Still In Shock.

I went to Regionals this year with no expectations except for, hopefully, at least one run that felt nice with Ryan. 

No expecations became a 1st place in Jumpers, then a 1st place in Gamblers, followed by a 1st place in Standard on Saturday. On Sunday, even with my substantially increased nerves, we managed to have a beautiful opening gamble but missed the main, then a 1st place in Standard and one knocked bar in Jumpers. 

This is Ryan, who normally knocks a bar in every run and goes off course multiple times due to my poor handling. I get nervous and get lost, or doubt where I'm going enough to send him off course, every year at Regionals. 

We ended up in 3rd place in 22" Specials. 

We are obviously the ones up there who don't know how to pose on a podium, since we've never been up there and I never ever *ever* expected to be up there.

He ended up with 514 points - just 13 points behind 1st. 

Ryan is amazing.

The Nutty Mutts go Country

I started this blog for our farming adventures:

http://intoleftfield.blogspot.ca/

April Fools! But not.

This is the face of insanity.

This is also the face that got lost in the woods for about 45 minutes this weekend. We were on a new trail and Abby must have taken a wrong turn and lost the group (me, a friend, her dog, Ryan and Lucy). I ran back down the mountain yelling her name - it took us an hour or so to climb up and it took me about 30 mins to stumble down. Smart Abby was waiting by the car. She was so happy to see us - kisses for everyone and then she wanted to keep hiking. I wasn't *too* worried, but I was definitely getting more and more panicky as I went down the trail with no sign of her. Considering I've never lost sight of Abby in the last 8 years of hiking with her, this was scary. I'm so glad she went back to the car! 

Oh, and you know what else is the face of insanity?

This:

That cute little chick? 

In 3 days (that's right, 3) the nutty mutts and I are moving to a farm. I've started a new blog to document the adventure and I'll post the link soon. 

No April Fools - it's really happening! I'm not sure I even understand it's real yet...

Ryan's Sexy Sixth

Ryan turned 6 today! For his birthday, I brought him to the brothel....aka doggy daycare.

The last time Ryan was there he had just turned 1 and he hadn't yet discovered the joys of humping. He was a late bloomer and only really figured it out two years ago...

Unfortunately (fortunately?) he was like a dirty old man in a group of hip youngsters today. 

First he tried his sexiest stance. When your ears are 2" tall toothpicks on your ginormous heeead, this stance isn't all that impressive.

Since Ryan is a superb reader of canine body language, he took all signals of "no no no go away please" to mean "yes, yes I would in fact like to be humped by a dirty old man!"

All the cool youngsters would be chillin' (as they call it these days) and ... 

yup, here comes Ryan.

Strike another sexy pose?

 Hrm.

 Onto the next target.

 Happy Birthday Ryan,  you dirty old man. 

This seems like a very long time ago:

Good Morning!

First thing I saw when I woke up...someone was completely relaxed!

Incoming!

Incoming crazy dogs and incoming big life changes! To be revealed soon...

I like how Abby "chases" Ryan while running just in front of him...

I Put that Sh*t on Everything

So the major issue I've been having with Lucy in daily life (other than her tendency to be slightly more vocal than I would like) is that she grabs Ryan's tail when he runs. This is especially annoying because Ryan wasn't blessed with the floofiest tail, so the fact that it is being systematically de-haired by a small terrier is becoming more and more obvious. Ryan holds his tail up when he runs, so the only spot Lucy can grab it is at the base - she jumps up, grabs the base of it, pulls his tail down and hangs on. He just keeps running and never tells her off. I can call her off when I see she is about to do it but most of the time they're up in the trees and I can't tell it's happening until Ryan comes running back down with a Lucy attached to him (or Lucy comes running back with a mouth full of Ryan fluff). 

After an especially bad hike yesterday (snow makes Ryan get excited - excited Ryan's tail is even more enticing to a bad little terrier), I had had enough. This morning I put Plan Frank into operation. I let Lucy taste some hot sauce off my finger. She licked it and then backed up quickly and didn't want any more when I let her sniff it again...perfect, part 1: bad hot sauce association complete. Then, before letting Ryan out of the car, I put some hot sauce just around the hair at the base of his tail (he didn't even notice). The effect was almost a miracle - Lucy went for his tail twice on the entire hike and both times she barely started to grab it before letting go. I think even Ryan was confused about the sudden ability to run with a Lucy-less tail! I'm going to hot sauce his tail for the next few hikes and hopefully her bad habit will end...

Special Means.....

My "special" family

Mid Winter Dose

of summer memory. 

Buyer's Remorse

Loic has it.
(the hat was the purchase - the goggles are just part of an everyday rain suit (duh) )

We went to the Ecology centre and Loic was deciding between a "cool Palaeontology helmet" (your child is brilliant, Erika!) and a squishy lizard. He went for the helmet...and then had the most intense case of buyer's remorse I have ever seen. He was happily sitting in the back and suddenly he burst into (pretty fake) tears and said "oh no I wanted a squishy lizard!".

