2011 Christmas

The major holiday events are over!  I’m hoping that we can get into a routine starting next week.

I think that Vada’s jump grid class is helping her be more thoughtful in her jumping.  I think she enjoys the challenges that she is presented with.  Letty is doing well in her advanced foundations class.  We’ve been doing more sequencing.  Terry gives us hard lead outs to do.  Letty’s been doing well.  The mistakes are mine from babying her or being out of position.  I wish we would do more contacts.  I need to get back to training them.  We haven’t done any weaving either but I weave with her off on the side.  I’ve signed them both up for the next session.  That’ll bring us into March and then I think I will take a break from agility classes with all of the dogs and do more training at home.

Seven’s weaves seem to be getting better.  I would not bet any money on them at this point but he’s nailing his entries and staying in them at class and in training.  We have no snow and mild temps so far this winter.  I was tempted to train him at home but our poles are 22″ and the poles at OTR are 24″ and I don’t want to shake his confidence again as he’s just starting to get his rhythm in the 24″ poles and those are the poles he’s trialing on.  Vada is doing well in class when it’s her week too.  We seem to have less bars lately.  Prozac had a bad week and was very poopy but last week she did really well and was confident and drivey.  I was less tired – might be a link.  Karl got me a new small Flip type of video camera for Christmas so we can tape each other during class to have it to review.  I’m very excited to try it out tonight.

I’m on break from The Winning Process.  I had hoped to get caught up over the break but that just is not happening.  I really want to get started on my yearly calendar for the girls.  It’d be nice to get my goals down and get some structure to my training.  I don’t feel like I’m doing any training these days and I feel like I’m not making progress with anyone.  Next week…

Cinder has been a roller-coaster ride.  Last week I would not have been surprised to wake up in the morning and find that she has passed.  It didn’t seem like she was getting better from just the pancure and I thought my vet was closed Sat-Mon for the holidays so I made an appointment for Friday before Christmas for a checkup.  She was doing so poorly that Karl dropped her off on his way to work so they could have her for the day.  She was still losing her hair and not eating and getting weaker.  They gave her Sub Q fluids and penicillin and ivermectin and some lotion for her skin.  We took the meds and lotion home to give to her.  She seemed to be getting better and had a pretty good attitude on Sunday.  Monday we were home so I thought she’d be happy to be out and about and sit in the sun.  She was not doing well at all.  Tuesday Karl dropped her off at the vet for the day again.  They gave her Sub Q fluids.  When I picked her up they taught me how to give her the fluids at home.  She was feeling better and ate a lot there and at home that night.  Yesterday she ate in the morning pretty good.  She got to skip a day of ivermectin since it might have been making her tummy feel icky.  Last night she got fluids.  They do make her feel better.  We gave her 2 days worth so she’s set til Friday.  Friday we are dropping her off at the vet for the day so they can do her meds and give her a checkup.  She improves and then she gets worse.  It’s very frustrating.  Last night I got home and her eye was crusted shut from eye boogers.  So she’s now getting ointment in her eyes too.  We gave her a bath on Monday but she could use another.  She pees in her blanket and then sits in it til we’re home to change it out.  She’s so weak.  She was sitting up more last night and she purrs and love it when Letty gives her kisses.  Time will tell.  For now we just keep fighting for her until she tells us she’s done fighting.

Christmas Eve we went to my mom’s house in Amery.  They wanted me to bring Copper with so everyone could see him again.  They agreed to put their dogs away while he was there.  He loved the attention and the food.  He got quite spoiled!  He was quite tired the next day too.  We lost track of time and did not make it to church.  We were sad since we love that service but at the same time we got home earlier and it was a difficult trip home.  We’re both very tired.  And Copper did not have to wait in the van at church even though the temps are very mild this year.

Christmas Day we drove down to Holmen to spend some time with Karl’s mom and his sister, Ann, and her family.  Karl had been up late downloading music to sing Christmas carols to.  They use to do that with his mom when they were little and they wanted to do that again.  We got there a bit late but we still had time to sing some songs before leaving to go to his niece’s house for dinner.  Her husband’s family was there too so I wasn’t sure how that was going to work out.  But it worked out well.  Lots of the guys were in the garage watching football.  We got there about the time that everyone was done eating so we were all able to sit at a table together and chat while we ate.  Then we did gifts and went home.  It’s a short stay but it’s so much less hassle then bringing the dogs and making time to run them and worrying about them if it’s cold.  It was another long drive home.

