Can I Bring the Dog?

Two things this morning. First, I am trying to finish a post about last weekend but for some reason I can’t upload my photos right now and want the post to be in its full glory when you see it.

Second, I was preparing my treats for Treibball* class tonight, layering hotdog pieces with dry, biscuity, Charlee Bears, and found myself thinking, “Yes, we’ll just let the hotdog juices soak into the Charlee Bears and infuse them with hotdog flavor, that will be much tastier.”

Umm, is it any wonder that my dog is a, ah, how to say it – discerning – eater? I mightta done went and did this to myself.

*See this video and/or read basics here.

Last Thursday Chico and I went to run throughs at Julie’s and we did great at some tricky stuff. There was one move we were all trying, send out to the right over a jump and then the dog needs to do a 180-plus degree turn to the left to get a weave pole entry and Chico aced it. He got one entry that made everyone go “Oh my god!” I had to send Julie the video of the previous weekend’s weave pole disaster (hey, it wasn’t all titles and ribbons tat weekend i bragged so much) because she didn’t believe we had trouble with a six pole set.

And Julie told me how to better approach the poles (slow myself down a little) as well as all the things I did wrong after Chico popped out after the first pole. And of course, he’s so good in class and run throughs, we’ve not had much chance lately to get that critiqued and improved. Thank goodness I could show her the mistake I was making on video because it doesn’t happen in class.

Did that help me this last weekend? Maybe some, but I didn’t ask anyone to record my runs so I can’t see if I was any better. In three runs we completed the poles correctly on the first try once, better than last weekend. Some parts of each run were brilliant, with other oarts not so much. Chico was pretty unmotivated for the first run, Time to Beat, and I did an excellent job of getting him motivated and ready to go, and he ended up putting in a very good run, getting the hardest parts just fine.  A number of my classmates were also running, and it was really fun and supportive to be with them. Lots of them had Qs and double Qs this weekend, so White Mountain Agility School was well represented.

On the home front, there’s more clearing going on at “da Mill” as we’ve started calling my house. The falling down wire fence around the garden was in the way of the clearing, and way too hard to dig out, at least not for the 100 feet it runs. I wasn’t going to do the work of disengaging it from the roots of the plants that had grown up through it. I was ready to hire someone, when it came to me that I could use my truck. Nice heavy piece of rope, woven through the fence at ground level and the looped over the trailer hitch, pop the truck into four wheel drive, and darned if the thing didn’t rip out of the ground easy as pie.

That gave the brush guy room to work on the brush so the tree guys can cut trees. We went to see how they’re doing. And things are moving right along. Lots of brush is cleared and there’s a big machine in place.

A skidder. An amazingly articulated vehicle that can go over almost anything.

So I called the tree guys and yes, they are coming in the morning, can I meet them there?

So that’s what we did this morning, figure out which trees are blocking my garden, and start the trimming and removing of them. Here’s another “before-ish” pic.

I’ll go back later for some more decisions and some updated pictures.

My good dog and agility team mate Chico earned himself a fancy ribbon today. His P2 Jumpers title. Fastest title we ever got, under six months to get three qualifying runs. The fact that there are no weave poles in Jumpers courses might be helping.

There’s a nice walk that circles Jackman Pond. It’s longer than a short walk, shorter than a long walk, close to home, and underused by me and almost everyone else (as far as I can tell, only once have I met another walker). Last Thursday it was time to make that walk again.

I admit, it’s a bit hard to see details, maybe you can get a sense of the day, and the distance from the pond a somewhat marshy shoreline imposes on the path.

Chico hadn’t been there in weeks, there was tons of new information for his nose.

Chico’s tail is the light buff comma in the center of that picture. He’s just the color of the woods this time of year.

There’s a lot of pleasure in returning to the same walk over the years, through the seasons. On this outing I noticed a rotting conifer (Pine? Hemlock?) that had previously escaped my eye. The bark is intact, the stubs of some branches are still in place, but the softer core wood has rotted.

Looking down from the top of the stump.

By this point “What,” you are saying to yourself, “is the big step she talked about in the title?” Last week, on two occasions, right in the middle of Tamworth Village, Chico went up to someone and let them pet him. In the beginning of our relationship, Chico’s reaction to a stranger was to walk toward them barking furiously. Out of desperation, I created a trick called “go say hi” for which Chico could earn a treat. All he had to do was quietly go over to the person and come back to me and he got paid. He developed the habit of going up to people, lightly touching them with his nose, and running back to me for cookies. Much better than the behavior it replaced, but – really – still pretty standoffish and big-fat-chicken behavior. The other day my neighbor was in conversation on the street in town, and Chico went up to her and let her pet him. She pointed out that it was the very first time he’d let her do that. And later that morning, he did the same thing with a man we hardly know. A man who wears a scary-scary beard. Beards are scary, I can’t tell you why, but they are. Just ask Chico.

Here’s a nice sky scene I would not have noticed were I not out walking with my pal Chico.