I went out to try to find some bugs to photograph yesterday.  Oregon is unusually devoid of bugs.  Except for these fuckers, that are EVERYWHERE.  All over my house and IN MY CAR.  EVERYWHERE.  They need to die.


They arrive every year, I HATE them.  I loathe them.  They creep me out.  Did I mention EVERYWHERE?


Like you'd be looking at this tree, saying, "What a pretty tree!"  Then you'd notice that it's covered with these stupid bugs.  Crawling EVERYWHERE.  DIE, BUGS, DIE.  I think my chickens deliberately don't eat them, because they're crawling everywhere, and my chickens still bug me like they're hungry.  EAT THEM.


Then there is this thing, which I found on my quest for bugs, it was dead - WHAT IS IT?  A bug skin?  Dead bug?  Why is it just hanging out looking creepy?  Sometimes maybe the world shouldn't be seen in macro.


Rhododendrons!  I'm not really a fan, but landscaping has never been an interest of mine.


Now chickens, they're awesome.  Though they barge in on Bright's training and since she's AFRAID of chickens, this complicates things.


Man up, Frightypants.  Maybe she will like Heidi's sheep!


Mirabella plum babies!


Tiny flower!


Roses - also not a fan.  Any plants I'm required to prune that involve thorns piss me off.


Yeah, no green thumbs around here.


Check out the awesome super bright double rainbow after the thunderstorm last night!


Pictures don't do it justice, it was the brightest, most vivid rainbow I had ever seen


On the other side of the house, it was one atmospheric evening

ZOMG - Thunderstorm!  Now that's a rarity around here.


Well, how appropriate for a 'Flyin' SBT


You know you have a good mother in law when they bravely do tricks with Eva for photos (Eva has an awesome bouncing hand touch!)


London no doubt not getting the toy - that's only for girls


Eva will ALWAYS get the toy. ALWAYS.  Eva has been extra special pushy and naughty lately, I'm hoping at least this might transfer to confidence in agility.  Or something useful.  She's very cute though.


The Hairball


Poco was feeling GOOD today!


Fenwick and Brisbee doing their thing


Wheeee!


Ring love (which doesn't trump orange chuck-it ball love, but hey, not many things do)

Working on my plan with Eva and agility.  Dogs that struggle with early jumping only in certain situations (like when the handler is ahead) has actually been talked about quite a bit in Silvia's current foundation class.  Eva is definitely a different case than Haku, who jumps early every time for everything, agility or not.  Eva can jump nicely, but sometimes does not - and certainly has specific situations which are more likely to cause the issue.  Her early jumping is more erratic and does not look comfortable.

So one thing that Silvia recommends is doing a lot of the extension to collection exercises I was doing with Bright at low heights, finding the right spacing for her to comfortably take one stride between jumps.  That's a fun exercise that I think she'll like, so a good place to start, and if nothing else it will help with our collection.  Then we're tagging along with Bright's running contact class, which I think will be a nice refresher for her, but she had lovely contacts, so I'm assuming she will again.  Handling the cinderblock with legs is an ongoing project, but that's just something that will come with time.

The big issue, besides the jumping, is environmental sensitivity.  So the question is about how much and where I should venture out with Eva.  There is a fun run before CPE nationals at Clark County in a few weeks I think I might enter her in, so a (relatively) new place with toy at 12 inches.  I think that should hopefully be a good experience and give me some information about what sort of Eva I get in that situation with a toy in her face.  Then there are a boatload of NADAC trials the next few months, which I've been considering.  Lot of big happy loops, lots of runs, low jumps.  No tugging on leashes, which is something I really want to encourage with Eva, but not be something she's ready for anyway.  Then there is trying her in some AKC trials in preferred at 12 inches, which would let me run London in some things too.  Finally, a couple UKI trials this summer, which are just big expensive fun matches, I could bring a toy on course for those.

I am NOT doing all these trials, but just wanted to get an idea of options coming up this summer to get the Eva out ...

