EEEPPP and may I repeat EEEEEPPPP!!!! Basically we (cough) worked most of the night and all morning and afternoon to get things ready. I know it prolly sounds like our house is a federal disaster zone given how long I've been saying "I've still got heaps of cleaning!" The trick is 1.) cleaning with a 1 year old is painfully slow due to the "helpful help" and b.) a lot of it is repetative cleaning. IOW I get it clean and by the next day (if it lasts that long...) it's quite generally a disaster again courtesy of Nic, Laurent, Cade, Sierra and Hope.
Laurent is definitely the biggest messmaker... quite often, he'll be directly to my side pulling things back out as fast (or faster!) than I can tidy them or causing me to pause and remove him from
At any rate, we did as much as we could by 2pm and while there was still stuff I'd like to look more posh to appeal to those nice dinks with deep pockets or at least a big loan, it was clean and neat and there was only 1 drooly handprint on the windows.
We got 7 people over 45 minutes, several phone calls planning to check it out next inspection and one person registering their interest. Not great but not bad. I'm chalking it up to voting day. So that's that... right now I'm just tired, after having run on adrenaline most of the past few days. Tonight I'm spoiling myself. We went to a patesserie for a severely indulgent Chai tea and nibbly and I'm going to have my nails painted, a nice massage, a long hot oil infused bath in the evening and just relaaaaxxxxx into a blissful puddle of goo!
Dog training notes: been dabbling here and there with the advice Jan gave me. Not sure how that is going as it just feels really, really uncoordinated at this point on my part. Working with Miss Hope as well. She is just too clever by half! She is a very INSISTANT little thing about these automatic sits! I stop, she ploinks and stares holes in my head till I move! Walked to town today and took her, she got to see policemen in full uniform, a display of ceiling fans blowing sideways with ribbons, a flittery banner, a lady with two obnoxious pulling schnoodles, a bunch of screaming kids, several clueless adults who were bluntly told they ought to ASK permission before reaching to pat her (GRRRRR.... major pet peeve for me!!!), walk over two types of sewer vents (open slats and the solid clattery kind) and see a big noisy motor bike.
For non-dog people, this is part of trying to expose her to all manner of weird, bizzare things we take for granted but which from a puppy POV look intensely weird and kind of scarey. I'm convincing her that weird stuff is not only NOT scarey but very probably intensely rewarding to be brave around! ;-)
Another neat thing, I found a picture of her sibling, Cuebiyar Body N Soul aka Floyd on his new owners website! Too cute! Reminds me I need to get a photo of Hope stacking and work on her webpage... usually too busy with child, dogs and moving to do so!
3 comments:
LOL I year ya on mess making bubs. Sienna just "un cleans" behind me ..she "rides" the vacuum cleaner. She takes the filter off it. She unpacks the kitchen cupboard. She unpacks the bag I've packed to go away. And she's so cute doing it I cant get mad! She really thinks she's "helping". As for Liam-they just make bigger messes the older they get ;-) Be warned!
I thought one of the worst things for Show Dogs was for them to learn automatic sits? That is what I was always told... (but the people I know sometimes suck with information giving hahaha)...
Hey - you should come up for Spring Fair next year to show :)
Jayne, LOL yeah that's me with L. He's so cute I can't be upset!
Kristie, it depends. If your version of showing is just to put the dog on lead, run around, then hang bait under it's nose and hope it's so busy snarfing food it'll stand and ignore examination... iow no training and not on cue, then teaching automatic sits could be a problem. (Good handling might look like the handler is doing nothing but it's like dressage really, the true talent is in looking you're doing nothing!) Of course, so could any obedience since you certainly don't want a showdog trotting at an obedience heel or moseying about loose-lead-walking!
However if you actually teach a stack (show stance), freestack, targeting to fingers, gaiting and making eye-contact to charm the judge as specific behaviours and put them on cue, the dog will do those when cued instead of another behaviour that hasn't been cued and doesn't have a history of being rewarding in the same circumstances.
Dogs are also pretty good at contextualizing and reading our other sorts of cues. Along with a verbal or hand cue, your body language and situational context all are cues too. IE the collars/leads we use in everyday life, conformation and obedience are all different. My body language is also a cue. I walk, talk, act, dress (skirt=conformation!) and probably even breathe differently in each sport and certainly differently than a lazy walk about town. *G* Depending on what collar/lead I put on and how I'm acting, it's a pretty good clue what game we're playing.
Anyhoo... that's probably a lot more than you wanted to know but the long and short is that it's only a problem if you let it be. *VBG*
Would LOVE to come up to NSW to show sometime! Keep meaning to get up Sydney way anyhow and shows are great excuses! ;-)
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