Bye Bye Edgar

With all the other "stuff" going on lately, I almost forgot to mention a very important fact of our life right now!

We have contemplated for months now on the Edgar issue and what was the right decision to make for us and him. The last time we took him camping was Memorial Weekend and he showed signs of colic for 3 days and then after that trip, sometime in June he went lame again, the 3rd summer in a row for that to happen. The shoers think he might have navicular issues. Derek did not have much time over the summer to ride anyways, that shitty-ass employer he used to work for kept him busy with a lot of OT over the summer. But summer ended, Oakley came back home to us, and Edgar was still a bit "off" and we had to make a decision.

Edgar is still 100% rideable but he is not 100% sound and he should not go camping, to avoid any potential colic issues. I posted on Facebook that we were looking for a home for him, as I did not want to sell him or advertise him to just anyone, we really had hoped to find a friend or friend of friend type home, he's just too great a horse to give to anyone! An old school friend contacted me almost immediately through FB and chatted with me that he and his wife might be very interested. Timbre's wife Jennifer had a horse and they recently had bought a pony for their son, Timbre was feeling a little left out and wanted a nice solid horse to have around incase he felt like riding with his family. I was so excited because that pretty much summed up exactly what we wanted for Edgar. I told Timbre I would not pursue any other home for Edgar until he told me yeah or ney on taking him.

They came out to look at him a week ago, there was one incident when they were there. It was dusk outside, we saddled Edgar and Derek & Jennifer rode him around. Timbre then went to get on, but he had his toe right in Edgars belly so when he attempted to get on, Edgar panicked a little with all that pressure on his belly and he spun around, Timbre made a good 3 or 4 second attempt to stay on but with both his legs still on one side, he didnt have much of a chance! He kinda fell off and hit the ground face first.. OUCH! I felt sooo bad, Timbre was okay and he did get up and made a 2nd successful attempt to get on w/o incident.. whew! We talked to him and told him what happened and why Edgar panicked. They were not upset about it, Edgar just has super sensitive sides. A week later (this past Sunday) they drove out and picked up our Edgar to take him home! They are very happy with him and I think it will all work out and it sounds like Edgar now has a permanent forever home, I really just could not be any happier about the whole deal. Edgar will still get ridden but will not be expected to handle really hard riding. Timbre is worried he might not get a chance to even ride Edgar because Jennifer likes him so much! :) I was sad to see him go, but a big part of me was really happy because I actually hate to see such a good horse sit and go to waste when he could be utilized still and we hardly have time right now to ride the 2 we got! :)

Derek & I had set out a week ago to get our yearly supply of hay. What a fiasco that was! The entire situation was one big cluster of frustration.. I could turn this into a huge post with exact details but lets just say, originally the hay was supposed to be delivered to my barn for a set price.. well that price jumped $600 making it unfeasible to do. Next plan was to drive to Buckley to get the hay instead of our usual trip to Spokane for the same hay. Brandon (hay dealer) tried to tell me I would be getting 10 bales short of my normal load.. he and I had a bit of heated discussion which involved calling the farmer in Spokane to help clear up. Brandon caved in finally and told me he'd have my 200 bales and to come get. We drive down with 2 trailers intending to pick up those 200 bales. Brandon is not there but guess what, he only has 183 bales! So I load up 180 bales leaving the 3 wet ones behind and pay for only 180 bales. I'm not real happy because he shorted me 1 ton of hay!!! Actually should have been super pissed off, but there was so much turmoil over this hay, I just let it go...

We safely made it home (after stopping and adding air to the trailer tires!) and we have it all basically put away except a couple tons that will go to our house instead of my parents barn. The bummer of it all is that this hay dealer bought up all of next years crop of Blue Grass, so I will not have access to this hay any longer for the super good price and will have to be just like everyone else and pay regular prices for my hay... It was good while it lasted but nothing last forever, right!!

Happy Birthday Cooper!!

Yep, today our Cooper is one year old!! He is the most rambunctious, obnoxious, high energy dog I have ever been around, but I love him to pieces; he is quite the character! He LOVES to get out and work with dummies and now that fall is here, Derek is itchin to get him out hunting..

My apologies for the month long abscense from this blog... It's not like I dont have the time at work to write, I just havent been too motivated to sit and recap my life the past few weeks. It's been a super crazy 8 or more weeks, something going on every weekend and I think I'm now ready to just lay it out there.

Where to start, well here's a quick weekend rundown of my Aug/Sep starting with first weekend in August. 5 days camping, bachelorette party, 5 day riding/camping, 3 days camping with family, labor day weekend including a HRC practice day, Jen/John wedding, CHC Prize Ride, 3 days Hunters Safety Class.

