Change Is Hard

March 19, 2009
by dawnkinster 5 Comments

Different day, different dog

Katie and I went to another fun match last night. It was a spur of the moment decision and we hadn’t practiced at all since last weekend. She was pretty unfocused just walking around waiting for our turn, and she wasn’t much more focused in the ring. I couldn’t get her to heel near me, she got distracted by a mirror along the wall that we walked toward, and off leash she was mostly out of line. She DID hold her sit and down even without me talking to her, though I did have to point at her twice.

The judge said that Katie isn’t ready to be off leash and that I should use a shoelace to get her to heal where she’s supposed to. I agree she doesn’t seem to know where she’s supposed to be. I think I need to start again with the “watch me” healing to get her back in position. Plus Katie sat twice at each halt. This is coming from me correcting her when she doesn’t sit close enough when we stop. Now it appears if she doesn’t get a treat she thinks she’s wrong and she scoots over. SIGH. Wonder how to fix that??

After our run I was talking to another lady. She told me that when you do obedience the dog can’t have any tags on, so I need to get another collar to use for obedience showings. No one ever said that before. And then she poked her finger into Katie’s side and said “and she’s FAT too!” which actually is something I’m beginning to notice, that Katie may be getting overweight with all the treats of training.

So all in all, not that successful a run, though it only cost $5.00 and I learned quite a bit. We have so much work to do! Sometimes it seems overwhelming! But the park near us is open again, the one where we worked every day last summer. So back to work we go!

March 18, 2009
by dawnkinster 4 Comments

Windy walk

Yesterday early evening I took Katie to another metro park for a walk. You might remember that we went out to my favorite park last week and walked while watching ducks and geese and swans. That park is quite a distance from home, so this time we went to a closer park. It’s not as fun to walk in because it’s mostly just fields and woods, and it’s over a mile before you even get into the woods! The first mile is down a BIG hill beside a hilly field. So that means on the way back the last mile will be up a very big hill.

It was very windy at the park during our walk. Katie started out excited and eager to get going.

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We headed down the hill with her sniffing along the edge of the bike path, checking out each blade of grass. So we weren’t moving very fast. Eventually I got her moving, though when I asked her to “heel!” she looked at me like I was nuts. I totally forgot I was carrying chicken in a pouch. That probably would have motivated her!

We stopped at a bench, and thinking of the picture of Josh on the park bench after his grooming appointment I tried to get her to sit on it.

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She didn’t like the bench at all, and this picture was taken just before she leaped off and asked me what the heck I thought I was doing! So we kept walking down the big hill. On our last long walk in the park she walked 3/4 of a mile out and 3/4 of a mile back to the car. So today I figured maybe we’d walk 1 mile out and 1 mile (up the big hill) back to the car. She seemed pretty agreeable to that. But at 9/10 of a mile (they have all the 10th’s marked off on the bike path) she sat down. Period. Wasn’t moving any further. In any direction. Great. We talked about it for awhile. I told her I couldn’t carry her 9/10 of a mile up a big hill. So we rested a bit, then turned around. She kept wanting to continue on the way we had been heading, but I wasn’t going to get us into any more trouble than we were already in. We stopped at every park bench to rest, and she conned me into carrying her for a couple of short spurts.

I took pictures along the way as something to do while we were resting.

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Then with 1/2 a mile to go I remembered the CHICKEN! Oh yea. CHICKEN! I asked her to heel and showed her the chicken and guess what? All of the sudden she was full of energy! She trotted next to me like a perfect dog. Like the dogs I had seen walking with their people the way dogs are supposed to walk! She heeled almost perfectly the whole 1/2 mile back to the car. Even after I stopped giving her treats.

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We got back to the car, she drank a little bit of water and we headed home where she fell asleep for the rest of the evening. I need to carry water and some sort of container with me when we go for walks this long. And remember not to lengthen our walks by too much too fast. Just like any athlete, she can get injured if we do too much too soon. Gotta think of her as my athlete in the family. Certainly isn’t me anymore!

March 15, 2009
by dawnkinster 7 Comments

Fun match was FUN!

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This morning Katie and I went to our first obedience fun match! It was really a 4-H kids dog obedience match, but there was a ring for novice adults and their dogs, so a couple of friends from our last obedience class went with their Shepards, and I went with my Katie. It was less than 5 minutes from home, and it only cost $10, so how could I not go? I took my camera and one of the husbands took a few pictures, but the lighting was terrible, so what I share with you will be grainy. Still, it’s Katie in a ring doing WELL!

