Crispy and Rattlesnakes

Last week, our little dog, Bequia... we always call her little dog cuz she was the smallest dog we ever owned. Now we have Toe and he is literally the littlest dog...

Bequia has come to know her nickname "Little Dog", we continue to call her our little dog and people give us weird looks. (we are so used to people giving us weird looks...you have no idea)

Anyway, Bequia, was sick all last week. I pulled half of a mummified vole out of her mouth one day pre-sickness. Maybe she found the rest of it somewhere?

She acted like she felt o.k. only she got us up all hours of the night to go out and do her bid'ness. I felt like we had a newborn baby. I've never had a newborn baby but I've seen parents of newborns at work. They look like the living dead...sleep deprived and not fully functional.

Bequia is fine now and we are VERY relieved to get a full night's sleep. Shew.

We took all the dogs to a rattlesnake clinic last weekend. Gulp.

Electric collars are used. Live, de-fanged rattlesnakes are set outside and the dogs get zapped if they show interest in the snake.

We watched them work the dogs. It was very straight forward and there was no unnecessary shocking or roughness.

I put our dogs through the course. All 3 went directly to the snake to investigate and promptly received a shock just as they touched it.

It was not easy and I would not say it was fun.

However, it was probably no worse than when they accidentally hit our electric fence with 10,000 amps. It's what I kept telling myself anyway.

(is it amps that cause pain and volts that kill? I don't remember but we have 10,000 of whichever kind doesn't kill... or our neighbor Bill woulda been dead long ago... he finds more ways to come into contact with our fence .. I'm beginning to wonder if he LIKES it)

All our dogs are fine, they handled it o.k. and hopefully they will skirt clear around any sort of snake they come across from here on out.

2010 Gordon Setter National Show

One of the Gordon Setters today... her owner told me that this dog understands there are two types of people in the world. 1. Her friends. 2. The friends she hasn't met yet.

That actually describes a Gordon Setter to a T to me.

My buddy H needed volunteers to help steward at the Gordon Setter Nationals hosted by the Colorado High Plains Club this week. I took today off from work to help out.

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I had a Gordon Setter, Booker, who died last summer, I know a few of the Gordon Setter people, and, well, I just couldn't let my bud H or the big ol' black and tans down.

Uh. No. This is not a Gordon Setter.

This is a 9 week old whippet puppy who is owned by H's lil' sis. She kept trying to untie my shoes.

Please ignore my hair. It was humid today - there is no point in straightening it on hoo-mid days. You shoulda seen it when I lived in NE. Horrifying.

Had to get a pix of the whippet bitch with Toe. Yes, you can say bitch in the dog show world and it's "proper" terminology. Isn't that FUN?

Furry Husband sorta likes whippets cuz he's a frisbee guy. Ashley Whippet is legendary and I had to rub it in that I got to meet a cute, tiny, 9 week old, whippet puppy who pounced, and frolicked and cavorted...

I helped the Rally Obedience ring today ... I ran the stopwatch... helped check people in...helped to post scores...took leashes... handed back leashes...

Gordon's are funny to watch. Most people think they are stupid. They are VERY goofy. I wouldn't say they are dumb... but they really are NOT cut out to be obedience dogs.

No.

No they are not generally good at that sort of thing. So they can sort of look a bit... slow...

Booker was the number one Novice Obedience dog back in ... oh... I don't remember. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. He was published in the Front and Finish obedience magazine. I still have it, so I have written proof it DID happen.

They are big, lovable, goofy dogs. I think people who own them have a good sense of humor. They are not necessarily obedient tho they will love you with their whole heart and they will make you laugh every day in spite of yourself or their behavior.

Someone told me the Disney character Goofy was based on a Gordon Setter. I have no idea if this is true or not. I absolutely believe it tho.

You watch a Border Collie ace an obedience test with a blind fold on and one paw tied behind it's back. You are impressed with their smarts and speed. You want to watch a Gordon in an obedience test? Be sure to bring popcorn so you can kick back and enjoy the entertainment.

