Hit the Road

I have started walking Katie in my neighborhood. There is a nice loop that blocks around to a distance of about 0.7 miles. It works perfectly because I can do it at night. Even though I leave work at 3 PM, there are just not enough daylight hours to accomplish what I want to with Reagan, Riley, AND Katie.My biggest concern is her nails. She moves funny and wears them down.So far, so good. Some of her nails are already worn down to tiny nubs, but none have started bleeding from the walks. Hopefully the quicks have adjusted and receded some.When it is possible, I do walk Katie off the road. This house is a foreclosure and is unoccupied. Katie and I serpentine across the lawn up and down the hill.Sometimes we even see some wildlife. I saw a possum last night and some chickens today.A registered sex offender use to live here. I never worried because kids were his thing. He was old and has probably died by now. Thank goodness for the kids next door. I always wondered if they knew.I carry a big stick just in case. It is my Loose-Dog-Club. I am happy that I have never had to use it.Sometimes Stephen and I talk about moving to a nicer neighborhood, but it seems hardly worth doubling our mortgage payment. I'd much rather spend money on a nice van and agility equipment.

Permission Granted

KL's Mandoid From Marze CDX MX MXJ was the first greyhound to earn the Master Agility Excellent and Master Excellent Jumper titles (MX and MXJ) in AKC Agility. The MX and MXJ are earned with 10 clean runs in the Excellent Standard and Excellent Jumper levels. Mandoid was also the first greyhound to qualify and compete at an AKC Agility Nationals.I got to see Mandoid run a couple of times. Her agility career was finishing up as I was starting up with Jes and Teresa. Mandoid was a super diva. She passed away in 2003, but she is still the #4 or 5 greyhound in AKC Agility for lifetime achievement.When Mandoid passed away, Kate wanted Katie to have Mandoid's fleece coat. It meant a lot to Kate that Katie was kept warm with Mandoid's coat on the chilly February day that she became the first greyhound to earn an agility championship. The fleece coat was perfect for keeping Katie warm when she was camping in a tent or crated on a cold day.But Katie, does not need the coat anymore. I did not want to use the coat on anyone else without Kate's permission. I would retire it if preferred. I recently asked Kate if the fleece coat could be passed onto Reagan and she agreed. It fits Reagan even better than Katie and hopefully Reagan will do Mandoid, Kate, and Katie proud..... well heck, I'd like to be proud too! :-)

Utility Dog

I am extremely proud of Katie's Utility Dog title. Obedience competition has been around for over 70 years and Katie is only the 14th greyhound to ever earn a Utility Dog title. Utility is the highest level of obedience and I have said it before... it was the hardest thing I have ever done with a greyhound. Katie earned 3 qualifying legs in 25 attempts. This is the only video I have of one of three qualifying Utility legs. I am so happy to finally be able to post it to the blog.

Wobble Board

A friend loaned me a wobble board which is used to teach a dog how to handle movement under their feet. I thought it might be beneficial to Reagan as we work through her teeter retraining. Unfortunately, we had a recent set back on the teeter. She had worked back up to a full sized teeter, but was asked to do a teeter away from home that was unsteady and she did not like it at all. I think Reagan is now suspicious of "away" teeters, but is completely confident at home. I really wanted to avoid this, but no avoiding it now.

I thought it would also be beneficial for Katie to give the wobble board a try. She definitely does not like movement under her feet anymore, so its something challenging we can do indoors for with a clicker.

Reagan does not like the tipping either. She is willing, but cautious.

Riley, on the other hand, is hell bent for leather. She was hilarious and a stark contrast to the other two. Riley needs no wobble board work.

Confession

I have a confession to make. Reagan is not my only kibble eater. Riley is also a full-time kibble consumer. As you know, Reagan suffered coat problems over the summer and I finally concluded that she simply was not extracting nutrients from raw food. For some unknown reason, Reagan simply requires that her food be cooked. She now eats a very high quality kibble and is doing very well on it.

Well, during all of this I started to notice that Riley's coat got very dull and dry. The red stripes in her coat looked bleached out and yellow (see below).At first I couldn't believe that I would actually have a 2nd dog that did not do well on raw food. What are the chances? I had fed raw food for 10 years happily and with no problems with seven greyhounds. I started to feed Riley half kibble and half raw and the improvement was almost immediate. Also, like Reagan, Riley never produced the kind of poop that raw diet feeders rave about. She was actually better on kibble as well. I finally switched Riley to a full time kibble diet. Now she is a picture of health (except her trademark ears... we can't do anything about those :-).Reagan and Riley's issues really threw me for a loop. With 2 young dogs eating kibble, what would I feed future dogs? I am happy with how my four seniors are doing on raw food, so I was not about to switch them too.

I decided that I was not really comfortable with my veggie mixes. Dogs have a hard time digesting fruits and vegetables. The availability of the nutrients depends on my ability to tear up the cell walls of the plant material. You can do this by using a juicer or a food processor, but I was not confident that I was doing a good job or providing enough quantity. So my seniors all get 1/2 a cup of kibble instead of veggie mix now. In the future, I think I will continue with a modified half and half diet and adjust accordingly if I have a hound that clearly does best on one or the other.

National Geographic

In June 2006, we had a pair of house wrens built a nest in our garage, laid eggs, and raised 4 baby birds. It was a fantastic place for them. Safe and out of the weather. Everyday, we set up our camera for one hour. Here is a 4 minute clip of them growing up. We definitely found the pooping to be the most interesting. I did not realize they were potty trained.

The Cardinal at the end would attack that bathroom window several times a day for what must have been months. He was a crazy one.

Yippe!

.... and then there were none!