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Katie did her heel pretty good… most of the errors were Mom, not dog…though she still doesn’t like to be right next to my leg. She sat instantly each time I halted, without me having to tell her, and she came like lightening on her recall. When I asked her to finish (going around me to sit on my left, which she does just beautifully at home) she walked around behind me but didn’t come sit next to me. Turns out there was something behind me against the wall that she had to investigate! They cleaned that up after our run. LOL! She did great on the sit stay (see picture above where she was distracted but didn’t break her sit!) and even made it all the way to the end of the 3 minute down stay!! That was the longest three minutes of our lives! She shifted a bit and I knew she was thinking about wandering, but she didn’t! GOOD GIRL!. We did two runs, the second off leash, and she did just as good that time too. I am so proud of her!

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One of the friends brought her family which included two little girls, ages 7 and maybe 4 years old. They were instantly in love with Katie; she is so much smaller (and “fluffier!”) than their 8 month old Shepard. Katie isn’t used to kids and initially backed away (once all the way under the chair I was sitting on, I had to tell her “TUNNEL!” to get her to come back out to me!) each time they approached. But by the end of the morning Katie was playing with the older one, and tolerating the younger’s more intense petting. It was really good for her and I’m proud of her for that too.

And even better? There was no food allowed in the ring, so she did all that work without getting a treat! I gave her treats in between runs, and told her what a good dog she was. She snuggled in my lap for awhile, licked my face and seemed to have a good time. But I know she’s exhausted. How do I know that? Cause she’s SLEEPING! Or trying to. The Mom keeps taking pictures of her and that is so distracting to a girl needing her beauty sleep, don’t ya know.

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We’re having a great weekend, sunny, warm…hope you are all well and having good weekends too!

Now we’re off to nap!

March 13, 2009
by dawnkinster 2 Comments

Friday the 13th at the library

library-0081 I spent today at a small rural library. I was the lone staff person there for most of the day, and in some respects I had been nervous about that. But I remembered the first time I worked the reference desk during grad school alone. I found out then that the world did not come to an end if I couldn’t answer something right then. (Check out my blog entries June 1 and June 2, 2007 where I talk about my first solo reference desk experience.) So today I figured that I’d be OK, and I was. In fact it was rather nice spending time in a building built in the 1800’s, with sun shining through the big dusty windows. Between patrons I had the opportunity to read a bit of my own book, something pretty much unheard of in the library world. We are always surrounded by books, but we never have time to read!

So, other than having a predominance (it seemed) of patrons whose last name started with “F” on this Friday, there really wasn’t anything too unusual. I got to see a whole day of library traffic. Early in the day were older patrons, with their stacks of books, some large type, some not, eager to get the latest best sellers, the next in their novel series for the weekend. There were few DVD movies checked out during the morning hours. As the day wore on more and more people stopped in to pick up movies; and as school let out the number of kids arriving increased, most wanting to use the computer and access the internet. The typical ebb and flow of a community library. The reality is that last night’s shift at another branch was much more weird then my experiences today. Last night we entertained ;ots of weird questions, computer printing issues, lost ID’s, new accounts, crazy requests. Must have been the moon.

So all in all, this was a rather nice Friday the 13th. Library work certainly is fun. Wish everyone could enjoy their work as much as I do! The world would be a happier place for sure.

March 12, 2009
by dawnkinster 4 Comments

Katie got a box!

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Katie doesn’t get mail very often and never one with such a nice title! She was very excited while she helped me open her box:

katie-1351 And this is what we found!

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…some really really nice things! Katie is most interested in the BIG doggie treat! Right now she is over in the kitchen staring longingly up at the counter where it reposes…she’ll get some of it tomorrow.

So THANK YOU Reilly! We (Katie and I) really appreciate you going to such work to send us our gift! You really went above and beyond!

March 12, 2009
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

Not spring here yet

So I’m reading about temps in the 80’s, looking at pictures of flowers in bloom, thinking maybe I saw migrating birds back for the summer, really believing that spring is here. Relaxing my guard so to speak. Yesterday it was cold and windy, but Katie still wanted to spend some time outside in her kennel where she could keep watch on her road.

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But today? Well, see for yourself:

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We are no longer going to predict spring here. Every year we are fooled into thinking winter is over, and then winter slaps us up the side of the head again. So we are going to stay inside and PLAY!

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Hope you have warmer weather!

March 9, 2009
by dawnkinster 6 Comments

A dog gone good walk into spring

Today it finally stopped raining, and though we had fresh snow on the ground early this morning, it was gone by early afternoon. By late afternoon it was just above 40 degrees, the sun was out and it felt like the perfect time to get a good walk in. So Katie and I drove to a metro park where I used to train for marathons. There’s a 8.5 mile paved bike path around a beautiful lake there, but I didn’t think we’d walk the whole thing. After all Katie has short legs and hasn’t ever walked that far. And I’d probably hurt myself if we tried.

