Crazy Coulee and Little Lacey

I've Been Busy

2012-01-29T07:52:00.000-08:00

I just realized it has been a week since I blogged! Apparently I've been busy.

It feels like Roller Derby is taking over my life. It consumes my thoughts and my spare time. But in a good way, so I'm not complaining. I've had some sore muscles lately. After our fitness testing they were sore from sudden use, but after practice last Sunday they were sore from misuse. I strained my right quad and my left groin muscles. Skating and walking were generally pain free after the first day, but bending at the knee (like when I did falls or lunges) didn't feel so hot on my quad. I left practice on Tuesday without even making it through warm-up. I practiced with the Fresh Meat on Friday and just avoided falls and activities that might make me fall. I've got practice again tonight and hopefully it will go well.

We have a house guest this week. Micah has come to stay with us while my sister's family is enjoying Disney World. I was a little worried about how Lacey would greet her and while she wasn't a very gracious host during the first few moments, they are now playing and getting along like they used to when we fostered her last winter. Jack has his nose firmly out of joint but Micah has a healthy respect for cats and doesn't chase or pester him. He has been venturing out in the evenings and will cuddle on the couch with us even if she is in the room.

The rescue has been busy bringing in more dogs so I've photographed four of them in this past week. I have the best volunteer job ever. :)

I also have a presentation today on Pet Photography for the Lethbridge Photography Club. I've been busy putting that together, as well as making sure the technology I have is compatible with what I need. I've ended up borrowing a friend's MacBook so that we can get it to work. Fingers crossed! I haven't talked in front of an audience in a few years and I'm a little nervous. I also don't think I have a lot of "ground breaking" information so I'm worried I'll bore the audience to tears. I'm hoping pictures of cute doggies will save the day.

I think that's it... Well there is always work too of course. The dogs all seem to have their winter crazies at the moment. The dogs don't tend to get as much exercise in the winter due to the cold and the early darkness so they end up extra crazy at work because they are letting off a week's worth of steam. The definitely keep us on our toes!

I've run out of things to say to fill the space between my random photos from last week. :)

I hope everyone else is having a good weekend! I'll try and get some photos of our houseguest this week.

Random Coulee Pics

2012-01-22T14:59:00.000-08:00

The snow is now melted and the weather is much warmer, but I figured I might as well share the photos I took of Coulee on the day we went out in the boots. As you can see, the boots don't change her enthusiasm one bit.

Lacey's New Boots

2012-01-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

Lacey hates her new boots. The first time she wore them, she couldn't move. Not even an inch. She stood in the park like a statue and wouldn't walk, wouldn't run, wouldn't even turn around. I walked halfway across the park and she just looked at me over her shoulder with a sad look on her face.

Today she wore them at the dog park. At long last, she could move in them (it did take a solid minute for her to jump out of her crate though). She had two speeds - a bunny hop and stopped. She wouldn't play, fetch or come when called. She would keep up with me, but not venture off the path. I could get her to run to me only if I promised cookies.

And then I took them off she went from calm and serious...

... to wild, crazy and sassy in a matter of seconds.

She lifted her feet a little bit due to the cold, but she soon forgot about the cold and just had fun.

I hope we'll have a little more progress with the boots next time. And maybe even get a smile while she is wearing them.

This Ain't No Game

2012-01-20T08:10:00.000-08:00

Derby is a sport, and these ladies take it seriously! What team sport have you ever played where you play 12 games a year, yet you practice 3 times a week - ALL YEAR LONG?! And that is just the Derby practices, that doesn't include the jogging, weight lifting and other stuff these ladies do in addition to the regular practices.

We did a Fitness Test last night and it has left me feeling: inspired, weak, awestruck, and as with everything in derby, just a little embarrassed. ;)

In a nutshell, the fitness test was 7 stations that involved running, push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping. They did the same test 4 months ago, and we'll do it again in 4 more months to see our progress. Cherri Blaster posted about the last test with explanations about each station. If you want, you can read about it here.

I didn't expect to be stellar, but I'd forgotten how hard a simple push-up could be. LOL. If you read Cherri's results from 4 months ago, keep in mind, mine are nowhere near as good (Cherri is a machine!). I don't have my results yet, but when I do I'll post them here just so I can find them again in 4 months. The only ones that I can remember were 10 push-ups and 23 (I think!) sit-ups in a minute. I wasn't too surprised by the push-ups (they were big kid push-ups from the toes) but I thought I could do more sit-ups than that. I apparently have some work to do. Oh and I scored a 4:0 on the Beep Test. Apparently I'm good enough for the Canadian Military, but woefully behind most of the derby girls.

Derby is the first time in a long time that I've actually enjoyed exercising. I look forward to practice every single time. I haven't had to drag my ass there. I haven't tried to find excuses not to go. I want to be there and I want to get better. I'll admit, part of it is that I don't want to be the "worst kid in class" and I don't want to embarrass myself. But I am and I do and I'm working at getting past that. But I also feel accountable to them. I don't want to let them down. I don't even know where this pressure is coming from because it isn't coming from the players - at least not consciously. It is weird to be motivated by a source outside of myself, but maybe that is the trick (at least for me) to stay on track with exercise and hopefully it will be the start to a healthier lifestyle.

And god knows I could use a healthier lifestyle. I was rushed to get there on time last night and I ended up eating a chocolate bar and an orange juice for dinner. How's that for a good start to a fitness test?!

Pictures are from the Dethbridge Dames vs. Tar Sand Betties game back in October.

Winter at Last

2012-01-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

Well we've all been crying for the wind to stop and it has. But it has been replaced with bitter cold temps. The high today is -41 C with the windchill. Brrrr.

That will result in short sessions outside for the pups. Yesterday we went out for 2, 10 minute play sessions. I threw the frisbee as hard and fast as I could and they ran their little buns off until they were frozen.

For Lacey, that tends to happen sooner, rather than later.

But if I can distract her, she is usually good for at least a few minutes longer. And snow means her favourite game is back...

Snow Taco!! She loves to scoop up snow and then shake it out. She does it over and over again.

I'm off to buy Lacey booties today and I'll dig out her sweater too. Ahh winter. Now that you are here, I can't wait for you to be over.

Coulee the Psycho

2012-01-14T06:16:00.000-08:00

Bionic sent us some toys to try out and I thought it would be nice to send them some photos as a thank you. So before releasing them into the daycare, I took them on a dog walk with Coulee and Lacey.

It was a normal walk for the girls. They ran and fetched. I took photos. Things were fine. But then I got home and looked through the photos. Coulee apparently LOST HER MIND. Almost every photo of her shows her looking like a complete psycho. (Oh and I totally jinx myself with that belly comment as suddenly it is showing up everywhere. If by some miracle she didn't look deranged in a photo, she had her bare ass belly hanging out.) I give you proof of the insanity....

Oh look! Coulee is looking like a normal dog! Yeah!

Hold the phone. She's gone again.

Bald Belly

2012-01-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

As promised...

Winter at Last

2012-01-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

We finally got a skiff of snow the other day. It has been the warmest (and windiest) winter I can remember.

The girls had a blast. Lacey was wild from start to finish and Coulee was her usual fetching machine.

Coulee's feet are doing OK - her right feet look really good, her left feet don't. I wish they were a little more co-ordinated, but they didn't seem to bother her much the other day. We've been taking mellower walks lately as she has had the camera (and fetching and taking video does not work) and we took a rest day after our big snow walk just so that we don't push our luck.

Her hunger pains have gone back to just her usual enthusiasm for food and there is peace again in the house. We've already almost gone through a whole bag of kibble and we need to decide what we want to do food-wise. Kibble is just soooooo easy. ;)

She has a huge bald belly from the ultrasound that shockingly hasn't been showing up in many photos (I haven't be purposely hiding it). I'll have to post one some day soon just so you can see it.

Hope everyone is enjoying winter as much as we are!

I'm a Derby Girl!

2012-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

When I started learning roller derby a few months ago, there is NO WAY I would have thought I'd have improved enough to become a "real" Derby Girl by now. I was like Bambi on skates that first night. I could barely move without falling and spent a LOT of time falling on my ass. If I was not the worst person in class, I was very close to it. It just goes to show you what a few good instructors can do!

These were my skates after my first practice in them. They look WAY more beat-up now!

To play roller derby, every player in the league has to pass a test that involves skating, stopping, falling, jumping, hitting (checking), whips (using your arm or body to help propel another player) and more. If you are really interested in seeing what needs to be done, you can check out the test. Last night was our big test and much to my surprise and delight, I made it! The worst part of the test was skating 25 laps in 5 minutes. It felt like forever and by 2 minutes my lungs were burning. I coughed all night they were so raw by the end of the laps. But I made it. Just. As in no seconds to spare. :)

Jumping over a 3 inch bar is always a little scary for me too but I had the most graceful feeling jump ever! I did manage to blow one of my stops. It was rather embarrassing. It was literally the first or second part of the test and I just could not do it. I thought I had blown it right then and I'm sure it did not make a good first impression. But it worked out in the end.

I've decided to just referee at the moment. I've heard about girls getting injured during games and even just practices, and that worries me. Apparently it isn't a matter of if, it is a matter of when, you get injured. Bruises and stuff don't scare me, but I need to be able to be fairly nimble and stable at work and with so few co-workers, it would really put a strain on them if I was off work for a few days or weeks. I realize injuries can happen no matter what I do, but there is no need for me to go out looking for some! But we'll see. I can always change my mind. :)

The whole derby environment is like nothing I've ever experienced. Everyone is encouraging, welcoming and has helpful advice. They were all cheering us on during our laps and most of them had never even met us before. It was awesome. It is so weird for a large group of women to be so nice! LOL. I've joined a few other sports teams as an adult and it has always felt awkward, forced and uncomfortable for weeks and some times even the entire season. I didn't once feel that way about derby (well I felt awkward, but not in a social sense). It is hard to explain, but trust me, it is a good thing. A very good thing.

I am a little worried about skating with the "Big Kids". I made the mistake of watching some of the things they were practicing last night - it was scary and tough looking. I can't make the Thursday night practices for a few months though so I'll keep skating with the "Fresh Meat" twice a week and the Big Kids once a week. I'm hoping that will be enough that I don't fall too far behind.

Overall I'm hoping Derby will help make me a healthier, fitter and happier person. So far, so good!

Coulee's Pics

2012-01-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

So the helmet cam also has a setting that allows you to take a photo anywhere from every .5 seconds to every 60 seconds. I set it up to take one every 30 seconds. I figured 100 photos wouldn't be too bad to go through. This is the best of what she captured...

This is how most her landscape photos turned out. :)

I'll admit to straightening this one. :)

Notice Lacey in her "rightful place"? :)

She took a picture of me taking a picture of us. :)

Yes... that is her eating poop!!!

The drive home

The Results

2012-01-08T07:08:00.000-08:00

So I spent some time yesterday getting the little video together. This short video is just about engaging your dog while taking photos. I tried to show what I do and the photos that result.

Coulee did a pretty good job with the video and I discovered I could crop (aka zoom in) so that helped. I wasn't really sure what the view of the camera was as I hadn't played with it much, but it is quite wide so if I ever do this again, I will probably call her in closer so I won't need to edit the video so much.

Coulee's self inflicted rules really help make her a pretty good camera dog. She doesn't believe in stealing toys so if Lacey and I are tugging she usually just stands or lays down and waits for us to finish (she knows it never lasts long). The only time I asked her to stay was when I threw the frisbee for Lacey. Other than that, she didn't need any directions from me at all. :)

Sorry it is so itty bitty. I don't know how to make it bigger and making it full screen looks horrible, so I don't recommend that either.

Underpaid Employees

2012-01-04T12:07:00.000-08:00

I think I'm doing a talk on Pet Photography at the end of the month. (I say think, because I haven't actually seen the event advertised yet... LOL). Anyway, I decided I should be prepared and not toss it together last minute. I don't think that anything that I do is very complicated or hard to figure out so I have to have time to come up with stuff that people may not already know so they aren't bored to tears. :)

For part of the presentation, I decided to try and show people what I do, and what pictures you get as a result. The problem is that it is hard to videotape yourself, especially when your models are moving and could be anywhere at any time. So I recruited Coulee to be the videographer...

And Lacey to be the model.

We went out yesterday for our first attempt. We had a few technical difficulties (the damn camera keeps shutting off mid-record), Coulee often watched from a distance and Lacey wasn't feeling very spunky but there is some stuff I can use.

I didn't want to leave the camera on Coulee when Lacey wasn't doing anything as it gets in the way when she runs, but Lacey's spunk was so short-lived that often by the time I tossed the camera around Coulee's neck, Lacey was ready to take a break. LOL. We got some useable footage and now I just need to figure out how to edit it into what I want. And I hate editing video - I don't know what I'm doing.

