TatumCategory Archives

Having A Hard Time

Parley's Nature Preserve

Well, it’s been a week and a half since Lucy passed away. And I am having one heck of a bad time getting over losing her. I don’t think I had this hard a time when Angel died. However, the husband reminds me that back then I was on Zoloft for anxiety. And that numbed all my emotions. And I went off that a year ago, because of side effects I didn’t like, and so now I get to feel the full slam of all my stupid emotions all the time. It sucks. But, I guess that’s just life. I just wasn’t ready to let her go.

Also, I’ve been just looking past too much, wondering where all the years have gone. I’m so worried about Levi, too, now, though my rational mind thinks he is doing pretty good. I’m taking him to a holistic type doctor to see if she can help him stay strong as long as possible, too. The regular vets are fine, but usually just give you the typical rymadil and narcotics and steroids for things. Hopefully this other vet will give him a bit of extra.

Levi is my heart dog. I really hope he lives 2 more years. I can retire in Aug 2013. Because I know that I’ll be a wreck when Levi dies, and if I have to actually perform at work, I really, honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to for a while. I don’t handle death, or extreme emotions, very well at all. Ugh. I feel like I’ve been bleeding all over the internet and Facebook, so I’ve been making a huge effort not to whine and cry about her too much. I did find a great website, Pet Loss, where people can go and brood over lost pets. I have been chatting online there, which has helped me a bit, I think.

Today I took Levi, Tatum and Jet to Parley’s Nature Preserve. It’s the only off leash park I like to go to. Our round-trip walk was 1.75 miles, I measured it with my phone. I also lost my fitbit… which is my fancy pedometer. That sucks, since it was $99 and I really can’t afford another one. Oh well, I guess I just can’t see how many steps I take anymore. Things are just things, anyway. What really matters is my family and friends. Both groups include my dogs. I realized that years ago when Lucy and Levi were very young and chewed many things up. After a while, I just stopped really caring about the things, and caring about the dogs.

Below are some more pictures. I am taking many more pictures of Levi, now, because I don’t have enough of Angel or Lucy. I have a ton of Jet, though. LOL. He is just so darn photogenic.

Running at the Park

Tatum and Levi

Jet in the Water

I stopped on the way home and got some yarn so I can knit some dark black socks. I’ve been having a bit of a knitting bug lately. I didn’t get any kmart coupons, though. I like the local yarn store, what a fun place that would be to work when I retire.

Cynthia

August 13, 2011

Jet, Levi, Lucy, Tatum

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Jet, Levi, Lucy, Park, Tatum

A Trip to the Desert

It’s strange, still, to only have five dogs now. It’s actually been strange to have had only six. Since Angel passed on in May 2010, I still kept trying to count for seven dogs. I hadn’t gotten used to six. And now I’m going to have to count for five dogs only.

Yeah, my husband and I would count dogs to make sure we had them all around. Home safe. Not getting out or running amok.

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I think I am coming to terms with losing Lucy. I’m still very sad, and last night cried again in bed before I went to sleep. I miss her so much. I wish that I could have put her in a bed, given her meds, and kept her around like I would have kept a person around. But dogs don’t work that way… and seriously, it’d be nice if we could put people out of their misery, too. Lucy was miserable. It was her time to go. I just still miss her so much.

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Today we took a trip to the desert to let the dogs run. It was a short trip. Long drive, about 45 minutes, and it was too hot to let the dogs run for too long. But they did have fun. Levi isn’t very strong anymore and can’t go very far. I sure hope he’s okay when we go to camp. I will take it slow for him, give him what he needs, and sit around on the beach of Lake Tahoe all day if we need too. Which, really, won’t make me sad at all, sitting on the beach all day!

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I am trying out a new gallery, too, so above are the thumbnails. Though I’m not quite so sure how it works, yet, and I may just add the images individually too.

