Wait, Wait, Hurry, Hurry

Does it ever feel like you wait, wait for something, then suddenly it’s here.  We’re getting ready to go to Scotland.  It’s been in the planning stages for 9 months or so.  Lots of time to get ready.  And, for the most part I am.  But there are all those last minute items to complete.  Bags are packed, documents ready to go, arrangements made and suddenly time seems to speed up.

Today Alan and I went kayaking on the Little Miami at River’s Edge.  It’s a nice place that is open during the week.  The river route is lovely going through rural areas. There were three deer getting a drink at the river along the way.  It was my first time kayaking. We plan to go to Hawaii and ocean kayak, so I thought I should practice.  I’ve done lots of canoeing, but never kayaked. The kayak has more control than a canoe, which is good since I almost went through a small rapid backwards.  But, with the kayak, I was able to turn myself around and was okay.  On the way back, Alan said, “This retirement really keeps you busy.”  It does. 

Last week we went to Covington Kentucky to see an exhibit by the Colored Pencil Society of America. We were the only ones there for half an hour, and then several older retirees came in.  Alan works with colored pencils sometimes, so he really enjoyed it.  After the exhibit, we had lunch at 10 West on the Ohio River.  We had a delicious lunch with a wonderful view of the river.   We are doing more fun things since we retired.  Things we didn’t have time for when we worked.  But we are also continuing to do lots of things we did while we were working.    I could spend all day playing – riding my bike, tracking with Magnum, hiking, yoga, and practicing agility with Magnum.  I also like to swim and canoe.  Then there are the quiet activities such as reading. Now, if I want to add more stuff, then I have to let something else go.  Right now my days are packed. 

So we get to the hurry, hurry for the trip.  All the last minute details.   Magnum will go to Wags Inn and Shadow and Kinsey will go to Dillon’s Kennel.  The three sisters (cats) will be staying at the house with their friend Diane taking care of them.

Tracking Certification

Sunday morning August 5, 2012, a little before 9:00 AM, I follow AKC tracking judge, Steve Ripley to an industrial park in Westfield, Indiana for the tracking dog certification.  It has been raining, but stopped.  The certification is in calf high grass and weeds.  I think, “Oh shit, we’ve been training mostly on mown grass.”  I get Magnum out of the car, offer him water and we walk up to Steve.  He tells me the track starts right off the pavement where there is a driveway reflector. I put the harness on Magnum, walk up to the reflector and tell him to down.  I put the lead on the harness and say track.  Magnum takes off after a quick smell of the start article.  I let the lead out to a little over 20 feet and grab the start article.  He locks onto the track and stays with it.  He goes out about 85 yards, begins circling and pulls us strongly to a right hand turn.  We go out 50 yards and he acts like he’s found something.  It’s a part of a plastic bag – trash.  He circles completely around at the bag and goes left.  Again, he pulls so strongly that I have to follow him.  He is moving at a very fast speed.  He would be delighted if I ran, but I continue to walk quickly.  80 yards and he begins to circle again.  He circles another time, so I pull out the start item and have him smell it.  His expression is like – oh yeah that’s the smell.  He turns left and pulls very strongly.  This time it’s longer.  We go about 135 yards, then he circles and turns left.  In my head I’m thinking that I don’t know if I am on the track.  Maybe the judge is waiting till it’s over and he’ll tell me we blew it.  Magnum is looking back at me with a look that says “Can’t you go any faster?”  He is pulling so strongly and is so excited, then he’s lying down – he found the glove, the end article.  We did it!!

Steve said we were great.  He complimented me on my handling, taking time, and waiting for Magnum to figure out where the track goes.  Magnum clearly knows how to track, he just needs me to be smart enough to read his signals.

I am so happy.  It follows a week in which I began to doubt my preparedness for the certification.  Steve had good advice for me about distractions and to begin to work toward our tracking dog excellent and variable surface tracking tests.  Here is a picture of Magnum, Steve Ripley and me after the successful completion of the track.

Now I can send off my certification to the English Springer Spaniel Field Trial Association to see if I can get into the Tracking Dog test at the Springer Nationals in St. Louis at the end of September!!  Magnum and I owe much to my tracking partner M and to Alan.  They lay the tracks for us and give me good advice.   

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.

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!

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. 

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.

Memorial Day

Last Memorial Day I talked about the dogs I had as a child.  This year I want to remember a current dog – Shadow.  Whenever you look at my blog, it opens with Shadow jumping.  It has been almost two years since Shadow has been totally blind.  I imagine by the end of her life, she will have lived as many years in darkness as she lived in light.  Having my puppy Magnum has helped me to remember so many sweet and cute things that Shadow did when she was younger.  Blindness has changed her life in so many ways.  I can’t say it has changed the quality, but it has limited what she can do.  The other day Alan and I were walking the dogs outside with Shadow in the shade and the way the light hit her eyes, I could see her brown colored eyes that are usually hidden by blue colored cataracts.  It was so wonderful to see her brown eyes.  She is most comfortable walking around the yard on a leash and is then confident walking because she knows we will keep her from running into things.  On her own, she walks carefully and uses bumping into things as a way to guide her. 

The three sister cats I have spend a lot of time laying next to Shadow licking her and being licked by Shadow.  Perhaps due to loss of sight, the tactile experiences seem more important than ever to her.  A few months ago when we had just started training Magnum on the electric fence, I left him in the very back of the yard on a retractable leash attached to a tree while I went outside the dog area to work in the garden.  Shadow was laying in the shade near the house.  After about 15 minutes, I checked on Magnum.  There lying next to him was Shadow.  She had found her way about 100 feet to be next to him.  

Shadow’s life has changed, but she is still healthy and seems happy.  I will continue to rejoice in the years I have ahead with her.