Rainbows on the Ground

SUMMARY: August photo challenge: Rainbow of summer colors.

I've been watching Dawn King's photos in the assorted photo challenges she's done, have enjoyed the results, and this month I liked the theme and decided to give it a try in my own back yard. Dawn's photos are awesome and have more variety, but mine were done at the very last minute before the deadline. Here's the original challenge.

And forthwith, here's my backyard rainbow:

Whoa, What Happened Here?

SUMMARY: Did Boost's Good Twin finally make an appearance?

In class last night, Boost and I did three runs and three weave-pole follow-the-leader challenges. She was perfect! I was, well,ok, almost perfect. There was one challenge where I suddenly remembered that I was doing it wrong as she was going over a jump and she knocked it as I jumped in her way, but I won't count that against her.

Otherwise, no bars down, no refusal, no runouts, not even any hesitations. Sure, some wide turns when I wasn't quite where I needed to be, but, jeez, clean run after run after run never happens!

Except with Tika! Whose third run last night disintegrated into a complete disaster and I finally just left the field with her. (But I cut her and me a lot of slack because she does so well normally.) (And also, oh, yeah, she found a bag full of another dog's dinner and ate it about 10 or 15 minutes before that, so maybe she was just a little, er, oversated.)

Not only that, but *I* felt good. Knees good, hips good, legs good, didn't get tired or winded. And that's refreshing for a change.

So maybe not practicing is a good thing??

I hope this all keeps up through this weekend! Hope hope hope.

Practicing Contacts II

SUMMARY: Am I making progress?

What I've really discovered is that my dogs no longer have excellent "touch"es on the little clear plastic targets. If I'm holding it in my hand, pretty good, but on the ground, pft!

That's on top of Boost (in particular) apparently having forgotten how to run to the end to do the touch EVEN IF I remind her half a dozen times beforehand. Example, I put her onto the dogwalk downramp, tell her "touch" as I release her, she goes to the end, touches (more or less) and I give her a treat. Repeat 5 more times, with her starting further up the ramp each time.

Then go all the way to the beginning and do a normal dogwalk, and she not only drops her front feet off the side instead of doing a touch, but also stands AND BARKS AT ME! This is from a dog who has never been much of a barker.

OK, Nancy G, you don't have to tell me "I told you so," because I remember over & over when we were in class & Boost was young and had gorgeous contacts so I stopped using targets that the risk was deterioration of criteria, and I just went my merry way while her contacts remained gorgeous for about 3 years...

When did I notice deterioration? A year ago? Two? Doesn't matter, they're really decomposed now. So back to the drawing board.

Meanwhile, we're finally getting some hottish weather here, after one of the coolest July/Augusts in history in San Jose. Fortunately, this weekend's USDAA trial is in Prunedale, right on the coast, so--we hope--not too hot, because I'm sweatin' just sittin' here typing. We can't all sweat, but there are other ways of keeping cool--

At Almaden Lake Park With A Long Lens

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday.

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Practicing Contacts

SUMMARY: Hey--I practiced!

I did about 5 minutes with each dog on dogwalk contacts with a target at the end and clicking and tossing treats on the dog's far side (not facing me). Actually practiced! Whether that will make any difference in either dog's contact performance remains to be seen, after years of gradually decaying criteria.

In fact, after a whole bunch of fast, rewarded contacts in a row, I removed the target and Boost immediately came down with her front feet off the side towards me again. Gads.

But at least we practiced *something*!

Increasing the Potency

SUMMARY: Next magic potion for itching.

I called the vet yesterday after Boost continued scratching into the day. He replaced the previous pills with prednisone.

Well, as any student of fantastic magic (or science, for that matter) knows, if you up a spell's potency, there's a higher price to pay. I still remember how bad I felt when Remington was on pred for some reason, and I left him in his crate for 3 hours while doing something important, and came back to find him and his crate soaked in urine, with him standing there, looking miserable, trying to keep his feet on the only one or two barely dry spots.

So I know about this drinks-more, pees-more effect.

