My life with flyball dogs

Over exposed

2012-02-24T20:28:00.002-08:00

Least anyone think I am a flawless photographer of some kind, I will admit here and now, that I did not check the settings on my camera before starting to shoot. As a consequence, I ended up deleting 50+ photos that were way, way over exposed.

However, I wanted to be a helpful DIY blogger as well. What to do if you have horribly overexposed pictures that seem like they might be able to be saved.

Well, you go over to Picnik, push some curves around (found under the advanced tab), maybe push around some of the levels if you are so inclined, and make it artsy, instead of a portrait.

This picture of blog visitor Lilly was totally blown out and over exposed. Almost all of the background and the bench was white at first glance. Pushing around the curves and levels a bit made the picture, if not portrait quality, at least something I find interestingly artistic (though I know some people still find it way too harsh to be pleasing to the eye).

This second one of Pallo happened not because I didn't check the camera settings, but because I messed with them in the wrong way. Same basic problem, it was totally washed out, over exposed, glaringly white and hurt the eyes to look at. Same method of using picnik (which I just used for the first time, by the way, and am now mad I didn't find it earlier), just curves and levels, and I have a funky picture of Pallo. Which I am kind of enjoying.

But then, you aren't forced to like my over exposed pictures that I attempted to salvage. I was just desperate to not have the whole photo shoot go to waste!

Mr. Chewy review

2012-02-24T19:11:00.002-08:00

I was recently offered a chance to try out Mr. Chewy. Many of you probably know that this is an online store which sells premium cat and dog foods, flea meds, and litter. I have to say, I was super jealous reading the other blogs doing reviews, and was really excited when an email appeared offering me a chance to review their website.

I received a code for $50 credit on their online store. Since orders over $49 qualify for free shipping, I didn't have to pay a dime to try them out. I have been compensated in no additional ways for this review, and this review contains nothing except my honest opinions about the products and service offered. Check out the bottom of this post for a discount code of your own to try out mrchewy.com.

First off, I want to share some of the great things about Mr. Chewy. The selection on the website has to be the number one. I have a pretty decent pet supply store in town, but their prices can be pretty high sometimes, and though they recently expanded, there is only so much room in a physical store. Mr. Chewy has a much larger selection than I could find without driving 2+ hours or going to multiple stores (or likely both), and carries those products my local store offers for similar prices, and in some cases, for cheaper. Even when my local store has the same brand of, say, a grain free dog food, chances are that they only carry a few flavors and a few bag sizes. Mr. Chewy would carry all of the offered flavors in a larger variety of sizes.

I do, however, feed raw. And, I prefer feeding fresh, whole raw to any sort of processed, dehydrated foods (though those can be great for traveling or backpacking or emergency food supplies). So, instead of ordering any of the extensive foods offered, I took the $50 credit and ordered treats. Lots of treats.

I used this as an opportunity to get a few of the treats I know my dogs love, plus try out some new brands that I have either been wanting to try or have never heard of but liked the looks of. The Natural Balance Tillman's treats (in two flavors) were just as big of a hit with my dogs this time around as they were last time I picked up these treats, as was the food roll that I cut up to make small soft treats. The PureBites we had not tried before, but were a major hit. PureBites are single ingredient treats, dehydrated. My only complaint with them is that the cheddar cheese ones were a bit hard to break up into pieces. I also picked up some duck jerky (one of Koira's favorites), and decided to try out two different baked treats: Three Dog Bakery and Sojos. It seriously took me almost three hours to make my selections, as the options were so varied that I spent forever adding things to my cart, then changing my mind and switching them out with something else.

With all the good things about Mr. Chewy, there were a few bad, or that I thought could use work, as well.

The first issue I had was trying to select treats. My dogs don't have food allergies, but I generally try to stay away from treats with wheat, corn, or soy as major ingredients (the Three Dog Bakery cookies are an exception to this, simply because the name is famous enough that I had to try them out- and they smell so good I almost tried one). In addition, I generally use treats for training only, not as a snack or bedtime-treat-giving-out item. For me, that means I need treats to be soft and easy to break or tear into pieces. Unfortunately, there was no way to sort the treats out as soft or hard. I had to instead go by experience with the treats (such as with the Natural Balance treats) and guessing.

Along the same lines, I think the descriptions could be made much more, well, descriptive. For most products, the description seemed to be nothing other than a short statement from the manufacturing company. I would have liked to be able to see a description and list of ingredients for every product. Additionally, with the issues due to chicken treats out of China, it would have been nice if the descriptions included information such as Made in China, Made in the US, etc.

My only other issue was with the shipping. I had high hopes, after reading other people's reviews, that the package would arrive quickly and with no issues. Alas, I was not so lucky. Though many people were reporting recieving their products within 2-3 days, mine did not arrive for 10 days. That alone wouldn't be too big of a deal, but the shipping company required a signature and could not find my house. They shipped the package back to their holding facility once, then tried again the next day, taping a notice to my neighbor's door stating that a signature was needed (I was pretty sure I had specifically said I did NOT want to have to sign for the package, since I knew I would likely not be home at the time of delivery). Thanks to my neighbors being on good terms with me, I was able to sign the piece of paper stuck to their door, which allowed for the package to be dropped off (again, at the wrong door). All in all, it was two weeks after ordering that I finally got the package.

Now, I know that most of the delivery issues were due to my address being difficult to find. However, this is something others may encounter when ordering products online, and should be noted for anyone thinking of ordering from Mr. Chewy. Just keep in mind, that no matter how awesome the company is that you purchase the product from, the shipping company may not be up to standards. And, for something like your dog's food, it would be really bad to expect your product in three days and have to wait 16, potentially leaving you with the difficulty of switching your dog to a different, locally available, brand of food.

I do have to say, overall I did like the company. The website was decent to navigate, and while the shipping was obnoxious, that tends to be the case with anything I order to my home address. I would certainly think about ordering from Mr. Chewy again, just knowing that it might take two weeks to receive the shipment. Certainly their selection of treats is excellent, and the Pure Bites, especially, were a great product that I can not find locally.

If you want to try out Mr. Chewy, here is a discount code. Just type in FLYB8120 at checkout to receive 10% off of your order. Plus, Mr. Chewy will donate $10 to charity (in this case, split between three charities, Best Friends Animal Society, Bideawee, and North Shore Animal League of America).

Wordless Wednesday: Drama

2012-02-22T05:56:00.001-08:00

All I have to say is Yay Ohio!

2012-02-21T10:14:00.000-08:00

For those of you who haven't heard, Ohio's governor has signed HB 14 into law. This will end the state wide breed ban and overhaul the dangerous dog laws of the state. With the new laws directed towards a dog's behavior rather than looks, this law should not only be much more effective in controlling dangerous dogs in the state, but is a huge win for those who have spent so much time fighting BSL.

Ohio has been a model of a BSL state for so long that their change in the state wide laws will hopefully have a greater effect not just in their state, but country wide. Those areas who have been thinking of enacting BSL may now think again with Ohio admitting it does not work. It may even have a positive effect in helping areas with current BSL in repealing their current laws and instead enacting laws which define dangerous dogs based on actions and behavior, rather than breed and physical appearance.

As awesome as this is, it is important to note that the law does not require counties and cities within Ohio to change their dangerous dog laws. Many counties and cities have breed bans in effect, so please continue to research carefully before taking your dog of ANY breed into this area.

Daily Dog Challenge

2012-02-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

98. "Three Things" Incorporate these three things in a photograph with your dog -- a pillow, something green and something made of wood. - last day Feb 12

99. "Shallow Depths" Make a photo with a narrow depth of field today to emphasize something about your dog (see topic for hints) - last day Feb 13

100. "So Emotional" Show us an emotion on your dog's face today. It can be whatever your dog is feeling today! - last day Feb 14

104. "Just Desserts" - Our dogs all like to get rewarded in some way, what is your dog's idea of what his or her "just desserts" are? - last day Feb 18

102. "Picture Inside A Picture" -Take a photograph of your dog that has another photograph within it. - last day Feb 16

103. "Puppy Love" - Valentine's Day is almost here. Whether you have a human Valentine, your dog will always love you. Take a picture that celebrates that fact. - last day Feb 17

101. "On The Job" - Our dogs all have jobs, whether it's one we give them or one they give themselves. Show us your dog "on the job" today. - last day Feb 15

108. "Up Close And Personal" - Give us a nice close up today! - last day Feb 22

107. "Something Funny" - Take a photo of your dog today that makes us laugh! - last day Feb 21

105. "Something On The Go" - Interpret it however you like with your dog, just show us your dog, or a part of your dog, on the go today! - last day Feb 19

106. "Be Mine" - It's Valentine's Day, so show us what it means to you. You can be sweet, simple or silly, just show us some love! - last day Feb 20

A bit about morals, photography, and internet

2012-02-15T20:57:00.000-08:00

A small confession.

I did a bit of a splurge for my birthday (which I tend to do every two years or so, with the last two being dogs for myself). Instead of a dog (which is not allowed by my landlord), I decided it was time for a camera upgrade. Trying to stay in budget led me to purchase a used camera at an awesome little shop called Focal Point Photography located in Dallas, OR (which I highly recommend checking out to those who are relatively local- it is certainly worth the drive down from Portland).

With the new-to-me camera in hand for a great price, and under a limited warranty for the next 6 months (something offered on all the new and used equipment Focal Point sells), I of course had to get a few lenses. I have ended up with three: a 50mm that I bought with the camera (as recommended as the best for both portraits and for shooting low light sports shots, such as flyball), a 75-300mm, and a 35-80mm. Then of course I had to make myself a great little camera bag to hold my awesome new-to-me camera, lenses, extra batteries, speedlight external flash, and any other little do-dads and whats-its I may acquire.

I bought the bag itself, then added the brown and pink shoulder strap and the internal cushion dividers for the camera and lenses. I think it gives a much more unique look than a standard black, square camera bag.

Of course, the camera itself is stored in the blank middle space. I normally store it with the 50mm on, since that is the lens I use the most.

It has been a bit of a learning process. As many will know, I have previously been shooting pictures with cheap used cameras that are in the "super zoom" class of point-and-shoots. Most recently was a used Kodak that I picked up for $30 on Craigslist. I sort of reached a wall, though, with what I could successfully shoot with that camera, and wanted to get something that would help reach beyond that. Another super zoom, newer, with more features and a larger mp would have helped. But there would still have been a wall to run into as to the capabilities of that camera. When I found out I could purchase a used, good condition DSLR for less than I would spend on a halfway decent point-and-shoot or super zoom, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just jump in. Obviously my current camera body is not a brand new shiny state of the art camera. I paid under $350 total for both the camera body and the 50mm lens, with two batteries, a memory card, and a few other nifty accessories thrown in. However, my lenses that I collect now will be able to be used with any upgrade of camera body that I purchase in the future, making them an investment rather than something that will soon be outdated.

Taken with my 50mm in Sports mode, auto focus, the first week I had the camera

All this is a somewhat long way of getting to the original point of this post. With the addition of my new camera, I have started following more photography blogs, facebook pages, and other photography related sites, many focusing on pet photography. Some of these sites are part of what inspired me to purchase a new camera to begin with. (One of my long-time favorites is Artis Photography in Seattle.) Others are new finds that pop up when I do searches (often about trying to do a specific something with this new and often baffling new camera).

I am sure that when I say these sites inspire me, I am not alone. The photos these people can take of dogs that show so much emotion and have such a dynamic, moving lay out make me see some of what I would like to be able to achieve someday. But along with this comes the issue of copying. Where is the line between being inspired by a photo or idea, and copying that photo or idea?

An example of a photographer whose work I enjoy a lot, and who I am pretty sure many in the pet blogging community are already familiar with, is Scruffy Dog Photography. The photographer manages to really capture each dog client in a very unique and interesting way. The photos are beautiful and I love scrolling through the blog to check out the highlights of various photo shoots. In particular, a photo of two corgis posed on a white, old fashioned fancy white chair set outside in nature made my hands itch to try something similar with my dogs. The trick of it is, how do you take a great idea like this and make it your own? I would never want to insult an artist whose work I admire this much by carelessly stealing away the idea. At the same time, though, I know Scruffy Dog is not the only one who has ever used a chair pose out in nature to create a portrait. There is no copyright on this idea. It is not a matter of legality so much as morality and courtesy.

A photographer has to work hard to come up with unique, interesting ideas. It is as much the creative ideas of the artist as the technical skill that sells a photographer's work. Someone can have amazing technical skills with a camera and editing programs but still not be successful if they lack that creativity and imagination for creating interesting and unique photo designs. For such a technical photographer to use the ideas other, more creative, people have come up with does seem very wrong. With the internet and social media making the world a small space, physical distance doesn't even matter much, as far as this goes, since a photographer's unique style can be seen around the world.

I'm going to confess, at this point, that I am not really sure where to draw the line between inspiration and copying. I think the line has to be placed a bit differently for those people who are professionals and selling the idea to their clients versus those people who only do photography for themselves, for free. I did read an interesting blog post about this issue. However, this post is pretty obviously geared toward those who are selling their photography.

I'm interested in hearing what you guys think. Where would you draw the line? Would you find it appropriate, irritating, or offensive if, having seen the photography shared on the Scruffy Dog blog, I posted a picture on here of one or both of my dogs posed on an ornate chair out in the Oregon wilderness? If you loved the idea of this photo, would you go ahead with the shoot? Would you make an effort to change some aspects on purpose to make it more different? For most of us, the chair, dogs, and setting would all be at least slightly different, of course, but how much variance from the original would be enough? How different would your answer to these questions be if it was a professional photographer interested in the idea, instead of a casual picture taker and blogger? Would it change your opinion on this if the photos were to be sold? If they were to be posted online (say on a blog or in a Flickr group)? In what ways, and why?

Anyone have any other input? A different perspective, a what-I-did story, or other reference points?

Wordless Wednesday: Valentine

2012-02-14T22:42:00.000-08:00

Daily Dog Challenge Update

2012-02-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

First off, an apology on not posting more this week, and not getting much of a chance to visit and comment on all of your blogs. I'm house sitting for the next few weeks, and the addition of twelve animals to care for has been a bit time consuming. And me not being able to figure out the wireless internet doesn't help at all either.

So, here are the Daily Dog Challenge photos, new since last time.

94. "Front and Center" Make a photograph with a central point of focus today. Don't forget the aww factor that dogs bring to a picture! - last day Feb 8


	95. "Purple Haze" Take a photo that features the color purple today! - last day Feb 9

96. "Time Passes" Use your dog to take a photo that illustrates the passing of time today. - last day Feb 10
(I think Koira is telling me it is past time to clip her nails)

I also wanted to share a picture of Koira's new holiday collar for Valentine's Day coming up next week. This fabric was sparkly and on sale, and seemed perfect for Koira.

Happy Gotcha Day!

2012-02-04T07:17:00.000-08:00

I brought home Koira on February 3rd, four years ago. Pallo came home on February second, two years later. I just can't resist getting birthday presents for myself, but since Pallo came home, I have managed to resist bringing home any more dogs!

This little picture, though blown out with light and a bit blurry, shows Koira when I first met her, in the kitchen of the house that was her home up until that point. Koira was a teeny tiny little baby puppy, with a naked little belly and a pink little nose.

Two years later, me and Koira attended our first flyball tournament. Disaster though it was, I still came home fired up to do more. And when I looked on the website of the local pound, and saw this pathetic picture of a scared little tan and black dog labeled only as a corgi mix and a number, I had to go pick him up. He was a chubby little thing back there, still intact (though not for long), with ear infections and major scarring in his ear leathers as well as a huge load of worms.

Now, I have two loving companions. Two titled flyball dogs. The two best friends and best team mates a girl could ever ask for. Its hard to believe Koira has been with me four years, and Pallo two, but it is even harder to think about ever living life without them here with me.

They make me smile, they make me laugh, and they comfort me when I cry. They are two best friends in the world, keeping me company in it, and I am so very privileged to have them by my side.

Daily Dog Challenge

2012-02-03T12:59:00.000-08:00

I decided on Jan. 30th to actually start participating in the Flickr group Daily Dog Challenge, which many of my blogging pals participate in as well. I don't really want to inundate the blog with tons of pictures from it, though, so will probably be making a post about once a week (though I promise nothing) to feature the pictures loaded onto Flickr for the challenges.

The photo captions include the number the challenge is, the challenge title, the challenge description, and the date the challenge is due by (each challenge stays open for 7 days, so if you have to take a day off, you don't have to fall behind because of it). I also post additional descriptions of some of them.

85. "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie" See if you can capture a photo of your dog asleep or at rest today! - last day Jan 30

86. "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time" Tell us a story with a photo today! - last day Jan 31

I was trying to get a picture of Pallo with his front feet up on the fence. After jumping over it a few times, he decided I must want him to jump up ON the fence with all four feet. I guess it seemed like a good idea to him... At the time.

87. "The Back Side" Show us a part of your dog fro
m the side we rarely see, the back! - last day Feb 1

Pallo's gigantic backside

88. "Patterns" Take a photo of your dog that includes some kind of repeating pattern, whether it's something you create or something found in nature! - last day Feb 2

The stairs, of course, are the pattern.

89. "What's Your Angle" Make a slightly off angle photograph of your dog today. Use the angle to emphasize your pup! - last day Feb 3

I didn't mean to cut off parts of his face when I took this picture, but when I loaded it onto the computer, I ended up really liking it just how it was.

90. "Dream Photo" What's a photograph you've wanted to make for a while but haven't for some reason? Shoot it today! - last day Feb 4

I've been wanting to get a good tongue picture of Koira for a while. Thanks to some peanut butter, I finally got one I like!