June 2-3:  NADAC - Canby, OR
June 9-10:  AKC - Ridgefield, WA - Closes May 25
June 14:  CPE Fun Run - Ridgefield, WA
June 22-24:  AKC - Albany, OR - Closes June 7
June 30 - July 1:  NADAC - Canby, OR

July 6-8:  NADAC - Newport, OR
July 6-8:  AKC - Ridgefield, WA
July 13-15:  NADAC - Canby, OR
July 21-22:  UKI - Wilsonville, OR

Aug 3-5:  AKC - Salem, OR
Aug 4-5:  NADAC, Canby, OR
Aug 17-19:  USDAA - Ridgefield, WA (HAKU ONLY)
Aug 25-26:  UKI - Wilsonville, OR

Sept 1-3:  NADAC - Canby, OR
Sept 8-9:  NADAC - Ridgefield, WA
Sept 14-16:  AKC - Salem, OR
Sept 21-23:  AKC - Ridgefield, WA

Got my awesome Adrian hats today - I love them!  Truly, they look awesome and fit perfectly.  My most favorite hats ever!  Heck, I could wear them today, it's nasty out there.  People in Oregon needs more hats like these.


Who wears it better, Bright or Panic?


Border collies in general make fabulous hat models


Looking more pathetic


The most pathetic


Now THIS is looking sinister


I was trying for pleasantly surprised, but I don't think I pulled it off, this looks more like a senior portrait with a really cool hat


Neko tried.  He really did.


Bright can jump up on this stool all on her own - she's awesome!

There have been several things conspiring against me with starting Bright with the running contacts.  My knees are a big one, the weather is a close second, then the bunching carpet wasn't helping either.  I was determined to get her lesson one homework started today though.  I just brought my carpet to the barn and worked there - take that, weather!  Besides, no slipping carpet on the dirt, and it's so nice and level compared to my place anyway.

Bright's third session running on carpet, she's a super star - she can run in a straight line!  With bonus footage of Bright running WITHOUT carpet - because what are mother-in-laws for if not doing restrained recalls with your dogs?


I CAN run, it's working up to it and afterwards that aren't the fun parts.  Then since I switched shoes back to my older pair, now my FEET hurt.  I liked the freedom of the minimal shoes, they felt great on the feet!  Now I feel clunky and the ball of my feet hurts.  It's just more ANNOYING than anything else, and while it's not like I'm incapable of running, it's not exactly fun times.  I have relearned the art of getting up and down without using my legs, and mastered the art of using handrails and walking funny to get down stairs.  But, the good news is that I have been here before, and things got better, so I'm assuming they will again. And I'll forget all about how difficult life is without knees.  So Knee Rehab 2012 has commenced, I've just started the joint supplement and my new shoes just got here today as well.  Hoping to see improvement quickly.

What else got here today was a toy I had seen at Clean Run that intrigued me.  Anything that has in its description that it's stafford proof is going to get my attention.  It's this big ring made of the same light and squishy but indestructible material that 'Fantastic Foam Balls' are made from (or similar).   I went with their recommendation of the larger size, and the dogs just think it's fabulous.  Bright loves it the most, and it's fun to tug with, safe and should be fine to leave outside for play.  Which is good, it came in a two pack - one for outside, one for inside!  So far it's been given the two thumbs up by my crew.  Meanwhile, Eva had chewed an ear off this toy within 20 seconds, totally worthless.  "Strongest stuffed toy in the industry" my ass.


Bright and her 'precious'


Glaring at anyone that comes close


Everyone wants the ring


"Precccccious!"


One ring to rule them all

The Brightness impressed me today.  Were running some jumpers exercises today, so I decided to give her a try - a nice break from threadles and pushouts!  We had a bit of time before classes to introduce it in little pieces, but she had absolutely no issues with any of it.  So this afternoon we actually ran like a whole jumpers course!  It was so easy!  Bright has skills!



Adding sequence duration early on is something I haven't really done before, but it has been interesting to see what Bright has done with the Silvia class format.  Silvia basically breaks things down to start with, but assuming the dog does well, she's encouraging a lot more sequencing than I have done with baby dogs.  I found it relevant as I do feel that often there is that struggle with baby dogs when they really expect a reward every few obstacles, and if you do that for a long period of time, they start to wonder WHY they haven't been rewarded when you try to add more, and their performance struggles.  I'm quite the over-rewarder in general, so it's been a challenge for me to ask for more.  However, it IS a lot of fun to just run with your dog and play and not stop every 5 seconds, which was one of Silvia's points - actually DOING the agility should be fun, with running and racing and playing with your dog.  There is no doubt Bright has the skills, and apparently the attention span.

