Wordless Wednesday

And if you are on FB, you already saw this . It just cracks me up, so Im posting it here.

agility and Photograpy

Thursday I drove up to NC for an agility class.  Well, I rode up.  A friend of mine drove, so that was nice.  I went to the novice class and masters. Here was part of the course for the novice class.

I was up first.  Miley crashed the jump #5. It was horrible. She flipped several times and slid across the grass on her back. Ugh.  But she seems ok. She took the jump again and she crashed again but not like the first time. She landed on the bars.  So Meagan came over and bent down so she was seeing like the dog.  Well, the field was shaded except for this tiny sun spot which was hitting Miley right in the face so she couldnt see.  We moved the jump over, did the course again. No problem.  Such a tiny thing, a sun spot, could have taken my dog out for good.  Im soooo glad she is ok.
For the masters class there was a slight change of the course.

As you can see, your dog has to take the back side of that jump after coming out of the tunnel.   For the pass few weeks Ive been practicing getting my dog to come into me when coming out of a tunnel.  I would set this up;

I would change it up by sometimes having her take the jump that she sees coming out of the tunnel or running this backwards.  It has taken a lot of work to get her to come between the jump. Ive had lots of failures and successes. Then went I went to "T" 's house, I set it up again and it was like she hadnt seen it before. But eventually she got it.   So how would she do with Meagan's course when I needed her to come into me between the jump and the weaves and then take the backside of the jump.   Well, SUCCESS!!  She did it.  I was so excited.  She got a big jackpot after that.
 Yesterday I took the dogs for a long hike at the state park. Lots of hills.  I had certain shots I wanted to set up. 

She is to far away in this picture but otherwise I like it.

I wish the leash wasnt on Guiness in these pictures.  I was to scared to take his leash off in this area. He cant be trusted.  Its not like I take the leash off and he bolts. Its just that if something caught his fancy, like a bike, deer or squirrel, he would bolt.  And not listen.

What I dont understand about photography is why sometimes the dog looks so crisp and other times not. Now I realize the amount of light has something to do with it but the first pictures of miley on this post, she is just so crisp , but this picture she isnt.  It might be hard to tell on the blog. Its more noticeable on my computer. I looked at the camera setting but that didnt tell me much. Then I read about the "sweet spot" in your camera lens.  So Ive been trying to look at all my pictures and the apertures, that didnt help me figure it out either.

Then there was this big bone.  It doesnt look big , I should have put something next to it for reference.  Its some type of femur bone.  Hopefully animal.

We havent had any rain so the creeks to the river are dry.  I hiked a different way and usually water is here for the dogs. But not this time. So we needed to keep going to the river. I knew the dogs were hot and I felt we were closer to the river than the car. So I kept going.

 When we got to the river it felt wonderful.  The wind was blowing and we all needed that.  The water is so low that I could cross to the big rocks in the middle of the river. This bird was fishing so I got some nice shots.

These arent what I wanted either. I think the wind blowing and then none of the shots where both dogs looking at the camera.  It would have been great if they had both been looking. Plus the rock looks great and the picture loses something as you look up at the dogs to the sky.

Sometimes it was really windy!!

This  picture is very cute. Usually these rocks are covered with water.

Now crossing back to the land you need to pay attention. This picture isnt from us crossing but it gives you an idea of how big some of the rocks are.  When crossing back, Miley stays right behind me. But not Guiness. I guess he thinks he knows better. Any way, I was trying to get him to come my way,instead he tried to jump down and either couldnt support himself or slipped. He fell and jammed his neck on a rock. That was pretty horrible too.  But he got right up and seemed fine.  He almost hit his face. Thank god that didtn happen or his throat. I would have really had a problem then. Im not sure I will take him out on the rocks again.  If something had happened I was 2 miles from the road. ( they are on a flexi lead so he does have to come  with me but it gives them room in case I or they fall we dont pull each other down)
This morning it was beautiful outside. I stopped at this little park on the lake. Its not really a good park, just a small one that people can put their boats in the water.  It was 7am and the guy who collects the money wasnt there yet so it was free to park.

