Country Bumpkin Visits the Big City

 

I returned somewhat late last evening from the Central Veterinary Conference in Kansas City.  I was gone for 4 days, which isn't really very long.  It felt like forever! And...it went really fast!  :D

I have never been to any other type of conference, although this is my third trip to the CVC.  It is FULL of continuing education, which is required for technicians and veterinarians to maintain their licenses.  I adore CE.  I am a CE addict!  CVC is a little slice of heaven for me.  (as an aside, I am also addicted to office supplies. Office Max and Staples are my stores of choice, unless there is an Agility Store somewhere I have never been to!  I hear there the a "box store" somewhere.  I would love that as well)  I'm odd.  I know.  

Oops.  I got lost there for a sec.  But seriously, there are 22 (I counted) options of classes for each session of each day to choose from.  Doing the math...that means I had over 600 classes to choose from.  Of course time limits that, as well as conflicts when there is more than one session I want to attend offered at one time.  It required a great deal of thought to organize my schedule each day.  All in all, I was very pleased with nearly all the sessions I attended, I learned a lot, and I brought home a lot of ideas to put in place in the practice.  All very exciting!
 
CVC is in the city.  Kansas City, which as far as cities go, is pretty nice, and not nearly as large as say...Chicago. LA or New York.  Huge culture shock for a country bumpkin such as myself.  It's not that it surprises me. I am a born and raised Chicagoan (ahem...suburbs, but we visited a lot).  I look for things now. Things I never looked for before I traveled as a DogNut.  Such as, if I had managed to bring a dog with me...where would I take it to potty?  Those grass opportunities are very limited.  And, I wonder how one house-trains a puppy when they have to take an elevator to get them outside!  YIKES!  Yet, my impression is that there are a large number of apartment dwelling dogs in cities.

Driving in the city, definitely a whole 'nother world!  I drove in, let the valet park my car, took the shuttles from the motel to the conference, and when we were ready to come home, I took my keys from the valet and we drove away.  Nice.  Still, getting out of Kansas City was fraught with hazards such as, needing to turn left, when my backwards head thought right was left....and merging onto 35N.  Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  Can you say...3 lanes in just a couple of seconds?  Cody congratulated me on my bravery.  I think his knees were shaking.   We needed to get on, and get left 3 lanes to follow the road.  Yikes.  I know my knees were shaking! And we only almost hit that red car that was coming right 3 lanes.  

And so....

It is SO good to be home.  My wonderful hubby greeted me with a delicious plate of crackers, my favorite peppered turkey, incredible merlot cheese paired with a red wine. Lovely snack.  A bit of that and I was more than ready to sleep in my own bed on our quiet little farm.

The hardest part of this particular trip was missing four days of my puppy's life.  I missed everyone, John, Elizabeth, and Ethan (who is home, which is a story of it's own...grrr...to HCC) and Crystal, Pi, Buddy, Alice and Indy.  And....Stevie. 

I missed Stevie the most, and I think I have figured out why. I have very mixed feelings about admitting that.  In part, because I adore all my dogs.  The little girls (as I call the group of 3, Allie, Indy and Stevie) are my hope for the future of my agility fun, and it's odd knowing that one seems more special than the other two.  They are all (all 6) integral to my heart, and all 6 are deeply loved, cared for, and live wonderful lives.

But.....

Stevie has wormed her darling little self into the part of my heart where Jane lives.  That is a feat.  Who knew there was room in there?  Certainly not me.  More than that however, is that I have had her a relatively short time.  I dunno...6, 7 weeks?  She is so young. She is learning so fast and  she is so much fun to train.  I just missed the daily clicker training sessions, and the time I spend teaching her it is okay to tug. I missed all that, and the snugly time she gives me. 

As a special gift for my homecoming, Stevie's ears are both up!  (HA HA...for today! Rather, for this moment)  I am going to try to capture them and post a pic.  

Wish me luck. 