A lot more to it, but it's something I've enjoyed experimenting with Bright.  It helps that she's the type of dog that does find the action itself rewarding.  I have also been letting both Eva and Bright have more down time in the arena.  With baby dogs I like to make it clear when we're in the arena, we're here to play.  However, to a certain extent I have sort of taken the responsibility for making sure the dog is engaged.  Which is fine with a tiny baby, but Eva especially needs to make the choice on her own to engage and play with me.  So I have been giving them their toy and telling them to go play while I do other things.  They both seem rather puzzled by this, but it's nice to see that they both solicit me to play and also are able to relax and take a break, while being ready for action if the game starts again.

As for Eva, a mixed bag with her today.  I knew I would get some information from doing just jumping exercises.  Some bad early launching jumping ... but some nice jumping too.  One particularly bad place was coming out of a tunnel over a jump with me ahead - which is a classic issue with early jumping dogs.  However, she didn't do it every time, but the more I focused on it, the worse it got.  It's definitely Eva's response to try jumping 'harder' when there is an issue.  So the question is, what is my response?  Do I try to manage it (in this case, decelerating slightly at the jump before going on would cause her to put in an extra stride), do I try training it (extension grids?), do I ignore it and see if it gets better on it's own?  Is it anything that CAN be changed?  Is it a sign she's still injured?  I just don't know.  Her collection looks much better though!



And London is a big happy dork, I enjoy our weekly agility romps, though he's by far more difficult to run than Haku, Eva or Bright.  So many weird things that he will do!  He taught me a lot about agility, that's for sure, the young dogs have definitely benefited from all the things that I learned NOT to do with London.  He's just a party though, he does love his agility!

Bruce is mom is visiting this week, so far the doggies have been behaving themselves for the most part.  Hopefully Haku doesn't push her down the stairs or spill scalding hot coffee on her.  Haku is really a troublemaker.  He may be going a bit stir crazy from being on agility vacation.  The cats have been EXTRA herded lately.  The Silvia Trkman running contact class has just started though, so he'll get to do all the baby steps with Bright.  Whenever it stops raining and we can actually do something.

Haku is a floor digger, he's the only dog that does this.  Many dogs will nest up blankets and dog beds, Haku does it to the ground.  Which is perfectly logical, the border collies don't sleep on bed or blankets very often.  Still, it just cracks me up when Haku will just be ever so delicately pawing at the floor, circling, pawing some more, and then lay down.  Instincts, they do stay with a dog, even if there is no dirt to be had.  Actually, come to think of it, my dogs nap outside in the yard quite a bit, and I've never actually seen any of them dig in the dirt to nap.  Huh.  Still makes me laugh to find the little scratch marks on the carpet where a Haku has been.

I think Bright has had a lightbulb moment on the difference between threadles, serpentines and pushouts.  I've stuck to my guns and she's coming in to me nicely on her name.  Admittedly, this is just in the basement, with not much room inbetween, but I can definitely tell the difference that she's not just guessing, she's actually recognizing the differences between the three.

Haven't been doing too much with Bright, she's been kind of weird and sensitive and overly clingy.  Combine that with her recent hair loss I had been assuming maybe she was coming into heat soon.  But then everyone else's hair started falling out in a dramatic fashion, now I'm not so sure.  But Bright has definitely seemed a little more low key the last week, just not quite herself - so, well see.  And where did Fenwick get all this HAIR from?   It's coming out in CLUMPS (just to be clear, everyone is just shedding, they don't have scabies or anything).  And Poco too.  I'm considering buying one of those big grooming dryers, I hear that's what really gets all the dead hair out after a warm bath.


BunBun is such an expert poser - other dogs should take lessons from him


Hake actually not covered in slobber (isn't he handsome when he's dry?)


Eva is feeling GOOD these days!


Bright looking briefly serious


Sexy stafford that isn't about to let go of the frisbee


Bright is such a goofy looking girl, I swear, it's mostly weird hair!


