Distractions

(Phoenix/Cottonwood, AZ) Today we got up bright and early....actually it was dark and early. We went to meet someone on the other side of Phoenix that was going to help us with our very first Rally course.

Billie's friend, Myra, has all the signs and knows a lot about Rally. So she agreed to meet us at a park where she set up a Novice Rally course. She was so very nice to do this. Wow, did this give us a jolt. We sure learned that we have a lot more to learn!

Even though it was very early in the morning, Boogie seemed to think there were many distractions. Every blade of grass, every passing bird, every smell in the air, and every voice he heard distracted him.

But it wasn't just Boogie that had trouble. I didn't understand many of the signs, I didn't understand where I had to be in relation to the signs, and I hadn't taught Boogie some of the moves as I didn't understand them myself! We sure have a LOT of work left to do before we can enter a trial, that's for sure.

After we got back from practice, a mobile repair service came out to fix our heating system. This is a great heating system when it works. But it has broken so many times. Hopefully, this will be the repair that fixes it once and for all.

When we got the repair finished, we packed up and headed up to Cottonwood. The park isn't crowded at all so we got our pick of spots. We got a great spot (fairly flat) right near the start of a trail. Perfect!

We took a little hike around the area which was definitely a hit with the dogs. It is very quiet around here this time of year yet the weather is very comfortable - high 60's to low 70's. Exactly how we like it.

Every time we've been here there have been beautiful sunsets. And today was no exception. To me it looked a little bit like the mountain was erupting.



The color changed a bit the further the sun went down.



Debbie
11/27/07

Slugger's Rules for Life

(Phoenix, AZ)
Yesterday was Slugger’s birthday,
but we were so busy with the trial
we didn’t get to celebrate in style.
But never fear, his party will come soon
When he’s with friends who can help him celebrate too.

In the meantime, Slugger would like to share with you his views on life. So I'll turn the computer over to Slugger – here is what he writes (with the help of a friend):

Mom never lets me use the computer, so now that I have but these few minutes, I'll try my best to use them to my advantage. Here are my thoughts that I live by:


1. Never pretend to be something you're not. Everyone knows you are a 50 pound lap dog, so don't pretend that you are not.

2. If you have a stick in your mouth, you automatically switch to super overdrive, and will be compelled to run around like you are insane...

3. If your people won't let you on the bed, cry, whine and look pathetic until they do.

4. Be excessive, if they ask you to get a stick, bring back a tree, if they ask for a kiss, drench their face.

5. If someone seems to not want to be friends, follow them around, stare
at them, whine at them, cry, and if they are sitting, sit directly on
them, and kiss them until they can't breath.

6. Always sit where everyone is, and if they are in the same place, like
the couch or bed, make sure to plop yourself in between them, and DO
NOT MOVE.

7. If they try to move you, be stubborn, dig in your heels, and if they
do move you, refer to number 3.

8. If you want to add a little excitement to your life...chase
something, birds, squirrels, raccoons, see how your people come
running and yelling. I have found that porcupines and skunks work
exceptionally well, but don't ever catch them, or you'll end up in
the bath tub or the vet's.

9. Baths are always bad! (Swimming is always good....but that's so different!)

10. Act as silly as you can when you do something wrong, and you should
get away with it. The trick is to make them laugh...(works every time for me!)

11. Work that tongue of yours...let them come close enough and then
surprise them with a lick "snake's style" right on the mouth!

12. Make sure to always go for the most comfortable couch in the house...
even if it is already occupied. Same thing goes for your favorite
lap.

13. When it's in your best interest, always practice obedience, keeping a
keen eye on the hand that holds the treat, unless there is something
more interesting within 100 yards, then ignore everyone and focus
entirely on the more interesting person/dog/thing to the point of
reaching a trance state. (I'm really good at this!)

13. Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be
pure ecstasy and prompt you to produce copious amounts of drool to
leave on all interior car windows.

14. Never miss the opportunity to cuddle with a loved one ...

I guess the last one can apply to everyone - human or animal. Okay, I'm off now - after writing all this I need to go cuddle and kiss!!

Wow, that Slugger can write!

This evening we got to attend a "box" practice. They have a box practice down here about every other week. No wonder the Arizona gang does so well at all the distance challenges.

The course from the last round of Regular (Sweepstakes division) at the Championships was set up. We all then got to practice doing the whole course from the box. It was difficult! No one did it perfectly but some of the dogs did really well. Sparkie was very impressive. Wazzu couldn't begin to do it. But she was really happy. In fact, she did 12 weaves faster than any dog there tonight. Go figure!

After box practice ended, I took Boogie out to do a couple little things as he had watched the entire practice from the dashboard of the RV. He had a grand time when it was finally his turn.

People in the PNW need to have some kind of practice or lessons like this if they want to keep up in the distance portion of agility. Hopefully that will happen! I do know some of my friends in WA are working hard on that! "Out" you go!!

Slugger & Debbie
11/26/07

It's a Niner Weekend

(Phoenix, AZ) As you just might guess, we attended an agility trial in Phoenix for the three day weekend. And a great weekend it turned out to be.


Versatility NATCH-9 Sparkie and NATCH-9 Wazzu


FRIDAY:

Unfortunately, my legs were really unhappy after my dinner last night so Mike had to run all three dogs in all the events they were entered in except for one run. I didn't even go out to watch.

This really kept Mike hopping. It wouldn't have been so hard but we recently moved Wazzu to Novice, so Mike had to be walking and running two different levels. This caused him to have conflicts. In addition, he had a hard time remembering some of the courses since sometimes he'd be running back to back in different rings.

Unfortunately, this meant he got confused a couple times. But I'd say he did really good for what he had to do. Mike came back to the RV and said Sparkie didn't do "good" - she did "great!" She was running beautifully all day and did everything Mike told her to do. Unfortunately, Sparkie got the short end of the stick when it came to Mike getting confused on course. But she still did really well going 4/6. The most exciting news for Sparkie and Mike today was that they earned their Versatility NATCH-9. Mike said their Weavers run wasn't all that pretty but it was in plenty of time. Good job, Mike and Sparkie!

