Lucy always did things her own way. Most of the time, if I’m being honest, I didn’t really appreciate it. She was unlike any dog I’ve ever lived with in that she really just didn’t care what I thought. However, I could never have found a better dog for my husband. They truly were a perfect pair. They both love people. They almost always have a smile on their face and people are naturally drawn to them. Neither have the desire to waste time worrying about the future. They just are the opposite of me.

Lucy died unexpectedly on the 20th of October. To say that the house isn’t the same without her…is an understatement.

It snowed today.  Granted, it didn’t stick around, but I don’t care.  I looked back and even though it was warming up in May…we had snow.  That means we had 4 months, a very fleeting 4 months without snow.  It is not enough1  I’m not ready to pack all the agility equipment back into the barn.  I’m not ready to get the snow shovel out and ready to clear out the driveway for clients to come in and out.  I’m not ready to chisel frozen poop out of icy snow yet. I’m not ready for the mice infestation we are experiencing either. So far, we’ve caught more than a dozen in a matter of a couple weeks. I guess it’s not really a matter of whether I’m ready or not. Winter is coming.

On a good note, our friend that was looking for a job, found one.  She isn’t getting Emergency Medical Technician Jobs. She’s going to be working in a retail store as a checker. It may not sound that exciting, but she’s relieved to have found a job with the economy the way it is right now. Hopefully it will all work out for her.

We had a great time at DOCNA Championships. Zoe is still having a great time running agility. Even though she’s 11 there were several times Zoe managed to remind me that I’m still not as fast as she is. Obviously, she still thinks she can run a better course than what is on the map. LOL I love that attitude from her.

Unfortunately, that sassy attitude was our downfall for the North American Challenge. She decided that an off course obstacle was just too much to resist, and we E’d. I told her that just for that, she’d have to hang around and run with me again next year to redeem herself. In Standard and Jumpers she got to go through to Finals though and ended up in First place in both classes.

We got to go for a nice walk on one of the evenings by a little lake. We didn’t do any shopping for garden composter equipment, but I think the dogs enjoyed the walk more anyway. Shortly after taking this picture, Zoe tried to wade into the lake, and stepped in a deep spot and ended up soaking wet.

Anyway, we had a fantastic weekend, beautiful weather, fun friends and we hope to be able to do it all again next year.

Recently several of my friends have been struggling with some really difficult situations. One friend has been caring for her elderly father, and he died a few weeks ago. In addition to that just being sad overall, this left her without any income of her own, a house and a car payment along with quite a bit of other debt. She has no option now but to find a job and as everyone knows, that’s not easy these days. Add to that the fact that she hasn’t been employed outside the home in about 20 years. It’s just not good.

I keep thinking how grateful I am that my husband was able to find a job since the cabinet shop closed. Sometimes it’s easy to get in a funk because we’ve had to cut back on things as our income dropped. I jokingly say that maybe it’s a good thing that Dare doesn’t jump well, because if she was just setting the world on fire in agility, then I’d have a really hard time not wanting to compete more. In all honesty though, after looking around, I know how good I have it. We don’t have any collection agencies hounding us because we haven’t been able to pay our bills. And here and there, we still have enough for me to go play with the dogs at a trial.

On that note, I should get off the computer and get busy packing for DOCNA Championships. We leave tomorrow.

When the Chris Zink seminar got cancelled back in August, I was disappointed when the reschedule date was all the way in February. Well, not too long after the seminar was cancelled, I heard about a webinar that she was going to do, and I decided to sign up for that in the meantime.

Last night was the webinar. I’ve never attended a webinar before, but I really enjoyed it. I mean I wasn’t so blown away that I needed an air ambulance service to come revive me or anything, but I definitely thought it was worth the money and I would definitely consider doing one again.

She discussed the effects of spay/neuter on the bone development and other health concerns relevant to the performance dog. It’s really interesting to hear about the studies that are being done. I don’t know exactly where my opinion falls. Being involved so deeply in rescue for so many years, I have always been a huge advocate for spay/neuter. Now it seems that there are a lot of reasons to keep dogs, especially performance dogs intact. I think I’m in the middle of the road on this one. I still feel that spay/neuter is needed because of the number of unwanted pets that swamp the shelters and rescues. However, I did think the results of the studies being done were providing a good case for examining this more.

Next she talked about strengthening and conditioning the canine athlete. One of the simple things that she mentioned was teaching the dogs to sit up, or sit pretty, but then once they’ve mastered that on hard surfaces, moving that skill onto soft surfaces, slight inclines forward, backward or sideways balance balls and so on. I thought it was such a good reminder for me. I often teach things, but then don’t take them a step further, like doing it on different surfaces, etc.

Finally, she talked about jumping. This of course was the topic that I was most looking forward to, but unfortunately so much time was spent on the other parts, that the jumping portion was fairly brief.

All in all though, I really thought it was a good presentation, and it makes me look forward to the seminar in February even more.