Oh - don't get me wrong. There are really nice working Gordon Setters, I've seen them and they are beautiful, beautiful, happy dogs.

Well, they are beautiful, beautiful happy dogs anyway.

It just seems that most hear the command sit and it takes 5 minutes for the meaning to actually reach their big black and tan behinds... you can almost hear the wheels grinding as they process it.

They need a "reason" to do most anything. They don't just DO anything you ask them. It has to make sense to them but that doesn't mean they are stupid. They are simply wired for different things.... coursing a field and finding birds... not for the close working relationship required in an obedience dog.

An example:

I wanted to take the dogs to the lake one hot summer day. I asked our two border collie dogs to get in the car... my car's windows had been rolled up... it was like an OVEN in my car.

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Dangerous heat.

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They obediently hopped in like the good, smart border collies they are.... I told Booker to get in... he stuck his head in the car as he was preparing to jump in, felt the oven heat and was like "NO way am I risking my life to get in that OVEN! Lady, you are quite mistaken if you think I'm getting in there...."

He had a leash on and I forced him in. He had fun at the lake with Sammy and Bequia...

I always thought that really showed his independent nature... and his smarts.

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Dogs overheat in cars... dogs die in hot cars... you hear about it on the news, you read about it in the papers.... Booker was smart not wanting to get in the hot car!

This is what used to happen when I tried to practice yoga at home... Booker to one side...
cats everywhere else...

He was mostly our 80lb lap dog. He loved being near us and ON us any chance he got. He was the sweetest boy and we both loved him so. He never knew a day without love and he loved everyone right back.

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I had a good time watching the black and tans today. We are glad Booker was in our lives and at the same time, I'm glad we now have Little Toe. Toe helped to heal my heart when we lost our big, beautiful boy, Booker.

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Toe isn't Booker, but Toe is Toe. Another perfectly unique personality brimming with love to give. A new, beautiful relationship has developed between him and us.

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I read somewhere once that dogs don't live as long as we do because they are SO full of unconditional love. It's as if they realize other dogs need to come into our lives to love and be loved. They leave us out of ... and because of... love.

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Isn't that a lovely idea?

Kiss that frog...

The garden toad is back.... Toe (who is fine from his mushroom ordeal) wants to kiss that frog....

Itty Bitty Opal Kitty thinks that is absolutely disgusting and must look away.

Speaking of frogs... my lesson with Rosso today was interesting. I asked Rex last time if she'd ride him so I could see what he looks like, get her impression etc.

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I did NOT have to read any of my rider psychology books at breakfast this morning.... I did NOT have to go running down the driveway to exert the swirly twirly fear inside of me to get on him today...

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I took Rosso up to Rex's, lunged him and got on. I walked all around and when I asked for a trot, he was being a big ol' butthead. Maybe he doesn't like working in the heat? Too bad, so sad.

Tho his butthole antics were making my legs a bit jello-y. I still stayed on and dealt...

Rex came out ready to hop on... I gladly let her drive...

At a walk he was fine. Well not "fine". But he wasn't being a big butthead. He was very against the aids and grabbing the left rein and being very stiff and very resistant.

Rex kept him at a walk for a while - working thru the resistance.

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Then up to trot... where he wasn't "bad" but he wasn't even in the contact and not exactly bending or supple either. She kept him at the trot until he began trying.

I couldn't figure out the "action" setting on the camera so most pix were bad and blurry. Sorry~!

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Anyway - when Rosso was being bad... she kept him forward... she was overbending him to the left since that is the rein he kept grabbing and trying to run thru.

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Once he gave, she gave. If he tried to suck back, she gave him a big kick and his reaction was great - to go forward. He danced around - jigging. threatening, trying to suck back to get his way - she kept him forward, between her hands and her legs...

