Much Like Childbirth

Mindful of what happened last year when I went to the Whidbey Island show (i.e., stuck at a rest stop during a storm keeping warm with dog bed blankets) I was up and ready by 6 a.m. on Friday. My first stop was to pick up my "package" at a parking lot -- I was transporting this package from one unknown person to another unknown person who was driving down from Canada to retrieve the package.

Well, the package threw up as we entered Washington but that was the only mishap on the whole trip -- roads were clear and lovely, and I arrived at the show site by 1 p.m. to once again find that being so early is not a big advantage. I did get the good news from Kay and Sue (as I was driving) that Ruben Hudson Rock Star went Best of Winners at the Tucson show! Congratulations to him and Team Ruben :)

I was so ahead of schedule that I actually stopped to take pictures. This is the Columbia River -- YIKES! It is big!


I loved that at the scenic view area they helpfully had a sign with an important life lesson:


Excellent advice! And this is on the pass before Seattle...


Jennifer (Cooper Whitby's mom) and I set up our grooming space and waited for the Canadian to arrive to pick up the package -- she finally showed up and happily took possession of her new dog:


Obviously blessed with Good Karma for transporting a rescue dog, we did a conformation match on Friday evening at the show site -- Zoey went Best of Breed and placed third in the Working Group, and there was even a good amount of competition, including Cooper Whitby.

On Saturday Zoey and Zed Dawson were both Reserve, Zoey was Best Bred-by Exhibitor, Jennifer and I both lost our keys (I found mine pretty quickly but Jennifer only found hers after paying someone to open her truck -- sigh), and I had to stay at the show site ALL day to compete in the Bred-by Group -- the only thing we got in that was more experience, so that was good.

Today (Sunday) was a better day as nobody lost their keys and Zoey was Winner's Bitch -- unfortunately there were only nine girls so just short of a major (only two points) and Zoey got beat out for Best of Winners --- by Zed! Yes, Zed was Winner's Dog for a 4 point major and Zoey was Winner's Bitch -- how is that for consistency?! Here are some pictures of the winning littermates...




Jennifer and her girl, Britta, got a novice obedience leg (Yea!) and hopefully made it home safely -- because the adventure this year was driving home.

I ignored the sign that said traction tires were required, counting on all my accumulated good karma, and made it over the first pass with fingers cramped from clutching the steering wheel. The middle part of the drive is through flatlands and it was lovely -- and then outside of Spokane it started snowing again.

The strange thing was that I had just talked to Dear Husband and he had checked the weather for me -- apparently the weather does not check in with weather.com because it was NOT clear. In fact, it was nearly three more hours of white knuckle driving :(

But all is well that ends well -- and I will soon forget the trauma of the three passes and plan my next trip to the lovely Northwest...

So a very fun trip -- always fun to hang out with Jennifer and that Cooper Whitby is LOVELY! I am not sure how I managed to forget to take a picture of him???! Thanks to Lisa K. for letting the girls and me stay with her and her girls -- that was super fun :) Asia was not the best guest as she was constantly showing Lisa her circus trick on Lisa's kitchen chair!

Zoey is over her concerns about judges and shows -- she now tries to run into random show rings -- today she managed to get partway into the ring where they were showing labs -- oops. This is what happens when one works hard to make going in a show ring so fun and exciting :)

Zed and Zoey are now tied at ten points each -- but Zed is ahead because he has that stinking major... The rematch is January in Puyallup, Washington -- see -- I already forgot...

MacNews, 3(2)

Another exciting video version of MacNews -- this one shares his draft progress and you have to watch on YouTube.

When he started a month ago he was afraid to even walk between the shafts to eat treats from the cart -- very common for a beginner dog. So keep that image in your head to be able to gauge his progress.

Some points and things to notice:

1. I do not train with a leash at this point -- I need one hand for food and one hand to just keep contact with the harness in case he gets worried (that allows me to stop him and prevent more scary adventures :) and that takes up all available hands so no leash.

2. The stay is such a hard thing. First he has to sit and then he has to hold it until the release word. There is a lot of motion in a stay -- I leave, I come back, I get in heel position -- and motion cues motion so Montana Mac has had to learn to hold that stay in the face of all those motion cues -- you will see he is doing very well!

3. I keep things within his abilities and move up the difficulty only as he masters previous small (VERY small) pieces.

4. His enthusiasm is what I expect and get from all of my dogs. In fact, I have to separate whatever dog is being worked because getting out the gate or door with just one is impossible!

5. He does sometimes still worry about the cart but I just stop him, let him settle back down (takes about two seconds) and go on like nothing happened. I do not give him treats when he is worried -- only when he is moving confidently. And notice that I have already spaced those treats out -- he used to get one after the other, and now we have time lags.