We both had Monday off.  The dogs got alot of pond walks over the long weekend with the nice weather.  We did pond walks again and then we went to check out the new Pizza Ranch in Elk River.  We got there right at the beginning of the dinner buffet.  Wow, did it get crazy busy!  It was good food.  We’ll definitely be back.

And last night I let members of my Schutzhund club know that I will not be renewing for 2012.  It’s sad since I’ve been a member for 8 years but it’s time to move on.  And maybe I’ll be back.  Time will tell.  For now this feels right.

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MAC CPE & Banquet and Holiday Parties

We’re now on week 3 of The Winning Process online mental management class.  I have not done the homework.  I have fully intended to but I just can’t seem to make the time.  I have watched the videos and I’ve made it to 1.5 of the coaching calls.  Our 3rd is Wednesday.  We get our lecture and assignments on Thursday.  Then we have a call on Wednesday to explain things more and answer any and all questions that people have.  There is also a forum where people can post questions to in the mean time or after.  I’m really enjoying the information and it’s getting me to think about my habits.  Karl was helpful the other night when we discussed self talk.  He helped me understand the difference between “factual” and “negative” and the rare “positive”.  Class this week was Vada and Prozac.

Last Thursday (8th) we also had a Recallers 3.0 Coaching Call.  I was able to listen to a few minutes of it before I had to leave for agility class.  I have not had time yet to go back and listen to the recording and take notes.  I have gotten behind on the daily games too.  I have also not watched the videos on Puppy Peaks in a few weeks.

Hopefully things slow down soon so I can get caught up before my next computer class starts.  I’ve hard that my next instructor gives alot of homework.

Friday I was able to take Letty to Schutzhund training.  She hasn’t been there since October and she remembered it all!  It was so fun to see the Schutzhund dog come out and how natural it is for her.  We’re back do her doing a great bark and hold except that I need to hold her line for a second when she comes in so she doesn’t punch Warren.  Unfortunately, a few days later Warren got bit on his arm and it required surgery.  So I’m not sure how long it’ll be til he can work dogs again.  I’m still going to try to stick to my schedule of just doing agility on Saturdays so I can work with Warren’s group on Sundays once he’s able to work dogs again.  I am committed to working 2 trials in January but then I don’t have another commitment until March.  It depends on when certain classes are offered in CPE too since Vada needs Jumpers legs the most.

On Saturday (10th) we met Dad and Dianna, Josh, Tobie and Elle and Des and Matt for lunch at Norman Quacks in Forest Lake.  Dad and Dianna wanted to get together for lunch so I threw a few dates out to Josh and Des and we quickly settled on that date.  It was easy!  And we had a lot of fun.  Our waitress was super good too.  On the way home we stopped at On the Run to find a spot to setup my crates so I wasn’t scrambling Sunday morning.  Everyone was super helpful to get us space.

Sunday (11th) I had entered the dogs in the MAC CPE trial.  I think I might be ready to start counting down what Qs Seven and Vada need for their CATCHs.  I think it’s a possibility for both of them.  The judge had fun courses.  I don’t think I have shown under her before.  Turns out she’s a USDAA judge too.  Seven Qd in Standard 5, Jumpers C and FullHouse C.  He now needs 8 Standard, 2 Wildcard and 2 Jackpot for his CATCH.  Vada Qd in Colors 5 and FullHouse C.  She needs 1 more Colors, 3 Snooker and 4 Jumpers for her CATCH.  We’re slowly plugging away.  Picking up some Qs towards their CATE along the way too.  Letty ran in Jumpers 2 and FullHouse 1.  She completed Jumpers Level 2.  And her FullHouse Level 1 Q completed her CL1-F title.  It was nice to not be working at this trial.  I still stayed busy and the day went by fast though.

After Letty’s Jumpers run I got a nice surprise – a friend of mine (and past student from when I was teaching) had video taped our run!  She sent it to me a few days later.

