Catch-Up Time

Things have been a bit hectic lately. Since school started I have felt like a ping pong ball most evenings. I come home from work to take one kid to football, pick another up from another school, take him home, sometimes run errands, go get the other one, come home to make dinner, and am up way too late getting other things done - and wishing I had way more energy and hours in the day. But, I'm trying to make a dedicated effort to consistently get the training done with the dogs I need to. For Vegas that means working on cardio as well as regular stretching and mental exercises.

So, over the last couple of weeks we've done some bike rides, long walks with some jogging thrown in, and are continuing to do so. Plus, when the weather or time prohibits me getting the dogs out for real physical exercise, we're continuing to do nose work. I have to say that is going very well for Vegas. She's really keen on it and I can practically see her mind work. Just the other night she was able to locate several stashes of cheese all over the downstairs of our house including balanced on the light-switch, on the windowsill, and tucked at the base of the stair railing/banister.

Last weekend (9/18-19) was a trial that I was working that I did not enter Vegas. I did bring her Sunday, but Saturday she and Leo were home alone for a number of hours. Bringing her Sunday meant she got very muddy and was mostly bored, but it was a good lesson in patience and of course she got loved all over. One thing that was super cool, though, was that we got to try out a new jump we hadn't seen before. It was a brick wall jump used in the jumpers course. The judge was really cool with letting us go out and play before we picked up equipment in the second ring for the day as well as letting all competitors and non-entered dogs try the wall jump since we had likely never seen one before. It looked something like this (all brick though - no wings):

Of course Vegas didn't bat an eye. LOL. She takes most things in stride and was just excited to get to participate. Silly girl.

The next two weekends we have AKC agility trials and I'm excited for a couple of reasons. 1) They're local - within about an hour, one north and one south. 2) Lots of our friends are going to be there! Lindsay is entered with Heffner; Rachel is entered with Harry Potter; Linda is entered with Zena; Julie is entered with Kado; and Craig will be there with his Dobermans, Risty, Tristan, and the wild child, Kibi. 3) We have three legs left to earn our MXJ and two legs left for our AX. I would love to think Vegas could get at least one of those titles over the next two weekends.

Of course I should be able to have some video and post trial recap including course maps and analysis. I'm definitely going to need the agility stuff over the next couple weeks as a positive and distraction. Work is a bit nuts with some huge projects in the work plus I am having some employee problems that I have to deal with that I can't go into right now. So, the dogs are my outlet in between bouncing around like a ping pong ball for kids and football. But I wouldn't trade any of it for the world.