Wazzu was perfect! Mike ran her in four runs - which was one more than I'd even planned on her running. I retired her from Weavers back in May when she was diagnosed with spondylosis. But I still enter her in Weavers as it's cheaper to enter the full weekend package than to enter in single runs. Then I just scratch her. But since we moved her Novice (and there are only sets of six instead of 12), Mike decided to give her a try in the first round of Weavers today since it was the first run of the day when it was still cool. Mike said she wasn't super fast but seemed to be very happy the entire run.

For the last run of the day, Mike drove Wazzu and I over to within about 20' of the start line for Elite Chances. I guess Wazzu knew I couldn't really run so she took off from the start line like she knew the numbers. I couldn't believe it. I was all worried about a couple spots and she just went out and did the course super fast - totally like she knew the numbers. I hardly had to move much at all. What a girl!! We then got right back in the car where I got to watch a few dogs before going back to the RV - I really enjoyed that. So Wazzu ended up going 5/5 today!

Slugger got to do Weavers and Regular today. Mike said Slugger got distracted by some interesting smell in the air during Weavers. He was able to get Slugger back and he completed the whole course but not within time. Shuckens. But he kept his attention on the course during his Regular run, did the distance challenge nicely and was perfect. He got 1st place - and yes, there were other dogs in his class!!

Poor little Boogie didn't get much attention at all today. And he wasn't all that happy about it either. Even though I was with him all day, he definitely knew the other dogs were going out to play. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for Boogie and me.

When the trial was over and Mike got all of us fed, he collapsed on the couch. Between running the three big dogs, taking Boogie out for potty breaks, and working a couple classes, I don't think Mike was in the RV for more than a total of ten minutes all day. He didn't even have time for breakfast or lunch. No wonder the poor guy is tired!

After dinner we thought our day was over. But about 11:00pm I was in the back watching TV and Mike was up front watching TV (we don't always like the same shows). I thought I heard something but kind of brushed it off as nothing. Unbeknownst to me, about that same time, Mike also thought he heard something but also brushed it off as nothing.

A couple minutes later there was a knock on our door. The security guard came to tell us that she'd seen some kids throwing eggs at our RV. She chased them but couldn't get close enough to get a license plate number. I think Mike's been watching too many crime dramas as he wanted to know why she didn't just shoot out their tires to stop them. Ha ha.

SATURDAY:

In addition, to running dogs today, Mike had to spend a lot of time trying to clean all the eggs off the RV. The whites came off fairly easy but the yolks took Mike a long time to get off. The hardest part were the eggs that were thrown into a grill type area near the rear of the RV. I'd say Mike spent a total of two hours trying to get all the egg off.

Mike started out running all three dogs again today. But between cleaning the RV and two dogs having to run different courses at the same time (and I mean the same time - only 30 seconds apart), he was very flustered. Both dogs were running well but Mike got confused on each course and both Sparkie and Wazzu ended up with an off-course.

I was feeling a little better today and was able to be up a little more. So I spent a lot of my time lying near one of the rings where I could watch the courses and occasionally run Wazzu. Mike ended up running her for two runs and I ran the other four. The first run I did with her was Touch N Go. It was slightly chilly out so Wazzu was very happy.....too happy. She was so excited to run with me that she went full speed ahead. The problem was she was so happy she didn't have time to touch the yellow on any of the contacts. We rarely miss a contact, but if you're going to miss a bunch you might as well miss them all in the same run! No Q for us but I was really happy to see Wazzu was having so much fun! She calmed down a little bit and did her next Touch N Go run perfectly.

The Elite Chances run looked very doable. There were two potential problem spots that I could see. The second of the two was a tunnel/a-frame discrimination. The jumps kind of pushed the dogs out to the tunnel but they were to take the a-frame which was closer to the handler. The first tricky part Wazzu did just perfectly as she had a lot of speed and did a perfect switch. She had enough speed going that it kept her out to the outer layer of jumps. But for some reason, she cut in - running by a jump and heading right to the a-frame. Yikes, big screaming from me. She stopped in time and I called her back. Fortunately she didn't step over the line but now we had an extremely hard angle to do a jump way out there. I don't know how she did it but somehow she managed to go back out (major miracle), do the jump, get the discrimination and finish the course perfect and fast. We made it so much harder than it had to be! My guess is that I was so worried about the discrimination that I pulled a little too soon which pulled her off the jump. Whatever the case, she was great and figured it out and we got the Q! Very exciting. As fast as Wazzu was in Chances and her first Touch N Go run, she was that slow in her final Touch N Go run. I thought there was glue in the tunnels as it seemed like it took forever for her to come out! What's up with that. I'm guessing it's because neither Mike nor I could walk her around before her run. she had to lie on the ground with me while we waited for our turn....not real motivating for her. But fortunately she sped up the second half of the run and managed to make time.

Other than the first run when Mike was a little confused, Sparkie was perfect on the day. She did make everyone laugh on one run though. There were three jumps out at an angle but the dogs were only supposed to take two jumps and then curve into the weaves. To make sure Sparkie didn't take the third jump, Mike left Sparkie at the start line and did a long leadout. When he turned to release her, she had already taken the first jump and was standing perfectly still in front of the second jump...with a HUGE smile on her face - she always smiles when she thinks she is in trouble. Needless to say everyone started laughing and laughing. Leave it to Sparkie to be so silly. The rest of the run she put on the after burners which is evidenced by the fact she still got 1st place - and there is a lot of really good competition here.

Slugger was perfect today! Wow! He had a very nice Touch N Go run. There were 20 dogs in his class and he got 5th! We are so proud of him. Then in his Regular run he ran very nicely once again, doing the distance challenge perfectly just like yesterday. Slowly but surely, Slugger is making a nice comeback from his ACL surgery.

Boogie got a little bit more attention to today. He got to have a couple wrestling matches with another puppy his size, although it was a few months older than him. They had a similar playing style and had great time. He also got to watch some agility, although I'm not really sure that was his idea of fun. Sitting still wasn't what he had in mind. It just so happened that we had Boogie out when it was time to walk Elite Chances. So we left him in securely closed in Wazzu's big crate. We were walking the course when we hear "loose dog, loose dog." I look around (definitely not thinking it was my dog) and I see Boogie slowly running around the ring looking for me. The second he saw me he came barreling to me. Phew - at least he ran through the ring where people were walking and not the ring where dogs were running.

