Graduation!

Dexter graduated beginner obedience!














We received a certificate, perfect attendance ribbon and....
BEST HANDLER!!!

Yay Dex for being a good dog and making mom look good!

Now I'm signing up Harley for beginner obedience. This will be a much bigger challenge– especially the barking and whining. But I am confident that progress will be made! Classes for her start the 13th of May, Tuesday nights at 8:15.

And while speaking of the dogs, both of them just got over a very bad illness called HGE (Hemorrhagic gastroenteritis). Harley had it first. Then while she was hospitalized, Dexter was mopey, I thought because he missed Harley. But he went to the hospital the day after Harley returned. Both dogs are now recovering on bland food and sleeping a lot. They played together for the first time yesterday, so they are definitely returning to normal.

In a nutshell, HGE is a disease (unknown causes) that makes the blood thicken. There is profuse and very bloody diarrhea which eventually leads to anemia, shock and collapse of the blood vessels. We caught it way before either dog was close to the severity of the disease, but it was still scary. Coming home to a you-know-what filled kitchen is not pleasant. 32 pounds is a small body to lose that much blood.

Harley showed no signs of being sick, other than the messes. Dexter, however, spoiled baby that he is, moped around and seemed to be hit harder with the disease, though his blood counts were better than Harley's when I took him to the vet. The disease is not supposed to be contagious, yet both dogs had it. So we assume they must have gotten into something in the yard that had the bacteria in it. The vet attributed Dexter's moping and Harley's not moping to them being different dogs with different personalities. Makes sense to me! After all, Dexter does sleep under the covers!

Happy 30th Birthday Jamie!!!!!

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Happy Birthday! From your nice new rail, and especially from the gang that's on the rail.
Not sure when you're going to France, but have a WONDERFUL TIME!
Bon Anniversaire! (I think)

I ESPECIALLY like to run when it's 70º and sunny

After a rediculous couple days in the studio...no make that a rediculous week (and it's only Wednesday) in the studio, nothing sounded better to me today than a run. I planned for it regardless of the fact that I only got 3.5 hours of sleep and am wiped out from my allergies. Sometimes you just have to go! And now I feel much better.

It was blissful, the weather could not be more perfect. I envy the few people on the planet that get a day like this every day.

On the Dog Front, Dexter is still doing OK. He didn't stay very well last class when we did sit-stays and down-stays. He'd forget what he was sitting or downing for, start sniffing and get up. There are only two more classes after this, and I think I've decided to take him on to the next level, Intermediate. He is doing so well and I don't think either of us have been trained enough to really make it a change, so I think another 8 weeks will be great. He's already made a lot of improvement. Now when he's up on the counter and we scream NO! He actually will get down. He'll get right back up again, but he will get down. Maybe he just has ADD.

I also took Harley on a walk with the pinch collar (after adding 2 more links for her thicker neck) and she did really well! For the first time ever, she didn't pull! I take that back- when I've taken her running, after about a mile she won't pull anymore either! She certainly didn't understand that I was leader, but at least she responded to the collar.

A Mole Problem

We have a mole problem.














It's been going on for a while now, but really picked up last summer. Throughout the fall and winter, the dogs took an interest in helping us rid the yard of the moles...or so we thought. Quick solution to the problem: let the dogs get the moles!














In reality, Dexter probably either smelled something and decided to dig after it, or saw the ground move and decided to dig after it– either way a fun game!! It wasn't long before Harley joined in this game. And then it wasn't long before we had a yard full of holes and exposed mole tunnels...and still had moles. The dogs were successfully destroying the yard, worse than the moles, digging some holes so deep half of their body would fit in... exhibit A:














And a wet winter and spring is dirty enough with dogs... but then when they dig... we have to bathe them nearly every time they come in. Check out the paws and snout.














Yes I was digging...


















No I didn't get the mole.


















Yes, I put that big chunk of mud on the door...


















Today, however, a breakthrough! Our first dead mole!
I was napping and woke up to Dexter baying over and over and over again, not his typical I'm-playing-with-Harley bay. I went outside to see a disgusting, wet and rather large mole at his feet... dead. Harley didn't seem to care. I was able to get the dogs inside no problem and then shoveled the dead mole out to the compost pile. The pic up at the top of the blog entry is exactly what it looked like- HUGE paws. It was a big mole compared to what I've read about them online. Size of a chipmunk? More like the size of a squirrel. Maybe this was a mamma and the dogs just saved us from having a mole nursery in our backyard. I don't know. I'm just glad to see one gone.

