The Dogs

The Dogs
Bosque, Brink, Tundra, River, Rival

Saturday, January 15, 2011

New Products


This is Brink modeling his new leash. I have been wanting to add leashes to the Twisted Tug repertoire for awhile but never could figure out the pattern I wanted. I finally found one that I like, except I still haven't perfected the handle. I picked this leash to show off Brink's Irish ancestry that I have decided he has (Rival is Irish, too, because he has red hair). Brink's leash has a clip to connect to a martingale type collar, but I think I will start making them as an all in one martingale leash.
In other news, my dad is in the hospital for the second time this week after having a heart procedure on Tuesday. It doesn't sound serious, but it is always on my mind. My half-marathon is a little over a month away and I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and having my dad cheer me on from the side lines. He did the Houston marathon a couple times and we would cheer him on through the race.
I did actually get a 4.5 mile run in today, although I coughed for a couple hours after. I do feel more energized. I have been watching the USDAA 4-star event all day and I just love it! I wish I knew a little more about who was running, but it's still very fun to watch. I hope everything works out so I can continue to do agility. I would miss it so much if I had to stop.
Portrait from the first snow of the year, hiking 3 Guns Canyon.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Certificates in the Mail



Today I received three certificates in the mail. One for Rival's advanced pairs title, one for Brink's advanced pairs title and one for Brink's advanced Gamblers title. None of these came as a surprise. I knew all these titles had been achieved at our local SWAT USDAA. It's just nice to get something in the mail, now if people will only start sending me money in the mail! Ever since college I have been obsessed with checking the mail. I hated those federal holidays when the mail didn't come, but you still had to go to school or work.

Anyway, here's a video from our weekend in Arizona. There's only one, because it really was our only good run, although you can see none of the contacts actually meet my criteria of two on, two off. So, basically, the video is getting published because it is our first master gamblers Q. Enjoy.



P.S. I haven't wanted to run this week, so the picture is to motivate me to get off my butt-the half marathon is only a little over a month away!

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Re-Evaluating

I hate when I say I'm going to do something and then I can't do it. If I say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it. Unfortunately, life has this way of making sure you can't actually do it. This is my biggest pet peave and it eats and eats at me. So what does this have to do with my blog? First, I officially gave up on a running A-frame with Brink today. This bothers me because I know I could train him to do it, except I have no way of getting an A-frame and probably won't be able to get one for years, so I have to go to a 2 on, 2 off, because I can train that behavior in my back yard. So, that was an easy solution and I should let it go, right? I'll be happier in the long run that I decided to do this.
Now for all the other things planned in 2011. Trying out for world team-I still want to do this, even though I have no expectation of making the team at this point. The problem is that I don't know if I will actually be able to go to any of the regionals I have planned. This also affects the goal of doing my Half-Ironman in Ireland in September. I really liked when my only worry was whether or not I could get the time off to go do the stuff I wanted to do or said I was going to do.
Unfortunately, I need to get my business off the ground to be able to do all the things I said I was going to do. And now I'm playing the waiting game...