Remember Us??

The summer is just so darned busy, I've been letting the blog slide. I've been taking on a lot of little projects, plus the dog stuff, school, upkeep of the house and yard ... Blogging is getting neglected. I'm sorry.

So here is a little catch up of what we have been doing the past couple of weeks!

Beginning of July was Pets in the Park. An annual fun day put on as a fundraiser for the Saskatoon SPCA, New Hope Dog Rescue, and SCAT Street Cat Rescue. Local pet related businesses set up booths, local dog clubs put on demonstrations, and groomers and vets offer cheap nail trims and microchipping. It's always a great time, and this year was no different. We luckily had beautiful weather and there was an awesome turnout! The boys and I spent all day at the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog booth and organized a couple of talks about the therapy dog program.

While we have had plenty of rain still, there have been a few really gorgeous days to enjoy the summer weather! Lots of running at the park and frisbee catching.



Plenty of frisbee missing, too.


The Flickr challenge for last week was "action blur". Of all the blurry (and often humorous) action shots of the boys playing frisbee, I chose this one. I just think it is so much fun!


While there was plenty of barking and running at the park this week as well, it was a more subdued experience. Gio ventured off to explore the grounds.


While Romeo ran around me in circles "talking" about how awesome he thinks the park is.


All that circle running and talking makes a boy tired and hot. That is when the Monster Tongue makes its appearance. It never ceases to amaze me how he can fit that humungo-tongue in his teeny little head. Might account for the lack of brain power some days.


I was pleasantly surprised that I caught a shot of Romeo running towards me WITHOUT his mouth hanging open and that obscenely large tongue flapping around. See, he CAN look cute!


On Friday the boys and I participated in a Therapy Dog demo at a local care home. The residents always love to come out and watch the dogs do tricks and entertain them. But visiting time is the best!

As always, Romeo collected a new friend and admirer.


Here is our snazzy looking collection of doggy entertainers.


And finally, today was an afternoon of agility demos out in Watrous. Watrous was having some sort of car show/farmer's market/bands and entertainment day. I'm sure it has an official name, but we will go with that. Apparently SAA (Saskatchewan Agility Association) has been going out to Watrous for this event for a number of years now. This was my and Romeo's first time tagging along. The demos were a lot of fun with a great turnout of specators and talented doggies alike!

Romeo had a great time and made yet another new fan. This time a young girl who was absolutely smitten by him. Her mom (grandma??) got a really cute picture of them together, but I wasn't fast enough to grab my camera. I had just placed Romeo in a stand stay beside the kneeling girl and turned to walk behind the photographer so I could get Romeo's attention. When I turned back around, the girl had poor Romer in a headlock, held tight to the side of her face. He's such a trooper, and put on a big happy face for the camera despite the clearly uncomfortable situation.

And for that, and all the hard work he did running in the three demos in the scorching heat, he deserves a little nap.

After the Storm

Thursdays are officially cursed.

I have been TRYING to hold my regular Rally-O classes on Thursdays for the past month and a half now. In the summer, I like to hold my classes outdoors. There is a fabulous field near by that we have been given permission to use with the dogs. It cuts down on costs for me, so I can offer my classes a little cheaper than when I am training with Hub City. But nearly every Thursday since the beginning of June we have been hit with a thunderstorm or torrential downpour of some variety. Up until this week, I have only been able to have one class outdoors. The rest have either been postponed or moved to my fall-back indoor training facility. Reasonably priced, available at very short notice, but too small and not an ideal space for training.

This week, we were finally able to get outdoors again! Made it all of the way through Beginner class before the downpour hit. I waited to see if any of my Advanced/Excellent people would show up for drop-in practice as I watched the storm clouds roll in. Taking shelter under a tree (I am safety conscious during thunder storms!) the boys and I, and one die-hard student decided to see if the storm would pass quickly. After 10 minutes or so and no sign of the rain stopping, I declared that I was going to pack up the car and head home. Of course, because I was eagerly optimistic, I didn't wear appropriate shoes for wet weather ... only a pair of Dawgs sandals, which are super duper comfortable, but not at all grippy when wet. Carrying a huge Tupperware container of my "Rally-O Crap" to the car, I had to straddle-hop a low fence to get into the parking lot. As soon as I found a tenuous foothold on the wet ground in my slippery sandals, and swung one (pork hock) leg over the crotch-high fence, it decided to hail. HAIL HARD!! Sure sure, just pea-sized stuff. But being pelted unaware by small frozen peas still stings a little!

