Another way

So blogger wont let me upload my picture the usually way.  Im going into the HTML format loading them and then going into Compose and fixing everything. Ugh, what a pain. I have not idea why its doing that.

Yesterday it was freezing in the morning but I went to the park because Java has been unhappy about doing nothing for such a long period of time. 2 weeks I think. I got the the park and thought about going home because my fingers were hurting so bad from the cold but I finally got out the the field where the sun can hit you and warmed up a bit. Very frosty morning.

My dogs had a good time.

I like this picture. Crisp. All my pictures were taken with a 50mm lens. My long lens isnt fast enough if there isnt direct sunlight. all the pictures would be blurry.

Gotta have some ice.

I really like the color in the back of this one.

The chasing begins.

and

then

then

one more

I finally got out the the field yesterday. It took me a while to set a course. I found loads of problems with each dog. Java wasnt reading rear crosses and her weave poles arent doing well. I guess thats from not doing anything for 2 weeks. Miley, she has problems coming in close and kept taking the wrong tunnel entrance if it was the one closest to me, so we worked on that.

The next paragraph is depressing so you may want to skip it. I dont know what is wrong with me lately. Im just not feeling like I like my life. But there isnt anything wrong with it. My kids are healthy and doing well in school. Lou should graduate on time this Spring. The only sad thing is you realize how different your kid is when he is around other kids his age. (we went to Florida with my family so there was a 17yr, 4 -20 years old and a 22yr old). It kinda makes you feel bad that he just doesnt fit in and will probably never do all the things that normal adults do. I dont think he really cares about all that stuff so I guess I shouldnt worry about it.But still sad. My job is ok. This week has actully been nice. Ive only seen about 28 kids a day. Thats nothing. Before break I was seeing 50-70 kids a day , not including medications. So easy days. Money is tight but we are still ok. Ive been having a lot of fibromyalgia pain. Ive had to up my medication to help control the pain but it makes me so tired its hard to walk the dogs or do anything. I have an appointment with rheumatologist at the end of the month but I know what they are going to say. Same old, same old. I know Im not dying or anything but it just gets over whelming to be in pain every freaking day of my freaking life. My dogs are good. No one is injured . But Java is trying to take control. She has nailed Miley to the floor several times in the last month. If she thinks Miley is overly excited or she is jealous. She hasnt hurt Miley but I have to drag Java off of her and then she goes into her crate for a time out. I dont know why she all of a sudden is doing this. Otherwise they seem like good buddies. Maybe Java isnt getting enough exercise. The air conditioning in my car is broken. And I think we need a new roof. I hate winter. They said it was going to be sunny this afternoon. They lied. Sorry if this is depressing.

Blogger

Blogger will not allow me to upload any of my pictures. Im not sure what is wrong. It doesnt offer me the box to go to my computer and upload photos. I dont know if blogger is having the problem or just me. Sorry.

Wordless Wednesday

World Wind Week

Its been a world wind week. In one week Ive driven from Columbia to Savannah. From Savannah to Perry Ga., then back to Columbia. Then from Columbia back to Savannah, changed cars and continued on to Orlando. Then Orlando back to Columbia. Wow!!  Thats a lot in a week. LOL

So after Christmas I drove to Perry Ga where Miley and I were entered just one day for USDAA Team. Im really not planning on going to nationals because Miley and I are so inconsistent but just in case, I thought I would try to get a team Q. (You need one team Q for nationals). The nice thing about team is you can make some mistakes on some courses and still Q.  Anyway, I was teamed with someone who has a sheltie who can be a little crazy like Miley. Plus she got her team Q last weekend so that took the pressure off for me.
When I got to Perry Ga that night it was 44 degrees but the wind was blowing like crazy. It made it freezing. Even though I had lots of layers on to walk Miley, it was freezing and I was miserable.  One time the wind gusted so hard it blew Miley's back end out from under her. Holy Crap!  I was staying in an RV with a friend and I told her I was thinking of going home. I cant stand to be this cold. The RV was swaying during the night. It was like being on a boat.  But the next day the wind calmed down and the sun came out.

First up was standard. Let me just say a lot of "big name" people from the east coast were at this trial. I wont list name but initials. So if you follow agility you probably will know them:  LM, AB, TS, SM, KH there was someone else but I cant remember who.

As you will see in the video , this run is horrible.  She was pushing her start line and I released her so she wouldnt break but really thats releasing herself. Then She didnt finish the weaves and I let it go. (not good dog training). Then the tunnel under the a-frame. Im not sure what was going on with that. What Miley did, coming back out of the tunnel, so did lots of other dogs. Even several of the "big name" seasoned dogs did it. Weird huh?  So anyway we got a big fat E.  I just wasnt expecting this run to go so bad. I only gave Miley a couple of treats afterwards.  She needs to learn the rules are always the same no matter where we are. And I need to be consistent with that.
As I was walking Miley around to cool her down, I thought "what the heck am I doing here?".  And "where is this journey with Miley taking me. What is the lesson Im suppose to be learning?". And then I just let it go. We are here just to have fun and I need to let everything else go.




Miley hadnt been exercised in 3 days. We were at my moms house and it had been raining a lot. Plus you cant walk the dogs in her neighborhood because people let their dogs run loose and other dogs have been attacked. And then it was so windy the night before that a long walk at the trial site was out of the question. I had recently read that good trainers dont need to wear their dogs out before going in the ring. But I decided that was not information that helped me and took Miley outside and made her fetch the ball again and again.

Next up Snooker.

