A DIP IN THE LAKE

Beautiful day today. A minor miracle, being that it was a Saturday, and it seems that most weekends the weather decides to be snotty and thereby thwarts your attempts to either (a) have fun or (b) get your yard work done. For the most part, it has been an absolutely glorious day. The kind of spring day that makes every second driveway blossom with heaps of junk -- otherwise known as a yard sale. They were all over the place today. There were probably five houses on my own street that had set up shop for the morning. Of course, it makes for interesting driving as you weave your vehicle around Sidney's streets, dodging eager garage sale aficionados who are zipping across the street at odd locations from between parked cars. You really have to be vigilant.

Today's trail walk with the dogs was at Jennings Lane (Elk Lake). I had four dogs in tow today: my three plus my sister's dog, Kennedy. Once out of the car at the lake, Kennedy decided he really wanted to head out on a trail other than the one we were actually going on, and I had to do some fancy running through the tall grass to head him off and point him in the right direction. On the leash. In case he decided that he wanted to go in the other direction again. He actually motored along pretty well for a dog who isn't used to trail walking, once he got going. But I think he was happy to get home and snooze the rest of the day away.

The regular Trailblazer canine gang enjoyed a brief diversion into the lake to do some serious swimming, stick retrieving and rock balancing. It was amazing the number of dogs who all thought that they needed to stand on this one rock, perhaps the better to get a boost when they leapt into the water in pursuit of the sticks that were being thrown for them to retrieve.



While Kennedy may have been ready to call it a day after his trail walk, the other three still had some energy left to go to agility practice. Abby is getting faster and faster, and much, much better at following direction. Of course, I'm probably also finally getting better at actually telling her what to do. You'd think that would be a simple thing to do, but they read body language with amazing acuity. If your foot is pointed just a smidgeon in one direction (usually the direction in which you don't want the dog to go), then they're off in that direction. They're right, you're wrong. Your foot told them to go that way...and your foot is closer to their line of sight than your arm that is energetically pointing in the other direction (which may or may not accurately aligned with the piece of agility equipment that you are calling out for them to take.) Go figure.

Zack is slowly regaining his speed and enthusiasm. He did very well today, eagerly running around the equipment that was set up. He's definitely gaining confidence on the teeter -- but you still have to really watch him on his contacts...he still likes to leap off before his paws hit that yellow zone. So lots more contact work to do with him. Gemma -- well success for Gemma is getting her to look at me and stay focused. We spent most of her practice time calling her back to me; very little obstacle performance. But that was fine. She's got lots of time to start stringing obstacles together. Right now, we just need to keep those little grey cells in her brain from wandering off quite as often as they do now.