I'm not sure which dog gets the mole trophy. It is pretty interesting that they got it out of the ground and somehow killed it with no mess. Harley has been known to shake a snake to death, so maybe she should get the credit. But Dexter clearly alerted me of the situation before it got messy, so he deserves some credit too, not to mention his nose is probably what lead them. I'd say it was good teamwork! Perhaps allowing them to destroy the yard is finally paying off.

Dexter...a Show Dog?!

Class on Monday went way better than the last one. I was worried that Big V's reprimanding of Dexter would be a distant memory this week, but it turns out the dog is actually learning!

We did circles again and this time walked with the leash around our necks, still correcting if we needed to but trying to do it on voice. Dexter was great– he looked at me a lot and responded right away to the pinch collar.

Then we did sit-stays and down-stays... upgrades of those as well. This time we dropped the leashes and backed as far as we felt comfortable across the room. This made me nervous. JoAnn also came by bouncing a ball and kicking around a stuffed animal. Some dogs went for it, but not Dex. I still think this is class shock though... definitely need to work on it at home around Harley and in the yard.

We wove around through cones doing laps and then also doing figure-8's. The figure eights allow you to practice getting the dog off you and getting the dog back in next to your leg, all so you don't trip over the dog and so it learns to respond to you rather than going where it wants. Dexter did better at the lap weaving than the figure-8s. The previous week when we went on walks, I practiced weaving in the street. We also did U-turns and catch-up turns, so I probably look pretty silly to the neighborhood unless they know what I'm doing.

JoAnn mentioned this week that she is watching all the dogs and handlers because she gives out awards at the end of the 8 weeks for Best Handler, Best Jr Handler and Most Improved. So... now it's competitive! Dexter got a lot of comments from the instructors this class on how good he looked (the beagle looks great!). She also mentioned showing him (!?) "Wow, that beagle...if you wanted to show him, I think you'd really have something there." She mentioned it twice, the second time noting it was because he wants to please so bad and would do well. I'm sure it's not because of his sway back. She did mention that he was little. Dexter the show dog?? I can't imagine! Don't you have to not be neutered?? Plus, to quote the breeder, "He ain't got no papers".

Anyway, it was nice to hear that he's behaving better... and now I want to practice like crazy so we get the top of the class award! It could be a repeat of the Westminster! aarroooooo!!!!!

Look how fast my tail wags!!! You can't even see it!!

Dexter Gets Reprimanded

I knew it wasn't going to be a stellar class. I was at Luxottica until 5:15, the class is at 6:00, so we were rushing to get there and didn't get pre-class exercise time.

We started off OK, walking in the usual circle around the ring. We changed directions, as we had learned the week before. Dexter wasn't having it. Whether it was the unfamiliar dog butt he couldn't sniff, or the fact that the wall was now on the other side of him, he was upset and took it all out on the dog by him. I had a lot of yanking and yelling to do at him. The instructor, Vince (let's call him Big V), asked me if he ever has aggression towards other dogs. I said from time to time. We proceeded again around the ring. I'm pretty sure this loop was just for Big V to watch Dexter. Again I just couldn't get him under control. He was all over the place, trying to do his own thing. Big V asked me which dog it was Dexter seemed to not like. I pointed at Pooper, the one I had pointed out before when Jo Ann asked whose dog pooped on the floor (I was right behind the dog and the handler wasn't fessing up!!) So then Vince takes the leash and poor little Dex into the center of the ring... uh-oh.

Dexter freaked. Whatthehell... whoisthisguy... wheresmom... idon'twanttogothisway... He must have sensed the Vince wasn't about to let him rule. Big V casually took him by Pooper and, as if on cue, Dexter lashed out at him. Vince corrected him by snapping the pinch collar so hard that Dexter flew about 3 feet across the floor. This of course shocked the hell out of him. He looked around for his escape. Vince tried to walk with him, but Dexter then proceeded to throw a big fit in the middle of the ring, yowling and rolling all over the floor. It was the "Get this Collar Off of Me" dance performance of the century! Every time he settled, Vince tried to just walk with him a little bit, but he freaked out and had to be corrected. When the entire event was over, Dexter came back to me and hid behind my legs– scared, ego crushed.

