End of the year

The weather isn't horrible here but not great either.  Where or where is the sun?  Im one of those people that really needs sunshine. Today is another cloudy, overcast day. Yuck!   My fibromyalgia has been really bad. Im at a lost of what to do next.  Im sick of all these medications. Nothing is helping and they just make me tired , irritable and give me sleep problems.    We just keep adding medications and they help for a little while and then they stop again. Ugh!!

Anyway, I was able to walk my dogs yesterday. 

Sure would have been nice to have some sun in this shot.  I was trying to get a picture of him flying away. Of course I haven't seen anyone  for the first hour I was there. But  now two bikes come by and Java and Guiness loose their minds. I have their leashed wrapped around my arms and trying to take shots of this bird. I don't know how any of these shots came out. My arms jerking all over the place.

I had to crop all the shots because the bird was all the way to the right from my arm jerking. LOL

I really broke Java's dogwalk now.  I bought a "hit-it " board and had it made to 12 inches by 36inches, the size of the USDAA dogwalk contact size.  She will run on it when its on the ground or if she isn't running the whole dogwalk but have her run the whole dogwalk and she takes a freaking giant leap. Ugh!!!





It wouldn't be so upsetting if I hadn't spent money on it. Crap!!

Then when I removed the "hit it" board, she was now adding an extra stride on the down ramp. So you probably think good, she it hitting the contact.  But I don't think it will hold up. That it will fade into two hits again but jumping the contact. Ack!!





So I hope we are back to this again. I will slowly work on me being more and more behind when she runs. Just hard to see the contact when doing that. (which is why I wanted the hit-it board.)

Christmas Eve and the Beach

On the way to my mom's house, Stephanie and I stopped off at a state park that is on the ocean. They allow dogs on the beach. It was a beautiful day. Sunny and 60.   I think when we were driving into the park I saw Lexi. She was the rescue  dog I had a few weeks ago.  Someone nearby adopted her. I should have stopped and asked them but I thought they might think I was weird if it wasn't them.

 This is a cool beach with all the dead trees.

My son had to work so  my husband and him came to my mom's later that night.

(Guiness cant be trusted off leash. Or at least I don't want to take the chance)

 The dogs had fun.  So did Stephanie , she took lots of cool pictures of the trees.

 Trying to get a picture of me and the dogs.

 Java is over the whole thing and telling Stephanie off.

Success.

My dogs like to place chase around things, like dead trees.

Wonderful time.  Im glad we made the detour to the beach.

The Hike

I took my dogs to the state park on Sunday.  It was very warm but cloudy. I didn't hike as much as I usually do because it was so warm. I thought I would just hike out to the river and back.

I almost tried to kill  myself.  I was on this part of the trail that has a slim path and a drop off on the side.

If you look down there, you can see the creek at the bottom. So you don't want to fall here.

Anyway, these ladies came by. They got off the path so I could pass them.  So as Im passing, Guiness stops in front of me, I step on him and start to fall forward. Ack!!.  Some how I managed to stay upright on my feet. Thank goodness. All I could think was Im going to hurt my dogs or break my camera.  Lucky, none of that happened.  We made it to the river without any more problems.

Java was the only one who would go down on the rocks.  It was slippery. The water must have recently been up and covering all the rocks.

Once I brought out treats, everyone was much more accommodating.

Tons of turtles were out.

Anyway, we made it back to the car without anymore problems.

I really need to go here more. It much better physical activity for me and the dogs than the other park.  All the hills are great.

Dogwalk frustration

Java's dogwalk hits have been messed up the last two trials. I have no idea what happened.  When I go to the field they look good.  Even with me falling behind.   Then I bought a used dogwalk from someone local. (That was an ordeal getting it.  I had to drive thur a  muddy dirt drive. First down the hill and then back up.  Oh my, at the bottom of the hill a big mud bit full of water. What if I got stuck?  I went fast, in my sons van, and hope momentum would keep me going. It worked.  For some reason I thought the dogwalk would fit in the van. It stuck out just a little. My son didn't have any tie downs in his van. Ugh. So back home we went. Thur the mud. I got my van and drove back.  I prayed I wouldn't get stuck. We didn't. We loaded up the dogwalk and tied down the back hatch. One more time thur the mud pit. We made it!!. My son's and my car were pretty muddy

My car was worse, mud all splattered up the sides. I had already washed it when I took this picture)

So the new, to me , dogwalk is fiberglass and aluminum. It seems slippery  but maybe that's because we are use to rubber. It flexes more than she is use to. So I put wooden supports  under the ramps. Anyway, she is having trouble hitting the contact. Ack!!!   Maybe that's why she is missing on dogwalks at different places. Depending on  how they feel to her??  Im ready to give up on the running dogwalk.

The video is of her yesterday on the field dogwalk  and then next clip of her on the new dogwalk at home.





I set this course up yesterday. 

We didn't get the beginning on the first try but the second.   And she did get some tight turns in there.  We didn't make it to the end but some how got the crazy  #14 to #15.



 Life is crazy.  My husband broke his foot last weekend running a trial race. Its really swollen so they couldn't cast it.  He is not allowed to put weight on it.  I rented him a knee scooter and that's been very helpful.  I highly recommend that if you should find yourself in need of it.
Then my son fell down the stairs yesterday and Im pretty sure he broke his toe.  Its bruised and swollen and his foot is swollen too.   And Miley was limping when we got to  the field. I think there is something stuck between her toes. I tried to get it out but couldn't.  I couldn't get an appointment for today. I have to wait until Monday to get someone to look at it.