Cynthia

August 7, 2011

Angel, Chase, Jet, Levi, Lucy, Muffit, Tatum

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Angel, Chase, Jet, Levi, Lucy, Muffit, Tatum

Five Dogs Staying

When it’s hot out, and I don’t want to go for a walk after work… and when I just can’t decide what dogs to take with me when all of them want to go, I sometimes will just stay home and train.

Well yesterday at work I was thinking why not work all the dogs at the same time? I can do some stay work and mat work and have them really be good pups!

This is a long video, about 10 minutes, I didn’t edit it much since the in-between treating part is kinda fun to watch too. At least for me. feel free to fast forward. LOL. They all did really well. Tatum was the worst, which means we need more stay work with Tatum. Jet was the second worst, which is bad, since he’ll need stays in obedience! Lucy was also pretty bad but she’s old, 12.5 years old now, and she has a hard time moving. When I pushed her down I put hardly any pressure on her at all. I just touch her and she goes down easily. But still, I might not work her anymore. She loves the treats but it’s too hard for her to move.

Chase and Levi were solid as rocks. Good boys! They have had a lot of obedience training those two.

It was fun, I’m thinking I’ll split them up in pairs of 2 for a while since this is a new thing and I want to reinforce their stationary-ness for a while. And treating one or two dogs, while working one, will be a lot easier than treating four or five. LOL

Oh, Muffit doesn’t have a stay at all. So he didn’t get to work. He’s my husband’s hiking dog.

Cynthia

July 21, 2011

Chase, Jet, Levi, Lucy, Tatum, Training

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Chase, Jet, Levi, Lucy, Tatum, Training

Jet’s AX

Well, on Saturday Jet got both his JWW and Standard Qs too, which gave him his AX title. Woo! I’m excited. We had a great weekend. I’m not sure why Blackfoot, Idaho, went so very wrong. LOL. But we made up for it this weekend. I’m thinking in Blackfoot it was a combination of stress, harder courses, and cooler weather making Jet run faster, which I’m not good at handling.

So now he’s officially Stolta Ebbas Einride of Sweden AX AXJ. Wooo! Below is the playlist of all the videos from the weekend. If you want you can scroll through them and watch. Tatum’s are in there, too.

Jet is such an amazing little Danish-Swedish Farmdog doing agility. He is so absolutely perfect for me.. But then, he’s perfect, Qs or no Qs. I just adore him, and I am having fun doing agility with him! And with all the running around I did last weekend, I don’t have to look for Diet pills that work fast, because I’m running fast!
xx

Cynthia

July 11, 2011

Agility, Jet, Tatum

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Agility, Jet, Tatum

Jet got his AXJ!

Well we seem to have recovered from our unfortunate fiasco running agility in Blackfoot Idaho, where we only got 1 Q out of 8 in Jumpers and Standard. Today Jet and I were in a local AKC agility trial and he Q’d in both his runs! That’s his second Excellent A Standard leg, and his third Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves leg for his AXJ, woo hoo!

I’m so excited we got his AXJ today. I was getting a bit down in Blackfoot when we didn’t have a good Q rate at all. So now I’m glad that it’s picked up again. We have two more days of agility and hopefully we’ll get some more Qs. I’d love to get his AX this weekend too!

It was pretty hot today though we were indoors so that was nice. I didn’t need my Ray Bans even unless we went out to walk and potty. The indoor building was rather warm but they had the Swamp Coolers going and the big fans so it wasn’t really too bad. Though I was still sweating when our runs were done.

Tatum did really well too though she didn’t Q. I forgot that in Open each second over course time is actually 2 faults, not one. So she was 12 seconds over course time in Jumpers but she got 24 faults so no Q. I’m really gunna have to see if I can speed her up. But we do have some years yet and she likes it so we are just having fun. Here is her run, I didn’t get her JWW on video, but she moved even better in JWW:

Cynthia

July 8, 2011

Agility, Jet, Tatum

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Agility, Jet, Tatum

Weave Challenge

Okay since we had some weave issues at the last AKC agility trial I really wanted to participate in Kathy’s Weave Poll Challenge! So here it is!

