painting updates

I've been painting a fair bit this week... a bit of cheap therapy for a week that's not been wonderful. These are my fourth, seventh and third attempts at painting respectively having not painted while I was doing the drawing-a-day challenges the other months.

Worked a bit more on this lad. He's acrylics on 10x12" (25.4x30.5cm) canvas panel. Still early days yet but at least he's not *quite* as flat as he was anyway.

A new one started the other day... second and third layers of mumma cow having a sweet moment with her bubba. (First layer is just a light wash of pale goldytan to get rid of white canvas.) Acrylic on 4x6" (13x18cm) canvas. The glare in the upper right corner is just camera as some colours are more matte or glossy than others. Deviated from pure Zorn palette by adding pthalo blue here.

The base of another I started working the other day. I like starting new ones. LOL I have another of Sierra and one of Hope already planned... to be fair I do work on them all at the same time as I don't do wet-on-wet, so I go from one canvas to another as they use similarish colour mixes and there's no sense wasting paint while waiting for the first to dry enough to do the next bit on. Leo is a blue merle Collie Rough owned by one of my flyball teammates. Collie fur is proving surprisingly different than Aussie coat and I've had to totally change brushes to get the start effect of his longer ruff.

For those who don't know when Cami and Verity passed I buried them in the same area (they were always inseperable in life, so it seemed right they be together now too) and decided to make the area a memory garden we call the Rainbow Bridge Garden. Where Verity rests I put an angel statue and it's surrounded with forget-me-nots, little salvias, roses, daffodils, a federation daisy, iris and some other favorites. I go there whenever I'm thinking about them and it's a sunny, warm spot to remember things.

While I was out there today a big dragonfly appeared. Now I know dragonflies aren't uncommon but in almost 5 years of living here I've never seen one on our property so it was pretty surprising and I stood still to watch it for awhile.

Instead of flitting off and around though as I'd expected, it circled around me for ages about a meter and a half out, just in circles. It was so weird I just stood still watching it and feeling a bit amazed, we had dragonflies all over in the US and I've never had one circle me let alone for such a long time! Then it flew over Verity's angel and just hovered there for a good two minutes (timed on my mobile) before flying back over me and repeating the circles for not quite five minutes. It flew back to her angel for just a second before La came up to see what I was doing and when I looked back from him it'd gone.

Amazing hey?

A Borderbrat update

Because my feral little pointy black Rindog is just such a funny little nutterbutter!

Fiftyone billionty in my photo series of "Places Border Collies Do Not Belong(But Go Anyway)"

She knows she's not supposed to go over the fence into the paddocks. Technically she hasn't gone over the fence. Technically. ;p At first she'd bounce over and I'd tell her to get back. Then she'd try to come under and I'd tell her to get back. Then she tried to wiggle through and I told her to get back. Eventually she came upon this solution and just perches there like a cat.

Fiftyone billionty and one in the series. The pile of bricks I've got stacked waiting to be made into garden paving. They give a nice vantage point and soak up the heat so they're warm. Comfy hey?

And an ever so slightly SOGGY Rin-chan. Courtesy of all our storms!

Goofy girls. LOL

And a few of her just being bootiful. She's such a gorgeous girl. :)

By way of update on the critter front, Dexter had to go back in for another tooth trim - it'd already grown that much! While we were there we could tell the other incisors hadn't grown though, which we'd hoped they would. Still I've read they can take 6+ weeks to re-erupt properly after an injury so there is some hope they may regrow. In the meantime there was still some puss around the molar where they suspect the abscess so he's been prescribed long-term antibiotic injections (procaine/pen G). Bunnies abscess a bit differently than most animals. They lack an enzyme which makes it liquid and easy to drain like most animals. As well they tend to encapsulate it and it grows very slowly which is good in one way as they don't suffer from fever or so much pain but difficult in another as it means they are difficult to get rid of and don't easily drain.

He's very good for the injections, I give him a bit of cherry tomato and he doesn't even notice the little needle. He's lot a bit of weight as well so he's on Critical Care which is a special soft food for bunnies that is nutritious and appealing. It gets mixed into a paste and fed to him and he is just the sweetest fellow - just sits there on his little pillow and has a dollop squirted in, chews it, little tongue licking his lips and when he's done has a bit more. If I'm a bit slow he'll sniff at or lick the tip! LOL The pics are him on his little pillow while I was mixing the crit care up and after his food getting a kiss from La.

