Border Collie Reese and Her Two Kitties!

Summer Recap 2011 -part 1

2011-09-11T22:05:00.002-05:00

Summer 2011 came and went. Where did it go? We were out and about disconnected as much as possible from the electronic world, and I must say we rather like it that way. Here is a little recap of what we did during the first half.

We spent Sunday mornings,

playing and lounging outside.

Reese with her toys, I with my coffee...You got a cookie in there for me?

We went to my nephew's graduation party!

Visited and played with Charley!

We went to the CPE National Agility Championships and watched our friends compete.

Zuki

Raya

Reese hanging out with our friend Donna while I took some pictures.

Logan

We visited my sister who lives on a lake. Reese was prepared in her pink life preserver. Never know when you might take an unwanted dip!

We went canoeing, and for paddle boat rides. Reese loved the water, at least riding on top. Going in was not something she wanted to try on this trip. But stay tuned because that changes.

We went for walks with our cousin Skippy!

We visited lots of flower parks. I love flowers can you tell!

Charley came to visit for awhile. And played and played with Reese!

"Help me Charley, its got me!"

"Hang on Reese. I'll save you!"

Whew!

Runners High! Yep, It's Back!

2011-06-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

Wow, I can't believe how great it is to be running again. I am building distance and getting stronger and it is the most amazing feeling. I have missed it so much. Reese has been an awesome running partner. The hard part is trying to sneak out of the house without her for my longer runs.

So far Reese has gone with me up to 3 miles. We were going to try a 4 miler this week, but with the rain, rain, that won't go away....that hasn't happen yet. Since she can't tell me how she feels I want to build up her distance slowly. She loves it, and knows the difference of when we will be running and when we are going for a walk. Have I ever told you how smart she is? Yep, she is very smart!

It is sad to sneak out early in the morning to get in a 5, 7 or 9 miler without Reese but she will get there. Although I don't think I will have her doing anything longer than 5 or 6. Due to Reese's t-storm phobia and the meds she takes for it, we haven't gotten out yet this week, and I am feeling it and so is Reese. It's not a good feeling when you are just getting back in the groove.

I will run in the rain, heck I run in 30 below windchill but, yesterday we had more than rain. The streets were flooded on my way home. It was like driving through a scene from "The Deep". I was just waiting for the fish to jump over the hood of my car. Since I'm not into Triathlons just yet - don't think I'll ever be with that swim [shark] thing going on, I didn't get out for a run yesterday. Still raining today and not supposed to stop until tomorrow sometime. Not thundering anymore thank goodness. Hopefully we can get out and hit the road again tomorrow.

And I did it. Yep, I entered my first Photo Contest. It is contest put on by the Border Collies in Action site, which sell lots of great herding items for working stock, videos, clothes, misc. things for the house.

This is the photo I entered...

I took it at a herding clinic that Reese and I attended last year. It is my friend Loretta's dog Klink, "Working the Ladies!"

Speaking of photos....since it has been raining just about all but three days this month the pictures just haven't been happening. Once I was able to start shooting outside this Spring, shooting inside became so blah! It is supposed to be nice this weekend, and I have off next week and I am planning a number of photo hikes - so looking forward to it!

Whats In a "Walk"?

2011-06-09T00:23:00.001-05:00

I try darn hard to get my dog out for a walk at least twice a day. By walk I don't mean potty breaks. I mean real "walkies" at least a mile, usually longer, but a mile is the minimum each walk. In the evening we try to get in an hour or as close to it as we can.

Of course if we have our Agility lesson or are doing other training that night we may shorten the walk etc. its not a hard and fast rule.

In the Spring, Summer and Fall we try to do some running preferably in the morning when it is cool and then do our "walk" in the evening.

What I have found is that a 3 mile walk will tire Reese out and satisfy her exercise needs more than a 2 mile run will. Granted she is running on leash so it is a run for me and a trot for her.

But....the walk incorporates times to sniff, poke around, it isn't done as a race. It is a relaxing time for both of us to unwind and spend quality time together. When we run it is more business like. Minimum sniffs and potty breaks, and preferably we get the poos taken care of prior to the run.

So to be fair if we run in the AM it is business, but our walk is all about the relaxation and sniffy's. I allow Reese to sniff as much as she likes within reason. I still have her walk with me a bit each walk, meaning next to me on a loose leash, but not technically heeling. Then for her reward she gets to "go sniff". The rest of the walk she can walk in front of me stopping to sniff and mark as long as the leash is loose.

Some people believe that anytime the dog is in front it is in control and being "dominate" but I don't believe that. Pulling on leash yes, but if my dog is being respectful of me or walking on a loose leash and is aware of where I am, so that if I slow down she slows down or if I stop she will stop and wait for me, I have no problem with that.

I believe that on our walks Reese is getting mental exercise by sniffing and exploring, using her nose and having more time to take in the environment, plus she is getting physical exercise by walking. A walk actually meets more of her needs than a run does.

If we run three miles Reese will be physically tired and sleep the rest of the night. However, if we do less than that, say two miles, Reese is ready to rock when we get home. Two miles is just enough for a warm up for her. I think it actually gets her more hyped up but doesn't satisfy her enough relax her. After a 2 miler we need to do some trick work or other work that will work her mind. This is what Patricia McConnell was talking about on this blog post http://www.theotherendoftheleash.com/just-enough-exercise-to-wake-up-our-dogs . I think she was right on.

I think each dog is different and you have to find what works for your dog. Reese has an off-switch which is wonderful. But I also recognize that she waits for me while I am at work all day with not much to do but look out the window and sleep. I owe it to her to give her both the mental and physical exercise she needs to be healthy. For Reese, as Patricia said in her post, a 2 mile run "wakes her up". A 3 mile run is enough to tire her out. That being said given the choice of a 1 mile walk or a 3 mile run, the walk would win. Why, because it involves both the mental and the physical aspect for Reese.

In her book Animals Make Us Human Temple Grandin talks about animals emotions, one of which is Seeking. Seeking is the animals need to search, and investigate its surroundings. Dogs do this on walks sniffing and exploring the environment. Which is another reason I try to vary where we walk. It is more stimulating for Reese if she can explore new places, and who has been there before her:)).

Finally, I believe that walking with your dog is such in easy way to spend time bonding with them. Walks are highly reinforcing for dogs and spending time walking with them will reinforce your importance to them - they don't get to go without you after all. It is such an easy thing for you do to together.

I love what walks have done for my relationship with my dog, and I always feel better after I get off the couch and hit the road!

Reese in Action!

2011-05-20T22:55:00.001-05:00

We were lucky enough to have Amy from GreatDanePhotos at our trial last weekend. Here are some the photos of Reese in action!

There Are No Shortcuts to Anywhere Worth Going

2011-05-17T22:00:00.002-05:00

Reese and I attended our first CPE trial this past weekend. She was amazing! We attended both days - 4 runs each day.

CPE has six games, I have done Snooker and Gamblers in USDAA and CPE has Snooker and their Jackpot is like Gamblers. CPE also has FullHouse, Colors, and WildCard, all three of which I have never run. So a couple of days before the trial I got the Running Order. The first run will be FullHouse, the first dog and handler on the line at 8:00 is Sarah and Reese - Yeah Baby!

I actually was glad that FullHouse would be the first run, as it would give Reese and I time to adjust to a trial situation again. It was a new place we had never been before, our second trial, and we were playing a game I knew nothing about. What could go wrong? Not a whole lot as it turns out.

FullHouse was a good run. Startline stay was good. Reese was a little bouncy but I'm sure she was sensing my nerves. Reese had weave issues apparently not liking weaves in a new location. After the weaves she bounced around a jump and then back jumped it. Watching the video you will notice that Reese had moved on already but I failed to notice this and this is when I started directing my "Imaginary Dog" back over that jump. But when even he didn't perform, I moved on back to Reese. The weaves were one of the jokers but I knew we could do the A-frame for a joker and would be fine. She nailed the A-frame but we ran out of time so no Q. We ran to the table and that was when the "freaky handler" made her only appearence for the weekend and tried to carry Reese to her leash. That was NOT normal and Reese would have none of it and she told me so. I put her in a stay on the table and quick put her collar back on and out of the ring we went.

Before our next run I decided to do a little shopping at the vendors. I found a martingale style Lupine collar, I have been looking for one of these forever. Our friend Donna uses one for her dog Jadah and it has worked great for them. I wasn't sure what the design of the collar was that we had fit Reese for, but when I realized it was Sunflowers, there was not even a question in my mind - we were getting that collar. My cousin Sue loved Sunflowers. They symbolize Sue for me and I have never been able to look at Sunflowers the same since Sue passed. So I figured this might be some good luck for us. Sue loved animals and dogs in particular. Call it what you want - after we got that collar, when I put it on Reese for each of her runs the rest of the trial, everything clicked. And each time that collar was slipped over her head I calmed down another notch.

Standard run was good but didn't get video. Got to the line and no "exit guards", took a deep breath and thought well, it is what it is. Off came the collar and away we went. Startline was good, I knew the course well, so no issue there. I was running hard and it was a great run, we were really in sync, I was giving clear commands, Reese was listening and reading my body language great, no bobbles and no bounciness, and then we got to the dogwalk. I wanted to make sure she had clear instructions again so as soon as she got to the top and started across I said, "Touch". Reese stopped and was sniffing at the top plank. I encouraged her to "Walk it" but she jumped right off and ran to the other end to jump on the yellow to "Touch". Whoops, why did I say touch so early. We kept going the rest of the run which was flawless. Bummed that I don't have it on video as it was such a nice run. We got to the end and had a party. Slipped her new collar on and all was well. Boy was it a fun run! Why was it so great since we didn't Q. Because we ran as a team, connected and totally in tune to each other - well except my mistake on the dogwalk.

Next up was Snooker. I can't believe that our first Q was in Snooker -who would have thought. Colors was the last run of the day. I loved it, it was a nice fast course, tons of fun. Reese did great, another Q. With each run on Saturday I got more relaxed and Reese and I ran better and better together.

Sunday we started the day with Jackpot. I wanted to use this run to test out Reese's dogwalk and teeter and make sure there were no lasting issues from the day before. So I had both the dogwalk and the teeter in my opening sequence plan. Reese started up the dogwalk but bailed on the up plank. No worries, movin' on, we got to the teeter. She started up, came off. Okay so still having issues. So we didn't get our points in the opening sequence but we got the gamble which 1 out of 2 parts of the course wasn't bad. So no Q but got good information on the dogwalk and teeter. After the Jackpot runs had finished the judge said I could take Reese over the dogwalk with her on leash and see if she would go over it. At first she didn't want to and was hesitant. But I got her to go over once slowly and with some coaxing. Then we did it a few more times with more speed each time. We did the same thing with the teeter.

Next up, Standard. Would we get the dogwalk.....yes we did! It was slower than she can do, and I was babysitting more than I should need to but after what happened I wanted to be there to support her and she did it well. The only problem was that I was so happy she did the dogwalk and seemed to be over her issue with it that a few obstacles later I was looking for the teeter which is not includeded in Standard in this level. I found myself in the right place to send her over the conspicuously absent teeter but not in the correct position to send Reese to the correct jump. I misdirected Reese and she back jumped a jump and then took it and we finished the course. It was too bad about the jump which was all my fault. But the important thing to me was that she did the dogwalk! Spoke to a friend about our run and she suggested I check our score because we might have Q'd anyway. So I did and we got another Q. I couldn't believe it, I never would have guessed.

Then it was onto WildCard - another fun, fast course and Q. Finally, we had Jumpers. This was a great course too. I was a little off as Reese had gotten pretty jazzed at the start watching some other dogs. I was able to get her refocused but I was still distracted. I was a little too tense to keep the run as smooth as I would have liked but it was still a good run and a Q.

My goals for this trial were pretty simple. Keep myself calm and run. Reese was very focused. Ready to go for each run. She knew her job and did it perfectly, I did my job (with a few errors) but we really were a team. Reese was sleeping her crate in the afternoon the first day. The last trial she didn't sleep in her crate until the second day. The second day this weekend she was sleeping in her crate both in the morning and in the afternoon. She also slept, yes I said slept - the put your head all the way down sleep, in the car both to and from the trial.

After this weekend I can say without a doubt that trialing is so much more fun when you stop worrying about what-ifs and really believe in yourself and your dog. Then you can relax and just run and have fun with your dog which is what it is all about.

Reese after a successful weekend trialing!

A card Reese and I received from our biggest fans.

