Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well, today ended up being a greener day than I expected. I went off to work not feeling all that great, but had too much stuff to get done and figured that I could at least push through the first half of the day. That didn't happen. I spent most of the time I was at work hunched over my chair at my desk with a garbage can next to me in case my breakfast decided to rebel against me. I managed to get some stuff rescheduled and then high tailed it home hoping that I wouldn't have to pull over along the way. Thankfully it was a speedy drive and I was able to collapse in the "comfort" of my own bathroom. Little bit of food poisoning I believe. I'm feeling better now, but I spent most of the day green around the gills. Bleck!


I had other ideas for what to post about today, but now I'm just wiped out. Instead, I'll post pictures from last year of how I entertained myself at the dogs' expense.:o)



And here's the picture that I took of Heffner last week for the 52 Weeks for Dogs:

Wow!!!

I just received an email this morning from the folks at TrainPetDog.com and our blog made it into the finals!!! We are in the top 20 out of 142 blogs entered!!! Woo hoo!!! I really wasn't sure if we'd make it there because I didn't want to push people to vote for us. I do need to thank all of you who voted for us. It really means a lot to me that you think enough of this blog to vote for us!:o) I'd give ya all a big hug and the dogs would give you all some big sloppy kisses if we could!

I'm not entirely sure how the voting goes from here. In the email it sounded like you had to subscribe to their newsletter in order to be able to cast votes. But there were some dates in the email that seemed a little off since I didn't get it until today. We'll see. If you would like to, just go to the web site (I've got the badge on the side of the blog too that will automatically link to it), subscribe to the newsletter and vote for us!!!

Blogger Tuesday

My pick for Blog of the Week is Reactive Champion! Having a reactive dog myself, I can definitely say that it makes you feel a little less alone when there is someone else out there who has gone through what you're going through and totally understands what it's like to have to deal with these unique "issues." And it's even better when she's writing a blog about her experiences and training with such a dog!!:o)

Aside from just loving to hear about whatever Crystal and Maisy are doing, it's another blog that talks about training and all it's various aspects. The more I think about training in general and try new things out with my dogs, the more I LOVE it! And I just love reading about what other people are doing!

For instance, Crystal wrote a post about training schedules. To be perfectly honest, I hadn't really thought about it other than our little morning routine. I mentioned previously that I was a little frustrated with my training with Heffner and Bess because they are two halves to the perfect whole and it drives me a little bit batty. When I read Crystal's post about trying out a five time a day training schedule, it got me to thinking. We all know that repetition builds muscle memory and helps to ingrain things that we want to train. It seems only natural that repeating it multiple times a day would further help this. Sometimes it's hard though to set aside big chunks of time to do training. And when you're training the same thing with more than one dog, it can get a bit tedious. But what if you broke your training up throughout the day into five smaller segments? Why, wonderful things happen!

While I read the post last week, I knew that I was going out of town for the dog show and wouldn't really be able to start trying it out. I decided to start on Monday; yesterday. I wasn't entirely sure how it would work out, but I am already incredibly happy with what I've seen so far!! From a training stand point, woopy!! Heffner is totally getting the hang of the automatic sits and repeating them!! Both dogs are totally cluing in to the right finish (I was seriously struggling with both finishes for a while)!! And Bess is getting some very happy and quick recalls! I am ecstatic! Not only are the dogs happy about more training throughout the day, but I'm in a really great mood because it is soooooooooo easy to fit in short bursts of training and not get bored with what I'm doing. I'm excited, so the dogs are excited. The short bouts of training leave them constantly wanting more. I'm getting snappier responses to exercises that were a little lack luster in some cases. And it's just so much fun!!