Words I admire

Some of you may have noticed, I am not a person lacking in words.

Here are my two all time favorite quotes.  Does everyone have some favorite quotes? I am sure you can appreciate their irony.

Fave quote 1.

Eschew Obfuscation

Fave quote 2.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

                              ~Wm. Shakespeare

 

 Someday, I am going to get them on t-shirts.  I can't wait to wear them  :D

Changing Habits

A Time to Change: empty nest

Habits

They say it takes 21 days to create a habit.

I'm banking on being able to change several habits concurrently, because I just don't want to have to do it consecutively.  Guess it all boils down to a lack of patience.  Imagine that.

Exercise

My daughter and I have signed up to run a Color 5K in Des Moines on October 6.  I am so excited about this!  First off, if you watch the video, it looks like an incredibly uplifting experience of pure joy.  (shocking to type that, since running is FRAUGHT WITH PAIN for me!)  HA HA.  I will likely run/walk.  Well, no,  walk/run.  Well...probably walk a lot and jog a little.  But look at this!!!  How FUN does it look? WOOO HOOOO!  I actually cannot wait to do this...and it is exercise!

In the mean time, I have to build a few good habits.  Gotta get out and walk/jog a little.  No, more than a little. 

Habit 1: regular exercise

Diet

I also have to improve my consumption habits.  We all know the drill.  More veggies and fruits.  Fewer carbs, fewer and healthier fats, healthy protein choices.  Anyone that knows my husband knows that he is the cook in the family.  Cooking is a huge chore for me, and generally a delight to him.  Win, win!  Except that John is one stubborn guy, and he cooks what he wants to.  I will ask nicely for healthier food, and he will sweetly cook it for me.  When he feels like it.  :D  This makes it my job to a) be nice and b) pick through what he offers.

Habit 2: eat healthier


I believe I will break that one down into more specific  choices, such as 3 servings of  fruit and 3 servings of non-starchy veggies daily etc.  Then I can get credit for good more often for eating things like peaches that I LOVE, and specific goals are incredibly important to me.  I love checking off boxes, and I actually draw them on my lists so I can check them off.  

Record keeping

Then I get down to my pups.  Pi is now my new running...I mean walking/jogging-a-little buddy. I find the prospect of taking him to trials entirely too stressful.  I do agility for fun.  Pi is a blast to train, and a blast to run.  But I just cannot depend on him to be sensible with other dogs.  He has made some stellar choices in the recent past.  Every once in a while, however, he just makes a choice bad enough to ruin all my confidence that I can enjoy being at a trial with him.  Sigh.  Of course I would make that decision just as he is ready to trial.  But I suppose that is to be expected.  I didn't have to decide earlier.

Stevie is doing wonderfully and a total joy to train.  Clearly, God has created me another heart dog and I feel incredibly fortunate.  Alice is coming along, as is Indy in many ways.  I still have to separate them due to Indy's focus on Allie.  This is a challenge to manage, and I fail in that more often than I succeed.

Habit 3: Keep a training journal.

I have one.  I love it.  I don't use it as often as I train, which is silly.  In 21 days it will just be second nature to me and I won't have to remind myself to do it.  That's how it is supposed to work anyway.  

I think that all these resolutions are something akin to a New Year for me, and it is simply because my son left for college this morning.  He is my youngest, and a sophomore, so this isn't exactly a new experience.  History has taught me I have to keep busy when my kids leave the nest.  

When Emilie my oldest, left for college, I taught Jane to weave in three weeks and took her to Border Collie Nationals for her first trial.  That was a great decision and opened an entire new life for me.  

All of these things play together.  A more fit trainer is a more energetic trainer, and more fun to learn from.  (please don't call the grammar police on me..yikes).  A more fit handler is a better handler.  

Thus:  Fix me, eh?   So excited!!!

