Home

Advertisement

RAT USDAA

  • Dec. 22nd, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Jo and the Boys
I can't believe how unbelievably tired I was after this weekend.  I know I didn't get enough sleep the two nights before the trials and they were long trial days but still, wow, so exhausted, and here I am being stupid and staying up late to write in my journal...  I would have stayed in bed longer today but I had to take my van in for scheduled routine service plus I had to do some Christmas shopping.  Costco was very busy but had lots of yummy samples.  Then getting into the parking lot of the mall was a bit nuts but I was able to shop quick and get out.
Read more... ) 

Honored and Proud

  • Dec. 21st, 2009 at 12:56 PM
Jo and the Boys
My hat is off to fellow LJers Liz and Kathy for organizing a fantastic raffle/money raiser to help a friend.  I am honored to be your friend and I am very proud of our agility community who gave in support of one of our own.  It still brings tears to my eyes.  Lots of love to everyone!  A true way to celebrate this season of giving!

Obedience Night

  • Dec. 17th, 2009 at 10:52 PM
Jo and the Boys
Wednesday night has been obedience night for Merc. His class starts at 8 PM which is perfect for me because that means traffic is all done and I can get out to Sammamish easily. There is no easy way to get from my house in Shoreline to Linda's house in Sammamish during the evening commute so avoiding that time is best. So what crazy thing did I decide to do? I decided to start taking Steam and/or Slider to Linda's 7 PM class. I will probably get lucky most of the time and traffic should still be OK, although there will be some bad nights, but it is easier to add the earlier class versus going out again on a different night. With our break from agility coming up, I wanted something else to do with the boys. The 7 PM class is a more advanced class but Linda said I could work Steam at the level he needs.

Steam actually did better than I expected him to last night. He was a little unsure at first and had to watch everything. I didn't do much formal heeling with him but did "let's go" at a slow pace with some "watch", not pushing him to do too much this first time. I couldn't get him to tug at first, but then he was able to do his scent work and some play retrieves with the gloves. Then we did group stays which Steam handled very well although he had a bit of a confused look on his face. I think it was good for him to have a chance to stay in one spot and take everything in. After stays we worked retrieves and jumping. He got pretty excited about retrieving his dumbbell, he has the cutest retrieve! Then I called it good and took him to the car and let Slider work the rest of the class. That is my plan so far, to work Steam as long as his attitude stays good and then quit before he starts fading. I'm not sure how long this will work though as I think Steam might be able to work the whole class soon which means I won't really need Slider to come with us. I was hoping this would be a fun activity for Slider since he loves obedience class. He was pretty mad about only getting to work part of the class. As I was walking Merc to the building for his class, I could hear Slider doing his mad bark in the car and I felt bad for him. We'll see how it goes. Maybe I'll try to find something else for Slider to do on a different night (but closer to home). Poor Kirby had to stay home but I don't think he minds staying at home as much as the BCs do. Kirby kind of likes hanging out with Russ, especially if there is food involved. :-)

"Box Work" Workshop

  • Dec. 16th, 2009 at 1:59 PM
Merc head shot
Warning - blatant gushing to follow! :-) When I signed Merc up for last night's box work workshop at Argus, the flyer said there would be something for all levels. I had hoped to do a bit more box work with Merc prior to the workshop but the weather conspired against us and I think I only got around to doing a bit of single box type work with him less than a handful of times, and we had only just started rear crosses and a little bit of front crossing as we've mainly been doing jumping skills. Then, last night, I should have left work early to get to the workshop in time but didn't. It was raining and traffic was horrible so we were late. I took all four dogs with me in case Merc couldn't handle the exercises and I needed another dog to work, plus it was 20 degrees warmer than last week so they could wait in the van and get to run after the workshop. Jill had emailed the exercise plan that we would be following but I hadn't had a chance to really look at it. When I arrived she was reviewing what we would be doing at each station, 10 jumping stations, each with the same four jump configuration (not a "box" but modified type box work), but with something different to work at each station. Everything looked so far above Merc's training and ability. As everyone went to get their dogs, I whined at Jill about it not being young dog appropriate. She patiently told me to try it and do what I felt Merc could handle, even if I just did some figure-eights or whatever, that working him in this busy environment would be a great experience for him (with 20+ dogs working around the arena). Like last week, the stations were very well arranged with fencing and baby gates between each station and sand bags to tie dogs to at each station (if needed) for when we walked the patterns at each station. We were paired with another team to move through the exercises with which worked out really well so one dog wasn't jumping too much. We had about 10 minutes at each station.

