Rarin' To Go

I worked Cedar for only the second time in a month yesterday, out at Dianne's. Needless to say, we're both really rusty. Dianne had us take the sheep out of the take pen to start our work. I helped Cedar out by grabbing her collar and taking her behind the sheep. They bolted out of the pen with their heads high and tails in the air, which got Cedar pretty excited. I laid her down to go and shut the gait and the sheep took off. Cedar took off after them (I think she was just trying to collect them and bring them to me), but ended up splitting them to holy hell. We got things back under control and did a few outruns and worked on driving. She was pretty good but excitable. She split them a few times and acted all frantic at times, but we got some good stuff done. We ended by re-penning the sheep. They were very happy to go back in, and I don't blame them! LOL

Our second work started out much the same way. I helped her get them out of the pen, but at least this time, the sheep just walked out, and Cedar stayed down while I shut the gate. I sent her around to pick the sheep up and she was a little tight but not bad. We worked some more on driving but it became clear kinda fast that her head wasn't in the game. She was starting to get frantic so we took a break from that for awhile and went back to "easier" stuff... i.e. outruns. I worked on getting her to go wider and squarer, and also slowing down her pace. By the time we did a few in each direction she was much better and actually listening to me. We worked a bit more on driving and having her do a lot of little tiny flanks. I think that was harder for me to process than it was for her! Everything happens so quickly that sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode...

Anyways, I really liked doing that exercise with her. By the end of our lesson, she was nicely loosened up and listening well. I am hoping to start going out to Dianne's more consistently now that we are pretty much all moved in and unpacked.

Reality Hits

This blog is almost completely non-dog related...

Well, the class I'm teaching this fall officially is up for enrollement... there are two students signed up!



Which means that my teaching assistantship is actually real. I'm going to teach college. Students are actually PAYING to learn from me...er, well, technically they're paying BSU, but BSU is paying me. I feel mostly like a fraud at this point. Hell, I'm still a student myself, what business do I have teaching English composition?!



I'm both excited and nervous at the same time. I can't wait for August to roll around!

P.S. Moss is 6 months old today! I will probably post another blog or at least add to this one later... but alas, have to get back to work!

Cheatin' Mike and Ms. Raven

Spontaneous vacations, I've decided, are the absolute best. In case you didn't know, Joe and I went to Oregon this past weekend. We left Thursday night and drove to Sunriver, where we spent the night at Joe's family's vacation house. I absolutely LOVE it there, and try to go as much as possible :)

Since we started driving so late (about 5:30 or so), we caught a gorgeous sunset on the way there. I caught it with my camera out the car window:



We spent the night in Sunriver, soaked in the hot tub a bit, and before we left took the dogs down to the river to play around a bit. Cedar loves water. LOVES. Probably a bit too much.

The River (I think it's the Deschutes River?)



The evidence...





Even Scully, normally afraid of the water, decided it looked like fun and joined in:


Moss decides to take the plunge...


Time to go!

Aww, that was fun! Can we go again?


After our trip down to the river, we got on the road to the coast. We'd made reservations at the South Beach State Park campground near Newport. I got literally the last reservation before the campground filled up. Guess the beach is popular during the summer ;)

The dogs hanging out at our campsite:






I was really excited to take the dogs to see the ocean, so as soon as we got our camp set up, Joe and I leashed the mongrels and took them on the 1/2 mile trail from the camp ground to the beach.

(Yes, Scully is wearing a life jacket, LOL)


It was a little stormy out, but not too cold and the water looked amazing:


The look on Cedar's face was priceless when she saw the water for the first time...

Look at all that wide open space to play fetch!


... but she wasn't too excited about the waves at first.


Moss just thought the whole thing was awesome, but again, everything is his favorite thing. :)

What's this?


Looks like fun...


Yahoo!






Surfer!


...see? :D


After some fun in the water, we played fetch with the dogs for a bit:

Throw the frisbee, dammit!


YES!


That night, we ate some delicious mac n' cheese and hung out by the campfire drinking beer. It was very nice (other than the mosquitos), until our "neighbors," who we shall call Cheatin' Mike and Ms. Raven started arguing next door...

Have you ever been so drunk that you thought it was a good idea to start arguing with your wife/girlfriend/significant other in the middle of a crowded campground after dark? Loud enough that everyone around you learns your name and exactly what you did to piss her off? Way to go, Cheatin' Mike. I'm sure Ms. Raven (I actually found out her name from the name on their truck's license plate) really appreciates the fact that you slept with someone else and then tried to lie about it. Somehow I don't think that she'll believe you when you say you "just made out with her" anymore. And no amount of drunken, obnoxious swearing or pounding on the door of her RV is going to fix things. Especially not at eleven o'clock at night.

