2013 Giftings and Stockings
Finally got around to going through all of these to throw out the blurry ones and edit the good ones. I realize it’s over a week late. OH WELL
We started with Georgie’s present from me.
I found this skirt at TJMaxx and thought it was too funny not to buy for her. Sorry Georgie!
I also bought a tug-a-jug for her since she doesn’t have one. Meanwhile Auggie is like “oh are we doing presents?”
When I was editing these I was like “What the heck is that??” I forgot what I gave her already. And it was just over a week ago. AND we were all playing with this toy last night…
It’s a banana and inside there are three little monkeys for her to dig out.
And a big bag of PB Zukes so she can learn how to suck less at agilities.
Auggie gets to go next except he’s already trying to go to bed. (BTW, that’s the ASSA 2012 Handbook sitting there. That’s my mom’s copy. In the book is a special dedication to Auggie’s grandpa… and also, Auggie himself. Also lots and lots and lots of relatives to all of my guys.)
Auggie’s bag of goodies!
This year I wrapped their toys for them.
I had to get him started but he was fine to rip it after this. Except then he neglected to see the toy inside and just kept trying to play with the wrapping paper…
It’s a new puppy!! Auggie has this big green puppy in his crate that he LOVES to snuggle and play with (and I HATE to play with) so I bought him this, a smaller blue puppy. This will work for fetch soooo much better.
Auggie likes his new puppy.
Yes, yes indeed. Auggie Approved.
Pepper next! She was willing to look in the bag after she watched Georgie open hers, and also, there are bags of treats in there…
Trying to get her to rip her present. Wasn’t working LOL. It was a victory just to get her to stick her head in the bag!!
Oooooh what’s that?!
It’s a bunny! A little pink bunny, just like I call my Pepper, LOL.
She likes it. <3
Payton’s turn.
He didn’t realize he needed to take the paper off and was going to just take this as his gift.
Oh it’s a football. Don’t care, bitches in season.
Meanwhile there’s also a bag with presents for all three, and Pepper is the only one who cares.
Once Payton realized there was a new stuffed sheep, suddenly he was interested.
There’s also this – it’s the sheep pen toy with three little sheep inside to dig out.
Pepper actually kinda likes this game.
There’s also this plastic vulture thing my grandma bought them.
Next, my sister’s present for them. I realize most of you probably won’t get this. For those who do get it, I apologize for your having The Water Buffalo Song stuck in your head for approximately the next three weeks, because it’s been stuck in MY head ever since Christmas Eve and I don’t think it’s going anywhere soon.
“This smells like Henri. Maybe I should pee on it.”
It’s a water buffalo!!
Auggie also got a water buffalo.
Georgie’s like “Where’s MY water buffalo? Why don’t *I* have a water buffalo?” (Again I am so sorry for those who don’t get it. And probably also those who do.)
Pepper also got a water buffalo, she got a dark brown one like Henri has in his photo since she’s my dark girl. That’s racist.
My grandma also bought them a new Wubba. Auggie wants the water buffalo and only the water buffalo.
Next, stockings on Christmas Day. Or Christmas Afternoon. It was like 1pm when we finally opened stockings because my dad was still sleeping and I was like ALL THE POKEMANS
Auggie got a new harness, I’m hoping to use this on restrained sends with him. Payton is like “For me??”
Auggie isn’t really excited about this.
Payton next!
“I don’t really care about that football, I just want the bully stick I know you have please.”
Pepper is getting the hang of this whole “stick your head in something and magic happy funtimes happen next” shtick.
This might be her first ever bully stick, I’m not sure.
She wanted NOTHING to do with the toy I put in there for her, so I unwrapped it for her. =P
Payton meanwhile had his bully stick, and Auggie was on the couch with his. And all was calm, all was bright.
Georgie’s stocking next. Unfortunately she was bleeding and had to wear her panties for this. Humiliating.
She could smell the bully stick in there and didn’t care that much about the elephant toy.
SUCCESS. I think my mom was a little offended she cared zilch for the elephant toy and only wanted the bully stick.
Finally, for those who didn’t get a copy of my Christmas card this year, this was the front:
And on the back, I wanted to do a “Christmas letter” –
And that is that. Happy Christmas belatedly to everybody.
Christmas Eve Photoshoot
First I took the dogs over to my house to get photos in front of my Christmas tree. Yes I put up my tree this year and wrapped my presents there and put them under the tree even though I’m not living there. You can’t even tell in these photos that I don’t have any baseboards.
Auggie first!
Most wonderful Auggie in the world.
I seriously will never love any dog as much as I love this one. He’s just perfection.
P next!
Very serious P.
Looking at these photos, I’m reminded of how much he REALLY looks like Auggie’s dad (and Auggie’s brother/Georgie’s dad.) As he got older he started to look less like them, but some of these photos make me go wow, he really does still look like him.
Happy P!
Back to serious P. Can’t be happy while lying down.
Pepper was wagging her tail the whole time so her tail is just a blur…
Such a happy little Pepper!
I’m sure nobody sees it but me, but she’s blowing coat because she’s about to go in season, and there are two little white tufties on her legs that I didn’t see until the photos were done… AUGH
Family photo!
The whole fam back at my parent’s house! (I brought all my presents home since we’re leaving from here to my grandma’s.) Payton is having a terrible Christmas because two bitches are in season and he can’t hump either of them.
Now everybody is having a great Christmas except Georgie. Georgie hates Christmas.
Nice family photo!
Georgie in a box!
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Auggie in the box.
“Oh. I am in a box.”
Seriously he is so good. He was just like “okay, this is what we’re doing, I’ll hang out here.”
