Taking it off together Tuesday on Wed

I avoided the computer yesterday!  Idid okay last week despite having company in town!  -2.6 puts me at -35.00 lbs overall!   That makes me happy!
This week’s prize is brought to us by Leigh. She is offering trial-size Mary Kay products that I’m sure will help the lucky winner feel pretty. Once again, all the names of those who reported a loss was put into a cup, and this week’s winner is: Clara
This week’s Biggest Loser is Christy with a 2.6 pound loss. So be sure to pop over to her blog and congratulate her.
Here are this week’s results:
Chris - No Report
Tammy - 1.0 GAIN
Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog - 1.0 LOSS
Grace - 0.8 LOSS
Leigh - No Report
Clara - 0.6 LOSS
Julie - 1.2 GAIN
Cheryl - No Report
Audrey - No Report
Christy - 2.6 LOSS
Tina - 2.4 LOSS
Danielle - 2.0 LOSS
Jessie - No Report
Steph - No Report
CYN - 1.0 GAINWeek Total: 6.2 Overall LOSS

“ME” Day!

I’ve been so busy that I am starting to get overwhelmed. I feel like I have been running from one place to the next for a solid month. So I took today off. I have nothing that I have to do until 5 PM and I am loving it! I got up late and am hanging with the dogs this morning. I think I may go check out the Mervyns going out of business sale and do some training and play with the dogs. I must go to my parents house for dinner tonight but that’s not a big deal! I’m just happy to have some down time for a change.

I have a tendency to overbook myself. I run from one place to the next at least 6 days a week! I need to learn to space out my obligations more so I can have more time to relax and hang with my dogs. I worry that D&M get the worst of my business.. I need to make them more of a priority and learn to say NO when my time is too tight to do something.

Anyway, for today I am relaxing. I may try to squeeze in some xmas shopping. I haven’t had time to get anything done the last few weeks!

Sadie Update!

Sadie has been with us for about a month and a half now.  It’s amazing to see how this dog has settled in.  She’s probably one of the easiest dogs I have ever fostered and ever trained.  She figures things out so quickly and is so eager to do whatever I ask.  She even has a great distracted recall and comes about 97% of the time when called (even when she’s running full speed away from me!)..She’s been hard to photograph with her black face but she really is a very sweet girl.

We’ve been in basic obedience classes for 4 weeks now!  She picks up new commands quickly and actually generalizes them to new places and objects very quickly.  For example, we learned “leave it” in class on saturday she was performing like a star!  Later that day we were out in the desert and I told her to leave the cow pies and she did! 

She has learned to use the stairs with ease and isn’t showing signs of fear when meeting new people!  She’s learned a few tricks and several obedience commands!

Sadie got to try flyball yesterday and did great.  I would love to get her into a home that would train her to play flyball (and even better if they were local and played on our team). 

She’s grown really attached to Paul and myself.  I expect she would bond with a new owner quickly though.  She’s got some minor separation issues and I’d expect she might get destructive if left alone for an extended period without being crated.  She’s young still and has a lot of maturing to do. 

I’ve had a few inquiries and am currently talking to a family that may be interested in her.  They already have a border collie but I am anxious to meet them and see how well their dog is cared for.  I know they haven’t been feeding the best of foods but just like most people - they seemed to be unaware of what kind of crap there really is in dog foods!  So maybe there is potential there!

Overall this girl is doing so well and I am really pleased with her progress.  I must admit there is a small part of me that would love to keep her.  I know better than to make a committment to a dog I cannot afford though so she won’t be staying long term!

A great time in the desert and some sore paws!

Here’s a family pic with Paul and his parents!  We had a great time out in the desert with them on Saturday.  We walked the dogs and then barbequed!   Dylan came home with some sore paws though despite wearing his muttlucks the whole time we were out there!

Here are some other pics:

Dylan doing what he loves best!!!

Barbeque in the desert!

Dylan and Marley had to stay in the pen while we barbequed.  I was hoping to avoid some sore paws on Dylan but it didn’t work.  He hurt his pads - even with the muttluks on!  I didn’t want Marley to overdo it and be sore the next day.  At least the x pen did it’s job for one of my dogs!

Walking in the desert with the dogs!!

Happy Boy Leon!!

One last pic of me and Paul! 

Busy Weekend ahead..

My aunt and uncle are coming in from Texas and Paul’s Dad is here in town and his mom flies in tonight!  Should be a busy weekend full of visiting with company!  

We hope the weather cooperates so we can take Paul’s parents out to Lone Rock tomorrow with all the dogs for a barbecue or something.  

