I might as well sign my next several paychecks right over to the vet!

First Jade, then Grace gets a tummy upset, and now today Peace has an eye issue! I didnt even get to class tonight since I was at the vet getting meds for the girl.  OK no more please!

Gracies tummy

Grace and I have gone back to agility classes. We are doing a very basic foundation class since I am trying to get a good solid foundation on her. Our classes are on Thursday. Unfortunately this week I have not been able to really practice with her. 

Last Friday we had a ham for dinner.  It had a very large fat layer under the skin, which we cut off and tossed out.  Well, thought we tossed out. We think the little stinker somehow got this big fatty piece and it gave her a tummy issue. (She puked once and it looked like ham rind) Which is what caused the loose stool on Saturday and Sunday. Due to this also, she got to have a 24 hour no food penalty on Sunday, followed by hamburger and rice for the next 5 days.  And for a non toy motivated dog, that means no training for her.

So I guess we wont show much progress tomorrow in class. Oh well. She is feeling much better and actually loves the hamburger and rice. I guess its just as well that I didnt get to take her to the trial on Saturday.  I had sort of forgotten that the down stay is in the ring with the working dog.  I dont know that she would have handled that- we are starting to train more distractions now. Its not going very well. LOL

No Q today either

Although we managed the retrieve today and jumped going both ways, Magic decided that obedience at 9:20 am was just too early and he decided to take a nap instead of the sit stay.   What a goober though, he wouldnt front properly, wouldnt give me the dumbell and his heeling was marginal. We had a Q going until that last exercise. But I got the last laugh, we also were the novice courtesy dog and he got a couple of little heeling corrections in that pattern. 

Then we went to the open call audition and had his pictures taken. Then on to weght pull practice where he had to work some more.  Poor tired boy. Peace went to pull practice as well, and is learning really well.

Grace did not go yesterday or today.  She had a bit of a loose stool, so I thought it was better she stayed home.  Rather be safe. 

Open

No Q's today.  Both trials Magic didnt bring the dumbell back over the jump.  Both times it was partially my fault as my throws did not land in the best location, but he could have gone back over. We proof this at home and he has always seemed to understand that this was necessary, but obviously not.  However on the plus side, everything else was satisfactory, and the 2nd trial was better than the first.  Oh well, we will try again.

Do I or Dont I

Grace is a wonderful dog, but she is very different than Magic.  She can do all the required aspects for Novice, and at times she can do them beautifully, but other times you would think she had no clue at all. We are not consistant together.   So do I enter her for the experience, and enjoy the time together, or do I not? 

See here is the thing, I enjoy going out and playing with the dogs.  We always do our best, but I dont stress over the win or the q or any of that.  I truly like going out and having fun with my dogs.  Grace LOVES going. Grace gets very happy and very excited, and therefore less likely to be focused and listening. But, that is Grace and I love that about her, and dont know that I want her to lose that excitement even if it does make our times in the ring often interesting.  So do we enter and try and hope for the best, or not?

Some people say never enter before you are perfect.  I will never be perfect, how can I hold my dogs to that standard.  Is it wrong to go out and have fun even if we score 70? In some peoples opinions it is. And I don't hold anything against the people who want to earn perfect scores, but I also dont think that should be a requirement to play.  Someday I may be interested in that, but right now, honestly I am not.  I would prefer to Q but if I can go, have fun, see improvement, or at worst see what more we really need to work on, I don't think trying/playing is wrong. What do you think?

Tonight

He rocked it.  So did Grace. WOOHOO

Really he is messing with me.

So tonight the broad jump is painted white, and lo and behold, we leap happily over it.  And decide we cant go over the jump while carrying the dumbbell.  Last week he leapt over the jump carrying both the dumbbell and the tug at the same time, but tonight nope. If course that was his choice, not at my asking.

Does he really understand how this messes with my head???? I think so!

On the other hand, since I am looking at a total collapse on Saturday, I think I will enter Grace too.  Anyone looking for a good time and no Q's please come play at the UKC show with me. My goals for this day are really to try to get a good feel of where we really are, in a real competition setting,  I think they have day of show entries....

More Vegas

These were taken with the film camera, and my Son forgot to put the other lens on the camera.

Broad stomp, I mean jump

At our last attempt at open, when we got to the broad jump Magic looked at me like he had never seen one before in his life. So this weekend I broke down and built a couple of boards for a broad jump.  Now, the goober has seen these many times in classes but also on the agility field.  Today we stomped across the boards. STOMPED. Not walked. Looked like a 2 year old having a temper tantrum. 

I haven't painted the jumps yet. I am hoping that changing them to white will make a difference. LOL!

Oh did I mention, he is entered in open NEXT weekend.....

Vegas News

Don't know if you can read the sign, but it says Major Win and Best of Opposite!  3 Points!

