Go Holly!

Way Cool! Holly and I made a huge advance in training tonight! She will now run after a dumb bell, pick it up, and run back across the room to get her click and treat! Huge! because Holly is not a natural retriever, and we started out with her getting a click and treat for just nudging the dumb bell with her nose. Holly has also recently perfected the moving stand and drop on recall. Reverse healing still needs some work, but I think this one may be hard for long backed dogs. Kinda like backing up a truck and trailer; it's hard to keep the trailer way back there strait.

Mikey is also making progress in obedience. Obedience just seems to take a lot more work with him, although I'm really pleased with where he's at in agility.

Anyway, they're both physically and mentally worn out now. Me too. Maybe we'll actually get to bed early tonight.

I'm waiting for my Enbrel injection to warm up to room temperature (it's refrigerated). Still so glad to be off the methotrexate and back on the Enbrel. The Enbrel has continued to make a huge difference in my energy level, and seems to be making a difference with the joint pain. The joint pain can be hard to judge, I think partly because my mental standard with that would be to have the joint pain disappear. But I am having fewer really awful days, and more pretty good days. And that really is something to be grateful for!

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Role Reversal

Ok, I've seen this a thousand times, but always in reverse. Mikey's curled up with a chewie on the couch, and Holly is sitting in front of him on the floor, just yammerin' away! Being a complete toot! 'Gimme, gimme!' This usually goes in the opposite direction, and Holly almost always gives in because Mikey can be sooo annoying. But Holly really took the prize today! And you should have seen the look I got from her when I leaned over from the couch and poked her on the shoulder!! She just tickled the he!! out of me, and I had to share. By the way, Mikey never did give in. . .

Agility Pictures

We went over to my parents house and did some agility play. Holly got to play too; I figure as long as she's not jumping and we keep our play short, some agility will be good for her. Besides, she would be soooo sad if she missed out on the fun!

Caridgrandma took lots of great pictures. Be patient while they load.

As you should be able to tell from the pictures, yeah, Mikey's is FAST!

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Scalped!

Yippee! The bayou has finally been scalped. No more disappearing cardis! Of the course, the problem now is keeping the little brats from rolling in the various bugs, lizards, and toads that were done in by the mowers. Why! do they have to do that!?!

I'm delaying getting ready for work; I'm not feeling very well at all this morning, and we have 'big cheeses' coming in for meetings today. I really should have gone shopping last night so I would have something to wear. For real, I don't have any really good summer outfits that fit the bill for 'dressed up business casual'. I always end up looking dowdy. Ugh!

FREEEEDOOOOOM!!!!!

Freedom from methotrexate! What a lovely weekend without nausea, vomiting, shivers and sweats! I actually managed to get some much needed errands run on Saturday, and some much needed organizing done on Sunday! And as of today, Unicare has certified my going back on Enbrel! Hallelujah!! I called this evening to fill the Enbrel rx; the only thing I'm still a little worried about is that Unicare may have increased my co-pay from 20% to ? Obviously my appointment with the rhuematologist last Tuesday went very well!

Currently reading 'The Bourne Identity' by Robert Ludlum.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Some pics from this weekend.

UPDATE: Walgreeens just called back and my co-pay is $277. About what I was expecting, but still. . . OUCH!!

NEVER. ENOUGH. TIME.

Gaaah! How do people with a job, dogs, a spouse, and children do it!?! I only have two of those, and I'm wiped

Also, beloved bayou is zero fun right now. Hot, buggy, and needs mowing in a bad way.

Methotrexate Morning

Yes, I'll have some cheese with my whine.

I have been taking a half dose of methotrexate Friday evenings (obviously I skipped a dose the weekend of the Reliant shows). Even at half a dose I feel like shi!t. Wake up on Saturdays in a pool of sweat, but freezing at the same time. And nauseous, plus diarrhea. And did I mention my skin is breaking out like crazy? And the joint pain always seems way worse for a couple of days after I take methotrexate. Next appointment with the Rheumatologist is this Tuesday, so maybe I can get off this junk and back to Enbrel.

Training Doofus

High drive = complete doffus

OK, maybe that's carrying it a bit far, but really, I'm not sure that super high drive is all it's cracked up to be. You know, obedience training with Holly is pretty strait forward. She totally gets it that if she does such and such, treats or a toy are produced. And she learns new things pretty easy. She has a will to please, and she's a thinking kind of dog. Being a bit of perfectionist, she seems to get the idea of 'That was sloppy, try again'. And she's a somewhat soft dog that needs only the gentlest of verbal corrections, and really trys her heart out to hear me tell her how wonderful she is; I swear I can see the grin and the spark in her eyes when we really nail an exercise.

Now, Mikey. I haven't done obedience with Mikey in about a year. The week after my first Rally-O class with Holly I 'tried' to do some obedience with him, and realized that he had forgotten everything he had ever known about 'formal' obedience. And I thought 'whatever' because we were both enjoying agility and there's plenty of time to get around to obedience, right?

But we've had some rainy evenings the last few weeks, and it would be nice to slowly bring Mikey up to speed in obedience. Gaaah! I suppose it's not as bad as it seems, but after working with Holly, Mikey is not that much fun to work with in obedience. Awful, isn't it? Mikey has a 'wonderful' high drive and he's great at agility, and I bet he will be really great in obedience someday. Right now though, he wears me out in obedience; he's all over the place, a complete wild man. Instead of trying to figure out want I want from him, he just wildly offers behaviors and then is like 'Gimme treat, gimme toy!!'. A complete airhead! He really doesn't seem to care what I want him to actually do, he seems to think that any random behavior should be good enough. It doesn't help that we're doing this in my small living room, where there's not that much room to move around. I don't mean that he's not smart or that he doesn't have a will to please, but when the treats come out he gets totally hyped up and his brain goes out the window. And rewarding with toys or a ball are even worse; his eyes actually dilate. What I need him to do is slow down a little so that he can actually engage his brain.

In the mean time I just need to be patient, and not give up on Mikey. Because supposedly high drive = great performance. But for now, high drive = doofus.

A picture of the full moon from a morning walk this week, and an attempt to catch a pretty spider web covered in dew on the bayou.

Holly and Mikey say 'Hi'.

Currently reading 'When We Were Gods' by Colin Falconer

Ants In My Pants

Actually, not ants, grasshoppers. Just had to share this one! Guess the plague has moved up from mosquitoes to grasshoppers.

So let me build a little picture in your mind. . . I'm out on the lawn with Holly and Mikey, holding a plastic grocery sack (guess you know what they were up to!). Ho hum. . . Then I bend over to 'fill' the grocery bag, and feel something poke me in the back of the thigh. Um, hello!?! I'm wearing yoga pants that go down to my ankles, I've got a bag of sh!t in one hand, and two leashes in the other hand. . . and now I realize I have a LARGE, unidentified BUG in my PANTS!!!!! Much girlish, high pitched squealing and dancing about ensues. In fact, I seriously thought about dropping my drawers right then and there, neighbors be damned! Finally, with a lot of hopping around, a very large grasshopper plopped out the bottom of the pants.

Sorry, no pictures!

One human with a severe case of heeby jeebies, two very amused dogs, and one very traumatized grasshopper!