I've talked about some of that already, thank goodness! Labor Day weekend we opted NOT to go anywhere.. For 1) we just couldnt afford to go anywhere with the recent unemployment status and 2) we really needed a semi low-key weekend to ourselves! I invited Crystal to go riding with me at Lords Hill, we had a nice ride except the part where my pants (that are only a yr old and fit JUST FINE) ripped! They are jeans that you have to pull up into your crotch a bit in order to spread your legs etc so as I went to get on a rock to get on my horse, I didnt pull my pants up, and in the midst of my leap, I heard "RIP". Sure enough, I had torn them and then as I got back on my horse after lunch break, they tore some more... Pisses me off cuz the jeans were NOT too tight on me, heck I could pull them off my ass and grab a handful at my thighs. It was a little odd riding with split jeans, just doesnt feel natural :)

That same weekend we took Cooper to his first hunt retrieval practice. It was a pretty hot day (if you consider low-mid 80's hot and I do!). The first practice was with ducks/dummies thrown in the pond to retrieve. Cooper was really hesitant to go in the water at first, Derek had to coax him in, but once he was in, he eventually found his marks. We have A LOT of work to do. We think Cooper was suffering from shyness, he wasnt sure why all those people were there watching his every move so he was a bit timid at first but I was really happy he did make a couple water retrieves successfully. After that we took him out to the corn field for land retrieves.. Not so great there. He was hot and he was not going out far enough for his retrieves so we have a lot of work to do on that too.. but that's okay! We were 100% happy with his first training day and the progress he did make. We are not 100% happy with where Cooper is at for the money we put into him but thats another topic and one I am not going to blog about.

We did take Cooper out to my parents to work him in the pasture a few days after that, he did really good and I actually enjoy training him with Derek. He is such a great dog and so eager to please, he is trying. I think he works better for me! LOL

With all the attention Cooper craves on a daily basis, I somehow find a little time to give to Ellie and Russell. Russell is not quite so grumpy towards Cooper these days, but one of Coopers favorite games still is to get Russell all pissed off by jumping all around him when Russell is relaxing on the chair! It is pretty funny but they both get to barking so much you cant hear yourself think.. if only they could do it silently.

I give Russell and Ellie spa day every now/then to comb out the constantly shedding hair. Not sure they consider it a spa treatmeant, but I put them on the table, brush them out and trim their nails.
Somewhere in the midst of all those camping trips, we picked up our 4 new baby kids, Nigerian Dwarf Goats!

Eenie

Meenie
Mynie
MoJust for perspective, Mo is full grown for the most part as he is a year old and the other baby kids are about 5 months old, so they are not much taller than our dogs! They are really great little boys, eager to greet us at the gate.

To start, we had them in the yard to eat down the brush and stickers growing, it took them about 5 days to realize they could eat the brush! They were raised on orchard/alfalfa hay, so when they were put in the yard and not fed any hay, they started to get a bit skinny and I got very concerned because they were NOT figuring out what to eat.. but FINALLY they took to the brush and you cant keep them out of it now... whew!

Jennifer & John's wedding was 9-10-11 :) It was a beautiful wedding, she had asked me to be her maid of honor and had no other girls standing up with her. I was so honored for her to ask me, we've grown back to being close friends again and it was really nice that she trusted me to be there for her. I hope I was all she expected from me! :) It was a 4-day event.. lol Not sure Derek realized what he was in for, but it consumed that weekend. Thursday afternoon was rehearsal then dinner then drinks, I had to fight back tears just from the darn rehearsal! I failed..

Friday the boys spent the day together, a little golf at the driving range and then some drinkin. Us girls ran errands for half the day and spent the late afternoon at the nail salon, gettin pretty! I had a pedicure, only the 2nd one I've done in my life. The first one was for Carrie's wedding. My feet are SO hard and cracked, I was really embarrassed. The gal had to SCRUB and SCRUB the bottoms of my feet to get them clean, she used this file thing.. she really earned her $ that night! But my fingers and feet were much prettier when I left. We went out to a bar afterwards and met up with the guys to hang out. Saturday of course was the wedding. I had stressed A LOT prior to the wedding on getting a nice enough outfit to qualify to even stand next to Jen, I think I succeeded ok. By no means could I compare to her, but I didnt feel like a troll either!

The sandals I found to wear were incredibly uncomfortable.. I did not have proper time to wear them in so I stood there in pain, hoping it would not last too long so I could go sit! lol It is not easy finding really nice pretty sandals for these big ole size 11 wide mammoth feet, especially when summer is basically over... Sunday we had brunch down in Seattle to watch Jen & John open their gifts. By Sunday evening, I was exhausted! Jen looked amazing though, I cant wait to see their wedding photos. I'm hoping there is a good pic of Derek and I from the wedding.

