Rally....oh

I entered the dogs in a rally trial on Saturday and have been practicing a few minutes everyday. Last night was the "grad" for my rally class. My friend Kim came and was a guest judge and set up two courses.

Apparently Boone needs more work. Lol. He was not very good and I bet that Saturday will be interesting. He is one of those dogs that just space out when they are overwhelmed or over stimulated. He did pretty good for the first few signs and them went into zombie mode and he really struggled. Poor dude. If the course is beyond what I think he can handle I will pull him.

The girls were great. Pixels heeling is so wonderful. I could seriously watch her heel all day. She is very smooth and fluid and oh so pretty. She was a tad distracted by some stuff on the floor but was able to refocus. This will be her first time in advanced but I am not worried at all. The actual stations were pretty great- fast sits, and lots of confidence.

Wicca was great, although I will have to watch for anticipation on her finishes. We are going to try for her first RAE leg so will do one advanced and one excellence course. Should be interesting!

Jo and I are heading up super duper early Saturday morning- it's gonna be a long day! But it will be very fun- the show is being held at Spruce Meadows and is the biggest outdoor CKC show in Canada. There are a million rings, and LOTS of shopping. :)

On a totally unrelated note my friend michelle took this photo on our hike last weekend. Boone is my little shadow- not often straying very far- apparently even when there is a whole mountain to explore. :)

A Short Video

My dogs don't get a lot of toys to just play with- so when I gave the foster puppy the pink snake to play with the other day Boone was more than thrilled and immediately stole it from her. He is so funny. I adore him. How can you not laugh at a dog that makes noises like that?

Flower Girl

Stop to smell the flowers, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

Mountain Dogs

I brought Pixel and Boone along on a hike today- we had a great time. My friend Michelle lives in the crowsnest pass and knows all the great hiking spots. She invited my friend Maureen and I out to a hike near Turtle Mountain. It was wonderful! I took lots of photos, and it was nice to just be out with the dogs and good friends. I really need to do it more often.

It was very hot, so when we came across these giant mud puddles the dogs took full advantage...
The mud puddles were great fun for the dogs- Davin the aussie took his love for puddles a bit far and had a little lay down... :)




The Scenery- its so incredibly beautiful there. The mountain in most of the photos is Turtle Mountain- also known as Frank Slide. In the early 1900's there was a major rock slide. Even now it covers miles and miles of ground. I used to live in the Pass so it's not such a big deal- but to people who have never seen all the rocks it is pretty astonishing. We didn't run into any wildlife although we did find pretty fresh bear poop.








The friends-
Maureen with Esmae and Massey

Pixel waiting for Michelle :)


The River- after the mud bath we thought we'd better give everyone a quick rinse. :)





I really thought this weed looked cool so had to take a photo...


The two dogs and I had a great time- it was great to see Boone so relaxed, and I know Pixel had a great time aswell. Thanks Maureen and Michelle!

2 Years Old

Happy Birthday to the Cutest Pixel ever! :)
I can not believe that she is two years old already.



Not a great photo (taken with my phone) but a happy Pixel with her new Birthday Penguin.

Mature

October 2009


July 2010


I was playing around with Pixel on the logs at the agility field and she stopped to look at the horses across the road. This dog is so pretty, I just adore her. She is very, very different physically than Wicca. Pixel is light and wiry almost. Whereas Wicca is thick and sturdy. I haven't had Pixel weighed in a bit but I'd say she is under 25lbs. She is about 11.5 inches tall. She is pretty thin right now-I can feel every rib and her hip bones stick out just a tad. She is all muscle and toughness (appearance wise anyways.... ;p) She is also shedding- again. I swear everytime she grows enough coat to look like a fluff it starts falling out again. Her poor tail is starting to look a little wispy!

Anyway, I think she is uber cute, and just wanted to post the comparison from 9 months ago. It's quite the difference! She has filled out some, and just looks more adult like these days. And if possible she is even cuter than before. :)

I can't see...

I think Pixel needs sun glasses. :)

Out of the dungeon...