Cutest dog in the house

Banger has been officially approved by the Christenson household.  He arrived like he owned the place, friendly, sweet, super fun and appropriate - Bright and Banger are now BFFs.  Must be the alliteration, but they were ridiculously cute together.  And naturally it was Bright who was being way more obnoxious and puppy-like.  Bright says growing up is for sissies.  Banger had to go take breaks from her.  I thought Eva might enjoy the puppyness, but she was like, "Get lost, kid, I already have a puppy."  Bright is still her baby that can do anything she wants to Eva.  So funny.  And the border collie boys were their normal accepting selves, they're so good with puppies.

Definitely a keeper, that Banger, I'm excited to see what he'll be like when he's older.  He'll be a bigger boy, I think he's going to be very handsome - and he's a charmer!


SO CUTE.


Wheee!  Floppy puppy attacks!


Hard to get a photo of these two together, Bright was trying SO HARD to get him to chase her


Bonus Nobel Tully pic


Ah, black dogs, there were many out of focus photos ...


A happy, bold, well adjusted pyr shep - go figure!


Checking out the chickens


Giving Haku some love


Posing with mom


Ewok!


Bright tried being the more mature bitch ... that didn't last long


Snuggling


Bouncy!

Many more Banger pics ....

Uh, who said it could rain?  I mean, surely it doesn't rain IN OREGON.

Anyway, there may not be grilling, but, hey, feel free to come out anyway!


Brisbee will be here!

BBQ at my place on Sunday!  Feel free to invite yourselves and bring something to grill.  And any cute puppies you might have.  6ish. Or earlier, I hear there is a solar eclipse at 5:30pm tomorrow!

http://www.kval.com/news/local/Solar-eclipse-Sunday-visible-from-Oregon-151777435.html

Doesn't that sound groovy?

Since I wrote about it yesterday and realized I hadn't done weave exits with the channel and Bright, we played around a little with that today.  She was a little dubious about it, she said she liked the thrown toy better, but it did show she basically already knew how to do exits, she goes to end of the channel, so, hey.  We even did her first two-fers, LB is awesome.  Though I did find it curious she knocked like three bars doing this exercise, yet she doesn't with all the crazy threadle exercises - how does that work?

Bright vs channel weaves (with bonus Eva, because she's awesome like that ... and is crazy annoying about barging in):



The ever hard to photograph Fenwick - by request


Look - a bird!  We do have a lot of them around here, I have no talent in photographing them.


More importantly, we have QUAIL.  I LOVE QUAIL.  By far the world's cutest bird.  Especially in packs.  With babies.

THIS much:


Piff.  Bright is cute though!

Little LB can send ahead on the baby teeter!  It's always a favorite moment for me, when they really can do it all by themselves - I'm so proud of baby Bright.  Still hoping to get her on the lowered real teeter this week and see what she thinks.

In terms of baby agility, Bright is doing quite well!  I'm really happy with her understanding of basic handling on the flat and with baby jumps.  We've definitely focused a lot more on tight twisty things though, especially lately.  In Silvia's class it's back sides of jumps, serpentines and threadles for this lesson ... and then multiple threadles/push outs in a row.  Not exactly my favorite stuff, but Bright seems to enjoy it.  I'll admit, it's harder for me because I never practice that sort of thing, then put the bars down low and THEN try to stay ahead on three threadles in a row.  Go ahead, I dare you.  So, yeah, I'm sure we couldn't get through anything that was spread out, especially with rear crosses, but she does great at tiny international exercises!

So all that handling stuff is the hard stuff in my mind.  Bright has really caught on to the channel weaves, at least with a thrown toy  - we haven't really worked exits.  She's been doing a great job of finding the entrance on both sides from all angles, and no issues with me rear crossing.  Recalls through the poles we haven't worked as much on.  Haven't really done a lot with Bright and agility from a stay in general.  Bright doesn't have the attention span for that sort of thing, so almost everything we do starts wrapping around my leg or just running with her.  Which isn't to say she doesn't have a stay - she has a fabulous stay.  She will hold her stay when I work other dogs these days, definitely a much more solid that Haku and Eva.  I just don't worry about LB at all in the stay department, she's a good girl.