Talk about a great post! So definitely pop on over and check out their blog.:o)

Web Site of the Month

My pick for Web Site of the Month is Dog Run Dog! We are having some crazy late spring like weather here in the Pacific Northwest that has me really thinking about road races for the spring, summer, and early fall! This site has all sorts of helpful information if you're looking to get started running/jogging with your dog. There's an informational blog with all sorts of helpful tips. There's a Health section that discusses some of the various things that you need to think about while running with your dogs. There are lots of helpful and fun links that you can check out, a store for various dog related stuff, and a listing of races that are promoted as dog friendly.

I took the dogs on a really nice run tonight! I believe the temperatures got into the mid 60's today and now that we've jumped ahead an hour (as much as I hate losing that hour!), we have day light longer! It was just a great night for a run and I really love that we can see on-coming things like idiots on bicycles who think it's a great idea to completely ignore the generous bike lane along one stretch of our route, in favor of riding on the sidewalk. I am not a fan of stupidity and I did NOT budge on the sidewalk. Considering that the dogs and I take up the entire width of that stretch of sidewalk, it was incredibly difficult for the "intellectually challenged" cyclist (I use the term loosely) to get around us without going into the bike lane. Heaven forbid!! Otherwise, it was a lovely night.:o) And it got me really pumped up for the upcoming road race season. Since I completely missed out last year due to conformation conflicts and a stress fracture during the peak season, I'm looking forward to at least a few 5K's this summer with the dogs. I'm not entirely sure what the season will hold for me triathlon wise. I have a feeling that the only race I may possible enter is going to be one of the Hagg Lake races and certainly no olympic distances this year either. I'm just not as psyched about triathlons as I used to be. It also doesn't hurt that the price of entries has sky rocketed to a ridiculous amount!

Hmmmm....I do seem to be rambling just a wee bit.;) I hope everyone is having a lovely night and I'm off to torment my unsuspecting pooches!!

Weekend Re-cap

Oy, what a weekend! We headed up to the general Seattle area on Friday for the Seattle Kennel Club dog show. Kim was super nice and let us stay at her house again. Once we got the dogs and ourselves settled in, we had a few glasses of wine and chatted for a bit. I had been forewarned that this show tends to be a bit of a zoo. There's a fair amount of promotion done for the show to encourage spectators (I have a strong suspicion it has to do with the fact that they charge admission for this show) and that creates a few issues for the exhibitors that I was about to witness first hand the next day. But first, I have to explain our lovely sleepless night.

Greer and I were sharing a bed in one of Kim's guest bedrooms. I had set up the big crate that I did the repair job on as a sort of extra bed for the dogs to use and we were just going to leave both of the girls loose in the room. Previously, I brought a comforter along with me to put over the top of the bed so that Bess could sleep with me on the bed. She VERY much preferred this and routinely showed me by jumping up onto the bed and casting longing looks at the bed whenever I was sitting on it. There just wasn't enough room for two people and two danes on this bed though. So both girls were sleeping on the floor. Greer brought in Mia's bed for her to sleep on, but Mia decided that the crate was going to be her bedroom. I think Bess preferred the crate, but wasn't about to oust Mia. So instead she stood and paced a little while before settling down and we turned off the lights. And then the fun began!

For the next few HOURS Bess would get up at least once an hour and come over to me for some snuggles. The first time, I thought it was cute and even though I knew what she really wanted, I wasn't about to cave in and I figured that she'd give up once she realized this. Nope. She just stuck around. So finally I told her to go lay down and she did. The next time she just draped her next across mine. And hung out there. Until I told her again to go lay down. That happened a few more times with me getting more irritated. Finally, Bess just jumped up onto the bed and immediately lay down as though I couldn't make her get off the bed. But I did. This whole time Mia was being really good and just hung out in the crate even though the door was open. Then about 3:30am Mia needed to go potty. Greer took her out and she did her thing. Then they came back and neither of the girls really settled down after that until the alarm went off around 6:00am. I was bound and determined to ignore the dogs and try to garner as much sleep as I possibly could. So we started off the day with not a whole lot of sleep.

