More Columbia MO

This is a picture of Sanity trying to get George to give her a pigeon.
This is a picture of some of the class trying to get in some work between the storms.Here Sanity and I are getting ready to demo the beginning of the broad jump training. We had to be very careful, because as you can see the floor excelled in shininess and failed in traction.

Here's a group of students just getting settled in for an afternoon session. What you can't see is just how hard it was raining outside.


The next three shots are of Sanity and I on the ATV just before we started a run. These runs were super fun for Sanity. It is the first time in my life I have ever had a dog literally jump for joy. That is exactly what she did the third day I came around the corner of the kennel building on the ATV. All thought I didn't get a picture of it, she also decided to go for a swim and proceeded to jump in said lake at the end where there was no gradual slope. Boy was she surprised when she had to swim back to the shore.



This is a picture of George's little lake. Sanity and I are just a tiny speck on the other side of the lake. It sure was pretty and riding that ATV was fun, fun, fun.

Columbia MO (continued)

The following pictures were taken on the second leg of our journey. I made the mistake of thinking the first plane was small. Little did I know that the second plane would be even smaller. In this first shot they haven't closed the door yet. There is so little room I couldn't figure out where to put my feet and one of them is actually in the aisle.
As you can see in this picture, there really isn't any room at all under the seats. Passengers were not allowed to have any carry-on items on this plane because there simply wasn't any room.
Once they closed the door it seemed as if there was even less room and then we just sat on that runway and sat and sat. It was as if we were sitting in a tin can doing a slow broil. Sanity isn't one to pant and as you can see she had to sit up and try to cool off. Her panting got pretty serious before we were finally underway and they turned the AC on. Thankfully it was a short 45 minute hop to our final destination.

My way of dealing with the steep stairs necessary for disembarking was to leave her on a sit/stay and negotiate them by myself and then call her to me after I got seated in the wheelchair the airport provided. This is a shot of her waiting next to the air line attendant.
As you can see, it was hot enough to cause my "I like it warm" girl to do a wide open pant in an attempt to keep cool.
The next two shots show some of the other planes on the runway. and this shot
No, we didn't' do a jump back in time. They were having an air show when we arrived.
Once on the ground we met up with George and headed back to his lovely home and a week of hard work. More pictures to come. Sorry this is taking so long, but you can blame it on Blogspot.com for not letting me post pictures except via the most difficult of routes AND worse yet, sometimes they just plain aren't accepting any new entries at all. Gotta do something about setting up a blog site on my web page.

Our trip to Columbia MO

Well, the trip to Columbia, MO has come and gone. I have managed to get caught up on almost all the jobs that seem to magically appear anytime a person goes out of town for more than a day and now it is time to report and get back to the daily log.

Best to start in the middle and tell about our trip. This picture was taken by a very sweet flight attendant. It was on the first leg of our trip.


This series of shots gives some idea of just how little room we had and we were sitting in bulkhead which, in theory has the most room.



The flight attendant was trying to take pictures for me when we hit a rough patch. Right after this shot the seatbelt sign came on and it was a while before any more pictures could be taken. It was so dark that Sanity's head doesn't even show up in the picture, but she was actually peeking around the corner and watching. I wish there had been enough light for her to show up.

I give up. One of the reasons why you haven't heard from me in so long isn't just my being busy or tired from the trip. It is that the blog site itself has been down more than it has been working. When I logged in to start this up date it appeared to be finally running correctly. Not so and I really don't have the time to spent when the darn site makes me do it over and over and wait forever for the pictures to load. Will try again tomorrow.

Day 324

Having allowed Sanity to take a serious break from any and all training, based on her starting to request training I figured it would be a good time to start up again. We will continue to rough in the utility exercises while building the open exercises. For those of you who are wondering just where I am going with all this, its actually easy.

After I finish roughing in Utility I will go all the way back to Novice and in effect, start all over again. The major difference will be my insisting on a more precise working style. I think it is necessary at this point to begin to stress the fact that one of the things I am forced to do now that is totally different from how I have ever trained before is that my dog, in this case Sanity, simply must learn to work in a rather slow, deliberate manner. I simply can't stand the pain associated with being bumped by an silly/happy dog nor will my current level of stiffness allow me to move fast enough to even consider one of the popular styles of movement. Doesn't matter since slow and deliberate get the job done in a very comfortable, reliable manner. I'm pleased with the results and so is Sanity and as we all know that is what is really important.

During the evening "Bits and Pieces" class I managed to have Sanity do a directed retrieve to the #1 glove. She is moving about half the distance necessary and moving with complete confidence toward a hidden glove. I also worked her on articles and had her do metal and leather as two separate exercises. We only worked with 2 taboo and one correct article. She did well on both.

Tyler at Lauren's5

As each day goes by he is doing better. He knows what he is suppose to do. I keep reminding myself he is just a puppy, but some of the things he does has Sanity written all over it. Don't let me get on the phone or give him too much slack.

He is good at stealing things in plastic bags like food and treats. He is at the stage where everthing must be tasted and eaten if no one is looking. When he does that I call him "HOOVER">

Bitsy and him have been ok except if she happens to have food stuck in her fur. He will pester her until the cows come home. They both like ice chips and he has made a game out of it so we have little wet spots all over their sofa, etc. If he does anything he thinks he is getting in trouble for he immediately runs to me and get up on the seat of the scooter and looks at me with that "WHAT" look. See I am being good!!!??? Right!!!!

Today we took another traffic and road trip to the drug store. I run him up part of the way and then put him on the bottom of the scooter. He whines when he sees other dogs, but other than that he minds his own business. I know he is still a puppy and he misses all the doggie friends.

He is getting lots of different experiences.

The hardest part is he is so friendly and wants to say hello to all Don's nurses. Alot of them are afraid of "Black dogs" as they say "I can't see his eyes" superstitions from other voodoo countries. So I try to either have him on the flexie or on my seat on the scooter when they arrive. They never come the same time, so it has been difficult from that standpoint. He is doing much better this week.

I have gotten a few pictures, but Don can't manage the camera. Will get more this week before I bring him back.

BLT (Bitsy,Lauren & Tyller)