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We had a discussion after he gave in and submitted. If your horse isn't on the aids at a walk... and you punch the gas... things are only going to escalate out of control.

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This was my mistake when I brought Rosso home from The Cowboy trainer. He told me sometimes Rosso was like a pop bottle with too much fizz and I needed to let him go to get the energy out... when I tried this, I got dumped.

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I'm not saying The Cowboy was wrong --- but he could recognize those times better than I could because he had more experience training young horses. So this is my mistake for not thinking things thru and blindly thinking that when Rosso was being bad, he needed to go, go, go and get some energy out.

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When in fact... he needed more time on the aids until he was listening... then I could let him out more.

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There was a really really great article in Dressage Today by Jennifer Baumbert who I clinic with when she comes out this way. Her article was about treating the symptom vs. the underlying issue.... like when a horse is overly spooky because his buddies are in the pasture screaming to him... or there is a scary bush... or the million other reasons horses spook.

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She said the issue wasn't really the horse spooking but that your horse isn't really ON YOUR AIDS. You can't punish a horse for being a horse. They're gonna spook.... but if they are on the aids, they can be ridden more effectively.

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I think this is what I learned today with Rosso. It was great watching Rex deal with him because truly, he was not dangerous. He did not buck. He did not bolt. He was having a tantrum and once she said, "No. We are doing it this way." He backed down. I saw it and know I could learn to deal with what he throws my way.... there wasn't anything awful about him.

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No, I'm not taking him down the road anytime soon on a trail ride... but I am looking forward to learning. I'm looking forward to overcoming this and learning more about HOW to ride this young horse.... and that is good.

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Rex and I also discussed how we don't think Rosso is truly spooking but that he simply doesn't want to do it and is using excuses... by acting afraid and acting spooky... he is trying to intimidate and bully to get out of his work. If he acts big and scary, maybe the work will stop.

Rex said he probably tried that with The Cowboy for about 3 seconds before he got his ass kicked... and I am not The Cowboy. It's o.k. - we'll get it figured out - the good thing is that the Shanster brain is returning!

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(and now if I could just grow a pair... it's always been my issue... not being aggressive enough - and I don't mean over the top - but there are times you need to make something happen. I'll work on channelling that determination/aggression. Wish me luck! I'll keep you all posted ....)

Toe and the mushroom

This morning we were up and at 'em at 5:30 so Furry Husband could leave for his frisbee tournament...

I was done milking the goats and when I came out of the milk room, I noticed Toe was eating something on the ground... "Whattya got Toe?" I moved him away and it's a mushroom.

Flash back to the drive up for the Cheyenne schooling show and discussion of mutual friend's dog who was acting drunk and collapsing and they thought he was going to die... when they took the dog to the vet... they thought antifreeze poisoning initially but did not find the right things in the bloodwork.

They decided the dog had eaten poisonous mushrooms... and then discussion turned to the friend's son by marriage, who is 18 - and how he's home now after his court ordered stay at a ranch in the middle of nowhere ND to work and stay away from his drug influences here...and the dog may have eaten some of that kid's drugs tho' they thought he was clean... it wasn't determined what the dog ate that caused it to act like that. Was it really poisonous mushrooms or was it something else? (dog gonna be ok? yes, dog gonna be ok)

Now Toe had eaten a mushroom... is it poisonous? I picked up the part he had not eaten. It was maybe 3" in diameter and he'd eaten half.

I came inside and began looking for mushroom id sites on the web. Evidently there are a MILLION types of mushrooms and no really good id site that you could quickly determine if the partial mushroom sitting next to me was poisonous or not.

I found plenty of CO sites saying mushroom poisoning is happening a lot right now in CO because of our wet spring. If your dog has consumed a mushroom, induce vomiting with either syrup or ipecac or 3% hydrogen peroxide and call your vet.

I called our vet - she said he has to puke before it gets into his system. She told me to use the ipecac or 3% hydrogen peroxide...

