Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Category Archives: Katie


by 9 Comments

Another tricky t-day snuck up on us!

Katie and I have been working on weaving between my legs.  At first she was scared, all that obedience training caused her to want to stick right next to me on the left.

“Not going through Mom’s legs, no siree!  Pretty sure THAT will get me a big ole “NO!”  Gonna prance right next to her and look beautiful, that’s what usually gets me my treat, no sense deviating from that…hmmm….Mom’s bending over all crooked, and there’s a tasty morsel in her hand, and it’s right over THERE…and so….OK!  MOM!  I’m going to get that treat even if it IS over on the other side of you!”

katie-741

So the book says, practice this for 5 minutes a couple of times a day for two weeks and she should have it.  I can get her to weave in between my legs now without giving her a treat at each weave, just at the end.  I guess that’s progress.  But I haven’t figured out how to weave, reward AND get a picture of us.  So, I hope you guys have a vivid imagination.  OR…just go watch Sara and Oreo’s July 14’t post at http://saralovesdogs.blogspot.com/ !  Then pretend it’s me and Katie!  🙂  I think Sara is doing a wonderful job of teaching her two some great tricks.

Meanwhile…back to our weave practice…

“Wait!”  Katie whines, “It’s almost 2 in the morning, and a sheltie-girl has to get her beauty sleep!  How about we wait till tomorrow to try again?”

Good thinking girl.

katie-332


by 9 Comments

Another tricky-T day!

Katie will, about 80% of the time, “roll over” when asked now.  Even if I’m not right there luring her over!  She only rolls to her right;  going left is not an option at this time!  I figured out how to make my camera shoot some “video” but try as I might I can’t get it loaded into this blog.  So here are a couple still photos.  You’ll have to use your imagination!

katie-1720

Do I have to roll ALL the way over Mom?

katie-1792

Oh, really?  Well OK.

katie-1779

Geeze Mom, if I do all the work, the least you could do is get all of me in the picture!

katie-1780

I still think “Shake” is more fun though.

katie-1786

We’re going to try a new trick for next week…can’t tell you which though…cause we don’t know!

katie-1766


by 4 Comments

When we go to our favorite park

This evening, feeling bad about a trip to northern Michigan that I didn’t get to take today, I decided to compromise with a walk in my favorite park with my girl Katie.   It’s about a 30 minute drive; we arrived early evening.  It was 76 degrees and quite humid.  I carried treats and a water bottle, plus the camera and a doggie bag to pick up any deposits we might leave.  I felt like a bag lady.  Katie was quite impatient with all my preparations.  She was ready to go Go GO!

katie-1728

As it was quite warm we stopped every quarter mile or so for a drink, but mostly she was just doing the “Sheltie prance” right down the bike path.

katie-1733

Of course there was much sniffing along the way.

katie-1762

And of course, lots of times I made her pose for me near beautiful places.

katie-1752

Katie and I had quite a long discussion when we got to the 3/4 mile mark, but she wanted to keep going, so we turned around at the one mile mark.

katie-1738

Which turned out to be a mistake.  We should have turned around at 3/4 of a mile.  Shortly after we started back Katie just stopped walking.  We goofed around for awhile, got a drink, sniffed some stuff, then she trotted off.  We rested each quarter on the way back too.  During one rest two sandhill cranes flew overhead, squawking madly.

trees-1050

It took us more than an hour to walk the two miles.  The sun was going down by the time we got near the car.  Low evening light makes for pretty pictures.

katie-1744

We got to watch a family of geese and a few ducks on the way back too!

Happy girl!

katie-1726


by 8 Comments

puppy pictures

We were sorting out some boxes that have been packed away for a very long time.  In one of the boxes I found the “baby book” of  Bonnie, our previous sheltie who died at 15 years February of 2007.  I can’t resist showing you some pictures of her, and compare them to similar pictures of Katie.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Bonnie, investigating things when she was just a few months old.  Compare it to the picture of Katie, also a few months old and I can hardly tell them apart!

katie-and-bonnie-0022

katie-0232

And here’s the infamous, hang out in the dandelion field photo of each of them:

katie-and-bonnie-0031

katie-1531

And a couple of our favorite winter pictures.  I think Bonnie was just a year old in this photo, Katie is about the same age.

katie-and-bonnie-0041

katie-350

I have been very blessed to have lived with three shelties in my lifetime, the first being Daisy  who came with my husband when we got married.  They have all been a joy!


by 11 Comments

Tricky T-day again already!

Guess what finally arrived at the library yesterday!  The 101 tricks book!  Katie appears to be less than excited, but that’s because she didn’t get to see it until after her bedtime, when I finally arrived home from work.

katie-1719 I haven’t had time to study anything yet, but I have hope!  Meanwhile, last Saturday I took Katie to our local pet store and purchased an inexpensive CLICKER!  It’s really loud.  And worse, Katie HATES HATES HATES the clicker.  I sat on the floor with a bunch of treats and called her.  Clicked when she came to me and attempted to give her a treat.  The clicker caused her to back away, eyes wide.  I tried again.  She backed up further.  Didn’t want anything to do with the clicker OR the treats OR me!  I tried several times, tossing her the treats which she gulped down, but she wouldn’t come near me.  Over the past 3 days we’ve tried a few times, but she still HATES the clicker.  I’m not sure if this is normal and if I should keep trying to get her to come to associate it with treats.

