the yard is very crunchy. we haven't had rain in a few weeks (2-3?), but it looks like it could rain this weekend. i did water my few potted plants that live on the porch since they were looking especially thirsty.
If yours was better than that, care to drop a name for me to go look into?
i ended up getting the sahara shade hoodie from REI because it was on sale. i don't have much to compare it to, but i thought it was really breezy! i even wore it on my ~10 mile bike ride and didn't feel too bad as long as there was a bit of wind.
got some teva sandals for children that i'm digging and a shade hoodie for those really hot days when i don't wanna wear sunscreen.
went to the beach over the weekend, which echo loved! jean (little dog) hates the water, and i didn't want to have to clean all the sand out of loki's coat, hah.
new to us (15-year-old) mazda5 was awesome for hauling all three dog crates and our gear, but the AC stopped working 1/3 of the way back home, so it was a hot ride. 🥵
a little over three weeks until RAGBRAI starts. i'm so sick of training and ready to do the ride already!
we had graduation last night! we did some rally practice since all the dogs had already passed all the test items, and echo loved it. could not get her to look at the camera because she loves to look at me always, haha. very proud of this rescue pup who has exceeded my expectations when it comes to training. she really is the dog i've wanted since i was a teenager. ❤️
today’s the summer solstice (for the northern hemisphere), so tell me your favorite way to cool down while we’re watching the world burn. 🔥
i've poured hours upon hours into this game. it's just a chill game (if you want it to be), and it's fun to keep track of stuff to collect, talk to the NPCs, and go fight some baddies occasionally.
echo (border collie) passed her community canine test last thursday. 🎓 pics in a separate post when we get our certificate later this week. also got to meet one of the other foster dogs (buck, pictured below) in our program, and he is a beautiful dog. very driven and toy-motivated. gonna make a nice sport dog for someone.
rode to the other town over on greenways on saturday (~50 miles) with a couple of folks, then met up with some friends for dinner/drinks. took the train back home; it was all pretty chill.
finally hung a bunch of the artwork in the house over the weekend. feeling much more homey now.
heading to the beach this weekend, which i'm looking forward to. it'll be echo's first time there! 🏖️
hah, yeah. doesn’t help that somebody sent these, i downloaded them, then uploaded to youtube. at this point they might as well be taped with VHS technology. 😂
weekend before last was a two-day agility/rally training event for the dogs. they all did wonderfully! didn't manage to get a good video of loki, but i got a few of the others.
- jean: agility
- echo: agility — her first full course!
- echo: rally obedience — her first go at this sport!
we also took the dogs trailer camping this past weekend, which they (and we) enjoyed.
Mosquito season is here! Instead of spraying pesticides onto our entire yards—and onto fireflies, ladybugs, bumblebees, and butterflies—why not kill *only* mosquitoes? But first: let’s PREVEN…
ordered some tablets to make a few of these after i saw the concept recommended on a local forum. can't wait to murder millions of (mosquito) children. 🦟
my partner ate some of the fruit, but they don’t seem quite ripe enough to eat.
and yeah on the fungus! it was heavily infected last year, though we pruned heavily and it seems mostly gone this year. i’ll have to take a pic sometime, poor tree was shooting off ten billion branches trying to survive the neglect so it’s really bushy and awkward looking.
figured out that our big fruiting tree is... an apricot tree! sadly, it seems to be struggling. it didn't fruit at all last year, and some of the bark is sloughing off the trunk, so i'm not sure how much longer it will last. i think it's nearly done fruiting, which is good because the fruit flies are going NUTS out there.
yeah, ideally i would give the xanax before the storm arrives, but that's not always possible. vet said to go ahead and give it to her even if she was already reacting. i may try giving it to her after the storm to come down; that's a good idea!
spent the weekend at a wedding a couple of hours away. sent the two herding dogs to my agility coach and the chi mix to a friend's house for boarding. chi mix and aussie did great! the border collie had a rough time. apparently barked more or less the whole weekend and couldn't settle. i think she was just bored and overwhelmed/overstimulated, sigh.
we've had a few thunderstorms, and the xanax the vet gave me doesn't seem to be helping the border collie's severe reaction (barking, leaping, basically inconsolable making both humans lose sleep for a couple of nights). i'm wondering if i could up her dose. also picked up a thundershirt, but haven't had a chance to test it out during a real thunderstorm yet.
we've got a two-day mock agility trial this weekend, and i'm hoping to get all three dogs in the ring at some point or another.