First I did Jet… he did really well, it’ll be interesting as the time goes by and we move the jump around to see how his entries are.

Then I thought what the heck, why not to Tatum too? She doesn’t really send to anything.. she has no interest in toys, and I haven’t worked a toss/treat bag but I really should. So anyway I did it with her too and she did better than I expected, especially on the call through and the send!

This will be fun. I might be doing it more than once a week to catch up since I’m kinda behind, everyone else started 10 days ago!

Cynthia

June 21, 2011

Agility, Jet, Tatum

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Agility, Jet, Tatum

Agility Trial June

Jet Weave Polls

So in June 2011 I have six full days of agility. That’s almost a full week. I’d much rather spend a week of agility than a week of work anyday! In July I also have 6 days of agility. So in June and July I have 12 days of agility, but then I’m sure you can add. LOL. I just think it’s fun to see how many days of agility I have so far!

After July, I won’t have anything until September. I’m bummed! Well, I can’t say I don’t have anything. In August I’m gong to a Chris Zinc seminar in Grand Junction, Colorado. That’ll be fun. Then the end of August I’m going to Camp Winnaribbun. In September I am going to DOCNA Championships, too. Mid-sept I have another AKC trial. It’ll be okay to take a break… I guess. I’m just having so much fun trialing with Jet, that I don’t want to take a break!

Anyway back to the present… LOL. This weekend is a 2 day AKC Agility trial. Jet is now fully in Excellent A in both Standard and JWW. And Tatum is in Open in both. I sure hope Tatum can do all 12 weave polls okay! And with Jet, no more mistakes allowed, we have to run clean to Q! I hope we’ll get into Excellent B before these 12 trialing days pass. If not, then I need to seriously reassess our training!

Jet is also in obedience this weekend. I haven’t been thinking about it that much because it’s making me nervous. I don’t really know if he’s ready. His heeling still needs work and so do his stays. But we’ll see. I hope to get video of both agility and obedience.

And we will stay safe, so we won’t need any Bronx Medical Malpractice Attorney, though that doesn’t really apply to agility at this time! LOL.

Cynthia

June 9, 2011

Agility, Jet, Tatum

1 comment

Agility, Jet, Tatum

The Tatum Fan Club

Tatum has been doing so well at agility lately that I’m just stunned. In Logan, Utah, a couple of weeks ago, she managed to get a 50% Q rate in Novice and pulled off both her NAP and NJP titles! I was thrilled. I am always so thrilled with how well my silly girl is doing. She came from such a rotten start, lost in a hoarder’s yard with 70 other collies, bad people experiences, and so afraid when she left our house. Well, look at her now. She ran so fast out of the start line she completely took me off guard and I had to run to catch up!

She always had a really fast recovery and so I just though she probably had it in her. And now she loves agility. She’s nailing her weave polls every single time. She’s hardly going around any jumps anymore. And she just loves the contacts. This video is from our DOCNA trial last weekend. I don’t think she’ll every be fast enough to qualify in DOCNA, but we had fun anyway. And maybe if I actually learn how to handle her in changes of direction and crosses, then maybe we could speed up a bit!

A friend of mine was saying, at the DOCNA trial, that at first people didn’t really think she’d be able to do agility, and thought I was a bit crazy. But now I got a lot of comments on how well she’s doing, and how people love to watch her run. And so my friend said now there’s like this little Tatum Fan Club that is rooting for her. She’s my baby girl, with her own fan club. LOL.

At home she rules the house, pushing the other dogs around. She will always have issues, fortunately she’s completely house trained so we don’t need any carpet cleaners raleigh nc. And she does spook more easily than other dogs, and she doesn’t much like people… though she will go up to you now and see if you have any treats. And it seems I’ve had so many people give her treats, that she thinks most everyone does now.

I’m so proud of Tatum. I’m moving her to open for her next AKC agility trial. She can do 12 weaves, and I know she can do the courses. So it’ll be fun to see how she does!