The color on the lake was beautiful but I didnt have enough light for the dogs.  So their color isnt good.  I tried to use the flash ( not noted on this picture) but I couldnt figure out how to tone the flash down. It was driving me crazy, how hard could that be.  If I used a flash, the dog had good color but it washed out the back ground. When I got home I looked it up. The camera automatically adjust the flash for the lighting but because of the contrast of light and dark it wasnt right. Now I know I have to click this one setting and then change it to manual and then adjust the flash.  LOL, my other camera I just clicked the button to adjust the flash.  This one has so many steps I hope I remember them.
Then a small sun spot came thur the trees. I set Miley up and I really like how it turned out.  This was to close to all the squirrels and stuff for me to set Guiness up and be trusted.

Again same lighting problem.  Soo disappointing.  I wish I could have figured out that flash. Ugh!!

My son went to college today. We are empty nesters.  Now we just need to get them off the payroll. LOL

Love my dog

I went to a friends house to work Miley.   He has a great yard. I wish I had his yard.  I wish I had brought  my camera, there were multiple humming birds.  So cool. One was just sitting on this green fencing. Man I missed out.

First I set this course up. I made it up.  Mostly just to run the outside loop. That way I have speed to the table and practice weave poles coming out of a tunnel.

Sometimes I would do the a-frame and sometimes the tunnel going around the loop. We had lots of table failures. Im not sure why. "T" said my commands were late. She was already taking a jump and turning toward the tunnel before I said table. Ugh!!  Sometimes she jump on  and off the table and kept on running.  I would tell her 'No"  when she did this. I dont think she cared.  Im not sure how to correct her not getting on the very first time and staying there.  I ran without treats.  If she got on the first time and stayed there, we ran to the cooler to get treats.   Im trying to make things like  a trial to see what maybe causing the table problems.

Next I ran these sequences from the Clean Run files. Aug, Kathy Keats courses.

This one we didnt have to much trouble with except me remembering the course.

This next one, Ugh.

I didnt have any trouble getting from #4-#5. But I kept getting caught on the left side of 5, and then she didnt know where to go after 5.  So finally , when talking with "T", I realized I meant to stay on the right side of 5, run that line and then FC to 7.  But then going from 7, 8. 9, she was going wide around 9 ( so missing 9) and taking the tunnel.  I just couldnt figure it out. But "T" pointed out that I was pushing in as she took 8, to run to the left side of 4.  This was pushing her wide.  Once I stayed on the right side of 4 when running that line to the tunnel. She took the correct #9 jump.  ( did you get all that??? LOL)   Anyway,  I really wish I could figure these things out on my own. Why cant I do that?   As I drove home thinking about how great my dog is and how crappy I am.  That  if I could do a better job we would be great. LOL.  If finally struck me, she doesnt care.  She doesnt know what went right or wrong. She doesnt care if we are great or not. She just likes to run agility.  I keep worrying she is going to be to old to run before I figure this out. But now I know it doesnt matter.  She just wants to run. Here , there, anywere. I need to let all the stupid crap go and just enjoy learning and realize I might never get to wear Im going and if I cant enjoy where we are now, Im going to miss out on this wonderful time I have with her. She is filled with excitement, you feel it when she is at the line.  The enthusiasm she has when running agility is like nothing else she does. 
Now she is sleeping. It was so hot outside , it took it out of her. She even just jumped back into the car without protest when we were done.

A much needed Day

We took the dogs out to the lake today.  Im not sure if they took down the birds nest or if it fell down. But here is what it looks like now.

Poor bird.  They dont seem to happy.

Guiness hates water unless he is chasing waves.  If there are waves, he goes crazy.

Miley just stands there while Guiness runs down and back barking at the waves.

Oh, wait, I think she dropped a treat

Then back to chasing waves.

And look, someone left a table for us to practice on.

Thats all folks!!