91. "Who's Got Game" Does your dog have a favorite game? Be as creative or literal as you want to be! - last day Feb 5

Koira loves "deathing" sticks, just like her pal Skye, but rarely gets a chance to show off one of her favorite games like this

92. "What's in a name?" Take a picture that tells us something about your dog's name or how he or she got it today. Feel free to embellish! - last day Feb 6

Pallo is the Finnish word for "ball". Koira was named first (meaning "dog" in Finnish), and I wanted Pallo's name to fit in. His total love of balls of all shapes and sizes made Pallo a name that just seemed to fit.

93. "Our Daily Walk" Take a picture and show us what your dog enjoys on your daily walk today! - last day Feb 7

With the flood waters finally receded enough that we can get to our favorite park again, we decided to take a stroll down there yesterday. Of course, the large pools of water creating lakes that are generally not there gave Koira a great opportunity to do some swimming, resulting in the inevitable "shake off"

And there you have this week's updates to the Daily Dog Challenge.

Wordless Wednesday: Tongue!

2012-01-31T20:40:00.000-08:00

Mischievous Monday

2012-01-30T00:07:00.000-08:00

Martha wanted to make an appearance on the blog today.

Because let's face it, cats qualify as mischievous just by being cats.

Muddy Sunday

2012-01-28T22:58:00.000-08:00

With Koira's leg feeling better this past week, I have been slowly allowing her more activity. We are biking (at a slow trotting pace for her) about 10 minutes per day. She has been enjoying the activity I think, but it still isn't nearly enough to make a dent in all her pent up energy.

Today I went down to Goodwill to pick up some stuff, and took Koira into the store with me (the local Goodwill always allows dogs, but I double check every time I go there, asking before bringing her in). After a mentally exciting store adventure, I decided it would be safe for the dogs to go to the park for a few minutes. Both pups enjoyed themselves a lot, running around in the mud and sun. Koira had to have a thorough mud bath before we went home.

And, for those who have been asking about the breeds of my dogs- Want to have a go at guessing? Koira is the easy one, though her coloring throws people off often enough. Pallo, however, is like some kind of party game to try to guess his breed. Someday, I will send off to have him DNA tested. Until that day, your guess is as good as mine!

Balls

2012-01-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

Flyball is all about the balls. (Not really, but this post is at least.)

Most dogs use tennis balls

Some dogs like the small balls better. Pallo is a fan of the small balls.

One dog on our team only uses Chuckit balls.

And some dogs need their special squishy balls.

Koira uses racquetballs (not pictured).

What we learn from this: Size and texture matter. And even color, sometimes.

Wordless Wednesday: Oregon

2012-01-25T12:11:00.001-08:00

Some flood pictures

2012-01-20T15:02:00.000-08:00

You guys probably all know the park I go to regularly. It is a huge expanse of open, green fields where we are allowed to have dogs off leash, which are also sporting fields for baseball, softball, and soccer during the summer. Pictures like these are generally from this park:

Sure, the river runs along side the park as well, but you have to go down a side path and then down a steep slope to get to the water.

Right now, this is what the driveway to get to the parking lot looks like.

You can't tell quite how deep this is, since you've never been there, but this picture gives you a bit of a better idea.

That yellow with the red on it, that's a standard size gate. And there is still a few feet more of a drop before getting to the flat part of the fields after that. So, the place where those beautiful grassy pictures above were taken? Probably under at least 3 feet of water, if not significantly more.

And, this park is just a short way away from my house. I haven't been home again yet (a friend still in the area took these pictures and gave me permission to share them), but my neighbor across the street tells me the water didn't get closer than a block away, so hopefully I won't have any flood damage when I get home.

Recent reports say the water is going down significantly. The main road to my part of town was completely cut off as of last night, requiring a hour+ long detour to get to the south end of town from the north end of town (normally a 5 minute drive at most). Back in the flood of '96, the entire south part of town was cut off for three days. This time, the flood levels seem to be dropping much faster, thankfully. Last I heard is that while some minor roads are still closed in town, all the main roads are reconnected. Severe flooding remains in parts of the county.

As the flood recedes, we have received warnings of high winds with gusts of up to 50 mph. With the water saturated soil, these high winds have a greater chance of taking down trees, making the county issue warnings of potential power outages. They are recommending that people put in a stock of food and fresh water (1 gallon per person per day) that does not need cooking or refrigeration for up to five days. So far, no drinking water alerts have been issued for the city.

Hoping everyone still in the flood areas is staying safe.

Short post: Flooding

2012-01-19T22:52:00.000-08:00

I decided earlier today to evacuate my house, and my sister generously offered to house me, the dogs, and my cat until the flooding clears. I'm glad I decided to leave when I did, as my house is now apparently cut off from the rest of the town, by flood waters that are at least partially sewer water.

Hoping everyone else in the flood zone is staying safe and dry.

Park

2012-01-14T15:54:00.000-08:00

With Koira still all gimpy from her shoulder injury, we haven't been doing much in the way of park trips. Pallo has been getting a chance to run, but without Koira there, he would rather play ball.

But, I thought I would share some pictures from the park the other day, back before the limping.

Koira, wallowing in a mud puddle

I was actually deliberatly encouraging the muddiness, as one of my picture prompts for 52 weeks of pictures is mud. However, while the dogs certainly got muddy (Koira especially), I didn't end up getting any great pictures of it.

Anyone think they have a muddier dog than this? (Remember, her face is supposed to be mostly white and brown)

Pallo doesn't believe in mud wallowing. He does, however, believe in sun basking in the grass.

Koira's update is that so far, she doesn't seem to be any better. Not worse at all, but still limping heavily and putting very little weight, if any, on that leg. She hasn't yelped in pain from trying to use it since she was put on a course of anti-inflammatories, though, which is good. Here's hoping she shows some improvement.

Oh, and if you haven't noticed the new extra link at the top of the page, check it out. I have some collars that I made up for the craft fairs leading up to Christmas, and have some ready made collars left over.

Not exactly a wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T09:55:00.000-08:00

Poor Koira hurt herself at the park. The vet this morning believe it to be a soft tissue injury, likely a pulled muscle in her shoulder or upper leg. So, Koira is on crate/leash rest for at least two weeks, along with twice daily rimadyl. If she isn't improving in a week, we will be getting an ultrasound done to check out her tendons. Hopefully she will be getting better by then, making it a non issue. I'm going to try to get in to see the chiroprator with her, since it won't hurt to get an adjustment and might end up helping.

At the park, about five minutes before the limping.

Menu Plan Monday

2012-01-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

So, here's the menu plan for the week. I did make one last week, but never got around to posting it up. I'm not going to plan every single meal, since almost every meal ends up making enough for an extra meal or two. If not stated, breakfast is cereal or premade breakfast from the freezer

Monday
Lunch: Roasted cauliflower, squash, and beets with tomatoes and cheese melted over the top
Dinner: Crock pot chicken with black beans, corn, and tomatoes

Tuesday
Breakfast: French toast and sausage (and make enough for the freezer as well)
Lunch: Leftover crockpot chicken
Dinner: Baked beans and smoked sausage with spinach

Wednesday:
Lunch: Curry roasted cauliflower
Dinner: Borscht from the crock pot

Thursday:
Lunch: Leftover borscht
Dinner: Sausage, leek, apple, and potato, roasted

Friday:
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Quiche with mushrooms and sausage

Saturday/Sunday
Leftovers from the week or freezer meals

Dog's meal plan

Monday: Rabbit
Tuesday: Elk scrap
Wednesday: Elk scrap
Thursday: Chicken quarters
Friday: Elk scrap
Saturday: Rabbit
Sunday: Pork roast

For more menu planning ideas, visit I'm An Organizing Junkie.

Skijoring!

2012-01-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

Today, I took off for the mountains with the dogs and my mom. She is taking off to warmer climates soon and we decided to take a trip to the snow before she leaves to celebrate my birthday, since she will be gone for it.

My mom packed up the car with the cross country skis, the snowshoes, and a sled, picked up me and the dogs, and then we headed into the mountains to look for some snow. We figured we would choose our sport based on the conditions we found up there- lots off loose snow for snowshoeing, nice hills for sledding, or moderate snow with little/no hills for cross country skiing. It was a relatively last minute decision on my part to take along the gang lines, waist belt, and harnesses for the dogs. But I ended up being so glad I did!

The snow wasn't deep enough for snow shoeing and we didn't find any good slopes for sledding, but it was great condition for cross country skiing. And, I figured why not, might as well hook the dogs up and see how they go.

* ETA: This is the first time I have ever taken the dogs skijoring.

They went great!

Me and my mom actually started off taking one dog each. Both dogs were a little hesitant about the whole thing, Pallo a little more so than Koira. We did a short little run like that, then realized we had forgotten the water bottle at the car, and the spare batteries for the camera, so we headed back. At that point, I hooked up with both dogs. They seemed to settle in to pulling really easily, happily leaning into their harnesses.

Of course, being only a moderate skier at best, it did get a bit interesting at times (like when the squirrel took off across the trail right in front of us). My back up plan for anything going seriously wrong was to simply sit down- even together, my dogs don't have the power to pull me along for very far if I don't want to go. But luckily for me (and rather surprisingly), both dogs worked their commands really well. Koira has some gee/haw training which helped a little, but most useful were the "whoa" (come to a stop) and "easy" (go slow, don't pull too hard) commands. Koira stopped great every time with the "whoa" except the squirrel, though she did stop after a few seconds even then. And of course, their "let's go" worked wonders to get them started off and encourage more speed once going.

After a while on the main trail (which was actually just the snow covered road), we decided to venture off to the side when we saw some old ski tracks leading into the woods. It was harder in there, and Pallo especially became pretty distracted, but overall it was a lot of fun to go true cross country.

At the end of the day, we spent over two hours in skis. Skijoring was so much easier on me than cross country skiing minus the dogs, and way more fun as well. I had a total blast, only fell once all day (which has to be a record for me on skis), and I plan to get back out there again as much as possible this winter.

Wordless Wednesday: Crazy eye

2012-01-04T10:27:00.000-08:00

It's a New Year

2012-01-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

I have a few goals for 2012, which I thought I would share as much to share them as to have a place with them written down, for me to look back on next year to see how far we have come.

Goals for both dogs:

Complete a 52 weeks photo project (more on this later)
Earn both dogs' CA titles (coursing ability, they each need one more Q to achieve it)

Koira's Goals:

Earn Koira's CGC
Earn Koira's Rally Novice title (or at least, give it a good try)
Try out AKC obedience with Koira
Earn Koira's FDCh-G title (Flyball Dog Champion Gold, which she needs just under 1000 points for)
Train Koira's flyball box turn to the point where it stays consistent and four feet, even without the jump board.
Do a Pinups With Pitbulls photo shoot and submit a photo for the calendar.

Pallo's Goals:

Train Pallo's attention while heeling to the point of entering rally novice

Get Pallo's flyball times back down to the 5.0-5.3's he did before the ball retraining, while having him still carry his ball the whole way back
Put together a Freestyle routine with Pallo

Make a dent in the 5,000 points needed to achieve the FMX title (Flyball Master Excellent)

Personal Goals:

Crafting:

Make a baby quilt for my friend who is due in March
Make up a stock of dog collars, and attend at least 2 craft fairs
Finish my Renaissance dress
Complete Pallo's new crate before our next show
Get back into felting
Make a cave-style dog bed for Koira (and hope she actually uses it)

Menu Planning:

Plan a menu every week, with shopping list
Make and freeze extras for ready-made meals

Other goals:

Go back and edit my NaNoWriMo work
Complete the Couch to 5k program
Renew my passport

2011 Wrap-up

2011-12-31T17:11:00.000-08:00

A lot of stuff happened in 2011

In January, I took Pallo on a trip to Southern California to run in the Orange Crush flyball tournament with The Usual Suspects. Pallo ran iron dog (every heat), in 80-90 degree weather, on grass, and achieved his personal best time of 5.0 seconds, which still holds today. We also spent some time exploring the Redwoods on our drive down and took off down to the Santa Monica boardwalk quite a bit. It was an awesome week of sun, warmth, and fun with old friends and new. Koira stayed home with my mom and got fat.

Also in January, I made the switch to raw feeding for both of my dogs, which means we are about to reach the one year anniversary of one of the best decisions I've ever made.

In February, we enjoyed some snow and I had the awesome opportunity to attend a flyball seminar taught by Touch N Go, the current U-Fli world record holding team. The seminar was amazing, and I learned a ton about not the broad overview of training flyball, but how to fix the little things like striding and box position.

In March, I moved back into town with the pups. Koira started having a mystery limp, which ended up going away after a visit to the chiropractor. I also taught the dogs to use a touch-stick and worked on the basics of flyball with them. Koira did full flyball runs for the first time in over a year. Pallo had a very unflattering picture of his butt posted all over the internet.

In April, I took both dogs and tried out lure coursing for the first time.Both dogs loved it and I had a great time as well.

In May, my camera broke. I bought a new fancy camera to try out, but ended up returning it because the action pictures weren't very good. I ended up, instead, picking up a cheap used camera on Craigslist, which I have been enjoying since then. We also went to a few more lure coursing practices, and Koira was making a good deal of progress in flyball, learning all over again how to run in a lineup.

In June, I went a little crazy with the macro mode on my new camera. Koira started running faster to the flyball box without any hesitations or spinning around to look at me instead of running- I think this was the point she really started enjoying playing the game. I taught Pallo how to "line up" between my legs, and posted my first training video of that.

In July, Koira ran her first tournament in a year and a half, since the previous January. She was a rock star, earning her FD and FDX titles that weekend. Very proud of my little girl. We also did our first disc dog competition with Pallo and Koira at Da Vinci Days, and watched the parade in the rain. If you add in some more lure coursing practice, a backpacking trip, and a day at the swimming hole, you pretty much have our month of July (plus a July 4th photo shoot, of course).

In August, I started out with a Flyball Training Series that has continued for a few months. We also went to a second Disc Dog competition, did some more lure coursing, had tons of fun with flyball, and Koira learned how to play with sprinklers at the park.

In September, I started doing some Monday Meal Plans to help prepare for the week.We also took a trip up to Mt. Hebo and played the lost hiker for a search and rescue dog to practice finding. I spent a ton of time at the park all month picking blackberries by the bucketful (some of which I still have in the freezer for enjoyment throughout the winter). We also did both a flyball demo and a flyball tournament in September, during which Koira was a rock star!

Moving on to October, the dogs both went to their first lure coursing competition. Each competed in two CATs (Coursing Ability Tests), and both of them Q'd twice, earning some pretty ribbons. They now need one additional leg to get their CA (Coursing Ability) titles. We also headed to a flyball tournament in Washington, where Pallo went an entire weekend without once dropping his ball early (yay!), and Koira ran really nicely but showed me that she needed some serious work on her box turns. I also rescued an old, broken dog and fostered him for a few days until he could go into Senior Dog Rescue. In addition, I posted a tutorial on braiding your own square fleece tug toys.

November brought a friend of mine to flyball practice with us, who happens to be a photographer, getting a chance for a few decent pictures of the dogs (though with the lighting, decent was about the best to be hoped for, with good or awesome requiring a bit more lighting set up than we had spur of the moment). I worked a lot on rear end awareness and pivot work with the dogs, and started videotaping Koira's turns at practice to help fix her turn. We also took a trip to the beach right at the end of the month that resulted in probably my favorite picture of 2011.

December has been pretty mellow as far as the dogs go, with me working more and no flyball tournaments on the horizon. Koira's box turn is getting much better, and we may have found the magic set up for getting a good turn with her. Koira had her fourth birthday, I made collars for some craft shows, and we started obedience training. Chester the flyball corgi came to visit for a week and a half during Christmas, and I took the dogs to our first fun match.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun New Year's Eve!

How do you know?

2011-12-27T23:10:00.000-08:00

So, question for all of you who compete with your dogs in any sport: how do you decide if you are ready to enter the ring?

After the awesome performance Koira gave me with the Rally course at the fun run, I am debating if it would be worth our time to enter in Novice rally at the Rose City Classic, which is in mid January. If I did, I would only do Sunday (I work the other days it is happening).

Reasons not to:
With a $29 entry fee, parking fees, and gas to get there (two hour drive), it wouldn't exactly be a cheap day.
Koira is no where near perfect with any of her exercises, except in the giving me 100% attention and focus; her fronts are sometimes a bit far away, her butt swings out to the side when we halt (she has no automatic sit, but in Rally, I can tell her to sit), occasionally she forges or lags a bit on the heel
Rose City is a huge show, with a ton of stuff happening. It might easily be overwhelming to me or my dog, especially for our first time in the ring.

Reasons to:
It would be a great chance to see what we need to work on to be show ready. The fun match was supposed to do that, and did a little bit, but with no major issues in the ring, it seems more that it showed we might be ready instead of we need a ton more work.
If I go into it expecting mistakes, but just working with my dog to have fun, it could be a really fun time. I don't need titles to have fun with my dog.
The next show after that is an additional month away, and only a dollar cheaper on entry fees. If we do RCC and do good, we could then enter the next show. If we don't do RCC, we would have another month of practicing before going into the ring.
I don't think the environment, as insane as it might be, can possibly be more stimulating to Koira than a flyball tournament- it is bound to be quieter, at the very least.

But, I need to decide soon. The show is soon, which means the closing date is a week away. So- what would you do? How do you decide if your dog is ready for the ring? Is it totally insane to try an actual rally competition after only three months of regular training?

On the first day after Christmas

2011-12-26T20:09:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. We had some fun, especially Koira, who loves ripping open packages.

Today, the Gym where we have flyball practice was hosting an obedience/rally fun match. Along with two others from flyball, I decided to take my dogs and try it out.

