The Dog Geek

Agility Piglet

2011-07-22T08:00:00.003-04:00

Well, The Piglet is just over a year old now, and he has determined that he is going to be an Agility Piglet. Since I wasn't sure I was going to seriously train him for agility, P had to take matters into his own paws and start learning on his own.

P is really a pretty mellow, mild-mannered dog. He likes to wrestle with his sister, he likes to go hiking, he likes trail running with me, he likes to play ball... but none of those things seem to excite him nearly as much as agility. In fact, he rarely get super excited about anything, except for agility.

I haven't known many dogs who could learn so easily just by watching other dogs, but this is what P does. He watches B do agility, and then he runs out and copies her. I feel like a bit of a fraud... P has perfect 2-on/2-off contacts, and I never spent a second of time training them. He watched me work on B's contacts one day, and then he just did it. And did it again. And again. I would be doing yard work and realize I hadn't seen P in a while, and there he would be, stuck on the A-frame in 2-on/2-off position, waiting patiently for me to notice and release him.

And so started P's agility career. He won't be old enough to trial for nearly 6 months still, but he thinks he's ready for prime time already. And once we get his jump bars up to full height, I think he will be.

I made a decision to start training weave poles a little earlier than I usually would, because P was watching B and trying to copy her on his own, and I didn't want him to think that he had them figured out.

He learns so readily, and he loves those weave poles... it is amazing he can get that giant pumpkin-head of his through the poles so quickly.

I never would have guessed that my little baby piglet would grow up to be such a good, handsome Big Agility Pig. I think we're going to have a lot of fun!

The Big Pig

2011-04-27T12:35:00.000-04:00

So, half a year has somehow slipped by, and I have had a few people wondering what the heck has been happening over here in Geekland. For starters, our little Piglet has grown into a Big Pig - he's nearly 10 months old now. And I think he's grown up to be a handsome fellow.

He's much bigger and heavier than B now. He outweighs her by at least 10 pounds, but she remains undaunted. She likes playing with her "little" brother, but I also think she likes having an additional subject to rule over.

She still knocks him down at will, although she has to catch him first, and she at least has to work a little harder to catch him these days. (To be fair, she also allows herself to be knocked down on occasion, when she is feeling generous.)

I think P is the most mellow dog I've ever had. He's got a sunny little disposition and a remarkably even temperament. He's awesome with other dogs regardless of whether they are boisterous playmates, or whether they are fearful and need finesse. He loves little kids. He's so placid and untroubled that I have, at times, lulled myself into thinking of him as a bit of a simpleton. But then he'll do something scary smart and jolt me back to reality.

I hadn't entirely planned on doing agility with P - he seemed too mellow for it. But he had other plans - he went ahead and taught himself how to do most of it just by watching B. And he clearly wants to do it, so who am I to say no?

So, I'm planning on doing a few posts to catch up with how B is doing with her agility and obedience career, P's self-taught agility training, and how well Z is doing these days.

Grow, Dog, Grow

2010-10-31T19:06:00.001-04:00

This month has been crazy busy, but I thought it was high time for some updates. First, about my special girl dog, B. We entered several trials this past month, and across all the trials this fall, B qualified in 32 out of 34 total runs, including a stretch of 30 straight Q's! I'm still keeping her at the Novice level for a while even though she has now finished all her novice titles, but will probably move her up to Open in a few months.

She has also been enjoying having a little brother to play with. She's been a remarkably good teacher, and it has been interesting to see her in this role so soon after she was the pupil. She is now teaching P all the things that L taught her not so long ago, and it makes me feel a little bit like his legacy is living on.

Which brings me to little P. By the way, for those who said that they will always think of him as "Piglet" - that's fine. We refer to him as The Piglet all the time.

P and B play very well together. They have plenty of wrestling matches which P only wins when B lets him.

But their favorite is to play chase. Some dogs like to be chased, and some dogs prefer to be the chaser, and then some, like B, are happy either way. So far in their relationship, it has mostly been P chasing B. Especially since whenever P tries to take off running, he only makes it a few steps before B catches him. I expect as he gets older and quicker, he may take some turns at being the chasee.

Z is mostly content to watch the youngsters run and play...

But sometimes he will still join in the fun. His gait may be a bit awkward, but he can still run! I think I caught him in mid-bark in this shot.

P has also been reaping the benefit of B having so many nice playmates - he has gotten to socialize with lots of other dogs. So far, he seems remarkably even tempered and confident with other dogs. Nothing much really phases him. He doesn't get overly excited and rude, and he doesn't get upset when he meets other dogs who are overly excited and rude, even if they are much bigger than him.

I took a few pictures the other day of a play date with one of B's friends, the pit mix, who is still just a big puppy himself. It was a smashing success.

P has been great in his puppy kindergarten class, too. He is calm enough that the shy/scared puppies in the class can deal with him, and he doesn't get rattled when the big rambunctious puppies tackle him

We actually have to watch B a little more carefully when her friends come over now - my former shrinking violet now sometimes has to be reminded to not get too rough. She seems to have some proprietary feelings about her little brother sometimes.

Having a puppy has been exhausting, especially with so much other stuff going on right now, but it has been fun, too!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Nevermind. I am crazy.

2010-10-07T09:15:00.004-04:00

How embarrassing. Not even two months after defiantly declaring my sanity, it turns out that I am crazy after all. Dang! Really, though, it is all Mr. Geek's fault. Again.

Meet P. I think he looks like a little piglet, but that's not what the P stands for (although I will admit to seriously considering naming him Piglet.) He's kind of a funny looking little fellow, but I'm a sucker for big huge pointy ears. (Which I think might be how Mr. Geek tricked me.)

He is a little rescue pup, about 11 or 12 weeks old. He was listed as a cattle dog/border collie mix, which may be right - who knows? I definitely see some cattle dog in him, and we were told that he was relinquished to the shelter with a littermate sister who looked like a purebred blue heeler.

My first thought when I saw that big white head was that he was sure to be deaf. I told Mr. Geek that there was just absolutely no way I could take on a deaf dog right now. I guess that he took that to mean that if the puppy could hear normally (which he can) that he could get him.

B has been amazing with him so far. She plays so nicely and handicaps herself - sometimes I wonder if she is being a little too nice. He's a pretty confident little guy. B will correct him if he gets too far out of line, but she's been extremely tolerant so far.

Sometimes I feel a little sad for B that she is not the baby any more. But I'm also happy for her that she has someone to play with again. Since L died, hiking with B changed dramatically. The dogs used to race around non-stop, but when it is just B and I on the trail, she practically does the entire hike in heel position. So when we get back from our hike, I'm just as tired as ever, but she's barely warmed up! Perhaps this new addition will add some of that unbridled joy back into our hikes.

My little girl has grown up so much this summer. She has matured into a gorgeous, happy dog with some pretty good dog skills. (I hope that P will learn some good play skills from her!) Last weekend B and I went to another agility trial. Believe it or not, we had a perfect weekend and qualified in all 12 classes! The trial site was in a rural area, and on Sunday there were shotgun blasts sounding not too far away. Several dogs at the trial were scared or distracted by the noise, but I was happy to see that B didn't care at all - we worked so hard on her noise sensitivities, and it has paid off in spades.

Z is a trooper, even though I'm pretty sure he didn't see the need to get a puppy. He seemed to say, "really? Not another one!" But even Z gets in on the action sometimes, when everyone gets to running.

So, it looks like my course has changed again as P and I get acquainted, and a new chapter has begun. Maybe even a whole new book. It is a little exciting, and a little scary, and I'm not sure I'm ready for it. Rarely does Life wait for us to be ready, though, so here we go!

I'm Not Crazy

2010-08-24T20:41:00.003-04:00

No, he's not mine. Because I'm not crazy. This little fellow was bred by a friend of mine. She has been trying to give him to me, but I have been resisting. I don't feel ready to take on a puppy right now. I think that B still needs some time to be the puppy in the family. She's doing great, but we still have some work to do. (She ran in her second agility trial a few weeks ago and got 8 Q's in11 runs, by the way - with a Motocross event going on right next door, no less!)

As it turns out, the puppy that my friend keeps trying to give to me is the only puppy left in the litter who isn't spoken for. He's an Australian Shepherd- with a tail. My friend bred this litter for performance, and she feels strongly that dogs have tails for a reason, so she does not dock them.

If we wondered how B would do with a young puppy, we got our chance to find out - my friend went on vacation for 5 days and asked if we could puppy sit for her. She was clearly hoping that we would fall in love with him while she was gone and decide to keep him.

B has been absolutely amazing with the puppy, handicapping herself and being so tolerant. She lets the puppy get way with anything

Z watches all their antics but doesn't usually join in. Just watching those energetic youngsters seems t tire him out.

I have to admit, he's a cute little bugger. And very sweet, too. I feel guilty about not taking him, partly because I know what a generous offer my friend is making, and I'm so flattered that she wants to give me one of her puppies. And partly because this is a very nice puppy, from well bred, good performance lines.

And B seems to like him, although I suspect that she might not find him as fun once he gets bigger and stronger and more coordinated. He's already pretty darn full of himself.

I've caught myself thinking about it a few times... it would be nice to get a puppy that doesn't come with issues, for a change. A puppy with agility in his blood.

But it just doesn't feel right to me. In my heart, I know I'm just not ready for another dog. And in my heart, I feel that when I am ready for another dog, I'd like to give another rescue a chance.

So, we've had a blast with our little house guest, and I will treasure the fun times we had with him, but his breeder is getting back in town and is coming to pick him up tomorrow.

Because I'm not crazy.

Life After L

2010-07-23T20:15:00.000-04:00

I'm still struggling with the pain of losing L. Some days I feel like I still haven't accepted that he is gone. Other days, I feel like maybe he was never really here, like maybe he was just a legend, or a story I made up. But the universe doesn't seem to care whether I have accepted it or not - the earth keeps spinning, life goes on. I'm doing better most of the time, although I am still besieged by little blitzkrieg attacks of crying that seem to come out of nowhere and are over as fast as they start.

L was his own unique brand of crazy. And by crazy, I don't mean rambunctious, or wild, I mean slightly unbalanced. During his puppyhood, there were definitely times that I found this exasperating, but over time we came to accept and even love his quirks. He never conformed - instead, he had a way of making the world around him conform to him. He stood us all on our ears, and now suddenly he is gone and we are left wondering how we got this way, and if we can stand right-side up again.

We thought about adopting another rescue dog - maybe a young adult so that B could have someone to play and chase with. We even looked at a young chihuahua mix being fostered one town over (because Mr. Geek said that getting a chihuahua wouldn't really even count as getting another dog) but I'm just not ready. I think we were panicking because we felt so bad, but I think we all need some time to adjust. I still have plenty of work to do with B, and don't feel like I can take on a new dog just yet. Maybe next year, if the right dog comes along.

We were worried about how B would take the loss of her constant playmate. We decided that we needed to keep her as busy as possible, although for a few weeks, I didn't really have much heart for agility training. It made me extra glad that I put so much effort into helping B grow more confident with other dogs, because once we put the word out that we needed playdates for B, we had friends lining up to come over. B probably played with 30 different dogs at our house in the weeks following L's death - some were old friends, and some she had never met before. She did great with all of them.

I don't have too many pictures, but here's a little pitty puppy that B has had a great time with several times over the past month.

We actually dog sat this big goofy Plott hound for a few days. I think B enjoyed having an in-house playmate again.

Right after the Plott hound went home, we dog sat my friend's catahoula - one of B's best friends. We took the two of them to the river for some fun. (Poor Z had to sit this river trip out - we've been taking him to swim in the river this summer, but that week he was very sore in the shoulder, so swimming in the current was out.)

For a while, I felt like I didn't want to do agility without L. But, I think that agility is something that B needs in her life - she is a dog who needs to be pushed to the edge of her comfort zone, and probably will all her life. So, B and I are back into agility training now, getting ready for her second trial, which is only a week away now. (Her first trial went well, by the way - she qualified in half of her runs!) I know this first trial without L is going to be tough, so we'll be taking Z along with us for moral support. And we'll just do the best we can!

Tragedy and Heartbreak

2010-06-26T15:50:00.001-04:00

It has taken a little while for me to be able to write this, so I'm going to come right out with the bad news right up front: my good, sweet, funny dog L is dead.

I know I have been off the blogs for a while... I had prior intentions of posting so many happy updates of flowers and gardens... of B's great agility debut, and how great Z has been doing, and family vacations... of our friend's miraculous response to treatment for stage IV melanoma. But then....

It appears that L was running though the hayfield (one of his favorite things to do) when his heart short-circuited and he just dropped in his tracks. It seems that it was very, very sudden and that he didn't suffer at all. And we can be grateful for that, even as we struggle to understand.

The long story is that we didn't see it happen even though we were outside with the dogs. He must have silently dropped down into the tall grass without disturbing the surrounding hay. It was early evening, and it seemed like he had just vanished into thin air. We didn't find his body for nearly 12 hours of frantic, panicked searching. I can't describe what that night was like - I don't think I stopped hyperventilating the whole night, and I became quite physically ill. Our property is fenced, and the dogs have never gotten out before. And even if he had gotten out, I couldn't imagine him going anywhere. And even if he had, say, chased a deer, he would have come back when he heard us calling - he was very good about coming when he was called, and we searched through all the fields and hills and woods, calling and calling. So, I knew in my heart that something had happened, and even after we stayed up all night making posters and flyers and lists, once day broke Mr. Geek and my mother-in-law began doing a grid search of the hayfield, while I drove around to vet clinics and shelters.

My mother-in-law found his body, a few yards in from one edge of the field. The hay was so tall and thick, you couldn't see him unless you were right on top of him, and even though we had walked around the field several times scanning for disturbances, we never saw him.

We had a necropsy done to try to get some answers - after all, L was only 6 years old, and very fit. They were not able to find anything wrong. No signs of trauma of any sort, no internal bleeding, all internal organs looked normal, no lesions or tumors, no sign of poisoning. The best guess is a specific problem with the electrical system in his heart that often leaves no evidence behind. If that is the case, then there's nothing that anyone could have done.

L was the most fun, the most personable, the most exasperating, the most handsome, the most athletic, the most verbally expressive dog. It is so quiet without him - even with 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 humans living together in a small house, it seems that L accounted for about 95% of the noise. I miss him so much. I miss the little explosion that happened every time he went out the door. I miss his waggle and monkey noises every time I came home. I miss how excited he always was about life. I miss the little stripe on his face and the naughty spots on his legs. I am so heartbroken.

Running agility together taught us to communicate with each other on a different level, and I am so glad that we had that, even if it makes this hurt more now. And for as much as L liked running agility with me, his true calling in life was being Mr. Geek's little farm dog. It has been hard for me to see Mr. Geek hurting so badly and missing L so much, too. Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote, "It is such a secret place, the land of tears." But Mr. Geek and I have been in that secret land together every step of the way, and I know that we will eventually find our way out together. I'm glad that we have each other, and we've had so much support from family and friends and co-workers and neighbors. And I'm glad that we have B and Z, who are doing their best to make sure that we don't stay sad all the time.

I don't think I will be blogging much in the near future. My heart just isn't in it right now. My heart isn't in a lot of things right now. But I wanted to at least let people know why... anyone who has followed this blog knows how much L meant to us, and how hard it has been to lose him so suddenly and unexpectedly.

Rest in peace, my good, special little boy.

For those who aren't familiar with L's story, it can be found here (part I) and here (part II), and the story of finishing 3rd in the 20-inch class at the NADAC Championships in 2009 can be found here.

Spring Updates

2010-04-01T20:03:00.003-04:00

So many updates... where to begin? I guess the first update is to let everyone know that I have indeed survived another winter. Whew! And this was a tough one. But now the days are growing long again, and the grass is getting green and the spring bulbs are blooming.

After a long snow-and-ice-induced hiatus from agility training, B and I are finally getting back on track. It's a good thing, too, because I entered her in her first trial the first weekend in May. It may be a bit premature - she will just barely be old enough to be eligible for competition. And while she is doing wonderfully with everything on my agility field, I don't know how she will do at a different location, on different equipment, with lots of strange dogs around. But if nothing else, it will give me a better idea of where we truly are, and I think I need to know so that I can plan our next steps.

We also slacked a bit on the socialization over the winter, but B does have a few new friends. One of her friends came over to play today - this sweetie is about the mellowest puppy I have ever met. It was hot and sunny out today - one of the hottest days so far this spring. There was some running....

And some playing....

And then some standing around....

And then some lounging...

And finally, it wasn't too long before everyone was chillaxin' in the grass (look at all that long green grass!!) Z and L were parked nearby in the shade, too - I guess it was an all round lazy sort of day.

Still, everyone had fun, even if it was low-key. B has improved so much. It's almost hard to think back about where we started on this journey. I know we still have a long way to go, but I'm so proud of how much we have already accomplished!

Mud Puppy

2010-02-28T20:24:00.002-05:00

Our crazy winter continues - the past several years we rarely saw any snow. The past few weeks it has snowed on an almost daily basis. Our average highs for this time of year run about 48 degrees F, which seems almost impossibly warm. We've been running about 15 degrees colder than our average high for the past two months. And even though there hasn't been any significant snow accumulation lately, all our old snow is still hanging around, with additional daily dustings covering my agility field and making it hard to get around outdoors. It is no longer pristine and white and beautiful, but old and dingy and crusty and depressing.

Still, that hasn't stopped B. She has managed to create mud, even when everything is frozen. These pictures don't really do her justice, but I imagine you get the idea. This isn't just mud that has splashed onto her, though - she actually had frozen mud stalactites hanging off of her. She actually rattled when she moved. No mere toweling-off would do the trick - I had to pick frozen mudlocks off of her.

Perhaps she is just giving us a taste of what is to come once the snow does finally melt (I assume that is still going to happen at some point...)