Vegas did wonderfully today at his first show.  He handled it like a pro. The judge had some very nice comments for Joyce.  This show site is an indoor soccer field and we were shoved back in a corner, so there wasn't anywhere to get decent ringside pictures.  Either the steward or the judge was in the way, but I will try to post the few bad ones we got later.

Tomorrow there will only be 1 point available, but what a great first time out! Congrats to Joyce and Vegas.

Music & Vegas

Yesterday I got a chance to visit with Joyce and see Music and Vegas.  Not to make my dogs feel bad, but Music(Nine) was and probably always will be my favorite puppy from Grace's litter.  I fell in love with him almost immediately.  He has grown into such a handsome dog.  No, hes not perfect or the show dog one dreams about, but he is a terrific boy.  He is smart, stable, confident but not pushy. Just love him, but so does Joyce, and he loves his momma too.  I really think I got lucky with placing the pups, I am still so very happy with each of the homes the pups went to.

I also got to see Vegas again, and what a wonderful boy he is turning out to be.  Laid back, easy going but confident and super willing. Happy to meet new people or new dogs. Was just super meeting Peace, who since being attacked is very cautious in meeting new dogs. And absolutely lovely to look at.  We were sort of laughing about his little freckles, he doesn't have many, but they are darn cute. Just one or 2 on each leg and on his muzzle. Nice big bone and at 10 months he is right around 30 pounds.  I told Joyce that if he ever disappears she might want to check my house.

Saturday we will get some Vegas pictures so you all can see how lovely he is. And of course Music too.

Weight pull practice

Today the 3 girls went to weight pull practice.  I wasnt allowed to train Siren, she is Davids and he had to work, but she went along to practice good dog behavior. She needs to work on waiting patiently in the crate.
Grace gave me 3 pulls today, and is starting to understand what we are trying to do. I was really happy with her work today.  Peace is a bit concerned about the cart and all the people, but she tried and I am sure she will get better.  This was her first time actually pulling anything, so with time will come comfort.  We have some things to work on, but it was still fun.

After the weight pull practice, we stopped at a local tennis court that noone was using.  Its one of the few fully fenced places to go and practice some off leash work. We did some recalls with all 3 girls and some heeling practice with Siren and Grace.  With Peace we are just starting with the choose to heel training and right now she hasnt quite figured out that mom and treats are more intersting than leaves, people, running etc, at least during the heeling portion.  But her recalls were super.  A youg gal was riding her bike around the course when Peace was working recalls, and she was totally able to ignore that. Grace also did a couple of  minimal distraction stays.  We are working on stays. But tonight she was able to stay with me jumping up and down and running in circles around her.  She only broke the stay once, and that was when I was returning to her. So next time we will practice lots more of me leaving and coming back.

Jade is still the same, Not real happy with me when I have to give her the meds, but otherwise doing well enough.

What we found today

We have several feral cats in the neighborhood.  Apparently our garage is a great place to raise the young ones.  Or it was until we found them.  They appear to be about 3 weeks old. Eyes and ears open, but not long. Still not really up on the feet, but able to motor around.  Too much older and we would not have been able to catch them and we certainly don't need more running the neighborhood, so we took them to the humane society. It was really tempting to want to keep them here and raise them and place them, but its entirely possible theat they are FIL positive and I dont want our cats exposed. There were 4 one little gray and 3 tabbies.  They sure were cuties. 

Jade

Jade came home last night.  There doesn't seem to be any improvement with the antibiotics, so we are pretty sure that this is liver issues. Its very hard to do testing of any kind on such a tiny critter. We talked about going to a specialist for a liver biopsy, but honestly, she may not live through it. So we decided to bring her home, and help her through her remaining time as well as we can.  Her only distress really is that her bottom gets a bit messy as she cant poop as easily, and her breathing is a bit labored. She climbed all over her cage last night and seemed fairly happy to be home.  We do have some liver support meds which include milk thistle and some oral antibiotics.  As the vet said, the antibiotics won't hurt her, and hopefully will make sure she didn't pick up anything that can make this time more uncomfortable. Going to the vet is way more stressful for the birds than it is for the dogs.

Sadly, its not an egg :o(

Poor Jade. Its not an egg. The best we could tell with xray was that her liver is seriously enlarged. Where it is displacing her other organs causing what looked like an egg in her abdomen.  Even the vet thougt it was an egg until she started feeling it, but couldnt find a shell.  Didnt feel like a soft egg either, so xrays were required.  So little Jade took a brief nap, had a couple of xrays and a little blood taken. Very little, these guys only weigh about an ounce and have less that a tablespoon of blood.  Her white count was a little high, but not hugely, so they do not think its an infection. More likely the beginnings of liver failure which is sadly fairly common in these little guys. She is going to spend a couple of days at the hospital getting some antibiotics to see if maybe there is any kind of changes.  If not, she will come home until her quality of life is no longer good. 