I did a Beginner Novice run with Pallo. He had no brain. I pretty much just had to reward him for giving me attention and not worry about anything other than that. He has a much better Stand for Exam than Sit for Exam, and a better Sit-stay and Down-stay if I don't walk around the edges of the ring during it. I think Beginner Novice is not for us, and that we need to do a lot of work on heeling and attention before we even try venturing into an actual competition ring.

Koira was a whole different story. Originally I was just going to do a single Rally run with her, but ended up doing the Beginner Novice for fun first. She did pretty good, a bit jumpy starting out on the heeling. Her biggest issue was with the stays, which didn't have at all.

Rally came around and was a blast! I walked the course twice, then me and Koira were the third pair into the ring. The only real issues we had with anything was the left turn to slow pace, which was pretty close together. Koira seemed to think that the combination of turning then slowing down meant I wanted her to heel on the right instead of the left. The "judge" for Rally told us at the end of the run that we would have gotten a very high score for the run.

Of course, I was holding treats in my hand... But, I gave in to the temptation and did a second run through of the Rally course, this time with no treats in my hand (though they were in my pocket). Koira did just about the same, maybe a little farther away on her fronts in the 1-2-3 steps back, call front, but really good with everything else. She did have the same issue with the left turn to slow pace change though, wanting to switch over to the right side, so I'll have to figure out what I'm doing to cause that.

The long and short of it is, though, that I think I am ready to try out a real Rally trial with her. The next one in the area is at the Rose City Classic in Portland, which is happening in late January and closes on the 4th, so I'll have to make a decision soon.

Flyball visitors

2011-12-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

Chester the corgi is visiting our house of flyball for the holidays. He is one of the green dogs on our flyball team, and his people went out of town for the holidays. We even got to take him along to flyball practice yesterday. Though, I have to say that it is a little strange to have a dog who is larger than but shorter than Pallo.

Lots of fun was had at the park with all three dogs having a great time running around chasing each other.

Chester is super food motivated, so I knew the chicken jerky in my pocket would bring an instant response from him if I needed his attention.

I even had to get some posed shots of all three dogs. You can see how big Chester is in comparison to my two- he is just much shorter than them!

The short leg patrol.

Then I had to line them up based on height.

And then I picked up some LED Christmas lights and was trying to take some pictures of my dogs. Chester, however, thought it was his turn and demanded that I take pictures of him instead.

Have a Merry Christmas Eve, Eve.

Flyball Practice, Box turns

2011-12-23T00:58:00.000-08:00

I took three dogs to practice yesterday- Koira, Pallo, and Chester, who is a corgi on our flyball team, but staying with us for the holidays. All the dogs ran really great. I got a chance to have team mates record Koira's turns, and I think we may have *fingers crossed* figured out a set up that keeps her high on the box, no double hitting, no bobbling, and nice and snappy.

In addition to the prop changes noted in the video between the clips, I also started calling Koira earlier, when she hit the box instead of when she got the ball, to encourage her to push off faster back to me. I did this change about the same time we put in the extra height in the box jump, so the improvement could be due to either, but I am thinking both.

Wordless Wednesday: Ice

2011-12-21T09:52:00.000-08:00

Thank you

2011-12-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

I have received two awards from fellow bloggers, and it is about time I say thank you and pass them on.

From Brando and Bogart, I recieved the Kreativ Blogger Award.

For this award, I am supposed to share 10 things you may not know about my dogs.
1. Koira is way more mellow than Pallo in the house.
2. I am pretty sure Pallo used to be named Taco, because he responds strongly to that word.
3. Pallo graduated from his basic obedience class and received his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) within three months of me adopting him from the shelter.
4. As far as I can tell, the only training Pallo had before I adopted him was learning to sit.
5. I adopted my first dog, Koira, on the spur of the moment, and was technically not allowed to have pets of any kind at the apartment I lived in at the time.
6. I adopted Martha (my cat) from a garage sale, after jokingly asking if the cat was for sale.
7. Pallo is afraid of cats, including Martha.
8. Koira loves chasing cats when they run, but is afraid of Martha (who was bigger than Koira when I first brought her home) and will immediately throw on the brakes if any cat turns around and raises a paw at her.
9. Koira snores (and is snoring right now)
10. No balls are allowed in my house. Pallo gets way too annoying throwing it for himself over and over, so he doesn't get any inside.

Now, for the passing on of the award to six blogs I enjoy.

BCx4
Tricks for Treats
Two Greyhound Town
Identity: V+E
A filly's best friend
An English Shepherd

The other award I recieved was from Tricks for Treats, who awarded me with the Liebster Award.

Here are the "rules" for this award:

Liebster means “dearest” in German, and the award is intended to help up-and-coming blogs get the attention they deserve. As with any award, there is a bit of ceremony involved. In order to accept the award, we must do the following:

1. Copy and paste the award on our blog

2. Link back to the blogger who gave us the award

3. Pick our five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.

4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs

The blogs I am passing this award on to are:

Spectrum Dogs
Bounce, Bark, Run
Cedes of Change
Crazy Coulee and Little Lacey
Just a Pup

Please take the award and pass it on! And thank you, again, to Brando and Bogart and Tricks for Treats for passing on these awesome awards to me!

Dog blog visitors

2011-12-19T09:21:00.000-08:00

Flyball and BSL

2011-12-14T21:59:00.000-08:00

A team in my region posted today on the region's Facebook page that they will not be hosting their anticipated 2012 tournament this year. Since I love going to tournaments, this is kind of sad news. But, I fully support the reason for their decision: They have not been able to find an affordable facility in a location without BSL* (breed specific legislation).

This decision means a lot to me. I, for one, would not have been attending the tournament if it was held there, regardless of if the city applied an "exception" for those dogs participating in the tournament (as would be required by NAFA for sanctioning of the event). If you have been following my blog, you will remember my post from a while back when we traveled to a tournament outside of Auburn, WA, which also has (to a much lesser degree) BSL.

It hurts a lot when dog events are scheduled for places with BSL, even more so than when the random strangers act suddenly terrified of my dog only after hearing her breed. Somehow, I expect the dog community to know what BSL is and to support the owners of those banned and restricted breeds**. Hosting dog tournaments or events in places with BSL in place is like giving the city or county the message that the dog owning community is okay with this decision. When the club hosting the event doesn't even let participants, many of whom are not from the area, know about the BSL in place, it feels a lot like a slap in the face to those of us owning the breeds affected; it sends the message that they don't care about our dogs.

Unfortunately, something seems to get lost in translation sometimes. Clubs who host events in BSL locations get told that their event will be boycotted by those who own banned breed. The clubs, instead of listening to the very valid fears these dog owners have for the well being of their beloved companions, react instead as if the boycott is a personal attack on them.

Many people who own banned or restricted breeds, including me, have had our fears of the breed bans laughed at or brushed off by other dog lovers as over reactions. And let me tell you, it hurts. We aren't trying to be difficult, or to upset your club, or ruin your day. We are trying to protect our family. And when dog clubs ignore the effect BSL can have on any dog and does have on those of us who own banned breeds and choose to host in BSL affected locations, it feels like an abandonment by those who should be fighting by our sides.

When it comes right on down to the base of the matter, dog clubs and dog related organizations, including any and all sporting and conformation groups, should be at the head of the line to object to BSL. Having those self same organizations give passive support to BSL by hosting and attending events in BSL locations is like a slap in the face. As a fellow flyball participant and banned-breed owner so elloquently stated it, if anyone should know better and make a statement, it is them (referring to dog clubs of any kind).

So, I really want to say thank you to JCJ for making the decision to not support a BSL town by hosting your tournament there. We all look forward to your tournaments and plan to attend as soon as a suitable facility can be located. The statement that we would not attend a tournament in Enumclaw is in no way meant to be a slight against your team. Instead, it is an expression of our fears for the safety of our canine family members. We hope that you understand where these fears come from and join us in the fight against BSL.

*BSL includes any legislation which specifically applies only to dogs meeting specific breed outlines or physical characteristics, while not applying to those dogs who do not conform to those breed profiles. This includes but is not limited to outright bans, requiring muzzles or additional restraint, requiring owners to carry insurance, or mandatory spay/neuter laws.

**Banned breeds do not just include so-called pit bulls. Breeds affected by BSL include the American Pit Bull Terrier, American Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, Rottweiler, Doberman Pincher, Shar Pei, German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Siberian Husky, Alaskan Malamute, Great Dane, Irish Wolf Hound, Scottish Deer Hound, Mastiff, Boerboel, American Bull Dog, Akita, Chow Chow, English Mastiff, Tosa Inu, Presa Canario, Dogo Argentino, Cane Corso, and Bull Terrier. Additionally, BSL affects dogs over certain weight limits (such as 100 lbs), regardless of breed, and can affect any dog deemed to have the features of any of the affected breeds, regardless of the dog in question's actual heritage.

Wordless Wednesday: Close the door!

2011-12-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

Tasty Tuesday: Fail

2011-12-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

Every year, I make Christmas candy. Normally, we will do a candy making party with family and a few friends, then I will make some other candies to supplement those from the big party. One candy always on the list to make is toffee.

Our family loves toffee, be it plain, covered in chocolate, or with chocolate and nuts. And, our toffee recipe is so super simple, it is easy to make a ton of it. Or, at least it was. Because for some reason, this year's toffee is a fail. Out of six attempted batches, only two turned out.

Its been suggested to me on a food forum I frequent that the recipe itself is at fault. Being a super simple recipe of one cup sugar, one cup butter, stir over medium-high heat until it smells burnt, then pour on a cookie sheet to cool, some people claim that the basic needs for creating toffee aren't fulfilled. But, this self same recipe has worked for my family for years- all of my life, and likely all of my mom's life as well, if not her mom's too! Somehow, I think the defect lies somewhere other than the recipe.

One cup of butter, one cup of sugar- that's it

The thing I am finding most suspicious is the butter. The first two batches are the two that turned out and used fresh from the store butter. The next two used the same brand of butter, but it had been previously frozen. Instead of turning into awesome candy, those batches separated into an oily butter liquid and a brownish syrup that would not stir together, no matter what. So I went on, bought some new butter, and figured I would try again. But, I forgot the butter in the car overnight. Our temperatures over night have been in the 28-30 degree range, which means, perhaps, the butter may have frozen. But certainly not frozen solid like it would have in the freezer. But still, it was another failed attempt where the candy separated out.

This is what the process should look like- instead, right before that last stage hits, it separates into a liquid and a syrup instead of being one syrupy candy goodness

So my question is, what's wrong with it? Does freezing butter cause a chemical change significant enough to cause this failure? Does the freezing process add moisture to the butter, causing the failure? Was the second time around a failure due to the butter freezing, or due to using store-brand butter, which may have had higher water content?

Last year's toffee, with chocolate spread on top, cooling on the pan

I guess I get to make rice crispy treats as holiday candy this year...

Happy 4th Birthday, Koira!

2011-12-09T23:14:00.000-08:00

Koira officially turns four years old on December 10th. My little baby girl is not so little and not so much a baby, but still very much my girl. Happy Birthday and Merry Christmas little girl.

*Photo taken by Christiane Butler.

Flyball and obedience

2011-12-08T23:36:00.000-08:00

Every time I hear people say flyball dogs are out of control, it makes me want to put obedience titles on my dogs.

In any case, we had flyball practice tonight, then a few of us stayed late after flyball to work some obedience with our dogs.

First off, flyball. We are still on the quest to fix Koira's turns. You can see in the video of her first session of practice that we were trying different props a few times trying to fix her double hitting. But, a low single bump was making her drop her butt too low, so we put in the triple. The next time we came out and practiced with her, which I didn't get video of, we used the triple with an additional PVC jump over it, about another 2 inches taller. I'm not really sure if it's helping or not.

For the obedience afterwards, I decided to just take out one dog, and picked Pallo for no particular reason. We worked a bit on attention, since he was still in flyball mode a bit. It took some rewarding for looking at me a few times before he started paying attention to me, but then we did some decent practice with heeling for a step, doing fronts, sits/downs/stands, etc.

Then the group did some group down stays and sit stays. I've never really done a lot of stay practice with my dogs (they "wait" much more often). Pallo did awesome though. He snapped into position immediately when I told him to, didn't budge an inch as I walked away from him, stared intently at me the whole time until I returned (I think we did about 20 seconds or so). He did both the sit stay and and down stay awesome like.

Then, for kicks and giggles, we decided to practice stand for exam with a friend. She showed me what to do first (I've never taken an actual obedience class, so am super new to all of this). I practiced with Pallo, having him stand, stay, walking away, then walking back, feeling along his back, returning to position, and releasing him. He took a single step while I did the touching his back part. Then my friend helped out and I had Pallo stand, stay, then I walked about five feet away while my friend approached him, felt his back, walked around behind him, came back over to me, then I walked to him, around him, and released. He took one step, when I returned and walked behind him. Pretty darn good, I thought, for his first ever time practicing it.

I'm thinking the key to obedience is to play a few hours of flyball first...

Wordless Wednesday: Reflections (Again)

2011-12-06T22:50:00.000-08:00

Menu Plan Monday

2011-12-04T23:18:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking on the menu planning for the past little while. But, I need to get back into it I think, because all too often I have just been grabbing a granola bar when I'm hungry and not making real food.

Breakfast: Bagel/cream cheese; Blueberry pancakes; granola

Lunch/Dinner: Italian chicken sausage barley soup; Potatoes au Gratin; Baked breaded chicken; Braised veggies; Sweet potato fries; Baked beans with hot dogs; Orange chicken and rice.

Not a whole lot of ideas, but hopefully will be something to flesh out my go to snacks of granola bars and fruit cups, supplemented heavily by ginger-lemon tea for my sore throat and cough, because, I am sick again. Stupid flu.

Dogs and cat are having elk scraps, turkey, and goat liver this week.

For more recipe ideas, check out Menu Plan Monday and StoneGable.

Box turns

2011-12-01T22:57:00.000-08:00

Some box turn videos from tonight's practice.

Koira's video

Pallo's video

I'm not worried about Pallo's turn. He's been competing long enough at this point that I am not going to mess with it. Koira, however, is definitely double hitting* almost every single time. I tried putting in a taller prop (the box jump in front of the box is a 6 inch base with 2, 2 inch slats, for a total height of ten inches) and tried putting up the flap on top of the box. Neither seemed to help.

Any ideas, suggestions, funky things you notice?

*For those who missed the explanation before, double hitting is when the dog lands on the box, then picks up their feet or foot, then puts that foot or feet back on the box again before launching off the box- basically, a foot or feet is double hitting the box.

Wordless Wednesday: Reflections

2011-11-30T10:49:00.000-08:00

Gearing Up for Christmas

2011-11-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

With Thanksgiving over, Christmas is looming close on the horizon. It is time to start thinking about Christmas decorations, crafts, presents, and more! I don't do a ton for Christmas normally. I rarely decorate my house. Instead, I follow a few traditions every year. The one that is the most fun is making Christmas candy with my family. This year, we are going to do it at my sister's house for the first time, which should be fun. We always put together a list of candies we want to make, invite our friends over, and spend a few hours together in a group stirring, baking, dipping, and creating Christmas candies and cookies.

A few from last year that are favorites are toffee and chocolate cremes.

As a family, we only have a handful of other traditions, all of which are either Christmas eve or Christmas day (such as opening one present Christmas eve before going to bed, doing stockings before breakfast Christmas morning, etc.).

In the past couple of years, I have started sending out Christmas cards as part of my holiday routine. I normally try to get the picture for them taken by the end of November so that I can start doing card shopping and have my cards ordered and arrived early enough to send out sometime in the second week of December. I feel like for the card to really be appreciated it has to arrive early enough for people to hang it up and look at it for a while before the big holiday hits.

Last year, I took some good photos of the animals. I was lacking a good photo of me with them, though. This year, I am hoping to come up with a good photo of me and a good one of the dogs. But, I am already doing my card shopping. Tiny Prints has an amazing Christmas Card selection and has some great deals. Plus, I like that I can personalize the cards with text or pictures how I want to arrange it. My biggest problem is going to be picking out which card layout to use.

I was sort of leaning toward the postcards at first. It seemed like a simple way to send out the Christmas cards to my family and friends, with cheaper stamps, no need to worry about envelopes, and all that other fuss. If I get enough good Christmas photos, I might still do a post card and go with this layout.

But, I am also sort of rethinking the idea of doing a post card. I'm not sure if I want pictures of me and my dogs visible to every person who comes in contact with the postcard, especially with my return address right there on it. I might be just a little bit paranoid like that.

Additionally, I really like the weight and elegance lent to a larger folded card that arrives in a slick envelope.
This design is pretty appealing to me, especially since some of my family and friends are either Jewish or non religious. Sending a Happy Holidays card is a great way, in my mind, of being able to include everyone without so much risk of offending anyone.

If I don't end up with enough pictures for either of those cards, I will have an even harder time deciding. There are a ton of different options. I think I just need to do my Christmas photo shoot and pick a card once I look at the pictures.

Do you have any Christmas traditions that you feel have to happen for it to really be the Christmas season?

*Disclaimer- I will receive 50 holiday cards in exchange for this post about Tiny Prints. However, all the opinions expressed here are very much my own and in no way were altered by this.

Black Friday

2011-11-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

Black Friday shopping I managed to avoid for the most part. Instead of hitting the stores, we got super early, loaded up the car with the dogs, and me and my mom hit the beach. Our goal was to be there by sunrise. A few big storms had recently passed through, so we had big hopes of finding some treasures on the beach. No such luck with that, but we did have a ton of fun!

The water was very foamy. This was my attempt at capturing a picture of the waves coming in with the gorgeous pink in the sky from the sunrise.