Raptor Release

2011-05-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went to the Spring Raptor Release. A local Raptor Center takes in injured raptors from all over the world, rehabs them and when they are ready, the birds are released back into the wild. They also have resident birds that work as ambassadors for the public to learn about them. It was a fun day.

Did you know that songbirds migrate at night and use the stars as guides? Raptors migrate during the day so it is safer for songbirds at night. The raptors hunt with their eyes so need the daylight to see their prey.

I am a bit behind on the 52 week stuff so will have to get back to that. Now that winter is finally gone, it will be fun to get some pictures outside.

Landscapes

2011-04-27T22:54:00.000-05:00

Last weekend I went to a Landscape photography workshop with some friends. Learned some new things about finding unique ways to make a photo stand-out. Not sure that any of mine do, actually I am quite sure that none of them do but it was fun. Revisted some things I have heard before like looking for lines, and layers. Odd numbered items was new. It is amazing how different a picture can look by changing your location. Just rotating around a group of trees can completely change the frame. Lots of laughs with friends which always makes for a great day.

You want to look for lines,

I thought this looked like a big animal hoof. Or something from the book Where the Wild Things Are.

I love reflections. So peaceful.

More moss or fungus or something but this was a bit more colorful.

This reminded me of the guy on Sesame Street that always painted the number 8 on a guys bald head. Don't know why, it's just what came to me when I saw it.

For some reason I liked this with the photographer in the middle of it.

Layers is another thing to look for.

Colorful grasses.

Of course being animal nuts we all jumped at the chance to take an animal footprint of some kind of bird.

Lines again.

This is about the point we had to make a hasty exit out of the woods to find a good old fashioned Biffy!

Fun(ny) Things!

2011-04-24T22:02:00.000-05:00

Finally warm and sunny whoo hoo! Our favorite thing in the morning - sitting outside enjoying our coffee and the sun. Always get a little playtime in too. Reese needs to work on her ball handling skills.

Wait for it!

The shoulder stretch!

Hmmm, I tawd I saw the Easter Bunny!

Got it!!

Miscalculation!

See Mom 2 are on and 2 are off!

Practicing our contacts. Race ya!

Almost there...

I love this pic. Just love the expression on her face!

Resting after a workout.

Chillin' Sweet Girl.

Introducing Charley!

2011-04-18T21:10:00.002-05:00

Charley is a new pup in the family. She is my parents new Standard Poodle girlie. She is a real sweetheart. Very easy going pup - so different than Reese was. It will be fun to see how she changes as she gets older. She is a very SMART cookie and will be keeping her owners on their toes.

She is a little over 9 weeks now, and busy learning all kinds of things.

Practicing Puppy Sits

Recalls.....

Learning to tug.....

She is a tugging monster already!

Practicing the dumbbell retrieve for Obedience

And loves tummy rubs!

Oh and Charley has her own blog. Check it out here http://www.charmingcharleyceo.blogspot.com/

News Smooze

2011-04-17T00:58:00.000-05:00

Well hello there. Bet you were wondering if I would ever post anything again but a quick picture, eh?

Actually that was part of the problem. Blogger said I was at my limit for pictures and so wouldn't let me post any. You know me I love to post pictures so... I wasn't into blogging much. It would let me post video although hosted at YouTube but that still seemed weird. I think I have it worked out now but still don't really know how I ran out of space so fast.

I thought the pics I was posting were too large as in too many mp but that wasn't it. I checked mine and other people's blogs that post many more pics than I do, so I don't exactly know what the problem was but as long as it is working now I will go with it. If anyone else has run into this please let me know.

The snow is finally gone. Yes got a dusting on the grass last night but that was gone mid morning. So Ms. Mother Nature can send Spring here anytime.....we are all waiting.....waiting.....waiting and we continue to wait. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer though...yeah a heat wave of 40 flipping degrees. It is the second half of April people.....It should be in the 60's, 50's at least.

Reese had her appointment at her behaviorist for her thunderstorm phobia. We made a few tweaks to her medications and will see how that helps her with the storms I am sure we will get, if it warms up....that is one good thing about it staying cold. But come on this pasty white skin has got to go!
Anyway, Reese's Dr. thought she was doing really well. I did order a thunder-shirt for her to try. Also, the Dr. thought Reese might be anxious in the car and not actually car-sick. So I will giving her some things to help with the longer car rides, short ones she is okay with. I am hoping the thunder-shirt might help her in the car too. It should arrive this week and I am anxious to have her try it.

Relaxation protocol is going well as are some of the other applications from the CU program we have been working on. Reese didn't care at all about two dogs on our walk today. One was clearly off leash and she saw it, but she didn't react or get excited about it running around at all. It was quite a distance off for most of the time, but we did get closer at one point. In the past even if we are far away if a dog is running off leash she will at least stare for a few seconds or go to the end of the leash not lunging but just wanting to get closer to the movement etc. She didn't tense her body up at all, she lifted her head a bit once or twice, as if to get a better look but her breathing, walking pace and everything else stayed the same. I recalled her a number of times and she came back to me. Yes - she was on leash so was not that far from me but she didn't give the other dog a second thought. Yea for Reese!! Such a good girl!

Reese is doing awesome in agility. She has been having some great lessons, we are really coming together as a team and it just feels so different than where we were even a few months ago. Such a great feeling, I can't really describe it but if you've been there with a working canine partner you know what I am talking about.

We have a trial in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to testing how things really are and to find out where our work needs to be concentrated next. I am working on some goals for this trial for us as I have a few different things in mind than our last trial.

Our lesson last week was outside, first one of the season. Reese rocked it! She was such a good girl, so focused on me and her job. I was so happy. Off leash outside, springtime smells all around. Oh - did I mention sheep. Lots of sheep in the pasture and hanging out by the barn. Big sheep, little sheep all around us baaa, baaa.

No problem, she was clearly listening to the baaaing going on and knew exactly where they were while I walked courses. But when it was time to work, Reese didn't even give them a glance. YEA!!!!

She has been so good on walks with the cars too. Maybe one or two cars that she is interested in when we are walking otherwise there is no acknowledgement that there is a vehicle approaching, passing, or driving away.....YES! She even started sitting when she did notice the cars, but she calmly watches them go by. We have worked so hard for this. I really hope our progress continues. To see this success after we have had such a long road dealing with this it is so worth it. To see our hard work and dedication pay off....it makes me really proud!

My addiction to the MI-5 series on Netflix continues I think I am in season 5 now....it will be a sad day when I get to the end. Luckily the series is still on so there will be new episodes on the way.

There is another new thing that has kept me busy the last week and half or so... but you will have to stay tuned in to find out what that is.....but I guarantee you will like it:))

Hint: It is fuzzy, cuddly and full of cuteness!

10/52 Weeks

2011-04-16T23:51:00.000-05:00

10/52 Sophie

10/52 Bella

10/52 Reese

When Gorillas Attack!

2011-03-20T16:00:00.000-05:00

This is a video of Reese with her new birthday present that I never got around to posting. So here it is. Watch her two front feet she does some funny moves with them.

Smores are Good!

2011-03-10T22:05:00.002-06:00

Reese and I had our agility lesson tonight and she did awesome! We haven't had a lesson on equipment in 5 or 6 weeks. Just one thing or another upsetting the schedule. We have been doing lots of work at home, but I wasn't sure how it would carry over to full equipment after this long of a break.

Turned out it agreed with my little Smore girl. Yes, that if one of the names that I thought of naming her, now it is nickname, one of many. She is the color of a Smore and I love smores. But I thought that name might get a little hard to yell, Smore teeter....lol.

I pulled her from a trial at the end of the month. I didn't think it was fair to expect her to compete after not having a lesson or practice on the equipment for this long. If it was summer we could do more but with the limits of the basement to practice, well, I have to be fair to my dog. However, after tonight I think we would have done all right. Oh, well, there will always be another trial - we'll just be even more prepared.

Really nice work from Reese tonight. Any off courses or issues were caused by me. But I think I did better tonight too, so the break must have turned out to have been a good thing for both of us.

I seem to have hit that time in my 40's where all I want to do is sit around and read a good book. Which is a good thing. I have forgotten how much I enjoy reading. Also, trying to get my writing project done. It's starting to take shape! Yea!

It's amazing what you can get done when you are not connected electronically to the world 24/7. All of a sudden I have all this extra time. Didn't realize just how obsessed I had become. Some nights I haven't even turned the PC on. So, yes maybe less posting but better quality of life for me... ha.

Reese and I started a new class too. It uses many of the concepts from the Controlled Unleashed program by Leslie McDevitt. It is really a bunch of games that we will be playing. More on that later. Right now we are doing lots of T Touch at home, and working through Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol. I am seeing changes in Reese already from just those two things. So excited for what is to come.

Here are a few pictures from my Eagle shoot last Saturday. Unfortunately, most of the eagles decided to fly high above the thermals so nothing close up.

Well, I guess not. I'm apparently using all my space allowed for photos. I'll have to do something about that and then I'll post the pics.

M. I. A.

2011-03-06T22:20:00.002-06:00

Yes, I am aware it has been a little while since a real post happened. Unfortunately, you will have to wait a little longer. Working on some old things, and some new things. Just been really busy and enjoying it for the most part.

In the meantime here are the latest 52 Weeks.

9/52 Reese

9/52 Sophie

9/52 Bella

8/52 Weeks

2011-02-27T14:40:00.001-06:00

8/52 Bella

8/52 Reese

8/52 Sophie

The Hike Before the Storm

2011-02-23T21:18:00.000-06:00

The forecast called for a storm to come through late Saturday that would last through late Sunday possibly into early Monday morning. But as of 11:00 am on Sunday we were not seeing any of the white stuff, except for a few very light flurries here and there. I decided a hike was in order. It was a little windy but the temps were decent so Reese and I headed out.

Shortly after we got home it started snowing. And snowed and snowed providing us with the 18th snowstorm of the year or something like that. Sorry lost count, oh, about last December sometime.

So while most of the snow at home was gone, at least it is now a pretty white again instead of the dirty white snow that is left after the melting starts.

52 Week Catch-Up!

2011-02-20T11:47:00.000-06:00

7/52 Weeks

7/52 Bella

7/52 Reese

7/52 Sophie

6/52 Weeks

6/52 Sophie

6/52 Reese

6/52 Bella

5/52 Weeks

5/52 Bella

5/52 Reese

5/52 Sophie

Look Back

2011-02-16T20:37:00.003-06:00

How many of you remember the book The Little Engine That Could!
"I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....."

That was my favorite book when I was little. I read it constantly, and if anyone was reading it to me and tried to skip a page I would catch them on it. "No!, No!, No! you aren't reading it right." And they would have to start over. From the beginning. The book is about a little blue train engine that is not very big, not very strong, but saves the day by not giving up when an engine is needed to pull a huge train over a mountain to bring toys to the kids on the other side. Yeah, kind of Rudolphy isn't it.
The moral of course being "never give up, and believe you can."

I guess in a way when I think about that book that is how I have been with my dog. We have had some struggles but I have not given up.  I have learned a ton from this dog. I have had too. And there is more to learn, because there is more work to do.  I have more goals for Reese and I, and "I think I can...." work hard and I will not give up until those goals become successes too.

Lets look back at some of the success Reese and I have had in the past year or so of training. In no particular order:

Recall - off leash for agility training. No fence with sheep very close by. And she knows where they live!

Zoomies - went the way of the living dead back from whence they came. When we are working she focuses on me. No more worries of Nascar zoomies around the ring. She might go visit a ring steward or catch a whiff of a tantalizing smell and try to follow it, but I call her and she is back with me!

Three successful fun runs. Two outside, no fence in a low population area, but still there were lots of dogs milling around - no issues.

First Trial - whoo hoo! I have trialed my dog. It was a success for us on so many levels. First, I am glad the first trial is done to get those first trial jitters out-of-the-way. Also, both Reese and I have a better idea of what to expect and how the whole routine of a trial will go. Reese stayed with me during the runs or came back when I called if she was off for a meet and greet with the ring steward.

BUT her biggest successes were out of the ring and for this I am so proud of her. Reese has separation anxiety which has been improving in leaps and bounds in the last few months. I can't wait to tell Dr. Duxbury, who is Reese's behaviorist, when we see her on Monday.

Day 1 of the trial Reese drooled and licked her crate if I was there. And it didn't matter if the crate was covered or not. But... NO barking, screaming or bouncing the crate around. Reese has a very high pitch bark, if you hear it you immediately know it is her. We are like wild animals, mother and baby separated in the dark of night. I hear her call - and immediately know it is her - very annoying! But by the same token if I hear another dog barking I know it is not her so all is good.

