Exercises For The Athletic Dog

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Raven and I went to a fitness seminar for dogs a couple weekends ago.  It was raining when we arrived, and it was hot and muggy.   But the rain clouds helped beat out some of the heat.  It got much hotter in the afternoon when the sun was out full force.  Here is Raven sitting in the back seat in her nifty BlahBlahBlah collar from Collar Mania as we arrived for the seminar.

Raven did very well.  Here we are working on rear-end awareness using calvalettis.  It was hot out by this time, but Raven gave me her all.

We worked stations for about 30 seconds each.  Raven is on a tippy board in this photo while I’m trying to dig out some of the treats that were not yet mish mash in my pocket.  The humidity and my hands were doing a number on those treats.  I should have brought a treat pouch that day!

Raven got atop the peanut ball and did a very good job for her first time.  This is supposed to strengthen her core and help with balance.

I was looking forward to learning some of the human exercises that were supposed to be taught at the end of the seminar, but people complained it was too hot. I will have to go looking for a good book or video on working exercises on a ball instead.  I need it! It was fun for Raven and me to spend the day together.   I got some very good information to use for warm ups and exercises for Raven and my other dogs.  I highly recommend this seminar!

Anticipation

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This is Raven wearing her new collar.
I love it.
Anticipation.
It suits Raven.

Raven’s a pro at anticipating.
She will go into a room by stepping in and
swinging her butt in so she can back up
while still seeing what I’m doing.

She’s an expert at getting treats.
My favorite behavior is when she sits and stares at me.
She will do this the whole time I am fixing dinner.
Sitting and staring at me.
I will make eye contact with her along the way
telling her how wonderful she is.
She sits and stares.
Anticipating a treat of chicken or sausage.

She plans.
Dogs have those planning skills no matter what anyone says.
Here is a photo of her with Luigi’s toy.
He won it by getting a placement when he earned his CD title.
She watched him play with it one night.
And she watched me put it away atop a kennel.
I don’t know when she climbed up there and pulled it down.
But she did.

Raven anticipates just about everything in life.

And I do love Carly Simon’s song.
Anticipation.

Moonshine and Creature Comforts

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I’ve been trying to get a photo of this owl for months and months.  She came out the other day at dusk and I finally got something decent.  Here is my backyard owl.  I’m hoping she will snag some of those backyard rats.  Actually, ALL of the backyard rats!

Tonight, the moon is growing.  She’s a beautiful glowing ball of energy.

I am thoroughly enjoying Mimi’s self-promotion.  She is the one who, when she’s not scared of some noise and hiding in the house, will herd the last dog inside when I call them in.  What have I done without her all these years!  (She wonders.)

My Day Off

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A friend of mine gave this photo the best caption.

“Hahaha…I get it!”

This is how Raven sits on the futon.
“It just feels right.”

Today, on my day off, I found the dryer broke.  It works except it blows cold air, not hot.  I had this fixed less than a year ago, but this is the shoddy way most businesses do work.  So I ran down to Fortney’s, a pretty good family owned appliance store, and bought a used dryer.  I have a used washer from them that I bought a couple years ago, and it is still going strong.  The dryer will be delivered on Wednesday, so I had to hang up my clothes all over the back yard today, on agility equipment and ex-pens.  Such fun!

     

All that dog equipment comes in handy for many purposes!  That’s an ex-pen my top is getting blown dry over by the a/c.  And the jumps make a great drying rack for these hot summer days.  It didn’t take long for all this wet laundry to dry!

Collar Mania

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I’m addicted to buying my beautiful dogs beautiful dog collars.  Here are a few that came in this week.

This is Leissl wearing a lovely kelly green and fuschia buckle collar.
I thought it would be a great collar to transition from summer into Halloween season.

Luigi is wearing his new monkey martingale collar.  It’s so cute.
It has a monkey embroidered on the loop.
I love the expression on his face in this photo.

And another monkey’s embroidered on the collar.
Bananas too!  (So the monkeys don’t get hungry.)

And this was a nice surprise!  A collar with monsters on it for Halloween or whenever.

Luigi’s less serious model pose.

He’s my good boy!

These collars were purchased from

CollarMania.com

Tell Lisa that Helen sent you.

Good Words

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I saw this photo of good words on Facebook a few days ago.
I liked it so much, I wanted to put it in a place where I could read it anytime.
I thought this was as good a place as any.