In between gasps of laughter and squeals, I glanced over to see the brave and wonderful Sophie holding a blanket over top of the X-pen that my dogs were in, trying to shelter them from the hail while getting pelted herself. And two very soggy and very un-impressed Shelties glaring out at me from under the blanket canopy.

Tossing the bucket of "Rally-O Crap" into the back of the car, I raced back (as quickly as slippery sandals will allow) to release the dogs from their captivity and allow them to "sprint to freedom". Apparently "sprint to freedom" means different things to different dogs. To Gio, it meant high-tail it towards the parking lot, leap gracefully over the low fence and take shelter in the relatively dry car interior. To Romeo, on the other hand, it meant run frantically in circles, freaking out whenever he left the shelter of the trees and got pelted with rain/hail, eventually give up and pout in a soppy little Sheltie puddle to wait for me to rescue him and carry him to the car.

Of course, as soon as everything was loaded into the car, the rain immediately stopped and the sun broke free of the clouds.

The asphalt in the parking lot was covered in a sheen of water, the hot sun making steam rise in a few areas. I just couldn't pass this up to take a couple of pictures. Heck, the dogs and I were wet enough already, what's a little more puddle splashing, right? Romeo decided to remain in the car and pout over his miserable wet-dog existence. Gio was more open to a photo-shoot.

Thought this one was just too cute. Gio checking himself out in a puddle.

This one really shows the rising steam nicely! I love the reflection of Gio in the puddle an the bright sun shining through his fluff.

Despite how much I loved the other two pictures, I kept coming back to this one as my favorite. The sun flares and rays are just too awesome! It is our submission for our 52 Weeks for Dogs project this week.

If you would like to see Gio's entire (so far) 52 Weeks for Dogs project, check out our set on Flickr.

Happy Canada Day!

I wanted an appropriately Canada themed photo for this week's 52 Weeks for Dogs Flickr photo project. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced my flag. So I had to make due with a luggage tag and a stuffed beaver. Yes ... that brown thing is a stuffed beaver. They really don't have much of a shape to them, sorry.

Oh ... don't forget the cheesy photo editing for the background!

To make up for my lack of Canadian flotsam to take pictures with, I am drinking a fine Canadian beer and listening to Neil Young while preparing this blog post.

I think last year I posted some YouTube videos ... probably the "I am Canadian" beer commercial (never gets old!). To keep with tradition, here is some Classified. Love it!

On Strike!

Past tense.

Blogger was being a stupid-head and wouldn't let me post pictures the past few times I tried. So I went on strike. That, and I have been super uber crazy busy lately and this is my first free moment for blog writing.

So, a summary of the past few weeks ...

Rain.

Rain.

A brief pause in the rain, in which I frantically shot a couple of pictures for Gio's photo project.

Rain.

More rain.

Another rainless hour or two for another photo.

Rain.

More rain.

Then there was today, when the clouds finally parted for what we HOPE is longer than a day!

I took the boys out to visit Romeo's breeder again, where we were greeted by 5 MONSTERS!


These monsters were VERY mean. They taunted Romeo until he cried.


Except for this little monster. He is the Cutest Puppy in the World!

GRABBY HANDS!

Meet Charlie. No, he is not mine. I wish. He is just the cutest puppy in the world, and he stole my heart as he ate my face.

Prior to our puppy visit, Gio had his monthly therapy dog visit to Stensrud where he shows off for his ladies. He felt the need to reiterate that he really is a Super Dog.

Okay! Okay already!

It's wet. We get it.

Good on the rain. But enough is enough! It's been raining nearly constantly for weeks now. And no, that is not an exaggeration. My driveway has yet again been converted into an outdoor swimming pool, so that I have to back into the driveway to ensure that all doors of my vehicle have decent access to relatively puddle-less surfaces.

