REALLY like to finish up her Open Standard title. I'm on my laptop in the craft room (hubby is hosting poker night and I'm hanging out with the dogs since some of the people who come over are scared to death of them) and don't have my competition spreadsheet (remember, Excel and I have a serious love affair!!) to know for sure how many more legs she needs. I think it's two more legs. Those darned down contacts specifically on the A-frame are just killing us! I would also love it if she could get her Excellent JWW title, but since I have some personal hang ups in JWW, that one is going to take some work.
Lure Coursing
I would also like to try Bess out at more lure coursing practices. She didn't quite catch on to it the way that Heffner did. She was more interested in chasing the other dogs who were chasing the lure. We'll see how the practices go and maybe enter her in a trial.
Ruthie
Agility
I am trying to take things nice and slow with little pressure with Ruthie. She seems to really enjoy our time out at the agility barn and is catching on to things faster than I expected. I've tried some sequencing with her and once I realized that it works waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better to front cross with her than to do anything else, our runs actually smoothed out and we are starting to get more fluid! She has no qualms about the A-frame or the dog walk, but the dog walk is her absolute favorite obstacle on the course right now. Enough so that as I'm going around lowering jumps for her, I have to keep my on her because she will just run across it. The teeter is so-so right now. She does the full height teeter, but she's not a fan of the fast descent, so I'm slowing it down for her and that seems to make her much happier. We'll continue to work on it at her pace and it'll come when it comes. On the up side, she very willingly gets on it, it's just the going down part that she's not a huge fan of. My goal for her is to put her into a group class in the spring and see how that goes. My eventual goal is to enter her in her first trial in the fall, preferably a CPE trial since it's a gentler way to start trialing.
Rally
Everything really is a clean slate with Ruthie and we're just starting into the various sports. My only goal for her in the new year is to have her to a point where I feel comfortable entering her in the rally trial at the national specialty in the fall. I'm not shooting for any titles in 2012, I just want us to get started and see how things go.
Obedience
Our goals for obedience are pretty much the same as they are for rally. I want to have her to a point by the fall where I feel comfortable entering her in Beginner Novice at the national specialty. We're actually starting things off in January with a bang by going to an specialty A match! Are we ready? Nope! But it'll definitely let me know where the major holes are! On the up side, posing for all those Christmas pictures had me working on her stays daily in a fun way. And now she actually has a freaking stay!! Yay!!
Lure Coursing
LOL.....I put this on here because I included it for the big dogs. I don't think that lure coursing will be in Ruthie's future. It's not that she doesn't have the athleticism or the spunk, I just don't think that she'll see the point in chasing a baggy. And with those stubby legs, I'd have to make sure that she was running in only well mowed fields. I MIGHT bring her to a practice or two just to see, but there really isn't a goal for her in this sport.
I've also made a commitment to improving the ball studio in the new year. There's a ton of equipment and other things that have been on my mental wish list for a while now and I've decided to just suck it up and start adding things on a monthly basis. Some of it's little like adding in more mats. Some of the items are more spendy, like an 80 cm peanut ball. There's also a possibility that I will be moving the studio from the garage into this mostly unused room towards the front of our house. The dog crates are currently there, but we could pretty easily move them else where. It's a possibility, but would take some work and planning.
I've also got two bitches who will be getting spayed. We've been saving up for Bess spay and gastropexy so that we have the money up front and don't have to put it on a credit card. I'm shooting for doing that in May so that she'll have the summer to recover while we're in our "off season.";0) Once Bess is taken care of, then it'll be Ruthie's turn.
I'm also planning on starting a new sport with the dogs, but I'll leave that for the new year to reveal!;0)
2012 is looking like an exciting year and I know that regardless of how things turn out, getting to spend time with my dogs is the best part!