The GD foundation course has not had much to offer in terms of new or relevant information for me, this week it's directionals, which I won't be teaching again.  They were definitely useless with London, for all that he is an expert with them, I don't use directionals on course, not helpful to me.

Bright has quite a few things we've introduced:

"Bright":  Come all the way into my hand without taking obstacles on the way
"Come":  Come to me over this obstacle
"Check":  Turn tightly over this jump back towards me
"Turn":  Turn away from me
"Out":  Take the backside of this jump
"Over":  Take that jump
"Go":  Go forward on your current path of motion
"Tunnel":  Find the entrance to a tunnel
"Touch":  Go over the board and into 2o/2o
"LightBright":  Stay release cue (I rarely ever use a general release cue with seven dogs these days, I honestly don't think Bright understands what 'okay' means, she only releases on her name)

Sometimes I don't feel like she knows much of anything, but we really have at least introduced the concepts of most baby agility exercises.  And weirdly things like threadles.


London likes posing with this ball, he says it sets off his eyes


I guess Haku really does have tiny Hakupants


The bull bitches


Brisbee has been LOVING the warm weather - he wishes he could live in Arizona


Cutest dog in the house


One happy senior moment


Dragon in flight


Most photogenic award


Haku never knows quite what do when he finally gets Fenwick to notice him

So apparently I run Eva entirely by using her name - a lot.  Did I always used to do this?  I don't think it's very efficient.  Well, to be honest, when did Eva learn all this agility crap?  Did she really know how to do this before she was injured?  She's amazing!  And especially since I just chant her name around the whole course to mean anything and everything.  I was doing some pretty silly handling moves too.  If I do want her to collect on a jump after the dogwalk, maybe I should cue it and not just stand there and watch her go off course instead.  But she was moving so nicely - like she does at home!  And not overjumping or early jumping or being a spaz.  Well, she was jumping long, but, fuck that - as long as she looks comfortable, I'll take it!

Look at how fun this dog is!  Can I keep her?


How do I keep this dog?  Tammy thinks I should enter her in some trials at 12 inches in June to get her out there before she can remember how to be weird and sensitive about agility in new places again.  I'm worried to do anything with her lest I MAKE her weird and sensitive.  This is only the second full agility practice she's had since her rehab, what can I really say at this point (other than she's awesome!)?  I was going to be all methodical and patient and work from the ground up on jumping and contacts and flatwork.  However, just throwing her at courses seems to make her happy - and apparently she can do them too.  Go figure.  The truth is that she's probably always going to have her issues, I can't imagine that they magically disappeared - but what is the right approach to helping her deal with them?  Do I retrain, carefully and slowly exposing her to new places and equipment and dogs - or do I just ... see what happens trying to do agility at low heights on easy courses in new places?



Hm, I just watched London's video - do I always use my dogs names this much?  Good lord.  And to think I've been all diligent about Bright learning that her name means to come ALL the way into me without taking an obstacle.  This could be ... confusing.  Or maybe good for me, depending on how honest Bright is. Save the name for when you NEED it, feel free to use a 'here' for general stuff, or just shut up and trust the dog to follow my motion - that's a novel thought.  Oh, if only I listened to my own advice more, I'd probably be a lot more consistent.  Tsk.  London did do much better with this more AKC type course I set up today, in fact, I pulled him off TWO jumps today.  Not something I think I could have done at all last week, much less goofy.

Video today provided by the 'Bloggie', a new video camera Bruce got for me.  I thought the footage looked pretty good for indoor action.  It's a really inexpensive camera, but it's small, the quality seems pretty good, easy to use.  I don't know how much I'll end up using it, but I figure if anyone out there is looking for something simple for videoing at trials, not a bad option.  Can't really zoom when you're filming, you get about 30 minutes and you're out of memory for action video, and only charges by connecting to a computer.  Don't know what the battery life is at this point.  Wouldn't really be useful for videoing yourself for practice, or doing longer events, but for a single person for trial video - it does the job.  Kind of the new Flip, I think.  It does take still photos, but, like most video cameras, they look like total crap.


