Dog Pack Pictures

All of the native dogs and visiting dogs had another fun time playing in the yard today. I took some pictures and posted a few. The rest (and there are quite a few!) can be seen here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=19112&id=100000152104007&l=d78d1d061d

Ignore the ones of dogs chewing on bones and of Fancy being shaved (they are old.) Be sure to look at all three pages!



Dottie and Bob played quite a bit then Bob decided he wanted to give Pie a try, but Dottie wouldn't leave them alone.



Pickle keeps an eye out while Bob chews a toy.


I taught Moose a new trick while I was here. I call it "road kill."


The pack hurtles towards an unsuspecting Fancy. Pickle wisely hides behind the a frame.


Dottie and Bob are both about to turn one year old.

Dog Pack

Some of you may think three dogs is a lot. I now have 7 dogs at my house. To my family who are reading this- fear not: the extras will leave in a few days. Ffluffy is on a vacation and I am watching her dogs. She will be watching my dogs when I go on vacation, so we both benefit. Everyone, minus the corgi, just had a fun time running in the yard and playing chase me, bitey face, slime-the-neck, and various other unnammed games. I hope to get some pictures tomorrow because the fun was very fun to watch and I want to share it with everyone.

The corgi doesn't get to play because he can be grumpy. Hey, he's a corgi. That's all the excuse you need. Also Fancy did not play, not because she is grumpy (which she can be) but because she is sick. Poor Fancy. Vomit, diarrhea and no appetite. Luckily no temperature and she is drinking water, but no appetite is always a bad sign.

I offered her some chicken broth but she didn't want that either (it smelt very good to me!) We'll wait a few days and see what happens then off to the vet we will go. My vet loves me. I think she probably has a house of the beach due to the business I bring her.

I took the day off work today for a dog show - agility- in Pomona. Pie got a double Q which is her first one in quite some time. She also took second place in a class of 30- or maybe it was 40- dogs. This is good news because we got some very much needed points for the Agility Invitational. We are in 4th place with the 5th place dog over 100 points behind us and the 6th place dog only a few points behind that. 5 dogs are invited so we are good so far, but need to get our act together. Pie didn't get a single point previously in May and the points are only added up through May 5th, so it is very possible the other dogs have already passed us and we don't know it. The qualifying period ends 30 June and we will be entered 3 of the 4 weekends in June. I hope our quality of runs continues to improve. Now that she is on her thyroid meds and off the Ivermectin, she is feeling better.

On a sad note, it has now been one year, this weekend, that Bloom died as the result of an accident related to his old age. He was 15 and I had him for 5 years. My first dog (other than childhood pets,) and my Novice A dog in obedience and agility. Ever since reading The Soul of the Silver Dog I knew I wanted to do agility and since reading the Susan Conant books I knew I wanted to do obedience and Bloom let me do it all. Maybe a 10 year old dog who was quickly going deaf wasn't the most logical choice, but he was a very good sport about it. Bloom was more than a competition dog (some would probably say he wasn't really a competition dog at all.) He introduced me to many of my current good friends, he kept me company, he went on Miata Runs when I was in the Miata Club and he posed for lots of pictures. And he as a great cuddler.

Old dogs make great pets. I love old dogs. The only bad part about an old dog is it means they are getting closer to not being in your life any more.

MiFi

I have given up on the internet at the house after too much frustration of it not being there when I want to use it. I instead got a MiFi from Verizon. It is like the USB thingies you plug into your laptop for satellite internet but when used in a certain way it can connect up to 5 devices (such as computer, laptop, phone, etc) to the internet at one. Mostly I do not think I will be sharing it since it is satellite that means it is limited and I get 5G a month.

The speed is fine and I have access at my house and at work. I'm sitting in my car right now on my lunch break catching up on my blogging.

The cost is $60 a month plus tax. I compared that to getting a dish put up on the house and the prices were similar and I wouldn't have been able to access the internet away from home like I can now. Also, I would have had the same connectivity problems. Since this is through Verizon, they have much better coverage than the other places I saw. It is true I would rather pay less but I am willing to pay for reliable internet access. And so I am.

Congratulations!!!!

To my younger (but bigger) brother for graduating with honors from CSUN!



