I Have A New Hiking Buddy

A very good friend of mine is mining for gold up in Alaska and has asked me to take his dog for a bit. As much as I love my friend, and as much as I love his dog, I knew that this would be a big adventure for me and my crew. Sniper is a 2 year old, male Belgian Malinois. He is a very sweet and very well trained dog, but he is 86 lbs and full of energy. On top of the 5 mile hike we've been doing in the morning, and the 2 mile walk we do in the afternoons, there are many play sessions, many training sessions, and lots of pacing. This dog is non-stop.

Well, that is not entirely true. . . After 3 days of this, I finally caught him napping! It is such a rare occurrence, that I had to take a picture:



But very shortly after this picture was taken, we were back to killing stuffies



But despite the constant work, this dog is great for one thing. . . guarding my beer!



Come on now, would you try to take my beer if this thing was standing in front of it?

Best Disneyland Trip Ever!!!!!

I just got back from the best Disneyland trip ever!!!!

Luckily for me, I have dog kids, and not people kids, so when I leave, guess where the dog kids go:



Ok, they didn't stay in the crate the entire time I was gone. They are lucky enough to stay with grandma and grandma's house is nicer then ours, so when the house is empty, they stay in the crate. Not sure why they are so good for grandma, and not for me. . .must be the copious amounts of treats that they get while visiting!

After a quick, albeit delayed, flight, we were in DISNEYLAND!!!!!



We had a super awesome night hanging at House of Blues and singing karaoke



Disneyland itself was perfect! We rode 4 rides in under two hours!!!! Then we got stuck in line for an hour at the break-down king of Disney: Big Thunder Railroad. But the rest of the rides that day were fine and we were able to enjoy the park and the rides without getting bogged down in long lines. We even had plenty of time to do a little bit of shopping.



Yes, the sweatshirt is PINK! I tired my hardest to find a grey one. . . but there were no grey mickey sweatshirts. The flip-flops are a navy blue and are actually sturdy and comfy. I spent as much on these two items at Disneyland that I spend on an entire year of clothes! But a $40 sweatshirt and a $10 pair of flip-flops is actually quite reasonable for everyday life (for most people anyway!) so I figured it was ok for me to splurge!

This was, by far. the best Disneyland trip ever. But more than that, it was a nice break from normal life. It was nice to get away from work, and the kids, and just hangout with friends without having to worry about anything but having fun. I think that this needs to be an annual trip!

Are YOU Tough Enough?

I know I am!

I am not sure where I get these crazy ideas to do things, but somehow they find their way into my head. . . and I usually rope a few good friends into doing the crazy things with me. Luckily my friends love me and forgive me.



I heard about this Tough Mudder Event through Facebook. They tout themselves as the toughest one day endurance event on the planet. I am not sure that I completely believe that, but it was the toughest thing that I have ever done in one day. It's a series of obstacles strategically placed over a 7 mile *hilly* course. The obstacles ranged from running through mud to climbing a wall. Nothing sounded too hard, it all seemed doable, so why no do it? Well, I talked 5 friends into doing it with me. . . and at different points throughout the event, I thought for sure I would have 5 less friends before the day was over.

We rented a cabin and spent the night up there the night before. We were all really glad that we did that because none of us wanted to get up at 4am, drive 3 hours, do an event like this, and drive another 3 hours home! The really nice thing about the cabin is that we rented it for the weekend - none of us were planning on staying all weekend, but it was nice that we were able to come back after the event, shower, change our clothes, have a sandwich and a beer.

The event itself was a ton of fun - even if we didn't always look like we were having fun! The course itself started at 6,600 ft and WE climbed up to 8,500 ft - THREE times! Who climbs a mountain three times in ONE day? We do. On top of the mountain climbing, there were 19 obstacles that we had to complete. You need to take a look at the course map to see exactly what we were up against. The course map isn't exact as some of the obstacles were in a different order, and the photos in the map are not our photos, but photos of previous event. But the TM facebook page is updating the photos from our actual event regularly. I haven't seen myself in any of the photos yet, but I did the mandatory forehead marking so hopefully I will find myself in one eventually.