The horse club had our annual prize ride the following weekend, since Derek is still unemployed he was able to help flag the trail on Friday with Oakley. I was proud of Derek for helping because he had to carry those flags on Oakley and they both did really great with it all. We rode for 4.5 hours and realized that was the first time Derek had been back in the saddle since MEMORIAL Weekend! The only bad part of it all was that his saddle clearly did not work on Oakley, as we discovered when the saddle came off after the ride. Derek is a bit sad about it, he LOVES LOVES his Tucker...

This past weekend was my Hunters Safety Course out in Sultan. A 3-day event! I had to be in class Friday from 6-9pm, then Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 9-2. I had a lot of built up apprehension about going, I had no friends to go with and was worried about feeling out of place. I knew I needed to take the class and pass the test to qualify to buy a hunting license but I was still really worried about it. I also knew I would have to handle guns I was unfamiliar with. As I sat alone at my table Friday afternoon, a guy came in with his 2 kids and a friend of the kids.. they sat at my table and I was really glad that they had. They were all really nice, the guy was maybe 4-5 years older than me and his 2 kids were 11 and 15 and then the friend was maybe 14. We all joked around and had nice conversations, I thanked them on Sunday for making my experience a lot more enjoyable! Me and 2 of the boys took our "Field Test" together on Sunday, we had to walk around an outdoor course with a rifle or shotgun in our hands and show we could handle ourselves in a safe manner as a group. The 3 of us passed that section just fine. We then had to go inside for our written test. I knew I did pretty good on the test, felt like I might have missed a few since there were a few questions I was a little unsure of but used what I thought was the most logical answer.

After 10 minutes I walked up to see how I did and I was told I was the ONLY one to have scored 100% on my test!!! I was shocked! I mean not super shocked, I did feel I did pretty good, but I was suprised to have not missed 1 single answer.. Of all 26 in the class, about half of the class was adult men and I beat them all... I was pretty damn proud of myself for doing so good and hopefully I can retain it all. I did text Derek every now and then during our breaks over the 3 days, asking if he knew this or knew that etc about hunting rules! Of course he knows it all (well thinks he does anyways), so not sure why I even bothered asking him! LOL I learned a lot.. and now look forward to getting out and hunting, hopefully my back will handle it okay. The 2 boys that were taking the class with me, they both passed too!

October has drastically died down with scheduled activities, I am looking forward to it. Not to say there is "nothing" for us to do, oh we have plenty! We've neglected all the things we had hoped to get done this year around the place.. we have a ton of unfinished projects and a lot of dump runs in our near future. Its time to get organized and get on track with less clutter in our lives. Derek is still unemployed, but we are not stressing about it and just accepting that what happens is meant to be. It is NOT easy these days since unemployment was denied, but we will work on getting that decision reversed and moving forward to new adventures.

Bumping Lake Family Camping Trip

Well we finally did it.. the 6 of us got out for a family camping trip (Mom/Dad/Eric/Andrea/Derek & I) We had been wanting to get out, it just took all summer for us all to have the same weekend free. My brother originally had planned to head over to Banks Lk area and boat in to camp, but Derek & I really preferred to not do it that way, we kinda like using our camper :)

With just a few days to spare before heading out for the extended weekend, I found a private campground on Bumping Lake in Goose Prairie WA.. What an amazing drive that was!! We went over Hwy 410, one we had not ever been on before, we were innocently driving along when all the sudden we came around a bend and there was Mt Rainier!! I missed getting the really good shots, this was the best I could do on such short notice.
Bumping Lake was beautiful and the campground was pretty cool actually. We had 2 side-by-side campsites right on the water, so we were able to park the boats right infront of us for the weekend. The morning sunrises were so peaceful, I woke up early enough to catch them. Saturday morning I sat in my bathing suit waiting for the sun to peak the mountain so I could get my bath in, the water was clear and inviting at 7:30am!

While I waited, Cooper kept himself busy sniffing out squirrels and such. I'm sitting at our campsite looking out at the lake in this picture, there is a small rock beach on the other side of that log leading to our waterfront.
Here's another view of the lake and mountainsAs the sun came up Saturday morning, I was practicing with the panoramic option on my camera. The beachline was actually straight, but the panoramic makes it looks curved here.
Derek could not get the motor running in our boat, so we left ours behind; we were able to go out in the boat Eric brought. The fishing S U C K E D!! And I mean SUCKED... Mom caught one trout that they released on purpose and Eric caught one trout that Andrea successfully released accidentally! :) Apparently she is not a good "netter" of fish! We had a nice fish finder and even with that, we saw very minimal fish, it was incredible how FEW fish were in that lake that showed up on the finder. Down in the area we were camped, when the water was calm, you could see to the bottom, on Sunday before we left we attempted to troll for fish but realized it was pretty pointless as we would lean over and just looked in the water and saw only one or two lonely fish every 10 minutes and they were sittin on the bottom of the lake.

