Wow! This month has flown by. I am just stunned when I look at the calendar and realize that it’s going to be May tomorrow. It’s been a busy month, but in a good way. Looking back a lot has happened. No wonder it went by so fast.
My husband found another job this month. It’s going well. I think he’s still adjusting a bit to the new schedule, having to be up at 5 am isn’t his normal routine for sure. But all in all, he’s liking the job and the people he works with, so you really can’t ask for more than that.
The boarding kennel has been busy all month. Maybe that aweful start we had back in January was just a fluke. Even gas prices being over $3.00 a gallon don’t seem to be discouraging people from traveling too much, so that’s good for the boarding kennel
Training this month has been fun. The weather has been a bit unpredictable, snow one day, 70′s the next…but overall, we got to a lot more training outside this month and I for one and so glad to be back outside. We had our workshop with Stacy Peardot-Goudy this month and as always I come home seeing lots of room for improvement in both my handling and my training skills. I’m really glad that we have the opportunity to work with someone like Stacy. She’s a big help!
We got in lots more walking this month, much to the dog’s delight! They don’t want to see anyone sitting around on the computer reading enzyte reviews, when we could be outside burning off some energy. Hopefully next month we’ll continue some of the habits that we tried to rekindle this month.
Anyway, that’s enough rambling about where this month has gone. The dogs say, “get off the computer and get moving, mom!”
Ok, April is nearly over, but we’re getting snow again. We’re supposed to have storms through the rest of the week. Typical of course since I’m planning on driving up to Salt Lake again this weekend for a seminar. Can’t seem to drive to Salt Lake without some kind of storm rolling in. LOL
Really, I am the first to admit I’m a big wimp about winter and the snow. But honestly, it’s a real pain in the rear when I’ve got a kennel full of boarding dogs that want to run and exercise in the big field, and it’s being turned into a mud hole, AGAIN! That means that they are just going to have to make do with the much, much smaller gravel yard for exercise. I can tell you that it doesn’t make any of us happy. With the snow we’ve got tonight and the storms we are supposed to get for the next few days, the field won’t dry out enough to let dogs out there, for several days. I know it doesn’t do any good to complain, but I just can’t seem to help myself. LOL
Well, since I can’t change the weather, I need to concentrate on what I do have control over. I need to get the young girls bathed tomorrow. I also have to remember to get to the health food store, not because I’m looking for the best weight loss supplements, but because Dare always get carsick when we get into traffic and I keep thinking that I’ll try giving her a bit of ginger to see if it helps. Has anyone out there tried ginger for their dogs? Or anything else that has worked well for motion sickness? I’ll give it a try and report back if it’s helpful or not.
Rarely do I take all the dogs for a walk at once. I usually only attempt it when my husband is with me. So, it’s a treat when he decides to come with us. Here’s some pictures from our walk the other day.
The typical way it starts is with a little chaos!
Then everyone settled into their walk, except that Penny’s nose took her into a sagebrush. Deep into the sagebrush. LOL I don’t have a clue what she was looking for.
Then Dare had to stop to pose for me at the top of the hill. I guess she was actually just watching all the other dogs waste their energy, but it was a nice pose for me with the mountains behind her.
Hmmmm….this group just looks like trouble. Watch out world!
Twist and Dare taking in the view. Aren’t the rocks in the background cool?
Happy Raven face!
I think everybody’s having a good time.
Lucy loving the water
Zoe NOT loving the water. Might have had something to do with the fact that she’d just found a disgusting dead deer to roll in and so I thought she could use an impromptu bath before the ride home.
Dare is such a poser.
And the walk ends much the way it began, with Layla barking at the dogs to keep going! She might be telling Raven to “put down the prevera wrinkle cream grandma, and run, run, run!” Or maybe not. LOL
Ok, so here is the promised video of the jump training Layla and I were working on today. It’s serpentines and threadles. She’s doing really well. I can see in the video that I probably need to improve my timing and make my cues a little bit better, but she’s doing a good job responding to me regardless. LOL
Now we’re loading up the car to take Twist and Raven over to my friends house. I’m going to set up a Rally Obedience course for them and see what we need to work on before the Sheltie Specialty in a couple weeks. Then back home and possibly a walk for the younger two dogs. No need for any fat burning pills pills today. I should be busy enough just keeping up with the dogs today.