Heffner
Agility
Our goals here are pretty mild because I go into it knowing that we aren't going to be trialing a ton. In AKC agility I would like to finish up his Excellent Standard title. We need two more legs there. And I would like to finish up his Open JWW title. Because for the love of gawd, I would like to no longer be in Open Jumpers!!lol I can't remember entirely, but I think he only needs to more legs there as well. For CPE agility I would like for him to finish up all of his Level 3 classes. I think he's at least half way there. And with the number of CPE trials that I think we should be able to hit this year, I think it's doable.
Rally
I am sooooooo excited that AKC is doing away with the honor station in Excellent!! This makes trialing Heffner so much less stressful! Now I just need to focus on getting him less stressed overall when in the ring. I've read up a little bit on the new stations and I think that we should be good to go on them by April. Because of these changes, I will happily wait until April to begin trialing him in rally again. Which means that Lodi will be our big welcome back to rally.;0) Our goal for 2012 is to get that RE title that I know he is capable of!
Obedience
For the most part, Heffner is retired from obedience. I use that phrase loosely because it's not like he really had much of a competition "career" any how. With respects to obedience, I will only be showing him at specialties. Because Beginner Novice doesn't have any group exercises, I would like for him to finish that title in the new year as well. There are more than enough obedience trials near us that this should be a totally doable goal. We will continue training however, because I would eventually like to show him in the versatility class. There's also that newer Teamwork class that sounds like a lot of fun and a different type of challenge.
Lure Coursing
Since the big boy did show some interest in the sport at the one practice that we attended, I would like to try him out at a few more practices to get a better feel for it and then possibly enter a trial and see what comes out. Our only goal in this sport for the new year is to try it out more and see what happens.
Bess
Rally
Bess only needs four more legs to get her RAE, but we seem to have stalled out. While her limited performance in the obedience ring seems to have improved, her level of depression in the rally ring is clearly evident. We'll keep working on this and see what we can do. I don't think that four more qualifying legs over the course of a year is too lofty of a goal. After that, she will be semi-retired from rally and will only be competing at specialties.
Obedience
We've seen some pretty great improvements in obedience and I'm really happy with the direction that we seem to be going! I've got her entered in a trial coming up in January. I was going to enter her in Graduate Novice again, but then chickened out. The trial site is going to be pretty crazy and distracting and I don't want to overload her too much and turn it into a negative experience. Therefore, I entered her in Beginner Novice. For 2012 I would like to put a BN on her as well as either a CD or a GN title. The BN is definitely doable. The CD will be the hardest because our off leash heeling is still pretty terrible and is the one thing that I'm really having a hard time figuring out how to fix. The GN would be the next most achievable after the BN due to the lack of off leash heeling. But we do still have the off leash figure 8.
Agility
Bess made huge improvements over where she started out at the beginning of this year. The beginning of this year so a total mental break down in the agility ring that took several months to fix. She's a stresser, and it had apparently built to the breaking point for her. We've had success this fall and I'm hoping that we continue to improve as a team. I feel like our runs are still pretty inconsistent because I'm not entirely able to trust her and am wary about her getting the urge to zoom. Which means a lot of looking back and stutter stepping on my part. This is not always conducive to good clean runs. I guess my goal for 2012 should be to trust Bess more on the course and hope that we start to jive better as a team. For her, I would REALLY like to finish up her Open Standard title. I'm on my laptop in the craft room (hubby is hosting poker night and I'm hanging out with the dogs since some of the people who come over are scared to death of them) and don't have my competition spreadsheet (remember, Excel and I have a serious love affair!!) to know for sure how many more legs she needs. I think it's two more legs. Those darned down contacts specifically on the A-frame are just killing us! I would also love it if she could get her Excellent JWW title, but since I have some personal hang ups in JWW, that one is going to take some work.
Lure Coursing
I would also like to try Bess out at more lure coursing practices. She didn't quite catch on to it the way that Heffner did. She was more interested in chasing the other dogs who were chasing the lure. We'll see how the practices go and maybe enter her in a trial.
