Friday, December 28, 2012

What's that you hear....

Nothing!! 

Yep, its been just 2 days but so far it has been a quiet 2 days and I think I'm starting to like my horse again!  LOL  He actually got zapped on the butt this morning, he stood too close to the wall and shocked himself, then kept looking at the wall as if to say "What the heck just happened, why did you shock me?"  :)  I was smiling of course because I have seen a jerk of a horse, act normal..  He doesnt come in the barn/stall trying to bite Edgar anymore, he doesnt try to charge at the other stall, he hasnt been kicking or leaning..  he still pins his ears towards Edgar, but thats normal feeding behavior for a horse and is the extent of it, I could not be happier!!!  I will continue to cross my fingers that he doesnt find a way around this latest plan (as he could if he really wanted).  He's far from "fixed" in behavior issues, he has a lot of maturing still to do, but I am hopeful once again...

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Plan C

Unfortunately I had to come up with plan C when it comes to the A-hole out in the barn that is still trying to kick the walls..  The chains work OK but are not 100% fool proof..  they do break off inwhich he quickly discovers this and gets back to kicking and when the chains are still in tact, he leans on the wall and constantly is still finding ways to bang on the barn.  Its driving me nuts!! 

So tonight as I sat watching TV, listening to bang bang out in the barn once again, I implemented Plan C on the spot..  At 9pm I was nailing out in the barn, installing hotwire on the wall that he keeps banging on...  So now he cant lean on it and I suppose he could still kick it, but hopefully he'll find himself getting shocked in doing so and learns to quit.  I did take the chains off, I want him to feel full power to attempt to kick or lean so he will get zapped, so fingers crossed this works.  The bummer part of all this is that its winter.. so I'm not riding much these days and riding him seems to be the only time I like him!!  :)  lol  I still daydream about owning my dream horse but I'm still not ready to put him up for sale, so he's still has a home with me for now.

Christmas was yesterday, was a non-traditional year for our family since the Schwartzenberger Family had our gathering on Saturday, the first time I can ever remember it not being on Christmas Eve!  I thought it was great though because everyone was able to attend and noone had to really leave early or come late due to other family obligations.  We spent Christmas Eve this year with my dad's family whom we have not celebrated with in probably close to 20 years!!  We also did our immediate family on Eve as well so that left Derek and I with no plans for Christmas Day.. and nothing is what we did..  :)  Unless you count waking up, making breakfast, opening presents, watching TV / Movie, cooking Prime Rib dinner and in bed by 8:30pm!
The Schwartzenberger Christmas had a competition this year to wear an ugly Christmas Sweater so this was my creation!  I thought it was kinda cute, so I'm not suprised I didnt win; however, I did take 2nd to Jennifer  :)
 
And we finally got a full Christmas photo of all that attended this year...  turned out to be a great picture!


 Derek and I have been wanting to get a logo created for our dog club, so we went to a website that designers go to and listed our wants/needs for a logo and after 5 or 6 creations were submitted, we picked this one!  We had him modify a few things to get to this final stage but we love it!!  We just hope now that the rest of the club likes it..  As we didnt ask permission to create a logo but also will not be asking the club to pay us back for it.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Ho Ho Ho

Ready for Christmas, with 3 days to spare even!  Took all of December (to date) to get motivated to do the shopping and just get zoned in to the festivities coming up.  Derek and I finally spent a day out together, buying presents and accomplished our goal of getting everyone taken care of within about a 5 hour window!  The list was not long but we had fun. 

Yesterday I finally sat myself down to find a craft idea (or 2) for our family gift exchange and am very happy with what I came up with.. spent the evening crafting and I think they are both pretty cool..  Jennifer is trying to get me now motivated for the ugly sweater contest, she says she's going to kick my ass with her ugly sweater, which is probably true since I havent decided if I will even do one..  I'm not cute and thin, so I cant just go to goodwill and find some ugly sweater.. although she said she hand-crafted her's, I dont know that I have a shirt I want to ruin to hand craft my own...  so I'm in a dilema.. I want to be festive, but not sure I have the shirt to do it with.

We have not put up a tree this year, I was all ready to get one a few weeks ago, but it never happened and I felt a bit overwhelmed with life, so we just didnt do it this year!  :)  Which i'm okay with, I did dig out our stockings, and the jewelry tree I made 20 years ago and another small tree I made probably 15 years ago.. so we are decorted as much as its gonna get!  lol 

Christmas came early for Derek & I this year, he needed some hunting gear and I wanted an elliptical machine, so we bought them; and there didnt seem to be any point to wrap them, since we both wanted to get right to using our gifts! 

The dogs are about to find themselves on the street if they do not start behaving.. what is with my animals!  They decided the kitchen floor would make for a fine new chewing toy and proceeded to tear up a large (highly visible) section! GRRRRR.. coulda killed them all, well except Russell who just stood on the bare spot as if to say "Do you see what those kids did!!"

I've filled my plate with one more responsibility for 2013, I was roped into becoming the Secretary for our Dog Club..  I was blindsided with the "non-spoken" request.. I accepted.  Derek is on the board, so I typically go to the meetings anyways.  Plus I am the Treasurer of the horse club this next year too, and I'm co-chair of our annual Prize Ride... the year is filling up and 2012 isnt even over yet!!  :)

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Willie or Willie Not..

That is still the question! 

I type that as I sit here on my porch at 9:30am in 40 degree weather, waiting for him to kick the barn!  lol  I attempted to do this yesterday, spent almost an hour outside in 37 degree weather, just waiting..  But the cold won out yesterday, I am a bit more prepared today.  The chains have been working, Willie does not stand and kick the wall anymore..  But he has figured out he can lean into the wall and scrape his leg up/down and still bang it around a bit.  So now we are on to option B....

!! Shock Therapy !!

Again, I am feeling more than barbaric, a bit evil.. sitting here almost smiling, waiting for him to misbehave so I can press the magic button.  Although he has not kicked the wall yet (the chains have been taken off for this experiment), but he was biting at Edgar a lot as he waited for his breakfast, so I was able to test the little zapper out on that bad behavior.  The collar has 1-127 levels, I started on 10, that did nothing, 15, 30, 45, 60.. all did nothing..  But 75 worked JUST FINE!  :)  I toned it down to 70.  I think he was feeling it at probably 60, but not enough. 

An now it is snowing!!  :)

So I have been stressed about Willie lately but I'm trying to change my perspective so I dont get to the point of giving up.  I have to tell myself to work through this.. because I do enjoy riding him.  His arena type training is very soft and he's fun to play with in that environment and he always does good out on the trail, better than expected.  I figure while he is still young and dumb, he'll just get the chain treatment when he is tied up to the trailer to keep him from kicking and bucking while tied and I'll continue to work on this barn kicking issue and see if we can resolve it.  Worst case scenario, he gets more work and is worth more down the road.. right!  lol

I have been getting in a lot more riding this winter than normal, its been nice to have a reason to get out.  :)  It can get so gloomy and rainy that you just dont want to do anything horse related, so having Suzi as a neighbor who's always up for an arena ride, has motivated my behind into getting out almost weekly, if not twice!  I am just so darned happy for Edgar and Suzi, she's doing great with him, he is happy and Suzi's friend rode him the other day and got him to lope over and over again.. YEAH!  That might seem silly, but Edgar just doesnt lope often, especially under saddle.. I think i've loped him maybe 5 times since I've had him.. seriously!  He's awkward getting up into the lope, but he did it, so I'm hopeful now that Suzi can grow with Edgar in the future.  What a great match this has been, I honestly dont mind paying some to keep the 3rd horse when I feel this good watching them together! 

Oh the cold is settling in.. Willie is eating quietly and I'm freezing..  I might have to go inside soon...

Christmas is 2 weeks away and we are not even close to prepared..  Havent bought anyone a darn thing, havent crafted our gift exchange gifts yet and today I just want to sit and be lazy..  Last night was our horse club Christmas Party..  It was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed the social aspect.. Unfortunately dinner was not good..  Derek had prime rib, which I thought was tastey (he reluctantly gave me a bite) but for my chicken dish, I expected a breast, but got a thigh?  It was dark meat, fatty with the skin on, no bone, but I actually thought it was kinda nasty!  For $30, I expect the best part of the chicken, the white breast...  Not the cheap cut..  So I'm dissappointed.. I ate it because I was hungry, but picked it apart pretty good.  Which is too bad, cuz I LOVE the location and for dinner/lunch any other time, their food is really good.

Well I think I must head in to the house.. although its not snowing any more, my toes are turning blue..  I will just have to listen for barn kicking instead of watching... 

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Remind me why I own animals??

Its been one of those days..