Of course I forgot the camera, but we had a great time, maybe even a better time because I wasn’t asking Katie to pose. We walked 3/4 of a mile out and back, so a total of 1.5 miles. She moved almost the whole way with her fast little sheltie prance so I got a workout too. Of course she did take quite a few sudden detours to sniff trees and leaves and mud.

We worked on her understanding that we needed to stay on our side of the middle line. She’s a girl just like her Mom, focused on the lake and not always paying attention to other people on the path. She saw swans and sandhill cranes and mallard ducks and Canadian geese. She loved watching the swans running after each other, their huge feet slapping the water. And she loved getting up close to a mallard duck pair that swam near the shore. She did fine with the few bikes and other dogs that went by. At first I was nervous and tried to get her to “HEEL!” and focus on me, but she wasn’t at all interested in the treats I had, too much out there to watch instead. She did notice a few cars and I could tell she was thinking about barking and chasing, but she looked at me and I said “NO!” and that was that.

So all in all this was a good experience; our first longer walk ever, the first field trip since the long winter, a wonderful late afternoon activity. If it’s nice on Wednesday maybe we’ll go back. By the last quarter mile back she wasn’t prancing out at the end of her leash anymore, she was walking more slowly next to me. I thought I wore her out, but tonight I’m the one falling asleep on the sofa. She’s keeping watch out the backdoor for marauding possums or raccoons!

March 7, 2009
by dawnkinster 2 Comments

Paw print!

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Hey guys! Katie and I finally found a pawprint! We looked and looked but couldn’t find anything. Then today I sat down to read my January/February issue (OK, I’m late getting to it I know) of “Public Libraries” and guess what’s on the back cover?

A paw print!

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It’s a book binding company that provides tougher bindings for books that get a lot of use! Wouldn’t you know I’d find a paw print that relates to libraries!

Katie says; “Enough of this reading stuff Mom! Let’s PLAY!”

March 6, 2009
by dawnkinster 4 Comments

Some kind of hope

This morning the temperature was a balmy 51 degrees when Katie and I ventured out. Last Monday morning it was only 7 degrees, so you can understand that we felt a bit giddy today. We ended up over 60 degrees this afternoon!

After I dropped (poor) Katie off at the groomer I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I took my camera, looking for signs of spring, but in reality it was a pretty dismal looking day, gray skies, still some slushy snow in the ditch, a lot of dirt and litter. At my turn around spot I ran across these guys:
trees-801 Notice the one on the right is charging toward me. I don’t think he thought of me as a friend. I backed up and got a shot of him front on…after he spit at me and showed his teeth. Though these guys were very pretty I don’t think they’re the kind of horses you pet and feed apples!

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Then I wandered around the back yard and cut some pussywillow, redbud and forsythia to put in a vase inside. Hopefully soon I’ll have some real proof of spring, blooming on my counter!

I hope spring is truly on the way now.

And Katie came back

from the groomer very pretty. As usual.

March 4, 2009
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

We've got toys…wanna play?

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Following the recent theme of toys…Katie and I thought we’d share some of hers. Well. Not really share; I’m not sure she’d be good at sharing being an only dog. But she has a basket full of toys, all of which she has loved at different times. She mostly loves whatever is the new toy. But some are her favorites all the time. Like Mister Froggy whose yellow belly you see in the basket above. And she’s pretty psyched about her frisbee too. But her all time all the time can’t resist toy is her small tennis ball. If she can find it (it’s frequently under some piece of furniture) she will drop it at the feet of anyone not payng enough attention to her.

Today I didn’t have to work and I have to say that I didn’t get much done around here either. It was sort of a Katie free for all day, mostly playing fetch the ball, fetch the froggy, fetch the doggie…that would be me fetching…not her. If the toy gets flung into a scary place, say under the desk, or under a chair she will plop herself down and look expectantly at you until you give up and just get her the toy. Really I don’t think she needs anymore doggie training, she is smart enough as it is. I took a picture of her with her ball today that reminds me of the picture Sara took of Oreo:

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So I have to go…she wants to play! We’ve already taken a trip to the pet supply store where we practiced heeling with distractions. She did so so. We’ve thrown the ball for what seems like hours. You’d think she’d be tired, but no, right now she’s growling at a possum that is eating birdseed outside her back door. Possum doesn’t seem to be intimidated, so I’ll distract her with a toy. Time to go. As Katie would say, we’ve got to go Go GO GO!!