Cooper was a really good boy for the trip! We only brought him along. He spent some of the time tied up in camp, and some in the camper.
Saturday morning after breakfast, Derek took Cooper out in Eric's boat for a while, it was Cooper's first boat ride. He did really good and seemed to enjoy it! Derek of course didnt catch anything..
Our neighbors at the campground informed us of local trail to Boulder Caves, indicating it was an easy 1/4 mile hike. So we loaded up into Erics truck and drove to the trailhead, which was only about 25 minutes from us. It was a really nice trail, but it was not 1/4 mile, more like 3/4 mile! Dad and I were the slowest of our group, we are in no shape to be hiking uphill that much, but we did it! :) Well dad made it 80% of the way and he decided it was far enough. He waited as the rest of us continued up the trail to the caves.
Once we reached the top of the trail, we dropped down into the canyon where a creek flowed through the caves.. It was a good thing our campsite neighbors told us to bring a flashlight, it was pitch black inside w/o light!!

This is just outside the entrance of the caves which are downstream of us just a few feet.
Starting to walk down into the cave opening
It was a pretty hot day (mid 80's easily) so the dogs were all very eager to get in the creek to cool off.
Now that the pups are all wet, we can continue! :)
It was too dark to get any good pics inside the cave, my camera put spots all over those pictures, but this is coming out of the cave.. it was really cool and we managed to get through w/o any bat incidents!It felt great to make the hike, as badly as I wanted to turn around at times, it was a fun family excursion. We were ready to head back to the lake and jump in to cool off.When we got back to camp, Eric really wanted us to try to swim Cooper w/o his life vest. Cooper had swam with me earlier that morning when I took my morning bath, he looked so sad sitting there watching me, so I put his vest on and he had a great time! He would stay pretty close to me, I did not have a leash on him, he would venture out only about 6 feet from me, so I would swim out a ways, he would follow and then we'd swim back. The only problem was he liked to swim so close that often he was pushing off of me with his paws.. not good when he has nails that are too long!!

When we all got back from the hike, we decided to give it a try w/o the vest, and what do you know.. Cooper swam!!! YEAH! He did the puppy paddle a few times, but for the most part, he was figuring it out. Eric was throwing tennis balls for his dogs and Cooper seemed eager to play the game, but we held him back, hoping by him watching, maybe it would click how to retrieve in water, which he had yet to figure out how to do. When he seemed ready, we threw a bumper for Cooper to retrieve in the water.... well he swam out to it and kept right on going! :( bummer...

Eric was out in the lake, so we threw the bumper to him and when Cooper got to it and was about to swim past, Eric grabbed him and told him to "hold" while he was swimming, so Cooper put it in his mouth and swam back to us. We tried again and this time Cooper clicked!!!! He picked up that bumper in the water and he was HOOKED... He thought that was the coolest game ever, to swim AND retrieve. It really was such a relief moment for Derek & I to see our dog finally figure it all out.. His only issue is that once he gets the bumper in his mouth, he goes back to puppy paddling instead of swimming.

Overall it was a terrific weekend, except for the lousy fishing, but I would definately go back to the lake, maybe earlier in the year when fishing might be better. We have all decided to make it a priority to do a family camping trip every year, maybe going to a different location every year.

On our drive home, we pulled over to get some photos with the great scenery.

CHC Ladies Ride

I always enjoy when I can take 5 days for a weekend camping trip! Especially when my horse and dog are involved, as well as good friends. I was trailboss for the annual horse club ladies ride this year, decided to move it back to Silver Ridge Ranch in Easton this year, I enjoy the riding and camping over there.

Amber came along with Oakley, it was her last weekend with him as he came home with me for good. She would have gladly kept him, but timing is not right for her and Derek is in need of a riding horse since Edgar has been having lameness problems off/on this summer again. :( I brought Ellie along, thought it would be a good bonding weekend and a good safe environment to work off-leash with her and see how she handles it. She handled it perfectly! She was my little angel and I was so proud of her!! Just made me love her so much more, by the 4th day I was able to keep her off-leash for most of the time I was in camp. She was comfortable in the camper as well and would lay quietly when I would go out riding.
The lake was SUPER SUPER high this year, the highest I have ever seen it by a couple hundred yards!! And thats no exageration. It was so beautiful this year and because it was so high, it was perfect for wading the horses in to cool off. Had I been prepared, I would have rode in my swimming suit (well with clothes over the top as that would not be a site for sore eyes to see me riding down the trail in a bathing suit!!) :)

The area Barb & Nadine are looking straight over at is normally not covered in water. We were up on this almost-an-island high section. The weather was perfect for us, in the 80's mostly.

Amber & I. Oakley looks so great!!