The graduation was held on the library lawn. The day started off chilly but quickly grew warmer and sunny. That is why in some of the pictures people are holding a lot of coats. My mom and dad both took a 1/2 day off of work to be there to celebrate. Also in attendance was a long time friend and his wife and my bother's special lady friend and mother.

I wasn't able to get any pictures of the moment he got his diploma or shook some of the important people's hands. I tired. Here is the crowd afterward.



The lady friend and mom. The photo is being uncooperative. Rotating it did not help.





The immediate family. The flowers and teddy bear were from the lady friend.



The whole posse, minus me who is taking the picture.


The graduate himself. Even if that is poor writing. For those who don't know, you hardly ever have to say himself, myself, etc. It is used to make a point. However, usually you are just writing like you are speaking and it is unnecessary. As in this case.


Getting congratulations from Dad.




Me and my bro.



The bro and the lady friend.



Another picture making me disgruntled. The friend who he has know since grade school (maybe "only" junior high) and his wife.

And the guys. Note the teddy bear and flowers have been passed off for the manly picture.



This is one of the proofs that was given to him from his GQ "Men of Scholor" photo shoot.



Another friend. This was at the graduation dinner. Mmmm... Wood Ranch.


It was quite the crowd. All the same people from the graduation plus the other brother plus the above friend and his parents and another friend (seen at the foot of the table.)



Another shot of the table crowd.

Not only did my brother graduation with honors from CSUN, but he did it under difficult circumstances. He was deployed three times during college for at least a year each time and yet each time he came back and continued with his classes. That is perseverance and also good judgment.

As seen from the Wood Ranch pictures we all got back together that same night for a celebration. Then on the weekend he held a party at the house which I dropped in on and ate some tasty steaks (he is a good cook!) and sat by the new outdoor fire pit/place. A lot of people showed up and I hear everyone stayed quite some time.

Quick Weekend Recap

I got my hair cut on Friday after work since it was encroaching on my collar and I can't have that while in uniform. I went with layers this time but I'm not sure how well it turned out, especially since a certain someone suggested I needed a service dog because I suffer from a bad hair cut. Ouch. Ok, this person did not mean to suggest I actually have a bad hair cut, but was instead trying to think up lame reasons people give for having service dogs, but since I happened to have a brand new hair cut at the time of the discussion, it didn't bode well for me.

On Saturday I got up early and went herding with ffluffy. Her Swedish Vallhund Specialty is coming up and Hunda (do do do!- that is this theme song) needed some sheep practice. I let Dottie have a turn and she did ok. She did not try to chomp the sheep, so that is much better than I expected. Fancy got a quick turn also. She chases the sheep but has no real instinct to bring them back to me.


You can see more pictures of Fancy here- maybe... http://www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=9045&id=100000798693934&ref=mf The best part of the pictures is Fancy blends right in with the sheep. Except she is skinnier. One of the best pictures didn't get loaded. Fancy has all three sheep together and is right up against them and she is very hard to spot.

After herding we went out to brunch at IHOP. Every breakfast place in Camarillo was teaming with people. I've never seen IHOP so crowded. We waited 15 minutes for a table. But it was worth it because they made my bacon nice and crispy.

Next we went back to the house and all the dogs played around. Later we saw Robin Hood at the same weirdo gym/ movie theater that we saw Iron Man at last weekend. But once again even though it was opening weekend there was no problem getting tickets and no lines. I love it!

On Sunday I got up early and went tracking with the SchH club. Then we went back to the club field and set up for the big show we are having next weekend. A trial is the obedience, tracking and protection, and a show is the actual show dogs running around a ring. It is different than an AKC show, though. One person handles the dog and another person (usually the owner) runs around the outside of the ring getting the dog's attention and helping the dog run correctly. Pie and Dottie and Fancy obviously can't participate in that (it is for GSD only) so we did a little obedience and Dottie got to play with the tug a bit.

Now I'm watching some Gladiator (the reviews are correct- Robin Hood is pretty much the same story as Gladiator but since that was a good movie, it is ok!) I have tomorrow off and I'm taking Dottie for her first real agility class. I think I've said it before- SchH is really her "thing." So far she hasn't shown much natural aptitude or even interest in agility. But you never know. She could still turn on to it.

WOW WOW WOW WOW!