My thinking on this itching thing is that, if it's allergies, a really thorough house-cleaning might help, too, whether there's a stray flea involved or not. So I've been vacuuming like crazy (usually do one room at a time), and last night washed all the pillows, dog beds, sheets, and blankets in the bedroom and put fresh sheets on and a fresh duvet cover, too. Ahhh, felt nice!

Last night, middle of the night, Boost jumps off the bed and starts wandering around. That could mean: Tika rolled over and got too close to her, or: Looking for a more comfy place to sleep, or: Bored, or: Is thinking about maybe having to go potty. What I normally do to forestall the first three is just invite her (or insist) back onto the bed. She popped right up, lay down, and went to sleep.

I always figure that, if she really needs to go out, she'll let me know (like she did Thursday night, twice, by whacking the door with her paw).

This morning, I woke up, she snuggled, and I noticed her entire left thigh was soaking wet. Sure enough, on further exploration, the duvet cover is soaking. And the down comforter inside. And the sheets underneath. And the extra sheet I put over the electric mattress pad. And the electric mattress pad. And the anti-allergen zipper cover on the mattress. And, yes indeed, mattress sopping wet.

Interesting, looking at a couple of very small previous stains on the mattress top. They might very well be from the weekend Jake died, when he first had a major seizure and emptied everything--that's where he was sleeping. So, other than this new, huge stain, that's all that's ever gotten through to the mattress.

Dang, I wonder how deep down the liquid went?

The nice thick, absorbent dog bed ON the bed? Dry as an antler, which, I forgot to mention, I finally spent a bunch of $$ on because so many people rave about how their dogs love chewing on antlers. My dogs? Took them from me, dropped them on the floor, and haven't looked at them since. Gah.

But I digress. I hosed Boost down, stripped everything back off the bed, soaked everything with Nature's Miracle, and am working my way through the laundry. Not what I was planning on doing today. But poor Boost, poor me, guess I'm not going to assume anything at night while she's on the pred. And maybe I should put a ton of extra padding on their side of the bed for the next week or two.

Oh, and I forgot to mention--only a couple of very brief scratching incidents in the night. So the pred seems to do what it was intended to do--and is exacting its price.

Itchy Itchy Itchy But Agility Progress

SUMMARY: Boost scratching and does well in class.

Last night was our weekly agility class. Boost did pretty good (except for bars bars bars). No refusals or runouts except for the usual, *normal* kinds of handling issues that one might have. We even got a compliment from the instructor on how much Boost seems to have improved.

Here's the thing: We didn't go to class last week. My agility practice for the last three weeks has added up to approximately the following:

• A few weave pole exercises.

So, go figure.

We (and others) got called out on how sloppy our contacts have become--a known issue with Boost, who has for some time been stopping on the dogwalk with her feet off the side where I am (if I'm behind her) rather than straight forward, and has sometimes progressed to just coming off the side entirely. Something else to work on, besides maybe going back to bar-knocking drills.

Neither of which, frankly, I still have any particular urge to do.

Meanwhile, Boost has been scratching like crazy. This happened last year briefly, but this year has made a ferocious return appearance. Tried benadryl for a couple of weeks, no luck. Like, as in, scratching for 10 minutes straight in the middle of the night.

Saw the vet Wednesday morning and talked about the different levels of treatment, and his preference is to try things with the least side effects first, which I agree with.  He said the doggy dermatologist reports that this hay fever season is extremely high, so dogs with any kind of sensitivity or slight irritant are more likely to dive right into the deep end of reaction.

So she got a shot of dexamethasone for short-term relief to try to break the cycle of scratching, a prescription for hydroxyzine, and a spray bottle of GentaSpray (gentamicin sulfate with betamethasone valerate).

Well, that worked great--for about a day and a half (probably the Dex), and then Boost scratched off and on, sometimes with insane intensity, most of the night last night. I'll give the treatments another day--erk, well, hmm, another day would put me on the weekend, wouldn't it. Hm.

Meanwhile, I have this to say: Zzzzz.

Black Mountain Hike with Sierra Club

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday.

Weekend Away From Everything Normal

SUMMARY: Relaxing fun in the heat with friends and family.

