Once upon a time

I had three good dogs. They were all well behaved and house-broken and the perfect models of canine house pets. We were so happy that our house was finally "crate-free" and they could all be left unattended.

Then they began abusing their privileges. Zodiac slowly reverted to old habits of pulling down towels, digging in the trash and removing selected items from the kitchen counter to chew up. He's 8-what's up with that. Legend decided that "holding it" was optional and if she wanted to pee and no one was home she's just use the living room carpet (which now has to be cleaned-again). So then we started leaving them locked up in the bedroom which seemed to work pretty well. Until the last two nights when Legend decided that rather than wake anyone up to let her out she'd just pee in the living room. I'll probably check her for a UTI again but most likely she's being naughty-not once has she actually had an infection. So now Zodiac and Legend have to stay in crates or in the bedroom when we are gone and Legend will go back to sleeping in the crate for at least a few months. The carpet gets cleaned next week. Only Oreo has never been a problem. He only has accidents when he's sick or a few times when he drank too much water-his kidneys don't concentrate very well anymore so what goes in, must come back out.

They did, however, make up for it by having fantastic practices this afternoon. Zodiac especially. We worked on utility exercises outside for the first time since fall and he was amazing. He did perfect go-outs and directed jumping. I mean perfect-ran straight away, all the way to the fence, turned and sat perfectly square on command. Then took the appropriate jump without any assistance or movement towards the jump on my part. I was so happy. He did almost perfect signals outside as well and did a pretty good job on articles. We are definitely getting there. Yippee. And Legend had a really good agility work-out. We did more stuff from Linda Mecklenberg's article in Clean Run.

I got a lot done today. Laundry, training, more yard work-I'm finally getting somewhere in my landscaping/battle against weeds and grasses. I'm almost to the point where all I have to is maintain. And I got Squirt brushed and his mane and tail combed out before the farrier got here to put his new shoes on. Hopefully I'll be able to do some riding this year. Then Zodiac got bathed and brushed as we are getting ready to go to Pet Therapy. Then we are headed down to Branson for a show-tonight only we could get tickets for $5 to one of the shows. Sometimes they have deals like that for local residents. We figure even if it's not that great it's worth is for $10. Can't even see a movie for that!

Here's my raspberry garden-it's one of my biggest yard projects from last week. I should have taken a before picture-it looked like an overgrown heap of weeds. I never get that many berries but at least it won't look like an eyesore while it sits around all summer not making berries! I hope eventually it's more productive-like the blackberries-I get a ton of those every year, off fewer plants too.

Worldfest

This was the last day of Worldfest at Silver Dollar City and we wanted to see some of the shows this year. So, despite the cool weather and rain we headed down to check it out. We enjoyed a Caribbeean band, Irish dancers, and Chinese acrobats. They were all very good and the second two were inside so we stayed nice and warm. We also ate a lot of junk food. And now, sadly, the weekend is over and it's back to work tomorrow.

Around town

I'm getting so annoyed with technology today. First the program that transfers photos from my phone wouldn't work so I decided to just make this post from my phone and load the photos directlybfrom there. Well this stupid blogging program keeps saying there is a problem with the photos and it won't publish. So now I'm trying without the photos to see how it goes.

I worked this morning (boring) and then took a nap in the afternoon. After Jerry got home we checked out the new Ozark rec center. It was nice but not super impressive. Then we walked the new trail along the Finley River. The river was up but not flooded.














Near the riverwalk is a new arboretum
designed by our friend Rob. It demonstrates trees that can be safely planted around power lines.







The dogs got in a good game of fetch when we got back home but it didn't keep Legend down for long. She's been back to pestering us to play again!

Yeah-looks like I was able to go ahead and add some photos. Think I'll stop while I'm ahead. Maybe it didn't like me trying to load five at once.

Rain. Rain. Rain.

It has been raining here pretty much off and on since Wednesday. Which means class was rained out. I was actually a little relieved since all my work in the yard made me really sore and tired the next day. So I have spent the last 2 night relaxing and getting caught up around the house.


I did find out that I tied for second place in the contest over at Portuguese Water Blog. We had to identify all the dogs by photos of the feet. I got eight right which I felt pretty good about after I found out Robert only go 5 right and he lives with the dogs! Here's my cool prize-a little BC pouch and pin!

I made Oreo this fluffy bed tonight-it's basically a blanket that I stuffed before tieing it together. The old blanket he had been sleeping on kept leaving red fuzzies all over the floor so I made him something new. He seems to find it acceptable.

