The weekend

Its started out slightly foggy. It was warm enough for me to put my feet in the water to take some pictures.

Sorry if you are on facebook and already saw this image. Its just cool (IMO) so Im putting it here.

Not to many people there when I first got there but when I was leaving all the horse people were there. So we got out before having to worry about that.

This hawk was sitting in a tree and I would have had a perfect shot but he flew away. I found him again on the other side of the river/creek but now he was above me. So Im shooting up into the light. It makes it hard to get a nice shot.

She is trying to get a stick out of the tree to take with her.

another

Blogger still isnt working right for me. Irritating to have to do everything in HTML and then go fix it in the "compose" part. Thats why I have to put a word in between the pictures other wise all the pictures are smooshed together no matter what I do. I took Java to a lesson with Meagan. Hard to believe it was cold. But not has cold as the last lesson. Java did very well. I need to work on my front cross timing. That is what this video clip is about.

Sorry its grainy but there wasnt enough light at the field.

Miley has seemed fine. Im not sure what was all about. So far so good.

I went to the field today to meet someone who is interested in taking agility classes with the club. I went to evaluate her dog to see which class would fit her best. After dragging all the equipment on the field and evaluating her dog, it was to hot to do to much agility. Java was hot so we just did a few things. It was completely sunny at the field and when I got to my side of town, completely cloudy. I could have used some of those clouds. Anyway, Java has 12 weaves. Whoohoo!!

Is it Christmas?

Ive been very lazy lately. Im not sure what the heck is wrong with me. I hardly ever walk my dogs anymore. I just feel so tired.  Now it gets dark at 5:20, its really hard to get the walk in during the week. But I did get there today.  They have all the Christmas stuff up so see at night. It was freezing so no one was there. (yay!)

They had to doors out that different elementary school decorated. I thought it would be cool to get a picture.

 

 

 

 

This one one cool looking but hard to get a good picture. Its mirror is in the shape of a Christmas tree.

 

 

 

I thought this one would be the best one for a Christmas picture. It was in the shade so I had to use a flash, which I didnt check the setting and it was to much flash so I tried to fix it on the computer. Then that light on the right. I might go back tomorrow and try again.

I went back at the end of my walk and the sun was on some of the doors but still some shade just to the right.

Here is a video of Java at the Loretta Mueller seminar last weekend. I was to do a lateral send to the jump after the a-frame. Java just kept going straight into the tunnel. So Loretta stood in front of the tunnel to stop Java from taking the tunnel. She still tried to go in around her legs. LOL.
We finally have straight up weave poles. Yea!! She is a little slow because she had been running and barking at guiness in the yard before we did weave poles. (I should have waited until later to work her on this).

Weave poles

I bought a new set of Weave a matics.  I had made my old set and I just couldnt adjust them well as they are getting close to closing up. The new poles arrived yesterday. Yea!!


The base is really heavy. Ugh. But they fold in half so thats nice.   Now, hopefully I can get the poles straight up soon.

Oh yea, I said I had a trial this weekend. Oops, I thought is was this weekend. It is next weekend. Good thing my friend said something to me or I may have gone this weekend. LOL

I have been having A LOT of fibromyalgia pain since school started. Its been really bad.   Its hard for me to get motivated to do anything. I havnt been walking the dogs much either. Poor dogs. It was everything to get through the work day.  Im not sure how I even continued to teach the classes for the club. I went back to the doctor 2 weeks ago. She did a bunch of blood work. When she called me in the morning at work and said all my blood work was normal, I wanted to put my head down on my desk and start crying.  What the hell??   But this week, I went 3 days with no pain. 3 whole freaking days. Whoohoo. It was great. So I took the dogs to the park yesterday. It was warm and sunny.  The water was a little high and the dogs had to swim across, which they didnt like, put they got over it.

This tree was going to get us but my dogs saved me. LOL

There was lots of jumping!!

Poor Miley, she has trouble opening her eyes in the sun.

Most of my pictures had shadows on them .ugh. I hate shadows.

See more shadows.  I was just trying to get some fall pictures. Im standing in the water during most of these pictures. The water was very murky (sp?)   and lots of green algae on the rocks in the water. So it was hard to see in the water where I was stepping. So I couldnt go where I wanted because I couldnt see the bottom. Im not sure why the water was like that. Usually the water is very clear.  And of course I was worried about snakes.

I tried and tried to get a good shot of this. So you could see  how pretty it was. I tried a filter too. I just  couldnt get it right.