He was going to just stay in there. Doesn’t care. I’ll take a nap. Best. Auggie. Ever.
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Payton in the box.
My mom was like “he’s not going to fit…” “Oh yes he will,” I said. “My puppy fits into spaces that seem entirely too small for him. He’ll fit.”
He just seems like he’s disembodied, that’s all.
But oh God he is SO cute.
First you take a box. Then you cut a hole in the box.
Then you put your Pepper in the box.
Pepper is not nearly as good at this stuff as the boys are LOL. We couldn’t get her to stay put and let us sit the top on her. She’s still cute!
Georgie solo photos.
Cute girly <3
She just won’t stay sitting so all of hers are laying down.
That’s it! Presents tonight and stockings tomorrow so more photos coming soon!
Snow Storm Shelties + Arf on the Shelf Outtakes
Runnin’!
Payton says “RUNNING’S MY FAVOURITE”
Georgie: “Oh God it’s coming!”
Peppydrizzle was out wagging her tail all over the place.
The best way to navigate the snow is to hop, really.
Payton was having trouble running… not just because it was deep but because Georgie was pulling on his tail the entire time.
NOM PAYTON
Payton is just like DERP DERP and Georgie is all BANZAI
Mr. Auggie <3
Then the snowballs started.
PAYTON
I hit her with a snowball and she was like “WHAT WAS THAT.” Sorry.
This one’s my favourite.
He also likes the snowballs <3
Georgie really wants a snowball too and also she is freezing.
Yay!
Baby dog’s tongue is INSIDE his nose. Nice, P.
SNOWBALL
This is an accurate representation of Georgie.
Pepper likes snowballs also please!
More snowballs until Georgie was visibly shivering so we all went back inside…
I really love that Pepper got into it this year. I’m so excited when she does anything other than look sad and like I beat her.
Also while out there I decided to take my Arf on the Shelf photo. I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do but Auggie had a few ideas.
First he looks quite pretty.
And then.
“Auggie no!!”
“Auggie stop! Don’t eat it!”
I was trying to tell him “no, stop!” and yet it was hysterical and I kept snapping photos at the same time. Poor Francisco.
End! We can’t go anywhere at all until the plows clear us out… who knows when that will be. Yay.
Auggie Is Eight
Mom asked if he could show her on his paws “how many” he was.
“I’m this many if you count my nubby toes!”
The very bestest boy.
I told him I’d blow out the candle for him… and asked him if he wished all the other dogs would go away.
]
NOM CAKE
All the party people!!
Pepper got cake second since she is the second oldest. Pepper LIKES cake.
“I think birthdays are my new favorite.”
Payton isn’t sure about the hat.
But he IS sure about the cupcake.
“Oh I do like birthday.”
Georgie was rotten and almost lost her turn for cake. She just could NOT keep her feet on the floor. I have a blurry photo of Auggie eating cake and there’s a blurry Georgie jumping up and down vertically in the background…
One day I’m going to video her eating cake so you can HEAR what accompanies this.
This basketball toy pleases the Auggie.
Best Auggie ever.
Every year I try to do a whole “what does Auggie mean to me?” thing and there are no words for it. Words alone do not express what he means. I am thrilled to have him in my life and to have spent the last eight years with him, even if they often contained tears, frustration, and heartbreak. I would never trade Auggie for anything. And even though Payton is technically a better agility dog than Auggie, if I could only have one dog over and over for the rest of my life, it would be Auggie.
Happy birthday my little old man.
And many more.
Springfield Agility Wrap-up
Agility in Springfield started out good, got weird, got better, then got worse… then got mostly better, then ended on a good note.
To start, we arrived Friday morning and got set up. Georgie ran in jumpers and snagged that last Q she needed to get her NAJ title. Yay little girly!! What a great way to start the weekend. We decided not to move her up for the rest of the weekend, mostly because she doesn’t have 12 weave poles. I debated moving her up and letting her see some tricky Open courses but not even attempting the weaves, but we decided it was more important to let her see some more Novice courses and just gain more confidence.
Next up was open jumpers. I pulled Payton out of his crate before his run… and promptly freaked out a bit because his face looked SUPER puffy. I asked my CVT friend to look at it and she agreed he was puffy, and thought he had some kind of lumpy nodule on the right side of his muzzle. After some quick discussion, I popped him a Benadryl. The puffiness went down pretty quickly, and he was in a good mood and playing, so I ran him and he seemed happy and fine. After about a half hour, the puffiness went down, and by his standard runs later he was back to normal. We thought maybe just sinuses from environmental allergies? Though I thought there was a possibility that there was a spider in his crate (I had just picked them up from my house Thursday night and loaded them into the car, and they were in my garage where they are definitely spiders.) and maybe a spider bit him.
Georgie then picked up her first ever standard Q, getting her first ever “double-Q,” so it was a good day for Georgie. Payton NQ’d both his runs, but I cut him some slack since his face was all puffy that morning.
That evening we had the great Hotel Tire Building and practiced the tire in the hotel room, and I felt better for what the next day held.
At 2AM Saturday morning, Payton woke me up by jumping in the bed and pressing himself against me, obviously upset. He kept shaking his head and was holding one ear off to the side – his right ear was bothering him. By 2:30AM, I didn’t know what do; he wasn’t settling down while holding him, stroking him, trying to physically prevent him from shaking his head. By that point, his fussing woke up my mom, so I turned the lights on and started trying to come up with another idea. I tried trimming the hair around his ear in case it was bothering him – nope. I tried cleaning it out with a cotton ball, and didn’t see anything gross in there… but when I really looked down inside the ear canal, I could see spots of blood. That’s never a good sign. So I pulled out the phone book to try and find the local emergency vet. I called and asked their advice, giving them the history with what happened with his puffy face, and they guessed possibly still allergies and recommended more Benadryl. I was of course happy to try it and avoid an emergency vet visit, so I gave him another Benadryl and tucked him into bed with me to hold him and see if he would calm down.