LOL  

To rant, or not to rant

A soliloquy on the evils of misinformation

The dog-peeve

It should be a pet peeve.  But I am a DogNut, and this is a dog blog (isn't that cute? and I am sure it is completely original HA HA) so it is a dog-peeve today.  I have truly debated today, blog a rant, or not? Right, wrong...here goes. 

For some inexplicable reason, there are people in the world that get an idea (about which they are sadly misinformed) and feel obliged to misinform a whole mess of other gullible people.  

This could easily be applied to many disciplines from politics to religion to...wait for it...dum, dum, dum......animal health care!!!  It's true, I consider myself reasonably well educated in this area, and while I am comfortable with people holding opposing viewpoints, I am hugely opposed to people trying to misinform others, potentially putting others' pets at risk.  This is where I start the slow boil.  Nope.   It is a rolling boil!!!

Let me start with a little background.  I am a Registered Veterinary Technician in the state of Iowa.  What does that mean? It means I have an AAS in Veterinary Technology from an AVMA accredited program, and that I have taken and passed both the state and national board exams. (as an aside, I also have a BS in Equine Science....critters are in my blood)  I have had 15 years experience in the field.  I have taught in the veterinary technician program at Muscatine Community College.  I have (and still do) work for the practice that was literally the FIRST practice in Iowa to adopt the minimal vaccine protocol for dogs and cats, even prior to it being adopted by the AVMA and AAHA.  I have an intense interest in animal health and immunology/ vaccinology and our practice stays on top of current thinking in veterinary medicine. I am proud of the practice where I work for those reasons, and more.

There are those in the world that will believe whatever dramatic thing they read on the net. They are choosing to not educate themselves. I worry something fierce about their pets. 

I have concluded that there are myth spreaders, sad souls that  need attention.  To that end, they will find a little piece of truth and exploit it.  They dramatize it, and make it more that it is, and get a lot of Oooooos and Ahhhhhhs from folks that love their pets SO much the gullible among us choose to believe what they hear and take risks with their pets, with their very best intentions!!! 

Having said that, I want to be very clear that I respect the right of each pet owner to choose how to care for  their animals.  All I wish, is that the clients make choices from a place of good education.  There is a lot of bad information on the web.  Be careful, be clear, and understand what decision you are actually making. There are seldom single right answers in veterinary medicine.  There are personal choices and each choice should be made by the owner with his/her specific circumstance in mind. And each choice is to be respected and not to be judged.

Let me finally get to the point of my rant. In the past month  I have seen instructions from a well-intentioned breeder regarding the vaccine protocol that was expected the puppy owners to follow.  Reasoning:  I have seen too many puppies crippled from distemper vaccine.

I could point out the incidence of crippling vaccine reactions (and the bad pseudoscience blaming the vaccine) vs the incidence of other reactions vs no reactions.  But you get the point.

Then I received a post on Facebook containing an article on the evils of Lyme vaccine.  The post was followed by a pitiful response of owners grateful for the warning of the poison their veterinarian was forcing on them for monetary gain.  I had to point out that the information in the article was from 2001.  Much had changed and the article contained no relevant information.

Today it is an article of the vast veterinary conspiracy that the veterinary community is trying to pull on the dog owning public in an effort to sell heart-worm prevention and tests.  No comment.

Sigh.  

The non-rant  or .... the good news

And then I realized the real truth.  I don't personally know any of these people.  The people I know, are well informed themselves.  The people I know, seek veterinary professionals that they trust, and they know is not scheming to cause ill-health to their pets for profit.  That is my best advise, and no one I know even needs it!!! 

So my conclusion?  Stop reading the garbage Judi!  Recognize the sensible and wonderful dog friends that you know, and be happy that they aren't the sad and gullible folks that prefer to take lay-advise from the internet over the advise of their veterinarian.  Quit fretting about things you can not control.  And for pity's sake...block the posts from those that post them!