THIS IS VERY BIG NEWS, WHICH IS WHY I AM SHOUTING. Pie has an OTCH point. It is my very first OTCH point ever. I have no idea when she got it, but I was looking at how close (or far) she is from her Mach 2 on the AKC website and it shows Pie has one Obedience Trial Championship point. Only 99 to go! OTCH points are very hard to come by because you have to beat other dogs to earn them. It can be confusing for people who don't do obedience, so I won't go into all the rules, but it is enough to explain that Pie and I hardly ever beat anyone. We are not precise enough because I don't spend enough time training, nor am I a very detailed oriented trainer. Sadly, our last show this past weekend demonstrated this when we got nine points off on the heel free and figure 8 in open. Ouch. I do hope to make that better.

I was going to enter an obedience show over Memorial Day weekend but I missed the closing date and the agility trial the same weekend is full. But Friday and Monday are not full so we'll go then. That gives us more time to get better at obedience before our next trial. Better get busy. Even though our previously mention show wasn't that great (hit the broad jump for NQ in open although she finally did the groups right and no sit on the first signal in utility) I will brag for my obedience student who got her first leg the on her first time in Novice A. That means she has never trained an obedience dog before and on her first try went in the ring and qualified with a second place and a 191.5. Nice job! Also, ffluffy took her Vallhund in the pre-novice ring and qualified with a 195!!! Hunda is not an easy dog to train and that is an amazing score. Especially since he used to be so bad/ strange that people advised her to put him down. ffluffy is a very hard working, dedicated trainer. If that wasn't enough, she also took Pickle into Graduate Open which is basically utility, only slightly (just a tiny bit) easier, and Qualified with first place and another score in the 190's but I don't remember exactly what it was. Pickle is ready for utility and she has done all the utility training herself, with out a class. Another awesome job. A great weekend for the ffluffy dogs. :)

I taught my second beginning obedience class tonight. I think it went well again. ffluffy and I also ground a lot of dog food before class. I expect it will last a long time. We had some fish heads that we had chopped off the bodies that where too large to fit in the grinder so I fed them one each to my dogs. Fancy ate hers almost whole which was very shocking. Pie's was huge and she took quite some time to eat it. Dottie was put away inside her crate so I don't know how long she took.

Off to bed now. The new work schedule is hard. Last night I was too tired to go to agility and stayed home instead and slept all afternoon and night, except when I talked to Melissa. Hi Melissa! Today was better, but that probably had something to do with sleeping close to 12 hrs.

And by the way- Pie has 4 QQs and 400 plus points towards her Mach 2. Looks like we better get back in our groove if we hope to make Mach 2 before I drop her down to preferred to go easy on her back.

Lots Going On

And no time to blog! Last weekend was drill. Next weekend is my last agility weekend until Memorial Day and also one day of obedience.

Monday was my first Monday off with the new work schedule. I did some sleeping, some sitting outside and reading- Note to James Patterson- bomb dogs do not "go crazy" when they smell bombs- and then drove to Sun Valley Foods and bought a lot of meat. 80 pounds of chicken backs, 16 pounds duck necks, and 20 pounds turkey hearts for under $80. That is a lot of meat! It will last the dogs a long time. The un-fun part is it has been sitting out for over 24 hrs and most of it is still frozen solid. The stuff I was able to pull out I've cut up and put in Tupperware. Cutting bone is not fun. On a side note I went to Target to buy the Tupperware and had TWO people shake my hand and thank me for my service. Very nice sentiments. I wish there was some way to beam those thanks directly to deployed people.

After the meat run I met ffluffy at the Littlerock Dam. Dogs are allowed to swim and be off leash! My favorite! Dottie swam for the first time. She was tentative but was willing to do it for the toy. We couldn't stay too long because we had an obedience class to get to in Lancaster. Pie practiced utility and did poorly. Doesn't bode well for our show this weekend. That is what I get for not practicing regularly. We finished up the day by eating a late dinner at Red Robin with one other friend then I drove home. I didn't get to bed until after 12 which was unfortunate since I had to get up by 4:30 the next day in order to deserve the Every Other Monday Off.

I'm going to fight with the frozen meat a little more then maybe have some left over Red Robin and get in bed before it gets too late. Can't stay up late when I have to be up so early!