Even longer week

I cant believe I havent blogged all week.  Im really behind on reading blogs too.  And then some blogs arent letting me leave comments, very irritating.  So I just wrote a whole paragraph about whats been going on at work and how much stress its causing me. But I delete it. I dont want to get in any trouble so I guess I need to leave it at ,"Im stressed out".  I worked Miley (at agility) a little on Wednesday at a friends house.  We did easy stuff so I didnt have to think to much.
Then Thursday I went to the club. We are trying to clean up our practice agility equipment , so when the new field is ready , the  equipment will be ready. We pulled out all our jumps. They are about 12 years old and made of wood.  We went thur them to see what we needed to do to fix them. Pull the lattice off the wings. Most of the lattice is broken. The jumps were really wobbly.
 Friday, we took Stephanie to college.  She was very, very nervous.  I told her after we unloaded her stuff and got her books we would take her out to lunch.  She said, "Am I allowed to leave?".  LOL, I told her "yea it isnt jail".  This was to funny. I think she is so use to going to camps and stuff where you arent allowed to leave.  And they werent allowed to leave when they were in orientation.  But it was still funny.  Then at lunch  I said, let take bets on how long it will take for Stephanie to lock her keys in her room. I bet within 24 hours. (The doors are self closing) So then we take her back to her room to drop of her and the last of her stuff. We say goodbye. We leave and some girls come and knock on the door. We hear Stephanie open the door and step out of her room.  We are walking down the stairs and we  hear Stephanie say, "Oh crap. I locked my keys in my room". We just kept going, laughing all the way down the steps.  

On the way home we stopped a the hardware store and bought a bunch of lattice. Then my husband and son cut it all. Its to replace the lattice we removed from the old agility jumps at the club.

Then today we fixed and painted all the jumps. Tomorrow we will put all the lattice back on and hopefully be done.   At least we wont have those wobbly jumps anymore.

I worked on Mileys table some more today.  A friend of mine is at a trial and sent me a text. Her dog is having table issues. This is the third trial that the table has caused her not to "Q".  I feel bad. But we havent been training together, so I dont think is anything I have done. Its is weird though.

Here is some video of Miley's table work.  I usually put Guiness away because he will deter Miley from taking a jump or tunnel. She worries he is going to nail her. Well he did.  The reason I left him out was to use him as a distraction for getting on the table.  Hopefully I didnt make things worse.



Then this is Miley cooling off. Do you think she got wet enough?

Hey, Look, Agility

I was thinking today about something someone said to me at a trial in July.  We were talking about contacts. Her dog was going kinda slow over the contacts.. She said someone told her to put a tunnel at each end of the dogwalk and run her dog about 10 times. And not to do a 2o/2o  during those 10 times. It teaches your dog to race across the contacts.  Anyway, that got me thinking about the table today.  I dont know why, when I had the conversation  over a month ago.  I thought if I put a tunnel at each end with a table in the middle maybe it would create a lot of speed an she wont stop on the table. ( she stops on the table aways at home and I was just trying to get the excitement I have at a trial).  So here is what happened. Multiple times she would touch and go off the table, but only in that one direction.




She definitely was very excited.  So I worked until she finally hit that one she had been missing and then jackpot.  The other thing I was thinking was, I dont always practice tables. When we practice, I always do jumps and tunnels. Add contacts several times a week and weave poles.  But tables , only once in a while.  Hmmmm, not sure why Im doing that.  So Ive decided to train it just like I do jumping skills, contacts and weaves.  I dont know why this is just occurring to me. LOL

Long week

As you know I went back to work this week.  I dont know why going to work takes so much out of me. I feel like I do more physically at home then at work. LOL  So Tuesday and Wednesday I had to help with registration.  I sit at a table by myself ( the nurse station) for 8 hours. This allows parents to come talk to me about medical problems and get forms from me.  To get ready for registration I have papers that I bring with me.  Well this summer they renovated the building that my office is in.  I packed up all my stuff and they moved it to another room.  Apparently during the summer they  made the custodians move the front office stuff 4 times.  So now everyone stuff was all mixed together.  Here is what I walked into.

I went to work an hour early both days to find stuff I needed.  How was I going to work like this on Thursday when the offical first day for staff started?   But I got lucky.  They didnt do anything to my office but paint and  and change some cabinets in a back room.   No new floors or cabinets.  So they moved me back in on Thurday. Yea!!  Im still very behind on my work, but at least Im in my office. I was stuck in my office for a couple of hours as they stripped and waxed the floors outside my office. But that was ok because I was just working on the computer anyway.
Last night I took the dogs to the park. It wasnt as hot because a storm was trying to come thur.  It never did where I was but it still dropped the tempertures.  Hardly anyone was there.  It was wonderful. Peaceful!

Can you see the tiny lizard in the middle of the photo. Cute huh?

This was just beautiful.  The bird was right in a sun spot.  Im not sure the picture really captures what it truely looked like.  Again , peaceful.

Then Guiness got the zoomies but Miley isnt going to play in the water. LOL

Its raining this morning so Im not what we will do today. Im just glad its Saturday!

Wordless Wednesday