All together this week seems to just have disappeared on me... namely with school restarting and the roof (that'd be the one replaced last year due to springing a leak and frying all electrics...) re-sprung a leak and causing water damage in 3 rooms. Getting the roofing company to honor it's guarantee is interesting. To boot the tractor that was just fixed busted again and seriously I'm half expecting at any moment to hear a country guitar twang and the start of a theme song about how life done did me wrong writing all this! LOL My birthday was a few days ago as well and that turned out to be quiet but nice. Lily and I hung around the house with the dogs, kits and buns during the day. I got some painting done. I had a nice dinner with everyone and Nic totally surprised me as I was expecting no gift given how many big bills we've generated by presenting me with a laptop! He's apparently been paying for one to be refurbished for a year or so! It's not quite ready but still very exciting! (Our last computer predates our relationship so it was due!) Then Sunday I got given a day to myself at Flyball, just me and Hopie out having fun!

Here's La on his first day back at what would have been the equivalent to the start of primary school vs preschool/kinder. The school has a new building almost finished and welcomed a new teacher who will be sharing in his class so he's excited about that as well as being back with his friends again. A few more of Sir 5 Year Old.


and this is the view just near his school... how gorgeous is that hey!

Plus one of the Lilypillie, who is enjoying having mum all to herself (well, comparatively... still has to share with the furkids) now that La is in school full time!

Art wise, I've royally slacked off most of January. Trying to get back into the swing of things and make time for myself in February. I have two paintings on the go and one more in my goals for the month list. The first is (act shocked...) a dog. Nothing new there although I'm playing with a limited palette - cad red med, cad yellow med, black and white. Here's the roughed in first layer, excuse the dreadful flash shine, rug and jeans!

The second and third are part of challenges. Number two is a WC Acrylics board Different Strokes challenge. The rules let you crop, choose a section/detail, enlarge it or develop it any way you feel like. I really liked the orange lilies up against the bronzy background plant, so I'm planning to tightly crop on that. I can't decide if I want to go with my usual way of doing things given I'm still very new to it or try for something looser, more impressionistic and impastoish. This is the base layer for if I go my usual way. Wibbledywobbdly, indecisive.

The third challenge is to take myself totally out of my comfort zone and go to an abstract challenge I happened upon on the Abstract forum - which is to see how little 'detail' can you use in a piece of art and still convey your 'meaning' - however you understand that term. The subject is a rainstorm, hopefully mixed with a yellowtail black cockatoo. Start of the storm...

Random and unconnected to anything - our neighbors foals, who are just too much fun to watch running around! I mucked with it a bit, think it might make a nice painting eventually?

Poor Dexter indeed! The results.

Well there's good news and bad news from our vet visit today. Here is why I knew we needed to visit asap!

That white thing is his lower right incisor tooth. (It's a single tooth, I'll get to why the lower left and upper right and left front teeth aren't visible in a moment.) It's huge - it ought to end somewhere around where you see the gums (pinkish bit to the bottom left of the tooth) but instead measures at 2cm long, which is long enough to be poking into his upper lip.

The good news is that his general condition is good otherwise, aside from my thoughts about his manky looking ears being correct and not just an issue he gets when he's moulting! (Mites, requiring topical application to get rid of.) The long lower incisor got trimmed today and is likely to require routine trimming.

The bad news is the tooth situation was definitely not limited to an overgrown incisor which I'd kind of suspected but hoped I was misjudging given the ear lowering and slightly atypical chewing motion. With a second pair of hands holding him we got a better view of the rest of his front teeth which I'd thought were just worn oddly. Nope, the upper incisors and lower left incisor are fractured. This is likely from an injury several months back that simply broke all 3 of them off near the gumline. They may or may not regrow, only time will tell. If they don't and require removing, it will be difficult to extract them because there is so little to grip onto to loosen them.

When we were able to view inside his mouth to his molars using the otoscope, the upper right premolar #1 is missing and the left premolars #1&2 have puss which means the start of an abcess going on. The good news on that is that it was caught in the early stages. In addition the lower premolar and molars are misaligned. Poor lads mouth is a right proper mess! So the damage for anyone who thinks rabbits are a "cheap" pet btw was at about $150 today (consult, trim, antibiotics and revolution) and $30ish for each retrim every 3-4 weeks! He will go back in a week for another antibiotic (Pen-G) injection ($30) and dental x-rays (about $350ish) to see what is going on in his mouth. Hopefully it won't require further surgery to remove the teeth which would of course be more on top of that. Here's a video on normal rabbit teeth and routine problems from Medirabbit for anyone curious:

Poor Dexter...