I was awoken early by the sound of "bang bang bang bang"  silence...  "bang bang bang"..  If I had a gun handy I woulda shot Willie!   Periodically over the past few months, we hear him out kicking the stall.  His stall is next to Oakley's and apparently, he is not an Oakley fan!  He doesnt care much for Edgar either, clearly my horse is not gay!  So instead of each horse minding their own business, no they both stand next to their adjoining wall, peering at eachother through the gaps in the boards (remind me to tell you why there are gaps) and Oakley antagonizes, while Willie stands there and bucks/kicks the wall...  This morning it was out of control..  Just Bang Bang Bang, non stop almost..   So out of bed I flew to rearrange horses and goats, isolating Willie to the other side of the barn which I had wanted to avoid doing.  I didnt want to displace the goats but I had to put Willie in the goats stall that used to be Edgars...  See Edgar will share the stall, but Wille will NOT!  ;)

So back to the gaps in the boards.. apparently Oakley is bored!  He's chewing the barn, the tree in his paddock, anything his little mouth can reach...  He's chewed a 2x6 in half and many others are on their way to being destroyed completely.

So my morning continues...  When I walked back into the house and headed to feed the dogs, I see something wrong in the kitchen!  One of the dogs (most likely Ellie) decided that last night was a good night to chew on the linoleum floor and create a "spot" that sticks up and now is going to drive me crazy!  See, we have determined that Derek is allergic to the dogs.. not just a minor thing, but he breaks out in big hives, itching and such.  Doctors say you can be breed specific with allergies so apparently Jack Russells are not a breed he is allergic to.  I think it is mostly Cooper, but it is likely to be Ellie as well.  Russell and Ellie sleep in the bedroom in a crate together, Cooper sleeps outside the bedroom.  Last night we decided that Ellie no longer gets to sleep in the bedroom to help alleviate dog dander and my guess is that decision really pissed her off and she decided to make it known she was not happy!

I was so frustrated with animals this morning that I had a lump in my throat and was on the verge of crying..  I'm glad I had to focus on getting to work because I was so angry at them all that I could hardly stand to look at them.  Poor Russell, although I didnt yell at him, the other 2 got a stern talking to and looked guilty as shit..  Blind old Russell just stood there waiting for love and I was in no mood. 

My fear is that today when Derek gets home he will find a kitchen floor torn up..  I have been anxious all day about it. 

I dont really want Willie on the opposite side of the barn, I want either Oakley or Edgar over there because those 2 horses will share that stall with the goats and its the best stall for the goats...  So I want Willie stalled next to another horse, but I dont want Willie kicking, so I've come up with a solution!!   I'm going to buy/create some kick chains..  Each back leg will have a chain attached to it and if he wants to kick, he will hurt himself!  I not only want him to stop because he is going to hurt himself and destroy my barn walls, I want him to learn it is NOT OK to kick.. period!!   I'm hoping this solution will work.. If not the next step will be to attach a shock collar to him..  no joke!  They now make them for horses for issues like this..  We have a friend with a dog collar so I would borrow his collar and hook Willie up to it.  The only reason that is not my #1 option to try is that I have to be around to punish him, whereas the kick chains are self-punishing whether I'm home or not.

The thought has crossed my mind as the year draws near that Willie had til the end of this year to prove to me he was worthy of keeping..  And if I didnt enjoy riding him, he would be for sale.. let me tell ya, I had to calm myself before doing anything rash this morning as I wanted to put his ass up for sale immediately.  I'm a little suprised the neighbors have not complained yet..  BUT I do like him.. he is a sweet horse and loves people, and he's a pretty solid ride.  He's not 100% perfect for darn sure with riding, he's still a bit of a project and maybe thats why I like him so much as a riding horse, I've always been drawn to project horses.. 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Hunting, speeding and 4H..

Once again, it appears I have been slacking in my responsibilities to my readers.. haha

Edgar is doing really great!  He looks good and is now being leased by the neighbor girl Suzi..  She became a bit attached to him in his rehab-state so her parents are going to help cover some of his feed costs so that we can keep him for her to use this coming year as her 4H project! 
I hauled him down to the fairgrounds this past weekend for a training day, it was a great experience for them both.  Suzi is the one in pink.  She is still learning to ride, I've taken her out to Shannon (my trainer friend) for a lesson and I haul Edgar down to another arena on Friday nights so she can get more ride time in on him.  She is improving, as is he..  He will be a great walk/trot project for her this year.  We are excited (well I know I am anyways).. it is fun watching them together, gives me warm fuzzies inside!  :)

We've discovered that Oakley is incredibly frightened by the smell of duck!!  I think I told the story about my brother sitting on Oakley earlier this summer and Derek held a duck up to Oakley's nose.. and Oakley FREAKED OUT!  And I mean panicked..  He jumped, skipped, humped up, bucked, reared and bolted at the smell...  Well Derek went out to the barn the other day and had his hunting gear on and Oakley again panicked and wouldnt let Derek anywhere near him..  Last night, in his regular work clothes, Oakley still is very spooked by Derek and doesnt want him touching him.  So I think we have created a problem and Oakley has a very negative association with Derek and suprisingly, it is going to take a bit of effort for Derek to get Oakley calmed down around him!  :(  Very odd...

Willie has been up/down lately when I've ridden him.  He HATES to be ridden in his paddock, he's a complete shit..  He will buck and rear, do anything to not have me ride him in his environment.. But then I hauled him out to Shannons and in her arena, he is as good as can be expected...  Suzi was with me when he was being really good out at Shannons and when we got back home, she said "I think something is wrong with Willie".. I was concerned and said "is he acting weird in his stall, what do you see?"  She said "He was being good!"  LOL   

This is Cooper (in orange) with his litter-mate Mace!  Derek and Jim (the breeder) were able to take the boys out together a couple weeks ago, on the hunt for some pheasant down south of Eatonville.  Unfortunately they did not get anything, but the 2-legged and 4-legged boys all had a great time together.  Derek has been taking Cooper out for upland birds in our area, but nothing shot yet.  They went out again this morning, so maybe they will bring home some dinner!! 

Derek & Eric were able to get out together last week and shot quite a few!  There are 11 ducks and 1 snow goose on that truck..  Cooper retrieved all but 3 of those birds.  He still shows reluctancy, but hopefully with more birds over the winter, he will finally get over that BS!  He LOVES to get out though... 

Derek's work has been a bit slow the past few weeks, so he's been taking one day off each week and getting out to hunt.. Its not really by choice, but we figure he had a few vacation days saved up so might as well use them to go hunting since he was asked to take the days off anyways. 

My birthday came and went, fairly uneventful..  :)   Got myself a 2nd speeding ticket this year, the other day!  I was really mad at myself.. because I've been really good about sticking close to the limits, but that day, I saw a beautiful sunrise through the trees and wanted to get past the trees to see it come up, so I was consciously speeding.. the one damn day I purposely speed is the day the police are waiting for idiots like me...  so now I drive with my cruise control on.

We have not progressed any on the adoption issue.  We are a bit in a lull about the whole thing, trying to re-evaluate if this foster-to-adopt route is the way we really want to go..  Not really is our conclusion.  But to avoid paying a really high price to adopt, it might be our only option.  So for now, we are just moving along with life until we feel the pull one direction or another to do something about it.  We are just waiting for that family member or friend of the family type person to magically come along and provide a door for us to walk through on the adoption issue.  ;)

Friday, September 28, 2012

Other Updates

While at the ladies ride, a friend was inquiring on Edgar and how he was doing, indicating she wished the timing had worked out for her to have him since she will soon be in the market for a new trail horse.  It got me thinking and wondering if Jen/Timbre still wanted to keep him.  I knew they were headed towards divorce and since Timbre did not ride and that is who Edgar was supposed to be for, maybe she would consider giving him back to me.  Well I sent Jen a text and sure enough she was worried about the upcoming winter and how to feed 3 horses and after a week of consideration, gave him back.

I drove out to pick him up on Labor Day and was I glad I did.. he looked terrible!  :(  He was a solid 200 pounds under weight..  he looked like the run-down version of black beauty; but I kept my mouth shut and thanked her for giving him back and took him home.  It was amazing, after 1 week of food in him, he was already 100x's better looking and now its been 3 weeks and he is looking pretty darn good.  He needs the muscle tond for sure built up, but I am much happier.  My friend Tricia is not sure when/if she will ever be ready to take him so for now he is with us and we just are not sure what to do with him.  He's not ready to be placed with anyone else quite yet...  After that disaster of knowing he got so thin and suffered, we are a bit more leary now about doing that again!  I dont really want to own 3 horses as we dont need 3 horses, the mess the feed the bills.....  so it's a dilema and we are not ready to face facts and come to a decision so for now, he is with us getting fat and happy again and sometime down the road we'll have to consider the options. 