We don't have either and the nearest store is 30 min away... I called our favorite neighbors. They had the 3% hydrogen peroxide... the vet told me to give it to him in 10cc doses with a syringe and it would make him gag and puke. If I couldn't get him to puke... load his system up with stuff that would coat like milk and watch for vomiting, diarrhea, nervous system issues and that it could really affect his liver and/or kidneys.

We dosed him with 10cc ... nothing.

I dosed him with another 10cc.... nothing.

Great. I have the ONLY dog with a cast iron stomach that will not vomit.

I dosed him a third time.

VOMIT! I've never been so happy to see vomit!

We scooped it up to search for mushroom... there was kibble from his breakfast, which he ate prior to his fungus foray, a piece of grain from his raid of the milk stanchion bowl the goats eat their grain from while being milked - also prior to his mushroom discovery... and there was mushroom.

I can't be sure if it was ALL there? I dosed him 3 more times with the hydrogen peroxide tyring to get a second round of puke. No luck and I began to worry if I could poison him with hydrogen peroxide? I decided to stop and gave him a bowl of milk. Now we wait and watch.

The web said symptoms can occur 30 min to 6 hrs... our vet thought we'd see something tomorrow. Luckily I saw him eating it, remembered the discussion from a few weekends ago and was able to act quickly.

We have the other part of the mushroom in tupperware... hopefully it is NOT a poisonous 'shroom and all of this was just a little exercise in torturing my dog!

Not much to work with...

J's mare had a colt Wednesday morning. I called her because we were supposed to go tracking but my Mom was coming up so I had to move our tracking appointment.

J told me her mare, "Critter", had a little bay colt that morning and if we wanted to stop by with the whole fam damily we'd be welcome.

Furry Husband and I asked Mom and Step-dad if they wanted to go see a 12 hr old foal after dinner... but it was too late for them. They wanted to get back to Denver so we said our good-byes and began cleaning up. We were doing dishes and Furry Husband said wistfully, "I would have kinda liked to see a 12 hr old baby...."

Always game for baby horse viewing, I told him, "Let's go!" I drove fast since it was 8:30 at night and daylight was fading fast. We arrived in time to see the little dude before the sun set.

There is NOTHING cuter than a foal. Baby goats got nuthin' on a baby horse. How do those long, long stilt legs fit all up in the mare?

We admired the little guy. Furry Husband was able to meet Harley the pig and give him a friendly pat or two.

J and I talked about going out Saturday morning for another trail ride... Furry Husband asked J if she was going to make me brave.

She was squatted on her haunches, scratchin' the colt's nose and she didn't turn to look at him: "Well, Furry.... she doesn't give me much to work with...."

Funny, funny people.... hey, I'm goin' ain't I?!

Maybe this time I'll remember a camera so it's fully documented. Colorado Chicken on a trail ride.... come to think of it, on the last trail ride I think we saw some sasquatch footprints...

The pond store...

I have this itty bitty pond. 4' by 4'... I don't have fish. I only want some water plants... water lillies, some horsetail, miniature cattails and a few hyacinths.

I stopped by the pond store to pick up some fertilizer tabs for my lillies to get some nice blooms on them this summer.

And then I was distracted by the fountains....

Big tall vase like things where the water spills over the side onto what looks like solid ground... only they are on a grate covered with river rock and there is a vat o' water underneath with a pump recirculating the water back into the tall vase.

Well lets just say I'm a bit spatially "slow".

I made this poor girl who worked at the pond store show me the grate, explain to me the pump and the tubing and the recirculatin'....

She had to draw me pictures.

Then I got overly excited about getting a small spitter for my pond... a small figurine of a frog or a turtle that spits water out it's mouth recirculating via pump and tubing....

Poor pond working gal had to explain it to me over again... and draw additional pictures...

I decided it was a project for another day and I should just take my lilly fertilizer along with my hyacinths and get the heck outta there before I dropped any more $.