"Vicon" is an annual event; has been going on since the early 1980s and started as a few college kids sleeping out in the back yard of the people who are now my sister's in-laws. It has turned into a group of --ahem--slightly older--folks and their kids, some of whom are now adults themselves--sleeping out in the back yard of the people who are now my sister's in-laws.

This is probably the last time it will be held in this location. Sad for the passing of an era, but fun to once again share memories and jokes and just have a good time hanging out.

This year, to commemorate our host's 50th and the Final Vicon, we all got t-shirts. And here's the whole gang.

As far as dogs--Merle Girls stayed home, so except for the two tiny dogs next door who yapped at us during breakfast, and this--

--it was a dogless weekend for a change.

Which is sometimes nice.

Slide show of my Photos of the Day

SUMMARY: Experimenting with SmugMug Photo Feature

Updated Feb 19, 2019; replaced nonworking slideshow with new working one.

Earlier in the year, I decided to try posting a good photo every day, on any topic whatsoever.

Well, it hasn't been exactly every day, and I've forgotten to update it since May, but I wanted to try SmugMug's cool embedded slideshow feature, and that seemed like a good album to try it on.

If the captions are bothersome, there's a "hide captions" link below the photos. You can also watch the slide show slow, medium, or fast.

If you click a photo somewhere near the middle, it'll take you to the actual full-sized photo on smugmug. I don't know why you can't click anywhere on the photo, and it took me a few tries to find the right spot to click.

But still, pretty cool, eh?

Hiking at Rancho San Antonio with Sierra Club

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday (from LAST Wednesday evening).

Hiking with the Merle Girls

SUMMARY: Up up up and down down down at Santa Teresa County Park.

Yep, made it up the hill once again. Elevation 1150', starting elevation about 400'. 5.8 miles round trip. This time, I picked a longer, more scenic route, about 3.2 up and 2.6 back, rather than a cardio straight-up-the-mountain workout.

Here we are atop Coyote Peak at our usual portrait spot (compare and contrast using the link above):

Agility/geocaching/hiking friend Barbara and her two dogs, Jersey and Sheila, a borrowed dog (Bandit), and the Merle Girls and I started the hike at 9:30 on a moderately warm day--certainly for early August, not nearly as hot as it can get; San Jose's official temperature barely reached 80 (27C), although that's north by the bay; probably was hotter in the park on those exposed hillsides.

Another amazing thing for August was how very clear the views were. On typical hot days, you get enough urban haze to make things fuzzy. Mount Umunhum, with its cold-war era radar base, was clearer than I ever remember seeing it from here. They're still in talks about how best to open up the top of Umunhum to the public--of course the old buildings have asbestos and lead paint and orcs and icky stuff like that--but I do so hope that they'll leave the radar tower there, as it's such a familiar landmark.

Still, on the way back after noon, even though it was downhill all the way, the sun beat down on the dry hills and dark dirt trails, and the breeze was cut off about knee level by the dry vegetation, and Tika flagged a bit at times. About a mile from the end, there's access to Santa Teresa Creek, which runs through the park. I've seen people in there with their horses, so I didn't worry about letting the dogs in to cool off.

Tika was very happy to be in the water and seemed disinclined to get out. But she's the one who'll also pop into the pond(s) in my yard when we're playing. Surprised me a bit that Boost, who does her best to never put her delicate little border collie feet into water, also walked right in without a second thought. Guess it was warm.

I started to worry about Tika in the last half mile; she developed an odd gait and would speed up and slow down. I finally spent a minute going through all her toes looking for burrs or anything else that didn't belong. Didn't find anything, but then she was back to normal, so there must've been something there. Still, she couldn't wait to get into the car (only shade at that time of day) and lie right down.

With her at 10 and a half, I'm trying to keep track of what she can really do these days. Especially with her thick coat. Her only exposed skin anywhere is inside her ears, so I kept moistening my finger and spreading a thin layer of dampness on that skin to help cool her ever so slightly.

More stuff:

• All 21 of my photos are here: http://elf1.smugmug.com/Hiking/Santa-Teresa-Hike-Aug-6-2011
• Map of our route
• Description of park and downloadable topo trail map
• A little about Mount Umunhum
  

Dog Agility Folks Take on the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

(Many more to come...soon, I hope)