I watched helplessly from the sideline. I'm sure the shock was all over my face. This is probably the closest feeling to parenting I can relate to... I knew Dexter was being dominant and bad, but it was so hard to see him confused and struggling. I wanted to pick him up after Vince brought him back to me and tell him it was OK– which is most likely why the dog is having these problems in the first place. Vince told me I wasn't snapping the leash correctly either, so I got that lesson and then we were all off around for another lap.

This time, Dexter walked low to the ground with his tail between his legs. A broken dog, no longer in charge of the room or me.

He eventually got his tail out again and wasn't low crawling. But for the remainder of the class, every command was cake. When we walked, he looked up at me every few steps and followed my lead- a first! His head was totally where it should be- wondering what I'm doing next, not what he's going to sniff next. It was marvelous.

So I think a big breakthrough has been made for Dexter. When we've gone on walks this week, he responds instantly to the pinch collar corrections. I don't feel that he and I have connected 100% yet, but at least he's learned the lesson that humans are alpha and determine what he does, not himself. We're both making progress.

My First Website of Which I Make No Claim In Actually Doing

www.childhoodfoodsolutions.org

I learned how complicated putting up a site can be...and this is a "simple" site.

Paul Schliesser gets all the credit for this one. It is basically a site that is extremely text-heavy versus graphic-heavy, so he had a template from a previous site he did that fit the one for CFS pretty well.

But I did change the logo from being a child's hand reaching out of the ground next to a stalk of corn growing out of the ground to a hand reaching for food (apple and grain...representative, yes?) Oh and I formatted some of the lovely excel charts into PDFs.

Dexter In School

So I said I was going to write about Dexter going to school...I'm very behind.

The first class was what I would describe as complete chaos. Put 12 people who don't know how to control dogs in a room with 12 uncontrolled dogs and that is the recipe for loud chaos. Dexter pretty much sat in awe of the whole situation. Occasionally he would look up at me with this, "what the hell are we doing here" kind of look and try to get in my lap. After seeing how Vince, one of the trainers, responded to another dog and its owner, I wasn't about to let Dexter get in my lap for the fear of being smacked on the nose– me, not Dexter. (OK, slight exaggeration.)

The trainers clearly know what they are doing and how dangerous a room full of uncontrolled dogs can be. Every person that came through the door with their dog charging into the facility was screamed at to get their dog on a short lead. The dog next to Rick was smacked hard on the nose and then jerked up by his leash, to which he yelped both times (because it was a big, overgrown, misbehaving baby), all of which shocked its owner (her face was priceless). The little ankle biters down a few seats from me wouldn't stop barking so they got allum powder in their noses. It was a room full of love!

After everyone settled down, we listened to a long talk about dogs, breeds (where I learned Dexter, a beagle, is just a "cute nose with fur"), behaviors, personalities, how dogs communicate etc etc. All very very helpful and interesting. Greg and I have been doing nearly everything completely wrong. Then we started with walking in circles around the room. We had the dog sit next to us, lining up their shoulder to our leg, said "Dexter, heal" and then proceeded around in a chaotic circle. This is where we learned "get up, get back, get in, get out" with coinciding jerks on the training collar. Dex didn't care for it after a while and kept jumping up on me. Overall, it was exhausting but positive!

The next class we walked in circles again, and this time we changed directions while walking! Who knew that dogs don't like to change directions! Utter chaos once again. Dexter freaked out at one point, doing the "get this damn collar off of me!!!!" dance. He decided to try to take it out on the dogs around him, giving me an excuse to exercise my best deep NO DOG! correction. Once he understood, it got better. We also did sit-stays and down-stays. During the stays, Jo Ann, the instructor, would come by bouncing a ball. Hilarious! I was laughing at Dexter pretty hard at this part because he was so completely tired and sat there with his hind legs all floppy and huge wide eyes looking around at everything, completely overwhelmed. He gets lots of complements from the instructors for his behavior, but I think he's pulling one over on them. Again, an exhausting class, but I can tell progress is being made for sure!!