I noticed his one ear was down. This in itself is nothing big, they do that sometimes but this just a bit more relaxed looking than normal and more often than normal perhaps. I thought maybe I'm just being paranoid. He was okay otherwise, eating well, active, normal litter box output and he could put it up, nothing wrong with his ears either so far as I could see.

Then I looked a bit closer, hm, was he chewing a bit oddly? A bit more to one side than the other perhaps? Nothing huge, maybe even just the difference between him having less fluffy lips with his short rex coat meaning the movements are more exaggerated than the others?

I had a little niggling suspicion. Ear down on the left. Chewing to the left. Ears on pups often go down when teething as the ligaments are goofing around, perhaps something sort of akin to that. So I went to peek at his teeth. I can't see them all, lacking a rabbit vets tools to see the rear dentition but as it happens I didn't really need them. I am really amazed he didn't show more signs or more obvious ones earlier - I'll try to get a picture when I have someone to hold him.

So we'll be visiting the vets. I do believe that sound is the sound of my wallet sobbing at the thought of Very Expensive Dental Work!

21 months

Is waking up to snuggles and lazy morning bibi - a girl after her mothers heart who values a snuggly quilt and staying in bed for awhile after waking in the morning.

Uses any excuse to grab my mobile or a telephone and pretend to gab.

Loves to dance till she's dizzy anytime a song comes on or someone claps for her. And then dance some more after laughing at herself for having fallen.

Is giggles that melt my heart, endless kisses freely given and a cheeky smile that crinkles the corner of her eyes.

Loves her brother to bits, trailing after him with stars and heroworship in her eyes... except when she doesn't. La is becoming familiar with the fine art of apologizing to someone half his size, twice his stubbornness and who holds a grudge the size of Texas when wronged.

Adores dogs. Especially WOOKA, who hops up onto the woodpile to peer in the window and play peek-a-boo while she peers out at him on the couch. Although for a pillow while you nap Sierra is the better choice because it tends to stay still longer.

Listens when you say no, actually stops and puts things back if told to do so, helps clean up, helps put away dishes/laundry when pointed to the correct cupboard and is generally well behaved. A novelty considering we're used to struggling with her brother on four of those five counts. Gods it's nice to have an EASY child, however un-PC it may be to say!

Recognizes Doctor Who on sight (Doctors 9, 10 and 11 all claimed as Doctah... 11 to her daddy's delight and mummy's dismay...) and includes Tah-dish as part of her vocab. A proud, if geeky, moment all around.

Loves vegemite on toast, mandarin, nashi pears, ginger biscuits, cucumber and anything sweet.

Still can't stand an open door and MUST close it.

Climbs like a terror and is fearless in exploring her physical limitations. Shades of her brother, although she's saner about choosing her footing and gauging her risks and doesn't deliberately TRY to fall.

Amazes me with the degree from which she can go from sunshine in summer - sweet, warm, going with the flow (99.5% of the time) to a strident and implacable Napoleon (0.5% of the time). This is a girl who knows her own mind and is sure enough of it she will stand against the world in her beliefs.

Still has curls in her hair but only on the tips now for the most part.

When she tantrums, she will taken comfort when SHE is ready and not an iota of a second before. Try it - as several well intending friends have found - and she'll pause just long enough to say NO in no uncertain terms. When she's ready no will change to yes and she'll be back to cuddles.

Bobbing bunnah

When I got Dexter, I'd been told that he only drank from a water bottle and previous attempts to get him to use a bowl hadn't worked well. I prefer bowls as the buns drink more water per minute, a good crock can keep cool and ice cubes won't jam it in hot weather. So I was keen to get him on a bowl but he was less certain about this whole switch-a-roo business! The first attempts were, well, "less than overwhelmingly spectacular". I started coaxing him by first holding pieces of veg just above the water and later dipping them till Dexter ended up bobbing for (proverbial) apples. LOL It didn't take a few sessions before he noticed it was good for DRINKING too! I'm not sure if it's because of his short rex coat or what but he dunks half his muzzle and comes up with his whole muzzle sodden and dribbly as well, which inevitably seems to result is whomever is nearby ending up a bit wet as well!

