What a weekend!

I just had 4 days of agility trials in Milwaukee.  That means I was up just as early or earlier than if I was at work.  The trials, nicknamed “Hounds”, are held at an indoor soccer arena and are huge with 450 to 500 dogs entered each day.  It is not uncommon to go home ribbonless from an event like this so we were fortunate that yesterday Cori qualified in a very tough Excellent Jumpers class and came home with a 4th place.  There were 340 dogs in her class with 31 running at her jump height level and only 4 of the 31 qualifyng so we were quite pleased.   The people running the trials kept track of the number of “nq’s” (non qualifying runs) for each day and less than 1/3 of dogs running qualified.  Yesterday out of 940 runs there were 655 non-qualifying ones.

 The trials are well organized and for 4 days it is like living in a different world with many top canine athletes and their handlers/trainers there competing.  The shopping is good there, too.  I will say that I think the novice level courses now are getting very tough, especially for first time competitors and are more on the equivalent of what the open classes used to be like.  I saw very tight spaces and many “traps” on the courses, something that you usually wouldn’t see in novice until the past year or so. The beginning of the novice course yesterday was the exact same beginning as the excellent one the day before (same judge) except a broad jump was in place instead of a triple.   I am concerned that many of the first timers are not prepared to run that complexity of course and may become discouraged.   Since we need newcomers to the sport to keep the sport going perhaps AKC needs to revisit the complexity of the novice courses.  Okay, off my soap box…..tomorrow is a work day.  And as a t-shirt at the trial said: “A bad day at an agility trial is better than a good day at work”.

Views from the Peds world

I have two jobs as an RN — one in a pediatrics clinic, one in a hospital NICU.  Often I am the triage nurse at the clinic so I’m on the “front lines” taking phone calls, answering parents’ questions, etc.  We all get interesting phone calls and of course with HIPPA laws I can’t be too specific but I could write a book about some of the calls I and the other nurses get. 

For ex — This summer one of my co-workers answered a call from a parent who was on a family camping trip out west.  They called for a refill of their child’s antibiotics because a bear broke into their supplies and ate the child’s antibiotics!  That was a call we talked about for quite some time wondering how the bear liked the strawberry flavored medication, if it upset their stomach, etc.!  Yesterday I got a call from a parent asking if we could write an excuse so their child didn’t have to wear part of a school uniform.  Just when I thought I’d heard it all……I’m sure there are many more interesting calls to come. 

She Dances With Horses!

Tonight I was invited by a friend to attend a demo by a horse trainer who instructs using the
Parelli method, which is also known as “Natural Horsemanship”. The instructor, Farrah Green of Sioux Falls, SD, was able to control her horse on the ground via subtle body language cues and get him to do amazing things such as trot in sync with her, lay down on his side, sit up (which requires a huge amount of muscle control from the horse) all while playing with him. It was like watching them do a dance together they were so in sync with each other. She also rode him with only a hackamore (no bit in the mouth) and he was wonderfully responsive. A very cold night but worthwhile to see someone who can train a horse to this level with no force of any kind.

Thankful

It isn’t Thanksgiving yet but I have something important to be thankful for today.  Sixteen years ago today I had major back surgery.  It took me 9 months to recover and I still have pins and rods in my back BUT I can walk fine, I am not in pain and I can ride horses again!  Although the memories of the pain before surgery and the long recovery are tempered by 16 years I am very thankful to Dr. Zdeblick at the UW Hospital for his skill that day when he did my surgery.

The Great Escape

It’s not the first time they’ve played Houdini…….Saturday evening the mini donkeys decided the grass really was greener on the other side of the fence and found the perfect weak spot in the fence to go through.  Unfortunately the grass is indeed greener there as it is alfalfa hay, not good for donkeys on a diet. 

 When I went to call the girls in for the night instead of being met by the usual braying there was silence.  Not good……It was pitch black out and I didn’t have a flashlight with me.  I listened intently and finally heard the sounds of twigs snapping but no donkey hooves coming closer.  I walked out into the pasture and as I got close to the back fence I could make out Glo (Morning Glory) as she is mainly white.  I then realized all four donkeys were looking at me from the other side of the wire fence.   Of course they weren’t able to get back through it as that isn’t where the escape route was located.  I remembered earlier in the year noting that a portion of the wire fencing was looking pretty saggy so felt my way down the fence line until my hands only touched air instead of a line of fence.  Voila!  The escape hatch was found!  Fortunately when I called the girls they came along the fence line and I held down what was left of the wire for them to step over.  They were moving pretty slowly at that point.  Got them into their stall and Glo immediately laid down — not a good sign.  Got her up walking and her stomach was really bloated looking and she kicked at it a couple of times. 

You may have heard of “colic” — it can be life-threatening in horses and other livestock and she had the symptoms.  Of course it was 11 p.m. by then on a Saturday night.  Fortunately the clinic we use for the equines has a vet on call even on nights and weekends.  I called the clinic number and was patched into him.  The one on call happens to own a couple of donkeys himself which was helpful.  He told me the girls would be fine but it is like a kid who ate too much Halloween candy so they were going to have stomach aches for a while. 