The neighbor Suzi was coming over and working with him, she seems interested in riding him and working him, her mom tells me she was upset over the summer not having our horses home for her to come play with, but I dont know if I see the drive in Suzi to come over and do whats necessary to get Edgar back into condition.  I'd love it if she did,  I want to teach her how to do things, but I dont know if I see a real interest there in learning...  maybe she is just really really shy still and uneasy at my place.. not sure.

Derek's job is doing alright, the company just had an ownership change last week so things are up in the air and who knows where this will lead him..  So far the only thing he has lost is the 401k benefits but they may get reinstated at a lower employer contribution rate.  My job never changes, same bore just another day.

Oh the goat, Mo!   We took him in for his 6 week checkup, he got the cast off and the x-ray was done..  one of the bones set perfectly, the other slipped and is not fusing properly back together.. it is fusing.. side by side!  His back leg will be an inch or so shorter than his other 3 legs as the bone has started to callus and form new bone, too late to fix it!  He still has to stay confined another 4 weeks, give the bones time to form a solid new bone.  He is doing really good and seems happy even though he still doesnt get to move around at all.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Willie or Willie not work out!!

Well I took Willie to our annual CHC Ladies Ride back in August, his first real camping trip, 5 days on his own as I did not have a girlfriend that could come along to ride Oakley.  Which I have to admit was kinda nice just because it saved me the extra work of bringing more stuff and dealing with 2 horses.  Willie was awesome on his highline!  He was next to Bobbie's mare and they got along very well, although Willie never did figure out how to lay down so by day 5, he was tired!!  Many times Bobbie & I watched him darn near buckle and fall over as he stood sleeping.  lol

We got in 3 rides over the weekend and I was very proud of him.  His back was only a tiny bit sore after the 3rd ride too, so I was happy to see that.  We rode last in the pack on our group rides and the gal right in front of me was on a VERY antsy horse.. her horse would not walk a straight line, he was over-amped and was dancing, prancing, trotting sideways.. doing anything but cooperating for his rider.  I was worried Willie would feed off the vibes, but he was steady-eddy and remained calm cool and collected, not one bit phased by any of the antics of the horses in front of him.  I was tickled pink!!!  :)

My drive home, not so happy with him as I realized he was pissed to be leaving his new girlfriend so he put quite a few new dents in my trailer.. He was bucking and kicking in the trailer...  When I got to my parents place (cant remember why I had to stop there on my way home), but anyways, he had the balls to buck/kick right infront of my eyes as I had the trailer door open, so he got his ass spanked while he stood tied in the trailer!  I am realizing he still is not great at standing tied if other horses are out of sight.. he will buck or kick whatever is around him.. definately needs more lessons on that as that is not acceptable!

I did bring Willie back home after the ladies ride to fatten him up, he still has not gained the weight I want him to, after loosing it all in training.  I've been feeding him beet pulp, senior grain and rice bran; it finally is working and he's gained some weight!  He's still a bit ribby, but he looks good.  After the ladies ride, I let him sit for a couple weeks and decided to use him to flag the trails for our club prize ride.  I was worried I had made a mistake as he was feeling fresh on all this new grain, plus he is still a VERY GREEN horse!!  What the hell was I thinking using him to carry hundred of long flowing flags on him...  The young stubborn side of my brain said "Oh it will be just fine"..

As I introduced the ribbons to Willie that morning, his initial reaction was to go straight up in the air, all 4 feet off the ground.. OH SHIT!  What was I in for.... After that initial blow up he seemed to be fine and I put the flags on the saddle horn, got on, and hoped for the best!  And I got about as close to great as I could expect out of him.  He was clearly irritated by the flags touching his legs, he is SOO darn thin-skinned that he feels everything and he didnt like the flags touching him but as long as I kept him moving, he accepted it pretty good.  He was not flaring his nostrils or spooky, he just went with it.. thank god!! 

I actually struggled more with trying to get him in the brush to hang the flags.  It was a 5-hour ride, by the end he was a bit irritated but we had no major spooking, no rearing nor bucking, so it was 100% successful.  I have realized that I am always riding him at the back of the pack so when a horse is behind us, he now gets nervous about that..  so I need to change it up when I ride from now on and make him ride in the middle or front as I dont mind being in the back, but he needs to learn to ride from any position calmly.

So here I have a horse that has been doing exceptionally well with all that I have thrown at him...  we've not been riding as much as we should but I've been so happy with him.  Then Monday night comes along.. I was itching to ride, so I put a Cashel Soft Saddle on him (a friend lent it to me).. basically it is a bareback pad with stirrups, except that when I was riding in it, I didnt feel the stirrups were safe so I did not use them.  I was in the mood to ride bareback, so I fed him his dinner, let him eat all his grain and half his hay, then got on!  Oh I should also mention I put a bit in his mouth too, wanted to try something new.  The sidepull I've been using works great, BUT because of his thin skin, it rubs a raw mark on his nose every time I ride in it, so thought maybe a bit would be better. 

Well apparently this bit was too much bit for him and he was SUPER sensitive, my hands had to be very very light.  As soon as I got on him, I knew there was a 90% likelyhood that I was going to hit the ground.. I could feel it in him as he did NOT want to cooperate.  I was just in the gravel area and couldnt get him to move away from the barn without him wanting to rear or buck so I got off, took him out to the make-shift roundpen and ran his ass off..  he was so full of evergy, I hardly did anything but stand and cluck at him and he just ran...  So when he was good and tired and sweaty, I got back on.. oh much better!  Look who wants to cooperate now.. He was feeling pretty good actually, I rode him out to the round pen but once in there, he said "screw you" and found a reason to spook, spin and jump out from under me.. I was expecting it so I was able to grab his neck on my way down and landed on my feet, but because he was still in spin mode away from me, and I didnt land square on my feet, my ankle landed hard (and poorly) and I buckled and went down.. I heard and/or felt a crunch in my ankle and knew I was down hard.. My body was fine..  but my ankle was in pain.  I called Derek to come help me up and by that evening, I was swollen and in a lot of pain.

I didnt sleep well, it was throbbing and then next morning I could barely walk.  After looking online I am sure I have a partial tear in one of the ligaments in my ankle as it was very tender to touch.  3 days later I can walk on it pretty good but it's still tender and I dont have much mobility and there is still swelling.  My bad though, I knew it was not a good idea but I wanted to ride bareback dammit!  Willie is FAR too sensitive of a horse to handle bareback and FAR too green to ride in his pasture without drama!  So Willie or Willie not work out...  I'm fairly certain Willie will work out in the end, we just have a long road ahead of us and I need to not baby him but accept the limitations of his experience. 

Yeah, we accomplished our goal.. :)

Yep, about damn time I was back on here!  Lots of updates, need to get out the calendar so I can jog my own memory on what the heck has been going on..

I think I'll start with the exciting news..  Cooper
Yes that is the 4th ribbon we had set out to earn this year!!  Which means he got his 4th pass, earning his Started Title..  Whooohooo....  We were over in Chewelah WA for the hunt test, it was a long drive but a nice area to go to.  We had a really great weekend, took all 3 dogs with us so that Cooper would stay relaxed and not get stressed.  Getting this 4th ribbon did not mean we got an easy pass, as usual Cooper tested my patience and was trying to make a fool of me in the middle of his test.  The good thing we did see is that it appears he is probably 80% over his bird issues as far as not wanting to pick them up, now he's just being a bit naughty because he gets to the bird and realizes there are far more interesting things out in the big field for him to sniff out, so he goes on "Walk-a-bouts" while in the middle of his tests!  G-Damn dog!!  lol

But the judges were patient, as was I..  I did not use ANY negative vibes and kept my talking to a minimum and actually the way I got him to pick up the bird finally was a new method I had to come up with on the spot and that was to show him I was leaving without him and turn my back to him and walk away..  That FINALLY prompted him to pick up the birds and come back to me!!  And of course swimming was his strong suit and he handled those retrieves perfectly..

Our hard work paid off, it's been a long journey this summer with him.  We feel he needs to see LOTS more fresh live birds, more dead birds from fresh hunting scenarious and a lot more field work of him just getting over the novelty of being loose out in a big field with so many smells!! 

