Wordless Wednesday: Jackson at Work

Eight Years

Best eight years of my life. . .

First Hike of the Year

While much of the country is bogged down in snow, it's sun and blue skies here in CA. We've had unseasonably warm weather so far this year, and you won't hear me complaining one bit! Despite the fact that Abby is still wearing her coat, most of the days here are in the 60's. The wind picks up from time to time and Abby is a small, skinny, very short haired dog, so the coat is still a necessity. The days are getting just long enough that if I hurry home, and hurry up the hill, we can get a very quick walk/jog in. Abby prefers it if I jog, and gives me dirty looks -like the one pictured above - if I stop and try to walk. This was the first of many hikes this year. I'm thinking that I need to start bringing my camera with me so that I can get some decent photos of her this year.

Foto (My) Friday: A New Head

I collect heads. . . This is the newest one I received for watching a super easy and old dog that lives in the bedroom right next to mine.

Real 2011 Training Goals

After a unscheduled hiatus from training classes, we finally went back this past Sunday. The first thing we were required to do, write down our 2011 training goals. . .

SERIOUSLY?

The last thing I wanted to do was figure out our top 3 goals that we are going to be working on for the next 12 months! But I had to do it since it was "required". . . I wrote down
1) earn rally novice title
2) learn a retrieve
3) have fun at a trial

I think that those are good things to work on. I am a bit worried that our goal for earning a title will jinx us into not getting one. . . but that is just my pessimistic attitude. Abby does have a real chance of earning a title this year. We could probably earn a level 2 title but we won't be trialing that much as we are only able to do one trial during each 4 trial weekend. Technically, we could do two trials each trial weekend, but I don't want to push Abby. Two a day means a really long day for her and an exhausted and stressed out Abby isn't conducive to earning a title.

Learning to retrieve is a great goal for us to work on and something we should be able to manage. Having fun at a trial. . . who knows about that one. Having fun at an agility trial, sure, we will always have fun there because it isn't so serious and we really have no chance in hell of winning anything, so whats the point of doing it if you don't have fun. But Rally trials are a bit different as we are really only competing with ourselves. Sure we are competing with everyone else, but I don't actually care about placements, and even if we don't place, we still get to keep the points we earn. Since each trial really matters, they become less fun. But I am going to try not to worry so much and have more fun, so that Abby has more fun too. After all, Abby can't read, so she has no idea what letters are and what they mean.

I didn't really want to think about my training goals this year - i just wanted to have some fun with my dogs. . . but since I had to do it, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how far we progress this year and how close we come to achieving those goals.