Christmas picture fail

Trial weekend

First a couple of things.  After falling Wednesday, Im ok. My neck muscles were sore for a couple of days but then I was fine.   Miley's eyes get rechecked on Dec. 23rd, so we will see if  the medication is helping. Its hard to tell other wise. She was squinting this weekend but other than that, she seems about the same. I don't think she knocked any bars all weekend!!!

The weekend was good.  Friday is was sunny and in the 50's , so nice. Its the only day I could take pictures. Saturday, it poured down rain most of the day. Sunday, it stopped raining but was freezing cold and windy. 
Java was entered in Team with two other dogs from the same breeder. Our team name was "We Three Faeries"  We managed to get a team Q without much help from me.  The courses were really hard for Team courses. Even someone, who has made world team multiple times and is an awesome BC handler, said these were the hardest team courses she has run.  There were lots of whistles all weekend.  The course I was most worried about was snooker. Im not good at keeping my dogs off obstacles.

Look, its the number 13 for Friday the 13th.  I couldn't come up with a  good plan so I had to get help from my team mates. My plan was red to #5 and then red  then 7, then red and 7.  Java didn't stick to the plan and took red to the 6a.  For some reason, I thought we had Ed but then didn't hear the whistle and it finally  hit me that we were ok and I just needed to do 6b.  So we almost made it to the end before the buzzer. whoohoo!!. Java took 1st place!!



Java struggled the whole weekend was everything. Broken start lines, flying off teeters, only hit one dogwalk contact all weekend, not wanting to finish weave poles, and then the last day, missing a-frames.  Twice, she got no treats after leaving the ring for acting so crazy.   The last day, I had Starters standard and Grand Prix at the same time.  She was crazy in standard. After jumping from the top of the aframe, I carried her out of the ring. No treats. We walked over to Grand Prix and were in the ring , in 2 dogs.  She was so much better.  She waited to be released, still missed DW, did all weaves poles, hit a-frame and stopped on the teeter.  We went off course after I cued the wrong tunnel entrance.  So much better.  Java did get a Steeplechase Q with a pretty ugly run.


Miley had a very good weekend.  She got her last Q in snooker PII, so now she gets to move up to all PIII events. Whoohoo. She also Qed and took first in Perf. Grand Prix, so now she has a bye.  I had missed her run and had to be moved all the way to the bottom of the class. She was awesome!!.



Lots of contact issues for all dogs this weekend. As I watched, tons of missed 20/20 and running. And the gifts that some people were given on their running contacts, that clearly weren't in.  So now to think about what to do with Java's contacts.

Wordless Wednesday (almost)

This pretty much sums up today. Something really bad happened today. Not work related and no one died or is sick. Just very upsetting and disappointing. So I went to practice with my dogs hoping to forget life for a little bit.

Trial Weekend

Doesn't Java look huge. LOL  To bad no sunny days. It makes pictures so much nicer.


It was  cold weekend but not horrible.   This trial site tends to be really cold in the winter and I was worried but it wasn't to bad. Granted, I had several layers of clothes on but I was ok.  Even Sunday when it was 33 degrees and raining. I was glad it didn't get cold enough to turn to ice outside. That would have been bad.

First off, Java had the worse trial weekend she has every had.  She has been whining at night for multiple nights.  Thursday night, at home,  I must have gotten up at least every 2 hours with her. I kept thinking she had to go to the bathroom but she never did.  Same thing at the  the hotel Friday night. OMG, I was exhausted on Saturday from no sleep.   Saturday night was a little better. She only woke me up at 2am and 4am and I stayed up after getting up at 4am.  She was just off at the trial too.  Didn't finish one  set of weave poles without popping out.  Didn't hit one DW contact, flew off teeters and didn't want to down on the table.   Ack!! 
Here is an example and its not even the worse run. LOL


But after we got home and she saw Guiness, she seemed better.(Guiness had been at my parent house for a couple of weeks). She hasn't whined at all at night since we got back.  Maybe she thought something happened to him and  was crying over that.  That is all I cant think of, because nothing else has changed.  We'll see what happens this weekend at this trial.  I told my "team" for the weekend, that I was apologizing now for doing poorly.  They said I had a week to fix everything(they were kidding). LOL, they are funny. 
Miley did pretty good with bobbles here and there.  Her first PII standard run, she ran right past the dogwalk. It was weird. She has never done that in the 6 years Ive been running her.  The rest was perfect.  She had a nice GP run but didn't wait on the teeter for me to  finish front crossing and took the off course jump behind me. Silly dog. That run I had to delete off my ipad because people stood right in front of my video camera.  I put my ipad on a tripod and the wide angle lens so I didn't have to ask people to tape me. I guess I didn't put it in a good spot since people stood in front of it. 

My best run but not perfect ,was Masters challenge  jumpers.  Walking it, I thought what the heck was I thinking entering this again???

We almost messed up at 17 but I was able to save it and Miley didn't  stress so it was good. She did hit the broad jump so no Q but still nice.






Its hard to see , sorry its so far away. The video below is the same video but I put it in Coaches Eye and pulled it in so you could see it better. Not sure how she held on in those weave poles.



We did manage one Q. Miley got her 3rd PII standard Q.  (she didn't go around the DW this run. LOL)   But I was worried because you had to go pass a few obstacles to get to the next jump after the weaves. Not Miley's thing, being able to stay with me pass obstacles. Usually she will do it for a second and thinks I must just not know what I want and she wings out and takes something. LOL