~  Today (9/27) is Cooper's 2nd Birthday  ~

After our pass, at the ribbon ceremony on Saturday evening, we knew we were going to get wet.  Tradition is that your dog gets wet for you in the hunt tests; therefore, you will now get wet for your dog when the title is earned.  Derek wanted to take the honors because Cooper is his dog and he trains him, but I was not about to give up my seat because I felt I earned that dousing as well by training Cooper and running him in these tests..  I was not willing to let him take the honors on his own..
I earned that seat next to him on the bench!
It was only about 50 degress outside at this point, you can see the moon was out, so this was not a warm part of the day.. just hours earlier it had been 90!  As I sat in anticipation awaiting a VERY cold dumping, I was not expecting that when the water finally reached my body, it was WARM!!  I could feel on my right arm very cold water and I quickly realized that my HRC friends were looking out for me..  lol   I rather enjoyed my dousing of water, while Derek on the other hand got the full honors of the traditional dousing by getting the COLD water dump!  :)  It was hilarious!!!

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Fun in the Sun

With the hot weather these days, Derek bought the kids a sprinkler to play in. Coopey is so CRAZY!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCIf3zRr7f0

Here are some pictures too of them playing! The one of just Cooper was him all soaked after playing.


Name in Print...


Cooper posing here with his 3rd Pass Ribbon from this past weekend. Just one more to get his Started Title. We will be taking him to Chewelah in hopes of getting that pass this year.

This past week, we received the HRC Magazine. We've been waiting for it to arrive in hopes of finding Cooper in it.

Look there's his name in print! This recognizes his first ever pass

and the following 2 recognize that he received a pass at those hunt tests in June down in OR, showing Derek as the owner and Piper as the handler!!

Pass Fail

Those were the words on my mind all day this past Saturday after I had run Cooper in the hunt test.. did I pass or did we fail? The hunt test was put on by Whistling Wings HRC Club and was out in Duvall at Bob Pepper Training Grounds.

The day started in water and I knew we would have no problems there! I am very confident in his water retrieves.

The test started with a retrieve to the left side of the pond and then a short walk to make a retrieve on the right side. We are waiting in the blind for our turn to go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g2JRI3kP60

That is a video of our water retrieves.. I was really proud and happy with how well he did! We felt the test was a bit challenging for "Started" dogs since they had to swim through lily pads as well as the contoured grounds around the water. I was not worried about Cooper, but some of the other dogs did struggle a bit.

Cooper was such a Happy boy coming out of the water!


The second half of the day was our land retrieves and I went into it worried a bit and Cooper went into it, not wanting to pick up birds, apparently! Cuz I had to STRUGGLE to get him to pick up that damn bird.. It was a bit embarassing to stand on the line for so long and have him run off and wander around at the other scents in the area... I had to call him back to me at one point and send him off for a "resend" to see if he would focus a little better and get the bird. He did actually do better and finally brought me the bird.

We waited all day in anticipation of the awards ceremony in hopes of receiving a pass, but hence my name was not called :( I approached the judges afterwards and asked where we went wrong but didnt feel satisfied with the answer I got.. I was pretty upset as I had the feeling we had passed, so after waiting 7 hours to find out we did not, was a bit devastating in my mind. The judges basically said that Cooper was on the bubble and they had to do a lot of talking about him to make a decision, but because he was more interested in doing his own thing out in the field and was not responding when I said "Fetch it Up!" they failed him.

I had to walk over to our rig and have a little cry session. It was really nice because Pam (a friend from our hunt club) she had seen me approach the judges and knew I was going to be upset with my first ever fail, so she followed me back to my rig and gave me a nice hug and chatted with me about it a bit. I told her I understood why I failed just that it sucked really bad! She left me a lone as I needed to gather my thoughts and collect my emotions so that I could go back to the ceremony and not look like a blabbering fool.

When I got back they were in the middle of the raffle game for the really nice camo Benelli Shotgun! I wanted that gun.. Basically when we bought in for the game, we had a less than 1% chance of winning (yes I did calculate it out). There is a deck of cards and you pay $20 to pick a card, tear it in half and then keep one half and the other goes into a basket. During the game, they start to draw cards one at a time. If you have an A-10, when your card is drawn, you have the option to pay $10 to have your card put back in the basket. If you dont pay, then your card is done. If you have a J K or Q, you can buy back your card 2 times!! Well I drew a King.

After a very long time had gone by, our card had not been drawn yet and when there were just 6 cards left to draw from, our King was finally pulled out! So we of course paid the $10 to put it back in. When they were down to 3 cards, our King was pulled again, so we paid the $10 for our last chance. Then there were just 2 cards left in the basket!! Our card and the card belonging to Elroy (Elroy owns Earl, who is Coopers pappy!)... I had been upset earlier from our test fail so I was sitting there thinking WOW, I went from a 1% chance and now I'm at a 50% chance of winning that gun and making my day!! But I also knew that Elroy was a VERY lucky person and he has won EIGHT guns via this game... And sure enough, our card was the next one pulled; therefore leaving Elroys card in the basket as the last card drawn.. What a damn bummer that was....

As we drove home that evening, I cried most of the way home, not really sure why.. I think I didnt have clarity in my head on why we failed and it was tough.. I havent really done anything in my life as far as a competition where I have set myself up to be in a position to fail, so I was just overcome with emotion at the thought of not doing good and looking like a damn fool! ;)

Sunday I woke up with sore eyes but it was a fresh start, a new day! I tried not to have expectations and decided that no matter what happens, I was going to be successful in getting Cooper to pick up those damn birds and I was going to add "NO" to my vocabulary while in the midst of our test.. typically not a word you want to use at all! But he needs to hear it and I was ready to say it.

Land was first, and he sucked once again!! I was able to keep him from venturing off and exploring by using the NO word, but he did NOT want to pick up the birds.. And when he did, he was shaking them, plucking them and throwing them around a bit. The judge at one point even asked me in the middle of the test "Is he mangling the bird?" I said "No, he's just deplucking it".. Not a good thing. I used my whistle A LOT per Dereks expectations, but that didnt do a damn bit of good, tried the stern voice with NO and tried the baby talk.. The dog was flat out embarassing me once again!

After Cooper finally brought back both birds to me, the only thing the judge said was "You need to work on that!" Well DUH!!

I was not told that I was failed at this point, so I knew once again, we were on the bubble and the judges would need to discuss Cooper. But I also knew that water was coming up and he would end his day on a positive note with a good taste in the judges mouth when they saw him handle the water retrieves. And as I expected, he did about as perfect as possible in the water (for Coopers ability right now). The judge said as we finished "You survived!" So I took that as a sign that they were going to Pass us for the day.. WHEW!

The weekend was not a total loss.. We did learn that there is a handlers/judges seminar booklet that can be downloaded off the internet that would provide MUCH BETTER GUIDANCE on what the judges expect to see and what you can and cant do as a handler. Amazing, had someone told us about the book sooner, I probably wouldnt have been so upset the day before. After reading the book, I feel pretty darn lucky they passed Cooper at all this weekend! I overused the whistle and my voice which is a mark down and could cause you to fail. But we now finally have clear guidelines.

I am upset with Cooper about the bird issue, but every time I see him do this, it stirs up anger at his training and that it has been a year since he's been home and we still struggle to get him to pick up a F*ing bird!!! NOT AT ALL what you would expect after spending $2000 on training... release the anger.. release the anger....

We do have some fresh new ideas to try with Cooper in hopes of getting his anxiety over the birds behind him.. We have realized too that his water retrieves are AWESOME and his land retrieves SUCK! The trainer NEVER got him in the water.. Derek and I trained him to swim and taught him how to retrieve in water. So maybe he picks up birds in water because he NEVER had a negative association with the birds in water; whereas on land he HATED the birds and still doesnt want to pick them up.

I did practice all week with him on real "stanky" ducks and he retrieved them pretty good actually, so not sure where we go wrong in hunt tests.. maybe the stress and anxiety brings flashbacks to Cooper.

Friday, August 17, 2012

New Do

It was time for a change so my hair went from blonde to very dark brown! I was a bit shocked when I got out of the shower and realized just how dark it was, but it grew on me quickly and I love it.. dont really care if anyone else likes it or not. :) Its actually darker in person too when the light is not reflecting in a camera image.

I had contemplated blonde again, but with spending lots of time outside over the next week or more, thought it might be nice to go darker and have less likelyhood of burning my head!

Tomorrow we take Cooper to another hunt test out in Duvall area.. I am running him again, a bit nervous I guess cuz I dont want him to emberass me by not picking up the ducks! But we've been working this week on some duck retrieves and the birds were flat out NASTY!! but with minimal convincing, he brought me the birds. The test birds should be fresh so here's to hoping he picks those up right away!! I am excited though for him to get these 2 passes for his title, at which time I would get dowsed in a bucket of water.. a tradition for title achievements at each level. :)

Next week I leave for the annual Cascade Horse Club Ladies Ride. I'm not super thrilled about the location of the ride, it is up at Harry O in Sedro Wooley, but it's free so I guess thats the draw to it. Being with the ladies is always fun no matter where we are though. I really need to find some time to get prepared... I am bummed that the 2 girlfriends I had invited to come along to ride Oakley are not able to make it, but kinda looking forward to just being responsible for one horse this year and having more room in my trailer to take more stuff! I'm taking Ellie, she and I need some bonding time as she seems to love Derek a bit more these days than myself... 5 days with my little grrr. Looking forward to it all!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Darn Goat!

