The Internet Has Returned!

Or more appropriately, Sadie and I have returned to the internet.

After a long, trying time of lackluster employment for me, I now am back on track and everything is rosy.  This is just a perfunctory post to get back into the swing of it (honestly, I'm impressed I remembered my password!)

But so this post isn't boring, here's a couple of pictures I took of the Sadiedog about five minutes ago.  She may have had a slight haircut recently for summer... see if you can tell!  :)

"You don't really have a cookie, do you?"

"No, that's definitely not a cookie.  You had better go into the kitchen after this one."

Hope to be back posting again soon!  It's been nice catching up on all the puppies... some of you have gotten BIG!!

'Good Dog' and Competition Obedience

Lately, I've been watching the series Good Dog on Hulu.  Dr. Stanley Coren, who's the host of the show, has a lot of good advice about dogs... although there is some of it with which I don't agree.  Still, most of the advice is sound, and it's a good time waster on this three-day weekend.

One of the first things I noticed about his training methods was that they were very much in exact line with my first foray into training dogs.  When I was about 13 or 14 years old, two of the teachers at the middle school I was going to at the time were involved in competition obedience trials through the AKC.  Because of this, they decided to offer an after-school class to students and their dogs to help them learn basic obedience commands.  If it wasn't already obvious, from there it kind of snowballed for me in a big way.

But the core of the type of training that I learned then is still what I use today.  [Not particularly with Sadie -- I'll get to that in another post.]  I would still use those metal training collars, and I've never even clicked one 'clicker' in my life.

Not to say those training methods aren't great.  Just to say I've never had experience with them, and thus don't use them.

The Good Dog series I've been watching on Hulu, though, has made me really, really wish that I was back in competition obedience at the AKC shows.  One of the things I'd love to do most is take a group obedience class with Sadie.  Not only would it get us both out of the house (and hopefully help with her socialization ... and mine), but it would be a great refresher to maybe get back into dog shows again.

Here's an episode of Good Dog that has a great segment of a little bit of what competition obedience is like:



Pretty cool, no?

If you're thinking you can't compete in dog obedience at an AKC show because you don't have a purebred dog, you'd be wrong (fortunately!)  The AKC Canine Partners Program allows for registration of mixed breeds to compete in obedience, agility, rally and other events.  There are some stipulations, such as the fact that the dog must be spayed or neutered, but they're fairly minimal.  The fee for registration isn't that much, either.

Someday.  Someday, I'll be able to do all of that stuff.  But until I can, maybe one YOU can and then post about it so I can live vicariously through your actions.  :)

It's at least something neat to check out!

I Guess She Just Knows

So for the past few weeks, I've just been in kind of a slump emotionally.  The last few years, Sadie and I's lives have been improving, but I'm still not where I want to be.  And sometimes the hills I have to climb seem too damn steep, and I get tired and sad.

I'm sure it shows in my habits and the things that I do -- when I get into these slumps.  But Sadie just seems to know when I'm getting into one of those moods.  And she lets me know she knows.

Although she follows me around much of the time I'm home, when she knows I'm feeling down she's right at my heels.  In fact, she's right at my heels annoyingly so.  If I stop to do something around the house, I'll either have a cold nose in the back of my calf, or she'll actually lick my leg if I have on shorts.  When I turn around to look at her, she just sways her tail back and forth like, "Dude, yeah, I'm here.  What?"

Also, she pretty much has the run of the house and the furniture.  She can sleep on the bed, on the chairs ... wherever she's comfortable.  When I get into one of these slumps, though, most of the time she's right at my feet.  Sometimes, she's where my feet should be when I'm sitting in the chair, and I have to move my feet uncomfortably to the side.  And sometimes, she's where my feet should be, and I have to move my feet uncomfortably to the side, and she puts her head directly ON my feet.  And if I move my feet, she looks up at me like I've inconvenienced her greatly.

Also, when she feels she's being ignored, she will gather up one of her toys and start flinging it around.  If that doesn't garner my attention, she'll start barking at it.  And if that doesn't make me start laughing, then sooner or later I'll get a Sadietoy to the forehead.

