Plans, Agility & Ike

Wings has a hot date. . .dam to be's sister produced well when bred to a related boy, so I'm looking forward to it. Dam's not of a pedigree I'm too particularly thrilled with, but otoh, ti's not absolutely horrid either. . just worried I'm going to get HUGE. . since I get a stud fee puppy. Robin'll grow them out, which works out for both of us. . .so here's hoping for a decent sized, nice healthy litter and a couple of keen boys for Robin & me.

On that note, I got the nod for the litter of my dreams for Gossip. I am so tickled. It's an outcross for Gossip, but it's a lovely dog, and even tho I'm not keen on part of his pedigree, the rest is yummy. . .I am SOOO EXCITED LOL.

After Gossip's loss of brains last week at our first Agility class, I took a different approach.

1) I stopped and picked up two double cheeseburgers from McD's2) I let Gossip run the pants off of two of her boy friends. She ran so much, I thought she might be useless for agility class. Popped her into the car, and headed off to the agility class.

Tonite was bigger because they had to combine the intermediate and beginners class due to scheduling conflicts. . .there were a total of 8 dogs. Again, we were the oddball breed: two Shep Xs, two toy dogs, one German Shorthaired pointer, one Standard poodle, one weimeraner, and us. Gossip did me proud. . .she did not act up, she behaves, she paid attention to the hand with the hamburger and not the two white fluffy dogs that were barking and zooming. . not at all like last week with the cockerspaniel. . .the GSP was with us last week and she commented on how well behaved Gossip was this week. .i was so tickled. AND she did the weave, it's at the V shape right now, but she did it without me having ot lure her thru, so I was VERY happy

She was soooooo on the hand with the hambuger, she did not see the shep X come out of the tunnel and come barreling at her. I'd been watching this dog all night, as she kept staring at Gossip, and baring her teeth. She wasn't making any noise, and having a Grinnie dog, I was wondering if that's what she was doing. This dog's owner had no control over her, no choke chain, a flimsy lead, the dog was clearly in charge. She went thru the tunnel and came racing towards Gossip, again, baring teeth, I stepped between, treated Gossip and snarled at the dog. .and then made sure the rest of the class that at least half the class was between us and that dog. The GSP owner even mentioned how intent that dog was on Gossip. If it happens again next week, I'm going to stay and talk to the teachers, as this is NOT the learning environment I want. I've BTDT with a dog who had it out for mine, and i was too stressed about that other dog to do my own dog justice.

So, yes, the fairies returned the GOOD Gossip to me LOL

Watching the Ike information just boggles my mind. . why when a hurricane almost as big as Texas is barreling down on you do you stay behind? So many people didn't heed the warnings to run, so glad Secret's owner is not one of those people. I mean, comeon. . it's not like a tornado that can appear above your head and go wham bam thankyou ma'am, they knew it was coming. Pack up those things that are very important to you(animals, kids, the computer and small things, like I couldn't leave Schatzi or Obie's ashes behind) and get the hell out of dodge. Better to leave and have nothing happen,than not to leave and lose everything including you or your families lives. You'd think EVERYONE would've learned from Katrina. I know I have. .if I'm ever in the path of a hurricane that could sink my house, I'll be OUT OF THERE.

Of puppies & things

The wait begins.

I don't breed often, so everytime this event rolls around, I have to pick up my trusty breeding books, dust them off, and refresh my mind. I've whelped 5 litters in 11 yrs, my last one almost 3 yrs ago, things go vague in your mind. LOL. Especially with everything that's going on in life. And since the last litter I cobred (didn't whelp, only litter I wasn't there for) was the breeding from hell with an emergency C-section 5 days before the babies 1st due date, I'm a bit ansy. Thankfully she's in capable hands during the day while I work, but so far all seems to be ok.

She just keeps getting BIGGER.

Started taking her temp this morning, she was not pleased with that at all. I'll take it three times a day, within 24 hrs of it dropping below 99, the babies will be here, helps me plan my day.