I brought Merc in and he was a little over the top at first which I got a little frustrated with... you'd think I would have learned from last week not to do that, he truly is just a baby dog with infectious enthusiasm. The part that frustrates me is that he wants to go visit everyone and he doesn't quite get that not everyone wants to see him. Anyway, we get settled down to working and lo and behold, I have myself an agility dog! So as not to overdo the start line stay with so many exercises, Jill suggested we sometimes start by wrapping the first jump. Merc hasn't done that many wrap jump starts but he figured it out quickly, after a couple of times with me rewarding it, and starts diving down into the wrap turn and flying after me. I don't think he back-jumped once on a wrap. He pulled off a few jumps to run with me but soon was working far enough away (when supported properly) that I could send him a bit and get my front crosses in. Then we get to the rear cross exercises and after a couple of times where he wasn't sure, he started doing lovely rear crosses with nice turns over the bar. Since we have not even started serpentine training, I didn't do any of the serp options but he was able to do every other exercise! He reads deceleration pretty darn well too and collects nicely. I was mainly jumping him at 24" with a few 26" bars and he was doing very well with that. We had several knocked bars but that was mainly due to my handling or him figuring things out. It was spooky how well he did and more than a little exciting to me! I learned not to get him too jazzed up though or he starts biting me as he runs, that is so Merc. :-) He did so well he got to work the entire workshop. We also worked some startline stays plus his down stays while I walked the exercises and he did well, not perfect, but pretty good all things considered. And when he really gets moving, the boy can cover some ground! OK, enough gushing, you get the picture. I am super pleased and excited! I thanked Jill for her patience and understanding. :-)

Thankfully the rain had stopped by the end of workshop so all the dogs could go running in the field. Steam and Slider looove to run with JJ. Merc likes to run with the boys some but also hangs out with Steal and Blynn's cute girls. Kirby likes to pester people for treats and play a bit with his dog friends. It was so nice for the BC boys to run and burn off some energy! They enjoy this play time so much! I saw Kirby rolling in the grass which isn't too unusual for him and there isn't usually anything icky to roll in, just dead worms. Steam also rolled in the grass. Then as I'm loading up the dogs, there is this weird smell. After I got the dogs loaded, I smelled my hands and shirt, is it on me? Don't think so. The car kind of stinks but not too bad. The smell is familiar but I can't place it. When I get home and get the dogs unloaded and into the light, I can see that Steam's head and neck along with Kirby's back are brown and are super stinky/shtanky - ick! Plus along the way, Slider had stepped in dog crap so he is spreading poo everywhere he walks. It is too late for full baths so I wipe Steam and Kirby off as best I could and then take Slider into the bathtub and rinse his foot off. Thankfully Steam and Kirby don't smell quite so bad now that they are dry. I sure wonder what they found to roll in...

Some Training at Last!

  • Dec. 13th, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Jo and the Boys
I met Kathy and Yvonne at Dog's World this morning for some agility training. Had a fun time but I just can't get all four dogs worked enough in an hour! Merc got the most time because I've been wanting to film him for a while now but the weather hasn't been very cooperative. As it was, I still didn't get that much done with him. I was happy with his work though. He was a bit distracted at first but settled down pretty quickly to work. The other boys all got out for a little while to work some contacts and a bit of jumping. No time to chat much with Yvonne and Kathy either. Oh well, we will get a chance to chat next weekend at the RAT trial. Then I changed clothes and headed off to the corgi club Christmas party in Renton. It was fun to catch up with friends and eat some good food. Poor dogs had a boring afternoon waiting in the car. It was spitting snow this morning before I left for DW but so far no more snow here which is fine by me. Temperatures are supposed to return to normal this week so we should be able to get some training done here at home. Merc has the box work workshop at Argus on Tuesday night and then I'm taking all the BC boys to obedience class on Wednesday.

