Wishy The Writer

How much dog training is too much?

2010-03-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

This article says I never have to feel guilty again when I only find the time to train my dogs once per week!

My review is up

2010-03-01T11:45:00.000-08:00

My review of Heidi W. Durrow's The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is up at Bookslut.

Fascinating article re: Agility training vs. Search and Rescue Training

2010-02-17T11:25:00.000-08:00

This fascinates me! Enjoy the read!

funniest dog agility video ever!

2010-02-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

The 2nd half of this video, at about 1 min 10 secs, the part with Lily the Dog, is just about the funniest dog agility footage I've ever seen!

GoD and DoG does just about explain it for me

2010-02-10T08:35:00.000-08:00

Don't know if I've posted this youtube video here before or not, but the "GoD and DoG" video and song explain my feelings about dogs [and faith] about as well as anything! Enjoy!

The Jane Goodall Method for Creative Writing?

2010-02-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

This author's description of her Jane Goodall writing process helped me squeeze out 1000 words today. The words were hard to come by today, but at least they did come by... This gal's novel, Heroic Measures, btw, was a good one. Another DOG NOVEL! Don't we need more good dog novels? (tee hee... so blogs the gal trying to write a dog novel)...

Dog Fiction

2010-01-31T08:55:00.000-08:00

What's your favorite canine-centric novel? I'm compiling a list!

Dog People Care about People too

2010-01-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

Okay, I did it too. My mostly-dog-related blog just featured a post completely removed from the tragedy going on in Haiti right now in the aftermath of the earthquake two days ago...

But then I just moseyed around my favorite agility blogs and didn't see a single post related to raising awareness of where we all can donate, if we so choose.

I'm hoping that's only because it's a given that we care about the tragedy and it's a given that we've already donated and it's a given that, of course, dog people care about people too.

I'm sure that's it. But just in case there's somebody reading this blog (hi Mom!) who is inclined to donate to help Haitian relief but who isn't sure of a great place to donate, I recommend Partners in Health. Partners in Health is the organization started by Dr. Paul Farmer decades ago in Haiti that has been on the ground in Haiti since then and that is vital for the health of Haitians. You can donate at www.pih.org. You can read more about Haitian history and the unique position of Partners in Health to help now in this New York Times op-ed and you can read the amazing book about Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners in Health by Pulitzer-winner Tracy Kidder called Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Yay Dog People! Yay Dogs! Yay People!

Dog Training Business?

2010-01-14T07:37:00.000-08:00

I've been noticing a lot of folks lately mulling the prospect of starting a dog business. Teaching agility. Owning a training facility. Hosting seminars or trials at said-but-yet-unbuilt-and-unpaid-for training facility.

My advice?

Keep mulling.

To be honest, the thought has even crossed my mind, but when I really begin to calculate the cost and the commitment, the idea looks less and less rosy.

But seriously, folks seems to be coming out of the woodwork lately all mentioning the same desire to own a dog training business. Either that, or they're writing a novel.

And like the novel-writing, I think some this mulling is a response to the shaky economic times we're in now and that's not all bad. When we can't count on the American Dream of the 30-year-mortgage and the house and the garage and the kids and the blah, blah, blah, then maybe we start looking past the blah, blah, blah to what really matters, whatever that is.

But I do come back, often, to the thought that our generation and our time isn't as original as we think it is. There are folks on the planet right now who lived through The Great Depression. They had dreams and goals and they mulled just like we do. They lived on ground as shaky as ours. What did they do?

Some of them struck out and "followed their dreams" or whatever, and some of them found a way to outwardly look, I guess, not like they'd changed that much, like maybe they still had the same partner, the same house, the same day job, but they found their purpose in hobbies, clubs, communities, faith communities. I mean, if not, they why were there all those Shriners and Elks Club members in the 50s? And what about the weird hobbyists who started their gazillion-strong collection of reamers or oven mitts or whatever?

They, too, were clamoring for more than the blah, blah, blah.

We're not so original, those of us today. So, I keep mulling...

Advice for writing, competition, life...

2010-01-11T08:58:00.000-08:00

I'll take inspiration from anywhere. I'm shameless like that.

For example, I like the band The Killers, and though they make me feel old, what with their being twenty-somethings "reinventing" an 80s post-punk sound that was new when I first heard it *in* the 80s, they inspire me somehow. So, I found this quote on wikipedia about the early days of the band and its leader, Brandon Flowers, when he was just starting out:

“he wasn't afraid to just get up there and just do it. You need that when you're trying to get something off the ground. As far as the drive goes, Brandon was never half-assed.”

What maturity from someone so young! It's so true, though! You *do* need to fight back fear when you're trying to get something --anything-- off the ground! You *shouldn't* be half-assed!

I'm trying to get my fiction writing off the ground, and I'm always trying to get my agility jones off the ground, so to blog, and, well, really for *anything* in life where I'm trying to "get it off the ground," I'm going to try and fight back my fear and stop being half-assed and just do it!

Maybe this inspires you too?

(What a strange blog... I quote Wendell Berry one day and The Killer another?)

Rest in Peace, Jim Rohn

2010-01-05T22:02:00.001-08:00

Jim Rohn died today. I blogged a while back about a favorite quote of mine attributed to him:

"Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day."

In his honor, I recommit to practice every day my few simple disciplines of reading, writing, dog training, exercising and eating right and loving my family and friends as best I can.

Godspeed Jim Rohn.

New Year, New (or Old) Inspiration

2010-01-05T13:44:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when many folks revisit goals, health and look for inspiration to live well, fully and closely connected with whom and with what really matters. Recently, I've seen magazines, television shows, radio shows and blogs praising and sharing advice from "experts" on eating well and living well in the New Year and for the future. That made me think about one of my favorite experts on life, living, literature and poetry: Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry is as close to a Rennaisance man as anyone living today. He is a farmer, a husband of over fifty years, as essayist, a novelist, a short story writer, a poet and, I'm sure, much, much more. In our attention-deficited world where heiresses, starlets, professional athletes, reality television personalities and braying politicos and motivational speakers chatter endlessly, Berry is a balm to my spirit and he inspires me like no one can. Berry speaks slowly, writes lyrically and seems to take the long view in a time when immediacy is the dominant perspective. Whether reading his words or hearing an interview with him, Wendell Berry makes me take a deep, nourishing breath.

I'm also deeply grateful to him for writing me a personal response a while back when I wrote him one of the only fan letters I've ever written. I thanked him for his inspiring work and mentioned I was beginning a writing program and was attempting to write partly because his words make me want to write. Berry mailed me back a wonderful note of encouragement and humble thanks for my words (he was kind enough to refrain from naming my note a "fan letter"). That personal connection simply deepened my admiration for the man. I was moved he took the time to respond to me and his simple note reminds me to extend the same kindness to others who reach out to me.

What's more: Wendell Berry owns a border collie. That make me like him even more.

Here's a recent interview with Berry that might serve as an antidote for anyone reading my blog, too, who might be as dismayed as I am with the frenetic New Year messages all too common this time of year. Here's my favorite poem by Wendell Berry also. I have no words for the perfection of his words.

Happy New Year!

An Email from my Husband...

2009-12-15T04:47:00.000-08:00

I don't usually post others' writing here, but yesterday my husband sent me this email and it's too good not to share. (I have his permission to share it, by the way.) So he'll be my Guest Blogger today, sharing his thoughts on the latest Tiger Woods saga:

So, I was thinking about Tiger and all his troubles and about how he said he wants to break Jack’s major wins record and that has always been his focus. I believe he was personally confused as to which of Jack’s records he ought to be trying to beat.

Jack married his wife Barbara right out of college and they have been happily married for many, many years (couldn’t find out exactly how many). They have 5 grown kids together and I came across an interview with Jack where he is talking about two of his kids who just bought houses right next to each other (Barbara says they fought a lot as siblings growing up).

Jack said, “Amazing, isn't it? Two older brothers living next to each other. And all five of our children live within maybe 10 minutes of Barbara and me. I think that's pretty neat. That's more important to me than 20 trophies for winning majors. And if it weren't the way it is in our family, I'd trade all those trophies to make it that way.”

Can’t help but think how much better off Tiger would be if he would have seen this as the record to beat! Love y’all family!

Cynosport photos are up!

2009-12-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Caroline and Daniel, the superb photographers of Doghouse Arts, have their Cynosport 2009 photos up on pictage! There are great ones!

Horse agility!

2009-12-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

Horse jumping inspired dog agility which in turn inspired horse agility! Cool!

A tax break for Fido!

2009-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

hmmmmmmm.....

Attention Dog Trainers, Parents, Everybody!

2009-10-12T11:54:00.000-07:00

FUN is the way to change behavior!

(Thanks Taj Mutt Hall for the link!)

I don't plan on competing in this version of agility...

2009-09-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

But my horse-crazy daughter would probably love to try this with her border collie!

This makes me go hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Time Magazine article on Dogs' Minds

2009-09-16T11:11:00.001-07:00

This is interesting!

Silas House writes about dogs...

2009-09-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

The great writer, Silas House, on dogs.

Book Review

2009-09-08T12:01:00.001-07:00

My review of Lorrie Moore's new novel is in the September issue of Bookslut. Enjoy!

Godspeed Focus

2009-09-03T08:51:00.000-07:00

A shock to the agility world yesterday.