After we got vehicles loaded up with dogs and crates, we headed off the show grounds. And that's when I realized exactly what they meant by it being a zoo. This is a dog show where they seriously cater more towards the spectators, to the point where it is almost an inconvenience to be an exhibitor. First of all, the crating space around the rings is roughly half that of what is available at Rose City, and crating space gets pretty tight there. So getting spots and setting up crates was interesting. Secondly, the seating that they have for the spectators is only on two sides of the rings and instead of chairs they have bleachers. The bleachers aren't actually a bad idea. However, there really are only two sides of the rings that you're actual able to watch anything from. Which means that there's a whole lot of people crammed into those specific areas. On Saturday, I hadn't even realized that the danes had already gone into the ring because I couldn't see the ring AT ALL and I was only standing about 10 ft. from the ring entrance. There were about 10 packed rows of people in front of me. THAT, is a bit annoying. And I'm not the only one who was annoyed. You really had to be actually rude in order to get through the throngs of people ringside just so that you could get close enough to the entrance with your dog to make sure you were there when your number was called. I'm actually surprised that everyone was able to make it into the ring without some misses.

The other unfortunate thing were the amount of parents' who brought their kids along and just let them run amok, literally running up to any old random dog to pet it or worse, give it a hug. You do NOT let a small child run up to a dog you don't know at all and give it a hug! With the amount of people milling around and the amount of stress that everyone was under, it is not unreasonable to imagine that many dogs would snap at that. Especially ones who are not used to small children. I just really don't know what possesses people to be so careless and put their children at risk like that. It's just plain dumb! I'm totally fine with people coming up with their kids while their holding their hands and asking to pet Bess. If they ask beforehand, I will let them pet her. If they don't ask and just coming rush up. I pull Bess out of the way and immediately tell the parents' that it's really not a good idea to let their child run up to an unfamiliar dog, especially one the size of a great dane, without first asking to pet or approach it. Most people are understanding when you say it nicely to them. I just don't understand why on earth they don't think of that in the first place!!! ARG!

Anyhow, after a pretty hectic day at the show, we went back to Kim's to relax a bit before we headed over to Ken's house for a WONDERFUL dinner! Oh my goodness the food was so good! We had lots of fun sitting around and talking about dogs, drinking a little wine, and eating some yummy food. There was a bit of an incident with starting a fire in the fire place and not having the flue actually opened, but I think that the smoke added a nice rustic aroma to the place!

Night #2 at Kim's went much smoother than the first night. I put Bess in the big crate and zipped her in there. Mia was loose, but she slept for most of the night. I think she slept until 4-4:30am before wanting out to go potty. Then we packed everything up and headed out for day #2 of the dog show. I was steeling myself for another crazy day, but thankfully it wasn't quite as bad. I was actually able to watch the danes in the ring when I wasn't ferrying a dog up to the entrance and the spectators weren't quite as thick. Unfortunately Bess didn't do anything either day. She won her class on Saturday and took second today. Oh well.

After danes were done, we packed everything up and started driving home! When we stopped at Greer's house, they were nice enough to let Bess come play in their back yard for a bit to stretch her legs after the long drive. Bess got to meet Mia's greyhound brother Sully and they all got to run around and have a good time. It was pretty cute!

And at the moment I have quite a headache that no amount of Advil seems to dulling, a girl dog who is crashed out on the couch after the crazy weekend, and one overly bored boy dog who can't seem to get ANYONE to play with him. So I'm going to head off and see what I can do about that. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Almost Out of Here!

No blog post yesterday because I was preoccupied with getting ready for the show this weekend. I got to stop off in Tigard to visit Mia and help get her face trimmed up for the show. She was actually quite good. She wasn't thrilled about me trimming her face during the time that she stayed with us. But then again, she was much younger. I also practiced stacking her rear. Every dog is different and I'm so used to Bess who is pretty much fine with whatever I do to her. Mia takes a lighter touch to maneuver her rear feet into the ideal position. Otherwise she likes to lift the leg WAY up into the air. And then it's much more difficult to place it where it should be. And it looks pretty funny!