Amber & Oakley in the creek. The trails around the creek were not great, they have been de-commissioned in this area to keep ATV's out which is a pretty big bummer. We tried crossing the creek and hitting the hills on the other side, but those trails have not been maintained much and there was a lot of blowdown.

Hot & Dry! I love this picture and amazingly it was taken with my horse riding the same direction as all of them! I turned as sideways as I could get in my saddle (which isnt far) and turned the camera behind me, hoping to get a decent picture.. looks like I succeeded.

This was my favorite place to ride to over the weekend! Went here all 3 days that I rode, a really nice watering hole to play in. Amber's looking down at all the baby fishes, there were hundreds!
Chillin!

On Thursday as we rode, I hid some flagging out on the trails and then told the ladies Friday night that if they found a group of flags, to bring them Saturday night for a prize. I had 4 prizes to hand out, it was fun. I also brought some bells and beads for the girls to make either a bear bell or just fun bells to hang from your horses or dogs, some made bracelets and rings and tack attire, it was fun... Amber & I rode 3 days in a row, putting in 12 hours, I think I wore her ass out though, she was a bit sore.. :) she does not have the natural cushion that I do.

By Sunday, Ellie was ready to go home.. as well as me. We are loaded up and almost ready to hit the road. She seems happy to know her life will get back to a normal routine.

Once she realized we were headed home, she just sat back and enjoyed the full-bast AC on her face!!! AHHHHH
It had been a very stressful couple days building up to the ladies ride this year.. I left on Wed wondering if Derek was going to have a job when I got back on Sunday and it turns out he did end up unemployed within that 5 day period. But all is OKAY and with the BS, it truly was for the better for him. It just means something bigger and better is waiting on down the road... :)

Family Reunion 2011

Dereks family reunion was 2 weeks ago, over at Lake Wenatchee as usual. We had just gotten Cooper home a few days prior to leaving, so he came along for the trip while we left Russell & Ellie home. We camped Wed - Sunday, had a good time even though many were not able to make it over this year.

The weather was not great this year, the lake temperature registered almost 4 degrees colder than last year and it was windy the entire time, so the lake was very choppy and wavey, not great for swimming. Thursday morning was the ONLY time the lake was calm and clear, I did get in around 9:30 for my morning bath, but it was so damn cold that I was unable to dunk my head. Just using my hands to splash the water over my head to dampen and wash it, made it sting real bad it was so cold. Fri morning Tammy and I went in the lake and it again was too cold to dunk. After 2 days of being chilled all day from the morning swim, I opted to not go in again on Sat or Sun morning. I think the daytime temps felt like the high 60's, very low 70's due to all the wind.

We did get down to the lake on one of the nights to watch the sunset. Crystal, JoJo, Derek, Cooper, Rick, Marley, Shelbie, Kristen, Barney, Kiki & Randy!
Here's the best shots I got of Derek & Cooper hangin out watchin the sunset.. well Cooper was not watching the sun, all he cared about were the waves crashing on the shore and that he wanted to jump in!!Ahh.. a moment of relief where Cooper actually sat still... but notice he is still intently focused on the water! Since we knew we had water issues with Cooper, we wanted that weekend to focus on getting him in the water. On our walk on Thursday morning, he seemed interested in walking by the water and he even waded in it just a little. The wind had not kicked in yet, so it was smooth and calm. A couple hours later when we returned to the water, he immediately wanted to go in and really seemed to enjoy being in the water. By the 3rd trip to the water that day, he started to get very excited the closer to the water we got and was pulling very hard to get in and he went straight to playing! He was jumping and splashing and paddling at the top of the water, trying to catch his own splash with his mouth.. he was being so damn cute, he drew the attention of many on the beach with some telling us he was the funniest dog they'd ever seen in water!

The 4th trip to the water that day, he again went crazy playing around and did NOT want to come out.. but I started to realize he was only going out as far as he could touch with his back legs. A couple times he got swallowed up by a wave and was rolled completely over under water. Didnt seem to faze him one bit. He was using his back legs to jump up and out of the water, it really was hilarious! We talked a bit that day and could not figure out why the trainer struggled when clearly we had a dog that LOVES the water!

The next day we took Cooper over to the dock before allowing him to play in the water. I wanted to know 1) if he would jump off the dock and 2) if he could actually swim. Well with a little encouragement, Cooper jumped off that dock!! YEAH!!!! and he immediately went vertical in the water, reaching for the bottom with his back legs and started to really struggle with the potential for drowing, so I got over to him, put my hand under his belly and helped him get to shore. DAMN my suspisions were correct, we had a dog that did not know how to swim. After that, Cooper was not willing to jump off the dock and we concluded that the reason Butch (the trainer) struggled is because Cooper was not confident in the water so he just would not jump in for Butch. I spent the next 20 minutes in the water with Cooper and helping him learn to swim, felt like the only thing I accomplished was getting wet and full of scratches on my arms and legs from him flay-ling around in the water.