Time to go play with my puppies, who by the way, if you didn't know?  Are the light of my life. :D

Puppy Love

My life is full of it right now.  Full of puppy love I mean. Puppies are enchanting and amazing.  They are also busy, and into everything!.  Stevie is, in fact, busier and into more stuff than any toddler I have encountered.  She especially likes to chew.  I remember a recent facebook post I wrote because I caught myself telling Stevie that No, she may not, in fact, chew on the house.  It made me laugh at myself, and then at Stevie.  (the very same day I had to tell her not to chew on the car!  Seriously!  Hilarious!)

She does not limit herself to just the car, or even just the house.  Anything is fair game!  Stevie will chew on the concrete pavers that make up the patio, the patio chairs, anything green and growing (salad anyone?  I believe she prefers ranch dressing).  Nothing is safe from the teething puppy!

Sometimes, she is just naughty about it.  She has a particular affinity for a sweet little stool I picked up at an antique store.  I recovered the stool with fabric that matches my favorite rocker and it is now full of little puppy tooth scrapes.  She can be very quiet about it, but even when I catch her, and tell her NO,  Stevie just lifts her head for a moment.  Then with a glint of pure puppy evil, opens her mouth to see what I do.  If all I do is say NO again, she,  steadily keeping her eyes on mine, puts those teeth on that stool, and with another NO, she is off chewing. She never takes her eyes off my face.  That girl knows what she is doing!!!

OK.  I confess, it does make me laugh. Of course, I get up and stop the chewing, but the routine of naughty puppy  taking one step after another, asking so very clearly, How about this?  Can I get away with this?  Gotten away with it she has!  Enough to require that at some point in the future, I will have to refinish my sweet little stool.  

I fear I am not a very good dog trainer.  There are some naughty things that a dog can do that are just darn cute, and because Stevie is so very good at charming her mom with those sparkling little eyes, I end up laughing at her.  The only good thing I do in a situation like that is redirect her.  I like to tell myself that redirection keeps me from being a complete failure as a trainer.  It's the little things that keep me sane.  =D

In spite of me being a pushover, that little stinker is making decent progress in puppy class.  She is (in my ever so humble opinion) the super-star of puppy class.  Her sits and downs are conscious decisions and getting quicker each time we practice.  She is doing nice loose leash walking and some heeling with automatic sits. I do it on both sides, since she is destined for agility if I have anything to say about it!  She does lovely nose touches and come to sides, and is spinning both directions even while heeling.  Did I tell you she was a superstar?  Oh, and she is starting to sit pretty.  It is sooooo precious!

Last but not least, this little puppy apparently pouted all day while I was at work. Elizabeth was afraid she was actually sick, but the minute I walked in the door, Stevie sparkled and shined and we played.  She ate with gusto and tortured the big dogs.  Stevie is fine, but I wonder if the rest of us will ever recover?  

 I hope not!

PS  I took a picture of the stool and the naughty chewing puppy to post, but instant upload can't seem to find them.  I am so techno challenged.  Sigh. 

I don't know what kind of etiquette exists for bloggers.  How often should you post an entry?  Is once daily too often? What about the length of posts. How long is too long?  Is there such a thing as too short?  (ha, as if)  So many questions!  Hopefully, I will learn the answers as time goes by.  I don't see any Blogging Handbook on the site.  I suppose that means it isn't really very important?

John and I are getting ready to take a short trip next weekend.  A little get-away of sorts. We are going to Indianapolis for the Drum Corps International Finals. I don't actually get to go to the finals, but John does.  We are going to stay with John's brother Scott, and he has a pool!  So even though I don't have a ticket to the Drum and Bugle Corps finals, I will have a very lovely few days lounging around the pool and playing with my puppies. 

We could leave all the dogs home.  My daughter Elizabeth would take care of the entire pack if I asked her to.  Ethan, my son, is still home from college, and he would help.  But we have some....management issues in the pack.  And anyway, I don't wanna leave them all.  I wanna play with them!  To me, time not at work, is  time to play with my puppies!

