the sheltiechick blog

52 Weeks of Auggie – 4/52 Oh The Places You’ll Go

We were supposed to get out of the house for this one. The weather sucks here so taking the dog anywhere OUTSIDE was not going to happen.
So I took my dog to work with me.

52 Weeks, Week 04

Here’s the set on Flickr where you can see all of my 52 Weeks photos in one go:
52 Weeks of Auggie
Want to see the shots that ALMOST made it, but didn’t quite? Check these out!
52 Weeks of Auggie – The Rejects


My dog is going to devour me

First he leaned over, all sweet-like and gave my foot a teeny, tiny little lick. He knows I don’t like him to lick my feet but it was like a little kissy-kiss and that was it. No obsessive, slobbery licking. Just a little lick.

Then he leaned over and gave my big toe a NIBBLE.

He’s NEVER done that before. WTF. Just with his front teeth, he went nibble-nibble.

My mom told me this would happen. “If you feed the dog raw meat, how will he know the difference between raw meat and… well… you?”
And I said “If I wake up in the middle of the night and he’s eating my feet, I guess we’ll know it’s a problem.”
He didn’t even wait until I went to sleep! He just plain decided to try eating my foot.

Weird dog.


January 15th & 16th 2011 Trial

Here is video of our runs! Apologies they are not that great, my mom was camerawoman again and until I can train her to record better, this is what we get!

Pretty happy with our runs overall even though we only Q’d 2/4. His times (YPS) were good each run including the NQ runs. Not where I really want them and definitely not as fast as he can be, but it’s a definite improvement over a year ago.

His jumping was terrible in our first run but it started to improve through the next three runs. I can’t say I’m surprised since we haven’t been able to do hardly any practice. I got in a few days worth between finding out we were going to be in the trial and then getting just enough slick snow on the ground that he actually slipped and faceplanted – hard – Monday. Tuesday I took him to the chiropractor and he was out of alignment in his shoulder, elbow, and wrist, which he isn’t usually… and she said even his jaw was a little out of alignment. So no more practice for us after that because there was just enough snow on the ground to make it slick and I wasn’t going to risk him getting hurt. Also no more trials until Louisville in March so hopefully we’ll get enough of a thaw I can work with him and improve his jumping plenty before then.
Also, I don’t own a triple, and I need one. The triple in the standard run Sunday I knew was going to be a problem for him based on the angle AND the fact that the a-frame was right there like “hellooo, come run up me!!” and it turned out to be a problem for both his brother AND his dad too, so I’m not really surprised by that one – but the triple on Saturday shouldn’t really have happened, and if I owned one and we were able to practice with it, I would have had a Q that day. But oh well. I can’t do anything about it now except to build myself a triple and get to work.

I was sort of surprised Sunday when he decided to off-course to the a-frame instead of taking the dog walk. He used to love the a-frame, but we had an issue one time where a judge, wearing clothing that AKC highly recommends they do not wear, was standing RIGHT in his way by the a-frame and he refused it… and then developed buggies with the a-frame and refused it for multiple trials after that. So I was actually kind of glad to see him off-course to it. I know that sounds weird, but it’s the truth. I started laughing and telling him he was so bad, and when I brought him back and he tried to off-course it again I wanted to crack up hysterically. It was just so funny to me. And I know there are people out there who DIE when that stuff happens and get SOOOO mad at their dogs, and there I was going “You are SO bad, you bratface, bad bad bad,” and laughing. I know a lot of people were laughing at me but I’m sure there were people who were horrified that I was so amused by it all.

But the truth of it is that every time he does something like that – or like he did in Glen Carbon where he blew his down contact on the dog walk – I can’t do anything but laugh, because it symbolizes a return to the dog he used to be. As long as he is running with joy, I can’t be angry. We’ve been through too much and worked too hard to get him to start returning to that joyful dog that every sign I get that he is developing into the dog I want him to be, even if it’s “bad,” even if it costs us Q’s, is a reason for ME to be joyful too, ribbons be damned.