Day 2 of the trial Reese was quiet in her crate. No drooling, no whimpering, no barking and no screaming. She actually slept in her crate. Whether I was there or not, whether the crate was covered or not. She would lift her head to see who was there and then put it back down and close her eyes and sleep. Yea! I realize that Reese was probably very tired from the first day of trialing but this was super huge for her.

Reese ran in a Pairs run at the trial. Yep can you believe it! It was one of our best runs too!

Reese has now tugged in two new places with me.  She used to only tug with me at home or the two locations that we train at. Tugging is becoming more generalized for her which I am so happy about!

Reese tugged with me, and ran around with me on a course through tunnels with four, yep four other dogs, all around us tugging and playing with their handlers. HUGE, HUGE, HUGE for Reese to keep her focus on me and not get distracted or want to control the other dogs movements.

Reese can stay at relatives now and she does not pace, pant or whine while I am gone. She walks around a bit and lays down and waits for me to come back. She will go for walks and eat while I am gone too.

Reese has graduated from being in her crate at home when I am gone. Now she stays in one room, but is loose out of her crate while I am at work. She just sleeps on the bed - my bed of course! I am still crating her every now and then, both at night and for 1/2 days randomly so that she stays acclimated to being crated and so that she doesn't fixate on the routine being that she is out of the crate whenever I am gone. I still make the rules and if I say today you crate - you crate! But how nice to be able to leave her out. Her crate is in the room she stays in so if she chooses she could use her crate if she wanted.

Reese has gotten much better at ignoring cars on walks. She will even take treats when cars go by on walks now. Previously if she zoned in on a car there was nothing that could distract her, not steak, chicken, raw or cooked, toys, nothing. Tonight I took treats on our walk to work on recalls. A car was going by when I was giving her a treat, she looked at the car and immediately looked back at me for a treat. Hmmm! So I tried it out on the rest of the walk and there was only one time that we were too close to the car and she was too engaged in it to get out of her zone to focus on me or the treat.

So to all you doubters out there, "Behold the Power of a Zuke!"

It seems like Reese is getting more confidence which is giving me more confidence and since we are the Pro-athletes of feed off of each others anxieties, which I am trying to be much better at NOT doing, in this case it is working very nicely.

I guess after five years together we are finally figuring each other out.  Okay so Reese had me figured out on day 1, I'll give her that - smarty pants. But I have gotten wiser and the game has changed. I expect certain things from her and most importantly I have learned to trust what I train. I have learned that I have to test what I trained and give Reese the opportunity to show me if she can do it. What I am finding is that - Yes She Can!

Trumpeter Swans

2011-02-15T23:00:00.000-06:00

A few of the trumpeter swan pictures I took last weekend!

And a few Canadian Geese thrown in for good measure.

Key Points from Silvia

2011-02-12T22:53:00.000-06:00

The Foundations seminar from Silvia Trkman was great. She covered aspects of teaching all the obstacles and explained what she believes are the most important parts of covering an agility course.

Some key points:

Agility should be fun for both the handler but especially the dog. Agility is all about running, and most dogs love to run so teach the dog to run. Such an easy concept but one that is often forgotten. Most handlers are so antsy to get their dogs on the equipment and start teaching contacts and other obstacles, that they lose sight of what most of the course is - running.

Teaching obstacles is easy but the main focus for dogs from the time they are very little is that they should learn to run. A course is really just something the dog runs through and then there are a few obstacles they have to go over.

Reward your dog a lot. Silvia was a bit surprised how little we reward our dogs here. She said even if you forget the course you need to keep directing your dog to a few obstacles then reward and redo the course the right way. It isn't fair to the dog to just stop. The dog was following your directions and shouldn't suffer because the you, the handler, has memory lapse.

Talk to your dog. Use both body language AND verbals, why not you can. Isn't it only fair to give the dog all the information you can. If you can tell them and show them with your body - do it.

Silvia starts her dogs on jumps early, but makes it a very long process. So the dog is just reaching their full jump height when they are 18 months.

Start training sequencing without contact obstacles even if you don't have a start line yet. Start the dog from a send so they can work on running.

You can never have too much handler focus or obstacle focus. Reward what the dog is not good at, as usually they will be better with one or the other.

Reward coming to had a lot, especially while you are moving, running etc.
Turns are taught separately and are usually the first thing she starts working on.

She trains all her contact obstacles and weaves separately from everything else. She will only add them to sequences when they are solid and the dog can perform them independently. Then she will place them at the beginning or end of a sequence so that it is always easy to reward the dog.

For weaves she does not like using guide wires, gates, hoops etc. It makes it difficult to know if the dog is really understanding what you want. The dog can do it with the guides there, but take them away and they don't know what you want. So basically you still haven't taught anything.

You should always look for the dogs understanding so that you know you can go on.
2on/2off is taught with a trick, as is the teeter.

Never ask your dog to do something scary. You need to be able to be trusted. The dog needs to decide if it wants to do something. Never lure a dog into something they are afraid of.

If things go wrong no worries, just do it again but always remember to have fun!

One of the best quotes she had was,"Of course it helps if you run to the right obstacle." But she said not to worry about all the wrong obstacles, just run to the right one. There will always be many more wrong obstacles on the course you can't worry about avoiding all of those, just run to the right one.

It was a lot of fun to hear about her training methods and hear the critiques she had for those that had working spots. Lots of good handling and lots of improvement made during the day with her suggestions.

Happy Birthday Sweet Reese!

2011-02-06T21:00:00.001-06:00

Five years ago you came into my life and changed it forever.

You make me laugh!

You remind me not to take life too seriously!

Taught me to have fun with silly games!

That the best things in life are round and bounce!

But bones are a close second ...

You make sure we get our daily exercise even when I don't want to, and afterwards I am always glad we did.

That no matter how much I train you will always be ready to go farther than me. Another 4 miles anyone!

You will always keep an eye out for strangers and warn me of intruders...

But always have a back up plan. Keep the ball close by, in case there is not a lot of foot traffic about -

a game of fetch can be had.

Or a game of tug!

Sometimes you don't always listen as well as you should.

Like when I warn you to stay out of the catnip!

Hmmm! So that was the catnip...

Keep your friends close!

And always get your rest!

Silvia Seminar Recap....

2011-02-03T23:22:00.000-06:00

is coming. I need to put my notes together and then will get the highlights out. It was amazing I will say that. So glad I got to work with her on Wednesday. A bit nerve racking at times with how crazy amped Reese can get around other dogs. But with Silvia's help I got Reese working with me, while four other dogs were tugging and playing all around us.....very cool. I wish I had it on video as I can hardly believe it happened, but I know that it did. Whoo hoo!

I also talked to Silvia a bit afterwards and she gave me some ideas of things to try to help Reese with that even more. But got to get to bed now. More this weekend.

4/52 Weeks

2011-02-03T22:43:00.000-06:00

4/52 Sophie

4/52 Reese

4/52 Bella

Processing the Information....

2011-02-01T12:28:00.053-06:00

I am trying to process all the information I have heard, saw and learned at the Silvia Trkman seminars thus far. I have attended three sessions so far with three more to go. Yes, it is a bit overwhelming. Very refreshing as something has always drawn me to Silvia's techniques ever since I found her online a number of years ago.

Her dogs are all so happy, and confident. Her methods are very straight forward and I really like that. Not a lot of rules and if something is done wrong, so what, just move on. It is not the end of the world, agility is just a game we play with our dogs after all.

I am processing everything into different sections and then will hit the high points, but it may take a few days to get it all organized.

I really like Silvia's principals or her 10 Golden Rules as she puts it on her website and I try to follow them as much as I can. The need to walk your dog is nothing new. But walking your dog to increase the bond between the two of you is not often thought of. More that you walk your dog to give it exercise, which is true, but there is a bond that develops also. I walk my dog at least twice a day even if I don't get home until 9:00, we head out. Of course in MN in the middle of January sometimes the weather prevents it. And I will admit our walks are usually much shorter in the winter when our goal is at least a mile twice a day, longer if the weather permits. In the Spring, Summer and Fall we get in longer walks and try to get in about a hour twice a day.

But alas Reese is usually on leash for those walks or runs. Yes, I might run but Reese is trotting or she is on a long line and can run back and forth etc. I want to be able to find a place where she can run, really run! That is a huge problem for us and for agility. Reese loves to run and agility is about running with a few obstacles thrown in the middle. I need to use running to motivate Reese on the agility field and if I can do that we will have it.

Zoomies on course are not an evil thing that need to be stopped and suppressed immediately, they can be used to our advantage so we will use them. Granted this is not such an issue anymore except for at new places, so we will see what happens tomorrow.

The thing that really struck me was when Silvia said, she can tell right away when she sees a dog who gets to run and one that doesn't. The dogs structure is different and the whole way they move is different.

I can see this with Reese as she bounces more up and down when she runs, instead of using smooth movements at least on courses. It is also one reason that I have trouble getting extension from her in her jumping. Granted I think I raised the jumps too fast for her, but I need to work stretching for her hips with her legs out behind her more, something a dog that runs free and fast is going to have more naturally.

And of course tricks is where it is at. Many people still scoff at the idea that it is all about tricks but that is what it is. Agility obstacles are just teaching the dog a behavior. Nothing hard about teaching the obstacles, it is the handling that makes agility hard. So why not teach the obstacles in a fun way through tricks. Makes sense to me.

Reese knows a lot of tricks and I have had a blast teaching them. Tricks also help to prevent injuries, another reason I teach them to Reese. Since she doesn't get to full out run a lot to develop those muscles we do the funny tricks like lifting her back legs up independently. Yes, she will throw this behavior onto the agility field too. Like coming down off the teeter or the dog walk if she is slightly to the edge at the down contact, she will still hold it with one back paw on and the other back paw much higher in the air. But it is a solid hold on the contact, not a paw flailing around in the air where she might pull a muscle.

By teaching these tricks you are able to strength train the dogs muscles that often don't get used as much if at all. Many people have heard if you have a backache do crunches. If you improve the strength of your stomach muscles your back muscles will improve too and they won't have to work as hard.

More strength = less chance of injury
More flexibility = less change of injury
More strange positions and movements the dog is used to = less chance of injury when stepping wrong.
An injury free dog makes me a happy handler!

Between spending more time walking with Reese and the time we have spent learning tricks we have developed a much tighter bond and working relationship. Sorry folks it hasn't been the time in a crate that she has spent away from me that made her want to work with me or be more focused on me. It has been the fun we have had while doing things together that improved our relationship.

That being said the time Reese has spent in her crate has had its own value. So I won't discount that it hasn't helped her separation anxiety or helped her learn to comfort and rely on herself to cope when she is alone.

It is so nice to see someone like Silvia who truely wants the focus to be on fun not rules, and someone who is not as strict about criteria and still manages to get the end result she wants.

Silvia Trkman Seminars 2011

2011-01-28T18:49:00.000-06:00

Silvia Trkman is in town for a seminar from Saturday through Wednesday:))

I can't wait. I am so excited, I hope I will be able to sleep tonight. I have followed Silvia for a number of years. I found her on the Internet shortly after she had been to the U.S. for some seminars and I was really bummed that I had just missed her.

Last year, well in 2009, I was going to travel to Ohio to see her. The weather did not concur and I had to postpone. So....as soon as I heard she was coming to Minnesota I was ecstatic. What luck, sometimes it is better to wait. I don't wait well, I am very impatient but this time it worked out well.

I am auditing most of the classes. Tomorrow day is A Foundation for Excellence, with the first part of the Tricks class tomorrow night. Sunday night is Starting Your New Puppy or Dog, with the second half of the Tricks class on Tuesday night. Wednesday Reese and I have a working spot all day. The first class Turns or Cik/Cap and then in the afternoon Motivation and Play.

I am so excited, did I mention that!

I have my notebook all ready as I am planning to take lots and lots of notes. Get some great information and bring it home to work on. I am going to be a sponge and soak it all up. This is such an incredible opportunity I couldn't pass up the chance to attend as many sessions as I could.

What a Long Cold Winter It Has Been....

2011-01-25T21:54:00.001-06:00

What a long cold winter it has been, and it is still January...

We did have a heatwave the other day it actually warmed up to 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Whoo hoo! Then, as always it got cold again. Last weekend it was -47 degrees where some friends live about an hour north of me. No that is not WITH the windchill, that is straight air temperature, -47 degrees. Add the wind chill and you are not stepping outside for more than 15 seconds or your nose hairs will freeze and fall off.