I then insisted the we stay at the beach long enough for the sun to rise up and hit the beach itself instead of just way out in the water. I couldn't stand to lose the chance to take some pictures of the pups enjoying the beach, especially with how hard it has been to get good pictures lately with all the clouds and rain.

And, I had to get a picture of some dog's paws. I just can't help myself. It is, apparently, my addition.

When I have been saying "we" throughout this post, I actually mean not just me and the dogs, but my mom and her Border Collie Possum as well. It was my mom's idea to go to the beach, and I am glad she had it.

I didn't end up coming home with many good pictures of Pallo. He was pretty leery of standing with his back to the ocean just so I could take a picture. Since the tide was coming in fast and we got hit by a number of waves, his caution was probably valid. But, it made for frustrating picture taking. Especially since I forgot to bring along my extra batteries and the low battery light came on after the first couple of pictures I took, so I was trying to conserve rather than just keeping the camera on and snapping pictures of everything.

When I said above that the ocean was foamy, I meant really foamy. And, this log was at the top of the beach, right before the gravel bar in front of the cliff. We even had to jump up onto some people's private stair cases a few times to get away from the waves. Probably it won't do any good for my recurring nightmares of being stuck on the beach between the cliffs and a rising tide with no where to go- but at least my fear of that happening meant we booked it out of there in between waves no problem, other than getting our feet a little wet.

We left the beach at about 9 after spending almost three hours there. We really weren't going to do any Black Friday shopping, but then drove past the Rogue Brewery which had a Sale sign out front- we couldn't help but stop in. After hauling five cases of beer out of their warehouse and in to the car (at only $10 for a 12-22 oz case, how are you supposed to resist?), we headed home. But, we had to stop and check for chanterelles (a type of wild mushroom that grows in the fall in the Pacific Northwest) one last time since it is the end of the season. There weren't many there, but me and my mom did find enough for me to bring home and make some soup in the next couple of days.

Hope everyone else had a great holiday, a safe Black Friday, and has a fun weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hope all of my US friends had a great Thanksgiving.

Here at the house of flyball dogs, the dogs had turkey yesterday morning for breakfast. Each one got two turkey feet, a turkey heart, a turkey liver, a turkey neck, and turkey gizzards. All courtesy of a friend of my mom's who was awesome enough to bring by the scraps from butchering his turkeys. A good bit more bone than normal, but evened out by boneless meal the day before.

My car spent all day at the shop getting fixed up, then I drove out to my mom's at 7. And, her awesome friend had dropped off two five gallon buckets of elk scraps from the elk they butchered earlier that day. Very little fat or connective tissue, just lots of good, clean red meat. Which meant that the dog's breakfast this morning, Thursday, Thanksgiving, was the elk meat left over after I ran out of ziplock freezer bags.

I bagged up the elk meat for the freezer in the time while my rolls were rising. We traditionally go to our community potluck every year. Each person brings the dish that to them is essential for Thanksgiving, because otherwise, you may be without it at all (we have had years of no turkey, or no mashed potatoes, or no gravy, or no rolls). I did a rosemary currant roll that ended up being a really nice crusty roll, but without the strong rosemary taste I was hoping for (I even soaked the crushed rosemary overnight in the olive oil, then added fresh rosemary to the dough).

Overall, the potluck was great. Plenty of turkey (including a wild caught turkey), stuffing, green bean casserole, home made cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, and more. We pulled out Jenga (the tower game) and Guesstures and various groups took turns having some fun with those.

There were only two downsides to Thanksgiving this year: The first being an explosion of Pyrex (after it was set on a hot burner by someone who just arrived and was making room for the dish on the serving table) which shot glass everywhere, including into some of the food dishes, which had to be scrapped. No one was hurt by the glass though, and more people arrived shortly to replace the ruined food. The other downside was that while there were cookies, cinnamon rolls, pecan pie, and blackberry cobbler, no one brought a pumpkin pie.

Which is why we have a pumpkin pie in the oven right now. Which we will eat for breakfast tomorrow.

We made a turkey for ourselves (so we can have leftovers) and have the bones all in the crockpot making stock. In the morning, we will be getting up early, straining the stock and putting together a Turkey Stew in the crockpot, and heading to the beach. A few major storms came through recently (one is on its way through right now), meaning that if we get to the beach early in the morning during the low tide, there should be tons of awesome treasures to find. And, we will probably be home in time to have turkey stew for lunch before I have to head back into town to go to work.

Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving, and wishing luck to those brave souls venturing out into the Black Friday shopping.

Wordless Wednesday: Ducks

2011-11-23T11:35:00.000-08:00

Pallo's FM title ribbon

2011-11-20T13:58:00.000-08:00

I neglected, after our last flyball tournament, to take Pallo's picture with his huge shiny ribbon. We lucked since most of the tournaments in our region don't do ribbons for placements or titles, but Pallo hit the big Flyball Master (FM) 5,000 point title at one of the few tournaments with ribbons!

I love getting ribbons. The title certificates a nice, and I keep all of them, but the ribbons are so much easier and prettier for hanging on the wall.

Koira didn't want to be left out of the picture session this morning. She did get a new title at the tournament, but they weren't giving titling ribbons to titles lower than 5,000 (so Pallo just barely squeaked in there).

I was using this morning to try out a new winter photo set up. The light was really bad today though, since it is very overcast and dark outside, so even with the south facing window, the white backdrop (wrapped around to help reflect the light back into the middle) and both the over head light and the stand lamp on, a lot of the pictures were really grainy or blurry. And, my camera has about the harshest flash ever (though it ended up not too bad to use if I put a piece of cardboard in front of it to reflect the flash up).

Hoping we get some sunnier winter days, or else the blog is going to be sadly lacking in pictures.

Flyball training progress

2011-11-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

Koira has been making a ton of progress in training. Her rotation for her turns remained really good at practice last night. When we switched to the other lane for our second practice session, though, she fumbled the ball every time. Our two boxes are identical, but apparently they fire differently enough to mess her up. Hopefully it will become a non-issue once her turn is built into her muscle memory more.

I did get a team mate to video her last turn of the night, after we switched back to the "good" box again.

I LOVE the rotation you can see in this video. But, after watching it a few times and having a fellow flyball friend from another team watch it, we both started seeing that Koira is double hitting. If you watch closely, it appears that she is hitting with her front feet, then her back, then moving her front feet over and up before pushing off of the box. It is easier to see in slow motion.

I am hoping the double hitting is just because she was getting tired at the end of the night. But, it does mean I will be trying to get a team mate to video all of her turns next time we practice, so that I can see if it is a chronic problem and get a better idea of how to fix it.

Pallo took a step backwards in his ball carrying training. He dropped early over half of the time, a few of them really early. But, I kept reminding him of what he was supposed to be doing, and the last few runs were good, with the ball only being dropped as he opened his mouth to grab the tug, just as it should be.

*And super duper thanks to a fellow flyballer who helped me out with putting the video into slow motion.

Elective surgery

2011-11-16T16:32:00.000-08:00

Spay and Neuter
Spays and neuters are probably the two most common surgeries we put our pets through. With such severe pet overpopulation issues in the US and countries around the world, spaying and neutering every pet who is adopted from a shelter, and encouraging the same for all pets, has been a major push for pet lovers world wide. Most shelters adopt out dogs and cats only if they have already been altered, and those that don't will most often require a spay/neuter contract to be signed, with proof of the surgery taking place required within a certain amount of time. There is no doubt in my mind that this is a majorly important step in controlling pet overpopulation.

But, recent reading has lead me to believe there is a lot more we should consider before getting our companions this elective surgery. Dr. Zink is probably the foremost veterinarian in the dog sporting world. Her earliest published works mention spaying and neutering as pet population control measures and then move on. In more recent years, however, Dr. Zink has changed her stance on every dog being subjected to this surgery, especially at a young age.

Performance dogs need to be sound in body to compete in the high impact sports we enjoy doing with them such as agility, obedience, flyball, and other sports. Early spaying and neutering may actually be putting our dogs at an increased risk. Early spaying or neutering, that is, doing the surgery before the dog finishes growing, can impact our dogs in many ways, including increasing overall height, causing disproportionate leg bone lengths (which causes poor angulation and additional stress on the dog's joints), and shows increased chances of hip dysplasia.

Early spay and neuter has also been linked to higher chances of bone cancer and hemangiosarcoma. Mammary cancer risk is increased, however, with every heat cycle a bitch goes through, but is generally only malignant 30% of the time and is one of the most successfully treated cancers in dogs. Prostate cancer has been assumed to have a reduced risk in neutered males, but recent studies have suggested that neutering in fact does not change the odds.

Koira was spayed at 6 months old and Pallo was neutered at about 9 months old. If I were to get another dog who was not previously spayed or neutered, I believe that while I would still have the surgery done, I would wait until the dog was at least a year old, or possibly even a year and a half or two years depending on the breed and projected age of maturity. Leaving the surgery for a little bit later can alleviate some of the risks of spay/neuter, especially those associated with orthopedic growth.

For more reading on spay and neuter, refer to this article by Dr. Zink, with resources for all the studies included at the bottom.

Dew Claws

You can see in this picture how Koira is using her dew claws to help her climb up out of the water

Dew claw removal is another elective surgery that is performed on many dogs in the US that may have severe consequences for performance dogs. Again, Dr. Zink has some great articles about this issue that can be found here and here.

Dew claws have long been thought to be useless on all dogs, simply an extra toe that risks getting caught or ripped off during physical activity. However, Dr. Zink has found that not only does the dew claw help with reducing joint stress and increasing traction while running, but removing the dew claw increases the risk of carpal arthritis significantly as well as causing the five (count them, five) tendons an muscle groups connected to the dew claw to atrophy.

Pallo's dew claws, while not visible in this picture, are helping him keep his balance and traction on the box.

Both Koira and Pallo have their dew claws in the front. Both of them have nice, tight dew claws that aren't loose and don't flap around out in space. I contemplated whether they should have the dew claws removed (if they were to ever be put under for another surgery) to reduce the risk of injury. But, I have very much changed my mind about this. Dew claws are important for a functioning canine athlete. Should one of them ever severely injure their dew claw in such a way as removing it is the best choice, then I will have it removed. Otherwise, I will be leaving their dews alone.

Pallo's dew claw

Koira's dew claws

How should these issues affect your choice of a performance dog?

As most people know, dogs adopted from the shelter are spayed or neutered already or are adopted out on a spay/neuter contract. This doesn't mean that your next performance dog can't come from rescue, however. Some rescues will be willing to work with you if a dog is not yet spayed or neutered and is not yet physically mature by having you sign a contract stating that you will get the surgery performed when the dog reaches a certain age or the growth plates are proven closed. Others, especially smaller local shelters, will be reluctant to work with individuals on this, as the last thing they want is for any of the dogs to leave the shelter and produce offspring.

If you choose to purchase a performance dog from a reputable breeder, you should have more options available to you. While many breeders would prefer their dogs be altered before going to their new homes if they are not going to be bred, most of them will be willing to work with you if you share the information about why you would prefer to wait and are willing to sign a contract to return the dog if the surgery doesn't take place by a certain date.

For dew claws, options are both more limited and more open. Most dew claws are removed within a few days of birth by the breeder or vet. At this age, they can pretty much just pinch the dews off. However, this may mean that the shelter dog or breed rescue you are interested in already has had their dew claws removed ages ago. On the other hand, many shelter dogs will still have their dew claws intact.

Breeders may be willing to not remove the dew claws of their puppies. However, since the dew claws are removed at such a young age and must be removed (or are strongly encouraged to be removed) to show in conformation, many reputable breeders will insist on removing the dew claws from all puppies, since decisions on which puppy you will be bringing home would be made at a much later date. Performance breeders who breed either purebreds for working stock or sport mixes will likely be more open to leaving dew claws intact than those who also breed for the conformation ring.

Menu Plan Monday

2011-11-14T12:19:00.000-08:00

Once again, it is Monday. At least this week I am just about over my cold.

Last week, the only things I ended up making were potato cheddar soup (served over lightly steamed broccoli) and homemade chicken noodle soup, with home made broth. I ate the leftovers most of the week, and had some of the extra chicken meat on some biscuits for a take-to-work lunch. And, my awesome Mom brought by some black bean soup for me that she had made. Between the three soups and instant oatmeal for breakfast, I was set for the week with leftovers.

This week's plan will use some of the stuff I didn't make last week. First on that list is curry, which is going into the crock pot right now. Chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots are going in now with the coconut milk and curry powder. Before I leave for work at 5 tonight I will add the bell peppers and bok choy to the pot as well. I haven't made curry in the crock pot before, but I am assured by many online recipes that it will turn out great, so I am hopeful. I LOVE leftover curry, so it would be awesome to be able to make a big batch at once. Plus, while tonight I will probably eat just the curry, tomorrow I will put some rice in the slow cooker to serve with the leftovers.

The last bowl of my mom's black bean soup is also on the menu this week. Probably for lunch today or tomorrow.

A pot roast in the crock pot is also sounding really good, made just with some chicken broth, sea salt, potatoes, carrots, and onions.

And, hot dogs in baked beans is another menu item. For some reason, to me, baked beans don't make a meal by themselves. However, if you either put hot dogs cut up in them, or serve them with a grilled cheese sandwich, that makes a full meal. Don't ask me why.

The dogs and cat are having chicken quarters, pork roast, the last of the venison scrap, and some goat liver/kidney. I'm being hopeful that some elk-hunting friends will bring back some elk heart, liver, and other scraps for me soon since elk hunting season opened last week.

Rear end awareness training

2011-11-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

Quick post of a few training videos with the dogs. I have started doing some rear end awareness training with them, since I think both of my dogs could use it. Plus, it will be useful for training some fun tricks later on.

Koira and Pallo are both working on learning how to step sideways with their back feet while keeping their front feet on a target. Koira has been doing much better with this than Pallo, who still doesn't seem to get the concept either of the front foot target being important or that he has a hind end that can do anything to be rewarded for.

Pallo and Koira have also learned to back up in front of me while I walk forward. I am now training a rear-foot target using the back up command. The dogs get clicked and treated when their back feet get on the target placed behind them.

My dog is awesome

2011-11-10T22:33:00.000-08:00

So, not sure if anyone will even understand this, but Koira made an awesome breakthrough today at Flyball practice.

Edited to add some pictures (taken a couple weeks ago)

Koira's turns have been decent with a prop in front of the box. She gets four feet on the box, doesn't do any double hitting (none of her feet hit the box more than once), and she pushes off strongly with her back legs. I have been rewarding this type of turn heavily with her, emphasizing her high foot placement on the box.

Koira's turn. Yes, her back feet did end up on the box, high on the box, during this turn. But, those hind feet are more like an after thought.

Today, I saw what her turns can look like. Instead of hitting the box front feet first, then bending her body around and allowing her rear feet to follow, then pushing off the box, she did something I didn't even realize I wanted her to do, before.

This is a pic of Koira during our warmup. We do restrained recalls over jumps and start the dogs off from the box like this for those.

Koira jumped toward the box, then did a sort of mid-air twist thing, hit the box with all for feet, then rocketed off. It sounds weird when I say it like that, and I don't even know if even the flyball people will get what I mean when I say it. But, you know how those super fast dogs, like the ones Touch N Go runs, seem to just leap into the air straight toward the box, then miraculously manage to turn in mid air, landing with all four feet properly placed on the box, with the hind feet hitting almost the same time as the front, then have a good, strong, push off with all four feet? That's what I saw Koira do for the first time today.

Pallo's turn at practice, nice and high. But, still not as awesome as the turn I just saw from Koira this week. Really, I think most dogs just aren't built for doing that type of turn.

The first time she did it was in our first session at practice. It was her 6th turn or so, and when I saw that awesomeness, I could tell it was the turn I wanted but didn't know how to get. I quit there, giving her a big game of tug and a release to get some water.

When we came in for our second session (we work all our dogs twice, for shorter sessions, for best results), she did it again. The mid-air rotation was actually so much there that she got her back feet too high and missed the face of the box with one of them. We put in a slightly shorter PVC jump prop in (we had a triple gutter and a PVC jump as props) to not push her so high. And, her rotation was amazing.

Pallo supermanning it over a jump at practice, tongue out in concentration

The last two turns she did were a bit sloppy. One foot was low on the box, and she had trouble getting the ball fully in her mouth. But, those last sloppy turns still seemed better than the fast turns she started with at the beginning of the first session. Because, instead of hitting with her front feet, then her back, she was still doing a really good mid-air rotation.

I am super hopeful that with more practicing, she will keep this up. By learning this rotation type turn, I think the turn will stick with her a lot longer and better than her old turning style. Frankly, the turns she gave me today were even better than any turn I've ever seen from Pallo, and I have always loved his turns (and been complimented on them a lot at tournaments, so its not just me).

Wordless Wednesday: Peaking through the mist?

2011-11-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

Weekly Menu Plan

2011-11-06T20:48:00.000-08:00

I spent Sunday in Portland at a Pet First Aid class. It was a lot of fun, and even though I already knew a lot of the material, I learned a good bit as well, and had fun. However, I didn't have fun with the 2 hour drive to get there first thing in the morning, and really didn't like the hour I spent lost in Portland before the 2 hour drive to get home again. And now I think I'm getting sick, with sore throat, constant sneezing fits, and possibly a fever (though I couldn't find my thermometer when I looked, so not sure on that part).

When I am sick, I generally spend my time in the house, with the heater up absurdly high, wrapped in blankets, sitting on a heating pad, eating hot soup and drinking hot tea. But, I have no soup makings, no tea, and need to do dishes to have any clean bowls or cups. And, I need to go shopping for some actual food in the house.