I told Furry Husband all about it when I got home.

He was really glad he wasn't at the pond store with me. REALLY glad.

In fact, he asked in a way you might talk to a small child, "Honey... did you give those people something to talk about over dinner?"

Well duh .... who else is gonna keep them entertained?

Rosso and Sera

I had a lesson on Rosso Sunday morning. I get so frustrated with myself cuz of my fear about him. I can't even convey how frustrated I get ... I read my little rider psychology stuff about fear at breakfast to psych myself up and say the things to myself I need to say to be able to get on him and ride.

I trailered him over to Rex's... and I could feel the fear energy swirling around inside me... so I ran away.

Literally!

I know I looked like a huge dork (ha! what else is new?). I'd read that sometimes fear can be dispelled by exertion... I went running down Rex's driveway... down the road to her neighbor's mailbox... did some jumping jacks... ran back.

It did help. I was still feeling fear but it wasn't immobilizing.

I lunged the baby boy Rosso... he listened to me very well... he was even letting down (*ahem* letting it ALL hang out... if you know what I'm talkin' 'bout) So I know he was relaxed and fine...

I took him to the middle of the arena... did not do all the slapping and laying my body over the saddle cuz duh - he knows what is coming and dammit, if he pulls his crap and dumps me while I'm getting on he will pay! (I really do need to get in touch with my barely existent aggressive side)

I climbed on.

He stayed still. I took some deep breaths, wiggled around... and off we went. We had a very lovely lesson of leg yields, shoulder fore, spiralling in and out on a circle, transitions to walk and back up to trot where he stayed in my hand and connected... lovely.

The more nice rides I have, the more confident I will get. Simple as that. Before you know it, we'll be out and about.

Still ... I get really frustrated with my stoo-pid lizard brain which is all about instinct and preserving the life of a neanderthal, and how the lizard brain keeps jumping in front of my Shanster brain.


And now for the segment you've all been waiting for... my big yeller chicken trail ride.


I trailered Sera over to J's house which backs up to Robert's Ranch. It is so incomprehensible to me how a family can own SO much land. It just goes on and on and on... gorgeous and beautiful land for miles as far as the eye can see.

I got Sera out... walked her around and let her graze a minute - take it all in. I walk her over to where J is getting out the horse she wants to ride...and there is Harley the pig in all his 300lb glory.

Sera doesn't even twitch an ear at him.

He sort of came over and made this big grunty pig noise... uh.... Sera didn't even look up from grazing... she just did NOT care about the pig in any way. I took her over to him and her nose was like 3 inches from the damn pig... she really could not care less! How funny is that?

We took the horses into J's arena... rode them around... warming them up ... then we went out and thru this other gate into Roberts Ranch... it was just WIDE OPEN blue skies, sun, green grass... gorgeous.

There were prairie dogs all around and a lot of holes to navigate around... a cow skeleton... a coyote skeleton... we sent a pronghorn antelope herd skittering away.... we rode thru this gully area, up this steeper hill and then back down... it was really steep for ME, Colorado Chicken, but Sera was perfect.

She spooked once at the pronghorn herd but other than that... she just went anywhere I asked her to go without any fuss. It was so much fun.... J wanted to go further and steeper etc. but seriously... for Sera's first outing like that, she did so great and why push her to her limit... let's keep it fun for her... so I was the party pooper and asked to go back. We were out for about 2 hrs...

It was so much fun.... I'm really glad that I went out of my comfort zone, took my damn skirt off and just went.

J kept teasing me that her horse was scared of Sera cuz Sera is so big... and Sera is not big compared to all the other dressage type horses, she is 16hh even. Tho' I suppose it's all relative. She was much bigger than J's QH and I didn't really notice until we were riding side by side.

And may I just say how much I love, love, love my big, red-headed Sera Sue? I think I have little cartoon hearts swirling around my head because of her today....