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there are definitely a few things I miss about doing that downtown gossip column
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Jul. 9th, 2009 @ 12:22 pm cat agility
After four or five minutes, on command the little Lolita (the Tonkinese cat) was jumping one of the new Clean Run folding jumps that my sister gave me for my birthday to use in the park with Stella....
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huh?
Jun. 17th, 2009 @ 02:40 pm canine sports center classes
Notes... First Intermediate class with Terri at CSC last night and Stella and B were stellar... first half of the course they were like pros... second half was to start again on the table and then three obstacles before the teeter... Terri lowered the teeter as far as the teeter would go which was way high still for Stella and so when B gave her the Go to the table she took off instead for the teeter and ran the whole thing riding it down and off the other end as it hit freakin herself out... never having gone for this kind of ride before... also the sound f it hitting... she wouldn't even take treats she was so shook... we think she may have thought it was the dog walk, she loves doing it walk-its all over the city, all heights... so then of course, when B sent her on the course the right way, she was supposed to do the dogwalk and wouldn't... and also then wouldn't do go near the teeter... Terri had her work on the tiny plank teeter for the rest of the class... Terri is a great teacher, good class for B, if we can get Stella a leetle bit calmer between her turns, B will be able to hear more of what Terri is teaching, everyone's screw ups become a chance for everyone to learn something...

So I was thinking when I took Stella to my class with Judy this morning I'd be having a problem with the dogwalk... but not so, little miss intrepid hesitated the first time, but once she was up on it off the incline she knew it wasn't the teeter and the second run through she was absolutely fine.... Judy is a great teacher too... its a good group for us, we're not as advanced as the others, but its not a highpressure class and in both classes everyone seems to like Stella... anyway on the first course, I lost face to face with the dog, let her do a blind cross behind me after a jump and so got in her way on the way to the table... I have to remember to keep that eye/face contact with her even when I'm moving her to the next obstacle... and then, on the second tighter course I sent her too far by moving too far... and then the next time, same spot I was facing the wrong way so she got confused again--both times took off... I need to remember to get and keep the kind of connection Dawn was teaching us, its such an amazing feeling when you've got it... Of course Stella is thrilled to be working in an arena... tail up and flying and all... she's a handful... but totally willing... we just need to stay ahead of her...

anyway, I did managed to get her to lie down and calmly watch the other dogs between her turns... so thats a good thing...

nice to be back... next week there was some mention of weaves... of course our six didn't fit in the car, they're still in Bklyn... and my sister's six are making their way across the US in her Subaru, she gets here Sunday
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raybans of course
Jun. 5th, 2009 @ 09:53 am Bo---Leave IT!
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raybans of course
Jun. 1st, 2009 @ 12:26 pm mysterious injury
Because the kid had a French final and wanted to study some more on the commute and the car needed to be moved for alternate side parking anyway, we dropped the kid at school and drove up to off leash at the park this morning... got there late, but parked right on the park, so there was no warm-up walk... we always do some spins right and left, some perches on benches or fire hydrants, jumping up on a tree stump or two, and the walk itself is brisk... so that when I take off the leash and she goes tearing out into the field full blast she's all limber and stretched, not that this is what I have been thinking, that I am warming her up on the way to the park so she can play hard, its just what we do, she likes to be asked to do all kinds of things...
so at first she was fine, wrestled with Ollie and Mei and Mr Smith, chased Max who had her toy, the usual shenanigans... then, only having been there for about 15 minutes, I had to move the car at 9 so I wouldn't get a ticket--everyone was still hanging out when we left so when I found a legal parking space right away, I took Stella back...
It turned out all her best buds were leaving when we got back... but there were a few dogs she sometimes plays with, George the golden doodle and Luna the pale dalmation, farther out, so we went to them... and then Ziggy arrived just as we leashed up and called it a morning... Ziggy, I don't know what he is, he's a mix, he's this little bulldozer of a guy with brindle tiger stripes and huge jaws... and Stella really really wanted to play chase with him... so on the way to the water fountain which is on our way out of the park, I let her off leash to run with him again... and sometimes he plays dirty, he grabs her back legs with his mouth and pulls her tail... so usually she can handle him, and maybe because there were no other dogs he was obsessed about her and she was running with him but trying to protect herself with her tail tucked, really her whole back end tucked, it looked funny and Ziggy was still diving for her back legs and I don't know what happened but she suddenly she just stopped and turned and started back toward me, ears down, her tail between her legs, not walking quite right---after we got water I realized it was her right back leg--limping...

when we got home I looked, but she's got so much hair its hard to see, but I can't see any puncture wounds... and I can't find a spot thats tender, that makes her pull her leg away from me when I feel up and down her leg... but something happened

I guess we'll have her take it real easy for a couple of days... but she's supposed to be back to agility classes this month in CT... really really hope we don't have to spend the summer in the hammock...









