There’s just been so much going on that I haven’t been able to process it well enough to write about it. On April 1 Chico and I started a six-week course from the Fenzi Dog Sports Academy. It was my first time doing on-line learning and it was great. Time consuming, but really fun and very helpful to my skills as a dog trainer. It was an animal husbandry course, I took it in hopes of learning how to better shape Chico’s attitude and behaviors related to toenail trimming. We’re not there yet, but it was a good start. And the Fenzi instructors were just wonderful.

We’ve been doing some trialing, including an AKC trial at the Bloomsburg Fairgrounds in Bloomsburg, PA. Why, you ask, did they go so far? The answer is because my beautiful and talented niece graduated (with honors!) from Goucher College in Towson, MD and I can’t seem to take a road trip without working in an agility trial.

Chico has been having some trouble in the ring, looking at the start line like it’s Monday morning after two weeks vacation. We’ve been doing only short courses, even at trials, in hopes of changing his mind. I’m asking myself if maybe calling it something besides “a trial” or “trialing” would help my mental state. I’m pretty sure that some of our problem at competitions is that I somehow feel different when we’re there.

We lived through a bizarre accident where Chico got the hook of a bungee cord through his eyelid without damaging his eyeball at all. The hair that was shaved to give him a stitch in his eyelid is almost grown back in; for a while the difference in height between growing-out and un-shaved hair cast a funny shadow and made him look like one eyebrow was raised.

Another thing that has been taking up a lot of space in my life recently is my house remodel. There’s been a delay with the power company not showing up to take the power off the house and connect it to the temporary panel that’s been nailed to a tree since…well, since I’m not sure how long, but the day the temp panel went up there was still snow mixed with the rain that was falling on the electrician’s head, so I am guessing it was sometime in early to mid-April. The building crew swears they haven’t been held up, not until just about now, but my ability to envision what the space is going to look like sure has been delayed. My ability to spend a seemingly-huge amount of money on appliances and plumbing fixtures, however, does not seem to have been impeded in any way. Dishwasher, fridge, washer/dryer, shower heads, bathroom faucets. Tile and flooring choices. Oh my.

Time to play with the dog for a while.