Midtown Ranch

Well we do live in Alaska after all. After the spring like weather over Rondy we’ve received a reality check in the form of a snow storm. The cars were covered in a sculpture of snow. Looked like wedding cake with swirls. The sins of our slack doody pick up are covered (for a few more months) by a foot or more of snow. Kate blasted around in a wriggling ecstasy of joy. Bing and the chickens were less thrilled.

Bing was a huge help tonight. Some of the hens refused to come out from under the henhouse to go to bed. I went back to the house and asked Bing if he’d like to brave the snow to put the girls to bed for me. He was out the door and into the run before I finished saying ‘girls’. He scooted under the hen house (sometimes it’s good to be short) and gently nudged out the three recalcitrant hens. The first two hopped inside, the third needed an additional firmer butt bonkers from Bing before stepping up the ramp.

I would not have cared to have gotten the girls myself tonight. It was cold, blowing, miserable conditions. I would have been neither as fast, nor frankly as humane, as our fine Corgi boy.

Bing got a fresh egg for his great help.

Kate gets distracted by all the tasty poo in the chicken run, so I don’t use her when I just want the job done.

Kate is in season and a little uncomfortable. A bitch comes into season twice a year, and her cycle lasts about 20 days. She should finish just before her next show. Her coat is thick, and she worked very well for me at Friday’s Show ‘n Go. I’ve entered her in Amateur Owner Handler class.

Scott and I enjoyed the Iditarod ceremonial start on Saturday. I’ll post some pictures soon. 

ACT’s annual Mutt Show was today. Scott and I helped out. Kate did the pet tricks contest – whack a mole. Her temperament is fantastic, she took the noise and chaos in stride. We tucked her back in the car with brother Bing before she stopped having fun. Weather was warm today 30’s?

David Jensen posted photos here
http://talkingtoanimals.blogspot.com/

Had dinner with friends – we laughed so much we created a fun void in the restaurant and other patrons were frowning at our frivolity. Oops. 

Just Bing and I in the house. Kate is riding shotgun with Scott on errands, and our lady cattle dogs just went home. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them greet their people so enthusiastically – lap sitting tongue licking everywhere. Such joy and glee!

Bing is sniffing around looking for the girls. The house is quiet.

This morning when I opened the hen house I interrupted a humping chicken. The humper was another hen. Chicken sex is pretty distinctive and kind of hard to mistake for anything else. I’m really hoping this a confused hen and not a late maturing rooster. No crowing. Yet. 

ACT looks great. A group of us finished painting the last classroom over Valentines Day weekend. Really hard work and not quite enough help but there was an agility trial the same weekend so we knew that was a likelihood. With numerous events on the horizon it was the best time to take care of it. Very proud of how good the place looks. When I started there a few years ago it was all pretty blah. Looks quite nice now.

Our favorite rottie mix took high in rally trial at ACT’s UKC Obedience and Rally trial this weekend. He and his handler scored a perfect 100 both days. We are very proud of them.

All four herding dogs ran themselves silly tonight at the club. We went down there for about an hour late this evening. We threw out a couple of tunnels and had a few toys to toss around. There was a lot of barking, running, leaping, cavorting, slobbering, drinking and general chaos. The tunnels were a hit. At one point all 4 were in the same tunnel. One of the girls delighted in charging into a tunnel then doing a swimmers turn halfway through. The entire tunnel would kind of leap off the ground. I’m grateful to be a member of the club – we were in room 2 which is about 50×80 feet – plenty of room for four herding dogs to run safely.

Dogs are very tired. And so are we.

Looking after our good friends Cattle dogs for the next couple of weeks. With 4 herding dogs in the house thee will be a fair amount of chaos. Fortunately they have really nice manners. I thought it would be fun to work on teaching them to enjoy the Dremel to make nail trims easier. We’ll start with some paw work first and see how it goes.

I received my eligibility notice today from PTC (Professional Testing Corporation).
That means I have been approved to sit for the Certification Examination for Professional Dog Trainers – Knowledge Assessed.

The exam is being administered between March 13 and March 27, so I need to schedule an appointment with PTC here in town to take the text.