Then I tried the free timing that Ludo explained by putting a large tin in the living room and seeing what she’d do with it.  I didn’t use the clicker, it was scary enough for her to have something in the living room “THAT WASN’T THERE BEFORE MOM!  katie-1716 IT DOESN’T BELONG THERE MOM!  WHAT’S IT DOING IN MY LIVING ROOM MOM?  I DON’T LIKE IT!      NOT AT ALL!  oh…there’s a treat on the top?  Well…maybe…I’ll just take that treat off your hands, you know, just help myself to that tasty morsel… ”  katie-1717 But that’s about all she would do.  She wouldn’t have anything to do with it except to take a treat off the top and stare at it intently.

So far, our tricky t-day isn’t all that tricky is it!  Well, we HAVE been working on “walking the board” in an attempt to get her over her fear of the dogwalk at agility.  Not that we’ve been able to actually GO to agility class, but maybe someday.  So, we practiced that a bit this week.   katie-1695 We played with the frisbee as a treat in between working on our obedience skills, heeling, staying, standing and then running on the board.  She’s almost at the point that I can say “Walk the board!” and she’ll go (almost) on her own and run the board.  She stops though if I’m not running next to her, to make sure that’s what I really meant. katie-1704 She’s not quite ready to just run it herself.  She has, however, on occassion, gone over and walked over the board all by herself without any direction at all from me.  Then she looks at me and grins as if to say, “SEE?  I can do this board thing..where’s my treat?”

Silly girl.

katie-1707


by 6 Comments

To do list

I have a whole day off, no work, no previous commitments.  It’s been awhile so I have a few things I need to get done today.  Here’s the list:

  • Go for a run.  It’s been too long since my last attempt and if you don’t keep up you have to start over …again and again.
  • Make some bread.  I have a cookbook from my library with some great bread receipes in it and a whole new concept about storing unbaked bread dough so that you can bake bread every evening if you wanted fresh for dinner.  The book will be due before I ever get to this unless I put it on “THE LIST.”
  • Wrap a shower gift.  The wedding shower is tomorrow.  I purchased the gift weeks ago but it sits unwrapped.  I need a card too.  Darn.  That means a trip to a store somewhere.  What was I thinking when I got the gift?  That I’d use a marker and just write her (and my) name on the box?
  • Vacuum.  Have dog.  And husband.  Haven’t vacuumed in maybe three weeks.  Enough said.
  • Laundry.  See above.
  • Finish reading “Reliable Wife” by Robert Goolrick.  It’s a very good book and it was due back to the library two days ago. I’m on page 169 of a 290 page book.  Being a librarian means you have no time to read all the good books you see coming and going.  It’s a job hazard.
  • Take the dog to the park.  She’s already whining and it’s just barely 7:00 a.m.  Obviously she hasn’t read “THE LIST” yet.
  • Help husband dig up the roots to a tree he removed so that we can plant something there that doesn’t have suckers that grow up through everything.  I’m hoping it rains because I don’t have time.
  • Weed, especially the vegetable garden.  My little stubby beans are being overrun by non-vegetable matter.
  • Update the resume and write a cover letter for a librarian position that is 59 miles away.  It’s become apparent that I will be on lay off, maybe next week, maybe the end of summer, certainly prior to the end of the fiscal year this fall.  So it’s time to start looking again.  Maybe I should do this first.  Well.  Right after the run.

Katie girl, you better hang on tight, Mama’s going to be moving fast today!

katie-1455


by 5 Comments

Another sweet picture book about a dog

Here’s another picture book that came across my desk this week.  It’s called “Always” and it’s written by Alison McGhee and illustrated by Pascal Lemaitre.  It’s the story of a little dog that is “the keeper of the castle.”  The pup talks about the things he does to keep the castle safe, like taming squirrels, ambushing enemies and “protecting the blanket.”  It’s a sweet book, and would be enjoyed by anyone that has a dog, because that’s exactly what our dogs do.  They protect our castles.

katie-1578


by 8 Comments

Tricky t-day

trees-1039

Katie and I have to apologize to Ludo, the Sheltie from Down Under.  I know I’m supposed to be teaching Katie some tricks, and exhibiting proof of such activities here on Tricky t-day.  But my book still hasn’t arrived from the library (someone else is teaching their dog new tricks and won’t turn the book back in!!) and I find that I am useless at randomly trying to teach her things without knowing what I’m doing.  Plus I can’t figure out how to be the obstacle (as in JUMP KATIE JUMP) as well as the trainer as well as the photographer!  So I still don’t have any tricks to share.  Sigh. I will try to be a better tricky t-day participant.  I really will.