Weave pole and things

Im still working on Java's weaves.  We are getting closer but if I try to close the poles she pops out.
Here is were we are at. Dont watch the whole thing. Its all really the same. Once you have seen the first couple , you get the idea.



The more mistakes she makes the slower she gets.   Im having a problem adjusting these poles. I can only get them so close and then they have to be straight up. So I ordered some new ones. I made these. The new ones will fold in half so I can take them different places.

The other thing Im struggling with is teaching rear crosses.  She just isnt getting and  when I was working her, she just refused to move forward or jump. The jump was only set at 8 inches.  So we went back inside the house for me to figure things out.  I went out later with Miley. So I could change dogs up  and use Miley to keep Java wanting to work.  I tried several things to try to teach a rear cross. 

I tried the first set up with throwing a toy  to the left toward the tunnel. It sorta work but didnt help her understanding. The I tried the second one, where she had speed taking the jump. This allowed me to move more into her path as she took the jump.  So I think I'll try this one a few more times and hopefully she'll start really understanding it.  Ive had a lot of trouble getting Java to understand what I want when teaching her things. She likes treats but its over the top crazy for them like Guiness and Miley. And she dosent like to be wrong. She quits working if she is wrong to many times and not even if they arent in a row.  Keeps me thinking. Then I watched my weave pole video. Look how many times  I do a rear cross. Lots!  So a rear cross into the poles is different then on a jump. Ive probably been confusing her. Poor dog.
Stephanie came home this weekend just for 24 hours. It was nice. I think she was  a tad home sick. She picked up a bunch of clothes. We went shopping and out to lunch. It was nice.

Ive been really tried lately and havent been walking the dogs. But this weekend I walked them both days. I dont know how Java got that grass wrapped around her nose. She and Miley were playing chase and she slid into some grass and flipped around. I just caught the picture in time before they took off running again.

Some how Java got into a bunch of stickers but not Miley. It was a long walk back to the car with Java stopping every 2 minutes to try to pull the stickers out.  There were just to many for me to try and get them out. ( I did try). I had a brush at the car that worked much better.

Then we came upon this squirrel. Poor thing. Something must  have gotten him. He seemed ok, lively and eating, he looked terrible.

Sorry its blurry. I was using one hand with a long lens. I should have used my other hand to hold the camera still. Plus it was in the shade.

I ran into the friend at the park today, she helped me teach agility foundation classes for the club. She had her 3 big dogs with her. Java growled a couple of times. I could tell she thought this was very bad. But she didnt keep her dogs back. She kept letting them step into her space. I worked with Java by treating, saying yes for being calm and looking at the dogs. Then she took her dogs off leash. Why did she do that??  She is a very nice person but I think she thinks all dogs are friendly and like other dogs. Java is fine unless a dog gets in her face.   Java has been around a lot of dogs. As long as they dont care about her she seems fine.  She been at a house with 12 other dogs running around and was fine. So Im not sure what it is about the park that sets Java off. I work on it every time I go.

The weekend

(sorry if there are mispelled words. The spell check wont work) Yesterday was a horrible day. Well, Friday was kinda bad too. I had to leave work early because I felt so bad.  I feel like I cant get handle on things. But today is Sunday and Im feeling better. So hopefully what ever was causing all this pain is gone. Or at least back to its usual amount.  The boat is finally fixed. It hasnt been running right all summer. And then it just stopped all together and we had to be towed to the marina.  So its finally fixed and its running nicely. We took it out with the dogs. We went to the beach. The one cove had 4 boats in it with a dive flag out. Weird place to dive. Its not the deep and there isnt anything to look at. So we couldnt go in there and parked the boat to the side. I had to walk thur the woods instead of on the path. I just kept hopeing I wouldnt step on a snake.  I finally made it to the other side where the other beach is. But it was still in the shade. So I figured I wouldnt get any nice pictures. But I did. How lucky is that?

Look, its starting to look like fall. Its still warm out but not that opressive heat. Were everytime you go outside and walk or work dogs, you have to go change all your clothes from sweating. Ugh!

Guiness gets very excited about the waves. He barks and runs up and down the shore.

Miley says, "I dont think so".

We had a very nice time. I think the dogs had the best time.

We did work some agility too. I tried proofing Miley's contacts. I put Java in a crate at the end of the contact , hopeing to add some excitment. I dont think it worked. You may want to turn down the volume.