Some weeks everything goes a little better then the week before-LOVE THAT!

What a busy week, figured I would catch ya all up on what we have been doing this week!

LIZZIES EYE UPDATE:
The best news of the week is that even though it was a long week making sure that poor Lizzie got her eye drops every four hours around the clock, making sure she was quiet, and worst of all keeping that big donut on her head....it all seems to have paid off and Lizzies eye is looking pretty durn good. I think she is going to be fine, but she has to stop fighting with shelties, you gotta know they are spunky and will always get the best of anyone!

FRIENDS CAME TO VISIT:
Pam from San Diego came to visit and play some agility with her dogs Bandit, Twix, and Isabelle:

THE DOGS WERE PRETTY SMART AND KNEW HOW TO STAY IN THE SHADE:


TRAINING:

WHOO HOOOO! I am LOVING Sylvia Trkmans long distance Agility Foundation class. Cricket is doing really well with the cik/cap turns, which are a fancy way to cue collection and a tight turn on a jump, it really is pretty cool. I will try to get some video-I love watching cricket do her cik/cap turns because she powers out of the turns so well and turns so tight around the jump stantions, she seems to really get it and tonight at class she actually did a few cik/cap turns in a course and I could see her add in a short stride and was really able to make some great tight turns.

As far as the aframe I have been able to fade off all the props from the aframe but added on a stride regulator right at the top of the contact zone, just to get her to stretch a fraction of an inch further down and I had lowered the aframe to 5 ft again. Tonight in class Cricket worked on a new aframe (new to her), sequenced before and after the aframe-and we were working in the dark. She did the aframe twice, and it was not perfect but you know it was looking ok and I really think we are almost there. I have worked on this aframe for a long time, and hopfully the next time I need to do an aframe it will go a lot quicker, but hey I am feeling pretty good about the aframe now.

Lizzies letter...

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:


This is Lizzie here and there are some things that I believe people need to be made aware of. I am sure many of you have heard of my unfortunate incident after my former "sister" dog (I refuse to still consider her my sister, although I am a very forgiving dog....but....)viciously BIT my eye! Not being one to dwell on the negative-I am a very happy dog and will not let that dog that shall not be named ruin my day-so I just feel I need to make people aware of the current difficulties I am dealing with-it is hard even for a happy girl such as myself to continue to be jolly considering.




I guess the first problem is that I have been shut into my moms room for D A Y S! That is how I was able to get to the computer to write a letter because that is the room the computer and I are stuck in. Mom says it is to protect me and my eye....but I am not so sure. I do have to admit my other sister Cricket does scare me because I have this durn big lifesaver donut on my neck-and Cricket loves to puncture balls-she keeps eyeing the donut on my neck and wanting to jump on me. It is not like I would be upset if this thing sprung a leak but I have heard the loud POP when Cricket bites the balls, so....not sure that is how I want to lose this thing-so....for that reason it does feel a little safer to be stuck in this bedroom. I am upset that I have not been allowed to go swimming, seems like this damn donut would at least be a good life preserver...so why must I be left out of that activity? I just don't understand.

I think mom is really irritated that I had a fight and is punishing me by putting these HORRIBLE drops in my eye EVERY FOUR HOURS, around the clock. You heard me AROUND THE CLOCK! Everyone knows I need my sleep to retain my basic jolly nature and the last few days I have had to be woken up at midnight, four am and 8am for drops in my eye. Mom says it is to help my eye, but I am pretty sure it is just another fancy punishment.

Luckily I got sprung from this jail to go for something called a "recheck" at the vets office this morning. Anything to leave this room. It is so lucky I went to the vets because there were a lot of people in there that needed some hugs and kisses from me, I was very happy to forget my current troubles and make everyone day by giving lots of hugs and kisses. I do have to say everyone says how friendly I am and I do try to make sure no one ends up without a hug when I am around. Everyone loved my little donut and kept asking where we got it....I was doing my best to tell them they could have mine-I am very generous, but perhaps they did not take me serious because I left the vets office with the donut in place ;-(.

The vet said I am heeling well, and there is still a chance I will need something called "surgery" to take care of some tissue that is rubbing on my eye....but hopefully it is looking like it will not be necessary. I wonder if "surgery" is a toy like a ball or a treat? Hummm, I sort of hope it is a treat ;-), but I am sure it is a good thing, maybe that is another punishment mom is giving me by not letting me have "surgery"?


Many people have been asking what sparked the fight with Chloe. I have to tell you if you guys knew Chloe you would understand. Chloe and I used to be best friends until Chloe started prancing around all the time and showing off her long flowey hair. She teases me about my curly hair and long legs and says my hair is "frizzy". She can be so irritating and she has attacked me enough times that I always feel it is best to attack first now. Chloe and I usually are kept in seperate areas of the house unless supervised.

Now mom is talking about more crate games for both Chloe and I, for "impulse control" and doing fun actities like walks together, and relaxation protocol (which is so boring for me) with both of us together. Mom is determined to make me pay for fighting ;-).


