Wordless Wednesday: Dogs on a Trike

Vaguely holiday-themed, here are my dogs on a trike.

Koira on a trike

Pallo on a trike

Hope everyone has a great Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tomorrow.

Mischief Monday: Custom Wrapped

I think the mischief this week may have been on the part of the human...

Pallo is all wrapped up for Christmas. Who wants a Pallo Present?

Dogs on stuff

Well, here it is, Saturday once again. There is an awesome blog hop happening (at bottom of post). And, I have pictures. Of my dogs. On stuff.

Pallo was looking especially cute in this picture

Koira decided to show off her goofy side

And I apparently can't resist taking pictures of my dog's paws. I think I need to join Dog Paw Picture Takers Anonymous.

And Koira needs to join Barking Anonymous. She now thinks she needs to BARK. BARK. BARK. every time she sees the camera.

Where as Pallo has gotten so good at patiently laying still in whatever position I put him while I snap picture after picture of him from every angle imaginable. This, from the dog I couldn't get to hold still for a decent picture so much as six months ago.

But in any case, here is the blog hop:

Meet Me On Monday, and a Giveaway!

I'm going to try out the Meet Me on Monday questions for the first time. Technically it is still Sunday where I am, but I guess that doesn't matter too much.

Before I get to the questions though, I need to announce my giveaway! Right now, this blog has hit 51 followers, and I promised something special when we passed the 50 mark.

The something special is a leather collar, such as was featured on the blog a few weeks ago. Because I know readers have dogs of all different sizes and will have different needs and wants in a collar, I will make it only after talking to the winner about what you want!

To enter, leave a comment on any post starting now and ending on Friday the 20th. To win, you must be a follower of the blog. You can enter multiple times by commenting on different posts, but only one comment per post will be counted as an entry.

Now, on to the Meet Me Monday questions:

1. Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
I prefer crunchy, and generally only eat peanut butter with celery, or on a toasted bread with marionberry jam.

2. What is your favorite color Rose?
I love the deep reddish-orange roses the most, but don't know the name. They have a deep orange at the base of the petals and are tipped with red.

3. Do you remove your shoes when you walk into your home?
Yes, but not always right away. I also have slip on shoes sitting right by the door for the times when I take my shoes off in a different room and can't find them fast enough.

4. What is your favorite season?
Late spring in Oregon. We still have plenty of rainy days but are starting to get some of the brilliant sun shine and hot weather, coupled together with the garden sprouting, fresh greens, and flowers everywhere.

5. Approximately how many hours a day do you spend blogging?
Writing blogs, probably only about 3 hours per week at a maximum most of the time. If you count in reading blogs, taking pictures for the blog, editing pictures for the blog, and arguing with my very frustrating internet, it would be much, much more than that.



Thanks for stopping by, reading my answers, and hopefully I'll see your comments for the giveaway!

Nails

Fingernails and toenails that is, not hardware nails.

My cousin, who has some mad skills with nail polish, offered to do my nails for the flyball tournament. I requested tennis ball nails, and I think they turned out great. Plus, while my nails were drying, she also gave Pallo and Koira pedicures.

Pallo got green nails, to match the color of the team we were running with for the weekend.



Koira had two colors, with sparkly red on the front and blue on her back feet.



And of course, showing off my own nails along with the dogs'.




The tournament was a blast for the weekend, but I don't have any pictures from it yet, so will share later. But, as some observant readers may notice from the side bar, Pallo gained his next flyball title, Flyball Dog Champion Gold (FDCh-G). Good boy.

Lineup!

Koira ran in a lineup for the first time in well over a year!

With the great progress Koira has been having with doing full runs, we decided today to try putting her in a lineup for the first time since her rather horribly failed tournament last January.

And the best part, Koira ran great! First time out, I ran Koira first, with Raff, a Keeshond on our team, passing into her. Koira didn't even seem to notice him other than dropping her ball once, which may have been from him crowding the lane a bit (or might have been her spitting balls for no reason). Second time out, we switched it around, running Raff first, followed by Koira. Again, she didn't even seem to notice him there, even when I was passing closer (though we didn't do any close passes yet).

Passing and other dogs in general were never a problem for Koira. She has never really been distracted by dogs in the other lane, or had issues with dogs in her lane at all. But, being able to run in a lineup is an important step in training before we can head to a tournament with her. The main issue she has is lack of motivation heading to the box, but running her in a lineup seems to help with that, if anything. Plus, we think that her desire to return to me will eventually help speed her up down to the box as well as from the box.

My next training goal with her is to run her between two dogs, with one before her and one after her. And I will throw a party to celebrate when she single strides the jumps on the way down as well as the way back to me (currently she double strides to the box and single strides back to me).

Pallo did good at practice too, except for tripping and taking out a jump. We were running him at 9", which is his measured jump height. He tapped one jump, then somersaulted into the next one, taking it out completely. Luckily, he was not injured at all. And, he loves flyball so much and has such confidence with it that he ran just fine the rest of the night, not even tapping any of the jumps.

And, just for a bit of a laugh, Pallo trying on booties for the first time.

3-D Cat

I told Martha I was going to a 3-D movie for the first time ever. Martha was intrigued. She said she wanted to go too.




Martha believes the 3-D glasses are very glamorous, and wants a pair of her own.



She thinks she'll just steal mine.



If I don't give them to her, she'll just chew on mine so I can't enjoy them anymore either.



She looks great in them too.

Welcome to the 80's

My dogs think they are just so hip.



Koira knows she is super cool.



Or, you know, a science teacher. One or the other.



Pallo just knows he is the coolest thing to set foot on this earth. Or set foot on the air, either.