Just days before his 5th birthday, current AKC national champion, Focus, died suddenly during a practice. His owner, handler and partner, Geri Hernandez, was set to take him to his second turn at World Team competition in a few days.

I'm working on a novel set in our world of dog agility. How do I convey in words what our agility dogs mean to us? They change our lives. We are not the same people we'd be without them and without the agility community.

Geri is undoubtedly suffering a loss of focus today, in her real loss of Focus. I pray Geri finds again the True North that her time with Focus afforded her and I dearly hope she always remembers the lessons Focus taught her. I hope she knows their bond was also a lesson for all of us in agility.

Here are a couple lovely tributes for a dog who will not be forgotten.

(Don't miss this youtube video.)

Godspeed Focus.

I guess this is why we have a dog named Bo...

2009-07-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

This youtube video might make a dog lover (and a Bo-owner) cry a little.

More agility writing by Wishy's Kiddo...

2009-06-01T21:07:00.000-07:00

"I chose to write this poem because I like agility."

My Dog's Life written 3/9/09 by Wishy's Kiddo, age 8 at the time

I have a puppy named Pax
She has a friend named Max
We have to go to a class
And it's always on grass
Then we go to the mall
To buy her a new ball
And then we go to training
Where she ends up banging
If she jumps through a hoop
We go out for some soup
We met another dog
While we sat in the fog
And when Pax barks,
In my heart she makes marks.

Free Clean Run articles online

2009-05-12T13:03:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd share, in case you didn't know, that Clean Run now has several free articles online at this link

http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=451

The section entitled "Canine Health" is fantastic with wonderful articles on stretching and strengthening the canine that we've used here at home and before and after competition days for quite a while now. I highly recommend those! But there are many great free articles here covering a wide variety of subjects!

We might as well avail ourselves of some great free agility info!

Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day!

2009-04-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

Today is the end of National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day when everyone is encouraged to walk around with a favorite poem in a pocket and share it with everyone they meet.

If I ran across you today, I'd pluck Wendell Berry's "The Peace of Wild Things" from my pocket, read it to you and share my wish for you to feel the peace he describes.

Follow this link to read the poem and consider yourself virtually blessed!

GREAT dog training advice!

2009-04-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

Check out Fanny Gott's blog post today with 5 pieces of advice to improve dog training! It's a keeper!

a podcast of dog tales!

2009-04-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't noticed, I'm a podcast junkie. When I'm at home, I hook up my ipod to my stereo and listen to podcasts anywhere in my house or back yard while I'm puttering. I do the same in my car and I even listen to my ipod sometimes when I hike (though sometimes I just want me, my pooches and the trees when I hike).

My husband and I listened to this podcast last weekend on our long drive to the 4-star competition in California. It is well worth the listen! And watching our pooches in our RV when the final segment of the cat taking a bath came on was a GREAT diversion from the long drive! Enjoy these dog tales! Especially the one about the blind frisbee-catching dog!

First 4-Star event of the year

2009-04-20T14:00:00.000-07:00

For all you non-agility folks who read my blog (Hi Mom!), this post can be summarized: Yay! My pooch and I had a GREAT WEEKEND!

For you agility pals: The first 4-star event was this weekend. If you don't do USDAA, 4-Star events are point-accumulation tournament events to help determine what dog and handler teams will compete on the world team next year in IFCS (I think that stands for "International Federation of Cynological Sports" or dog sports). After four 4-star events and the Cynosport World Games in Scottsdale in November, the 3 dog and handler teams with the most points will be eligible for world team. MY news is that of the 6 events this past weekend at the 4-star event in California, my huge bc boy won 3 of them and earned points in others. He racked up lotsa points, in other words! It was SO FUN!

And most importantly, I felt like me running him. So many times at events I've "cared about," I have cared WAY TOO MUCH and I've ended up performing so badly and we've not even resembled ourselves on course. But in the case of this weekend, three of our runs were clean and smooth and ended up first place. 3 of our runs were okay and we made it through them, but with bobbles here and there a bit. But in all cases, those runs were "US!" I mean, normally we run some smooth runs AND we make bobbles here and there. That's us (or ME, mainly... my dog is amazingly consistent. It's me who bobbles, really). But even with the bobbles this weekend, I didn't make them because I was nervous or geeky or strange or goofy or weird because I was nervous or intimidated or trying too hard or "trying for the world team." Honestly, I don't expect ANYTHING to come of my point accumulation... but I HAVE learned that it's STINKING FUN to just run and be me and have my big boy be my big boy and have the points/placements/titles/etc. shake down however they might. I've had so many dear friends experience so many heartaches, illnesses and deaths recently that it is TOTALLY APPARENT that scampering about trying to get a dog to lurch itself over a hurdle or to touch some yellow paint is just not important in life. But enjoying a sunny weekend with my family and with several good friends and with my best furry pal and running and feeling the pump of my heart and intake of my lungs and enjoying my health, my family's health and my pooch's health.... well,

IT WAS A GREAT WEEKEND!

Video & Audio Podcasts that have truly added joy to my life!

2009-04-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

If you've never heard of the TED Conference or of the TEDTalks, well, I sorta envy you because you're now about to experience lectures from some of the world's truly great minds and these words will add so much immediate joy to your day and probably even to your life that I just want to revisit the moment not long ago when I learned I could watch and listen to and download these talks all FOR FREE! I guess I can revisit them by going and viewing and listening right now. And I will. Time and time again! All for FREE! TED stands for "Technology" and "Entertainment" and "Design" and some of the world's great thinkers are asked to speak at the TED Conference and other big-wigs are either invited or pay big bucks to view these talks. But we can view the talks, download the talks to our ipods, and listen or watch in our jammies with a hot cocoa and a PB & J dripping down our chest anytime we choose. (Oh, and our pooches can be at our feet. Can't forget our pooches). Anyway, enjoy this talk by the great Coach Wooden about SUCCESS! (I love, love, love that he's a poetry lover!) And poke around all over the website here or search for TEDTalks on the search function on itunes and ENJOY! Put comments in, if you care to, sharing with me your favorite TEDTalks and I'll go check them out, if I haven't already! ENJOY!

I so believe a cattle dog could do this...

2009-04-11T06:36:00.000-07:00

Our Mesa who died last October was part cattle dog. I *so* believe a cattle dog could survive in this manner... this is a great story!

Sheep abuse?

2009-03-18T08:10:00.001-07:00

Is this sheep abuse? (Thanks, Sue, for sharing.)

Link to a dog training post I must share!

2009-03-04T06:24:00.000-08:00

Take the time to read this post Susan Garrett shared on her blog today! It's a great one and will improve your dog training (and maybe even your people training)...

Pride and Frustration

2009-02-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

Practicing agility last week (thanks Tracy!) I heard myself say to my husband, who was running a sequence with his big border collie, "Pride and Frustration do not serve us in dog training." Hubster was working through an especially difficult jump and weave exercise and he was having a hard time determining just how to handle it with his torpedo-fast dog. (The dog's name is Bo and I love to call him "Torpe-Bo" in fact.)

Well, I don't know if my advice helped my husband at all, but it helped me. I decided I really liked what I said for one thing, and that doesn't happen very often, but I also decided it was something useful to remind myself (and others, too, I guess, because I heard myself repeating my new mantra a few times this weekend to various pals!).

But it's true, whether in parenting or work or our romantic relationships or in dog training.... or anywhere in life. Pride and frustration do not serve us. So why do we muck around there in Pride World and Frustration Avenue for so long? They most certainly do not serve us when we're trying to teach... whether we're teaching a dog or a kid or a husband!

And we have this added dose of competitiveness-pride in agility because agility really *is* a competition with winners and losers (albeit with winners and losers who usually earn NO MONEY, so what's the big deal again?)... But we really *do* have bragging rights or pride or titles or placements at stake at agility trials, so I see all of us allowing that competitiveness to spill over sometimes into puppy raising or sequencing in practice or fudging our criteria with our dogs when friends are watching because we have a bit of performance anxiety or we don't want to look like an idiot or we don't want it to appear that we're not "far enough along" with our pooch or that we never work with them or... WHATEVER!

It's all still pride and frustration, isn't it? And the moment we're indulging in pride or frustration we're no longer laser-focused on our dogs' learning and how we can or can not shape that the way we want. We also, sadly, are not laser-focused in those prideful or frustrating moments on what we treasure most about agility... our relationships with our dogs... It's the dog-human bond that I hear from everyone that is the only real reason we engage in our silly competitions... to build, maintain and delight in our fulfilling relationships with our furry best friends!

So, I'll be PROUDLY (wink, wink) reminding myself of my new little saying I so PROUDLY discovered for myself...

Pride and Frustration do not serve me! ;-)

Maybe the Prize is Friendship?

2009-02-09T07:02:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about why I do agility since I'm both writing a novel set in the world of dog agility and a smart friend recently said this to me: "Really, we all just do it for bragging rights."

My friend meant that no one is getting too terribly rich in our sport, for example. Sure, we have an ever-increasing number of folks who are making their living teaching agility professionally and writing books and producing DVDs, but all it took me was a trip to WestWorld in Scottsdale this weekend, near my agility trial location, to see the Arabian horse addicts pulling in their million-dollar setups into their showing location an entire week before their exhibition for me to learn that the money that the most privileged person spends on agility is chump change to the horse world.

And that's not even discussing professional sports. I think it's safe to assume that even the "stars" of agility can walk any city street unmolested by adoring fans, but of course that's not the case for wealthy football stars or other professional athletes.

