Christmas Continues!

This year was my first year participating in the ornament exchange from the Circle of Sheltie Friends message board. It is sort of organized like a Secret Santa ... except it's not really secret and you exchange Christmas ornaments instead of presents.

Today, our ornament arrived from Binx and his owner!

So cute! I love the personalized snowflakes. Thanks so much Binx!!

CARO Rally-O Videos

At the HCKOC CARO Rally-O trial on October 3rd and 4th, a friend was able to get some video of many of the runs. She was kind enough to send me copies of Gio's and Romeo's runs. They both did SO well at that trial, I am thrilled to have their performances documented!

Gio - Excellent B - Round 1
If it weren't for that darned jump redo he would have had a perfect 200/200 run!


Gio - Excellent B - Round 3
Again, an NQ, but some of the individual elements were really nice!


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 1
Final score 198/200


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 2
Final score 197/200 and finishing off his CARO Rally Bronze (CRB) title


Romeo - Excellent C - Round 3
Final score 200/200, first leg of his CARO Rally Silver (CRS) title


Huge thanks to Sophie Brunet for taping the runs and putting the videos all together!

To Grandmother's House We Go

I'm leaving on a jet plane tomorrow, headed to lovely San Francisco for a conference on qPCR (aka "work stuff"). I always have a hard time leaving the boys behind, I stress out so easily. But they are staying with my mom, so I know they are in capable hands and will be absolutely spoiled and pampered all week.

I've packed their over-night bag of all the important things ... toys, food dishes, leashes, and treats ... Romeo helped.

"What's all this for, ma?"

"It's all going in the bag? And the bag is going to grandma's!?"

"What? We wouldn't want you to forget ME at home!"

I have one day to do touristy stuff. The rest of my trip is booked up with the conference and workshop goings-on. I was hoping to book a tour of Alcatraz, but when I checked their website they are all booked up for the evening tours ALL WEEK! *pout* So I think I will head down to Fisherman's Wharf and take in some festivities there. Seems like that is the location of most of the touristy stuff anyways. Has anyone been? Any recommendations for a good sea food supper?!

These are a few of our favorite things ...

Inspired by our buddies over at Jacked, today I thought I would showcase some of the boys' favorite things!

Gio's favorite things are pretty vague, really. Most of the items in the picture merely represent a wide array of things that Gio loves! His food bowl represents food in general, he doesn't actually TASTE anything that goes in his mouth. So he loves it all the same. And the tug toy represents the act of tugging. He'll tug on anything, this is just one of the many options. The sheep, though, is a special toy. He loves that squeaky above all other squeakies. The leash, is the object of focus at any time. He knows exactly where his leash is at any moment of the day. Because leash = going somewhere, and that is ALL GOOD! And the clicker is very much like the leash. The clicker = training, which again is ALL GOOD! And finally, the tennis ball. That is self explanatory. Nothing more needed there regarding the tennis ball obsession that is Gio's life.


Romeo's favorite things are equally vague. The bag of treats representing any treat-like substance or any edible item given as a treat. The clicker again representing training, which in Gio's words, is ALL GOOD! And the ball representing any ball of any texture or size. As long as it rolls, can be thrown, and is therefore chase-able. Peanut butter (also synonymous with Cheez Whiz in Romeo's world) is a very specific love. Likewise with the squirrel (of which we have three getting equal rotation) and the large rubber pig.

So ... what are YOUR favorite things?!

Powdery White Stuff

We had our first snow fall of the year today! A bit earlier than is the norm in this area, but not totally unexpected. I really do enjoy the winter, though I wish we had had more of an autumn this year. But there is still hope. I doubt this first snow fall will stick around long, as we are supposed to be back in the positive temperatures next week.


Best thing about the first snow fall ... Fresh Snow Zoomies!

An Epic Playdate!

(You're really going to get sick of hearing those puns, Epic's momma!)

Meet Epic.



Epic is the cutest Jack Russel Terrier puppy EVER! As much as I love Shelties, I have to admit that they aren't really the cutest puppies, especially when you compare them to something like Epic.

Epic is owned by a friend of mine, mom also to Benny (you may remember Benny from "Ode to a Benny"). He is a fiesty little pup that is still firmly entrenched in the carpet-shark-learning-to-deal-with-my-terrierness stage. So, in his owner's endless pursuit to socialize the beasty, we met up for a play date.