For a few minutes around 3:15 or so, it seemed like he was going to settle down… then he started panting again and shaking his head non-stop. At 3:30 it had been a half hour since the Benadryl and he was still pretty clearly in distress, so I put my clothes on and drove to the e-vet.
They had to sedate him to look down in his ear canal to make sure there wasn’t any kind of debris in there; there was nothing there, but she thought there might have been a small tear on his eardrum. So we were sent off with some ABX and some pain killers/mild sedative, and there’s really nothing else we can do except wait for him to get better. She said to have my regular vet re-check him in a week. We returned to the hotel at 4:30 in the morning and he was still quite drowsy from the sedative, so I tucked him into a crate and he slept for most of the night without further issue.
Saturday he seemed okay in the morning, but about mid-afternoon he was getting fidgety again. I gave him some Rescue Remedy and Traumeel and that seemed to help for a bit and got us through the afternoon. During his runs, he ran with as much joie de vivre as he always has and seemed quite pleased with himself – possibly the excitement made for a nice distraction – so I decided to run him instead of pulling. No Q’s, but I hardly expected a lot from him. Georgie ran as well but got no Q’s on Saturday either. He started fidgeting more in the evening, but I pushed it until 9pm to give him his meds again, hoping the mild sedative pill would help him sleep again. He was clearly in a foul mood, pouting in the crate the entire evening. I was exhausted, not having slept much myself the night before, and hated that he wasn’t feeling well and I couldn’t do anything to help him feel better, and it was COLD AS BALLS at the trial and I hate the cold, and I just really wanted to go home. But I’d already paid for my hotel and my runs, so I deemed to tough it out.
Sunday morning, Georgie started the morning with a nice run in novice jumpers, picking up an extra Q. Payton had a fair run in open jumpers but acted like he had no clue what weave poles were, and also shook his head a few times during his run, so I was kind of upset. Since it was quite cool out, I packed up and decided to work out of the car for our last runs so I would be ready to just put the dogs back in the car after their standard runs and go home. I took everybody on a nice long walk around the fairgrounds because there were hours to go between runs. Georgie’s standard run was first and she proved three days might just be too much for her. Payton’s run was next (with one dog between us, yay for Novice) and we had a bobble at the tunnel with Payton deciding the far (wrong) side of the tunnel was the preferred side, but instead of just bagging the run I stuck it out and got him in the right side of the tunnel. He stuck his contacts the best he had done all weekend, decided the table wasn’t worth getting up on right away, but ran the rest of the course pretty nicely.
I left the ring thinking the tunnel had done us in, but a competitor I know was outside the ring and said “No, I’m pretty sure that was a Q.” So instead of putting the dogs in the car and driving off annoyed and ribbon-less, I stuck around to wait and see…
And sure enough, there it was. Payton got the last Novice Standard Q he needed to secure his NA title.
Hurray!!! We aren’t entered in any more trials and probably won’t do anything until next spring, so it was nice to wrap up the season by finally cleaning up that novice title. Payton is officially out of Novice!
Both dogs have MASSIVE homework lists for this winter and so much to do. I also have the tiny matter of a half-marathon in April to prepare for, training for which has taken a backseat to working Payton. Now I will hopefully be able to strike a better balance and get both things done, and by the time we get back at it in the spring, things will be cleaner, faster, and much much better!
I haven’t edited videos yet because I am still exhausted, but glad to have picked up two titles this weekend. Payton is also feeling much, much better now, shaking his head far less, playing and throwing toys at me, and happy to curl up on the floor and get his belly rubbed instead of sulking in a crate. Georgie, however, is rather mad because I won’t let her jump on Payton’s head and chew his ears. Poor poor Georgie.
This Is What Happens At Trials
Payton went under the tire today in his standard run – twice. He did this once in Indy too, but at least that time I got him back and he actually jumped the tire. Today he was like NOPE NOT GOING THROUGH IT MUST GO UNDER NOPE NOPE.
On our way to get dinner, we pulled in and I discovered we were next to a Menards Hardware Store.
So what is happening right now? I bought a ten foot piece of irrigation tubing, scissors, and a roll of yellow duct tape, and I made a tire, and we’re practicing it in the hotel room.
I sent a photo to our trainer and she texted me back “Ha! You’re drunk and you made your own tire!”
And I said THAT IS PRECISELY WHAT IS HAPPENING because I’m totally drinking.
The tubing fit in the trunk of my car. I had to get it up and into the hotel room. I went down to get it out of the trunk and OF COURSE there was somebody sitting in their car idling when I went down there. And I’m like “Ahhhhh no, go away, I don’t want anybody to see this because it’s going to look crazy and ridiculous! Go away!” I fiddled around in the trunk for a little bit and they STILL were sitting there. Okay. Look. I know I’m crazy. But I don’t care. So I pulled the ten feet of irrigation tubing out of the trunk of my car and walked right past this person sitting in their car and took it up the stairs of the Red Roof Inn and into my hotel room.
Yep. DEAL WITH IT.