Here was the snooker course. You could only do three reds. I went the easy way so I didnt get the most points, 31. But this was the best snooker run we have every had. To bad we dropped at bar on 6b. Ugh  My partner burned up this course and took 3rd place. (notice Miley's start line is much better. Just only getting a couple of treats or chasing the ball helped her?I dont know)

 

Next up was gamblers. It had a joker instead of a gamble which someone had to explain to me. As soon as you you hear the buzzer you had 17 seconds to do the joker and take the finish jump. If the buzzer sounded before the finish jump then you lost all your points. The joker was, take a jump then an obstacle, another jump and a different obstacle, another jump and a different obstacle ect.. the point added up as 2, 4, 6, 8 ect.. And the finish jump had to be taken after an obstacle, not a jump or you got whistled. 

We were doing well and were in the Joker part, when she didnt understand go into the tunnel.  I knew we were burning up time and so the buzzer rang just before the finish jump and we didnt get any joker points. Ugh!!  My partner again burned up the course and took first place. WhooHoo for her!!




After this run I was beat. I had worked several classes. It was hard to find workers because everyone was running a dog. So I worked championship classes. I worked the gamblers class. I was leash runner, bar setter and chute straightener all at the same time. Finally someone took pitty on me and did the chute for the last few runs. I was very happy with the people who started with the tire. LOL  Most people did the chute first. Like me. So I felt pretty good about my snooker and gamblers runs until I went to look at the score book. That made me feel bad about myself. Why did I look at that stupid book. Its the reason I dont watch my videos until after Im done for the day. If I felt a run was good, I dont want to see what it really looked like on video and make me feel bad. LOL

I had received a lot of worker tickets for the worker raffle. This very nice lady, who's husband was running a dog, filmed all my runs. How nice was that!!  I gave her all my worker tickets and told her I hope she wins something.  I left before the end of the day, so I dont know if she won anything but I hope so.

This was jumpers. I heard Miley hit the number 3 bar and thought it dropped . So of course I was thinking about that and we almost went off course going to 6. All of a sudden my brain kicked in and I went, "holy crap, cue your dog for the weaves".  Everything was good until 18 when I gave my dog NO indication to take number 18, so she ran by. I was able to save it and get back on course. So we didnt E and got a Q.  Several dogs ran pass the tunnel after 12 so I made sure I had Miley's head going to the tunnel.


Last up relay. Our team had been above the Q cut off line  until after jumpers. So we needed to do well on relay to get back above the Q line.

I ran the squares. I pushed her off the a-frame with a rear cross. Ugh. But it was just a refusal and time points.

 

I left right after this. It was a freaking long drive home. I think it took me 6 hours. Atlanta traffic is horrible!!  I finally got home at 11pm and saw an email from my friend that we Qed. Whoohoo!

Ashley, all these videos are taken with the ipad 3.

Merry Christmas!!

Sunny Sunday

 This picture was taken right into the sun. Im surprised it came out at all.  It was freezing this morning, I think 29 degrees.  We were complaining how cold we were and then this lady in a tennis skirt passes us. Hmmmm.

I havent done to much this week. Monday I was down and out sick. Then Tuesday my son has his wisdom teeth out. Thursday I drove up to North Carolina to go to a Best Buy that was holding an ipad for me. I had gone on to BestBuy's website. It had a ipad 3 for a 100.00 cheaper then anywhere else  but you had to pick it up in the store. When I clicked on which store had one, none. What the heck??  I looked in Ga, NC, SC and Va. So I went on "chat" with Bestbuy and ask them about it. They wouldnt answer my question on "why do you advertise something for that price if I cant get it?'. Its like a bait and switch.  But they wouldnt answer the question. She just kept saying, "Is there anything else I cant do for you?"  I was so mad. Then I tried again the next day and one was available in Gastonia NC. Thats about 2 hours from me. So I bought it. I drove up on Thursday  and got it. I aslo stopped at a store my husband had a gift card for, for winning a race. The store is only in Charlotte.  The only bad thing that happened was the GPS that is in my car, the GPS is 4 years old,  all of a sudden said I wasnt on a road anymore. I was just flying through the air. Ugh. So I got lost and had to go 20 extra miles to get there. Stupid GPS. Thats what I get for getting the GPS loaded  in the dash of the car  when I bought it. The only way to update the GPS maps is to buy a new DVD. They want 200 dollars for it. That insane. I could buy a small unit for 100.00 with lifetime maps updates. Not sure what Im going to do about that. I always print out Mapquest when I go some where just in case my GPS cant find something.  I wasnt paying attention when I realized I was lost on Thursday but its a good thing I had the printed directions to get me back on track.
Friday, it was so freaking windy outside, I just did some Christmas shopping.

Saturday we went to the field to practice.  I used the ipad to shoot the practice.


The video was grainy looking and  I was disappointed. Then after googling information about it, I realized I didnt hit the HD button when I loaded it. So I tried again.



So this turned out much better.

Then I was thinking, to bad the ipad doesnt let you trim the video's. So I googled that and it does. It just wasnt some obvious button to hit. But I was able to figure it out.
Here is Java practicing dogwalks and weaves. She keeps popping the last pole, so I have work to do there.



It was freezing this morning but we took the dogs for a walk. Everyone had fun.

 Even Guiness got to practice restrained recalls. He doesnt get off leash to much. I worry about him running after something and not coming back. Like at the beach 5 years ago. Ugh!

Its almost Christmas. I only have one person that I still need to get something for. I just cant think of what to get.

Wordless Wednesday