When the trial was over for the day, we got out our little set of four weave poles and took them to an empty field on the other side of the park from the trial (right next to our RV). I got some leftover turkey from my dinner the other night and we practiced some weaves with Boogie. I can't believe the angles that he can hit entries from. And speed - my goodness he can weave pretty quickly although I'll still push him for more. He really seems to enjoy agility. I sure hope he keeps this enthusiasm for years to come.

SUNDAY:

Today I was hoping I could run Wazzu in all her runs. I was so excited when I indeed was able to do all six runs with my girl. She seemed happy to be running with me too most of the time. She sped through both her Tunnelers runs with a smile on her face as well as her first Regular run. Then, for some reason, she got lazy. In our second Regular run she was almost walking for the first few obstacles. Then she got so lazy she even knocked a bar. The very second she knocked the bar then she decided agility was fun and she took off and ended very happily. Huh? Wazzu sure is good at confusing me.

Then came the all important run - Elite Chances. It was warm by now so I got her a little wet - and I got out some leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner. Oh, suddenly we weren't tired at all. Wazzu did the Chances course just perfectly - like she didn't even need me out there at all. But I was so happy to be out there with my very special girl. I checked with the judge just to be sure - and yup, we got it. This was NATCH-9 for my sweet Wazzu. Yippee!

Less than one minute later we were up in Jumpers. She continued on her fast and happy streak and ran a flawless Jumpers run. Wazzu ended up 4/6 today and 14/17 for the weekend. Amazingly enough she went 3/3 in Chances this weekend. My sweet girl was really on this weekend....especially in the important Chances runs.

Sparkie didn't do anything funny today....well, on course that is. Like Wazzu, she also went 4/6 today. She had some really fabulous runs and one run that was quite an adventure. She ran it cleanly but got off line a little bit and had to do some jumps at angles that we didn't think were possible. She had the judge shaking his head and laughing. Leave it up to Sparkie. But on her other runs she put on a clinic for how to do an agility course. In fact, in one of the Tunnelers runs she had the fastest time of any dog - and there are some extremely good dogs down here.

Slugger had one and a half nice runs. His first run he was a little distracted in the beginning and ended up back jumping. But he finished really strongly! His second run he was very focused and did really well. The distance portion looked way too hard for Slugger but I guess they somehow made it! Slugger had a very nice weekend overall going 4/6. And get this....Slugger earned his Superior Novice Agility Title! To top it all off, today is Slugger's 7th birthday! Happy Birthday little Slugger.

Boogie didn't get all that much attention this weekend but he was a really good sport about it. When the trial was over today and everyone was packing up, Boogie got to play with a Belgian Terv. He was a great dog. He had a hedgehog toy that made a really weird noise. Boogie wanted it and this dog just let him have it. Then they started chasing each other around while Boogie carried the hedgehog. What a sweet dog that terv was - an extremely gentle soul. It was a great ending to a pretty boring weekend for our good natured little Boogie.

After the trial ended, we headed back over to Billie's house. This wasn't our original plan but we're having more trouble with the RV so we need to be in a big city so we can get it fixed.

Boogie was really happy when we stopped the RV and we were back at his favorite spot. I took him out for a quick agility practice and he thought all was well with the world.

Once again we thought our day was over. But in the late at night I kept hearing sirens. I didn't think too much of it but they just kept going on and on. A while later helicopters kept hovering over. I couldn't get to sleep so I finally asked Mike to go check it out. It turned out that a house just down the road was engulfed in flames. This house was empty and was for sale. Hmmm, arson comes to mind as a possibility. Once the fire was out, the neighborhood got quiet again. Sleep still wasn't coming - but at least it was quiet.

Sleep is really over-rated, don't you think?

Debbie
11/23-25/07

Happy Thanksgiving

(Phoenix, AZ) We would like to wish each and every one of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Like you I'm sure, we have many things to be thankful for. It seems as we, as humans, tend to focus on the things that are going wrong or have gone wrong in our lives. But if we just stop and think for a minute, there are so many things to be thankful for. I won't bother you with the list of all the things we're thankful for.

I will say though that most of all we are thankful for the love our family and friends, and good health. I know what many of you are thinking....but my health could be worse. I'm so thankful that I can see, hear, taste, touch, smell, move, walk (most of the time), etc. I try really hard to focus on the good.

Speaking of the love of family and friends. We got an e-card from some good friends, phone calls and e-mails from many friends and family, and got invited out to dinner by another friend so that we wouldn't be alone on Thanksgiving. All of this made us feel very loved.

Our friend, Billie, and her mom go out for Thanksgiving dinner together each year and they invited us to go with them. We thought that was very nice that they would include us in their special time together. We went to a very nice steak house for dinner called Carver's. They had a special Thanksgiving dinner that included turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. It didn't include pumpkin pie but that was fine as none of use had room for that anyway. So a huge thank you to Billie and her mom for including us in their Thanksgiving celebration.

Happy Thanksgiving.
Debbie
11/22/07

Taking it Easy

(Phoenix, AZ) We got up super early and went out to practice agility with Billie and her dogs before it got hot. Boogie and I ended up getting a private lesson. Actually I should say, I got the private lesson. Boogie was doing great but I was doing everything wrong. I'm so used to an experienced dog, a big dog, a slower dog, etc, etc. (I need all the excuses I can find!) It seemed like everything I did was wrong. And as soon as Billie told me what I was doing wrong, I could so understand what she was telling me. I am so thankful for all her help. How lucky we are!

During the day I tried to practice with Boogie but it was too hot and he wasn't all that interested. So instead we worked on Rally. Boogie does Rally much better when he is hot as he doesn't have as much energy. Since I've never done Rally I'm not really sure how to teach him some of the things we need to know. But we'll plug along and see what we come up with.

Slugger has still been limping quite badly due to this sore pad. So Mike went out and bought some pad liquid bandage before they took off for a little walk. It helped for a little while.

