Both Emma and Fergus are really stalling on getting those OB legs....they turn in lovely performances...with one NQ moment...scamps.... This was Longview Kelso at St Helens in August.

Siri

Siri,  Lacewood Bright Star at Kensil has gone to live with Shannalee Michaelsky.....(this is her photograph I've lifted)....hopefully Shannalee will get her CH.   She is Ike's dam.

Emma Herding

FOCUS!

Slowly turning the lens to bring things into focus.... because focus is what I really want. There are so many venues, so many breeds, so many gorgeous puppies within the breeds; it is like a pastry shop and at times I am overwhelmed by desire, dreams, detours...

It occurred to me lately that the people who are achieving what I most want to achieve are doing it one, or at most two, dogs at a time. They are the people who create close, flexible, relationships with their dogs and the evidence is the trail of titles that glitters as they go. They don’t get distracted by the possibilities of every pretty new litter; they are committed to the dogs they have and they don’t have TIME to get distracted.

Yes, I want a CH in front of my dogs’ names...I like the balance of fore and aft, but that is not more important than any of the other titles I want to wear... or can earn with the dogs I have.  Emma has a UCH...and she may never get an AKC CH unless I send her off with a handler...or show 10x as much as I am doing now....

I love the breed ring, but it is the work in the obedience ring and the library and the sheep pen where I feel most challenged and most at home.

Photographs

Photographs. Just thinking about them makes my imagination sparkle...what they are, what they represent, the joy they create. What it is about seeing and having a good photo, esp of a dog you own and love,  that is so exciting? Is it that  freezing a second in their life  allows you to really look at them, gives you  a talisman, kind of, a touchstone, by which to memorize them? And they grow so quickly from youth into old age....having a photo like this one, on the bridge between adult and puppy hood...lets me keep this glance for as long as I need it.
It also allows me to introduce Ike to the world...and the care and focus it holds is emblematic of the love he receives.

It is not so mysterious really. We all want photos of our beloveds. I am thrilled to have these that Linda Crossland took..they are just perfect.

Puppy Love

I’m starting to really fall in love with my puppy. When puppies are little and cute and full of enthusiasms they are easy to love.... but as they grow up and you grow into a relationship together the feelings deepen and no longer is it “puppy love,” but something more singular and striking.

I just had to work through a little blip in my consciousness about him---and about me as a trainer. Last Sunday it came to a head: M and I were walking the shelties and Maudie around dusk, when a lot of people will be out walking dogs if the weather is hospitable. I had Emma and Ike and they kept setting each other off and ratcheting each other up...barking and lunging and generally being obnoxious.

I was running a little low on patience and it made for a miserable time. In my frustration I reverted to the old ways....jerking and admonishing...scruff shaking and growling...and even after I handed Em over to M so I could concentrate on Ike...I got nowhere.

I HATED jerking on my puppy every few steps for a half mile to get his attention in order to have him walk beside me without pulling; by the time we got home I was  extremely agitated,  with the dogs and with myself; I felt absolutely ineffective and reactionary. 

I realized, later, that I needed to walk Ike alone...and TEACH him self-control and attention while keeping myself level and focused.  And so every day for the next week that is what we did.   The two of us went off with some cheese sticks and walked by several situations: recess at the elementary school and the house on the corner where the dogs ambush us from behind a tree

and shout insults through the fence. For example.

And we did great. Ike sat and looked at me when I asked and was brilliant in his ability to focus despite the distractions. 

And in these days we’ve grown tighter. He’s at the door when I go out, clearly expressing his desire to come along. One evening, about a half hour before our usual walk time, he dragged a leash off the rack and brought it to me. He shadows me around the house in that patient devoted way that the boys develop...

I see him more clearly now too: his sense of humor, his sense of drama, his sweetness, his inventive intelligence. He’s lanky and confident and willing...and he is going to be gorgeous...albeit...sigh...oversize. It’s OK though. He’s my puppy.

Dog Car!