So it seems I'm starting to come out of my slump here lately, and she is currently sleeping on the bed.  My feet are comfortably sitting in front of me at the moment.  There are no Sadietoys being flung unceremoniously at my head.

If [when] I do start feeling down again, then I'm sure to start getting leg cramps from having my feet to the side, and blinking seconds before some ragged stuffed animal comes flying at my face.  I guess she just knows.

Sadie the pooldog.

Heat Stroke & A Sad Post

It's summer (if you hadn't noticed yet), and it's one of the hottest summers on record.  There's partial flooding and record heat on the east coast, fires and drought in the mid-west ... it's just absolutely miserable.

I can't stress how important it is to keep your dog cool during the summer... better bloggers have said it better than I ever could.

So, instead, I'm going to tell the story of how I killed a dog one summer.

Yes, you read that right.

*******

I was about 13 or 14 years old.  We were living in extreme southeastern Georgia, and it was a hot, hot summer.  Then again, most summers in Georgia are hot.

Our family hadn't really gotten into Aussies yet -- we just had American cocker spaniels.  I was, at the time, really starting to get to the splitting point:  Either I would be into dog shows for years to come, or I would try to rebel and hate the entire process.  I think kids that age seem to always have something to be angst-y and over-emotional about.  I just took what I had closest to me.

So it was on this hot, summer day that the rest of my family decided to go off to do something together, and I was left alone at the house to take care of the dogs.  I don't even remember where they were going, and I guess it's unimportant anyway.  The important part was -- and this was key -- my mother had deemed me grown-up enough to stay home by myself AND also decided I was responsible enough to take care of the dogs for a while by myself, too.

This distinction was a bit of a push up to my pride.  I was flattered that my mother thought I was responsible enough to take care of the dogs.  But if I'm going to be honest, I can say that the most uplifting part of the fact that I was going to be alone was the fact that it would allow me to watch the movie we had rented again without interruptions.

I was more about watching the movie and being finally alone than any amount of responsibility that my mother was giving me.

They left, my mother letting me know that I should let out the dogs once while they were gone.  And then I was free!

In the movie went.  And I sat like a zombie in front of the screen.  About halfway into the movie, I realized I needed to let the dogs out... so I did.

I then went back to watching the movie, and promptly forgot I had let out the dogs.  In humid, baking heat.  In the middle of the afternoon.

 Engrossed in the movie, I didn't realize it until 25-30 minutes had passed.  I can't describe the immediate feeling of panic that went through me when I realized the dogs were still outside.  It was overwhelming and like a slap... I went out and looked at the dogs in the runs.

They were hot.  All of them.  All of them looked miserable... but they looked okay.  Except Cooper.

Cooper was lying on his side, and he didn't look like he was breathing.  I ran and got all of the other dogs in first, and then I went to Cooper.

Cooper was about a year old tri-color pup with an abundance of show coat and a really neat personality.  He also had a breathing problem, and just hadn't been able to handle the extended time in the sun at all.  When I went to him in the pen, his eyes were glazed open and unfocused, and his breathing was shallow.  Even in the short time I stood there, there were moments where he wouldn't take a breath at all.

I didn't know what to do.  Logic was about the only thing I had, so I reasoned I had to get him inside and get his body temperature down as fast as possible with ICE.  I know now that this is not the way to deal with heat stroke, but at the time I was clueless.  This was before the days of cell phones, and I had really no way of reaching anyone at that time.

I won't fully describe the next couple of hours.  Cooper did wake up a couple of times, disoriented and blankly staring around, as if he was completely blind and didn't remember where he was.  Then there were the long, absolutely horrible seizures.  I cried almost the entire time.  I had no idea what else to do.

When my parents got home, they didn't have time to be mad.  They took Cooper immediately to the vet, and when they got home a few hours later, they told me the vet had put Cooper to sleep.  He was beyond saving at that point.