Because Coulee was on a restricted diet for so long, I've gotten used to never bringing treats on walks so Lacey was thrilled when I broke out the cookies.

It was super interesting to watch the girls disengage when I brought my camera to my face. Lacey would be looking up at me expectantly and if I took photos "from the hip" (i.e without looking) she wouldn't alter her expression, but if I brought my camera up to my face, she instantly looked away. I've got it on tape twice for Lacey and even once for Coulee (Lacey wore the camera briefly but she sulked horribly with it on). I've noticed their behaviour change before (especially with Coulee as she knows the toy isn't about to be thrown when the camera is up and will often change her ear set) but it was neat to see on video.

It was also interesting to see (and think about) the different expressions based on what I was doing to get their attention. Once I started dropping cookies, this is the look Lacey gave me -

Funny, but not nearly as nice and relaxed as this next one where she wasn't quite as excited -

Anyway, I think it has been a good experience for me to think about what I do, why I do it, and what results from it. I'll post video footage as soon as I have time to go through it.

New Years Day Walk

2012-01-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

According to Jo it was our 4th annual New Years Day walk with the dogs. I'll take her word for it as I can never keep track of these things. I have trouble remembering how old I am!

It was a "small crowd" of only 8 dogs but it was mayhem none-the-less.

Lacey was so excited to be among her friends she created a tad bit of chaos. She became the centre of attention and we needed to bust out the toys to get the attention off of her.

Amanda arranged them all for a group shot. Perkins refused to participate. LOL

It was fun as usual. The girls haven't had a chance to socialize with anyone in a long time so it was nice to be able let them be around their friends again.

And it was nice to see Perkins braving the cold too. We have been way too spoiled with good weather this winter! -2 C felt horrible. I'm not looking forward to -20 C...

Coulee's Pics

2012-01-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

Pulling stills out of the video is definitely not the way to show off the quality of the camera but it was the best I could do with only 3.5 minutes of video during the most active part of our walk.

Coulee's New Job

2012-01-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

Marlin bought me a helmet cam for Christmas. :) So of course the first thing I had to do was figure out how to fashion it on to Coulee's collar. I'm so excited - it is even water proof so she'll be able to take it in the river in the summer. I need to go back to the drawing board though as this is way too swingy.

And for some reason it turned itself off after 3.5 minutes. The only still moments were when she was peeing and pooping. LOL. But I'm going to see if I can steal a few still images out of the video. Stay tuned!

Beautiful on the Inside

2011-12-22T18:29:00.000-08:00

The continuing saga of Coulee's life...

When I last updated you on Coulee's feet, we had just started her on steroids. At around the same time, we had started to notice that Coulee was getting thinner so we increased her food. We didn't think she'd mind as the steroids should make her hungry. Two weeks later, she was still getting thinner (or at least wasn't getting fatter) so we increased it a little more. She is now eating almost 50% more calories than she was getting when she was healthy and exercising every day. A week ago, I started to panic.

I emailed the dermatologist and she suggested some blood work and a fecal exam. She also asked if the steroids were making a difference. They weren't, so we started to wean her off. Apparently, if they were going to do something, they should have done it by then. :(

Just as we started to wean her off the steroids Coulee became absolutely ravenous. She was doing things she had never done before - raiding the "cat room", as well as getting into garbage cans. We've had to treat her like a puppy and crate her whenever we can't watch her. For example, she has tried to get into the cat room 3 times since I started typing this and it is within sight of where I am so she isn't even being subtle about it. She had her full dinner plus an extra 3/4 cup of kibble (the kibble alone used to be 1/2 a meal). Yet she is still hungry enough to risk getting into trouble.

Monday we went in for the tests and Wednesday we got our first set of results. One of her liver enzymes (ALT) was high. Really high. It should be between 10-60, she was at 645. Gulp! Our local vet prescribed some pills to protect her liver and some anti-biotics as her white blood cell count was also elevated. I forwarded the information to our dermatologist and she called within 30 minutes and suggested we come up ASAP for an ultrasound as her liver could be in trouble.

So Coulee and I hit the road today and got it done. The good news is she looks beautiful on the inside. There is no sign of any trouble on her liver, kidneys, spleen, etc. She thinks Coulee may have ingested something toxic while raiding the garbages and this has caused the spike. She is predicting things will look normal again in a month. Yay!

The bad news is, this doesn't explain the weight loss or hunger (she is down to 55 lbs when she is normally in the low 60's despite a crap load of calories). So she has suggested we switch Coulee to a high quality kibble as we know she does well on it. This makes me laugh as that is what we were on a year or so ago when we started this adventure. Basically she has no idea what is causing this and is hoping that it is just her current diet. We are still waiting on some lab results so there may be some news still to come. Hopefully we'll hear more tomorrow.

The other bad news is that there is nothing more to try to fix her feet. We've ruled out zinc deficiency, allergies, liver disease, and auto-immune (and something else too but I can't remember what it was). It looks like we are just going to have to manage her pain when they get bad and deal with them the best we can. This would normally make me very sad, but at the moment I'm just thrilled she isn't dying of a liver disease which is what I've been imagining for the past few days.

Hopefully we can fix her hunger pains so that life can get back to normal soon.

Oh and Coulee spent the whole two hours in the vet office and waiting room chewing on her baby Cuz toy. I'm sure it drove the receptionists nuts (it sounds like she is chewing a very large wad of gum with her mouth wide open) but it kept her from shaking like a leaf like the dog on our left, or whining like a baby like the dog on our right. :) We also saw a very handsome Mastiff who made us all laugh by trying to log roll over to another dog all without breaking the down command his dad had given him. It was seriously funny.

Moves Like Jagger

2011-12-22T07:07:00.000-08:00

No good dance moves in this last one, but she got the wild hair of a rock star. ;)

Silhouettes Are Fun

2011-12-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

Retrievers They Are Not

2011-12-17T11:06:00.000-08:00

Coulee was having a rest day yesterday so I took Tate and Lacey to the dog park by themselves. I discovered something very important... retrievers they are not. :)

They were both very interested in the toy but seemed incapable of finding it unless it was really obvious.

With Coulee I throw it as hard and as far as I can. With these two I had to do short little throws.

I discovered that Lacey only uses her eyes to search for the toy. She runs to where she thinks it is and if it isn't there, she looks for it and will sometimes spot it, but is generally pretty ineffective as she is often short of the mark.

Tate on the other hand only uses his nose. He was completely oblivious to where it went but would run off anyway and end up sniffing 20 feet away from the toy and have no luck. In his defence, I think the throwing motion of the frisbee was different than what he was used to so he was never really sure when and where I threw it.

Whenever they did get it though, they were very, very proud of themselves.

Christmas Spirit

2011-12-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

We are looking after Tate for a few weeks while Jo is in Ontario celebrating Christmas with her whole family! (Mom, I'm not sure if I mentioned there would be a fifth furry creature in the house... heh heh. And when I add them up like that it sure sounds like a lot!)

Tate continues to amaze me with how much he has changed. He is still quiet as a mouse in the house - he doesn't even get up to greet me when I get home - but out on a walk he is fun and fiesty. The moment we are home again, he runs back to the comfort of our bed. LOL.

I brought out the Christmas bulb toy as I thought it would make nice photos with the snow. I was a little worried he wouldn't play with it as he is more of a soft toy kind of guy, but he loved it.

It was a little slippery though and he kept dropping it. Then he'd stand there and bark at me to come get it to throw it again. I guess some things never change.

Tate is always so fun to have around because I always get lots and lots of compliments about how beautiful he is. No one ever says that when they meet my dogs! ;)

Jo loves her photos so I'm sure there will be many more of this handsome guy over the next few weeks... until he starts looking like he needs a groom anyway. ;) Hey Jo, did you notice I took off his collar? Just for you! Hope you guys are having fun, drinking lots of wine and having lots of laughs!

Communication

2011-12-13T07:30:00.000-08:00

Communication is important in any relationship.

Lacey: That looks like fun. Can I have it?

Coulee: Keep your distance little one. I'm playing with this.

Lacey: Are you sure I can't join in the game? It sure looks like you are having a good time. I wanna play!

Coulee: You are starting to piss me off.

Lacey: No really, I want to play. Let me have it!

Coulee: I said BACK OFF!

Lacey: Yikes! I get it! Why didn't you say something in the first place?

Other times Coulee has the patience of a saint...

Lacey truly is the pesky younger sister.

Funny Face

2011-12-10T12:35:00.000-08:00

I pried the 70-200 lens off my camera the other day and I'm so glad I did. I think with the 70-200 I get more "pretty" pictures but with my 18-50 lens I get more "fun" pictures. Lacey's expressions cracked me up the entire time I was going through the photos from the other day...

The look of concern with a hint of pleading...

The look of surprise...

The look of excited expectation...

The look of a pinhead. ;) I debated editing Coulee's pinhead out of the background but it made me laugh too much. (There was no cropping for this photo below... this is what happen when you shoot from the hip. LOL)

The look of confusion...

And the look of greed... she is jumping up to get the toy out of my hand. :)

No Change

2011-12-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

Coulee is doing remarkably well on the steroids. The peeing and eating is not out of control and other than some begging behaviour, lots of bone chewing and a few extra trips to the bathroom you'd never know anything was different.

But unfortunately that includes her feet.... so far, no change. They aren't worse, but they aren't any better either. It has only been a week and a half though so we aren't worried. Besides we know that when they do get better it is almost overnight so it could happen at any moment without warning. I'm just glad the steroids aren't producing worse side effects.

Ring of Fun

2011-12-08T12:07:00.001-08:00

So I ordered these cool toys from Bionic and was anxiously awaiting them for MONTHS. The bones were a total bust for the daycare and I'll be returning the remaining ones back to the company. But the Tug and Toss.... oh my. Lacey had a blast. I apologize for the million photos you are about to see but she was being so cute, I just couldn't narrow it down any more than this! Don't mind the leash in some of the photos, I could see a person and dog in the distance so it was just a precaution.

Celebrating Life

2011-12-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

Friends of mine recently lost their dog Jasper to cancer. Then a few months later, they got devastating news again - Tsuga, their other dog, also has cancer.

Tsuga turns 7 today so we went on a walk the other morning to celebrate his birthday and his life. If we didn't know better, we wouldn't have known anything was wrong.

Tsuga had a blast. He was all smiles, got the zoomies and made new friends. What more can you ask for?

Happy Birthday Tsuga! I hope you live each and every day to the fullest just as you have for these past 7 years.

Steroids

2011-12-02T05:11:00.000-08:00

By the time Tuesday rolled around this week, Coulee's feet had gotten worse and she was limping on her back left foot. I emailed the dermatologist and we decided to start the steroids. I'm glad we did because on our walk on Wednesday one of her front feet started to bleed so I know they definitely are getting worse again. Most days I wonder if I'm just being paranoid. And I can actually tell by her ear set in the pictures I took that day that she isn't feeling 100%.

She is on 50 mg/day for 30 days after which we'll drop down to 25 mg/day for 30 days. From what I've heard it is a pretty strong dose. The plan is to kick it hard in the ass to send it into remission so that hopefully we never see it again.

On Wednesday she literally peed every hour. She did pretty good overnight though and I'm hoping that will continue. She survived my 4.5 hour morning shift with no problems too so hopefully she won't need to come to work with me.

So fingers crossed this works. We haven't come up with a plan if it doesn't, so it better!

Sassy Snow Day

2011-12-01T05:03:00.001-08:00

There is nothing like a little snow and cool temperatures to bring out the extra sass in Lacey.

If I get one flying picture from a walk, it means she was sassy... When I manage to get 3 flying pictures from a walk it means she was wild...

Yesterday she was wild.

I took advantage while I could because in about 10 more degrees she is going to become a large black and tan gofer who refuses to budge. ;)

Craptastic

2011-11-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

So I mentioned a few weeks ago that Coulee's feet were doing craptastic.

I think I screwed up.

The plan was to soak Coulee's feet for 2 weeks in propylene glycol for 10 minutes a night and if that didn't work, start steroids. So for two weeks we diligently made Coulee stand in 4 little buckets for 10 minutes every night. She is really awesome about it, but it is still a struggle. She sulks, she pulls out her feet, she tries to shift her stance and knocks buckets over, etc. It sucks. For all of us. But we did it. And on day 12 they still looked crappy, but as always seems to happen, almost over night they made a HUGE change. They appeared dry still (i.e. were grey) but there were no more cracks and the feathering at the tips had disappeared. Yippee!!! We finally found something that worked.

We emailed the vet in elation and discussed long term treatment. She said we'd have to play it by ear but it would probably require soaks just once or twice a week.