I say he might have fallen out of the tree, Derek says he probably fell off the PUD spool... either way, Mo got his leg caught on something and its gonna cost us!

He is darn lucky he has owners that give a little bit of a shit about putting some money, time and effort into saving him.. We were very skeptical that he could be saved when we first saw his leg just dangling, but Andrea assured us it probably was not as bad as it looked.

Well it was about as bad as it looked, but she felt it was worth giving it a go to fix him up. We valued the effort at about $200 and told her if she could fix him for under that, then our $75 goat was gonna have a second chance at living.
2 clean complete breaks, one just above his hock and the other just above his pastern.

This is a great x-ray showing the breaks..

Because of the breaks, the tendons/ligaments had contracted and made it very difficult to reset the bones, they would not loosen up enough to get the bones back into position so Eric, Derek & Andrea had to pull VERY HARD on that darn leg to stretch it out.. I was glad that Mo was asleep for all that torture..

All that pulling paid off though because we couldnt have asked for anything better than this reset!!

Eric & Derek are holding the leg/bones in position for casting so that they dont move.

I've never seen a cast get put on, so it was cool to see the process.

Almost done.

Casting Completed.. Never did I imagine I would pay to have a cast put on my goat! We are VERY thankful to Andrea for meeting us at her clinic and coming in after work hours to fix up Mo! Had she not been an option to go to, the reality is that Mo would not be around right now.

Once we got him home, we created a hay bale enclosure as he has to be confined in a really small area for the next 6 weeks.. no access to the other goats and minimal walking around.

He can still see his friends but they cant push him around and he cant run or play. I feel bad for him being in such tight quarters, but this has to work and hopefully in 6-8 weeks, he'll get his cast off and be good as new!!

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Quick Update

Just a quick update.. feels like we've been busy but looking back on the calendar, I can hardly recall whats been going on! I think this blog is more a diary for myself than anything else because if I dont document what I do, then I'll never remember. My memory cells must be dissappearing.. seriously!

I've gotten in a few really great rides on Willie in the past few weeks, been riding every weekend and he is doing so awesome! I was really unsure how he would work out, but I am 99% confident he is going to work out just fine.. He gets better with every ride and I find I am very relaxed on him and just enjoying myself! I really am starting to love him :)

I drove a friend down to Pendleton OR a couple weeks ago to pick up her horse, that was a fun day trip. I prepared myself and forced myself to go to bed early the week prior, so I would be well rested for the drive down and back! It was a 14 hr day and I had zero drowsyness problems.. I did good!! Not like me at all to make such a long trek and stay wide awake.. good company I guess too :)

This past Saturday was Dereks annual family reunion at Lk Wenatchee.. He had to work on Saturday morning until 10am, but we were able to make it over for a few hours. Almost everyone this year just came over for the day (although some didnt come at all), but it was nice that many made the effort to continue on with the tradition. Next year we intend to camp our normal 4 days over there, this year it was tough with Derek's new job and the OT they have been asking of him lately. The company is selling so he doesnt want to ruffle any feathers by taking extra days off right now. It was pretty hot over there, I wanted to swim SOOOO bad! I waded out about thigh deep and had Cooper on his leash so he could swim.. I was just itchin to jump in and swim out deep with him but I held back and just let him swim circles by me. It was nice visiting and I can hardly wait til next year.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Time Flies...

July has slipped away some how, I didnt realize it had been this long.. Might start loosing my very few followers if I dont stay up to date on here! :)

July in recap:

4th of July - Nothing exciting this year, we opted to stay home as usual. Although we did get in a ride at Lords Hill with a few friends, but the ride didnt go along as smoothly as we had hoped. We ended up on a trail that is supposed to be closed apparently, and a friends very young horse was going along really well when they came upon a hole in the trail, the rider thought he would step over, but as he stepped into the whole, the ground was washed out and it became a much bigger mess than anticipated. Horse went up, rider went down... :( Kathy ended up with a broken rib or two but is OK. Willie did pretty good that day, for having to stand on a pretty steep trail quietly for 15 minutes, he didnt kill me so all was fine. I noticed he was a bit carefree with his legs though and occassionally I would feel a hind leg sluff off the damn trail.. he needs to get over that MUCH sooner than later!!

July 7th - We hosted a BBQ at our place for dads birthday, had a nice time and was able to talk with Eric & Andrea about their recent Germany trip. I am SOO excited they are back home because they indicated earlier this year that they might start trying to make a baby after that trip, so I am in waiting on eggshells from now until they tell me they are pregnant!! lol

Mid July - Derek & I just finished up a 27hr course called "Pride" training for DSHS. Another step in getting licensed for Foster/Adoption. The training was VERY beneficial and even if we never adopt a child, we learned a lot from this class that will remain with us forever. This was not a parent training class, but more a class on what to expect but it also focused on abused children and what to expect as far as emotions and behaviors you might deal with etc. Not much on how to deal with those, that training comes down the road. We met a very nice couple from Marysville that we hope to maintain a friendship with. They were quite hilarious actually... very similar personalities and sense of humor as us. :) Now that this training is done, we need to finish with some things around the house so we can get our home study completed, which is on the to do list soon.

July 14th - Derek & I volunteered to help with the big fundraiser ride up out of Sedro Woolley. We were drag riders.. No that does not mean Derek dressed in drag and we rode horses.. lol We basically are the last riders to head out on the trail to inform the people that have stations set up on the ride, that they are done and no more riders will be coming through. It was HOT, 85, but muggy and Willie was drenched in sweat. I was really proud of him though, he did much better than I anticipated. It was over 3 hours of riding on a fairly technical trail at times. When I take him out on a ride, I always anticipate the worst so that I am not dissappointed when he acts up. But he has been so good on all our trail rides that by expecting the worst, I am VERY happy by the end of the ride because he is doing so much better than I had hoped. He is pretty damn close to being the type of green horse I was hoping he would be... nothing better nothing worse. I am OK with that!! I really do like him and feel much more optimistic that he will work out long term.

July 21st - Our last dog training day of the year with our retriever club. Its been an interesting year with Cooper, we've learned a lot, he has learned a lot. We will still train him, dont get me wrong.. but the club will not be hosting any more training days until early next year, after hunting season is over. We have a hunt test to take Cooper to in August, in hopes of him getting his Started title!! We are now seeing his anxiety over picking up birds is finally subsiding and we dont see a timid behavior associated with the birds.. but unfortunately because of the timid factor and how he picked up birds, it has now become a pattern and he thinks that he doesnt need to pick up the birds.. we've now moved from timid problem to training problem... Which is OK.. We had to give him the time and experience to get over the timidness and now we'll work with a local trainer to work through the training issues.. I'm not 100% convinced he is over his anxiety yet with birds, so I look forward to meeting up with Pat for some 1 on 1 advice and help.

Nothing comical or exciting really going on, probably why I havent been writing.. we've been very busy, but boring busy to those of you that are reading is my guess! The near future includes a road trip to OR, I am headed off with a friend to pick up her horse down there on Saturday, should be fun! She is a new friend, someone I have known for 20 years but only as an aquantance. Our friendship has started to develop in the past year over the phone and internet and it will be my first time seeing her on Saturday since we first met about 20 years ago... :) I am excited to spend time with her. Gotta love FB actually, as that is how our re-connection started...!!

More riding in the near future as well.. we dont get out and ride as often as we probably could and I try hard to be OK with that in my brain... :) We have so many things going on around us so I have to take a breath sometimes and just accept that life is not all about the horses and riding anymore.. As much as I sometimes wish it was, I also really enjoy the other things we do with our time and maybe when we are retired, we will feel satisfied that we can spend enough time with every aspect of our lives..

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Who needs hay, just feed poop!

Suzi, the neighbor girl came over yesterday to work with Oakley and I took advantage of the decent weather and let her ride. Thought I would jump on Willie bareback, see how that went.