Let's all thank Galen for filming in the freezing cold! And here is the video link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG8ep8xRPfE

Fun with the Flitters

In the past couple of weeks we have had some excellent accomplishments by the Flitters, and I wanted to share a couple of pictures and offer very public congratulations.

First of all, as I have shared previously, Maddie Madison got her TD -- on her first try. Here is a description of the track posted by one of the judges, Sil Sanders:

"Kaibab'z Free Spirit RA new TD, a 2-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog bitch,
navigated her first leg at a steady pace then speeded up on the second and
overshoot the second corner. Fringing the far side of the third leg, she
overshoot the third corner and came back to the fourth leg and committed
down it. But something was not quite right, so she back-tracked a ways,
then fringed downwind of the fourth leg until the final corner when she
zoomed in on the last leg and then her glove. Handled confidently by Barb
McColgan Pastore of Port Townsend."

And here is a picture of the happy event:


Maya Darby, also a member of the Flitter Team, recently earned her RN -- her mom shares this excellent report:

"This past weekend Maya earned the last 2 legs of her Rally Novice B title with scores of 98 and 95 and 2nd place both days. Now, I know that in the land of Kaibab this is not a big deal. Heck, it takes 2 lines to fit all her mom's titles onto an entry form. But in the life of Maya this is a really big accomplishment. Maya was spayed in mid July following heat cycles every 3 months and false pregnancies between. The pathology report on her uterus was "chronic purulent endometritis" and a few other long medical terms."

In other words, Maya had not been well for some time and it made her life challenging, especially because dogs are so stoic and nobody really knew what was up with her -- but now she is better and happy and playful and started on the title track :)

Here is her picture:


Although not the only measure, title are meaningful because they tell us that the dog is working and training -- thanks for Karen and Barb for giving the gift of an interesting life to Maddie Madison and Maya Darby and big congratulations on those titles!!!!

Half of the Flitters now have working titles -- at just two years old! Way to go Team Flitter!

Look Good, Feel Good, Do Good

We take our motto (attributed to Joan) very seriously! Zoey shows this weekend and so we have been doing almost daily coat care.

Never combing a dry coat, I spray the section I am working on and then separate into little lines, spraying and combing each line so that the water/conditioner is on the skin and hair. I then make another line about an inch away and do it again -- takes three bottles of water/conditioner, an hour, treats, and a patient dog -- and she is small!

Here is an example of a line (click picture to enlarge):


And when we are done, this is what Zoey looks like:



This commitment to coat care makes a big difference -- the coat is very soft, shiny, and just seems bigger/fluffier -- and so while she might not win she will no doubt look stunning :)

MacNews, 3(1)

A special video edition of MacNews! Watch how very well Montana Mac is doing in agility! This is a sequence I got from the map of an Open Jumpers run...


And with a special bonus! Here is Zoey doing the same sequence at 24 inches -- and a look at her progressing weave poles...

Glimpses from a Sunday Morning

Dear Husband and Zoey


Maize saying hi to her dad


Could Syd be any cuter?!


Halo LOVES her dad!


Asia wants to join the circus!


We are all glad to have a couch again -- Karma thinks it is perfect for whacking unsuspecting people...


Zoey is the biggest Cuddle-Bug ever -- she loves to sit on my lap but nobody is ever here to take a picture of it -- until now :)


Carlos/Ute is very happy to have one of his many dads here.


Maize LOVES her Galen :)

And Galen is not at all worried about getting teased by Z__ for using a pink cup ;)

Weekend Happenings!

Big excitement around here!!! FURNITURE! Yes indeed, Dear Husband drove a big U-Haul up with most of our stuff from the Utah house but even better? Following him was a carload of strong and cheerful helpers -- Jake, Cassie, Galen and Tanner! See for yourself how the day unfolded:




Dear Husband, now retired, is happily growing out his hair -- he says that he wants a PONY TAIL (!!!). I think he has a great start :)


We had some excellent supervisors...


Cadi, Maize and especially Syd were absolutely besides themselves when they saw their brothers, but most especially GALEN!!! This is Cadi and Galen -- Cadi is telling Galen that he cannot leave anymore and Galen agreed -- he changed his mind (again) and is registered for the Spring semester at the University of Montana -- YEA!!!!! Although he will be moving into Missoula, he will be close enough to once again be our excellent Dog Nanny :)


We took everyone out to the only real restaurant in our little town -- Cafe en Jalisco -- to say thanks and celebrate Cassie's b-day. We included Cassie's paternal grandfather, who happens to live just 15 miles from us! We have adopted him into our family and enjoy hearing his wonderful stories about growing up in southern California/Hollywood -- before it exploded into the giant mess it is now ;)


And then the boys went over the the local casino, which apparently only has video poker -- they came home happy since all they lost was my ten dollars!