I hope others will enjoy it as much as I do.

Distorted Picture

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Our Fourth of July was bad. Of all the years I’ve spent on the planet, this was the most obnoxious fourth I’ve ever lived through. Renters across the street started at 8:30 am with a bounce house, 11 am with loud music, which they cut at 11:30. That was one thing to be thankful for. But by 6 pm, they were starting with the heavy duty noise making fire crackers. In the middle of the street, having those things go off sounded like it was right by the door. My poor sound-sensitive dogs were having anxiety attacks. What really sucked was their crowd of “friends” grew and grew and this went on non-stop until just after 11 pm.

I gave the dogs a half of a Valium because Rescue Remedy and Lavender weren’t working. But the half of Valium didn’t work either, so I gave them the other half. That didn’t work until after 11 pm when the noise stopped. I didn’t get sleep until after midnight. There were still others letting off fireworks in the vicinity, and the people across the street were still carrying on as they were clearing out. By morning, the sun came up, and the street was disgustingly dirty with all the trash from the fireworks and their partying. Of course, while those of us who work got up and did so, the Section 8 stayed in bed sleeping and so did her kids. I wanted to go over to the door and pound on it as I was driving off to work. When I came home, of course the street hadn’t been swept. Nor will it be. Something is so wrong with this picture.

Patience

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I finished Murder is Binding this morning.  I was very pleased.

This was the first cozy mystery book I’ve read in almost a year. I enjoyed the characters, and especially the sisters, who at first I thought were going to be shallow, but turned out to be the best thing going. I grew to like the characters, well, except for the villains, who I wanted to see get their comeuppance. There was only one character that was unbelievable. The sheriff. She could have grown in the story, but stubbornly remained unbelievable. Outside of her, though, the story moved along smoothly.

I have to admit somewhere shortly after the middle, I couldn’t stand it any longer, and paged forward to the ending so I could find out who did it. The author was too good at making me think almost everyone did it!  Then I went back to the middle and read my way to the end with different eyes. Ones that weren’t so curious! I’m too curious sometimes, and lack patience.  Just like Raven.

Mysteries

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I ordered some cozy mysteries from Amazon for summer reading.  I met all these authors on Facebook; otherwise, I wouldn’t have known of them.

I have been reading dog training books for so long that I really missed reading my mysteries.

As for dogs, I wanted to dremel some toe nails today, but I cannot find my Dremel.  Looking for things lost is one of the biggest time wasters known to woman.  I haven’t gone through a search like this in a long while.  I’ve been using nail cutters for some time, and need the Dremel for a sensitive dog’s nails.  So wherever I put the thing is a mystery to me.  Maybe I should write a book about it.

Fireworks

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So it’s the 4th of July weekend.  I mowed the “lawn” today and am glad that’s out of the way.  With the way it’s been raining lately, I’m sure this will be something on my to-do list for all of July.  The humidity also gave me a grand sinus headache this afternoon.  Advil Cold and Sinus is thanking me for all the tablets I buy from them, I’m sure.

Then I made this 4th of July picture of Luigi.

Well, tonight I fed the dogs a few hours earlier being that Mimi is so sound sensitive and she usually poops after dinner.  Last night she tried pooping twice and both times was interrupted by some big firecracker noise.  I was praying that her third try would be successful because I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be a fourth, and I don’t want any constipated doggies around Fort Doberdale.  And more so, waking up in the middle of the night to that poopy smell is just the best way to put me in a real grumpy mood.  Not only do I have to get up from a sound sleep to clean something I don’t want to clean, but the smell lingers for too long even after the plop is removed and some air freshener is sprayed.  I mix water and essential oils in a spray bottle for my air freshener, and that normally works very well.  Just not when a foul smell has had some time to take over the entire house.  They usually drop the poop by the back door.  I am in a bed in a far corner from the back door.  The odor has a ways to travel and that means it’s pretty much covered the entire house by the time I smell it.

I didn’t much like the loud noise of fireworks when I was a kid.  Now I don’t like them for my dogs’ sake, and all the other animals out there.  They are pretty enough to watch from afar, though, during a planned show.  This shooting off store-bought fireworks in neighborhoods should be illegal.  Wait!  I thought it was.   So why are they sold in grocery stores then?