So why do we do agility? I'd love to hear from anyone reading my blog, actually (we fiction writers love to learn from our friends' stories so SHARE PLEASE).

I have goals in agility, for sure. One goal was completing my ADCH with my border collie. We did that two years ago. Since then, my goals have been to play at nationals and do well. We've done that. We've fallen short of my desire to make it into the finals of either Steeplechase or Grand Prix at nationals, but we've come very close (only a dog or two away).

My goal this weekend was to get a Q in Grand Prix. I need one more to qualify for nationals this year. I have several Steeplechases and DAM team qualifications this season, but only one Grand Prix. I have several 5 point faults (that's one small mistake, like a knocked bar or a spot where a dog refuses to keep on heading toward the obstacle the handler is indicating, for you agility novitiates reading my blog --HI MOM!). 5 point faulted Grand Prix runs were still qualifying runs for nationals last year in Grand Prix, but this year they changed the rules and dog and handler must be fault-free this year. (Well, okay, the handler can't really earn faults in agility, but maybe I *should* be able to do so sometimes when I really stink up!). If I were playing by last year's rules, I'd have lots of Qs already, but I'm not. And I didn't get my Q on Saturday. One 5 point fault knocked bar by my buddy. I didn't help him read a double jump was coming as opposed to a single jump and I didn't say "big" or anything and he knocked the double.

But my good friend, Judy, got her Q in Grand Prix. And her handling challenges are quite different from mine because she handles from her souped-up wheel chair. But I couldn't have been happier for her! She absolutely deserved to get that Q on that gorgeous run and I'm humbled by her grace both in competition and in success. She handles both with instructive poise.

Another good friend, Jean, narrowly missed out on her final leg for her ADCH. She'll get there. She's so very close and she and her dog are a joy to watch as they become a blistering fast, yet in-tune team.

But what I realized, when I saw crowds of people cheering around Judy and another crowd of people comforting another friend in her real, though fleeting, disappointment:

Aren't we stinkin' lucky to be in this community of agility addicts? We may not be rich or famous and every single one of us may simply be doing this for our varying levels of bragging rights, but how lucky are we just to move our bodies in time with our partners from an entirely different species and attempt unity, all with the very real support of human friends who are also our competitors but who most importantly understand why we care so much in the first place!?! We care so much because we're not merely seeking bragging rights but we're seeking those suspended moments with our dogs who live too short lives. We will too soon move on in our lives without our current agility partners, but these memories of love and support from both our agility partners and our agility friends will remain.

Yep, the prize is friendship, and Judy, Jean, and I, along with tons of folks I observed this weekend, earned that prize and it's way more valuable than bragging rights!

You might be too addicted to agility when...

2009-02-03T15:19:00.000-08:00

your 8 year old writes this for her school essay assignment:

Why a Dog is Better than a Cat (by Wishy's Kiddo)

I think a dog is better than a cat. Cats can't do agility like dogs can. Cats can't jump twenty-six inches like dogs can. Cats are too scared to do the Dog Walk. I'm not saying cats aren't as good as dogs. However, dogs can do more. I mean, like there's no such thing as a Work Cat!

Listen

2009-02-02T09:54:00.000-08:00

I have enjoyed NPR's "This I Believe" series for quite a while now. It is a series of personal essays submitted by listeners about all facets of belief. This essay is a powerful reminder to me to shut up and listen whenever I can. Listening to people's stories is powerful.

"I wish I wouldn't have practiced."

2009-02-01T15:02:00.001-08:00

"I wish I wouldn't have practiced."

That is something I've never said. It's something my husband has never said. I've never heard anybody say it, actually. And yet it can be hard to make myself get off my tush and go train my dog and practice agility.

But I'm *always* happy, thankful, and just plain "full" when I play with my pooch. It's fun. It's gratifying to see my dog learn stuff. It's rewarding to feel that I've communicated with my agility partner. And it just plain feels good to run and to run with my dog.

I never regret practicing. Just like I never regret exercising or eating right or trying to better myself by learning a foreign language or some new skill. So why don't I challenge myself to do all those things more often?

I just realized that I've never said "I wish I would not have just practiced with my dog," but I do very often regret failing to practice.

I'm going to try and let that be a lesson to me the next time I'm tempted to spend more time on my tush.

I'm a sucker for cute animal stories

2009-01-19T10:37:00.000-08:00

See if this dog-loves-elephant-loves-dog story doesn't just brighten your day a tish.

Nature and Nurture

2009-01-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

I make myself laugh.

I am *such* a fan of the nurture side of things in the great nature-versus-nurture-debate that whenever I hear further evidence of the power of nurture and more specifically of learning and the ways learning actually changes physiology that I just get all jazzed and excited and have to share my findings with somebody.

So you, dear reader (Hi mom) are that somebody.

I was just listening to the podcast entitled To the Best of Our Knowledge. I adore this show. In depths interviews with scholars and other interesting folks all surrounding a singular topic each episode. The latest episode is about THE BRAIN! An organ I find unendingly fascinating.

So, in this episode, Oliver Sacks is one of the people interviewed. He wrote the book Musicophilia and the tidbit he shared in this podcast that got me so excited was the finding in studies of music students, Suzuki method students and others, that learning music certainly changes the brains of music students. Music students brains were scanned before their training began and then their brains were scanned a year later and definite changes in the brains of these students were seen.

But that's not all. *Specific* changes in the brains of the music students were seen. Sacks shared that neurologists can pinpoint which brains are the brains of accomplished musicians ONLY by looking at their brain scan images. And the changes in the brains of the early music students were consistent with the scan images of the accomplished musicians, though not entirely similar. It is as if their brains were "on the way" toward being accomplished, just as they were acquiring their musical knowledge and experience!

FASCINATING!

I think we dog trainers are changing our dogs' brains similarly! This kind of information simply inspires me to keep training my dog, keep teaching my daughter and keep teaching myself. I've even made a New Year's resolution to practice Spanish in earnest. I'm going to learn Spanish! It'll be good for my brain in countless ways.

And once again, I believe virtuosity, whether in music, chess or dog agility, for heaven's sake, is certainly a product of both nature and nurture.... but I think that the nurture side of things is influential enough, and it's the side of things I can actually do something about in my, my family's and my dogs' lives, that I'm inspired to keep pluggin' away at all our learning!

Viva la Growth Mindset!

Changing our Fixed Mindsets

2008-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

Susan Garrett wrote a super blog post this week about not limiting our dogs' potentials, regardless of their backgrounds.

As a mom, her post made me think of parenting too. We parents can limit our kids' potentials, regardless of their backgrounds or histories, simply by labeling them.

"Oh, my son Timothy? Yes, he's The Sensitive One. And my daughter Katie? She's The Messy One. And my son Goober? He's The Smart One."

We've all heard parents say these kinds of things.

In dog training, I've heard trainers say, "This is My Lazy Dog," or "This one is My Fast Dog," and "This one is My Slow Dog."

Like Susan mentioned in her blog this week, these are limiting labels.

This video clip discusses this labeling in the parenting context and does a great job explaining the problems with what researchers call The Fixed Mindset. When we label our kids, our dogs, our spouses or ourselves, we are displaying a Fixed Mindset, as if these traits or characteristics are purely inherited and part of our nature from birth. When we change that Fixed Mindset, however, we not only increase our and our loved ones' capacities for improvement, because we suggest that talents and behaviors are products of HARD WORK as opposed to "natural" traits acquired from birth, but we also increase our and our family members' potential for happiness! This video does a great job explaining how that works! This article explains some of the research, too. For example, when researchers told a math class they were "smart," that class did worse when faced with new and difficult math challenges, but when researchers told another math class that they "worked hard" and that their mental capacity could grow and increase like a muscle, they pressed on and improved when faced with new and difficult math challenges! I'm sure dog trainers or parents who are convinced they can help their dogs or their kids improve through hard work will press on and see more improvement in themselves, their dogs or their kids than folks who think in a "fixed mindset."

Yes! Hard work is one of the secrets of happiness! And, by eliminating Fixed Mindsets and instead focusing on ways in which HARD WORK can improve our kids', our dogs' and our own performances, we increase happiness ALL AROUND!

Yippee!

That makes me especially thankful that my daughter's teacher requires his students to recite this positive mantra every morning right after the Pledge of Allegience:

"Kindness, Respect, Honesty and HARD WORK!"

I think he knows a little something about the keys to happiness!

Guided Visualization for an Athletic Event (like Agility)

2008-12-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

I just found this great podcast with this free download: A Guided Visualization for an Athletic Event. This would be great to listen to before agility runs! And it's FREE!

Quiet moments in a busy season

2008-12-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

I just had to share this great website: The Mindful Awareness Research Center. This site has a series of free mp3 podcasts to download called "Mindful Meditations." They are free and they are great! Play them and relax for a few moments during this busy holiday time. And for my agility friends, these would be nice pre-agility mental preparation and relaxation to banish jitters before big events!

In their "resources" section, they have suggested readings "coming soon."

Enjoy!

Fun article

2008-12-12T06:49:00.000-08:00

Somehow this article and video about two Indian boys recruited for American baseball just makes my day. I also wish I had a sports psychologist/trainer/coach/cheerleader for agility like these guys have for their pitching training!

"That's not FAIR!"