I hope the situation here does not get worse...but for today it is pretty bleak stuck in the room with no agility, or swimming or watching the neighborhood from the front window, the cats have been my only company other then mom, and she is sort of a drag now that she has eye drops, so not sure I will count her as company.










I have been working hard to maintain a good attitude and have even played ball with my donut in place,


and I guess there was a short trip to the park....but I will work to stay happy until conditions improve ;-)


PS Mom asked me to tell you all she says things are looking much better and my eye looks soooo much better ;-)!

It is never a good day if someone ends up in a cone...

I hope everyone can send my little Lizzie Lizard a few healing thoughts today....she needs them ;-(.

I absolutely know things could be so much worse, but Monday was one of those days that I am so glad is just about done, the sooner I can get safely to bed, the better!

The day started out with my having a little fender bender with a fence, not sure how it jumped into my way ;-)..... I thought there was a little leak in my radiator, I felt REALLY stupid-the car looked fine but I knew there was some damage-...sigh...

I was outside talking to a friend for a minute and went back in the house to find Lizzie and Chloe were locked in a battle. My daughter and I fished them apart and noticed some blood coming from Lizzie's eye, as we were fishing them apart my darling hubby was calling all the assorted phones in the house one after another, ughghghgghgh, and of course we were just trying to get the dogs all settled down and assess the damage-seriously leave a message when no one will answer ;-), LOL!

I had no car because mine was in the shop ...and Lizzie was really eerily quiet with a lot of gunk coming out of her eye, so I was worried. ....of course the whole way to the vet my hubby kept mentioning how the car had $1300 of damage. I already felt pretty stupid about it, so how about we could all talk about that after the present crisis is calmed down a bit, ...sigh....

The vet said nothing had touched her eye and the blood was from the other side of her face with a different cut. It did not make much sense....but the eye was looking better so I figured I should just be relieved. This is not my favorite vet, she never seems to do a thorough exam but her office was close and they could get Liz in.

Shortly after getting home Liz's eye was swollen the size of a small ball and was really red and had tons of goop coming out of it. Another hassle to get her to the vet with no car, and as soon as we got there it was confirmed her lid had a bad puncture on the inside and the eye had indeed been scraped and punctured. I do not know how well they checked it because they took her in the back. I guess the punctures were easier to see now because of the swelling.

So now we have to watch carefully....The worry is damage from the scaring on the lid rubbing against her eye could scratch the cornea or that the infection does not get better-so Liz will go back for a recheck tomorrow or the next day depending on how she looks.

Poor Liz, she is obviously not feeling well, I forgot and left my dinner on a low table while she was sitting there and she did not touch it and she has been sooo quiet. Lizzie is usually pretty naughty so it is never a good sign when she is a good girl. She got a nice inflatable cone to make sure if she wakes up in the middle of the night she does not scratch her eye..hope that works, and I set my alarm for every four hours to put in her drops.

Not sure what the deal was with Lizzie and Chloe but Lizzie is a lot bigger then Chloe and Chloe was FINE. Chloe is tough and a scrapper. Probably all the hair Chloe has protected her but goodness can't we all just get along??

Lizzie ready for bed and I am really ready for this day to be over as soon as I can get her next eye drop dose at midnight-I am sure she is looking forward to that:


OUCH!!!

Agility trumps swimming-where is the value?

Guess Cricket likes playing agility ;-)!

A funny thing happened today....Cricket LOVES swimming sooo much. She will swim off and avoid having to get out and will swim FOREVER! Today she was swimming when I took Lizzie out of the pool. As I was walking with Liz through the agility yard I let Liz do a little agility because she has not done much agility in awhile.

Well, my little fish Cricket quickly decided that swimming as much as she loves it has to take a back seat to agility, esp if her sister is doing it with her mom. Everyone knows she is the agility dog right now and it is her equipment. All of a sudden Cricket was going nuts trying to get out of the pool to her equipment. It made me feel good that obviously doing agility has some value for her!

MY WEAVE CHALLENGE:

This time I wanted to work with 12 poles, HOWEVER, it is a lot of weaving and I do not want to put her body through too much, so in the Sylvia Trkman Foundation Agility class she has us open the channels to practice entries without putting a lot of strain on the dogs body, so here I opened a narrow "channel" so the first few poles Cricket has to dig in and start weaving but then it is a little easier on her for the last poles, but she still is practicing staying until the last pole.

Another thing that Sylvia Trkman had us do is turn our shoulders in, move the opposite way, do weird things so the dog "gets" they need to complete the poles no matter what we do once they get in.

I am ALMOST through the challenge, just jump position 8 and 9 to go.
Here is jump position 6.

It was really hot....so we were slower then we should have been, and I was just distracted-don't train distracted, LOL.

Cricket is now running to a toy on the ground, she understands she does the weaves then a jump before her toy and has great forward focus, which is excellent because there was a lot of curling back before-however, I suppose we will have to balance that a little so she is not just leaving the weaves and taking off without me, ;-).





WEAVE UPDATE:

Ricky posted his jump position 4 video, Ricky is just such a good boy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9q6d4AUYO8

Marie is just such an awesome team with Dare. They completed their jump position 6 and check out how well they did. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpon5GpgjnQ&feature=channel_video_title