The Tough Mudder event was a TON of fun, but it was also tough. The strange thing about this event was that the obstacles themselves weren't that hard at all - they were pretty easy, and anyone that is relatively fit could do them all without too much effort. What was the toughest was the mountain climbing in the altitude. I haven't been more than a few hundred feet above sea level in years. And I don't think that I have done anything in altitude in at least a decade. The mountain climbing was rough, but the altitude was though and made it that much more difficult. It was next to impossible for me to breathe at times, and to continue climbing while not being able to breathe took some will power. But there were never any points when I thought I just can't do this anymore. It never became a mind over matter thing, and for that I was grateful. My body was always willing and able to continue.

Besides the altitude and the mountain climbing, some of the obstacles were climbing a wall - SIXTEEN times; carrying a block of wood for 1/2 a mile - or, if you were like E, you carried an entire tree; climbing the "Berlin wall" (different from the other wall we climbed sixteen times); crawling under barbed wire; crawling through a pipe; etc. All of these were fun and easy. The hardest obstacle of all was the water one. The water obstacle was at the top of the mountain and was carried out in the pond that they use to make snow in. Seriously. The water was freezing, and we knew it, but we did it anyway . . . twice. The first time going into the water, you shocked your system and it became difficult to breathe, but you still had to swim in it. You were allowed to get out, but then you had to get right back in again. That was tough. Knowing exactly how cold it was and how freezing you were going to be, but still going in, took some will power. I remember standing at the top of the slide (yes, you had to slide down the second time) and debating whether or not I wanted to complete this obstacle. Because not only did you have to slide into the freezing cold water again, but you had to walk through it - chest deep - around the raft (the raft that is there to pull you out in case you die half-way through). Of course I did it, how could I not? But there was a moment after when I thought I would never be warm again. I think a lot of people felt that way because I heard a lot of the guys talking about their. . . er. . .um. . . balls. I heard the funniest thing on the wall climb after the wood carrying, after the water: One guy said to another while climbing the wall "dude, I can see your nuts" the second guy said "good, because I can't feel them anymore and I wasn't sure they were still there."

Now that the event is over, and I survived, and was still able to get out of bed the next day, I am really glad that we did this. This is something that you have to do with a group of friends. And they can't be just any friends, they have to be the right mix of people. The cool thing about our group was that not everyone was friends with everyone else before we started. I knew everyone, but they didn’t all know each other. Luckily, I have awesome friends, and everyone got along great, and everyone helped each other out, and looked out for each other. And everyone became friends through this event. And we are already talking about NEXT year. . .

Forgot My Camera

Abby and I haven't trailed in awhile for a few reasons 1) its too cold 2) its a really long drive 3) I have to get up way too early 4) it gets expensive especially 5) because we never Q Despite all those reasons we went up this weekend and trialed. Why, you may ask???

Cutest Puppy Ever!!!!
Darling Dixie is a 3 month old Aussie that just came to live with some friends of mine who trial on weekends. Since this would be the first chance anyone got to see her, we sucked it up and made the drive. She is lucky she is this cute because I had to get up an extra hour early to meet her. . .I hate the time change!

Since we were there, I figured that we might as well trial too. I put Abby in Jumpers and 2 standard courses. I was super surprised how the day went.

The jumpers course was first thing and I am always the most nervous first thing in the morning because we aren't warmed up. Plus, we have a clean slate with the judge and I don't want him to look at us every other time we enter the ring with frustration. Abby surprised the crap out of me on her jumpers run. I was very pleased with her performance. She took off great with three straight jumps, then turned for an angled up without even thinking about running to sniff in the corner! There were some more jumps followed by another angle and then more jumps. . .which she blew past to sniff the sand bags. . . I am not at all surprised that she did that, and not at all frustrated about it. There was a time in her life when she would have been terrified of the bags and would have stopped working entirely. I got her attention back and we finished perfectly. She was gorgeous. I looked at the times later and realized that we could have Q'd with her run had she stayed on course! I was so proud of her! I actually feel like we did it - probably because this is the first time that I actually realized that we could if we keep working! I really wish I remembered my camera at 5:30am (well, actually it was 4:30 to my brain but the time change made it and hour later)

