Did someone say BALL???

According to Ann, sister Ella is a bit ball crazy.  Read on...

Not to be outdone by sister Swing, Ella finally decided to come in season on Thanksgiving.  That’ll be a date I’ll remember!  Fortunately she’s been excellent and very cooperative about wearing the protective panties.

I had help over the holidays so that I was finally able to capture some photographic evidence of my ball-crazy girl.  Her enthusiasm for tennis balls caused me to switch to Kong or Chuck-It balls after the experience of having her pop regular tennis balls within just a few retrieves.  I also invested in a  Chuck-It launcher so my throws had enough distance on them to wear some of her amazing amount of energy down without having to stay outside for hours. 

Here’s the look of intense desire I see when I mention the word “ball” or prepare to launch another throw.   

And here are a few photos of the girl in action.

And, if a picture’s worth a thousand words, a video must be worth at least a million.  So here’s a video of Ella in action with her beloved tennis ball.  Enjoy!  (Link to video is coming, the file was too large for Ann to send in an email)

Trucking (tracking?) along

Two posts in one evening, I guess when you are on a roll...

Swing has been out in the tracking fields the last few weekends and she is doing quite well.  She is leaning in to the harness and pulling me along, something I really like and prefer when I'm tracking.  Like Dodge, her tail is straight up 6 o'clock when she is on the track but when she hits a turn it isn't as rigid and the line becomes somewhat limp as she tries to figure out the direction of the scent.  Last week I put in a simple "U" track, with a somewhat open turn to finish it out, that I aged for about 10 minutes before we started the track.  I chose this shape simply because I wanted my friend to try and get a decent shot of her working.  You can see the tension on the line in both shots as well as the amount of pull that she is giving me (nowhere near the amount that Dodge does but she is still learning and besides, I don't know that she will ever pull as hard as he does).

 First leg of the track

Nice low nose

Yes, last weekends weather was nice enough that I could work her in a short sleeved tshirt!  Amazingly enough, this type of weather has been this way for the last few November's and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we continue on this trend for a few more weekends.

This weekend we were able to track before I hauled her off to the spa resort (aka, the kennel).  My hopes are that she can come home next weekend and we can have another session where I will age the track a little more and perhaps add a motivational track to keep her interested (thankfully she is eager to track).  We'll see what the week holds for our little girl.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the M&M pups and their families.  I look forward to hearing how everyone's holiday went.  Just a little reminder, 37 more days before the big man in the red suit arrives!

Milo the Magnificent

Just as I was about to write a post on Swing and her tracking adventures, I received the following email from Art...

I am happy to report that Milo is doing exceedingly well.  I am taking him to obedience class each week and he is showing great promise.  I have also started agility class with Milo.  This is a new one for me, so we are both still trying to figure it out.  (Yes, this is a thinly veiled plea for help from those who have more experience with agility.)  The good news is that Milo loves agility class and I am sure it is just a matter of time before we figure out what it is we have to do. 

We traveled to Maine for vacation this summer.  We stayed where we had access to a dog friendly beach.  Milo was welcome on the beach any time day or night.  As a result, when we went to the water, Milo went with us.  The first picture is of Milo swimming in Maine. 

I have elderly parents that live in Florida.  I travel there often and Milo comes with me.  I found a dog park on the beach and dogs and humans can swim and play together in the water.  When I am in Florida, I make a point of taking Milo every day.  He just loves it, especially if there is a dog or two he can play with.  The ball goes everywhere Milo goes, it is now just a part of him. 

The second picture was taken this afternoon at the Isaac Walton League.  The Isaac Walton League is a 625 acre conservation farm and woodland.  Dogs are welcome and with 625 acres there is plenty of room for Milo to run.    Members of the Isaac Walton League  are expected to do a certain number of hours of volunteer work.   In the background of the picture are the trees I helped plant this Saturday. 

To do my volunteer work, I had to leave Milo at home on Saturday morning.  He took this opportunity to write his first poem.  I should explain that all our Weimaraners have been poets, we even had one that was a philosopher.  Lazlo, after rolling in horse poop one day, postulated , “I stink, therefore others know I am.”  Anyway here is Milo’s first poem.  To all receiving this email, Happy Thanksgiving and a great Holiday Season. 

Cuddle with me mom

For I am sad without my dad

Scratch me behind my ears, mom

For I am sad without my dad

Feed me now, mom

For I am sad without my dad

Throw the ball, mom

Throw the ball

Throw the ball

Throw the ball

 

She's all grown up!

It's been the gremlin lurking in the corner...  I knew the day was coming and I was dreading it but in a way I was also looking forward to it.  Not because of "IT", that part is a pain in the fanny.  What I was looking forward to was watching Swing fill out and change from that lanky little girl to what I hope is a pretty young lady.  Oh yeah, and buying her that first set of PANTIES!  :-)

Yes, at 17 months she has finally come in heat.  I had asked Ann if Ella had reached that milestone and her response was, not yet but the signs were there.  I know what she meant, I could see things changing leading up to last weekend so it was not that much of a surprise.  One nice thing, it isn't as messy as my friends with dobermans have had to experience.  So this weekend she heads off to the kennel during her "hot" time so that I don't have to listen to Dodge fuss around because our little girl  has turned in to HIS woman!  Amy said it will be good for Swing (and me), I know I'll miss and worry about her.  The good part is that Dodge and I will get some much needed quality time together to train and enjoy each others company.  And I think it will be a quiet Thanksgiving and cookie baking day at the Jordan's next week.  Poor Sam, affectionately knows as "the big brown dog", will miss his little playmate.  Sorry Sam.

Oh, when those new panties come in I'll post a picture.  Right now she's wearing her "granny" pants, the kind that look like a pair of Depends (at least they are denim colored), or pull-ups   Compared to them her new ones will have her looking like a Victoria's Secret model!