Even though they weren't perfect yet, we started to slack. First we missed a night, then we missed another and then we went 3 days without soaking at all. Next thing I knew, her feet looked like crap again. Another email to the vet. She instructs us to soak them again every day until they are completely healed and then for a solid 2 weeks after that. Ugh. But OK.

So we started 17 days ago and have been expecting to see improvement quickly. We weren't starting from as bad a condition as the first time, yet we still haven't seen much improvement. I'm starting to think it was just coincidence that they got better in the first place.

IF (and that is still a big if) this is an autoimmune issue, we can expect to see some waxing and waning of her symptoms. Which means if we are constantly trying new treatments, something is bound to look like it works. If we hadn't slacked on the soaks, we'd know for sure whether or not they worked or if it was just coincidence. I'm so annoyed with myself.

The vet thinks they look better than when she saw them last, and they do, but they sure don't look how they did the first time we soaked them for 14 days straight. And they sure as hell don't look healthy.

I've agreed to try for 2 more straight weeks before throwing in the towel with this treatment. If it worked in 2 weeks the first time, there is no reason why it wouldn't work in 4 weeks the second time. Right?

The good news is they are no longer bleeding and she is no longer on any kind of pain meds. They don't seem to be slowing her down the way they used to and that is a very good thing.

A Week in Review

2011-11-26T05:52:00.001-08:00

Life has sure gotten busy lately. I am never on the computer, I don't watch TV and I never seem to be home.

So let's see... where did I last leave you...

Monday night I worked. That's dull. You don't want to hear about that.

Tuesday night was derby testing. I did as expected. I didn't make a complete ass of myself but I didn't pass my laps. I wasn't disappointed at all with the evening. The only people who passed were the two girls who had been in fresh meat for a few months and Scot, who started with us, but you could tell on the first night was pretty fearless on skates. The entire team was there for a practice which was more than a bit intimidating but we also got to help out and watch a scrimmage at the end and that was fun. I continue to be amazed at how friendly and nice this group is. Seriously. I've never experienced anything like it.

Wednesday night was Fresh Meat Intake. There were 10 new girls plus 4 of us from last week. It was crowded on the track. The new people were going every which way and I'm still not able to turn on a dime to avoid them. I'm surprised there weren't more collisions. :) We broke into separate groups to work on things so we got to focus on some stuff we were still a little weak on, while they learned falls and stops. I discovered I was doing crossovers wrong. Sigh. I'd been using my right leg to do all the work and I should be using my left.

Thursday night I worked on my crossover problem (unsuccessfully), came home, made dinner, ate, soaked Coulee's feet and went to bed. If it wasn't for soaking Coulee's feet every night for 10 minutes Marlin and I would barely see each other. At least the soaks are good for something! More on that in a separate post...

Friday night was more derby. There seemed to be less people and there was only one instructor for the first part so we worked in one group. It seemed way less crowded and everyone seemed much more stable. Phew. One of the newbies said I looked smooth and effortless! LOL. I must have really improved! Or maybe that was just in comparison to the newbies on the track. :) I have put my outdoor wheels on and I feel SO MUCH MORE stable! I could always feel my indoor wheels sliding to the side, but the outdoor wheels are much, much sticker. (I used them at work though on Thursday and talk about slow. I'll need to be sure to change them every time I practice on my own.) I think I figured out my crossover problem thanks to Jeremiah and Cherry Blaster. :) I'm going to practice this weekend to make sure.

And that's it. My week in review. I spent the rest of my spare time walking the dogs, and making endless pounds of dog food for our two bottomless pits.

Think Like a Speed Skater

2011-11-21T17:46:00.001-08:00

So my first roller derby "test" (aka mini benchmarks) is tomorrow night. We'll need to demonstrate that we know at least 2 ways to stop, 3 different proper falls, that we can give and receive a (gentle) hit, that we can glide on one foot, that we can do crossovers, that we can jump 3 inches high, write a written test on the rules and that we can do 5 laps in 1 minute. I think that's it. But that is enough.

I will not pass. I can't do 5 laps in 1 minute. I am slow. Quite slow. And whenever I try and speed up, I'm not comfortable so I just slow down again.

This weekend I practiced at work 3 times and all I did each time was skate in a circle for an hour. We need to be able to do crossovers in order to get 5 laps completed in a minute. So that is all I did. Crossovers, crossovers, crossovers. Preacher's Slaughter (or Abigail, whichever you prefer) was talking a lot about our centre of gravity at Friday's practice but it wasn't until Saturday that I really got it. One of the problems with my crossovers was regaining my balance in time to do the next one. I finally figured it out. I need to use my arms to transfer my weight back over to my left foot so I'm ready to pick up my right again. With that in mind, I was finally able to do a whole bunch in a row smoothly. I thought "I've finally got it!!", and promptly crashed to the floor. LOL

I've been told my technique doesn't suck, but that I just need to gain confidence on my skates. I completely agree with the confidence part, but crashing to my ass really isn't helping. For example, on Friday we were practicing jumping - I did my first one, crashed to my ass the second time and then COULD NOT work up the nerve to do another one properly. I don't feel stable on my skates. I don't feel comfortable even just standing on them. They seem to move in directions that I don't always intend them to. I watch the experienced women with awe as they glide around effortlessly.

I will be in Fresh Meat for at least another month and I'm perfectly OK with that. To be honest, I'm scared to move on. I don't feel like I've mastered this stuff enough yet and I'm not ready to learn even more.

My goal is to pass everything but the laps so that next month, that is all I'll need to do. Wish me luck!

Randomness

2011-11-19T06:23:00.001-08:00

1. I bought Lacey a superman cape. This makes me happier than you know.

2. I can remember learning to skate in Ontario right outside our back door and using a chair to stay upright.

3. I wish those lessons in skating were helping me now. And I wish I could still use a chair.

4. We have a "mini benchmark" test on Tuesday for roller derby. I am not going to pass.

5. Being realistic is not the same as being pessimistic.

6. I'm going to practice skating a lot this weekend.

7. Internet "spying" on my business competition often makes me giggle.

8. Coulee's feet are craptastic, but I don't want to talk about it.

9. Lacey is a wild, savage beast this morning.

10. The poor dogs have not had enough attention these last few days.

11. I have SO MUCH TO DO this weekend.

12. I just want to sit on my ass after what felt like a super long week.

13. I'm quite enjoying this randomness thing.

14. I might go and photograph 2 puppies this weekend... if the weather doesn't turn them into frozen pupsicles that is.

15. I just realized yesterday that because we've stopped taking new clients at the daycare, I won't be able to get my puppy fix. Maybe we'll make a rule - we'll take new clients, but only if they are puppies. ;)

16. It is only 7:30 on Saturday and I already feel guilty for not doing work.

17. I'm sure a much deeper post could be written about how Lacey is my hero that would be better suited to these photos, but my brain is much too scattered for that.

18. About 20 minutes after these photos were taken a storm rolled in and it was dark, grey and snowing. Weird eh?

19. I'm going to check out some of the dog show this weekend. There are no Lancashire Heelers entered. One day, I'll see one in person.

20. Photographing birds in flight, is a skill I've yet to master. As only 1 in 20 shots were in focus, this one was obviously a fluke and not talent. Isn't he pretty?

21. My brain is finally blank.

A Big Smile

2011-11-13T15:20:00.001-08:00

We live on the edge of a park and unfortunately with the direction of the winds, we usually get any of the loose garbage in the park, packed up against our fence. The city clears it out regularly in the summer months, but in the winters we can rarely open up our back gate due to all the crap out there. It is kind of a pet peeve of ours but occasionally something fun comes our way.

The other morning I looked outside and saw a giant yellow smiley face looking back at me. Every time I looked out the window, I just had to smile seeing it out there. I knew it would blow Lacey's little brain to play with it, so I brought it into the yard...

When the craziness started to get too much, I would pick up the ball. This is what happened when I did.

I asked Marlin after, if he had heard Lacey (she did a high pitched bark the whole time she chased the ball too) and he informed me the entire neighbourhood could hear. Ooops!

Coulee also got in on the fun, although Lacey was never far away.

Coulee stopped to lay claim to the ball and do her neurotic sniffing, much to Lacey's horror.

Coulee was the one to kill it in the end, although Lacey took all the glory.

A Week's Recap

2011-11-11T05:44:00.001-08:00

Don't worry, Derby hasn't killed me, I've just been busy lately.

We are hiring at the daycare and while that means I have had resumes and stuff to sift through, it also means I've been working an extra 9 hours a week. We did working interviews with 2 people this week and have 2 more to go next week. They stay for 3 hours, and it is the best thing ever as you get a much better feel for who they are and what they are like. It also gives them the opportunity to realize that the job isn't all fun and cuddles with the dogs. I leave in the middle of it (I work a split and it gives the interviewee the opportunity to meet all of us and vice versa) and I love how much more relaxed they are when I get back and they've spent a few hours surrounded by the dogs. Not surprisingly, their first hour is pretty stiff. :)

At the same time, I've also had a final rush on dog event photo sales from the summer as they were about to come off the server. I have one more print order to make and then that will be completed. Phew. The photography aspect of my business is great in the summer when I have time, but it sure is a drain on spare time when I'm working full time at the daycare. I had a job lined up last weekend and when they called to cancel, I was so relieved. I love it, but don't always have time for it.

The rescue calendars are finally printed and they look fabulous!!! We've had some problems with the quality/consistency - first they were delayed, then some of the calendars had pages that were printed on with two different things, at least one has had the months out of order and the most recent issue is the coils not being properly shut. Sigh. That has been frustrating, but the good news is we are already 50% sold out in less than 2 weeks. Walmart is letting us hang out this weekend and sell them in one of their stores and I'm hoping that will take care of the rest. It was a bit of a risk buying 500 calendars but I think it is going to pay off.

We are still cooking food for the dogs. We made a week's worth for Coulee last weekend and we'll be doing that again this weekend. I think we'll be shopping for a decent knife today. Every time I cut up a huge slab of pork loin from Costco, I curse our knives and the cramp in my hand. Our grinder is awesome and fast, but the cutting into chunks takes a while. Marlin also got a small deer the other weekend so we have deer meat for Lacey. We made a giant batch of food initially for Lacey (it was originally going to be for Coulee too until we decided to put her on the Pork and Potato diet) so we haven't had to do any prep for her for a while. But if we don't get some done this weekend, she'll be going hungry this week. :)

On the fun side of things, I went out and took pictures of sheep herding last weekend. You can see a few pictures here if you want - http://paws-on-the-run.ca/2011/11/feeling-sheepish/

I've also been going to Derby practice Wednesday and Friday nights. Most of my equipment arrived on Wednesday so that was pretty exciting too. I'm just waiting for my helmet still. I feel awkward all class as we practice falls and stops and stuff but when we do our warm down skating around the rink, I'm amazed at how much more comfortable I feel compared to the warm up. So I must be getting at least a little better. I actually rolled backwards last class by accident and it didn't put me into a complete panic. :) I put my outdoor wheels on last night but I think it is going to be too windy to skate outside today, so I might head down to the daycare and try and practice my cross overs. I also bought some padded shorts. They were expensive but when I fell on my ass last practice, I knew they were worth every penny. :) I think I just need to get more comfortable in general on skates and then the other stuff will come a little more smoothly.

I've still been out walking the dogs, but I haven't been bringing my camera much as I don't have time to do anything with the photos after. I brought it out with me yesterday (hence the random photos in the post) as it had been way, way too long. It was super windy out but the dogs didn't seem to mind and it kept everyone else out of the dog park which made it a stress free walk for me. The dog park has been getting busier for some reason and I've had some stressful moments trying to keep out of other people's paths. It would be fine if people weren't so damn friendly and kept trying to seek us out. LOL

I had to laugh at poor Lacey. A truck was coming down the road and she was trying to prick her ears up in the wind... she couldn't quite pull it off. :)

I'm very happy we have a long weekend although I'm still going to be fairly busy. I'm volunteering for a few hours selling calendars tonight at Walmart and have derby practice after that. I'm also volunteering tomorrow night at the Derby games. It should be fun!

Fresh Meat Night

2011-11-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Ugh. As I lean back to type this I feel the multiple bruises on my butt. And my elbow. And for some reason my jaw is sore... LOL. I didn't fall on my head. At least not that I remember!

I went to my first Roller Derby practice today - otherwise known as Fresh Meat Night. I sucked when I started and I still sucked at the end of class, but I'm proud to say I sucked less at the end. I fell (by accident) way more in the first half than the second. :)

The people were super nice. The other fresh meat were mostly better than me, but to be honest, I barely noticed because I was concentrating so hard on what I was doing. Watching others and skating at the same time is a skill I have yet to master.