Buddy and Crystal are easy.  They can stay home where they are comfortable. They are easy to take care of.

Buddy - staying
Crystal - staying

Stevie is a no brainer - going.

This hangs on our back door so everyone knows not to let him out.

Pilot can only go outside supervised. He is a jumper. No, not a jumper....a JUMPER! Over the years we have made modifications to Pi-ize the fence, but he has one-upped us each time.  It WAS a four foot woven wire fence along the sides and the back, with a 4 foot picket fence along the front edge of the back yard.  Pi learned he could jump the picket fence on the east side of the house.  So John made that fence higher with pieces of hog panel on top, making it 6 foot just on that one side. Doesn't exactly look the best, but we all do things to keep our dogs safe, and it did work.  Pi then discovered the picket fence on the west side of the house.  More hog panel.  Finally of course, he discovered he could jump the woven wire and we had to figure out how to raise the that fence, which is not  simple because it just wouldn't support hog panels!  But my husband is resourceful and figured out how to add more woven wire on top of the woven wire.  All in all, the fence is an aesthetic work of art.  NOT.  But it kept Pi safe...for a while.  Finally we had to add a couple of strands of hot wire about 18 inches inside the fence. Pi could safely hang out, which he dearly loves.

Until a month or so ago.

All that was missing was the right motivation. Once Pi heard me playing in the front yard with Stevie all bets were off and over the picket/hog panel fence he came.  Now he just jumps the stupid fence to scare me.  Sigh.   He used to spend hours surveying his kingdom.  He looks like Mufasa of the Lion King sitting on Pride Rock.  Now he has to be supervised (until we can one-up him again) It is a game.  We, the humanoids will win.  Muah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Pi - going, but not with us. 

Pi is going to spend the time with my older daughter Emilie.  She has a border collie, Kate, and a cat, Steve (don't say it.  I know) but Emilie is a runner and looking forward to having him visit and run with her.  At least she tells me that, maybe so I don't feel like I am putting a burden on her.  It worked.  :D  Kate can't run with her.  She just turned 12 and has some bad arthritis from chronic Lyme disease.  Kate is the perfect grand-dog so Pi better be nice to her.

I have to decide, among the other two "little girls" who should stay, who should go.   It is my inclination to take all three, Stevie, Allie and Indy.  Wonder if I can fit 3 crates in the dogmobile? It did occur to me that this is a good time for Indy and Allie to be separated.  Since Alice has an issue with coming inside (I have to go get her.  It can be an infuriating game which is unfair to ask my kids to play) I will take her for sure.  That leaves Indy.  As of this typing, I am going to leave her here with Crystal and Buddy.  Maybe. I wanna play with her too!!!

Alice - going. 
Indy - staying...or going. 

Time to figure out how to fit 3 crates in the dogmobile.

Dog Days of Summer

Dog Days of Summer

An Introduction to my dog world

Every day is a dog day in my world.  I would never have it any other way.  

I currently share my life with  6 dogs.   5 are border collies and 1 is supposed to be.  LOL.  No one told him that BC's are supposed to want to herd.  His particular specialty is cuddling.  Buddy (that's his name) could win the summer Olympics Dog Cuddling event.  Gold medal.  

Crystal - the blonde

Buddy is getting old.  So is Crystal.  Crystal is my husbands dog.  She is blonde.  I don't mean that she is blonde - golden haired.  I mean that she is BLONDE!  She has been my hubby's working sheepdog.  However, unlike most working border collies who resent being micromanaged, Crystal invites it.  She relishes it.  And if she doesn't get the extra direction she wants?  She just stops and looks back.  How is this Dad?  It's pretty sweet and very blonde.  It works for them.  She doesn't work much anymore, which is ok with her I think.

LuckyMe Takes Two to Fly

Pi.  See why I fell for him?