One of my favorite blogs is A vet's guide to life and he has been covering some of his pet peeves lately. I thought I would throw in one of mine...

When bad owners get new pets: There are some people out there who are just not good pet owners. They don't come in until their pet is really sick and then they don't usually want a thorough treatment plan-just a "band-aid" to make it better for the short term. They don't come in for regular exams, provide no dental care, at best are intermittent with vaccines, heartworm, and flea prevention and at worst leave the pet chained up in the yard for its whole life. So it makes me sad when these people get a new puppy or healthy young dog, all happy and wagging its tail, because I know what kind of life it will have down the road. Most of these people just don't get it that they are starting fresh and it will be so much easier and less expensive to prevent problems and treat them early. Instead they let their happy tail wagging puppy go on to live a sad life full of fleas, parasites, painful dental and joint disease, etc, etc. Poor dog-never saw it coming.

Finally got it done

I took the morning off so I'd have a whole day to work in my yard. I ran a few errands early and then got to work. First I planted some stray blackberry sprouts along a bare area of pasture fence that has no electric on it so they they can vine around the wires. Then I cleared out the area along the front of the barn and planted my Lily of the Valley plants. Hopefully they will grow and I can finally get something worthwhile in that spot. Then I cleared out and mulched around the raspberry bushes. I planted some pansies in the wishing well and did a little general weeding and sprayed some areas with week killer. Then I mowed the back yard. Doesn't seem like it should have taken all day. But it did. No time left for messing with the horses or dogs which was something I was hoping to do. Still got some laundry to do and then we are meeting some friends for dinner!

745 to go

Today's jumpers course was one of the harder courses I've seen in awhile (and reportedly the hardest one all weekend-I was not at the trial on Friday) and threw a lot of people and dogs for a loop. But Legend ran it great. Go figure-the only thing I can predict about her is that she is unpredictable! So we got out first MXJ leg and our first 5 MACH points. It was not a super time but certainly respectable-placed about 8th in a good sized 20 inch class.

She was slower in standard (it was getting hot, don't know if that played a part) but was doing ok until she took an extra jump. Even with that she still easily finished under course time. Overall she's running better, with more confidence, and less stress. But I know she can get a lot faster-hopefully as we continue to work at home that will transfer to the ring.

So now it's 5 points down, 745 and 20 double Q's to go. This could take awhile.

Wild dog at the Show-me canines trial

Legend was a bit wild today. Fast. And happy. But wild. I do think I'm making progress with her issues and in our training but getting just one good solid Excellent B Q would really be nice. Maybe tomorrow.



"Wild? Me? I don't know what you're talking about"

Odds and Ends

Ok, first of all I never want to plant anything in my yard with thorns. Ever. It makes everything so much harder. I did manage to get some gardening done today after work-I tried to catch on housework and pack (we are headed to another agility trial this weekend) last night while I was still not quite feeling back to normal.

Second, I was one of the winners of the Dogs on Thursday contest-here's my prize!

And as promised here is the handsome Tate-who will hopefully be going to his new home soon!

Always on my day off

It always seems like I get sick on weekends or tuesdays. Today was apparently not an exception. I woke up feeling ill and finally threw up after being at work an hour. I finished what I needed to do for the day and headed home to spend the rest of a beautiful day in bed-not working in the yard or cleaning the house or playing with the dogs or unpacking. Fooey. I quit throwing up but now have a fever. I initially blamed this on a bad sandwich from subway (tuna which of course had mayo on it). But then found out Cheri, who I spent all weekend with, is also sick today-so maybe it's something viral we picked up. Hopefully we'll feel better tomorrow.

NADAC Day 2

The day started off with open jumpers again. Another really great run but with one off course. Then we were off to Novice chances-we got all the distance challenge but into the wrong end of a tunnel. Rats. Open regular round 1 I let Cheri run her-it was a bit out of sorts but still pretty good for a team that has not worked together much. I ran her in Open regular round 2 and we got a clean run and finished her title-yeah! Then all we had left was open tunnelers-the course was fast and fun and a great way to end the trial with another Q. So overall only 3 Qs but about 7 runs that I was really happy with. Hopefully we can actually get some Qs at the AKC trial this coming weekend.

And in case anyone is wondering Xena (pictured in the previous post) is guessed to be a BC/Sheltie cross.

We also found a home for Cheri's beautiful foster dog Tate (aka Tater). He'll be an agility dog and we'll probably get to see him out on the course someday! I'll post a picture later this week of him-he's really pretty, and a snuggler.