I told Suzi that she might see a rodeo as Willie had never been ridden bareback to my knowledge and I was not sure how he was going to be. He did OK, not great. He wanted to buck a couple times but I kept him under control.. had to spank him on the neck a few times and he did attempt to buck/kick at Oakley so I went a little "monkey-on-his-ass" and smacked the heck out of him and atop his head between the ears.. Not sure if it hurt his head or my hand worse! lol

As we walked around the little round pen, all the sudden Oakley started to act up. He spun around and was acting very flighty. I was nervous for Suzi at this point because Oakely was not himself. I looked off to the woods, didnt see anything that could be spooking him. So I jumped off Willie and grabbed hold of Oakley. By this time he is really worked up about something and I told her to just hold on, I would get him under control so she could get off. I realized that Oakley was getting worked up over the pile of poop that Willie had just dumped a minute earlier. So I led him over to it and let him sniff it out, but then he went right to eating it! WTF!!! I jerked his head up and he got pretty mad that I was not going to let him eat the poo.. I got him halted long enough to get Suzi off, gave her Willie to lead away and proceeded to spank the hell out of Oakley who was acting obsessed about this poop. He wanted that pile so badly, he was going to battle me over it and I really had to work to keep him focused on me and not the poop. After a couple minutes I got on him and rode him around, he was still battling me when I rode by the poop and he tried to buck/rear, I had no stirrups so I about came off but I worked it out and finally after 5 minutes, he calmed down and would walk past the pile w/o making a bee-line straight to it with his face!

Once we got back up to his corral, his attitude was back to care-free, so I asked Suzi to get back on and ride him around for a few minutes. I did NOT want her to end her riding session on such a sour note, she needed to have a good ride on him so she wouldnt focus on the bad. I am thinking it is time I consider having her parents sign a waiver because you just never know when a horse is going to be so stupid over something so unpredictable! Who would have thought??

It only took me a few seconds to realize why he wanted that poop so bad! I have been feeding Willie alfalfa pellets every day to help him put on weight, but Oakley gets none of it. Well apparently fat Oakley thinks he is starving and MUST HAVE ALFALFA, and is willing to do whatever it takes to eat it! Damn horses...

Atta Boy!!!

Yep, that's right... 2 ribbons means 2 passes for the weekend!! We are so proud of our little Coopey! :)

The Hunt Test was down in Deer Island OR which is about 20 minutes SE from Longview.. the same general area where Cooper was trained last year. We decided to take all 3 dogs with us, even though we knew it was going to be a hassle but we wanted Ellie & Russell along to keep Cooper company and assure him that this was going to be a fun trip and not a stressful one. We pulled into the test grounds at 11:05 pm on Friday evening! There were other campers there, we hoped we made a quiet enough entrance that we didnt stir up dogs and wake anyone.

It poured almost all night and was still raining the next morning. The week prior I was having some anxiety about doing the tests with Cooper, I was a little nervous and felt a bit awkward about it all. But as the morning got under way, I was feeling just fine. I was prepared with rain pants and a poncho; ready to run our dog, hoping for the best but expecting nothing!

Our first session on Saturday was water. The first bird he did well... his second bird he started to swim out to where the duck landed but then he veared off course and started swimming towards the decoy ducks. I thought to myself "Oh shit! This is going to get ugly"... He approached the decoy, sniffed it out, realized right away it was not his bird and he literally did a 180 and bolted over to the real bird. Which showed me he knew EXACTLY where the bird was, he just needed to trust his own judgement and trust the straight line I sent him on. I was super excited because overall he did better than I had hoped!

In the afternoon, our land retrieves were okay.. He marked the birds perfectly, meaning he watched the bird until it hit the ground and upon release, he went straight to the birds. BUT he did not want to pick them up. I had to really work to get him to pick up the first bird, LOTS of praise and encouragement and I kept saying "Cooper Fetch it Up".. When I would say that, he would look at the bird and then pop his head up and look at me as if it say "Repeat Piper, I'm not sure I understood the command" so I would say again "Fetch it up" and he would look down at the bird and quickly back up at me... "Really?? You want me to pick up what?" .. "Cooper, Fetch it up" .. "Nah, how about I go walk around a little and leave that for the next dog".. When he did that, I took a deep breathe, and stood there in silence for a few seconds. I didnt want to be harping on him and I needed the break to gather my patience (which I was not loosing at all, I just was trying to figure out what else I could say to him to get him to WANT to pick up that damn bird!) LOL He didnt wander for long or very far, just a few seconds is all.. It took him a minute or two to FINALLY pick it up and bring it to me. The second bird was not quite as dawnting of a task, but he still needed the encouragement.

I was so excited because we felt pretty good about the possibility of getting a pass.. and sure enough that evening during the awards ceremony, Cooper received his first pass and ribbon! Derek and I were very proud of him... He did so good and he was happy. The other exciting part of the awards ceremony that night was that Coopers daddy Earl had earned his 1005th point that day!! which is a MAJOR MAJOR accomplishment. He is the 1st dog (of all breeds) that was born, raised and started in our region to achieve 1,000 points!!!

Earlier in the day we were all pooped and needed to dry off, so we layed down and napped for a while, waiting on our fellow dog friends to finish with their tests.

Sunday was a semi-dry day and this time we started with Land first. Pretty much the same scenario as the day before with our land. We had new judges this day so they were seeing our dog for the first time. He needed a bit more encouragement to pick up the bird on Sunday but he did it!! On his first retrieve he stopped to pee on his way back BUT he kept that bird in his mouth the whole time. And on his second retrieve he stopped to poop on his way back, again keeping ahold of the bird which is a huge accomplishment for Cooper. He KNOWS what he is supposed to do, but still has issues with fetching up birds.. :)

Our water retrieves which I thought would be easy-peazy were not quite what I expected from Cooper. By this time the birds are getting pretty well used and I became quite concerned when I realized the birds were sitting VERY LOW in the water. So on both his water retrieves, he did not trust the line I sent him on and he veared off course, searching all around trying to find the bird. The exciting part of it all was that the water was not very deep so at times he was walking in belly high water and because he couldnt see the bird, he started to use his nose to find the bird. It was really cool to watch him sniff the top of the water trying to catch wind of the bird! and sure enough, he did! It is hard to explain the excitement and joy of watching your dog accomplish things you were not sure he would.

We were a little concerned he might not pass Sunday's test, because it was sloppy on both land and water, but the objective is for the dog to "mark" the bird and bring the bird back. He did that, although not perfectly. Actually during the water test, the judge was standing behind me and when Cooper veared off course away from the bird, the judge grumbled under his breathe because he saw what I did which was a very low bird in the water and he knew it was going to be an issue so I believe they gave some lee-way in their judging based on the difficulty of the birds. But at the end of our test, he qualified for another pass!

We were SOOO happy with Cooper over the weekend and I was proud of myself for doing it. Once I got Cooper to the line to run his retrieves, I had NO nerves or anxiety at all.. I was calm cool and collected actually, which was a little bit of a suprise. I was a little nervous waiting my turn in line, but at that line it all dissappeared and I just did what I had to, to get Cooper to retrieve those birds. Cooper's original trainer Butch was there that weekend, although he didnt get to see Cooper run, he seemed quite happy to hear Cooper got his first 2 passes!

We have some work to do and will probably try to get Cooper in another hunt test in August or September. Our goal is to get his Started Title this year so we can focus on Seasoned for next year. He will need 2 more passes to get his title. :)

The newest silly thing for Cooper is car rides.. He used to hunker down and travel laying down, never wanting to sit up and see the sights. Now that almost every car ride we take him on leads to water retrieves of some sort, he spends the entire ride looking out the windows, moving back/forth from left to right rear windows, waiting to see water! And when he sees water, whether it be a pond, lake, river, puddle.. He gets over-excited!! He has yelped, but typically he perks up, stands on the window ledge and digs/paws at the window to get out.. He is SO excited to see water and thinks we should stop at EVERY water he sees! It's quite comical..

Thursday, June 21, 2012

I see Light!

It is so easy for frustration to take over your mind that you have to work hard to take a deep breathe, take a step back and be okay with it all.

I was concerned that working Cooper so much this week was going to set him back but it appears I was wrong and as the week goes on, the drive in him seems to be increasing! We've been doing little tricks that may or may not be the reason he is doing better. From information we have gathered via web threads online and then our own ideas on how to work our dog, its paying off!

We've had him out at the pond every afternoon and he is really doing great in water. He brings the bird all the way out of the water up to us, he wiggles and prances around us, happy to show us what he's got! In the mornings, I throw the bird around the yard in a more playful manner and progressively every day he is getting better at just picking up the bird and bringing it to me. I've even let Ellie & Russell out while I am doing this because that seemed to help, he has competition for getting the bird and it put more desire in him to keep the bird from Ellie. Ellie is MORE than happy to pick up the bird, it is funny to see my little Aussie try to steal his bird and get angry at him when he gets it away from her. They are not fighting over it, but using the other 2 dogs really seems to be helping.