2008-12-09T07:08:00.001-08:00

Since we've had an exchange student living with us for several months, our usually-an-only-child daughter has decried this phrase almost daily: "That's not FAIR!"

Now, according to this new study described on npr, I can expect to hear this from my dogs too?

Tee hee. Okay, maybe not. But the researchers who gave yummy treats to one dog and bland treats to another seem to think dogs have an understanding of fairness. Maybe. I'm not completely convinced by their findings. I think the researchers could tweak their experiments and might see entirely different results. If the dogs can predict, for example, that eating bits of bread will earn them bits of sausage, all of a sudden the value for the bits of bread will increase and the dogs will begin enthusiastically taking the bread in the hopes of earning sausage. In other words, the dogs may not be thinking of fairness as much as the value of the reinforcer itself. This piece did mention, though, that it took the dogs longer to give a paw for no reward in the presence of other dogs who were getting rewarded than it did for the same dogs to give a paw for no reward when alone in a room with researchers.

Regardless, I have a list of reasons why a single child in our family is the right configuration for us and perhaps hearing "That's not FAIR" a little less is one of the reasons on that list! If I had to hear that from my dogs, I might not have four of them!

Blackbird play

2008-12-03T08:39:00.000-08:00

A friend sent me a link to this video yesterday. It is cute as can be! A crow playing with a kitten!

It makes me want to video the play between my dogs and the ravens in my neighborhood that occurs in my back yard each and every day. Nobody really believes me, that the wild ravens play with my dogs every day, until they come over for a visit and see it for themselves.

They usually play every morning. The ravens sit in the trees just outside our yard and caw and coo and rasp at the dogs, trying to get their attention. Or, if the humans of the house sleep in too late and fail to let the dogs out according to the ravens' preferred timeline, the ravens will eventually caw, rasp and even slam their bodies just outside our bedroom window like, "Hey, Dumb Dogs! Come out and play!"

My daughter loves it when I mock a dialogue between the ravens, trying to guess at what they must be thinking before they entice the dogs for a romp:

"Yo, Marvin. I'm bored."

"Yeah, Yeah, Alvin. I'm bored too."

"Whachya wanna do?"

"I dunno, Alvin. We could go bother those dumb dogs over there for a while."

"Good idea. They're always good for a chuckle or two."

Then Marvin Raven and Alvin Raven call to the dogs, who happily oblige by racing as fast as they can right beneath the ravens' perch and crank their necks to stare up at the birds. The ravens then alight simultaneously and dive, swoop and bombard the pooches as the pooches race around in a jumping, colliding, fruitless attempt to catch the ravens. After a few minutes like this, with the dogs slowing as their tongues loll out of their mouths, the ravens flit off in a "Ha, ha. Tee hee. So there, won again" sort of triumph.

I'd think the dogs would tire of their daily trounce by the ravens, but they never really seem shamed by their defeats. The dogs seem to simply love the chance to try and catch the ravens.

Maybe there's a lesson there for me and agility.

Maybe there's a lesson there for me and life.

Just as this video serves as some sort of lesson for life!

Viva la Blackbirds!

Life goes on

2008-12-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since I've posted anything to my blog. It's been hard to know what to write since Mesa died. We are slowly turning toward a new normal in our lives and we are all embracing life these days, but I just haven't known what to post to this blog.

My main news? We got a puppy!

Pax is a 6 month old border collie-australian shepherd puppy adopted from the wonderful Arizona Border Collie Rescue group. She's adorable and wonderful and happy and fun and we've only had her one week but she fits in to our pack like a wiggly, funny glove!

And most importantly, she is fully, absolutely, unequivocally my daughter's pup. See, one of our significant losses in the long list of losses tied up in Mesa's untimely death is our daughter's loss of an agility dog to run. Our daughter is so young and is just beginning to compete and after the USDAA Cynosport World Games my husband fully intended to turn Mesa over entirely to our daughter to be "her dog." In fact, my daughter ran Mesa in what was to be her very last agility run in a trial. So after Mesa died, I have tried to "share" my 6 year old border collie with my daughter, but he's really too fast for her yet and it only took one instance of our daughter flopping down in our back yard in tears crying "I miss Mesa SO MUCH!" after she tried in vain to run my too-fast bc for my husband to insist that we get her a dog and get her a dog quickly! Daddy's simply cannot stand to see their daughters sad.

And really, we've all needed the sweet, happy energy of sweet, happy Pax in our home. She's just a doll of a dog. She is most definitely not a replacement for Mesa. Those are impossible paws to fill. But Pax is her own darling energy in our home and we are, whether we like it or not, a four-dog-kinda-family!

Pax has this adorable habit of sucking on her "Sucky Bear" now and again in the house too and I hope she never grows out of that cute little behavior. Pax simply loves everybody and everything and even though I am home all day writing and working, she seems to "know" she is our daughter's dog. Once our daughter returns home from school, Pax follows her everywhere! Compared to my husband's over-the-top young border collie boy, too, Pax is a breeze to live with. We had several friends caution us that perhaps a border collie would be too much dog for our young daughter, and for most kids, with most parents who aren't willing to help train the pup to the extent we are and with most border collies, I completely agree. But our daughter is growing up around agility and is savvier about dogs than most kids. She has already, in a stone-serious tone, informed me that she would like a running dogwalk for Pax (tee hee. My husband and I cautioned her against that training plan!) My husband and I are also having a blast helping our daughter train Pax. Pax already sits patiently at every door she encounters and waits for her release word before continuing. Pax's crate games are coming along so nicely and we are having a blast helping our daughter with restrained recalls with Paxy-Waxy who is now starting to drive nicely toward "her girl" with the proper cues! And mostly, Pax is just a truly special little girl. I don't know if it's the australian shepherd in her or just the happy accident of her lovely nature but she's just so easy-going and happy and wonderful with people, dogs and kids.

It's honeymoon time, that's for sure.

And while we all tear up just about daily with particular memories of Mesa, it has been a joy adding Pax into our family.

Mesa gave us the gift of agility and we are most certainly enjoying the continued gift of agility in our family life.

I Can't Believe She's Gone

2008-11-03T08:15:00.001-08:00

I can't believe I'm even writing this.

Mesa died last Tuesday on our way down to Scottsdale for the USDAA nationals. A couple hours earlier she stole a turkey sandwich off the dinner table and 5 to 10 minutes later she collapsed. All I could think was choking. But she stood up right away and seemed normal, if a little slow and she lost a little color in her gums. Again, I thought choking. We rushed her to the vet who checked her heart and respiration and everything. The vet said she'd be fine. None of us were thinking heart. We were all fixated on the stupid sandwich.

It wasn't the first sandwich the chow-hound Mesa had stolen, but sadly it was her last. We believe now that the first collapse at home was her first heart attack. When we stopped for gas halfway down to Scottsdale I took her to potty (thinking she'd have to go REALLY badly after eating so much a few hours earlier) and she RAN across the parking lot, like she always did (she RAN everywhere and all the time). After she went potty, she took a few steps and got slower and slower and collapsed again. I ran her to Jonathan, my husband, and he felt her heart stop (for what we now believe was the second time), and she immediately came back (again).

At that point, a stranger drove up in his car and pointed behind us saying, "There's a vet's office right there." Amazingly, we had randomly stopped for gas at a station where the parking lot of the gas station backed up to the back yard of a veterinarian's office. Random? Fate? Who knows, but at least we have the comfort of knowing we did all we could do for our girl. Jonathan ran Mesa to the vet, but in those few feet, he felt her heart stop again. We ran her into the office and within seconds the vet had intubated her and was performing CPR and injecting her heart with whatever they inject to try and get the heart beating again. He couldn't bring her back.

We are heartsick. We decided to still attend nationals. I did horribly with my dog. I would feel flooded by grief every time I stepped to the line, even though moments before that I'd be able to talk about her death with friends in a calm manner. I wasn't even the one who ever ran Mesa in agility. But Mesa was the reason we got into agility. She changed our life. She gave us this obsession we share as a family. She introduced us to countless friends. We have the house, the RV and the daily training regime we do as a family because of Mesa. And I would step to the line for agility and think it was entirely wrong doing so without Mesa walking (and barking... and running... and eating) among us.

My husband had a different outlook though. The quiet family times in our RV were hardest for him, but he seemed strangely inspired by her memory in his runs with his young border collie, Bo. They put in some gorgeous runs. Bobbles here and there, because Bo is still a young dog, but super-fast, confident and fun runs. It was a joy to see Jonathan running, not safely, but skidding on the craziest of edges all the time because he knew that's what Mesa would want, that's the way Mesa loved him to run her, that's the way he loves to run and who cares what comes of runs like that, as long as they are fast and furious? Bo seemed to adore this skidding on the edge style, too, and he didn't even knock bars at that edgy pace. In fact, Bo was listed as winning the 26 inch standard class for a while at the end of the day because he had the fastest time, but the judge had called Bo on his Aframe and evidently it never ended up on the scribe sheet. It was a very close call and Jonathan wondered if the judge hadn't changed her mind right away after the run and talked to the scribe or something, but she hadn't. We went and talked with the judge, wanting, naturally, to only do what was fair and honest and she thanked Jonathan for his honesty and she changed the results, so Bo really wasn't at the top with that missed Aframe. But he has the satisfaction of knowing he had the fastest time and, most importantly, that they put in a fun, fast run together.