Another Herding Trial

  • Dec. 12th, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Slider stalk
I really would have liked to have been able to practice between last Sunday's herding trial and today's but with work and the lack of daylight, I didn't get a chance. Today the trial was at the MacDonald's farm on the Key Peninsula. They ran Open first, then Pro-Novice, and then Ranch. It was nice that I didn't have to get there that early. I signed up for a Pro-Novice run and a Ranch run but I wish I would have signed up for 2 Pro-Novice runs. Oh well, I'll learn the ropes eventually. Read more... )

Merc Thyroid Results

  • Dec. 10th, 2009 at 5:17 PM
Merc head shot
The BVS vet that I took Merc to for his health tests (at the WIKC show) in November was convenient but it sure did take them a long time to send me the thyroid results. I finally nagged them this week and they sent the results today. At this time in his life, Merc is OFA Thyroid - Normal. BVS sends their thyroid blood work to Michigan State which obviously runs their tests differently than the lab Hemopet uses since the reference ranges are totally different for everything except the TGAA. I was hoping to compare Merc's results against Slider's and Steam's but that isn't going to happen, at least not by me. All Merc's values (I had the full panel run) look well within the reference ranges. It is recommended to have dogs re-tested every year or two since testing normal doesn't mean they will remain normal throughout their life. I mainly wanted to get a baseline reading done on Merc now.

Jumping Workshop

  • Dec. 9th, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Merc stand

Earlier this fall when my agility instructor Jill was talking about having some workshops in December when we weren't having regular classes, I asked/begged her to include some jumping skills work since Merc would be old enough to start jumping. Jill, being the best, scheduled a jumping skills workshop and a box work workshop. Last night we went to the jumping skills workshop and I have been looking forward to this for weeks! I was bummed as the night drew closer and the forecast was for such cold temperatures. Jill decided to hold the workshop anyway and I'm glad she did, it was fun! The workshop had 11 stations with a different Susan Salo jumping exercise at each station. We had 10 minutes at each station and then we rotated to the next one. Jill did a fabulous job of using the entire 2 rings at Argus and used net fencing or baby gates between each station and she devised a very organized way of moving between the stations. After a 1/2 hour of demonstration on what we were supposed to do at each station, it was time to work.

At first Merc was quite distracted by the dogs working near him and his inner golden retriever was coming out and wanting to say hi to everyone. I got a little cranky with him and gave him a few pinches in the butt to remind him he was there to work with me. I wasn't happy with my cranky part, but I was happy that Merc settled into working pretty quickly and then gave me good attention the rest of the 2 hours which was a LOT for a 14 month old. We didn't work each station for 10 minutes since that would have been too much for a pony his age. After I was happy with the work he had done at a station, we played and worked a little obedience or took a potty break until it was time to rotate. Many of the stations were schooling stations and not about jumping full height so those were done at 8 inches. Where we were to add some height, I stuck mainly with 20" for Merc since he is still learning to jump. There was one bounce jump drill where I put it up to 24" and he did fine with that. Not that he was perfect at everything but he did very well and I was very pleased. When things didn't go perfectly, Jill reminded me that these drills were about helping him figure out how do it right while not letting him think he made any mistakes. Reward the good, ignore the not so good, show him how to get the goods. :-)

And the cold? Yes, it was cold with the outside temperature dipping into the teens but since we kept moving we stayed plenty warm. Getting warmed up at first was hard and I did keep my big coat on the whole time. Then we took a short break half way through and that was enough to get too cooled off so it took a while to get warmed up again.

Next week will be box work night. I didn't go to the GD/LD seminars that were at Argus in November but Jill is excited about a GD 4 jump drill so we'll be working that. I'm excited! Hopefully it will be warmer... please...

Tags:

Finally!

  • Dec. 6th, 2009 at 2:43 PM
Slider stalk
Our progress has been slow, but Slider and I FINALLY had our first Pro-Novice run today. As I've mentioned before, Slider has been an incredibly patient first herding dog to have, I am very lucky. And while it wasn't a stunning run by any means, I was pretty happy with what we did and I'm looking forward to trying again soon.Read more... )

Uh Oh...

  • Dec. 4th, 2009 at 4:52 PM
Jo and the Boys

This is what happens when you leave your border collie home alone with the new computer, he starts taking photos of himself and emailing them out...

Tags:

Slider's Thyroid and Spindle Cells

  • Dec. 2nd, 2009 at 5:08 PM
Slider portrait 07
With Steam showing such a positive improvement from being on the thyroid supplement, I started feeling a bit guilty about not starting Slider on the supplement since his thyroid values were not significantly different than Steam's. Not that Slider has had any of Steam's issues, but given how important thyroid is to healthy body function, I talked with my vet, Dr. Evelyn, about trying Slider on the supplement as well and she said that would be fine. On Monday I had Slider's 6 week T4 blood test done and he has gone from 1.7 to 3.6. So far, so good.