So, Menu Plan.

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal for as long as I am sick probably, since it is hot, easy on the throat, and super quick to make.

Lunch/dinner: Potato soup (need to pick up broth, milk, celery, carrots at the store); lentil soup (need the carrots and celery, and broth for this too); Yellow curry chicken, potatoes, carrots, and veggies (especially if this ends up being the head cold type sickness, then the curry is a lifesaver, so will probably use more celery and carrots, but need to pick up the curry, coconut milk, more potatoes, and some other veggies); Stew (so, need to pick up beef, which I will probably only do if a roast is on sale)

And this is a picture of some beans. Because I am low on pictures and low on energy/motivation to take actual relevant pictures for this post.

I'll think of other stuff to eat later in the week if I run out of food. I have to go do some shopping first thing tomorrow if I want to eat much at all. But, maybe being sick will motivate me to work on some more NaNo writing? Because I have, at the end of today, used up all the extra words I wrote earlier in the week, so need to start writing seriously again tomorrow.

For the dogs and cat:

Monday: Venison scrap
Tuesday: Chicken quarters
Wednesday: Venison scrap
Thursday: Chicken quarters
Friday: Goat or pork liver (whichever I grab) and beef kidneys
Saturday: Chicken quarters
Sunday: Chicken quarters

Probably going to do a good bit of chicken quarters this week, since it is the quickest thing to toss to the pups. The venison scrap is courtesy of my mom's neighbor, who had leftover trim and scrap from hunting this year. I hear he also set aside the turkey hearts, necks, and gizzards for me from the ones they just butchered as well. Then, if I am not super sick this week, it is about time to harvest some rabbits, so some of the menu might change for the pups if that happens. They have never had rabbit before, so it might be an interesting, new experience for them.

Oh, and for those wondering about the grey kitten in the Wordless Wednesday post last week, that is Grey Kitty, also known as Kitty. Martha was pregnant when I first brought her home, and I didn't know about spay/aborts as an option back then, so Kitty was born on September 11th, four years ago. Kitty lives with my mom, while Kitty's two siblings, Azu and Vida, live across the street from my mom with a long time neighbor/family friend.

For more menu planning ideas, visit StoneGable and I'm an Organizing Junkie

When I say "GO"

2011-11-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

So, to make you all think that I am totally crazy when I talk, as I did in my last post, about my totally fearful dog who spends half the day every week being afraid of the day itself, I thought I would share some pictures from Friday afternoon. Because, at exactly 12:02 in the afternoon on Friday, Koira stopped shaking, asked to go out to potty, and begged for breakfast time. So we went to the park for some fun.

My dogs start out with this expression as I hold up their ball, getting ready to throw

Then all that pretty elegance turns into these expressions, as my count down of "Ready.... Set..." finally reaches the point where I say "GO"

Pallo always ends up looking super worried, as if the ball is his best friend in the world, about to be lost forever in the dark abyss.

The day, by the way, was amazing. Which is good, because the forecast for the next ten days is rain, rain, rain. So I guess its a good thing that, when making the choice between taking the dogs to the park or working on my NaNoWriMo novel for the day, that I chose walking the dogs.

Doesn't Koira look so relaxed and happy in this picture? Doesn't it make you think I must be insane for worrying about how anxious she is?

And, you know, I may not have gotten anything written for NaNoWriMo yesterday (or today for that matter, bad me), but then, if I had, I would never have a picture of my dogs looking like this.

And besides, it made Koira happy.

Plus, I ended up with my new favorite picture of Pallo

Least I should forget it is Friday....

2011-11-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Koira will remind me. Friday is garbage day. To Koira, this means that Friday is the Day Large Noisy Dog-Eating Beasts Roam the Neighborhood. She will get up super early in the morning, about an hour before the first signs of garbage collection. She will either nudge me until I lift the covers for her to burrow under, or else hop off the bed and go hide in the "dog cave" in a corner behind the papasan chair. Whichever behavior she chooses, she will do it shaking. Then, Koira will continue to shake until at least noon, which is a good 4 hours after the last garbage truck in our neighborhood leaves. The slightest noise, on a Friday morning, will turn terrifying. The neighbors do laundry, causing their washer or dryer to make noise. Normally, the dogs don't even notice, since this happens on a daily basis. On Friday morning, though, this noise causes Koira to shake like a dry rattling leaf on a tree in a windstorm.

And this happens every week. No frantic behavior is the result, unless I try to take her out of the house. All that happens is I have a terrified puddle of quivering dog laying right up next to me all morning, or hiding out behind my chair. She will refuse to go outside to potty, and turns down her breakfast until the afternoon. The only thing that scares Koira as much as Friday mornings is when we visit my mom on Tuesdays, and the normalcy of the world is turned upside down when Tuesday becomes "Dog Eating Beast Day" to Koira. In fact, our garbage day used to be Tuesday as well. When they first rescheduled garbage pickup to Friday, Koira had two days every week of terrified shaking. Eventually, she realized that Tuesdays no longer eat dogs.

So, question. How in the world do you desensitize a dog to a day of the week? I can't even hear garbage trucks from my bedroom. There is no where we could go that would avoid them completely (especially given that cars drive past garbage trucks and under overpasses, which is a whole different issue). Turning on the TV or radio does nothing, which I concluded after about two months of sleeping to loud music and/or turning the TV on when I went to bed and leaving it on until after the garbage runs were over. Koira reaches a fear threshold where food and play mean nothing, simply by waking up on a Friday morning. Desensitize that, why don't you?

Wordless Wednesday: Kitten

2011-11-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Menu Plan Monday- And Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T11:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I made no plan last week since I was dead tired from the flyball tournament Sunday evening and spent Monday recovering. By then, I just gave up on doing a plan. I ended up eating lots of random thing, none of them well planned. Ran to the store to pick something up too many times, and decided to just have a snack instead of a meal a few times too.

So enjoy the menu plan for me and the dogs, and a smattering of Halloween-ish pictures.

So, here goes for this week. As usual, I will probably make enough of each lunch/dinner dish for 2-4 meals and have the leftovers the next day or two.

Breakfasts: Cereal, french toast, garlic bread awesomeness (french rolls, in half, with super garlicy garlic butter spread on them, topped with cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese, in the toaster oven until the cheese gets all nice and brown on top)

Pallo thinks pumpkins are for eating

Lunch/Dinner: Chicken fajitas (chicken breasts, onion, red and green bell peppers, tortillas); Chicken chili; Cabbage and noodles (just cabbage, noodles, and a little butter cooked together); Breaded chicken w/ veggie sides; Cheesy zucchini and yellow squash bake (with bok choy thrown in); Crock pot pork roast with potatoes, carrots, onions (and probably some cabbage and bok choy).

Can you tell I bought a family size pack of chicken? And that I am working my way through a head of cabbage and a bunch of bok choy? These things don't really come in sizes appropriate to living alone. Luckily they keep for a good long time in the fridge, compared to other veggies.

Meals for the Beasts:

Pork. Every day. All week. With some goat liver and pork spleen on the side, perhaps.

Normally I mix it up more than this, but I got a huge thing of super meaty pork ribs that should last most of the week, with extra liver and organs on the side to cover the slight difference between the weight of this pork the and amount needed for the week. Pork ribs a totally edible by most dogs (most pork bones are edible). Normally, pork ribs are too boney to feed often, but these are tons of pork, just a little bone. Not sure whats going on with them, really, but they were on sale for 90 cents per pound, which is a steal of a deal on red meat (pork is red meat, no matter what the pork council tries to tell you).

For more menu planning ideas, visit I'm An Organizing Junkie and StoneGable

Sunday Sewing (And Stuff)

2011-10-30T14:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, it was actually Saturday sewing, but I didn't get around to posting yesterday.

I had a few projects in mind, and had picked up some fabric on sale (remnant at 50% off of the current 50% off price end up being a steal of a deal). I wasn't planning on making the dogs Halloween collars until I saw this great purple with black cats fabric in the remnant bin. I was, however, looking for fleece, which I found there as well.

This picture includes the two Halloween collars I made for the dogs, the tug toy I made out of the selvages of the fleece (directions below), and a thermal-reflective cat bed. I also made a thermal-reflective dog crate mat, but didn't include it in the picture. And, since you are probably wondering, a thermal-reflective bed/mat is basically a thin, fleece covered mat with a thermal-reflective core that, when used, will reflect the body heat of the dog or cat back at them, increasing the warmth. Basically, a non-electric heated bed. I plan to make a few more of the cat beds for Martha and my mom's cats as well, and have another non-thermal dog bed planned.

I also realized that its been a while since I shared some pictures of the dogs playing at the park. A lot of pictures lately have been posed, as I am working on the dogs' sit-stays and down-stays.

So, here you go, my dogs looking goofy at the park!

And now, a DIY tutorial: How to make a fleece dog tug.

Start with four equal pieces of fleece. Mine are 4" wide by 45" (which happens to be the width of this fabric). When beginning, it will be easiest if you have two strips each of two separate colors.

Line up all the strips evenly and tie a knot as close to the end as possible.

Hold the knot in you hand with the long pieces of fabric up. Separate the strips so that one color is up and down, while the other is on either side.

Loop the top strip down and the bottom strip up, putting a finger in the loop that is made and keeping it nice and loose.

With the other colored strips, one at a time, put the strip over the loose end of one loop and through the loop on the far side. Repeat with the other strip of the second color. If you do it right, it should look like this.

Tug on each loose end to tighten the knot. You can leave it quite loose for a soft tug toy, or pull it as tight as possible for a nice firm toy. Make sure to pull each strip evenly, though, to maintain the same length of fabric.

Repeat each knot in this four-square pattern until you get to the end of your fabric strips. Tie a knot like you did at the beginning and trim the tails leftover to equal lengths (if you want).

You can also use other materials, such as old jeans or a t-shirt, to make a tug. I find my dogs like fleece the best, and it is soft on their mouths even when they are tugging like crazy. Plus, by buying remnants, it is easy to make a cheap fleece tug.

Collars and training

2011-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Due to a sale at the local fabric store, the dogs got new collars made this week.

I went for a new, fancy look by making them each a 2" brocade collar. With a limited slip, of course. Having my dog pull out of her collar once on a busy street was enough to ensure I will always put my dogs in limited slip collars to prevent that from ever happening again. And, I just had to do a 2" collar this time to show off the fabric.

I think it makes the dogs look very regal.

Now, since I don't have any flyball pictures I haven't already shared, I'm going to continue showing you pictures of the dog's new collars while I talk about flyball training.

Pallo is doing great with his ball carrying training. After a full weekend of him carrying his ball the whole time, I decided it is time to step up the training. So far, I have been sending him, running up to the start line, call him when he hits the box, then facing the lanes, back up a few steps, right hand held out and low in a fist, and yell "Touch" to him. Once he touches my hand with the ball, he gets his tug.

This works fine, obviously, but I want to get back to the normal pattern of flyball. The normal handler pattern goes something more like this: Release dog, run to start line, call dog when dog hits box, turn and run veering to the right, tug held out dangling in left hand, dog hits tug.

So, the first thing I did was put Pallo's tug into my closed right hand. I'm trying not to change the picture too much all at once, so everything else I did in the pattern was the same except for the tug placement (so, facing the lane, right hand outstretched with tug).

He did that successfully a few times, so I upped the ante by then turning and sticking out my left hand with the tug held in my closed fist (so, facing away from lanes, left hand outstretched with tug). He dropped a few feet early the first time, but nailed it the next few times. Over the next few practices, we will hopefully build up to me being able to be running away with the tug dangling and not have to worry about Pallo carrying his ball. I think we will get there without too many problems.

On the front of Koira's box turns, I think we made a decent amount of progress. Instead of using a PVC prop in front of the box, we are now using a single gutter and a triple gutter. These are basically exactly what they sound like, being plastic gutters from the hardware store, cut to be 4' long. The triple is just three of them stacked up, two on the bottom with one centered on top of that (I'll get a picture as soon as I get to the hardware store to make my own for practice at home). Using the triple gutter right in front of the box and the single a few inches out from the triple, Koira's turns are high, tight, and fast. And, she seems to be having a great time.

We will work her with this set up for a while, then slowly fade out the triple so she just has a single gutter in front of the box, then eventually fade that to a white slat laid flat on the ground, then nothing. Hopefully, if we do this over a long enough period of time and take it nice and slow, with lots of pull-out-prop for one hit, put it back in, etc, we will build a beautiful turn that stays high and safe even when at a tournament.

Martha had to come investigate while I was shooting photos of the collars.

I think she was jealous of the dog's getting new bling when she didn't get anything, so she decided to eat Koira's new collar.

As a last little note, I am LOVING my new indoor photo shoot setup. Doesn't it look nice, clean, well-lit, like I have a pro back drop and everything? I picked up two pieces of poster board in white, taped them together, and set it up in front of my window (which is covered in tissue paper so people can't see in, but which acts as a diffuser preventing harsh glares). With winter coming on, its nice to find a way to take indoor pictures that don't totally suck.

Trouble Shooting: Box Turns

2011-10-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, Koira's box turns are horrible at tournaments. She hits the box, hard, nearly straight on, with just her front feet. A turn like this puts a lot of stress on the ankles, elbows, and shoulders of the dog when slamming into the box, and stress onto the hips, knees, and back of the dog when she then has to wrench herself around to return down the lane. I refer to this kind of turn as a smash-and-grab.

Now, many dogs race their entire career with a smash-and-grab. Some of them are slightly better turns than others. Many dogs avoid injuring themselves even with a smash-and-grab. But, a team member just retired her 10 year old Tervuren, who had a poor box turn, due to back issues. She loves her dog dearly (because he is a total sweetheart), and has pulled him from competitions to prevent him from injuring himself worse. Every time she mentions his box turn causing this problem, and regret at not working to change it years ago, it makes me cringe for Koira's turn.

I don't want to have to retire my dog at 10 due to problems I may be able to prevent with training now.

So, I am taking a box training journey. It is way easier to train a good turn the first time around than to correct a poor turn. Every time a dog hits the box with a poor turn, it will take at least 2 times hitting the box with a correct turn to fully retrain the dog. For some dogs who have been competing for years, it may simply be not worth it to try to retrain the box turn, especially if the current turn is half-way decent or the dog runs slow and hits the box gently. Unfortunately, Koira doesn't fall into those categories.

My team will be helping me come up with a training plan for Koira's box turn. She currently has a nice turn with a prop in front of the box, but has no turn at all after a few hits without the prop (such as in a tournament setting). So far, we have managed to fade from a full jump board to a pvc jump prop. The goal is to have good, consistent, high, fast turns without any prop at all. To this effect, I will be practicing at home with Koira daily, putting the prop in and taking it out, keeping a high criteria for the turn and only rewarding good ones. Taking the prop out, though, risks building in the muscle memory of the bad turn, so it will have to be done carefully. With the help of my team, I know we will be able to fix the technical aspects of Koira's turn.

In addition, I need to find a way to make Koira believe that doing box turns is the Best Thing Ever. If she enjoys doing them, she will want to do them correct. It will also help improve her speed down to the box. So, I need input on how to motivate my dog to LOVE box turns. Koira's favorite tricks right now are heeling (which she seems to see as free cookies) and "waving", which is her default behavior whenever a treat is brought out. She is very food motivated, toy motivated, and willing to please. Praise makes her prance around looking all proud of herself. But, she can get over-amped easily, making her brain melt a bit, so she will sometimes resort to body-slamming me for her tug or "waving" at me repeatedly (and punching me in the process) for a cookie.

So, I guess I am appealing a bit to my readers, both flyball trainers and dog trainers in general. I want my dog to LOVE box turns. How would you go about doing this?

Ribbons and medals

2011-10-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend at the flyball tournament. Koira ran really nicely all weekend. Her team came in fourth on Saturday and third on Sunday. Sunday they even gave out ribbons for placements, with 3rd and up getting medals.

The medals had a really cute design after the theme of the weekend "South of the Booder"

Pallo's team did really good the first day, getting 1st place in their division on Saturday. They got fourth on Sunday though, as a lot of our dogs were tired and slowed down a lot.

Of course the placement ribbons were for Sunday, so Pallo came home with a fourth place ribbon.

This was also the first time our club took 3 teams to a tournament. Our third team, which I called passes for, won their division both days, with all of the dogs running really consistent.

Tournament wrap-up:

Pallo went an entire weekend without once dropping his ball early, so all the hard work on carrying the ball to me has paid off. He is running slower now though, which I think is from having to concentrate on carrying the ball. But, I would rather him be slow and clean than fast with an early drop. Plus, I am pretty sure he will pick up speed again once he gets used to running like this.

While he didn't drop his ball at all, that doesn't mean he ran perfect. On Sunday, there was a lab/shepherd looking dog that he was terrified of. While waiting on deck, his hackles went up and he started barking at the other dog (for no reason I could see). In the ring, he shied away from the other dog majorly. Pallo was running second and the dog he was scared of was third in the other lane, and Pallo was double striding very slowly back to me, as he didn't want to be anywhere near that dog.

Also, Pallo was running last most of the weekend, passing a very enthusiastic, large, fluffy dog who likes to stop and say hi to him as he runs into the jumps. Partway through Sunday, Pallo decided he was sick of having another dog in his face and bailed on the jumps twice. We switched up the lineup, but had another large fluffy dog passing him and he bailed again. Which ended up leaving only start for a few of our lineups, which he has never run before. But, he did pretty good in start most of the day until our last race. He stopped dead when the other start dog's handler started calling her dog (she sounded a lot like me, so we think he thought I was calling him off, I guess my recall is too good). We switched him back in the lineup and he did fine with the fluffy dogs for the rest of the race.

