Late night photoshop

Ok. So it's not that late but since Jerrry's already in bed and I'm still up it feels late. Anyway Border Collie Mom inspired me to start playing around with photoshop. When blurring the background I have always selected an entire object and then blurred everything else but she game me an idea of blurring a circular area instead. So here's what I did.

So you can see how some dog is blurred while some foreground is in focus-since it was in my oval selection. I'm not sure why I chose a brick frame-just different. I did think it was cool that I found a way to make my font actually black and white-clever huh. Anyway, that's it for now. I should maybe go to bed too.

Buddies?

Lyric and Trip have become quite good friends lately (she tried to eat him a few times the first day). At least I think they are. Sometimes Lyric seems to be having a really good time with him but other times I'm just not sure-she just stands there and lets him pull her hair. Anyway, it keeps him busy. I shot this video this morning. They had been playing for awhile so you can tell they are just starting to get a little tired. Ignore the out of control border collies in the background.

In other exciting news we let our propane run out overnight which made for a chilly morning in our house. Jerry noticed it was low but we didn't do anything about it in time. Apparently we were supposed to be checking it. In the past they have added some as needed but I guess we are not in that program anymore. And I didn't prepay for any extra this year so now we have a whole tank of high priced winter propane. Oh well, at least we are warm again.

Oh, and I am working a little too. Gotta pay for that propane you know!

Spring

Sort of. It's still snowing here-just a little but here are some picture of my big bunny, Spring. She has not been on the blog in a while but she's full grown and over 14 lbs Don't let that scare you though- she's really just a big, lazy, chicken rabbit!

Here she is on one of her short bursts of energy.

And a sweet bunny close-up!

I would go out and take more snowy pictures and play with the dogs but I've has a sore throat since Saturday so today I'm just puttering around the house. Since I can barely talk the dogs probably won't even train today. Lucky puppies.

Here is someone else who hasn't been on the blog in awhile! Friday night was game night at our house. Kennedy was the official dice roller for Scattegories.

She also tried to expand her responsibilities by helping Jerry with his answers!

Updates

The snow is still trying melt and the yard is a swamp-no playing out in the mud today! It did snow earlier today and looked very pretty but it didn't stay around long as it's above freezing. Yesterday was equally as dreary as today but with a greater variety of precipitation types.

Trip is sleeping through the night and didn't even pee in his kennel last night! He's also learning that he can play with toys while in his x-pen instead of screaming to be let out where he will play with the same exact toys in the living room.

We have been back to training inside so lots of obedience work. Legend is working on open and utility stuff and doing quite well. Zodiac continue to toil away at utility. He was doing great on articles and then yesterday just fell apart on the leather. Not sure what's up with that. We haven't tried yet today. I may let them air out a few more days. He's starting to get the idea that he should "go-out" until he reaches an obstacle-a wall, fence, whatever. I know he should probably "go-out" until I say "sit" but he's such an anticipator I thought associating it with physically needing to stop would be better and I just tell him to sit as he approaches the endpoint.

Lyric is working on proofing her stay. She also has a lightning fast recall-in a very controlled environment and is racing across the room to the target. So for the most part everything is going pretty well.

Zodiac got to get caught up on vaccines and bloodwork today and tonight they will all get birthday cake for dinner!

This afternoon I have been messing more with Photoshop. Here is a scrapbook page for Zodiac. I don't have a scrapbook but I was playing with some different features.
Here is Legend getting ready for the Superbowl. I couldn't decide if the pawprints make it too busy or not but ended up leaving them. It seemed ok.

And little Lyric running through the snow.

Now I better get some real work done!

Our snow here has been melting over the last few days. I'm glad I didn't have to travel in bad weather but I got home just in time to see the dirty, half melted snow. It refreezes at night which leaves it crusty and lumpy. The border collies don't mind so much but the little ones have a hard time getting around on it.

Speaking of little ones, Trip is doing well. He loves to play-he thinks all toys are great. He's already starting to tug and fetch. He would like to play with the other dogs but so far they are not too interested. Lyric especially does not like when he pulls her tail. I think he will definitely need a home that is going to be very active and experienced with herding breeds. But he did sleep through the night!

This morning was quite frosty and I took this picture of Moses overlooking "his domain."
This photo is from this morning as well, but doesn't really show any frost.

I neglected to mention that Monday was Zodiac's "birthday." He's 9, which we can hardly believe but the gray in his face will testify that it's true. I need to pick up a cake this week so we can have a little dog party!

Trip

This little guy is our new foster puppy, Trip. He and his mom are available through MOKAN BC Rescue. Mom is somewhat more traditionally marked black and white BC so we think Trip may have some cattle dog in him. He's quite a rambunctious little guy. I'm sure he will get adopted fast.