Today was a pretty leisurely day. I'm not sure the dogs thought it was all that great but I know it was good for Mike to have a day where he didn't have to entertain the dogs all day long.

Debbie
11/21/07

Losing Streak

(Tucson/Phoenix, AZ) Today was moving day. The last couple of years we've spent a couple months in the same spot. It's really nice to have some time when we just stay put for a while. Moving every few days is really a lot of work. Unfortunately, this year, staying put just isn't happening.

Before we left, Mike took all four dogs to the park I told you about the other day for a short walk. Having all four on leash (just 6' leashes) was turning out to be very unpleasant as they were always getting tangled. So Mike let Wazzu off leash as she's pretty good at staying right next to you.....unless she sees a rabbit!!

Well, Wazzu indeed saw a rabbit and off she went. Of course, Sparkie and Slugger wanted to help with the chase. Sparkie stopped immediately when Mike told her to, but Slugger went into cart pulling mode in the rocks. He lost the pulling battle and also lost some of the pad on his front foot and was bleeding pretty good. Fortunately Boogie doesn't really understand rabbits yet so he didn't go into a frenzy. This is why it's hard for Mike to take all the dogs when more than two need to be on leash. But other than that one little incident the walk was very nice.

We then drove from Tucson to Phoenix and arrived at Billie's house in the mid-afternoon. Boogie sure remembers this place! It's the place with agility equipment, mice, and Aunt Billie who he really loves.

Boogie and I practiced a little bit of agility. He amazes me at how many things he can do. I sure hope I can keep teaching him enough things....and teach him correctly!

In the evening, Mike and Sparkie were heading out to a fun match when Mike noticed that Sparkie's leash was nowhere to be found. He looked everywhere...a few times over. This was a very special leash. I bought it off the internet when we first got Sparkie. After six full years of use it still looks brand new. And that's saying a lot as Sparkie gnaws on it and tugs on it all the time. I've looked all over the internet for hours (recently when we decided we'd like to have a spare) but have been unable to find anything like it. It would have been better to have lost the car keys and found the leash! We can get new car keys made but we can't find a leash like Sparkie's anywhere! She may not be able to do agility ever again!!

They went to the fun run but were so out of it without their leash. At the fun run they got a few tries at the Finals course from the USDAA Nationals. Sparkie did really well and of course had a great time.

Debbie
11/20/07

Highway Robbery

(Tucson, AZ) We were so excited when we woke up this morning to find the RV still level. Yippee - we don't have to figure out a way to stay out all day....and we don't have to pay a bundle for them to try and find something else.

So while Mike took some time to do some things around the RV I decided to practice Rally with Boogie since I was feeling better. I was amazed at how fast he picked up heeling. We've never done it before at all but for a first time I was very impressed.

After a day of doing nothing the dogs were really ready to go. So we didn't doddle and we took off to go hiking. Since it was supposed to be another scorcher today we decided to go back up to Mt. Lemmon. Although we decided to do the same trail as last time, we drove to a different spot to try a different section of the Sunrise Trail.

We started out with the girls off leash and the boys on leash. But Boogie was absolutely wild and he kept getting everyone all tangled up which was not only dangerous but it scared Slugger as well. So Boogie got taken off leash very quickly. Ah, much better.

At the beginning of this trail are a number of cabins that are rented out by the forest service I think. But a few years ago a fire went through this area (I mentioned that to you a few days ago) and burnt all the cabins. Some were severely burnt and others just had minor damage (comparatively speaking of course). They have never fixed the cabins so they have just been sitting vacant for years.



The entire length of the trail you could see charred trees to remind you of the devastation this area experienced in 2003.



Throughout the hike we were so pleased with how well behaved Boogie was. He'd follow Sparkie a short ways but never out of our sight and rarely more than just a few feet off the trail. Boogie does have one interesting habit or skill maybe you'd call it. I don't care if we are hiking, walking around an agility trial, or walking through an RV park, he can ALWAYS find a discarded piece of chewed chewing gum. It's a rare day when he doesn't find some chewing gum. Most of the time we can get it out of his mouth but unfortunately sometimes he swallows it. It's really amazing how well dogs can hide things in their mouth - Boogie is a pro at it. He managed to do it again today. I can't figure out how as we've never seen a soul on this trail any time we've been up here (and that includes last year too).

The trail was really nice. In fact, after a while we were already to a portion of it that we had done the other day. It was nice to get down to the creek so the dogs could cool off and get a big drink. It must be really hot down in town today as even way up here in the mountains it is really hot.



In addition to exercise, hiking is a great activity for learning. Of course we do a lot of recalls. We can even get dogwalk practice in the forest too.



We can also practice our STOP!!! .... but as you can see we have to be on leash for that or it could be very dangerous as another three steps and it's straight down!!



Probably the thing we practice most on these hikes is "Leave It." That's by far the hardest for Boogie. Of course, he always looks up and says "I didn't do it." But the face always seems to tell a different story.



There are a number of very steep cliffs/drop-offs on portions of this trail. It was a little tricky for Mike to hold all three dogs back so they wouldn't go over the cliff while we took this picture. Wazzu of course had to be near me so we knew we didn't have to worry about her - although she is awfully close to the edge. Scary.



When we got to the beach I expect to find pretty rocks but I don't expect that up in a fairly barren forest with many rock cliffs. There were a few of these hidden around:



We saw one lone flower - maybe it was just a weed but whatever it was it was sure colorful next to all the burnt trees.



When you first glance at this picture it looks like it is on its side but it's not. Interesting.



Sparkie was having a great time, just like usual on our hikes. She is just like a little mountain goat running here and there - nothing fazes her. A couple times she scared me a bit and I told her to stop. She just looked at me like "why can't I jump mom - it's easy."



She's just way too cute.



Speaking of cute! Too bad there was a shadow....but I just had to share this anyway. He's getting so grown up - so fast!