RAGBRAI is steadily approaching, but due to lack of sleep and being out of town, i didn't get a chance to ride at all last week or this past weekend. fingers crossed i can get a decent ride in after work tonight.
going to collect all the silly certifications for fun with this dog.
this was always my goal with her, so i'm pleased as punch! i remember my agility trainer giving me the most "what are you doing with this dog?" look so many times, haha.
the canine good citizen test consists of ten items:
- accept a friendly stranger
- sit politely for petting
- accept ears and feet touched, plus a brush
- walk on a loose leash
- walk through a crowd
- sit, down, and stay
- come when called
- react appropriately to another dog
- react appropriately to a distraction
- stay with another person for three minutes
this is something i try to get with all my dogs, but my little dog definitely did not pass back when she took it as a yearling. very proud of how far echo has come since she's come to live with me—hard to believe that was only about three months ago!
are you doing anything to celebrate? do you typically observe the “solar holidays?”
i usually have a bonfire with friends to mark the passage of time, but it snuck up on me this year. maybe i can light a candle instead and let that be enough.
her fastest time this weekend was 9.56 seconds (21.40 mph). i’m so proud of her for running despite the cold (and rain on the first day). we wrapped her up in a towel right up to the gate the first day because it was so miserable, and on the second day she had her sweater plus i held her inside my fleece, hehe.
we should get the professional video back in a week or two!
the backstory is that jean has gotten really head shy over the years, to the point where she would run away anytime i got her collar out. lo and behold, turning this into a "trick" worked like a charm. now she's happy and excited every time she sees her collar, and it has become one of our best recall tools.
you'll notice i also often treat her when i take the collar off, so she wants to stick around after i remove her collar rather than bolting away from me. this is especially important since she's a sporting dog (agility and fast CAT).
at the end are some tricks she already knows, just for fun. :)
from left to right: loki, jean grey, and echo. all rescue dogs and all the best dogs. 🥰
jean (the little tan dog) was so good about coming to me and jumping into my arms after each of her two runs. so glad we got some photos of that.
this was loki's (the australian shepherd's) first fast CAT. look at those goofy ears! he also loves kids, so it's no surprise he was checking them out after he ran, hehe.
photos by dahlie dog studios.
jean has been resistant to the head halter lately, so we went back to basics! i'm feeding her treats through the nose loop, eventually working our way up to…
i’ve been doing more training sessions lately since we’re headed into trial season(s). i try to keep my sessions short 5-10 minutes, and i figured i would start recording some to see progress. :)
more photos here: https://postimg.cc/gallery/wpD86tvn/981bfbab
and more about fast CAT here: https://highlandcanine.com/what-is-fast-cat/
she only did a fun run, so no scoring. her first real event is on the 24th!
she’s overwhelmed and confused right now with the long drive and new home, but i’m looking forward to seeing her come out of her shell over the next few weeks. 🥰
i see a lot of confidence building in her future.
i'm a web developer by day, but i recently started doing some side gig work via rover because i legitimately love dogs (and i wanted a bit of extra spending money for my own dogs' care). i'd love to hear what other folks do when they need a bit more cash flow.
he's got hip and knee problems, so he's being referred to an orthopedic surgeon. i think it may be why he was dropped off at the shelter in the first place (the former family may have realized how expensive it would be to get him healthy again). fingers crossed we can get a treatment plan started next week. ❤️🩹
