Blogger Tuesday

The above picture was done by Keli, who is someone I met through our local dane group. Obviously she also has danes, in addition to some other critters. She was really nice and emailed me to let me knew that she had created this picture of Heffner for me!! How cool is that??

Well folks, the Iditarod is well under way with the ceremonial start on Sat. and the official restart on Sun.! In addition to the official web site, there's a blog that I would like to highlight where you can also get a fair amount of information in addition to pictures and lots of videos from the ceremonial start!! My pick for Blog of the Week is Backstage Iditarod! You will definitely want to go and check this blog out!!

All of the excitement surrounding the race and just the sheer power of racing sled dogs has me seriously contemplating volunteering to help out at the Iditarod. It's something I've actually sort of day dreamed about. I know that I absolutely don't want to race it, but it would be really great just to be a part of that big race. And I know that they can use all the help that they can get. I know that it'll be a LOT of hard work and very little sleep, but it was just be so AWESOME!! I'm shooting for going up and volunteering in 2012. I know it seems like a little far in advance to plan for, but that's about when I can set aside the vacation time for that. It's not something that you do for just a couple of days. It's something that you really need to commit to.

Book of the Month

My pick for Book of the Month is "Born to Win, Breed to Succeed" by Patricia Craige Trotter. If ever there was a book that you should read if you wanted to learn more about and get excited about the sport of purebred dogs, then this is the one! The author has many years of experience as a breeder, handler, and judge of purebred dogs; breeding Norwegian Elkhounds herself. She was also fortunate to know and learn from many of the greats in various different breeds at that time.

I’ve heard many people before talk about the fact that you can often learn more about your own breed by studying other breeds. This statement definitely holds true in this book. The author discusses many, many different breeds and their strengths and weaknesses. Not only does she describe them very well, but she includes pictures that excellently illustrate the specific points that she is discussing.

The foundation of all dog breeds is correct conformation. What that correct conformation is varies depending on what each breed was bred for. The author goes into details about the various different breeds, what they were bred for, and why their bodies work for that function. If you want to learn more about how the pieces fit together to make the whole, this book is great for that. Every little piece is important, no matter how small it may seem.

Another aspect of correct conformation is correct movement. The author describes why the trot was picked as the best gait to evaluate a dog at in the show ring. She also describes how the individual bones fit together to make this ideal motion happen. Things that can seem as insignificant as the length of upper arm, really are important and the mechanics of this are described.

Trotter also goes on to explain how the various standards evolved. How some can date back into antiquity. How some standards were created by horsemen who had a very good working idea of how a horse and therefore a dog should be put together for it’s intended purpose. Some standards still have portions that are not as well explained because it is assumed that some things are just known.

There’s also a wonderful section on genetics. How different dogs or bitches can be prepotent and pass along certain traits through the generations. Also explains about how sex linked genes work. Talks about why it’s really important to pay attention to the dogs throughout the pedigree to help predict what you may get in your future puppy.

There is much discussion on the importance of bitches and the impact that they can have on a breed. Trotter gives a succinct listing of some of the top producing bitches across different breeds. She also includes a discussion on stud dogs and how to pick the right one. Things to stay away from as well, such as The Popular Sire Syndrome. Following the top producing bitches is a section on the top producing sires across breeds and what they have contributed to their individual breeds.

Next there’s a discussion on pedigrees. What’s in a pedigree? She explains the importance of the individual players in it. And just generally how to make sense of one.

Once you’ve picked the appropriate parents and you breed a litter, your next hurdle is picking which puppy to keep. The author goes over some of the basic things to look for and to watch out for. Emphasizing the importance of having a mentor in your breed to help you along with your breed's specifics.

Weekend Wrap Up!

We have had some very nice spring weather here yesterday and for the first half of today! Yesterday morning we went on a light hike with the dogs and some friends. We went out to one of the trails that we frequent and took a route that I hadn't used for a while. Which meant that there were some fallen trees and overgrowth to deal with in order to get to the better trail. But the weather was beautiful and the views were spectacular. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera at home.:( A rare occasion!

After the hike, Adam and I went off with the same friends to watch Alice In Wonderland and get some dinner. The movie was great and I loved watching it in the IMAX 3D! Dinner was also yummy and a good way to end the evening.

This morning we had intended to get up and go hiking with my friend Amy and her hiking group, but that ended up not happening. A bit of over sleeping and an alarm that didn't get set.:o/ Thankfully though it allowed me to get a whole lot done today. I got the lawn mowed, did some ball work with the dogs, got both dogs thoroughly brushed out, did some other odds and ends around the house, and took the dogs out for some off leash running around. They are thoroughly exercised and happy and I'm quite pleased with how much I was able to get done!

I also finally cracked the instruction manual for our camera and found out about some features that our little camera has that I didn't realize! I started messing with things like shutter speed and the continuous shot option. I LOVE the continuous shots!! They're so awesome! Now if only I could figure out the correct setting and shutter speed I would have some awesome action shots of the dogs. As it was, in one 20 min. chunk of time while they were running around, I took well over 400 pictures. That was a LOT of pictures to weed through. Fortunately or unfortunately, the shutter speed was so high that the pictures came out really grainy and not well focused so I ended up deleting a ton of them. I'm going to keep toying with that and hopefully I'll get some nice shots soon!

