Saturday, February 27, 2010

oh man...

I wrecked my ankle last week - went over on it lightly on Sunday...
then a little harder Tuesday night.
Then I walked miles on Wednesday and Thursday (at work chasing recalcitrant students)- and too much Friday and Saturday too - though I have been trying hard to rest and ice it in the hopes it will heal eventually.
The bruising is quite spectacular - so is the swelling ... total royal PAIN in the foot if you ask me .. I have a relatively important interview on Tuesday and would really prefer to be able to walk normally in to meet the interview team-GAH



my normal ankle (left foot) yup - that's an ankle bone you see!



my busted up ankle - same shot as the normal ankle (outside of the right foot) - loads of swelling in all directions and on both sides.. and you can see the funkiest bruise - the straight line under the ankle


(I also have agility Tuesday and puppy class Wednesday and it better be functional for that is about all I can say)

Friday, February 26, 2010

notes for myself ...

my brain isn't working so well ... so I hope you'll forgive class notes ...

Sally worked really well - basically nearly instantly we did a warm up of jumps and a tunnel and the table and then another of jumps and tunnels and the dog walk - it was interesting - the dog walk became the suck .. not the tunnel ...
Sally ran amazing dog walks - confident and independant with solid bottom end contacts though her nose was on dog walk not on ground .. I actually think that's a little easier on the body then the torqued ground ramp twist

She actually weaved 6 weaves which amazes me as she hasn't ever really learned 6 weaves - I'll have to back track that a little I think

it's a really nice work space - long and a little narrow but still lots of room for lines and turns and FUN


Brody just ran a few obstacles in one run - a jump, tunnel, weaves, jump, jump tunnel, tunnel, dog walk, jump, jump - he was flying - it would have been fun to do more but it wasn't safe .. there were dogs on course and I just hate this - guess that's a throw back to my horse days - I can work with and around people who are on the ball no problem but someoe wandering without control just makes me nervous ...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

What a difference a dog makes...

I got to work Sampson in the Practical Living class we are doing now (Tom's away). What a gentle lovely sweet fellow he is. We worked on leave it, sitting calmly while dogs passed us and some positioning ... he was an angel .. I had F O C U S to make a more advanced dog weep - he barely broke eye contact for anything. Amazing ... might be hard to hand the leash back to Tom and work crazy Sally next week :) Speaking of which ... Sally got to play agility last night - she was OUTSTANDING - dog walks from all over the place with hard solid contacts at the bottom; tunnels on a whisper; outs and overs in all directions. It was a good thing as I turned my ankle and was mostly just walking sending her from spot to spot. Amazing work in it's own right. Brody go to run one little course and was very happy doing so as well ;)

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

feb 3 - think it's time to goal set for 2010?

Me too! Last year was a bit of a blur so I could simply repost last years goals but I think instead I'll start over and then look to see what I thought I'd do later on ...

Super Sally

keep training when I can catch a minute
work her perfect downs on tables everywhere
run CPE level 1 and 2 classes as appropriate
run AAC gamblers, snookers and maybe jumpers classes through the spring and summer
add standard and stepplechase as she levels out

Terrific Thea
either enjoy Cpe level 1 whenever possible or put a whole whack of time into training then follow Sally's plan above

Brave Brody
get him fit enough to play - do some drop in training to get him running again
trial one day a month
go to regionals (and qualify for nationals - goal at this point)

hey I was actually pretty reasonable at the beginning of last year - look:
Sally is maturing into a wonderful dog. Maybe she'll more than 1 Q in 2009.
She did - she earned 2 more q's in the only trial she made it to - a wildcard q and a jackpot Q - she makes my heart sing in a way that's hard to describe - it's like working with a real fine wire - when it's right it's sheer poetry!!
Thea needs some work on chutes and teeters - if I can get that done I'd love to take her to regionals.
Now that they've shortened chutes - all is good chute wise - teeters will still need work ... and regionals weren't in the cards for any of us ..
Looking forward to hopefully having Brody at regionals too, and maybe nationals as well if all goes well.
Sad not to be doing CPE this year but I'm going to finish the qualifications for the nationals then move him down a height level anyhow - hopefully he can qualify for 2010

we (being the dream dog Brody and me) did knock off the qualifications easily for Cpe nationals - maybe I should plan on Florida :) he's such a good boy!!