Howling at the Moon
Last Thursday was the Solstice moon and today is the beginning of summer, the Summer Solstice or Litha. It isn’t known when people started celebrating the Summer Solstice but this family does every year. We spend as much time outside and we say good bye to the Sun as the days begin to shorten.
The dogs don’t really howl at the moon but they do howl when the fire trucks go by. Tonight when we were enjoying a cooler evening there were several fire trucks that went by, they start howling so I howl too, it is so funny the way the react. The Cardis run over and jump on me and Windy syncs her howl to mine and then looks at me. It is too funny.
Hey look at that!
PJ and I started our “official” rally class last night. We started with attention exercises which our trainer calls the “airplane” didn’t take PJ long to figure our how to get the food. I think he will do well. Just like when I was working Stoney in agility I found out that you can only do an exersice a few times before it got boring, no DRILLS with a Cardigan. Our trainer, Liz, had set up a mini Rally course so we could start working with the heeling and the signs, by the third time of the heeling pattern I started to lose the attention, but I almost couldn’t blame the boy, there were lots of things to look at.
What we saw at the park last night: We saw a couple of women with their kids and unleashed chihuhuhuas get out of their car and come and sit 30 feet from us and let their unleashed dogs run up and bark and snarl at our dogs. Mean purebred dog lady (ME) asked them nicely to leash their dogs and then yelled at them that this was public park and there was a leash law in El Paso. They left but didn’t leash their dogs. A group with young boys set up on the other side of our rally signs to practice football drills, we saw one of the Dads teach his 3-4 year old boy to pee on a tree right next to our set up when the park’s bathroom was 50 yards away. We also saw a group of 4 women walk right through our rally course while one of the people was working her dog then went and stood at the start line laughing and talking (not about us or the dogs) so it was no wonder that we needed to work on attention.
Even with all the distractions PJ did well and we had a good time. It has been well over 100 degrees here for more than a week but the nice thing about the desert is that when you are in the shade and there is a breeze you can still enjoy the outdoors. I was worried it would be miserable but it was nice.
Fruit Loops
My dogs love fruit. I don’t know about other people’s dogs mine are crazy about fruit. We have a fig tree in the back yard and that provides 3 seasons of enjoyment. In the spring they pull off the young leaves. Once the fig start to ripen it is a free for all trying to get too them. Wicca does this funny kangaroo hop trying to reach the higher branches. If she gets a branch pulled down the Cardis join her in pulling off figs. I try and pull some ripe ones off every day for them. It is like standing in a shark tank the way the circle around waiting for me to drop them. In the fall they like to crunch on the dry leaves, we call them fig chips.
It’s not just the figs they love all fruit. I buy fruit from the Hombre de Frutas who comes by the office and sells us great boxes of mixed fruit. I often don’t get it all eaten so I share with the dogs. Apples and pears are favorites.
My Mom had eaten a grapefruit and she had peeled off some of the inner membrane and she offered it to the dogs, they ate that too. Of course PJ I think will eat anything. We don’t call him Porky Joe for nothing.
UKC News
This weekend Leslie took Miss Candy to the UKC Premier show in Michigan. They were award BOB and currently Candy is ranked #5 UKC Cardigan.
Congratulations Girls!
A new game at Solstice
I found out at a show several years ago that Lindy likes to ride on the top of the crates if they are being pushed on a cart dolly, she rides them like she is Cleopatra on a barge. Well now there is a carnival version of that ride at yappy hour. My Mom has a dolly/cart that she uses to move stuff around the yard. She has been doing major projects so the cart is sitting in the back yard. Didn’t take long for the Cardis to discover the cart. They started by jumping on it while we were moving stuff and it now has become a nightly game. They stand on the cart waiting for me to push them around on it. They jump on and off and run along side trying to drag each other off the cart. It is a hoot! It is worth the trouble for the laugh I get out of it. They are like little kids begging for a piggy back ride.
Rally and Friends
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- What is this?
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- I want to PLAY!
Weekend Warriors
Finally I started working on my summer project. I’m redoing the kennel this summer and I started today which was clean out day. I ripped out the last of the carpet that was in the space.
The space that is my kennel is what used to be 2/3rds of my apartment. When this property was first purchased it consisted of a 2 bed room 1 bath “house” and a 1 bedroom apartment that had been created from the original carport. Over a decade ago I gave up the renters and moved into the whole place and the dogs got what used to be my living room, kitchen and bathroom. The laundry is still there and that is where the last of the carpet was, I was glad to get it out of there.
What I have now is the long room that was the living room now has crates against the walls and the kids sleep in them at night (The Seniors Windy and Stoney sleep loose in the house). The kitchen is my grooming room. I had the good fortune of buying a used restaurant veggie sink which has been installed and works wonderfully, a back saver! The second bathroom I use as the feed room which works great because there is water there and the dogs can’t break in LOL!
What the plan is to install some better lighting in the grooming room. I’m building sleeping boxes to take the place of crates, these will be of correct size and easy to clean. I’m adding some shelving in the feed room and fencing in part of the porch will will serve as a puppy run or a place to stash a girl or boy when some one is in season.
Today the carpet came out with the dogs help, their help was to stand on the carpet, chase the broom, jumping in and out of pool and running in and out with their wet feet. The usual!
It was good to get a least something started, we will see how it goes.
Nuts and Twigs
The kids like to go to Grandma’s house for Yappy Hour. 1st they run around like crazy dogs, then they come and hang out of the porch with the people and then they start their nightly hunt for nuts and twigs. They find pecans in the yard and they love the curlies which are seed pods from the mesquite trees in the yard. They look like spiders or sea urchins. They love them best. Lindy is the best hunter/gatherer and the boys just try to take them away. She is smart and comes and lays under the patio chairs so that we can protect her.
Bark in the Park
holds a couple every season were you can take your dog to the ball
game. Our kennel club had a meet the breed and responsible dog owner
booth. I took PJ, I decided to only wrangle one dog this time.
PJ had a great time! I’m so happy that PJ, Henry and Lindy have
such great temperaments that it is such a joy to take them out in
public. PJ went this time and was a hit. Lots of pets on the table
lots of pets on ground by little people, tons of dogs (some of which
were not very well behaved or socialized), a big costumed chicken and
yes lots of HOT DOGS!
I did find out that PJ is a bit of a camera hound. We had a grooming
table set up at each end of our display table. The local newspaper
reported stopped to take a photo of the Bichons that were on the
other table and as soon as the big camera came out PJ jumped off his
table ran across the display table to get in the photo with the
Bichons. There wasn’t even any food involved. I was so caught off
guard he was on the table with the Bichons before I even realized what he was doing.
What a crack up!
It was a good day and it is always nice when we can show off our well bred dogs and also give people an idea about other things to do with their dogs instead of just leaving them in the yard.
What a smart boy
Several years ago I quit the local obedience club in protest, there were some folks involved in the club who just made the atmosphere toxic. I was on the BOD and I was sort of stuck since I was the past president of the club and the PP is automatically on the BOD, the only way I felt I could get off the BOD was to resign my membership. Since then I’ve been sort of lack in my dog training. My agility equipment is laying in the yard unused and my dogs have only gotten show training. Since I was spending the summer at home I decided to try and get back in the swing of things.
I took PJ to a drop in Rally class for the purpose of seeing if he was under control enough to join a beginner class later in the month. I was so surprised at how well he did. Of course he is PJ aka Porky Joe so he was very willing to work for cookies! We have to work on downs and stays but he did wonderful, I was very proud. We are going to go back this week and see how he does when I’m a little more focused.
Solstice Kennels 
