saw two movies in the past week: american fiction and dune: part two. the latter was really, really good. i liked american fiction, too. good combination of funny, sad, and heartfelt.
we moved into our current house last march, and we're still moving stuff out of the old house. i think we're on the home stretch at least (yay, puns)... my stuff has been out of there for awhile, but my partner lived there for ten years, so he accumulated a lot over the years.
echo had her trainer evaluation on sunday and performed wonderfully. basically all she had to do was walk around and not show signs of fear or reactivity to a new, mostly empty room. she accepted petting from the evaluator and was generally very chill. she also did great the two times i took her to the neighborhood restaurant patio, so it looks like i may have another brewery dog in the works! she starts her canine good citizen class in a couple of weeks.
i'm working at my polling place tomorrow for the primary election. i'm pretty disillusioned with the system in general, but i think it's a good thing to do for the community (plus, the money i make can go toward more dog activities!). it's gonna be a loooong day, and we have new, idiotic voter ID laws that should really be thrown in the trash.
these are such important skills, especially for those anxious herding dogs! my aussie is actually on puppy prozac, and has been for a long time, because he's a nervous wreck otherwise. i also have no degree for training, though i've been doing it as a hobby and was a training assistant for a highly-regarded local facility around 10 years ago.
we do lots and lots of trick training for enrichment purposes. at this point, loki (aussie) could probably have a few trick titles, but i've never wanted to spend the money on them, haha. he's also pretty close to his rally novice title, but i'm lazy and again... that's money i could be spending on his main sport: agility. i worked on his behavior in public a lot when i first got him, which makes him a great brewery dog. he will settle and hang out with us for hours on end, accept pets from strangers, and is generally great for that kind of thing.
jean is... something, haha. she's very eager to work, but also gets excited and frustrated easily. i also spent the last couple of years working on some dog reactivity issues which seem to have mostly subsided as she's gotten older (thank goodness). she also knows how to ride in the carrier on my e-bike, and she really enjoys that! she does some agility, but even at three years old, she's not trial ready. she gets so sniffy when we're anywhere new, but i think she might be to the point where i can take her to a couple of mock trials this summer.
i'm not quite sure what echo's going to excel in, although i'm obviously hoping for an agility dog. i could see her dabbling in other sports, and maybe even doing some disc dog or dock diving. apparently she had access to an in-ground pool at her former home, although i'm not sure if / how much she used it.
aww, thank you! jean is an especially affectionate and cuddly dog. she loves these events, and i’m so excited to get her to more of them. she’s a blast to work with, even when she’s being a stinker. :)
seeing teachers make mistakes helps students realize that the teachers are human, too! i used to teach some basic website building classes and i would often debug things live in front of the class. it’s all part of the learning process. :)
that sounds like so much fun! my little dog would hate that (she’s cold in any temp under 70F), but i’ll bet my aussie would absolutely thrive on a snowy slope.
oh jeez. we had ducks growing up and you are not kidding. i was always kinda horrified as a kid by them, despite seeing plenty of animals getting down with one another haha.
echo is officially part of the family as of saturday. signed the paperwork and sent it in! i've got her signed up for a trainer evaluation next weekend so she can get into a canine good citizen class.
i took the other two dogs (loki and jean) to a fast CAT trial on saturday as well. loki peed in the ring his first run (immediate disqualification, oops) and didn't seem to know what i wanted him to do. kinda kicking myself for not signing him up for two fun runs instead of paying for two scored runs. i swapped his second run to a fun run so i could walk down the length of the track, and he did way better that time. the lure spooked him at one point, but he recovered, and i think we'll do a couple more fun runs to see if he likes it enough to keep doing it.
jean absolutely crushed it! her fastest run was 9.477 seconds, which boils down to 21.58mph (34.93kmph). the slower run was somewhere between 10-11 seconds, but i forgot to write it down. she ran right to me at the end and leapt into my arms like a champ both times. she was also great around all the other dogs who were barking and yowling and generally being amped up. looking forward to seeing the photos that were taken later this week, which i'll be sure to post over on !animals@beehaw.org. 😊
loki & jean after the trial.
echo spending her day with another rescue volunteer.
jean is heading to another fast CAT trial in a couple of weeks, and loki has a rally obedience trial coming up the weekend after that. this year is really going to the dogs. 😅
autumn (she/they) @ autumn @beehaw.org Posts 33Comments 289Joined 3 yr. ago
sending you all the internet hugs. 🫂