"Having money is rather like being a blond. It is more fun but not vital."

To start, I have to admit I stole the idea of using a quote as a title from my friend's blog. I read this quote and just loved it. I did spend about 6 years of my life as a blonde and it was fun. I now live life as a red head until it fades to blonde...I can't really say if being a red head or blonde is more fun...

This past week was a blast. I struggled at class with Brink, he just didn't want to keep the bars up. I didn't work on the business much, except for making tugs. I kept the house clean and organized, which I love. And the season premiere of The Vampire Diaries aired!!!

Wednesday night was a special treat for the dogs. Tundra turned 10 on Monday, so for her birthday I bought all the dogs bully sticks. These are like crack for dogs, they love it, they covet it, and they have no idea that it's really dehydrated bull penis. This special treat keeps them busy for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the dog. Tundra actually couldn't finish her's, so I put it up for the night. The next morning, Rival was missing-this is very unusual since he normally always stands next to you. Well, when no one was looking he went and got Tundra's bully stick and started chewing it in the corner, he eventually came when called trying his best to hide the bully stick in his mouth. We now know he has a memory like an elephant.

Bark in the Park took place on Saturday. This is an annual event held in Rio Rancho by Enchantment Pet Resort to help support the Rio Rancho Animal Shelter. I helped microchip animals and sold my awesome Twisted Tugs. It was a fun event with lure coursing, flyball, and agility, plus tons of dog stuff! I microchipped 10 dogs and the biggest baby of all was a labrador retriever, even the 7 pound dachsund was better. The other dogs didn't even notice.

Sunday, was my biggest fitness challenge yet: The Tour de Acoma 50 mile race. Unfortunately, I flatted on the rail road tracks less than 5 miles in. Chris changed my tire and we played catch up the rest of the race. The one big hill climb was torture, but once again, Chris was right there to keep me going and get me up the hill. We ended up finishing in 3 hours, but I don't think I placed due to the flat, maybe next year. This race put me one notch closer to my Hawaii Half Ironman. That race has a 56 mile bike ride in it, so I know now that I can do that part of the race!
On the way home from the race, Chris and I stopped to visit Quid, and she is officially ridable! I'm going to get on her later this week.

Now for the training update. Brink is doing really well at home. We continued his running A-Frame on the ground, adding movement, including running and he is doing great hitting the box. I still am only using the clicker with treats, the next session will have to work in the toy. We also continued the post turn training, but added front crosses and continuing forward. He collects so well for the post turns and front crosses even if I'm not right there. I did confuse him at first when we were going to run straight, but he figured it out. I think these drills will really help him with his deceleration and acceleration understanding. This weekend brings a 3 day AKC trial, it sure would be nice to get out of open. Hopefully I'll sell a lot of Twisted Tugs also!

P.S. Title quote by Mary Quant
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TUNDRA!

Don't Let Life Run You Over

Life has thrown me a lot of lemons lately, but things are finally start to turn around. Don't get me wrong, there were lots of hours of depression, but I believe I discovered a lot of things about myself. One, I can still get by with out a job, my life is not defined by my career. Two, this change allowed me to explore what I really want to do and finally make the commitment to go that way. By this time next year I will be a certified canine rehabilitation therapist! Three, if I'm going to have these lofty goals in dog agility, I better spend some time really working on Brink's skills. Four, have fun!! Find something that challenges you and go for it. Once again, by this time next year I will be an Ironman (Half-ironman in Hawaii in June).

Now for today's update. On Tuesday, I had a working interview in Edgewood. It went really well, I had to do a cat spay and even under the watchful eye of the owner, (making me very nervous) I did it in about 30 minutes and the cat did great. The job would be small animal emergency at night. I'm excited about this because it still gives me the days to work-out, train for agility, and get my business going. Today I got an email from the manager that was very positive!

I also went for a 3 mile run today-working up to that Half-Marathon in February and then the half-ironman. Brink got to go with me and I could tell that his week off got him out of shape. We saved the evening for working on his skills. This was a clicker training session. We continued to work on his running A-frame with the ground work. He did well finding the box and did really well hitting it when I stood in different places and even started adding some movement. We still kept the toy out of the picture and just used treats. I think we need to get it 100% before I can start adding the toy. After finishing this exercise, we worked on post-turns. This is very difficult for Brink, because he does not read deceleration well and really hates it. We started with ground work. Recalls to the side with a turn, Brink had to accelerate to my side, but then stick with me almost in a heal position while we turned. After clicking and treating this for about 10 on each side, we moved on to a jump. Wow!!! I was so impressed with my boy. I showed no movement, stood in the path of the jump a bit, used the off arm and Brink's name to pull him around the post, clicked when he was tight and treated. We did about 10 on each side and he was so awesome. We'll work up to adding movement from me. Tomorrow we will continue to work on his A-frame, post-turns, and some jump collection.

This weekend is busy, busy! I will be doing a microchip clinic at Bark in the Park on Saturday and either a Triathlon on Sunday or a 50 mile bike ride at the Tour of Acoma. I also need to continue work on the business ideas-I think a website is next in order. I have to continue writing the business plan as well-not much fun, but worth it.

I'm not letting life run me over anymore, I'm in the driver's seat now!