Well, well, December is upon us! Although here in Houston, it seems like we've only just made it to Fall, I think mother nature forgot about us... because the temperatures are oddly warm/hot. It makes for working outside and all a lot more tolerable, but come on! We are in December and the high today is low 80's and muggy! Sigh...
In spite the warmer weather, I got into the Christmas spirit and got the decorations up and did a Christmas photo shoot with the pups! When they see my camera out, they know what is going on and beg to have their pictures taken! While one is having their picture taken, the other will sit off to the side and wait their turn, but sometimes it is just too tempting to jump in and photo bomb! I didn't get any pictures of their photo bomb attempts though, as soon as I saw Riley/Grace coming in, I stopped what I was doing to fix it.
Today I am just going to post their individual pictures, I have pictures of them together, but I feel like I can get better pictures. So those will be for another day! (And sorry, some of the pictures are a little blurry. I was using my manual focus lens...)
I am a bit irritated. And I don't know quite how to handle it. Every Thursday night we have, what we've dubbed our "game night". Whoever hosts, usually cooks dinner (sometimes we eat-out) and we either play a board/card game or just sit and chat. Us and another couple (sometimes one other couple) get together every Thursday and we switch weeks on who is hosting. Us and couple #1 have been doing this "get together" for years, and always have brought each of our dogs to each others houses, so the dogs got their play date, while we had ours. Couple #2 came into the picture in the past 2 years. The wife, we get along great! The husband... not so much. He is nice enough but when it comes to dogs, he has no insight or consideration.
Couple #2's, husband was in town for work, he was in town after about 4 months since the last time we saw him (they recently moved out of the country, for work) and he was the first to show up to our house. He has never been "nice", "good", "understanding".... whatever you what to call it, of Riley and Grace. I think he thinks of them more as a nuisance, even from day one (yet he loves couple #1's dog). Today was no exception.
When he came in the door, the dogs were of course excited to see a new person in the house, but knowing he wasn't exactly nice to our dogs (particularly Grace), I tried to redirected them, go say "hi", come back to me, say "hi" come back, etc... Well, Grace got exited at first and jumped up, he hit her in the face... "whimper"... I asked him, please do not hit her! (not the first time I've asked this! Even told him how to correct her positively). We walked further into the house (I was in the middle of cooking dinner), Grace got the zoomies and jumped at him again, he smacked her again and I hear a YELP and her slinking towards me... damnit... I didn't know what to do at this point... I called her to me, pepped her up and them sent her and Riley outside to run off the zoomies, which then couple #2 and dog showed up and Riley, Grace and Sadie, went on playing, as happy as can be, yet I was still very, very irritated the rest of the evening.
I just don't know what to do. I have told him numerous times, to not hit or interfere with my dogs. (he yells at them for wrestling). So, I try my best to keep Riley and Grace calm at the door or nonchalantly away from him, when he is over. Tonight, I was unprepared... sorry Grace :(
A couple weeks ago, Red came to spend the weekend with us. It is always a full house when he comes over, which Riley and Grace enjoy.
When ever Red comes to visit, I try to get a group picture of them. I wanted something different then the usual "everyone sit and look over here!" So while outside playing with the pups, I looked over at the swing and it got me thinking, could I get all 3 dogs on the swing for a picture? Riley and Grace get on the swing all the time when we sit outside, so I knew it was no problem for them. Red on the other hand had never been on a swing, so I had to take it a little slow. I asked him to get on and off, all while giving him treats for getting on. After a few reps, I was able to get all 3 dogs on the swing, although it took some convincing to have them stay on or lay down, while I backed up to take the pictures. They all did an awesome job and I got some really cute group shots!
Step 1, getting all 3 dogs to sit and stay on the swing.
Step 2, trying to get all 3 lay down
Riley: SQUIRREL! Grace: "Amateurs, I am a pro at this". Red: Class clown.
Ugh, I am such a bad doggie mom! I forgot Riley's Gotcha day! November 3rd, 4 YEARS ago we adopted Riley. Gosh, it does not seem that long ago! He is our first dog as adults and as a couple. He was there through our engagement (was a must in our photos!), through our apartments moves and our wedding. Riley is the dog that got me started in the world of dog sports and
activities! He is my first agility dog and we have learned the ropes of
this wonderful game together.
The day we adopted Riley!
So, today we celebrated a belated Gotcha day for Riley. I got new toys, antlers and bully sticks for both dogs, cuz Grace needed to celebrate too! But, I got squeaky tennis balls just for Riley, they are his favorite toy in the world!
Here is to many more years together! We love you Riley!
Red spent the weekend with us, and now I have some tired pups for a little while! My new header is just a sneak peak of the little photo shoot we had :) More pictures of the weekend to come.
We did it and survived! Our first agility show was a blast! And not only did Riley and I have a ton of fun, we even earned some Q's! Going into the show, my only real expectation was to not have Riley run zoomies around the course. Which at some points I could tell he was fighting them off!