We learned how to fall and not hurt ourselves (note - this only works when you fall forward, when you fall backward there is nothing you can do but hurt your ass - which I did... multiple times), we learned how to stop (I still prefer using the walls) and we learned how to skate in a group. Surprisingly while in the group, none of us fell and none of us took anyone else out with our bad skating.

There is a huge difference in the people who can skate and the people who can't. Thankfully the class seemed to be catered to those who can't. And the improvement by the end was huge. I actually feel like I could skate outside and not kill myself. I can't wait for my equipment to arrive so I can practice on my own. I have my fingers crossed it will be here by Friday for our next group practice.

Despite the pain (I actually felt like vomitting after one fall), it was a lot of fun. I was still stoked when I got home and talked Marlin's ear off before promptly jumping in the shower. I can't wait to go back and do it again!

My only complaint is that I can't take photos and skate at the same time. ;) And as I hate having blog posts without photos, and this would be the second in a row, I've posted a picture of Rudy, a dog with the Windy City Canine Rescue. He is looking for a home and is pretty stinking cute.

Tips for Applying for a Job

2011-11-01T05:31:00.000-07:00

We are currently hiring at the daycare and I am dumbfounded by the resumes and emails we are receiving. I'm sure none of you, my lovely readers, need these tips, but I just thought I'd share these all of which have been inspired based on what we've received.

Writing with capitals at the beginning of your sentence, along with using punctuation (especially at the end of sentences) in your email would help make a better impression.
Don't just email "I want to work there - call me 403-xxx-xxxx"
Don't mention how your work experience with animals equals your work experience with people and then have nothing listed on your resume that has anything at all with animals. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Don't apply for a part time job yet state in your resume you are looking for full time.
Don't apply for a job that requires you to work from 12-6, and then state you can't start until after 4.
Change your objective on your resume to match the job you are applying for. That is great if you are looking for an office job to utilize your incredible computer skills, however that isn't what this particular job is about.
Don't pop in to chat because you are so eager and qualified that a resume just wouldn't do you justice, then have nothing to say other than "Hi, my name is Jane Doe, I love dogs and I'd like to work here."
Using multiple exclamation marks does nothing but annoy me!!!!!! It is OK on a blog, Facebook or casual email, not so OK on a job application. The same goes for smiley faces. :)

It is really scary how horrible some applications are.

The Big 4.0

2011-10-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

Lacey turned 4 years old yesterday! My little girl all grown up.

Look how little and round she used to be! (Her head is wet as she got sprayed every time she tried to play tug with my pant leg. Apparently that was often!). She was always a feisty little thing.

Liz took this photo - it is still one of my all time favourites! She was still looking for a home at that point (we were just supposed to be her foster home).

Here she is playing with a sweet lab at work (Kayla was the best puppy playmate!). I think at this point, we'd officially adopted her. I have no photos of her and Coulee doing this. I think Lacey was about 9 months old when they finally played together.

And here are some pictures of her on her actual birthday this year... One day I'm going to her a superman cape!

Coulee was very sweet and let her get the frisbee a few times... You know, 'cause it was her birthday and all.

I love how enthusiastically she runs back, even when she loses the race. :)

Happy Birthday Little One! Thanks for all the snuggles, nose kisses and sass.

A Kiss

2011-10-27T07:06:00.000-07:00

This series made me laugh. Coulee's expression is so clear as to what she is thinking.

A Light Load

2011-10-26T13:01:00.000-07:00

The photos from the day I took the girls out when Coulee was carrying the iPhone are some of my favourites that I've taken lately. Maybe it is just the addition of the backpack and therefore some colour? Or maybe the lighting was just nice that day? Who know. Who cares. :)

Comparison Walks

2011-10-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

For a long time I've been meaning to attach a GPS (aka my iPhone) to the girls to see how far, and how fast they go on our walks. Not surprisingly they are quite different. I tried to duplicate the same walk for both the girls (aka same path, same level of energy/enthusiasm and same amount of time). This is our standard "tight timeline walk" and it usually takes us around 40 minutes. The backpacks (which held the GPS) did change their behaviour a little bit - Lacey was less sassy (and therefore ran a little less than usual) and Coulee's long lead outs were shorter and less frequent, especially at the start of the walk. But it is as close as I'm going to get unless I buy a GPS to attach to their collars or I condition them to their packs more.

Lacey's Walk:
- she traveled 1.58 km
- we walked for 39 minutes
- her average speed was 2.4 km/hr
- her maximum speed was a whopping 25.3 km/hr. This surprised me, but it was probably only for about 5 seconds. LOL
- her highest average speed over a one minute period was 6.2 km/hr

This is the route Lacey took:

As you can see, Lacey sticks pretty much to the path. I doubt her stats and map would be much different than mine. She just putters along at her own pace. She often stops to sniff and then just runs to catch up. She has occasional bouts of sassiness where she'll attempt to beat Coulee to the toy, but that usually lasts for 5-10 throws at most. She is pretty content to just putter along (just like her mama).

Coulee's Walk:

- she traveled 3.59 km

- we walked for 38 minutes

- her average speed was 5.7 km/hr

- her maximum speed was 33.1 km/hr

- her highest average speed over a one minute period was 14.8 km/hr

This is the route Coulee took:

Coulee is a fetching machine (when I let her be). That wide loop you see in the middle is her "leading out". She often drops the toy at your feet and then takes off. She does a long loop and doesn't expect you to throw it until you've made eye contact with her. She'll start to glance over her shoulder as she hits the 3/4 mark of her loop to see when (and where) you are going to throw it. I try and throw the toy so that she doesn't have any sharp corners and can just keep running along the smooth path she has chosen. Ideally, she'll be able to catch it just as it is coming down to land. We used to have our system down to an art form so that she was able to catch more than 50% of my throws, but lately we've had our timing off. We need to get back in the groove with each other - we are just out of practice.

You can see where Coulee petered out on the way to the river... she just walked along the path with the toy in her mouth. After the river, she felt refreshed a bit (I took the GPS out of the backpack while the girls went to the river), but she was definitely slower during the second half of our walk. Her endurance isn't what it used to be.

I wish I had done this a few years ago when Coulee was in great shape. I'll be repeating this again in the future to see how different things are. It will be a great way to track how much the dogs slow down as they age, although I'm hoping that Coulee's will actually be faster in 6 months after I whip her back into shape.

Roller Derby

2011-10-23T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last night Marlin and I went out to watch the Dethbridge Dames race Roller Derby against the Tar Sand Betties from Fort MacMurray. I never watched it as a kid but recently I've become quite fascinated with it. I love the toughness, the quirkiness and the athleticism of it and I have to admit, I love the thought of an alter ego too. :)

I took a bunch of crappy photos - I had the ISO cranked up as high as it could go (6400) and it was gritty and still blurry. Thankfully the sport kind of tends to be kind of gritty. I couldn't decide on a editing style I liked (hence the different styles you see here) - basically I was trying to turn crappy photos into something interesting which is something I'm not very good at!

We were a little confused at times when we were watching. We know the basic rules, but were often confused by the penalties and why sometimes half the team was missing from the rink. But even without a full understanding it was pretty fun to watch.

Basically the woman with the star on her helmet (the jammer) needs to get through the pack more times than the other team's jammer. Everyone else on the course is trying to stop the opposing team's jammer and assist their own. There were 6 refs on site making sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing.

I've decided I'm going to start practicing with them. Did I mention I can't skate? 30 years ago I could fumble around an ice rink, I rollerbladed once about 18 years ago and I haven't been on any kind of skate since. But apparently they'll teach you how... I'm hoping I won't be the worst they've ever seen.

It is comforting to know that you need to pass tests in order to play. It is actually quite stringent and there are different levels to get through before you are officially an active member during a bout.

It isn't comforting to know that you must purchase insurance and show proof of health care before even being allowed to practice. I made the mistake of looking around flickr yesterday for Roller Derby pictures - there are some pretty amazing bruises out there! I might just volunteer to referee instead. It looked quite a bit safer.

Do a Little Dance

2011-10-21T05:33:00.000-07:00

Some days, I think I have the least graceful dog on the planet. :)

We "chatted" with the vet yesterday (via email) and we have good news. Coulee's feet responded so well to the Propylene Glycol soaks that we are NOT going to put her on steroids. {Insert Happy Dance}. Every time her feet have gotten better, it has amazed me at how quickly it happens. In a matter of a few days they go from looking like crap, to looking smooth and healthy again. It really is quite amazing. Her pads this morning are smooth, soft and only have a slight grey discolouration. But there are no cracks, no feathering, and no dry chunks.

Because her feet responded to the propylene glycol, the dermatologist is now thinking that she has "Idiopathic Hyperkeratosis of the Golden Retriever". Which basically translates into "We have no idea why some golden retrievers get dry, cracked and thick pads, but they do and it seems to be genetic/breed related." I don't care what it is, as long as we know how to make it better. Coulee isn't following the traditional symptoms (they showed up too late in life) but it is our best guess.

So our fingers are crossed that this is not just a huge coincidence in timing, but at this point our plan is to continue with the soaks for a few more days then reduce them to once a week. We may need to play with the timing of the soaks to determine how often we need to do it, but we'll play it by ear.

Oh and in other happy news - she gets to run completely bootie free again. AND as hard and fast as she wants. We may even get a few more swims in before winter hits. Yippee!

The Little Things

2011-10-18T10:51:00.000-07:00

It's the little things in life that make you happy. Things like:

Being first to the toy.

Funny Faces.

Playing Fetch.

Blue skies.

Running bootie free - even if it is only part of the time.

Childless By Choice

2011-10-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

The other day, I saw a poster for a research study being done. It was about being Childless by Choice. I grabbed the tab with the contact information.

I am Childless by Choice. There I said it.

It is something that no one ever seems to talk about and not surprisingly, a lot of the questions seemed to be about keeping this decision a secret.

I definitely haven't broadcasted it (well until now that is!) but it isn't something that I purposely kept a secret. My family knows. A few of my friends know (I've actually had the conversation with a few but I'm sure many more have at least assumed by now).

When people asked me when I was going to have children I usually just brushed them off instead of telling them I didn't want to. Why? Because the people that normally are asking the question are people that have a strong opinion about the answer. They are the ones that are going to judge me, argue with me and try to convince me to have children. Do they really think I haven't thought about things? With societal expectations, doing something outside the norm usually takes more conscious thought than just going with the flow.

I've had very few conversations with other childless women because a) it is none of my business why they don't have children and b) I am worried it isn't by choice, but by necessity and I don't want to bring up the heartache.

I've had to bite my tongue when people brought up all the wonderful qualities of children and "argued" with me why I should have them. I'm not going to get into an discussion about this. It would be like arguing about religion - there is no right answer. There are only two outcomes. You have to agree or agree to disagree. So instead, I usually smile, nod and either gracefully exit or change the subject. What I really wanted to turn to them and say is, "We've been trying for years and had numerous miscarriages but we just can't. It breaks my heart and I just don't want to talk about it with you." I pity the poor women for whom this is true and I wish I had been brave enough to say it for you. If I had, at least a few people out there might realize this is really an inappropriate conversation especially when you are at work, during a social gathering, etc.

I can't remember the last time someone has suggested we get a move on and have some kids. I guess it is a benefit of getting older - people have finally figured out that it isn't going to happen.

It isn't that I don't like kids. I just don't know where people find the energy. There are so many days where I am drained by my own responsibilities, I couldn't imagine adding more to that. I know. I know. If I had my own child I would love them so much that I wouldn't ever resent the time and energy they took. But what if I did? I can't give them back. I can't change my mind.

Thankfully this is something Marlin and I always saw eye to eye on. He doesn't want children any more than I do. For quite a few years we would reconfirm our decision every time we spent some time with children. After visits when the kids were "a handful", we would look at each other and laugh with relief. After visits where we had fun with the kids, we had more serious conversations but they still ended the same - we were sure. No kids for us. We don't even think about it much anymore.

If we had an "Ooops" and I got pregnant there is no question we would keep the child. No question at all. And I know we would love him/her and I know we would do what needed to be done to be good parents. But that doesn't change the fact that we wouldn't have chosen that life path.

I worry a little bit about having regrets later. I like the relationships I have with my parents now that I'm an adult and I know I'll miss that. But that doesn't make the first 20 or so years worth it to me. :)

My biggest worry is who will look after me when I'm old. It is pretty much a foregone conclusion that if Marlin and I live to old age, he'll die first (he is almost 11 years older) and I'll be by myself. And some days that scares me but not enough to change my mind. Besides, that would be a pretty selfish reason to have children.