Now on to the spindle cells. About a month ago after we had been working in the yard, I found the tip of a thorn in Slider's right shoulder. Slider had been hanging out with Russ while Russ worked on his roses and it did look like a rose thorn. I got the tweezers and tried to remove it but I was unsuccessful and the thorn went completely under the skin. I was worried it might get infected so I kept a close eye on it but since it was small, it was sometimes hard to find. I am usually successful in finding it when Slider and I have our morning hug and snuggle in the office chair (and my boss wonders why I am late to work...). One time I was having more trouble than usual in locating it but then thought I found it but the lump was back farther than I remembered. I kept poking around (poor Slider) and found the thorn in his shoulder in addition to this other tiny lump back on his side on his rib cage. Hmm, I don't like finding weird lumps. I've been keeping an eye on it (or finger in this case) and I haven't felt any growth in either lump but I was worried about that second lump. Since I was taking Slider in for the thyroid blood test anyway, I arranged the visit to include an appointment with Dr. Evelyn to have her check both lumps. Turns out Dr. Evelyn likes to aspirate lumps which is a good thing. :-) The non-thorn lump is pretty small, think tiny, baby pea-sized, and hard to hang onto which makes it hard to get a needle into to aspirate for a cytology sample. Dr. Evelyn gave it her best stab and it turns out she did hit it, however the cytology results were inconclusive and deemed "probably OK". The cells on the slide contained among other things, spindle cells. Spindle cells can mean nothing much or it could be the beginnings of a tumor. With the lump being so small, there isn't much point in trying to aspirate it again. Dr. Evelyn also didn't think it is worth it to remove the lump at this point since it could be just scar tissue. If it grows at all then it will be removed. Not the results that I was hoping for, I was hoping for "it's nothing and yes you are just paranoid as usual." So, now we wait and see.

I've been collecting a list of webpages about thyroid, being the addicted web-surfer that I am. Here are the ones that I have found to be the most informative. Feel free to pass along any other good ones you have found:
http://www.offa.org/thyinfo.html
http://www.canine-epilepsy-guardian-angels.com/ThyroidDisease.htm
http://beardie.net/bcca/health/articles/thyroid.shtml
http://clumberhealth.org/PDF/thyroid_canine-faq.pdf
http://www.itsfortheanimals.com/DODDS-BEHV-THYROID.HTM

The Steamiest is Three!

  • Nov. 30th, 2009 at 11:42 PM
Steam May 08
My Steamy turned three years old today! As usual, all the dogs got cake and ice cream with their dinner to celebrate. They like that. :-) I just love my Steam so much and he has really started coming into his own this year, especially in the last few months. He has become such the cuddle bug and every day I look forward to coming home from work and getting my Steam "snuggles", which means Steam lays on top of me to block out the other dogs so he can have mom all to himself. I also love when he "talks" as it seems like he is really trying to say something. He can seem confident sometimes but really he is quite soft and needs to build confidence, which I am happy to say he is. I've had several people tell me that Steam is the dog that I needed, as far as the different journey that Steam and I are on, with the "uniqueness" in how he views and processes the world. I think they are correct. I will never judge people who have dogs with "issues" the way I might have before I had Steam. I have so much more empathy now. Steam has taught me so much and has much to yet teach me. He is special in so many ways, plus he is incredibly handsome, not that I'm biased. :-)

Tags:

TWO Double Q's!

  • Nov. 30th, 2009 at 10:15 PM
Jo and the Boys
Yesterday at the AKC trial both Steam AND Slider earned QQs! It was Steam's third QQ and Slider's 13th towards his MACH2. I'm pretty sure that was the first time that I have QQ'd with both of them on the same day and hopefully not the last, yes I am greedy. :-) Well, being really greedy would be hoping that Kirby would QQ too but I'll happily settle for Kirby being able to run and have a great time, which he did. Kirby had a mostly nice run in Standard, he knocked the double and then we had a miscommunication in the 180 corner which resulted in an off course, and then in JWW he knocked the first bar but otherwise did great. Steam's attitude was fabulous, he only got slightly worried a couple of times while waiting his turn but bounced back quickly and he really seemed to be enjoying himself and seemed more confident. He earned second place in each run (24" class), beaten by 2 different Dobermans in each run. Slider was his usual awesome self and did fabulous. I was proud of myself for keeping my mouth shut when I needed to and not messing up my dogs!

After we finished we had time to run over to Fido's Farm for a little bit of herding practice. I had time to work Slider twice and Steam once (sandwiched in between Slider's turns). Blynn had followed us over to Fido's and after we were both done practicing we let all the dogs run in the play field and they had a good time. The bonus part was that even Merc was tired out after all the running around!

