Night at the ballet

The Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre holds an outdoor performance at Hartwood acres every August, we missed it the past few years, but it was held on Thurs. this year, so we rushed out after work.

The really fun thing about this is dogs can come too, so We brought Rudy and Indy. The differences between a 10 yr old and an almost 10 month old are huge. Rudy just wanted to be left alone pretty much, and honestly wasn't acting like herself, she told off just about every dog there, but she's not very loud, so if you're not watching her shake her head every which way, you could easily miss it. Rudy typically doesn't bother with other dogs much, unles they something with her, then look out!! Indy was her flirty, silly self. Making doe eyes at a big dog sitting near us, playing with kids, even if she did try to steal their frisbee! She actually watched the perfomance for a few minutes and neither dog made a peep.

Unfortunately it got rained out, so it was a short night, but really good socialization for Indy.

River Dogs

This weekend we took the younger dogs (Kittie, Abby & Indy) to Roaring Run watershed, for a *long* hike along the river. I hate not taking everyone, but we knew this would be a long day and it's not good for Rudy to be out walking that far. She's fine on hikes an hour & a half or less, but more than that and she starts to get sore. It's a good thing, I didn't check the time while we were out, but realized that we were out for a little over five hours.

Abby loves to swim and she gets better at it every year.

The littel daredevil makes me nervous though, she gets in the water and just goes!!!

She does the same thing they do on the trails if Bill and I get any space between us, she swims back and forth, keeping an eye on both of us.

Indy just loves Abby, she's never far from her big sister.....whether Abby likes it or not.

Time for more swimming!

Indy's a natural in the water, but still isn't too sure about all that wet stuff.

She's happier on the dry land.

All things electronic and mechanical are out to get me

Let's see, in the past week

My work car
computer
printer
camcorder

Have all brushed very close to death, the car was ultimately saved, the computer will be going into retirement mode, printer will be replaced and I'm hoping once the computer is replaced the camcorders issues will be sorted out. (Video is loading choppy, and freezing up!).

Now to decide, PC or MAC? I don't know anyone with a MAC that doesn't love it, but PCs are so cheap in comparision. Decisions, decisions

I have some cute video clips of Indy I wanted to share, of her backwards circles around my legs (cute!), her future David Lettermand stupid pet trick, blowing bubbles with her nose into a bowl of water, and her almost fully closed weave poles, not bad for 9 months old!! The videos play on the camera, but won't upload correctly.

Running Contacts

This site is especially good, if you're looking to avoid getting anything else done with your day. Lots of great posts and videos for training true running contacts.

http://www.running-contacts.com/rcblog/

Broken, chipped & Fractured teeth!!!

Abby's sad just thinking about it.

My gang generally have pretty clean teeth, for pugs (who are not known for their great teeth), but several have had teeth just break off at the gumline, and now Abby has what appears to be a fractured tooth. She's going in to the vet to have it checked out tomorrow.

What I'm wondering is WHY are their teeth just crumbling? They do spend a lot of time chewing, mostly on raw marrow bones. I like them because their is no chance of choking, but cracked teeth aren't a good trade off.

So my dogs make funny noises

Get over it all ready.

Every agility class I've been to has a somewhat different vibe. Some are all business, some very cliquish, some will chat it up the whole hour if given the chance.

Kittie, Abby and I decided to switch nights, same location & instructor, but a different group and totally different vibe. This ended up being the 99% traditional agility dog group. Dogs that bark, and don't scream, proper agility dogs apparently should not scream, or take treats like starved wolves.

I know all of these people, have for years...just have never been in class with them as a group. It felt like the entire topic of conversation revolved around how "troll-like" my dogs are........ They weren't even particularly noisy. Abby gets scared if big dogs get too close to her crate, and Kittie goes berserk right before she runs, they sound kind of funny. I expect people who have never heard them to comment, but really after five or so years, can't people just get over it.

Must....make...myself

I'm sitting here this morning, just staring at entry forms, with "preferred" on them. It is so hard to wrap my head around jumping Kittie at 4"

What if she doesn't even see the jumps, and just runs full speed ahead into them....seriously, if you know Kittie, you know that could happen!

I may put Abby in Nov. P as well, and just work her back up to excellent too. I'm curious how she'll do at 8", unlike Kittie, she's just past the height cut-off, so it's a big jump for a stocky little pug.