Luckily, an elaborate game of digging for fossils cured him. 

Abby might be broken. Cuddling? Really??

All of this hiking is tiring them out. They aren't spring chickens anymore. Ryan will be 6 in a month and Abby turns 9 this year. How did that happen??

Other than the grey you wouldn't know Abby is almost a senior...

This was her "I just found something REALLY EXCITING in that stump over there, why did you call me???" face. 

Lucy is no senior. 

It takes a lot to tire her out but it's so worth it...tired floppy Lucy is adorable!

Lucy's Growing Up

My parents are away so I've been taking care of Lucy. I think she is finally starting to act a bit more mature. Today I noticed her choosing to settle down a few times without being forced to, even in the midst of toddler chaos. She wanted to cuddle with Loic...very cute! 

I got her a new Lucy-sized ball yesterday and we went to the playground/field to practice playing fetch. She did great! She chased the ball as far as I could throw it and ran back with it at full speed every time. I was giving her tiny treats for returning the ball but I think she was almost at the point where the next ball throw was reinforcing enough to replace treats. I'm hoping to get her to the point where her own ball is more fun to chase than Ryan's tail....we'll see if that's possible. 

Valentine's Day Threesome!

With Abby getting pissed at the end since it's supposed to be all about her all the time. Typical...

Funemployment

I've been back just over a week and the dogs have gone hiking or on some kind of big outing every day. They are definitely getting the good end of this unemployment business. They haven't had every day hikes since I was in school almost 5 years ago. 

Today I took them biking. Unfortunately I don't have a mountain bike (or the skills and coordination to use one) so I had to stick to a flatter gravel trail. What I didn't realize is that Ryan has never been biking with me...and that his somewhat robotic brain has trouble processing new things. Ryan is a very.good.dog. I don't think the thought of doing anything bad even occurs to him. Part of this is that he learns patterns and he sticks to them...when we go to the dog beach he follows the exact same path every time we go there and lays down in the same spots waiting to see if we will play ball. He never jumps out of the car before being released - again, I don't think the thought enters his mind. 

Today as I started biking, Abby and Ryan ran ahead and Abby started to race down the grass embankment towards the road. I called both dogs and continued to bike. Abby came back up and kept running along the path...and I suddenly noticed that Ryan was gone. I looked behind me and he was wayyyy back (almost at the car 100 m away) and running full speed. Ryan never lets me out of his sight for more than a few seconds....but apparently the person he doesn't let out of his sight walks on two legs and is never on a bike. He must have heard me calling, saw some 'stranger' next to him on a bike, thought he lost me, and took off back to the car. When I called him again (loudly and frantically since he was just about to cross the road) he came racing back towards me and passed me *again* without even looking at me. It took 3 times and me getting off the bike for him to realize that the land version and bike version were in fact one and the same.

The rest of the ride was fun and uneventful...oh Ryan.  

February SunDay

Like, actual sun in February!

We had a good day today checking out the open house for a friend's new dog and cat boarding facility (http://www.adogslifek9centre.ca/). It's on about 10 acres and is awesome...I'm pretty sure my dogs would have liked to stay (me too, actually!) There is an agility field out back - and soon a dock dogs pool! - and it was a rare sunny day today so it was perfect for running around like crazy. Ryan especially enjoyed the muddy ditch to cool off in afterwards. Luckily there is also a dog bath on site. 

I really should have brought my camera...instead I just have these phone photos from when the dogs were drying off on Erika's deck afterwards. I have no idea why Abby sits so far away from the door (or stands on the deck table). She is an odd girl. 

She is getting much more lenient in her old age, though. I didn't think I'd ever catch her sharing a bed with anyone! This photo is really blurry but still...cute!

Parasite

Ryan has some kind of scruffy red parasite attached to his hind end. I'm not even sure that he notices it.

(I actually don't think he realized she was already in the bed when he backed up into it and sat down)

I think they're happy...

...that I'm back. This is what the end of my bed looks like.

And I'm Back

I'm back home to the dogs and to 'real' life again. My parents and Emma took great care of them while I was away for the last two months. Ryan was as excited to see me as he is when I'm away for 10 seconds (as in, crying, wiggling, mind blown, needs to find a toy to put in his mouth, excited) but Abby was just....weird. My mom brought her to the airport to meet me and she stood on the sidewalk staring at me, then walked over to pee in the dirt and jumped back in the car. She sat on my lap facing me and sniffing my face for about 5 minutes in the front seat then jumped in the back and curled up in a tiny little ball. When we got home she put herself to bed. It seemed like her brain just short circuited and she didn't know what to do with the situation. She is slowly getting back to normal - maybe she just thought I would turn around and leave again. My poor little girl :)