Completely unrelated I'm also trying to organize myself to get a plan going for all the things I want to do around this place. One of the major things I want to do is knock off more from our monthly mortgage repayment than we're currently doing. I also want to pad out our "vet/pet" savings a bit more each month as I am very keen to have another Aussie pup and either this year or next a PBGV now that La will be in school full time. I was very tempted to adopt one who came up a few weeks back but more practically I ought to attend to other things first, particularly wrt Shadow because we don't know how long that will take, neighbors weren't amused at the time and Nic is grumpy on the subject to say the least.

We need to do a major overhaul for quite a few things including:

• new computer - current is from 2003 and I want a lap top!
• new stove/oven - our current one is almost as old as me, the oven bit is completely kaput and cannot be repaired
• new washing machine and fridge - both are really old and have been fixed a million times, with the warning from the fix-it guy that they are on their last legs
• restump the area under the bathroom - the only place NOT restumped and currently sunk
• renovate the bathroom - new bathtub, flooring, tiles etc
• repair the ceiling in the study (water damage from the other year, it's fine but really ugly and warped)
• a new chainsaw and drill
• repaint and refit the laundry, study and loo
• put down pathing stones on the walks, to cover the road base and cut down on the mud the dogs drag in
• I also want to start saving toward a hydro bath and force dryer for the dogs
  

Totally aside from all of that I'd like to get Sierra, Rin and Luka all competing and with titles this year, have Hopie finish (or come as close as possible to) her Flyball Masters and finish up her HSA-s. Nothing too reaching given I'll likely reroute some money from training/comps/travel for the other stuff.

Part of it is that we do need to do all these things and I want to get them all sorted out of course but I am also very keen on being able to take the kids overseas - particularly I really want to have us all go to France and be able to visit Dives sur Mer, St Lo etc and financially I know that will not happen until we've taken care of those expenses and knocked a bit more off the mortgage so I'm shooting for having enough for a proper holiday there in 2012-2013.

Unintentionally Trained

Anyone who is owned by an Aussie knows that it means you will never, ever be alone again. Humans, the Aussie Shepherd is sure, NEED proper supervision at all times or something awful is liable to befall them. Mine are convinced I'm particularly in need of a full escort and this annoyingly seems to include trips to the loo.

Unfortunately for them, I have an annoyingly human habit of not recognizing that The Evil Drain Monster might suck me down the loo when I flush and prefer privacy to a furry escort. The first several times they did it I told them firmly to shoo. They backed up, just enough to be out of the room so I could close the door. Having banished my valiant vanguard they then started laying down with noses and eyes pressed to the crack under the door. Again I had to tell them to SHOO. At which point they all back up exactly one step and lay down as near as possible without being ordered to scram. Now Luka, who is on holiday here has picked this up and I've realized when they took one step back, lay down and SIGHED dramatically in SYNC they've all picked it up unintentionally trained behaviour chain... oh the joys!

Random randomness

• It is very sweet to wake up to a bunny curled up on your pillow next to your cheek.
  
  
• My kids grandfather may be a professional international dancer/instructor but they themselves are going to be ones who get 'points for enthusiasm'.
  
  
• It's really annoying when the universe presents a lovely "would jump for it any other time" opportunity but at a not-so-perfect-for-lovely-opportunities time. It's not the be all and end all but it is annoying all the same.
  


• No matter how many times Laurent mispronounces words like "interesting" as "in-STIR-ing", particularly as he tends to say it like a demented Sherlock Holmes I laugh.
  
  
• Jasper (kitty) is very glad to finally have a rabbit in the house who thinks cats are good for sharing a bed with instead of thumping in annoyance or give him what for if he comes too close. Dexter was raised with kitties and doesn't mind sharing his cushions or cuddlehuts.
  
  
• Lily is rocking out with a lot of sentences at the moment, most of which involve the dogs in some form - "Luka, here puppy!", "Titty (that's 'the kitty' btw) wants kiss.", "Luka! LUKA! Where areeeeeeeee you???", "Luuukkkkaaaaaa! Have a ball?" She is SO my child! (Luka is the only dog in the house at the moment to routinely be hollered for by name, so I'm not just leaving out her calling for Sierra, Hope or Rin.) Non-dog sentences include, "Close the door!", "'ere you go mum!" and just-for-her-brother, "Oh WOW, COOL!"
  
