Twist did well in Open B, in fact he qualfied until the out of sight down stay. Of all things to fail, the exercise where you just have to lay there and do nothing. LOL He did ok in Veterans, though he anticipated that there would be a drop on the recall and overall, he’d used up most of his attention in Open.

After lunch we did Rally and that’s when it became obvious that Twist wasn’t the only one that had used up all his brain cells. I got lost and tried to go from station #6 to #13. Hehe. Somehow in the midst of the mess I made of things he still managed to qualify, but it wasn’t due to my handling. Raven did a really good job in Rally Advanced and earned a Q and a second place with a 95. Fortunately, I didn’t get lost and neither did she.

We had a friend snap a picture of the dogs with all the fun prizes that they won, but it’s really not a very good picture of any of us. The dogs look squished and miserable, and you can’t see all the cool prizes very well. For all you know we could have won a t nut in that big pile of goodies, but we didn’t.

Anyway, we had a great time as usual, and I hope we’ll be back again next year to redeem ourselves. LOL

I can’t really blame it on weather, we’ve had a really mild winter and a warmer spring than usual. In fact, we’ve been mowing the lawn, fighting with weeds, and wishing I had some nice garden furniture to relax on, but the agility field remains strangely empty.

I guess there could be a couple of reasons. One is that Zoe has been coming up lame on one of her front legs off and on since last fall. I can’t figure out a consistent cause. Some short walks on leash she’s come up so sore she wouldn’t put weight on her leg. Other times we’ve gone for much longer hikes off leash and she’s been fine. The vet here hasn’t found much that’s conclusive. Another is that Dare is still rehabbing from the bilateral Illiopsoas strain and even though she’s improving she’s not ready to do agility yet. Brynja is working on lots of foundation stuff and I just don’t have the motivation to get the equipment out to work Raven.

It’s definitely been an interesting winter/spring with the illnesses and injuries. I hope the summer proves to be much more uneventful and that the empty field will be filled with colorful equipment soon.

For now, it’s going to sit empty for at least a few more days.

It seems like there are plenty of places that sell used clothing, exercise/fitness equipment and even Used Instruments. Can’t you just see all the Shelties lined up playing a bunch of these drums?

Can you imagine if there was a website that sold used dog training stuff too? You could have departments for all the different sports and you could have equipment and books and DVD’s. I know I can’t be the only one out there that buys DVD’s and books and training equipment and then finds out it either doesn’t work for my dog, or I just don’t have the time to use it. It would probably be a really dangerous site for me to find though. I can just see me spending more than I normally would because I thought I was getting a deal. LOL Probably good that right now it’s just in my imagination.

Raven is usually such a stick in the mud when it comes to playing. In fact, if she’s outside and the other dogs are playing, she’s most often the fun police. Since Brynja arrived though, all bets are off. She didn’t know that Raven wasn’t the biggest player and she didn’t really care. She just kept trying, till one day Raven gave in to her attempts and they’ve been good buddies ever since.

After breakfast, in the morning is their favorite time for zooming around the yard. I had some time the other day and got to sit outside and watch them play while I took pictures.

Sure is nice to see Raven out and running and playing so much these days.

Or how about the people that think that ask about your fitness routine with the balance balls and discs and treadmill? Only to be surprised when you reveal that you couldn’t balance on one if you tried, but your dog can sit, stand, down, sit pretty and balance with ease.

Or the musical instruments, “are you taking up a musical instrument?” “I didn’t know you played the drums”, they say. The looks continue to be quizical when they find out that the dogs have better rhythm than I do, and that’s obvious because I have a metronome, but that’s just to regulate my walking while heeling in obedience. I’m sure I could find a dual purpose for some Headphone Amps too.

Another favorite was when I ran out of ice gel packs for the dogs, and I had to use the frozen veggies. I decided the other day that I am not alone. A client brought me peanut butter to stuff the dogs Kongs and it was labeled “Doggies” I assume that’s because their husband has asked the same question mine did the other day when I was unloading groceries. Is the string cheese for us to eat, or only for the dogs? I sure am glad that he’s such a good sport about sharing so much with the dogs.

We’re still making trips to Salt Lake for Dare’s rehab treatments each week. She’s progressing, but honestly, I’m not the best at judging how much or how fast…obviously if I didn’t realize there was an injury in the first place. Yesterday I decided to go a little early so I could do some shopping besides. Nothing fancy like la mer cream or anything. More like Costco run for coffee and cleaners and stuff. Figured it was good to make use of the time and fuel I’m already spending to get to Salt Lake in the first place.

Anyway, whether I am good or bad about remembering what day it is, I do know that I’m really fortunate to have shared the last 18 years with Randy. I’m not one for recommending getting married young but I know that even if I had spent those 18 years looking for the perfect person I wouldn’t have found someone better…

Several nights this week something unusual happened. Twist went to bed like normal, but then shortly after going to bed, he started barking and I could hear him spinning like he needed to go outside. I get up, let him out of the crate…he doesn’t want outside.I put him back to bed and he protests…loudly for hours. It’s like he just woke up one night in the crate and realized that he wasn’t loose. It probably isn’t as funny if you haven’t ever been around Twist in person, but if you had been, it’s no stretch of the imagination to interpret his baffled expression as…”Hey!!! How did I get in this crate?”

I’m really not sure what I’m going to do about it yet. I can’t for the life of me figure out what brought it on. If there is something that scared him, or that is making it uncomfortable to be in his crate, I’d like to be able to figure it out. So far though, I can’t make heads or tails of what’s triggered it. Maybe I need to change the atmosphere in that room. Maybe if it had a yoyojam atmosphere he’d be happier about staying back there. Maybe not though.

I think Bryn and I feel about the same. “What happened?” LOL I told my husband that she looks like somebody that just woke up wearing funny tee shirts, sporting a bad hairdo and a random tattoo from a really wild night. Seems like we’re all trying to wipe the sleep out of our eyes and try to sort out whether what we remember was just a bad dream or really just an exhausting whirlwind of a week.

The good news is that Bryn was released on Monday morning and considering what she’s been through, she’s doing fantastic. She tires out quickly now, but especially in the mornings, she is looking more and more like herself, trying to get the other dogs to play with her, running around the yard, crawling under all the couches etc. By evening, she’s pretty much done. Very content to just sleep.

So, one of the concerns that remain for me is whether Brynja is going to have any long term effects from Parvo. One of the things I asked specifically about was if they thought she’s likely to have stomach sensitivites from here on out. The vet there said that she thought that the chances of that were very low. Does anyone out there that has a dog that has had Parvo have any experience with long term effects that I should be on the watch for?