Our perspectives have certainly changed. We will miss Mesa's agility runs, for sure. And we were so moved that USDAA announced her earned spot in the Performance National Standard on Friday night and that they asked for a moment of silence in honor of her tragic loss. That was such a thoughtful gesture. We truly appreciate that.

And we truly appreciated being at nationals, as hard as it was for us, with so many friends who understood just what we were feeling. I'm very thankful we were able to feel the support of so many people who knew just what our girl meant to us. A major goal in my life from now forward, in fact, will be to show the same kind of support for my agility friends when they, too, will one day, certainly, lose their agility team members. We in the agility community are so lucky to have each other.

But what we will miss the most, honestly, about our Spazzy Girl is all the daily stuff of life with Mesa that nobody but our family saw. Mesa barked constantly and the house is much, much too quiet without her. But we loved Morning Dog, the Mesa only Jonathan and I saw each morning when, for only a few minutes, she'd quietly and slowly nuzzle with us before the other dogs awakened. We'll miss her excited whimper in the car each time she smelled or sensed that we were in the middle of the forest and might take her for a hike. We'll miss how she could almost speak, yowling at us with a pushy stare each time she demanded we let her out to the back yard. We'll miss our expert vacuuming dog who picked up every dropped morsel and cleaned every used dog bowl to sparkly perfection, because, really, what self-respecting dog would leave a stray calorie somewhere unconsumed? We'll miss the caring mother-dog who would lick water droplets off us each time we stepped out of the shower. We'll miss a parent's best child-waking system when the 8 year old or the 16 year old exchange student refused to get out of bed in the morning. No dog could leap into a bed and lick a kid all over in an eager greeting for the day like Mesa. We'll miss our Spaz Dog: the slightly-too-derogatory nickname she went by daily in our home because she was Spazzy and Excited about every minute, every person, every opportunity that every day offered.

We are undoubtedly changed people because Mesa shared her life with us for over 9 years. We will try to continue being the people she'd want us to be without her daily barking persistence and her hilarious example. She made us laugh every single day. We will never forget that.

We will never forget her.

Warm, furry friend

2008-10-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

So, maybe I know a little more about why my pooches and my kitties make me happy. This piece on npr reports results of a study on warmth (as in temperature) and emotional warmth. Being around warm stuff makes us feel emotionally warm, is the thinking. My poochies make me warm in more ways than one!

Reminds me of the DVD my kiddo, hubster and I watched this weekend: Martian Child. Cheezy family flick, but a total tear-jerker if you're an adoptive family like ours. In the movie, the adopted boy renames the family Golden Retriever "Flo-mar," which "literally" means "warm furry friend" in his made-up, kid "language." So cute.

Warm furry friends make us warm homo sapiens. Yeah, sounds right to me.

Maybe that's why I like pet-loving friends too... they're warmer people! I guess I should seek out soup-loving, tea-loving and coffee-loving pals too!

Close Enough and Puppy Play

2008-10-13T09:03:00.000-07:00

What an interesting article on puppy play! Thanks for the link, Mom Unplugged! I think dog behavior is far more variable than is sometimes touted in the "dominance" literature. And what's most interesting to me in this puppy play article is the fact that the researchers are clear they are seeing certain tendencies in male pups playing with female pups, for example, but they don't know why. I doubt we'll ever fully know why. Dogs are social animals and humans are social animals and our systems of social communication are staggeringly simpatico, but not at all the same or of the same significance to each species and we simply may never ***fully*** understand what one another's signals mean. It's satisfying to me,though, that we two species, dogs and humans, get close enough to understanding one another's signals to form mutually reinforcing relationships. That, to me, is the mystery and the miracle of the dog-human relationship. I don't fully understand you, my best friend Rio, and that doesn't matter. I still love ya! Maybe there's a lesson for me there that I can carry on into my human relationships too?

Photo time!

2008-10-06T19:26:00.001-07:00

Here's a photo of my hubster and his pooch I just found on the internet... in a yahoo news slide show with photos of Paris Hilton! Tee hee! Move over Paris! Here comes MESA!

Here's another great photo I found in a slide show on msnbc and the photo is from two years ago! I've never had so much fun google-bombing!

Great article about my hubster and his dog!

2008-10-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

I love this article!

I wasn't even there!

2008-10-05T22:03:00.001-07:00

My husband just returned from St. Louis where he won the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge in small dog agility with our spazzy mixed breed Mesa for the 3rd year in a row! A local news agency in St. Louis filmed a promo on Friday and included video of me from two years ago in the beginning of the promo! I wasn't even there this year! Kinda funny. Here's the link to the video!

Who knows why this was on npr...

2008-10-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

I have no idea why npr decided to report on a sheepdog competition in Vermont, including pastoral sounds of shepherd's whistles and panting pooches splashing in water in their coverage, but I'm glad they did. Heck, in comparison to all the craziness in the news lately, this story makes a lot of sense and is a lovely departure! YAY DOGS!

October 2008 Clean Run Magazine

2008-10-01T08:11:00.001-07:00

My editorial is in this month's Clean Run Magazine. Let me know what you think!

Yup. We need puppies and kitties as much as they need us.

2008-09-29T09:42:00.001-07:00

This npr piece just proves that fact again.

Yay Dogs!

2008-09-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

This npr piece explains the story of a dog in Scottsdale who called 911 to save his owner's life!

***UPDATE*** To hear a .wav file of the actual 911 call with the whimpering Buddy, click here!

Evidently...

2008-09-10T10:29:00.000-07:00

I can sleep through anything... except my old Golden dancing on my head. Our Golden Retriever is terribly afraid of storms and, according to The Hubster, we had a doozy last night, but I snoozed right through it. That is, however, until our Golden couldn't take it anymore and had to dance on my head. I don't know why sitting on my head like a bird on a nest is reassuring to my dog, but he does it every time he's scared.

Texas Regional Round Up!

2008-09-08T15:37:00.001-07:00

The Texas Regional was a lot of fun! I don't really have anything to show for it except for a Master's Gambler's qualifying run, but it was fun nonetheless!

We arrived in Fort Worth Friday evening (my husband, our kiddo, our exchange student and moi). We missed our chance to be on a DAM team because my husband had to work on Thursday and there was no way we could get to Fort Worth by Friday morning for the DAM stuff. I was so fine with that however. I hate DAM. I hate others relying on me. I want agility to be for me.

I was SO much better mentally at this trial though than I was at the Colorado regional! Whoopee! I had no agility runs or walk-throughs until about three in the afternoon, too, on Saturday, so I was able to go to all sorts of museums and IMAX movies with my kiddo and our exchange student on Saturday! It was a blast! The Texas Regional is held at the Will Rogers center in Forth Worth, right in the middle of the Cultural District of Forth Worth! Within easy walking distance from our RV we went to the modern art museum and banged on their cool outdoor sculpture and sound instillation and we went to the Kimball art museum and went through their exhibit from the Art Institute of Chicago and my Silly Goose was able to view the "real live art" from the "real live Monet" and the "real live Impressionists" she learned about in school! She'll get MAJOR bragging points for that at her Montessori school! Oh YEAH! And she'll get even MORE bragging points for seeing the "Dinosaurs Alive" IMAX flick! And she went to the National Cowgirl Museum and rode a mechanical bull! All this before I'd even done my walk-through!

I ran Grand Prix round one and Steeplechase on Saturday then, too! (Oh, yeah, we were there for AGILITY! tee hee). Rio (my big border collie) had a CRAZY Grand Prix round one run and I walked him off halfway through after he totallly blew his dogwalk contact, so thank doGness I had a bye to round 2 the next day! The poor guy stayed in our air conditioned RV the whole morning while I museumed and he'd spent the entire day before that in his doggy harness in the RV as we drove to Texas, so by the time he finally got to RUN on Saturday, he was a wild child.

We got it together for Steeplechase round one though and had a truly fun run. That's what I do agility for! We ended up in third place after that. He knocked a bar in round 2 on Sunday, so no bye for Steeplechase at Scottsdale, but oh well. We had fun. And I flaked in GP round 2 and sent him around the second to last jump in GP round 2, thus robbing us of our bye for seminfinals in Scottsdale for GP too, but I'm totally fine with it. I didn't flake because I was all nervous or quaking or worried what folks would think. I flaked because I flake and c'est moi, but at least I was me. I felt like I wasn't myself at the Colorado regional, but at the Texas regional I was and that makes me so happy! And we put in a Steeplechase round one run I can be proud of, so yippee! And I picked up a Master's Gamblers qualifying run, too, so I guess all was not lost! tee hee!

My hubster did GREAT! He qualified in all three runs he ran with his big young border collie on Saturday and that's a huge feat for them! His big boy is very young and they are still learning to dance together, but they had gorgeous runs this weekend (and smoking fast too!). They messed up, also, on Sunday, but still put in pretty runs!

Maybe we need to go to museums before all our runs?

But the news of the trial for our family was my hubster and his mixed breed spaz! They WON the 16 inch Performance National Standard final at the Texas Regional and thus earned an automatic spot in the FINALS at Scottsdale! WEEEEEEE! That was totally unexpected but sure a lot of fun! The Spaz did it!

All in all, we had a ton of fun at the Texas Regional and even got in some hiking today on the way home! My hubster even drove 10 miles out of his way so he could take a ridiculous photo of our exchange student in front of the Oklahoma state sign so the exchange student could "legitimately" say he'd been to Oklahoma too! So far he's been to Washington state, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma! And he's going to California next weekend! Already a well-traveled Dane, he is!