At home with his bones, when he is super excited to show us his bone, he whines.. Just this morning for the first time, he whined just a tiny bit when he was showing me his duck. THAT was an amazing difference in him because he is finally getting excited about the birds in his mouth. Yesterday we were throwing a water logged bird and on the 4th water retrieve, he swam right to the duck but it was 95% under water and when he got too close, the bird went under. Cooper kept circling and circling the spot where that bird was but I think he was then pushing it further and further under water and it never popped back up! It took a long time to get Cooper out of the water, he was not about to give up on finding that bird and I think he finally got so frustrated that he found a stick in the water and brought that back to me instead... It was not a good way to end the session (we had no other birds to throw for him) but it was great to see him so eager to find that darn bird.

I did talk with the local trainer who is on the same page as us, I liked him very much over the phone and feel he will be a great tool for us to move forward. He wants to get Cooper on some live birds and thinks the adrenaline of a live bird will really jump start his drive and get him to finally have that "click" moment we've been trying for.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Frustration....

We are trying very hard to not get frustrated, but it has not been easy! Ever since that hunt test, Cooper is really struggling with picking up birds.. We are not sure if it was the stress of Saturday that was put on him unknowingly or if he is just being stubborn and defiant or if he has just realized he hates the taste, texture, smell of ducks! Not knowing is not easy.

My guess is that the stress did not help and he has realized he doesnt love to pick up birds. I am worried we are working him too much with birds now and he is reverting back to his training memories. That is the LAST thing I want to do, is bring back bad memories because he is sensitive. Or is it that we saw him traumatized at one time, so we dont push him like we should?

Either way, I think its time to seek some professional advice. We are not willing to just put him in training, but mabye an outsider can provide some guidance for us as we try to navigate through this problem. Since he retrieves much better in water, for now we are going to only work him in water. Plus he LOVES to swim, so its a bonus and he always picks up the bird in the water.. He doesnt always bring it all the way out of the water, but its usually within easy reach.

We have him entered in a hunt test this weekend, I actually would like to drop him out of it, but Derek does not agree. I am worried he is not ready and why waste the time and money to fail. I personally think once it all clicks for Cooper, the exposure of going to new places etc will not even be an issue because he'll be so happy to be doing it. I am thinking that because we are working him daily at this point, it's just too much and we need to work with baby steps instead of setting him up to fail. We've had opinions cast at us from both sides.. some agree with Derek, some agree with me.

I do see in Cooper though his willingness to shut down if we try too hard to force the issue. Some opinions to us have been that he needs to redo his "force fetch" program, but thats exactly what it is... Force! You force the dog to pick up & hold something until you tell him to let go. Its an issue of obedience in the eyes of many. But I dont want to force him to do anything (although when I reach my highest frustration levels, I feel like shoving that damn bird down his throat)! :) He should WANT to do this and should do it because he loves us and loves all the positive attention he gets. It is not the fastest route to go, it definately is the more frustrating route but I dont see any other options that Cooper will respond to. Maybe the local trainer will have some better ideas...

Friday, June 15, 2012

Big Willie Style..

I've had Willie home for 2 weeks now, I can hardly believe time has flown by so quickly! He is laid back, mellow and easy going.. just like I had hoped he would be when I first decided to buy him. He might actually be the horse I envisioned.. Only time will tell but so far so good.

He is a little thin, so I'm working to build his weight back up. I LOVE Shannon to pieces, but she keeps her horses thinner than I like so my focus is letting him have a mental break so he can really appreciate his new comfy life! He is an asshole at feeding time, kicks the wall if Oakley gets too close and almost every day at about 5am, he and Oakley must get to playing a little between their stalls because he kicks the barn wall and wakes me up damn near daily! :) His ground manners have been really great though. He still has some young horse attitude about a few things like picking up his feet, but that will all come in time and is easy to deal with.

We hauled up to Mann Rd on Sunday to go on our first trail ride since having him home. I hadnt been on him in over a month and my last ride on him was at Shannons, a windy rainy night inwhich he was a huge asshole.. so I was a bit apprehensive about my first ride on him even telling Derek on the drive to Sultan that if he doesnt work out by the end of the year, I'm not keeping him. Even with my slight nerves, he did AWESOME!! He tried to act a little green a couple times, but nothing I couldnt handle... He was not the same horse I had ridden a month earlier. We had a very nice 1.5hr ride with Kathy & Leanne, I cant wait to get out again!

Willie doesnt love the goats, he tolerates them normally but at feeding time, they have learned they cannot go anywhere near his stall if they want to keep their heads.. Literally!! I've seen him kick out at them when they've crossed the feeding line, scares the shit outta me that he's gonna kill one but goats are not dumb and they have quickly learned where that invisible line is!

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Coopers First Hunt Test

It was a last minute decision to run Cooper at the Quilcene Hunt Test on June 9th, but we wanted to see how he was going to do; unfortunately 3:30am was not exactly what I had in mind for a Saturday morning wake up, but thats what we had to do to get to the ferry terminal on time!!

The tests are run in 2 sections, Land & Water with 2 retrieves per section. You have to pass both sections to get an official PASS on the Hunt Test. Cooper was entered in the "Started" Division and will have to get 4 seperate Passes total, to earn his Started Title and then move up to the next level. You can only run your dog one time per test and there is only 1 test per day. We had paid just to run Cooper at the Saturday test and had not planned to run him on Sunday.

On Saturday, As the first duck was thrown for the Land Session, Cooper's attention was all in when the bird hit the ground. Upon release, Cooper ran straight to the bird, picked it up and started to come back to Derek..... BUT.... Then he stopped! The small crowd of spectators took a gasp of breath and said things like "oh no" "common Cooper" (under their breaths of course as to not interfere with the test). He was very reluctant to pick up the bird again, he is now plucking feathers out with his mouth, he starts to gag, he is shaking the bird, he then pukes on (or right next to) the bird... about 7 minutes into this, Cooper FINALLY brings the bird back to Derek!! Good boy!

As the second bird is thrown, Cooper again watches very intently and runs straight to the bird when released... He picks it up right away (YES, I am thinking in my mind) but then he veers off course and heads over to the area he had the first bird, he drops it and proceeds to start the same shinanigans all over again... At this point, Derek realizes he's not gonna get Cooper back in a timely manner and has to walk out and get the duck, therefore disqualifying his dog from the test.

What a bummer! We were pretty dissappointed but our new Boykin friends assured us that it was OK and that you cant expect perfection with the first test. Derek decided to go ahead and run Cooper in the 2nd section anyways, Water.. we had already paid our fees for the day and it was good practice at this point. Cooper did AWESOME in the water! He swam to both birds and brought them straight back to Derek. It was encouraging to see since the morning land session was so terrible. Many encouraged us to come back the next day and enter him into the Sunday Test, so we did.

Sunday was a new Day! We left our stress and worries back in Saturday and decided there was no pressure or outside influences to frazzle up the day and we were just going to have some fun. Cooper was eager to get going that morning, he wanted to go!! On our ferry ride and as we drove over a huge bridge, Cooper was antsy in the back seat as he stared out at the water, he wanted to swim!

Sunday's test was in a new location and this time they did the water session first. Cooper retrieved his first water duck perfectly; however the second duck was not thrown well and the bird got sucked back up against the shore, making it difficult for Cooper to see the bird once he started swimming.. so he lost the bird and swam in circles for quite some time. Derek started to instruct Cooper on where the bird was located, therefore again disqualifying himself. Because we are new, we didnt realize the manner inwhich he instructed Cooper was not good enough to pass their standards and although Cooper did find the bird and bring it back, it was too late. In our minds, Cooper passed and we felt it was an unfair scenario that Cooper was put it, but oh well.. Derek decided to run the Land session with Cooper and he did that okay, retrieving both birds with only minimal issues.

So it was a frustrating and dissappointing weekend, but Cooper learned a lot and got his first tests under his paw and we learned a lot as well on where we need to focus our training with him. We met a lot of new people and grew more excited about future tests with our dog.

A week later our Hunt Club had a practice day (they are held in Monroe, which is REALLY great!!). He did OK on land retrieves, he was still very reluctant to pick up the birds, and needed Derek to walk out to encourage him to pick them up. I ran Cooper for the water retrieves because Derek was helping to throw birds. It was a little exciting for me to get to run him.. Cooper did really good in the water! Amazing because the trainer that had him for 3 months told us that Cooper did not like water and he never was able to get him to retrieve a bird in water.. 8 months later his best retrieves are in water! :) Anyways, thats a big huge kudos to Derek & I, we have worked very hard to get Cooper to where he is at and will continue to use patience and understanding as our training guides and not force.