Jade is my sweetest little girl parrotlet.  She is the one who prefers to spend hours just snuggling, will ride in my shirt pocket happily and had in the past even gone shopping with me when I forgot she was in there. I am sad tonight.

Eggbound Jade

One of my little rescue parrotlets is having some girlie issues.  She definately has an egg inside her needing to come out.  This gal has never laid since I have had her and its been 3 years.   Her little bottom is extremely swollen with that egg, yet she hasnt laid it, nor does she seem to intend to lay.  She hasn't been nesting, I gave her materials in the bottom of her cage so she could if she wanted.  She doesn't yet seem to be in peril or straining, but having never had a girl hold an egg for so long, I am concerned.  So we are on birdie watch today.   I really hope she can pass this herself and vet intervention is not needed.

Please think good egg laying thought for my little gal.

UKC Altered

UKC now has an altered program where altered dogs can be shown, and earn a championship.  Its a separate bunch of classes from the intact dogs, so it is not taking anything away, just adding to the fun.  On Saturday I watched Megan and Buzz and boy, it sure seemed that Buzz was having a great time. Booker the IG had his first conformation expeience too, and he looked pretty pleased with himself as well.   There wasnt a lot of altered dogs competing, but it was fun to see anyways.

I did take Miss Talie to the show as well.  She was still quite a bit concerned over the idea of the judge actually touching her, so I had a chat with her folks and I think we are going to spay her in a couple of months.  If she really doesnt enjoy showing, I dont want to take her out.  I have her entered in the Eau Claire show in a couple of weeks, but I may decide not to take her.  Yes, with time she might learn to tolerate it, but its really not necessary to stress her out when she would have been the only girl anyway.

Since the herding group was last on Saturday, it was first on Sunday.  I don't know if anyone knows this about me, but I LOVE going out and doing stuff with my dogs, and it just about kills me when there are local events and I can't go for some reason. (usually money related, but thats a separate issue).  So Saturday night I just could not get the fact that Sunday the herding group would be first and really, I would have time to run over, show and still get to Moms in time for dinner! I mean we weren't eating until 1, so it would be OK to go show earlier right?  I could enter Peace in the Champions class, or I could just enter the curly girl, since getting out and doing something would be good for her. OR, I could enter Magic in the altered class. 

I know, a fluff, I should be shot. Cant show a fluff, blah blah blah. My brain was going over all the crap I have been fed about how horrible it would be.  But it also was going through the thoughts of who would I be hurting.  Really no one. It was a win for the club, another entry. It wasn't going to take anything away from any other entry either.  I was not expecting him to win anything, I just wanted to play with my dogs. We could have fun and go do what I had actually purchased Magic for-showing.  So what the heck, I threw Magic in the tub, made sure he was nice and clean and off we went Sunday morning.

It was so much fun!  Taking Magic anywhere is so easy. All I had to take was the boy, a show lead, a little bait for a reward and a chair. Didn't need a crate, he doesn't need one.  Didnt have to take any grooming stuff, because hey what for?  Magic got to play with Safari, they both got to play with the crested's.  Magic got loved on by several people, which he will never refuse.  In the ring, he was a bit confused about what the heck are we doing here, but he seemed to enjoy himself a bit.  The judge commented on how really cute he is, and  we now have a best of breed and a group 3 ribbon for his scrapbook.(He was the only altered cardi, and there were only 3 in the herding group, so this is not a brag or anything, just a really wonderful memory I will always have of my special boy)  The only thing I don't have is pictures, because I didnt think to take  a camera, since it was just Magic and I and no one to take any.

Will we do it again, no, probably not. I know he is a fluff and really not the best conformation anyways. But I will always treasure the times and experiences he and I have together.  He is a special boy. He is my boy.

Magics Pictures

Photos by LS Originals.

He was wearing his serious face.

Last class last night

Last nights class was our last trick/acting class.  It was really fun to see all that the various dogs had learned.
We had a pug who pushed a baby stroller,  an all american who went out and got the paper and delivered it to a helper, a young, very energetic, doodle who performed a lovely relax and speak. We had some high fives, some rolling over and general fun.  Magic rode his skateboard and also sort of did his hot dog retreive.  He was a little concerned that the other dogs might steal his hotdog, so it came back with a few teeth marks, but he did give it to me whole (just a bit mangled) with only a little convincing from me.  Last night we also traded dogs with others in the class.  Most of the dogs were very willing to go with someone else, and several, Magic included were also willing to do some work for another handler.  It was nice to see that Magic is able and willing to work for others.

He got his mini photo shoot pics back too.  I hope to get them scanned in later today. 

This was such a fun class because we got to learn goofy stuff and really Magic seemed to think this was play. It also seemed to help his attitude in other more traditional training too, so I am really, really happy that we were finally able to take the class.  There is an open casting with a local animal agent coming up.  The class trainer told me last night that she thinks that the agent would really like Magic, so we may give it a try. Not sure yet about that, but I guess it couldnt hurt.