This week it has been a bit warmer, actually got to 20 degrees one day and is scheduled to be warmer tomorrow. But then....

yep, the cold is coming back. Why, oh why do I live here?

Oh, that's right because I'm a tough Minnesotan! You don't know cold and snow until you have lived in Minnesota during January. Yeah, right! My advice - head to Florida or Arizona.

I have friends that moved here from another country. When they told people they were going to live in Minnesota. They were warned. "Don't go to Minnesota. It gets so cold there your head will freeze and fall off." Yeah it's a good idea to wear a hat and the smart ones throw fashion to the wind when the temps start to dip. But we are all walking around with our heads intact not to worry.

I know of someone from Minnesota who was traveling in Europe. Met some girls and wanted to impress them. So....he explained to the ladies that in Minnesota it gets so cold that we (Minnesotans) have an extra layer of skin to keep us warm. Also, if we cut ourselves we don't bleed right way!

Is there any wonder why people think we are crazy for living here!

There was the summer I spent in Southern California during high school. When they found out I was from Minnesota numerous kids I met asked, "Cool, so you live in an igloo?" "Ummm, no I don't. That would be a little farther north. Thanks for asking."

We did have our agility lesson last week, but got to train at a heated indoor facility. That was super fun! Then this happened.

Living Room before agility lesson.

Living room after agility lesson.

Hmmm, how did that happen.

3/52 Weeks

2011-01-23T00:38:00.000-06:00

Reese 3/52 weeks

Bella 3/52 weeks

Sophie 3/52 weeks

2/52 Weeks

2011-01-15T22:11:00.002-06:00

2/52 Sophie

2/52 Reese

2/52 Bella

Pairs Run!

2011-01-14T20:03:00.002-06:00

Something I didn't think I'd ever see - let alone at our first trial! Here is Reese and River's Pairs Runs.

Back from the Trial

2011-01-09T22:22:00.011-06:00

Reese and I attended our first trial this weekend. We were entered in 6 runs, two Standards, Snooker, Gamblers, Jumpers and Pairs. Each run got better. While we didn't Q I found lots to work on in training which is good. That's what trials are for in my book, to test your training. Things can look really good in practice but it's not until the real deal that you find out where your weaknesses are. Reese is pretty wiped out. We got a toy for entering. We chose a turtle (pink of course), because we are slow! But not for long - that is going to change.

Outside the ring however, Reese made progress in leaps and bounds. No screaming in the crate, no barking in her crate. Some stress drooling Saturday and a very small amount on Sunday, she even slept in it whether I was sitting there or not. (She usually fusses to get out if I am there). Yes she was probably tired by then, but still she slept and was relaxed! As a dog with separation anxiety issues this was huge for her, this was the second huge stride she made on this in the past week. Also as the trial progressed she really started to understand the routine of a trial situation.

She did great with her Pairs run, video coming soon on that. She also did good focusing on me when she got to the start line, even when she was pretty amped up going into the ring. Jumpers run had some technical difficulty so I'm not going to blind you with it but here are a few of the runs. Now the work begins....

52 Weeks Project

2011-01-07T19:02:00.014-06:00

Week One of the 52 Week challenge.

Bella 1/52

Sophie 1/52

Reese 1/52

(color is a bit different here but for some reason I liked this shot)

Cold Weather Gear for Canines

2011-01-02T22:55:00.006-06:00

When it is cold and by cold I mean a balmy high 0-10 degree F, dog owners have to get a little creative with ideas to work their canine minds and provide some physical exercise. Yes, even us northerners want to stay sane.

Learning new tricks and visits to Pet stores for a place to take a walk where you don't have to see your breath are a few of the old standbys. But after days confined to the house with their human who keeps mumbling obscenities under their breath about the weather, and saying, "another trick - lets teach you to play the trombone this time, yeah that one might keep us busy until Spring...."

When you are at day 5 or 6 of the frigid temps and the thermometer gives no indication of retreating from its current plummet you just have to put your layers on top of your layers which are on top of your clothes and so on....

And you are not the only one who needs to dress for the occasion. Even dogs will don their gear for a real walk...

First off dogs can and do get frost bite, so watch that the temps aren't too low. But if you are going to venture out here is the gear we use to keep Reese comfortable and happy and ready for what winter throws at us which where we live can be anything and everything.

Our year round staple in the gear department, but particularly in the Winter is what Reese?

Why its my Musher's Secret of course!

I love my Musher's Secret. We got a 1 pounder this year, so we are set....

I bow to thee, o' Musher's Secret

It keeps my paws warm and safe so we can run and walk everyday.

Just try to take my Musher's Secret away! I dare ya!

Seriously, this is good stuff. We obviously use it in the winter but it can be used all year round, for hikes on rough terrain or paws that have been chewed up by rough pasture land. It can also be used for ear bites etc. It won't stain your rugs and keeps paws protected from ice and prevents ice balls in between toes.

Then there are the dog booties. They aren't just for sled dogs.

I made the blue ones and they are our preference. The pink ones are a little higher and that is a nice feature. However the pink ones didn't hold up as long as the ones we made, the bottoms wore through too fast.

We do have to use one pink one as one of our blue ones got lost in a snow bank. These are made for walking or running on packed snow or a snow covered roads or sidewalks. It does protect their paws from the windchill and from ice and does keep the snowballs from forming in a bit deeper snow. Snowbanks tend to eat them so be forewarned. When our booty production line opens again after the holidays we will be making some taller ones similar in height to the pink ones.

Then there is the coat. I don't normally dress my dog except for a coat or sweater when the cold temps hit. This coat is from Clean Run (http://www.cleanrun.com/) It is a great coat that protects from the cold, the wind and the wet.

Here is the whole package together. Reese thinks this modeling business is so boring!

Seriously. The heat was cranked to 70 for the felines baths, now your dress me up for photos!

Some dogs will fuss and act like they cannot possibly walk in booties. But get them out the door and they forget they are on.

Are we done yet?

Here is a short video of Reese using her winter gear.

Happy 2011

2011-01-01T22:36:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! 2011 promises to be a great year with lots of new things happening and the achievement of goals that I have been working towards. I changed the blog up a bit, something I have been planning for awhile now. I have an idea of what I want in my head, so it may be changing a bit here or there until I get it right.

Goals with Reese are to successfully trial this year and pick up a few titles. We have our first agility trial next weekend - it should be a great time! I have more trials planned throughout the year.

My photography skills will continue to be tested this year with some new projects I am doing. I started a new photo blog a number of months ago and I am revamping it a bit and then it will be linked to my Photo Blog page. I am doing a 52 Weeks of Cats through a group on Flickr. Some weeks have topic challenges but mostly it is up to you to find a photograph from that week to submit. I am doing this with Reese too, but on my own, no group, just going to see what I can challenge myself to do. I figure it will be a good way to look back at the end of the year and see how much I have improved. You can see these on my Flickr site or the Photo Blog link on the new page.

Goals for me include to find time to relax, read more, and run more!

Vampire Cat Defends Her Food!

2010-12-31T19:00:00.002-06:00

Mom, hey Mom, I'm going to go see Bella K.

Enter at your own risk chops!

Watch it sheep dog I'm thirsty

Aahhh, sleepy too!

Okay so that didn't work, she's coming closer...

really, really close

Hey, Bella, you wanta eat? Huh, huh, what do you say we break into this here bucket.

A little kissy kissy from the kitty first.

I can't believe you even ask for that Reese!

I don't like dogs...

I don't get it, why doesn't she like me? I'm not pushy or anything!

(as a disclaimer, Bella the cat was yawning when her mighty mouth was open wide. She yawned at least three times in a row, so I was able to get multiple pictures.)

Ice, Ice, Baby

2010-12-31T17:20:00.000-06:00

Finally had a day off of work. I was so excited, had so many things planned. Was going to start the day with a run......yeah right!

Woke up to this...

At least the rain made the snow melt so I can see my light bulbs now. Previously they were covered in snow making it glow different colors.

It rained yesterday - well poured actually. Definitely needed an umbrella. Then then temps dropped and we ended up in Ice World! I kinda knew it was coming but darnit I really wanted to run today.

Not good for border collies and really not good for their owners. We did some basement agility this morning. As Reese's turns have gotten tighter I have noticed she is slipping quite a bit on the carpet down there.

So...since the carpet needs replacing anyway, I am looking at putting matting down. I ordered a sample of the Great Mats matting so I will see if I like it. One of the joys of being a single homeowner I guess. Don't have to get permission from the husband. Just answer weird questions from strangers.

"Do you have a carpeted basement?"

"No, I have matting."

"Oh, so your kids can play."

"Nope, no kids."

"Hmmm...." and here comes the quizzical looks. Love to walk away at that point and leave them wondering....

Now it is sleeting on top of the ice - Great, gotta love MN. Glad its New Years - fully stocked on beverages:))

Fun Run - On the Run Canine Center

2010-12-26T18:52:00.000-06:00

Reese and I went to a fun run today at a new facility where we will be trialing this year. I wanted to see how she would do, handle the stess, and deal with different contacts. There were two teeters and they were different, some dogs didn't like one or the other so I was happy to see that Reese had no problems with either one.

My handling could use some work, well okay, a lot of work. But my goal for today was to see if Reese would take my direction and stay with me on the course. She did both. Well she took direction when I gave it to her clearly. After we got through the set course we improvised and I tended to slow down trying to figure out where I wanted to go next. She has been getting faster at our lessons and I think she will get faster at new locations too, once we start visiting more of them.

Here is a video with some of our runs from today.

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-25T22:15:00.000-06:00

We're In!

2010-12-21T22:28:00.001-06:00

Tonight I received the confirmation that Reese and I got into our first agility trial!! It is only a few short weeks away too.

I am so excited but a little nervous too. How will she handle it, and the bigger question, how will I handle it? We have done the work and prepared, and now we must trust that we are ready, and go out there and have fun.

Just not sure how Reese will react to all the stimuli outside the ring, but she was fine at a trial we went to this summer and walked around very nicely, and didn't get all excited or barky. We have done some fun runs and she did fine at those. This trial is inside so may be a little more noisy but noise doesn't seem to bother her so much in this situation. I do have a CD of noises you would hear at a trial. So we will be listening to that in the house and the car during the next few weeks.

When I leave her at the start line she knows she needs to watch me and be ready to rock and roll! We have been practicing the games at our lessons and I am starting to get them, so hopefully by the trial I will have them fairly straight in my head. My main concern is remembering the courses but I know what I will be walking them longer than I do at our lesson and I think that will help. Also, our runs should be far enough in between that I will be able to get the previous one out of my head before the next one needs to take its place.

Reese and I have been running and while I really need to do some sprint work that is pretty impossible where I am, in the frozen tundra with mountains of snow everywhere. But the running is good getting my body stronger and helping to clear my mind of junk that doesn't belong there. I am doing some strength training, working on my core. Reese is also working on her core and getting stretched after runs. We are spending lots of time playing and learning tricks and having fun with each other.

When the trial date comes it will just be another day for us to go out and have some fun. I'm not hoping for any speedy times nor do I really care how many Q's we get at this trial. I just want to have fun with my dog, stay connected, and try to remember the course as best I can so I can direct my dog as best I can in a confident manner.

I know we are ready. I am just amazed and can't believe we are finally ready to hear that electronic voice say "GGOOO" :))

What Could you Buy with $10.00 ???

2010-12-20T21:20:00.001-06:00

A pizza and a soda at the grocery store....

An order of Chinese take away...

A movie ticket and a very small kids popcorn...

OR

A dog tag so you could get your Dog Back!

Yes, that's right for about the cost of the food listed above which you will probably eat and immediatly regret having done so, you can get your dog an ID tag.
That way when your dog, that never wanders off, decides today is the day they are going to explore the neighborhood the person who finds them standing in the middle of traffic can return them to you that much quicker.

$7.50 at Petsmart if you want a cheaper hanging tag or $10.20 at Boomerrang Tags for tags that will not fall off or breakaway from the collar for those dogs that are rough on tags.

Last week going back to work after lunch I found a dog standing in the middle of a busy intersection. Oh, hell no, I thought I can't leave this dog here. I called the dog and it came over, a nice, friendly dog. It had a collar but NO tags - lovely!

So I put the dog in the crate in my car and off to the local humane society we went to see if she (the dog, had a pink collar so I was pretty sure it was a she) was microchipped. No such luck. However, the owner had called the humane society as soon as she noticed her dog was missing and reported it. The description matched the dog in my car fairly well and it was about 6 blocks from where I found her.
I took the dog back to the owner, who had been beside herself all morning, imagining all the horrible things that could have happened to her dog. It was pretty clear the dog knew she was home after we got there and I was glad they were reunited.