Indy Trial Wrap-up
Well, Friday night brought on some excitement. I fell while bringing some things in from the car to our hotel room and twisted my ankle. Saturday morning I made an emergency run to Wal-Mart and bought some athletic tape to wrap it up because it still hurt, even though I slept with a pillow under my foot to keep it elevated. Even better – as I was packing up to leave the hotel and MAKE the emergency Wal-Mart run, I realized I was having a migraine aura. Awesome!! I took a migraine med and then a fistful of Ibuprofen, and happily, within about an hour, I was feeling back to normal (minus my sore ankle.) I had to wonder if it’s a GOOD thing or a BAD thing that I know how to wrap my ankle. Yay me for being a distance runner!
So Saturday was… interesting. Very interesting.
Georgie would have her NAJ after this weekend except I was stupid and sent her over a wrong jump. The ending of her course was the same as Payton’s for open jumpers, except in Payton’s course you took THIS jump then that, that, that one… and in her course you just did that, that, and that jump. Well, I sent her over the THIS jump. Bad bad handler ripped Georgie out of a Q and what would have otherwise been her title, because she got another jumpers Q on Sunday.
P came home from all three days with no ribbons and a handful of rotten performances, some for reasons that are just due to inexperienced baby dog, and some due to… I don’t really know what reasons. I wish I was able to point more clearly at what was going on (or what wasn’t going on.) The real plus I came away with for P this weekend: he ran his open jumpers course on Sunday at 5.91 YPS, and that speed is brought down by having to redo his weave entry (all that work on weave pole performance this past couple of weeks, and only ONE TIME did he get his entry the first time – and it was after he already NQ’d his run so OF COURSE) and a second spinning refusal later. Holy crap. I knew it felt really fast, but I didn’t realize until I looked at the times exactly how fast. SCT was 43 sec, his time was 23 sec. The closest time after that was a small border collie at 31 sec. If Payton had run clean and smooth he would have smoked the course under 20 sec.
So just a, um, minor problem of learning how to control the wild man. I’m hoping time and experience will shape things up. Some lady walked past us as I was taking P out to potty and she said “Oh, there’s that wild dog!!” Yeeeeep, that he is. That he is. Sunday on the drive home I announced I want a shirt that says PAYTON SUCKS. And I just saw that AKC is considering rules that will allow people to wear clothing with their dog’s name on it. PERFECT.
Editing the videos together was a little disheartening because they look worse to me than they felt at the time, but I’m probably just being far too critical of two baby dogs.
Georgie completely refused to do the chute this weekend:
And then there’s Payton…
Indy Trial, Day 1
Georgie got her first Q today! She took 1st and Q’d in JWW.
Payton bit on some kind of wonky angle in open jumpers and ran around a jump, we’re not sure what was going on but a lot of dogs even in excellent (the sequence of jumps was the same) were running out. Also missed his weave entry because there’s a huuuuuge fan spinning at this place and it basically causes strobes on the floor, so he came out of the tunnel into the strobes and had to go straight into the weaves – no go. Nailed them the second time though. Darn refusals!
Standard was a mess, it had been a long day and neither dog wanted to do the weave poles with the off course a-frame staring them in the face. Georgie was a bit of an off-course mess (still did really great for a baby dog!) but she stayed on her teeter today!
Ughhhhhh I just really wanted P to get his last standard Q, because I literally ran Payton, ran upstairs to put him back in his crate, grabbed Georgie, went downstairs, shoveled five pieces of hot dog in her mouth, then ran Georgie. I wanted him out of Novice so I don’t have two in the same class anymore! We’ll get it eventually. (BUT I WANT IT NOOOOOOW.)
Payton’s Second Agility Trial
The weather for Payton’s second agility trial, and first ever outdoor trial, was surprisingly beautiful, even a bit hot on Sunday (and I came home with a pretty serious sunburn on my neck, backs of my ears, and arms – yeouch!) It broke the pattern, or “curse,” of the local agility trial, which traditionally calls for sub-50 degree temperatures, high winds, and rain if you’re really lucky! We were all quite delighted and I will accept my sunburn as penance for forgetting to grab my bottle of sunscreen.
Here’s the video of Payton’s runs:
Saturday Payton got his NAJ title. He also got his very first Novice Standard leg. I was pretty stunned, because going into the trial I expected a bit of a disaster for being outside. Once again the rules included “don’t pee on anything.” Happily, he peed on nothing! And came home with his first “Double Q” (which of course truly means nothing sub-Masters.)
His Open Jumpers on Sunday run looks more like the Payton I am used to! THAT is my baby dog. The dog who’s running around in all these other runs and picking up Qs and blue ribbons and stuff, I dunno who that is. Poor guy got popped in the face by a weave pole in jumpers and was quite startled, but I was very proud that I just pulled him back to start over and he got it done instead of staying offended. His collection obviously needs more work so he doesn’t barrel into the weave poles and pop himself in the face anymore…
His standard run was great and he came home with another first place and a second leg towards his NA!
Overall, I am very pleased with Payton. He needs more control, but that is something I’ve been noticing as we practice – as he’s gotten more and more confident in various obstacles and sequences he’s gotten faster and the control is slipping a bit. Self-control has been a constant with Payton since I brought him home and will likely be a challenge his entire life. Luckily, I am up for the challenge. I have a whole host of things to work on with him this fall and winter, and hopefully he will be a really great dog come spring (and hopefully I’ll suddenly come into money so I can trial him more often.) After Saturday, he was getting a small fan club. My heart was glowing with how many people thought he looked good, was coming along really great, and had very complimentary things to say about the baby dog. We are all very proud of him and excited for his future!
Broad Jump Lumber Emergency
So 10PM the night before our second ever agility trial, and the first time Payton was entered in Standard, I remembered I had never actually TAUGHT Payton the broad jump.
Had he seen it? Yes. He’s taken it a few times even. And also walked across it a couple times. And never really, actually TAUGHT how to do it.
Uh-oh.