It's Here!

  • Nov. 30th, 2009 at 9:20 PM
Jo and the Boys
The new iMac is up and running. Still getting used to it but I do love it already, SO much faster than our old computer and the 27" screen is huge. We still had one of those really old crt monitors, not even a flat screen. I love the finger swipe mouse but I have to be careful not to swipe casually. :-) There is a problem with the keyboard as the end and home buttons are hooked up to the page up and page down, as are the page up and page down, so we'll need to get those fixed. Tomorrow I'll try out the iMovie. So much new stuff to learn in switching from PC to Mac!

Beautiful Day on the Farm

  • Nov. 27th, 2009 at 10:17 PM
Jo and the Boys

Wow, I could not have asked for a more beautiful, sunny, late November day to spend out on the family farm in Sequim. I was SO looking forward to walking around the fields with the boys, which we did, but the elk herd that lives around Sequim was also hanging out on the farm which limited our field walking as I really didn't feel like getting too close and getting stomped. Russ and his Dad's chocolate lab Hershey joined me and our 4 boys on the first trip to the fields. If you remember the video I made last February, Hershey and Merc were 4 month old pups then. Now Hershey is a big boy but he blended in with our pack just fine, and he and Merc are still "buds" and had fun. I have a bit of video but will wait until we get our new iMac (which arrived today!!!!) set up before I work on it. After seeing the demo videos for iMovie, I don't ever want to work on stupid ol' Windows Movie Maker ever again! I also just quickly grabbed the camera bag this morning on our way out, not thinking to check to make sure batteries were charged... turns out one video battery was dying, the other one was dead, and the camera battery was dead too, and I only had the camera battery charger in the bag. I charged the camera battery enough to get a few photos of the dogs. While Russ and his dad worked on their deck project, the boys and I took a few more trips down to the fields for more romps. They never get enough, well, Kirby did get a little tired, but they all had a blast.


Merc and Slider



Kirby



Slider



Steam - I don't know what is on his head but it stinks!



Merc



Steam thinking the grass is tasty, with Merc and Kirby

Rainy Days

  • Nov. 26th, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Jo and the Boys
After such a nice summer and fall, the rain sure is getting even with us. I did take advantage of the rainy day on Sunday and stayed home and worked on little projects around the house. Monday was mainly rain-free. Russ headed out to Sequim to help his dad with the deck project. I loaded up the boys and went to Fido's Farm for some herding. Slider and I are slowly making progress on our whistles. Steam is slowly getting the idea of driving. I also had him move sheep in and out of small pens so he gets comfortable with that. He tries hard but gets frustrated sometimes and then he eats grass or dives in at sheep. He really just wants to gather and gather, and gather some more. He'll get it though, he is a smart dog. We had a fun time as no one else was there working the sheep so we had the place to ourselves. After we finished I took all four dogs for a run in the play field. I didn't work Merc on sheep this time.

I was going to take the dogs to obedience practice last night but I didn't feel like driving in the pouring rain and traffic so we stayed home. Today I am working; it is normal for me to work most holidays unless they fall on our "weekend" (Sun/Mon). My brother and his wife always graciously invite us out to their place on Vashon for Thanksgiving dinner but it is hard to get everyone loaded up and out there for a quick trip after work and then deal with the ferry schedule so we are staying home tonight. Russ is off this Fri/Sat and all next week. Just a few days ago my co-worker offered to work for me tomorrow so we will go out to Sequim for the day to have a late Thanksgiving dinner with Russ' folks. The dogs will be so happy to get to run on the farm! I hope the elk herd isn't hanging around so we have free run of the fields. I am happy we get to spend some holiday time with Russ' family as it seems much of the holiday time is spent with mine, which I love, but it isn't fair to Russ.

Then back to work on Saturday. Sunday we have an AKC agility trial and I hope it gets done early enough so that we can zip over to Fido's for some herding practice. I entered Slider in a herding training trial on Whidbey on the 6th...

Merc Prelim Hip Results

  • Nov. 24th, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Merc stand
I was surprised to see Merc's preliminary hip results arrive so quickly from OFA. They gave him an "Excellent" rating. Hopefully it will work out to get his 2 year old hip x-rays done at the same health clinic next year as it sure was easy and I like the results! :-)

Now to wait and see what his thyroid test results are. He's most likely too young for the autoimmune thyroiditis disease to show up but at least I'll have good baseline numbers on him.