After cleaning up Mia, I got home with hopes of taking the dogs for at least a brief run. However, the weather has been slightly atrocious. I can handle running in the rain for short bits of time and the dogs have their rain coats, but I really cannot tolerate heavy rain mixed with wind. NOT my idea of fun. So I gave up on that idea and just went ahead and fed the dogs.

After feeding them and myself and giving them a bit of time to chill, it was time to start getting my end of things ready for the show. Both dogs got their nails dremmelled because it was Thursday and that's our nail night (OCD cha cha cha!). Then Bess got her face clippered (she's such a good girl about it!) and a bath. Let me tell you, while she looked pretty clean, that was one filthy bitch!LOL (sorry, I just love saying that!) She had some zoomies afterwards which were quite entertaining to watch.

I did a little bit of getting my clothes picked out for this weekend and that pretty lead me right up to bed time. Busy, busy.

This morning I actually got up right when my alarm went off versus hitting the snooze button a few times. Mostly because I wanted to get in the dogs morning training session in addition to getting into work early. I've got some procedures that I really can't reschedule and the earlier I get in and get them done (with the help of my fabulous co-worker Ashley!), the earlier I can leave and finish getting ready to head up to the Seattle area. However, the weather has once again stuck it's tongue out at me. It was raining pretty heavily and I was pretty much ready to just suck it up, put on extra layers, and put the dogs' rain coats on (even though this pretty much guarantees that they won't do any sitting because the coats apparently make the act of sitting far too impossible), but then I looked out the front window and saw how much the wind was blowing. It pretty much looked totally miserable out there. So I caved and have been catching up on some other things.

Later this afternoon I pop into Tigard, pick up Mia and her mom, and then we're headed north to stay at Kim's house for the dog show in Seattle!! I believe that it's a major at least in bitches this weekend so that should be interesting. And it looks like there's also a fair amount going on at this show so there will be plenty to see! Wish us luck and I'll give an update on Sunday evening after we get home!

Two Halves of a Whole?

I think about this often. Heffner and Bess are quite honestly two halves of the whole perfect dog. Things that Heffner takes longer to learn, Bess picks right up on. Aspects of Bess' conformation that I would like to be a bit better, Heffner has. And they each have portions of their personalities and temperaments that would make the perfect dog. Sometimes I just want to squish them together to make that one perfect dog!

I was thinking about this again this morning while I took the dogs out for our morning obedience session. Heffner has no automatic sit. Whatsoever. Bess is probably at about 95%. Bess will sometimes lag while heeling. Heffner is more likely to stay in heel position or forge a bit if something catches his attention. Bess cannot focus on anything else if she sees a squirrel. Heffner gets distracted momentarily, but then comes back to me. Heffner isn't as precise on his turns and maintaining heel position. Bess seems to read my mind and sticks with me about 95% of the time. Heffner can repeat the same exact thing over and over and not get deterred. If I do that with Bess, she starts to act as though she's done something wrong and that's why I'm repeating the exercise. Heffner is reactive, Bess is not. It is like that in pretty much everything with them. They are so different that it constantly amazes me. This is why I've also decided that trialing them together in any sport on the same day really isn't fair to either dog. I need to focus on their individual needs and I just can't do that when I'm running both dogs. Someone is going to lose out and that's not really fair.

And speaking of squirrels, I seriously think that they are Satan's spawn. Seriously. The park near our house that we always walk through on our runs was bloody well CRAWLING with them! They were everywhere! And totally taunting the dogs! Either chittering at them from the trees or waiting until we approached a segment of trail and then purposefully running right in front of the dogs. It was really ridiculous! Heffner got desensitized to their behavior after a while, but Bess just could NOT let it go and wanted to chase after every single one. ARG! Oh well. At least our run tonight was lovely.:o)

That's it. Just a random post about a random musing that I had today. Tomorrow I head over to see Mia after work to help get her trimmed up for the dog show this weekend!