Yes, Mike, we all heard you. And yes, we were very, very amused. Especially to see you sleeping in the truck by yourself the next morning. ROFL! Thanks for the entertainment, guys!

*cough*

Anyways...

The next day, we decided to take Moss to the beach by himself, and then take Scully and Cedar later. It was a lot more relaxing splitting them up like that... less leashes! Moss actually did really, really great on the beach. I even got brave enough to take him off lead and play fetch with him. He's such a good boy. I just love this dog.

Some pix from his solo beach experience:







My handsome boy <3


And... Scully and Cedar's trip to the beach, which consisted mostly of extended games of fetch with occasional pauses for photo ops...







Why do I have to stand on this log?


...


Much better!




Finally, a chance to really stretch out!


We were going to stay a second night on the coast, but there looked to be a big storm rolling in and we didn't feel like hanging out in a wet tent for the next day or so. We made the decision to drive back to Sunriver and hang out there for the rest of our trip. I'm so glad we did! I had a wonderful time. And, yes, took lots more pictures of the dogs. LMAO! We hung out outside on the deck for awhile, drinking some wine and sake that we bought at Trader Joe's (yay!). Moss has decided that he likes sake. But again, everything is his favorite thing.



Cedar, however, prefers to sit in the woods looking pretty.





We drove home yesterday afternoon. I can't wait to go back...

To close out this absurdly long blog entry, since this was technically our wedding anniversary trip (the actual date was last weekend, though) a photo of Joe and I on the beach:

Further Adventures on the Short Bus

I'm going to break up this post with photos of Cedar from the park, since I don't have any new working photos of her....

Anyways...

Like I told Dianne, I don't know if it's Cedar that needs to go stay with her for training, or me.

I'm pretty sure that it's me.



Monday's lesson was kind of mixed for me. Our first work was not particularly lovely. Cedar was acting really freakish (I think she's coming in heat or something) and feeling the pressure of the indoor arena much more than she usually does. I felt like there was a huge disconnect between us and my timing suffered as a result. Maybe taking three weeks off while we were moving wasn't such a good idea ;).



Cedar wasn't respecting me at all, and things were going badly, so Dianne stepped in and tried to work her. Now, most of you know that Cedar does not like to work for anyone but me, LOL. She tried all methods of escaping, hiding, avoiding, etc etc. It was rather embarrassing. After a few cringe-worthy minutes, however, Dianne was able to work her magic and got Cedar working for her a little bit. Cedar was exhausted.

The second time, Cedar didn't want to get out of the car to go back into the barn. So I grabbed her collar and coaxed her with me, and we went in to work. It went much better. We worked on outruns and driving, and a little bit on getting the sheep off the wall. She did pretty well. I sucked. But I am encouraged... and I think we'll get there eventually. Not that I'm quite sure where "there" is exactly... but yeeeaaaah.



Soooo.... we're not going to the Couch "Rookie Rumble" trial this weekend. We're going to the Oregon Coast instead!!! We're staying at a campground that's really close to the ocean, and I can't wait to take the dogs to the beach! Yay ocean!

Eyeherd that someone wanted updates

Apparently *some people* feel that I don't blog enough. So Katy, this one's for you. ;)

We're pretty much all moved into our new place. Still have quite a bit of unpacking and laundry to do, but other than that we are all settled. I love it here! It's so nice to have more space and an overall better living situation. With all the chaos I haven't been able to get out to Dianne's at all, which sucks. But it's been worth it!

The dogs actually have their own "room" (well, it's actually just space for their crates in the laundry room), but the best part is that I can actually shut them off from the rest of the house! That has kept everything much cleaner. It's pretty fabulous. They are lovin' the big back yard; there are a lot of places for them to explore. They all seem much happier with the extra space... probably because WE are happier, too.

See? :)




Moss is five months old and is now a little bit taller than Cedar! He is such a sweet puppy. I DO need to do some more obedience work with him as he doesn't have the world's best impulse control. LOL

"Throw the frisbee!!!"




He is definitely losing that "puppy" look:














I am excited to start working him on stock this summer!

Cedar is doing great as well. We got through our first herding trial, and will be doing the Couch Novice trial in a week and a half, even though we haven't practiced at all. My confidence has been a bit low lately and that hasn't done much to help her with her work. I guess we're both a work in progress.



I want to start working her in agility again, too. I wish I had the money to sign up for the newest set of classes. I need to retrain her weave poles... I think I'm going to stick to my plan of teaching her 2x2 weaves instead of getting lazy and not following through like I did the last time I had ambitions of teaching her, haha. She loves to weave though, so I'm looking forward to working with her more. I need to convince my dad to build me an A-frame or teeter or something, though...

I wonder if I could have her ready to trial by October? That's probably pushing it... and I'm not exactly the queen of follow-through.



To close, here are a few shots of Scully enjoying the new house: