Today’s rally class again had lots of distractions but not rude ones like last week. Today we had a spectators gallery of about 6-8 kids. They were thrilled to hang out with the dogs, fairly respectful and asked a lot of questions. It was like a petting zoo. PJ ate it up. It didn’t help us with training, he really had an attention issue tonight but we got some good work done in small steps. PJ is a popular student a BMOC.
When Leslie and I were traveling to the Nationals in Kentucky we went past a park called Big Bone Lick and we thought it would be a place the dogs would want to stop and visit. I had to google it later on and found out it is a natural salt lick where people found bones of prehistoric animals hence the name Big Bone Lick.
We had a version of Big Bone Lick
at the house today. I moved to sofa and low and behold there was a big bone that I think we brought back from Houston last summer. Finding that to go along with the usual rawhide bones laying around we also had rib bones from the State Line Restaurant, they are so cool about giving you a bag of dog bones, it was a Big Bone Lick Day.
I got home from working some OT and just wanted to hang out with the dogs and do nothing so I put the big dogs up and let the babies in and they had a blast. The big bone changed paws several times. Lindy dosen’t like to share her bones with the boys so she will grab something and go under the bed. Wicca just picks something and chews it until it is gone or it is time to go out. The boys trade back and forth, back
and forth, back and forth. 
Sometimes it is good to be a dog and this one of those times. In addition to the bones they also got steak! One of my co-workers, Clare, brought in some steak that had gotten left in the marinade too long and she didn’t like the way it tasted. She just couldn’t throw it out so she brought it for the dogs. They said Thank You Miss Clare! They are getting a few nibbles in their dinner at night and it makes it extra special.
Last Thursday was the Solstice moon and today is the beginning of summer, the Summer Solstice or Litha. It isn’t known when people started celebrating the Summer Solstice but this family does every year. We spend as much time outside and we say good bye to the Sun as the days begin to shorten.
The dogs don’t really howl at the moon but they do howl when the fire trucks go by. Tonight when we were enjoying a cooler evening there were several fire trucks that went by, they start howling so I howl too, it is so funny the way the react. The Cardis run over and jump on me and Windy syncs her howl to mine and then looks at me. It is too funny.
PJ and I started our “official” rally class last night. We started with attention exercises which our trainer calls the “airplane” didn’t take PJ long to figure our how to get the food. I think he will do well. Just like when I was working Stoney in agility I found out that you can only do an exersice a few times before it got boring, no DRILLS with a Cardigan. Our trainer, Liz, had set up a mini Rally course so we could start working with the heeling and the signs, by the third time of the heeling pattern I started to lose the attention, but I almost couldn’t blame the boy, there were lots of things to look at.
What we saw at the park last night: We saw a couple of women with their kids and unleashed chihuhuhuas get out of their car and come and sit 30 feet from us and let their unleashed dogs run up and bark and snarl at our dogs. Mean purebred dog lady (ME) asked them nicely to leash their dogs and then yelled at them that this was public park and there was a leash law in El Paso. They left but didn’t leash their dogs. A group with young boys set up on the other side of our rally signs to practice football drills, we saw one of the Dads teach his 3-4 year old boy to pee on a tree right next to our set up when the park’s bathroom was 50 yards away. We also saw a group of 4 women walk right through our rally course while one of the people was working her dog then went and stood at the start line laughing and talking (not about us or the dogs) so it was no wonder that we needed to work on attention.
Even with all the distractions PJ did well and we had a good time. It has been well over 100 degrees here for more than a week but the nice thing about the desert is that when you are in the shade and there is a breeze you can still enjoy the outdoors. I was worried it would be miserable but it was nice.
My dogs love fruit. I don’t know about other people’s dogs mine are crazy about fruit. We have a fig tree in the back yard and that provides 3 seasons of enjoyment. In the spring they pull off the young leaves. Once the fig start to ripen it is a free for all trying to get too them. Wicca does this funny kangaroo hop trying to reach the higher branches. If she gets a branch pulled down the Cardis join her in pulling off figs. I try and pull some ripe ones off every day for them. It is like standing in a shark tank the way the circle around waiting for me to drop them. In the fall they like to crunch on the dry leaves, we call them fig chips.
It’s not just the figs they love all fruit. I buy fruit from the Hombre de Frutas who comes by the office and sells us great boxes of mixed fruit. I often don’t get it all eaten so I share with the dogs. Apples and pears are favorites.
My Mom had eaten a grapefruit and she had peeled off some of the inner membrane and she offered it to the dogs, they ate that too. Of course PJ I think will eat anything. We don’t call him Porky Joe for nothing.
This weekend Leslie took Miss Candy to the UKC Premier show in Michigan. They were award BOB and currently Candy is ranked #5 UKC Cardigan.
Congratulations Girls!
I found out at a show several years ago that Lindy likes to ride on the top of the crates if they are being pushed on a cart dolly, she rides them like she is Cleopatra on a barge. Well now there is a carnival version of that ride at yappy hour. My Mom has a dolly/cart that she uses to move stuff around the yard. She has been doing major projects so the cart is sitting in the back yard. Didn’t take long for the Cardis to discover the cart. They started by jumping on it while we were moving stuff and it now has become a nightly game. They stand on the cart waiting for me to push them around on it. They jump on and off and run along side trying to drag each other off the cart. It is a hoot! It is worth the trouble for the laugh I get out of it. They are like little kids begging for a piggy back ride.
Finally I started working on my summer project. I’m redoing the kennel this summer and I started today which was clean out day. I ripped out the last of the carpet that was in the space.
The space that is my kennel is what used to be 2/3rds of my apartment. When this property was first purchased it consisted of a 2 bed room 1 bath “house” and a 1 bedroom apartment that had been created from the original carport. Over a decade ago I gave up the renters and moved into the whole place and the dogs got what used to be my living room, kitchen and bathroom. The laundry is still there and that is where the last of the carpet was, I was glad to get it out of there.
What I have now is the long room that was the living room now has crates against the walls and the kids sleep in them at night (The Seniors Windy and Stoney sleep loose in the house). The kitchen is my grooming room. I had the good fortune of buying a used restaurant veggie sink which has been installed and works wonderfully, a back saver! The second bathroom I use as the feed room which works great because there is water there and the dogs can’t break in LOL!
What the plan is to install some better lighting in the grooming room. I’m building sleeping boxes to take the place of crates, these will be of correct size and easy to clean. I’m adding some shelving in the feed room and fencing in part of the porch will will serve as a puppy run or a place to stash a girl or boy when some one is in season.
Today the carpet came out with the dogs help, their help was to stand on the carpet, chase the broom, jumping in and out of pool and running in and out with their wet feet. The usual!
It was good to get a least something started, we will see how it goes.