Ruthie
Agility
I am trying to take things nice and slow with little pressure with Ruthie. She seems to really enjoy our time out at the agility barn and is catching on to things faster than I expected. I've tried some sequencing with her and once I realized that it works waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better to front cross with her than to do anything else, our runs actually smoothed out and we are starting to get more fluid! She has no qualms about the A-frame or the dog walk, but the dog walk is her absolute favorite obstacle on the course right now. Enough so that as I'm going around lowering jumps for her, I have to keep my on her because she will just run across it. The teeter is so-so right now. She does the full height teeter, but she's not a fan of the fast descent, so I'm slowing it down for her and that seems to make her much happier. We'll continue to work on it at her pace and it'll come when it comes. On the up side, she very willingly gets on it, it's just the going down part that she's not a huge fan of. My goal for her is to put her into a group class in the spring and see how that goes. My eventual goal is to enter her in her first trial in the fall, preferably a CPE trial since it's a gentler way to start trialing.
Rally
Everything really is a clean slate with Ruthie and we're just starting into the various sports. My only goal for her in the new year is to have her to a point where I feel comfortable entering her in the rally trial at the national specialty in the fall. I'm not shooting for any titles in 2012, I just want us to get started and see how things go.
Obedience
Our goals for obedience are pretty much the same as they are for rally. I want to have her to a point by the fall where I feel comfortable entering her in Beginner Novice at the national specialty. We're actually starting things off in January with a bang by going to an specialty A match! Are we ready? Nope! But it'll definitely let me know where the major holes are! On the up side, posing for all those Christmas pictures had me working on her stays daily in a fun way. And now she actually has a freaking stay!! Yay!!
Lure Coursing
LOL.....I put this on here because I included it for the big dogs. I don't think that lure coursing will be in Ruthie's future. It's not that she doesn't have the athleticism or the spunk, I just don't think that she'll see the point in chasing a baggy. And with those stubby legs, I'd have to make sure that she was running in only well mowed fields. I MIGHT bring her to a practice or two just to see, but there really isn't a goal for her in this sport.
I've also made a commitment to improving the ball studio in the new year. There's a ton of equipment and other things that have been on my mental wish list for a while now and I've decided to just suck it up and start adding things on a monthly basis. Some of it's little like adding in more mats. Some of the items are more spendy, like an 80 cm peanut ball. There's also a possibility that I will be moving the studio from the garage into this mostly unused room towards the front of our house. The dog crates are currently there, but we could pretty easily move them else where. It's a possibility, but would take some work and planning.
I've also got two bitches who will be getting spayed. We've been saving up for Bess spay and gastropexy so that we have the money up front and don't have to put it on a credit card. I'm shooting for doing that in May so that she'll have the summer to recover while we're in our "off season.";0) Once Bess is taken care of, then it'll be Ruthie's turn.
I'm also planning on starting a new sport with the dogs, but I'll leave that for the new year to reveal!;0)
2012 is looking like an exciting year and I know that regardless of how things turn out, getting to spend time with my dogs is the best part!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Changes Are A Comin'
That title sounds so much more ominous than what it actually represents. But, since I do like to OCCASIONALLY be overly dramatic, I find it fitting.;0) I had thought about making a combination post where I talked about changes that I plan to make for the blog combined with what my goals are for the dogs in the upcoming year, but I thought that might get a little lengthy. So I'm splitting it up. Today will be about the blog and either tomorrow or Friday will be about goals (just depends on which day yields me more time).
I'm not planning on doing anything terribly drastic, just some little things that I would like to add in and kind of get a general feed back on what people thought. The first change that I'll make has to do with my Blogger Tuesday. Instead of picking a blog to highlight each week, I'm going to take it down to once a month.
I'm also toying with the idea of doing a weekly training challenge. I really enjoyed doing the trick challenges on the Smooth Sailin' blog at the beginning of this year. They got me trying new and different things with the dogs, and we all enjoyed it! It also helped to spice up our training time, something that I've felt has been a little lacking lately. The challenges would be fairly simple. It's something that I would be fitting in with all three of my guys, so nothing too complex that would turn me into a stress monster. I've started compiling a list already and I think it could be fun. I'd post videos of how our training of the "trick" went and if there were others who were regularly joining in, I'd like to include links to their blogs on my post so that other people could check them out and see how other handlers and various other dogs accomplished and went about the training.