After our jumpers run things seemed to fall apart. We had a terrible standard 1 course. I was deeply disappointed because these are the types of coursed that we run every week. The standard 2 course opened my eyes to why we had such a bad standard 1 course, so I am glad that we pushed through for the second. The first course had a discrimination early a tunnel or a dog walk - not surprised that she took the tunnel - the wrong obstacle. After that it was useless. She had a bit of fun on the A-frame but we were a complete mess. The second run (exact oposite of the first) started out great. We jumped, weaved, tunneled, took the A-frame, then came back to the first discrimination - FAIL! She wouldn't take either. She just sort of FROZE. I finally got her to take one - which was the wrong one. . .then put her through the tunnel to end the course early. What did I learn? Abby doesn't like to be wrong.

Back when I was training Mole I had to be very careful when he missed an obstacle because he would fall apart when he was wrong. But I never noticed it in Abby before. You could see the look on her face: utter fear and confusion. It completely broke my heart. Here is a dog that desperately wants to please me and is terrified of making the wrong decision. (Just a side note, when she has been wrong in the past, I say "no" or "nope" and ask her to do it again. You are not allowed to use physical punishment for dogs in agility nor are you allowed to use harsh commands or raise your voice in disapproval - you will be disqualified for the day.) Abby has been fine with that in class, but apparently that is too much in a trial. I guess she understands that there is a difference. Now, I have to work harder on discriminations and remember to bypass the obstacle completely in a trial if she misses it. We are a long way from a Q in standard, so there is no reason for her to go back and try again - especially if it stresses her out.

Another good thing about the day was that the other Iggys were running too!! I love to watch them because they run so fast and so clean. Another reason is because they are all rescued too and it gives us something to strive for. I wasn't able to talk to Jennifer, couldn't find her, but I heard later that she thought that Abby had come a long way and was looking good. I was very pleased to hear it. I can see the difference, and I know that my friends can see the difference, but it is nice that other people, people I look up to, also see the changes. We have been working so hard for so long, and the changes are often so small that it is hard to look back and see all those changes a whole.

Why Would You Do That?

I love my roommate. However, there are certain things that one has to put up with when living with another person. One of the things that I have to put up with are the random "I hurt myself" calls. These range from "I broke the wall" (I'm not joking) to "I cut my hand on a can, again". Being the wonderful and loving person that I am, I usually respond with "I'm sorry".
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Today I decided to make some meatballs for the dogs. I wanted to do this mainly so that Abby would have extra-special treats for class tomorrow. I went out of my way to find a meatball recipe (I don't cook meat) and buy the ingredients. I laid everything out and went to work. The first thing I need to do was grate the carrots.

Can you see where this is going???


I am generally a very safe person in the kitchen, but I still managed to grate my knuckle. I'm blaming it on being 5pm on a "Friday". I called Lb to tell her what I did. . . and her response???

Why did you do that?

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After calling boss lady, who was quite considerate of my feelings (ahem!) I was able to finish the meatballs. The kids seem to love the raw version, and they keep checking the stove wondering when they are going to be done.

Life. . . Death. . .and Wobble Boards

They say bad things happen in threes and I have to say that I agree with them. It seems that I have been slapped in the face with mortality three times in the past two weeks. Two of those survived, one did not. Regardless of whether they lived or died, the possibility of loss was deeply felt for each one. And that has made this a difficult two weeks.

As difficult as these two weeks have been, I have also had a lot to be thankful for. My friends have been wonderful - calling to check in regularly; allowing me to take the necessary time off work; and making sure that I eat at least something during the day. And as thankful as I am for my friends, I am, in a way, more thankful for my dogs.

We often think of dogs as noble, as selfless, as companions; but the reality is that dogs are animals and are driven by their own needs and desires. They still want to go for walks, they still want to eat breakfast a half hour too early, they still won't go potty in the rain. They force us to get up and get going with our day, even when we don't quite feel like it. And because they are who they are, they are the only ones who can make us laugh in times of deep sadness. And today, of all days, Abby stood on the wobble board. Through all the tears shed today, my dog was the only one who could make me laugh, and who could give me exactly what I needed to keep going.