I was doing just fine until we were about 3/4 the way back. Suddenly I felt really dehydrated (which would make sense after how sick I was yesterday). So we stopped and I had a little bit of water. About 15 minutes later I felt really sick. I was having major cramps and felt really weak. I had to stop and quite a number of times. Quite often I wasn't sure I could continue on....but I knew I had to. Our pace slowed considerably. How weird that I felt fine until I drank some water - just like last night. Mike says I must be the only person allergic to water! I was so thirsty but there was no way I was going to drink anymore water - which of course is all we had.
It seemed like forever but we finally were in sight of the car. That was the best sight I'd seen in a long time. But the next thing I heard was "oh no, where are the are keys!" We checked Mike's pockets over and over. We looked through his pack many times as well. I looked all around the car on the ground but the keys just weren't to be found. So Mike decided he would go back down the trail to try to find them. We figured Sparkie would enjoy hiking more and she's fast so she wouldn't slow Mike down at all. So Mike and Sparkie took off back down the trail.

That left me with the two boys and Wazzu. I was trying to look all around the car and in the area we were in before leaving on the hike. But the keys were nowhere to be found. Slugger and Wazzu were perfect. Wazzu was off leash but just stood at the trailhead staying near me but keeping an eye on the trail. Slugger stayed right beside me no matter where I walked looking for the keys. Boogie was a total menace! He wanted to go with Mike - we knew that wouldn't work as he doesn't like to be out of my sight. When he finally figured out there was no way he was going down the trail, he kept pulling in every direction he could. He got wound around trees and wound around signs. He was horrible!

About 20 or 30 minutes later, Mike and Sparkie came back - they had found the keys right in the middle of the trail. We figure they must have fallen out one time when Mike reached in his pocket to give the dogs a treat. I always give the dogs treats but Mike never has any with him. Today he decided to take treats for them as well. As you might guess, he now says he's never taking treats for them again.

When Mike noticed the keys were missing he was irritated but calm. I was actually surprised at how calm he was. He was irritated but not mad at all - there was no yelling or stomping or anything. But Sparkie seemed to know that he wasn't happy. So when Mike took Sparkie with him on the hike she was very worried. She didn't really want to go - but Mike kept calling her and made her go along. The entire time she would hang way back. When Mike would tell her to come along she would do her submissive body curl and smile. Mike said she looked so scared the entire time. He tried to tell her everything was fine and he gave her treats but nothing was helping. Dogs minds may not work like this but it was like Sparkie thought Mike was mad at her and he was going to lead her back down the trail and abandon her out there by herself forever.

When they got back, Sparkie looked so scared and she was very subdued. Mike was repacking his pack (we'd pulled everything out looking for the keys) and petting the dogs when he noticed Sparkie wasn't around. He very worriedly asked where Sparkie was. The second I had opened the car door she shot in there so fast you wouldn't believe it. I guess she wanted to make sure she didn't get left behind. Normally she stays out of the car until the last minute as she likes staying with Mike....but not this time. Even hours later this evening she is still acting scared. Poor Sparkie.

It was well past lunch time now - in fact it was 3:00pm. I thought I was thirsty and weak before! We rushed to the Cookie Cabin deciding this would just be our dinner. So we ordered a medium size pizza to split, a couple cookies and some drinks. I don't really like pop - in fact the only pop I like is root beer. But I've been trying not to drink any as there is just too much sugar in it and water is so much better for me....so they say. But I wasn't about to have any more water! So I ordered a root beer. This is some the smoothest root beer I think I've ever had. Normally I can't drink a whole bottle of pop but this bottle was well gone long before the pizza was ready.

I didn't feel like sweets at all but I ordered a cookie so I could show you all a picture of how big they are. The scarifices I make for you all. Ha ha. It's hard to tell in the picture but this is a dinner size plate.



Just as our pizza came out, our Valley Fever vet called to say we could stop in to have a blood draw done for Wazzu's titer and she would have it sent to the correct lab. It took us an hour and a half to get from the top of Mt. Lemmon to her office.

While they were drawing Wazzu's blood, we brought Boogie inside to weigh him. He's another Slugger....we keep telling him to stop growing but he just doesn't listen! Boogie is 15.8 pounds. In all our reading it said grown male border terriers are 14 - 16 pounds. Boogie can only gain another.2 pounds. Yea, right.

They brought Wazzu out just a couple minutes later. That's when highway robbery came. Hmm, I wonder how that became a saying? Anyway, the bill came to $150! We always pay $30 - $50 for this test. Guess we won't be eating for a while!

From there it took another hour and a half to get home. So that vet office trip took us an extra two hours of driving in addition to robbing our pocketbook. The good news though was when we got home the RV was still level. Hooray!

What a tiring day. And I was so thirsty when we got home that once again I decided to drink some water. Bad decision. Here we go again. This is not fun!

My lesson for the day.....water is bad for you!

Debbie
11/19/07

Sick but Level

(Tucson, AZ) On one of our last days in Tucson I (Mike) took a drive to the Kitt Peak Observatory, high on a mountain above the desert about 60 miles southwest of the city, on land leased from the Tohono O'odham Reservation. This location gives the observatory great conditions, with almost 300 clear nights a year high above the lights of the city and the dust of the desert. After a scenic 12-mile drive up the mountain you get to the observatory complex, which has twenty-four optical and two radio telescopes representing eight astronomical research institutions, more than any other observatory in the world.

I forgot to take a camera, but here are some pictures I "borrowed" from the web site.



They have a nice visitor center with a small museum, and guided tours of some of the facilities by volunteers. There is a self guided tour around the observatory also. Most of the telescopes are privately owned by groups of universities, but the larger telescopes are publicly owned and open to visitors. The largest and one of the first telescopes constructed on the mountain is the four meter reflector, which is housed in a towering building on a cliff on the summit.



You can go inside and see the workings of the telescope from a visitor gallery.



The funniest looking telescope is the solar observatory.



It works by using mirrors to reflect the sun's rays down that long tunnel to instruments in a room about 50 feet underground. When our tour went through the instrument room there were some scientists from Germany who explained how they were setting up the equipment for their research time with the telescope, which was to study the winds on Mars.

While Mike was gone, our plan was to take a few walks around the park, go to the off-leash dog area, do a little bit of training for rally, do some chores around the RV and play the dogs favorite game of “find it.”

