It's a Tuesday....

Well, it's Tuesday and I am trying to recover from a fun filled weekend. I had a great time for my bday and thanks for all the bday wishes.

Sunday we had a pet therapy workshop for new members. Luckily we took all the cardis, since we ended up being short a dog for the "meet and greet" station. Higgins usually works these, but this was Ella's first time. She did great...except when the corgi came thru! Our station evaluator laughed and commented that "Ella knew that was one of her kind!" and she behaved with every other dog after that! The Pem was a cutie and reminded me of how much we miss Fannie.

Last night was Rally class. We did pretty good...well, I need some work. I know the signs pretty well, but I have trouble getting my commands out fast enough. Something I need to work on and I know this. And I give Ella hand/finger signals and I need to keep my hand closer into me. I eventually have it to far out and Ella follows like she is supposed to, but it is also too far out.

I am working on ideas for the door banner for Nationals.....So far I know of 3 people that are making one, please join in, I think it will be great fun. There are dishes calling and I need to get them done. Here is one of my fav. pics of Higgins. Car took and and you can just tell he is a fun dog!

Idea for Nationals....

Ok, here's an idea for Nationals...that was spurred by Penni and my boss.

On Disney cruises..people that are "parts" of groups make little hanger type things for their doors on the ship. What about all us bloggers making little "blog" identifiers for our rooms???

If this is a good idea or a bad idea, please email me or leave a comment! It came to me out of nowhere after Penni had sent me an email.

Yeah...and I am trying to find something else to scrap obviously! Thinking of creating another blog about scrapping possibly!

slobbers, k

New Couch, Bathtime and Bored!

Well, today the new couch and loveseat came. Looks like we are going to have to get (or make) a ramp/step up for Miss Ella boo. The furniture is taller than we remember! And since we do try to limit her jumping, this is going to be a priority. Higgins has taken over the main couch....I think he likes it! Jetson, well, he just has springs in his legs and likes to bounce off them!

Everyone got a bath today and at least we smell and look better. Especially since we are going to be hanging out at the pet therapy workshop while the humans are helping! Well, Higgins gets to work doing a station, but Ella and Jetson will just hang out in a crate with me at the table!

Since this post was about Ella at the beginning, I thought I would throw in one of my favorite pics of her. She LOVES to dig...just in certain areas. Ok, so I just realized that I have posted this pic before, but I scrapbooked it up some, so I am using it again! Plus it's in the older posts...so if I had not of said anything, no one probably would have noticed.

Whhheeee....on vacation tomorrow and I think we are going to IHop for breakfast. It's the big 40 for me tomorrow, so I didn't want to work!

poll time...

Check out the poll to the right! And if I haven't added your on the links, I am getting to them. I think I am going to have to rearrange into separate areas (blogs and actual links)....project for another day!

It's Wednesday!

Well, here it is Wednesday night and I am blogging again! WOW! Not that there is much going on right now. Well, the tornado's path apparently went over the house last night while I was working on my background and didn't even know it until this afternoon! All we heard was alot of wind, rain, etc. and I didn't look out the windows. It hit about 3-4 blocks away. An EF1, but hey that's enough to do some damage.

Our new couch and loveseat come tomorrow. Hopefully it will be ok with the dogs. It's microfiber and they say that is supposed to be good with dogs and dog hair. This house will put it to the test! It's a mocha color....we are going to be pretty "brown" around here, but we hope to get a fun colorful accent chair to go with them eventually.

The dogs haven't been up to much, just hanging out and not liking the rain. Since I found a bunch of stuff to make my background, I thought I would make a scrapbook page for each of the dogs. Here's my first attempt. I am not a scrapbooker in real life, just digital! I have more patience with Photoshop....easier to correct errors! This pic is of Jetson last year, around the time he turned a year old. I love the "go get 'em" look on his face.

BTW, if you are going to Nationals, let me know! We are going for the first part of the week. We are staying at the host hotel also.

Wow!!! I did it...sort of!