The youngsters of the pack include Pi.  Pi is short for Pilot.  He is a big blue boy with impulse control issues and one blue eye.  He is everything I didn't want in a dog when I adopted him.  Big, blue, lots of white, MALE.  But I loved him immediately from his picture.  His impulse control issues are with other dogs.  I adopted Pi when he was about 13 months old.  Pi is beautiful and has a bigger than life personality.  And...Pi is pushy.  I actually think he is the pushiest dog I have ever owned.  He has been pushing me around now for about 2 1/2 years.   Now I am finally pushing back. It makes me tired. It is making him a nicer dog to live with, and increasing the strength of the bond between us.  But that's for another post.

LuckyMe Down the Rabbit Hole

Then there is Alice.  Alice is SO incredibly cute. Alice is cute and very athletic.  I will make her an agility partner!   She was also adopted about 1 year of age.  She is tiny.  Tiny as in she can walk under Pi.  She is also a runner.  Allie spent her entire first year of life running a fence in someones back yard in the twin cities MN.  This past year, we have spent working on being with people.  Not that people were a problem, but running, especially car chasing, was really her preference.  When I get this dog's bond (and I WILL get it) she will be a wonderful agility partner.  It's a process.  She no longer runs up to the tires of parked cars to bite them.  I consider that progress.  Big progress actually!


Indy is almost a year.  August 14 is her birthday.  I got Indy when she was 5 months old.  I accidentally made a big mistake with Indy.  (by the way, her name is Indy because she is a red and white border collie, and my husband is a Hoosier. You know, a Hoosier, strange name for people from Indiana who all love red because it is the Indiana University colors! So her PAL name will be LuckyMe Hoosier Girl, call name Indy)  She is supposed to be John's dog, but we all know that I want her, and I have been taking her a little at a time.  Poor John.  

LuckyMe Hoosier Girl

Anyway, my big mistake with Indy was not noticing that she was focusing on Alice too much, to the exclusion of me.  Sigh.  So now, I am working on undoing that preference.  Another process.  I regret missing that because it has made my life so much harder now.   I don't think it is a lost cause, but we could be working on other things....like agility.

RockIt Pride and Joy

Last but not least is RockIt Pride and Joy.  Call....Stevie as in Stevie Ray Vaughn.  Stevie is a girl.  I was advised I am going to get tired of correcting people.  Yeah.  Don't care.  The name is what I want, and I like the name Stevie.   And  I LOVE Stevie the puppy.  It has been a long time since I have had a puppy.  Technically, Indy was quite the puppy when I got her.  It probably was a bad choice to take her.  I was working too much (both teaching Anesthesia to vet tech students and working as a veterinary technician.)  So her puppy-hood slipped through my fingers.  I'm disappointed I let that happen.



But I digress. Stevie is special.  All dogs are,  especially all ours.  But Stevie and I connected FAST.  She velcroed to me incredibly quickly.  She does things, Janie things.  Janie was my first border collie.  Janie changed my life.  I lost her to renal failure last November, and I can now recognize that I was quite depressed until Stevie came into my life.  Here I had a wonderful life, incredible hubby and family, great job, wonderful dogs surrounding me, but no Janie.  Now, Stevie is here.  Once again, I had to be forced to take a dog that I thought was not right for me.  Jane showed me how wrong I was.  Now Stevie has as well. 

My Janie <3

As I said, Stevie does Jane things.  Like watch TV.  Sleep under my feet.  Follow me everywhere, even into the bathroom.  Give me drive by leg kisses.  There are lots of little Jane things that Stevie does naturally.  Stevie is her own soul, she is not Jane and I don't want nor expect that.  But it does help heal the hole in my heart.   So thanks to my friend Ellen and a little border collie puppy, my heart is once again full, and singing.


Well, that is a lot.  This blog will be full of dog stuff.  My life is full of dogs.  I'm sure some days I will type about other things.  But not today.  =D