And even if it takes us five years to snag the QQ’s we need for a PAX – or even if we never manage it – if I can’t get us there with smiles on our faces and joy in our hearts, then it’s just not worth it.


Black & White Photos… or Photo 101 Deja Vu

These were shot while working on the black & white theme for the 52 Week Project, and most of them weren’t really spectacular or interesting enough to even be in the running for the winning shot, but some came out cute so I thought I’d share…


Chew chew chew leg


I really wanted something cute with that soccer ball involved, but he just wasn’t having it.


I believe this is Auggie’s turtle impression?


More chew legs.


If the focus on this one had been better it might have been in the running for my pick for the week, LOL.


Tired little boy. Agility practice makes for a tired dog, and that makes me happy, except when I’m trying to get some interesting photos and he’s trying to sleep on the job.


I almost wanted to use this one… I just set the camera down and clicked.


The shot I liked but with the focus reversed.


I was trying something new and got a few cute shots, but my light was on the other side of the blanket here so almost NONE of them came out properly focused. This is the only one that come out okay. I got some good shots that weren’t in focus, too. =P


Hello Ladies.

Look at your dog.
Now back to me.
Now back to your dog – now back to me.
Sadly, your dog isn’t me. But if he stopped using minty-flavoured chewies and switched to bully sticks… he could smell like me.

I’m on a horse.

(This is why all the bitches love Auggie.)


52 Weeks of Auggie – 2/52 It’s All Black & White

For this week, we were to shoot in black & white. I don’t shoot much in black & white… and I don’t think I’ve taken ANY black & white shots of Auggie in the entire five years I’ve had him, so this was kind of an interesting challenge. It also took me back to when I was in Photo 101 (though that wasn’t the last time I shot in black & white, it was certainly when I did the MOSt shooting in black & white.)

52 Weeks, Week 02
I took a LOT of shots for this and narrowed them down to just a few, and for some reason I just really liked this one… so this is what I went with. It’s a bit grainy, I over-sharpened it just a bit, but it sort of reminds me of when I’d be in the darkroom and there would be dust on my film or the enlarger and that angry fit you throw when you get all kinds of dust and scratches on your print as a result…

Here’s the set on Flickr where you can see all of my 52 Weeks photos in one go:
52 Weeks of Auggie
Want to see the shots that ALMOST made it, but didn’t quite? Check these out!
52 Weeks of Auggie – The Rejects


Um… uh-oh!

I entered an agility trial, but I sent my entry in pretty late… with the holidays and all, I kept forgetting. I ended up on the wait list, and then the trial closed, but they were keeping a post-closing wait list. I didn’t specifically ask to be on the post-close wait list, so I figured I just didn’t get in and kind of forgot about it.

Well, I just got an e-mail – and we ARE in. OMG. It’s not this coming weekend, but the next one. I don’t even have a hotel booked. I need to find somebody to cover the football game at work if I’m going. OMG OMG OMG. And besides one day last week when we had a really nice warm-up and everything melted and thawed, I haven’t hardly done ANYTHING agility-wise with Auggie.

$&@*%)@%@**@)(@)$@!!!!

(In all seriousness though, I’m EXCITED that we can go trial again. And I asked Auggie if he wanted to “go agility” and he flipped out.)


52 Weeks of Auggie – 1/52 First Is The Worst

For the 52 Week project, week 1, the theme was “first is the worst,” or dogs behaving badly. MY dog? Behaving BADLY? No way.

52 Weeks, Week 01
Getting Auggie to behave naughty was not difficult. The hardest part of this was picking out which of his destroyed toys to take out of the “need to be sewn back together” pile and give to him to let him rip up some more.

I have a set on Flickr where all of these will be hosted if you’d like to just view all the photos in one go:
52 Weeks of Auggie
Want to see the shots that ALMOST made it, but didn’t quite? Check these out!
52 Weeks of Auggie – The Rejects