This is part of the reason that I haven't been posting for the past while. Really haven't been doing much of anything worth writing about! The regular therapy dog visits, this time toting along a towel to dry off fluffy puppies after our mad dash from the car to the building. A lot of sitting around and being depressed because of the grey weather.

Don't get me wrong, I love rain. Give me a good booming thunderstorm and I am a happy happy girl! But this is quite enough of the downpour. I believe the radio informed me the other day that this is the wettest spring that Saskatoon has seen ... ever. Or, at least since people began keeping track of these things. I'm sure things were pretty soggy after the glaciers melted after the last ice age, but really, I wasn't around then and didn't have $100 worth of bedding plants in the ground that would REALLY appreciate a good sunny day or two!

Last week's 52 Weeks for Dogs photo op was dampened (*pun!*) by the rain.


This week saw a similar situation.



The boys are both getting very antsy with this rain business. They don't mind thunderstorms, neither are sound-phobic, but they are suffering from some serious cabin fever. We've been working on scent games and some new tricks to keep furry little brains busy, but it just isn't the same as their regular walks or runs in the park. The dullness of it all has turned Romeo into a pouty lazy bones. He just flops from one doggy bed to the next, not sleeping, just laying there in his own depression. Gio, on the other hand, is taking the opposite route. He's the gurfy pacer, wandering from room to room puffing and sighing, or as he is doing right now, standing at my feet and staring up at me from under the computer desk, hoping beyond hope that I will somehow make this rain stop so that he can get outside again.

Mr. Weather Man says that it is supposed to break next week. Let's hope, for the sake of all our sanity, that this is true.

Can I have a Weekend Yet??

Despite the lack of posts, I can assure you that the boys and I have not been merely lazing around and neglecting our duties online!

The weekend after the Sheltie National (and our last post) was the River Runners' flyball tournament. I'm still a member of River Runners, though I don't currently have a dog competing in flyball. So I still put in my time at the tournament. There were a lot of great new successes at the tournament. One of the fun things about the River Runners' tournament is that it is early in the running season so a lot of the teams bring out their new "green dogs" for their first tournament warm-ups and runs. I love seeing the new kids playing the game!

This past weekend was a CARO Rally-O trial at Paws n Train in Saskatoon. They offered the relatively new "Team" option in CARO Rally-O for the first time in Saskatchewan, so a lot of people were eager to give it a try. Team is a lot of fun, actually! You are paired up with another handler and dog (either choose your own partner or leave it up to random draw) and the course is split in half. The first dog does the first half of the course while the second dog waits in the middle. Once the first dog is finished, the second dog begins the second half while the first dog waits in the middle. Sort of a relay-race pass-the-baton situation. The course is scored as if it were one dog completing it, with the regular requirements of 170/200 to qualify.

Novice level Team was offered this time around, so I had both boys entered. It was a lot of fun, and I am excited to try to run Advanced, Excellent, and Versatility Team once we and the rest of the province progress that far! Gio was paired up with Buddy and they earned their first two legs of Novice Team. Romeo was paired with the cutest Border Collie of all time, Bent, and they rocked it as well, earning their first two legs of Novice Team. One of those runs was a perfect 200/200 score.

In addition to Team, I had the boys entered in some other levels. Romeo was entered in Versatility again, after the very surprising qualifiers from the KAOS trial last month. Romeo, continuing his streak of surprising me (I really should stop being surprised when Romeo is a superstar), completed his Versatility title and earned another Versatility and Excellent leg in C Stream to apply towards his CARO Rally Gold title.

Romeo earning his Rally Versatility (RV) title under judge Jeanne Shaw.

Gio was entered in an Excellent run as well, which he qualified with a lovely score of 198/200!! This finally FINALLY completes his Excellent title, with Magna Cum Laude! HOORAY!! This title has been nearly 2 years in the making. Silly boy just couldn't put it all together enough to Q, despite some really nice runs. I realized that it has taken Gio nearly as long to complete his Excellent title as it has taken Romeo to earn ALL of his CARO titles. Gio finished his Advanced title and began working on his Excellent title at nearly the same time that Romeo entered his first Rally trial ever. So in the same amount of time that Gio took to complete his Excellent title, Romeo has finished his Novice, Advanced, Excellent, Versatility, Bronze and Silver titles. haha Oh Giovanni, such a silly man! But he always has so much fun competing and showing off, so it was worth it all the way. Now we get to play in C Stream while we start training Versatility!

