A young dog and the dog walk

Two weeks ago during agility class Magnum was running on the dog walk at full height, which is about 4 to 5 feet off the ground.  He is at an age where he still doesn’t pay attention to his hind legs.  Running on a dog walk isn’t all that easy because it is about 12 inches wide, so a dog really has to pay attention.  Young dogs like their handlers right next to them so that they can see them.  If not, the dog may turn its head to find the handler and in doing it lose their balance.  I was right next to Magnum, but he still got one of his back legs off the walk and couldn’t get back on the walk.  I stopped and helped him and he finished the dog walk.  But after he wouldn’t go on the dog walk again.  He displayed a number of avoidance behaviors.  So, we decided it best to not ask him again and wait until the following week.  Previously Magnum had fallen off the dog walk, but that didn’t faze him.  It was the inability to get his foot either back on the walk or touching the floor.

Magnum was the only dog in his class of 8 puppies (all older than him) to walk over the dog walk initially without luring him (using a food treat).  It’s his personality to be curious about the equipment and unafraid to try new things.  So I was a little concerned about the dog walk.

My instructor had told us about how Linda M., one of the current best agility handlers in the US and whose style of handling is emulated by most of us, trains her dogs on the dog walk.  She uses a very low dog walk to give her dogs’ confidence to race over at top speed.  At Linda’s level of performance a half a second is important.  So, I decided that perhaps lowering the dog walk for Magnum would be helpful.

I have an old full size wooden dog walk (dog walks are big and take a lot of space in the yard).  Alan cut the legs of it so that it is about two feet off the ground.  Later on if I want it high, he’ll put new legs on it.  Magnum had no fear and is having great fun running across it.

At class the following week, the instructor moved the dog walk, so the A-frame was in its place.  He went over the A-frame fine, but then didn’t want to again.  We used food treats and after a couple of times going over, he was fine.  We started off on the dog walk with food treats and he did it fine.  Then he started racing over and passing up the treats.  So, it appears, at least for now, he has worked out the fear of the dog walk.

Last night, December 22^nd, I finished the stocking I was knitting for my grandson, Ajax.  It was a complex pattern with four colors.  I had trouble with it and went back to the knitting store for help.  The staff person told me I was knitting left handed – and I am not left-handed.  She said it used to be the way many people were taught and thought to be elegant.  A friend who is an experienced knitter said I was not a left-handed knitter, but I knitted in the continental style,which is considered more elegant.  I use my left hand as much as I use my right hand.  My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 6 years old.  I hope the stocking will be treasured by Ajax, as he grows older.  Anyway, its great to have it completed.

Christmas Stories

I have always loved Christmas stories.  I am an avid mystery reader, so I really enjoy Christmas mysteries.  I have a lot of Christmas books and read several each year and try to acquire one or two new books each year.  There is nothing I like better than a good old Christmas murder.  I am so bloodthirsty for a peaceful person.  I believe I love mysteries, in part, because justice almost always prevails at the end.  It doesn’t quite work out that way in real life.

I also love to watch Christmas/holiday movies.  It appears that there are many who are like me because the Hallmark channel has Christmas movies on every night in December.  Some of the movies are really good and some stretch the imagination and the writing isn’t great, but I still love them.  I cry during most of them, no matter how implausible the story.  Let’s face it; there are only so many variations on the classic themes.  There are numerous stories based on “A Christmas Carol”.  I love the stories that are take-offs of “Ground Hog Day”.  In those stories you have the unfortunate individual who has to repeat Christmas Eve until they get it right.  How about the Santa stories?  He has daughters, sons, corporations, wicked elves, or others who have to or want to take over his “business”.   Some of the best stories have dogs in them. Many of the stories have a love story.

What most of the stories have in common is the element of change and redemption.  There is the belief that the holiday season works magic and people change for the better.  I do believe it is possible and many folks at least are more generous to those less fortunate during the holidays.  Many non-profit organizations receive most of there contributions during the holiday season.  The food banks, shelters, and holiday gift programs are featured in our newspapers and on radio and TV to encourage us to give.  In the YS Newspaper, they featured a gift tree at the YS Library on the front page.  Families in need write down what they would like and the library staff hang papers on the tree with items that are appropriate.  Alan and I give a lot of money to non-profits during the year.  But, when I saw the article, I had to go to the library and take a card for a child.  It just feels so good to do something for someone who might not receive a gift if not for you.  I selected a child who wants the crayola crayon machine.  I’ve seen it advertised on TV, during the Christmas shows, and thought that Alan would have wanted one if he were a kid.  How exciting to get to purchase it for a child.  Alan did confirm he would have liked it.

While I am watching the tearjerker Christmas shows, I am knitting a stocking for my grandson and am surrounded by my dogs and cats.  It really is a cozy time.  And, if I am lucky, Alan bakes cookies, which I get to sample.

It' Coming on Christmas

In the Village of Yellow Springs, we’ve had a holiday event for many years – the Christmas Tree Festival.  I’ve attended it not every year, but started about 32 years ago with my son.  The Yellow Springs High School has a school Christmas tree forest.  Students work for approximately six weeks in the summer planting trees and watering them.  When my son was in high school, he participated in the school forest planting trees and tending them.  At that time the students were paid minimal wage for their work.

The Friday night before the festival, the high school students sleep overnight at the forest, which is adjacent to Glen Helen Nature Preserve.  The students sleep in a tepee and of course have chaperones.  It is almost always cold.

The Saturday of the festival, the students make hot chocolate and have homemade bake goods to serve to families that attend the festival to pick out and chop down their own tree.  Students act as guides for the families, walking them to the tree field to select their tree and will even help cut down the tree. 

There is a tractor with a wagon to take families who find it difficult to walk to the field and to bring back trees.  One year after foot surgery, Alan and I attended and the students were very sweet helping me to get on the wagon, cutting down the tree and bringing us back.

This year my son, his wife, and my grandson Ajax attended the festival with us.  Our friend DP, a photographer, was there to document the festival and take photographs for publicizing Greene County.  He used our family for some of the photos, so I hope to have some lovely photos of all of us with Ajax (about a month and a half old).  It was a great way to begin the holiday season.  We found a lovely imperfect tree about 6 feet tall, just right for us.

Magnum is 7 months old and is a little bigger than Shadow.  I am taking him to the Vets to day to weigh him.  He continues to be somewhat shy with strangers and I think this is his personality.  I continue to take him places to socialize him.  He is the first Springer I’ve had that was shy.  He has a lovely sweet personality and is such a good and bright dog.  Last night in agility class we were practicing the weaves.  At this time he just runs through them.  He’s the only dog in the class that can be left in a stay.  I put him in front of the weaves, walked to the end and said okay.  He ran around the weaves and came to me.  So I put him back in a stay and went to the end and said, “weave” and he raced through them.  He has already learned the word weave!  He knew the difference between “okay” and “weave”.