I was glad I could help, but if the dog had been wearing a tag it would have been so much easier!

Please people put tags on your dog. A tag really is probably the cheapest part of owning a dog. It might seem like something you can easily skip and figure you will get the next time you are at the store. But what happens if you don't get a next time...???

Be smart, ID your dog either with a tag or microchip, preferably both.

Here is the dog in my car.

A happy dog reunited with her owner - priceless!

What to Do with a Border Collie during a Blizzard?

2010-12-12T23:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we got the snow. Last evening the blowing started resulting in lots of drifting. Today the bitter cold set it.

We got out for a walk yesterday morning, but didn't get one in last night and there would be no walks today. It was a quick trip out-and-in for all the business duties, as the windchill called all the shots today.

So it was agility in the basement this morning. Then this afternoon I got this.

Dreaming of warmer days!

One can only keep looking at it for so long....

Soooo bored!

"I think I'll move to Florida!"

Ho hum...

Nothing to do but nap.

Sophie and Bella came out to play too.

Reese and I did some trick work today. I got one of our new ones on video, I think it's pretty cute.

A Storm's a Brewin"

2010-12-10T22:51:00.001-06:00

So we did what any self respecting agility enthusiast in Minnesota does when the snow flies and the cold sets in. We set up our agility equipment....in the basement.

And tested it out for tomorrow...

Final Preparations!

2010-12-08T23:35:00.000-06:00

It is getting more real everyday. This game I play with my dog. My game that is work for her, but work she enjoys. I am talking agility of course. We have now registered for two agility venues - CPE and USDAA. We are starting to enter trials, sending in the entries and fees - it is giving me chills to think we are almost there after having this dream for so long.

This has been a long road for us, well not so long after we found a good instructor who understood what we needed and taught us (okay mostly me) how to handle certain issues we were having. In a little under a year we have prepared and are ready to trial.

So...now that the time has come there are those other things that come with any sport. Things like the mental preparation that goes along with the game. My goals for our first few trials are not lofty, not by a long shot. But they are doable and I would rather have a couple of goals that we can achieve and if there is another one that we take home too, all the better. I have been starting to read some Jim Loehr again. He is a tennis mental toughness guru that I used when I played competitive tennis.

I'll get more into that in another post as the time gets closer. One of the most important things is to do everything you can to prepare for the match, or the trial that is in your control. The mental toughness then comes in, at the event when things may go wrong or not as you had planned - how are you going to handle them, how will you react and how will your reaction effect you and the end result.

To do's for us right now the things we can control:

Stay fit and get in as good of shape as we can. For agility it isn't just being fit to be fast it is imperative that Reese be fit and strong so she lessens her chance of getting injured. We will keep doing ball work, running when we can and taking long walks for overall fitness. One jump work and other tricks to build Reese's back end so she will be all set for pushing off for those 26" jumps.
Keep working on turns, keeping them tight, and the communication between Reese and I on the flat.

We will of course be doing all of these things by playing and making it a big game and having fun. The most important thing is that it is fun for Reese and I.

Moving Sheep Cross-Country

2010-12-08T16:35:00.002-06:00

Last weekend I witnessed something I may not ever see again. This kind of thing is probably common place in Ireland, England or Scotland. But here in the States it is a rare sight. My friend Loretta was asked to use her border collies and help with some real farm work.

Driving....
               sheep.....
                             cross-country.....
                                                     7 miles.

It was very fun to watch. There were about 110-120 head that were moved from one farm where they pasture in the summer to the farm where they will spend the winter months. There were four dogs that were used, plus four ATV's and then a vehicle followed to pick up tired dogs and switch them out with fresh ones. So across county roads and down a railroad track they went...

Getting ready to leave the first farm. View from the vehicle.

On our way!

Crossing the first busy road.

Loretta working Zip

How about taking the sheep for a walk through the woods? Okay.

Zip keeping the sheep from spreading out on a cross street while heading down the railroad.

Zip says, "Get along there Ladies, get along."

Gator my co-pilot during the drive.

Loretta used two of her dogs, Klink and Zip. And Kathy used two of her dogs. Gator came along but didn't get to work with the sheep. He was however, my right hand man, er...dog with my driving the car and keeping me safe from strange men along the way.....and heck he is so photogenic for pictures. Love pictures of Gator.

Herding Clinics Are So Inspiring!

2010-11-22T21:38:00.001-06:00

Reese and I are back from our 3rd herding clinic in 4 months. They are fun and a great opportunity to learn and always full of an incredible amount of information. My brain is always on information overload from the first day on...but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Reese is continuing to make great progress. She is flanking better and continuing to give the sheep space and not diving in on them even if they are standing at the fence, she will just take them off and continue working. At this point we have started working on her finding balance and getting more comfortable there. That is her most uncomfortable place and makes her nervous. She can only handle it for very short spurts before she has to be flanked out.

She made some great progress with balance and held it for the longest time yet the first day she worked. She got to work 7 times. I am so glad I had the opportunity to have her work that many times. She makes leaps and bounds of progress with Kathy and I will take every chance I can get to have her work with Reese and I. It is going to be a slow process to get Reese comfortable at balance but hopefully once we do that she will be over a large hump of what is holding us back. For now this is where she is at and what we will work on until she is comfortable there.

I started working Reese again at this clinic and it was so fun to be back working with her. I haven't worked her since July before we went to our first clinic and the re-training began. Kathy stepped in when needed of course. My friend Loretta worked her 3 times as she understands a bit more what Kathy is looking for in the small changes we need to see in Reese to keep progressing. I worked her 4 times and I am learning to relax more, not raise my voice as that puts Reese over the top, and that if I slow down and get out of the sheep everything else will slow down and Reese relaxes even more.

Those that hadn't seen Reese since the first clinic were pretty amazed at how far she has come, and how well she is doing. Between watching her work and listening to people gasp "oh my!" but in a good way, (thanks Jeannie) at the sight of what she was now able to do, brought me to a bit of an emotional - but happy meltdown. Yes, I cried, happy tears of course. The progress Reese has made might seem small to some people but to those who saw what a mess she was just a few short months ago know how much change has taken place.

It just makes me so happy to see my dog actually working and really thinking when she is on stock now. She is trying so hard and that is all I can ask. As Kathy always says it is about the smallest change and the slightest try. It really applies to a dog like Reese and what we are looking for.

She didn't totally flip out when I went in the round pen to work her either. It felt like it got better each time I worked her. On one of the first runs it felt like she was starting to revert back to one of her old habits of circling and not thinking and then I started to get nervous and tense which of course just made Reese more amped. So Kathy stepped in and helped get things back in line that run. By our last run of the weekend I had much more confidence working her.
I also got the chance to take some photos. Here are a few of them, and you can see the rest at my Flickr Photostream on the right. I only got a couple of Reese and they are a bit blurry as she still moves pretty fast in the round pen and of course you can't take pictures when you are working your own dog.

What a difference a Week Makes!

2010-11-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

It was just a week ago that we went to our herding lesson and the weather was a balmy, I don't know what but it looked like this....

Today when we got to our lesson it looked like this...

Tonight's menu included: Squash soup - which was awesome, first time making it and boy was it the charm! Garlic roasted potatoes, pork loin with teriyaki and ginger sesame marinade and a french banquette. Oh, and homemade chocolate chip cookies for dessert. I am so stuffed! Lots of leftovers.

Addendum to Happy Retirement!

2010-11-10T22:39:00.000-06:00

To Agility and Beyond....

2010-11-07T20:52:00.003-06:00

Okay, it just seemed like catchy title to this post.

It's been a busy weekend for Reese. Yesterday it was a Skijoring lesson where we started to learn things like "line out", "pull", and directions. It was fun to see Reese with the other dogs and completely being a good girl keeping herself together while we watched some other dogs act up with over excitement and stimulation. Yes, I remember those days - but I am so glad we are past them.

Reese did great with a number of other dogs around in a strange environment and lots of weirdness going on. First there was the harness, then the rubber mats and tires that dogs were pulling around. Lots of new dogs from huskies, which for some reason she has never cared for, a lab, a golden, a couple Aussie mixes, a border collie mix, some standard poodles, GSD, and to round it all out a mastiff.

Today we had our agility lesson. We ran the Grand Prix quarterfinals course from USDAA. It was fun, fun, fun. We are getting faster and really working as a team. Reese is really starting to understand my body language and I am figuring out slowly but surely the little changes that I can make that will help her understand what I am asking for.

Then....it was on to herding. Once again Reese did a great job. She is really trying hard and working really well, staying off the sheep at a good distance and giving them space on her flanks. Not running tight up into their backsides and not diving in to bust them up. Here is a short video of her working today with my trainer. She separates one at one point but then gets them back together again and keeps on working.

Reese is a Rock Star - Part 2!

2010-11-03T19:00:00.001-05:00

Being that our next herding clinic is only a few short weeks away I wanted to spend a little time working on Reese's manners around sheep. For those that know Reese you know that she is a gung ho girl. She doesn't do anything half a$$ if she is going to do it she will give it her all. Insert "impulse control work" here. Reese has learned so much impulse control with agility and other dogs running etc. in the last year. The 180 degree shift in how she is now compared to where she was is quite amazing.

But she is still very gung ho to work sheep and while she should be, she still needs to have self control. Because she sometimes forgets her sheep manners the plan was to walk Reese through the pasture on leash and work on her walking nicely in the presence of sheep and calling her off from where she was back to me while on leash etc.

Well the next thing I hear is my trainer tell Reese, "If you want to work sheep you have to listen to me..."
Um, huh?? I thought we were just going to take a walk in the pasture.

To my surprise our trainer decided to give it a go and see how Reese would do working.

She was giving it her all and really trying. Such a good girl. We moved some of the sheep to the round pen to really let her work and work she did. She was amazing! She remembered all that she learned from the clinics we attended this summer. It has been awhile since she has worked stock so I wasn't sure how many steps back we would need to take, but she is back where we left off.

She did just wonderful. She was thinking...and listening... and understanding what was being asked of her. She called off the sheep, she downed when asked. I was so proud of her. She is such a good girlie. She tries so hard and that hard work is paying off. She is really getting it and understanding what working is.

The new Reese....chasing = balls, working = sheep!

Reese is a Rock Star - Part 1 !

2010-11-02T20:55:00.000-05:00

Reese is my little Rock Star! We had an awesome weekend, after a crazy week so that makes it even that much better. Nothing big last week, I was just very busy and didn't get to spend the time I wanted with my girlie walking, hiking and playing like we usually do.

But that makes Saturday's happenings that much more sweet.

We had our agility lesson on Saturday, due to the daylight slip-sliding away so fast these days. Reese did a great job. She listened, she was attentive to me, did not even look at the cars going by once. (You would have thought it was Sunday, all the drivers out for a cruise - I quickly lost count of all the vehicles.)

We have been working on our cik/cap turns and jumps from a standstill to build her rear highness, I mean end! She has been doing well and the cik and cap are coming along. Still working on just a low cross bar though so didn't know how much her turns would improve on a course.

We ran the Grand Prix finals course from USDAA. It was a very fun course, I am definitely getting better at remembering them and figuring out how to run them.......sometimes I have a slight delay in finding the numero uno obstacle, but after that I'm good:))

Reese ran great, and I was able to use cik and cap and I could see it made a difference. We found some things we need to work on like entering tunnels when I'm at the tunnel instead of running to it, and Reese is not completely comfortable with rear crosses so we are working on those too. But I didn't collapse out-of-breath at the end of the run this time...so that's an improvement.

The running we are doing must be helping!

Reese had a little photo shoot before our lesson so when I get those pictures I will post them. I think they are going to be amazing photos. It will be fun to see her in, on, over the obstacles.

You'll have to tune in tomorrow for part 2.

Bokeh

2010-10-31T15:59:00.000-05:00

I got Bokeh....while it may not be the best Bokeh in town, I was very pleased with what I got at my first real attempt at Bokeh.

Some other interesting photos...

Happy Retirement!

2010-10-27T00:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Retirement Dad! I love you!

Halloween sendables - courtesy of JibJab!

2010-10-24T23:20:00.002-05:00

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Directionally Challenged

2010-10-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

"Reese you have an arrow on your head".

I had my brother take some photos of Reese and I using the Stunt Puppy hands free leash. His first comment though was about Reese.

"That's so you know what direction to go, huh?"

Very funny, Uncle Mike,

Here we come....

Lookin' good!

There we go...

See ya.....!