 It was one of those nights where you don’t sleep well and I did check on them a couple of times.   A close call but fortunately but in the a.m. all four were on their feet and seemed okay.  Of course the hole in the fenceline is now patched and they’ve had to stay off pasture for a couple of days which they think is torture.

Just another day in the country at the Blue Barn Farm……..

Sometimes Life gets in the way……

……..of writing in the blog……..I haven’t had time to write anything as the last week has been pretty hectic.  I was on the committee for the annual Wisconsin Dog Fair, an event that has gotten larger and larger each year.  This year we moved to a larger venue and as vendor chair I had 100 vendor booth spaces taken and their occupants to take care of.   The Dog Fair was 11/4 and I think it was a huge success since I have not gotten a single complaint from my vendors!  

 Friday (11/2) I was interviewed on the noon news program on Channel 3.  They said bring a dog and with all my reliable Lab girls in season it fell to a Pug to participate.  Sprite was as good as could be, sitting nicely on my lap for the entire interview.  Then the Sunday a.m. at the Dog Fair Channel 15 was doing a “live remote” with interviews from the Dog Fair as it was being set up.  I had brought Summer, my 1 year old Lab with to be a representative for our breed so she got her 3 minutes of fame as I was interviewed during that broadcast.  I saw the show on their web site and fortunately the cameras focused mainly on Summer while I was being interviewed.  Now if I was not at a dog event on a Sunday a.m. the last thing I would be doing was watching TV at 8 a.m. but apparently half of the population of this area was doing just that as everywhere I’ve gone the last few days someone is telling me they saw me on TV.    I wasn’t nervous because partially I thought no one would be watching!

Ali is a star!

A week ago we got a call from a company looking for a yellow Labrador who was obedience trained and would hold a pose lying down with her head flat between her paws while holding an ice bag on her head.  I decided Ali was the most likely one for this activity so started training her a few minutes a day to put her head down on the floor on command.  I did this using a clicker and treats.  Fortunately she is quite food motivated and by rewarding at first for any movement of her head towards the floor I was able to shape the behavior I wanted.

 Today was the photo shoot and she did great!  In fact she did so well they took some extra poses including outdoors and said they would be calling us again when they needed more shots.  It was a fun afternoon.

Halloween and Heart Dogs

Reilly, age 14. 

What do Halloween and Heart Dogs have in common?  A little after midnight 19 years ago our Lab, Chessie, began having puppies.  When all was said and done there were 12 black lab puppies in the whelping box.  As the puppies grew one kept catching our eye.  He just seemed a bit different than the rest, even his black color was not the same raven black, he was more a chocolate black.  Of course you have figured out we ended up keeping him and his name became Reilly, more specifically he was “Chessie’s Life O’Reilly”. 

 Reilly wasn’t the most classic looking Labrador but he added a lot of titles to his name in obedience and agility.  Most important he was my “co-pilot” almost any time I went anywhere in the car except to work.  He and I literally travelled all over the country competing at Labrador Specialties (several nationals) and all breed shows. He was so well behaved he was welcomed anywhere we went.  One year he and I flew to California to the National and then stayed an extra week with friends.   When we flew back in late October it was 80 when we left San Francisco and it was snowing hard when we landed in Milwaukee.  I was a bit concerned about how he did on the flight as he was 9 years old and the last part of the flight was turbulent due to the storm.  As I exited the plane, the pilot said “I know your dog is fine, I heard him barking down in the baggage compartment for the last part of the flight”, a relief to me.

I’ve had other Labs before, during and after Reilly but he was the one in a million, my “heart dog” and I will never forget him.  Happy Birthday, Ri Ri, as always I’m thinking of you today. 

U-CD, U-AGII Chessie’s Life O’Reilly UD, NA, 10/31/88 to 12/16/03. 

Mischief in the barnyard

Sunday, October 28th, 2007 

Yesterday the donkeys had some grazing time in the agility area (my classes are indoors now due to no light in the evenings). They can only have about 2 to 4 hours of grass per day as they are very “easy keepers” and grass goes right to their waists and crests (the top of their neck stores fat) just like frozen custard goes to my waist!  So my husband put them in their paddock after a couple of hours and never noticed the brand new gouges in my a-frame.  

Soooo, it appears that one or two of the younger donkeys decided to try climbing the a-frame and succeeded as the gouges went over the top and down the next side!   Did I mention I just repainted all of my agility equipment 3 weeks ago??  Fortunately it was sunny and 50s today so the paint cans came back out and I touched up the gouges as best as I could.  As Kent said — wish we had security cameras in the barnyard so we could see how they managed to climb it!

Hello world!

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

Since I’m always posting news on the top of my web page I decided it’s time that I join the modern world and start a blog!

I can’t promise how much I’ll write but I have to start somewhere!

It’s been a beautiful fall day here in WI — mid 50s and sunny which for late October is not bad although the 80s of a couple of weeks ago were much better as far as I am concerned. The leaves haven’t even all turned and I’ve still got some tomatoes growing and pumpkins that aren’t all orange. And great news, the Badgers won against Indiana today!

I was fortunate enough to have time to ride my horse, Nick, this afternoon. He was a bit frisky with the cooler temperatures but we had a nice ride around the neighbor’s hay field. Hope to ride again tomorrow.
Well, off to feed the dogs….