For those who don’t know, the broad jump is required in Novice Standard. So it was GOING to happen. Determined not to let a stupid broad stand in the way of my dog and our success together, I ransacked the house trying to find a suitable replacement for a broad jump, simultaneously swearing that Home Depot used to be a 24-hour store and why isn’t it anymore and don’t people know that there are lumber emergencies going on?!
I settled for 12-pack cartons of soda… fishing all kinds out of the closet where my parents store their soda and shoving them together and making a make-shift broad jump.
THERE. That’s close enough.
And Payton’s first interaction with my make-shift broad jump was to hop up on it and pivot in a circle.
We’re going to do AWESOME.
Happy Birthday Pepper!!
It’s Pepper’s FIFTH birthday today, but her first birthday with me – so of course I wanted to have a nice party for her. I asked her months ago if she wanted a Princess Party and she wagged her tail.
Princess Party it is.
First we had a good time outside. Payton has finally decided she is no longer in season enough to warrant harassment so they were all able to be out together!
Of course it didn’t matter much because Payton was doing this.
“YAY BIRTHDAY!”
My girly <3
My girl and her brudder Auggie. She loves her Auggie.
And then there’s this one. Her real brother. Who… well she doesn’t really want to be touching him right now or anything if that’s okay.
But you can totally tell they’re related.
Then more of this happened.
Pepper with her niecelette <3
And later we were all back inside for PRINCESS PARTY!!!
Pepper got her own special birthday princess hat and everybody else had to wear tiaras.
Including the boys.
TIARAS.
Auggie is very pretty.
Geeeeeorgie. Georgie got a pink tiara, I put purple ones on the boys. Because purple is slightly more manly.
Birthday Princess!!
Oh LOLOL Payton.
Cupcake time!! (I made my mom hold the dogs while I took photos this time, after Payton’s sad birthday photos.)
Mmmmm… pink cuppycake.
“Oh I will just lick it…”
“Until I NOM.”
My dad wanted to give Payton his cupcake because Payton is so gentle and delicate.
Om nom nom.
I also decided to break Auggie’s cupcake into pieces after he swallowed his cupcake whole on Payton’s birthday.
…aaaaaand off goes Auggie’s tiara.
Georgie is super cute in her tiara.
I don’t even have to share any of Georgie’s other cupcake eating photos because this one is the best.
Pepper got a little pink bunny-ball for her birthday. For a while she didn’t play with it at all and the other dogs grabbed it… THEN she wanted to play with it. Because I think it then tasted like cupcake. Ohhhh Pepper.
Even I wore a tiara! So did my mom but she wouldn’t appreciate me sharing her photo I don’t think. My dad bailed before this happened or I would probably have made him wear a tiara too…
Happy happy birthday my best and only girl. <3
Baby Payton’s First Agility Trial
The time leading up to this trial was… emotional.
I went through “We might actually be able to pull this off!” to “OH GOD HE WILL BE TERRIBLE WE ARE GOING TO BE LAUGHED OUT OF THE RING” and all kinds of turmoil. A friend asked me “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”
And I didn’t answer because if I said it out loud, it was going to make me cry – the worst thing that can happen is that Payton is not Auggie. He is not Auggie and he will never be Auggie and it is unfair to Payton, and to myself, to continually compare the two.
“He is just a baby,” people said. “I never expect baby dogs to strike awe into people their first time out!”
Auggie did. Auggie’s first run ever. Remember? “One day that dog is going to be awesome,” from a total stranger.
He came home with a first and Q in his first ever jumpers run. It was a clean run, I still remember the feeling as I staggered out of the ring with my dog in my arms. My amazing Auggie.
And now? Now I have Payton.
I decided that we needed to just go and have fun. It’s just expensive practice, I reminded myself. All I want is for Payton to go in the ring, take a few of the jumps I ask him to take, not pee on anything, and also to get his weave poles.
The morning of our trial, I asked Auggie if it was okay that I was taking Payton to the trial instead. I also asked him if he had any advice for his baby brother.
I took Payton outside before his run. I had sliced up hot dog I was feeding him. I told him not to pee on anything. I asked if he could please remember how to do weave poles because I have video evidence that he DOES know how to do them, so please do them.
As I entered the ring I remembered what a friend said. “You only have one first trial with your dog.”
I gave him a kiss, then a second one.
Then we ran.
And you can’t see it in the video but I started crying right after the video cuts off. Because I couldn’t believe it. I really just wanted him to get his weaves… and he ran the whole course and he Q’d and everything.
I was crying and everybody kept saying “Oh, good job!” and I kept blubbering “He’s my baby dog!!” and took him outside and fed him the rest of his hot dog crying and telling him “You did so good! You were so good! You’re such a good boy!”
I just never believed it would happen. Sometimes I would be working with him and think “you know, maybe he COULD pull it off.” But I didn’t really think he would.
I didn’t care what happened the second day. If it was anything like Auggie’s first trial, the second day would be a disaster. But I really didn’t care. After that? After so much more than I ever dreamed possible? Heck, short of peeing in the ring Payton could do whatever he wanted.
\
So I says to him, “I don’t even Payton. I mean… I just don’t even.”
I hoped it would happen. But I never dreamed it really would.
I better get these weave poles cleaned up because I might need them sooner than I thought. Wow. Admittedly today’s weave pole bobble was ENTIRELY my fault. When I trained Auggie to do weave poles I trained him to do it by me chattering WEAVE WEAVE WEAVE the whole time he was in the poles. With Payton I did not do that. I just say “go weave.” And when I chatter he’s like “I’M ALREADY IN THE WEAVE POLES WHY DO YOU KEEP TELLING ME TO WEAVE I GOT IT OKAY???” And I caught myself walking the course yesterday and reminded myself to SHUT UP, but today I did not, and instead of just “go weave” I said “Go weave weave weave weave…” and realized what I had just done.