I'm not really sure why I am sharing this with all of you. I'm not sure if there is a real or imagined stigma against people who choose not to have children. Like I said at the beginning, no one really talks about it.

Randomness

2011-10-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few random pictures from the other day.

The plants are looking ready for winter already!

They spotted a deer. Or rather I spotted it, they heard it. I don't think they actually saw it.

Short dog + tall plants is not a good combo for photos. There is a reason I have way more of Coulee.

It's like she was made to be there.

Safety Net

2011-10-10T06:09:00.000-07:00

Lacey was having some behavioural issues this summer. To put it bluntly, she was going after dogs at the dog park. I have no idea what brought it on but I don't feel like I can trust her around other dogs.

We still go to the dog park but we go when it isn't busy (I consider 5 cars in the park busy - our parks are not well utilized) and when we are there, I usually just avoid everyone else. Most of the time this isn't a problem, but we are occasionally surprised by someone. In those cases, I need to make sure I can grab Lacey quickly.

You may have noticed a second collar around her neck lately... This is actually a very cool leash from Ruffwear that velcro's around her neck. She basically carries a leash everywhere she goes so I can have control when I need it. We've had to use it a few times, and each time it has worked like a charm.

Fall Walk

2011-10-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

The girls and I headed out to Fort Macleod today for a change of scenery. It was a great walk. I love that dog park, even though I often seem to get turn around and lost. The colours were gorgeous and Coulee seemed to fit in perfectly with the surroundings.

Not sure what this look is about! LOL

Sheepies

2011-10-08T15:06:00.000-07:00

I went out with Amanda and Brit today to photograph some sheep herding out at Alta-Pete. As always, it was fun watching a dog do what it was born to do. And pretty amazing too.

The ~~victims~~ sheep...

Brit in action...

Brit at "rest"...

The barn cat (who ran across the field at full speed after watching and visiting for a bit with Brit)...

As with photographing any sport, it takes practice and I'd love to shoot more of it. I don't really understand the dynamics of herding and I think that would go a long way in improving my photos too. I don't actually know if Brit is doing what she is supposed to be doing in these photos - they could be good examples of herding or bad ones, I have no idea! Sorry Brit if I've posted an "embarrassing moment" without knowing it. LOL.

I'm sure someone will be able to twist my rubber arm to get me back out there again. :)

Plans C & D

2011-10-06T20:22:00.000-07:00

Coulee and I went back to the Dermatologist today. The one we had been seeing is no longer practicing in Calgary but they have a new one that will be there more regularly. I liked the old one and was a little worried I wouldn't like the new one as much, but she was great. She even cleared up some questions that never seemed to get answered.

We have NO idea what is wrong with Coulee's feet. They basically don't fit any disease's symptoms and the only reason we are assuming auto immune is because it has waxed and waned (i.e. come and gone a few times). She half heartedly suggested another biopsy but I'm not willing to do it all over again and risk still not getting an answer. Her foot took forever to heal, and they weren't even in the horrible condition that they are now.

The next obvious step is steroids but without knowing for sure what is wrong we are taking a risk and could seriously harm her. If she has an underlying disease that is causing the problem and we suppress her immune system, she may not be able to recover. However, she isn't showing any other symptoms of disease so we are going to take the risk. This is Plan D.

Before we do that, we are going to try Plan C. Plan C is to wean her off all her meds - including her incontinence meds and soak her feet in a propylene glycol solution. It is possible (but not likely) that this is a drug reaction to her incontinence meds.

We are also going to put her on an elimination diet which I get to make myself. When I hesitantly mentioned wanting to do this, she was very happy (which made me very happy). She likes it when clients are willing to cook for their dogs. I'm so relieved. She even asked me if I wanted help figuring things out and gave me a recipe to use which ironically is from the book Jo originally lent me by Hilary Watson. It only has 4 or 5 ingredients (plus the supplement) so it should be pretty fast and easy to prepare. We'll be starting tomorrow night after I go buy some pork. Yippee!

We are going to spend two weeks on Plan C and if there is no improvement, go to Plan D. Gulp. Plan D will last a minimum of a month.

On steroids Coulee will turn into a drinking, peeing, eating machine. :) She said if weaning her off the meds don't cause her incontinence to return, the steroids most definitely will. She also warned us that getting up every night to let her out is a very real possibility. Oh goody. Like I don't have enough trouble sleeping through the night.

If there is no improvement in 30 days, there isn't going to be one using steroids. If that is the case, we'll go to Plan E - which we haven't figured out yet, but she has promised that she never gives up.

So I have hope again and I'm pleased with trying something for a few weeks and moving on if nothing is improving. We'll be back for a follow up in 6 weeks and will hopefully have something positive to show her. And the best part? She gave me her email address so I can actually ask her questions and send photos to show her if they are getting better or worse. She was very open to communication between appointments so I don't need to feel like I'm bugging her if I have a question or concern.

The New Tate

2011-09-30T04:50:00.000-07:00

No time for writing... I'm looking after Jo's dog Tate and at 9 he is still going strong! Jo, I'm going to have to burn you a CD I have so many photos I love and there is still today's walk to get more! :)

Foodies

2011-09-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging much because I haven't had the camera out much. I even have pictures on the camera from almost a week ago that I haven't downloaded yet! That is so not like me. It is a busy week though so don't expect anything out of me until at least Sunday at this point!

I did want to write and say that we started the girls last Sunday on some "real food". After running out and ordering a food processor and meat grinder, I started to panic that the girls wouldn't like their new food. I have heard of dogs not liking homemade diets (I'm assuming just because it is different) and I started to worry that I had spent all this time, energy and now money for nothing. Amanda S. had gotten us some samples from The Honest Kitchen and we decided to give it a whirl.

Oh my. I shouldn't have worried. To say they LOVE it would be an understatement. Lacey now "naps" in the kitchen when meat is cooking and apparently Coulee is starting to whine with excitement when Marlin is preparing their dinner. Bowls are licked clean and pushed across the room in their enthusiasm. Jack needs to be held while they eat or he tries to help them finish their meals.

They are still getting kibble for breakfast as we wanted to transition them over slowly. They still eat it quickly but not with the same gusto that they eat their dinner. We still don't have all the supplements we need to start making their meals from scratch but I'm hoping they'll arrive this week. If they don't arrive today, I'm going to have to go pick up some more Honest Kitchen for the weekend and next week.

It has been fun so far and it is nice to have such appreciation shown for our efforts!

Scaredy Cat

2011-09-23T12:42:00.000-07:00

Jack is not the most confident of kitties. He is the kind of guy that prefers to hide in the basement rather than socialize when company comes over. He also thinks the vacuum is a pretty scary thing. I caught him peeking out, checking to see if the coast was clear.

Just 'Cause

2011-09-22T06:22:00.000-07:00

As an aside, I'm not sure if it is all the food reading I've been doing, but I'm starting to agree that eye goobies are related to food. This is the first time that I can remember having to edit eye goobies out of a picture of Coulee! She very rarely has eye goobies, but lately it has become a constant issue.

In My Opinion

2011-09-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

WARNING - This is long and undoubtably boring if you aren't interested in dog diets. Hell, it probably is boring even if you are! :)

I'm strongly considering switching Coulee and Lacey over to a homemade diet. I've signed up on a few chat groups, and I've read a few books (and have a few more on the way). I have both the girls on a high quality kibble at the moment (or rather I did. Coulee is currently on a "close your eyes and don't read the ingredient list" hypoallergenic diet) and while I think this is probably a decent diet for them, I'd like to provide Coulee with the healthiest option possible.

I don't think kibble is bad (well some kibble is horrible). If I did, I wouldn't have fed it for all these years. I think kibble is a great choice for dogs with no health issues. I wouldn't even be considering this if Coulee didn't have an autoimmune problem.

I think of it like this:
Grocery store kibble (food like Kibbles and Bits) is the equivalent to eating at McDonalds every other night. It keeps you going, but isn't the healthiest lifestyle.

High Quality Kibble (food you usually find in Pet Stores) is the equivalent to most people's diet. Overall your meals are pretty healthy but you aren't super regimented in following the Canadian Food Guide.

Homemade meals, if done right, are the equivalent to following the Food Guide and rarely stepping outside those recommendations.

I'm a scientific minded person. I don't just believe what I read because someone said it. And I'm struggling with the literature around homemade diets. I am finding a lot of the information is opinion based and not fact based. It makes me laugh when in one chapter they will go on and on about how similar dogs are to wolves and therefore they obviously should be eating raw and then 2 chapters later are talking about how we've changed the environmental and physical make-up of dogs so much that we can't treat them like wolves. Conflicting statements like that make it hard for me to trust anything at all in the book.

My other pet peeve is when they slam the competition. It reminds me of political campaigns that spend all their time and energy telling us what is so horrible about the other guy, instead on focusing on what makes them so great. It makes me think of conspiracy theories and again, my level of trust plummets.

But despite all that, I'm still considering the switch. There are many people, whose opinions I trust and respect, that feed homemade diets and intuitively fresh foods should be healthier than processed foods. I think the reason it isn't done more is the amount of work involved (taking a scoop of kibble and tossing it in a bowl is awfully easy!) and because dogs can have perfectly healthy, long lives eating kibble so why bother. And I probably wouldn't bother if it wasn't for Coulee. Lacey is just coming along for the ride as if I'm doing it for one, I might as well do it for two.

I'm uncomfortable with raw at this point and am looking at diets that involve cooked meats.

Jolene lent me a book by Hillary Watson which lays out the recipes just how I want them. Exact measurements, exact ingredients and you just follow along. It is perfect - except you need to buy a supplement from her for every meal. She doesn't tell you how to make your own and that bugs me. I know, stupid, but I feel it is a money making scheme that keeps me sending her $70 a month for supplements. But other than that, I loved this book. There is a scientific base to her recipes and lots of different options. And frankly it is idiot proof - and I think I need that. :)

Last night I found an ebook by Lew Olson and I read 90% of it this morning. There is some competition slamming that is hard to swallow, but she actually has footnotes and a reference section to back up some of the statements she makes and I like that. :) There aren't really any step by step recipes to follow and based on the information in this book alone, I wouldn't be comfortable coming up with my own, but there is good information about what needs to be in a complete diet.

I've read some of the book by Dr. Pitcairn (which appears to be almost a bible for many homemade diet feeders) and it too had lots of good information, but it also had lots of anecdotal tidbits that had to be weeded out (in my opinion anyway!) and while there may be facts behind many of his statements, they weren't always pointed out. This book is not only on feeding and has a lot of other information on overall health as well. I didn't get into those sections much as I'm already bogged down in information overload.

I've ordered a book by Monica Segal. It came recommended and from what I could determine from the information I've found online, it seems quite scientifically based. She also set up a YahooGroup - K9Kitchen which has very active discussions on raw, cooked and combination diets.

I've also ordered a book by Dr. Becker that also promises to be a good information source. It came recommended by the Whole Dog Journal and it promises to have recipes laid out (I'm hoping it will be similar to Hillary Watson's book but with a way to make your own supplement mix).

My goal is to switch the girls over in a week or two. Coulee is supposed to be on her current food for 5 weeks and it has been over 3 at this point. I'm excited and scared all at once. I really don't want to screw it up and make things worse.

Buddies

2011-09-16T08:30:00.000-07:00

It took a long time, but I think it is finally official.

Lacey and Jack are good buddies.

It started off where Jack would attack Lacey and she would stand there like a statue.Then he started cleaning her with a few bites thrown in whenever she tried to shift position.

But now, she is finally able to play back and he doesn't turn into a hissing, swatting fiend. At least now when he does, he does it without claws. :)

Bean is One!

2011-09-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Exactly a year ago today, I got Bean (our Nissan Cube). I love it. It is fun to drive, the dogs fit perfectly and I haven't had any problems with it. The only thing that I don't like is the windshield. I have never had so many cracks! It has at least 8 chips. I think it is because it is so vertical... at least that is my theory. We could just have a lemon of a windshield though. Regardless, we are going to have to replace it soon.

Like the nerd that I am, I kept track of every time I filled the tank. (Dad, you must be so proud!) So here are some stats....

In one year Bean and I:

travelled 20,821 km.
visited the gas station 45 times
purchased 1,768.41 litres of gas
spent an average of $1.075/L for a total of $1,901.
cost $0.091 per km to drive (gas expense only).
got an average of 34.21 MPG (our best was 41.22 MPG and our worst was 26.91 - must have been windy that week!)

Happy Birthday Bean. Here's to many more happy travels together!

Good Times

2011-09-14T13:01:00.000-07:00

I haven't had time to go through my photos from yesterdays play session, but a good time was had by all...

Coulee got TWO cuz toys to play with.