Well, we have a new look! It's not perfect yet, but my eyes are going crossed trying to get all the code correct.

Let me know what you think....the sidebars will say PartiCardis...I just made it too big to fit! I just need to adjust somethings and play with them.

I made the whole background in Photoshop Elements and with digital scrapbooking stuff. The scrapbooking stuff came from www.shabbyprincess.com and from www.littledreamerdesigns.com.

New look...

Ok, so I am trying out a new look...I think it's a little much at the moment, but I am tired and ready to go to bed.

I found a site that tells me how to change the background and/or make one. Since I have Photoshop at home now, I am going to try it soon! I am a Photoshop freak, since I have to use it at work (and they paid for me to take a couple of classes, so that I would be able to do more!)

We took the pups to Rally class tonight. It went pretty good. Jetson is very sound sensitive...he was doing great until the door "banged" as someone came in and all focus was lost and he was a little chicken. These are things we are just going to have to work thru...I guess I need to cook and bang around in the kitchen more....yeah...those of you that know me! HA HA HA!

The dogs are definitely getting a bath sometime this week after the rain. Jetson's new name is PigPen...he smells like a dead fish! Higgins underneath is not white, more of a smudgy brown color. Ella seems to be doing pretty good...but she is the princess and doesn't really like to stay out side in the cold/wet/rain/mud stuff.

Off to finish my book. I have started a series by Laurien Berenson, The Melanie Travis Mysteries. They are quick little paperbacks that are fun to read, you don't have to think and involves the dog world. The main character shows Standard Poodles! So far I have read two of them, and not in order. :) They are relaxing at the end of a day.

Slobbers!

Just a Sunday...

Just a Sunday here. Wakeup call from Aunt Marla (Ella and Jetson's breeder) to say hi and to catch up. Went to the dog club to work on Rally with Ella. We only have 2 months to go until the Cardigan Nationals, and since we sent our entry in we had better get busy! This will be our first time in the ring for both of us for an AKC event. Hopefully all will go ok and atleast we have some time to work.

If anyone knows how to create your own template for blogger, feel free to contact me. I am looking to change this one to make it more personal, but not sure where to start. I do have photoshop, so I could create some of my own back grounds...just not sure how to do the "template" stuff.

Well off to bed, busy day tomorrow.

computer virus attacks......

Computers and I just aren't getting along here lately. Christmas night, we starting getting strange pop ups...(no...not the porn sites!) So, I rushed the computer to ServiceWorld the next day. (If you have computer problems, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND them!! love them!)

79.00 later......They had found some spyware, removed it and called it good. And it seemed great. We aren't sure where the darn stuff came from...but I was surfing/playing on Facebook at the time.

Forward ahead a couple of weeks to a day at work. I asked my boss if I could get some more RAM on my computer, because I have now become the "art design dept" at my office for our stores. I was trying to work with Photoshop Elements and just needed some more umph in the memory area. So we called the tech and he came to put more memory on it. My computer died and wouldn't reboot. Harddrive was still ok, just the processor croaked.....So YEAH!!! I got a new computer that is a lot faster, more memory and it works great! (more on why I am so excited about this later!)

Then Monday night, I am surfing around and talking on the phone at the same time. I thought I had tried to close the browser and got the "do you want to close all tabs" message....I hit cancel...and poof. Browser shut down, computer rebooted and I knew we were in trouble. Ran Norton scan immediately, it didn't find anything (although it looked a little weird)...but we kept getting a popup that looked like a really fake Windows screen, so I knew better than to click on it. And our browser kept trying to get my to "register" my security software. Yeah, like I am going to fall for that...although, I am pretty savvy when it comes to computers, someone else might see it and think they needed too.

Off to ServiceWorld first thing the next morning. We finally got the computer back yesterday. There were 2 viruses found. They removed them and recommended a different virus protection, because Norton uses up a lot of system resources to run. Apparrently, viruses are running ramptant right now, so be careful surfing out there!