We also took Christmas card pics over the weekend so we could get the card order placed.  The dogs were a little crazy at first but then they settled in and were good and stayed.  Karl got this great picture of Copper when we were taking pics to test the lighting.

Monday I went to Cardio Hip Hop.  The instructor was studying for finals so we had a sub.  Usually she does zumba but she did hip hop this time.  It was fun.  Hard to follow since I’ve been gone so long but it was ok since my ankle isn’t 100% yet.  I forgot my gym bag but I’m hoping to stop home, potty dogs, grab my bag and go to class tonight.

Vada did well in her jumping class last week.  She looks at ME and not at her work alot.  She needs alot of support from me.  But she did good keeping the bars up and adjusting.  I think the class is really good for her to THINK about jumping.  Letty did pretty well.  We did have 1 rear cross spot where I didn’t accel and she jump up and nipped at me.  It was after we had just done a RC too.  She got a nice collar grab time out for that one!  We kind of redid it (only the RC in question and not both) and she did great.  I worked her on weaves and other stuff during our down time too.

Wednesday Copper and Vada were able to get in to see Dr Heather (which is why we missed half of the coaching call for The Winning Process).  Copper got adjusted and some acupuncture.   Vada got adjusted – she was out on her left side.  Usually she’s out on the right so this was kind of good.  Neither dog seemed super sore.  Dr Heather commented on how much more relaxed Vada has gotten.  After Vada was done I bought Letty in with my checkbook.  She did not bark at Dr Heather at all and was offering her behaviors and let her touch her for a second.  Great progress!  Last time I was there she was in season so I did not bring her in.  So it’s been awhile but she did great.

Class on Thursday went ok.  Seven did great and I worked him alot.  Fringe did well too and Karl, again, had some good learnings.  Prozac is showing a bit more of her stress behavior now that class isn’t so new and exciting.  Sonic was quite naughty and sniffy and obsessed with food.  Hopefully this week is better.  I like training Pro and I really need to do more on her foundations but I really miss training Narc.  I wish his elbow would HEAL.

Friday night Karl and I went out and did some Christmas shopping.  We got quite a bit done at only 1 store.  🙂

Saturday we went to the MVSV holiday party.  We had a good time.  On the way home we stopped at a few places to do some more shopping.  We picked up a super cute ornament that we had them write all of the dogs names on.  I love it!

Sunday morning we went to Kieran’s Irish Pub in downtown Minneapolis for the MAC board meeting and banquet.  We had to get there 2 hours early for the board meeting.  Karl came early with me and was helpful to Kristin with setup.  We got hooded sweatshirts with our dogs and their new titles from 2011 on them.   Bonnie won the Ruth Van Kuren award.  Karl had nominated her with a lovely write up.  The board votes on the winner but I had no idea who the final winner was.  There were good choices.  So when they announced that Bonnie had won I was super happy for her.  She was so happy and honored as she had a special relationship with Ruth.  It was a gorgeous 41 degrees out so we were able to get home with barely enough light to get the dogs out on walks around the pond.  They loved it, of course.  Then we gave them all bones for the night.  It was nice to finally be home for a bit to let them hang out and be out of their kennels.

One Christmas weekend down.  One more to go.  🙂  We’re almost done shopping for everyone.  And I’m almost done with Karl’s gifts too.  And Christmas cards went out Friday!  That was a huge relief!

Last week we also discovered that Cinder has removed all of the hair from her belly and inside her legs.  She looks horrible.  We’re treating her for giardia.  She has ALOT of it in her poo.  Hopefully she starts feeling better soon.

Caught Up?

Could it be???  OMG – I can’t believe how far behind I got!  Maybe I need to switch to blogging about topics and not events.  Then I could not post for months and it would not matter.  🙂  It is fun to look back and read the posts though.

Although now that I think about everything that is going on I can see why I am behind on so many things.

I just finished my SQL Admin class at Hennepin Technical College.  I got As on my first 2 tests and I’m hopeful that I’ll get a good grade on my last one for a final grade of A.