On Sunday I skipped out of the conference to take Zodiac to the local obedience trial where he got RAE leg #8. His performance was a little sloppy which kept us out of the ribbons but with respectable scores of 94 and 95. He was glad to get home and run in the yard with his sisters!

Interesting tidbits

I spent a few days at a veterinary conference this weekend and learned a few things I wanted to share.

First of all, most people with herding dogs have heard of the MDR1 gene mutation causing Ivermectin sensitivity. Data from the lab at Washington state-where they run the test for the mutation-showed that only 15% of Shelties and less than 5% of border collies test positive for the mutation. Conversely 70% of collies and 50% of Aussies are positive. With this new info in mind it's important to remember that this is only a problem when dogs are treated with high levels of ivermectin-as in the demodex dose. No dogs are sensitive to the dose of Ivermectin in Heartgard. Also bear in mind that there are other mechanisms of ivermectin toxicosis and any dog being treated for demodex should slowly have the dose increased and monitored for any side effects.

I also learned that of dogs with Methicillin resistant staph infections only 4% have Staph aureus, or human staph. The rest have Staph pseudintermedius, or dog staph. Dog staph is not transmissable to people except when they are very immunocompromised. So while this may be potentially bad for your dog he is unlikely to give it to you.

And finally, for a number of reasons related to tick biology those of us living in tick country will continue to have troubble controlling them. I now feel very lucky that we don't have a big tick problem in our yard.

Vote For Happy Tails

I have a special for request for everyone today. The organization we got Zodiac from is competing to win a $10,000 grant from the Animal Rescue Site. All you have to do is click on this link and search for Happy Tails Animal Sanctuary in MO and vote! You can vote once a day, every day until April 18th.

So why vote for Happy Tails? Well, naturally they gave me a really great dog! But one reason I have always liked Happy Tails is they are a very reputable rescue. As a vet, I have seen many, many pets adopted from shelters and "rescues" and I can tell you that in 5 years we were not called by one organization who was checking vet references. Many of these organizations had minimal requirements for adopting an animal and therefore many of these animals ended up in homes where they received minimal, if any veterinary care. Some were lucky to get a rabies vaccine and many were never on heartworm prevention or had other basic care. Some lived outside tied up year round. Happy Tails does an excellent job of screening the people they adopt to, to make sure they have found a permanent, qualified home for the pet they have invested in saving. They will adjust the requirements as needed depending on the age, size, and breed of dog in order to look out for the pet's best interest. They also make sure the pet is completely vaccinated, heartworm checked, dewormed and placed on HW and flea prevention, as well as spayed or neutered before going to it's new home. All the pets are fostered by volunteers who help get the pet housebroken and socialized.

I know a lot of rescues are not doing the kind of job that HTAS is doing so please take a minute and vote! Zodiac thanks you!

Getting out while I can

I've been debating all week when to leave for the conference this weekend since they have been forecasting snow for late in the week. The conference starts Friday but the snow was supposed to start sooner. They have changed their mind about a million times about when it will actually get here so I finally decided to just leave today. Of course now it sounds like I could probably leave in the morning but I think I'll just stick with my plan. I'm sure no sooner than I change my mind tomorrow would be a disaster.

I did take the dogs out yesterday to play and found it was nice enough to do a little agility with the girls. Legend did fine-I have high hopes for her this year. We'll see if it actually pans out! Lyric was great. She's really starting to drive over/through the obstacles with confidence to get her reward. I think she's doing amazing for only a few days of training. She's starting to do run-bys as well as call-overs for the jump and did the tunnel at full length. She also remembered the tire right away. And she needed no help going over the dogwalk or A-frame. She knew there was a treat at the end and she was going to get it. Then while I was playing ball with the other dogs she did something none of my border collies have ever done-she scampered up the A-frame by herself just looking for a cookie at the end. She may turn into a great agility dog as long as there are cookies involved!

Here are some of the photo projects I worked on this week. This is a "watercolor" of Legend.

I stole this quote off of Border Collie Mom's blog. Thanks Lori!

Some of my flowers from last spring.

A "pastel" drawing of Zodiac looking sweet and sad.

The rest of the snow pictures

Well, almost. I still have a few more that may get posted over time. But I figured I needed to get these up before the new snow comes. We are supposed to get a lot of winter weather later this week. I'll be at a conference in STL and won't have to deal with it but still-it may disrupt my travel plans as I may leave a day early. Not much else going on here. Dogs are back to working inside-cold and windy outside, but at least it's sunny. We may go out an play ball later. Everyone is doing well with their respective training projects. I definitely think Legend will be ready for Open by summer. Maybe sooner but we are really in no hurry. And Zodiac is plugging along with Utility. I had hoped to have him ready for Tracking by the BCSA specialty in October but with my lack of interest in doing tracking in cold weather I'm not sure about that. We'll see how it goes come Spring.