I love this leash. Everyday I ask Reese, are you ready....do you wanna "Stunt Puppy"??? And she gets all excited because she knows what it means. She rarely pulls on it at all anymore and runs next to me or slightly ahead but with plenty of slack in the line.

Only one drawback....everytime I put my windpants on she thinks its going to be time for a run with the Stunt Puppy!

Kitty Cats!

2010-10-19T22:26:00.000-05:00

Bella and Sophie always seem to get short shifted on the blog, so I thought I would share some photos I took of them recently. Notice Bella the bigger cat always takes the smaller bed (bought for Sophie) and Sophie the smaller cat always ends up in the big cat bed (which was bought for Belle), go figure!

Wanna Smile?

2010-10-19T21:47:00.000-05:00

Tired of campaign Ads? Check this Ad out, it is sure to put a smile on your face.

A Weekend Without Work

2010-10-18T23:02:00.000-05:00

Isn't that what weekends are supposed to be. Time for fun and relaxation. Not always if you have a house to take care of. There is so much to do before winter sets in. But....sometimes you just have to take a break and figure it will get done.

So that is sort of what we did this weekend. Didn't really plan it that way. Had planned on getting up early on Saturday to do yard work including getting the leaves up and mowing. Clean out the garage, put the garden to bed and take the fence down. Will be interesting to see how long it takes the rabbits to mow the garden remnants down. But....it didn't happen.

Instead I slept in, ran with Reese with the Stunt Puppy, our hands free leash which works great. Played in the yard. Went shopping, made chilli which I have never made before. I know I should have known it would be easy but it tastes complicated so I just never tried it. It was delicious.

Then we watched some agility. My friends and trainer were running dogs in the Cynosports USDAA Nationals. After technical difficulty I finally got the live feed to work.

Even Reese watched for awhile!

Notice her ears. Seems to be a bit worried watching some of the runs. Can you say "fault traps".

"Oh I can't watch. I think they are going to miss that weave entry."

Then a nice dinner at my parents, with my brother and his girlfriend.

Some random shots of Reese

No one will play ball with me:((

Mom, will you put the black box away and play ball with me?

Should I take the black box away? Is that what you want?

Nap time!

Flanks for Stockwork

2010-10-16T12:34:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am getting excited to go to our herding clinic in November. It is only about a month away and I know the time is going to go very fast.

I really liked this post about Flanks and "natural" vs "mechanical" flanks. I think there were a lot of good points in this post. Check it out if you like...

http://abcollie.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/flanking-again/

Also, we got a sub 10 minute mile in this morning with the Stunt Puppy! Fun to be out there moving again. I hope to get some pictures that I can post with us using it later today. And just to confuse the poor girl we may get to a dry land skijoring practice tomorrow where, yes if in a harness she will be told to pull. Don't know if they will have harnesses there to try on or not...so will have to see when I get more info on it. I'm not worried I have a very smart girl and she will figure it out, in collar run next to person, in harness pull!

Exciting Happenings Coming Our Way!

2010-10-07T20:34:00.002-05:00

The days are getting shorter and darker, but we have been having a lovely Indian summer this Fall. It was in the 70's all week and we have a possibility of hitting 80 this weekend:))

But while I like the cooler weather, note I did not say cold, Reese and I have a number of things to look forward to in the coming months.

First, tomorrow morning our first trial entry is going in the mail for our first trial over Halloween weekend - so excited. We are entering just one day for this CPE trial as I have a photog class on Saturday. But on Sunday we are planning to run the 4 classes that are offered that day - Jumpers, Standard, Colors and Jackpot. So gotta do a quick study of Colors and Jackpot. I figured this will be a good introduction for Reese to a trial and I can get an idea of how she will react to running at a different location than where we train and to the commotion that comes with a trial situation. One day will probably be enough for my nerves our first time out too.

There are two other trials I am hoping to enter before the year is out so will see how the first one goes....

In November Reese and I will be traveling across country with our friends Loretta and Donna and dogs to another Kathy Knox herding clinic. Reese will be happy to room with her beau Spot again. Will be fun to see Kathy again and some of the other people that work stock in that part of the country again. These clinics are so incredible, the amount you learn in a weekend is mind boggling and leaves me thinking dog for days and weeks afterwards - which is what they should do.

Early next year Reese and I got into two of the working spots for a Silvia Trkman seminar, woo hoo, happy dance!! I will be auditing many of the other sessions as well, can't wait!

This past week at our lesson Reese and I ran the Jumpers course from the World Agility Championship Large dogs. What a rush, it was great. So fun - we broke it down and then put it all together at the end. Yes, I was wheezing at the end, but I was able to run it. Reese did great.

Oh and last weekend we got a fun new tool to help us workout. It is a hands free leash for running by Stunt Puppy. Haven't tried it yet, no running this past week - just long walks as I've been a bit under the weather. But we hope to give it a good try this weekend.

Are you ready yet, I'm waiting!

Okay, lets go!

Come On Lady, lets get out the door already!

The Time Has Come...

2010-09-29T21:01:00.002-05:00

Reese had a fabulous agility lesson last night. She ran a master standard course and did a great job.

She was focused, calm, working with her handler - she held her stays.

And her handler did pretty well too. The only mistakes Reese made were handler error, but I am definitely getting better at figuring out how to run courses and I am getting better at remembering them.

Soooo....our trainer said we were ready....we could enter a trial. Yeah! Our trainer would not have told us we were ready unless we were.

So I am busy looking at trials to enter. I will have to learn some of the games but we will enter the Standard and Jumper runs even if I don't know the games yet. It should be fun, I can't wait. I will have to get out my old mental management books as I know I will be nervous but as long as Reese and I work as a team I'm sure we will be just fine.

After less than a year working with our awesome trainer I have a completely different dog. It will be so fun and such a dream come true to run Reese at a trial!

Furry Guests Pose For Photos! and One Creepy Crawly!

2010-09-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

Random photos of some recent visitors. First, Oliver the kitty.

Ming aka the harbor seal!

Sometimes it's hard to tell which end is which?

You talkin' about me?

Finally, my spider Ed, who protects the house from bugs. Note Ed lives outside, if he ever tries to come in he will be squashed. Likewise if Ed turns out to be an Edith and wants to lay eggs!

I N N O V A T I O N

2010-09-25T21:45:00.001-05:00

Reese and I were playing in the yard the other night. I wanted to work on some agility stuff. Tight turns and some direction changes with the jump uprights.

She however, had other ideas. She was not interested in the jumps or the tug in my hand. She wanted to sniff the grass, smell the clean fall air and gaze off into the distance.

Hmmmm, not very connected to me at the time huh. And definitely not into the game.

So I decided to get her interested I would just play with her for awhile. Get her into the game first, then we'll add some agility to the mix.

SO I moved the jump and just started playing with the tug, running around with her getting her to chase me a bit. Then we played fetch with the tug. Once she was tugging well and into playing and connected with me I pulled the jump back out and presto....

magic... we've got a focused, drivey dog on at the end of the tug.

So if the furry half of your team is not into the game you want to play, change it up and get them interested. Don't let them quit, make it fun, remind them how fun you are and get them into the game.

But beware of little goblins in the night, hiding out in black and white furry coats. The next time you are out, you may be goosed from behind from a wet nose with a tug in her mouth. Ready to play Mom....I am....lets play.....!!!! Good girlie.

New But Old Things.. (clarified)

2010-09-22T19:44:00.001-05:00

I'm going to be getting busier for awhile. But even though my time will be more scheduled I am actually hoping to be posting more often if you can believe it. We'll see what happens.

Life has been oh, so...so...lately. Going to change it up a bit. I'm going to start doing some things that I used to enjoy and see if I still enjoy them. Going to get a little more varied or a more balanced life as some people like to call it.

Not that I don't like working, playing and training Reese. She is still my priority and if time for her gets too short then I'll have to reshuffle the schedule again. Might need to shorten our lessons or cut the frequency down to fit my schedule and the trainers especially since I have that stupid annoyance called work during the day. Will have to see what the Winter schedule brings.
I'm going to be taking a few photography classes and am also hoping to get back into some things I did back in college and before, things that I enjoyed. 20 years later who knows, but I won't know unless I try them again. No time like the present as I am certainly not getting any younger.

I figure being busier will help the winter go by quicker. I am also hoping that involving myself with some additional activities will help to to put up with work until I find something new either at my current location or elsewhere. Things have gone stagnant and my career has stalled, it's time to shake things up a bit.

Reese and I are going to try cani-cross and skijoring this winter - at least that is the plan. I have dusted off the piano keys and hope to be all tuned up in time from Christmas songs. There is much more so we will see how it goes. Looking forward to some changes and hope things start to be better than so...so.

Trust what you Train

2010-09-18T23:46:00.003-05:00

So after a night of being bummed about what to do fence wise I woke up and started a new day. Something will get worked out for the fence and I just need to take a little time to figure out what is best for us right now.

"Things always work out in the end" is one of my favorite sayings. A good friend used to tell me that a lot. I first heard her say it on my trip to Africa. I have come to find that it is usually true. While it doesn't always seem so at the time things do have a way of working out. Maybe not in the way you want, at that particular time, but usually in a way that ends up being best for you. It may take awhile to see that, but often that is the case.

When I am worried about something or working through a problem I often give myself a time limit on how long I can feel bad, waste time worrying etc. Worrying is not going to solve any problem. Working through the problem will. Of course worrying is a valid emotion and one that is good for all of us to feel from time to time, but I don't find it any help to dwell on things endlessly. That doesn't do any good and just takes too much of my energy. So I put a time limit on it. Such as thinking about what to do with the fence. I was all confused last night, didn't know what I wanted to do, okay, fine. Worry about, think about, stew about it for awhile, but in the morning it's done. Will I have all the solutions then? No, but life goes on in the meantime, and as it does I may find some of the answers I was looking for.

Reese and I played fetch in the yard this morning and after we did that for awhile, I took her for a jog on my bike. I tried this for the first time last week, but this was the first time at home. I rode in the alley which helped because there were no cars or other distractions.

I took Reese to a local agility trial that was here in town. To walk around and give her a chance to be at a trial situation with the people, the noises and dogs. She sat ring side and watched small, medium, and large dogs all take their turns on the course. She was fine with all of it, stayed calm, layed down on her own as we walked around the trial site. I put her over the practice jump a few times to see if she would listen to me.

When a handler and dog would walk by she was more interested in the handler then the dog. I really liked that, because she used to think that every dog was put on earth just to play with her. So that shift in focus was nice to see. I put her in her kennel in the car and worked on her being calm using the Manners Minder as I increased my distance.

I also talked to some people that knew Reese before when she was a crazy, barking, lunging, I want to chase any dog running in the ring mess. These people didn't even know she was there until we walked up to them and started talking. Less than a year ago that would have never happened. They would have known we were there long before they ever saw us.

I've thought a lot about the changes in Reese in the past year and half, and I'm not really sure what has had the most effect, but I think it has been lots of little things we have learned. What ever it is I was proud to show off my distinctly different dog than I used to have.

Later, at home I got out our tunnel which has basically been in storage since I got it last Spring. I couldn't take it anymore, maybe we don't have a fence today, but I am not going to let that stop me anymore. I'll figure out a way that we can use the equipment I have.

So I put a long loose line on Reese and sent her through the tunnel, she came whipping out and back to my and stopped at my feet waiting for the tuggie. I added a set of jump uprights and we worked on turns with the tunnel for speed. Then I got out our weaves. Those don't work on a long line, jumps don't really work either.

So.....I decided to be brave, or.... to trust my dog.

My trainer always asks, "what would she do if she was off leash at home, do you really think she would run off?" So I decided to test a bit. See where we were on things.

It was a fairly quite day in the neighborhood, so I took the long line off Reese and put her leash on her and then promptly dropped it. I sent her through the weaves and over some jumps and into the tunnel.....it was great. No, the jump bars didn't stay on so we left those down and worked on turns around the uprights and used the tunnel for speed. I also managed one face plant, luckily no one was here to witness it. Reese listened to me great, and had great attention while we were working. So we will get working on heavier distractions so that I can keep trusting my dog. Even though she was still dragging a leash I was really happy with her.

You can train all you want, but at some point you have to test it.

I was really proud of my dog today, and proud of myself for trusting what I trained.

To Fence or Not to Fence? That is the question (long and boring post as always)

2010-09-18T16:46:00.002-05:00

To fence or not to fence that is the question. When I bought my house the intent was to fence it as soon as I got a dog. Well, due to some unforeseen things needing to be done with the house (there's always something) my fence money was eaten up by other projects that had to get done.