BAD TRAINER.
I guess whatever advice Auggie had for his baby brother was good advice.
Or maybe I just have the best Payton in the world.
A Few Foundations Videos with Payton
It was really really hot even at 6pm… he started getting really tired and hot by the end of the second video. We tried to do lesson 3 but he was just too hot so I didn’t force it. We’ll try again Wednesday…
Sends to the tunnel are going so well you can’t even see our starting point for most of this video. =P I did not film sends to a jump today.
This is where he starts getting hot and tired. These are really tight wraps and he’s not quite ready for some of them. Bars should be lower but I forgot to put them down… bad trainer.
Payton and Georgie’s First Fun Run!
Well, thanks to my mom apparently not understanding “PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON TO RECORD” I only have one video of Payton. I impromptu decided this morning to take Georgie – it was only $5 and I thought it would be good to get her in a ring and have her do some jumps. Plus I am generally in a less serious mood playing with her, so I thought it might lighten my mood to bring her along. I thought about taking Auggie but he HATES the floor in this building so much, so I didn’t. I wished I had, but when I say he hates the floor I’m not kidding, so it wouldn’t have been fair to him.
Somehow my mom managed to get video of all three of Georgie’s runs… just not Payton.
Anyway, Payton did fairly good, no new problems presented themselves, all stuff I was expecting and dare I say maybe a bit better than I expected. One of the people I trial with locally showed up with their dog and I was like “oh yaaaay… people to see the terror…” hahaha. He took jumps, even most of the ones I asked him to take. He didn’t pee on anything, though he considered peeing on the table the first time he jumped on it. And he didn’t drop any bars. (I decided to run him at 12″ instead of 16″ today. He’s a baby, I don’t care.) He did surprisingly well considering what a horrible dog he is. My plan was to totally avoid all contact obstacles, but everything was basically right in our path and, well, we do have a teeter and have been working on it – so I took a chance with him. The first run (no video) he was like “errr nope, dunno” and took a pass on it. The second run (no video!!) he put a few steps on it then changed his mind, so I took him back and tried it again just telling him “go touch” – and this time he did a BEAUTIFUL drive to the end then once it was down stepped into a perfect 2o2o. I’m so mad I don’t have video of that. I was happily stuffing food down his throat while he held his 2o2o and specifically stepped out of the way so my mom could get it on the video… *flips table*
The third time he slid off the teeter, and it bounced up behind him while he was sitting there, which he believed warranted a telling off of the teeter for being rude. Yeah. That one’s mine.
Be warned, he doesn’t shut up for most of this video, so you might want to mute it. Also sorry for the Blair Witch Project type filming, apparently my mom had been drinking today.
Georgie was the surprise superstar, though I’m pretty sure my mom was underselling her to people and then when I ran her everybody was like “……” I couldn’t remember if she had ever seen a chute before – we just found mine buried in the storeroom – so I tried to put her through it, but no go. The first time a lady outside the ring said “oh, let’s lift the chute up and get her through it!” so we did that and she went through. I thought she might try again after that but nope. Not her fault, I really don’t remember if she’s ever seen one before or not, and I kinda think no.
Neither dog has ever done the table before (hence why I’m saying “on,” it’s just our cue for climbing up on something) so excuse all the shoddy table stuff, it’s their very first time just playing on it. I figured why not? I paid my money, let them see it.
Very proud of the baby girly today. And Payton was not terrible. I would have liked better, but for a baby dog I think he did pretty good. I realize on video they probably look fairly similar. I realize I’m being harder on Payton since he’s mine and I’ve trained him so my standards are higher. He got lots of cheese and kisses and got to sit in my lap between his second and third runs, so don’t feel sorry for him.
Happy Fourth of July Grooming!
I’ve needed to groom the dogs for almost a month now but kept putting it off hoping we could get my new tub at my house and I could spare my back. No such luck. So since I had today off I did The Groomings.
Mr. Payton. <3 <3
I swear I don’t abuse her. It’s just, you know. Pepper. She would NOT put her ears up which is unusual because normally if you just say “Pepper!” she puts her ears up. No go. She’s in season so has NO coat right now. I mean she is really really naked.
Georgie. I kept trying to put her back legs close together and she REFUSED to let me do it. I’d set one down and pick up the other and she’d pop the other out. I am mildly concerned about this. She also stands kinda froggy with her back legs turned out a little. She’ll be two on the 25th and her AKC reg just went through, so hopefully we’ll get her OFA’d and see what turns up.
My Auggie doggie who had the most hair to shed of everybody, and was very upset with me, because his hair has never really been a texture where fur just falls out easily… so I had to v-e-r-y carefully brush and be careful not to snag and pull too much. =< Poor guy.
UGH MY BACK
Payton Tricks: Riding a Skateboard
I’m cheating and also using the movement as a precursor to putting him back on a teeter (my adjustable teeter is almost ready!) so lots of rewarding whenever it moves under him too, even if it’s not closer to the final behaviour…
Session 2:
We’ll come back to this one, I absolutely must have a skateboard riding dog. It’s just necessary.
Back Stalls (or Push-up with Puppies)
Here’s Payton, Georgie, then Auggie who fails at the whole “stall” part of this game LOL. But he’s adorable and I don’t really care. Seriously for like ten minutes he jumped back and forth over me and I laughed the entire time. Also he totally whacked me in the head with his paw. And I still laughed.