Recallers 3.0 started on Monday with Day 1.  Of course, there are 4 pre-course games to do also which started on the 1st.  But they are more things that you would want to incorporate into life as habits.  And this is the 3rd time that I am doing the online course so we’ve got a good foundation already.  I want to do better this time with making sure I play all of the games and that I record keep better.  I’d like to include more dogs in it too.  So far I am failing on all of those goals.  For 3.0 Susan is breaking it up so we do 5 days of games and then have 2 days off so we can catch up over the weekend.

Puppy Peaks is still going on and will for many more months.  I’ve gotten behind on watching those videos too.

I signed up for John Cullen’s The Winning Process which started on the 1st.  It’s a mental management course.  It was great timing since it’s only 6 weeks long.  It started when my SQL class ended and it will end before my Systems Analysis class starts at the end of January.  So far I’ve listened to 1 lecture online.  The first coaching call is tonight.  I was hoping to have at least 1 spreadsheet done for the homework but I get the idea so I’m looking forward to listening to the call tonight.  Lots of good information!  And nice to do a class for me – not just dog training.  I think alot of these skills and habits can apply to so many things.  This course is specifically for dog trainers who compete.  Maybe I’ll have time to get 1 spreadsheet done before the call tonight still.

I’m trial secretary for a CPE trial in January.  The trial is almost full but entries have slowed down alot which is nice.  I just got caught up with move ups.  Still need to organize checks and put them into a spreadsheet and organize entry paperwork.  Shouldn’t take a terrible amount of time.  Just need to do it.  This was the day after opening.

Prozac went to her first agility class.  She was a rockstar!  Drivey and equipment focused but also handler focused.  Very different than she is when I just throw her into a trial.  Hopefully this will carry over to her trialing.  She still needs to learn how to weave though.

Last weekend we went to the BCSA AKC agility trial.  Karl came with on Saturday and ran Fringe in Novice JWW.  I questioned his opening after he had walked it so he changed it and it didn’t go so well.  But they recovered nicely and the rest of the run was very pretty and a Q.  Her 2nd.  They have a 100% Q rate in AKC so far!  Seven and Vada both had beautiful Open JWW runs.  Vada had 1 bar down and Seven took 3 tries to complete his weaves  BUT he did them very nicely!  BOTH of them Qd in Open Standard!  That completed Vada’s OA title so I moved her up to Excellent A for Sunday.  It was Seven’s 2nd Q.  The runs felt really good and I felt really calm.

We were done with the trial really early too.  We were there only about 3.5 hours!  We went home and cleaned the livingroom and set up the Christmas tree.  It was our first time doing it together.  It was fun.  And it’s great to have the Christmas spirit in the house again.

Sunday did not go so well.  The Excellent Standard course was totally doable.  I checked out and just watched and did not run my best in the opening.  But I got it together for the middle.  The course turned 90 degrees away from me so I was going to leave Vada on a down on the end of the dogwalk and do a front cross.  The next obstacle was a double and I wanted her focused on it to clear it but not racing to catch me.  She came off the contact (naughty).  I wanted her calm.  The judge was standing there.  I wasn’t sure if it was ok or not but I told her to sit so I could lead out a bit.  As I was leading out a little the judge said “sorry.”  I did a replay in my mind (I had been focused on my dog’s naughty behavior) and realized she had been doing a table count!  LOL  She did well after that.  I was worried about a jump and when she got it I disconnected to look up the line and didn’t support the triple and she crashed it.  And I didn’t decel on my rear cross at the end to turn her into the correct end of the tunnel.  All me!  I had down time after my run so I went to go get some lunch and work on my SQL homework.  Came back and ran Seven in Open Standard.  I lost him after that same dogwalk turn and he got a refusal on the chute.  You can have 1 refusal but only 1.  I was counting on that 1 for the weave poles.  So he had to weave on the first try to Q.  He did!  Good boy!  So that finished his OA title too!  The Open JWW course was crazy hard.  Vada and I managed it pretty well and only had 1 bar down.  I think that’s very impressive.  Seven did not like the twisty turny course and all the rear crosses and he shut down on me and then would not weave.  On our 3rd drive I jazzed him up and sent him.  He entered a few poles in but he was drivey and trying hard so I told him how great he was and we went on.  Hopefully it didn’t set us back on his newly found confidence.  I brought him up to OTR twice last week to train weave poles too.  That seemed to help alot.

Sunday night I got the stockings hung up on the mantel.

