Blogger didn't let me sign in here until tonight, when I popped over to read some of the first blogs ... and suddenly I was signed in ... so strange but it works.
So much has changed in the 15 years I have been writing this blog - and yet, fundamentally nothing has changed. I value the same things as always, take pleasure in being a training/play nerd and enriching as many lives as possible.
Brody and Thea are long gone .. and Sally lies at my feet as I write this - fading away faster than I think I can bear. Today she didn't want to eat. She always wants to eat.
I will forever be grateful to blogger.com for helping my find my voice and letting me record my journey.
But first a little back story : Sally's results came back lousy ... really lousy - liver values off the charts (numbers in the THOUSANDS that should have been in the tens kind of lousy); positive for Lyme disease; and extreme pancreas numbers too ....pretty shocking she was able to stand let alone eat anything. Such a Sally thing to be so stoic ... so silly!
I promised her a long long time ago that she would never have anything painfully invasive done if there was no point and that as best as I was able she would never be left at a vets overnight. So with this broad ranging, difficult no matter how you looked at it medley of issues I kept her home and started networking for ultrasound possibilities. I went back to square one with meals, tiny frequent home prepared food - chicken, fish and sweet potato. She had anti-nausea, pain and antibiotic medications. She would be fevered, then frozen. She was eating because I asked her to not because of any desire. I found myself staring at her for hours wishing my magic wand worked better. She slept and slept. Ignored everything.
Then we had a three day power failure. She was still critically ill but thanks to the awesome Big T and a great wood stove we kept her warm and fed.
We spent much of yesterday away from home helping people de-ice as best as we could. We got home and Sally was up. Barking. She brought me chunks of ice to throw. She PLAYED with Dora and Yen. This morning she mooched at our Christmas breakfast. They were ecstatic; we are beyond happy.
She's not one hundred percent, in fact I am worried about saying she's out of the woods even but there is hope in the house again. Joy has returned in one Sally shaped package and for that we are so very very grateful.
Have a great holiday doing what floats your boat; cherish memories and love the ones you are with! Peace!
New class started Friday night!
Crazy location -we were between dogs barking in the adjacent hall and dogs barking waiting to get picked up for day care. It was a wee bit chaotic to say the least. But it was a hoot and a half! The dogs all started working for scent very quickly and the handlers show good natural relaxed handling! Some very perceptive folks in the group too.
Then today was the last agility class. (It was hilarious - let the participants make up their own course to introduce in a no stress way the notion of crosses. Let them play with that for awhile.) Again good handlers; great dogs!
Then ran my first Designated Odour Test with wintergreen. AMAZING dogs. 7 seconds - 20 seconds -bing bang boom. Was so proud of the handlers - across the board they all worked hard to read their dogs. Some super distinctive alerts too. Handed Sheila Sally's leash and suggested they try it. No sweat at all. Sal was just delighted to be playing; didn't worry at all about the fact it was aunt Sheila instead of me!
Good great fun weekend - just a wee bit tired now!
Lovely walk/atv run at farm today with the youth! Snow is still deep for the oldies to battle through it but Yen , Sam and Sally had a blast helping us cut wood then running to the ridge for a rest ...
Lori Bergman wrote the following (excerpted here)
"Three yards of black fabric enshroud my computer terminal. I am mourning the passing of an old friend by the name of Common Sense.
His obituary reads as follows:
Common Sense, aka C.S., lived a long life, but died from heart failure at the brink of the millennium. No one really knows how old he was, his birth records were long ago entangled in miles and miles of bureaucratic red tape.
Known affectionately to close friends as Horse Sense and Sound Thinking, he selflessly devoted himself to a life of service in homes, schools, hospitals and offices, helping folks get jobs done without a lot of fanfare, whooping and hollering. Rules and regulations and petty, frivolous lawsuits held no power over C.S.
A most reliable sage, he was credited with cultivating the ability to know when to come in out of the rain, the discovery that the early bird gets the worm and how to take the bitter with the sweet. C.S. also developed sound financial policies (don't spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (the adult is in charge, not the kid) and prudent dietary plans (offset eggs and bacon with a little fiber and orange juice)....