Meanwhile, we have some new work to do. I know I have mentioned before that I am not a talented chef, but somehow as I was making dinner tonight, I generated a copious amount of smoke. We turned on the hood and the cranked the ceiling fans in the kitchen up to full bore. Unfortunately, I didn't notice right away that B had slunk off to the bedroom to hide in a crate. Now she is scared to even go in the kitchen. I know when we had all the puppies here, I tested their reaction to the ceiling fans, but I guess she hasn't seen them running since then, and with the noise from the hood, I think it was too much for her. I'm kicking myself for not noticing her disappearing act sooner.

So, we will give her a little time to calm down and get comfortable in the kitchen again, and then we will begin working on counter-conditioning the ceiling fans, and then the hood, and then whatever else she might have lumped in by association. And just this morning, I was thinking about how far she had come when we drove her in the very loud bumpy farm truck out to Tractor Supply, where she was completely unfazed by shopping carts and automatic sliding doors, and sudden loud noises, like when an employee was ripping lengths of duct tape up off of the floor one aisle over.

So, I'm mad at myself for the kitchen fiasco, but it is what it is, and we will deal with it. In the wise words of Coach K, "next play." There is a fine line between learning from our mistakes, and dwelling on them. So, I'll try to learn from my mistakes and move on.

Ringing Out Cancer

2010-02-18T14:00:00.001-05:00

Today, sometime right around now, Barry over at An Explorer's View of Life is finishing his last chemotherapy treatment and, as tradition dictates, he is marking the occasion by ringing The Bell on his way out of the hospital. And across the world, many others are joining in the bell ringing, in honor of Barry and all the other cancer survivors in our collective lives.

I'm honored to join in with these dainty little bells that we have had forever. I'm not even sure I know where they originally came from, but they have been with us through at least three moves, and have, I think, been waiting patiently for a momentous occasion for which to be rung.

So, here's to Barry's last chemotherapy treatment. And here's to my friend with Stage 4 melanoma who, after a clinical tumor vaccine trial, whole brain radiation therapy and umpteen grueling doses is IL-2, is currently tumor-free. And here's to the memory of my aunt, who succumbed to breast cancer many years ago after a mighty battle. And here's to ALL of our friends and loved ones who are fighting the good fight against this terrible disease. Ring-a-ling!

Against my Better Judgement

2010-02-12T09:45:00.004-05:00

Here is our NATCH-3 photo with the judge, from two weeks ago, at the trial in the unheated horse arena in the 20 degree weather (which I mention by way of explanation for why I am dressed in enough layers to sleep comfortably on a park bench in the winter.)

We are off again for the weekend to another trial, this time traveling with a good friend and her dog (L's good friend, the catahoula) which always makes everything more fun. This is the first trial back for my friend after a fourth-year-of-vet-school-induced hiatus, and we had planned on getting some good practices in beforehand. Mother Nature had other ideas, however, so things could be interesting! Wish us luck!

Winter Distance Training

2010-02-09T08:08:00.003-05:00

With all the snow that we have had this winter, there hasn't been much opportunity to practice agility. But even on days where the footing is not good enough to be asking dogs to jump or weave, and the contact equipment is covered with snow or ice, we can still usually do a little ground work. In fact, this is what I usually start new dogs/puppies out with, to build teamwork and distance skills well before they ever see their first agility obstacle. By the time I start adding in actual obstacles, the dogs are already proficient at following the path that I indicate, and are happy to work 30 or 40 feet away from me.

This is also good for those handlers who are reluctant to try agility because they are not able to run with their dogs. If you have a solid start-line stay, and your dog will work 30 or 40 feet away from you, you can get around most agility courses without having to do much running at all.

I generally start out by teaching an "out" command, by training the dog to run around a cone or bucket or trash can, or tree, or whatever is handy, and then I gradually build in distance, until I am able to send the dog "out" 30 or 40 feet. Then I start adding other cones, buckets, etc, and start working on directionals, crosses, switches, etc. Once the dog is confident with that, I start adding hoops, then tunnels, and then finally jumps and other pieces of equipment.

I shot this video a little while back - sorry for the exceptionally bad quality, but handling my dog and shooting video at the same time is clearly a bit beyond my capabilities, and I think I did a pretty bad job at both. But you get the idea, I hope. In this case, I am sending B in a simple figure 8 pattern, about 20 feet from me. This requires that she go out around the first bucket, then come in towards me, and then re-send out around the cone, without needing me to run with her. (Normally, her turns would be much tighter and I would be able to do this from farther away, but my handling was horrid since one hand was tied up holding the camera - I'll have to find a better way of taping this if I want to show more!)

Sadly, we have too much snow to even be doing much ground work right now, as there's no ground to work on, and only the tips of my buckets and cones are visible poking out of the vast white blanket. And even as I type this, it is snowing again, with several more inches expected. Maybe someday we will be able to train again. *sigh*

The Post-Snowpocalyptic World

2010-02-06T14:50:00.000-05:00

The Weather Channel said Snowpocalypse. The President said Snowmageddon. Either way, it is winding down here, finally, leaving us with the 5th snowiest winter in our town's recorded history, and plenty of winter still left to weather. We didn't get nearly as much snow as those a few hours to the North, but it is still a lot more than we are used to.

Mr. Geek has had to tow several people up our hill or out of ditches (or in one case, out of our front yard). He's definitely in his element with his old Ford pickup and the tow strap that was probably one of the most apt Christmas presents I have ever gotten for him, way back before we were married.

The dogs also seem to be enjoying themselves. We've gone on several snow hikes, although it is tough going without snowshoes or skis. So far, I have only fallen down once, which is pretty good for me. Between slogging through knee-deep snow and shovelling the front walk and back deck several times, I'm not feeling quite as guilty about not being able to go running or make it out to the gym.

Z joined us for one hike, but I didn't bring the camera that time (which might be good because that was the time I fell down.) But mostly it has just been the two hooligans, who need to get some ya-ya's out.

We haven't been going terribly far - just the loop through the fields, but it is still a pretty good workout for all of us, and in the deep snow it has been taking us twice as long as usual.

Now I'm ready to sit by the fire with some sleepy-headed dogs and watch some basketball. I hope that everyone out there is staying warm and dry this weekend!

The White Stuff

2010-02-03T21:20:00.000-05:00

I have to say I'm getting a little tired of the white stuff. We got more snow yesterday, and we have a new storm arriving here Friday, and probably another one next Tuesday. I guess I got a little spoiled after we had such mild winters for the last few years, but this is a lot more snow than we are used to.

Walking in the snow seems to be hard on my bad knee, and it makes it difficult for me to go running - I am perfectly capable of tripping, slipping, falling, or running into trees (although I don't like to admit that last one) when the footing is good. When it is icy, slushy, crunchy or snowy, all bets are off. I would probably spend as much time on the ground as I would spend upright. So, I've been running on the indoor track at my gym - 9 laps to the mile - and there seems to be a limit on the number of times I can run around that little loop before I start wanting to poke my eyes out.

But there is good news - I have redoubled my efforts with physical therapy, and my knee has been improving dramatically over the past few weeks. And more good news - the days are getting longer again! We are gaining at least a minute a day now, so I feel confident that winter can't last forever.

The dogs, at least, don't seem to mind the snow, even though we haven't been able to do much agility lately. I've been pretty bad about practicing obedience with B, too - I'm not very good at doing heeling patterns in this sort of weather. I'm a wimp. She still did very well at class last week, so hopefully our lack of practice won't show too badly.

JollyBall attack!

No pics of Z - I try not to let him get too crazy running around in the snow (because he would) but he is doing well. He will probably always have some trouble with his bad foot, but it has at least improved to the point that he can go walking through the fields with us when the footing allows.

NATCH-3!

2010-02-02T08:47:00.002-05:00

Just a quick update - This past weekend, L finished his third NADAC Agility Championship title, NATCH-3! My field has been covered with snow or ice for the majority of the past 6 weeks, so we had hardly practiced, but he ran wonderfully anyway - he's become such a reliable fellow. Who would have ever guessed? We had our picture taken with the judge, but I haven't seen it yet, and I'm not sure that I'll post it when I do... since it was well below freezing, I was wearing about 50 layers of clothing and probably looked like I had been living under a bridge for a while.

B came along to the trial with us, and made a new friend - a shy little rescue BC. The two of them had a great time chasing each other around the field next to the arena. I wish I had gotten pictures! B just started a new obedience class, and is coming along so nicely. I have signed her up for a working spot in an agility seminar at the end of March, and I'm hoping to enter her in her first agility trial in May. She still worries a little about new dogs, but doesn't really get terribly stressed these days. Once the weather starts clearing up a little, (if it ever does) I'll get back on top of her socialization work, but she's really not in a bad spot right now.

The "light dusting" of snow that was expected at the trial site on Saturday quickly became 6+ inches, which made for a bit of a harrowing drive on the unplowed highway Saturday afternoon, but we made it all in once piece. The 4-8 inches we expected at home turned into 13 inches, and it is snowing again today, with more on the way later this week. I think I've had about enough!

Whack-A-Mole Life

2010-01-05T19:19:00.008-05:00

So, it's the New Year. And lately, I find myself feeling a bit melancholy around the start of each new year. Maybe it's the Seasonal Affective Disorder talking, but instead of being excited about having a fresh start, I seem to focus on my plethora of failures from the previous year. Looking back at the goals I set for myself at the start of 2009, I'm seriously disappointed at how few I managed to achieve. Some things were unforeseen: the time spent socializing B with other dogs seems to have eaten huge chucks of my spring and summer; my bad knee has prevented me from being able to run nearly as much as I would have liked. Are these excuses? I'm not sure... probably they are.

Sometimes I feel like my life is a cosmic game of Whack-A-Mole. Whenever I get one area of my life beaten into submission, two more pop up out of control. When I am doing a good job exercising and training the dogs, I'm doing a bad job of working out at the gym. When I am being dedicated to my research, I'm doing a bad job of keeping up with household chores. I just can't ever seem to get it all together at the same time. I'm constantly failing at some aspect of my life that is important to me.

Some days I feel the need to pull back from the blogosphere as I struggle to batten down the various hatches of my existence. B is starting a new obedience class in a few weeks, and I am teaching three agility classes this winter, all of which start over the next few weeks. Things are about to get busy. And yet... so many of my blog friends are in pain... some physical, some emotional... some are in mortal peril, one is already gone. I have never been good at knowing what to say when someone is hurting... pain always seems like such a private thing. And so often, I stay silent. But as I have gotten older and hopefully slightly wiser, I have realized that it is better to say something. Even if it is something inane... even if it isn't that hopelessly sought-after magical turn of phrase that will make everything all better. People would rather just know that you are there, that you care. The actual words aren't really that important.

So, I don't know if I will be posting regularly or not. I don't know if I will be able to stay up to date with all the blogs I love as much as I would like. But I know I won't be staying away.

On a lighter, less philosophical note, here are some pictures from a few months ago that I never got around to posting. I mentioned before that L loves hay season. If there are two bales of hay stacked up, L must be on top of them. When we have hay stacked in the barn, L can usually be found on the very top, hopping over the rafters and trying to give me heart failure.

These pictures are from the last hay delivery of the season. I'm sure L feels like he is helping out by staying on top of things. Mr. Geek actually took these pictures and left them on my camera for me to find later. I think he just likes to see me go apoplectic.

L has 4-wheel drive - scaling hay bales is no problem for him. Plus, he's light as a feather and so sure-footed, he practically floats to the top of stacked bales. Getting to the top is not problem for him. It is the getting down that I worry about.

I think partly, he just like the vantage point. (Although I guess that doesn't explain why he can often be found on top of the hay stacked in the barn.) The top of the farm truck is certainly a fine look-out point. L likes to hang out on top of the dog-walk and A-frame the same way.

He would hang out up there all day if he could. Watching. Waiting. Until he sees something that requires his attention. Or something chaseable. And then....

Mr. Geek told me that when L finally exploded into action, he didn't climb back down the back side, the way he climbed up. No, he leaped from the hay to the top of the cab, to the hood, and then he was gone. I'm not surprised, but I'm glad I wasn't there to see it.

The Great Christmas Cookie Debacle

2009-12-23T21:10:00.000-05:00

I made Christmas cookies this year. It seems like I can only work myself up to the big holiday cookie baking thing once every few years - I may have mentioned that I'm not particularly good in the kitchen. Which is weird, because in many ways it seems like baking really isn't that different from the science that I do for a living. The difference, I guess, is that I understand the science - I know what each component in the reaction is doing, I know which things need to be exact, and which don't, and how one thing is reacting with another, and what each step should look like. Baking, on the other hand, is still a mystery to me.

Every time I bake Christmas cookies, I am reminded of the Great Christmas Cookie Debacle - many years ago, when I was in grad school, a couple of friends came over for a full day of cookie baking. It was fun for the first part of the day, but after a few hours, it turned into an ordeal. Some of the cookie cutters we were using were shaped like a little boy and a little girl, but their darned necks were too thin and their heads kept breaking off, and it began to get very frustrating. And as we became increasingly punchy, we decided there was no sense in letting those broken cookies go to waste. So we used red frosting to make bloody stumps on the broken necks, and used more frosting to glue the broken heads onto the little cookie arms, so that our little Christmas boys and girls were carrying around their own severed heads. We even drew surprised little faces on the disembodied heads for good measure.

One friend started writing some very un-Christmas-y things on the tree- and star-shaped cookies, and the other thought that my dog might have licked one of the cookies that was cooling on the coffee table in the living room (nearly every flat surface of the house was taken up by cookies by that time) but she wasn't sure, and she lost track of which one, so... nothing was done. And when we were putting cookies onto plates, we found a jam thumbprint cookie with a staple sticking out of it. I still have no idea where a staple could have come from - I just hope it was the only one! So, we gave all our friends plates of some of the most gruesome (and potentially dangerous) Christmas cookies anyone has ever seen. Somehow, none of our friends seemed particularly surprised.

This year, I made molasses crinkles, toffee shortbread cookies, and spice slices (which Mr. Geek insisted I put frosting on, making them iced spice splices, I guess.) All nice and normal and festive. Notice how I avoided anything that required cookie cutters. Maybe next year I will be brave enough for that again!

So Happy Holidays to everyone! If you are traveling - be safe! If you are staying at home - have a wonderful staycation! I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Let It Snow

2009-12-19T18:20:00.000-05:00

We finally got hit with a substantial amount of snow. I know this is probably no big deal for those of you up North, or in the Rockies, but it has been many years since we've had a snowfall this big. None of our current dogs have seen snow this deep in their lifetimes. Here are a few scenes from the back deck to give you an idea.

We took the dogs for a short hike, staying close to home so that Z wouldn't overdo it. He enjoyed some play time, but I worry about him getting too crazy and tweaking his back- he still doesn't want to acknowledge his physical limitations.

B wasn't quite sure what to make of all this cold white stuff at first, but quickly decided that it was fun. She especially seems to like to tackle L and push him down in deep drifts when he is unsuspecting.

And L can't resist occasionally checking for rodents under the snow.

B is non-stop energy, porpoising this way and that, across the field and back. She worked so hard, I had to feed her an extra meal today. She's very hard to keep weight on - sometimes I blink and a bunch of weight melts off of her in the split second that my eyes were closed. She is slightly shorter than L at the shoulder, but eats more than twice as much.

For some reason, the vast white expanse makes B seem even smaller and scrawnier than usual. Maybe it is because she has so much more white on her than L, and only the black parts really stand out in the snow.

Later in the day, we left Z in the house to rest and took B and L for a longer hike through the back fields. They had a great time bounding and sproinging through the drifts, wrestling and playing chase.

I think all of us were pretty tired by the end of our hike, but I'm sure that we'll be ready to do it again tomorrow! We certainly don't plan on going anywhere else in this weather!

Champs - The Finals

2009-12-18T17:40:00.003-05:00

I already mentioned how nervous I was starting out on the first day of the Championships, but after the first few runs, I had settled down quite a bit and was able to enjoy the experience. But then something happened - we kept running well. Really well. I kept waiting for us to have a total melt down run, but as we made it through each event, I started to get a little more nervous after each good run. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and I was sure the higher we were, the harder we were going to fall. My big pie-in-the-sky goal was to make it to the finals, but I didn't really expect it to happen. In fact, I hadn't even made a hotel reservation for Sunday night or taken off work Monday. But as we continued to do well, I started thinking.... maybe.... maybe we could make it!

Then Sunday morning in the last round before the finals, Regular Round 5, L took an off-course tunnel. It was still a good run - not a meltdown. Actually, parts of that run were some of our best work all week, but we did cross the finish line having done one tunnel too many. I figured that was surely enough to knock us out of contention. (I didn't know at the time that many of the dogs after us also had an off-course tunnel, and that we still finished in the middle of the pack, even with our 10 course faults.) And I hope you won't think any less of me if I tell you that, far from being disappointed, I was actually relieved. In fact, I was practically giddy about being done and having not just survived the week, but having thrived. I didn't choke, I didn't let my nerves get the best of me, I rose to all the physical and mental challenges - the heat and humidity, the long courses, the long days, the double shots... we ran better than I had dared to hope, and I had no regrets about any of it. We did our best. We left it all out there on the floor, and I was so proud of us! And I was done! I made it! I was going home! Whee!!!

There were never any standings posted during the week, so it was hard to get a feel for how we measured up. My plan was to get some lunch and wait to see where we ended up, and then pack it up and hit the road. I figured I could be home by bedtime, and in good shape to go work Monday morning. I was sitting in the stands, totally relaxed and stupid-happy, eating delicious lasagna (seriously - how many sports arena concessions stands do you know that sell lasagna for lunch?!?) when the finalists were announced. They called my name just as I was about to take another bite, and I remember actually dropping my fork in surprise. I can only hope that no food fell out of my mouth when my jaw dropped open, but I don't think I was aware of details like that at the time. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of my lasagna, but I don't think I finished it.