One thing really ticked me off though, and that was some random person deciding to open the barn doors (which had been closed all weekend, and were RIGHT BEHIND the box) in the middle of our race, during the second heat. Pallo stopped dead after grabbing his ball from the box, turned, and took a long look at the doors moving and the sunlight streaming in. Seriously, some people don't think through their actions much, or else just don't care.

For Koira, I have decided to take her training in a new direction. I originally moved on from doing box-specific practice with her because she was getting bored and losing motivation. I wasn't sure she would ever become a competitive flyball dog, and didn't want to frustrate both of us in trying to reach box-turn perfection if she never ended up completing the course.

Now, however, Koira is showing drive. She is motivated and enjoying flyball. But, she is also running fast enough that her poor box turn (which often degenerates to a smash-and-grab by the second race of the day) is putting way too much pressure on her joints. Her shoulders and ankles are being slammed hard, and her hips and knees are taking too much turning pressure. She doesn't have any health issues from it yet, and may not for years to come, but that't not good enough for me now. I know she will do flyball, and that she likes it now. So we will be taking some time off from doing full runs. Box practice and turns are the only thing we will be working on, with the goal of having a fast, smooth, safe box turn. Having a proper box turn will reduce all the pressures on her various joints, speed up her runs, and help her with her bobbling at the box. So that will be our new focus, with making it fun being a high priority. The more fun she thinks the box is, the faster she will run to get there.

So, that's my more long-winded explanation of the tournament. I had a great time, as did the dogs, and really enjoy running with my team. Everyone is reliable, showing up where and when they are supposed to, getting everything done, and generally being fun to hang out with. Its great that even though our team has grown a lot, really fast, we all still are willing to work together and be pleasant and have fun. Really, this is what flyball is about to me. Its not winning (though that is nice), its not getting titles (though, again, enjoyable), but rather having fun and having a team of people who are there, with everyone supporting everyone else. Having that team around you makes every achievement more enjoyable.

Pit Bull Awareness Day

2011-10-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

October 22nd is National Pit Bull Awareness Day. I will be spending it in Auburn, WA, a town with Breed Specific Legislation (BSL). Or rather, right outside of town at the facility hosting the flyball tournament. And yes, something strikes me as just wrong about that. Then again, BSL strikes me as just plain wrong anyway.

*Every breed pictured in this post could be restricted or banned under BSL, along with many other breeds and dogs not pictured.

In honor of Pit Bull Awareness Day, I figured a post would be in order about traveling with your dog to areas with BSL. No matter what breed you own, these guidelines should be followed, because in the end, the actual breed of your dog doesn't matter, it is the breed your dog is accused of being (and I have had a Coton de Tulear accused of being a Rottweiler, in seriousness). And, the United States is not the only country with BSL in place by any means.

Tip Number One
Know your route, and check any planed stops and destinations for BSL. Most of the time, these laws can be found on city or county websites under the Animal Control portion. In addition, there are some great websites out there listing all cities and counties with BSL (so far, no states have enacted state-wide bans). Some of these websites to check are StopBSL, Understand-a-bull, and DogsBite.Org.

Tip Number Two
It is important to not only know if BSL is in place, but the specific laws. Some places outright ban certain breeds (generally these breeds will include, but not be limited to: American Pit Bull Terriers, Staffordshire Bull Terriers, American Staffordshire Bull Terriers, Rottweilers, Doberman Pinches, German Shepherds, Akitas, Huskies, and mixes there-of, but often will include other breeds or size or weight restrictions). Genereally dogs accused of being a banned breed in these areas can be seized by the police or Animal Control outright, and owners have to fight to get their dog back.

Other places will have restrictions places on certain breeds, including limiting them to being walked by adults only (18+), walked only on a 4 or 6 foot leash, muzzled in public, or additional restrictions. Generally, breeds included in BSL in these areas are not at risk of being seized by authorities (unless the dog is running loose or exhibits aggression), but the owner could receive a ticket or citation for violating the breed specific laws.

Because of these two major differences in basic BSL, it is important to know the laws of the places you will be passing through or stopping in. Some areas are so bad that if you get pulled over with a banned breed (or what someone decides to call a banned breed) in the car, the dog can be seized (Denver is famous for strictly enforced BSL), where as other areas only care if you are a resident or your dog is actively threatening a person or animal's safety.

Tip Number Three
Be prepared to change your plans if you discover BSL along your route. As stated above, some areas are so bad that you could risk losing your dog (and some dogs seized are "accidentally" put down or "lost"). If you must travel to one of these areas, plan on boarding your dog with a friend, family member, or professional boarding kennel, or having a pet sitter watch your pets at home. Sure, it may not be legal for them to seize and destroy your dog, but once it happens, no number of lawsuits in the world will get your dog back for you.

Tip Number Four
When traveling with any dog, of any breed, it is important to always keep your dog on a leash and under control. No matter how good your dog's recall is, don't let them off leash at a freeway rest stop or in a public park. Even the best-trained dog can get spooked and run off. Additionally, many places (Auburn, WA included) will not bother you about your dog's breed unless the dog/owner is breaking a law already, such as leash laws. Consider your leash to be insurance. You may know your dog wouldn't run over and bite someone, or act aggressive, but if you dog is on leash 100% of the time on your trip, you can prove that your dog did not have the chance to do so if someone accuses you.

Tip Number Five
Avoid areas with BSL whenever possible. If you know you cannot drive around a certain town, be prepared to leave your dog at home under good care. However, there are times when you have to bring your dog along, and driving around is just not an option. In that case, call the police department and Animal Control in the county and city where you will be and talk to them. Ask if dogs can be seized from an owner and what they expect you to do with your banned breed while in the area.

I plan on avoiding Auburn as much as possible, but will have to drive into city limits along the outskirts of town to get to the tournament site. I called the city police (as it is a city specific ordinance). They reassured me that their laws only apply to residents owning those breeds and that as long as my dog is in my car or on leash she is not at risk of being seized. I then had them email that statement to me, to print out and carry in the car. Though I don't plan on being in town, something unforeseen might happen where I need to be there (like my car breaking down, etc). I also talked to fellow flyballers and some agility people as well who have breeds covered in the Auburn ban, and not one of them has every had an issue of any kind.

Cow Butts

2011-10-18T19:04:00.000-07:00

Most of the search terms used to find my blog are reasonable, to me. Flyball, flyball box, flyball collar, flyball sport mix dog, etc, are all terms that come up a long on the blog, and really, have a lot to do with what I talk about. It makes sense, then, that Flyball is the single most searched term leading to someone clicking on my blog.

Lure coursing and slip leads have come up a few times as well. Seems like a reasonable number of people are interested in doing the CAT, doing lure coursing with their hound, or looking at/buying/learning to use a coursing slip.

A few people, directed to my blog through Google searches, may have come up disappointed. I did not, actually, post who won the CanAm 2011. For you: Rocket Relay won CanAm 2011 after the fifth heat ended in a dead tie with Instant Replay.

Those interested in Disc Dog and Canine Dancing/Freestyle won't have found much in the way of training tips, but hopefully they were satisfied with the plethora of pictures.

I hope those people directed to the blog by inquiries about raw diet, raw diet in sports dogs, and flyball dog diets have been helped by my weekly Menu Planning posts, which include the diet for my dogs every week (though I stopped writing glucosamine supplement every time, even though they get it every day).

My Flyball Training Series posts may have helped out the person looking for flyball target training, and I sincerely hope the touch stick training and other behaviors to be trained help them find what they were looking for.

What I don't understand is the number of people directed to my blog when searching the term "cow butts". Sure, I mentioned cows back in my post about the fair, and even included a picture of some cow butts. What I'm more confused with is 1) Why are people searching google for cow butts? and 2) Are there so few pictures/references out there to cow butts that my blog is one of the top hits?

If cow butts are so popular, why not Sheep Noses? Afterall, the picture depicting a sheep nose is so much cuter.

At this point, however, I have probably repeated the phrase "cow butts" so many times that it is destined to become one of the newest draws to my blog. Maybe I should go visit some farmers in the area so I have new cow butt pictures to share? Any local farmers want to offer up their cows for a photo shoot?

Meal Plans and Pumpkin squares (And Lure Coursing pictures)

2011-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

We are off to a flyball tournament this weekend, so that means stuff like cleaning the house, cleaning the car, and packing all have to happen as well. Luckily (or unluckily, monetarily speaking), work is super light for the next week, so I'll have plenty of time.

As requested, the recipe for the pumpkin bars I posted last week:
Make pumpkin cream cheese (1 package cream cheese, 1/4 cup canned pumpkin, 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, 2 T brown sugar).

In a greased baking dish, lay out one layer of crescent rolls (I just used the off-brand package of them, and did a small pan, which took one tube). Pinch the seams together. Spread with Pumpkin Cream Cheese. Lay the other half of the crescent rolls over the cream cheese, pinching the seams together. Top with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon, and scatter a few small chunks of butter across the top. Bake at 350 until golden brown and flaky (about 15 minutes in my toaster oven).

Slice and serve. They are great warm out of the oven, or cold the next day for breakfast.

Meal plans for the week:

Lunch/Dinner meals:
Philly Cheese Steak Sandwiches: a roast was on sale, which I got for the dogs, and cut off my own portion of the meat, plus I have two bell peppers to use up still, and some onions, and a few hoagie rolls left from the apple butter meatballs last week, which I ate as hot meatball subs.

Fajitas: with the same mix as the cheese steak, minus the cheese and plus fajita seasoning and a tortilla

Chicken/corn chowder: Plan is to cook a chicken quarter in the crockpot (after removing the skin/extra fat). I'll remove the meat from the bones and brown up the meat in the pan, then make my normal corn chowder, adding the chicken in. The bones from the quarter, along with some vegetable scraps like onion skins, will get made into chicken broth the next day, in the crock pot.

Quesadillas: Since I have tortillas, this is one of my fall-back foods. Made in a cast iron pan, please, as I can't stand a soggy tortilla from the microwave.

Pumpkin French Toast: Because it sounds amazing, and I am still trying to use up all that canned pumpkin. I really need to just freeze it into an ice cube tray next time to use in small amounts as the need comes up.

Cheese Sandwich: A cheese sandwich, made on five seed bread, with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, apple slices, sprouts (alfalfa/radish/clover/chia mix), and sunflower seeds. Because I used to get this at a coffee shop down the street from my college, and its an amazing sandwich. Might have this a few times, to use up all my sprouts and fully solve my craving.

*Shopping list: Milk, eggs, maple syrup, Halloween candy (my contribution to our team potluck over the weekend, along with some blackberry liquor)

And, here are the dogs with the two Qualifying ribbons each, from the CAT yesterday (check out yesterday's post for videos)

Dog meals for the week:

As I mentioned above, we are gearing up for a flyball tournament. Which for my dogs means a week of no organs, slightly more bone, and consistent meals. Last thing I want is a dog suffering from too much organ meat, too little bone, or a new-food reaction at the tournament (or stinking up the car on the drive).

Monday: Chicken Quarters (Yes, out of the same bag as I am feeding to myself. Its the benefit of buying meat at the grocery store for the dogs.)
Tuesday: Beef heart
Wednesday: Beef heart
Thursday: Chicken quarters
Friday: Beef heart
Saturday/Sunday (at the tournament): Chicken quarters, with a small portion of beef heart in the late afternoon after racing is over.

It is about two-days-worth more bone than I usually feed to my dogs. Bone firms up stools, so I feed it a bit more heavy for tournaments and traveling as a dog with the runs is 1) not feeling their best, 2) not pleasant to be around, and 3) likely to soil in the ring, which I DON'T want to continue our reputation of. This is the same reason I omit organs in the week leading up to a tournament, or any new/rarely fed protein source.

I will also be freezing some tuna juice into ice cubes to add to the dog's water if they aren't drinking. Koira barely drank at all at the last tournament, and the dogs need to stay hydrated.

For more meal planning and recipe tips, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie and StoneGable.

Lure Coursing Videos

2011-10-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

Koira ran her first CAT (Coursing Ability Test) this morning. She left the lure, but when I re-sent her to it, she picked it back up, and still managed to come in under the time limit, giving her a Q. She did the same thing for her second CAT, again, earning a Q, but not very prettily. I only got the first one on video, and the camera didn't care much for the fog. We have one more CAT Q to go to achieve a Coursing Ability (CA) title.

Pallo ran the CAT 1 and CAT 2 steadily and solidly, bringing home two Q's to be proud of. Even with those short legs, he did great.

Pallo did get a bit tired toward the end of his runs, especially CAT 2. But he showed his drive and game good. One more Q to his CA title!

*For the CAT, dogs over 12 inches at the shoulder must run a 600 yard course, while dogs shorter than 12 inches run 300 yards. The time limit for 600 yards is 3 minutes.

Hello, Friday

2011-10-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

How nice of you to join us.

The sun was out, the clouds were reduced to nice little fluffy white bits in the sky, and overall, the day was amazing. So I took the dogs out for a 3 hour walk at the park.

Safe to say, I think they had fun.

Or at least, they had fun until a random dog ran up and bit Koira in the side, leaving her with a bleeding hole. It looked worse at first than it turned out to be, and despite being in what seemed like a horrible place (the strip of skin between her rib cage and her back leg), it closed up okay overnight, relieving my worry that it would require stitches. Koira is now on antibiotics twice a day, since it was a dog bite (prone to infection) and was red and puffy the next morning. Luckily, she doesn't mind at all.

Raw feeding tip: Instead of using Pill Pockets brand treats to hide medications in (which contain wheat, corn, and all sorts of other nasties), chicken hearts are a perfect raw feeding pocket for meds. In fact, they are just the right size to cover most medications, including Koira's antibiotics, and she happily will slurp down a fresh chicken heart in no time. Just pick up a chicken heart, insert pill, feed to dog. (Note, insert it straight into the top of the heart, not into the large vessel, which will rip open.)

ETA: The other dog ran up, bit Koira. Koira yelped, ran to me (big baby, right?). The other dog returned to its owners. I leashed up both of my dogs (this was at an off-leash area of a park), walked over, and told them what happened. The owner was very nice about it, baffled at the dog's behavior, and paid for Koira's vet bill.

In any case, the park even provided a chance for a photo shoot I have been meaning to try: Dog silhouettes. I plan on trying some more, but here are the two best ones I got (of course the camera battery was dying at this point).

I like the way, in the second one, the sunlight picked out Pallo's fur, giving him a really nice partial outline. But I think I need to find a better place to try this next time, as the grasses and high horizon made these pictures not quite what I was looking for.

Anyone else have a list going of photo set-ups you really want to try out?

And don't forget to join in the Saturday Pet Blog Hop!

Twelve week photography course

2011-10-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

This week's assignment was to shoot some pictures indoors, making use of natural lighting as much as possible. These pictures are straight out of the camera, with no editing.

I actually set up a large white paperboard on the other side of my animals, which helped a lot in increasing the light. It reflected a lot of the natural light back at my subjects, lighting up their darker sides nicely.

Also, by making sure my focus was on my subjects, my camera adjusted the light for them, rather than for the bright window they were next to.

It helped that it was a very sunny day, with a lot of natural light coming inside. Also, my windows have white tissue paper over them (otherwise everyone could see right inside), which I think helped both increase the amount of good, clear light and also prevented sun glares.

I even had enough light to get a decent moving picture. Normally, this is one of the hardest things to do inside, because movement will blur without enough light. I'm sure I couldn't get this decent of a picture of the dogs wrestling inside, but for a good bit of minor movement, it worked.

For more photography tips, to check out other participants, or to try out this photo course yourself, go check out Twenty-Six to Life.

Wordless Wednesday: Fall

2011-10-12T01:34:00.001-07:00

Menu Planning Monday, and Lure Coursing photos

2011-10-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

Another week, another menu plan. I find that I am getting better about eating planned meals rather than staring at the cupboards wondering what there is to eat, or lamenting that there is no food (despite the totally full cupboard). Not every meal I plan on gets made every week, and sometimes I change it up and make something different, either because of time, cravings, or not having the ingredients I thought I had.

This week's meal plans:

Breakfast: Cream cheese squares (made with Pumpkin Cream Cheese), That same pumpkin cream cheese on some English Muffins, Apple cinnamon muffins, apple cinnamon pancakes (trick is it is the same exact mix, only one gets baked in a muffin tin while the other gets poured in a pan), Toast w/ apple butter (because I am still not sick of it)

Cream cheese squares:

Dinner: Rice w/ peas and Parmesan cheese (it rhymes, and is super cheap and easy to make), Cheesy Zucchini bake, Apple Butter Meatballs, Grilled cheese and baked beans

As per usual, lunch is normally dinner or breakfast leftovers, or I'll make a dinner dish at lunch time and have leftovers for dinner.

A few lure coursing pictures

Getting ready to let Pallo loose

Pallo loves lure coursing

Koira loves it too, but is so fast she is super hard to get pictures of her

This is after her run. She went to the lure, ripped the bag off, then ran back to me with it.

The Week's Menu of Raw Feeding for the Dogs and Cat:

Monday: Deer bones, beef scrap (to meat out the otherwise bone-heavy meal)
Tuesday: Pork kidney, spleen
Wednesday: Beef scrap (frozen in a Kong to make it more difficult and stimulating to eat)
Thursday: Chicken quarters
Friday: Pork roast
Saturday: Beef scrap
Sunday: Deer bones, beef scrap (or organs)

I got a bag of deer bones for free this week, from a person who knows a person who butchers deer for his friends. The bones still have a bit of meat on them, tendons, connective tissues, and more, all of which is great mental and physical workouts to eat and is a great natural source of glucosamine for the dogs. However, I need to add beef scrap and feed boneless meals before and afterwards, otherwise it is way too much bone. Even so, I only have about two weeks worth of deer bones at the most, so hoping I'll be able to get some more, maybe even some meatier ones like necks!