Look, it's Pre!  And she grew legs!  She's about 3 months old now, I think.


And is still crazy!


Looking more like a real dog


So ridiculously cute!


Good puppy!

Ah, BrightyBrightBright, growing up so fast.  I realized I was a bit confused about her birthday, she's actually born June 23rd, not July. Uh, her first birthday is coming up REAL fast next month.  Which doesn't seem possible, as she just doesn't seem FINISHED.  Not to say that dogs are grown up by a year, but physically what you see is what you tend to get at that point.  But Bright just still seems like such a floppy puppy.  And her ears are floppy puppy ears, still constantly changing - and not just on her mood, they go up, they go down ... no particular reason I can see.  She's in another ridiculously high rear stage (which is somewhat overstated by her SUPER FLUFF on her butt).  Bright is still GROWING.  Like an 8 month old.  No signs of coming in heat either - which is totally fine by me.  Though, big news, BRIGHT IS SHEDDING.  I brushed her out today and it was finally coming out.  Maybe the butt puff will come out too!

Bright has a puppy BRAIN too, the boys matured so fast compared to her.  Bright is just like, "Wheee!  Oooh, shiny!"  So much for girls being serious and maturing earlier and having more focus.  Myth busted!  LB is still just forming opinions on things.  It takes her a while, she doesn't want to leap to conclusions.  Definitely still raw, still doughy inside, this puppy has more baking to do before you can see what the finished product will look like.  Then we can work on frosting.  I'm not sure where this metaphor is going.


HEAD UP, Bright, HEAD UP.  I swear, I have so few pictures of her not stalking


But, see, this is a Bright's more natural everyday look


The girl has a stride!


And a bustle - what on earth is going on back there?


Total goofball - I love that about her


She's fast!


Okay, an actual picture of Bright looking sort of cute and feminine instead of bizarre and dorky


What is that hair DOING back there?


Oh yeah, check out that delicate girlish tongue


Mossy Forest Sprite!

I wasn't good for much of anything this weekend, mostly resting the knees.  It's the normal sort of issues, stairs, slopes, getting up and down.  Ordered two new pairs of shoes and also going to try a joint supplement.  I suppose I could go see a doctor, but it doesn't seem like there is much they can do outside of surgery.  When I've had issues in the past, it's come and gone, so I'm going to stick with that plan until it doesn't work any more.

While the internet says that cracking knees is not related to actual joint issues or pain, but I do have to wonder.  Even when I was kid I've had really crackly knees and hips, and definitely when my knees hurt, they crack more and you can feel things moving in there.  What usually happens is when I get up, or go down stairs they'll crack and there will be pressure and things moving around until they sort of settle in and I can walk normally again, and be fairly active once I get moving, but they hurt afterwards.

This IS related to dogs, who all think I'm pretty lame when I'm all stiff and slow.  And it's not like I'm broken or in huge amounts of pain - I'm fine as long as I don't actually DO anything.  I've got three dogs I'm supposed to be training/retraining running contacts with this summer - I need a plan of action to get back up to speed.  Well, Heather Speed, which isn't super fast, but it's a lot better than Broken Heather.  I was all lame and didn't even go paint at poodletopia this weekend.  You'd think that would be low impact, but lots of standing and getting up and down was not going to be happening.

Anyway, doggies are happy and LOVED the weather this weekend!


What Poco lacks in mobility she makes up in volume these days


Brisbee wonders why no squirrels live on our property


Bright might be bigger, but she's just a bigger 'Tick' now


OMG, what is with that butt hair?  She's got her own personal bustle


The ever hard to capture Fenny, looking vaguely dignified

Sprinker = 1, Bright = 0

Bright was having none of the sprinkler action today.  She would go stand in the shade and pout.  Oh, girls and their drama.  She'll figure it out ... eventually.  The water chasers, London, Haku and Eva had a great time - and the sprinkler still works!  I'm impressed, considering how much it was getting bitten, picked up and thrown around.  You'd think they'd want to chase the WATER, but no.  They want to destroy the source.















It's not a pool, but the dogs enjoyed it.  Well, some of them.  Bring on the summer!