  
• Babies - be they four legged milk breath pups or two legged little infants are possibly the most dangerous creatures on earth. They make me stupidly clucky in under a nano-second.
  
  
• I miss my dogs at the rainbow bridge. I want them back. Veri and Cami. Cade, he's on my mind all the time at the moment, every time I see a little dog. Bella and Bria, even 5 and 10 years on. I know it's impossible but the hole where they should be is just too empty for bearing sometimes and I'd give just about anything for even one more day. While I'm wanting the impossible I'd like my little Matilda Muzzie back too.
  
  
• I hate that I'm seeing age in Sierra recently. She's healthy and fit, a young and bouncy 10 - most days by sheer dint of verve you'd swear she's younger than Hope. Occasionally on very cold days I see her stand up just a bit slower and stretch herself from some ache or doze in the sun in a certain way that speaks of age and it reminds me that my eternal puppy one day will be an old dog in a way I'm not at all ready for. I very much prefer to play ostrich with my head in the sand on the matter just now.
  
  
• I hate the number of my friends who have had to learn to live with the sorrow of having lost their loved companions lately. Cancer, in all it's awful forms, sucks.
  

• among the reasons I will be glad Nic is going back to work from vacation
  1. he left a can of spray paint out - with an unsupervised 5 year old... 'nuff said
  2. he left food dye (for play dough) next to the kids snacks (crackers, raisins, nuts etc) and Darling Tornado Child has decided when he was given permission to get raisins from the cupboard for a snack the dyes presence meant it was okay if he dyed them blue. Turns out counters... and kids... dye better than raisins.
  
  
• Your not quite 2 year old proudly demonstrating she knows how to breastfeed (holding her teddy bear for bibi) is unspeakably cute. Especially when she is SO pleased with how clever she is!
  
  
• I am a hopeless handler who is good at doing remarkably dorky stuff - witness this weeks genius: giving poor Hope the signal to come around to my right side (right hand held in a flat 5, moved from hip forward - usually used in obedience/freestyle) instead of her release signal to get the ball in flyball (similar but with the LEFT hand) resulting in the poor gal looking rather baffled but humoring her clearly mad partner by coming around to my right and sitting. She was clearly wondering A.) why the heck I was using a non-flyball cue especially when the start lights had CLEARLY gone off and B.) why the heck I was repeating it when she'd already done as asked. Ladies and gents - I assure you, red is not my natural hair colouring....
  
  
• Small boys make up for being Tornados most of the time by cuddling their sister, rubbing her back and singing, "We love Lilypillie, she's our pretty baby, she has chubby tummy and a fatty little bummy and we loves her cuz she's our little bayyyyyyyyyybeeeeee!" complete with dance hands for the finish.
  

Dexter

Meet Dexter... and his little stuffed bunny friend who has been with him since he was a baby. He is, hopefully, going to be Nilla's husbun once she is better - as she has a URI at t he moment - and he is neutered. He is a 2 year old mini rex whose previous owners were moving to New Zealand and didn't feel taking him was going to work. Even my DH is in love as Dexter is as happy to beg a pat from him as he is from me, whereas Romeo will only ask for ear rubs from me or occasionally La (particularly if there is goodies to be had) and Cinna and Nilla will ask him for pets if momma isn't available.

He's quite taken with hay, just pounced on it and started gobbling like it was going out of style... guess we know a good thing when we see one!

Close up of his curly-whirly whiskers and curly-whirly eyelashes... so cute!

And last but not least - this morning I was woke from a nap with DD to find someone small and fuzzy snuggled next to my cheek. Awwww... so naturally after I got up I snapped some pics of him supervising me folding some laundry on the floor. LOL

Not Just For Christmas

At Christmas, it's easy to see an explosion of animals bred for the holiday season. These are often victims of impulse purchase, sourced from puppy mills and irresponsible breeders and neglected or dumped in the following year. They contribute to the tens of thousands of animals euthanized each year.