Unfortunately, we didn’t get to do any of that. About 30 minutes after Mike left I got sick. It is the weirdest kind of sick I think I’ve ever had. I didn’t really feel all that bad. But I had stomach cramps and had to spend quite a bit of the day in the bathroom. I definitely couldn’t leave the RV! I think I lost every bit of liquid or solid I'd put in my body the last few days. But I didn't feel nauseous at all. In fact, I ate both lunch and dinner. But I don't think I kept most of it in my body. Maybe I need to eat some pumpkin....it seems to work for the dogs!

I expected the big dogs to be good but wasn't sure how Boogie would do having to just stay in the RV all day. He was the perfect little angel. Thank goodness!

Mike got back early enough to take the dogs to the park for a quick walk before dark. He didn't think he could handle all four on leash by himself so little Boogie had to stay home. He's being so good today but I'm guessing he's going to have some stored up energy tomorrow!

By 8:00pm I started to feel better but I was really thirsty. So I had a drink of water. Within 15 minutes I was very sick again. What's up with that?! It was just water!

The best thing about today though is that the RV stayed level. Now that's good news. Level is where it's at.

Mike & Debbie
11/18/07

Here We Go Again - In More Ways Than One

(Tucson, AZ) Before I was even totally awake this morning I knew we weren’t level. Sure enough we’d lost some air pressure again and we were tilting. Big bummer. We again leveled the RV before taking Boogie and heading off to the dog show once again.

This morning we were meeting Harriet in the conformation building when the Border Terriers were scheduled to show. She had Mimi and Higgins with her mostly to help Mimi get used to this environment as well. Mimi and Boogie were so busy playing with each other and looked for goodies all over the floor that they had no idea that his was a busy, noisy building.

Harriet explained a lot of things to us as we watched the “action.” There was one Sunkist (that means a relative of Boogie) dog showing today. I guess they just need a couple more points and really wanted to get them at this show so they hired one of the top handlers to show him. Darn, I forget his name.

Anyway, Mike and I thought he was by far the best looking dog out there – for many reasons which I won’t bother to go into here. There were four dogs in the class and I can’t imagine what this judge was looking at as he placed the Sunkist dog fourth out of four. Crazy….but that’s the world of conformation….and the reason I became disenchanted with it many years ago.

But we’ve decided we want Boogie to get his Champion points so either we or our breeders will show him until such time as he get the needed points – then that will be the end of our dog showing for Boogie. I sure hope it works out that they can do most of the showing!

After all the Border Terriers were done, Harriet once again took us to the vendor booths – this time get a show lead for Boogie. I guess we’re set now – we have a dog, a lead, and some treats. Now we just how to get an entry form and figure out how to fill it out!

Since it was even hotter today, we left the air conditioning on for the other dogs when we left. They were totally fine when we got back but the darn RV was not level….again. So Mike called the service department and made an appointment for Monday. We’re not looking forward to that at all. Heck, it took them four days to find and replace a little hose supposedly marred by a rat. How long would it take them to find the rest of the problem?

Here we go again.

Debbie
11/17/07

Lots of Dogs

(Tucson, AZ) After a relaxing morning (we sure needed one after what we’ve had to do each morning all week), we took Boogie and we headed off for a large AKC trial that was being held at the fairgrounds in Tucson.

We were going there to meet Harriet, one of Boogie’s breeders. She was going to show us around and introduce us to an activity she would like Boogie to participate in – conformation.

I really had mixed feelings about this. Eons ago I was involved in the world of dog showing. Of course my dog, a German Shepherd, was the best (big smile) but I found that the world of dog showing was extremely political. I could often tell you whether we’d win or not just depending on who the judge was. After a while the politics really got to me (heck I was only a kid even) and I decided that world just wasn’t for me. As an aside, my dog Chris, was an American and Canadian Champion. Wow, tears still come to my eyes when I write about her. She was my dog all while I was growing up – definitely my best friend.

Back to the present time! This show was huge as they had conformation, obedience, agility, and rally. There were 20 different rings and scads of vendors. We looked all around trying to find Harriet but weren’t having much luck in the sea of people and dogs. We were warned that this might be a little overwhelming for Boogie so we were to have lots of treats and be very careful. Boogie was very curious about everything but didn’t seem afraid at all – not even inside the noisy building where a lot of the grooming tables were all set up and some of the conformation was taking place.

When we finally found Harriet, she was set up under a huge tent right in front of one of the agility rings. Our good friend Billie was with her as well as some other people we know. They made us feel very welcome even though we felt a little out of place – and a little bit like traitors. Here we were at a place that wouldn’t even allow our other three dogs to set foot on the property. I don’t know about Mike but that was hard for me.

We watched Billie and a couple of our other friends compete in the agility ring. It really didn’t look much like agility to us. The dogs couldn’t build up any speed at all as the obstacles were all so close together. This kind of agility is good for dogs that are consistent but maybe not so fast. In her prime I think Wazzu could have been a superstar at this….if allowed to participate. I guess that’s why they didn’t allow her – she’d have taken all the prizes from the purebreds.

Wow, I sure seem to getting off track a lot in this write-up! After watching agility for a while, Harriet took us over to watch some Rally. Rally is a bit like obedience but a lot less strict – which in many people’s opinion makes it a lot more fun. We’d really like Boogie to be a versatile dog and get to try many different things so Rally is in the near future for him as well. The dog only needs to be six months of age to participate so he is already old enough – he just doesn’t know anything yet!

After watching Rally for a while, Harriet took us over to the vendor area and walked through all the vendors with us showing us all the different things we may need or things that would be good to use with Boogie. It was fun seeing all the different items that people were selling. When Mike first heard there were going to be lots of vendors here he said “oh no.” But I was good and we only bought a couple little items. We bought some soft liver treats that Harriet recommended and a stuffed (fake) rat that Boogie stole from the shelf. Maybe he won’t get to go along on future shopping trips!

We went back to the tent to visit and watch some more agility. Boogie had fun playing around with Mimi for quite some time. Then his buddy, Korke that he met at a trial in Las Cruces showed up. More wrestling and playing for Boogie. But it was a hot day and we’d been there for quite a few hours so we needed to head out as we were worried the other dogs were getting hot back in the RV.