Vada went to see Dr. Larocca on Monday.  He agreed with Dr. Jina that it’s corneal dystrophy.  But it’s different since it’s spots and not a big circle in each eye.  This type can sometimes be caused by inflammation so he’s hopeful that medication will help.  She’s gets ointment in both eyes twice a day for 4 weeks and then we go back.  He also so some color spots in 1 eye that might be the beginnings of Pannus.  He’ll see if that has changed at all when we go for our check up too.  He said right now it’s not effecting her vision.  🙂

Vada’s jumping class started again last night.  We did a pattern that was a figure 8 with a full height jump in the middle and then 5 low jumps for striding on the round parts.  She did pretty good but had alot of trouble finding work and not looking at me.  Terry suggested that I make sure to reward her on her lines and when her head is focused forward.

Letty’s advanced foundations class started again last night too.  We did some decel work and then some sequencing with jumps and tunnels.  She did great!  Need to work on her start line stays more.  She gets pretty high from running.  Since we did well, we would run the sequence once and then the next dogs would good.  Great for calming her down again so she can hold her start line the next time.  After class we did weaves with some crazy entries and she nailed them.  We did a teeter and a few end of dog walks.  She has gotten really good at walking by other dogs and ignoring them and looking at me.  She can lie down in her softside crate with the door open and ignore other dogs walking by right in front of her crate.  And she did the 1 jump decel exercise right next to another dog and handler using a jump next to ours!  Both of us handlers were very proud of our babies!

Monday morning Copper fell down the stairs and crashed into the wall.  It seems to have adjusted him.  He is back to normal.  Like normal before his stroke!  This makes me so happy.  🙂  He was suppose to see Dr. LaVallie today but he did not show up.  So I might see if I can get him in to Dr. Heather for an adjustment and some acupuncture until he can get a cold laser treatment next month.

Cyrus

Here is Cyrus’s story: https://k9katet.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/march-lamb/

On November 3rd Karl took him to the vet for a pretty routine procedure.  He had a polyp in his ear that needed to be removed.  It was plugging up his ear so that it could not drain and he was getting ear infections.  Dr. Jina put him under to remove the polyp.  It came out pretty easily.  All went well til about 20 minutes after he woke up from surgery.  He went into cardiac arrest.  They tried really hard to save him but they were unsuccessful.

I was amazed at how hard it hit me.  It was totally unexpected.  But this stray cat who has been in our lives for only a year and a half had totally woven himself into my heart.  He had so much personality and he was such a loving cat and he ruled the dogs so well.  I really miss seeing him sitting by the pond when I come home from work.  Or sitting at the top of the porch stairs.  Or laying on the porch swing.  Or running to his dish when I bring food out to the cats.  Or running down the stairs in front of me and flopping over on his belly for a belly rub when I’m trying to leave.

RIP Cyrus – thanks for coming into our lives and being a part of our family even if it was for too short of a time

November 2011

Another super busy month!

We hosted our annual Tracy Sklenar agility seminar the first weekend of the month.  It was a Friday, Saturday and Sunday seminar.  Letty came into season on Wednesday!  She was still able to keep her working spots on Saturday and Sunday but it’s a pain to deal with the panties.  Fringe and Vada worked on Friday for Masters Handling.  They both did great.  Letty worked in the Advanced Foundations on Saturday.  We were hoping for things to be a bit more advanced but some others weren’t as advanced as we were.  I was on the fence about entering on Sunday for Novice Handling.  I’m so glad that I did!  It was just what we needed.  We were pushed and we did well.  We had a great group of teams working and auditors.  Tracy did a great job as usual.  And we’re all booked for having Tracy out at TCOTC again the same weekend next year.

Copper and Vada got to see Dr Heather.  Vada needed adjusting again.  Copper was in pretty good shaped.  Both got acupuncture.  Copper also got cold laser therapy and an adjustment from Dr. LaVallie.

Vada started a Susan Salo jump grid class this month and Letty started an Advanced Foundations class too with Terry.  We’ve just had 2 classes off so we’re ready to get back to class!  We’ve been making use of Open Gym while there is not class though.  I’ve been letting Seven go to more of the Thursday classes since Vada is doing the jumping class.  And so Seven can practice the weave poles and I can practice his striding and my timing.