Last year when I realized that I could not fit 2 200 size Vari- Kennels side x side into the back of my beloved Forester, I decided that it was time for a new rig. (I love calling it a rig.....even if it doesn’t have that Diesel shudder)

I went shopping. When I go shopping it becomes a second job. I am  an obsessive

 hunter and a gatherer and armed with facts, figures, a tape measure and a car full of empty crates I went from dealer to dealer ---with some joy---loading up the test vehicles and taking notes in an attempt to more fully meet the needs of a traveler whose primary ventures consist of loading up dogs and equipment and heading out to dog shows, dog class, dog events.

I had more information on the cars I looked at then the salesmen. I had diagrams complete with measurements from floor to ceiling at different points of the cargo are and widths from opening to opening.

I looked at A LOT of vehicles: mini vans, micro vans, station wagons, SUVs and I had a good laugh when it turned out that the 2010 Toyota Rav 4...the smallest of Toyota’s SUVs had more usable room for a dog person than the Highlander, the 4Runner, the CRV...even the Honda Element.  It is the boxy cargo area created by the forfeit of a spare tire under the floor that does it.

And then I decided to build a platform into the back of the Rav so that I could stow my crate dolly, grooming table, folding chairs IN the car safely.  Mark and I finally got around to it last week....

Turns out I can fit 2 200s on the platform and ALL the aforementioned junk UNDER the platform where it is neither IN the way nor in danger of becoming a flying object. The only problem is whether or not the height and footing are capable of being vaulted so that the shelties can get INTO their crates. I’m sure we can work that in.

And wooohooo....2 shelties in 2 200VKs, a days worth of show equipment all fit in the cargo area behind the middle seats. !!!

That means that if I fold the seats, I can get 2 paps and another sheltie in. Or a collie and a sheltie. Or a Collie and 2 paps.   Amazing!!! 

Missing Gus

M and I both cried today talking about Gus.  For him the pain goes deep; after spending all that time in doctor’s offices, emergency hospitals, specialists’ exam rooms with Gus and then to have him die in the hospital in the middle of the night of a snow storm with neither of us there is just so heartbreaking.

That day, before M took him in again, the Mucinex had started to clear his breathing for the first time in months. I sat with him on the edge of the bathtub with the hot water blasting steam to help and there was something strangely still about him. Some light had gone out... At the hospital they said they just needed to get his blood glucose up; we should leave him overnight so they could monitor him and at 11:30 that night the phone rang. “Do you want us to continue trying to resuscitate him?” they asked.... How are you supposed to answer that question?

I can still feel what he felt like: the glassy smooth coat, the spring in his legs, his ribs when I held him with one arm. I can see his little ski slope muzzle and the way he hopped around when he got excited.   Exquisite little Gus who always looked so much bigger to me than he was....

He was the most beautiful Papillion I have ever seen.... I think I will always miss him.

A True Path

And then there were....more. I have a new blue merle puppy out of Shannalee's Kohlman

and a Lacewood bitch. I got him from Sylvia and the whole experience was very fruitful. I got to know Sylvia some...including her genetic foot in some steamy modernism...and because I declared the desire for a show dog, I learned a great deal about wickets and prophecy and knuckles and structure and fractions of inches of growth a week. Ikey as we call him him, or Kensil's Supernatural, has been riding over the top of the chart for awhile now; at 22 weeks he is about 14"...I have to measure him again. But I'm not thinking I have a breed dog here....

But there was a moment...first time we met actually...and I was drawn to him. I held him upside down in my arms and he gave me the most intense long look. I liked that.
He and his 2 blue brothers came to live with us for about a month. They were just about 8 weeks when they came and 12 when they went back to Eugene and that very day all of them were claimed. Smokey was the show dog of the 3 but he just didn't touch me...there was no spark there between us. He ended up going to a home where he just may bring a new show person into the fold..so all is good.

Ikey's a cool dog. Not as laid back as Fergus, not as driven as Emma, but he has fortitude and focus and he learns super fast. He likes to carry things around in his mouth which I see as a bonus and his fronts are miraculous.

I've been maddeningly laid up with one thing or another, and back to teaching full time and so I worry about all the time like sand slipping away...but we go to Ellie's weekly. And when I'm well I walk him daily. When he was little I took him and his brothers on lots of outings to shops and big stores so that was a plus.