I broke out our wee-saw in the basement for the girls.  Just think, if we lived in Australia, our teeter training would be done!  But as Eva wasn't terribly conifdent with her re-introduction to the teeter last week, I figured it couldn't hurt.  And LB hadn't seen the wee-saw since we worked through her sound/motion sensitivity as a baby.  I think I might break out the actual adjustable teeter and see how Bright does with that next week as well.

Random Eva, jumping not as smooth as I would like, we'll keep working on it ...


Bright wraps and wee-saw

Another HUGE bald eagle at our house today.  Once again, carrying something quite large, I think it was a rabbit.  Such an incredible wingspan, so breathtaking.  Flew off towards the neighbor and another smaller bird tried to intercept - bird fight!  They were probably both girls.

Bright is the cutest bitch.  We were out on the porch this evening and Bright is all up in Bruce's lap, but her eyes are constantly trying to catch the eye of the other dogs.  "Hey.  Hey, look at me.  I'm in the lap.  Yeah, that's right.  I'm the most important.  Do you see me up here?  That's because I'm the most awesome.  Hey, don't walk away, you need to see me up here.  Go ahead, come closer.  Check out my mean face.  Oh yeah, you WISH you could be on this lap, don't you?"  She is selective about her mean face though, tonight she really wanted to try it on Poco, I think because Poco has no idea what's going on anyway and doesn't notice.  So she was doing these tiny lip lifts and hard stares, and Poco is just ignoring her completely.  Then Brisbee would come up and Bright wouldn't do anything, which is funny, because Brisbee is most definitely the bottom of the barrel around here.  So far, Poco and Fenwick are Bright's favorite targets to test her tiny bitchness with.

Meanwhile, Haku is the best cuddler in the whole world.  He manages to be cuddly and super sweet without being pushy or painful.  He likes to snuggle up with a full body contact and then lay his head or your shoulder or chest and gaze adoringly at you.  He doesn't nudge, lick or fidget, nor is he just using you for your body heat or as resource to guard.  Haku just likes to snuggle - for hours.  He doesn't get bored, he doesn't do it because he wants something, he just really loves being close.  He likes to get shoulder and chest rubs, ear rubs and nose noogies, but he's totally cool without being pet and just being close.  He will come up for a full body contact next to you, settle in, and just snuggle - usually falling asleep or turning over on his back so his legs are in the air with his head back on you.  Oh, Haku, I do so love that boy.  It's a side of him that most people don't see - because he's usually being such a spaz when we have company over or we're going somewhere, but Haku has slept right next to me on my pillow from day one as a tiny puppy - and I have been hopelessly in love ever since.  Ah, squish, he makes me so happy.

It should be noted, usually Eva is right there too, she doesn't like to be left out!  Haku doesn't mind her using him as a pillow though.  Eva does sleep in the middle of the bed at night, stealing the covers and always trying to kick me off the bed.  She's not much into the cuddling (though she doesn't mind it), she does like the body heat though!  Total bed hog.  And Bright is often there ... for a while, but she's more of a needy pushy cuddler, then when she's done she's off to do something else or go sleep in her crate.  Just like London, she says sleeping on beds is WRONG.  They have such funny goofy things like that in common, and I have no idea where Bright's crate fascination came from.  She was never really in one as a puppy (more in an x-pen than anything), but she puts herself to sleep at night in her crate next to the bed every night none-the-less.  I usually wake her up in the morning, she sleeps on her back in her crate - just like London, so there she'll be upside down, looking all disgruntled and confused.  Bright is not a morning dog.

Anyway, for all my dogs, not many cuddlers - and that actually was my biggest hope with Haku, to have a sweet cuddly dog for once - and he is!  The sweetest dog ever, I just love that boy.

I kept waiting for it to get REALLY HOT today so I could break out the sprinkler I bought for the dogs.  I bought a 'heavy duty' metal pulsating sprinkler that I know London and Haku will adore.  Probably Eva too, she's quite the water biter too these days.  But mostly for Bright, to teach her to like sprayed water - she's still all dramatic about it.  However, for all it's heavy duty-ness, I assume it won't last long with this crew.  So we'll see if it lasts one day, I'm breaking it out tomorrow ...

Bring on the summer weather!


Baby Haku was the snuggliest!