I was dissappointed, a bit upset and also frustrated. We immediately quit allowing Cooper to go in the water because we knew he needed to learn to swim and letting him play was not going to accomplish that. We'll let him play once he learns to swim. The good thing was that we clearly had a better understanding of our dog and what needed to happen to move forward, although we were unsure how to accomplish that.

When we returned home, a few days later we took Cooper to a local lake and I again went in the water with him to help teach him to swim. We put a training bumper in his mouth so he would not try to bite at the splash, that did help, but he still was flay-ling his front legs all about, trying to splash the water instead of having them under water to swim. He did a tiny bit of actual swimming after 20 minutes of working with him but then he would go back to vertical and drowning! When we got out of the lake, I was covered in really fine lake bottom dirt, it was rather gross.. so when I got home, I jumped straight in the shower.. a few minutes later Cooper came into the bathroom so I opened the shower door and he joined me! I figured if I was covered in dirt, he was too so I washed us both up.

The next day I found a yellow dog swim vest on Craigslist for $10, decided to give that a try and Saturday morning we took Cooper to a better cleaner lake to swim in, Flowing. The boat launch area has nice big gravel out as far as you can touch, so its not dirty or nasty to walk into. We put the vest on Cooper and since I anticipated having to still help him out, did not put a leash on him. He ran right into the water and took to swimming like he'd been doing it all his life! He actually started to just head towards the middle and I got a bit frantic that he wouldnt turn around. But he did. We put a leash on him and just let him swim circles around me! He was LOVIN IT!!! He paddled above water a few times to "play" but I discouraged that and made him focus just on swimming. Derek tried to get him to retrieve bumpers in the water, he had NO interest. At home, he loves to play fetch with the bumpers, but apparently he loves the water more than fetch.

Derek did pull him out of the lake and made him do some retrieves on dry ground, we have a lot of work to get Cooper to figure out how to combine swimming with retrieving, but we are now on the right path. We have done a lot of brainstorming and talking about what is and is not working for Cooper and are happy that we seem to be progressing!

Derek took Cooper to a Hunt Test in Duvall this past Saturday while I was gone at our annual ladies ride (seperate post for that). He didnt run Cooper in the test, just took him for exposure and also Coopers daddy was there as well as his trainer. Elroy (who owns the daddy) was happy to see Cooper and hear of his progress and Butch (the trainer) was very impressed with Derek & I for the ideas we have come up with on our own with helping and training Cooper, he said we've done everything right so far and he liked that we were very logical in our thoughts and practical. He was happy to know we seem to have a good sense for training our dog so that we are not ruining him and wasting time doing it wrong. Derek helped out during the hunt test as well at one of the stations, a great way to meet people and he was able to observe what is and is not working for other "started" dogs which is the level that Cooper is at.

Derek recently self-taught himself how to make these survival bracelets which was cool, but then he started venturing into making dog whistle lanyards, leashes, duck call lanyards and more.. the office has been over-run with paracord!! He donated a couple of them to the Hunt Test as auction items for their fundraiser. Now that he is unemployed he has time to maybe learn other braids and make some to sell! :)

Good Dog - BAD DOG!

Derek has been working on retrieves, a few every day with Cooper and he is doing awesome. Showing tons of enthusiasm for it, he wants to get out and work with Derek, it was really great to see him so happy to work yesterday.

We had a club meeting at the house, Wendy brought her dog Patch over to play. All was good, the dogs got along great and after they left, we were winding down watching a little TV when Cooper got up, walked to my chair (which I was not sitting in) sniffed it, then turned towards it and pissed on it! Mother Fucker was marking my damn chair..

Excuse my language but I got red hot, immediately screamed/yelled at him, Derek ran over to him and he proceeded to get thrown outside to poddy and then he sulked in the corner. Wendy's dog at one point had rubbed against my chair, so we are thinking he must have smelt her on the chair and decided he had to put his scent back on the chair.

I absolutely HATE dogs that mark indoors, and I'm not real sure how to get a handle on this and make sure it does not become a problem. It did just happen the 1 time that we know of, and maybe it was a one-time deal, but what if he continues to test his manhood?? Guess I have some research to do online with this situation on how to correct it if it turns into a problem.

It's all about Cooper..

The plan initially was to pick up Cooper on Saturday, but the trainer called and said he would be gone all weekend at a hunt test; therefore we had to drive down Friday to get him. I was able to leave work early, picked up Derek from his job in Seattle and we headed south.