I’m pretty sure I went to sleep and it was like…May. I woke up this morning and we’re already halfway through September. Time is just going faster and faster and faster. I have a convention this weekend. We leave for DOCNA Championships next Thursday. We get back that Sunday and then my husband and I leave for Grand Junction again on the following Wednesday for the Obedience trial. I have a feeling that I’m going to go to sleep again and the next time I wake up it’ll be October. LOL

For an update on the vet visit I posted about last. Lucy’s bloodwork all came back good. Yay! Now for the silly part. Her anal glands needed to be cleaned and she was a bit constipated. I felt really stupid, but relieved at the same time to have the source of her discomfort be something so simple. Anyway, she’s doing great. Zoe had her back adjusted and is doing fine, and Twist’s lumps he said were most likely fatty tumors. He said to watch them and if they changed in size to let him know, but that he didn’t see any cause for concern. So, it was a day of good results all the way around.

I have some other interesting vet news, but I’ll write about it on Dare’s blog.

Today I spent deep cleaning the house, since my mother-in-law is coming to stay tomorrow. Amazing what you find when you move things around. LOL I didn’t find any english horse tack, but I did find some dog toys that I’d forgotten that we had.

Well, three of the six dogs are headed to the vet tomorrow. No we haven’t had a mass outbreak of something contagious thank goodness. Zoe, Twist and Lucy are all headed in for different things, but I figured while I was making an appointment for one, I might as well make one for all three.

First Zoe, I thought she could use a little adjustment before we head to DOCNA Championships and I also wonder if she’s got a chipped tooth that needs to be looked at.

Twist has had a lump on his lower chest, between his front legs. Then I just found another right behind one of his front legs. I want them to check them out and tell me if they are just fatty tumors like some dogs get as they age, or if they are something I should be more concerned about.

Lucy is the only dog that is actually acting like maybe she should visit the vet. I don’t know what is going on with her, but she seems to just not be feeling great lately. Her energy level seems low right now, she just doesn’t look 100% comfortable, so I don’t know if she’s just getting a bit arthritic, or if it’s something more. The other morning she didn’t just dive into her breakfast like usual, she actually needed a bit of coaxing to eat. That’s not like her at all, so I figured it was time to get some bloodwork done and see if there is something we can do to get her back to normal.

Anyway, I sure wish I was going to be doing something fun, like spending my money at a pet store, but I’m afraid that there may not be much left after I get the bill for the three seniors vet visit.

When Penny was younger she was a diehard fetch fanatic. She’d fetch on land or in the water. She didn’t care what you threw…balls, toys, sticks, axis rims ok, maybe not the last item, but you get the point. She was always ready for a game of fetch. She may be 13, (closing in on 14 in December) but she still enjoys a good game of fetch. Granted, it’s a much slower and much shorter game than it was a few years back, but she still seems to enjoy herself. This video isn’t the best but it still makes me smile to see her out there having a good time.

How did we get to September already? I have a feeling I’m going to blink and I’ll be asking where September went.

First I signed up for a Chris Zink webinar. Now here’s the really funny part. You might remember that I had a working spot for a real Chris Zink seminar and that it got cancelled. Well, then I see this webinar, so I sign up. It got cancelled and rescheduled, and then resceduled again. LOL I swear I’m beginning to wonder if I’m ever going to get to a Chris Zink seminar, whether it’s in person or not. Anyway, it’s supposed to be on the 19th as of the latest dates.

Next is DOCNA Championships in Grand Junction, CO. I ended up just entering Zoe. It’ll be fun to just let Zoe be the special girl again this year. I wish we’d get our running order for the trial though, I’d love to see how many other veteran dogs will be in our class.

The week after DOCNA is an AKC Obedience trial in Grand Junction. Grand Junction is only about 3 hours away, which is the same as going to Farmington…but because it’s another state, it seems like more of a vacation. LOL My husband is going to go with Dare and I that weekend. I debated back and forth about whether to stay in the campground adjacent to the fairgrounds, or get a hotel. He finally made the decision for us. Hotel. Of course, we’ll be trying to save money, so we won’t be staying anywhere fancy with ann gish linens. I think we’ll be staying at Motel 6 instead.

The kennel is looking busy too this month too, especially with the holiday weekend coming up. But that’s not as much fun to write about. I’ve got to get to bed though and get some sleep so I’m ready for the clients tomorrow.

Today was a kind of gloomy weather day. It never really did much that amounted to anything, it just looked gray. The one thing I’ve found though is that especially with Dare’s eyes, cloudy days can be really helpful when trying to get pictures of the dogs.

This first shot is just one of several old loading chutes that we walk past each day. I just think that the wood is so interesting as it ages. It gets so much character with time.

The next place we went was one that I should have visited a week or two ago, cause the flowers are just really fading now. So, I got some quick shots of Dare and we moved on to another spot.

The sunflowers are out in abundance now, and I just love them. Twist was a dork at first, maybe he was searching for the place to click here for weight loss pills, but I think it’s more likely he was searching for dropped treats. So here’s a shot of the girls who were being more cooperative.

Anyway, nothing too fancy, but it sure beat staying inside on a gloomy day.