It's been an adventurous last 24 hours, and I have yet to unravel the entire mystery.  Sometime yesterday, right about this time, multiple animals were involved in a felony offence against a bag of dog food.  I don't normally leave bags around, actually because of the CATS, not the dogs.  But yesterday I was doing something else and just put 2 bags of dog food in the basement hall to put away later.  Sometime between that moment and dinnertime, there was a conspiracy between multiple dogs and cats to abscond with that food without my knowledge.

At no point were there multiple dogs missing from upstairs, they were careful not to all go at once, which would have alerted my suspicions.  I know the dogs would not have have dared actually chew open a bag of food, that was most definitely a cat - who left a cat head sized hole (which one is up for debate - maybe it was a group effort).  But the dogs were certainly not above helping themselves once it was opened.  I'm still amazed at how STEALTHY all the animals were though, and how many I eventually found were involved.

My first clue, Eva comes over and she's burping and licking her lips and looked like she was about the puke.  Alarmed, I rushed her outside, wondering what she could have gotten into.  Next, Haku (you know, the GOOD dog) starts doing the same thing, so I put him outside and let Eva in ... who looked like she had swallowed a basketball.  Fenwick is laying on a dogbed, actually strangely paranoid and well behaved.  The cats have absolutely no interest in dinner.  And then Bruce tells me that Brisbee is starving, that he's just 'skin and bones', and I look at him, and he looks absolutely fat too.  Huh.

So, yeah, I go downstairs and discover the carnage of food bag.  But I wasn't entirely sure who had eaten what.  Brisbee WAS acting like he was starving - and maybe he just was getting fat.  Fenwick also was guilty and pudgy looking ... but I wasn't sure, and he acted so hungry.  In the end, I'm pretty sure Neko, Isis, Dio, Haku, Eva, Fenwick and Brisbee all tore into that food - BUT ALL AT DIFFERENT TIMES, as not to raise my suspicions.  There were upset stomachs galore, Brisbee and Haku got kicked outside last night for both throwing up, then both eating each other's vomit, and repeating.  There has been much farting today.  It's now clear which tick-like dogs ate what they were not supposed to.

And in case you weren't counting, which dogs did NOT eat the forbidden food?  Poco, Bright and London - who find eating stupid anyway.  It has been novel not to have the cats bugging me for food all day though.  Eva and Haku also ate so much to make themselves sick.  Fenny and Bris were ready for more though.

Ah, life with animals.  Just charming.  For the record, Bright and London may have been interested in the food, but they both don't share.  If I put down a plate for the dogs to share, London and Bright will take themselves out of the room.  They both find sharing food with other dogs to be sick and wrong and they want no part of it, no matter how tasty it might be.

Anyway, Eva did get to have a half dinner tonight, and we worked a little on her multijump wraps at 12 inches - which looked insanely good, if I do say so myself.  We had worked on them before she was injured, but coming at them again from the ground up - wow, what a difference!  Always hopeful that Eva will get to be a real agility dog someday!  One step at a time ...


The Golden Oldies in their younger years (look at that baby Brisbee!)


A young Poco with her FAVORITE toy (cat toy that sounds like a real mouse)


The dynamic duo when Fenny was just a pup - they've always been an inseparable pair!

Rini and Bright are basically the same breed, age and size - so it amuses me greatly to see them together since they are such opposites in so many other ways.  Of course, they really want nothing to do with one another, but that doesn't stop me from trying to get pictures of them together.  


Now, which one of these dogs should be named 'Bright'?


Her Fluffness


Awesome Bright moment - I threw that stick WAY in the middle of the super tall field - AND BRIGHT FOUND IT.  She's awesome!


Yet she acts like she can't find toys right in front of her when OUR dogs are around


Bright showing what she thinks of this posed shot business


Wheeee!


Wheeee!


The girls refused to be in the same shot voluntarily, this drive by glaring was purely accidental


Now, if Rini would have LIFTED HER HEAD, this could have been cute.  Alas.


NOW she poses


LB actually looking like a normal, happy LB (she likes Rosie a lot!), it's hard to take good photos of her without other people around (well, it's STILL hard then too ...)


Rini likes Rosie a lot too!