Figuring out how to play with/protect both at once was a bit of a challenge

Lacey occasionally got one

But mostly, she was just content to be sassy on her own.

The Booties are Back

2011-09-12T12:43:00.000-07:00

Coulee had a bit of a set back last week with her feet. They had started to look better and I thought, feel better. So much so, that I fear I pushed her too much. We went out for a walk 3 days in a row and 5 minutes into that 3rd walk, she was acting weird.

And when I looked at her feet, this is what I saw...

Sorry for the absolutely horrid photo. She wouldn't stand still as standing on just one foot hurt.

By the time we got back to the car, she was bleeding in three spots on one foot and one on another. That is the first time they have actually bled.

The next day, they looked better, but she was still hobbling around despite pain meds. We took a few days off of walks and yesterday we did a short 20 minute walk and today we did another - no fetching, no running (except when called).

Now that she is back to "normal", we'll go back to walking every other day or so and I think the boots are going to be a permanent addition until we can fix this. I'm not sure if they would have helped, but I know they wouldn't have hurt.

We have a few more weeks to go until we get back to the dermatologist. I'm still holding out hope that the meds just need a little more time. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Sharing vs. Stealing

2011-09-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Taking images from websites to re-post elsewhere has become a common thing. It is so common, most people don't even think twice about it. And most of the time, it isn't a big deal. I mean why put a photo on the internet unless you wanted to share it with the world? That was the point right? If my sphere of "influence" is 100 people, shouldn't I be pleased if one of those 100 people loved my photo so much, they posted it elsewhere and shared it with their friends, etc., etc. The end result is just more people enjoying an image that I wanted to share in the first place.

And that doesn't bother me one bit.... as long as I'm not trying to sell that image (and as long as someone isn't trying to profit from my images).

The pictures that I post on this blog are for the most part, pictures I've taken for myself. They are pictures that I took because I wanted to, not because someone asked me to, or because I was hoping to earn some money with them. So if they can go off and make other people smile that I don't even know, that's great!

But the images that I take in an effort to earn some money, are a whole other story. There is nothing more frustrating than putting in hours and hours of work only to have someone steal those pictures. I didn't take those photos for personal satisfaction, I actually took them for the person who in turn, stole the images from me. Isn't that a slap in the face?

This is nothing new. Every photographer has the same problem, and that is why the watermark was created. But you know what? I hate watermarks. Hate, hate, hate them. Even small, cute watermarks detract from the image. But if you want your watermark to be effective, you can't use a cute little one that can be easily cropped out, you need to plaster a giant thing right across the centre of the image and how fun is that to look at? Besides, you've probably noticed that even having a giant company logo right in the middle doesn't stop some people. I know I've seen a tonne of images on facebook that have logos right across the middle that have obviously been stolen off of some poor photographer's website.

So instead of continuing to whine about it, I've come up with a simple watermark I'm going to use from now on. ;)

Perfect Models

2011-09-07T19:40:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I put together a video at work using a "Pet Cam" and posted it on YouTube for our clients to enjoy.

A month or so after that, Dogtek, the company that sells the video cameras, found the video, liked it and decided to check out our website. From there, they found out we also offered pet photography.

And that, led to this....

How cool is that?

The cute little girl in the picture is Aislyn. She is the cutest, smiliest, most patient 4 year old ever. And Keara the gorgeous lab, is pretty cute, smiley and most definitely, the most patient dog ever. Thanks Jo and Deb for lending me your gorgeous models! It was a fun experience.

Through the Wickets

2011-09-05T10:20:00.000-07:00

Coulee is a master at the game of fetch. She can catch pop flies and line drives. She can catch the ball after it's bounced or rebounded off the walls. She can stop the ball with her body like a soccer goalie. All her fancy moves have forced us to create a game that challenges both her and us. We call it "Through the Wickets".

The traditional rules of the games are as follows: We sit in the chair in the living room. She stands across the room at the ready. We attempt to throw the ball between her front two legs. We score if we get it through her legs and "over the line". The line is the change in flooring from the laminate in the living room to the tile in the kitchen/entry way. If you hit a leg, it is called hitting a post and doesn't count.

It is harder than it sounds. She is standing far enough away that she can see the ball coming and she is pretty good at blocking it with her body if she can't manage to get her mouth on it. Most times she is able to deflect it so that it doesn't go between her legs or if it does make it between her legs, she flattens her body down and attempts to stop it with her belly. Marlin and I have a pretty good celebration whenever we manage to score.

Coulee and I played a little bit outside this morning. She didn't stand very far away, but I was throwing with my left hand so it evened things out a bit. I think I only scored twice in 10 minutes. I kept the celebration to a minimum - I didn't want the neighbours to think I was nuts. :)

Bootie Time

2011-09-01T10:42:00.000-07:00

I really wish I could figure out what it is about the Cuz toys that makes Coulee soooo happy. But at the moment, I don't care. I'm using it to my advantage.

We are putting cream on her feet twice a day. To prevent her from licking it off and spreading it around the house as she walks, we put booties on her for an hour or so. Oh my. Does this ever make her sulk. She hates it. Just hates it. I don't even think the Cone of Shame makes her sulk this much.

We just kind of ignored the sulking in the past but the other day I had a brain wave. I decided that every time we did her feet, I'd give her a cuz toy to play with. I went out and bought a new one that still squeaked (not sure why I bothered, she killed the squeak in less than 10 minutes) and she was happy as a clam. She spent all her bootie time happily mouthing the cuz by herself.

But now that the novelty has worn off, she no longer entertains herself and keeps bringing it to me to throw. The staring can get a little annoying, but when she is fixated on me (with the cuz on my lap) at least she isn't sulking. I've had to extend the cuz time to 2 hours per application because she tries to lick her feet after we take the boots off . So we are dealing with 4 hours of Cuz time a day.

Coulee's never been happier. I might be going a little nuts. At least the squeak doesn't work.

Morning Walk

2011-08-31T11:01:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't photographed the girls in ages. I photographed two dog events, two weekends in a row and it usually takes a while to get my photography mojo back after just one. :) It is the editing that kills me and I'll do anything I can to avoid sitting down at the computer - including not taking any more pictures.

But today I felt the urge again. I've got a date for a dog walk this evening but I'm afraid it is going to rain so I went out this morning, just in case. Lacey was feeling particularly sassy today and Coulee was relatively limp free so it was a good morning.

And just to add some extra excitement to the walk, we saw these guys in the field on the way too and from the park. They kindly posed for me.

Crypt Lake

2011-08-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

After 9 years, I finally got to hike to Crypt Lake in Waterton National Park again. 30 years ago it was rated the best hike in Canada (and they are still bragging about it! LOL). If you are looking for a hike with variety, this is the hike to do.

You start off on a 15 minute boat ride across Upper Waterton Lake to get to the trail head. If you'd rather, you can hike about 15 km in, but by the time you do that you probably don't want to hike up to the lake any more. The trail starts in the woods and gradually changes to scree.

There is a tunnel you need to crawl through (See that dark spot just to the right of Marlin and Steve above? That's the tunnel entrance.) and then a section that you need to hold onto a cable or risk falling off the side of the mountain. It isn't quite as bad as it sounds, but if you stumbled in that section, it would be a very, very scary moment.

And then of course you get to a beautiful lake.

Despite hauling my camera, and big ass (aka heavy) lens, I barely took any photos (the one above was taken with my iPhone as I was too lazy to remove my backpack, get out my camera, change lenses, take a photo, change lenses back, put the camera away and put my backpack back on). But I am always worried I'll see something amazing and kick myself for not having my camera!

We saw a few beautiful waterfalls and 4 mountain goats (I maybe see one every year or two if I'm lucky)!

But they were very far away - the picture below was taking at 200 mm (my farthest zoom) and the one above was cropped on the computer afterwards - just to give you an idea as to how far away they were.

We had a fun time and managed to hike the 18 km and catch the 4:00 boat back. It was long and a little exhausting (although I did get a second wind as we were running to catch the boat - we made it with less than 10 minutes to spare). The ice cream I had in town after made all the pain disappear.

Smile Contest

2011-08-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

EDIT: Just read the rules a little closer... apparently we need to be in the states. So why they had a box to tick off that we lived in Canada is beyond me. :(

I'll try not to be too annoying with this, but at the same time, I really, really want your votes.

I entered Lacey in a photo contest. I hate the ones that are a "popularity" contest where whoever gets the most votes wins, but the prize in this one is too cool to pass up on without a little effort.

The contest is hosted by Greenies and the prize is a photo session with Amanda Jones, a cover of Bark Magazine and a year supply of Greenies. What I really want is the session with Ms. Jones. The cover of Bark would be pretty darn cool too. And the Greenies I would donate to Windy City Canine Rescue as my girls really don't need all those!

So PLEASE vote for Lacey. You can vote every day. I've made it really easy for you. You can just click on the photo of her at the top right hand corner of this blog and it will take you straight there. It is fast and easy although I think you need either a facebook or twitter account to vote. So every time you come to the blog, you can just click the link and vote. I'll try and keep the blog updated regularly so you have a good reason to come visit and vote. :)

Brains

2011-08-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

Some dogs get all the brains in the family...

...and some dogs get the short end of the stick so to speak. ;)

In her defence, she didn't try and fetch it again, so maybe she learned that banging herself in the head repeatedly wasn't a good thing.

Have you ever been hit with a Kong on a Rope? It hurts! She shook it right next to me and whacked my leg and left a bruise. Hence this blog post... I'm just getting her back for that. ;)

Coulee Update

2011-08-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

I have no idea when I last updated you, so I'll do a quick summary.... We went to the dermatologist for her feet in early June. Her feet were looking pretty darn good at the time, but she was able to see small issues on most of her pads. She suggested a hypoallergenic food, doubling the oil supplements we were already taking and continuing with the zinc. She also suggested using Uremol20 (an over the counter skin cream people with diabetes often use on their dry skin) on her pads. Well the short story is, nothing was helping and they've been getting worse, not better.

For the last nine weeks, all four of Coulee's feet, and every single one of her pads have been dry, cracked and sometimes painful. We are only walking her every second day or so because of her obvious discomfort. At home she tiptoes around like she is on egg shells and on walks she is always raring to go but I'll see her hitching or running with her back legs together. Gone is the graceful girl I used to see. :( But she loves it so much and doesn't seem to want to slow down, so we've been giving her Tramadol to get her through the more painful times.

A week or so ago, I thought we were finally seeing some improvement. They weren't as cracked and they had softened up (usually the skin is rock hard). But a few days later they had cracked again. I think she was getting the "next wave" before the last wave had healed. Poor girl. She was limping quite obviously at home and we were giving her pain meds every 4 hours or so.

Yesterday we went back to the dermatologist and she confirmed that nothing we were doing was helping. So we've changed everything. We've put her on a new hypo-allergenic food (again we don't think this is the problem, but it doesn't hurt to try), we've started some anti-inflammatories, we've stopped the oil and zinc and we will be putting a different cream on her feet. In 5 weeks we'll check back with the vet to see if there has been improvement and to consider our next steps. We are only putting the cream on half of her feet so we'll be able to see if the meds or cream is having an impact.

If there is no improvement, our options for the next steps are steroids and/or getting an ultrasound of her liver to see if there is something there that is causing the problem. We are taking baby steps - we started with innocuous supplements, have moved on to meds with minimal side effects/long term impacts and are resisting steroids as long as we can.

These next few days will be filled with treats and chew sticks. We had to order her new food so she'll have a few days of non-hypoallergenic diet. She'll be making the most of it, as we've been warned the new food isn't that tasty.

Coulee did really good at the clinic yesterday. She was able to relax enough to lay down in both the waiting room and the exam room and for the first time in a while, didn't try to crawl out a window.

I Heart Pets

2011-08-23T17:21:00.000-07:00

I Heart Faces is having another Pet Week and yet again, I can't resist playing along. For some reason I never think of doing a photo session for Chewy (who lives at the daycare). One day, she really is going to have to have a proper one. But in the meantime, this is by far, my favourite photo of her. She really is a quirky cat!

Go to I Heart Faces to check out many more awesome pictures of pets!

Hydroplane

2011-08-18T12:28:00.000-07:00

We've had the Hydroplane from Ruffwear for over a year now. It has lasted so long for a few reasons - 1) It spent a lot of time in Marlin's vehicle so I didn't take it out (and he only walks the dogs once a week at best), 2) I can't throw it very far, so I don't like to throw it 3) I find fabric toys get really dirty, really fast and then look crappy in photos, so I tend to avoid them and 4) It floats AWESOME!

The Zisc from West Paw Design is by far my favourite frisbee. It flies great, it stays clean and Lacey also likes playing with it. But we've lost more than a few this year because it floats just on top of the water. And because it is easy to throw, I tend to throw it far into the river. Coulee then loses sight of it and off it goes on a journey to Medicine Hat.