There is motivation to work outside of class– not only so that Dex remembers, but also so I don't have the worst dog in class. I need to work with him at home (haven't yet this week) and teach Greg some more commands. I really think we'll have a good beagle...and then it's on to the hairy barking Schnauz!

Raging River

I went for a run from the studio tonight and got to take a look at the raging Little Miami. You could see where some of the side road that runs parallel to the bike trail was covered, but I don't think it ever made it up to the bike trail.

It was nice to see the sun today. I think tomorrow I will take my bike out after work for a first ride of the season. I gotta get going on the bike– the Dooby Du Duathlon is in one month!

Been awhile...

Updates to come in no particular order:
• Dexter Goes to School! Class #1 and How People Need Pinch Collars Too
• My First Website Of Which I Can Make No Claim To Really Doing
• To Pig or Not To Pig: A Motivational Question
• Dogs in the Blizzard ... (It Wasn't A Blizzard)
• Home Projects, IKEA, and Where Our Money Will Be Going for the Next Few Years

Spring in 13 days... Pig in 58 days

We're supposed to get more white death this Friday p.m. and Saturday morning. It is hard to believe it was 70º Monday. I am trying not to let stupid winter regain its grasp on my mood.

Monday, when it was so warm out, Greg took the day off and I took a half-ish day. We ended up going for a run in Symmes Park, which is hilly and mostly trail- very fun. He got new shoes and wanted to run before his newly established running club started on Wednesday. My legs were dead from having run the 6.5 miles the day before, so hills really weren't the best idea. It was only about 20 minutes though, so I don't think any damage was done.

Wednesday after work, Greg had about 3 or 4 people join him for the first FRCH Running Club run. They did a loop about a mile long. There was one walker, and she went the opposite direction so they would pass while out there. There seems to be an interest, even from those who couldn't make it this week, so that is great! I also ran Wednesday after work for 30 minutes. I dare say I was running a decent pace after I warmed up- I felt so strong! I think I may have grown some muscles from the 6.5 mile + hills!

IKEA opens March 12th, and this Saturday we are going for a preview before it opens! Our neighbor works at a flooring company and has a vehicle pass. I think this trip will end my disbelief that IKEA is actually in Cincinnati and I don't have to drive 4+ hours to get to one.

In business news, I just did my first "firing" of a client. It's a story not for publishing on a public blog, but I will just say that I am now very relieved!!!

So spring is, by calendar standards, in 13 days. The Pig is in 58, a number that sounds like it should be a tad bit higher. Might try to bike after work if it's a warm 47º the newsman forecasted.

Competition. It Has Awakened.

Greg has decided he wants to do the Tri for Joe in May. That means we're both doing it. That means we're competing. Did I just make a big leap there?

It's a friendly competition. I mean, even though I probably only have a 10% - 25% chance of beating him, that doesn't mean I'm going to put a nail in his bike tire or hire a guy off the street to trip him. Just ideas. I'm not executing any of them. ;)

Seriously though, I am very surprised at how much this friendly competition has motivated me. It all started with Greg saying, after he had decided he would do the race, "you'll kick my butt". And me saying, "yeah right!" And then thinking...hmmmm, and saying "Maybe I can kick your butt". And Greg laughing it off (not in a mean way, just an oh whatever i don't really care if you do or don't way). It may sound like the competitiveness is one-sided, but I guarantee you if I pass Greg on the bike, not only will it surprise the heck out of him, he'll wanna go catch me!

I am thinking about my training in a completely different way. Everyone knows I'm competitive by nature, (Pictionary anyone?) but I can not be competitive in road races when I'm so slow. Some "real" runners wouldn't even say I'm a runner.

I don't run to compete, I run because I like doing it. However, when I'm at the starting line of a race, there is always something missing for me, like I'm not participating in the fullest ability. It is a race, after all, and trotting in around 30 minutes doesn't accomplish much except a donation of my entry fee to Race Director's charity of choice. While I am thankful that I can even move my body in a run-like manner at all, toeing the line at a local 5K is honestly not much different from going out for any other run... except I had to pay to do it.