Narc went to 1 agility class and had a blast.  But then he went to the vet for an x-ray of his elbow since the swelling has not gone away after 4 weeks.  He has bursitis – water on the knee – on his elbow.  So the vet said 2 months of doing basically nothing.  Poor guy, gets to start doing stuff and gets hurt.  Again.  So Prozac will start to go to class in his place.  Rally’s face swelled up right before Thanksgiving and it turns out he had a puncture in his mouth that turned into an abscess.  He looked horrible.  2 days on antibiotics and he was back to normal.  Letty and Vada got their rabies vaccines.  Vada probably has corneal dystrophy so we’re seeing an oncologist in December to see if we can do anything to treat it.

I went to SQLSaturday again this year.  But this year Karl signed up in time to be able to go.  It was fun to ride together and have lunch together.

Susan is starting Recallers 3.0.  Past students can make a video and then repeat the course for free.  So, of course, I made a video.  This time I did it on my own all by myself!  I think it turned out pretty good.  I even added music to it.  It did not win anything but I was not expecting it would.  It did get some nice comments from others though.

This month I was trial secretary for 2 CPE trials at On the Run.  At the first trial I ran Vada, Seven, Narc and Prozac.  They all did pretty well.  Seven was having weave issues still.  Seven and Vada are chipping away at their Level 5 Qs slowly working towards their CATCHs.  It’ll still be awhile for both of them but they’re wrapping up some of the classes and accumulating some C Qs also.  Narc had a blast!  He finished some titles too.  Unfortunately in his last run he fell off the dogwalk and landed on his neck and shoulder.  He shrugged it off and seemed fine.  I had Kristin look him over later to see if he had any tight muscles or heat anyways and she said he was fine.  That was what made me decide to put him into a class so he can practice the dogwalk more.  He does get bitey when we have communication issues and the judge for the Thanksgiving trial already warned me about that.  So I decided to not run him in the 2nd trial.  Another reason to get into a weekly class.  Prozac ran pretty well too and picked up a few level 3 Qs.  She does stress about all the space in there and all the people sitting around.  Too much time to look around and she’s not in drive as much as I would like.  So I did not run her in the Thanksgiving trial either.  And I had to keep her in the van since she was so naughty in her crate.  I tried to cover her but she sucked it in.  It didn’t help that people were RIGHT in front of my crates hanging out and chatting and having dogs out.  She’s done 1 class in Narc’s place and she was awesome!  Super drivey and equipment focused.  I’ve love for her to carry that over to trialing.  Another instance where I wish I had unlimited time and money and energy.  All of our dogs are so driven and so smart and so eager to work.  They all have the potential to be rock stars.

For the Thanksgiving trial I decided to enter Letty in 1 run a day since she was hanging out all day anyways.  Her first trial!  Friday we entered Jumpers.  I was so excited and I had a smile on my face when I walked up to the line with her the first time.  I decided that I wanted to work on drive so if she missed a jump then I would just keep going.  No problem.  She was amazing.  Great start line stay.  Found her lines.  Drove ahead on the rear cross.  Was focused on me at the end.  The next morning she was dragging me in the building.  Our run on Saturday was Snooker.  She clearly understood this game of agility and loves it.  It just took her 1 run in a trial.  🙂  Her Snooker run went well and she Qd there as well.  Sunday I entered her in Jackpot and Jumpers.  Jumpers was level 2.  She did great in Jackpot and Qd.  She had a bar down in Jumpers but she still Qd.  I was told that my front cross after the 3-4 jump lead out was really choppy and maybe I bent over a little.  I was very happy with how well she did.  We did have elevator butt starting in her last run of the weekend so I’ve been focusing on working her start lines again to proof them with her new enthusiasm for running agility.  She’s not ready to do contacts in a trial and she isn’t ready to do 26″ yet so we’ll do some CPE runs here and there while we keep training.  Here is video of her Snooker run from Saturday and her Jumpers run from Sunday.

