Wordless Wednesday

official

he rings a ding dings when he walks.

It’s official now. V’s tagged. 

Hop!

Eve, hopping along.

Farmers swap

Our town has a cute little farmers market every Thursday… if cute means a garage sell with vegetables that fell off of some truck on it’s way out of Tijuana. Don’t ask people questions and don’t leave your valuables in your car. Oh, and don’t eat anything sold at the food stands.
Other then that, it’s nice.
V enjoys it. He gets lots of people attention.

not so Wordless Wednesday

“We're all fools," said Clemens, "all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day. We think, I'm not a fool today. I've learned my lesson. I was a fool yesterday but not this morning. Then tomorrow we find out that, yes, we were a fool today too. I think the only way we can grow and get on in this world is to accept the fact we're not perfect and live accordingly.”
-Ray Bradbury, Illustrated man.

Live on Ray, In a land where the story never ends, the type never runs out of ink and the pen is as fast as the mind is bright. 

We are all star dust

 non dog related post.

Many years ago in a parking lot I saw an older man with an incredibly large telescope staring into the sun. I thought he was mad so I did what any liable person would do. I got nosy.
I ended up learning the incredible telescope was for looking into the sun, not stars and then the man let me see.
It was the most beautiful thing ever and a memory I will always cherish.

something like this...

There was a solar storm going on at the time and the sun had many spouts coming from it. To this day just the memory of it gives me chills...

I’ve been entranced with the sun since then and at any occasion try to see it.

Venus crossing the sun.
Photo © to Norah Hobgood

learning when to say no more stress

Class today was… learning.
I’ve been crammed with enough information to make my head explode and I keep thinking to myself that he’s not where he should be, and I’m not where I should be and it’s a very unsatisfying feeling.
His play is bad, he has hardly no drive for it.
Praise is the name of his game and by the way my instructor teaches. Play is the #1 ingredient.
Will we get better? No doubt.
Will we ever be perfect? No.
I can honestly say, looking at him right now, that his play drive will never be what it is in some dogs.
You can only force a dog to play so much when looking down at him with a smile and saying ‘good boy’ puts a bigger wag in his tail then any tug or ball can.
Will I still try, try my hardest to get him to put more drive into his play?
Heeeell yes.
But am I going to continue to stress over the fact that he just care about the toys?
no.
not any more. I’m going to let V be V.

Oh, right. And I’m going to work my ass off making him into the best darn agility dog that he can be.

no more looking back now kid, we're in this for the long run.

Class again…

We’ve got another private session with Geri tomorrow.
Things are doing great with V and I cant wait to see what new we have to learn.
He’s playing a lot right now, bringing me toys and even actually starting to give harder tug sessions every so often.
I’m so proud of my little boy. He’s getting so much better.
He’s also done a lot of working with his wobble boards, so much so that he can do anything on them without it fazing him at all. He’s really getting along well.
So. Freaking. Proud.

Blog Hop on little tiger

rarrrr!

Fast, in every direction

Tom Smith; the famous horse trainer of Seabiscuit, was quoted once saying that ‘Seabiscut is fast, in every direction.’

I think of that quote every time I see Eve run. 

She can only really let loose at the dog park and boy she dose. Legs flailing, ears pinned, crazed look in her eyes and she’s off like a bolt.
I don’t know if all Boston Terriers run like this but Eve rocks it with style.

Wordless Wednesday - run on

Under the bridge with the freebie Frisbee.

he saw it coming...

but still Max was incredibly confused.

A little memorial

Spent the weekend taking the dogs to the park. They loved it.  I hope you all remembered our fallen this weekend.

Bed blog hop

It’s not every day that V is allowed on the bed. This is what happens when he is.

Crazy monkey.

And a blog hop!

May Pawpal

Our Pawpal this may was the very own doggy dessert chef and her dogs Pee Wee and Big B. and boy did they spoil us!

The gang here are starting to learn. If the box goes on the bed. It’s for them.

the booty.

Everyone LOVED the toys!

the ball was a big hit at the park for both V and Me, I no longer have to grab slobber balls!