They convinced the long-haired, grizzled ex-cop to shoot off illegal fireworks and then we were all done! Everyone except Galen leaves this morning, and Dear Husband will continue to ready the Utah house to rent but he will be back up in 1.5 weeks for Thanksgiving :)

And that is our report -- hope you are also having a moving weekend but not involving lifting and U-Hauls!

Color Blind

When Galen went to kindergarten, I was so sad when he came home one day and announced that he could no longer like pink because, "pink is a girl color." It made me realize that the socialization process is a tough one...

As Liz points out, color really is gender neutral and it is only what we ascribe to it that matters. But we live in an external world and it can be a cruel one -- consider this text sent to poor Mac:

"Dear Mac...pink is just fine...sucka! Sincerely,_ _ _" [name protected but another boy whose name starts with Z]

This, my friends, is the world we live in...

So yes, pink is a lovely color -- my favorite in fact -- but we cannot force Mac to wear pink just to make a point about the need not to succumb to external ideas of what is appropriate for boys and girls. Mac does not wish to be a billboard for new ideas of gender -- he wants someone else to carry that mantle of pinkness, which is understandable (see above text for proof).

But we apparently cannot reach consensus about harness color so I think we will have to do something different about that -- something that includes everyone's ideas of what color he should wear (except Z _ _'s) -- stay tuned for that :)

Special Day, Special People (& Dogs)

Galen said: "...make sure Maize gets an extra treat, it is Veterans Day after all!"



Maize appreciated that! And we appreciate all of our Veterans -- two and four-legged ones. Happy Veterans Day!

Vote!

I created a poll -- please vote! You should see it to your right >>>>>>>>

MacNews, 2(2)

The end of our second week of serious training -- or maybe it is the third but it is the end of some week and the second edition in the second volume of MacNews :) Again, I had to take these pictures myself so not the best but they give you a visual image of what we are doing...

Montana Mac is amazingly like my girls in terms of attitude and love for training. This is him running to the training arena -- he has caught on quickly to what is fun, hasn't he?! He thinks his Real Mom back east will need to plan one of these fun places for his coming home present :)


In the meantime, Montana Mac is thinking his Real Mom might need to send him a present right now -- he wanted me to ask if anyone else sees a problem with this picture???!!!


And he wants everyone to promise never to share that picture because he is very embarrassed about it, and thinks the other dogs will laugh. He is collecting ideas for what color harness he should have, and he is pretty sure it should NOT be pink!!!! Please post your color suggestion in the Comments...

However, let's look beyond color and check in with his progress! As you can see, Montana Mac is somewhat hitched!!! A dog is hitched to a cart in two ways. First, the shafts go through little loops on the harness. Second, the harness is attached to the front of the cart through two traces.

In the above picture you can see that Montana Mac is attached through the two loops on the shafts -- he is not attached with the traces (which are green in the picture -- click on picture to enlarge). Why not? If he were to get worried -- which most beginner dogs do -- he can easily escape the cart because the loops come quickly off the shafts. You never want a bad, scary cart experience -- ever! And so one takes baby steps, building confidence with each tiny step.

We have progressed in a systematic way to what you see in that picture. He is pulling the cart hitched as above (with me holding the shaft to make sure the cart stays connected) in straight lines and with a gentle bend -- not a real turn -- just a bend. He once today got worried and I let go so he could easily go forward without the cart. He turned and looked at it and I just invited him to turn around and get hitched again, which he did with no problem.

At the end of the session he was perfectly comfortable posing for pictures -- what excellent progress he is making. As he pulls I am a cookie dispenser -- treat after treat in front of his nose. This not only reinforces his excellent work but it also creates a great association with the cart. When my handful of treats is almost gone, I ask him to sit while I reload my hand -- and so he gets practice sitting/staying with the cart.

I treat in front of him to help him understand that he needs to pull straight ahead -- this is important because if the dog tries to turns in to get a treat, the dog will likely feel trapped by the shafts and get scared.

Yes, my fingers get nibbled at times by both Mac and Syd -- but one must be willing to sacrifice for training! So a handful of treats and off we go in a straight line. When there is one treat left, the dog sits and I reload. After that we either go straight again or I release the dog and turn the cart around, hitch up again, and go straight :)

I will decrease the frequency of the treats from one every 2 seconds (seriously) to one every 3 - 4 seconds and so on. As the dog gains comfort in the cart, he no longer needs the constant treats -- but they typically do at first and that is just fine.

I will not connect the traces to Montana Mac's cart until next weekend when my various family members are showing up with the furniture from the Utah house (YEA!). Galen has helped me train every draft dog I have had (n=7) so I will put him back to work -- a second person is great for managing the cart in case a dog gets scared when he is hitched.

Okay, let's move on to agility! Yesterday I started Mac on weave poles. I teach these using what is called the 2 x 2 method from Susan Garrett -- it involves teaching two poles at a time and gradually bringing sets of two together into six. So Macaroon got rewarded simply for going between two poles -- pretty easy for a smart guy like him.