Katie and I DID go to the park this afternoon.  This was the first park visit in a couple weeks, what with me being out of state and then working every day since I’ve been home.  As soon as I got her long leash out she got excited.  When I put on the treat bag she was ecstatic.  So much so that I couldn’t get the rest of her stuff together because she was jumping on me and running in between my legs.  HEY!  That sort of sounds like a trick, jumping on me and running in between my legs.  Does that count?!  LOL!  Anyway, I put her regular leash on her and took her out to put her in the back of the SUV.  Our four door sedan was parked where the  SUV usually is, and she insisted she wanted to get into the truck of that car!  I couldn’t stop laughing, finally just picked her up (the benefits of owning a small dog!) and put her into the back of the SUV where she belonged.  She was SOOOOO excited to be going to the park!

We walked around the whole perimiter of the park, she stopping to sniff or pee about every 10 feet.

katie-1670 katie-1676

It was a beautiful day, mid 70’s, low humidity, big white puffy clouds in the sky.  She’d get antsy with me when I was taking pictures of the clouds.   Come ON Mom!  Geeze!  I could tell she was impatient with me, she kept looking back to see what was taking me so long. katie-1675

Here’s a picture of her that I took as I was jogging up next to her, right as I fell into a hole.  She’s laughing at me.  katie-16781

About halfway around the park we stopped to rest on the observation deck.  Katie found a little bit of shade.  katie-1682

I thought she’d be tired, but once we got back to the parking lot she refused to head to the car.  No!  Not going to get in the car!  Not going to!  Na uh…not me.   katie-1684

Oh.  Did you say it was time for DINNER?!  Well, why didn’t you SAY so?  Let’s go Mom!

katie-1687


by 6 Comments

Definition of a runner…revised

dawn-068I used to be a runner and though I was never very fast I did accomplish most of my running goals, met a lot of great people, had fun (mostly) and didn’t gain (much) weight.  Used to be are the operative words here.  Most of you know I was training for a half marathon last summer and early fall when I sustained a stress fracture to my foot.   I haven’t really run since last October.  It has begun to occur to me that it will soon be October again and if I don’t get moving I’ll have been a nonrunner for a whole year!  So I’ve been going out sporadically, running a mile from my house using the “run a minute, walk a minute” method in an attempt to avoid injury.

The problem is that my one mile “runs” are slower than I used to walk a mile.  This is disheartening.  So much energy expended for so little distance covered in such a slow time.  I know that running is all a mental game, and here I am beating myself up because I can’t immediately do the things I did five years ago when I was in marathon shape.  I know I need to get over what I used to be able to do and just enjoy what I can do now.  For instance here’s what I saw on my one mile run/walk:

  • A doe contentedly munching something along the side of the road. When I rounded the corner in my speedy, silent, efficient way…wait..oh yea, that was how I USED to run… ahem…when I slogged my way around the corner huffing and puffing, feet skidding on the gravel she glanced up and gracefully bounded away into the golden green woods.
  • The two yellow horses at the end of the road, my turn around point, looked up from their feeding to watch me as I sped by.  Bored they went back to their breakfast as soon as I turned around.
  • I stopped (HEY!  It was during one of my WALK breaks, OK?!) to pick a perfect wild black raspberry that had been growing along the side of the road.  After eating it I wondered about the numerous dogs that are walked along this road and whether or not one of them might have…well…I distracted myself by the beginning of the next minute of running.

My mile was, for the first time since I began to run again this summer, 12 seconds faster than my fastest walked mile of years gone by!  HEY!  So OK, I’m not ever going to be speedy, but I never was speedy, and today I was speedier than I was last week.  Accomplishment!

Then I took a 3 minute cool down walk and saw:

  • A little green heron sitting in the dead branches of a big cottonwood tree.  I heard the familiar screeching behind me and saw two more flying.  The one in the tree stretched out his neck to watch the two that were flying.  I wonder if the one in the tree was the youngster of the other two, waiting for dinner.  While I watched the flying ones never attempted to land in the tree, so who knows.
  • The family of Canadian geese, mom and dad and two little ones that are all grown up.  This is the family that so defiantly defended their nest in the neighbor’s driveway last spring.  Guess they made it!
  • A male bluebird swooping low over another neighbor’s yard in a search for tasty bugs, the sun glowing on his back.
  • A little rabbit hopping across the road in front of me.  We haven’t seen many rabbits this year, and we’ve heard a red fox in the backyard at night.  Correlation?
  • The usual jumble of jays, finches, woodpeckers, robins, cardinals all flying around and singing on this fine Sunday morning.

When I got home it was obvious Katie was mad at me by her sulky face when I walked in the door, and by the fact that my pajama bottoms were in the middle of the living room slightly the worse for being chewed on. I’m sure she meant to say “Welcome home Mom!  Good job on getting out there and getting that mile done!”

Of course that’s what she meant.

hat-cropped-and-resized-july-08