Lazy wagging

Silly Kota never fails to crack me up....

He was laying on his back on the pillows on the couch and he started wagging his tail when I told him he was silly.. I grabbed the camera and of course he wouldn't do it again, so I prodded.... ;-)

Enjoy...

Merry Christmas to me - part 1

Back in November I ordered a new grooming table... it finally showed up today. :) :) :)

Isn't it COOL!!?!??

Don Glenn makes them, and Sarah Keth told Jeri and I about them.. it's a dark green coating on the table, with the Cardigan sprayed on in white then covered in whatever covering Don used... :) Definitely a table that no one else around these parts will have! :) The best part about it? (aside from the Cardigan painted on it) IT'S LIGHT!!!!!

So up went the dogs... they had to all test it out. :) Here's Pipey on the new table...
OMG - we have a (almost) level topline!!!!Yee haw!!!!! And look at the pretty curves!!! :) Ahh how I love the puppy! :)

And LOOKIT the front! Not a great shot, but you can see her pretty little front :) (note the waggy tail behind her ;-) )

Chancey wanted up B.A.D! So he went up. He looks SOOOOO LOOOOONG! Chris (Armstrong) said to me "is it just the picture, or is Chance big?" No. He's big. with a capital B :)
Next was Kota... he still LOVES to play show dog... it's so cute :)
Sedona preferred to lay down rather than stand nicely... little priss. :)
Our new dryer is coming any day now too... That story will be saved for when it gets here! :)

Sedona, CGC & Chance, CGC

We took our CGC tests last night at our training facility... my poor trainers... they didn't realize that I had two more at home! They've met Kota,who I started with there over a year ago, and of course Piper, who is training there now. When I walked up with Sedona and Chance the lady who owns the place looked bewildered. :)

I took Chance out and worked him for a bit before the test started - he's never had ANY sort of formal training aside from going to dog shows. Not a puppy class or anything for the boy. I am VERY proud to say that he performed like a champ. Sit, down, stay, recall, no reaction to strangers, or strange noises... no jumping or acting like an @$$. The ONLY time that he acted like an @$$ was when we did the activity where the dog stays with a stranger while the handler goes out of sight. He barked. And barked. He does this at dog shows too, so I knew it was a high probability he would do this. It ALMOST cost him the CGC. Because he calmed down and otherwise did SO well, the evaluator let him pass (thank God!).

Sedona has had 1 puppy class, which was when she was a puppy... She's much quicker to sit and down, though she doesn't like to have to stay... she'd rather be with me. We worked on a few things while walking a rally course they had set up and she impressed me. She did SO well in the actual test, just as I expected she would. She was an angel through the 'staying with a stranger' part, which was a welcome relief after her brother was an @$$. :)

All said, I walked away with two new titles for two dogs in one night..... I'm so proud!

Baledwr Desert Sunset, CGC
Farpoint's Takin' Chances, CGC

And what last night ALSO taught me, is that they both can EASILY get their Rally Novice titles... So guess what's up next?? ;-)

The day after Christmas.....

You'd think the kids were on tryptophan highs or something... they were lazy daisies the day after Christmas, which makes for easy photo shooting ;-)

Sedona being her normal princess - can't lay on the floor ;-) Kota on the other hand, LIKES laying on the ground - it's cooler!
Mister Pants and his pretty colors being lazy near his sister and brother (see Kota's foot in the upper right corner)
lazy Kota - starting to show his age..
Piperdog being lazy in another part of the living room
I've always loved taking photos of Chance - his coloring and markings are so striking and make for good photos :)
the face of an angel (who occasionally wears horns ;-) )
my pretty pretty princess - *swoon*
Sedona trotting up to me to play...
and proceeding to roll on her back and make Corgi noises...
I think this is Piper's nose who ruined my picture of Chance playing ;-)
this is a good angle of Kota's ear... weird, huh? :) He's getting better, but still not 100%....
That night I went to the Nutcracker with my friend and her daughter. This was the scene from the balcony - one of the dancers was reading the story to the kids down in the main floor.
I accosted a stranger and asked him to take a picture of us together... Rachel and I went to school together since we were in 7th grade - and her daughter is now a sophomore in high school!
This was our view from our seats to see The Nutcracker.
We had a good night - despite there not being a live orchestra, which there was supposed to be... Rachel and her daughter said that they didn't enjoy it as much as they had in years past, but since I'd never seen it before, I enjoyed myself and had nothing to compare it against. I will see it again.

watching the grass grow...

Quite literally. There is absolutely NO landscaping (aside from the weeds) in my back yard, and I'm tired of Kota rolling in the dirt... the landlords said I could plant grass if I wanted, and it looked like there was sod there at one time, so I'm sure it CAN grow... now it's just a matter of GETTING it there....

I raked up the ground....


