Raven’s on Ruff Love

fortdoberdale.com Posted on by

This Sunday morning I got up at 6 a.m. so I could take Leissl and Raven to run-throughs in Boca.  (Leissl pictured right after a bird plopped on her.)  It was hard getting up so early on a Sunday.  The place we went to was buggy.  There were gnats and mosquitoes everywhere, and it was hot!  The course was nice and it was turned around, so after we ran it once, we ran it backwards.  It didn’t matter, both my dogs were not into it.  Nine-year-old Leissl was just too hot to jump, and three-year-old Raven was not in the mood.  It was Raven, though, who really irked me.  After three jumps, she took off around the course, out the exit, and ran behind some bushes.  She ran all the way along the fence came out and down and ran behind them again.  She would not come to me, and that was a first.  Things didn’t get much better.  I couldn’t get her to finish a course, and she always ended up with running out the ring set-up and my having to get her.

It was not enjoyable.  To top things off, I left my bag of dog paraphernalia there.  So when I go to the dog trial on Friday, I’ll have to pull off the road to go there and get it back.  Joy.

Meanwhile, I have started Raven on the Ruff Love program in Susan Garrett’s book.  I don’t have a halti, though, so need to get one of those.  On the drive home, I wondered why Leissl was standing up in the back seat, and I found out Raven took the whole thing.  She was also growling at Leissl over the water bowl.  This is obnoxious behavior and not exactly unusual for Raven, but hasn’t been this bad in a while.   She seemed to have gotten too big for her britches again.  So I’m hoping this helps.  Something’s gotta give.

I think the upcoming trial is going to be a bust, though.  I just have the feeling from today’s results, it ain’t gonna be pretty.  I also think the location may have contributed something to their strange behavior – a vet’s grounds.  I am sure there are smells and things we don’t see that they sense, which could get to them.  Because both of them were really out there.

When I got home, I put Raven in her crate, and everyone else got to go outside and play in the pool.  They got another big dog icy treat I made the night before with water, a Lemon Luigi’s Italian ice, and bananas.  They liked the chicken broth one I made last time better, but this one, too, they ate.  Then a couple of them threw up.  Fun times in the summertime heat.

On Saturday night, we had a lightning storm, so from 6 pm to 11:30 pm, there was no electricity.  I had to boil water for Luigi’s pasta on the grill outside.  It was really miserable with the heat and humidity.  We stayed outside by the pool till 9:30, and with two candles, tried to sleep after 10 pm.  But with the windows open and people across the street having a loud radio going, it just made the night all the more funtastic.  Luckily, that noise stopped at 11 pm, and the electricity came back on to freeze today’s treat!

Raven’s Wobbler Zone Out

fortdoberdale.com Posted on by

I bought a Kong Wobbler from an on-line retailer.  I thought it would be a good thing to help keep my Aussie in shape mentally.  Instead of handing her food in the morning, I put it in the Wobbler and let her work for it.  It’s a lot bigger than I imagined it would be.   The top screws off and the bottom is weighted with sand.  There is a little area to scoop some food in, then I screw the top back on and the dog plays with it to get the food out.  The Aussies think it’s great, and delve right into the game when I put the Kong Wobbler in their crates.  This is Bunny after emptying her Wobbler.  She’s tired and full!
Dobie Raven, on the other hand, is not as enthusiastic about this method of eating.  The first time I gave Raven a Wobbler instead of a cup full of food for her to gulp down, she stood there stunned.  She literally stood in her crate, standing over the thing, staring with glazed eye balls.  I call it Raven’s Wobbler Zone.

I remember this pose of hers one other time.  The first time I brought little puppy Raven home and put her in a crate and shut the door, she had that look in her eyes and was very still and quiet.  “This isn’t going to work for me,” is about wrapped up what was going through her mind.  Shortly after that, she started on with her tantrum.  She threw many a tantrum in her crate in her first year, and still does when I come home and don’t let her out fast enough.  I am never fast enough.  She throws several tantrums a day in her crate.  A few outside of her crate, as well.

It is very hard for me to find ways to innocently get back at Raven, so when I saw her reaction to the Wobbler, I have to admit, I smiled.   I had something that Raven knew how to use and had to use if she wanted to have breakfast.  I plan on using it for those times when my payback pot is full, so figure about every 2 to 3 days.  Raven’s a wonderful dog, she also has very little patience with things unless I’ve trained her to have patience.

For example, she can sit in front of a jump and stay until I call her.  That took some work.  Her stays are pretty solid, and I’m pretty proud of them.  She will sit in and stare at me while I’m fixing dinner until I notice.  Then she gets a treat.  That also takes patience.  The part where she loses it is when I’m delivering dinner.  Whether she’s in a crate or doing a sit stay, she huffs and puffs and eventually screams for her meal.   I’ve put her in her crate and covered it with a towel, and she eventually quiets down after a lot of hooting and hollering.   It’s her way, so now, I have my way.  The Wobbler.