As usual, for more recipe and meal planning ideas, please visit I'm an Organizing Junkie and StoneGable.

Lure Coursing Trios

2011-10-09T21:47:00.000-07:00

What lure coursing should look like:

Trio of whippets taking off from the start

Trio of whippets coursing after the lure

Trio of whippets on the lure

What lure coursing shouldn't look like:

Trio of French Bulldogs about to be released after the lure

Trio of French Bulldogs walking toward or looking at the moving lure

Single French Bulldog actually chasing the lure

The other two Frenchies decided it wasn't interesting to be out there. One took off at a fast walk back to their trailer (and her bed) while the other went to beg to be picked up. (Can you guess which of the three in the first two pictures is actually running after the lure in the third picture?)

Tell Me Thursday

2011-10-07T22:38:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't participated in this before, and am a full day late already for it, but I just had to give this one a go.

Here goes:

1. If you won the lottery (a big one... I'm talking stupid muchos cash) what would you do with the money?
Oh, I have this all sorts of planned out.

I would do a couple of things.

Buy my mom a house in Mexico, and some open-ended plane tickets around the world to various locations (like Egypt, France, New Zealand, and other neat places).

Probably buy my sister and her husband the house of their dreams (or pay off their current house, if it is the house of their dreams already!).

Then the real fun would begin. I would purchase a big piece of property, in this area, but probably a bit farther north. I'm talking at minimum 10 acres, probably more like 40+, hopefully with a good forested section and backing up against National Forest land on at least one side. I would build a large, insulated, heated/AC training barn (at least 400x200 feet of working room inside, with movable wall panels that can be pulled out to separate the room into smaller sections). There would be a second story, divided into two large training rooms, a wide hallway, and a large storage area. Both the main floor and upper floor would additionally have a building-length gallery area meant for a crating area. The floors in the main room downstairs, and in the two training rooms above, would be that bouncy matting stuff they have at kid's playgrounds, but covered with a layer of stiffer padding, well sealed, giving that fast, secure surface of mats with the give of softer dirt or grass flooring.

The training barn would be a big place with affordable training classes of all kinds. Scholarships and work-study programs would be set up for those people unable to pay due to financial situations (so they could help out by doing the cleaning, or landscaping, or maintenance, etc, in exchange for classes). Agility, flyball, treiball, scent hurdles, obedience, rally, nose work, and more would all be offered, and there would be competitions and seminars of the various sports most weekends, in the upper rooms or the large arena. I'd put together a trust that awarded prize money to those people who achieve higher-level titles with their dogs in a competition at the center (to generate lots of interest).

And of course, I would build myself a house nearby, on the property. I would probably get build a barn as well, and get a horse, maybe a cow, some sheep or goats, and raise rabbits, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, etc, for myself and to have fresh, nutritious, humanely raise meat for my dogs (of which I would probably have a few more, though no more than 4 at a time I think), as well as a garden to grow all my favorites. I'd hire someone else to run the training facility so I could spend time doing my animal raising and gardening, and taking care of my dogs, and probably would attend training sessions in about every dog sport all the time, when I wasn't traveling to competitions in my nifty, teeny little camper-van (just big enough for me and the dogs, and super gas-efficient).

Plus, any building on the property would be covered in solar panels (hooked up to the grid), so that we could produce a lot of the electricity we needed to use.

And while the whole place was being built, I would take a trip to see Europe (especially going back to Estonia and Finland), visit Russia, a trip to Thailand, India, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand, and maybe some other places.

2. After winning the lottery would you work a day job? If so, what would you do?
Well, not a day job, no. But, I would probably go back to school to learn therapeutic massage for sports dogs, and practice that on my own and some other dogs as well. And possibly teach some classes at my awesome training facility (probably Flyball, since that is about all I feel totally qualified to teach!).

3. Do you have any auxiliary dogs? Auxiliary dogs are dogs that are not essential to your main purpose (usually tiny, but not always). If you don't have an auxiliary dog what might you choose?
Both of my two are auxiliary dogs. While competitive sporting dogs, neither one is helpful to me on a daily basis in terms of doing chores or similar stuff like farm dogs are expected to do. The most helpful thing my dogs do on a daily basis is Pallo's command "go close the door" that I use when my hands are full or I don't want to get up.

If I count flyball as a purpose, I wouldn't get an auxiliary dog. My dogs are flyball dogs, and will be that until they tell me its time to retire, at which point they will be around, doing the same thing as they do now, only minus the flyball. But I really have no interest in adopting a dog who wouldn't do flyball at least for a while.

4. Do you have a favorite crock pot recipe (or other recipe) you can share?

I have lots of favorite recipes. Right now, my favorite is probably super-simple crockpot apple butter. I have a nifty gadget that cores, peels, and slices apple with a hand crank. I then toss the apple slices into the crock pot. Turn the pot on for 8 hours (normally overnight), then mush up the apples, add sugar, cinnamon, and other spices (I use some cocoa powder) to taste, and let it cook another 6-8 hours. Then, enjoy.

Don't forget do participate in the Saturday Pet Blog Hop and to also check out my last post, and watch some flyball racing live at the CanAm Classic, running all weekend long!

CanAm Classic- Livestreaming

2011-10-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

Watch live streaming video from danphillips at livestream.com

I'm watching some of the CanAm Classic live, join me if you want to see some Flyball action! The CanAm Classic is the NAFA National event that happens every year. I know a few of my blogging friends are there, like Steve from Save the pit bull, Save the world. Plus, a number of people and teams from my region, who I'm looking forward to seeing run!

Right now, they are discussing how many rescues are playing flyball. A few teams running are made up only of rescues. Its a lot of fun to see the huge variety of people and dogs involved in this sport.

And don't worry if you don't have time to watch today- CanAm is happening all weekend, so catch some livestreaming of it tomorrow or Sunday!

Happy Birthday Skye! (plus some photography stuff)

2011-10-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Skye!

In honor of your birthday, the dogs thought they would show off their Halloween costumes. Koira's giraffe costume always makes me laugh, while Pallo dressed as a squirrel results in pouty faces from him (and suppressed giggles from me). Boomer was a sport, and didn't even seem to notice having his dragon costume on!

While we were outside with the camera, I decided to try my hand at this week's photography challenge, as hosted by Twenty-Six-To-Life. This week's challenge is composition, encouraging us to simplify, use the rule of thirds, fill the frame, and try a new perspective (full photography course details are on her blog).

I decided to focus on using the rule of thirds and filling the frame for these two pictures.

Boomer's nose is at the upper left third, while his body fills the lower right third. I thought this was a good fill-the-frame and use of thirds. And, it is simplified about as well as I can do around my house, with just the plain blue-painted cinder block behind him.

Again, on this one, Boomer's nose is on one of the main "thirds" point, this time the lower left, while the stem of the pumpkin is along the right third line, starting and ending on those points. If the pumpkin were to be viewed as the horizon, it is in the lower third as well, rather than in the center of the picture.

Now, I know people who are regulars here are thinking, wait, whats with this fuzzy dog being called Boomer? Don't worry, I didn't get another dog. He is a foster dog that I picked up on Monday, covered in fleas, having chewed himself down to bare skin in many places, old, gimpy on one leg, and with horrible old-dog stench. He received a flea bath (dog shampoo with neem oil added) and is now wearing a cone (to stop the chewing and licking) and booties on his back feet (to stop the scratching), as well as getting benadryl twice a day to help with the itching. He also has toe nails so long they are causing his toes to disjoint, and I am sure it hurts to walk on them. I trimmed them a good amount, but am afraid to do too much all at once (though he was a total doll and just laid there while I clipped his nails).

Boomer is a total sweetheart. He is happy to just lay next to me in my chair, on my lap, or at my feet. He gets along with Pallo and Koira, and even though his original owners said he wasn't good with cats, he doesn't seem to have even noticed Martha yet (even when she walks straight past him). He will be being evaluated today by the head of the rescue, and hopefully a longer-term foster home can be found for him while he recovers from his skin issues.

Wordless Wednesday: Stinky old man gets a bath

2011-10-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Tasty Tuesday: Water

2011-10-04T09:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I don't know if this really counts as a Tasty Tuesday. But seriously, I had to share this video. And, Koira looks like she thinks the water is pretty darn tasty, right?

Menu planning Monday

2011-10-02T22:01:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to try making a pot pie in the toaster oven lately. However, I don't have any potatoes and have decided I seriously need to clean out the cupboards a bit before I do any more grocery shopping. So, I was super excited to find this Lentil and Squash Pot Pie Recipe.I have some acorn squash I still need to use, and I know I have a bag of lentils buried in the cupboard somewhere. Plus, I have puff pastry in the freezer, just waiting for something to use it on, so that will be used as the crust/topping. Probably I will end up tossing in some bok choy (because I have it) for some extra greens in it as well.

Apples in the dehydrator.

My goal is to have a full gallon of dried apples before the end of the season.

As for the rest of my meal plan for the week, I have a few dishes I am planning on, and the rest of it I figure I can scrounge something up...

Lunch/Dinner: Pad Thai (with rice noodles, seasoning, cashews, variety of veggies, possibly with chicken if I find some in the freezer); Pulled pork sandwiches (w/ buns I picked up last week for the single hamburger I made for myself after pulling ground beef out of the freezer instead of chicken); Grilled cheese w/ baked beans; Pot Pie!

And of course, I cook enough for 2-3 servings of each dish every time I cook, giving me leftovers for 1-2 meals later in the week. When you live alone, it is really hard to cook a dish small enough for a single serving, so this is my compromise. Plus, makes for less overall time spent cooking. (I enjoy cooking, but there is only so long I can stand to argue with my hotplate and toaster oven.)

Breakfast: Toasted PB&J; Toast w/ apple butter (I will probably make another batch of apple butter this week as well); Eggs, bok choy, and sausage served up on a bagel thin; Cereal w/ berries

I have various types of cereal, all of which seem to have less than one serving left in the box. So, hopefully I'll clear out that part of the cupboard and make some room.

On the menu for the beasts this week:

Chicken quarters (the cat gets only a leg or a thigh, not a full quarter)- Monday, Thursday
Beef scrap- Wednesday, Friday, Sat/Sun
Goat liver- Tuesday

They will probably also get a pig kidney or two thrown in at some point this week, and may or may not end up with more chicken than that, depending on how they do with so little bone and the organs meals.

And, as always, for more meal planning ideas, check out StoneGable and I'm an Organizing Junkie.

Flyball Training Series: Building a Box Turn

2011-09-30T18:30:00.000-07:00

(As a precurser to this post, I will once again appeal to people on Facebook to go "like" Koira's picture. Only a few hours left in the contest and Koira is three votes behind. Just click on the link and "like" her picture!)

I realized it has been way too long since I last posted part of my Flyball Training Series. If you missed Part 1: What makes a flyball dog or Part 2: Jumps, drills, motivation, and direction, you can go back to read those and catch up.

At this point, you have found a number of things that fully motivate your dog. I prefer tugging as motivation, but you can use anything.

You have also determined which direction your dog turns easiest (remember, turn direction is always referred to as the dog's directions). Both of my dogs turn to the left.

You may have also trained the touch-stick behavior, which will be helpful with this next step.

To start building a box turn, first, you need to know what your end goal is. A good box turn has a number of elements that should all be present. In order, the dog should take off for the box, land high with his front feet, followed immediately by his back feet, with head positioned low and near the ball hole, catch the ball as it is triggered, push off from the box strongly, and land in the lane, facing back toward the handler. The dog's body position on the box is very important. You want the dog landing horizontal on the box, not at an angle or vertical. All four feet need to land on the box, and the back feet need to be high up to maintain proper positioning, not down low. You want each foot to hit the box only once, then push off strongly.

Pallo, showing proper horizontal box positioning

This sounds complicated. It is, sort of. The box turn is the hardest part of training flyball for most people and dogs. But, when trained properly, a good box turn shouldn't be that hard to achieve.

There are probably as many methods for training a box turn as there are for training any other complicated maneuver in any sport. I'm going to share what I know of each method, letting you know which I use (or used, as Koira was originally trained differently), and what I see as the pluses and minuses of each.

A good first step for training any method of a box turn is an over-and-back. Using a touch stick (or a motivator held in your hand), have a helper hold the dog on one side of the jump. Stand right next to the side of the jump your dog should be turning toward (I stand on the left, because my dogs turn left). Reach over the jump, have the helper release the dog, and use your hand/touch stick/motivator to lead the dog over the jump, then quickly back to the side it started.

You want the dog to land-turn-return all in one smooth motion. It will take a few tries to get that smooth motion. This is duplicating the body motions the dog will be using once on the box, working the same muscles. It is a great starting point for any of the methods for training a box turn. (Koira did not start out doing over-and-backs, but Pallo did. I have since taught them to Koira, and work both dogs with them occasionally, just for fun.)

Once your dog is doing over-and-backs smoothly, you can place a turning board on the ground in the area the dog lands. A turning board is just a piece of plywood or similar, covered with the same type of matting found on a flyball box. Some dogs don't like stepping on a new surface, so it helps to get them used to it flat on the ground first.

I have used three methods for teaching a box turn. I recommend using two of them.

Method One (the not recommended method):
(This is the method Koira was originally trained with. It gave poor results, and I am still trying to fix her turn. I am sharing it so you know what NOT to do. Some classes still use this method. I didn't know any better when I started training Koira. I'm hoping by sharing this, it will help someone else avoid the years of retraining I have spent on my dog.)

Start off to the side of the box. Load a ball in the box. With the dog on a lead, run quickly toward the box, using your leg/knee to encourage the dog to place feet onto the box and grab the ball. Once the dog is regularly stepping onto the box without too much encouragement from your knee, add in a cone in the center of the box. With the dog on a lead, encourage your dog to circle the cone, placing feet on the box and grabbing the ball. Start wide, then gradually straighten as the dog gets the picture. You can also add a jump of some kind along with the cone, to encourage the dog to jump onto and off of the box. Some people who train with this method will teach a go-out on the flat, training the dog to circle the cone and return (we didn't).

This method of training is unreliable. It trains a wide, sloppy, slow, and low turn. (If you have questions as to why and how, feel free to ask and I will clarify.)

Koira, with her front feet badly placed on the box, demonstrating a low, wide, slow turn (this is a turn to the right, she now turns left, I changed it as part of our retraining process.)

In any case, why don't we return to what you SHOULD do?

Method Two:
(This is the method Pallo was trained with.)

Move your jump for the over-and-backs closer to a wall, and place the turning board between the jump and the wall. Using a 2x4, multiple 2x4s, or other sturdy blocks, slowly put the turning board at a low angle against the wall. (You can easily practice this part at home, even without owning a box.) Continue doing over-and-backs like this, until the dog is comfortable with the landing side being slanted. Place both jump and turning board in front of your box. Use the box to prop up the training board at increasing angles. Maintain your criteria for a good, fast, four footed turn with all four feet crossing the jump, landing, then returning smoothly. Over time, you will increase the angle of the turning board until it is the same as the angle of the front of the box, at which point you will move the jump in front of the box and take the turning board out.

Once you have a good turn, you add in the ball. It can be added in earlier, on velcro on the turning board, if you want. We normally will jam the box at first so that it doesn't fire at full speed, then let it fire faster once the dog is comfortable and grabbing the ball.

Method Three:
(I haven't used this method much, but want to try it some more. It comes highly recommended by some top teams.)

A touch stick behavior is required for this.

After doing over-and-backs, take the jump out of the way. Have you dog stand against the wall, placing the front feet up on the wall. Mark the wall with a tape line at the dog's elbow height. Use the touch stick to encourage the dog to bounce off the wall above the line.

If the dog just puts up their front feet, move the stick higher or have someone hold the dog back, to get a running start. Have the dog jump up, then whip the stick away straight out. Reward the dog after every turn. Change the positioning of the stick on the wall (higher, lower, farther to one side or the other) to adjust the dog's body position on the wall so that they are bouncing horizontally off the wall above the line.

Doing the opposite of the above method, where you slowly ramp up the angle, you put in a ramp in front of the wall and slowly ramp down the angle before replacing it with the flyball box.

This is supposed to train a very high, straight, fast turn with no lagging, double hitting, or hang time.

Method Four:

I have also used an additional method, similar to Method Two above, but using a specially built adjustable ramp that I made. It is made to be used with a snub-nosed box, like the one I own, and I have found it a really nice way to teach a good box turn. But, since most people don't use snub-nosed boxes, its a little bit silly to share it in detail.

If anyone is on Facebook...

2011-09-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

You could, if you are on Facebook, go over to Flyball Today and "like" the picture of Koira. If she gets enough likes, her picture will be the face of Flyball Today for the month of October. Which would make me happy.

Click this to go straight to the picture of Koira, which is awesome.

(Votes will be counted at the end of the month, which is Friday, so get your vote in before that please!)

Wordless Wednesday: Family Portraits

2011-09-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Monday meal planning

2011-09-26T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, its Monday again, meaning a great time for some meal planning. I have been looking in my cupboards, fridge, and freezer, complaining to myself that there is nothing to eat. But, since there is plenty of stuff in there, I think the problem is just that I need to get organized, plan some meals from what is in the cupboard, and plan a shopping trip specifically for items to go with what I already have.

Breakfasts: Toast w/ apple butter, bagel thins with fried egg and sausage, toasted peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
I made the apple butter last week, and have more cooking in the crock pot right now. I have half a loaf of bread, peanut butter, jam, bagel thins, eggs, and sausage (though I need to take some sausage out of the freezer to thaw out some)

Lunchs: Pad Thai w/ cashews and veggies, tater tots w/ cheese and ranch, tuna w/ crackers
I already have cashews, various frozen veggies, tater tots, tuna, yogurt, pickles, crackers, and cheese.