It was warm in the RV when we got back but the dogs were all okay as we’d left the fan on and had left them lots of water. They didn’t seem happy that they’d been left behind while Boogie got to go along. We tried to explain to them that he puts up with a lot on the weekends where they get to do agility and he just has to sit around and watch. I don’t think they listened to a word of it.

When I walked into the RV I didn’t feel level. Mike of course immediately told me it was just all in my mind. But he should know by now that I am the perfect human level. Sure enough, we checked and we were not level and the rig had lost air pressure. We were both pretty discouraged. This meant we’d have more days of trying to be gone from home all day long.

We leveled the RV up again just hoping beyond hope that when we awake in the morning we’ll still be level. Think level for us!!

Debbie
11/16/07

Rats.....

(Tucson, AZ) Hopefully today will be our last day to have to be away from the RV all day. Mike is having to get pretty creative to figure out how to keep us occupied all day long.

Before we started our long drive, we went to a little local park that has a nature walk. We came to this park last year and found that it is a pleasant little thirty minute walk. They have signs all around telling you want kind of plant or cactus is in each spot. We found that many rabbits live here. I imagine there would be a lot of other wildlife like coyotes, rattlesnakes, owls, hawks, bobcats, rats, etc. living here as well.

We saw a few rabbits that the dogs wanted to chase so badly. But they know they aren’t allowed to chase things when they’re on leash. Only the three big dogs seemed interested – Boogie still seems clueless….which is fine by us!

We didn’t see any rats, and Boogie didn’t indicate that he’d noticed any either. But we did see a big rat midden.



Pack rats will gather all sorts of twigs, branches, aluminum cans, car parts, old shoes and anything else they can find lying around to use in building their middens. Pack Rat middens are usually constructed around the base of a tree or Prickly Pear, and no more than one adult resides in each midden. A friend of ours who lives down here has removed a midden from her yard many times only to have one appear again in just a few weeks.

This really isn’t the time of year for much blooming of flowers but this Fishhook Cactus looked like it was in bloom or at least at the end of its bloom.



You can see why they call it the Fishhook cactus if you look closely at the needles. They are shaped like a hook and they are strong. When one of the leashes would get hooked by one of the needles there was no way to just pull them off. They were definitely hooked. It took quite an effort to go over and get the leashes unhooked. We must have gotten hooked 20 times! It’s always something!



I must say, I have no idea how Mike finds many of the places he takes us throughout the year. Today we drove about 70 miles or so to a little (emphasis on little) town called Patagonia. Why this little town still exists, I have no idea.

It looks like it never progressed past the 1800's. It looks like some little stagecoach town. I'm sure no building has been built there for a couple hundred years. There is a Saloon right next to the Stagecoach Motel which is right next to the Marshal's office.

Mike seemed offended when I started laughing at this little town. I couldn't help it - we drove all that way for this! I'm still not sure the significance of this town - or what people do for a living that live there. I'm guessing maybe a hundred people live there.

Mike stopped and went into the Visitor Center (can you believe they even have one!) in the lobby of the very old hotel. He came out with a little map of some possible hiking nearby. I can't imagine we'll run into many people on this hike!

There is really nothing but open space out here. I guess that's good for us as we like hiking all by ourselves. We went many miles and never saw another car. Wouldn't you know, we pulled into the parking lot of the hike and there was a truck there. I wonder how this person found this place...and why?!

We didn't even bother putting the girls on leash to get out of the car. The boys are always on leash until we check out the surroundings well. The hike started out fairly pretty and fairly flat.



But with tall grass like this it would be way too easy to lose the boys so they had to stay on leash. Suddenly we heard this weird squealing noise. We couldn't imagine what it was. Then we saw something across the hill running really fast. Mike thought it was a coyote. As I started taking pictures I thought those were the weirdest looking coyotes ever. Then we noticed a deer go running by and saw the "coyotes" chasing them. The girls wanted to help chase the deer but Mike told them not to and being the good dogs they are, they stopped and just watched.

Shortly after that we heard someone calling and whistling. Mike figured someone must be out hunting with their dogs and that's what we'd seen. One of the dogs went back in the direction of the voice but the other dog kept going and going. We kept hiking and in just a minute met a lady on the trail. She had one dog and was still looking for the other one. Mike told her the other dog had kept going as it was still chasing the deer. The lady apologized saying she was sorry her dogs were being bad and said she hoped her dogs hadn't hurt the deer. Mike informed her that the dogs were nowhere near to capturing the deer and that they really weren't being bad - it's a natural thing for dogs to do! She was so relieved. After a couple minutes the other dog came up behind us on the trail. Here is Freckles on the hunt:



And here is Tater on the hunt (both dogs were about the size of Wazzu and Sparkie):



We continued on the hike and the views got very pretty.



We'd only been hiking for about fifteen minutes when Wazzu started crying and shaking her paw around. I immediately checked her paw and found that she was being bitten by one of those red ants - like the ones that got Boogie a few days ago. I immediately got the ant out of her foot. We had done some research after Boogie's experience and found these ants are called Harvester Ants. It said their bite is extremely painful.

Wazzu sure believes this! We have always taught our dogs that if they have a problem to come to us and we'll help them. Most often it's a sticker which we pull out of their foot and they're off and happy. Poor Wazzu just couldn't understand why I wouldn't help her. She didn't want to walk at all. She'd just sit in front of me with her paw held up in the air and look at me with big sad eyes. But I didn't know what else to do so I just told to her walk.

She'd then walk a little ways - but with a huge limp. After only a few feet she'd stop and and hold up her paw. I felt so bad that I couldn't help her. I could tell she didn't understand why I wouldn't help her. Poor Wazzu.

When we stopped for water a few minutes later, Mike looked through his first aid kit and noticed that he had some sting relief pads. I rubbed and rubbed just hoping this would actually provide her some relief. Boogie of course wanted help and kept sticking his nose near the pad. From his reaction, I'm guessing the pad had a very strong smell. He kept sneezing and sneezing and rubbing his nose on the ground.