Movie Monday is definitely staying! I'm having fun with that. And the weekly training videos would be separate from the Movie Monday videos. Videos galore!! What I would like to do is add a little something to it. I follow a few non-dog bloggers who do some video blogging and I LOVE their vlogs!! I thought that it might be fun once a month to do a video blog post. I have a few ideas about what I could start off talking about, but questions or ideas would always be welcome! It's fun to "get to know" someone who's blog you follow without being a stalker.;0) I have a fun idea for January that I'm hoping will work out!
And finally, as always, I have such a fun time taking daily pictures of my dogs throughout the month of December, that I wanted to try and find a way to keep myself going with it minus the "pressure" of joining a group. So I'm going to issue myself weekly photo challenges and I'll post the results here. I'd like to play with lighting a little more and some of the settings on my little point and shoot and I think this is just the ticket to keep me snapping away!
So those are the changes that are forth coming to the blog in 2012!! I hope you like the ideas and will like the actuality once I get going with it! If you have any thoughts or questions, just leave me a note in the comments section!:)
I'm not planning on doing anything terribly drastic, just some little things that I would like to add in and kind of get a general feed back on what people thought. The first change that I'll make has to do with my Blogger Tuesday. Instead of picking a blog to highlight each week, I'm going to take it down to once a month.
I'm also toying with the idea of doing a weekly training challenge. I really enjoyed doing the trick challenges on the Smooth Sailin' blog at the beginning of this year. They got me trying new and different things with the dogs, and we all enjoyed it! It also helped to spice up our training time, something that I've felt has been a little lacking lately. The challenges would be fairly simple. It's something that I would be fitting in with all three of my guys, so nothing too complex that would turn me into a stress monster. I've started compiling a list already and I think it could be fun. I'd post videos of how our training of the "trick" went and if there were others who were regularly joining in, I'd like to include links to their blogs on my post so that other people could check them out and see how other handlers and various other dogs accomplished and went about the training.
Movie Monday is definitely staying! I'm having fun with that. And the weekly training videos would be separate from the Movie Monday videos. Videos galore!! What I would like to do is add a little something to it. I follow a few non-dog bloggers who do some video blogging and I LOVE their vlogs!! I thought that it might be fun once a month to do a video blog post. I have a few ideas about what I could start off talking about, but questions or ideas would always be welcome! It's fun to "get to know" someone who's blog you follow without being a stalker.;0) I have a fun idea for January that I'm hoping will work out!
And finally, as always, I have such a fun time taking daily pictures of my dogs throughout the month of December, that I wanted to try and find a way to keep myself going with it minus the "pressure" of joining a group. So I'm going to issue myself weekly photo challenges and I'll post the results here. I'd like to play with lighting a little more and some of the settings on my little point and shoot and I think this is just the ticket to keep me snapping away!
So those are the changes that are forth coming to the blog in 2012!! I hope you like the ideas and will like the actuality once I get going with it! If you have any thoughts or questions, just leave me a note in the comments section!:)
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Blogger Tuesday
We got an award!:0) And I'm finally getting around to posting about it.;0) Falkor and Famke as well as Luke gave us this award. Thanks guys!! This award fits in perfectly with my Blog of the Week thread too! Here are the rules:(1) Thank the blogger that gave you the award and then add a link to their blog.
(2) Reveal your top five picks (with less than 200 readers) and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
(3) Copy and Paste the Award to Your Blog.
(4) Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favorite up-and-coming bloggers, and keep it going!
My top five picks are:
1) Gemini's Leo the Lionhearted. This is a blog about my friend Kennedy's fluffy midget Leo! Leo competes in agility, rally, and obedience currently. He's full of cute spunk and is lots of fun to watch!
2) The Wild Life. This blog is about the life and times of an adorable black great dane puppy. They haven't posted anything in a little while and I'm hoping that this award along with maybe some more followers will encourage them to keep at it!