But duathlon is different. It brings out the kid in me – the feeling of racing Marvin to the sandbox, or racing down the driveway on our bikes, or seeing who could jump up on the well cap with one leg, or who could climb the highest in the willow tree (always Marvin), or any other random spontaneous burst of competition we thought of.

Of course the goal here really isn't to beat Greg. It's to get in the best shape of my life, to finally feel the thrill of being a competitor, and to have fun. I finished nearly dead last at my first duathlon. Finishing last didn't upset me – it was the lack of fun that was disappointing. It's not very fun to go through the course all by yourself. I could do that on any Saturday or Sunday! And sure, I had fun that day because it was my first duathlon and I made it. But now I've done my first...and second duathlons. I know what to expect and I know how to train a little better. And if I don't train, I will again be where I was that day – in the other competitors' dust right off the starting line thinking, well there goes everybody. It's me on a run all by myself. Whoop-tee-doo.

So I'm glad Greg is doing the race and humoring all of my smack talk. Again, the point isn't to beat him, it's just to finally have fun because I've trained seriously. And I hope Greg has a lot of fun too. I'm sure he will have fun and will do very well at the race. But I'm not going to live vicariously through his good skills. I'm going to come up with some of my own.

Dexter is Going to School!

"I'm going where?"


















I've enrolled Dexter in the Cincinnati Canine Companion Center that is just around the corner from my studio in Loveland. Our neighbor, Rick, is also going to be in the same class with his rescued Skye terrier, Brenny. We start March 10th and the sessions last for 8 weeks- every Monday night at 6:00.

I'm looking forward to it! We're on the path to a trained beagle with good manners who won't drink your beer when you're not looking!

Hills

I've decided it's time to start putting hillwork into my training. They are much safer than speedwork and give you tons of strength quickly. Today was not only my first run with hills, but my first run since last Saturday! Ug.

Loveland is chock full of hills. I guess that's what you get really close to a river. I ran from the studio and found a good longish not so steep hill just past Loveland's Kroger. That took me about 2 mintues. Then after cresting that, a very long gentle downhill, which means a long gentle uphill as well, since I turned around at the end of the sidewalk. The uphill was 3 minutes. Back at the crest, there is a street that goes what I'd call severely up hill. That one was short, only taking 1 minute, but very very steep.

So I've found a great variety of hills to do repeats on, and I know of some more also. It felt so good to move again. After 2 consecutive weeks of 8-13 hour days, I needed some exercise and fresh air!!

Running with Others

Our neighbor, Jeff, mentioned to me one time he might want to go running some time. He hasn't ran in about 4 years, and with his newer desk job, feels he is starting to pack on some pounds. I asked him to go one time, but it was too cold out. Today, however, it's a breezy 52º, so I asked again. This time he wanted to go!

It was a nice relief, as I wasn't looking forward to going. I wish I could run nearly every run with someone, but I think the pool of potential running partners is a lot smaller at my slow pace. We went on a 2-mile route from our houses. I think he was a little shocked at the slow pace at first, but we had to stop before we made it a mile.

As with all runs I've done with people, we talked the entire time about random subjects that seem to only come up while you are panting and plodding along on the road. We chatted about how hard it is to run after you haven't done it for a while, formation running in the army, our thoughts on new houses verses old houses, water skiing, and Jeff's new job. It was great! We were out there about 29 minutes– our breaks were long so it didn't surprise me.

It is very interesting to me how conversations are so effortlessly carried on while running with another person. Erin posted a little bit about this on our training blog after we ran 5 miles together, listing the various subjects we talked about. Until that run with her, I hadn't run with another person in about a year. I had certainly missed the unique companionship of running with someone– the conversation as well as not fretting over the distance as you knock off the miles. But the listing of all of the subjects we talked about along with today's talking has really made me wonder more about why the act of running causes such a positive stir in our conversation skills. Is it the fact that there is nothing else to do except move forward? There are no other distractions? Maybe the exercise clears our heads making our thoughts much more interesting? You usually even take turns in the conversation, each weighing in on the subject. (That could be because both people need a break for breathing!) And it is often in a story-telling style. I don't know what it is about running that brings this out in us, but I truly enjoy the peace and refreshment it brings.