After the jolt of surprise came a little jolt of panic. Oh. I'm NOT done. I'm NOT going home quite yet. Oh dear. Suddenly, I was feeling quite green again. There were a few moments when I was probably as nervous as I had been at any point during the week, until I realized that we could have a total melt-down run in the finals, and I wouldn't matter - we were finalists, period! No matter what, the worst we could finish now was 4th place! I could trip, hit my head on the dogwalk and knock myself unconscious half way through my run, and I would still be a finalist! Anything we did in the finals was icing. By the time it was our turn to go to the line, (after I explained to L about how I had accidentally lied to him about being done and really we just had one more run to do) I was feeling almost giddy-happy again, with just a touch of nerves.

In the end, we didn't crash and burn, I didn't trip and knock myself out on the dogwalk, we finished second place in the finals round, and third place overall in the 20 inch height class. L also won several sponsored awards: Highest Scoring Mixed Breed in Proficient Jumpers, Highest Scoring Mixed Breed, and Highest Scoring First Time Rescue Dog.

We drove partway home Sunday night before stopping around midnight to find a hotel, and finally made it home around lunch time on Monday. I was so exhausted, I didn't go in to work until Tuesday, and didn't start speaking in complete sentences again until Thursday or Friday. I was a wonderful experience, but I honestly don't know how people do it every year - I think it has taken me most of the fall to recover. And I don't know if we will ever go again, since I don't think I could ever top how we did this year!

(PS - Bonus points to the first person to name the TV show the theme music came from. Double bonus points if you can name the TV show that the Round 1 video music came from!)

Champs Part 3

2009-12-16T19:30:00.000-05:00

At the first exhibitor's briefing, Sharon Nelson told us that there would be some course that would make us look invincible, and some courses that would expose all of our weaknesses. When I saw the course for Regular Round 3, I knew it was going to be one of the latter. One of our biggest weaknesses is going straight through boxes. (A "box", for those of you who don't do agility, is 4 jumps set up like the sides of a square - so once the dog jumps into the box, they have a lot of options for where to go - they could either turn 90 degrees to the right, or 90 degrees to the left, or go straight ahead, to jump back out of the box.) L doesn't have any trouble turning in or out, but he has a hard time going straight through - he always wants to flip out away from me.

The course for Regular Round 3 starts out with not one, but two boxes, and we were to go straight through both of them. And then, after the dogwalk, we had to go straight through both boxes again. I figured it would be a miracle if we made it through all those boxes, and you can tell how preoccupied I was with getting through the stupid boxes at the start, when I almost forget to do my front cross afterwards! I think I was caught by surprise that we were still on course!

In all the Regular courses, there were also embedded distance challenges - parts of the course where there was a line on the ground that the handler was not allowed to cross for certain obstacles. The line didn't show up well in my video of Round 1, but in this video, you can see the line for all the parts of the course near the dogwalk.

I was surprised to learn that the course for Regular Round 4 had been used several times at Championships in previous years. Some of the more experienced competitors told me that had seen this one come up so many times that they practiced it the week before! That didn't do anything for my confidence. There were several tough tunnel/contact discriminations in this course - I know my reverse flow pivots look ridiculous, but seriously L would pick the tunnel any day of the week, even if he wasn't shot like a cannon out of one tunnel directly at the off-course tunnel. I have already vowed with B that I will not have to handle discriminations this way!

In the end, we nailed it and finished in second place - ironically ahead of all those who told me they had practiced this course the week before!

Coming up: The Finals!

Champs Part II

2009-12-11T07:30:00.001-05:00

One thing I knew going into the Championships is that we would all be tested both physically and mentally. I knew from hearing stories of previous years, that the powers that be at NADAC like to change things up at the Championships. This is not your average weekend trial - courses are longer, and in some cases when there were two rounds of the same class, both courses would be set and competitors were offered 5 bonus points for running the two rounds back to back, as one continuous course. I had decided at the outset that I was not going to allow myself to be tempted by any of these sorts of incentives. I didn't know if L would appreciate running a course that was over twice the length of the courses he was used to, and I didn't think it was worth 5 bonus points to find out.

The first "double shot" bonus opportunity was in jumpers, and I didn't even consider it. The two courses were connected by a long straight tunnel, making it impossible not to be way behind your dog at the beginning of the second course. A surprisingly few handlers went for the bonus - most opted, as we did, to run the two courses separately. When L and I finished 5th place in Jumpers Round 2, despite our lack of bonus points, I knew I had made the right decision.

That first day lasted just about forever, though. After jumpers, we still had one round of Hoopers and two rounds of Weavers, which were also a 5 point double shot opportunity if you opted to run them back to back as one course. I knew if there was one class I definitely didn't want to run as a double shot, it was weavers.

Sometime in the early evening, it was finally our turn to run Hoopers in the covered arena outside. L was really wound up by the time we got out on course. He growled at me the whole way around - I wish that the video had picked up his growling! We had a very nice run, and came out with a third place. Meanwhile, in the indoor arena, because things were running so late, they decided to start running Weavers. Many of us who were getting ready to go in the Hoopers ring had to miss the Weavers walk-throughs, but we were assured that there would be a second walk-through for us, after all those who were in the first walk-through finished running.

I did some quick math, and realized that the second walk-through wasn't going to be until around midnight (that's 1am for me, with the time zone difference!) As I sat in the stands and watched run after run, I was SO exhausted, and my eyes were red and puffy from the dust in the arena, and I made a decision. My options were to wait to walk the course (around midnight) and then run L around 1am, and then run Round 2 at who knows when... or to keep my place in the original running order, and run the course without walking it first, in which case I would be done around 11 pm. I just needed to be done. So I decided not only to run it without walking first, but I decided to do the doubleshot, so I could go home.

It still amazes me that in the course of one day (albeit a VERY long day) I went from being so nervous and intimidated that I was ready to pack it in, to being so blasé that I was doing doubleshots without even walking the course. Luckily, it paid off. We had a little bobble in Round 1 but still finished with no faults. And contrary to my fears, L even picked up speed in Round 2 and had one of his best Weavers runs ever. And I got to go back to the hotel and go to bed. (They ended up running dogs until 1am, and then holding the rest of the class for the following morning, so if I had stayed, I might not have even gotten to run that night!)

And now... I promised a video. I remember why I hate watching myself on video, and these videos are no exception. In most of them I look like I've been sleeping under a bridge (why didn't I think to dress nicer?) I'm not graceful. I'm not structurally sound. My knees and ankles are all screwed on at wonky angles, making me look like I walk with a slight limp. I'm not built for speed, and I suspect that I don't own any fast twitch muscles. I know that L and I are not by any stretch of the imagination the fastest or flashiest team out there. We placed in the Champs because we were so consistent over 16 runs, not because of raw speed.

Nevertheless, here we are in Regular Round 1 where, believe it or not, we came in 1st place. When the results were posted, I thought I could die happy. I didn't care what happened in any of our runs after that. That first place finish was Enough.

And that's where I'll leave you with Part II. I have a few more vidoes to share, including the Finals round. Coming up!

Champs Flashbacks

2009-12-07T20:35:00.000-05:00

I've had my videos from the NADAC Championships for a while now, debating about whether to post some of them or not. And I think I will, even though I really hate watching myself on video, But I thought I would go back and start the story from the beginning.

The Championships this year were held in Shelbyville, Tennessee, which happens to be the Tennessee Walking Horse capital of the world. Everything in Shelbyville was about Tennessee Walking Horses. The event itself was held in Calsonic Arena, which is the home of "The Celebration" - an 11 day festival of Tennessee Walking Horses.

All the walkways were bricked with names of famous horses from the past, Hall of Famers and their progeny. Tributes to historical winners were everywhere.

I arrived Tuesday afternoon, in time for check-in. Some people had been there for days already! It was only a 7.5 hour drive for me, but many people had to travel for days. I got my first glimpse of the empty arena, before anything had been set up, and I started to get a few butterflies in my stomach.

Some people got very decorative in the crating area - especially where there were large groups of people from the same club.

In addition to the main crating area, we had the option to rent a box stall in one of the adjacent barns, which is what I decided to do. It was so hot in the main crating area, I thought it would be easier to keep L cool in a box stall with a big fan, not to mention that I think he generally does better somewhere a little quieter, away from all the bustle and noise and barking dogs. Most of those who crated in stalls also had elaborate decorations for their stall doors. I started to feel pretty small, with no special decor on my stall. It was a little lonely being there by myself, as we have no local club to be a part of. Of course, I wasn't there alone - it was me and L.

Now, September in Tennessee can be hot and humid - and it was! We were fairly used to the heat and humidity, but it seemed hard on those from cooler climates. We had an exhibitor's briefing late Tuesday afternoon, and we braced ourselves for the start of competition early Wednesday morning - 16 runs in 5 days, scored cumulatively. I went to bed early Tuesday night, but woke about around 3am, and was too nervous to go back to sleep. I rarely get very nervous about agility, but I was a total wreck. By 6 am I had pretty much decided to give up agility all together.

Our first event was jumpers, and I was feeling pretty green by the time we stepped to the line. We had walked the course first thing in the morning, but since the run order was small to tall, it was hours before it was our turn to run. So I sat in the stands and watched run after run. I watched some good runs, but there were plenty of runs where people forgot the course, or made mistakes, just like any other trial weekend. I realized that these people weren't super humans, and I started to feel a little better. And so, finally it was our turn, and L and I had a very nice run. Not spectacular, but pretty good. Clean. No faults. And when the scores were posted, I saw we finished in 7th place, and I was over the moon! We placed! At the Champs! We belonged! So I decided maybe to not give up agility after all.

....so, that's how we started the week. The next installment is coming up soon, complete with a video!

Double Handicapping

2009-11-27T14:50:00.000-05:00

I'm sure everyone has had the experience of seeing a big dog handicap themselves while playing with a small dog, or perhaps an adult dog being extra careful when playing with a very young puppy or an elderly senior dog.

B may be a little thing, but she's tough. She's certainly no shrinking violet. When she and L play, it is all flat-out chases, full-tilt body slams, and emphatic take-downs. And both of them like it that way. Z's idea of playing with L is to wait until L gets all the other dogs chasing him, and then try to anticipate where he's going to run next so he can jump out in front of him at the last second for a body block.

When B and Z play, though, it is very different. There's no running, no chasing, no body slams, and the only take-downs are B's self-imposed flops to wriggle on the ground in front of Z, while he gently nibbles on her neck.

Z, I feel sure, does his best to be very careful - after all, B is so much smaller than he is. He is over twice her size, but when he plays with her, he is so gentle and sweet. He uses a lot of exaggerated gestures to let her know that he is being careful. He loves to nibble on her (and she seems to like it, too.)

B just loves Z, but she also does her best to not get too wild when they play. After all, she is young and fit, and he is so old and fragile and not always very steady on his feet. She seems to know that she needs to be careful not to knock him down. She rolls around on the ground in front of him, gently petting him on the head. She wants the old man to feel as though he is doing well.

I'm sure so much is lost in translation, looking at still photos. I probably should have shot video instead, and most of the pictures came out blurry, anyway. Here, Z nibbles on the bed next to B, rather than on B herself.

But it melts my heart to watch them play, each one handicapping themselves, each one perhaps thinking that the gentleness of the play is for the benefit of the other.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and a that everyone has a great weekend!

Good Way to Start the Weekend

2009-11-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

We've had so much rainy weather lately, and it gets dark so early this time of year, that B hasn't been getting as much socialization time these days as I would like. We're still meeting new dogs, but not at the same pace that we were. She generally does very well with new dogs now, although she still sometimes gets scared if a large dog she doesn't know rushed up to her head-on. I wish that her threshold was a little higher than it is, and we will keep working on it, but I'm pleased and proud of how far we have come in the past 9 months.

And we still have some of our favorite friends who are willing to come over and play - sometimes even after dark, in the floodlights of the barn. But this morning was a beautiful sunny Saturday, and what better way to start the weekend than a puppy play date. Remember this little German Shorthair Pointer girl - one of B's all-time best friends?

She is still a frequent visitor here, and even though she is much bigger than B now, they still get along fabulously and love to run and play and wrestle, which is what they did all morning today.

And even though the GSP girl has quite a bit of size on L, she still seems very intimidated by him. Everything is fine when L gets everyone to chase him, but whenever he tries to engage her in direct play, she gets nervous and usually uses a down as a calming signal - I'm pretty sure that she thinks L is slightly unbalanced.

She is a fun, goofy girl. She stole an ear of Indian corn out of the barn, and it became the fun dog toy of the hour, good for much chasing and taunting.

What a great way to start the weekend - a beautiful morning playing outside, making some happy, tired dogs.

More Pics, and Skunk Troubles

2009-11-19T21:12:00.006-05:00

Supposedly the videos from the NADAC Championships are in the mail and should be here within the next few days. I'm a little nervous about watching them - I never like seeing myself on video. I'm hoping to work up the courage to post some of them here. But while I wait, here are a few more pictures of L.

This first one, on the A-frame, is one of my all-time favorites, just because he has such a ridiculous expression on his face, as he complains to me about having to stop on the contact zone.

This is the same brilliant dog who has managed to get himself skunked twice in the past three weeks. I think a skunk has moved in under our barn, and may have to be relocated if (s)he and L can't figure out how to get along. I can't imagine that live-trapping a skunk is a whole lot of fun for any of the parties involved, so hopefully we can all learn to co-exist peacefully. In the meantime, we are keeping a generous supply of de-skunking reagents handy, and L can't go out unattended after dark (which seems like all the time these days.)

Happy Practice Thanksgiving!

2009-11-01T10:25:00.001-05:00

About 6 years ago, a friend of ours was going to be in charge of Thanksgiving dinner for his extended family for the first time. He was very nervous about it, because he had never cooked a turkey before, and he didn't want to risk getting it wrong on the big day. So he decided to have a test run ahead of time, and cook a practice turkey for his friends. And so, a new tradition was born: Practice Thanksgiving. Every year, a few weeks before Thanksgiving, a big group of our friends get together and test out potential new recipes or dishes that we might want to use on the big day. Sometimes we all have a good laugh at some disastrous attempt, other times some brilliant new dish is discovered. It is always fun.

This year for Practice Thanksgiving, Mr. Geek and I are trying out a few new recipes using buttercup squash. Because we have a few buttercup squash to spare, even after giving many away.

Yesterday, I tried a recipe for buttercup squash pie. I'll admit, I made an extra pie to try ahead of time (even thought that kind of goes against the spirit of Practice Thanksgiving) just in case it was really gross. The final product turned out to look and taste pretty much like pumpkin pie - maybe a slightly milder flavor. It seemed a little anticlimactic after fretting all day about how my squash pies would taste, to have them turn out like a regular old mundane run-of-the-mill pumpkin pie. Mr. Geek made a buttercup squash dish that resembles sweet potatoes. I haven't tasted it yet, though.

In additional to our numerous buttercup squash, here are a few late photos of our other fall crops. We harvested about a gazillion sunflower seed heads, which we will let the birds eat this winter.

We had gourds of all shapes and sizes. We kept a few for decorations and gave the rest away.

And we harvested lots of interesting decorative Indian corn that had been cross-pollinated to varying degrees by sweet corn.

And of course, the pumpkins. This was only a part of the pumpkin harvest. Except for the couple that we kept for ourselves, all the pumpkins were long gone weeks before Halloween. It turns out that pumpkins are much easier to give away than buttercup squash - go figure.

So Happy Practice Thanksgiving to all! And incidentally, today is also B's arbitrarily assigned birthday, so happy birthday to B, one year old-ish today!

... And a Few More

2009-10-30T21:20:00.000-04:00

I've been sorting through more of L's pics from the NADAC agility championships... I hope you are not already sick of agility action shots, because I have still more! And it looks like the videos won't even be here for a few weeks yet.

I get some serious warm fuzzies looking at these pictures. That may sound like a weird thing to say about action photos, but seriously, these make me feel all gooey, seeing what this little guy gives me.

I'm so honored that L plays this game with me, that he works with me as a team, that he trusts me enough to follow my directions. Dogs are such awesome creatures that never cease to amaze me, these beasts that have such a unique partnership with humans.

And, of course, it's possible that I am biased, but I happen to think that L is quite a handsome fellow. One of a kind.

I got back late last night from a three day agility agility seminar given by Sharon Nelson (with help from her daughter Amanda) - always a worthwhile experience. I took both B and L, and ended up working B more than L. Many of the exercises were suitable for a baby dog, and it was such a great experience for B. She did amazingly well. For one morning session, I had B in line waiting for our turn, with 15 other dogs all around us, and the whole time her tail was up, she looked completely confident and comfortable, and when it was our turn to work, as soon as I took her leash off, she was focused and ready to go - not at all concerned about the fact that 15 other dogs were waiting in line a few feet away, no ring gates or barriers of any kind. I had several people tell me that they would never in a million years have guessed that B had any dog issues if they didn't know. I had several other people - including Sharon and Amanda - "threaten" to steal her.

Poor L - I think he might have been a little offended by how much time I spent with B at the seminar. I swear he gave me an accusatory look at the end of the third day, after he spent lots of time crated in the car while B was having fun in the arena. Maybe I imagined it, but it broke my heart anyway, so this evening I made sure to spend some quality one-on-one time playing with L tonight - not doing agility, not training... just playing - with the other dogs locked up. I think I need to make more of an effort to do that with him on a regular basis. I have spent so much time helping B with her issues, I need to make sure that L knows how important he is. After all, just scroll up and take another look at what he gives me.

Quick Updates

2009-10-25T20:50:00.003-04:00

Wow, long time, no blog! I know I've been doing a terrible job of keeping up, but it isn't because I have run out of things to say. I just can't seem to find the time to organize my thoughts. So here are a few unorganized thoughts.

