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.