Monday, January 10, 2011

More Chirstmas Info and New Years Eve Remembered

I promised this in my last post but I'm not sure what I had in mind. Christmas was great, what more can I say? Of course I wish my sister and niece (that would be Claire and Laura) could have been here but that was the only non-perfect part. I was going to post some pictures of my human family members enjoying Christmas but those seem to be on my old SD card which is not where I thought it was. I hope I did not loose it! I got a brand new 16 GB SD card for Christmas. So much room for pictures and videos!

ffluffy came after Christmas to visit and go to agility shows. We showed together on Friday, Sat and Sunday of New Years. Friday was at one venue, under cover, then Sat and Sunday was at a different place, in a field, which is too bad since it poured rain. More on that later.

On Thursday I took the day off to be with ffluffy. We went walking on the road. I didn't bring the camera but of course should have. We departed from the usual plan of just staying on the road, and climbed on the remains of the dam. Dottie would not join us, instead whining at the top. I think she might be afraid of heights. Eventually we made our way down to the bottom, them climbed back up to the spot I had made it to from the top. This route Dottie could join us. With all the rain we've been having there was a very deep pool that the dogs could swim in. They could enter the pool from ground level or from the rock we were sitting on. It was a big drop- maybe 5 feet? Much larger than the drop off the official Dock Diving dock. Fancy was the first in, followed by Pickle. Eventually Pie went in also. Dottie was close, but could not be convinced. All the dogs swam and entered from ground level no problem.

After playing in the water we continued our walk. As we approached the end of the road which is the turn around point, a lone female jogger approached. We gathered the dogs up, I put Dottie on leash and the other 2 in a down and waited for her to pass. As a reminder, this is a National Forest so dogs are allowed off leash but must be under control. I always want people to have a positive experience around off leash dogs, which is why when ever we meet someone we put them on leash or in a down. I expected the lady to pass on by but instead she stopped and told us, "My husband is behind me and he has a pit bull and it fights and is uncontrollable so you need to put your dogs on leash."

Since our dogs were already on leash or under control that was obviously not a problem for us but the description sounded very unsafe. "Is his dog on leash?" I asked, and she responded, "Yes, but he is uncontrollable." To me that sounded like he might drag his owner across the road to attack our dogs- which already happened once on this road- a guy walking 2 boxers on pinch collars was pulled by his dog within inches of attacking distance of our on leash dogs before he was able to heave them away (crazy!) so we opted to turn around there.

I still want to believe in the intelligence of my fellow humans, so instead of being cynical and not being surprised by this encounter, I instead choose to be surprised that someone would choose to walk their "uncontrollable" dog in an area where off leash dogs are legally allowed. Instead I would walk my dog only where the leash law is in effect, and have a basket muzzle on him.

Even though our walk was cut short, it was still fun. I love letting my dogs swim.

On New Year's Eve I was invited to a party! Maybe I shouldn't let it be known that this is a big deal for me. ffluffy and I went and played lawn bowling (my first time) had some good food, and also played wii bowling- also my fist time. I came in second behind ffluffy by 2 points. Not bad, I think! Some of the attendees had a lot to drink so the lawn bowling and wii bowling got very rowdy. I thought it was a great party.

Our host gave us a bottle of wine with 2 GSDs biting a guy wearing a "Vick" jersey and it says- I got my wish for Christmas and I hope you get yours."

The party broke up before midnight- were were warned it would- so we drove home (watching out for drunks) and were in bed before the New Year- which is good since we had to make it to agility the next day.

On New Years Day Kiltman came to join ffluffy and we all ate wonderful traditional honey baked ham at my parent's house.

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope it is a good one!

In 2011 I hope to get Pie and Dottie's SchH one titles, and maybe be certified to enter an AKC tracking test.

1 comment:

Older and Wiser said...

It was a fun time at dinner. I guess I will go armed on the old walking road from now on if killer pitbulls may be there.