We stayed home for Thanksgiving.  We had gorgeous weather!  We were outside all day playing with the dogs and then putting agility equipment away for the winter.  Karl made us a yummy dinner too.  Unfortunately, at the end of the day Copper followed Vada over the aframe and jumped off from a bit too high up and his rear kind of crumpled on landing.  The day before he had just been adjusted and received cold laser therapy.  Friday he looked terrible.  He was walking really slow with a head title.  He was lame on the left front too.  Saturday Dr. Audrey was seeing dogs at the agility trial.  So I had her take a look at Copper hoping for her to adjust him so he’d feel better.  She determined that he had a stroke and that was causing his problems.  She also guessed that he may have a brain tumor that caused the stroke.  Tough news to hear unexpectedly.  He had been doing sooo good.  I took him to see Dr Jina that Monday.  She agreed with Dr. Audrey.  He was getting a little better already though and his left pupil was responding, just slowly.  People with strokes get better and better as time passes.  Hopefully he does too.

October 2011

I went to a SQL class thru work for a week.  The presenter did a great job!  I was able to take the course online from home which was super nice too.  No driving for those 2+ hours each day!!!

Vada went to see Dr. Heather and got adjusted.  Her back was pretty ouchy and her right shoulder.  She felt much better afterwards.  She had some acupuncture done too.

Karl and I celebrated our 4th anniversary!

On the 20th, after Seven’s agility class I rolled my ankle.  It hurt pretty bad!  I went to a sports doctor the next day to make sure nothing was torn or broken.  Nothing was.  I bought a compression brace and a harder brace for when I’m training the dogs or running agility.

Letty and I had our last private lesson with Terry (and Kristin and Cooee).  It was a train wreck and I felt like a horrible trainer.  Letty has a way of bringing those feelings out in me!   She’s gotten alot better but she’s so into her environment and has no qualms about blowing me off.  Really it’s great feedback and she didn’t start doing it until she was not having successes and felt I was putting too much pressure on her.  My ankle held up!

I was excited for the South Paws CPE trial at Simon Arena.  After some not so great trials and some not so great footing I was really excited to trial there.  Unfortunately they had put new/dirt sand in and it was not packed.  It was like we were running on the beach!  Not good for my ankle or the dogs.  Vada had alot of bars.  Can’t blame her for that.

I was able to get 1 more protection session in with Letty for the month.  She enjoyed it.  Sandy got a few fun pics of her too.  Some good ones and some crazy ones.

For our anniversary gift to ourselves we went to the Guthrie to see Much Ado About Nothing.  I love the movie and the play was great too.

Copper continued his chiro and cold laser appointments.  He was doing very well.

I had my 6 month dental appointment.  They found a cavity.  😦  It was by an old one so maybe not totally brand new.

I attended my 2nd to the last MAC board meeting.  I decided not to run for MAC nor MMBC boards for 2012.  I am burnt out!

The last weekend in August was On the Run’s second USDAA trial.  I helped with scoring.  The trial went really well.  My dogs ran pretty well.  Seven still has weaving issues.  Many of his runs were great except for the weaving issues.  I finally got him to weave in Pairs so his team Qd.  He’s getting close to his PMAD or whatever it’s called.  He was on a roll til he lost his weaves.  Vada had some nice runs too.  Probably not any Qs but alot of 1 bar runs.

Bridget Carlsen Obedience Seminar

Ok, going way back to the week of October 10th!

Monday I did not go to Cardio Hip Hop.  Can’t remember why.  Naughty!

Tuesday I took Letty tracking at the park by our house.  Then I swam her and Vada and Copper.  They loved it!  People were using the boat dock so I swam them off to the side of the beach again.  In the dark.  But the moon was bright enough to give us light.  Unfortunately, Letty got swimmers tail from that.  But her tail was back to normal after a few days.

Wednesday was the SQL Admin class.  Thursday was Vada’s week to go to agility class.  Friday Karl and I went to dinner to celebrate our anniversary even though it wasn’t til Wednesday.  Gotta get celebrations in when we can find the time.

Saturday and Sunday I went to audit Bridget’s obedience seminar.  She focuses on AKC obedience exercises.  Saturday Greg talked about marker training.  There was alot of lecture and then some group exercises and some individual exercises.  Lots of foundation games to play for fronts and finishes and alot of heeling.  She uses alot of backing up and spinning too.  I took tons of notes.