I am very excited.  The test is 4 hours long, and composed of 250 questions covering:
Instruction Skills (32%)
Animal Husbandry (6%)
Ethology (20%)
Learning Theory (32%)
Equipment (10%)

I am told that Learning Theory is the greatest point of failure. I’ve been working very hard on my Learning Theory the last few years, and at this point I believe it is my strongest area. That’s kind of neat. Bob Bailey’s Chicken Camps and Bruce Blumberg’s Cognitive Canine and Learned Dog (Harvard Extension) laid my foundation, so it is strong.

I’ll spend the next 6 – 8 weeks studying intensively. I’ve completed 3/4 my reading list so it should not be too bad.

Woo hoo!

Lopped off a foot of hair this weekend. Headaches have disappeared.  Still longish – about mid-back. Salon will send it to Locks of love. Silly things I don’t need to do again – permit earnest salon lady to talk me into waxing any body parts. Certainly not lips.  I’ll stick with the moustache next time.

Kate’s class went well Saturday. Hard to bark when your mouth is full of treats. Played touch, sit, down, stand, look at that dog without barking, look at me, roll over, walk by me.  She was full and tired at the end. Teresa did a nice job explaining clicker.

Highlight of Saturday night – sharing a dance with my husband at a work function. Better than the really tasty sushi, even.

Good things to go with Linda and John’s balsamic raspberry deliciousness – taste tested by me – baked ak beets, tuna (the whole fish, not that nasty junk in the can), salad, ice cream (really), red bell pepper, goat cheese. The beets have been the best match.

No word from CCPDT on the status of my application, but it is early yet. Fingers crossed.

More weekend virtue – cleaned the chicken coop and refilled with three bales of shavings. Oh the chicken glee.

Kate handled very nicely for me today at the conformation show.  She won Winners Bitch.  That means the judge thought that today she was the nicest girl of those that had not yet earned their Championship.  We didn’t do anything in the Best of Breed segment, and that’s ok. Means we got to go home earlier <grin>

We enjoyed visiting with friends and even got to watch our favorite vet take her pup around – that was pretty nifty. I also liked that Scott came to the show with us.  He’s very observant about details, and while I am not always capable of applying his feedback because my mechanical skills suck, when I do it works great and we look better.  Plus it’s exceptionally cool when your spouse is also your best friend and wants to do these things with you.

Something that Kate seemed to enjoy today and I believe contributed to her alertness and the spring in her step was playing with her laser light.  She gets animated when the laser comes out so she was a bit wound up going in the ring. Full of herself. Looks super in the ring.

Taking Winners Bitch today gives Kate another point towards her Championship.  We are halfway there.  She needs a few more points plus another Major – that’s when there are enough Cardigan’s entered to have winning be worth at least 3 points.

I still don’t quite understand how all the points and stuff work. When I read it on AKC’s website it makes sense, but trying to explain it later makes me go head-tilt-RCA-dog.

I like doing conformation with Kate, and I believe she enjoys it too.  She gets tired when we stay too long or when we arrive too early, and that translates to not fun. I work hard to keep her stress level down so it remains an enjoyable and chicken goodness filled activity.  I know that she enjoys announcing herself when she enters the building, and am waiting for the day that she prances up to the judge and roo-roo-roo demands her ribbon.

 I graduated my Older Puppy/Beginner class tonight. The holidays took a heavy toll on the students – only a few made it through the 11 weeks (normal class is 8 weeks long, but 3 classes got preempted by holidays).

I am exceedingly proud of the students who held out to the end.  Their dogs showed incredible improvement. Tonight they wowed me with their loose leash walking, sits, downs, stays, and general good manners.

They have additional reason to be proud – two of the under 1 year old crowd passed their AKC STAR Puppy test. We also did an AKC CGC Evaluation for some of the students tonight – one pass and one very close miss. Just a tiny bit too much joy at greeting the other dog.  She’ll nail it next time, though.

Teaching classes is an honor and a great pleasure. I’m delighted with how hard people work with their dogs. It’s a joy to help them learn more about training and all things canine.