Four years later I still want a fence. I also want something different to do for 40 hours a week and would love to move to the country, but that is another post. Well not really as both have to do with how long I will be in this house. So....what to do. I had a big old tree cut down last Spring in anticipation that this was going to be the summer that I got my fence and because I kept waiting for it to fall on the house when it stormed. Well now it is Fall and I still don't have my fence.

Due to traffic in the area I am not comfortable having Reese completely off leash at my house. We are continuing to work on distractions but to be honest I haven't done much work on them these past few months as she has been doing so well at my agility trainers and she has sheep. Distractions don't get any higher than sheep for Reese. But now we need to step it up a bit and get back to recall work with other distractions like critters and running dogs that are loose things we are more apt to see around our neighborhood.

I don't know how long I'll be in this house but given the current real estate market probably longer than I want. One bummer with a fence is I have no back door but a side door that goes to a concrete walkway. So I won't be able to open the door and let Reese out to do her business. I will still have to take her out on leash when she needs to go. That's the way it's always been done so frankly it would be a little weird not to do it that way. It also helps to keep track of the poos since the goal here is to try to pick them up as soon as the drop is made.... okay enough about crap!

Then there is the issue of what kind of fence. Cyclone fencing is out. Too expensive and I don't care for the way it looks. Wood would be my first choice as you can buy the panels and after the posts are put in it is relatively quick to put up. The other option would be to use T-posts and welded wire. It is quick to put up but the corners still need to be either cemented in with posts or braced or both to keep it strong. This is the cheap and fast way to get a fence up and it could be easily removed. Reese would not ever be in the yard alone and it would prevent her from running after critters and other distractions if they really caught her eye. This would allow us to do agility work and play without the need for a long line which really cuts down on what you can do agility wise. Playing fetch and Frisbee would be much more fun without having to worry about getting tangled in a line or how far the throw can be.

I was all set to start building a fence today with the welded wire. I was hoping we could make due with T-posts for the corners even if we had to cement those in at least for now. But I spoke with a friend of mine who has done a lot of fence work who really confirmed all the things I keep reading. That the corners really make or break a fence. I don't think my dog is going to be slamming up against the wire, but if I am going to do all this work of pounding posts and attaching the wire I don't want it to come down before next Spring. I also want it to look decent and not full of sagging wire.

A wooden fence really isn't in the budget right now so I wanted to do what I could so we could get out there and train before the snow flies. But my friend is right I still need to take the time to do the corners right whatever kind of fence I build. I think the wire would work for us with supported corners and it would meet the purpose we want it for. But I would really like a wooden fence. So do I suck it up and find a way to do wood now?

Or do I put up the wire one, and take it down when I am ready to put up the wooden. This would give me more time to watch the housing market and get an idea of how long I may be in this house, and it would give me time to sock away some funds. Since winter is just around the corner how long will we have to train in the back yard. Mother Nature isn't telling and in this state it's always a crap shoot anyway.

The other option is not to fence. Wait and see what next Spring brings and then decide. Keep working on the distractions and recall with the distractions etc. I will be doing this anyway, as a fence is in no way going to replace any walking, running or biking that we do for exercise.

I was really bummed out last night after thinking about all this as I was so excited to get the fence up. The future is unknown we don't know how long we will be anywhere. You can't live always thinking, 'what if I move, what if this or that.' Unfortunately, we do need to plan for some things though. Like when the furnace breaks and you need a new one, which mine has been going for about 10 years longer than expected so we are on borrowed time.

The thing I want the most though if I am honest with myself is to have a dog that is reliable off leash. So that we can go on hikes off leash and go to parks whether dog specific or not and play and run. I want my dog to be a dog. I grew up with leash laws in the city and always having dogs attached to you in some way. Having seen the other side now, where dogs can run and play off leash it really makes me think that those dogs really do have a better life. They get to be dogs! I want that for my dog too. So we will keep working towards that goal.

But I still want a fence.

Protect, Prepare and Bring Them Home....

2010-09-17T23:27:00.000-05:00

Our pets are so important to us. We spend time training, walking and playing with our pets everyday. We spend money on our pets, sometimes a lot of money. There are vet bills, food, toys, treats, obedience or agility classes, herding lessons. Then comes the entry fees to the agility and herding trials, and the big ones the clinic fees, whether agility or herding and along with that the hotels and food, gas....oh, how we will spend the money for our pets.

It is a wonder to me that so many people will spend the money on the above things and yet pass up the opportunity to purchase a $2.00-$3.00 I.D. tag for their pet. Seriously people. How hard is it to go to your local pet store, buy a tag and put it on their collar. It might be the best two or three bucks you spend on your pet. Better yet get them microchipped. Even better do both. Things happen, dogs get out, people let them out intentionally as awful as that sounds. The most prepared and best trained dogs can and sometimes do get lost or wonder off.

The other thing I do that is very important is to keep a current picture of my pets handy. I keep mine printed off on a sheet of paper. If, god forbid anything should happen to my pets and they get lost I have a picture all set to be made into posters and flyers. My brother who lives in town and my sister who is out of town, both have copies in case I am not there when something like this should happen. The quicker you can act the better chances of finding and saving your pet.

This happened to a friend of mine the other weekend. She was out of town, and one of her dogs went missing. No one had a current photo or picture and time was spent calling around to try to find one. Luckily this dog was found and was safely back home after a short time. But that short time will seem like eternity if it is your pet. Why not know that you did what you could to bring them home safe.

1. Buy a tag for your pets and have them wear them.
2. Get your pets microchipped, in case the collar comes off.
3. Have pictures available to use in the event that posters or flyers need to be made.

Play with your pet, love your pet and keep them safe!

Misc. stuff from the weekend.

2010-09-06T22:22:00.001-05:00

Reese, her new bed and a bully stick what could be better than that?

A hike by the river.

One of our favorite places.

A fawn eating the neighbors flower bed, hehe

Can you guess what this is? If you guess correctly you win a prize. Hint: it is not an egg.

Manners Minder

2010-08-30T23:06:00.003-05:00

the incredible, edible (sort of) training treat dispenser.

Who knew this tool would be so powerful. We have only had ours for a few days. Reese knew what it was and how it worked because our agility trainer has been kind enough to let us use hers during some of our lessons.

I still showed it to Reese and dispensed a few treats for free so she could make sure it was in fact the same thing, sans the A-frame.

For those of you not familiar with the Manners Minder, kibble or treats are put into the machine and dispensed using a remote control. There is a beep first as a marker to let the dog know they provided the desired response and that there is a treat on the way - just like when a clicker is used. The difference here is that the trainer doesn't have to be right there next to the dog.

I bought the Manners Minder to work on a number of things with Reese.

1. Her seperation anxiety when I leave her in the crate in the car, or leave the house at a non-work time. When I leave for work she is used to the routine and it is not normally a problem.

2. Reese doesn't care for skateboards. Especially the noise they make when they are getting popped up and flipped and spun around like the teenager a few houses away likes to do, right in front of our house - of course.

3. People walking by the house with or without a dog. Reese could care less if we are outside and someone walks by, she just looks at them and goes about her business. But...if she is inside then she doesn't like it.

4. See #3 above, this includes pesky critters. Squirrel and rabbit hotdish anyone!!

So the first day we had it, what should appear but the magical flying skateboard with a teenage boy onboard....

Reese heard the noise of the skateboard and started to bark and jump at the window.

Fade in....."the Manners Minder".

Put the Manners Minder on the floor in the living room away from the window. When Reese stopped barking for a few seconds, I pushed the button "beep" and a treat appeared. Hmmm, Reese looked at the machine, stayed quiet and I pushed the button again. Reese bounced over to the Manners Minder and ate the treats. She went back to the window and looked out but only barked a few more times, when she stopped barking I dispensed another treat etc. After about three times barking she watched Joe Skateboarder out the window calmly but did not bark. Beep=treat, beep=treat, beep=treat. Good girl!

The next day a white rabbit appeared out of its hole. Okay, so it hopped into the yard - just seeing if you are really paying attention here. I did the same thing as above but Reese only barked at the rabbit once, after she received the first treat from the Manners Minder she watched the rabbit calmly and did not bark.

We have done this same thing a lot in the past but with me using a clicker and dispensing the treats personnally but apparently I am not as "good as a machine". For one thing Reese never really ever heard the clicker. But apparently, when it is this cool thing giving the treats learning happens much faster. Because tonight this is what happened after only the two experiences discussed above.

A squirrel was in the yard across the street, yes still Reese's yard according to her calculations. She saw the squirrel, barked and ran to the ......

Manners Minder sitting on the shelf. She jumped up to it and looked for a treat:)). I put it on the floor and gave her a treat.

Good Girl! I went over to the window and talked about the squirrel and tried to get her to come and look at it again. So that she could choose to react and bark or not.

This is all I got....

"Naaa, I'll just wait here, there's gotta be another treat coming soon.....

squirrels are stupid anyway."

All I can say is I wish we would have gotten this tool a long time ago!

Green Smoothies!

2010-08-29T13:10:00.000-05:00

Green Smoothies are the best thing - my new favorite thing! They pack a punch of vitamins and minerals and other good stuff and they are filling, refreshing and give you lots of energy. Most people do not get enough greens in their diet, this is a great way to do that. Best of all they are quick and easy to make!

The recipe I use is simple. All you need is:

blender

measuring cup

Almond Breeze milk

water

greens (romaine, spinich, kale, collard greens)

1 banana

berries (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries any kind you want)

vanilla (optional)

Put 1/2 a cup of the Almond Breeze and 1/2 cup of water in the blender. Add about three of four leafs of the romaine or equivalent of other greens and blend. I have found that I can't add all the greens at once with my blender so I do a few at a time and add more. That way I can see how much greens I have blended too. I use enough to give me about 2 cups of the greens, milk and water blended in the blender. You can certainly use more or less.

I use a combination of greens. Usually romaine with a little kale and collard greens. Or I might use spinach instead of the romaine, it just depends on what I feel like having.

Once the greens are blended you can add the banana. Through trial and error I find that I like one banana in mine. Any more than that and the banana flavor stays too strong. I like the taste of the berries. Add one banana and blend with the green mixture.

Then add the berries. I usually use about 1 1/2 cups in mine. Play around and see what you like. Add a teaspoon of vanilla (optional). Blend, pour, drink.

Yum!

Yes, it still looks green with a tint of whatever else you put in, I used strawberries in the above picture. But.....all you taste are the berries you put in!!

Fun Day at the Fun Run!

2010-08-28T23:15:00.000-05:00

Reese and I went to an Agility Fun Run today. We had a great time. These are such great experiences for green dogs in agility. It gives the dog a chance to adjust to and test how they would react in more of a trial situation and lets the handler see where they need to work on their handling skills.

With Reese, I am always happy if she stays focused on me and doesn't get the zoomies, or get keyed up on the other dogs walking and running around. She did great. I had to refocus her a few times, but in her defense there were sheep at this Fun Run and she knew it and while she is getting more into the game of agility...working sheep will always be her first love.

She did a great job ignoring other dogs while they were running or walking around the site, not barking in the car while waiting her turn. She got excited when one dog ran who is very fast and barks when running around the ring, but I got her refocused after that and she was fine. So different than she was a year ago, heck even six months ago. She was even more interested in visiting with the people than she was in the dogs running their courses today. Good Girlie!!!!

While we are on the course she didn't run off to see the other dogs even once. She just wanted to see the sheep, which in reality the chances of an agility trial being held right next to someone working sheep is not all that likely. Could it happen yes, but.....we just won't attend those until she has a full comprehension of what we are working at the moment - agility or sheep.

After the fun run I helped some friends who are always so much fun build a round pen. We had lots of laughs, got lots of sun (didn't find that out until I got home - and yes, I wore sunscreen), and learned lots of interesting farm animal facts. Such as, "Did you know that pigs.....?? Well, we won't go there now. Also, learned the tricks of the trade of how to build a round pen. Hard work but fun to see the end result.

Here is a video of our runs from today. These were shot with my camera that shoots digital stills and also has HD video. I have only shot one other video on it so I wasn't sure how these would turn out. My friend Dianna taped these for me. She did a great job as I couldn't give her much of any instruction as I hadn't ever used the zoom with the video. Thanks Dianna. However, I must mention that I had Donna tape us on my old camera for a back up. Just have to say that Donna did a great job taping today as well:)) Thanks Donna.

Weekend in Review

2010-08-24T21:09:00.001-05:00

So this post was supposed to come out Sunday night....but we had a little problem in the blogosphere! So here it is now.