Including a blooper at the beginning because we were trying to get the shot set up and neither of us realized my mom was cuing Payton to spin and he was totally doing it…
(yes I know my form is rubbish, these do not count as real push ups.)
Both P and Georgie are doing pretty good with me moving under them considering we just started this trick, but mostly just getting them more comfy with me moving while they’re standing rather than a sit. Payton is trickier because his weight is distributed along my entire back… my butt was up way higher than it should be for a push up because I was trying to keep him from sliding down along my back. We’ll have to keep working on it so he learns to distribute his weight forward a bit and NOT slide off. Georgie is easier because she’s small so fits pretty close to my shoulders and that’s about it. =P
Happy Second Birthday Payton
First I tried to get some nice photos out in the yard at lunch. This is the best he wanted to give me.
Seriously?
They threatened it might rain today and for a good while it looked like it would, but I promised Payton if it didn’t rain we would take a special birthday trip to the forest…
…so he could play in the lake.
Ugh seriously don’t drink that.
He fell off the ledge where people slide their boats in and went plop into the lake. Then he kept going over to the ledge and falling off. Like six times. I think he was enjoying it.
There were some people here fishing so we stayed away from the dock except to get this one photo. He didn’t want to jump off it anyway.
Watching some people go by. Lots of folks came out to fish.
More romping in the water.
Happy puppy!
Then we went for a hike so he could dry off. He was supremely distracted and un-photogenic.
These were all taken on my cellphone anyway so it’s not like anything miraculous was going to happen.
Last shot as the sun was setting. He was a super good boy. Saw lots of runners and bikers, and I would pulled him off to the side and asked him to sit and stay while they went past, and three bikers and two runners were like “wow your dog is super well behaved. Thanks.”
Then we came home and it was time for PARTY!
Tiny cupcake for my boy who is TWO.
Photos are taken by my mom who has apparently never taken a photo before in her life. Sigh.
OMG OMG BIRTHDAY I LOVE BIRTHDAY
I nom nom nom!
Yesssss birthday is THE BEST
Pepper’s turn to get a cupcake. I love how this is the only photo where you can tell Payton is wearing his bowtie for his party.
This is seriously the best photo I have of Pepper – and it’s hysterical because of Payton’s face in the background.
Auggie would like to nom his cupcake in one bite please (and he totally did. Yikes.)
Girly Georgie actually wore her hat this year therefore she got cupcakes this year.
No photos of her eating her cupcake because it was seriously a sight to behold and one that photographs cannot convey. She was making noises like AHAUM HAUM HAUM HAUM and just ate through it like she was trying to bite her way through a paper bag.
Presents!! This is a new bottle sheep. He also got a stuffed sheep my sister bought him but that photo didn’t turn out.
A new gator toy, this one crackles AND squeaks.
And another gator for his crate – they say this has a double layer of fabric so it’s supposed to be a tough toy. We shall see…
“Oh I had the very bestest birthday ever!”
Happy birthday my little puppy baby. <3
Springy Shelties
The, uh, whatever these purple things are, those are blooming. So I took some photos.
Baby Georgie!!
She’s a pretty little (bad) girl.
Family photo. Pepper was (clearly) not cooperating much. Also I should start a new game where I keep a running tally of how many photos I take of Payton where he’s ruining the photo because he’s looking in the tree for squirrels.
Slightly less squinty Pepper… you’d think she never sees daylight or something…
Georgie refused to sit up (worst. posing. dog. ever.) so I told Payton to down to try and balance it out a bit more.
I got everybody to down actually. Auggie had to ask me like six times if I really wanted him to down THERE and not get up and come down to me (YES I mean DOWN, RIGHT THERE, NOW) and Pepper had to be lured down. And then Auggie was unhappy because I told him “now” and that’s not nice. Sigh…
Georgie and Uncle Auggie!
I would have more but my back was still acting up a bit (super super sore from the half-marathon… what??) so I didn’t want to push it taking too many photos. We are officially into nice weather now though so I think we are clear for more cute shots.
Goober
Well, my third half-marathon is done and in the books and I am massively sore as usual. So hurray for having a puppy who is quite good at playing with me while I am lying dead on the floor!!
Um.
Yeah okay he’s kinda cute.
So this just happened…
My mom walked into the bathroom and said “Pepper!! Hey! Come look what your dog did!” I couldn’t figure out WHAT she had done… Pepper has started rifling through trash cans for kleenex, but I had specifically emptied the bathroom trash can so she couldn’t do that.
I walked down the hall and looked in the bathroom – and somebody had grabbed the roll of toilet paper, dragged it into the middle of the room, and had proceeded to start shredding it.
“Oh. Pepper?? No way. I bet you Payton did this.”
“Payton? But Pepper was IN HERE. And Payton doesn’t do that, does he?”
“Oh yes he does… in the basement, the toilet paper isn’t between the toilet and wall like it is in here, so he keeps trying to grab it. I bet it was Payton.” We look down at Payton. “He looks guilty to me,” I add.
“Check for evidence,” she says.
So I grab Pepper and open her mouth, look all over her gums… nothing.
Payton has not had the sense to flee yet so I open his mouth – and I don’t even have to look very hard, there’s little pieces of toilet paper ALL OVER his tongue and his teeth!
“IT WAS PAYTON!” I show my mom the toilet paper on his tongue.
“What! He was trying to frame her!”
About this time I look at Pepper and I actually see she has a piece of toilet paper stuck to her mane. “Ah!! Toilet paper!”
“So she DID do it!”
“No, I bet she just got into it after he shredded it… Payton probably taught her to do this. Payton! Did you teach Pepper how to do this?!”
We’re both looking at Payton, who looks up at me, and…
he starts WALKING BACKWARDS out of the room.