3) Shutter Hounds. This blog is about two retired racing greyhounds and their photographer daddy. I LOVE blogs with pictures, especially really good ones!:0)
4) Running with Kona. This blog is about the running (and life in general) adventures of Kona and her person. They go on some lovely runs and take some great pictures.
5) Northfield Natter. The focus of this blog is more on competition obedience, but these dogs seem to do it all!
So head on over and check them all out!
Monday, December 26, 2011
Not In Love
I most certainly am not in love with December 26th. It's the one day of the year that I dread the most. December 26th means all the Christmas festivities and anticipation are over for another year.:( I strongly dislike this. Thankfully today has been a full day so I haven't had a lot of time to dwell on it. I went in to work this morning for a few hours. Then it was off to lunch with some friends from high school who were all in town. Then home to take the dogs for a hike and get in some cardio while it was still light out. And now I'm sitting down and collecting my thoughts for the week. Still no video for Movie Monday. Tomorrow I'll be posting about the award that we received!:) And then on Wednesday I'll talk about some of the upcoming changes that I plan to make to the blog.
In the mean time, since almost all of my Christmas cards have gone out, I thought that I would share our card with you.:) These are the pictures that we had taken back at the end of September by Alicia with Four-Legged Photo. We happened to pick the one day at the end of September that turned out to be hot and humid and also had some uncooperative ducks. Which meant that getting Bess' attention was difficult. At any rate, the pictures turned out great and I'm happy to share them with all of you! I hope your holiday was full of family, friends, and good times!!
And for anyone in the area who is interested, we received four referral cards worth 25% off a session fee, to give out. Drop me a line and I'm more than happy to give you a referral card!
In the mean time, since almost all of my Christmas cards have gone out, I thought that I would share our card with you.:) These are the pictures that we had taken back at the end of September by Alicia with Four-Legged Photo. We happened to pick the one day at the end of September that turned out to be hot and humid and also had some uncooperative ducks. Which meant that getting Bess' attention was difficult. At any rate, the pictures turned out great and I'm happy to share them with all of you! I hope your holiday was full of family, friends, and good times!!
And for anyone in the area who is interested, we received four referral cards worth 25% off a session fee, to give out. Drop me a line and I'm more than happy to give you a referral card!
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve!!
Merry Christmas Eve!!! The day is almost here! I do have to admit that I think I kind of like Christmas Eve better than the day itself. There's all the anticipation. The magic of what's coming tonight. And just the general good cheer and build up. It's just all sorts of warm fuzziness.:0)
This morning I started my day off on the best foot possible by taking the danes out for a long hike. I opted to leave Ruthie at home because I knew it was going to be cold, I wanted to do a longer hike, and it was also damp. Being a low rider dog, even with a coat on, she gets way more wet than the big dogs just trucking along on the trail. And considering how mucky the big dogs' coats got, she would have been a total mud ball! So Heffner, Bess, and I headed out for an early morning hike so that we could get in a few good hours of actual hiking. The down side of that is that it meant starting our hike while it was still totally dark out. Thankfully I picked a trail that I know very well and am comfortable with at least the first portion of the footing. Even so, I still almost bit it within the first few minute. Figures! Other than that, it was a lovely hike and just what I needed!!
Since I haven't really done much actual updating on the blog, I did have a fun Thur. evening. I met up with my friend Elizabeth for a handling class! I mentioned previously that she had asked me if I would handle her dane puppy Ruby for her (did she really think that I would have said no???). Thursday night was a practice to see how we were going to mesh together and for me to get a chance to work her. Elizabeth has already been taking her to handling classes herself and has worked with her a ton, so she's already a really well behaved girl and great about letting me hand stack her. Really the only work that needs to be done is for her to get more used to working with me so that she's totally comfortable. Our first show together will be the big Rose City Classic in January! I'm so excited!!
Other than that it's been a whole lot of getting things done at work and finishing up Christmas shopping.
I hope that everyone has a great Christmas Eve and a very merry Christmas!!
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