Quiet on the homefront

Literally.  The house is very quiet at the moment.  Why?  Swing is incarcerated.  Yep, I dropped her off at the kennel last weekend to serve her time while she's "hot".  Her cycle is pretty much on schedule, the last time I put her in the kennel was on day 10 and while I probably could have kept her at home until Sunday, I opted to take her in on day 9 so that Dodge and I could adjust to not having her around.  Yes, I said adjust!  If all goes as planned she'll be home by the beginning of the week, I hope.

Last week was spent catching up on some rest (she was super restless the week before, getting me up twice a night after about three hours of sleep) and doing lots of one on one stuff with my boy.  I told him we would head to the park to walk a few miles each evening and of course a lot of one on one bonding and hanging out (not to worry, Dirk will get his share of extra attention too).  One advantage to not having her around, we can focus on our training challenges without everyone pushing in and vying for my attention.  We had a few nice sessions last week and this weekend we were able to get in a little agility training with the group at the farm.

Yes, Howard was finally in town to meet us at the farm for a very nice morning of training and catching up.  He asked each of us what we wanted to concentrate on and that set the tone for the day.  Before we knew it 2 hours had passed by and I felt that the challenges he put in front of us were beneficial and tough!  I'm still mulling over how to negotiate one nasty sequence he put together, which he assured all of us we "could" see in a trial at some point.  When he says that I have to wonder what courses he is designing for which trial (and hoping that it isn't one that I plan on entering!).  I truly believe he uses us as guinea pigs since most of his judging is out of the area that the majority of us trial in.

I got to see Beau (aka Hank) after not seeing him for a few months, he's looking great.  Neutering him was a good move, he isn't quite as intense as he was.  Dodge still insisted on letting him know who the big dog was and of course Hank had to get in his face just to see if he was still the top dog.  Dodge left a small mark on him to remind him of his place.  Anyway, I will try to get some pictures at some point but with judging schedules and show schedules I'm not sure when we will see our little brother again.

Swing is entered in a show and tracking test this coming weekend.  If the other class bitch shows up it will be worth a point but I'm really looking forward to a successful tracking test.  Dodge's first title was a TD, I hope Swing will follow in his footsteps and make it her first of many titles.

Have a grayt week everyone.  I'll check in after next weekends show and test.  Enjoy the crisp cool temps and the colors of fall.