The enormity of the fact that Cooper's death was squarely on my shoulders was probably one of the most horrible things I've ever had to deal with.  My parents didn't punish me for the ordeal.  I guess they figured the guilt I felt and the lesson I'd learned was more than enough punishment -- and they were right.

To this day, I'm absolutely fanatic about keeping my animals cool.  The air conditioner where I live went out a few weeks ago, and I almost had a panic attack.  Luckily it was fixed the next morning, less than 12 hours from when I broke.  But it was still a nerve-wracking experience.

So this summer, make sure that you keep ALL of your animals cool.  Never leave them in a car alone for ANY reason.  Make sure they have plenty of fresh water at all times.  And educate yourself on what to do in case of an emergency.

So ... this wasn't the most happy, joy-joy of posts.  But I hope that it helps make my point, and that people take the issue of summer heat seriously, especially for their pets.

Been Busy!

I know, I know, I've been neglecting this blog that no one reads.  :)

I actually have a post that I'm going to be doing soon about how important it is to keep your dog cool during the summer ... but it will be a difficult post for me to write, so I've been putting it off.

Also, I've been working a LOT due to the storms in on the east coast, and haven't had time to do too much.

In the meantime, here is a video of Sadie performing the blanket dog intelligence test.  I thought it was funny as heck.  Sadie did not agree.

Excellent Agility Post!

Just a short post to direct your attention to a GREAT post about starting in agility with your dog from the website 3 Lost Dogs.

Click here:  A Beginner's Guide to Dog Agility

I've often thought about getting Sadie into agility (definitely more about that later!), and this post offers many reasons, resources, and information about the dog sport.  Check it out!

Introduction to Sadie's Mom

Hi!  I'm Sadie's mom.

First of all, let's get the preliminaries out of the way.  I'm 36 years old, single, and live in Georgia.  There.  That should be enough.

Now, about why I'm writing a blog about dog stuff...

Starting from the age of about 6, I was always around dogs.  In fact, my mother still 'blames' me that the family got into showing dogs.  When I was in 5th grade, two of the teachers at the school I was going to at the time had a student dog obedience class that was held once a week after school.  I signed up for it, and attended with our mutt at the time, Kris.

After that, it was a LIFE filled with dogs.  My mother acquired an American Cocker Spaniel named Dizzy.  From there, we started showing and breeding them.  I got involved in junior handling and even wrote a junior handling column for one of the American Cocker Spaniel breed magazines.  I can't remember a weekend in my youth where I wasn't at a dog show ... or at least grooming and bathing dogs to go to dog shows in the future.

From there, our family eventually got into a different breed, Australian Shepherds.  And that's when the obedience bug took over.  I helped my mother teach 4-H dog obedience with our local 4-H club, and eventually even got a Companion Dog title on my pup at the time, Tattle Tail.  [She was a Cocker Spaniel.  I have no doubt there will be stories forthcoming about that, lemme tell you...]

I grew up, got married, and while I was married worked at several veterinarian clinics and also the local Humane Society.  While married, we were the proud owners of a Shih-Tzu named Pepper and a Siberian Husky named Shiloh.  I even managed to get the AKC Canine Good Citizen title on the Shih-Tzu.

My divorce allowed me to take Pepper with me, while my husband decided to keep Shiloh.  During it all I was always training and learning new things.

Eleven years later, after moving around a bit and having to say goodbye to Pepper, I decided I couldn't live without a dog.  I traveled to a Humane Society in rural Alabama, and that's where I met Sadie.  Sadie and I have been together for 5 years now, and she's been something else -- to put it mildly.  I've never had a dog like her, nor have I been so challenged.  But I'm sure I'll be spewing about that, too.

So over the years, my life has been filled with dogs.  I have a lot of knowledge about "old-school" obedience, a good deal of different breed knowledge, and a love of dogs that borders on obsessive.  So, I figured, Why not write about it?

So there you go!  I hope to be doing posts here a few times a week on different subjects that cross my mind.  Feel free to leave a comment whether you agree or disagree.  But mostly, this is a place for me to toss out all of the doggy ideas I have flying around my head that I feel I need to get out.  I guess that's your warning.  :)