It was a pretty low key weekend. We had a birthday party for my Mom on Friday and went to dinner at a Japanese Steakhouse in town and ate at the Hibachi grill. The first order of the day was.....Sushi of course!

Never had it, still never had it....pretty doubtful that I'll have it in this lifetime!

Making our Fried Rice - yum, yum!

Trying out my HD video on my camera!

Celebrating Japanese style!

Green Tea Ice Cream!

Then back home for some fun and games.

Reese says, "This birthday stuff is soooo boring! Where are all the bones."

It was a fun night. Everyone had a good time, even Reese.

On Saturday I helped my friends Loretta and Andy with their sheep. We tagged the ewes and boys, (not sure what they are called at this age, will have to learn that) that will be going to market and dewormed all the sheep and some got their hooves all trimmed up.

After we were done I got a special treat and got to see Zip, the dog that got my friend into sheep in the first place, work. I have never seen her work before, but she has won many trials and done very well. So it was fun, looking forward to seeing more of her work in the future.

Then Reese and I had our agility lesson. I wasn't sure how it would go as Reese was keeping herself busy in her crate in the car while we worked on the sheep. She was a little keyed up at first but not bad, just glad to be out of the crate I think. It was very humid and hot and we were working on her A-frame. I believe we our up to the full height for USDAA. We did a bit of course work and a few dogwalks and we were done.

The rest of the weekend was pretty chillin'. Relaxed, napped, read, took some photos of the river, didn't turn out like I wanted so don't look for them here. So I guess you could say it was a perfect weekend.

Odds and Ends...

2010-08-15T22:46:00.001-05:00

It has been awhile since I've posted. Not much going on....heat, humidity, rain, thunder...repeat!

Finally, we have a cool breeze today and the humidity is gone. I have the windows open for the first time in months. Reese and I had our morning coffee outside today while we played a little ball. Of course Miss Grandma Grumpy Gotta Have My Way, still wanted to play in the pool.

By the way, no she never got water in her pool.

Sorry babe, I said "No" and No means NO!

Even with the cool weather this girlie is addicted to her pool and the hose. Water, water gotta have it. But throw her in a lake and she can't get out fast enough. Silly willy.

All this rain has made me parched! Need water!

There was an agility trial in town this weekend. Many of my friends were competing so I went to watch and take pictures. I am having a lot of fun with my camera. Learning more about post processing and different photo editors etc. I shot yesterdays agility photos in both jpeg and raw.

I got some new shampoo to use on Sophie Sophia. She is another one who only likes to play in water, but get her anywhere near full body wet and you are in for it! She's got all her claws and she knows how to use them. So we went with this....

Waterless Foam Shampoo

It is suppposed to work well, so we thought we would give it a try. First, some pictures of Sophie pre-bath.

They're Here!

Here she is just after, not to happy with the spiked look. But now that she is mostly dry and she is combed out she is rather pleased with herself.

Bella doesn't mind a bath, actually she kind of likes it. She won't play with water but will do a full body bathe.....go figure! But since she was sitting there watching Sophie's drama unfold, I decided to try it on her too. She liked it. But next time she'll get water with that bath.

Get ready Reese your turn is coming....

I have started a new workout program, well two actually. I am doing the 100 push-up program and the 200 sit-up program. You do three workouts a week for 6-8 weeks. First, you do a test run to see where you need to start and then you will know which workout to do each week. We'll see how much improvement I can muster after 6 weeks. Also, doing some sprints with our morning runs to try to improve my stamina on the agility field:))

Speaking of which, we will be doing another Fun Run at the end of the month. I am very excited as Reese did so well at the last one. Plus our A-frame is coming right along so we hope to have that in our course as well, and I am getting tested each week on how I would handle a course, I think I am getting better, I still need a little help but it is coming. I think we always run Master level or above courses at our classes.

Hopefully we will be getting our trial entry in soon for our first show. Cross your fingers that we can get one in before the snow flies.

And yes, we are scheduled for yet another Kathy Knox clinic, at least if we get in, in November. Will be traveling with our friends again so Reese will be able to swoon over her new friend Spot!!!

Finally, my Sunflowers have bloomed!

This one's for you Sue!

Clinic I and Clinic II

2010-08-01T22:53:00.002-05:00

Reese and I are back home from another herding clinic, our second one in two weekends. The first was a Kathy Knox clinic, and this past weekend it was a double clinic with both Jack and Kathy. Both weekends were incredible I guess for their own reasons and some of the same.

The first weekend which I touched on in the last post was incredible as it had large pastures to work in, really large, not quite sure about the size but long outruns were in order for the field dogs. Seeing the dogs run in the larger field was just awe inspiring, you can read about sheepdogs and watch DVD's and see it on T.V. but nothing beats seeing a good trained stockdog work.

Over the hill the dog goes, out of sight of the handler into a larger pen to gather the sheep and bring them out a small gate, with whistle commands from the handler all the while she can't see the dog. Over the hill comes the rush of fleece followed by a black and white dog keeping them in line all the way down to the handler - incredible! There are no words to describe it really it is just amazing, and one of those things you have to see.

The connection between the handler and the dog and the trust between the two, and seeing a dog do what it was bred to do is the best thing ever. Talk about happy content dogs.

Reese worked in the round pen at the first clinic. We are going back to correct some bad habits she has developed, starting with respecting the sheep and recognizing that there is a handler in the ring that is there to help her and that it is someone she can trust. The first weekend, she had some big breakthroughs in that by the end she was giving to the handler and was starting to call off her sheep. A simple thing that should have been the first step in her training but wasn't. So we are going back to square one and basically starting over but also trying to keep a few things that are there, and get rid of some history that we wish wasn't there. Reese made some big changes in just one weekend. I couldn't have been more happy with how she did.

At the second clinic I learned a ton as well. Probably more than the first about the training aspect just because there were more beginner dogs, working in a smaller field, working flanks, short outruns and some driving. It was amazing the smallest change in something the handler did made significant changes in some of the dogs.

There were dogs that were in the round pen and of course Reese was one of them. It was interesting in that most of the dogs could have gone back to the round pen to work on something, but most people want to get out of the round pen as soon as possible and not look back. In reality the round pen is a tool that could be used to help many of the things you are trying to train.

Reese had huge changes this weekend. She started to be calm watching other dogs work. She continued to not drag me to the pen and instead walked up the gate at the round pen and waited to go in. She gave to the handler, she called off each time she was asked and I wanted to cry. The last three or four times she worked she looked up at the handler as she came off with a happy look on her face clearly enjoying this new found understanding that if she comes off the sheep, then she gets her sheep back. In fact today's runs she was actively seeking Kathy out to take her in to work the sheep.

The run this morning she had a bit of chase in her with the sheep, but our goal for the weekend was to get her calling off the sheep and respecting the sheep and the handler and we weren't so concerned with the work in the middle at this point. Reeese called off the sheep very well which is what we wanted. During her afternoon run she worked really well, gave to the handler on both her flanks and was starting to read the sheep. And she came off the sheep each time she was asked. Huge, huge changes! So proud of my girl.

These clinicians were both great and I learned an incredible amount not just about working stockdogs, but dogs in general. These people really get it, and they both have a way with the dogs that is amazing to watch. So glad I had the opportunity to attend both weekends.

Working Sheep....

2010-07-28T23:27:00.000-05:00

makes for a tired, content dog!

Reese wiped out.

Last weekend Reese and I attended a Kathy Knox herding clinic. It was a long drive but we had a great time with the friends we went with. Reese and Spot a dog that we roomed with are now pretty good buddies. The second morning at 5:30am they decided it was time to play... um no, I don't think now is an appropriate time...k thx.

Reese worked in a round pen and the sheep we used were really nice and perfect for her. They moved off the fence real easily and that is one thing she needs.

Reese is lacking in confidence when she gets too close to the sheep, she will ignore corrections and will not give to pressure from either the handler or the stock.

The method used last weekend is to correct the wrong and leave the right alone. The dog chooses his/her actions and they will get the consequences. Either she will get her sheep back to work or she won't. I love this way of working the dogs. It is a very natural way of training.

The first time Reese worked she was mess, wouldn't acknowledge the trainer, wouldn't take a correction, and couldn't feel any pressure from the stock or the trainer.

But....by the end of the weekend, she was trying so hard to do what was right. She took a correction, she gave to the trainer and stopped trying to beat her and she started to feel the pressure from the trainer. She was by far the most hard headed little thing at the clinic. She is very smart, won't back down and will work every angle to get what she wants - the sheep.

Reese gives the slightest indication of when the pressure should be released off of her. A flick of the ear or tail, a very slight head tilt etc. She also does not like raised voices or yelling, when that happens she immediately shuts you out, and starts working alone and only for herself.

Reese needs to learn to trust the handler that the hander is there to help not there to make it harder for her. It is a partnership this stockwork, the dog can't do it without the handler and the handler needs the dog.

The changes from the first day of the clinic to the last were huge. Watching her work that last run I had tears in my eyes, and I was beaming. She did it!

This weekend we were lucky enough to get into another clinic. This one is with both Kathy and Jack Knox. Reese is right on the cusp of really starting to see the light and get some bad habits and things that were trained into her that shouldn't have been fixed. Hopefully, with the opportunity this weekend presents, she will be well on her way to being a different stock dog by Sunday night. Well on her way to being the stock dog I know she can be!

Gotta Brag about my ReeCee!

2010-07-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

First up herding. Last week at our lesson Reese kind of went back to her old ways and didn't quite have her head in the game. Or, as I like to say she got a hair up her behind and couldn't quite shake it loose.

I am happy to say that at this weeks lesson she was back to her good working self. Yes, she needed a couple of reminders at first but then things fell back into line and she was working nicely. She is still uncomfortable on her Away flank but she is comfortable with her Go Bye. You can really see her start to tense up and then she looks at the sheep and then she's cutting in on her Away. As soon as she looks at the sheep she can't relax and she stops thinking and then she can't stay out. On her Go Bye flank she stays out wide and will casually look at the sheep to see where they are and then she will look away and bend out more and stay off the sheep as wide as the ring lets her. She is just more relaxed and it shows. She is also walking up calmly to the sheep feeling their pressure and stopping to give them plenty of room when they are at the fence and she feels they can't go anywhere. She can now comfortably stop and not feel that she has to charge in and bust them up.

On to Agility.....
We had our lesson tonight and Reese did awesome. Our last obstacle to really master was our running A-frame. She missed the first one tonight and then nailed the rest of them, both the A-frame alone and when it was part of a larger sequence. And......she worked all night with the sheep in the pasture and yes, she knew they were there! She had one moment of disengagement but then she got a big Aha! moment from our trainer and that was all that was needed. So proud of my girlie. We haven't had a lesson in a few weeks due to my work schedule and stormy weather so it was really fun to see her work so well. Now she is out cold from all her hard work tonight - also good to see!

Five Little Darlings!

2010-07-11T11:35:00.001-05:00

When Momma first started bringing her babies around I thought there were only two. Low and behold she's got five little ones.

Keep in mind all these pictures were taken from inside the house through a window.

Can you find them hiding?

How many do you see in this picture....hint there are two.

Momma on alert!

Momma counting all her babes.

Feeding time for he hungry little bunch!

We've Got Babies!

2010-07-11T11:12:00.001-05:00

Baby Rabbits that is. I have a Momma Rabbit that brings her babies every night.

Momma Rabbit and one baby

Momma Rabbit

Baby hiding against the house.

Little baby hiding in the bushes. Look how thin the ears are you can see right through.

Momma

Water in the Hot Summertime!

2010-07-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesday 17

2010-07-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

My First Harvest!

2010-07-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

Whoo hoo. I got my first harvest. Well, truth be told my sister helped herself to a couple heads of lettace over the weekend. But I told her to go a"head" help yourself - so she did!

Tonight I picked radishes, and I thinned them out. It was a bit overcrowded in the radish rows, so I only got 6 of them and so far I have eaten 3, ha! Oh and by the way, in case you have forgotten, when it comes to radishes the little ones ARE the hottest! Just in case you were saving the big one for when you were ready for a doozy! It's the little ones my friends - they will get you every time.

Total harvest so far = 4 heads of Romaine lettace and 6 radishes.

Flowers and Color Galore!

2010-07-04T19:18:00.000-05:00

Went to flower gardens and took some photos. I used to live across the street from a flower store and would get fresh flowers every week for the house. That is no longer an option when cats are in the house. (Oh, and I don't live there anymore.) I do love the different textures, colors and shapes of different flowers though.