The only thing the dogs haven’t gotten yet is the frozen popsicles. I made them and there waiting in the freezer for the summer heat to return.
I’ll make sure to snap pictures.

Our PawPal this month was Kirby the Dorkie. An incredibly cute little guy! You can see his post on his package >here<.
If you want to get your very own monthly PawPal then please sign up!

Wobble

Went to the home improvement store today. I find myself there a lot and it’s an incredibly dangerous place full of pots and plants and ideas.

I was there with a purpose today though. A wobble board for agility training.

I ended up getting a 32x32 cut of board.

He took to it like a fish in water.

Public service announcement

This is a warning to all doggy moms.
Paw parents beware.

It was too late for me but you can prevent your dog from becoming a pot head.

V was hooked on his first sniff.

 

After he stumbled from the pots he was very mystified by the gurgle of this water fountain.  

Apparently it was speaking his language. 

This is the gorgeous swagger of a pot head. don’t be fooled. This isn’t a sharp border collie stair, this isn’t the ‘eye’. this is glazed from looking at one too many lawn adornments.

one too many lawn adornments.

Lesson 1

I had my first one hour lesson with Geri today.
It was amazing. I’m so packed with information I think my head is going to explode so I’m going to get as much of it out here as I can so I can reference back later.

V in her x-pen not really listing.

• *I don’t play enough with V. play is the key to teaching V agility.
• *he’s not an obedience dog. He’s an agility dog. Stop expecting him to be a perfect obedience dog and let him be an agility dog.
• *play play play play play!!!!
• *play is nothing but pray drive and rabbits don’t jump into the dogs mouth, they run and struggle. This is key.
• *playing with Max is going to hurt my agility progress more then anything else right now. I need to prevent it as much as I can. I need to be the key to his ability to play, not the other dogs.
• *he needs to learn a little control when in an x-pen.
• *balance balls can be found at Wall-mart for cheep.
• *there should be no commands in his training right now. Just actions. treats and play.
• *12 inch wide X minimum of 10 feet long board between two cinder blocks. This is V’s new ground and anything is possible on it. If he falls off, don’t even oops. Just get back on. After this becomes as natural as four feet on the ground, unbalance it. Let that become his natural ground too.
• *build his balance and confidence on anything I can. Blocks and wood and bowls and anything else I can think of.
• *bang game for future teeter training.
• *don't stop doing what I'm doing with socialization. 

 yeah. still moping. honest, he had more fun then the pictures show.

Howling at the… sun?

Took the time today to photograph the solar eclipse.

Time-lapse style. 

Eve and V in front of some nice eclipse sun leaf patterns. 

My favorite picture for the day.

Twas brilig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogroves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
-Cheshire cat in 1951 version of Alice in Wonderland.

4 months

V is 4 months.
19 lbs.
16 inches at the shoulders.

He got his final round of puppy shots today like a pro and is good to go for a year.

Such a handsome little man

I cant help but wonder what jump height he’ll be at… 20” or 24”…. mmm… unless he stop growing right now then he’ll be 16” and wow! That would be a big advantage over all the little dogs! A itty bitty Border!

Saturday blog HOP!

history in the making

I’ve been holding this news in till I explode.

 Falcor says 'OMG!' to the news.

ready?



Tuesday the 22nd is going to be me and V’s first of many private lessons with Geri Hernandez.
USA International Competitor for 2008 and 2009 with her dog Focus who was the 26’ AKC National Agility Champion.

The amazing Stephanie Spyr got the two of us in touch and I can never thank her enough.

I feel like something big is happening in my life for me and V and I cant wait to see what unfolds.

April PawPal

Our pawpal for April was a little late, but boy was it worth the wait!
The box arrived from Genny and Chuck with much excitement from the dogs, Falcor tried to chew it open before I even got the camera out.
Making them behave before getting to open it was an exercise in punishment. Ha!

Feet on the box

And then it opened!!!

The box was full of a warm lovely blanket for Eve.

Trust me. She’s spent the last few days sleeping on it. Eve is addicted to soft blankets. <3

There was home made treats too!

Bacon and cheese
and

chicken and berries.

There was much love for the treats that are almost all gone.

And a toy!