Happily Home and Faithfully Yours,

Wishy

Dontchya just love YouTube?

2008-08-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

I love this video. I love this trainer. I love agility. I love dogs. I love what all of them teach me.

Border collies are weird

2008-08-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yet another video of a strange border collie.

Border collies are weird.

And I can say that because I have two (plus a mixed breed spazzy dog who probably has some border collie in her too).

Border collies are truly weird. But I love them so.

Guess I'm weird too.

Bringing back the joy of agility

2008-08-22T08:31:00.001-07:00

We have an exchange student from Denmark living with us now. He's 15 and he totally digs my big border collie. Who doesn't totally dig my big border collie, actually? He's a gigantic, cuddly baby who really wishes he was a cockapoopoo lap dog or something, he's goofy-wiggly-happy *all* the time and he's fast and happy to run agility whenever and wherever. Our exchange student didn't know what agility was before we emailed him some videos before his arrival, but now he seems hooked. The first thing he does when he comes home from school every day is grab a handful of doggie cookies and a tug toy and tromp out back with my big dog and play.

And watching those two play agility is almost as much fun as doing it myself. Watching them has really returned my joy for agility. Just watching them both get so excited just working a course in the back yard is such a complete joy.

All is right with the world.

The air is getting cooler these evenings, like the first breath of fall is beginning to whisper over us. The dogs and the kids in the yard are enjoying the pumping of blood through their bodies and the force of air through their lungs and they are content to run, play and smile together. This is all happening in a cross-cultural, one world miracle of our crazy home with our transracial family and our exchange student and the cross-species miracle of communicating with our dogs in fractions of seconds on agility courses and it is all making sense. The genes of the first human who allowed the first dog around her campfire and the genes of that first dog are working in us all and it's all somehow making sense.

That first human and that first dog are somewhere in heaven or the Rainbow Bridge or the Happy Hunting Grounds and they are smiling.

And so are we.

3 Books for Dog Days (and Sleepless Nights)

2008-08-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

NPR's series called "Three Books" included some dogged thrillers recently. Enjoy! Dog and literature! Nothing better!

Training Dogs for Injured Vets

2008-08-11T11:33:00.000-07:00

I know training dogs can be cathartic. So do these folks.

Buying Puppy Mills to Shut them Down

2008-08-05T09:01:00.000-07:00

What do you think of this?

I'm not sure what I think.

Will buying puppy mills to shut them down encourage or discourage their growth in general? I don't know.

This was fun to happen upon online...

2008-08-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Folks discussing my words online. How fun! And they weren't even slamming me!

I fully expect to be slammed soon, though.

I was just chatting with a wonderful close friend and talented writer regarding getting slammed for what we write. This lovely friend just received some really yucky public feedback on her writing and it hurt her and almost inspired her to stop writing all together, but luckily I had just read the novel The Republic of Love by Carol Shields and hopefully was able to cheer up my pal just a bit. In that novel, one of the main characters, a night radio announcer, receives a package of poop in the mail! (Yeah. You read that correctly! I love Carol Shields, what can I say? Who else can write about poop parcels?)...

Anyway, the main character was so distraught that someone might actually dislike him and dislike him enough to mail him feces. I shared this with my writer friend. Nobody mailed her feces yet, so she can't quit writing! That's my take!

And Shields, in this poop-package section of her novel writes:

"You stick your head up out of the crowd and you get shot at."

Yeah, I suppose that's true. But once in a while, you stumble upon nice folks who aren't even related to you saying nice things about you and it makes your day.

Who needs agility equipment?

2008-08-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

All you need are friends. These folks are creative!

Happy Anniversary to The Wishies!

2008-07-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

My hubster and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary today! Woo hoo!

I Have Too Many Pets!

2008-07-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

Four dogs, three cats and one betta fish (plus an increasing number of snails in the fish's bowl)... TOO MANY PETS! Too much work. Too much HAIR! Too much poo.

It's a good thing I love 'em all.

I guess.

The Power of Words

2008-07-27T18:37:00.001-07:00

The power of words, just the right words in the right order, is portrayed in this lovely short film from Cannes.

The August Clean Run Magazine...

2008-07-24T18:04:00.001-07:00

includes another editorial by yours truly. More info here.

Participate in a Blog Blast for Agility and Kids, Please!

2008-07-17T07:30:00.000-07:00

Pass this info on...

A great charity in Iowa called Paws and Effect Agility, which matches up agility canines with disabled kids, is a finalist for a big award through a vinyard, of all things, but they need LOTS and LOTS of VOTES! You can vote once per day online! Check it all out at the Paws and Effect Agility blog and then vote and PASS THIS INFO ON!

I'd love to see a worthy charity that incorporates agility and kids receive this award!

For the poetry (and cat) lovers at WTW...

2008-07-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Did you know a new poet laureate has been named? Here are a few of her spare, wonderful poems... As a cat lover, myself (in addition to being a dog lover), I think the cat poem here is the best!

Carol Shields...

2008-07-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

...died 5 years ago today of breast cancer.

I miss her voice in the world. She is one of my favorite authors.

I am reading The Republic of Love today and it's just a lovely, lovely book.

Godspeed, Carol.

An agility novel for kids!

2008-07-11T07:07:00.001-07:00

I can't remember if I ever linked to this on my blog, so here I go...

Champ is a children's novel set in the world of dog agility! Check it out!

Where do babies come from?

2008-07-10T08:00:00.001-07:00

The AIRPORT!

;-)

Seven years ago today (tonight, actually) I became a mother at the Phoenix airport.

Best day of my life.

No doubt.

My new baby girl fell asleep in my arms with her bottle in one hand and a firm grasp of my husband's pointer finger with her other.

We were linked. All three of us.

Perfect.

So, I stunk it up at regionals...

2008-07-08T05:49:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I blogged about how I wasn't into preparing for regionals.

Well, that showed at regionals. I stunk it up.

Actually, we did decently in Steeplechase Round 1 but my dog knocked a bar so we were just out of making it into Steeplechase Round 2. Our big 26 inch dogs had to be combined with the 22's because we only had like 6 or 7 dogs competing. Can you believe that? At a regional! But I never have many other dogs in my classes when I compete in the Southwest. For some reason, there's a huge lack of huge dogs like mine in the Southwest. Anyway, we were just out of Round 2, and I'm not so bummed about that. Knocked bars almost never happen to us, and the grass was very long, so these things happen.

My Grand Prix round 1 was nice. Ended up in second place for Round 1, but of course, I wasn't nervous because I had a bye already into Round 2. When I'm nervous, naturally, all things change.

We only had 6 dogs in Grand Prix Round 2. Amazing huh? And the course was made for me and my big boy. Technical. But I didn't perform my best. Not at all. I completely took my eyes off my dog in the weaves and faded away from the weaves so quickly that I MADE my dog pull out of the weaves at the tenth pole! DUH! He ***never*** pulls out of the poles! But my saintly dog will do weird things when I'm a dork. And I was SUCH the dork. My mental game was off, that's for sure. I have it too much in my head that my dog and I are "slow," because unfortunately I've had people who are supposed to love and support me say those exact things to my face and I've let those voices in my head while I'm running.

I need to remember we are who we are. We are not the fastest team out there. But we can put in smooth, beautiful runs like anyone can and then what will be, will be. We didn't do that at all this weekend. I think I was worried "what people would say."

I think I was truly worried that if we won and were the only clean team in a field of only six dogs that people would say we didn't deserve to win... that we only won a bye into the finals of the Grand Prix because other people failed. I KNOW I had that junk in my head before that run. And you know what? To heck with "people" and their opinions!

The terrific dog and handler team that DID win in that small field of dogs WERE the only team out of six to go clean and they DID get a bye to the Nationals and they DID win fair and square. I personally think there should be no finals byes earned at any regional. I personally feel only semifinals byes should be on the line at any regional, but as the rules currently stand, the great team that won at the Rocky Mountain regional did so fair and square and most certainly deserve to win and deserve all our congratulations. I've already heard small, tiny, immature people mumble and grumble that it wasn't a deserved bye into the nationals because there was such a small number of dogs competing. C'est la vie. Anyone with a Grand Prix qualifier this year COULD have entered. My guess is, the next Rocky Mountain Regional will see a large number of 26 inch dogs because word will get around that few entered this year. Bring 'em on! I'm getting my head on straight, folks, and next year, if we're lucky, we'll be there and next year we'll just be us. Big. Smooth. And maybe not the speediest in the bunch, but I'll have a smile on my face, my dog's big old tongue will be hanging out of his wide, happy mouth and we'll be ready to tackle a course. And WHATEVER the day brings will be the "fair" and "right" thing, regardless of petty, immature folks. And I'll be sure to steer clear of narcissistic, overly self-involved folks before my runs so my own energy isn't drained and so that I'm not feeling somehow guilty for my lovely, gentle border collie boy. We all have our challenges in this complex, addicting and wonderful sport. But really, it's just agility. In the grand scheme of things it means nothing. Even the "celebrities" of agility are nobody's to billions and billions of worthy human beings on this planet.

And when I returned home yesterday, I viewed the video I posted yesterday and I also went back and viewed this video. It put all my agility ennui in perspective.

Like the video says...

Run Fast. Run Happy.

Can't help it. I loved this...

2008-07-07T18:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry. I'm a sap. I just loved this on so many levels. My apologies in advance.