I laid the seed, threw some compost on top, threw some more seed on (in hopes that something grows) and started watering....
I then put up my temporary fence (let's hope it stays) and watered the heck out of the yard...
I'm supposed to water twice a day till I see it sprout... so keep your fingers crossed that we have grass soon... :)

uh BRRRRR

I knew it was forecasted to be a cold one... but BRRRRR...

heat is set at 67 and coffee is almost ready... I'm going to hunker down, do some internet shopping (grin) and relax at home till I have to get ready for the Nutcracker tonight! :)

I hope you all had wonderful Christmases with your families (for those who celebrate), and may you all stay cozy warm on this cold winter day!!!

Christmas Eve & Christmas 2009

We had a nice lazy Christmas Eve.... :) Sedona relaxes in her favorite place in the house...

See how sweet and innocent Piper looks?? If only you knew what she was DOING to the poor Mallard just before I snapped this picture ;-)
Piper Puppy with her very first Christmas tree... Merry Christmas, Piper puppy!!!
Christmas morning.... I took the stockings down from the wall and prepared to give the kids their presents.... Piper was VERY into investigating this morning.
Chancey and his stocking
Piper with hers....
Sissy with hers....
and Kody with his... he is showing his age, poor kid.
The crew and their stockings... :)
and the merriment begins!
Kota stole away with a toy and took it to the "safe zone" ;-)
and Chance, enjoying a new toy also...
Gramma sent the kids rawhide stars for all of the kids... here is Piper enjoying hers....
and Sedona enjoying her star
Kota, as always, was the first to finish his and dig into the stuffed center... :)
Chance ate the weaving around his rawhide star... weirdo ;-)
this is what was inside of the rawhide stars... more rawhide star! :)
Kota wrapped up in one of the Christmas toys - a snake with a squeeky in each green section! We love squeeky toys here!
All four heathens watching mom prepare her Christmas breakfast (Piper broke her stay JUST as I was snapping the picture! LOL)
This is the most common view of Piper... at my feet, looking up at me anxiously....
My Christmas breakfast... a cinnamon roll and coffee.... mmmm :)
Mom included this in our Christmas package... she said she used it as stuffing, but it's something I've remembered from my childhood - so a piece of "old" Christmas rejoined me this year... :) Very special :) It's one of those old latch hooks... We used to do them together, and we had a bunch at one time - not sure if she still has the others, but it was cool to see this one pop up in my Christmas package.
I hope you all have a wonderful and Merry Christmas with your families wherever you may be... I will be travelling across the valley to have dinner with my cousins daughter, her husband, his family, and my aunt and uncle who are in Arizona for the winter (snow birds ;-)).

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

dremel re-training....

I never would have thought that I'd have to RE-train a dog to tolerate the dremel, but alas, that is what I decided was best this morning..

I'm not very nice today - I did dog toes.... Mean mean dog mom on Christmas eve, right??

Well, I decided that I was going to loop Chance up and get him done first, since he's the biggest (literally) pain in the butt. While coaxing him with jerky treats (the dogs all time favorite junk food ever), little miss P puppy came up to snarf food (she's a chow hound if ever there was one). I decided to take that opportunity to do HER nails (she's pretty easy) and have Chance "observe" her good behavior... I'd treat her, AND him as she did a good job (which like I said, she's pretty easy).

Chance isn't a fan of being on his back unless HE chooses to do it, so rather than stress him out, I let him lay on his side between my legs. I turned on the dremel and let it run and gave him cookies and told him what a good (pain in the butt) dog he was....

Ordinarily one toe in and I'm having to restrain him... literally. One leg over the front half of the (huge) dog, the other leg over the other half of the (huge) dog. I decided to take another approach. Barely touching the toe nails, speaking calmly, praising and treating.... he was shaking like a leaf but not struggling with me like normal. He's always been better about his rear toes than his front, so I ended with his rear toes. I didn't get them done as well as I would have ordinarily, but I didn't have to restrain him, and he didn't stress as much about it today. Granted yes, he was still shaking and had that stinky odor he puts out when he stresses, but his pads were not soaking wet nor did I have to restrain him once.

We'll keep doing it this way until I get his behavior under control. Restraining a stressed out 40 pound STRONG Cardigan boy is NOT my idea of fun, so I'll do what I can to make it a better experience for us both... that is one of my resolutions for 2010... :)

Wish us luck! :)

a desert dweller photo moment

I've seen many a road runner in my neighborhood, and had wished I could get some good pictures of one... Well, today I had my day. When I came out of my doctors office and while getting in the car, I saw one in the rocks in front of where my car was parked. I quickly grabbed my camera (which yes, I take everywhere) and started snapping... Can you see him??





Here he was either demonstrating how cool he was, or he was getting PO'd at me... who knows which ;-)

and here, I think he was saying "Ok, you've taken enough pictures - go away now!"