The Hydroplane on the other hand sucks on dry land. Sorry Ruffwear, but it just doesn't fly very far. But in the water it is perfect. I can throw it as hard as I want and it won't be too far away and it sits on top of the water. There is no way Coulee is going to lose sight of it.

So these past few walks we've been taking it out (frankly I started taking it because it was the only frisbee I had left! LOL). The nice thing about Coulee's fetching style is that on dry land, she drops the toy at my feet and then takes off in a super big arch. I wait until she finally circles back and then throw the frisbee. Even though Coulee gets a good run, there is just no satisfaction with the Hydroplane - it doesn't go very far, and I look like a schmuck who can't throw. :) With the Zisc, we can get some long throws and graceful catches.

But in the river, this thing just shines. I love it. We won't be losing this thing any time soon. The other really great thing about the Hydroplane is that it is always good for a laugh. Seriously. Give your dog a big donut toy, sit back and let the giggles take you away. It will snap you out of any bad mood.

Made My Weekend

2011-08-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Late on Sunday at the agility trial, I noticed an older gentleman sitting in a chair that didn't seem to be with anyone. There were a few people milling around but most people were either building the last course, or off at the Ribbon Ceremony getting results, etc. So me and the old guy started chatting. He was fascinated with everything and asked a lot of questions. I did my best to give him the layman's version of the sport, seeing as I'm a layman myself!

When everyone was done getting the results and came back to prepare to walk the course, he was amazed with the number of people. He wondered why they had to practice the course as all the obstacles were numbered. :) He wondered why everyone stuck their arm and fingers out while walking the course. He saw one person mentally practicing the course in one spot and wondered what he was doing. He wanted to know who the judge was and how he became one. He asked about every little detail - he was that enthralled.

And when he saw the first dog actually run the course, he was in awe with her grace and style. Then he saw a faster border collie run, and he actually leaned forward in his chair. He grinned from ear to ear when he saw the Italian Greyhound enter the field. His emotions were so genuine, you couldn't help but smile with him.

Turns out I sort of knew this old gentleman. He told me he and his wife had owned Chesapeake Bay Retrievers their entire lives and when he said this, something sort of twigged in my memory. I asked who his wife was and he told me. Turns out I used to work with her. I was sad to hear she was diagnosed with Parkinson's about a year ago and he's been looking after her. They had been out walking earlier in the day and had seen the field of equipment and all the dogs. They both wanted to check it out, but by then she was too tired. So he came back without her and promised to find out more for her. If he manages to bring even a smidgen of his enthusiasm home with him, he'll have her grinning from ear to ear.

K Country

2011-08-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

On the way there

It has been years and years since Marlin and I went to Kananaskis. The last time we were there was before we were married (which was more than 6 years ago). Back then we did a backpack trip... this time we stayed in a trailer. Times have changed! :)

View from the campground

But the amazing scenery has not. The campground was awesome but it was the third one we checked out. The first one was nice, but wasn't on the lake. The second one literally had hoards of children running around. But the third one, was juuuuust right. Apparently we were channeling Goldilocks. :) We didn't get a lakefront site, but we were just across the road and behind our site was something even better.

Wild Strawberries!!!! They were unbelievably tasty. Although they took a while to pick due to their size.

The first day we started a hike up Mt. Indefatigable. We didn't get as far as we had thought we would. Man, it was steep!!!

The trail started along Upper Kananaskis Lake.

And it quickly went up, up, up. This was about 40 minutes in at our 100th rest stop. :) It is also of Upper Kananaskis Lake.

Even the chipmunks enjoyed the view.

As did Lacey. She freaked us out by constantly trying to peer over the edge. This was literally a straight drop down. I was hoping and preying she wouldn't spot a critter down there.

Coulee wore her boots to protect her feet from all the scree. This is what the second half of the trail looked like. I'm not sure if you can tell how steep it was, but trust me, it was steep.

The view of Lower Kananaskis Lake

It was hot, exposed and have I mentioned steep? After about 2 hours, we decided the views wouldn't get that much better than what we'd already seen and we should just cry "Uncle" and head back down. I'm glad we did. Our thighs were pretty shaky by the time we got back down.

The next day we decided to head up to Rawson Lake. The guide book promised a hike through the forest, and that sounded pretty darn good to us. It turns out, it was perfect. Nicely wooded trail, lots of shade, no shale and plenty of water at the base, on the way up and at the top for the dogs.

This hike also started at Upper Kananaskis Lake just from a different spot.

Coulee had learned from the day before to seek out shade wherever you could find it!

The waterfall at Sarrail Creek (I think!)

Marlin's first two casts produced two fish. Then he snagged his lure on a log, broke his line and his luck went downhill without any other fish to show for his efforts. Rawson Lake is catch and release only, so no fish for dinner for us.

Me just playing around with the reflection in Marlin's shades. I couldn't manage to get the scenery without also including me.

Lacey was a "tad" bit excited by the local squirrel population.

Rawson Lake

We had a great time. The girls were great - very calm and relaxed (unless there were squirrels in the area). We decided to come home a day early because the weather wasn't supposed to be that great today. We didn't want to get soaked, and then pack up so we tried to beat the rain - and we did. It may not have even fallen, but that is OK. We'll just have more time to relax at home now.

I'm not sure why we waited so long to go back to K Country. We won't be waiting quite as long next time! We were already talking about next year. :)

Mug Shots

2011-08-07T07:11:00.000-07:00

But It Moves...

2011-08-05T10:25:00.000-07:00

Coulee really doesn't like it when I stand in the river.

She hates dropping the frisbee down in the current as she knows it isn't going to stay where she put it. She wanders in and out a few times before working up the nerve to leave it with me.

She looks so uncomfortable it makes me laugh.

Tumblr

2011-08-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

Every few months, I take a peek at my Flickr stats. I usually think to look at the stats when an older picture starts to receive attention. People who regularly look at my photos aren't going to go back months and months and start commenting or favouriting old photos so I start to wonder what's up.

So while looking through my stats at what sites have referred people to my photos (and marvelling again at how many people are googling "golden border collie"), I discovered one of my pictures up on someone's Tumblr "blog".

I'm not on Tumblr. To be honest I don't really get it or have time for it, but like any other blog-like thing, you'd think you would blog your OWN content, not someone else's (that in itself is a whole other blog post). Although that doesn't seem to be the Tumblr mindset as there is a re-blog button where people can take your post and post it on their own Tumblr blog - essentially stealing/borrowing the original blogger's content.

The neat thing about Tumblr (or so I've discovered) is that it tracks how quickly and easily information is spread far and wide. At the time of posting this post, my picture has 3,463 notes - which I think means 3,463 people have either "Liked" it, or reblogged it and who knows how many people have looked at it. And as far as I can figure out from Flickr, it was originally posted on Tumblr on July 15. Some people reblogged it from the original blogger and others have reblogged it from someone who had reblogged it first. Tumblr keeps track of all of it.

Flickr keeps track of the number of people who look at the picture on your flickr site. In this case, it is telling me 274 people (at the time of posting) have looked at this picture, which is a far cry from the stats on Tumblr.

Whenever you share something on-line it can literally end up anywhere. It is amazing and frightening all at the same time. I realize 3,463 "notes" is pretty minor. Think of those YouTube videos that get 100,000's of views. Could you imagine if it was an embarrassing or unflattering video of yourself that was going viral? Ugh. I feel sorry for those people. It really makes you want to pay attention to what you post on-line and make sure that you aren't afraid to share it with the world because really, that is what you are doing every time you send something out on blogs, flickr, Facebook and every other social network site.

Living Up to Her Name

2011-08-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

One of Lacey's nicknames is Savage. Hard to believe with a cute face like this eh?

I think she got it while she was still coming to daycare. When she was about a year old (?) she started to guard me from dogs that jumped or even just came over for a scratch. It was cute (in a not so funny way) to watch this little pip squeak lip curl and snarl at other dogs. Hence the nickname Lacey Savage. It didn't take long before she was too busy protecting to play and frankly wasn't welcome anymore.

Since then we've been going to the dog park almost every day. The dog park we go to is never very busy but we usually run into a dog or two and Lacey was always the one who would want to play.

This past month, that has changed. She has started to get snarky with other dogs. It is at the point where I can't trust her around them. She even snarked at my sister's dog Micah the other day and Micah LIVED with us for months just this past winter. They used to play together on every walk and they had spent the previous four days before this recent incident happily co-existing.

I'm not sure what to think or do. I don't think it is a physical problem manifesting as a behavioural one. She never acts out at home, she isn't short tempered even when Jack is biting her head, she eats well, she poops well and she is her same old self... except when meeting dogs.

At the moment, I'm going to the dog park when it won't be crowded and I can easily avoid running into people, and on weekends, we are sticking to the unofficial dog run near our house where everyone leashes their dogs when you see other people.

But just to cover my bases, I've made a vet appointment for her later today to rule out anything physical and I guess we'll go from there. Maybe she is just a bitch but I want to make sure something isn't making her act out.

Another nickname of hers is Swamp Thing. I can't for the life of me remember how she ended up with that one! ;)

She Wouldn't Dare

2011-08-03T18:44:00.000-07:00

This first picture of Lacey peeking over Coulee's back made me smile.

Then I saw the next photo in the series and I laughed.

She didn't do what it looks like she was thinking of doing. She wouldn't dare. If it had been Vito maybe, but not to Coulee. LOL

Hipster Art

2011-08-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I get the urge to shoot from the hip (aka holding the camera without looking to see what you are shooting at). This usually happens if there is a situation where it is impossible or difficult to get my face where I want the camera to be.

I am rarely disappointed with the results even though the focus and composition is a complete crap shoot.

These were all taken with my 70-200 at a pretty close distance (hence the super narrow depth of field). I haven't cropped or changed the composition of these in anyway.

I wanted the camera down at the level of the water but I didn't want to dunk down myself and get soaking wet. (The first one in this post was taken from above without looking because I wasn't ready. She started to shake and I knew if I took the time to look through the camera and then take the shot I would have missed it completely.)

If you've never tried shooting from the hip, you should! Expect lots and lots of crappy photos but there will be a few gems. And you do get better with practice at pointing your camera at things without looking. I'd recommend a wider angle to start as it is easier to get your subject in the photo.

Crazy Face

2011-08-01T09:56:00.001-07:00

Nothing like a little ball time to bring out the crazy in Coulee.

Week in Waterton

2011-07-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Marlin, the girls and I spent this last week with family in Waterton. We camped at the Crandall Lake campground, which is much nicer than the one in town. Despite hauling my camera almost everywhere with me, I barely took any photos. I had done all the hikes before so taking all the scenic shots just didn't seem to happen and I wasn't into crowding around the wildlife we saw on the side of the road or in town just to get a few pictures. The bear you see below we saw during an early morning hike - it was just us and two joggers watching him graze.

We spent our time relaxing and hiking and some of us also did some boating, biking and fishing. I stuck to the hiking and relaxing. :) It was the kind of vacation where I don't feel like I need a vacation to recover from the vacation, if that makes sense.

The dogs did great and enjoyed all the hikes we took. Micah was kind enough to carry Coulee's share of the water to help spare her feet a bit. She didn't seem to mind the pack at all. I have to say having the "canine assist" (aka Coulee/Lacey pulling on the leash) up the hill was great, but my shins are a little sore from resisting the "canine assist" down the hill.

We saw a fair amount of wildlife - bears, deer, sheep and hundreds of ground squirrels. The dogs were most interested in the ground squirrels.

I am loving our trailer, but we'll need to cut back on our washroom use when we go out for longer periods. We filled our septic tank and I was very sad when I had to become a "commoner" and use the public washrooms. Thankfully it was only for the last day and a half.

On Springs

2011-07-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

Coulee, Lacey and I met up with John, Constance and little Paisley for Paisley's first off leash walk, or in Paisley's case, her first romp through the grass. This girl has spring for legs. And not very graceful springs I might add. She took quick a few tumbles as she tried to navigate the uneven ground at full speed.

Coulee has a new black and white fan to add to her collection. :) Paisley thought she was very fun and pretty much spent all her time just running around after her.

John and Constance also have a new fan - Lacey. She thought the chicken in their pockets was pretty good. Much better than the hypo-allergenic kibble I was giving out.

Paisley showed no hesitation at all at the water, but never actually swam. She did manage to get nice and dirty though. :)

She should be nice and tired tonight! Thanks guys, for a really fun walk.

Coulee Update

2011-07-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm keeping a personal journal about Coulee's feet, complete with weekly photos, so we can keep track of what is happening, yet not bore all of you with the details. I've had people ask me how she is doing though, so I thought I'd do a quick update.