Day 1 was nerve wracking and COLD! Which didn't help with my shivering! I got there in plenty of time and got Riley measured, then my friends talked me through some of the finer points. The first course of the day for me was, Novice A JWW. I walked through the course over and over, and was having trouble figuring out how to get to the weaves, which was a really tight right turn. I got my game plan and went to get Riley and in literally no time I was up, my knees were shaking (and not from the cold) and I walked to the start line.
I decided to do a big lead out, as I had planned to do a front-cross at jump 3, but I was nervous and you can see in the video, I all of a sudden go, "oh yea! move!". The first sequence was good, but then Riley caught a whiff of Daddy in the stands and decided to go say hi! I called him back and had a good second sequence, then came the weaves. We tried our 3 times and just couldn't get it, so the judges called for us to move on. The 3rd sequence was awesome (you can kinda see him fighting the zoomies here). We NQ'ed but I was so stinking happy! We ran our first course and didn't look like idiots!
Our second run of the day was Standards, and I felt much better, I wasn't as nervous and had the first run jitters out of the way. My only hope here was that he would hit his contact and again, not run out of the ring. And just in case Riley decided to say hi to Dad again, I had hubby video from the elevated booth above the arena. Riley did AWESOME, he even got the weaves! We had a few little blips, but we earned our first Q and even a first place!!!!
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Day 2 was so much better! Riley and I both figured out what we were doing and both were a lot more confident! Again, our first run of the day was JWW, and wasn't as nervous as the previous day, but still nervous. When they started I was suppose to be dog #7, but there were a few absent and a couple who were late. There was one 24" dog and then they called me to the line since I was there! Yikes! I got Riley lined up and waited for the jump height to be change, and off we went! We had a couple refusals, Riley doesn't seem to like/understand rear-crosses yet, so I got some spins, but other then that we had a wonderful run! With our first JWW Q and a 1st place!!!
Next was Novice STD. Over the course of the weekend, with each run, Riley was more and more focused and that was no different for this course. This was our best run of the weekend, earning us our 2nd STD Q and another 1st place!
This weekend, Riley and I earned 3 Q's and three 1st places! We had so much fun and learned a lot! Thank you, to all of you who gave me words of encouragement and support!
Our first trial was a blast and I could not have asked for more from my
awesome dog, Riley! I am so proud of him! I can't wait for the next trial!
End of day 1 after earning his first STD Q and 1st place!
Riley earned 2 Novice STD Q's and a Novice JWW Q!
Also, in earning our first Q, we earned our club crate sign and shirt!
Okay guys, this Saturday and Sunday can way too quick! Ready or not, this weekend is Riley's agility debut, and I am so nervous! I thought I had my nerves under control, but the more I think about it, the more I think," Oh shit! We are really doing this!". I know the nerves never really go away, but still.... I don't like them. I think the only thing really keeping me from going into total panic mode, is the fact that I will have my husband and my whole group of agility friends there to help me.
I signed up for Novice Standard and Novice JWW both days, and I am pretty confident in our ability to run the courses, IF I can keep him focused, if I got, that then I think we may have something. I am not expecting to Q, but if we do, awesome, all I am hoping for is a somewhat collected run. I am going to make sure I get there plenty early, so I have time to set up, get Riley measured and most importantly, calm down.
Besides being busy with worrying about our first trial, work, and life, the other reason I haven't posted in a little while is because, we bought a NEW CAR! Well, certified pre-owned, but basically a new spankin car! Now I have a proper dog car! I LOVE it! And we got it just in time for our first trial. Going from my little Corrolla to the Pilot takes some getting use to, I just have to remember I now have a bigger kuboos, although the back-up camera helps a lot!
This will most likely be my last post until after the weekend, and come next week I should have a few pictures and videos to share! So until then I leave you with some cheesy, posed, fall pictures of Riley and Grace.
It seems that Fall may be upon us here in Texas, the temperatures have been around the mid 70's, upper 60's for a few days now and look to be here to stay... for now. Knowing me, I probably just jinked it and it will be back in the 90s tomorrow. For now, we are loving this cooler weather, I have the doors and windows open and the pups are enjoying sun bathing.
As much as I like living in the Southern US, I can't help but envy the people of the other blogs I follow, that are well into their Fall or even have hints of Winter knocking at the door. I miss having seasons, I miss the changing of the leaves and even snow. Yes, I said it, I miss snow! Now I know some of you more northern bloggers may be saying "Here! Take some! Take it all!" and wouldn't mind if it snowed now and again here in Houston. Although, I don't think most of Houston would agree with me there! I just sometimes feel, that when it gets cold enough, there should be some snow. At least it would give a good reason for it being so wet and cold sometimes!
So, until winter hits here and I wait for that elusive snow, we will enjoy the nice Fall weather we have. Since, if this year follows the years past, Fall will not stick around for ever long, just long enough to tease us and then off it goes. I can only hope that the temperatures will stick around, at least until Riley and my first agility trial! Our debut is in about 3 weeks! October 27th and 28th!
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