For the past four years I've lived in a basement suite. Yeah. Although it is not as bad as it sounds, it definitely has it's drawbacks. The suite itself is huge- lots of floor space, big windows, etc. But it's still a basement. There are 16 stairs. I have a constant stream of new upstairs neighbors. I am supposed to have full, private use of the yard but somehow that doesn't get relayed to the new tenants upstairs. I can never just leave my dogs outside unattended, even for a moment. I worry all the time about my dogs at home alone- are they barking? And then the upstairs people themselves- in the past four years I'd say there have been 7 or 8 tenants. Each of them weirder than the next. The current tenant is actually pretty good. She has a nine year old daughter who is very polite and good with the dogs. Better than the two demon boys that the last tenant had!

In a few weeks I am moving to a full house. All for me and my dogs. I am beyond excited. Seriously, I really, really am looking forward to having my own space and not having to worry about upstairs people. It is a very cute little house. And by little, I do mean little. But it has two bedrooms, and a huge yard. The yard is quite private, and is heavily treed. It will be perfect.

I'm definitely counting down the days!

untitled

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by our standing in our own sunshine."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

My Hero...revisited

Back in October I had a mouse problem that was going from mildly annoying to disgusting. So I got a Cat.

I figured there must be a few cat lovers out there who are wondering how Bruce is doing....

Unlike dogs, cats do not adjust quickly and it took a few months for him to be comfortable in the house with the dogs. He attacked them any chance he got, and was just a big jerk about it. He spent most of the winter in the spare room, and only allowed to have free reign at night when the dogs were locked up.

In the past few months he has really lightened up and no longer reacts to the dogs at all- he still bullies them if they make the mistake of entering his personal space bubble, but he no longer attacks them for no reason. He wanders the house at his leisure and spends most of his time sleeping in the window sill.

He has destroyed my couch, and will be sporting a fancy pair of soft paws if he doesn't knock it off. I bought him a cat post and he ignores it- preferring the feel of leather I guess....

Other than that he is a pretty great cat- he is not demanding but expects his pats and cuddles at the designated time each day. He is polite about telling me that he can see the bottom of the bowl and can I please fix the problem. He has never had any bathroom accidents and is a perfect gentleman. Unless you are a mouse. :)

I no longer have a mouse problem.

Agility

I took the girls agility training this morning and had a great session. I have very specific things to work on with both of them and I managed to do everything on my list for today.

Wicca- we've gone back to basics, literally. No more than 4 obstacles in a sequence. I've been working at home on rebuilding, and making sure that Wicca and I are on the same page handling wise. Today I worked on one jump stuff, I did some lead outs, worked on her a-frame, and did part of a tough weave exercise everyone else was doing. She had great jumping today- all the work seems to be paying off. She only knocked one bar the whole session. I struggled with some timing and focus on my part with a push through to serp exercise but I persevered and we did get it. I feel that we are starting to get some of our working relationship back. I think that I am on the right track with what I am doing. Right now *I* need things broken down so I can really see what is going on with my handling. I was talking to my friend today on the way home about that- in the past we rarely run clean the first time in training. I would say 90% of the time we have errors the first (or second) time running a long sequence. How then do I expect us to have our shit together in a trial setting? So yeah. I am feeling good about my plan. I plan to challenge myself every session, and above all else stick to my own set criteria and plan.

Pixel did really great today. I've worked hard on pumping her up each time she does agility and it is really paying off. She is excited EVERY time she has a turn- which is what I want. I did about 10 repetitions on the a-frame, not always a full frame, but used the hoop and manners minder every time. She really doesn't understand what I want at this point. And I can really see that I've rushed through training on that. (bad me). Her dogwalk was awesome though- each time she nailed it and was fast and focused ahead. I am very pleased with her progress. I did just a few little jump exercises with her and she did well. She still is not as fast as I'd like- but I think that is in part to her being unsure still of some of the handling. I broke things down a lot for her and used the tug and ball as a reward. The weaves were great- she is getting quite speedy, and is able to find an entry and maintain that speed the whole way through. I am not helping her at all and he is focused ahead and not on me- which is perfect. And I spent some time on the teeter, I've decided I want her to stay on the teeter until a release rather than just a run off...so we worked on that for the first time.

So yeah, all in all a pretty wonderful morning!

On the training front...

I've been trying to work the dogs every day in Obedience. It's going well- when I have time to do it!