Dogs, Literature AND KIDS? Wishy's heart is bursting!

2008-06-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

I've blogged before about those magical moments when I come across dogs and literature together, like two of the main worlds of my life are converging. Well, this radio broadcast incorporates all three of my major interests... dogs, literature AND KIDS! The amazing boy in this radio piece compares himself to the stray canine in the novel A Dog's Life. Oh my heart!

What's wrong with me?

2008-06-25T07:02:00.000-07:00

I have a nice, big regional agility trial coming up and I don't even care. It's all my hubster can do to guilt and cajole and entice me out on to the agility field in our backyard. (For other couples, that'd be the bedroom. Nope, for The Wishies, it's the agility course in the yard).

I'd rather read. Or write. Or knit. Or read with my kid. Or watch Mist with her (cute fictional herding border collies I'm down for, but our cute, in-the-flesh agility border collies out on a course? Not so much. Love them snuggling with me while I watch Mist though. --and note to border-collie-owning-moms out there: Mist The Sheepdog Puppy is available for purchase in the US in lotsa big box stores, but the Mist TV show that aired 13 episodes in the UK is only available from amazon UK. It's worth it though! My kiddo loves it!)

Dunno.

The agility blues.

The agility blahs.

Anyone else ever experience them?

So busy. So thankful.

2008-06-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

My parenting and my agility and my writing worlds have all been very, very full lately. Yikes! I just don't know how to fit it all in: writing, submitting, pondering-so-I-have-more-to-write, my daughter's camps, her horseback riding, her swim team and swim meets, her church activities, swimming our dogs, training our dogs in jumping, contacts, weaves and handling and then just plain enjoying our summer with cookouts and sleepouts in the backyard and bike rides and reading and knitting and cooking and laughing together. Oh, and you'll notice, I never mentioned cleaning the house, cleaning the kitty litter boxes, doing dishes, doing laundry, watering the plants or picking up dog poo in the yard. Yeah, that stuff too.

I often feel a tad overwhelmed trying to do all this junk.

But I had two interesting conversations with friends in two of my separate worlds recently that put everything in perspective. One friend, a dog friend, has not one, but two injured dogs and no real word on when his agility pals will be healed and ready to hit a course. Another friend, a parent friend, has one very ill child and no real word on when they'll be doing fun things like riding bikes or any other outdoor activity together.

And both of these friends, independent of one other (they don't know each other) used almost the exact same words with me recently. They both mentioned how SLOWLY life moves when all you know is pulled out from underneath you. They mentioned just waiting. They mentioned just how slowly time was passing for them lately.

Whoa.

I won't resent my rapid-fire active life any more. If I'm beat around by the super fast spin cycle of my crazy life, at least that means we're all healthy enough to jump into the washer! I may regret that I can't or don't give my full attention to every little interest in my life, but at least I have all those interests! I wouldn't want to give any one of them up!

And I wouldn't want time to pass slowly.

Here's to my pals, if you're reading this. You know who you are. May life get very, very fast, very, very soon!

My hero!!!

2008-06-09T17:21:00.001-07:00

Coursemaps from Perry, GA USDAA regional here!

Rumor has it...

2008-06-08T17:55:00.003-07:00

So, according to the agiledogs email list, here are the winners of the Southeast USDAA Super Regional, all earning byes into the finals of the Grand Prix....

12 inch -- Dali

16 inch -- Sizzle

22 inch -- Encore

26 inch -- Star

and for Performance National Standard...

8 inch -- Bailey

12 inch -- Sydney

16 inch -- Sterling

22 inch -- Riggs

Anyone have any other info, or better yet... COURSEMAPS????

Rumor has it...

2008-06-08T17:55:00.001-07:00

I'm dying for some Super Regional info!

2008-06-08T15:13:00.001-07:00

I'm dying to know how the Southeast Super Regional is going right now. I'd love course maps to set up stuff in my back yard. I loved the IFCS worlds with course maps posted on the USDAA website the morning of each competition day so I could set up my own worlds courses and pretend I was there! I felt like Little Wishy in her playhouse mucho years ago showin' the world how life was done! Now I show the world how agility is done while I'm tucked safely in my back yard! (If only I could be as good at a real trial as I am in my back yard. I KNOW all the agility gurus say train like you compete and compete like you train and blah ditty blah ditty blah...but REALLY, like that ever REALLY happens!)...

Anyhooski, if you hear of any word on the regional, let me know! I'm dying!

Blogging is good for me

2008-06-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

This proves it.

June 2008 Clean Run

2008-06-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

I have another editorial in Clean Run magazine. Check out the June 2008 editorial of Clean Run and let me know what you think!

Wow.

2008-05-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Now **this** is dog training!

Guile and Gumption

2008-05-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

This NPR piece about the loss of the filly Eight Belles after this year's Kentucky Derby is a great one and is relevant to all of us.

And by "all of us," I mean Americans...

Humans...

Not only agility enthusiasts.

Goals are great. Necessary, even.

Goals in sport are fine. Necessary, even.

But when the quest for power and speed becomes all, we have veered into strange, cruel pathology.

And I write this as a co-owner of a young border collie (my husband's dog) so exceptionally fast, that it is clear he is in a top percentile of all speedy dogs in agility.

But oh he's been a challenge!

And he's a challenge still.

But, thankfully, he's now a challenge in agility. An intellectual challenge. He's a dog we can live with now. That wasn't always clear. We found help from great trainers like Susan Garrett and others, though, and while we still have a ton to learn in the dog training game, our young border collie has definitely made us better trainers and we can finally love and live with our young guy now.

And as for his potential in agility?

Who knows!

Communicating with him at the instinctive speeds of our sport will be a fun and long-lasting puzzle for my husband and me. But this NPR piece reminds me to enjoy the puzzle and not only push on for more power, more speed.

The author in the commentary astutely observes that early sport emphasized not only power and speed, but also guile and gumption. If we test ourselves in sport as some kind of analogy or metaphor in our lives, then the lessons of guile and gumption are most certainly lessons I want to learn and to teach my daughter, in addition to, and actually above and beyond the lessons of power and speed.

Guile and gumption.

May agility reward those qualities in handlers and dogs as long as possible!

Proud Mama Alert!!!!

2008-05-10T12:22:00.000-07:00

My Silly Goose is running in a DOCNA trial this weekend as a Junior Handler and she already earned one Q today!!!! More braggy mom reporting to come, but for now... here's a photo...

My dogs NEED this!

2008-05-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

My dogs need this machine! **I** need my dogs to have this machine!

So, like, is agility mainstream now, or what?

2008-05-05T06:48:00.000-07:00

Agility as a completely unrelated backdrop to a music video? Why?

Even the little town I was born and raised in, North Platte, Nebraska, has an agility training center now.

Is agility mainstream?

Funny Dog Video

2008-05-01T10:19:00.001-07:00

Holy Heck, this video is so funny!

Dog People are truly weird.

I can say that because I am Dog People.

Another great podcast

2008-04-26T07:51:00.001-07:00

I just listened to this podcast. It was great. It discusses "happiness research" conducted by psychologists and economists.

It confirmed my hunch that more stuff ain't gonna make me happier. It confirmed for me this quote that I recently read on a friend's facebook wall:

The things you own end up owning you.

{According to Google, this is a Chuck Palahniuk quote from Fight Club. Go figure. Wishy and Palahniuk. Soul mates.)

It confirmed my hunch that our getting rid of our television reception almost three years ago now was the right decision for our general family happiness.

And it reconfirmed for me that agility is good for my, my husband's and even our daughter's happiness. We all compete in agility with our pooches and we can exercise (something the "happiness researchers" confirm increases well-being and happiness) and do something fulfilling. {We know, Wishy, you like agility out in the fresh air, blah, blah, blah...}

Also, doing for others increases happiness and well-being. And this weekend, I'm making it possible for my husband to have fun at an agility trial while I stay home making our kiddo happy hosting a sleepover for her and her buddies. {Anyone feel like nominating me for a Mother of the Year award or a Wife of the Year award?}

And soon I'll settle down to finish the book I fell into yesterday and simply can't wait to finish, The Shadow Catcher by Marianne Wiggins.

Yeah, reading on my porch in beautiful sunny weather...

That makes me happy!

Go Take A Hike!

2008-04-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

This essay makes me want to go take a walk... and then pick up a pen...

Maybe it's more than hopscotch...

2008-04-17T07:12:00.001-07:00

On Monday, I blathered a bit about the little motto I repeat to myself, that agility "might as well be hopscotch," so I don't get myself too caught up in the "big, important runs" or in the "what if my dog gets injured?" worries. And while I still will repeat that to myself, to keep myself in check, this video reminds me that there's something more to agility that keeps me training and trialing.

The friends are part of it, for sure. And the goals are part of why I continue to compete in trials, too. Sure, in the grand scheme of things, the "goals" of titles or winning here and there don't really matter, but if they didn't matter at all to me, then I'd just play agility with my dogs in my back yard and never test my skills against other dog and handler teams at agility trials.

So, this video seems to explain again, still, more why it is I love agility. You'd have to be living under an agile rock (They have those. Agile rocks. Or proverbial igneous formations of the dog agility world)... I repeat: You'd have to be living under a rock of the dog agility world not to have heard of this video.

It is a beautiful video. The woman in it, Lis', found out less than a week ago that she has three weeks to live. Can you believe it?