So, I’ll start off with “the good”. We got to spend yesterday at another Stacy Peardot-Goudy workshop. The weather was pretty nice in the morning…while I was auditing. That all changed though as soon as the afternoon session was about to begin. A rain and hailstorm rolled in and stayed the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully, they had the workshop at a location with the option of moving inside a barn if needed. I was so grateful for that! Regardless of the weather, the training sequences were challenging and fun. I have to say that Stacy really has a talent for making you feel at ease, and yet being able to push you outside your comfort zone in your normal handling.
Another good thing from yesterday was that Layla seemed to be back to herself in regards to people. She was more than happy to go visiting everyone. I had been really worried that she was going to have trouble with this because on Sunday we had gone out of town for the day. I had a friend stop by the house to let the dogs out and she said that Layla gave her trouble when she tried to get her to come back inside the house. Even with treats, she apparently was slinking up and grabbing the treat and then jerking backwards, so she couldn’t touch her. I still don’t understand what is going on. I mean I would have assumed that she would have been more comfortable here on Sunday with someone that is familiar, than up at the workshop yesterday, but it wasn’t the case. Go figure.
Now for “the bad”. Even though Layla seemed comfortable with the people at the workshop, she didn’t seem relaxed to me when we were running the courses. She got a little sniffy a couple times, which I think were signs of stress, and she had problems weaving again. Everyone at the workshop is really sweet and they kept saying that her weaves looked better than last time. The thing is that the last time we were there, she did 3 sets of 12 weave poles without any trouble, and then she started bobbling. This time, she never did do a complete set of 12 on the first attempt and eventually Stacy just had me take her through 6 poles to help her be successful. So, in my mind, her weaves were much worse this time. I finally asked Stacy if I should put the guides back on the weaves at home for a while and see if that helps. She said that would be a good idea. I think it’s just a green dog problem and the fact that we haven’t been able to weave in places other than at home hasn’t helped. Now that the weather is getting better I’m going to make a point of getting out and training other places again.
And for “the ugly”. I have decided after my drive home last night that the “ugliness” is mostly coming from inside my head. The last few weeks with Layla acting strange have really freaked me out. I know it’s not reasonable, but I get so worried that these recent sensitivities and quirks that are showing up might be an indication of her becoming more reactive like Rogue. I don’t think I could handle going down that road again. In fact, I know that I just don’t have it in me to deal with another reactive/sensitive dog right now. I wish there was some easy way to change a thought process once your stuck in it, like just clicking a button. I guess that kind of solution only works if you’re looking to clear up your acne problem though. click here Since I know there isn’t a magic button, I’m just trying really hard to remind myself to live in the present, not relive things that happened in the past. Too bad my mind doesn’t work more like the dogs in that respect. LOL
We’re back! Whatever happened yesterday, (I think it was something with the server), has apparently been resolved and we’re back up and running. If I get a chance later on today I’ll post more pictures from this last week. I have some really pretty ones, I just haven’t had time to get around to posting them yet. I got a bit behind on my schoolwork and I needed to catch up on that. I’ve also got a bunch of boarding dogs coming in this weekend, so that’s keeping me busy.
Then the car windshield got a rock chip, so we had to get that repaired before it spread. Thankfully the insurance covered that repair, so that’s nice. I didn’t have to spend a bunch of time searching around for the best insurance quote.
I really need to take advantage of the good weather though and get outside and spray weeds before the wind picks up and makes it impossible again. It should be a great day, I think it’s supposed to be in the 70′s! YAY!!! I’ll try to post more later.
So, it’s been a busy week so far. We had a friend come visit and she brought her adorable girl Maizey along with her. We spent the week taking walks, doing a little bit of training, taking pictures in the mountains, visiting my parents farm and just relaxing in the evenings! I think we talked about every topic pertaining to pets that you can possibly think of.