Normally, Romeo will play with anything that moves and Gio will firmly ignore anything that isn't food or a ball. Tables were a little turned tonight, as Gio seemed to really draw Epic's attention and Romeo flatly refused to acknowledge the wee hairless beasty. Epic is still learning to get over the "just because it barks it doesn't mean it is going to eat me" idea, so the Shelties fit into that plan just nicely. In a Sheltie's world, barking goes hand in hand (err ... paw in paw?) with playing, and running, and excitement. At first, Epic was a little hesitant about the random loud noises, and there was a lot of this ...


But he figured out that the barking was in no way directed at him (unless he was monopolizing the ball), and came to deal with it all quite well.

Epic's first attempts to play with Romeo were thwarted when he became entranced with Romeo's (abnormally long) tongue, and decided that he would find out what it was in the only way that puppies now how ... with his teeth.


Romeo put a stop to that right away! And Epic turned his affections towards Gio.


Romeo finally did indulge Epic with some play, eventually.



But it was a lot more fun to just chase Gio around, mainly because Gio always has a ball in his mouth (BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!! *gasp* BALLBALLBALLBALLBALL!!). For a little guy, Epic has already learned all the important things in life ... ball drive and tug drive!





And being the stellar teachers that they are, the Shelties took it upon themselves to teach Epic a few other essentials.

Like how to scope out a good tree for peeing on.


Or which blades of grass are the tastiest.


Of course, there was also lots of running. And whenever possible, full body contact running.





I think they are a pretty cute group, don't you? (Of course, I may be just a teensy bit biased.)

If you want to follow along on Epic's great adventure, check out his blog!
Jacked

Bison RMBs

The boys each enjoyed a bison RMB for supper last night, courtesy of our new meat buddy, Jen!



They are GREAT. Huge gobs of meat still on the bone. Just perfect! Thanks Jen (and Spike and Sophie for sharing your haul. Hope you enjoyed the sheep.).

The boys dug in with gusto! Love that bison! But, while normal RMB chewing is fun and all ...



... it just lacks a certain ... style ... flare ... synchronicity?

Gio and Romeo now present, for the first time on Life is Better with Sheltie Hair ...

SYNCHRONIZED RMB-ING!

Ready ... and ...

To your right, two, three, four


Center, two, three, four


To your left, two, three, four

Sure, their routine could use a little work. But for a first time, not too bad, right?!

While they enjoyed their bison, I made my own little treat. Sour cream cookies! YUM!

Urban Tracking

About a month ago I participated in a tracking seminar held locally. There was a bit of discussion about "urban tracking", and I found out that that is what Gio has been doing all along! I was under the impression that urban tracking was all about tracking on concrete in busy city centers. Apparently, the CKC version of urban tracking only involves 1/3 of the track on "non-vegetative" cover. The idea is that the track is laid in a busy public area. I have been training Gio a lot in school yards or sports feilds since the beginning, and that is the situation he would be in in the urban tracking test.

We went out this morning to the school ground behind my house to do a couple more tracks. Three tracks in total, two shorter ones with one 90 degree turn each, and one longer track with 2 90 degree turns.

I also tried to video tape Gio's third track. Damn camera quit taping around the second corner, though, and I didn't realize it until we were on the home stretch. Gio got a little lost at the second corner and it took some encouragement and prompting to get him to keep working it. He got it eventually, though.

HCKOC Rally Trial - Day 2

Another great day at the HCKOC show! The boys each had one more Advanced Rally trial this morning and they did very well, yet again. Romeo had a bit of explod-i-butt happening, but he pulled it all together enough to earn a 94/100 and 3rd in class. Gio came through with a 92/100. That makes two new CKC Rally Advanced titles and a great showing on the Sheltie-front this weekend!

HCKOC Rally-O Trial - Day 1

Today was day 1 of the HCKOC Rally-O trials. There were conformation trials happening as well, but I didn't catch any of that as I was tied up in the Rally ring.

The boys totally rocked it today, cleaned up! I had Gio and Romeo entered in two Advanced B Rally trials each. Trial 1, they tied for High in Class with a score of 97/100. Gio was faster than Romeo by 5 seconds, so took the ribbon. Trial 2, they tied for High in Class with a score of 98/100, this time Gio was faster than Romeo by only 1.5 seconds so he took the ribbon there as well. Four great runs by the boys, each earning two legs towards their CKC Rally Advanced titles. There is one more trial tomorrow morning and I have both entered again. Could possibly finish their Advanced titles tomorrow. YIPPEE!

Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

This Nose is Made for Sniffin'

This nose ... yes, this one right here. THIS nose did a LOT of work today!



There was a seminar held today on tracking, put on by Carol Aitken of Regina, SK. The seminar was geared at brand new beginners to tracking but I have heard great things about Carol, so even though Gio and I have been playing with tracking for a while now, I decided to attend.