And she had already entered an agility trial for last weekend, so she convinced her docs to let her out of the hospital and she ran last weekend.

A few of the folks who read this blog (Hi Mom! Hi Niece! Hi Sis!), know little about dog agility, so allow me to explain: Lis' needed one additional "Super Q" run for the big "Agility Dog Champion" title in agility. It's one of the most prestigious titles in agility. It consists of a pile of perfect runs (or "Q's" or "qualifying runs") in each kind of game there is in agility (games with only jumps, games with every piece of agility equipment, games testing dogs working at a far distance from their handler, pairs runs with at least 5 different dog-handler teams working on combined courses with the potential title-holding-dog-handler team, plus the game of SNOOKER!). The game of Snooker in agility is based on the billiards game and it is arguably one of the hardest agility games because of the speed and strategy involved and it is one of the few titling events in which the dog-handler team must actually BEAT and be faster than other dog-handler teams. Dog-handler teams must earn at least two "Super Q's" for the ADCH title. Super-Q's are perfect, or at least "clean" runs, that are fast enough or high enough in points to be in the top 15 percent of all dogs in a height category.

Well, Lis' in this video needed only one more Super Q in Snooker with her little Chinese Crested dog to earn the ADCH title with/on/for her...

Watch to see what happened... (Big Hint: I was in tears watching this video)...

Another Big Hint:

This video clearly shows something of why I do dog agility!

Godspeed, Lis'!

Might as Well Be Hopscotch

2008-04-14T11:38:00.000-07:00

My brother-in-law has made me think a lot about my agility addiction recently.

First, he made an intriguing response not too long ago when the hubster and I were (annoyingly, I'm sure) effusively singing the praises of our beloved family pastime: We get to do it together as a family, we cheered, and we share it with our dear four-legged family members and we enjoy active days out in the sun and we make close, intimate friendships with folks of similar interests and blah ditty blah ditty blah...

And the bro-in-law chimed in with, "Yeah, well, you're sport's still young and you haven't been doing it all that long."

Whatever are you suggesting?, my innocent hubster and I, his glowing wife, asked almost in unison [tee hee].

And seriously, he said, "Every sport, every hobby, every pastime has an ugly side to it and you just haven't seen agility's ugly side completely yet."

WHOA. Buzz kill.

Really, though, I've thought if his response for quite a while now and, wow, I hate to admit it... He has a point.

So I've been thinking about that, what is agility's ugly side?

Thankfully, there's still relatively little money in agility. I mean, yeah, yeah, I know, there are folks in agility "full time" or "professionally," but look at the horse world economy and you'll know what I mean. I think the smaller economic scale of agility help keeps folks honest (or more honest?) and it helps keep agility practitioners more clearly participating for the love of the game (unlike, uh, baseball!)...

So I guess, for me, the ugly side of agility is the whining and complaining. That's the yucky side I experience most often. And usually, honestly, the whining and carrying-on I hear from fellow agility enthusiasts usually just makes me giggle.

And don't get me wrong, I'm not AT ALL saying we shouldn't have hearty opinions on how to improve our hobby/sport or the sanctioning organizations involved with agility or training methods or how we all treat each other at any given local trial or et cetera, et cetera!

But if you've been to a trial lately, you know what I mean. General BELLY ACHING. That's what I see as agility's biggest ugly side so far. And truly, if THAT'S agility's skeleton in the closet, we still have a pretty darn cool pastime that I'm more than happy to still participate in!

And what helps me keep all my whining in check with agility is a little motto I made up that I run in my head: It might as well be hopscotch. Meaning, that, while agility is a big deal to me, and the issues and the nerves of a "big competition" certainly affect me... if I remind myself that the great majority of the world's billions of folks will NEVER even LEARN of my crazy addiction in their entire lives, I can keep some sort of perspective! My OBSESSION might as well be hopscotch to the great majority of the planet! {And don't all you HOPSCOTCH ADDICTS post nasty comments on my blog for disrespecting your passion! tee hee!}

So, as for the bro-in-law's other comment: I was, admittedly, BELLY ACHING about my far-too-neurotic fears regarding our agility dogs' health because, gosh, one little sprain and our pooches could be sidelined for a long time and, sweat, sputter, sput, then where would all our training energy go and what would all this agility obsessing be for and WOA IS ME!

And, again, the to-the-point bro-in-law said, DARN HIS HIDE...

"Gee, my golf clubs never get injured."

And wow if that didn't put it all in perspective for me because, NO, my dogs are NOT merely my golf clubs and YES, his golf clubs may never get injured, but they also don't love him and snuggle with him and adore him and...

Aw, heck, agility might as well be hopscotch, for all the love and enjoyment I get from my pooches COMPLETELY IRRESPECTIVE of my admitted dog agility addiction!

Wow. Worth watching...

2008-04-02T07:20:00.000-07:00

I don't know what this video has to do with writing or dog agility or family or me, actually. But I watched it this morning and it blew me away. The brain scientist in the video recounts her experiences having a stroke and how she carries what she learned with her every day. It's worth the 18 minutes it takes to watch the video.

Okay, so maybe I'm not doomed...

2008-04-01T15:13:00.000-07:00

because I was never breast-fed.

I Get to Play Favorites

2008-03-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend the hubster and I got into a "discussion."

I was loving on my big border collie and cooing at him assuring him that "I loooove youuuuu bessssssst." And my hubster got upset. Not because I was failing to coo at him, mind you, but because I was expressing partiality in front of our Golden Retriever.

"Tabasco's right there," hubster said.

"Ha ha," I responded. My hubster may be silly sometimes but he's not so silly as to really believe my gushing at my other dog matters to our lazy Golden.

"No, really, I think it's wrong." He went on to explain that while our Golden may not know what I'm saying, my affection, petting and general approving behaviors are probably greater and more effusive with my border collie and the Golden undoubtedly observes that and knows I love the other dog more.

So?

This started the hubster and I into this weird, wild "discussion" that for reasons of marital preservation I'll refrain from summarizing here, but I will share that it ended with me gooning all over the Golden, rubbing his tummy and laughing while I whispered the sweet nothings of, "I'll neeeeever loooooove youuuuuuuu as much as my big boooorder coooooollllie..."

And guess what? The Golden took the news pretty well!

Actually, that's pretty instructive to me. Maybe we all should spend a little less time questioning motives, allegiances, goals or "true" feelings, and just pay more attention to behaviors, outcomes and what's really going on. Maybe that'll help me give my good ol' hubster the benefit of the doubt more often too.

And I'm just not gonna feel guilty because I do have one of my four dogs that I love most easily and just plain the most. They're not my kids, for heaven's sake!

In fact, maybe that's another reason why I only have one kid... I get to play favorites with her, too, and coo at her that she's the beeeesssssst kiddoooooo in the whole wide worrrrrrrld!

And I mean it!

Wishy The Writer

How much dog training is too much?

My review is up

Fascinating article re: Agility training vs. Search and Rescue Training

funniest dog agility video ever!

GoD and DoG does just about explain it for me

The Jane Goodall Method for Creative Writing?

Dog Fiction

Dog People Care about People too

Dog Training Business?

Advice for writing, competition, life...

Rest in Peace, Jim Rohn

New Year, New (or Old) Inspiration

An Email from my Husband...

Cynosport photos are up!

Horse agility!

A tax break for Fido!

Attention Dog Trainers, Parents, Everybody!

I don't plan on competing in this version of agility...

Time Magazine article on Dogs' Minds

Silas House writes about dogs...

Book Review

Godspeed Focus

I guess this is why we have a dog named Bo...

More agility writing by Wishy's Kiddo...

Free Clean Run articles online

Happy Poem In Your Pocket Day!

GREAT dog training advice!

a podcast of dog tales!

First 4-Star event of the year

Video & Audio Podcasts that have truly added joy to my life!

I *so* believe a cattle dog could do this...

Sheep abuse?

Link to a dog training post I must share!

Pride and Frustration

Maybe the Prize is Friendship?

You might be too addicted to agility when...

Listen

"I wish I wouldn't have practiced."

I'm a sucker for cute animal stories

Nature and Nurture

Changing our Fixed Mindsets

Guided Visualization for an Athletic Event (like Agility)

Quiet moments in a busy season

Fun article

"That's not FAIR!"

Blackbird play

Life goes on

I Can't Believe She's Gone

Warm, furry friend

Close Enough and Puppy Play

Photo time!

Great article about my hubster and his dog!

I wasn't even there!

Who knows why this was on npr...

October 2008 Clean Run Magazine

Yup. We need puppies and kitties as much as they need us.

Yay Dogs!

Evidently...

Texas Regional Round Up!

Dontchya just love YouTube?

Border collies are weird

Bringing back the joy of agility

3 Books for Dog Days (and Sleepless Nights)

Training Dogs for Injured Vets

Buying Puppy Mills to Shut them Down

This was fun to happen upon online...

Who needs agility equipment?

Happy Anniversary to The Wishies!

I Have Too Many Pets!

The Power of Words

The August Clean Run Magazine...

Participate in a Blog Blast for Agility and Kids, Please!

For the poetry (and cat) lovers at WTW...

Carol Shields...

An agility novel for kids!

Where do babies come from?

So, I stunk it up at regionals...

Can't help it. I loved this...

Dogs, Literature AND KIDS? Wishy's heart is bursting!

I so believe a cattle dog could do this...

Okay, so maybe I'm not doomed...