I gave the Wobbler to her this morning to see if it still elicits the same reaction, and sure enough, it did.  She stood quietly over the red pyramid as if she’d get bit by the thing if she so much as moved.  This lasted for a minute or two, and I was very entertained by it.  I still am.  She finally moved and so did the Wobbler.  She got most of the food out, and I emptied it before leaving for work so I could straighten out her crate blanket.  She’d gone through enough, I thought, and there’s nothing than a lumpy bed to sleep on, unless you’re an Aussie.  They seem to like their blankets lumpy.

This is my little angel playing ball with me.
She loves to growl and tease me with her toys.

Leissl’s New ISqueak Toy

fortdoberdale.com Posted on by

I forgot where I hid Leissl’s yellow ISqueak Bowling Pin. She only got to play with it once, but loved it. I put it away because Dudley was ready to grab it and do bad things to it as in chew it up. I hope to find it in the future, but a red one arrived in today’s mail in a box full of dog supplies and toys. Leissl smelled her beloved squeaky toy and helped herself. Here she is giving it a workout.

Is That All There Is?

fortdoberdale.com Posted on by

Leissl and I are entered in the first ever Tequesta Rally Trial in West Palm Beach this weekend in Rally Adv A.

Click for Saturday’s judging program.

Click for Sunday’s judging program.

As (bad) luck would have it, I happened to crash the front end of my truck on Friday. 

This is not something that has ever happened to me before, so probably, I’m still in denial.  So much so, that I have been parking it at the body shop – yes, it’s still drivable – and walking to and from work – so no one among the gossip channels gets a whiff of what happened.  I’m thankful it hasn’t been raining.  I don’t have rental insurance, so until the body shop says, “Today is the day we are going to work on yours,” I’m not starting a rental agreement.  This could take two weeks.


Oh, and this is what was at the opposing end of the crash.  I hate these things.  They’re like cages on wheels.  You can see right through them.  The man has a landscaping business and told me two of his workers got hit recently, too.  That’s three incidents.

<sigh>

So I have reserved the cheapest vehicle I can find, which is an Aveo, whatever that is.  I know it doesn’t have cruise control, which is really going to hurt my drive up to WPB this weekend.  My leg doesn’t like to hold one position for long.  Yikes!

My airbag didn’t deploy.  Or from what I hear, explode.  So no bloody nose or other injuries from the thing.   I did have a very sore neck and had trouble getting up after bending over for a day or two, and the left elbow had these really interesting sharp pains come and go.  But I seem to be in the clear now.

One thing that this brings me to is Peggy Lee’s song, Is That All There Is?  I could never understand the point she was coming from.  It seemed like such a flippant string of lyrics.  But as I faced this trailer knowing I was going to hit it, what happened was, well, what happened.  There wasn’t that life flashing before my eyes that I’d expected.  Maybe that’s because it wasn’t necessary because, luckily, I’m still here.  There were no screaming people, or obnoxious police.  Everything just happened to a lesser extent that I could have imagined.  And I think that’s the gist of it.  That’s all there is.  Life happens as it happens and not as we imagine it will happen.  We so like to enlarge reality or create a reality in our heads that never manifests.  Maybe that’s it.  Maybe.

The truck wreck happened, and now I have to go through this process of managing while the truck is being fixed, of waiting to see if the insurance premium is going to increase, and all that other extracurricular stuff while I  live my routine  life.  The dog show I’ve been looking forward to, reading a special edition of Clean Run, making dinners for the dogs and me, practicing agility and rally.  And while I’m at it, figuring out if I can repair the dryer that just stopped heating or considering the option of buying a new used one.  All that stuff is still there, and in order to live life and hopefully, enjoy it, I can’t let the sludge overwhelm me.   Not at this point, because living moment-to-moment, that’s all there is.

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?
Peggy Lee

SPOKEN:
I remember when I was a very little girl, our house caught on fire.
I’ll never forget the look on my father’s face as he gathered me up
in his arms and raced through the burning building out to the pavement.
I stood there shivering in my pajamas and watched the whole world go up in flames.
And when it was all over I said to myself, “Is that all there is to a fire”

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is

SPOKEN:
And when I was 12 years old, my father took me to a circus, the greatest show on earth.
There were clowns and elephants and dancing bears.
And a beautiful lady in pink tights flew high above our heads.
And so I sat there watching the marvelous spectacle.
I had the feeling that something was missing.
I don’t know what, but when it was over,
I said to myself, “is that all there is to a circus?

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is

SPOKEN:
Then I fell in love, head over heels in love, with the most wonderful boy in the world.
We would take long walks by the river or just sit for hours gazing into each other’s eyes.
We were so very much in love.
Then one day he went away and I thought I’d die, but I didn’t,
and when I didn’t I said to myself, “is that all there is to love?”

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing

SPOKEN:
I know what you must be saying to yourselves,
if that’s the way she feels about it why doesn’t she just end it all?
Oh, no, not me. I’m in no hurry for that final disappointment,
for I know just as well as I’m standing here talking to you,
when that final moment comes and I’m breathing my lst breath, I’ll be saying to myself

SUNG:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is