another dog who will NEVER do agility ...

This is Kismet

He isn't old but he is "special". He is blind (mostly); he spins in circles; he can't wear a leash; and he is one weird and wonderful litle dude.

He needs to find a new forever home that will love him to pieces and let his real personality shine. He is getting more confident and more affectionate day by day. Sometimes fostering is pretty darn rewarding.

Full circle?

we may have a new dog .. a golden retriever .. did I want a golden? not really but sometimes fates conspire and things just ARE ..
Sampson appears to be a just is

WE have loved sporting dogs as a family for a long time .. our first dog was an irish setter, my aunt and uncles have lived with spaniels and goldens and my first dog as an adult was a golden .. a sporting dog with a love of running and a soft malleable temperment suits us it seems .. smart but not nearly as smart as a herding dog (SALLY!) active but able to relax in the house.. keen but not desperate .. I'm hoping Sampson fits in well for many years

does a golden do agility?
don't know and don't care
Brody is coming up 9 so probably won't play too many more years but Thea at 6 and Sally at three both potentially have lots of years left to train, compete and play .. if Sampson is a good agility dog that's awesome but I'm no rush - I have lots of work left with the three that do have some training ;)

ICE your phone

I've read this many times and thought oh good idea - but today Terri at Clay Hill farm posted the following ... and I'm passing it along ...(and I finally took the time to do it too!)

I was just reminded of this by a friend, so I pulled this explanation from another website. Please ICE your phone today!

Paramedics are asking that everyone add at least one additional entry to their cell phone contacts list. Please add an ICE entry. ICE stands for In Case of Emergency. This number should dial the person in your family that can respond to medical decisions if you are injured or incapcitated.

If you are in an accident, paramedics know to check your phone for your emergency contact information. Imagine taking a look and trying to figure out who to call out of the twenty or more numbers on your phone. By adding a contact entry that's designated as an emergency contact number (ICE), you can make their job much easier and possibly save your own life.

So program an ICE entry on your cell phone today, as a matter of fact, pull it out right now as you're reading this article. If you have more than one person the paramedics can contact in case of an emergency, you can add additional ICE numbers to your list. Your primary contact should be listed under ICE, then you can add the other contacts under ICE1, ICE2, ICE3, etc.After you program ICE into your phone, have your spouse, your kids, your parents, and your friends do the same thing. If there are people in your life that you care about, they should all have ICE on their phones.

poor poor dogs

the real world hit us all this week - HARD
back to work - early in the am and meetings after work everyday too - GAH
Sally's allergies are bugging her - and I left her meds in PEC
My dear husband is on a two night business trip - Hank is SAD
There is little sun - Thea is cold
the bunnies are out of sight - Hank is bored
no walks on the beach- everybody (me too) misses them
no playing agility - Sally is sad, Brody is missing treats and Thea just wonders why


poor dogs must wonder what happened

so they sleep and sleep and sleep (and eat!)

Judges clinic number 3

8 judges - 2o some odd dogs - a hot sunny day - lots of laughs and hugs - it was good to be back amoung friends ..

Sally was SILLY - OH my SILLY - missed a dog walk contact, did beautiful teeters and tunnels I have to say - we didn't do weaves at all .. she was fun and not too sniffy mostly

Thea scared me half to death - she did a teeter fly off from the very top of the board .. as I was calling her off - she did great aframes and tunnels and the chute too - YAY

Brody was hot and walked quite lovely courses - he is too funny sometimes
he was under 12 inches at both measuring stations so I am going to have him remeasured ...

lots of fun - made me sad actually - I wish I could figure out a healthy balance of agility and life for us all

for Lucy and Walters Mom and anybody coming to Prince Edward County

I'm revealing a secret here .. a pretty well kept secret so it's a good thing this blog doesn't get a ton of visitors ;) But my dear blog buddy over @ http://muttsandaklutz.blogspot.com/ asked for more info on "my beaches"





These beaches are usually so quiet I can take wildly reactive to dogs Hank with me and let him run off leash ...there are great spots to wade and paddle, and swim and picnic and teach dogs to swim






Its the Point Petre (pronounced Peter) area of the county - right at the south western tip ...