The view from this stop was pretty too - it seemed prettier than this picture shows for some reason.



We never hope for the dogs to find a deer to chase - but we were so hoping to see one now so that Wazzu would go off on a chase and forget about her poor foot. From where we were we could see the dogs even if they were to go way off. But we didn't see any signs of life other than the ants.

Even this far into the hike the trail was still flat and very easy to walk on.



It didn't really matter what the trail was like for Sparkie as she was very rarely on it! Here's how Sparkie looked a lot of the time.



By looking at the scenery, you wouldn't expect to find much in the way of flowers or color.



While they certainly weren't prolific we were surprised to find a flower here or there. I'm definitely not a wild flower expert so I can't tell you the names of most of these plants. However, I can share their beauty with you.



This is an Ocotillo cactus that is common in the deserts in this part of the country. However, it's the only one we saw on this particular hike.



Sparkie came back to Mike limping and holding up her paw. He found many stickers in her foot. They came from this type of cactus. Since I took the picture so close up it looks like a big cactus. But it wasn't as big around as my fist. I'm not sure but this may be a beehive cactus.



This little cholla cactus was very cute and unlike most I've seen.



I have no idea what this is and I haven't seen it on any of our hikes but I did think it was interesting and pretty.



I haven't seen this before either, and I really don't like pink, but I thought this was very pretty. It looked lonely as there wasn't another one around that we saw anywhere. (Oops, this picture is on it's side....just flip your computer on it's end and then this picture will look just fine!)



I was really enjoying this trail. It did have a slight incline to it but it wasn't very steep....for a while. Then the trail changed from flat and dirt to rocks and fairly steep.



For some reason, Slugger seems to have tender feet. When we get on rock paths he walks so gingerly and picks his feet up really high trying to find just the right place to set them down. Our hikes then become extremely slow going.

That's exactly why we bought Slugger some new hiking boots a few months ago. On the new updated design, the treads are just like that on human hiking boots.



Slugger actually understands that these boots make it so that his feet don't hurt. He is happy to get them on! Once they're on, he's hiking up the rocks like they don't even exist. Notice how his treads seem to match Mike's hiking boots.



Now that Slugger had his boots on he really wanted to move along. Mike had his work cut out for him now! Notice you don't see Slugger lagging behind anymore....he is out in front of Mike.



But it's so great to see what a difference those boots make. We all really like the new design much better as Slugger has much better traction now.



Good thing the boys were both on leash as the two red boys really blended in well with the red rock.



I really wanted the dogs to have a nice long hike - espcecially since we had the whole entire area to ourselves...and we needed to be gone all day. I went just as far as I possibly could while trying to make sure I could make it back. Not only was I disappointed that we had to turn around but so were the dogs.

So while they had a drink I took a look around at the view. Even way out here it is hazy. I guess the days of clear distance views are over.



Wazzu laid down to rest before the journey back. But she didn't really get much rest as it turned out.



Boogie was nowhere close to tired and thought this would be a great time to attack Wazzu.



He kept attacking her but she just sat there trying to duck each attack.



We started our trek back but were in no hurry as we wanted the dogs to get plenty of exercise. I think it is impossible to wear Boogie out when he has to be on leash the entire time. Even though he had to be on leash he was a really good sport about it. Slugger is a really good example for him in that respect. I think the thing that confused Boogie the most is who he is supposed to be walking with. Most of the time Mike had his leash so he'd stay with Mike. But occassionally I would hold the leash and he didn't seem to understand why he couldn't stay up with Mike.



The views from the different spots weren't all that different but seemed interesting nonetheless.



After about two and a half hours we got back to the car. The dogs were really thirsty even though we’d stopped for drinks along the way. The only time they share a water bowl is when they are super thirsty. I’d say there are as many heads in this bowl as could possible fit.



While the dogs were drinking I noticed something stuck under the drivers side windshield wiper. I wondered how we could get a ticket way out here – and what could we be getting a ticket for.

Here’s the exact note:

Hi Dog Lovers,
My dogs are rescues too (they must have seen the rescue sticker on our car) from the Nogales Humane Society. They are brothers – “Freckles” and “Tater.” They did have fun and you’re so right – being bad isn’t all bad! Have a great trip and enjoy Patagonia.

How nice was that! Well there may not be many people in Patagonia but the one we met was extremely nice. Isn’t it amazing how such a little thing as leaving a nice note can really brighten someone’s day. I guess it goes to show how important little things can be. It probably didn’t take her two minutes to write that note. But it brightened our whole day…and who knows, it may brighten many of our days ahead as we think back on it. Let’s all take a lesson and do something nice for a stranger.

After we left the hills outside Patagonia we took a drive down to Nogales. I’m guessing that’s as close to Mexico as we’ll get for quite some time (maybe ever). We must not have looked very dangerous as the border patrol just waved us on as we returned. The checkpoint we went through must be some sort of secondary patrol spot as we didn’t actually enter Mexico.

We didn’t get out of the car at all on this part of the trip…this was just a drive to waste time and maybe see something interesting. Well, we wasted time at least.

We’d been wanting to go to a pet store for a few days and figured this would be a good chance. Mike found one that was in the path of drive home. We parked and got all the dogs out of the car. Before we even started walking toward the store we noticed that all the store were dark. The whole shopping center had lost power. Some people were stuck inside and others wanted in but couldn’t as the power doors were working.

The dogs were so confused when we just put them right back in the car. Poor guys, they’d been riding in the car for almost four hours. We decided just to go home and hope the RV was done.

We arrived back at the service center about 4:00pm. The good news is that the RV was done! The bad news was that the problem was not caused by a mechanical failure. They said it looked to them like a rat had been chewing on the hose and made scratches and one tiny hole in the hose. (Here's the skinny little $20 4' hose.)



The warranty doesn’t cover it in that case. How or why would a rat get way up in there? We’re thinking we’re going to put an x-pen all the way around the outside of the RV and make Boogie sleep under the RV so he can watch for rats!

Mostly, Mike is relieved that we won’t have to try and be out of the RV all day anymore. That’s a relief to all of us!

Debbie
11/15/07