So we are now running Kaspersky and it seems to be working really well. The virus we had gotten was "trojan.vundo" or something like that...is a stinker to get rid of. I looked it up and from what I understood it can (among other things) basically disable Norton, which sucked for us!

We did a clean backup before hooking the internet back up, so we have the pics and documents clean and safe.

As I am sitting here, we have already had something blocked from intruding, so I am thinking we are safe for the moment. I am not sure where we got the virus from....but I deleted my facebook acct....since we didn't seem to have any problems before that....I do miss my Packrat game though.

Jetson's Agility Adventure...

Ok, this event happened in Nov. 08, but since I haven't posted, I thought I would put it on here. I am thinking of entering it for the Crying Towel Award at the dog club we belong to. Warning, it's long, but you have to understand it from beginning to end to realize how funny it is! This picture is from the GOAL fun run that is mentioned in this story...it was COLD that day!

The Trials of Agility aka Let's Run Amuck

We have only been dog club members for a couple of years now, but hearing about the sending in entries for the “Crying Towel Award” had my interest after this last November.

We are not the type of people that want many “letters, titles, symbols” etc. after our dogs’ names, ribbons on the walls, or care how many Q’s we get. We just like to have fun with our dogs and if they get something that reasonable resembles a title fine, if not we had fun and none of that matters at the end of the day as long as they are loved, love being with us, and had fun in anything that we do (except maybe the vet’s, which any dog will say is never fun!)

I, myself, had great visions of training Jetson for agility. Now, we all know that training doesn’t always go the way you plan or want it. Dogs have minds of their own and it’s always trying to find the best thing that works for you and that particular dog. I have watched Carleen train Higgins and they have done well for the short time he has been training. They work great as a team and his focus is amazing. So, I am thinking that “GREAT, I can do this with Jetson and since we are starting from puppy, it will be easy.

Forward ahead to when we are ready to start training safely for health and growth reasons, I wanted to make sure growth plates are closing correctly, joints are not damaged, etc. Corgis are a dwarf breed and caution is needed during the growing up process because of the dwarfism.

Come to find out…I am “Little Miss Chicken” about him doing anything! NO JUMPING (not even 4 inches), NO AFRAME (he might hurt his front), Oh My Goodness, you want him to CROSS the dogwalk and I am supposed to hold the lead loosely and let him get ahead of me some?? At one point during a mini lesson with Marlene and Cindy on the dogwalk, Cindy had to give me a wedgie to slow me down! Quite the surprise, but then I realized that “Hey, he can go ahead of me some and it’s ok.” Side note…Marlene would have had lots of fun helping me train him and had lots of fun laughing at us.

So, we start working on the basics and he does pretty well. Attention isn’t the best, but hey he was still a lot of puppy and has a whole life of learning ahead.

We go to our first agility fun run, which was the UKC fun run at the club. I take him thru on leash (as I didn’t trust him off leash!) and he does well the first time around. The second time pretty good, except during the walk thru I let go of the leash not even knowing that I was supposed to hang on. Rule Number One noted for walk thru hang on to leash. I hear a reminder from the one of the spectators (namely Valeri) to grab his leash. Then Cindy was trying to help and I almost ran over her! One fun run out of the way…more in the future to improve!

Fall comes and time for the GOAL NADAC (another “type” of agility where they have their own titles, such as the difference between AKC and UKC) trial. We had to gather the equipment in one place, so GOAL decided to host a fun run at the same time. This was held at Valeri’s house. NADAC has a great class for those just starting in agility that consists only of tunnels. WHEEEE…what fun for the dogs, they can build up speed and trip you up all at the same time! And no chances of knocked bars or those hard to learn weave poles.