As the end neared, doctors say C.S. drifted in and out of logic but was kept informed of developments regarding regulations on low-flow toilets and mandatory air bags. Finally, upon hearing about a government plan to ban inhalers from 14 million asthmatics due to a trace of a pollutant that may be harmful to the environment, C.S. breathed his last. Services will be at Whispering Pines Cemetery. C.S. was preceded in death by his wife, Discretion; one daughter, Responsibility; and one son, Reason. He is survived by two step-brothers, Half-Wit and Dim-Wit.
Memorial Contributions may be sent to the Institute for Rational Thought.
Farewell, Common Sense. May you rest in peace.
Often unattributed this has made the rounds with variations since first published in 1998. I thought of it today as I browsed the newest edition of Clean Run.
Many great articles and well worth the read but one that really me wonder was an interesting reflection from Susan Salo about being connected to other beings. Her explanation is much deeper than mine but ultimately she points out the way two animals run together often fall into a natural rhythm. When I was working with driving horses we always did our best to match a pair so this would be easy for them. They were going to move together so why not take advantage of it? Knowing this in agility is important as well. People talk about driving dogs around the course, and the benefits of having great distance skills, both important no doubt. That said there is nothing like running in a coordinated manner with your dog to both improve your running (I'm a lousy runner generally speaking) and to improve your dog's running and jumping. I pulled out 3 tiny clips from one trial compilation I had to show you what I mean. This is not done with any great forethought it just is what happens when I run with the dogs. You can see how getting out of sync would have a detrimental impact on jumping and running form.
Common sense? Apparently not as common as I thought.
Nice fun trial Friday. As a special treat as it was an all advanced afternoon so it was just Sally and I. Home dogs spent about 4 hours alone which I have to admit I felt badly about until I realized 9 and even 10 hour days weren't unheard of just 4 months ago.
The venue was lovely - it was a dome arena on a nice hard packed dirt surface! I had a very strong feeling of deja vu when there and could picture cross country jumps on the property so asked around - seems quite possible I rode there with a Young Riders program a million years ago.
Our first class was Advanced Gambles. We had a sweet opening - up a line of two jumps (including the 4 point) to the mini - teeter to tunnel, nailed it, took a minute to get organized to repeat the mini but nailed it again ... across the dogwalk down the weaves, over the jump, over the jump, up the weaves, onto the dogwalk (whistle) Sally added the spread backwards and a chute on her way to set up for gamble but she wasted no time. I love running her in gambles as a warm up - can test her weaves and contacts and she so enjoys the free running. She missed the contact on the aframe then turned into the tunnel and nailed the jumps. Good girl Sally. My old mantra is back. "I must train more aframes".
Then Advanced Standard classes were next. We ended up with a pause box rather than a table which was fine by me. People truly FREAKED about the change though. Including people not running in the class which I thought was RIDICULOUS! The club was great - offered a refund on the spot to anybody who didn't want to run. Smart!
Sally's first run was lovely, except my lousy steering had her jumping the back side of one jump- DOH. Just the tiniest bit of steering would have solved the problem as she she was listening really well. Got her contacts with confidence. Good job!
Second standard course, Oh Sally's Been Barking was right there. High as a KITE (which lasted the whole trial) she slid off the dog walk contact (after she got it) and wasted time at the pause box but smoked the course. Second effort at Advanced Standard resulted in a Q. Good girl!
Then two jumpers. First course was fun - some tricky lines that required concentration from me - and commitment. We clicked all the way around the course. Good Girl. Last Advanced Jumpers Q.
Second jumpers I challenged myself and Sally as we didn't "need' the Q. I had one DOH moment and Sally, being Sally not Brody, backjumped to see what the heck I was doing standing staring at her! Otherwise oot perfect.
Last class snookers. Nice opening then my steering went wonky again and Sally found the wrong end of a tunnel. Our first try at Advanced Snookers so I am well pleased with the 25 or so points I think we got. As usual I didn't check the score sheets very closely at all. Fun venue and always great to catch up with friends and see favourite dogs!
Some highlights - how absolutely happy Sally was to be playing her favourite game. Not one rail for any reason. Perfect weaves. Only one missed contact.