My mom starts laughing and I start laughing and I’m CRYING I’m laughing so hard because he just keeps walking backwards, looking super guilty. He gets all the way to the hall where he can’t back up anymore, stands there, and s-l-o-w-l-y lays down and puts his ears down in his “I AM SOOOO ABUSED” sad face.
Now, I DID teach Payton how to back up. But I never actually put a cue on it. And the cue was MOST CERTAINLY not “Did you teach Pepper how to do this?!”
Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.
I told him “I think you might ACTUALLY be the naughtiest dog in this house.”
Sheltie Easter 2013
Mercifully it did not rain as much as they said it was supposed to, so we were spared the ultra muddy conditions I was expecting for this year’s Easter egg hunt!
As usual Auggie’s all “EGGS YEAH” and everybody else is all “derp de der what are we doing?”
Big dog loves this game.
Payton has no idea how to play. “I FOUND ONE OF THESE BALL TYPE THINGS IT SMELLS LIKE FOOD YAY”
I can’t believe he’ll be two in a few months, mostly because he still acts like a big dumb puppy all the time.
Georgie found an egg!! And Payton’s egg rolling behind her.
Pepper’s all “oh hey guys what’s going on over here?” (Auggie, meanwhile, is off grabbing all the other eggs like nobody’s business. There are no photos because it’s NOBODY’S BUSINESS.)
Payton’s still playing with the same egg. Derrrrr.
Georgie got her egg open to eat the cookie! Yay!
PEPPER FOUND AN EGG! She didn’t know how to open it so I had to help her, but I was very proud of her that she picked it up at all. Then of course she tried to pick up the empty shell like =D =D. No honey… no. It’s okay.
Payton found another egg (he accidentally broke his first one open and was like “!! There’s a COOKIE in here!”)
This started another round of running around with an egg in his mouth. And Georgie has no idea how to play the game either. CHASE PAYTON
Payton discovered the mass amounts of eggs at his 2x2s and was like “wait, what?” He tried to pick up both.
Okay, one more of Auggie hunting.
He loves this game. I should probably do stuff like this more often. I think his eyesight is definitely going because he wasn’t quite as snappy at it this year…
Okay, ONE more… because I hid this orange one by the basketball and it’s appropriate for Auggie…
Payton still derping with his green egg, the other eggs by the weave poles long forgotten.
Everybody’s baskets – Georgie ended up finding THREE, beating Payton’s two (I didn’t count the weave pole one he left behind because Auggie was immediately on it, opened it, and scampered off.) and Pepper only found the one. Auggie’s basket obviously is the overflowing one. =P
Family photo with baskets!
Family photo outtake. Oh Pay.
Another family shot. Georgie was like “I’m done with this (#*!” and kept laying down. Fine, whatever.
Auggie with his basket.
Pepper’s single egg hahaha. Poor dumb girly.
Payton has no idea why he’s so excited. As per usual.
“Squirrel??” Typical Payton.
Baby girly and her three eggs!
The end. Overall it turned out to be a very nice morning to hunt eggs considering one week ago we were getting over a foot of snow dumped on us.
Big snow dump, big photo dump
This had better be the last photo dump of snow-covered shelties until we’re actually in WINTER again.
It was still coming down heavily while we were out playing. Every few minutes somebody had to shake off to prevent themselves from becoming one with the massive snowfall in the yard.
Payton is not sure what’s happening but it’s kind of fun. Or terrible. Blizzards are awesome! Or maybe the worst??
Frosted pup.
Auggie puttering around in the snow.
Georgie is frolicking. But only for a little while. It’s hard to frolick when the snow piles are almost as big as you. Kinda wears you out.
Auggie appears to think there’s something under the snow and he should immediately plunge his face into the snow to discover what’s beneath it.
Pirate Auggie McSnowBeard has made his return! Arrrrr!
See? I told you they had to keep shaking off…
Georgie and Payton are wrestling and racing.
Pepper isn’t amused by this whole thing. What is this crap? It was 60 degrees yesterday!
More chasing from Payton and Georgie…
Georgie getting Auggie in on the fun. I’m pretty sure he was running off to bark at something and she thought he was playing chase…
A very weird mid-shake photo for Payton.
“YAAAAAY!”
“IIIIII’M PAYTON!!!!”
Baby Georgie, taking a quick breather.
This is Payton.
Payton likes it when I throw snowballs at him.
Pepper wanted to get in on the snowball catching too.
Throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it throw it
Wheeeee!
The kiddos chasing snowballs.
Reaaaaadyyyyyyy…
Oh wait, now ready?
GETIT
Pretty little girl, all frosted from snow!
Auggie would also like a snowball plz.
CATCH.
He didn’t catch the second one, haha.
More from Payton – he’s having fun at least.
THROW IT
Her nails look RIDICULOUS here. I swear they aren’t that bad but she must be all grippy or something when she jumps because they look really bad.
Playing yaaaay~
First picture in which I can tell she’s related to Payton.
Playing doesn’t last very long…
HERE IS A LOVELY PHOTO OF PAYTON
I was trying to take a photo of Auggie and he came up, stuck his chin on my arm, and was like “Hi Mom throw snowball plz.”
But I still got my photo of Auggie.
The end.
It better be. >=|
Just a few of the sheltie crew…
First of all, my boys are quite proper.
QUITE proper.
Also it won’t stop snowing and being cold.
We all hate it.
Uhh… these eyes.
Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this?
For everybody who thinks they want a Payton:
This is totally normal. Expression and everything. There’s a reason he’s the gator. (And Auggie is my shark.)
The very bestest boy. <3