And now looking to the future. Dei'll be bred next year, but my attempts to find a girlie for Umbra & Wings is just not going well. . .I was offered a girl I loved as a puppy, love the pedigree of, but her owner took horrid photos of her to send me, so not sure if it's worth the time & effort to get her here, for fear she will be horrid. OTOH, if she's as lovely as her photos were as a 4 month old puppy(and the promise she had at like 7 months), she's exactly what I need.

Decisions, decisions decisions ;P

May just end up freezing Umbra, for future use. . unfortunately Sage is a continent away now lOL

And that's the other issue, breeding Sage again, tho there are two lovely males on that side of the continent that I'd love to use. One related, one unrelated to my stuff. So much I want to do, so little space to do it in ::SIGH:: At least this should make me happy BOo's owner is being uncooperative hunh? LOL

Bad bad dogs & plans

Ever had a week where it felt like your dogs were out to kill you?

It's 5 wks post op for Gossip's toe, so I took her, alone, to the front pasture, knowing she wouldn't run full out, but that she would frolic. She did pretty much that, sticking to my side as I walked, moving occasionally out then cantering back to me. Only full out galloped a handful of times for about 100-200 ft, but I couldn't tell if she was gimpy because of the toe hurting or because of those damn wild roses in the pasture.

So I turned and headed back to the top of the hill, at which she opened up and ran to the gate, and the cantered back to me. Still looking good(and she's muscling up quickly, amazingly). I put on her leash, and we moved over to the agility equipment. The jumps have been taken down for the winter, as has the tunnel, but the dog walk and teeter are her two favs. . she zooms over the dog walk, zooms up the aframe. I tell her stay, go to the other side, and call her down.

Now, she usually comes down, twirls and wags her tail at me, sometimes sitting, this time, she took off.

I've got Asthma, and, humans are not made to go 35+ miles an hour, but I race after her, as she bolts towards the puppy yard where Boris & Peter are barking at her. Now, unlike most of Bonnie's dogs, Gossip thinks fence fighting means race your partner up and down the fence line, and that's what she did, while i watch, heart in my throat, terrified she was goign to tear off down the driveway towards the road, as she loops once, twice, three, four, and that's when I lost track. It felt like forever, but it wasn't long(the walk and this fiasco together was only 30 mins) before she comes trotting towards me, tongue hanging out, going boy, mom that was fun!!

And no limp. .tho today she's slightly off on that foot. . .but it's nothing obvious unless you're really looking for her

Argh, I wanted to kill her.

THEN, Grins.

Now, Grins has been visiting a beautiful older woman this week, but nothing was coming of their tryst, no matter how hard he tried, so they had a visit with a specialist and a turkey baster. His lovely lady lives at the top of the hill where Gossip currently resides, so when I come down that hill, Grins is all agiggle, thinking he's goign to get to visit his girl again. He's a bouncing, and a clacking, and a smiling, and just being a total nitwit. I go in, call him to me, check his teeth(Very little plague at 5.5 yrs old, I wonder if it's because of all that smiling and clacking he does), and then put food 1st in Umbra's bowl, then move over to Grins

As I bend down to put food in it, the idiot dog turns and wacks me, right in the eye, with his damn wagging tail . .

Don't know if you've ever been lashed with hundreds of hair across your eyeball, but it FREAKING HURTS!! OMG!! Does it hurt. sixty minutes later, and my eye is still watering maddly and hurting. . . and did he have the common decency to check on mom, nope, he had his head in the foodbucket, his lady love totally forgotten.

One more month til Touchet's due in season. . .haven't gotten into the excited anticipation yet, so worried that nothing will come out of this attempt. Hate to waste the money, but there's nothing on the East coast that tickles my fancy like this boy does.

OTOH, thinking of fall back plans, I still want a litter by Wings, and I have the possibiilty of leasing a lovely, unrelated, running girl. .. and I could do a dual sire litter, this one would be more expensive, as I'd do surgical and implant one boy in each horn of the girl's uterus to insure puppies from both.

::Sigh:: Wish I was rich and had a huge chunk of land. . so I could do these breedings I want, and not lose these boys.