Dinners: Crock pot pork roast (preseasoned), pasta w/ veggies, grilled cheese sandwich w/ baked beans, acorn squash/sausage/veggie quiche
The roast is in the freezer and needs to be used, I have plenty of pasta and frozen veggies, and have the bread, cheese, and baked beans. Also have some leftover acorn squash needing to be used.

Other cooking plans: In addition to meals, I am also trying to preserve plenty of the fresh fall produce for use later in the year. I am making a second batch of apple butter right now in the crock pot (skin, core, chop apples, put in crock pot on low 8 hours, smash, add spices and sugar, cook another 6-8 hours). This second batch of apple butter is going to be a spicy batch, with Thai chilis added in (yeah, those are the ones rated as the second hottest chili in the world).

I also have the dehydrator going. I already did blackberries and raspberries. Yams were on sale, so I did a few of those as dog treats (Koira loves them, Pallo is indifferent). It is currently full of acorn squash (also for dog treats). As soon as the squash is done, I will add in more apples and pears. I already did some, but found another tree in my neighborhood weighed down with apples that I got permission to take, so plan on doing a lot more dried apples, and possibly some more apple butter as well.

Depending on time, I might go pick some more blackberries as well to dry. My freezer is full, so no more frozen berries (picked and froze 2 gallons of raspberries and 3 1/2 gallons of blackberries already), but I like the dehydrated berries in cereal. It started raining yesterday, which means if I want blackberries still this season I better get them today. If the berries are soft, I might even try making fruit leather with them instead of just dehydrating whole berries.

My shopping list (stuff I will need to buy to make the meals I have listed above with the stuff I already have): Bread (I only have half a loaf, and haven't had bread at all in the past month and a half, so plan on using quite a bit this week); fresh veggies (whatever is on sale or cheap, to compliment what I have frozen); ranch dressing (used the last of it up last week); Pad Thai noodles and seasoning

What the beasts are eating this week:
I picked up a 50 lb case of beef scrap super cheap while in Washington for the flyball tournament (through a raw feeding buying co-op group). I packaged up most of it into gallon ziplocks and put them in the freezer, but ran out of room for all of it. Its great quality meat, mostly really good red meat, a few organs (maybe 2 lbs of liver, and 3 kidneys total in the box), and a little bit of super fatty stuff (I threw away about 3 lbs of pure fat probably). The good stuff that didn't fit in the freezer is what is on the menu this week for feeding.

Koira and Pallo are loving it. Martha eats all the red meat off of any fat or tendon she gets given, but seems to be enjoying it as well. I did pick up a few turkey necks and meaty pork neck bones as well for providing some bone for the week. Between those few boney additions and the leftover meat that didn't fit in the freezer, it should be about a week's worth of food for the beasts.

For more menu planning ideas, visit I'm an Organizing Junkie and StoneGable

Ribbons!

2011-09-23T22:53:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of dog sport people get tired of all the ribbons. Many people have huge buckets full of ribbons they never look at, and some people just toss them straight into the trash.

I love ribbons. And, the tournament this past weekend gave out some ribbons! So I had to have the dogs pose for some pictures.

They are both wearing their red flyball collars (a collar with a loop handle on it) for the pictures.

This ribbon is technically Pallo's, for his team coming in second in their division. Koira's team came in fourth, so got single ribbons instead of rosettes. But she ran amazing, and deserved a rosette picture.

Pallo was super confused at this posing-for-a-picture in the back yard. We rarely take photos in the yard.

And, of course, enjoy the Saturday blog hop!

(Nearly) Wordless Wednesday: Long Lost Sisters?

2011-09-20T21:09:00.000-07:00

This dog is a fellow flyball competitor. She is 6 years old and a pit/lab/rott mix. The tri-color markings have to have come from her pit bull inheritance. She is from the same city as Koira. Both of them had a brindle pit bull as a father. Tri-color genes in pit bulls aren't that common, and the dark tri is less common than the dilute tri (grey, light tan, white). What are the chances? (They also both have identical white spots on the backs of their necks, but after a long weekend of flyball, neither wanted to cooperate for a better photo session.)

What an awesome weekend!

2011-09-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

We had an awesome time at the X-Fidos The Ball Is Out There tournament!

Highlights of this weekend's flyball tournament include:

Pallo measuring under 14" on Sunday, giving us a 8" jump height
Koira running clean all day Saturday, proving herself to be a reliable flyball dog
Pallo not dropping his ball early at all, all day Saturday
Koira earning her 500 point Flyball Dog Champion title on Saturday
Koira running start on Sunday
Koira's new person best time on Sunday of 4.7 seconds, with 0.2 seconds of start error
Pallo running all day Sunday, still with times under 6 seconds even at the end of the day

Lets just say, it was an awesome weekend!

Koira ran with one of our two Regular teams, while Pallo was running with an Open team. It was my first experience running two dogs full time at a tournament. It was pretty hectic, but I felt like I had gotten the hang of it by Sunday. Plus it helped that our wonderful team leader set up the lineups carefully, giving Koira her races to sit out and rest on those that were close to Pallo having to run with Open. And, my friend Brit came along for the weekend despite having never been to flyball before and helped out by holding one or the other dog while I ran the other, then giving them water and putting them back in their crate until I was done with the other race and able to cool out the dogs.

As much fun as the tournament was (and it was, a ton of fun, with not only an awesome potluck, as per normal, but also a great dinner-and-wine get-together in our crating area Saturday evening), there were of course things that need some more work or didn't go quite right.

I realized that we needed more work with some of the following:

Koira's turn, which started out good but degraded fast
Pallo, who needs to know that carrying the ball all the way back is a required part of flyball
My starts (which I can't really work except at the next tournament, since we don't have lights)
Koira's passing
Pallo being passed into (close passes currently encourage him to drop his ball)

I am looking forward to practicing these skills over the next month, then seeing how far we've come by our October tournament, only a little over a month away right now!

*The pictures on the grass are from a demo last weekend, as we were running indoors, on dirt, in poor lighting this weekend and I didn't get many good pictures. Thank you to David for getting the picture of Koira at the tournament (she fumbled the ball and was going after it, she still ran a 4.2 that time, even with the fumble!).

We're Off!

2011-09-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Me and the dogs are taking off early tomorrow morning and driving up to our tournament. At a 3 hour drive and needing to be there by 7am, it'll be a really early morning. But, the dogs have been resting all day today and will probably sleep in the car on the drive up.

So, what do you need to take along when heading off to a tournament? I always make a list so I don't forget anything. The list is split into two columns, labeled Dogs and Human.

Here is my Dog Gear list of stuff to pack (we are staying one night):

2 collars
2 leashes
3 flyball collars (need a spare, just in case)
2 coursing slips
2 pair of skid boots (I made Koira a second pair, just in case I lose or destroy one pair)
2 tugs
2 sheepskin tugs (new, specially made for Pallo)
1 water bowl (the dogs share)
2 chicken quarters (one each for breakfast Sunday morning)
1 roll of poop bags
1 crate cover (because I only got around to making one)
1 crate pad (I only have one...)
2 dog beds (for car, crate, and hotel)
2 crates
1 emergency kit
1 sweatshirt (for Koira, in case it gets cold)
1 towel (for mud control)

Anything you see that is missing? What all do you put on your list when traveling for a tournament, trial, or dog event?

My human list includes the basics, like the clothing I need to pack, as well as various other things. Here is the current list I have of what I need to pack for myself:

2 team t-shirts
1 team sweatshirt
1 red sweatshirt (matches our team colors, just in case the other one gets dirty)
1 light jacket
camera
video camera
batteries
battery charger
water bottle
other drinks (juice, soda, etc)
drink mixes
1 chair
1 pillow
book
CD books (for the car ride)
2 pairs of jeans (in case I get super muddy)
1 pair leggings (in case it gets super cold)
2 pair shoes (again, in case of mud)
Pajamas
Phone charger

I'm sure there are other things I am forgetting. I have yet another list of food stuff to pack for sharing. Our team always puts together an awesome potluck spread, so I have to make sure I actually pack and bring what I sign up to bring! And I get messed up the morning of, because some things (like stuff for in the cooler) can't be packed until the morning, and I don't really do my best at 3:30 am, even with a list to refer to.

I tend to over pack. That may be evidenced in my lists above, or possibly not... But my goal this time is to have one bag for the dogs, one bag for me, one food bag, and one cooler. Plus the crates, dog beds, and chair that don't fit in bags (but those totally don't count). I don't know what I would do if I drove a tiny little car like the 2-door Toyota Tercel I drove when I first got Koira. Find some way to downsize, I guess...

Do you end up taking everything but the kitchen sink along with you, just in case?

Wordless Wednesday: INCOMING!

2011-09-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

Tasty Tuesday: Raw Feeding, and a Human Recipe

2011-09-13T10:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I received a comment on my menu planning for the week post about what I feed my dogs leading up to a tournament and during the tournament. So I thought it would be a perfect post for Tasty Tuesday. It may not be a treat recipe, but my dogs sure enjoy their "breakfasts" so why not?

First off, I raw feed. More than that, I try to do prey model raw feeding. This basically means taking a bunch of random, easily available parts of various animals and piecing them together in a way that would mimic the diet my dogs would have if given whole raw prey. But, I don't have the space or desire to have a full deer sit in my yard while my dogs eat off of it, hence the prey model "franken-prey" style feeding.

The basic requirements I follow for my dogs are 80% muscle meat, 10% edible bone, 5% liver, 5% other organs. This isn't a daily weighing of each piece, it is an average I try to achieve over time. And, I adjust it based on my dogs own needs. Edible bone helps keep stools solid, so if my guys have soft or mushy stools, they get more bone for a few days. Overall, they probably get closer to 20% bone just for stool management, which is fine. Organs, especially liver, can create soft stools, so those meals are often fed between two bone-heavy meals. But, I never feed bones without meat attached. Meat should always be the basis of a raw diet.

Anyway, back to the specifics leading up to a tournament.

I have two main focuses leading up to a flyball tournament: That my dogs receive enough food to provide them with the energy they need to compete to the fullest extent; That my dogs have firm, formed stools that reduce the likelihood of diarrhea at a tournament, or even worse, in the ring.

So, first in achieving the second of my goals: I feed no organ meats in the week leading up to the tournament. They get organ meats in the week before that, and the week after, and since I strive for a balance over time, it does no harm to them to leave out the organs for a week. My dogs also get plenty of bone in this week, though being careful not to feed enough bone to create "fossil poops" which are hard, crumbly, and white, indicating too much calcium. For the first of my goals, I generally feed my dogs extra starting 2 days before a tournament. Not a lot, not enough to create problems, but a bit of extra.

So, with that in mind, this is my dog's meal plan for this week:

Monday: Chicken quarters w/ glucosamine supplements
Tuesday: Beef roast, handful of blackberries, glucosamine supplements, salmon oil (I do not normally add vegetables or fruits to my dog's food, but had leftover blackberries from making the human recipe below, and the dogs love them.)
Wednesday: Chicken thighs, beef heart, glucosamine
Thursday: Beef heart, salmon trim, glucosamine (salmon is frozen at least a week before feeding to kill the parasite that causes salmon poisoning)
Friday: Chicken quarters, beef roast, glucosamine
Saturday (morning of the tournament, fed at least 2 hours before racing): Chicken quarters
Sunday (second morning of racing, fed at least 2 hours before racing): Chicken quarters

This is a slightly more bone-heavy week than I normally would feed. I don't take the glucosamine supplements with us when we travel unless we will be gone for more than a week, as it needs to stay in the fridge. It is more for joint support in active athletes than anything else, and missing a few days here and there won't hurt them at all. Chicken is the easiest and cheapest edible meat-and-bone to feed. Beef roast was on sale recently, and beef heart is normally cheaper than any other red meat (that is, meat from mammals, including pork). I don't feed pork leading up to tournaments because it can sometimes cause loose stools in my dogs.

During a tournament, I make sure to feed the dogs early so they are not carrying around a huge amount of undigested food while racing. I feed them in the morning at home, and it would cause more problems to switch them to night time feedings for tournaments than it is worth. I do bring along chicken or beef jerky (that I make myself to avoid additions like preservatives) and feed that a little bit at a time throughout the day, including in water if I need to encourage the dogs to drink more. This gives them a bit more energy without causing stool or stomach issues.

Human treat:
The human treat I made yesterday won't be ready for another month. But, I might as well share it now. Blackberry liquor (for those of legal drinking age only please) is super tasty. (No dogs should ever drink alcohol, no matter how much they seem to want to.)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup boiling water
2 cups blackberries
vodka (or everclear)

Method:
Put 1 cup of blackberries each into a mason jar (I used two jars, you can put it all in one large jar if you want though). In a Pyrex measuring cup, place sugar, add boiling water, then stir until sugar is dissolved. Pour half of the sugar water into each mason jar over the blackberries. Fill the rest of the space in the jar with vodka (or everclear, if you want a stronger solution at the end). Put lids on jars, place jars in a dark, cool area. Once every few days, take out the jar and turn it over. Leave it sealed for at least a month.

After a month, strain out the berries from the alcohol. Put the liquid back in a glass jar (you can use a decorative jar to make it pretty). Some people discard the berries at this point, but you can also use them in any number of recipes, or as a simple ice cream topping.

For a variation, you can use brandy instead of vodka to make a unique flavored brandy. Make sure you like brandy though, first.

On the Menu Monday

2011-09-12T10:43:00.000-07:00

I've tried many times to organize my shopping/meals in such a way that I have everything for the week's meals without having to run out to the store again. It never goes quite as planned, but I thought I would give it another shot.

*A note, is that I don't have a kitchen. I have a mini fridge, a microwave, a toaster oven, a hot plate, and a crock pot. I make an effort to cook home made food as often as possible within these limitations. Most of the time I will deliberately cook enough to have 3-4 meals at a time, since I live alone and cooking is a bit of a hassle with my kitchen (oh yeah, don't have a kitchen sink either, and washing dishes in the bathroom sink is a hassle).

What I'll be eating this week for:

Breakfast: Cereal w/ blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or peaches; Fried egg with chard and sausage, served on a toasted bagel thin with cheese.

Lunch: Tuna salad w/ pickles and cheese, served on crackers; leftovers; quesadillas.

Dinner: Hamburgers w/ caramelized Walla Walla Sweet onions; Sloppy Joes; Fajitas; Meat ball sandwiches out of the crock pot.

This weekend is a flyball tournament, and I want to bring a breakfast item to share that includes some of the amazing blackberries I have been picking. Anyone have a good, easy to make blackberry recipe that would be good for breakfast, travel easily, and is easy to eat?

To see some more menu planning ideas for the week, go visit I'm An Organizing Junkie and StoneGable

We have a winner!

2011-09-10T09:03:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to akgphoto. Please contact me at icywindblowing@hotmail.com and we can talk about what you want for your prize!

Me and the dogs took off to the beach again this week. A friend of mine had to go out there to see his doctor, so it seemed like the perfect excuse to spend some time on the beach.

Pallo always loves the beach, especially the dead things to roll in.

The pups always have some great games of chase at the beach.

Love this picture of Koira's feet buried in the sand.

Koira gets super excited at the beach.

The weather was awesome, but even in the hour we were on the beach, the fog came rolling in.

I haven't been to this beach in a long time, but its really nice with the dunes, huge open beach area, and dune grass.

The wind picked up by the time we left, making Koira's ears stand up.

After the beach, me and the pups took a bit of a break while my friend went to the doctor, then we went down to the Bayfront for some food. Rogue Brewery has a great, dog friendly outdoor seating area, and their food is pretty darn good too. Overall, a good day.

Relief

2011-09-08T22:41:00.000-07:00

Went to practice tonight, and Koira ran great. No crossing over, not even any looking over. She ran fast, single striding almost the whole time, down and back, held her ball all the way back to me, and was even releasing her tug easily to get ready for her next run. She is looking a lot faster now, and I'm looking forward to seeing what her times are like at the tournament next weekend. She ran with her new coursing slip (pink and purple) and also tried out her new flyball collar, which has a handle and is padded with home-done felting. I also made some skid boots for her and ran her with them tonight, and with as much wear as I see on the leather from just practice, I think the boots are something she really needs.

Pallo ran okay, but with some major ball dropping for no reason I could see. He was even dropping his ball before crossing jump 8, which is way worse than his normal right-on-the-line drops. Didn't need to potty, didn't seem overly tired. Not sure what his issue was. I might need to go back to his teeny tiny tug toys instead of a full length tug with him, because I can't really think of what else to do. Why do problems always appear or get worse right before tournaments?

On the plus side, Pallo is doing very good with his conformation practice. I brought him in during our baby dog class tonight and had a few team members help out with mock-measuring him. He was tense but for the most part did good. He moved his head a bit too much for me, and did his leaning-away from the measuring person thing once, which was annoying but better than normal. And, at least on the home made wicket we used, he measured at 13.5 inches, which means he would jump 8" instead of the 9" he normally measures at. This is my goal with him, because I have been pretty sure for a long time that if he just relaxes while being measured, we can get that good, low measurement. As our conformation instructor reminded me, though, I need to relax about it too...

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post to enter into the Giveaway. And, if you haven't yet done so, you can comment on each post this week for an additional entry into the giveaway, one entry per post.

Wordless Wednesday: Bandana

2011-09-07T08:24:00.000-07:00

(I'm not sure why, but I love this photo a lot.)

Go enjoy the Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop, and don't forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a coursing slip or bungee leash!