08/22/2020 Believing to be More

A friend sent me the above text in a conversation regarding how Dillon had done at our most recent trial. Up until then, as seems to happen frequently, I had a different post all set to go. It was basically just a run down of why I haven’t written much of late and how the dogs were doing. (The answers to which are: I’m working on revamping the site and thought I’d post at the ‘reveal’ but it’s not happening as soon as I planned, Jig is semi-retired, Dillon is exceeding expectations, and Finn… In any case, my friend’s text struck a chord with me and prompted this post instead of the original. Dillon has been a hard dog to figure out, and I still haven’t got him 100% pegged, but I’m getting closer. A lot of folks I know would have given up on him. Some even suggested I do so,

04/05/2020 Dancing in the Rain

You would think this forced quarantine would give me more time to write and more to write about. Turns out, when I have a lot of free time I also have a lot to fill it with. There's a long list of chores on the side of the fridge waiting for decent weather and time, things like fixing fences, rehanging gates, cleaning the barn, spreading manure

03/14/2020 A Dog’s Eye View

When I ran agility (which, for those wondering, was eons ago), one of the things we did while walking the course was to squat down to our dog's eye level and survey our intended path. It no doubt appeared strange to onlookers. Heck, it felt strange the first time I did it. It also made it instantly clear that what I was thinking and what my dog was going to be seeing were two vastly different things. That, in turn, usually altered how I originally planned to handle that particular sequence. Honestly, I haven't given this much thought since those long-ago agility days. What brought it to mind now were some images I shot last weekend when Jig and I had some work to do. It's tough getting pics of my dogs working when I'm by myself. My phone is getting old and the camera in it isn't what it used to be. So

10/04/2019

This appeared in my Facebook memories this week.. It's hard to believe that was only a year ago. It feels like it took forever to reach that milestone. So much frustration and self-doubt. So many times I thought about throwing in the towel. I won't stop singing the praises of those closest to me for their support, encouragement, shoulders, ears, and swift kicks in the arse whenever I said stupid things like, "I'm done." I need to remind myself I was on a very steep learning curve. And by 'was' I mean 'still am'. Jig isn't through teaching me things yet. Unfortunately I'm not as smart as Jig and I sometimes don't retain lessons very well. Fully evidenced by the sound thrashing I received from Deb last weekend. Deb is allowed to pound on me. She's one of the people mentioned in the paragraph above. Anyhow, Deb had been watching me trial