When we arrived, Butch brought Cooper out of the kennels and he was running free.. We called Cooper over to us, he stopped about 6 feet away, hunkered down and looked at us as though he was unsure of who we were and why we were calling him over. For 3 months, he basically has probably only had Butch's attention and I would assume no other interaction with people other than the kennel employees and Butch. My heart sank in that split second, my worst fear came true that Cooper did NOT remember us! :( Derek and I were only 2 feet away from eachother and I called Cooper to me again and he decided he would come visit, as soon as he got to me, he REMEMBERED who I was!! He got super excited and then he immediately went to Derek. My heart smiled and I knew all was going to be okay.

Butch pulled a live hen out of the pen to work Cooper a little, demonstrate his abilities and how he'd like Derek to work Cooper etc. Cooper sat next to Butch as he threw the bird and then Cooper waited for the command to retrieve, slowly loped off to get the bird, struggled with wanting to pick up the live bird, needed some guidance and support and finally picked it up and brought it back. After that, he was doing retrieve after retrieve of the bird. At one point Cooper brought me the bird and Butch told me to grab it and throw it.. as I was swinging back to throw, Butch says "hold it by its wings" but it was too late and I threw the poor hen from her ass feathers, plucking about half of them out as she went flying in the air, she landed poorly due to the lack of tail feathers, I felt a little bad about it all.

We went in the office to wash our hands and for Butch to say goodbye to Cooper, we could see very clearly he was sad to see him go as he let Cooper jump up in his lap and gave him lots of hugs and kisses. :) Its pretty special to watch the trainer love on your dog so much and know that he was in such great hands and see the connection between them. As we loaded Cooper into the backseat of the truck, he got very nervous and hid his face under Derek's arm. He panted most of the way home. He is used to going places, but it's been in a metal box all this time and not in the backseat, but he did NOT get sick! :) Yeah!!

We pulled in our drive at about 10:30pm Friday night, Cooper was a little unsure in the yard, he was slowly starting to figure it all out and remember things. Ellie of course was pretty excited, she remembered him. Russell just had this look of disgust as I'm sure he thought Cooper was gone for good. :) Derek went in the house and I stayed outside for a minute.. A few seconds later, I could see it all just clicked in Cooper and he bolted for the front door, burst through that doggy door without a second thought and in the house, he just went crazy running all over, down the hall, in the bedroom, out in the living room.. he was truly happy! It was like the lightbulb turned on and he knew 100% he was home and safe.

Over the weekend, Cooper has gone back to his normal self, like he never left. Except now he is smarter! Derek took him in the backyard on Saturday and did a few retrieves with him and we were so happy to see he was actually excited about doing it.. actually he wanted to retrieve so much so, that he was heading out for his retrieve before he was given the verbal command to go, whereas with Butch, he would sit and wait very patiently for the command and then would non-challantly trot off to retrieve. Cooper also remembered how he loved to show off his toys to us and show us how proud he is of himself.. when he gets the bone, he loves to bring it to us, puff up his chest, hold his head up high and whine with joy at his great accomplishment! :) We really encourage it from him because we want him to LOVE LOVE LOVE showing off to us, bring out that desire to please so he will continue to make for a great hunting partner.

Butch did indicate that Cooper was not as far along in his 3 month program as most other dogs are at that point, sounds like Boykins have a mind of their own and can take a bit longer to get the same results, so we have some work to do, but it is the fun kind of work.

I think Ellie is a little annoyed, Cooper thinks she is the bees-knees (whatever the hell that means!) and he likes to chase-tail with her and since she has no tail, he really just has his nose on her ass constantly :) He puffs up to her, shows off his beautiful self, side steps over to her, paws at her to play and notice him and occassionally mounts.. she's been a little bit bitchy these days as she certainly does NOT appreciate it as much as he wishes she would. They get along just fine though, but at times I can see she just wants a break.. Russell, well again he is just annoyed that the kid is back, he really thought the problem was solved and gone for good. We have to be a little cautious though, because Cooper we've noticed is trying to establish himself back in the household and occassionally he seems to want to prove he is the new man of the house, and Russell is having non of that BS. Russell is standing his ground and demanding Cooper to back off, I just hope Cooper doesnt overstep his boundaries because I worry a tiny bit that Cooper will get a little too cocky and an actual fight might happen. So far its been okay, but part of the problem is that Russell is cranky and likes to growl at Cooper and Cooper LOVES to antagonize Russell.. If Russell has the bone, he will bat his legs at Russell, he'll play bite at Russell and just do all he can to annoy the shit out of him and if Russell is relaxing on the couch, Cooper thinks it is such a hilarious game to raz him up and bark at him, so then Russell starts barking like crazy, which gets Cooper even more riled up and excited. I am not sure Cooper understands that although he is playing and thinks its all funny, Russell on the other hand truly is pissed off and does not think it's so funny!

Cooper

We were very excited to go down and see Cooper this past Saturday, it has been a long 3 months without him. The trainer had loaded up his trailer with 19 dogs that morning, although we didnt see Cooper go in, we were pretty sure he was in there as the trainer, Butch, knew we were his owners and there to watch him work and talk about his training to date.