Pixel continues to be a star. I am planning her debut for the fall Lethbridge show in Novice Obedience. Her fronts are coming along although she tends to be a bit creative. She is the most drooly dog I have ever owned. Seriously- you say cookie and the spit start dripping. We've been working hard on fronts so she totally knows there are cookies coming and yeah, my feet end up covered in spit. It's pretty icky.

Wicca is just fine tuning pivots and the dreaded back up for Rally. And we've been playing around with signals and go outs. If we ever manage to get her CDX she will be ready for Utility.

I have Boone entered in Rally in a few weeks and he hasn't done any obedience in a while- so we've been refreshing his memory about what heeling is. :)

And Vito says that Obedience is for sissies, and he'd much rather roll around on the floor. Thank you very much

Out with the old...

My blackberry died the other day. The little roller ball would just NOT stay in, rendering the phone pretty useless. So I went and got a new shiny one. Except I didn't get another Black Berry- I got something better!



It is a 3G, not a 4 as those aren't available in Canada yet and I couldn't wait any longer. But I totally love it. Very fun, with lots of great features. I missed my BB for like two minutes.

oh, and Sarah said I am way cooler now. :)

Tall, Blond(ish) and Handsome...

Kort is staying with me a for a few days and already has made himself right at home...he has been lots of fun to have around, and has proved himself to be quite a useful Collie.



He brings me my slippers...okay, maybe not exactly true but he does like to carry them around.



He has scared all the neighbors into silence with his fierce barking...again, a slight exaggeration. ;)



He is a big, tough guard dog who would attack anyone who entered my yard. Attack! That's right....lol


This is the uh...leg bone of the last person who tried to get in my yard. (in fact it's an old bone that nearly met it's demise when I ran it over with the lawn mower)


He entertains Pixel for hours on end. That is true. Pixel adores Kort, and the feeling is pretty mutual!


Oh, and he most definitely falls into the cateogory of Tall, Blond(ish) and Handsome. :) He's certainly a pro at the stand and pose for a photo....I've been calling him the "Super Model"....

Bad Blogger

I'm a sucky blogger this week.

to distract you all from that fact, here is a cute photo of Vito doing agility. This is not recent, but he still pretty well looks the same. :)



I promise to be a better blogger tomorrow. I'll post about my visitor...he is tall, blonde (ish) and handsome..

one last photo from mosquito hell....

Moo....

Moo...., originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

Drew is my parents Rottweiler cross. I have never seen a dog eat as much grass as he does. Seriously almost every photo I took of him this week he was eating grass....lol

He's a pretty cute cow I must say. :)

More Camping Fun.

Wicca, Pixel, Boone and Vito (And my foster dog Missy) all think that camping is pretty fun- what could be more fun than swimming, fetching, barking, chasing gophers (and one bunny!), and laying around eating stuff.









They were all VERY tired yesterday when we got home. Which is good 'cause I have a few days of laundry to do and my cleaning fairies apparently took the week off aswell so my house is as messy as it was when I left.

Kate

Nearly 12, originally uploaded by manymuddypaws.

One of the great things about camping this past week was al the time I got to spend with Kate. My parents camped most of the week with me- so I had lots of one on one time with the original bossy pants. :)

Kate hasn't changed at all and is still bossy and opinionated at 12 years old. She looks pretty great for an old shepherd, although is weak in the rear and isn't super stable on her feet. It didn't stop her from enjoying herself though- she swam and chased sticks for lots of the time.

Stick

Vito thinks that sticks are the best. Of course he only wants the one that everyone else has!

Random Camping Photos

Camping was so good. It was a well needed break and the dogs all had a blast.

I have LOTS of photos so thought i'd post a few together in a general post before getting to the good dog ones. :)

This truck is ancient- but still manages to pull the equally ancient trailer. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the rust, although my dad then made fun of me for like half an hour...


This is my parents trailer that they let me use over the week. Old, but it works!


The river that the dogs played in every day. It was so peaceful- there were only a few other campers all week and we never once ran into anyone at the river. It was pretty wonderful!

The dogs set up. I started with two expens together to give them the most space.


and then the mosquitos came....so up went the screen tent and the xpen was condensed. i don't think they minded though- better to be bug free!


oh, the jack in the photo is my foster dog, and no- I'm not keeping her. just so you all don't ask. :)