Grace learns to weave

At the end of our obedience classes we sometimes learn a "Fun" trick/behavior. Last week it was weaving between legs. Grace got it right away and is doing very well. I am slowing adding more weaving and trying to ween off luring her around. But for only the 3rd time practicing she is doing awesome!

The more I talk with the instructors, the more I think about it, and the more I watch Grace learn, I think Grace would make a good Rally dog. She just really seems to like it. Last week one of my teachers said she would LOVE to see Grace do competition. I told her I've been thinking about it a lot and for now we are just going to keep coming to class and see where we go from there!

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As I work with Riley and Grace, I can see their huge differences in personality! 

With Grace, she is very attentive and quiet. Sitting and staring at me, she waits for me to tell her what to do. Then when she does what I ask, it is in a very polite, lady like way :)

Riley on the other hand, not so much. He is very much my spastic agility dog, very quick and trying to think ahead. Before I even had a chance to tell him what I wanted, he was pulling all the stops LOL! Sit, Down, Spin, Down, etc. Then when he did do the weave it was very AHHHHHHH... Must... finish.....as fast..... as I can! AHHHHH!

Such silly pups.

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On a very different note, today was the first day I saw birds on my bird feeder! We put it out about a week ago and haven't seen anything, nothing, nada, zip. It is a much different story today! From what I've seen so far we've had 15+ House Sparrow, male and female Cardinals, a few Starlings, a Red-winged Blackbird, a couple Brown-headed Crowbirds, and a variety of Doves (Mourning, White-winged, and the Eurasian Collared Dove)! To think I was worried the birds wouldn't be able to find my feeder LOL!

Here are some pictures of some of the birds. (Sorry about the quality, I was taking them through the window blinds and screen.)

The male Cardinal and Sparrows

The Eurasian Collared-Doves

The Dove on the far right is the White-winged Dove

The feeder attracting all these birds!

Some Starlings

The Red-winged Blackbird

Easter weekend!

This past Easter weekend we drove 5 hours to Baton Rouge, LA. It is a trip we have made many times before but there was something different about this trip, it was Grace's first road trip and first time meeting the family!

About to embark on our trip!

When we arrived, everyone was happy to see us and excited to meet Grace. She has made HUGE strides over coming her timidness and made friends with the in-laws and friends very quickly.

Grace feeling comfortable with everyone there was a relief but there was still one big concern I had...... the in-laws yard is not fully fenced. But once again Grace pleasantly surprised me!!! Riley knows the rule, and Grace picked up on it very quickly, dogs are not allowed to go under the carport (which then leads to the driveway). She made no attempt to go down the driveway, even though she knew it was open to the world. She also came to me every time her name was called and I couldn't help but feel very proud! All the hard work training and obedience classes were/still are an amazing thing for her!

Once we were settled in, most of the weekend was spent outside enjoying the gorgeous weather! Which Riley and Grace fully supported 100%!

Riley runs but Grace FLYS!

They LOVED running around and rolling in the grass

ZOOMIES!!!

Relaxing in the shade

Uhh Grace... you got a little grass on your tongue. "I know, I put it there".

Lizard hunting!

"I know he's in here somewhere!"

"I know he's close! I can smell it!!!"

Time for some close-ups!

I was holding on to a cracker to give to them after the pictures, their eyes never left it!

Note the string of drool! LOL

Grace knows where to hang out.

Ah Ha! Caught red handed!

 

Just one of the many birds that visit the birdbath

Pretty Gracie in the evening sun

Now it wouldn't be right if I didn't make the dogs pose in a cute picture! :)

 Riley and Grace were only thinking about the food everyone was eating!

Miss Grace showing off her charm!

Hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter!

♥

Contrary to popular belief...

I have not fallen off the ends of the earth! I am still here! YAY!

It has been some time since I last posted.... about anything....sorry :( But you know how it goes, life just kinda gets going and it takes forever to catch up. Now I feel that things have settled down and I can take a break (for now).

Hummm, lets see, what has been going on around here....

Hubby is in the final stages of his fish tank! This has been a looong process, some of the items can be expensive and time consuming (or at least the way he wants to do it haha). So we've been doing it in stages.

We bought the stand and canopy unfinished because we wanted to stain it the color that we wanted, versus what the store offered (only 3 colors).

Stained! Rocks and sand in place.

Down to the final stages. Plants and stick added.

The tank now has water and is cycling to grow the bacteria the tank needs. Hopefully soon we will have fish!

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Grace had her first small road trip with us :) Hubby likes to go off road biking and compete in races, here and around Houston. The first race of the season was 2 hours away, at a cattle ranch that we have been to a few times with Riley. Grace was pretty overwhelmed at first. We had to go into the heart of the event to register, and the crowd, bikes, weird noises were just about too much for her. But, we had 2 hours until hubby's event, so we went back to the truck and ate lunch and chilled. I think that really helped Grace relax.

Riley was wonderful and I think he was kinda a big brother for Grace. Showing her there nothing to worry about.

 Second time was much better! She was much more relaxed and was able to realize there was POOP! COW POOP! DOG POOP! and who-knows-what POOP! Needless to say she had a blast smelling ALL the different smells and was able to enjoy the trip and help me cheer hubby on :)
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Agility practices have been going great, Riley and I are learning so much! The other people at practice have said that we have progressed a lot since the start and they just love how fun and happy Riley is. His tail is constantly wagging and just wants to have fun. We might not be the fastest, but we are sure having fun out there :)
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In other news, a few weeks ago husband and I went on a ski trip with some friends. One of the most amazing  things we did (besides the skiing) was dog sledding! It was so much fun! We got to meet the dogs, help hook them up, drive the sled, and feed them afterwards. It seemed like chaos at first, all the dog barking, jumping, lunging, but the second we were off... complete silence. It was one of the most peaceful moments of my life. Seeing the dogs be so happy to do what they love, run and pull, was just amazing.

One of the greatest things about this facility was, they are a rescue. They take in unwanted/rejected sled dogs and give them a job there. They don't do any breeding and once a dog decides it doesn't want to pull any more, they try to adopted them out to good homes.

The team lead dogs

Second


Third

Fourth

Here is a short 40 second clip of my 10 minute "shift". I was the first to "drive" the dogs and I was so nervous! Hints why I say "I'm gonna die!" at the beginning of the clip LOL :) But it was AMAZING!



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So over the past few weeks we've been busy, but things are settling down and getting back to normal again :) Just in time for spring!

We are embracing this lovely spring weather with smiles and wagging tails!

 HAPPY SPRING!

Mr. Riley and Miss. Grace!