The disease is affecting her front feet almost equally now, but her back feet aren't quite as bad but there are definite signs of it on all her toes. They seem quite tender these days and she often seems to be walking gingerly around the house. We took a break from walks a little while ago, but the tenderness didn't seem to be going away. So now we go on walks every second day or so and I give her tramadol when she seems to need it.

I've limited river time but do let her go in for about 5 minutes to cool off on most walks. Her one sign of age seems to be heat intolerance! You can see she isn't comfortable on the rocky shore, yet walks more normally on the grassy areas of the park so that is where we stay for the most part. The toy usually comes out for a bit, then goes away after a few throws. It comes back out at the river so I can get her to swim (and try and maintain some muscle tone). I throw it upstream so she mainly swims in place against the current and then doesn't need to run far along the shore to get back to me. I'm not worried about making her feet worse, I just don't want them to hurt. At the same time, I'm trying to make sure life is still a little fun for her.

For a while I thought they weren't looking too bad, but then I went back 3 weeks and looked at the pictures and they had actually gotten much worse. Thank goodness for keeping track of things. When you look at something once or twice a day it is easy to lose perspective.

She is still on oil and zinc and she is on a hypo allergenic diet too, just in case. So far I don't think anything is helping. We've also been putting Uremol20 on her feet and for a while I thought it was helping, but now I don't think it is or maybe it just can't keep up.

We have a dermatology appointment at the end of August (probably right as her feet start to heal again - LOL) so we'll see what the next step is. I'm concerned as they seem to be hurting her more and overall, the disease is definitely getting worse. The cycles are coming more frequently AND lasting longer.

She ran more than usual today... We'll see if that makes things worse or not. Frankly I don't see much of a difference between walk days and rest days, but instinct says I should be. I did some research on tramadol though and it seems pretty safe to give on a long term basis. So if a little pain meds = a happier life, I'm OK with that.

Test Run

2011-07-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

I picked up my rental 100-400mm lens this morning and promptly took it out for a test run with the girls.

My initial thoughts are that it is a good lens, but probably not one I would use a lot.

It has pretty good focusing abilities and can keep up with Coulee for the most part (I'd say the 70-200 is faster though).

I'm sure the extra reach will come in handy at the Lure Coursing (which is the reason why I'm renting the lens) but it is a bit much for a regular dog walk. I took only a handful of photos of Lacey as she is rarely far enough away to warrant a 400mm reach.

My field of view was sooo narrow, I found it hard to throw the firsbee and get the camera in the right place before the action was finished.

And sometimes it was hard to get even Coulee far enough away to NEED the lens. I mainly kept it on the 400 range as I wanted to test it's reach and whether or not I needed that kind of reach.

If I didn't already have the 70-200 and maybe took more wildlife photos, this lens would be a serious contender but the aperture has a 4-5.6 minimum range which also is a little limiting for action in low light conditions.

I'm excited to play with it this weekend though. It should be fun. I think we are going to go owl hunting tonight! :)

Ball

2011-07-11T17:35:00.001-07:00

Still Here

2011-07-11T09:18:00.000-07:00

I'm still here! I've just been busy taking lots of photos. Not that this blog is any indication of that. I've barely taken any personal photos this week, yet I still managed to fill my hard drive with just 7 days worth of photos! I've actually been leaving the camera at home while out on walks because apparently it is possible to take so many photos, you aren't in the mood to take more. Who knew?

I've got lots of time this week though to catch up on rescue volunteering, house work, relaxing, spending time with the pups. and hopefully time to handle a few more photo sales from all the pictures I've been taking. :)

The dog sporting events have been going pretty good for me this year. I've met my minimum goal for each event and in some, surpassed it. I'm busy trying to figure out what to do with my summer photography earnings this year. New lens? New software? Definitely a new camera bag, if I can find what I want/need. Or, I may just put it into the general melting pot. It isn't a huge amount or anything, but it feels like "extra".

I am going to rent the 100-400 lens for the Lure Coursing I'm going to photograph this weekend. I've been meaning to try out Lethbridge Lens Rentals for a while, but I haven't had a reason to splurge. I'm looking forward to trying it out. It is the perfect event for it.

I think you can expect things will get back to normal this week on the blog. Stay tuned!

Ruby

2011-07-06T09:57:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours got a new lab baby and we went over and met her on Friday night. She was cute, cute, cute! I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

With Big Brother Ditto in the background...

The King was Dethroned

2011-06-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I bought a new cat post. From the moment I set it down in the house, Jack laid claim to it. He spent all last evening in it, and when I came down this morning he was still sitting on top.

Lu eventually came along and dethroned him. Jack tried to fight his way back to the top, but she wasn't budging.

Poor Jack ended up grovelling at her feet on the floor.

Manual Focus - Day 1

2011-06-28T13:17:00.000-07:00

I'm not gonna lie. It was hard and not a lot of fun. And I'm not sure it is a good fit for me. And I'm not just saying that because I suck at it.

1. I have a tendency to shoot without looking through the camera. Apparently I do this more than I thought. This one was taken of Coulee with the camera held above my head - there was no way I could look through the lens and get the photo, unless I stood on a ladder. And if I can't look through the lens, I can't focus.

2. It is almost impossible to hold a toy, AND focus a camera. I need a third hand. It is one thing to hold a toy and support the camera with the same hand, and another thing to actually manipulate a dial at the same time. Coulee doesn't put her ears up like this unless she thinks I'm going throw something. And she isn't going to think I'm going to throw something if it is still lying at my feet.

So we'll see. I want to give it more time before I truly judge it, but from what I saw today, it isn't a really good fit. Although I do like it when the subject is standing still.

Action and Adventure

2011-06-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I headed out to Kananaskis for an "Action and Adventure" photography workshop taught by Brad Wrokbleski. On the agenda was biking, hiking and kayaking. The models/talent sure got a workout! The poor women mountain biking had a VERY steep hill that they kept coming down and then walking back up.

The one thing I hate about courses and workshops is that I can't seem to get past more than one or two suggestions. My mind starts to fixate on those and drops all other bits of information. This isn't a problem if the tidbit I focus on is a big one, but can be kind of annoying if it is a pretty minor point.

1/40 sec, f/22

And this time, it was a fairly big suggestion. At least in terms of how I shoot. He suggested I focus manually - even on moving subjects. I have to be honest. I've never taken even still photos with manual focus, the thought of doing it with moving subject seems impossible. I know at least one "Flickr Friend" that does it (Hi Anda!) but I always thought she was a little nuts. ;)

His reasoning makes perfect sense - you can change up your composition on the fly and not have to worry about where the "focus dot" on your camera is in relation to the subject you want in focus. He thinks it is hard to keep the focus dot on your moving subject (I disagree - I can do this with out too much issue) but he has a point about the composition. You can't go from a subject being in focus on the left, the middle and then the right without stopping to make adjustments and by then, the action you are trying to photograph is probably over. So manual focus would help for example when dogs start getting the zoomies and are running in every which direction OR when things get in front of them - long blades of grass for example.

But damn I lost a lot of cool looking photos due to lack of focus yesterday. But that is OK. What I am going to do with a bunch of kayaking pictures anyway? When I nailed it, it was very satisfying, like in the photo above. And I don't mind practicing on the girls either, because really, don't I have enough photos of them to last 8 lifetimes? :) One of my biggest hurdles (other than actually getting things in focus) is to not follow the subject around with the little focus dot anyway. I couldn't stop myself and it was kind of defeating the purpose! If anyone knows how to make that dot disappear on a canon, I'd love to know.

The other thing we did a fair amount of was slow shutter speeds. So panning or just keeping the camera still while action moved in front of us. This was particularly fun when a kayaker got "stuck" in the eddy as you could blur out the moving water, while they stayed relatively still. But looking through a stack of photos that are blurry from my lack of focusing ability AND blurry from a slow shutter speed was painful! LOL. I can't wait to get Coulee in the river to see if I can make some of those tricks work for her. I think it would be a cool effect in tall blowing grasses too.

1/30 sec, f29

I could have just sat and watched the kayakers all day. That alone would have made the day worth it.

1/40 sec, f18

Eye Contact

2011-06-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to think she folds the frisbee in half just so that she can stare at me while she runs.

Paper Toy

2011-06-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Our cats rarely get "real" toys... the dogs just eat or destroy them. Jack doesn't mind. He likes his little piece of paper.

It kept him entertained for at least 20 minutes.

And yes... we do have a bike in our living room. Don't you?

The Tater

2011-06-25T16:33:00.000-07:00

We've been looking after Tate while Jo has been home visiting her mom and sister.

He is the easiest dog to look after. He really likes to sleep.

Somedays he doesn't even bother to get off the couch when we come home or to come downstairs in the morning when we get up.

Marlin's sister came for a visit this weekend and Tate has found the woman of his dreams. He spent 3 hours running around shaking toys, fetching, jumping on her lap, and tugging on her shirt. It was hilarious. Mild, meek Tate would just not sit still. When she went outside briefly, he managed to settle, but the moment she came back he was up and at it again.

Today Amanda and I met up for a dog walk - she's been looking after his brother Kort.

The boys (and Lacey) had a great time!

Good Run

2011-06-25T06:24:00.000-07:00

I took Coulee for her first decent run yesterday since her foot biopsy. While the biopsy site healed a while ago, we think she pulled a shoulder muscle a few days after we started walking. So she had been on a no fetch, no running diet for a few weeks and then last week I started letting her swim a bit and yesterday we threw the frisbee a few times on land. She had a good time.

It is nice to not have her glaring at me for once.

Ahhh. Life is almost back to normal.

She's just a little out of shape - she laid down to rest after only a few throws.

I had taken the frisbee away after a few throws but she knew it had a good chance of coming back out now that we were at the river. She is patiently waiting...

She was right!

Now that she has her frisbee back, she isn't about to let her little sister steal it.

The Cat's in the Bag

2011-06-23T20:22:00.000-07:00

Lu crawled into a fabric shopping bag I left sitting at the front door.

Apparently it makes a pretty comfy bed.

Out Run

2011-06-20T12:46:00.000-07:00

Lacey's solution to mosquito control is just to out run them.

As an added bonus she is also out running Coulee who wants nothing more than to do the "beat down" on her.

Down to Earth

2011-06-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

I went off to Okotoks yesterday for an Earth Dog Event. It is my kind of dog sport - low pressure. :) Your dog either has the instinct, or they don't. Kind of like Lure Coursing - they either chase the lure, or they don't. There isn't much you can do to train or direct your dog. And once they start, you just sit back and watch.

And because it is based on instinct, the dogs are almost guaranteed a good time. They get to hunt, chase and burrow after rodents for the day. It is a terrier's dream come true.

There wasn't much to photograph (as the dogs should be underground for the most part) but I just tried to capture some candid shots of the dogs and their owners. I also liked capturing the excitement of the dogs as they were being led up to the start line - most of the dogs were pulling like crazy to get there.

If you'd like to see more, feel free to check out the full gallery!

Spratly

2011-06-18T07:15:00.000-07:00

Spratly is oh so cuddly. And oh so cute.

These were all taken with just the little bit of light that shines into the basement. The shadows were all caused by my sweater that he snuggled into.

There's a Storm a Brewing

2011-06-17T14:06:00.000-07:00

It is official. June sucks. Rain. Rain. Rain. And when it isn't raining, there is the threat of rain. And mosquitos from hell. Hurry up July!

Scornful

2011-06-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

When we arrive at the dog park, Coulee hops out of the car, and runs to the field and then turns and waits....

She's waiting to see if I've "remembered" a toy this time. She is not impressed that we are still not playing fetch at the park.

Grassy and Sassy

2011-06-16T14:06:00.000-07:00

The dog park has really grown wild in sections.

Coulee had a lot of fun hanging out in the long grass.

Lacey on the other hand finds the grass just a little too tall. So she was a sassy bundle of energy by the time we reached the dirt area by the river when she often gets the zoomies.

She becomes a crazed beast and is super funny to watch, but whenever I try and get photos I just get a lot of this....

She is way too close, way too fast and way too random to get a decent picture. One day I'll luck out and have something to show you other than her usual standby - chewing my foot.

Green Grass

2011-06-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

The grass has finally grown, and now I remember what I hate about it (besides mosquitos that is.) You can't see Lacey in it. In fact, you can barely even see Mira in it.

Kelowna Dog Parks

2011-06-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

I've been to two Kelowna Dog Parks now and I have to say, I'm impressed!

Porta-potties, drinking stations, fenced in areas, picnic tables and shelters, lots of vegetation....

It was doggy (and doggy owner) paradise!