JetTag Archives

Heeling with Jet

So last weekend I got out into the back yard with the new tripod and took some video of me heeling with Jet.

I think he’s doing well, though still I worry that he’ll kick it into gear at a trial. I have to say, though, the only two trials I’ve entered him in were super hard. One was a conformation show with a busy smelly building with lots going on. And he did okay, actually, and would have Q’d but crawled to visit another dog on the down stay. The other show as the same day as an agility trial, and I think it was hard for him to switch from agility to obedience.

I may enter him in a one day obedience only show in September. It’s the day before the 3 day agility trial. Maybe he’ll do better there. Outside, relaxed. I hope so, anyway. I’ll probably give it a try and see how he does.

Anyway, life goes on, I’m trying to work the other dogs, do fun things, get on with life, accept that Lucy is gone. Maybe getting some Off Road Lights for the van would help in the dark when it starts getting closer to winter. I dunno, though, I usually just like it dark.

Cynthia

August 15, 2011

Jet, Obedience, Training

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Jet, Obedience, Training

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

I was inspired by Mutts and a Klutz blog, where I saw a picture a while ago taken just of her dogs’ nose. I think Jet has a really cute pattern of colors on his nose, and I’ve been wanting to take some pictures of him for a while, and finally got around to it. Yes, I’m slow. The husband is running the sprinkler out back today, so Jet had to sit in one spot that was water free, and… Continue reading »

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

9 comments

Agility, Jet, Tatum

Lure Coursing, Waaahoooo!

I know I don’t post that much, and I apologize, but maybe I do more quality than quantity…. hmm? Hehe, I can hope so, anyway.

last weekend our local Sighthound club put together their first local Lure Coursing Ability Test. It was a blast! I entered Jet and Chase and they both LOVED it!

If you do not know, the AKC recently set up a new Lure Coursing test for all breeds. Before it was you had to have a Sighthound only to compete in Lure Coursing. Well a zillion people complained about this because not only Sighthounds like to Lure Course and chase stuff! This is even a titling event, and you know me, always wanting more letters on my dogs’ names. Jet and Chase are my only two dogs that care about chasing things. The Collies couldn’t care less about Lure Coursing or chasing things, though they do like to chase sheep around occasionally.

So here’s video of Chase and Jet doing some Lure Coursing. Jet was so funny. On Saturday I take him and we go to watch, and he’s rolling on his back and being a goof, saying hi to everyone, people and dogs. Not really knowing what we are doing. Until we went down to the field and he saw the lure and he FREAKS out and screams at the top of his lungs at that lure. It’s just a dumb plastic bag goof! LOL. Anyway day two… he’s all business, knows where we are and what we are doing. No fooling around for him on day two. He wanted that Lure!

I only got video on Sunday, not Saturday. The guy running the Lure lost both of the dogs on Sunday. I think maybe he needs more practice running the lure.

The grass was really long, some of the dogs may have gotten grasses in their ears and eyes, which isn’t good at all. Ugh. We checked Chase and Jet all over though and I think they are fine. So that’s good. Maybe they needed some toro zero turn lawn mowers to tackle all those weeds. But alas, the dogs pushed the grasses down okay.

The sighthounds raced first, then the other breeds raced after for the CAT. Chase and Jet both got 2 legs towards their CA titles. How fun. I hope they offer this again soon, we had a blast!

Chase, Jet, Lure Coursing