While many are aware of the horrors of puppy mills, bunnies are vulnerable as they are falsely seen as cheap, cuddly, low maintenance 'starter' pet for children. The reality is a bit different:
Bunnies Are Not Cheap
While initial purchase price may seem cheap the associated costs over the rabbits lifetime can be expensive. All rabbits should be desexed by a rabbit specialist, vaccinated and microchipped and these costs factored into the choice to bring a rabbit into your life. Young rabbits mature quickly and you can run into unwanted litters, hormonal and territorial behaviour, alarming rates of uterine cancer and poor litter box habits. Adopting a bunny from a shelter or rescue may mean this is $50-80, whereas private desexing/vax/microchipping may range upwards of $250 for vaccinations, check-up, spay, bloodwork, fluids, monitoring, pre and post op pain management, microchip etc. They will require vaccination annually and may require specialized and potentially expensive treatment for dental issues and GI stasis in their lifetimes.
Bunnies Are Not "Cuddly"
Bunnies are prey animals by nature and physically delicate. The exuberance, desire to pick up, grab, carry around and cuddle with whatever grip their little hands can manage are frightening and dangerous for rabbits. It often results in broken legs or backs or bunnies who learn to bite or kick when picked up after having been accidentally mishandled. Bunnies do enjoy attention and affection but a child's idea of having fun and enjoyment is not generally compatible with how prey animals like rabbits express and understand affection.

Bunnies Are Not "Starter" Pets
The reality is that rabbits are active, highly social animals who require a commitment of 10-12 years. They represent a significant commitment in terms of time, money and owner dedication. Being highly social animals, rabbits ideally should live in pairs as well.

Bunnies Are Not Low Maintenance
Most 'hutches' sold for rabbit housing are woefully inadequate. We would not imagine locking a cat or dog in a cage barely 3 times it's body length and on wire for the duration of it's life but this is what most bunnies are expected to consider home. Wire bottoms can lead to painful pressure sores, broken toes, injured legs/feet etc. The small sizes lead to poor long term health due to lack of muscle tone, loss of bone, obesity, poor cardiovascular health, poor gut health etc as well as the mental cruelty of such confinement and isolation. Outdoor animals are more at risk of disease, mites, fleas, predation, temperature extremes and owners not noticing illness. Bunnies hide illness very well and it is hard to notice subtle changes in an animal who is out of sight most of the day. Any outdoor housing or exercise yards must be completely mosquito proof to prevent exposure to calcivirus and myxo which have fatality rates of 100%. Instead a more ideal home is a bunny condo when it must be penned and access to rabbit proofed rooms in your home so it can be part of the family just as your dog or cat would.

Rabbits also require a fair amount of care - daily fresh food (good quality hay, water, fresh vegetables/herbs and a small amount of high quality pellets), litter changes, mental stimulation and at least 3 hours exercise time in order to maintain health and well being. Short haired breeds should be brushed regularly to prevent the ingestion of excess hair causing blockages or stasis, while long haired bunnies may require daily brushing. All rabbits require nail trimming.

For homes who are definitely keen on rabbits as pets, there are many more rewards but we need more awareness of the reality of owning rabbits responsibly. For those considering rabbits please check out The House Rabbit Society (www.rabbit.org), Australian Companion Rabbit Society (http://www.rabbit.org.au) for more information, Australian based Boing Online (http://www.boingonline.com). For more information on rabbit body language and behaviour The Language of Lagomorphs (http://language.rabbitspeak.com), as well as all sorts of information on Rabbit Links (http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html) and if you're in Melbourne the Melbourne Rabbit Clinic (http://www.melbournerabbitclinic.com) is one of the best bunny vets around!

random catch up photos

because I've been such a slacker and haven't really been sure what to write

One of the new roses in the Rainbow Bridge garden

Tim Tam, "Where are you going mum?"

Hopie and Luka at the dam

Lily at Ballarat comp

Luka on his birthday! :)

Lilypillie, my smiley girl

The interesting attempts to draw with small children around! LOL

Hopie with the ribbons our club gave her at the end of the year. She was more impressed with the biscuits but I thought they were nice. LOL

La demonstrating his weird abilities to sleep in the most bizzare places...

Hope at a recent comp

Hope, Sierra, Luka and Rin at the dam

Nilla playing sneaky stealth ninja bunny

and demanding a pat from La

Haha, - such shy timid little wallflowers hey!

sonnet 30

Feeling a bit introspective and thumbing through my favorites tonight and came across a favorite that grabbed me given the current mood I've been in. He was such a brilliant poet with the layers in words and images.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,
And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since cancell'd woe,
And moan the expense of many a vanish'd sight:
Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.

No Nationals...

