Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Another Retirement


I stand as an observer at Alan’s work retirement celebration.  He had friends, co-workers, County Commissioners, the Director of Development, and the County Administrator in attendance.  It’s nice to see and hear people appreciating him for his work. His retirement celebration has heart-rending moments. It provides the opportunity for co-workers and others he worked with to tell him how much they appreciate him and to say good bye.  It is the good bye that doesn’t really sink for quite awhile.  In many ways, the events could be likened to a graduation from high school or college.  It is a moment in time that you desire and work toward.  It arrives and then you realize all the people who have been with you through the experience won’t be coming with you.  What a bummer!

Last night he mentioned that today he would turn in his key.  Turning in the key is hard.  It is the final break.  You can’t return unless you are invited in.  I struggled with turning in my key.  In fact, I discovered I had an extra key and was going to return it when I went back for a baby shower, but then forgot it.  Or maybe I meant to forget it.  It gave me comfort. 

As I have thought about Alan’s retirement and then mine, I realize that in some ways I retired from my relationship with Shadow.  How awful and what a realization for me.  Magnum is now my partner in obedience, agility, and tracking training.  Being a puppy, he demands attention.  Shadow’s blindness and her age have caused her to slow down. She can’t chase after me or demand attention the way a puppy does.  Or maybe she does it in a different more subtle way.   I need to begin to rectify this situation and will keep you posted.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Magic of Hybrids




I walk out of Seasons Bistro where I had lunch with two of my high school girlfriends and use my automatic car door opener.  I try the door and it’s locked.  I push the button several more times, but nothing happens.  I open the car using the key and watch as one friend parked next to me takes off.  The other friend left by the front of the restaurant.  I insert the key and try to start the car and nothing happens.  I try a few more times.  It’s dead.  I panic.  I grab my cell phone, which fortunately still has some battery life and call Alan.  Thank god he answers.  He’s surprised the car is dead and asks if I left the lights on.  OMG, yes I did.

Now this is the real story – It was raining lightly on the way to Springfield so I had to use my wipers and turned on my lights.  I was feeling kind of self-righteous because I heard something on NPR about a law requiring folks to use lights when the wipers are on.  Really, we all should because it can be impossible to see an on-coming car or one you are catching up to in diminished visibility if it doesn’t have its lights on.

Alan said to wait a minute and try to start it again.  I did, but nothing happened.  He said he would borrow jumper cables and get there as soon as he could from Beavercreek.

My car, see photo above, is a yellow green 2000 Honda Insight hybrid.  I love it. I wanted a grey or red Insight.  Alan suggested that if I was getting a strange little hybrid, then I should have a strange color.  Yeah, but the green was so obvious and I couldn’t go unnoticed.  He said, “What do you plan to do, rob a bank or gas station?”  So I bought the green Insight.   I get 60 miles to the gallon.  I feel so environmentally righteous.  So this is the pay back for my self-righteous thoughts – a dead car.

But hybrids are magic.  I try again and it starts.  I call Alan’s office and they get him as he’s heading out the door.  I think it was the electric battery, which is fully charged, that got the car started.  Alan said probably trying to start the car began to recharge the battery.  Maybe, or maybe as I said hybrids are magic.  Oh, where’s my dog?  Magnum or Shadow ride in the hatch back or ride shotgun!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Agility, Tracking, and Dog Day Care


The Weave Poles
I come running out of the garage and grab a multi-colored tug toy along the way.  I wave it around at my side as if it is alive.  It captures Magnum’s attention and he runs after me trying to grab the toy.  We reach the weave poles, I take the toy away from him and say “Weave.”  He races through nailing them the first time.  I turn him around and say “Weave” again and he charges through completing them perfectly.  He’s been doing this for 3 days.  Wow!!  And, I thought he would never learn them.