Gio earning his Rally Excellent (RXMCL) title under judge Jeanne Shaw.

And yes, we are still participating in our Flick photo project!

Last week, I started another leg of my career journey. I started my PhD at the University of Saskatchewan looking at canine color genetics and gene interaction. As such, I've taken a pretty significant pay cut, going back onto a student stipend. So I told the boys that they have to start earning their keep. Gio decided to do his part by parking himself in front of the neighborhood convenience store and look pathetic in hopes of donations.


And this past week there was a group challenge on the Flickr project stating simply "Pop Culture". I struggled as to what I might do to represent pop culture. I don't even really know WHAT pop culture is, the definition is pretty vague. When I think of what pop culture is, I think of things like poodle skirts, The Beatles, and Andy Warhol. But what is pop culture in 2010? Fifty years from now, what will the teenagers of 2060 think of when someone mentions 2010? Will our pop culture be reality TV shows, big brands, and social networking? Kinda scary actually.

The Big Boy Turns 8!

Today is Gio's 8th birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my big man!

As a treat, Gio got a big bison RMB for dinner. He had to work for it though, no breaks on birthdays for this boy, especially when "mom" is a blogger! So the work in this case involved candles, balloons, a (homemade) party hat, and a good "leave it" command.


Of course, Gio takes "leave it" very seriously.

Like this.

So in order to get him to appear as if he is enjoying this photo shoot experience, I need to use words that will make him prick up his ears. Words like "cookie", "hungry", and "what's that?". These words, when coupled with a lovely hunk of raw bison-y goodness, result in pictures like this.


So the "ear prick" words were punctuated frequently with "leave it" words. "Leave it. Cookie? Leave it leave it! What's that? Where is it? Leave it! Are you hungry? Leave it leave it leave it."

Oh, he's such a good boy.

By the time I finally got a picture that I liked for our 52 Weeks project, poor Gio was literally quivering from the effort. I removed the flaming candle from the vicinity, and Gio was happy to indulge in his reward without worrying about the hat and balloons.

Busy. Can't talk. Eating.

Happy birthday my big boy! Let's say we plan for many many more of these, eh?

Slip Slidin' Away

On our walk the other day, we stumbled upon an empty playground. The sun was so bright, and the clear blue sky, fresh green on the trees, and glaring red slides were too hard to pass up. The boys humored me by posing on the play set.

I really wish that this double slide was on the OTHER side of the play set so that I could have better taken advantage of the bright sunlight. But regardless, I love the colors and swirly blue lines.

Just to the West of the park is a group of apartment buildings. There is a chain link fence that separates the school yard from the parking lot. Leaning on that fence the entire time we were taking pictures was an older man. He was either giving me the long-distance stink eye for having dogs on the play set, or was just horribly confused about what I was doing. Possibly a bit of both.

This picture cracks me up every time I see it. Romeo is just so silly!
Always a happy dog. Always.

Gio is such a trooper. He was having a hard time keeping his grip on the slide, but was still able to spare a smile for the camera!
This was Gio's 52 Weeks for Dogs entry for this week.

Best. Challenge. EVER!

We had a kick-arse evening tonight at Rally-O drop in.

Started things off with Gio's photo shoot for our 52 Weeks for Dogs project on Flickr. A challenge was issued this week stating simply "favorite toy". Well, Gio's preferred toy is a tennis ball. But his FAVORITE toy is a PILE of tennis balls!

So I "borrowed" our flyball club's plethora of tennis balls and literally buried Gio in them.


Gio would like to say that he LOVED this challenge, and would appreciate it if we could do this one again. Soon.

Following the tennis ball extravaganza, I ran the boys through some Rally-O drills, which they ACED. The past couple of weeks they have seemed a little off ... a bit of a tummy bug or Gio having seizure issues, or Romeo being a jack-ass. You know ... the normal. This evening, though, no such problems. They were superstars! I even got to try out the new coupler that Karen so speedily made for me, and the boys are rocking the brace obedience experiment. I have no fears that we will be ready to strut our stuff at the Sheltie National at the end of April.