Stuff to work on - start line may be eroding, or was I just chicken? not sure - better figure it out! Aframes! More Aframes!
Sally's first AAC Q was a jumpers Q in mid July of 2010. Her last Starters Q was this weekend.
She has only had one trial that she hasn't earned a Q between the two dates... this September's trial when she was feeling crappy (Lesson learned there maybe ~ although even feeling crappy she enjoyed it!)
We only trialed Saturday. Our first run was advanced gambles - we knocked the 4 point jump in the opening (our only rail) and even so got over the 20 required points. The gamble had a straight tunnel (on a blind entrance to a spread - both set at the maximum distance - I stopped my motion too early and Sally peeled back to me instead of doing the spread. Good girl! Then must have been standard - Sally ran a nice course - although I had to put her back in the weaves as she came out one pole early. Her table was lovely! Snookers was hilarious ... as you can see for yourself! Sally nearly added a tunnel -but didn't, then a jump but didn't, then stopped DEAD in front of the double but leaped it from a standstill. A true Sally, character filled run! Steeplechase should have been in the bag - she had a great run but forgot all about aframe contacts in the excitement of running flat out. Goof!
So in two years and two months we have done 8 AAC trials. She's had some train wrecks in there and she's had many five fault rounds. She's had 1 point snookers and 34 point snookers runs. We've had fun in every single class at every single trial.
Brody's first Q was a jumpers Q at the end of March of 2007. His first day at a trial.
His ADC was early August 2007. 4 months later. He had quite a few trials where he was 1-3 OT in standard and no qs at the trial at all. His SGDC followed at the end of November of that same year. 7 long months. Back when you had to have team as part of the title. (To be fair we earned both snookers and team the same trial).
16 months for my agility superstar; 7 months for my rockstar. If ever there was a better way to prove they are different dogs these numbers just may be it. (The fact a few years have passed made a difference too - Sally would still have earned her ADC this weekend but you needed fewer starters games Qs for that title so she would have had that in April of 2011.)
Thea was brilliant this weekend - she's hardly done any agility but when I realized she was coming with me I entered her in starters gamblers and snookers. She was fast, furious and had a great time. Always a great reminder that Qs are not what the game is about!
Yen was pretty darn good at the trial. I'm so smitten it isn't funny.
For ages I've been hearing work with Jessica, work with Jessica, work with Jessica, you'll love her!
And, being me I've been saying "sounds good" but not using my limited agility time to do anything constructive about making that happen.
Then, this weekend, an amazing confluence of things ... a friend was hosting a clinic with Jess about an hour away at a facility I've been trying to get to for too long (the amazing AnticDog) , the weather gods were smiling, I needed a break from packing, cleaning etc, friends were going to be there, so away we went.
What a fun start the morning was... we played flat work games I had never seen before - stopping and starting basically and then did some turns around sandbags (also new to us). Sally was, as expected happy to be working and pretty quick to figure things out (quicker than me that's for sure).
Then Sally was lame. Not just a little gitchy, but wouldn't put her toe on the ground lame.
Popped her in the car -carried her inside and set her up on the couch and she barely moved for 48 long hours. She felt miserable. She ignored all action around her and didn't want to stand up or come outside at all. We moved her from couch to bed and all of us tried to make her feel better.
Suddenly late this afternoon she's cured! Well 98 percent sound and feeling 100 percent like her ....
I suspect her allergies created a sore spot in between her toes which then either got a thorn or sting and really hurt. No fun for her or us ...
The relief ... for all of us is palpable ... love that Sally monster!
another fun work out at the training hall last night
I'm missing lessons very much but my schedule is so erratic this year there is no way I could commit for 6 weeks in a row ... three chances to do agility in seven nights is a miracle!
That Thea got to play twice is mind blowing! She was very cute thinking her way through 12 weave poles! She worried on the dog walk again but for a shorter period of time than last week.
Brody had fun - we did nothing serious although we did a couple of weave entries without steadying him just letting him find the entrance. He is such a good boy.
Sally had a riot. I did the toy scattering thing which she wanted to fall for very badly - and then dropped her flyer as she was weaving - she pulled out twice then realized I was trying to trick her - that was the end of that!
The yelling you hear is Thea saying she wants another turn!!