We watched black lab after black lab after black lab (and so on) work for most of the morning. The dogs sit in their kennel on the trailer until it is time to work, come out and do their job, then go back in the kennel so Butch can work the next dog. Of 19 dogs, 17 were labs and 15 of those labs were black! The 2 non-lab dogs were Cooper and Molly..

Here is Molly, she is 1/2 sister to Cooper and owned by Elroy (who owns Earl, who is Coopers daddy). She is 2 and a very pretty little girl, very dainty like.
Finally after hours and hours of watching the other dogs work, Cooper was brought out. He hardly looked the same to me, his coat has changed A LOT! As you can see from this picture, it is a lot curlier than when we dropped him off (but I love it!).
It was 85 degrees that afternoon.. and we were excited to watch our dog work. After watching the other dogs retrieve their 2 or 3 birds and the dummy, we had high expectations for Cooper. Butch set him up for 3 retrieves I think it was, as he approached the first duck (in a really slow, lazy fashion) he hunkered over the duck, a little reluctant to pick it up. We realized he was pawing at the duck to roll it over so he could grab the softer belly side of the bird!
He looked very proud as he carried his first duck back to Butch!
I could look at pics of our Cooper all day long, he's just so beautiful holding that bird!!!
Cooper slowly trotted out to retrieve his second bird and managed to carry it back to Butch, no problem. He seemed to be a little lazy and uninspired to work that day.
Cooper's desire to work was going downhill, quickly! After he retrieved his first 2 ducks and was supposed to be on his way to retrieve the 3rd, Cooper decided he was done for the day and bolted back to the kennels which were a hundred or so yards away.. Butch snagged the 4 wheeler and chased after him, bringing him back to work. He set Cooper up to retrieve a dummy, inwhich Cooper reluctantly did so. After that retrieve, Butch was attemping to set him up for another dummy retrieve, Cooper here is getting a little lecture on behaving at this point. :)
After Coopers 2nd bolt back to the kennels, Butch took the 4 wheeler again to go get him and brought him back, placed him behind the blind where Cooper is supposed to "stay" and wait for instruction. Cooper thought it was funner to ignore Butch and sneak out behind his back! lol

Look at him hunched down, practically crawling out with both eyes up on Butch..
After attemping to once again get Cooper to go out and retrieve the dummy, Cooper bolted a 3rd time back to the kennels. Now imagine you are his owner.. imagine our horror as our dog is the ONLY dog to bolt like this, of 19 dogs! To realize you have no say in what is going on, to know your dog is pushing through his shock collar and just out-right not listening.

I was sad at this point, dissappointed that Cooper did not look happy. I started to question why we were putting him through this if he wasnt enjoying himself. After the 3rd escape attempt, Butch realized Cooper was HOT and when he was up at the kennels, he hosed him off, brought him back down and put him back in the trailer to sit for a while and cool down.
45 minutes later, he brought Cooper back out to work, as you have to end on a good note. Cooper retrieved 2 more dummies without any more problems or bolting episodes and he did look happy doing so!
We left that day unable to pet our dog or give him praise, just had to watch it all unfold. Cooper is very smart, we could see he knew where all his "marks" were at, which means he knew exactly where the ducks or dummies were at, he just didnt feel like working on Saturday. Blame it on the heat, not sure. Butch indicated that it was NOT a good representation of Cooper's abilities and that just a few days earlier he was doing triple retrieves with one being 100 yards away no problem.

We really want to get Cooper home at this point. We feel he has learned what he needs to learn from Butch and Butch has done a GREAT job with him. Our dog is healthy and as happy as a dog in training can be. But Cooper now needs the one on one time with Derek. He needs to remember his passion for retrieving simply because he loves Derek enough to do it. Cooper is probably a little bored and tired of retrieving for what Cooper would see as just this trainer guy who doesnt love him! When he retrieves for Derek, he will get TONS and TONS of praise and petting, something the trainer doesnt do. Cooper loves to retrieve for Derek and he just needs the time to remember that! Butch did tell us that this happens, the dogs will almost always work better for their owner because there is that special bond and love between man/dog that he just cant duplicate.

One other area we have work to do, is on the water! Cooper has not had a positive water experience is how the trainer phrases it. Cooper loved water at our house, but has yet to love water with Butch. But to be fair, Butch's expectations is for Cooper to run off a ledge and JUMP into the water. We need to take Cooper back to baby steps and get him to love just running and playing in shallow water, and work him up to swimming and then we can work on teaching him to jump in the water. We have a lot of work to do, but are looking forward to it.

I think I am most excited to just grab Cooper and hug him. I miss that little guy and I know he will be more than happy to get back to his old ways of doing whatever it takes to please us type attitude! 3 more days and he'll be home :)