I'm also very impatiently waiting for Bess to go into season. The inconvenient thing about having an intact bitch is that you have to schedule things around theird seasons. You can show a bitch in season in conformation, but you can't for any of the performance events. I'm getting ready to send in registration for events in April, and my hands are tied until she goes into season and I know whether I'll be throwing my money away or not. While some clubs will refund your money if your bitch ends up going into season, not all will. At the moment, she's a week late. I have a really bad feeling that she's going to do what she did at this time last year and go 7 months in between cycles instead of six months. Which puts her at going into season right at the beginning of April, which does NOT jive well with my performance plans.>:o( This also would put her going into season again right around the time of the national specialty. Also NOT okay with entering her in the performance events. On the upside, there is an option to prevent her from going into season. It's a product called Cheque Drops. Depending on when she goes into season this time around will determine whether I put her on it for her next season. While I was hoping to avoid doing that, I'm not against it. So we'll see. At this point, I would prefer that she wait until after our agility class on Tue. night to go into season, but she better go in soon!

YouTube of the Month!

I know that this clip has been circulating more recently, but I just HAD to post it in case someone else hasn't seen this. It totally cracks me up!! I'm unable to embed the video, but here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hly0vuXPG-M

This seems to be a recurring reaction to various different breeds of dogs when they get on the trampoline. I did a random search through YouTube of just dogs on trampolines and a variety of dogs that all had very similar reactions popped up. It was pretty funny! While me knee jerk reaction is "OMG, we need to get the dogs a trampoline (and I think I even texted this to Adam)!" With my luck, it would end very badly! Enjoy!

Collar of the Month

My pick for Collar of the Month is the Shamrock Stitch by Feline Fido! Overall the collar is durable. Though I do have to say that the ribbon designs tend to not hold up to a lot of wear, tear, and washing. It may not be readily obvious in this picture, but the shamrocks are starting to fade already after a total of a few weeks of Heffner wearing it and getting washed twice. However, I do like the variety of collar designs that they have and the overall collar holds up well with no snagging or fraying of the nylon. The prices are also quite decent!

A Day Off!

Lately I have been REALLY stressed out with my job. So stressed out that thought of finding a new one has crossed my mind several times. Yesterday I had a great talk with my boss and I think we have a plan for setting things in motion that will relieve my stress to at least a moderate level. I don't often get to the point that I was at, but it just amazes how much I end up shutting down other things in the rest of my life. While writing on this blog is definitely therapeutic, sometimes it's hard when all I want to do is curl up in the fetal position. Like I said though, things are better now and especially after the day I've had today! I had pre-scheduled to take today off and it was definitely needed! I feel so refreshed!!

We started off the morning by heading out to the lake for some romping and hiking around. I almost turned around when we hit the first of our favorite spots. The water level out there is now so high that the vast majority of beaches that we're used to having are submerged under several feet of water. Since we were already out there, I figured we might as well take advantage of the time and I could check out some other new spots that I've thought about checking out, but just haven't gotten around to. We also did something entirely new, we actually hiked on the trail that goes around the lake for a bit! All in all, it was a great morning!
Here's Bess checking out a potentially vicious stick in the water!

And here's a shot of Heffner that I submitted as our Week 9 shot! I'm actually really pleased with how it turned out! Both of the dogs had hopped up onto a ledge and while Bess was off exploring Heffner came back to check on me. I decided to go for it and took several shots from that angle and just loved how everything came together. And this picture is completely unaltered since I don't have any software to do that in the first place.







I have a tendency to take shots of my dogs' footprints on our meanderings. Usually next to my foot so that there's a size reference. While they're footprints look totally normal to me, sometimes I wonder what other people must think when they come across them! he he he he




The only thing that I don't like about following the trail around the lake is that it very frequently pops back out onto the main road at multiple "trail heads." The problem with this is that you could be going along following the trail and you suddenly just pop out onto the road. Not my favorite thing to do with dogs off leash who enjoy racing ahead of me. It tends to give me a bit of heart failure when I realize there's a road RIGHT THERE. Thankfully the lake is still closed for fishing, it's the middle of the week, and traffic is very limited. But still, it freaks me out! And unfortunately there are sections of the trail for which you have to walk along the shoulder of the road to get to the next trail head and chunk of trail. That's why I am a fan of lower water levels and sticking to the beaches.

After the hike and meeting hubby for lunch, I decided to get crankin' on the soft crate project. Something that would have gone faster and easier if I didn't have two giant dogs trying to "help" me. I had Bess spooning me from the back and Heffner laying down in the crate (something I definitely don't want to discourage), occasionally trying to figure out the most comfortable way for him to lay down while resting his heavy head on some portion of my body. Yeah, it just wasn't terribly convenient. But I had a fair amount of time to work away at it and I did manage to finish the whole front of the crate! I just want to mention that I am doing this by hand, mostly because I think it would be a royal pain in the butt to try to figure out how to work all of that with my sewing machine. And I'm also not going for it to look "professionally" put together. I'm pretty much just slapping it together to get it done and over with. So don't expect too much prettiness! Here's the completed front:
I still need to cover the inside seams, but here's what it looks like:
As you can see, I kind of sewed the zippered part together to hold it in place while I sewed on the segments of fabric. While it makes it harder to sew on the individual segments (and causes me to realize how flexible I am NOT), it makes the overall front more stable. Thankfully this crate has two openings into it. I will now only be able to use the side entrance to get a dog in or out.
I have also heard through another friend of mine (not the one who's coming down to stay with me) that the Corky Vroom handling seminar is getting cancelled due to some health problems. I haven't officially received any notification that it's cancelled and am waiting to hear. I'm going to be REALLY bummed if it does get cancelled. I was really looking forward to it! That was also part of my push to get the soft crate all "fixed." I must have some sort of luck to have two events on consecutive weekends get cancelled. Whatever will I do with my free weekend if it is in fact cancelled??

Alrighty, I'm off to try and get some more scrapbooking done. I didn't accomplish much on Sun. It is seriously taking me a long time to put together even a simple page!

Blogger Tuesday

My pick for Blog of the Week is Funhog and Fundogs! Some more lovely winter dogs with lots of lovely pictures and adventures. And they skijor!!:o)