Physical Therapy

Just a quick note before I run to sheep class...
I went to physical therapy today and they are so pleased with my progress that I get to cut down my visits to once a week with a couple days at the gym each week. I got a couple extra home excercises to work my knees and a bunch of exercises for the gym. I am so excited because this really gives me the motivation I need to get back in shape. YAY all the way around!!!

Forgot to mention

I forgot to mention, another great part of this week is that I have noticed a difference in my ankle. At Stacy's seminar on Wednesday, there was some pain but no collapsing. Sunday at agility, no pain, no collapsing, no noticing. I have been wearing my brace and doing my physical therapy religiously and am so pleased to be seeing a difference. I go back into the orthopedic specialist next week for a recheck but am feeling quite optimistic.

Busy week!

This has been quite a week. My car issues seem to be coming to an end, knock on wood. I had a tire explode on my way to shear sheep a week and a half ago, and until Thursday I was driving on a spare tire. I had to arrange a ride for the extra tires to be brought from Salt Lake to Logan. When I went to change the tires, it proved far more difficult than I thought it would be because they were rusted to the axle, but I convinced some friends came to help. Here is a picture of the guys changing the tire - I thought it was funny and couldn't resist. The next day, that tire almost fell off while I was driving... yes, while I was driving. I had lost four of the five lug nuts. However, by following my path I found all of the missing bolts and fixed the tire.

Otherwise, it has been a fantastic week. I had a training day with Stacy Peardot-Goudy on Wednesday which was absolutely fantastic. We worked on nitty-gritty handling issues and I got suggestions on my running dog walk contact. I can start working the dog walk again on Friday at the barn and until then am doing 1-2 jump work in my living room since it's too snowy outside to do anything. Here is a picture of the whole training group and a video of one of the sequences we worked (it's my first try at a video, let's see if it works...). Tika wasn't completely confident but did the sequence very well, once I figured out what to do.

Saturday, I attended a UKC conformation show. I have never been to one before, much less shown a dog. I didn't show Tika... instead, I showed a friend's dog. She did great until some idiot dropped a huge crate by the ring while she was moving which scared her half to death. I felt so bad. Suzi Beacham was also there with her pretty boy Ticker. There were two shows, and he won breed both shows and group once. By the end of the shows he was pooped. Here he is sleeping on the table before Best in Show.

Suzi also had a puppy (a Ticker grandson) at the shows, Shalamar A La Carte AKA Carter. He is 5 1/2 months old, cute as can be, with a fantastic temperament. I had the pleasure of taking a few quick shots of him as well.

Finally, yesterday there was an agility trial I attended. I wasn't planning to run at the trial, but Shauna asked me to run one of her border collies and they allowed day of entries, so I ran. Tika did AWESOME!! She hit 5 of the 6 dog walks and the other she missed because I was moving laterally. She tends to raise her head when I do this, making her just barely miss the contact. I will be proofing this in the next few weeks an hopefully with Stacy's contact suggestions will get it in hand. However, Tika's times were phenomenal. She kept up with some blazing fast BCs and Aussies. Now, as I said I also ran a border collie and had a blast! Gyp is a speed demon and so much fun to run. She stays on the start line with the wonderful impression of road kill but barks up a storm the entire run. It's a hoot. I have never run her before this weekend, so the first couple runs we made some little errors due to not knowing each other, but we qualified in three runs and burned up the courses. I think I'm addicted.

Boycott

I'm on call for lamb watch duty tonight and was already called to help save a couple lambs and their mother. I just got home (at 11 PM) and felt the need to discuss some news I learned today.
About the boycott... McDonalds is no longer buying American beef, so the students at Utah State University have started boycotting the restaurant. We feel that American beef deserves a place in our own country's fast food restaurants. I have nothing against Brazilian meat, but with as much effort as we put into growing beef it should be served in our own country. We should be eating home-grown meat - just think, it should even be tastier. There will be less processing, less shipping, less hastle, and more money supporting our local agriculture and really the entire economy. So, here I am reaching out to all of you to join the boycott against McDonalds - support American Agriculture.

new pictures

I was bored today so decided to groom Tika up and take some pictures. She is completely out of coat, but I got some nice head shots anyway. Here are a few of my favorites.

After the photo shoot we took some time off to play. Tika makes that really easy. No toy required, only snow.