He is now doing lovely sequences from Novice level Jumpers agility courses. I started teaching him front and back crosses this weekend and again, he is doing very well. He tries very hard to do what is right, and loves to work. Today when he ran into the arena he immediately raced over and did the broad jump, and then looked back at me as if to say, "well, whatta think of that?!"

Montana Mac is an athlete -- take a look at this picture of him jumping the triple which was set at 20 inches!!!


Holy Crapola - the dog can jump! Here is Montana Mac coming out of the tunnel...

He thinks there is just way too much pink around here!!!!

Finally, here is a picture of him as he was running about and playing with Zoey...


I think Montana is agreeing with Montana Mac -- what do you think???

Lest you think the girls are getting neglected, in addition to Montana Mac's training session today I have also done obedience with Asia and Cadi, agility with Halo and Cadi, walked two miles with Syd and Zoey, and practiced breed ring stuff with Zoey. Mrs. Maize is tired from her walk yesterday and so is just being the Chief of the Fun Police today -- in between naps :)

I had to get everything done this morning as it is supposed to start raining at any moment, and you know I cannot have unchecked boxes on my Dog Week Schedule!!!

Have a wonderful, special, exciting and productive Sunday :)

Saturday Happenings in Montana

A busy day here in western Montana. Montana Mac thought all the happenings were quite interesting!


Zoey said, "throw the stinking ball already!"


Karma decided to show the dogs how to have a good time, and said to Cadi, "watch this"...


Mac and Syd were amazed and could not take their eyes off her!


Syd said, "that is one crazy cat! No wonder squirrels fear her and deer make friends!"


Karma triple dog dared the dogs to try it, but none of them was brave enough...


So they decided to try and dig a hole to China -- Cadi was first and reports that digging is hard work!


Mac thought it seemed interesting so he said, "move over and let a man handle this!"


Halo told Mac to go chew on a stick or something -- digging is a job for tough, strong chicks...


Syd decided she was a tough, strong chick and so she took a turn as well...


Zoey was too busy chasing her ball to take a turn -- so she didn't.


Cadi and Syd had a conference to decide how much farther it was to China...

...and it was decided to continue the work tomorrow :)

Hope you are having a productive weekend!

All About Perspective: The Story of Ute/Carlos

Let's start with the perspective of Dear Husband, as told by his astute and accurate wife:
Arriving home from one of his endless shifts at one of his many jobs, Kim finds a new cat wandering about the house in Salt Lake City. Knowing his wife too well, he calls her and asks what she knows about the cat. Wife denies knowledge and points out she is in Montana -- asks if cat has a collar? Yes, he does -- Kim looks and discovers HIS phone number and name on the ID tag of this new cat, and that the cat's name is UTE -- the name of his favorite university, the University of Evil -- oops, I mean the University of Utah. Kim, who is not a cat fan, is confused and perplexed -- and suspicious.



Prior to this, Nicole was in California visiting her relatives, including the ones who have a ranch. Someone has once again dumped a kitten!!! Nicole knows what happens to most of the cats that get dumped -- it involves a car and a flattened cat. Nicole does what anyone in her situation would do -- she calls her mom.

Soon the abandoned kitten is sporting a new collar, a new ID tag, and a new name -- and is on an airplane flying to Utah.

Ute/Carlos reports that his life was just fine in sunny California when he was abruptly taken from his mom, dumped in a strange place, snatched from life on the streets (literally), collared, tagged, shoved in a bag and under a seat, dumped again at some strange house only to be discovered by a man who said something to the effect of, "where did this darn cat come from?"


Galen and Tanner LOVE the new cat! In fact, they form a little family and decide the cat has two dads! Every week the cat has a new name -- and so if one asks, "how is Ute?" the two dads act confused and say something like, "oh, you mean (insert name of the week)?" After trying on two dozen names, the two dads decide that Carlos is the cat's real name.

But Dear Husband actually kind of likes the cat, and to him, the cat is Ute -- not Carlos.

Here is the next part of the story:


The cat known as Ute to some and Carlos to others is shoved back in his little bag and brought to yet another state -- Montana and the State of Panic, as there are a bunch of dogs in this new state, generating the additional state (follow that?!). And so he escapes -- generating yet another State -- Great Anxiety.

Recaptured after being sprayed out from under the deck, Ute-Carlos has now lived safely in Montana for a few weeks and is getting brave enough to slink around the house...


The Morals of this Story:

From the perspective of Dear Husband: Don't trust your wife. Think carefully before marrying an animal-lover.
From the perspective of Nicole: Moms solve everything.
From the perspective of the two dads: Parenthood is a lot of responsibility and requires that one remember to keep doors closed.
From the perspective of Ute-Carlos: Run. Fast.