My dogs keep me humble

My dogs keep me humble.

No matter how great I think things are going, there's always something that humbles me.

This time, it's Astra. Now she's a pap, so it goes without saying she's way brighter then me. I can usually figure a workaround to her shenanigans though.

Not this time.

Every year, come fall and winter, she wants to "critter hunt"! She gets obsessed about finding the critters that may or may not have been under the deck when she wasn't out there on patrol.

When she's in 'critter hunt' mode, everything else vanishes in her world. Her recall becomes non-existent, her food drive is gone, her play mode is gone, she even ignores her leash and the chance to go anywhere else fun. She will stay out there and 'critter hunt' until she's ready to fall over from exhaustion. She doesn't even care about how cold or rainy it is out there.

The only solution I have is to take her out on leash. So, from sunset to sunrise, I have to take this little 5 1/2 lb papillon out on a leash for her sake and mine.

You know what's most humbling about it?

She has to be on leash simply because I can't catch her otherwise!! That little bundle of fur can zig and zag and zip better than any other dog I've ever spent time with. In this circumstance at least, she has me beat. Luckily, I'm bigger than her and can use the leash!!

The Garden Stone

I had to get a new cell phone recently. So I spent some time looking through all the photos I had on my phone. I'm pretty sure every picture I ever took, going all the way back to my first cell phone photo was there. 

Then, I came across this picture.

 

I had seen this while out shopping and just had to snap the picture. I then proceeded to send it to each of my kids. I thought this was the cutest thing!! You have to admit, it's a nice play on "We are staying together for the sake of the kids."

Well, for reasons unknown to me, my kids didn't find it funny or cute. I think it's adorable and would love to get it. My husband thinks its great also! I don't know why they didn't like it.

It got me thinking though. What if???? We even talked about it. Seriously though, it was a VERY short conversation. All the dogs would stay with me. There's no doubt about it. Not that I could ever imagine being in that situation. It's good to talk about it or think about it. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Jackson!!

I don't normally do this. But Jackson is S-P-E-C-I-A-L and his story must be shared.

I remember the day we met. This little fluffball puppy eagerly greeted us and immediately went after Rick's laces. Countless pairs of laces later, Jackson no longer has access to Rick's shoes. Mine are safe most of the time.

That first day, he met a bunch of strange people and strange dogs. He was introduced to a crate for the very first time. See for yourself what that was like.
Crate Training 
And now, he happily spends time in his crate at home. He happily sleeps in his crate at trials.

We weren't in car for more then 5 minutes before he got carsick that day and every car ride after that for over a year. That didn't stop him from wanting to go in the car though. Today, he even jumps in eagerly. In spite of being so sick in the car, once he was cleaned up at our destination, he was always ready and eager for whatever we were going to do.

Countless number of puppy classes and puppy socialization. (His neuter was even scheduled around his classes so he wouldn't miss out. We spent a long time waiting for the other berry to finally drop.) Oh, I remember puppy rally bootcamp classes! He earned his APDT RLP title that weekend, in spite of a nervous handler, and he loved it.

There was more and more classes after that. I got more and more nervous at trials. He still earned his RL1 title, in spite of me. Finances have kept us from classes and trials since then. But he still loves to train at home. He still has the ugliest left pivot you've ever seen. He's just so darn proud of it, I can't do anything to fix it. #$%^ it, it's worth the points off to keep him smiling you know!!

I remember his first seizure, how it didn't seem like anything weird really. I remember his first grand mal seizure and every single one after that. There was medication that didn't work and turned him into a zombie. Countless tests and trips to the vet, all of which he just takes in stride. The seizures still continue, regularly, 2x a month, with medication.

He got a bug bite one evening which caused his face to SWELL!! A frantic call to a friend and having to shove massive amounts of meds down his throat while he was in pain caused us not to be able to go near his mouth for a VERY long time after that. Yet, even then, my grandson was able to play with his mouth and Jackson was fine with it. (He really does love that little boy. He can do anything and Jackson just moves away if he gets uncomfortable)

In the pictures you can see one of his ears never went up properly. Even now, it's a mood indicator. The more the one ear droops, the sadder he is. I can't get a picture of that though since he loves the camera.

Happy 2nd birthday Jackson!! Some would say he got lucky with us. I would say, we were lucky to have found him.