Tracking
I stop with Magnum about 30 feet before the first flag that indicates the beginning of the track, which has aged for 25 minutes.  I put his harness on him and then we walk within a few feet of the flag.  I say, “Down.”  Magnum lies down so he can get a smell of the article at the flag and I snap the lead onto his harness.  I give the command, “Track!” and he takes off.  He is a fast and enthusiastic tracker.  There are no flags at corners or the end of the track, so I am completely dependent upon Magnum.  We should be working as a team.  My challenge is to be able to read the signals Magnum gives when he loses the track and then finds it. Alan noticed that at a turn, Magnum picked up the direction, but I didn’t immediately follow.  The lead line went taunt and Magnum thought I was holding him or signaling it wasn’t the correct direction.  He eventually went back to the correct direction and I read his body signs – nose to the ground almost being hooked and a strong pull on the lead.  I will have to be careful about letting the lead out and not restricting him.  I must be a better member of our team.

Day Care
Magnum and I visited Wags Inn, where he will stay while Alan and I are in Scotland.  He knew right away that it was a place dogs are left.  He refused to go into the building.  He is also shy when he first meets people, so he was leery of the staff.  Lori, the owner, had me bring him through a side yard with her dog Buster.  Magnum loved Buster and it made the process go smoother.  Lori suggested I bring him to dog day care once a week until we leave for Scotland to get him used to the facility.  Wags Inn is no ordinary kennel.  It is on 25 acres with a number of fenced yards for the dogs to play.  Dogs in day care run loose in the yards in supervised play.  After a couple of hours of play, the dogs nap for an hour or so.

When we arrived on Friday, he started to go up to the building, and then backed off.  Fortunately another dog arrived and of course he liked the dog and followed it.  Magnum was in the side yard playing with 6 other dogs when I arrived to take him home.  He had a great day.  He had a silly grin on his face with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth.  I think it’s going to be okay. 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Heat and Tracking


The last few weeks have been really hot.  The heat impacts not only some dogs desire to work but actually impacts their ability to track.  A dry track is harder for a dog to follow than a track with moisture.  Even though a dog’s sense of smell is 100,000 times better than a human’s, it can still be difficult in the heat.  I get up early most days, but these hot days I’ve been even more motivated to get out early to track with Magnum.  I either try to ride my bike at 6:00 AM and track right after or go tracking and then ride my bike. 

Although I talk about the heat affecting a dog’s ability to smell, heat doesn’t seem to affect Magnum’s enthusiasm.  He is excited and continues to be a fast tracker.  The heat has probably made it a little more difficult for him to find the new acute turns we are working on.   He is following a human scent we lay by walking.  I am now aging the track so that the human body odor has dissipated.  The track is on the ground now and not in the air.

We went to northern Michigan for 5 days and it was about 10 degrees cooler, but still hot.  Magnum got to track in sandy soil, high grass and woods.  He also got to smell a deer’s skeleton and skull, which were near one of the tracks.  He stopped to smell them, but when I said “Back to work.” he continued on the track.  I am tracking with him 6 days a week with one day off following a lesson plan from Glen Johnson.  We have 3 weeks left to complete all the work.  I have already scheduled a day to have Magnum certified by an AKC Tracking Judge in Indiana.  Hopefully he will qualify and then I can enter Magnum in a tracking test at the end of September held at the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association’s Nationals.  Springers with no title are given first preference, so I will keep my fingers crossed that he gets certified and entered in the test.

I also work most days with him on agility.  He is doing well.  I am still in the process of teaching him the weave poles.  I have used channels with him running down the middle, and then gradually close the distance between the poles so he is forced to weave in and out of the poles.  The poles are now about 1 inch a part and he weaves great, but I have not been able to close the gap and still have him weave.  I think the biggest challenge is teaching this skill with the dog running as fast as he can.  Shadow was a very accurate and reliable weaver, but was never really fast.  So, I am working with the channels to keep the speed up for Magnum.  It’s a different training method.  I have entered him in his first agility trial, also at the Springers’ Nationals, so he has to weave perfectly before the end of September.  I’ll let you know how it goes.