There are paths through woods you can walk on (just listen for the odd atv) and it's just a lovely spot

you drive down 24 (Point Petre Road) past the first land we owned in the county .. and when you some to a possible left turn onto Army Reserve road you have options - you can go straight then hang a right along any of the tracks you see or you can go left then right along any of the tracks you see .. if there are people at the end of the track at the water you can park and say and walk the dogs or you can carry on to another spot

Be careful if it's really wet - you could get stuck and I can't imagine how CAA would ever find you :) Camping is illegal but you may find some folks camping (we never have and I don't recommend it) .. everybody gets along down there - at least when I've been and tries to leave the place a little cleaner than they found it ..

alternate titles for this blog...

Brody the Rockstar

because truth be told, he is

there is nothing he can't do and nothing he won't do if asked nicely -media interviews, playing a variety of dogs on tv including a female (with a PINK bow I'll have you know!) digging ina garden (with 5 minutes to teach that trick!), nursing homes, agility, playing at a farm dog you name it he does it and he does it well .. even if he is a little cranky to wake up :)


The Misadventures of Miss Sally

fitting of course because so much of my life the last three years has involved Sally and her trials and tribulations

• saving sally in the first place (hours of writing in that story)
  
• training a brainaic
  
• dogs that are smarter than they should be


• dogs that eat VERY bad things


• dogs that do very crazy things


• living with such joy in your life

My Boring Life

not boring to me but somedays it's hard to think of what to write ..especially when I've had a break from agility for far too long!

I Wish I Was Playing Agility

well that could just be the theme song for the last year :)

GOOD DAWGS

Dogs are good for lots of things: entertainment, love, companionship, an excuse to exercise - many many things. One aspect of living with dogs I don't often consider is the value of protection.
Many years ago I was dog sitting my aunt and uncle's dog Jenny and was walking her quite late at night through a local park. Now I was young and quite often out and about late at night so this was really nothing special. However, that night, Jenny who was just a sweet lovable lab type mix was very alert to the chap walking behind me in the park. She hung behind me, made hard eye contact with him a number of times and grumbled at him. He followed us for a little but then quite suddenly gave up walking on the lot path and struck out across the park on the rough grass (not a way to get to anywhere). I'm still not sure if we alarmed so much he's still lost or if he had nefarious thoughts- either way I'm grateful to Jenny for protecting me- at least in her mind.

Two nights ago I let the dogs out a little later than usual. Sally silently took off FLAT out for the chicken coop. Weird I thought in the 1 second of peace I had. Then Brody and Hank started to run for the same location except they were growling and barking. By the time we got out there all seemed calm except a pair of nail marks on the side of the coop and the latch for the door being knocked down. Scary. I'm even more sure that the dogs averted a disaster (to us and the chickens) Friday night than I am Jenny saved me.

What good dogs!

pictures

on a different computer than usual

which has very cute sleeping dog pictures on it and my favourite "portrait" picture of me at a beach I love with some of the family around me

href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4UF8sethfRQ/Snj8xB3Qi4I/AAAAAAAAARI/Achhdln9oXQ/s1600-h/P1010416.JPG">
Hank chillaxing after a hard day at the farm




Hank and Sally sharing a corner of the couch pretending they are much smaller than they are




Hank, Brody and me at Point Petre ..

this is training at it's best

out for a walk - see a ball - send Sally to a tunnel and a good ball toss for an ocd tunnel
out weeding - realize I have cookies in my pocket - work weave entries with Brody twice and carry on
collecting forage for the chickens and rabbits - work on stay and wait with everyone
washing something at garden hose- practise table with Thea

geez if we keep it up we may not completely embarrass ourselves if we ever get back out in public ;)

yah - right now - life is good