Then, to top the night off, as if it wasn't good enough already, Romeo got a new girlfriend. Concept is a sweet little Pomeranian, and Romeo thinks she is fabulous! The first few attempts of this fluffy-dog shot included Romeo's nose burrowed deep into Concept's fluff. And the resulting "Ewww Cooties!" glare from Concept.

All three dogs were sporting the Laser Eyes of Doom look, due to the horrid fluorescent lighting in the training building. I tried to dim things down a bit, now they just look like zombies. Oh well ... the amount of fluff in this one picture more than makes up for the zombie eyes, in my opinion.

Don't Look at Me! ...

... I'm HIDEOUS!!

It is week 6 of our 52 Weeks for Dogs project. This was supposed to be last week's picture, but when the group challenge was introduced, this got pushed back to this week.

A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys over to a friends place for a visit. I had some business to discuss with my friend regarding an upcoming therapy dog test, and the boys needed a play date. Two birds!

All 4 dogs, my friend's two Miniature Poodles, Gina and Katie, and my two guys, are therapy dogs. Well behaved, well mannered, well trained dogs. And they all get along quite well. But, as dogs will be dogs, Gina has one rule that she insists upon. One rule that Gio was not aware of before.

DON'T STEAL MY TOY!

Gio now knows that Gina has a rule. He's a fast learner.

So, in light of Gio's new manly nose scar, I set up a photo shoot to tell the story.
The idea was to create a photo that suggests the nose scar (and the imagined emotions that might go along with that), without saying "Look! Nose scar!" So I took one of Gio's favorite tricks, "Are you sad?", and played around with the angles to give an impression of shame or embarrassment about his "horrible disfigurement".

I was quite thrilled with this week's submission because it required very little editing! I enjoy playing around with GIMP and learning all the tricks to making a photo look its best. But having taken a photo that didn't require any special touches is a pretty cool feeling! Just a slight adjustment to brightness, not even any cropping. *chuff*

And, before I sign off for today, thanks to everyone that sent good wishes to Gio after his seizure on Monday. He's feeling much better and there have been no more seizures since. He still seems a little dopey or head-shakey, but nothing has manifested from it. I'm still going to try and get him into the vet for some more blood work updates next week. Want to give it some time for his phenobarb levels to even out again, as I doped him up pretty good after the twitch on Monday.

Where Dogs Shouldn't Be

This week of the 52 Weeks for Dogs project included an optional challenge. The challenge: take a photo using the theme of "Places Dogs Shouldn't Be".

I initially had a totally different photo idea in mind, but when the challenge was issued, I couldn't pass it up! So my original idea got back-burnered until next week, and instead I started wracking my brain for unique ideas that play into the challenge theme.

I decided to take a little creative liberty in the process and finally settled on: Dogs should not be used in place of ...

Flower Vases
(only one flower was harmed in the making of these photos)

I liked the idea so much, that I had to take a couple more shots that included both dogs. I really liked how this one turned out, with both dogs glancing at the camera out the corner of their eye.

52 Weeks - Week 4

I took this photo earlier in the week, just haven't gotten around to posting it here until now.

Last weekend was a CRAZY winter storm that dumped 20 inches or so of snow on the city. And, despite shoveling the driveway out (multiple times, due to the wind blowing the snow all back in again), I was still unable to leave for work on Monday morning. SHAME!

The plows had not made it to the residential streets yet, so while I could move around comfortably in the driveway, I couldn't get anywhere on the street. So it was a SNOW DAY holiday!

I was excited to take advantage of this rare opportunity, where I wasn't otherwise engaged during daylight hours, to try for some outdoor action shots with Gio. But, while luck was allowing me to have a long weekend due to snow, it would not grant me any decent sunlight for action photos. I got a bunch of dark blurry romping in the snow shots, but nothing worthy of the 52 Weeks project. Instead, I opted for this photo.

Normally, I greatly dislike "shooting down at the dog" photos. They tend to look really amateur to me, so I hope that isn't the vibe with this photo. I love the big goofy grin and the snow all over his face from Sheltie Snow Plowing through the drifts. When the snow piles up between his eyes like this, I always think that it makes his eyes look so tiny and silly!