Wordless Wednesday: Ice

Wordless Wednesday: Eyes

Okay, not totally wordless. First off, the winner of the contest has been chosen and the collar is in the makings. I am planning on picking two additional winners and notifying them in the next day or so, as I get the chance with work.

In the meantime, enjoy some eyes.

We finally got to play

Pallo is so happily tired. We did, previous to my really really long weekend, get to go play some flyball.



Pallo ran really good, even for my cousin Bre when I handed Pallo off to her for our second round in practice (we run 3 groups in practice, each group going twice). He ran a little slow for her on the return, because she has not yet developed the pure volume needed for flyball yelling, but he ran good and clean.



Koira ran in a two dog lineup against a single dog, and did good. She still fumbles at the box some, and I have pretty much trained her to return without the ball if it goes flying and she can't find it, but the runs where she was clean at the box were clean entirely.



Of the 7 runs she did, she only did one false start, which was my fault in trying to start her too far back (right now, for her, 10 feet is our maximum distance). Then, she slammed into me really hard to get her tug. I am now in a wrist brace (and sling, when I remember to wear it) for a few weeks or it stops hurting.



But, as its said, "Its not flyball until there's blood!"

We ended up with a ton of fun from flyball, and despite the wrist injury, we had a great time. Plus, we have working lineups for the July tournament coming up. Koira will be running one day. She will for sure be doing warm ups, and depending on how her warm up runs go, she might get to run in some races. Its a big deal for us, after so much time spent in training, but I'm looking forward to it, and I think this time, she is finally ready for a tournament.

G3G4G3PJ3TBY

Long weekend

The weather this weekend was simply amazing. Bright blue skies, warm sunlight. And I worked all weekend. A total of 37 hours in 3 days actually, taking up pretty much every daylight hour. So yesterday, I took the dogs out for a long bike ride to make up for the sedentary weekend (though my cousin did come stay with us and take the dogs out for me).



We found a really neat wooden dock that I've never seen before, lending a perfect setting for my taking-pictures-of-my-dogs obsession.




The taking-pictures-of-my-dogs obsession was met in kind by my taking-pictures-in-macro obsession, and the two spent the day duking it out.



Pallo's feet were a popular subject, but unfortunately, he is past due for a nail trim, and now the whole world gets to see it.



And of course, there was the requisite dog torture to get good pictures, involving throwing sticks just out of reach.



Sometimes its a wonder to me that my dogs still like me with all the ridiculous stuff I make them do.



I must not be very interesting to them when I am on the ground, hanging half over the side of a dock, snapping pictures.



Koira finally figured out that it was safe to jump off the dock to get the stick, and was showing off her muscles.



Pallo had to be "helped" into the water, but did manage to leap back onto the dock like a large, furry fish. (Sometimes there are just those pictures that despite cutting off a nose, head, or body part, you just have to share them anyway.)



There were many more pictures taken later, and closer up, but I think they will be saved for another post, as this one is getting really picture heavy already. I don't want to slow down loading the page too much.



And, as per request from Greyhounds CAN Sit, I will go ahead and share what my new camera is. First off, I bought it used from Craigslist for $35. The original posting asked for $50, and I was able to negotiate them down. This is the Kodak EasyShare Z650. I don't have any of the lens attachments for it, so it is just the straight camera (at least for now). Pictures are then edited in PhotoScape, for lack of any better free photo editing program.