So, it’s finally Jetson’s turn….I, on the other hand, am about to make myself sick…It’s only a fun run…I tell myself. So we get out there and get set up. Ready, go….WOW, he starts flying. Faster than he has ran with me before and this is far more obstacles than he has ever done in a row. And the first time it’s been all tunnels. He does GREAT! He takes the turns and goes the way I want him to and finishes the course! He even does a discrimination turn that some of the seasoned dogs miss. I am delighted! I started getting my confidence up thinking…..Hey, we could enter the NADAC trial here and probably do ok! Everyone is saying I should, it would be a great experience for him and me too! Carleen is saying to enter only if I want and don’t feel pressured to enter…he still has a lot to learn. Well, heck….he just completed a course…he has learned a lot…he could be a contender!

Agility trial weekend…tunnelers isn’t on the schedule until the end of the day…so a lot of sitting around in a crate waiting, oh and howling at the kid next to us that keeps singing to us. The tunneler’s course time has finally arrived…..I am nervous, which in turn everyone knows makes your dog nervous! I tell myself…it’s ok…even if he just does a few tunnels and quits it will be fine…although, it would be great if we completed the course. (you see where this is going, don’t you?) So, Jetson’s time comes….we get set up at the start and GO….thru the first tunnel…..and then let’s run around the arena! Let’s blow by the judge and bark and back again! Let’s run totally amuck and bark at mom….oh wait she is telling me to wait and come…..ok, I will stop and give in to her! Another tip we found out….Do not let Higgins and Jetson run right after one another….Higgins was worried and looking around during his run to figure out where Jetson and I went. And he and Carleen had a beautiful run, but was over course time….because of the looking!

After talking with a lot of people and the judge the next morning while driving him to the trial site, I decided to provide myself with some more punishment and try it again. Mind you, while working the gate, an Elite (highest level) handler comments…awww…was that your dog out there….he was so cute running around….yeah…that makes me feel better! Now, I think it’s quite cute when someone else’s dog is doing this….but mine?? I was so embarrassed!

Round two….Judge tells us to be the very last run of the day…maybe there will be less distractions, can concentrate more, etc. So, I get Jetson out of his crate and think about what I did on Saturday, or more what I did wrong. I am thinking…he wasn’t focused on me and I needed to get him more in tune with me. So, I get him to start playing with a toy, we are dancing back and forth chasing the toy etc…20 minutes BEFOREHAND! I am thinking this will help him to focus more on me. We missed Christie's run with Bentley where he jumped up the concrete wall to get out of the arena, but was told about it. Bentley and Jetson are the same age. So, I thought…hey Jetson can’t jump that high, what else could happen??

We were to find out, 1 second into the run……Jetson doesn’t even take the first tunnel. He heads off to the side, running amuck. I am thinking “happy voice” JETSON COME, JETSON COME! He keeps running…..I call JETSON TUNNEL when he gets near just to get him to go to any tunnel, I didn’t care which one. At that point it didn’t matter just take a tunnel. He gets on the other side of the tunnel and barks at me, wagging his tail……Blows by the judge and stewards barking and trying to get anyone to play with him. By this time I am starting to panic thinking how on earth am I going to get him to come to me. It doesn’t help that one of the stewards moved toward him and off Jetson went running more. I must have the panic look on my face, because Carleen gives Ella and Higgins to someone and jumps down in the arena to help me catch him. Well, Jetson is having none of this…he wants to play. FINALLY he takes the tunnel at the end. Carleen yells, “Cover your end” and we trap him in the tunnel and finally catch him. Everyone was laughing and all I wanted to do was crawl in the tunnel!

It seemed like forever in the ring and I am not sure how long we were in there….thank goodness almost everyone was heading home and not too many people saw it. Of course, practically everyone that was left was everyone I knew. But as Vicky Sullivan told me…it’s better that it happens with your friends around that when you are at a trial and no one you know is there. At least we aren’t laughing at you, we have all been there and now how it is.

I don’t know if this qualifies for the Crying Towel Award or not, but I sure went thru a lot of Kleenex after that trial! We are not ready to trial and may never be, but it’s more about the journey than the title at the end! And hey, Jetson knows he’s cute, he just wanted to show everyone how cute he is!