Champs Pics

I got the pictures that I ordered from the NADAC Agility Championships. Here are a few of my favorites - I'm still planning on posting more about my experience at the Championships when I get some time, and I haven't gotten the videos that I ordered of our runs either - but here are a few good action shots of L to get me started! (The following three photos are courtesy of Great Dane Photos)

How The Mighty Have Fallen

Then, the week after the Championships, came the evening visit to the emergency vet. L somehow tore his side open while running around outside. We still don't know how he did it, which is a little worrisome. It looked like he must have gotten hung up on something sharp as he ran by - it was a clean puncture and tear, and it obviously needed immediate attention so we drove him to the vet school where they stapled him up. I didn't take any graphic pictures of his wound, but here's one showing how pathetic he was wearing his cone, poor fellow.

Of course, L is fine - his wound has healed amazingly well, and he has since been unstapled. We even ran in an agility trial this weekend. (We did okay, but certainly shattered any illusion I may have had after that Champs that we might be super cool from now on.)

Good Citizen B

Last weekend, B passed her Canine Good Citizen test! Woohoo! She very nearly failed the "Supervised Separation" test, which was the only part that we didn't practice for. I guess it never occurred to me that she would have trouble with it, since the tester is someone she knows and loves, and she's never seemed to have separation anxiety in other contexts. So I was surprised that she got a little stressed.

But she did exceptionally well on all the other parts - I was so proud of her. She even aced the "Reaction to Another Dog" test. (Of course, since I've introduced her to nearly every friendly dog in town by now, the test dog was one that she had met before, but still...)

Little Agility Dog

And while we were getting ready for the CGC test, we were also working on our agility training. B has been doing really, really well - she's a lot of fun to work with. I have to keep reminding myself that she's still just a baby (although she is almost a year old now - can you believe it?!?) Here are some pics from a few weeks ago:

I ran her in a show-n-go this past Friday. (A show-n-go is a little fun match, kind of like a fake agility trial where you can train in a setting that it similar to a real trial.) Since this was the first time B had seen different equipment, and the first time she had done agility in a setting with lots of strange dogs around, my goals for the show-n-go were two-fold: first, I wanted to make sure that she could recognize equipment that might look or feel a little different than mine, and understand that the performance criteria were still the same; and second, I wanted to see how well she focused and how confident she would be with lots and lots of new dogs just outside the ring.

We were successful on both counts. She was a little worried about the contact obstacles the first time around, but quickly figured out that they were the same thing as what is in our back yard. And she didn't worry at all about all the other dogs. Yay! I was almost giddy I was so happy with how she did.

On The Road Again

I feel like I'm still recovering, a month later, from my trip to Tennessee - yet here I am, fresh back from a trial weekend and hitting the road again tomorrow for a three day agility seminar. I'm tired just thinking about it, but I couldn't pass up this seminar. I plan to bring both L and B, but I don't know if both of them will get to participate. It might just be another good socialization opportunity for B.

Last But Not Least

And somehow I given a month's worth of updates, and I have neglected to say anything about Z. His control over his back end has continued to improve. Unfortunately, as he has become more mobile and active, his back left foot, misshapen from arthritic changes, has been giving him trouble. The foot torques so much when he walks that he gets friction sores where his pads rub together, and the skin splits between his pads. When he was having trouble getting around, all the sores and splits healed up, but now that he's able to run around again, they're back. We've been trying a variety of things to allow the foot to heal, but so far he's still a little ouchy on it.

So, that's all for now! I've got to get another load of wash done to pack for tomorrow, and then hopefully after this next trip, I can relax at home for a few weeks!

Tired, but Happy.

2009-09-28T17:44:00.000-04:00

L and I rolled back into town a few hours ago, back from the NADAC Agility Championships in Shelbyville, TN. It was a grueling week of competition in hot, humid weather, and the days were long and nerve-wracking. I'll be posting more compete details later, plus some photos and maybe even a few videos (note to self: next time you compete in an event where everything is recorded on digital video, make an attempt to dress a little nicer!) But for right now, I'm utterly exhausted, so I will cut to the chase:

We came in 3rd place for the 20 inch dogs!!

The scoring was cumulative for all 16 runs over the course of 5 days, and L did better than I ever could have hoped or imagined. We may not have been the fastest or flashiest team out there, but L went out there and nailed course after tough course, qualifying in 14 out of 16 runs. And the consistent performances paid off in the end.

I'm still walking on air. I can't put into words how I feel when I think of my special little rescue guy, who was thrown away over and over again as a puppy, now holding his own with the best of the best. It was a tough week, no doubt about it, but there are many moments that I will cherish forever.

International Rock Flipping Day 2009

2009-09-20T21:20:00.003-04:00

So, today is International Rock Flipping day, where bloggers across the globe are invited to go outside and flip over a rock or two, and photograph, sketch, or describe what they find underneath. For the second year in a row, I had planned to take the dogs down to the creek to flip some rocks and hopefully find something exciting to share. For the second year in a row, I failed. It was such a rainy, gloomy day - the kind of weather that just sucks all the life out of me, so I opted to stay closer to the house. This year I flipped a one of the rocks that forms the border to the flower beds in front of the house. And here is what I found:

Slugs. I flipped a few more rocks, but they all looked about the same, so I didn't bother to take pictures of the others. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that on a rainy, gloomy day at the end of a long, wet summer, all I can find under my rocks are slugs.

Lady Fi should be happy, I guess - she seems enamoured with slugs. Me, not so much. But hey, I guess it isn't much worse than the ants and the orange fuzzy thing I found last year. Perhaps next year I will make it to the creek or the beaver ponds on Rock Flipping Day 2010, and I will find some awesome salamanders, or crayfish, or even a snake. Until then, this is all the rock flipping news I have to report.

In other, non-rock flipping-related news, L and I are planning on hitting the road at the crack of dawn on Tuesday to head for 5 days of stiff competition at the NADAC Agility Championships. It sounds the like the days will be long and exhausting, so I'm not sure if I will have the energy to post updates on how we are doing. Frankly, I'm not sure if I will want to post updates on how we are doing. Going to Champs seemed like a much better idea when it was still several months away. Now that it is looming so large in front of me, I feel less excited, and more like I'm getting ready to take prelims, or go in for surgery, or something.

Last spring, I had grand plans for being well-prepared for competing at this level, but I have been plagued by knee problems all summer, and L has been so bothered by the wet ground, that we really have hardly practiced. We did get a few good practices this week during a little dry spell, just to make sure we are still on the same page for the most part, but I'm not feeling very confident going in. I asked L if he will still love me no matter how I perform, and I'm pretty sure his reply was something along the lines of, "quit yammering and give me that cheese, lady!" So, I think we're good. I just need to make sure to keep reminding myself that this is like any other agility trial - it is all about me and my dog having fun together, and nothing else really matters very much. Nothing else really matters very much.

Fourth Cutting

2009-09-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

I've been neglecting the blogosphere lately - I'm not sure where the time is going, but I've been having a hard time even keeping track of what day it is lately. As busy as work has gotten, I have to admit that there is a part of me that is enjoying it. Even as the university is struggling with the fact that with the latest stark state budget cuts, there are going to have to be some layoffs, I have come to the realization that I am good at my job, and I like what I do. (I'm sure the feeling will pass.) Anyway, the summer is ending, and I have hardly posted any pictures of summer flowers - wild or otherwise.

My blanket flowers are still going strong, as usual. We planted them in a few new spots this year - they are so easy to grow, I feel like just filling all the empty spaces with them - cover all the fence lines, put them on every bank. Too monotonous?

And our mums are just starting to bloom, reminding me that fall is almost here.

Yesterday, we put up our fourth cutting of top quality orchard grass hay. (And by "we" I mean Mr. Geek.) Four cuttings is ideal with the length of our growing season, but most people around here only get two. Only Mr. Geek is persnickety enough about this field to manage four. The last two years, with the drought, we only got three cuttings. This year we have had the opposite problem - it has been so wet, it has been difficult to find a large enough window of dry weather to get the hay cut, cured, and put up.

Technically, we really only got three good cuttings this year, since the third cutting was ruined by several unexpected freak thunderstorms. We ended up round baling it and giving it to our neighbor for his cattle, instead of square baling it and selling it to discriminating horse folks.

L loves hay season. He loves running through the wind-rows, sometimes leaping over the rows, sometimes plowing right through, sometimes diving under. He loves riding on the hay wagon. He loves climbing on the hay bales - I have even caught him on top of all the bales in the barn, so high that he literally has to hop over the rafters to get around. And he even loves the round bales - he leaps up on them, and then runs down the whole row, leaping from bale to bale.

And the round bales make a fabulous lookout point. L was very sorry to see them go.

And of course, the dogs all think that Mr. Geek's nicely raked windrows are the best place to play. Perhaps they think that they hay needs to be tedded back out again. They give it their best shot anyway.

So, another hay season is over, and fall is coming. Z's mobility is still gradually improving - every week he seems a little stronger. Perhaps by the time the best hiking weather arrives, he will even be ready to hit the trails with us! In the meantime, I have a couple of big things looming on my horizon - L competing in the NADAC agility championships next week (gulp!) and B's Canine Good Citizen test coming up next month!

Puppy Progress - Up To Date

2009-09-05T11:30:00.002-04:00

The past two weeks have been a bit crazy - the students are back, and we have several new people in the lab who need to be trained and supervised. And in the midst of it all, B and I are doing our best to continue our journey. Here she shows off her very favorite trick - balancing in her bowl. She likes this one so much, sometimes it is hard to get her out of the bowl - she'll step out and then immediately hop back in. I have to be quick to pick it up once she's out!

We made quite a bit of progress over the summer with her fear of new dogs - my last progress report left off at the start of Phase 4 of my behavior modification plan - meeting and interacting with new dogs in new locations with no pre-prepping. Over the summer there is a "concert on the lawn" series every Friday evening on campus, which turns out to be a great place to work on socialization. There is loud live music, lots of people, kids running around everywhere throwing balls and frisbees, and usually about 10-15 other dogs there. Several of my dog training friends take dogs to these events every week to work on socialization or training with distractions, so we usually had a few dogs there that B already knew and liked. One of my awesome friends usually came with two of her dogs, and would use them to test new dogs, (or block us from new dogs, if that's what we needed) so we could get a feel for them before I asked if it was okay for B to meet them.

For some dogs, we just played "look at that dog" but for others, I let B interact with them. She was still pretty nervous and tense during the initial meeting with a new dog - ears back, weight shifted back ready to leap away, but definitely wanting to meet the dog. And once past the initial greeting, she usually figured out that the new dog wasn't a threat and was able to relax around them. That in itself was great progress.

And then, at the 5th concert on the lawn that we attended, a miracle happened. As I was scanning the crowd for dogs, I noticed a couple with a puppy sitting on the outskirts. The puppy looked a little younger than B, and about the same size, so I approached them, explained that B and I were working on her fear of other dogs, and asked them if they thought it would be okay if B met their puppy. They thought their puppy would do well with B, so we let them meet. The puppies touched noses, and then, to my great surprise, B dropped into a play bow, and proceeded to have a great time playing with the puppy for 10 minutes! A few minutes after that, we met a little Lab puppy, and once again, B play-bowed and had a great time rolling around on the ground playing. And just after that, we met up with another friend who had brought her dogs for B to meet for the first time, and B immediately played with both of them - an adult bull terrier, and a boxer puppy! I was on Cloud Nine the whole way home that night - I couldn't have been happier if we had just been crowned agility champions of the world. What a breakthrough!

For the remainder of the concert series, B continued to have a great time playing with several new dogs each week, everything from little Poodle puppies to adult Golden Retrievers, and even a young Great Dane (who was actually a little afraid of B - go figure!) I can't say that it was entirely smooth sailing - we still ran into an occasional dog that made her nervous, and there were still dogs that I opted to not have her interact with, but within the space of about a month, B transformed into a new dog.

Around that same time, B started a new obedience class. I talked the owner of B's GSP friend into take the same class, so that B had one friend there. I needn't have worried, though - B did awesome in her class. She never worried about the other dogs, played with some of them after class, and generally was very focused and happy the whole time, even doing group stays and heeling past other dogs.

I know our work is far from done - B is hardly bomb proof when it comes to other dogs, but I have to admit that I am very pleased with how far we have come in the past 6 months. We've taken a little bit of a break with the hard-core socializing for a few weeks and have focused on training some agility, but this week we started another obedience class, and I'm ready to get back to work.

So, our plate is pretty full - obedience, socialization, and now on to agility - whee!

The Last Fruits of Summer

2009-08-25T18:58:00.000-04:00

I know I have said several times how much fun we've had with our garden this year, but the fun didn't end there. Last summer we planted three blackberry plants, and this summer we were deluged with huge, juicy blackberries.

We ate some, gave some away, and still they kept coming. So, I decided to do something I have never done before. This past weekend I made two batches of homemade blackberry jelly. My mother and my grandmother used to make jelly and can tomatoes every summer, but I've never attempted either. I'm not generally good in the kitchen - every time I try making something new, it generally involves a lot of running in circles, waving my arms around, and using lots of swear words.

To my surprise, though, the blackberry jelly turned out beautifully, and it was easy to make - it didn't even require any cursing! And it is oddly satisfying, looking at a dozen neat little jars full of sparkling, deep purple goodness. We've been eating peanut butter and blackberry jelly sandwiches all week -mmm!

Now we are down to the last few ripening blackberries. I almost can't wait to make jelly again next summer. And maybe someday I will be able to make grape jelly from our own grapes - but not this year! Our grape harvest is just about equal to last year's - perhaps increased by a grape or so. This is only the second year for the grape vines, though, so we didn't expect them to do much until next year. (Now I just have to figure out the complicated art of pruning grape vines - yikes!)

Puppy Progress Part II

2009-08-21T12:40:00.000-04:00

The students have returned to campus this week - yet another sign that the summer is quickly (too quickly) coming to an end. Our sleepy little college town is once again bustling with activity, and campus is crammed with cars as parents help their kids get settled in their dorm rooms.

It is high time for me to post about B's progress over the course of the summer working on overcoming her fear of other dogs (Apologies to those who aren't particularly interested in dog training or working with fearful dogs, because I think this is going to be long!)

Phase 1 of helping B become more comfortable around new dogs was inviting dogs that I knew to have good social skills over to our house and doing very carefully managed introductions, as I have described previously. B was able to meet and have positive interactions with over 30 new dogs this way. At some point during phase 1, I also began taking B to places where we could play "look at that dog" - a game that makes looking at other dogs a rewardable behavior and helps change B's initial reaction to seeing new dogs from "oh no - a dog!" to "cool, I looked at a dog, give me a treat!" We spent hours in the parking lot at PetSmart, or near a walking trail through town, practicing looking at dogs. It is amazing how her body language changed from playing this game. Instead of fixating on a new dog, she would look briefly, and then turn back to me to get her reward, and she would happily offer the "look at the dog" behavior repeatedly. Instead of tucking her tail and raising her hackles, she began to relax, and her tail began to come up. Sometimes it would even wag! Instead of trying to dart away, she would look interested in interacting.

Phase II was arranging to meet dogs that she already knew in various new places - on campus, at local parks, etc. This phase went by pretty quickly, because it turned out that she really didn't have any trouble with it. She clearly has a good memory for dogs that she has already met, and wasn't worried about any of them even though we were seeing them in a new place.

Phase III was to meet new dogs for the first time in neutral locations. To start out, I pre-arranged all meetings so that introductions could still be carefully managed, although you can imagine that by this time, I was beginning to run out of dogs that were known quantities to me, and was having to rely on other people's assessments of their own dogs or their friend's dogs. In some ways, this phase was like starting over in a new place. I prepped people ahead of time on what to do: just walk their dog, and we will follow at a distance and gradually catch up. I warned them that the dogs may or may not get to actually meet , depending on how things seem to be going, even though we have always gotten to the point where the dogs get to interact. B has met about 30 additional new dogs this way, and although there have been a few rough spots, this has generally gone very well.

KB asked in the comments (a long time ago now - sorry it took me so long to answer!) about what I do when B does react fearfully to a new dog. For me, one of the most fun and most challenging aspects of working with a fearful dog is trying to always stay on the leading edge of the dog's comfort zone. Ideally, if you do this correctly, the dog will never react fearfully - you always want to keep the dog just below the threshold of where they feel the need to react, so that they never have the opportunity to "practice" fearful behavior. In reality, however, I do sometimes misjudge or make mistakes, and B ends up going over threshold and reacting. The first thing I do at that point is get her out of the situation as quickly as possible, either by running her away (with a cheerful "let's go!!" as though we are playing a game) or picking her up and carrying her, until we are far enough away that I can get her below threshold again. Then we sit and practice "look at that dog" for a few minutes. Usually a few reps of this game calms her down fairly quickly, since she is so practiced at it now. If the situation allows, I will ask the owner of the other dog if we can just follow them for a while. B tends to be much braver about dogs that are walking away from her and usually is able to relax while following along behind dogs.

When we first started on this journey, fearful reactions were essentially unavoidable - with every new dog that came to our field, I would have B on-leash at a distance as the new dog came in the gate, and I would have a fistful of food in her face and try to keep her moving as much as possible so that she didn't have much time to dwell on the new arrival - and the owner of the new arrival would be doing the same thing, to prevent their dog from focusing on B too much. Still, for many of the early new dogs, B spent the first several minutes with a tucked tail, raised hackles, pinned ears, lowered head, whale eyes, profuse stress dandruff, and would growl and nervously dart around, looking like she would prefer to bolt for the horizon.