Next post will have some tracking pictures from last weekend.  Swing is doing very well and if I can keep her out for the next few weeks I'll look in to possibly getting her certified before the end of the year.

Power(less) locks (as promised)

As I mentioned in my last post, the crew got together to train this past weekend.  It was nice to be outside, working sequences and spending time with friends. The weather was cool (ok, chilly compared to what it had been) and the lawn where the agility equipment sits was in perfect shape after Sandy came through the area.

So what about those power locks?  I don't think the person that came up with the idea of power locks thought of the fact that kids and animals somehow manage to find the button on the door, or if you have one of those FOBs for your car key the button on that, at the most inappropriate time.   Now let me say that 1. normally I do not close up the van (but it was chilly) but if I do the windows are usually down partway; 2. normally the only loose dog in the van is Dirk and he doesn't play with buttons; and 3. I rarely take the key out of the ignition and place it somewhere where a dog would step on it.  So it was a big surprise when I was sitting on Howard's tailgate and the van beeped, you know that beep...  I looked at one of my training mates and we both said "what was that?".  Then I stood up and looked at the van.  Hmm, didn't see Dirk but this was the ONE time I didn't crate Dodge after working a sequence since I knew I would be getting him back out in less than 5 minutes.  Nah, that van couldn't have just locked ITSELF.  So I walked over and SHEBANG... doors were locked.  Oh great! There stood Dodge, in between the front seats with Dirk soundly snoozing on the passenger seat (SOP for him) and yep the doors were locked.  Wonderful.  I looked inside and didn't see the keys, not in the ignition or on the seat or in between the seats.  Ok I thought, maybe all of the doors weren't locked and why didn't I have the liftgate open?  Oh yeah because it was chilly and my dogs are naked dogs (compared to the aussies and corgi that we train with).  I uttered those words that we all laugh about every time we hear them.  "This has never happened to me..."  There is always a first time.

A quick (well 25 minute) run down the valley to the house (hey, I got to give my yummy beef stew a quick stir when I ran in to the house to pick up the spare key) and I was back at the farm with spare key to free my dogs from the evils of the locked van.  And then the REAL fun began...

NOT the face of a guilty party

With the van now open I started fishing around to find my keys.  If you've seen my keyring you know that it is almost impossible to miss.  Two FOB type of keys, a mini dumbbell (hey, I'm an obedience buff), some key cards and a few miscellaneous keys, a couple of which I have no idea what they lock or unlock.  Not in the ignition, not in the basket between my seats, not in the area behind the drivers seat, not on the floor under the steering wheel so where were they and how in the world did the van get locked?  Shaking my head I grabbed my slip lead, popped Dodge back in his crate and decided that I had better put the spare key in my jacket before I lost it.  As I walked towards Howard's van it hit me like a ton of bricks... WAIT, did I just think "in my jacket"?  Say it isn't so.  And then I started to chuckle and when I got to Howard's van I started to laugh.  There, on the tailgate, the place where I had been sitting with one of my training mates, was my jacket.  Did I mention that it was chilly that day?  And that I took my jacket off to run a sequence?  And where would be the most logical place to put your keys when they are not in the ignition?  Yessiree, in my JACKET!

I'm not going to point fingers 'cause I can't say for sure but I was the first one to sit on the tailgate and the "beep beep" didn't happen until the other person sat down next to me.  And in my defense, the coat was out of sight and therefore out of mind when my brain realized what it was that my ears heard.  So the dogs didn't lock me out of the van (and themselves in it, thank goodness it was a chilly day) and should this ever happen again I will stop and think before I commandeer a driver to run me back to the house.  Oh yeah, and regardless of the temp, a window will be left open just enough for me to reach down and unlock the van.  This weekend is supposed to be lovely and the van will probably be wide open.

Pictures to follow if it turns out as nice as the weatherman is saying it will!

Shorter days mean less time to play outside

For me "falling back", or the end of Daylight Savings Time, is a time that I personally do not enjoy.  I'm one of the few that find that extra hour (do we really get an extra hour of sleep/rest?) rather exhausting.  By early afternoon I'm beat and find myself dozing off during the NASCAR race or Steelers game (whichever happens to be on, yesterday I had to toggle between both of them although I will admit that I spent more time yelling at the football game than the race.  Yeah, I get a bit mouthy during a Steelers game).  Since I wasn't showing or training my day was spent doing domestic stuff (started out with trip to the grocery store at 7:15am, I should have been there at 6:30), cooking, cleaning, vacuuming and hanging out.  Other than the trip to the store and some time outside cleaning the yard and mowing for what should be the last time this year, my day was rather uneventful.

BUT, we did get to do some agility on Saturday (I say some, there is a story to be told about locking the dogs in the van, I guess I'll do that in another post) and then Howard, Hank and my crew all took a nice hike around the farm to let everyone blow off some steam.  Last weekend my guys did that with the fluffy Sami's so perhaps this will be a weekly thing for the fall/winter weekends.

It has cooled down for the majority of us and some of us got quite wet last week.  I didn't hear from Art so perhaps he can let us know how Milo and the family made out with Sandy.  I think Ella has seen some white stuff by now and rumor has it we may see some later this week in Central PA.  Howard lost a pear tree, I had a shutter ripped off and some furniture thrown off of my porch.  Other than that all was good at my place after Sandy came through the area.  Facebook has kept a lot of  us up to date on friends and family along the east coast, it is a handy service for stuff like that.

If the weather holds for this coming weekend I'll get some pictures of the dastardly duo.  Today our M&M litter is 17 months old!  Time sure seems to have flown, wouldn't you agree?

Stay tuned for the locked van story.