For those who don't know Hope well, she is a very happy girl but somewhat dispostioned towards being anxious. It's something I'm very mindful of in training and one of the reasons I introduced and continue to manage her quite carefully in team competitions. I want her to be able to enjoy all the things she loves in life and to do that I have to deal with the anxiety as the monkey on our back. Initially with flyball we worked quite carefully in introducing passes over the hurdles as in doggy terms, a dog rushing at you full pelt and especially in a straight line is a weird, rather off-putting behaviour. Generally the only time they'd do it naturally is if it were a very young pup who was still learning their social graces or a dog with a serious and aggressive intent. So we desensitized, counter conditioned and gave her lots of room and reinforcement, wide passes with late releases and using easy going team-mates she loves. This worked really well and we'd progressed to right up the ladder to nice fairly tight passes.

At Hope's last comp in Euroa she was attacked as we were entering the ring. The dog was really worked up into a frentic state (a personal pet peeve of mine in flyball... people excuse all manner of out of control hyper aroused behaviour in the name of 'building drive' and then shrug as if there's nothing you can do about it) and to get to our start place we had to go by her which just tipped her over boiling point and she lunged at Hope, roaring and snapping out a tuft of fur. Hope's reaction was akin to, "Jeeze what's YOUR issue?!?" and I went into recovery and refocusing mode, which worked well enough that she finished off the comp without seeming terribly phased. She was concerned about that individual dog after but not overly so and remained fully operant, engaged, eager and happy. We found out later Hope isn't the first dog this has happened to unfortunately. I wasn't happy but figured at least it didn't seem to result in any major impact for Hope.

So we went to the next (Nationals team only) practice. I had it in my mind that if she was that stressed again we'd beg off but after a week of practicing chilling out we'd give her a chance at least. She saw this dog again and while they didn't run together at all Hope was stressed seeing her there. She'd be focused and eager for the run but then pull off the last two hurdles to avoid having to cross on the back-run. Our sub-captain who'd not been at Euroa was wanting tighter crosses and I was not willing so it wasn't much fun. At the end of practice the dogs were off lead for a play but I kept Hope with me. The other dog's owner tossed a ball which happened to bounce over and Hope had a major freak out, tucked her tail and bolted behind me cowering and shaking, then proceded to physically tow me back to the car spooking out and panic barking over her shoulder. I about cried, she's NEVER been so freaked out!

We kept everything calm this week and when I went to the next team practice. We didn't get much time in but I was so heartened to see her being confident and full of chutzpa, bouncing around, rolling on the grass like a nut, driving back over all the jumps full pelt, gleefully enjoying the tuggy and being her usual sunny self. Before I could go into much else I was pulled aside and told they'd decided to not to put us in for Nationals. Which is disappointing in one sense because I was very excited about it prior to all this but a relief in another because I wanted a few more weeks of relaxed time and positive practices before we throw a comp her way even with how well she was doing this time. While she's not affected enough to be considered a 'reactive' dog as such, ime one fo the worst things you can do in terms of working with such dogs is to start working them too soon after an incident instead of letting them fully settle out and that would be the case for her as well. Sooo... for better or worse, we're sitting this one out.

Meanwhile, on the way back I'd got a call from Mandi asking if I'd like another dog to run in flyball. Luka is her keeper from her first litter, about a year old now but she's not ready to start serious herding training with him. In the meantime, he's a busy lad and she figured he might do well with a holiday for awhile.

Dogs +1

Meet "Luka"... he's not mine, he's just come to visit for awhile and isn't he a handsome lad? His mum Mandi wanted him to be able to do some flyball and figured he might come for a holiday with us here.

He is such a typical Aussie personality! Obviously a lot of it goes to his being well raised and socialized but it never ceases to amaze me how adaptable our Aussies are. Picked up from his home where he lives with adults and teenagers and come into the midst of our crazy mob, taken to shops, nursery, school, hardware stores etc and he's not batted an eyelash nor set a foot wrong. He's slotted himself into the routine effortlessly, is full of gleeful bum wiggles, gets along with everyone without fuss and adores the kids... hey, short people who will love on you, throw your ball and play squeaky endlessly while dropping food frequently - what's not to love? They're taken with him as well, it took Lily all of an hour to start hollering "Here YUCA!" You'd never guess he just arrived or that he'd not been raised with kids crawling over him every day of his life. LOL

He's also rather taken with this whole flyball training thing. ;)