These days, fearful reactions to other dogs tend to be very mild and infrequent - a momentary tail tuck and leap backwards, for example - and she recovers very quickly. As an illustration, one of the new dogs we met a few weeks ago had the potential to be disastrous miscalculation on my part, but ended up being a great experience. I had arranged to meet one of Mr. Geek's co-workers at a park with her large hound mix, which she said plays often with small dogs and is very submissive and gentle. This was one of those cases in which I had to trust her assessment of her own dog, but thankfully I still gave her my little spiel of "when you get there, just walk your dog and we will follow you around, dogs may or may not get to meet, blah blah blah." B and I arrived early and practiced some obedience in a field near the parking area. When she arrived and got her dog out of the car, we practiced looking a few times, and B seemed perfectly comfortable. Then the new dog noticed B, and instantly morphed into an uncontrollable beast, barking, lunging, hackles raised - for a minute or two, I wasn't sure his tiny little owner was going to be able to control him!

B looked quite alarmed - this was by far the most threatening and out of control dog she had ever seen. I moved her a little farther away, and the hound mix was eventually wrestled off in another direction, and I was wondering whether to just pack B up in the car and call it a day - I knew there was no way I was going to let her meet this dog. But while I was mulling over my options, B had already recovered and was wanting to follow the new dog, so we did. And he had also calmed down - he just doesn't get out much and had been overstimulated, but after we followed them for a few minutes and he got used to B's presence, he was very calm and mellow. We gradually caught up, then walked the dogs side by side for a while, and then they actually played for a little while, and he truly was very gentle and sweet, laying on the ground and handicapping himself to make B feel more comfortable playing with him.

So, now we have moved on to Phase IV - meeting new dogs while out and about, with no pre-prepping. I'll write more about that, and B's obedience class, in another post!

Mornings at the River

2009-08-16T15:50:00.001-04:00

As the end of summer approaches, I realized that we haven't been following our normal summer routine of taking the dogs swimming at the river. Perhaps this is partly because it has been unseasonably rainy and cool this summer - it is much easier to remember to go swimming when it is hot and sunny, I guess. We went once at the beginning of the summer, but the river was so high and fast back then, I didn't think it was safe. And then Z hasn't really been up for swimming lately, and it is so hard to go without him. But I really wanted to get B swimming before the weather starts getting cold, so we've taken L and B to the river several times over the past few weeks.

L usually leaps right in and starts paddling around like a little muskrat. B, who for the longest time refused to even wet her toes in our little shallow creek, took a little more convincing to plunge into the deeper water of the river.

But she caught on pretty quickly - the river is FUN! You can play FETCH in the river!! You can play for a long time without getting so hot! Woot!

Parts of the river are actually fairly shallow, and the dogs can run pretty far into the water before they have to swim. We really have to wing the toys way out there to get a good workout for the dogs. L looks like he is so fast that he's running on top of the water. Really, he was porpoising through the water, and it was deeper than it looks, but my camera happened to catch him at just the right time.

Neither dog is particularly buoyant - they are good swimmers, but they are both so low in the water. Z, on the other hand, swims like a motor boat. I have really missed having him with us on our river outings - hopefully he will get strong enough that I won't have to worry about him swimming in the current, but first we need to get him back swimming in the pool again.

It seems like B has caught on to how this swimming in the river thing works. In case anyone is wondering, Mr. Geek and I are right out there splashing around in the water with the dogs. In fact, our best swimming spot is off of an island in the middle of the river that we have to wade out to reach.

A good time was had by all, and we head home - the humans a little sunkissed, the dogs a little waterlogged, everyone happy. What better way to start a weekend day?

The After Dinner Crazies

2009-08-14T20:38:00.004-04:00

Every evening, after the dogs have eaten their dinner and chilled for a while, we go walk around our fenced "yard" where the dogs get the After Dinner Crazies. Forgive the crappy quality of the video - it was dusk out, so the lighting is bad, and the videographer was even worse, but you get the idea. L and B both love to run, but it's not really a fair fight. When it is B's turn to be the chasee, L can run her down and roll her over at will. When it is L's turn to run, B doesn't stand much of a chance of catching him until he stops. And even Z gets into the action at the end of the video. You can see he's still not quite using his back legs properly, but he is getting better all the time and is at least getting around well enough to go out with the other dogs now.

The End is Near!

2009-08-10T07:40:00.000-04:00

(Of summer, that is.) What better reminder is there that the end of summer is approaching than the sight of a big, bright orange pumpkin?

I can feel the summer once again slipping away as the days get shorter and the pumpkins begin to change color. Where does the time go?

B's obedience class just ended this week, and I have two weeks left in the two agility classes I am teaching. Plus, one of my regular private agility students is moving across the country in two weeks, so my schedule is opening up a little bit for a few weeks. Will summer be over by then? Or will there still be time?

Not all the pumpkins have turned - just the earliest ones. We have many green ones, still - maybe they will hold off until I am ready for fall? I'm sure I will be ready at some point, right?

The garden isn't winding down yet. The cantaloupes are just ripening and are the best I've ever had - they are just like eating candy, but juicier. We also just picked the first of the honeydews. My young nephew planted a few watermelons, but he put them in so late that I didn't expect them to do much. To my surprise, he has lots of good looking watermelons growing!

And the corn is just about ready to eat. Growing corn makes me think of the final episode of M*A*S*H, when everyone is talking about what they want to do when they get home. Col. Potter says, "Well, I like fresh corn. I mean real fresh corn. So I think maybe I'll just take a hot plate out to the garden, make a pot of boiling water, then I won't even pick that corn - I'll bend that stalk till the ear dips into the water, and I'll eat it right there standing up. Scrumptious!" Hmmm... maybe we should give it a try!

In other news, Z continues to improve. We have weaned him off his multitudes of painkillers, (except for the rimadyl, which is permanent) and have gradually increased his activity. He goes out loose with the other dogs now rather than needing to go out on leash, and he can go up and down the deck stairs without trouble. I am hopeful that this fall he will be able to hike with us once again. (In the meantime, though, B has lost her off-leash hiking privileges while we fix her recall, since adolescence has apparently struck and my oh-so-reliable puppy suddenly decided this weekend that coming when called was optional while she is running through the woods.)

On The Road Again

2009-07-31T09:00:00.000-04:00

This summer has been so busy, I feel like I just can't get myself ahead of the curve. Last weekend I took L and B to an agility trial - L to compete, and B to take in all the sights and sounds associated with agility trials and to make some new doggy friends. It was a Friday night/Saturday night trial, so I left Friday morning giving myself what I thought was plenty of extra time to get there. However, it was unfortunately a bad day for accidents on the interstate. There were four accidents within a 15 mile stretch of interstate, many involving multiple tractor trailers, and one with multiple fatalities (from the only car in a 3-tractor trailer accident.) Sobering.

We ended up getting to the trial late, missing L's first run and barely getting there in time for his second run. Poor little dog - he was trapped in the car for nearly 8 hours, then yoinked out of his crate by his frazzled owner and expected to perform agility. And he still ran well, and qualified in every run Friday night - what a trooper!

B also did very well - she reconnected with a few dogs she had met at previous trials, and made lots of new friends, including several goldens, a yellow lab, a standard poodle, a papillon, a miniature schnauzer, a toy poodle, a sheltie, an aussie, and many more. She even had a great time playing with some of the other puppies there! We did have a few tense moments when I had her in the arena. Surrounded by a sea of dogs that she had already met, she looked so happy and confident and comfortable, an outside observer would never have guessed that she had fear issues with other dogs. So a couple of times, people ran their dogs right up to her "to say hi to the puppy." Sometimes this caused trouble, but other times even this didn't phase B - in fact, this was how she initially met the yellow lab, who she loved right away. (I have a whole post coming about B's progress - I just never seem to get around to posting it!)

And today, we are getting ready to hit the road again. As much as I really dislike traveling two weekends in a row, and as much as I dislike daytime, outdoor (well, covered arena, but still - not climate controlled) summer trials, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get B to another trial. There are stalls available for crating, (which will be great for her since I don't think she's ready to be crated in a crowded area yet,) and it should be a very small trial. My plan is to work with B in between classes, and to run L in the morning classes, and then scratch him for the rest of the day and go find some A/C once it starts to get too hot. So I should presumably get home reasonably early on Sunday afternoon.

In other news, Z continues to improve, albeit gradually. His activity is still restricted to a few easy leash walks a day, but he's getting stronger all the time, and this morning he even lifted his leg to pee. That sounds like such a small thing, but a few weeks ago, he literally had to pee while sitting down - he wasn't even strong enough in the rear to be able to squat. Next week we'll follow up with the vet to see about weaning him off some of the pain meds, and see what they think about increasing his activity a little.

Big Garden, and Other Updates

2009-07-21T08:31:00.001-04:00

I'll give the most important update first - Z is holding his own, perhaps even improving slightly. He is at least able to walk in a straight line now, and can do his business without falling over and needing me to hold him up, so that's something. He's been seen by four different veterinarians in the past 10 days, but we still don't really know what's going on. The game plan now is to keep on keeping on, and hope he continues to improve. He's still happy and eating well. We have to keep him confined to the bedroom most of the time, and several times a day I take him out on-leash to check out the garden with me. Which brings me to the garden updates.

The sunflowers we planted at the top of the garden have become a forest, up to 10 feet tall, towering over even Mr. Geek.

We are still having all kinds of fun with the rest of the garden. We've been trying to catch the zucchinis before the get out of control, but every now and then we overlook one - they grow so darn fast! (That's Mr. Geek's foot, not mine!)

My new favorite is the yellow butter stick squash - so delicious! And just as prolific as the zucchinis.

We are still getting a bucket of cucumbers every week.

And we have even gotten a few lemon cucumbers, which we planted solely for novelty value. They are fairly grotesque looking, but taste pretty much like regular cucumbers.

We may have overdone it with the pumpkins, but they are coming along nicely, and I'm sure the food bank will find takers for the extras. It makes me happy to think of families getting pumpkins for Halloween that they might not have otherwise been able to buy. We'll probably end up with a few dozen of them - many of them are already a good size, and some show signs that they are thinking about starting to turn orange.

We have several different types of peppers, which are all really starting to take off.

We have zillions of tomato vines that look just like this one below - completely weighed down by big, wonderful looking tomatoes, all still green. We've only gotten a few ripe ones so far, but those few have been so tasty - much better than anything in the grocery store!

We might have overdone it with gourds, too. Some of them have grown up into the sunflowers, so that we have random gourds dangling here and there in the sunflower forest.

I'm not sure what we will do with all the gourds, but we have a lot of 'em! Only a few of the goose gourds are actually shaped like geese.

I wonder if they are being cross-pollinated by the birdhouse gourds. Perhaps we should have stuck with one kind. And maybe planted many fewer plants.

I'm also excited about the melons, especially the cantaloupes. This is the first time I've tried growing them, and a seemingly impossible number of them have grown - it looks like wall-to-wall cantaloupes in there! I never would have guessed that they would do so well, and some of them are looking close to being ready to pick!

The honeydew melons haven't produced quite as well as the cantaloupes, but we do have a few that are getting to a decent size.

The first wave of corn is just starting to put out tassels, and the second and third waves are coming along. The corn got a little bit of a late start, but I think it will all be okay.

And finally, we definitely overdid it with the buttercup squash - they are plentiful and huge! Some have grown to the size of small pumpkins! Even though these are considered winter squash, we picked one the other day and I stuffed it with spicy Italian sausage and baked it. It turned out well, although it was so huge that the two of us couldn't finish it. One down, 50+ to go! I think next week we will try grilling one with a butter and honey glaze.

In other news, this weekend I'm taking L to another agility trial, and B will be coming with us to hopefully make some new friends and see how fun trials can be. I have been putting together a post on B's progress and the process we have been going through to help her overcome her fear of other dogs, so that's coming up next.

Bad Times and Better Days

2009-07-14T22:42:00.001-04:00

I actually took these pictures a few weeks ago, and just hadn't gotten around to posting them. I was undecided about whether to post them now or not, in light of the latest developments. You see, Z has taken a sudden turn for the worse. He had been doing so well for so long... then Friday night he looked like he was having a little trouble with his back legs. By Saturday morning, he could barely walk. We suspect that he injured his back - probably the same thing he did last fall when he had similar issues and was diagnosed with degenerative myelopathy.

I'm not sure how to feel, looking at these pictures from just a few weeks back, when he could hike for miles without trouble. I wonder if he will ever get to hike these trails again, and it makes me sad. But, they are pictures of good times that I will always treasure, and so they also make me happy. So, in the end I decided to go ahead and post them.

It took a long time to convince B to get her feet wet in the creek, but now she happily follows her brothers into the water. Here, Z shows her the best flopping spot for cooling off during a hike.

And L shows her how to get the creek crazies.

We found raccoon tracks in the mud all up and down the beaver pond trail. I was excited to see so many tracks with good detail, including a really nice back foot impression. I felt like I hit the raccoon track jackpot - I just kept finding more and more of them.

While I was engrossed in photographing the tracks, Z took the opportunity to cool off in a mud puddle on the trail. He loves to lay in the creek, or puddles, or any body of water, on hot days.

Later, we found still more raccoon tracks in Squirrel Holler, where I have never seen any signs of raccoons before. I wondered what had brought the raccoons so far from the creek...

...until I noticed that the little puddles along the side of the trail were filled with tadpoles and edged with raccoon tracks. Clearly some raccoon had been enjoying an easy meal. There are days when I would have scooped out the remaining tadpoles and grown them up in one of our fish tanks, but I was so busy getting ready for the 4th of July party that I left them to fend for themselves.

As for Z, he is currently on rimadyl, tramadol, a muscle relaxant, and strict rest. He has improved a little bit since Saturday, so hopefully he will continue to recover. We think that this is due to a back injury rather than degenerative myelopathy. For one thing, his symptoms from last fall improved significantly, which wouldn't have happened with DM. The usual time course for DM is about 8 months from onset of symptoms to complete paralysis in the rear. It has been about 11 months since Z was first diagnosed, and about 8 months since his symptoms gradually disappeared. And the acute onset of his symptoms this time around doesn't match the normal course of DM, either. It took several months for him to get better last fall, but then we were treating as though it was DM, which meant keeping him as active as possible. Hopefully he will improve more quickly on strict rest. Keep your fingers crossed for my sweet dog, who doesn't understand why his legs aren't working the way they are supposed to, and why he's being kept locked up in the house.

The Usual Suspects

2009-07-11T22:00:00.000-04:00

Back when we were in grad school, we had a large yet very close-knit group of friends. These are the people who know me best, and like me anyway. These are the people who stood up with us at our wedding. These are some of the people who mean the most to me, who I know I will always be able to count on, and who will always be able to count on me.

Many years ago, we started a tradition of all going in together and throwing a big party at a friend's farm, with a pig roast and bands playing all day, and people camping out for the night. Over the years, as our group of friends slowly dispersed across the country, this traditional party fell by the wayside. After we bought our current property and had the space, we decided to revive it. Every other year, on the 4th of July holiday weekend, our friends descend upon us from all corners of the country. Many of them stay with us for several days. We had quite a crowd here by Friday night, complete with a little tent city that sprang up in the field, and people sleeping in every square foot of our little house!

For the main event on Saturday, our friends got a few of their old bands back together and played throughout the day. They haven't really practiced together for many years now and aren't as polished as they once were, but no one seems to mind.

A few extra backup dancers seem to have accumulated over the years.

Plenty of local friends stopped by to hang out, listen to the music, and enjoy all the great food (which we seem to get carried away with every time, despite our plans to keep it simple.)

Mr. Geek took folks out for a few hayrides throughout the day, too - some short ones for the kids who can't ever get enough hayrides, and some more exciting longer rides down through the back fields, across the creek and back through the woods.

There was so much food, and it was all sooo good! We have enough leftovers stacked in our freezer that we will be enjoying them for weeks to come. In fact, there was so much food, no one had to eat any babies!

After dark, we took the hay wagon up to the highest point in the pasture, where we had a great view of the town fireworks lighting up the sky.

And then we sat around the bonfire, reminiscing about old times, and catching up on new developments in everyone's lives.

The last of our house guests left on Monday, and although we miss everyone as soon as they are gone, it usually takes us a while to recover. This is the third time we've hosted this gathering, and after each time I think we wonder if we will have enough energy to do it again in two years. (In fact, two years ago, we vowed not to do it again - someone left a door open, and one of our indoor-only cats got out. We searched frantically for NINE DAYS before we found him - a story for another time. After we found the cat and felt a little better about things, we reconsidered. This year, the cats were locked in our bedroom for the duration, with several lines of defense to prevent any more feline disasters.)

But the fact of the matter is, we enjoy seeing everyone so much, any amount of trouble is worth getting everyone together like this! So, July 2011, here we come!

Puppy Progress Part 1

2009-07-02T08:30:00.000-04:00

B has been having a very busy summer so far! We have been continuing our work overcoming her fear of dogs, but we've also made sure to save some time to just have fun. Her best friend, the GSP puppy, has been coming over for pool parties and lots of play time.

And in the evenings, L and B have started their own little ritual. In the cool of the evening as the sun is going down, we walk the border of our field, and L gets the crazies and zooms all over, with B hot on his tail. He is still faster and takes obvious pleasure in being able to out-maneuver her.

After a little break in the action, B tries to make L go again...

And he is usually happy to oblige!

As for our socialization with new dogs, B has made a ton of progress. After meeting 30+ new dogs at our house, she had improved to the point that it was time to take the show on the road. We started by meeting some of her favorite friends in neutral locations - at nearby parks or on campus. She had no trouble with that at all. The next phase was meeting new dogs for the first time in neutral locations. While it hasn't always gone smoothly, she's had a few breakthroughs and I have been excited about how far we've come. But for now, this post is long enough, so details about this phase of our work, and B's obedience class, and agility training, will have to come later!

Box Turtle Day

2009-06-29T21:00:00.002-04:00

This weekend, as the dogs and I were hiking, suddenly B started to growl and alarm bark at something at the side of the trail.

I tried to explain to her that box turtles aren't really dangerous, unless you happen to be a strawberry, but she was having none of it. Clearly this was a dangerous and unpredictable wild animal that should be given a wide berth. I called L over, thinking that he could demonstrate for her that box turtles are No Big Deal. To my surprise, he wanted nothing to do with the turtle either.