We love taking the dogs out to Lone Rock.  Generally any pics where Dylan is wearing the orange vest were taken at Lone Rock.  He runs free out there with no risk of other dogs and I let him do the things he want for a change since it’s miles and miles of desert!    He wears the vest so we can see him since he blends in with the landscape so well.

Ohh here is a pic from Lone Rock!  It’s really just a big rock out in the middle of the flat desert!

If we don’t make it there we may go for a walk up at the rail trail!  It’s another one of our favorites since it allows for Dylan to run free and we don’t often see other dogs.  When there are bikers and walkers we can see them when they are still quite a ways away so we can get Dylan ready if there are other dogs around!

Here’s a pic from the rail trail:

WW Leon and Marley

Taking it off together Tuesday

Well I gained 1 lb but I half expected to.  My last week I showed as losing more than I really did because I was up sick the night before the weigh in.  So I don’t feel too bad about gaining 1 lb. 

On a side note I’ve been doing this for 4 months now!  I’m very impressed with myself! 

This week’s prize is brought to us by Julie. She is offering a variety of 100 calorie snacks which is sure to help in the weight loss effort. I’ve had some 100 calorie snacks, and let me just say, they are delicious. They are also just the right amount when you need a little something to hold you over. Ever see The Biggest Loser? That show uses those babies all the time!

Keeping Leigh’s tradition of putting names in the cup, the winner this week is Leigh!

This week’s biggest loser is Leigh with a loss of 4 pounds! So stop by her blog to congratulate her.

Here are this week’s results:

Chris - 3.2 LOSS
Tammy - 1.0 GAIN
Life With Hashi-Thyroid Blog - No Change
Grace - 0.4 GAIN
Leigh - 4 LOSS
Clara - 0.4 GAIN
Julie - No Change
Cheryl - no report
Audrey - 2.0 GAIN
Christy - 1.0 GAIN
Tina - 2.0 LOSS
Danielle - No Change
Jessie - no report
Steph - no report
CYN - no report

Despite the gains and the no changes, as a whole we are down: -4.4 LOSS Not too bad.

Need a book recommendation….

I’m going to get a book for Marley for Christmas. I want to teach her some new tricks and I figured a book would be the best way to get some good ideas. I’ve been searching dogwise but I am not sure what books are good and which ones suck. I wish they had good dog books at the book store so I could browse them before making my choice!

Anyone know of any really good trick training books? I really need something that gives me good ideas more than anything. I am pretty sure I can get Marley to do just about anything just with shaping! I love clicker training!

Here are some of the ones I have thought about:

http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTA286
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTA264
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTA292
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTA259
http://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB587

Marley already knows a lot of basic tricks so I am looking for something with some really unique ideas. Anyone know of any good books?

The dancing bears retire….

I found a dancing bears collar for Dylan when he was just a tiny pup.  He’s worn one ever since.  You can see it pretty well in this picture from when he was in daycare several years ago. 

I have bought several replacement collars over the least few years but I always went back to dancing bears.  It just seems to suit him!  We are Grateful Dead fans at our house and Dylan seems to be a good dead head dog!  Bob Dylan and Jerry Garcia sang together a bunch of times as well so it seemed fitting that Dylan wear a dancing bear collar.   I’ve actually tried to find a Bob Marley Collar for Marley but never succeeded.  She looks pretty cute in butterflies though.

Dylan has developed a really bad collar line from wearing a flat nylon collar everyday for the last 5 years.  I know short haired dogs do better with rolled leather collars but I just couldn’t bring myself to retire the dancing bears.  

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about changing his collar and finally took the plunge.  I just can imagine another 5 years of a nylon collar would make the collar line that much worse.   So now my handsome boy looks ever so handsome with a plain old rolled leather collar.  I actually think this one is too big but I am going to take it back and exchange it for one just a bit smaller.    I almost think he somehow looks more grown up with the leather collar.  It looks really good on him.  I’m not sure why I was so hesitant!  My camera phone doesn’t do him justice!

No more photos!

My poor digital camera seems to have died.  So I guess that’s the end of me having new pics to post.  My camera phone works okay if it’s outdoors and in the daylight.  So I guess I can use that for the time being. 

I’ve been wanting an upgraded camera for a while.  Mine was 5 years old and 4 MP.   I bought it when Dylan was a puppy.  I won’t be able to afford a camera though for a while yet.  So I guess my dead camera will be an excuse to upgrate in a few months.  It really sucks because I use my camera several times a week and I just hate the thought of living without!  Guess I always have my big old Film SLR camera but film and developing are SO expensive that I couldn’t really afford to use it with the regularity that I do my digital. 

Oh well,  I guess 5 years is a long time for a camera to last.  It’s been all over the place with me and was my first digital!  One day I will get another one!!