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raybans of course
May. 26th, 2009 @ 07:06 pm weaving six for treats
once in a while, right before Stella's dinner i get out the six weave poles for about five or eight minutes... and she is doing great, finding her way into them the right way from both sides and sometimes even the other room... she usually makes her way all the way through even when there is a cat or two flopping down or strolling through the middle of the poles... i start with the poles set slightly open and usually after one time through I close them into a straight line... tonight, i closed out the cats out of the living room and she even seemed to speed up as she went through... she looked great!
i am still giving her food treats at the end for reward, sometimes by hand, sometimes i toss it... the treats i toss sometimes get lost under the bookcase or rocking chair or wherever and it takes her a while of sniffing to find it, the cats also go for it, so its sometimes a problem... then, i use her squeaky possum or chipmunk to get her attention and keep her from returning right back through the poles the wrong way, she'll mouth it or chase it back to position... these squeaky stuffies also help jazz her up before i send her again to the poles... but the thing is, i think i probably should be transitioning her off the treats onto the toy as reward and i can't seem to do it... she only very rarely will take a chase to the toy as a reward... she'll occasionally go get the possum or chipmunk but then she wants her reward, her food treat...
(i have no video cause i think i lost my camera at off leash in the park, thats the last i remember having it... but i have been known to put things in weird wrong places, so i am still, tho barely, hopeful its like in the linen closet or fallen inside a boot)
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dog flyin'
May. 22nd, 2009 @ 09:56 am an agility movie trailer
oops - no DW or AF contacts among other things... but nice skateboard/car trick



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raybans of course
May. 21st, 2009 @ 04:51 pm i know dogs don't...
do cats noses always have to be cold and wet? or should i worry?
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cat's ass
May. 10th, 2009 @ 06:54 pm pets and pet weaves
more kitten and puppy love


weavin sixes...




with some cat-distractions...






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raybans of course
May. 1st, 2009 @ 01:15 pm more of the tonkinese and labradoodle love story
Lolita just loves Stella...



...and then last night when Stella wasn't feeling so well--we think she might have gotten a dose of the pesticide they sprayed in the park--Lolita, who usually naps with her brother, curled up against Stella instead where the dog was trying to sleep off nausea on the beanbag chair

and below---this was the little sign we came across after two walks in the park yesterday...



Stella was vomiting and my lips were tingling...

so, does this mean we were supposed to stay out of the entire park? or just this tiny little area, that you can't get to anyway from where the sign was posted cause there's a wall along Prospect Park West---earlier we WERE walking on the other side of the little rise where this sign was posted, but there was no posting there! So exactly where were we not supposed to go?
And... the sign was gone this morning when we went out for off leash before the "24 hours" was over... hmmmm... I feel poison postings ought to be little clearer and obvious than this
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raybans of course
Apr. 29th, 2009 @ 02:16 pm the fleeing in my life
the dream took place at night, there were dogs, lots of them, off leash, i don't know where this was, not the park, there were buildings, houses, not brooklyn, but some dog attacked Stella, literally took a bite out of her shoulder and back, not just teeth holes but ripped away a large chunk of fur and flesh... she started to run toward me, but then ran away, away, away and we called and called and looked for her but she was too scared, too hurt, we couldn't find her, she wouldn't come to me, not for solace, healing, instinctively felt i couldn't fathom her, wouldn't be able to... and i woke up knowing I would never find her again...

so anyway, glad it was just a dream


also, ran into a college professor last night at the penn literary gala who i have not seen for decades, my thesis advisor actually for the novella i was writing, and well, i said hello, introduced my husband and said i had just told my husband when i saw him across the room how he'd given my thesis critique in his convertible as he drove around and then this college professor just fled, said he had to get a drink, without even 30 seconds of asking, you know, the usual questions one might or a story or two about his own life and work or a bit of gossip about the old school, something, after so many years... WTF?
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raybans of course
Apr. 19th, 2009 @ 10:51 am first spring cut
AFTER:


it was quick
it was random
it was while she kept trying to play with the kittens
so it looks a little choppy
but now its done
i took it down to four fingers

i prefer the long and wild and luxurious labradoodle look
but i think now that the spring weather is here
she feels better