I can understand dogs having an instinctual fear of snakes, like Z, but turtles? This is as close as they would come - both B and L were ready to jump back in the event the turtle made a play for them. They were both being very careful to stay out of turtle leaping range.

About a quarter of a mile farther down the trail, I noticed that L had picked up a trail, but he seemed reluctant to follow it very far. On a hunch, I checked it out. Sure enough, another box turtle! I don't see turtles very often, and now two within 10 minutes of each other!

In other hiking news, the wild rhododendrons growing in the woods are finally blooming! It gives the woods such an enchanted forest feel.

The rhododendrons grow all along the trail, along the creek, and throughout the woods. It is hard to capture their effect on film, since they tend to be a lot leggier than the cultivars found in our flower beds.

We are gearing up for a big 4th of July party, so things are busy busy busy here! But I still have a LOT to report about B's progress in the past month, so I'll try to post about it soon!

How We've Been Spending Our Time

2009-06-26T21:52:00.000-04:00

One of the many things pulling me away from the computer this summer has been the garden. We usually plant a few things, but we originally had not planned on having a real garden this summer. But then my mother-in-law asked us if she could plant some things in our garden, and we were happy to share the space. And the gardening enthusiasm was contagious. My sister-in-law and her kids were excited to plant a few things, and Mr. Geek's aunt and uncle even got in on the scene. So we started getting more excited about planting some things, too.

We ended up with a huge garden, but I'm really enjoying it. Actually, we made it a little too big - after everyone planted their stuff, we had a lot of open space left, so we kept planting odds and ends to try to fill it. We have zillions of giant sunflowers, peas, beans...

I'll admit, we had so much room to work with that I made some planting decisions based on what was fun, and not necessarily on what I want to eat. I did a row of radishes - fun to pull up - whee! But then what? I've had to look pretty hard to find people who like to eat radishes. If anyone out there knows of anything that can be done to a radish to make it delicious, by all means, leave me instructions in the comments!

We planted a lot of corn, since it takes up a lot of room, and we all like to eat it. We have three waves, each planted several weeks apart. This picture is the first wave, take a few weeks ago.

We have many different types of tomato plants... yellow pear tomatoes..

Roma tomatoes...

Fireworks tomatoes from my dad...

Cherry tomatoes... and several more!

We have birdhouse gourds and goose gourds...

We have so many buttercup squash that I have no idea what we will do with them. I'll probably end up chasing people down the hall at work trying to get them to take some. Anyone have any good buttercup squash recipes?

The cantaloupes have started growing, but I haven't seen any of the honeydews or watermelons or pumpkins yet.

The cucumber onslaught began weeks ago - we have two varieties...

And we have several types of yellow squash and zucchinis that are just starting to take off.

We also have 5 different types of peppers...

And there's more! I can't wait until we get our first lemon cucumbers, but I don't plan on eating them, either. I think we planted those just for the novelty! I'm really glad that we did the big garden this year - I'm having a great time with it so far, and the best is yet to come!

Updates: L's Agility Trial

2009-06-23T21:20:00.001-04:00

Okay, so I have a lot of updates to post! I'm so far behind on blogging that several weeks have gone by since L's recent agility trial. I had misgivings about even taking him to the trial, given that we haven't hardly practiced in the past few months. Going from several years of drought to getting much higher rainfall than normal has been harder on L than anyone. I've mentioned that L is a quirky fellow... well, he has some issues that go beyond just not liking to get his feet wet. He has smell issues - when the ground is wet, and it is warm out, there are smells that apparently must be avoided at all costs. For example, he can't walk near where anyone else has peed or pooped recently, and he certainly can't go anywhere that there might be worms. He hates worms. Which is unfortunate, because not only are there just zillions of worms out during all this wet weather, but when it rains, water pools in the bottom of my agility tunnels, and then worms get in them and drown.

So, when L goes out, he usually tries to stay on the mulch along the fence line, and if he has to walk in the grass, he tries to avoid letting any of his feet touch the worm-contaminated ground. He progresses along in a series of skips and leaps, zigging and zagging through the horrible labyrinth of smells. (Meanwhile, Z and B seem to really enjoy rolling on dead worms - I wonder what L thinks of that!) So, I generally avoid trying to practice any agility with L during the smelly season, since I want to make sure that agility is always fun and fast and happy. If I see him skipping and hopping through the grass, or edging his way along the fenceline, or trying to levitate, I write off agility practice for that day.

The trial, however, was in an indoor soccer arena on astroturf. Despite our lack of practice, L had one of his better trial weekends - he was fast and happy and wound up, and I suspect that it was out of sheer relief to be on such a clean, dry, non-smelly surface. He loves astroturf. He earned 8 Q's in 11 runs, and had some of his fastest and most fun runs ever.

I had hoped to have some pictures from the trial, but I haven't gotten them yet, so all you get is words. I have pictures of plenty of other stuff, though - they have been piling up while I've been running around outside, playing with dogs, working on gardens, etc. So what update to post next? B's progress? The garden? The flowers? The hay field? The hikes? It's all coming!

Snake Magnet

2009-06-14T07:30:00.000-04:00

Over at Romping and Rolling in the Rockies, KB has posted that she must be a bear magnet, since she's been seeing so many bears this year. Well, I guess I must be a snake magnet, because we've been seeing black snakes much more often than usual. Not long ago I posted about Betsy the Barn Snake, the 4.5 foot long black snake in our barn. Yesterday, as the dogs and I were heading out for our hike, we found this little fellow sunning himself on the road.

He's just a baby, so skinny that I almost mistook him for a stick. The dogs didn't seem to notice him either.

Then, later yesterday, look what we found hanging out in a hay baler: it's Bitsy the Baler Snake!

This is one of two broken balers that our neighbor owns - he and Mr. Geek were going to see if they could use the two broken balers to construct one working baler. But this one is already occupied by little Itsy Bitsy here.

And a few other odds and ends, as I get ready to clean the house for the 20+ relatives coming over for dinner tonight - I was happy to see on our hike yesterday that the wild rhododendrons growing in the understory of the woods are starting to think about blooming.

And at home, the blanketflowers have been going strong for weeks now, and won't stop until November or December. I've been so happy with them that I planted them in a few new spots this year.

And some daylilies are beginning to bloom as well. These are some that my mother split out for me several years ago.

And our blackberries are looking good so far, too. The woods are full of blackberries and raspberries, but I like having a few berry plants right at the house. They are just fun to pick.

We've been busy with the garden, too, but that will have to wait for another post, as will all the other updates about L's agility trial, B's visits to campus, the killdeer, and everything else.

(P.S. Flydragon, please don't punish me for this post by putting up more spider pictures!)

Unplanned Hiatus

2009-06-10T16:00:00.001-04:00

Sorry for the disappearing act, folks! We are all fine - no worries here, just not much time for blogging. I've been trying to peek in on people's blogs from time to time, but haven't had much time for posting comments.

I can't even really point to one specific thing that has kept me away... it is mostly that the days are so long, and I'm feeling a very real sense of urgency to not let them slip through my fingers. There are flower beds to weed, and a huge garden to tend, and a puppy to train and socialize, and there's enough daylight to go back out and play after dinner. Meanwhile, so many bloggable moments have come and gone, unblogged about. I will have to do my best to catch up!

Now that I am trying to take B out and about to meet new dogs, it is taking up a lot more of my time than when I had people bring dogs to our house. We have had several good meetings in various locations over the past few weeks, but it is almost like starting at square one again, where she needs a few minutes to get used to the new dog before she begins to relax. It is still a work in progress.

In the meantime, I'll leave you with this: I'm sure that most of you have a spouse or a sibling or a close friend with whom you share your own little slang language. The other night Mr. Geek and I had a perfectly serious conversation that left me worrying about what an eavesdropper would have thought of us. I wondered just how we had reached that point, and here's my reconstruction of events:

I may have mentioned before that I am not a talented or motivated cook. Mr. Geek is the chef in our house, and if we are eating something delicious, odds are good that he is the one who made it. I have a small repertoire of things that I like to make, and Mr. Geek will often give these dishes nicknames, since there are only a few of them. He had taken to distinguishing my pasta with meat sauce from my pasta with spinach alfredo sauce by referring to them as "Red Dinner" and "Green Dinner". The name Green Dinner struck me as particularly funny - in my best "Soylent Green" imitation, every time I made Green Dinner, I would yell, "Green Dinner is PEOPLE!!!!! IT'S PEEEEEEEEOPPPLLLLLLLE!!!!" (Obviously, you need to have seen Soylent Green in order to get this...)

Of course, we started calling Green Dinner "People" which probably wasn't the best thing.

Mr. Geek: "Are you making dinner tonight? What are we having?"

Dog-Geek: "Either Red Dinner or People. Which do you prefer?"

Mr. Geek: "I think I'm more in the mood for eating People tonight."

Then one day at the grocery store, I saw frozen bags of pasta with spinach alfredo sauce - just dump it all in a skillet and heat it up for 10 minutes, and voila - Fake People! What a time saver! So, I told Mr. Geek that we were having "I Can't Believe It's Not People" for dinner. I think he was skeptical about it ("if it's not People, then what is it, monkeys or hobbits or something?") but it turned out pretty well. Later in the evening, I asked Mr. Geek how he liked it.

"It was good! I couldn't even tell that it wasn't really People!"

Betsy the Barn Snake

2009-05-25T20:00:00.000-04:00

I'm winding down from a great long weekend. Friday we got all the new hay loaded into the barn, except for the 140 bales that our neighbor bought - that went straight to him. Every year, I think that I'm not going to need to wear jeans and gloves, and every year I end up with blisters on my hands and small scratchy cuts all over my arms and legs. Someone, please remind me about this when it is time for the second cutting!

I spent a lot of time this weekend weeding, and planting, and weeding, and working in the garden, and weeding. And did I mention the weeding? I had gotten really behind, especially with the corner flower beds that are the farthest from the house. I made great progress this weekend, right up until I tried to pull up the weed that had the hornet nest on it. I managed to avoid getting stung, but it was a close call. After that, I figured I would leave the rest of that flower bed for another time.

Anyway, I know many of you are not fond of snakes, but check out what we found in the barn when we were putting the hay up!

Here's the view from the other side of that wall:

We've seen a different black rat snake around here several times over the years, distinguishable because he was missing the end of his tail. We dubbed him Stumpy Joe, so of course I wanted to get a look at this snake's tail. This definitely wasn't Stumpy Joe, and looked like a female snake, so we named her Betsy the Barn Snake.

I don't know if it is clear from these pictures, but Betsy is working her way along the rafters and the tops of the walls of the barn. I had to get up on a ladder to get good pictures of her. I've mentioned before that snakes don't really bother me - I even had pet snakes growing up. We managed to get a rough measurement on Betsy as she was stretched out across a rafter - about 4.5 feet long!

I don't think Betsy like the flash going off on her face, so she turned back the way she came.

We've seen her a few more times, but I think she eventually left our barn and headed for our neighbor's barn. My only worry was that Betsy would head the other direction and find the Killdeer nest, but so far, the Killdeer eggs are still safe.

B's First Party

2009-05-23T19:30:00.000-04:00

Mr. Geek plays county league softball with people from his work, and last weekend we invited the softball team over for a cookout and bonfire after their game. The people who own B's BFF - the GSP puppy, are on the team, so they brought her along for the festivities. We also had a new puppy come to the cookout - a little Golden Retriever puppy. Once again, B handled the introduction to the new puppy really well, and we had puppy pandemonium for a while. I didn't get many pictures that really show anything - just a few random shots I snapped off between doing other things.

The GSP and the Golden had trouble finding a comfortable level of play between the two of them. It kept escalating into something that wasn't quite play any more, and their owners would step in and separate them for a little while. I was glad to see that whenever this happened, B just stayed out of it and wandered off to do her own thing. She didn't get stressed out about it, nor did she try to pile on - what a good girl!

Can you tell who has dog treats in their pocket? Or maybe she has a puppy magnet in her pocket.

If it is puppy magnet, it must work on adult dogs, too, since it sucked L right over as well. If there might be treats to be had, count on L to be there! He and B look so cute sitting next to each other - she's really gaining on him, size-wise. Both are long, lean dogs - I think that's why Mr. Geek loved B so much right away.

B had a great time at her first party. She loved shmoozing with all the people, and hanging out with her dog friends. She was a good behaver, didn't jump on people, but she was a little social butterfly. By the end of the night, the GSP puppy was so tired that she climbed into the lap of the first person to sit down, and curled up there for a nap - it was very cute, and I can't believe I neglected to get a picture of it. B never seemed tired at all, even when all the other dogs were passed out, she still wanted to party. She's definitely not easy to tire out!

I hope everyone is having a good Memorial Day weekend!

Play date updates

2009-05-21T09:10:00.000-04:00

Whew! Now that the days have gotten longer, there hasn't been much time for blogging! We've been too busy planting and watering and cutting hay and running around like a bunch of crazies outside, enjoying the daylight and the nice weather. We have been continuing with playdates for B, although I'm so far behind on reporting them now. I'm pleased to say, though, that for the last few weeks, B has done SO well with every new dog she has met - she has looked relaxed and happy from the moment she sees them coming up the driveway, has greeted all the new dogs in a calm friendly manner, and has had no problems. What a difference!

Two weeks ago, a friend brought two of his shelties over, and even with the arrival of two new dogs at once, B was fine. Oddly enough, though, both shelties were afraid of B! We knew that the shelties were a little shy with other dogs, but we didn't think they would actually be afraid - we expected that they would just be disinterested. It was quite the role reversal - B wanting to say hi, and the two shelties wanting to run away from her. I was happy to see that B read their discomfort very well and respected it, and behaved very politely.

Last week, a different friend brought two different shelties over - these two were very confident outgoing, barky shelties, and I wondered if B would have trouble with them. Once again, she did very well right from the start, and we had a big play group going with my three, the two shelties, and my friend's catahoula. I was a bit surprised when I looked at the pictures I took that day to see B looking not entirely comfortable, since my impression at the time had been that she was fairly relaxed and happy.

Both friends who were there also made several comments about how great B was doing. Still, in the picture above, you can see that she has her mouth closed and is holding her ears with some tension - in contrast to the relaxed, open, happy mouths and floppy ears of all the other dogs.

Sure, it could be just the tiny moment in time that I captured, but in many of the pictures from that day, she looks to my eye to be ever so slightly uncomfortable. While the dogs were running around together, I felt that she was having a good time and was pretty relaxed, but I think that there must still have been a tiny hint of discomfort about running amongst so many very confident dogs. I'm not worried about it - I thought she did fantastic and it was a great experience for her, especially considering our starting point!

Contrast B's body language in the series of pictures above to the pictures below of her playing with her GSP buddy - a dog that she is truly, 100% comfortable with - see the open, relaxed mouth and the relaxed ears flapping around? The difference is obvious when she really lets loose.

B's GSP friend has been coming over to play or go hiking on the trails with us about twice a week - they do so well together and are so well matched, I just love watching the two of them playing.

Isn't B's friend just a gorgeous puppy? She's really growing fast - she looks so big and grown up in this picture!

Then again, I think B is a gorgeous puppy, too. She's such a little athlete - she is so active and seems so much more coordinated than any of the other puppies she plays with - hopefully that will translate well into agility training!

And she is such a sweet little girl, too. I'm so glad that we ended up with her. I love her so much already, whatever issues we need to work through, it will all be more than worth it. And based on how well she has done the past few weeks, I am really starting to feel like we have turned the corner on her dog fear issues.

Next up - B's first party!

What Goes On In A Bird Brain

2009-05-16T19:20:00.000-04:00

We still have Killdeer nesting in our driveway, and apparently will for quite some time, since Killdeer sit on their eggs for about 26 days. Laying your precious eggs out in the open, on a bed of gravel, right where Mr. Geek usually parks his truck... it just seems like a bad strategy to me. I am amazed that these birds ever manage to successfully reproduce, but there seem to be plenty of Killdeer around, so what do I know?

So far, we've been treated to all the usual Killdeer antics for protecting their nest - (1) faking injuries to try to lure us away from the nest area, (2) flying at us to try to force us to alter our path, and (3) running off to the edge of the driveway and pretending to sit on a fake nest. The first option - the faked broken wing, is generally for luring predators away. Several times, I have had fluttering Killdeer marching down the road in front of my car as I leave for work, feeling smug about luring it away from their eggs. The second option, which they used on Mr. Geek, is generally used in pastures where a cow or horse strolling along may inadvertently step on the eggs. So, the Killdeer apparently consider me to be a predator, while they think that Mr. Geek is just a bumbling fool. I'm not sure which of us should be flattered.

Actually, they seem to have gotten pretty used to us by now, and rarely bother to get up off their nest when we come and go, especially now that they are finished laying eggs and have gotten down to the business of incubating them. Killdeer nearly always lay 4 eggs, but don't being incubating them until the last egg is laid, so that they will develop together and all hatch at the same time. It took them 8 days to finish laying all 4 eggs, which seemed like a very long time. Then again, these eggs are so huge, I can see why it takes so long for a Killdeer to work the next one up.

I posted this picture last week showing the first egg in the shallow depression that the birds scratched out in our driveway.

I was surprised, after taking a picture of the "nest" with two eggs, to discover that the Killdeer had improved it by covering the bare ground with small lighter colored bits of gravel.

All four eggs are in now, but one or another of the parents sit on them nearly constantly, and I don't want to disturb them just to get a picture. So, there they sit, looking ridiculously conspicuous in their cordoned-off area in the middle of the driveway. Mr. Geek has taken to referring to them as The Driveway Chickens. What must the neighbors think?

