Life Adventures

The hope is gone. Logan's time here is now down to a day if not hours. His liver has failed him.  On Sunday his abdominal cavity began to fill with fluid, and it continues to fill.  We reached out to see if the homeopathic route could offer us a Hail Mary. On Tuesday night we made an 11pm run out to Wegman's to grab 2 homeopathic options to try and help restore some liver function.  I knew I shouldn't get my hopes up, but I did anyway.  Each day I measured his abdominal cavity and each day the numbers came back worse; 30.5in, 31in, 32in, and finally, 33in.  Unless something miraculous happens by morning, I believe after tomorrow he would start to become uncomfortable and be at risk for seizure or trouble breathing.  In this case, I'd rather be a day too early than a day too late.   I've heard it said that easy decisions make a hard life, and hard decisions make an easy life.  This notion stems from the old adage that through afflictions we gain...

We took the dogs to Paws to Swim.  The weather has been horrible this winter.  In one stat, it had rained 13 of the last 19 days.  The dogs haven't had much exercise, so swimming seemed a good option.  We brought Gracie to expose her to the water early.  I put a life jacket on her just in case she accidently fell in.  I  never imagined that she would jump in.  But when she saw us working Braddock in the water, and that he was getting treats, she took a leap of faith.  Interestingly, she didn't panic at all.  In fact, she started moving naturally in the water, as if she had done this before. Thereafter, we decided to go ahead and give her some exposure in between a lap with Braddock, who is still healing from the injury.   Since she is learning, we don't get enough energy out from these short swims.  The same is true for Braddock as well.  The only way we can get a break in the house sometimes is to give the dogs so...

We traveled to Sandbridge when Gracie was 11 weeks old and spent the day with family.  It was raining at home, but a nice day at the beach.  A little cool, but warm enough with the fire to sit outside and visit with mom and dad.  Logan loved laying on the new furniture overlooking the bay. Gracie lived up to her namesake in her first trip to the beach.  She was definitely the comedian, running nonstop zig-zagging through the sand. It was nice to have the whole family out at the beach.  Cadia enjoyed chasing her toys and running free.  There was a moment we put her on leash and let Frye chase a toy.  Frye got so excited she ran past the toy and then went into Greyhound race mode. It was the first that Gracie had seen that kind of speed out of Frye and had no idea what to do.  She just watched.

Gracie's training is coming a long nicely.  In the house we work "sit", "down", "free", "touch", "left", "right", "through" the legs, "crate", and "stand".  I have started working crate games and also front paws on the blue disc to have her come to "close" and "side" while working the rear legs moving laterally in each direction. I also  work "get it" for the food and going to a target.  She has also been exposed to the Velcro "lotus" ball. In terms of agility specific exercises, we have worked the tire, the ramp on cinder blocks, the ramp propped up on the table, follow the handling, tunnel, and started offering the single wing jump. In terms of training ideas, I am taking the puppy training online course through OneMind Dogs.  In doing so, I recognize that I rushed through foundation with Frye and really should revisit some things. In addition,...

To bring another dog into the family is always a big decision.  To go up to 5 dogs is an even bigger one.  This is a number I didn't want to reach ever again.  We've been there before, when we brought Braddock home.  That said, Braddock ended up being one of the best decisions of my life.  Braddock is my heart dog.  However, Russ and I were younger then, and for some reason, life just seems a little more complicated now.  Another dog just didn't seem smart. We did desire to look at the puppies.  After all, we were curious to see what Braddock produced.  Also, we are friends with the breeder (Karan) and co-owner of the Dam (Anne Jones and her dog Fanny).  Our first puppy trip was in December on the way back from the Invitational.  Puppies were only 4 weeks old.  Karan and Anne felt I should be interested in Pilgrim, the smallest male.  Yes, he was a busy boy, but we didn't connect like I did with Braddock.  There were...

Karan brought Gracie up to us on Sat Jan 20, 2018. She came with 3 puppies, Hunter, Pilgrim, and Gracie.  It was hard to get a real feel for Gracie for two reasons.  One, Hunter is a menace, constantly biting and rough-housing, so Gracie spent a lot of time fending him off and less time being interested in us.  Once Hunter left, things got easier, but not completely. The second diffuculty was having to keep Pigrlm for 4 days until his owner could pick him up.  Having 2 puppies at once was harder than I had already envisioned.  In addition, the puppies needed some help with some basic manners, like biting inhibition, potty training, and crate training.  The only positive about having Pilgrim here was that Gracie had some company as she adjusted.  When Pilgrim left, however, she was pitiful in the crate.  She just wouldn't calm down initially.  So we ordered a snuggle puppy (which has a pocket for a heart pulse piece and a warm pad). This h...

We have friends who have a lake house on Lake Gaston so we planned a weekend getaway.  We weren't sure about the Thousand Trails campground on the lake as we had heard that the camp sites were not level.  Instead we stayed at a campground in Grand Rapids, NC.  It was called RV Resort at Carolina Coastal.  The sites were very level and had good space between them.  It really didn't matter where you stay, but we stayed in P16.  Next time we might take a site on the end of the row that has the gazebo next to it.  There are no trails, but there is a swimming pool, hot tub, and activity center. However, there is not much else to do around the area for us. Hanging out at the lake house was fun, however Russ and I agree that being tied down to a place has limitations.  This house only had a small view of the water rather than the expansive view of the whole lake.  The family enjoys water sports so it works for them.  We enjoyed swimming ...