He has actually been worse than Penny this year, I assume only because her hearing isn’t quite what it used to be, so she isn’t suffering as much these days. Twist on the other hand…my poor boy. This is the most mellow fellow you’d ever like to meet. Nothing phases him. Well, almost nothing.

I don’t have a thundershirt for any of the dogs, though I am beginning to wonder if I need to invest in one. I did what a could using a couple of bandage/wraps that I used on my knee and wrapped him up nice and snug. I don’t know for sure how much it’s helping, but he’s not panting and pacing right now, so maybe it’s helping a little.

Thank goodness for the anniversary party we went to the other night, they didn’t set off fireworks to celebrate, they just had traditional anniversary gifts instead.

Well, so much for not panting and pacing, another round of fireworks just started up. Lovely.

Once in the ring, it was fine, except we were as wet as drowned rats. LOL You’ll see that he just couldn’t help himself midway through the heeling…he just had to stop and shake. Goof. Then he decided that true to his name, he should add a twist to the figure eight. The rest of his work was pretty good. He finished his CDX with a score of 190. I am thrilled to pieces with him.

Tomorrow we have to drive a couple hours in the other direction for a friend’s wedding. I just hate weddings. I never know what to buy, even though everyone seems to have registries and stuff now. I never find something I like and the stores are always so far away that I’d have to have the thing shipped and I worry that it won’t get here on time. Bleh, just not something I enjoy. Maybe they need some modern furniture for their new place. I bet they are just going to end up with either cash or a gift card from us though, cause I’ve procrastinated so long.

As for the boarding kennel. It’s been a juggling act this week, and today is no exception. On Wednesday I had a plethora of phone calls for boarding this weekend. I ended up having to turn a few people away. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, except for when you have 4 dogs scheduled to be dropped off by two separate clients and today…they’ve both canceled. That is really annoying. Oh well. It’s going to make it a whole lot more simple for the person having to come in tomorrow to take care of the kennel while I’m at the wedding.

I have to wonder if they heard that Twist was coming though, because as we walked along, we saw the kind of sign that might be helpful if I could manage to teach Twist to read. LOL

This was at the top of the gully. Looks a bit like an oversize agility jump doesn’t it?

Even though Twist can’t read, he didn’t seem determined to try to invent some form of extreme agility today. He was perfectly content to just shove his way through sage brush in search of adventure instead. Course when you do that, you come out looking like this…

So…we finished out training yesterday using a plastic dumbbell that I had with me. It’s not a perfect fit, but I don’t think that Twist cares that much anyway. He’s such a goof. Maybe I’ll have to spend part of this afternoon surfing websites for a new dumbbell. I don’t think I need any phenphedrine today and neither do the dogs, so we’ll probably stick to dog supplies stores. Dare is part of a test group for some dumbbells that Mighty Mite Dog Gear is developing, but so far hers haven’t been a good fit. So, I don’t know if I’ll just go ahead and order from somewhere I’ve already dealt with, or try someplace new. I’ll have to see.

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

And then here are some from yesterday. After the obedience trial we took Twist, Dare and Layla for a hike before we drove back home. You can see it was a beautiful, much warmer day! Yay!

They all were excited to get started….

As we went further, no one had walked on the trails yet, so we had to make our own.

Eventually most of us decided that we’d let my husband make the trail and we’d just follow.

You’ll notice that the exception to that statement is Lucy. She just can’t stand to not be in front of everyone blazing her own trail. Then Layla soon decided that she was too big to waiting for someone to make a trail for her either and broke out of the formation. Here she is making the leap….

And then sinking into the deep snow. What a silly girl!

Here’s my favorite bridge on this walk….

and Dare coming back over to check on why I’m not coming…

And a little sheltie “family” picture….

And then the races as we went back to the truck. Penny was the judge, and obviously Twist got distracted at the startline. What a shocker!

Looks like Zoe is the winner, and…..Twist is still distracted. LOL

And finally the best place to be when you get home from a cold winter’s walk…

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I’ve been working on getting our little office/laundry room textured and painted, and now I’m just waiting on my husband to finish up his part of staining the cabinet doors and hanging them. Then I’ll post pictures.

Things have been incredibly slow for both the cabinet shop where my husband works and also here at the boarding kennel. They layed off employees again at his work. One was a close friend of ours. Feels like a repeat of last year already. The only good thing about it, without much work at the shop, it gives my husband some time to work on finishing up projects around here, like the office. The computer at his work had miscalculated his vacation time that was used last year and so he had some left, so they let him just trade it out for the materials that we needed to make the doors for the cabinets. As for the boarding kennel, things always slow way down after the holidays are over, but this is ridiculous. I haven’t had this slow a month since I started the business. I’m going for nearly a week at a time without a single boarder. It’s scary.

The dogs are all still doing great. Layla and Raven are entered in an AKC trial at the end of the month. Can’t believe it’s only a couple weeks away now. We’ve really been working on Layla’s tire and her broadjump. Hopefully, she’ll handle them both without any problems at the trial.

The weather is still cold, but warmer than it has been. We still have too much snow on the ground to train outside and we are supposed to get snow each day this week, but so far, it’s not turning into much.

I totally embarrassed myself on Sunday. I had gotten an email through one of the lists that they were bringing Jim Basic back again this year for another distance seminar. Well, I got all excited and emailed and said I’d love a working spot in the beginner part. Then, I looked through my bills and reality set in. Unless things really pick up, it’s just not going to be possible. So, I sent out an email explaining what was going on, and unfortunately…didn’t pay any attention and sent it out to the entire dog agility list, not just to the person putting on the seminar. Ugh! Talk about embarrassing.

Oh, one of my friends down here that has Belgian Malinois is going to have her first litter in about 6 years. I got to go with her to the ultrasound a few weeks ago and yesterday for x-rays to see how many puppies to expect. Looks like at best count, 8 or 9 but they were packed in there pretty good, so there may be more. I get to go help with the whelping, (don’t know how much help I’ll be), so I’m really excited!

I guess that’s about it. I need to get out and take pictures of the dogs and some video, but I haven’t done it lately. Maybe later on this week…