The markings around the Killdeer's eye always makes me think that they look a bit worried. I guess I would be pretty worried, too, if I knew I was stuck sitting out there in the open for the next 26 days. I wonder if they think that they have been doing a fantastic job of keeping their nest hidden in plain sight. What do they think when they see us dumb humans walk right up to where the eggs are, and then walk away again, having apparently failed to locate them due to their spectacular camouflage? Or when they successfully lure my car down the road? What goes on in those little bird brains?

I'm still skeptical that these birds really know what they are doing, but I wish them the best of luck - I hope they make it!

Spring Babies for Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:12:00.004-04:00

In honor of Mother's Day today, here is my tribute to mothers of all kinds. These pictures were taken at the little pond near where I work. I though that mother duck might take offense at me snapping pictures of her brood, but when she saw me, she obligingly brought them all right over to the edge of the pond for a photo shoot.

These little baby ducklings are so cute, they don't even look real! They are almost unbearably cute! I almost can't even stand it!

And while we are on the subject of cute babies, I thought I would stroll down the road to the horse farm and get a few pictures of the knobby-kneed spring babies that I always see from the road when I drive by. Unfortunately, they were not turned out in the pasture right then, but rather in a paddock, so my view wasn't as good. But they are cute just the same!

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Wildflowers, etc.

2009-05-08T20:06:00.004-04:00

The woods are coming alive with wildflowers! I haven't been taking my camera along on hikes very often since it is usually either raining, or it looks like it will start raining any second, but I finally got some pictures last week in between rain storms.

I'm certainly no expert on wildflowers, so take these ID's with a grain of salt, but I believe that these little beauties are Fringed Polygala (complete with rain drops.)

These are obviously some sort of violet, but which kind, I have no idea - there are so many!

Here's some pretty Trillium, growing wild on a rocky slope...

I have no idea what these are... anyone?

And these are Fire Pinks, scattered up and down the wooded hillsides.

I can't wait until the wild rhododendrons that are packed under the tree canopy begin to bloom - it shouldn't be too much longer now!

And for the gratuitous puppy picture of the day, I don't know how I left this picture out of my previous post, but it was my favorite shot from that day, so I'm tacking it on at the end of this post, whether you like it or not!

I had thought that B's ears were done with their contortions, but when she started teething, they flopped down again. I had heard that sometimes ears will get floppier when a puppy is teething, but it had never happened to any of my dogs before. B lost her last puppy tooth just over a week ago, and after some ups and downs, her ears have finally resumed their previous "flying nun" configuration, which I just find adorable!

Play Date #13, and Killdeer Nest

2009-05-06T20:00:00.000-04:00

More puppy play dates! I haven't posted all of our play dates - for some it has been too rainy for me to take my camera out, and for some I have felt like I needed to keep my full attention on the dogs the whole time to make sure things didn't go bad. By my count, even though this is only Play Date #13 on the blog, this is the 25th new dog that has come to our house to meet B. (Many have come several times - we've been busy!)

This little fellow belongs to one of my agility students, and when I noticed how well he always does with other dogs in class, I asked his owner if she would mind bringing him over to socialize. Since she lives in an apartment with no yard, she jumped at the chance for him to be able to run and play off-leash in our big field. Win-win!

Isn't he adorable? He is every bit as sweet as he looks, too. I constantly have to fight the urge to scoop him up and put him in my pocket. I don't see how his owner doesn't just laugh all the time.

I had expected that this would be one of the dogs that B would be fine with right from the start (which is happening more and more often, but still not all the time) but she needed about 30 seconds to warm up to him. Still, not bad, considering where we started!

We still have a lot of work ahead of us, but 2 months ago when a new dog would approach, even if it was not showing any interest in B, she would have her tail completely tucked, her hackles raised all the way down her back, head lowered, body weight shifted back ready to bolt away from the new dog. Often she would carry on with a low growl, or if the dog was showing interest in her, she would scream as though she was being attacked. She usually carried her body low, and did a lot of darting around, and would try to bolt away if approached.

These days when she meets a new dog, she rarely tucks her tail or raises her hackles - usually her tail is up and wagging, her head is up, and she looks interested. She still darts around and looks ready to bolt away if a dog shows too much interest in her, but most of the time after a minute or so she will politely try to engage the new dog in play (if she likes them) or she will ignore them and do her own thing if she doesn't like them.

And now to abruptly change the subject, we had a sad incident last week. When my in-laws and niece and nephew and Mr. Geek were all working in the garden one day, someone accidentally stepped on a well-camouflaged Killdeer nest containing two eggs. Everyone felt just horrible about it, but since then, we've been keeping a very close eye on the Killdeer to make sure that if they make a new nest, we will know where it is and be able to avoid it.

Yesterday, Mr. Geek noticed a Killdeer making a shallow depression in our driveway, right behind his truck. Today when I came home for lunch, the Killdeer were back in that spot, and when I went to investigate, guess what I found?

See it? There's only one egg so far, but I have cordoned off the area. I guess Mr. Geek is going to need a new parking spot for the next month.

Odd Trees Revisited

2009-05-04T21:15:00.001-04:00

Anyone remember this weird tree-thing? I posted this picture last fall, and I think the general consensus from readers was that it was most likely some sort of alien pod. I thought maybe it was mistletoe, except that mistletoe is evergreen, and all the alien pod leaves were dead, So I thought maybe the whole tree was dead, and the mistletoe living off of it also died.

Clearly, my hypothesis was wrong, since the alien pod is now lush and green along with the rest of the woods. Oh well, whatever this thing is, I hope it comes in peace!

And I recently posted this picture of the hole made by a Pileated Woodpecker. I was hoping that the woodpeckers were making a nest cavity and that I would be able to keep up with their progress.

This is the same hole from a few days ago. Clearly it has been enlarged, but I haven't seen any new activity here lately. I have been hearing the woodpeckers in the woods, so I know they are still out there, but I don't get the feeling that they are planning on using this specific hole to raise a family. That might be a good thing, I guess - it is so close to the trail and fairly low to the ground, so I would have hated risking disturbing the birds every time I walk the dogs through this section.

Finally, last August I posted this picture of our Weeping Cherry Tree Gone Bad. Weeping Cherry trees are cultivated by grafting a weeping cherry bud onto the trunk from a root stock tree - in this case a cherry blossom tree. Only whoever did the grafting on this tree didn't do a very good job - they neglected to trim all the cherry blossom branches off below the graft. So we have a tree that is half Weeping Cherry, and half Cherry Blossom. Most of the time it isn't terribly noticeable, but in the spring the two halves bloom at different times.

Here's a picture from mid-March, with the Weeping Cherry half blooming nicely...

And in April, as the Weeping Cherry blooms begin to fade, the Cherry Blossom half starts blooming.

Orchard Grass Puppy

2009-04-29T21:48:00.000-04:00

I'm going to attempt posting a video, even though I am an even worse videographer than I am a photographer.

The orchard grass field is getting high - we are getting to the time of the spring season that we refer to around here as "sproing" - since that is what the dogs do as they run through the field. B seems to enjoy sproing so far, and likes to run through the tall grass just for the fun of it. She was doing running leaps into the field, ending with a somersaulting flop - which is what I was trying to catch in the video.

I think she's going to be disappointed after we cut the hay field!

Play Dates 11 & 12, and Trial Report

2009-04-27T20:42:00.002-04:00

Last week B met two new dogs, and I'm pleased to say that for the first time, she looked excited rather than scared at the new arrivals. It felt like such a breakthrough! I'm afraid I got very few good pictures - I was mostly catching up with my old friends who I hadn't seen for a while. This scruffy little terrier mix is an old friend of L's. . .

And this cute little thing is a rescue dog adopted last fall by an old friend of mine. This little dog was just perfect with B - she didn't force any interaction, but when B wanted to play, she was happy to comply. B just loved her!

This past weekend I ran L in another agility trial, and took B along. This was her first real road trip - we went to my parents' house, since they had been wanting to meet the new puppy. I wasn't entirely sure that they were truly prepared for a puppy in the house, but they are good sports. And honestly, B was extra charming the whole weekend, and they just loved her to death. They were pretty mortified when L and B played "smash the puppy" in the living room, even after I reassured them several time that they were indeed playing, and I pointed out that B's tail was wagging and that she kept coming back for more. I guess they don't remember that S used to smash L just as enthusiastically 5 years ago.

L ran pretty well, but it was SO hot out, I scratched him from all his afternoon runs. It got up to about 95 both days - about 20 degrees hotter than it has been, and the dogs just aren't acclimated to that kind of heat yet. I didn't want to keep running him until he decided that he hated being out there. Despite the heat, L finished his second Versatility NATCH (Championship) - Woohoo!

In between runs, I got B out to socialize. Once again, dog people are the best. As soon as people learned that we were working on a fear of dogs, I had so many offers from everyone to bring out appropriate dogs for her to meet, or to walk around the fields with us. Over the course of the weekend, B made friends and had positive interactions with a Black Mouth Cur puppy, a Collie, a Sheltie, a Border Collie puppy, an Australian Shepherd, a North American Shepherd (mini-aussie), a Cocker Spaniel mix, a Jack Russell puppy, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a Pomeranian, and a Corgi. There were still a few dogs that she found intimidating or suspicious, but by the end of the weekend, I had her out near the ring and she looked perfectly happy and excited to see all the dogs.

On all fronts, I think our weekend was a "smashing" success!

More Spring, and Puppy Park Meeting

2009-04-23T07:40:00.002-04:00

The past few days have been a crazy mixture of summer and winter - sometimes both in the same day - with not much real spring weather to speak of. But we are still operating under the assumption that it IS spring. We've got a few things planted in the garden, but there's not much to see yet.

I know I said that I wasn't going to bore you with every last daffodil variety blooming along our fenceline, and I won't, but I can't resist just a few more. I love these delicate little

We don't have very many of these - in fact, I had forgotten about them. they are among the last to bloom.

I think I said some disparaging things about our Grecian windflowers, but I guess they weren't finished yet. I have to admit that they looked pretty nice once they got going. I just wish there were more of them.

We have lots of flowing trees, too - several cherry blossom, and two weeping cherries. This is our "normal" weeping cherry tree. (I'm waiting to post pictures of our crazy tree that is half weeping cherry and half cherry blossom, so I can show the two sides blooming at different times.)

Also among our flowering trees is this beautiful little magnolia.

And we always get a few surprises, like these little grape hyacinths popping up in part of the lawn.

And for the gratuitous puppy update, yesterday I took B to a nearby park to meet up with her GSP friend. I'm happy to report that everything went fantastically well. The park is the same place as last weekend's flyball tournament, and B was very excited when we pulled in. I was happy to see that she remembered it as a good place. She was also happy to see her friend, and didn't look scared at all. This was her first time actually meeting and interacting with a dog at a neutral location, so I wanted to start off with a dog that she knows well and likes. I couldn't be happier about how it went!

Busy Weekend

2009-04-20T21:01:00.004-04:00

Ack - I've been off-line for a while, as this puppy is keeping me on my toes. Now that we've gotten her more comfortable with meeting dogs in her own yard, I've been trying to take her other places where we can see dogs, but not have to worry about them running right up to her. We've hung out in the parking lot at Petsmart several times now, and near a walking trail that goes through town. And this weekend, there was a flyball tournament a few miles from my house, so B and I made the most of the opportunity to see lots of dogs, and we made several trips there each day. We didn't get very close to the action (if you've ever been to a flyball tournament, you know how insane it can get!) but got to see lots of dogs, and meet lots of people.

Dog people are the best. Competitors in the tournament quickly caught on to what B and I were doing out there. Lots of people stopped by to give B treats. Some brought calm dogs over to help us work a little closer to some dogs, and a few even took their dogs walking around a nearby field with us. So many people who didn't know me at all were so willing to help out, it was great. B was still very worried about new dogs, but she is improving. Slowly.

L has been a little under the weather the past few days with a GI upset. He's such a melodramatic dog that it is always obvious when he's feeling poorly. I think he's past the worst of it, though.

Today he felt up to smashing the puppy, which was nice to see. And the puppy enjoyed it, even though it doesn't look very enjoyable to me. She always comes back for more!

A 4 month old Newfoundland puppy came over to play with B this weekend... it wasn't the best playdate. The newfie puppy was already 50 pounds, and B was clearly intimidated by him, even though he was just a big, slow-moving lumbering goof. She eventually did play with him, but she never looked entirely comfortable, and I noticed that she was careful to stay just out of his reach. I didn't take any pictures, because I felt like I needed to keep my full attention on the puppies. I felt like it was a sum-zero interaction, b ut at least there were no disasters.

We've had some of B's favorite friends over several times, though, including the beautiful GSP puppy who came by for the third time. She's getting big! These two have had a great time every time they've gotten together.

Look how high the hayfield is getting! The puppies had a great time playing chase in the tall orchard grass. A few more weeks and we might be ready for our first cutting!

Ring around the cherry tree has become a favorite game.

Now that these two are fast friends, we are planning on having the puppies meet at a neutral location - a nearby park, later this week. We'll see if B is comfortable enough to play with a favorite friend in a different place!

And now that I've caught up a little with my blog, I'll have to catch up with everyone else's blog!

Play Date #10 and Pleated Update

2009-04-15T21:30:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, a friend brought one of her foster dogs, a goofy little terrier mix puppy, over to meet B. He's a few weeks younger than B, I think, but seems like a sturdy (albeit oddly constructed) little fellow.

It was a grey and dismal day, and I don't feel like the few pictures I took really captured how much fun was had by both puppies. They played very well together, and took turns being the chaser and chasee. They played tag around one of the cherry trees - I really wish I had gotten a picture of it, because it was awfully cute.

I also regret not getting a good picture of B's new little friend, because he was an interesting looking little guy. My first thought was border terrier mix. Any guesses? His foster mom is thinking about making him a permanent addition, which is saying something, because she has a lot of foster dogs coming through, and doesn't often seem tempted to keep one of them. There's just something about this little one that resonates with her.

And as we were out on our walk yesterday, I kept my eyes and ears open for signs of Pileated (or Pleated, if you prefer) woodpeckers. The nest cavity has definitely been enlarged since the picture I took a few days ago, but I didn't think to take a new picture. As the dogs and I were coming to the end of Squirrel Holler, I heard that distinctive pleated cry and I was able to locate the source in the tree tops.
I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures, but this was the best that my poor little cheap camera could do with the long distance and low light. There's no mistaking that profile!

I'll have to keep an eye on that nest cavity this spring - maybe I'll get some good woodpecker pictures yet!

Spring Flowers and Wildlife

2009-04-13T16:10:00.000-04:00

Our daffodils are starting to wind down, although we still have a few new varieties blooming. I won't bore you with pictures of every last kind, but here are a few more gratuitous daffodil pics from our fence line.

We've had so much rain the past few weeks, which has been good for our hay fields, but bad for turning the trails into a big muddy mess. But even that is good for finding tracks. I finally found some raccoon tracks next to the creek. Here's one track coming, and one track going.

And a few more slightly smeary tracks in deep mud.

Right next to the raccoon tracks were oodles of big turkey tracks. (I really need to start carrying a ruler around with my so I can get some size perspective in these pictures - these were big turkey tracks!)

Remember this old tree? I posted its picture here before, and speculated that this was the work of a Pileated Woodpecker.

As the dogs and I passed this tree while walking through Squirrel Holler, I started thinking about Pileated Woodpeckers - I only saw one this past winter, flying past our house. I had been hoping to entice one to our feeders, but if they came, I never saw them. I hoped that we still have some Pileated Woodpeckers in our woods, and as I walked along, lost in thought, a large bird took flight from a tree right next to me and flew across the trail right in front of me. Would you believe me if I said it was a Pileated Woodpecker? I almost didn't believe it at first myself, but it really was! And check out what I found when I looked at the tree that it flew away from:

I guess that answers my question - clearly, we do still have Pileated woodpeckers in our woods! This tree is only about 50 yards farther down the trail from the first woodpecker tree.

(Side note: the spell checker wants me to change "Pileated" to "Pleated" which makes me snort. A pleated woodpecker!)

Play Date #9

2009-04-10T21:50:00.001-04:00

This little German Shorthair Pointer puppy is about 2 months younger than B, but they had such a good time together. I was really glad to see B adjust her style of play with a younger, smaller puppy. She was very sweet.

Here the GSP puppy was stalking B, trying to sneak up on her under the cover of the tall grass. Too bad for her that Mr. Geek mowed the lawn a few days before.

I loved this interaction - B did a nice play bow, and held it for several seconds. When her little friend didn't react, B lay down and looked away. Nice body language!

Hopefully these two can grow up together - they really seemed to like each other - I can't wait to have this little girl over again!

I have a whole new barrage of dogs lined up for B to meet in the coming weeks, plus we have started to take our show on the road. I started this week taking B to places where we will see other dogs. Our first excursion was to a walking path that runs through town, where chances of seeing other dogs are good, but chances that the other dogs will be off-leash are very small. We ended up only seeing a few other dogs, but we got to practice our trail etiquette with joggers and bikers.

I'll post more about our excursions into to town later, but I think we are slowly making progress!

Play Date #8 and Other Assorted Topics

2009-04-09T08:15:00.000-04:00

This past weekend, a co-worker brought her lab over to play. It wasn't the most exciting of doggy play dates - the lab mostly wanted to check out every inch of our property and was less interested in interacting with the dogs and humans. B trailed around after him for a while and didn't seem particularly concerned about his presence, which was good.

After the lab left, our house guest arrived - we dog-sat L's catahoula friend for a few days. I know I mentioned before that L is the most melodramatic dog I have ever known, and this weekend he got me again. As I was out doing yard work and all the dogs were running around having a great time, suddenly L stopped, holding one leg at an awkward angle and screaming in pain. I didn't see what happened - perhaps he collided with one of the other dogs, or took a bad step. I dropped everything and rushed to him as he screamed and screamed. I held him to keep him from trying to use that leg and potentially do more damage, and tried to shoo away the other dogs, who had stopped running and come over to see what was wrong. I was sure he had broken his leg, or torn an ACL, or suffered some catastrophic injury.