BEFORE:



i still have to do her ears and snout... which i do all year round, but not yet with this cut... its a good thing the kittens won't be needing cuts

and later today i get my hair cut by Holly Ivy... using last summer's gift certificate which got misplaced until recently
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raybans of course
Apr. 12th, 2009 @ 09:32 pm fooling around on the obstacles

trying 22 inches... been working at 16


Stell and B almost missed the first tunnel entry every time... Stella kept moving right after the jump...


perhaps if B had done a front cross before the jump? and pulled her left... but then she would have been too far left to get over to send to the table? i don't know, what would have signaled to Stell she needed to go in the left end of the tunnel?
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running in the rain
Apr. 10th, 2009 @ 09:04 pm found this on Susan Garrett's dog training blog - omg!


oh man... Stella has her work cut out for her....
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raybans of course
Apr. 3rd, 2009 @ 01:42 pm please
Does anyone remember books, stories from their childhood with places or worlds that opened up... you know, like out the back of a wardrobe or down a rabbit hole or through a looking glass or an express train in the middle of the night or up a winding stair to a room with a ceiling of stars that isn't always there...

tell me, tell me... this paragraph is killing me because I cant find the right image
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the slly magic shoes
Mar. 21st, 2009 @ 02:14 pm new york movie shooting trivia
[info]sheenabizarre said to post more on LJ cause she doesn't want LJ to die and no one seems to be posting much anymore... and its true sometimes I don't give LJ the time of day these days for a number of reasons... but, so I am posting a quick post today... about our detective friend Jimmy N who has been doing very well for himself with some TV/film consulting work and this week he's been on set with the Angelina Jolie movie and they had that Angelina-gets-arrested scene and Jimmy N pointed out that to make it authentic there should be a plain clothes security detail in the scene (sorry, I don't know the plot details of who would be needing the the security detail) and they asked him what that would look like and he said, Like me, and they said Okay you are it... so he's in the scene:
http://www.popeater.com/movies/article/angelina-jolie-films-salt/387957

Jimmy N is the main plainclothes guy directly above AJ in the first and seventh paparazzi shots on this site my daughter found... he totally has that Hollywood sharp lookin' security detail down good... that plainclothes zen
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raybans of course
Mar. 9th, 2009 @ 05:22 pm the double barreled leave it


I was working on the Leave It exercise... Dropping a treat on the floor next to Stella... every time she tried to go for it I covered it with my foot... and every time she lay back and left it alone, I clicked and gave her a treat... I didn't actually say Leave It, she had to figure it out, which she did immediately... so I upped the ante and dropped more... I guess it was actually a Doggie Zen exercise... and then what happened was, the kittens came and tried to eat the treats... poor Stella, what to do, chase and play with the kitties or eat the treats, she showed incredible Zen... so then I made it REALLY impossible for her... I sprinkled treats all up and down her front legs and LET the kitties eat them... she only lost her Zen once...




good girl Stell
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raybans of course
Mar. 2nd, 2009 @ 01:54 pm snow day with the dogs in the park



We hiked around to the bigger sledding hill beyond the picnic house (where meryl streep is shooting a movie) and stella went down on the harwin-nye's sled with me twice... the second time she hopped in at the top of the hill and sat down on the sled in front of me all ready to go... little furry thrill seeker

all this while B was sleeping in cause its a snow day here, which she needed... meanwhile stella ran into luna and max and lucas buried stella in the snow and they all got doodle snow beards...

but stella got the best snowball beard after we got home and she went out in the backyard to snack on snow and dig for her toys...





and then we got home to find out the kittens (still no names) woke up B because they were hungry...



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raybans of course
Feb. 25th, 2009 @ 05:23 pm it really pisses me off when people don't pickup their dog's poop
and some artist is taking action against that kind of person who makes people hate dogs in the city...

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running in the rain
Feb. 21st, 2009 @ 11:40 am so french


...we are getting a kitten next week... maybe two kittens, one for each daughter who will have to share their ownership of these felines with the canine
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raybans of course
Feb. 18th, 2009 @ 10:22 am eventful bras
these are totally way up my alley and a good cause too

http://www.quiltersofsc.org/artfullbras/artfullbras.htm


(i'd be interested in hearing which are everyone's favorites...)
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laughing girls