Definitely wasn't disappointed! Carol is a lovely lady and was very helpful and patient with everyone's questions. Very knowledgeable in the sport, both in training and competing, and was able to give great suggestions for a wide variety of breeds. She really knows her stuff!

Gio and I try to get out tracking at least once a month in the summer time. Not as often as we probably should, but with all the other activities that he does, we don't really have the time to do much more than that. Last summer we had sort of plateaued at a certain point. He could do a good length of track, probably a couple hundred yards with one 90 degree turn. But if I tried to add more turns, he wound up getting frustrated and lost. Carol gave some great pointers, suggesting that I lay articles after every turn so that he gets a reward more often. It had never occured to me to place more articles along the track, we had only been working with one article at the very end of the track. So I will definitely be putting this into practice. He has great basics and can problem solve his way through turns, but tends to lose motivation if challenged too much. Hopefully the extra articles will serve as reward enough to encourage him to persevere through the turns.

He had a great time out today, and was thrilled that the little one (aka. Romeo) stayed home so he got to go out working with me, just by himself!

Thank you to Heather for organizing the seminar, Karen for volunteering her beautiful home and property as a venue, and to Carol for traveling up from Regina to share your wisdom with us newbies!

Update on Gio's Pancreas

I know I haven't updated on this lately, so this is likely as good a time as any.

Gio is doing REALLY well! Seeing how he is now, it is apparent to me that he was ill for quite a while before I really noticed anything. I feel so horrible that I was excusing his condition on his epilepsy meds, thinking it was "normal". Now that he is doing so well, I see that he hasn't been "normal" in a very very long time.

He is due for another phenobarbital level check in about a week, I am also planning on ordering another CBC and chem panel to see how things are progressing there. There was significant improvement last time, things were "nearly" back to normal, so the vet said that it isn't necessary to check it again. But I just want to make sure, what is another $50 for some peace of mind knowing that things are progressing as they should be?

Gio was on the canned yuck diet for about 3 weeks and did horribly on it! Sure, his pancreas issues were improving, but everything else was going down hill. He had developed some reaction so that all the hair on his feet and around his mouth turned pink, his nose was crusted over, eye goobers constantly, orange teeth (yes, orange ... not yellow, but slimey orange), horrible diarrhea and "ass fumes of death". The vets were convinced that the diarrhea was just him adjusting to the canned food, so I decided to switch him to a home prepared pancreatic diet as I had no intentions of keeping him on the canned yuck for any length of time anyways. He has been on a home-made diet of juiced veggies and pulp, egg and/or liver, and cooked white fish for a couple of weeks now. His paw hair is back to white again, nose and eye crusties are gone, diarrhea and flatulence cleared up instantly. Teeth are still orange ... but not quite the radioactive color that they were on the canned food. I'm hoping that I can introduce some food that actually requires chewing in the next couple of months, so that should help the tooth issue significantly.

As for attitude, he is like a fiesty pup again! The switch from potassium bromide to phenobarbital for his seizure control has been a great thing for him. No seizures, so the meds are doing their job so far, and the side effects are much less than they were before. He is rowdy and pestering the hell out of Romeo nearly constantly. He is back to working Rally-O/obedience again (working for a tennis ball reward instead of treats) and performing at the top of his game! Just an overall happy boy again!

Here comes Peter Cotton-Tail ...

I tried to find bunny ears or something fun and "Easter-y" while out and about this morning. But apparently I was a little too ambitious and got to the mall before everything opened at noon. All I could find (and afford) were a little basket and a dozen plastic eggs. The boys had fun with those, though.

Romeo thought it was a great game to pull each egg out of the basket one by one ...

"Look what I found! EGGGEEEE!"

Gio protested when I tried to get him to hold the basket in his mouth.

"Nope. Not gonna do it. No way, no how."

"Oh. You have a cookie! Well, why didn't you say so?"

Please note, that Gio's small picture in the Easter greeting image counts as another reason why Shelties have long noses.

Creek Jumpin'

We took a wander over to the park for a run today after work. It's getting quite sloppy out there with all the snow melting, so the boys found a little "creek" that they had a great time leaping over. Well, "over" may not be completely accurate. I think there were a lot of "almost overs", maybe one or two real "overs". Mostly "splashes".

I think Gio might have cleared this one.

... And he didn't clear this one.

Romeo had a couple good splashes, too.

And this one.

What a handsome old man!

There were some very soggy Shelties after our walk.

Soggy, but happy.