I flagged down Mr. Geek who was on the mower, and we carried L inside the house. I hugged him as we examined his leg. He had stopped screaming by this time, and we couldn't find anything wrong with the leg. And then Mr. Geek pointed out that he was wagging his tail. When I let him go, he wasn't even limping. He seemed perfectly fine. I kept him in for a few hours just to be sure, but when he showed no signs of stiffness or pain, I let him back out to play, and he raced around for the rest of the day, like nothing had ever happened.

B had the best time playing with the catahoula - they were so cute together. She would zoom around the room with the puppy crazies, and then dash into one of the open crates, and the catahoula would ever so gently crawl up, or play bow, and do his best to make himself very small, and they would wrestle and wrestle. He played so nicely with her, and then she would go on another tear and start the whole thing over again.

I think that L was actually a little disgruntled that his best friend was spending so much time playing with his bratty little sister, but B and the catahoula just loved each other!

Some Things About B

2009-04-05T12:00:00.002-04:00

We've had B for nearly a month and a half now (gasp - has it really been that long?!?) We are slowly getting to know her unique personality even as it is growing and developing.

I think I commented at one point that B had a disappointing lack of naughty spots. I am not sure that this is entirely true, though. I think she is just especially sneaky about where she keeps them. Sure, she doesn't have many, but those she does have, she keeps hidden from view, on the pads of her feet and on the roof of her mouth.

She is teething like crazy. As you can see from the picture above, her adult incisors are in, and her molars are currently in progress. I don't see any sign that her adult canine teeth have started coming in yet. I can't wait for her to be done - I'm sure it is uncomfortable for her.

She often can't decide what to chew on, so she usually chews on three or four things simultaneously - a few bites here, a few bites there, but chew chew chew, all the time.

She still likes to crawl around under the couch and the bed, even though she really doesn't fit and I worry that one day she's going to get stuck. She really likes to sneak under there and then tries to surprise L when he walks by. He finds the puppy under the couch to be confounding. Here's a common sight - the back end of B rapidly disappearing under the couch.

Many times her position is given away by the tip of a nose, or the tip of a tail. Or sometimes a little of both.

She is very toy motivated, and very food motivated. And she doesn't have any trouble switching from one to the other, which is nice (unlike L who will work for toys up until he sees food, and then forget the toys. And Z, who will work for food unless there's some ball to be played.)

She is the first dog I've had that really swivels her head around when you ask her a question or make an unusual sound. She's also the first dog I've had that likes to drink out of the garden hose.

She's making great progress with her sound sensitivities - so far, by using counter conditioning we have conquered the sound of cars starting, the dust buster, the vacuum cleaner, the lawn mower, and the tractor. And there's nothing left on the list of things to work on right now, although I'm sure things will still come up in the future that we will need to deal with. I've taken her to campus and in town several more times, and she is much more confident walking around now, even with cars and buses driving past, students on bicycles, people pushing strollers, etc.

Now that she has more confidence and I'm not using so much of her daily food intake on counter conditioning noise sensitivities, I feel like I can start working on some of the foundation skills she will need for agility!

Play Date #7

2009-04-03T09:00:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed by now, but I'm pretty shameless about recruiting people to help me with behavior and training issues, even if I have to make a pest of myself. So far, I have hit up friends, family, co-workers, and some of my agility students. I have found that most people are more than happy to help out, especially if it involves dogs running around and playing. A few weeks ago I even handed out invitations to several people in our puppy kindergarten class to bring their puppies over to play. Only one took me up on it, and brought their lab mix puppy over this week.

These two had an absolute blast! Perhaps B was more comfortable because she remembers this puppy from class, but she was excited to play the second the new puppy came in the gate. It was probably the best initial reaction I've seen from her when a new dog has arrived.

B spent most of her time running in endless big circles around her new friend, who just couldn't quite keep up. She also played a game where she would dive under the hay platforms in the barn, where her new friend was too big to fit. Then she would dash out, do a few zoomies, and then dash back under the platform. Her friend was squeaking with frustration that she couldn't follow!

This puppy had been listed as a lab/hound mix in the shelter. It doesn't really come through in these pictures, but quite often she would strike a pose that just screamed German Shorthair Pointer at me. I wish I had gotten a picture, because several times B stopped to stalk, and her new friend would point, and they would both be frozen in their respective poses for a second before they would take off again. I'm guessing lab/GSP mix. What do you think? (She's about the same age as B,~5 months old, so I think she'll be a bit smaller and lighter than a typical lab.)

I don't think B's friend was accustomed to so much running around with abandon in wide open spaces. B had to make her circles smaller and smaller. Her friend's owner was happy to see his puppy get the chance to wear herself out -"she'll sleep well tonight!"

After a while, she was content to play from a somewhat supine position, with B still trying to convince her to get up and run some more. The other owner shook his head and exclaimed that he didn't think he could ever own a herding breed. And he might have a point - B wasn't worn out at all. She spent the rest of the evening alternating between riling up Z, wrestling with L, and tearing around the house squeaking a toy. (I knew I should have taken the dogs walking through the fields after the puppy left!)

I think we will invite this puppy over again - they both seemed to have a really good time! It will be interesting to see if this translates at all when B sees her friend at puppy class next week!

Play Date #5 Revisited

2009-04-01T20:24:00.002-04:00

The little border collie puppy that came over to play with B last week came over again this week for a second visit, and I managed to get a few pictures this time. B's new little BC friend is several weeks younger than B, but a little bigger.

They are a good pair, and during this visit they didn't actually play very much. They spent most of the time just wandering around together, which was fine - they were very comfortable with each other, which is exactly what I want to see with B around other dogs.

There were a few good stretches of play time, too, and these two are a pretty evenly matched pair.

B's new friend is also a young sports star in the making, so I think these two will be seeing more of each other as they grow up! (Wouldn't it be nice to have B go to agility trials and have all her best friends there?)

I hope everyone had a fun April Fool's Day! I have been missing my prankster friend who moved far away two years ago. I'm sure she has been busy today sewing her coworkers' lab coat sleeves closed and taping over all the computer mouse balls!

Hello Mudder...

2009-03-30T20:10:00.002-04:00

Whew - we just had another 4 days of rain, which I really shouldn't complain about because we are still technically in a drought, but geez! Can't it just rain at night, while we are all asleep? Luckily the puppy doesn't mind being out in the rain. In fact, she seems to like it - she's a little mud dog. There was a break in the weather for a few hours Saturday morning, so I took all the dogs down Beaver Pond Trail in a vain attempt to tire the puppy out.

This was her first time out on this trail. (Poor Z and L - we haven't been hitting the trails much since getting the puppy, but I think she's ready!) Unfortunately, this trail gets a bit sloppy in wet weather.

The creek is high and the beaver ponds are overflowing. I read somewhere that the sound of running water spurs beavers into dam-building activity - that they will keep working until the flow has been plugged up and they can't hear the water running any more. Well, our beavers need to get to work, because the roar of water rushing through here was almost deafening.

B was covered with mud in no time. She still runs like an awkward puppy, with legs flying every which way, splattering mud everywhere (mostly on herself, from the looks of it.) These pictures really don't do her justice.

I didn't think that anyone was going to outdo her in the mud department, but I was wrong.

L started up a game of "Everybody Chase Me" but as he was zooming around, zigging and zagging to evade his pursuers, he slipped in the mud and wiped out. I convinced him to wade out into the creek (something B won't try yet) but he only went deep enough to take care of his legs.

Needless to say, we had some cleaning up to do when we got back to the house!

Play Dates #5 and #6, and More Tracks

2009-03-28T07:43:00.004-04:00

We had several play dates for B last week - she met two new puppies and had a visit from some friends from previous play dates. Play date #5 was with a border collie puppy, a few weeks younger but slightly larger than B. The two of them played together well, but it was such a grey dismal day that I didn't get any pictures. She is supposed to come back to play again, so I'll try to get pictures then.

Play date #6 was with this little boxer mix puppy. B had a fantastic time with him - they played hide and seek in one of the big fir trees for quite a while. He would dive into the tree, and she would zoom around the tree in high speed laps until he popped out at her somewhere. Then the two of them would run around and chase each other, until he dove into the tree again and the high speed laps re-commenced. I was laughing too hard to get good pictures, so here's one not so great picture - it gives you the idea, though.

Last week I found some interesting bird tracks in the mud coming out of the creek. When I first saw these I assumed that they would be heron tracks, since we have seen several herons in the beaver ponds and in the little farm ponds around here. Sometimes one will fly overhead while we are out with the dogs, and L will run along underneath it, barking and occasionally leaping into the air and snapping his jaws. (Uh, you missed it by about 30 feet, buddy, but good try!) On closer inspection, I realized that they were not heron tracks after all.

I don't know what kind of bird did leave these tracks, but herons have a long straight back toe, not a short offset back toe like these.

Plus, I think I detect a hint of webbing. These look like some sort of duck or other waterfowl. Anyone know?

B has a busy social calendar for the coming week, so brace yourselves for more puppy pictures!

Trials and Trails and Tribulations and Tracks

2009-03-26T07:45:00.000-04:00

I'm finally getting around to reporting on last weekend's agility trial. Since this one was relatively local I thought it would be a good one for taking the puppy along, to get her a little bit of exposure to the atmosphere of an agility trial. And if it seemed like it was going to be too stressful for her, we were close enough that I could always take her back home.

First, a report on L - he got 8 new Q's, which is not a bad weekend, but he wasn't quite as speedy as usual. I'm not sure whether he might have been a little disgruntled that the puppy was with us, or a little tired from playing with the puppy so much all week, or maybe it was just that the sun was blazing and the weather was a bit on the warm side. Perhaps it was a combination of all of the above.

As for the the puppy, I took her out and about in between L's classes. I didn't expect that we would be able to get very close to all the action, since she is still very suspicious of other dogs. (We did see a couple dogs that she knows from some of our earlier play dates, and she recognized them and was happy to see them.) The first time out, I took her across the road where she would be able to see the trial from a large distance. She was a bit disturbed at first when she noticed all the other dogs, but gradually relaxed and was even happy to play a little tug and fetch with me after a few minutes. Over the course of the day, we slowly worked our way closer to the rings, each time making sure she was comfortable enough to play with me before we tried to go any closer. She growled at all the trash bags that were set up and had to be convinced that they weren't monsters, and startled at a few other things, but noticeably gained in confidence every time she came out with me.

By the end of the day Sunday, I had her calmly sitting about 15 feet away from the active ring entrance, where there were 10 or 15 dogs congregating, waiting their turn to go in. Dogs were being walked back and forth within a few feet of us, and she seemed fairly relaxed and even chose to lay down for a little while, in between meeting new human friends and getting oohed and aahed over. So, I'm calling the weekend at the trial a smashing success for B - heck, she ended up much closer to the action than L did the first time I took him along, and he was a year old at that point. (Of course his problem was screaming with excitement and losing his brain, rather than being afraid.)

And here's the best thing - Monday night we went to her puppy kindergarten class - it was Week 4 of the class, and I hadn't really seen any improvement in how she responded the other puppies during the previous three weeks, but THIS week there was a dramatic difference. She was noticeably more relaxed, she seemed almost totally unconcerned about the other puppies, and she actually PLAYED with the Lhasa puppy that sits next to us - several times, in fact! I really felt like this was our first glimmer of a breakthrough in socializing her with other dogs. Whether all the play dates are starting to pay off, or whether her experience at the agility trial helped, I don't know, but I feel very encouraged.

In other news, at the trial this past weekend, as I was walking the dogs in the morning through a nearby field, I found a well-used little game trail running from a stand of big old trees, down to the creek. In the mud left over from last weeks rain, there were oodles and oodles of raccoon tracks! I've been keeping my eyes open for raccoon tracks at our place, but I was just as excited to see them here.

There were so many tracks both coming and going, it was hard to find good clear single tracks to take pictures of, but here are a few: A back foot (pointing down):

A hand-like front foot (pointing up):

Back foot and front foot together:

Beginnings and Endings

2009-03-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

Spring - such the time of the proverbial new beginnings. Everything here is turning green, making buds, or blooming. Our lilacs are putting out tiny new buds...

As are the weeping cherry trees.

Our second wave of daffodils planted along the fence line have started to open.

I love having several varieties - we have wave after wave of daffodils blooming all spring.

We even have a few little surprises coming up here and there. This looks like some sort of little hyacinth. Anyone?

As much as I would love this post to be all about the new beginnings of springtime, there are some sad things going on that I feel the need to write about as well. Last week, a friend and fellow agility competitor died after a battle with lung cancer. She was about my age, reasonably fit, and had never been a smoker - I guess that is why it took so long to diagnose the cancer when she started having vague, asthma-like symptoms a few years ago. Every time I saw her, she was happy and upbeat - she would talk to me frankly about her condition, but there was never a hint of self-pity or bitterness. She was always optimistic, and I was so hoping that she would beat her disease.

At an agility trial a few weeks ago - one I couldn't make it to this year - she ran her dog for the last time. She had already entered hospice care and everyone knew that she was in her last days, but she wanted that final run with her best friend. From friends who were there, I heard about how everyone cheered her on and clapped for her as she came off the course for the last time. I hope it doesn't sound terrible if I say that part of me is glad that I wasn't there, because I am sure that I would have cried, as I am crying right now as I type this. I don't know that I could have clapped and cheered along with everyone. The agility community has lost a wonderful friend - Barbara, you will be missed.

We also had more sad news last week - our friend with melanoma discovered two new lesions in his neck. He had opted for whole brain radiation therapy and chemotherapy after having the last two brain tumors ablated, and because he was going to lose all his hair, he asked his friends to send him funny hats to wear. Mr. Geek went one step better and bought him a mullet wig, which he told us he would wear "with all the respect that it was due." Finding these new lesions is such a huge blow. Next week he will start IL-2 therapy, which is fairly difficult to tolerate, and he has been in touch with a researcher who is trying a promising new immunotherapy protocol. I refuse to give up hope for a happy outcome. If this thing is going to take a miracle, then I feel sure that is what we are going to get. Still, this latest news has been hard to take.

I hope that this post hasn't been too much of a downer, but remember, life is short! Enjoy every second of this new spring season - every new flower bud, every new color, every new baby bird, every day that is longer than the last. Drink it all in, folks! Make it count!

Wanna Play?

2009-03-22T18:41:00.004-04:00

I love this picture of L inviting B to play tug with the floppy frisbee. There's no mistaking his message: "wanna play?"

She happily takes him up on the offer. L doesn't really have to do much more than stand there and hang on right now, but when the puppy is done growing, I'm guessing that she'll have a few pounds on him. If she loses her grip, he usually brings it right back to her so she can grab back on, but sometimes he tries to get her to chase him.

L does let the puppy win some rounds, but he usually acts disinterested after letting her win: "I'm letting you have the frisbee because I am done with it, not because you won the tug game."

L and B have been wrestling a lot, too, and she can usually hold her own. Check her out in this picture - I think she is entirely airborne!

B knows from watching L that there is something very fun about the jollyballs, and she is really trying to figure out what it is. Sometimes she manages to drag them all the way across the field, but other times she trips and bounces off of the jollyball, like it's a Hippity-Hop. And every once in a while she rolls over the top completely.

And here's the latest head shot. Her ears have been in this configuration for a while - I think they may be finished, but I guess time will tell.

Play Date #4

2009-03-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

We are continuing to work on B's fear of new dogs - hopefully people won't get sick and tired of hearing play date reports, because I have a feeling that this is going to be a long process. That's okay - we are up for the challenge. The dogs in Play Date #4 - an Australian Shepherd and a Border Collie owned by a friend of mine, were actually here for their third visit, but this was the first time I thought to take pictures.

These are actually dual purpose visits - B loves people but is afraid of other dogs, while my friend's recently adopted rescue BC boy loves other dogs but is very afraid of people. So, while B gets to socialize with the new dogs, one of those dogs is learning to socialize with new people. So far, it has been going swimmingly, and B has become comfortable with these dogs to start being puppy-obnoxious with them, while the BC boy has gotten comfortable enough to take food from my hand. Success all around!

B is a sweet little thing. I feel like there are SO many things I need to be teaching her right now, sometimes it seems a little overwhelming. A lot of her daily food intake is currently going to counter-conditioning some of her other fears. She's totally fine with the cars starting now, and doing great with the dust-buster being used about 10 feet away from her. Once I'm sure she's good with the dust-buster, well move on the the vacuum cleaner. We've made several more trips to campus and around town, and she's been doing much better with traffic noises. I'm trying to remember to work lots of recalls into our daily routine, as well as working on basic obedience, and some foundation skills she will need before we begin any agility training. She's very food motivated and very toy motivated, so she has a lot going for her. Not to mention that she really is adorable.

I think L sometimes feels a little neglected, with all the time being spent on the puppy. Last summer, Mr. Geek said I should teach L a new trick. I asked him what trick to teach, and he told me to surprise him, so I began teaching L his new trick in secret, so we could surprise Mr. Geek once we had it down pat. The secret trick was to wave, but it didn't stay a secret for long, as L quickly began waving at Mr. Geek whenever he wanted something. I guess we created a bit of a monster, because now L waves at us all the time - to get our attention, or to try to convince us to give him a treat. And it nearly always works, because I just can't help it- I find the waving to be irresistibly cute. Yesterday as I was trying to get a good picture of the puppy, L planted himself nearby and started waving at me.

I know I shouldn't let him demand attention, but I'm such a sucker for the waving. Of course I had to snap a picture and give him a cookie and some love. I have been making an effort to spend a little one-on-one time with L, playing with a toy or doing a little agility practice every day, so that he doesn't feel displaced.

(By the way - did you notice how green everything is? Is spring here, or what?)