Maizey and Layla hit it off like they’d known each other forever. Here’s a picture of Layla, Dare and Maizey up the mountains.
Then we went to the lake. Maybe we could have packed some lifejackets for pets, but everyone seemed to do just fine without them. Penny didn’t seem to want to swim much, but I don’t think she needed a lifejacket. I just think she got sick of Zoe and Raven barking out instructions on how to swim out and retrieve the sticks, while they waited at the shore.
Then we went to my parents farm and visited all the spring babies and also all their dogs. Do you think we could find a few more professional beggers to join this motley crew?
After such a busy day, we came home exhausted. Well, I guess not all the dogs were exhausted, but I know the people were. LOL I spent a good portion of the rest of the evening searching for the best shampoos for pets, after all the sights and smells that the dogs had been busy investigating that day.
Anyway, we sure did enjoy being able to get out and enjoy the nice sunny day with good friends!
So, we went back up to my friend’s house to train today. I was hoping to see if we would have a repeat of last week, or if she’d be back to her normal self. So, same building, same people as last week, and just as I was hoping…the same little girl stopped by after school to visit with the dogs. The good news is that today, Layla was much more focused. She was still very, very noise sensitive today, but she was eager to work. It was a huge improvement over last week.
There was one little incident that was pretty unexpected. One of the Malinois puppies, grabbed the string on the helium balloon that was serving as a distraction on the edge of the area where we were training. The puppy took off running as fast as she could with her prize, but then the string tangled around a hind leg and then she spooked. Ugh! She was darting around the building with the balloon “chasing” her. With Layla being sound sensitive, she was a little spooked. Fortunately, both Layla and the puppy were confident enough to investigate the balloon after a while. So, I don’t think any permanent damage was done. My friend said that she thinks Layla is probably just going through a stage where we need to take it easy and not work on anything new, just work on maintaining things that she’s already confident about.
These puppies are sure making training days more lively. I sure am glad they are past that really wild, chewing and biting stage. No protective clothing is necessary anymore. LOL The last male in the litter is flying out to his new home on Sat. I get to ride along to take him to the airport. He’s going to a great home, I’m really happy for him.
The other day I went up to a friend’s place to train with the dogs. We usually get together about once a week, so there really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary when we went up there. Layla has been going to this place to train for about a year and a half now. So I certainly wasn’t prepared for what happened.
She started out a little distracted, but nothing too bad. We did a little heeling, (it wasn’t great), so then I took a break and had her do some scent work and then we went back to do a bit more heeling. Just about then, a young neighbor girl stopped by to say hi to the dogs. Normally Layla is the most outgoing Sheltie I have. She just adores meeting new people, including kids of all ages. She does what we call her “happy feet” dance because she gets so excited to meet people. Well, I waited until she settled down just a minute and then I told her that she could go say hi to this little girl. She started to walk up to her, and then she got all weird, like she was totally unsure about this girl.
This little girl isn’t your typical kid. She adores the dogs and is really good with them. I asked her to sit down on the ground and I sat down close by and she offered Layla treats. I have to say that I was horrified to see Layla acting like Rogue used to. She would slink up slowly and stretch herself out to see about the treats, but she didn’t want anything to do with the girl. It was so out of character! I felt aweful. It took me right back to all the time I’d spent with Rogue. Even after all the books I read, all the trainers I worked with, the seminars I attended and vets we saw, I was never able to figure out how to help Rogue. Well, I shouldn’t say that we couldn’t help her, I think I did help, but certainly not to degree that I hoped.
Anyway, I have to say that both my friend and I were totally baffled by Layla’s reaction to this little girl. Neither of us have ever seen Layla act like this. I just hope it was some fluke thing and that it won’t happen again. She was fine when we came home, and I haven’t seen anything in behavior that seems out of character since then. I am curious to see if she reacts the same way on another day if we can get the little girl to come back.
I know it doesn’t do any good to complain, but I just can’t seem to help myself. LOL
LOL
