Tamarack Lake trial Nov. 23

We went to the Tamarack Lake trial for just one day last weekend. We were entered two days, but it's held north of here, near Lake Erie and they get tons of snow and wouldn't you know it, of course there was a storm predicted for Friday night straight through Saturday. I'm not a big fan of driving in snow, so we just skipped it the first day and drove up Sunday morning.

Abby had a fantastic JWW run on a very tough course, Kittie did great too, but NQ because of.....a dropped bar, what else?! Abby's standard run was a wee bit of a disaster, she pretty much did her own thing, running past obvious obstacles and darting behind me to take others. I just can't consistently figure that little muchkin out! She's amazing when she's on, but you never know what to expect. Kittie Q and took 2nd in standard! YAY Kittie!! We've had such a dry spell lately...all because of dropped bars.

We're going to a trial this weekend and then again in mid December and then we *may* take some time off.

New Collars

The dogs are getting some new collars for Winter. Aren't they great?!

Janis, who runs www.harnessheaven.com made these just for us. She's the best. I always come up with something totally different, than what she ordinarily offers and it's like she reads my mind. Kittie & Abby have custom made martingale leads for agilty from Janis too. She always keeps my crew looking good!

A Bichon Frise, seriously?

I've been walking dogs for seven or so years now, lots and lots of dogs. Dogs of all shapes & sizes, some are well trained and others not so much. I've never been drug by a big dog, I've felt less control than I would have liked, but never out of control.

I've been bruised up, just by big dogs running into me. A lab border collie mix once came running full force at me and tried to *leap* into my arms....that was interesting, but I came out of that unharmed. My ankle got split open this summer when a dog's nail scraped it, but I've never been completely taken out....until yesterday, by a bichon frise!

The trails are wet, muddy and covered in leaves right now. I have a new dog in the little dog group, Oliver. He's a cutie, but has zero training, so he's staying on leash and I'm basically teaching him how to walk nicely, stopping and waiting just wasn't working for this guy, so I shortened up the lead so he had enough that it could slack, but not enough to go lunging way ahead or wrap himself behind me. I'm bending over to give him cookies, almost constantly right now.

Still following? Wet, muddy leaves, crazy untrained little dog named Oliver. So where does the bichon come in? That's Jake, he's an odd little dog. He's on anti anxiety medication, has attacked many big dogs when he's with his mom, but somehow morphs into this little puddle of a dog when he's with me, he's not happy, he's worried and truly looks on the verge of a panic attack, but never does anything really wrong either and yes his owner knows he's like this.

So, I'm walking on the muddy leaves, just as I turned to give Oliver his "good boy, walking nicely on your leash cookie" Jake starts pulling like a lunatic, since I wasn't on solid ground and I was already off balance from feeding Oliver, I got pulled straight forward....into a tree that had fallen on the trail. I skinned my face! right between my eyes is a giant swollen goose egg lump and it's completely scraped up. I look like a total freak, yay......all from a bichon.

Happy Birthday Abby!

Abby turned the big 03 yesterday ! What better way to celebrate than with some cupcakes from our favorite bakery.
Really? Cupcakes for me?!!!!!

I have to act civilized, I *am* 3 now. Patiently waiting.....

Cupcake? What cupcake? I can wait all day.

I didn't even notice, there was a cupcake on my paw, really....

Mmmmmm, being 3 sure tastes good.

Everyone had cupcakes. The pugs all had peanutbutter and we had smores.

Abby's bloodwork results

I got Abby's bloodwork results back the other day and everything is normal. My vet said she's in great shape! So, we're just going to wait and watch for any more seizures. Hopefully this doesn't amount to anything!

I feel better after talking to some people at the trial this weekend. It seems like a lot of dogs out there have had a seizure or two or three or more and they're perfectly fine, not on medication, not limited in any way by it.

Worst Part About My Job

Andrew died last night.

He's the handsome tall dog to the right.

Andrew was one of my favorite dogs. I walked him 5 days a week for probably close to 5 years now. He was a rescue, with some health & behavioral issues. He did not like other dogs at all when I first started walking him, but we worked through it and he was a great dog, got along with every dog I introduced him to over the years. The mailman was his only enemy.

His health problems did not go away as easily as his behavior issues did. He had addisons diesease and a problem where the muscles in his face were just deteriorating. I don't understand it untirely, but from what I was told eventually he wouldn't be able to eat. That's not what caused his death though, over the past few months Andrew had a several times where he would vomit and then not want to eat, sometimes he would stay in his crate and he just shivered/shook. I'm assuming he was in pain. His owner, Alice took him to the vet several times, but usually he was back to his perky, bouncy self by the time he saw the vet, so nothing was ever figured out.

Last night, he had another one of those spells. Vomitting, shaking, hiding. Alice took him to the emergency vet and he immediately needed CPR, he was dying as they got there. Turned out he was bleeding internally and had tumors through out his internal organs. Sorry, I don't have all the details or fully understand it all. I'm just sad I won't be seeeing this dog anymore.

AX Abby!!

Woohoo!! Abby earned her AX (excellent agility) title this weekend, doing it in style taking 1st place too! She had a great time too, actually beat out some world team contenders...who knew!?

Abby's a tough little cookie to figure out. When she's really there, not too over the top or worried about something in the environment at a trial she's amazing, but it's tough to get and keep her at the right arousal level. So often, she's literally shaking before she can get in the ring. I can always tell when she's way past her ideal arousal level because she stops blinking. I do think she gets worried about the environment around her, especially at trials where it's crowded near the rings, so I had anyone and everyone feed Abby throughout the day on Sunday and I'm working my way through the exercises in "Control Unleashed" and marking her looking at other dogs (calmly of course) it seemed to really help. I also decided to ditch a lead out with her. I'm not sure if that's going to be a permanent change, or just something to play around with, I'm thinking about it and plan to write more about lead outs in the near future. Anway, I'm just thrilled with this little girl!

CLANG, CLANG!!! aaaawwwww. That was the sound of Kittie's runs this weekend. All beautiful, every single one of them would have been 1st place finishes, but every single one had at least one bar down. Ugh, the points we lost this weekend! I'm not sure I'm going to run Kittie anymore at this particular building, the floor is a bit slick and there are big colums in the building and the course is set around those colums, so in just about every course there are jumps, where I disappear from her sight for a split second behind the colums, and every single time the bar came down and then she starts to worry, and she stutter steps and flings herself at the jumps becuase she's really trying to keep the bars up, but doesn't know how to fix it. Poor kid! This building isn't good for her mental health, but I'm not sure if not running her there, if I take Abby to run would be good for her either.