Cooper's drive is growing every time we get him out, his instinct is all coming back to him and sooner than later, we wont have these problems. Cooper did seem to respond better to my voice than to Dereks so at this point we have ordered me some camo clothes as I might be running him in future tests.. After another week of training, we'll evaluate who he seems to respond better to and go from there. We have taken away all his toy balls and are no longer practicing with plastic training bumpers. He ONLY gets to retrieve ducks at this point until he KNOWS and LOVES to pick up birds!! :) We have some frozen birds in our freezer and although they are more difficult to pick up, he is learning that if he wants to retrieve, he better get that bird!! Ideally the birds should not be frozen but sometimes it is easier than trying to defrost them every other day.

We have a good thing going with Cooper and are very optimistic that his next hunt test will be more successful and we might get a pass or two for him! :)

Monday, June 4, 2012

Memorial Weekend

This is not how we had planned Memorial Weekend, but it's just the way it worked out!
The original plan was to haul the car on the flatbed over to Beavercreek (Twisp) to go camping with some horse club friends; we wanted to explore the area with no horses or dogs! Well the trailer floor is pretty weak these days and we couldnt get the lights to work (bad connection on our truck) so this is how we got there.. Derek drove the truck/camper and I followed in the car! lol I did get GREAT gas mileage though as a bonus! I thought this was going to be my top MPG but I actually got up to 44.3 MPG. The car has only been getting about 27 city miles, but the other day I got a flat (damn screw) and Les Schwab checked all the tires.. they all had about 50lbs of pressure; factory settings indicate 35 is best, so they dropped the pressure and I am now getting 30+ city miles.. :)We arrived on Thursday afternoon.. the next day Derek, Scott & Barbara hiked up a trail to do some clearing. The picture above is of the trail overlooking camp down below.. It is the same trail we rode 2 years prior, that had a lot of sage brush in the way and since it is a very steep trail with NO room for error and no real good options to get around the brush, they wanted to cut it out. If you are wondering why I did not go with to help, just look at that picture!! I was not about to hike up that hillside to get to them! :)

As they were hacking away, they came across a rattle snake! We've been told rattlers are in the area, but not very active in late May. This was Derek's first encounter with one, and he was determined to kill that snake! When they got to it, he threw some large rocks at the snake but was uncertain if he had killed it. And since he didnt have a safe way to shoot the snake at the time, they all hiked back down to camp. Derek and I drove to town and he purchased some shot shells for his pistol and later that afternoon he hiked back up the trail, determined to bring back a dead snake!Sure enough he did! The snake had moved down the trail further under some brush but Derek managed to safely kill it.. I wanted him to cook some up (not so I could eat it but thought he might enjoy eating some) but cleaning and skinning it seemed too difficult to attempt so he chopped the head off, put it in the fire, chopped the rattler off and kept it to give to his boss, then threw the body over the hillside. :) He had told his boss that if he came across a rattler, he would bring him back the tail... never imagining he would actually have the chance! lol

The next day we drove over to Twisp River Horse Camp.. I've heard of it for years, wanted to see it in person. Beavercreek is on the North side of Twisp, up in the hills.. TRHC is on the South side of Twisp, up in the mountains! There were no campers there, apparently it is a bit too early in the season as there is still snow at that level.. not a lot, just patches here/there. It seemed nice though and we look forward to riding there some day.

We came across a few deer on our drive up the mountain and then also came upon a pile of poop in the road that was so big, I made Derek pull up to it and open the car door, so we could determine if it was sasquatch shit or bear or ??? We took a mental note and once back at our camp, asked the others what they thought it was and we now know it was Moose Poop! Dena & Paul have a cottage up North of Twisp in Oroville, an hour and a half from us. And since Jen/John and Dena/Paul were all at the cottage that weekend, we decided to make the trek up that way to see the place and say hi. We didnt stay long, just long enough to see the house and the ammenities at the little community resort. Its a cute community, makes you feel like you stepped back in time or into the movie "The Truman Show" with Jim Carrey, where everyone smiles and all seems too nice to be real... :) Guess I could have taken a picture of the community, but all I seemed to get was a pic of this quail.
We were having a great weekend... a lot of driving around, got in a 45 minute post-dinner walk one night, Derek is pretty excited to start doing more hiking.. We ate VERY well, our dinners were all foil dinners and delicious. There were only 4 other camping that weekend in our little group, but we knew a few others camping/riding there that weekend. I'm always suprised that the campground is not fuller as it is a really great place to go for a Spring campout, with excellent riding and camping!

We tried to do some fishing, that was a bust! Too difficult to fish from the shore at the local lakes as they all have weeds around the shoreline and you can only use artificial lures, so no cast and wait with bobbers fishin! :) The weather was perfect, but I definately was missing my kids (Ellie Russell & Cooper).

Sunday started out well, but ended poorly. It was the day we attempted to fish, with no luck and a lot of backwoods driving, we ended up back at camp and laid down for a nap. My cell phone rang at 2pm, it was Barbara... I attempted to answer and there was no response on the other end.. I had a feeling something was up but I couldnt reach her via phone or text and had no idea where they might be. At 3:30 we decided to go hike the pipestone, jumped in the car to go but saw a Search & Rescue truck drive past us at camp, so we followed it up as I now realized it was late and the 4 horseback riders should have been back by now. We learned it was our group that was in trouble.. :(

Long story short, Steve Williams and his wife Bertha were riding with Scott & Barbara. As they were leading their horses up around a downed log, Bertha's mare refused and ended up stepping off the trail and falling down the cliffside. The guys got to her and attempted to lead her back up the hill but she again refused and ended up going down again. Steve took off on foot after her and the 3 others stayed put waiting for Steve to return. After a couple hours, with no indication of where Steve was, they luckily were able to reach 911 to call in help.

It was a very long day and after a lot of searching and coordination, the group of 3 were found and made it back to camp around 6pm, then Steve was found and brought out of the woods on horseback by other friends at 7pm. As for Bertha's horse, according to Steve, she unfortunately had a 3rd tumble down the hillside and died at the bottom of about a 500' fall..

A few lessons learned even by Derek & I, even though we did not ride that weekend. We tried to help, we were at the command center for hours and out driving the roads, trying to see if Steve had come out anywhere. We felt helpless but did all we could. The horse was not an experienced mountain horse and the trail they were on was more difficult than I think she should have been on.

There are a lot of very easy trails at Beavercreek to take, so it is too bad that this tragedy had to happen. Over the years, I have heard stories of many different trails and horses going over hillsides and cliffs, some making it out.. some not! Brings thoughts to me and reminds me to NEVER push beyond my comfort zone or my horses skill level and that its is OK to take things more conservatively and slowly. It is far better to do that, than to be walking out of the woods without your horse.

The weekend reminded me of a time that I experienced a horse going over a cliff while out riding. This was way back, 20+ years ago when I still lived at home. My sister and I had taken the horses out to do one of our trail loops.. we were having a good ride but as we got close to home, we came across a log across the trail. We literally were just 5 minutes from home and the only option we knew of was to either cross that log or turn around and go back the way we came, 90 minutes to get home if we went back. It was starting to get to dusk and we'd never get home before way too late to be out and on the roads so over that log I was determined to go. We got off the horses to lead them over, the log was lowest on the downhill side of the trail and my horse jumped over easily. I tied her up as my sisters mare "Darrell" was unwilling to cross. She was still young and fairly unexperienced on the trails. Her mare just refused and refused to budge.. We were spanking her, pulling, coaxing, nothing was working. My sister was ready to head back the long way but I was determined to get that damn horse over the log! Well the mare reared up in frustration I'm sure but when she came down she twisted her body and her front legs came down on the downhill slope and she fell, falling down the steep embankment to the bottom. It was probably only a 30' drop but it was far enough to panick my sister!

We quickly realized her mare was wedged upside down in some downed logs at the bottom. She was not going to be able to get up with her saddle hung up on trees. Carrie started screaming, I cant remember if I consoled her or just told her to calm down and go get help.. or maybe she stayed and watched me.. But I climbed down the hill and get down to her horse who THANK GOODNESS was not thrashing around.. She was very calm for a horse pinned on her back! Risking life, I was able to reach the cinch and get it off of her, then encouraged her to move to get up, she did and walked out of the hole with just a few scrapes.

It was then that I realized I had the mindset to get things done in a panick situation and was the cool headed one and not the panicker! Something I have held onto all these years because although I've been very lucky to have that experience be the worst of what I've had to deal with on the trail so far, I wont always be so lucky.We ended the weekend with a nice drive home, a stop along the way to get a great view of Ross Lk and then very happy children greating us at home!! We had wished at times we had the horses, but it felt great to just get out camping. Looking forward to more trips this summer!